The COVID-19 pandemic has had a markedly negative impact on global tourism and, on the other hand, has offered new opportunities for researchers to analyze the resilience of the tourism industry in ...such conditions. Recently, several scientific articles have emerged claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic could represent an opportunity for significant changes in tourism. This refers to changing practices at several levels and spreading new ethical principles. The pandemic has also made people aware of the importance of "well-being". Even without a pandemic, wellness tourism has been one of the fastest-growing types of tourism in recent years. In all parts of the world, including Slovenia, natural spas have tried to adapt to new conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis confirms that visitors to Slovenian spas strongly support introducing new/alternative activities and thus the dispersion of visitors to several locations. They showed the greatest interest in visiting nature in the vicinity of spas, which is also expected as a result of the closure during the pandemic. The purpose of our article is to give suggestions for offering alternative activities in Slovenian natural spas. However, adapting the wellness offer in spas should ensure that the basic traditional principles of wellness are maintained.
The relative survival field has seen a lot of development in the last decade, resulting in many different and even opposing suggestions on how to approach the analysis.
We carefully define and ...explain the differences between the various measures of survival (overall survival, crude mortality, net survival and relative survival ratio) and study their differences using colon and prostate cancer data extracted from the national population-based cancer registry of Slovenia as well as simulated data.
The colon and prostate cancer data demonstrate clearly that when analysing population-based data, it is useful to split the overall mortality in crude probabilities of dying from cancer and from other causes. Complemented by net survival, it provides a complete picture of cancer survival in a given population. But when comparisons of different populations as defined for example by place or time are of interest, our simulated data demonstrate that net survival is the only measure to be used.
The choice of the method should be done in two steps: first, one should determine the measure of interest and second, one should choose among the methods that estimate that measure consistently.
A Mesoscale Convective System in North-Western Slovenia produced up to 350–400mm in 12h on 18 September, 2007. The region impacted by the storm shows significant differences in climatic and geologic ...properties at short distances. Owing to such variability, extreme flooding concentrated over the Selška Sora watershed at Železniki (103.3km2), outside the area which received the highest precipitation. Hydrometeorological analyses of the storm are based on accurate analysis of C-band weather-radar observations and data from a rain gauge network. Detailed surveys of high-water marks and channel/floodplain geometry, carried out two months after the flood, are used for hydrologic analyses of the Selška Sora flood. These include estimation of peak discharge at 21 sites. Unit peak discharges range from 5 to 7m3s−1km−2 in basins characterised by size up to approximately 25km2. Higher unit peak discharges (>10m3s−1km−2), estimated in a few smaller basins, are influenced by intense sediment transport. Observed rainfall, estimated peak discharges, and observer notes on timing of peak discharge are used along with a distributed hydrologic model to reconstruct hydrographs at multiple locations. Examination of the rainfall distribution and flood response shows that the extent and the position of the karst terrain provided a major control on flood response in the region impacted by the storm. Use of the distributed hydrological model together with the post-flood survey observations is shown to provide an accurate description of the flood. Water balance and response time characteristics are examined for selected catchments, showing that event runoff coefficient ranged between 17% and 24% for different catchments. The quality of the peak discharge simulation at the 21 surveyed sites is substantially degraded when using spatially-uniform rainfall over the area covering all the surveyed sub-catchments, mainly due to rainfall volume errors introduced by using the spatially uniform value. On the other hand, the influence of rainfall spatial averaging at the scale of the sub-catchments generally has a very limited effect on runoff modelling, showing that rainfall spatial organisation was not able to overcome the catchment dampening effect for this flood.
Mercury (Hg) solubility and reactivity in soils at two extremely contaminated ancient small scale cinnabar roasting sites in the surroundings of the Hg mining area of Idrija (Slovenia) were ...determined in order to assess the mobility of Hg in the aqueous phase and to evaluate the extent of leaching of Hg into Idrijca River and further downstream. Water leaching experiments were performed on soil and SOM (soil organic matter) samples from historical roasting sites Pšenk and Frbejžene trate. The determined concentrations of leachable Hg in soil samples from the studied areas range from 16 to exceptionally high concentration of 18,000μg/kg, representing 0.0002 to 1.1% of total Hg in these samples, while in SOM samples leachable Hg concentrations range between 13.3 and 6000μg/kg, which corresponds to 0.0017–0.074% of total Hg determined in SOM. The soluble Hg concentrations in investigated soil profiles range from 183 to 18,000μg/kg (0.038–1.7% of total Hg). On the average, more than 90% of soluble Hg occurs in a non-reactive complex bound form, suggesting the preferential binding of Hg to humic matter. Soluble Hg in studied soil profiles generally increases with depth. The obtained results show that Hg is effectively transported to deeper soil layers, mainly as soluble organic complexes. It is estimated that there is still about 10kg of soluble Hg stored in soils of the investigated roasting sites, which is continuously leached to surface waters and deeper into the soil.
•Water leaching experiments were performed on soil and SOM samples.•Total soluble, complex-bound and reactive Hg was defined.•Extremely high concentrations (up to 18,000μg/kg) of soluble Hg were determined.•More than 90% of soluble Hg occurs in a non-reactive complex bound form.•We estimate that soluble Hg stored in soils is mobilized to the groundwater.
Contaminated sediments transported onto the river terrace during high water events can contribute significant quantities of potentially toxic elements to riparian soils. Seven trace elements (As, Cd, ...Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) were analysed in the river sediment and riparian soil of the River Sava and their spatial distribution, potential toxicity and ecological risk levels were evaluated. The results showed that levels of all the trace metals were enriched to varying extents in both the sediment (As, Cr, Ni, and Pb) and soil (Ni) when compared to reference levels for sediments and European soils. Mean concentrations of trace metals in sediment and soil, apart from Pb, increased downstream in the River Sava. The similar increasing trend of these elements in sediment and soil may be explained by their increased load due to anthropogenic pressures (As, Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn in sediment and the significant accumulation of Ni in soil) and frequent periodic flooding (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn in sediment and Cd in soil are influenced by both high water events and natural factors such as the geological substrate), particularly in lowland regions. In this study, soluble As, Cd, Cr, Cu and Ni fractions in sediment and soil <10% indicated their low mobility. The exceptions were readily soluble Pb and Zn in the sediment and soil at some sampling sites. In the lower reaches, levels of Pb in sediment was indicative of a medium environmental hazard, while there was a high environmental hazard in the upper reaches with the average Pb content in sediment higher than the PEL. Pollution factors for Pb in soil indicated a medium environmental hazard in the upper and middle reaches and a high environmental hazard at some sites in the lower stretches of the Sava River, although total Pb content in soil was within the range proposed for European soils.
•Riparian zone contamination was studied on a large spatial scale.•As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in riparian soil and river sediment were analysed.•Cr and Ni levels >PEL (CCME 2001) were found in river sediment in river's lower reaches.•Elevated As, Cr, Ni and Zn levels were found in riparian soil in river's lower reaches.•Hazardous readily soluble Pb in sediment and soil was found in upper reaches.
Previous studies on SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV reported the detection of viral RNA in the stool of both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. These clinical observations suggest that municipal and ...hospital wastewater from affected communities may contain SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Recent studies have also reported the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in human feces. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a promising approach to understand the prevalence of viruses in a given catchment population, as wastewater contains viruses from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. The current study reports the first detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in untreated wastewater in Slovenia. Two sizes of centrifugal filters were tested: 30 kDa and 10 kDA AMICON® Ultra-15 Centrifugal Filters, where 10 kDA resulted in a higher concentration factor and higher recovery efficiency. The results in hospital wastewater show that WBE can be used for monitoring COVID −19 and could be applied in municipal wastewater treatment plants as a potential complementary tool for public health monitoring at population level.
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•The first study in Slovenia that reports the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater.•66.7% (10/15) of untreated hospital wastewater samples tested positive for at least one SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR target.•SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in untreated hospital wastewater when only one COVID-19 patient was hospitalized.
The research area is located in south-eastern Slovenia and belongs to the eastern extensions of the Slovenian Basin adjacent to the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. The studied section is 25 m thick and ...consists of grey, brownish and reddish pelagic limestones and calciturbidites, and two bentonite layers 110 and 10 cm thick. Both volcanoclastic horizons consist of greenish, fine-grained muddy material. To date, no other bentonites of similar age are known in the wider Southern Alpine and Dinaridic region. The late Campanian to Campanian/Maastrichtian age of the succession was determined from planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nanoplankton assemblages. XRD analysis revealed the presence of calcite, quartz, muscovite/illite and smectite, which prevails in the clay fraction and is indicative of bentonite clays. We interpret these bentonite horizons as resulting from direct deposition of volcanic ash in a marine environment with a concomitant admixture of detrital material (quartz, muscovite) and later diagenetic carbonatization. The geochemical composition suggests a felsic volcanic origin. The most likely source is the Late Cretaceous–Paleogene bimodal rhyolitic/basaltic volcanism documented along the Sava Suture Zone in present-day Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and North Macedonia. In the Central Apennines three locations with bentonites have been documented. Further spatial and temporal analysis of similar volcanogenic horizons could yield important data on the paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the Adria/Apulia continental margin.
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•Important discovery of upper Campanian bentonite layers on the eastern Adria margin.•Volcanic ash deposition in a deeper-marine, carbonate dominated environment.•Correlates with Campanian rhyolitic volcanic activity in the Sava Suture Zone.
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