The data demonstrate that kinematic features of motion in HZJ verb signs are recruited to convey morphological and prosodic information. This is the first crosslinguistic motion capture confirmation that specific kinematic properties of articulator motion are grammaticalized in other SLs to express linguistic features.

This paper focuses on the basic word order of Croatian Sign Language (HZJ) and factors that permit alternative word orders to occur in sentences and in context. Although they are unrelated languages, the basic word order in HZJ is the same as in spoken Croatian: SVO. One of the factors allowing alternative word orders in context is information status (old or new), which influences constituent placement, as in other languages. HZJ has a tendency to omit old, previously mentioned information, usually the Subject, and the part that is expressed is the new information (Rheme). When old information is expressed, it appears at the beginning of the sentence, preceding the Rheme. Like other languages, HZJ word order can be influenced by the nature of the arguments (Subject, Object) as well as the type of Verb. Sentences with ‘reversible’ arguments (i.e. both are animate and could be agents) tend to use the basic word order, whereas those with nonreversible arguments allow more variable word order. Basic word order also occurs more often with plain verbs (those that do not agree with their arguments). Agreeing and spatial verbs use other word orders in addition to SVO, including the tendency to position Verbs at the end of sentences. Investigation on the interaction of word order and the grammatical usage of facial expressions and head positions (nonmanual marking) indicates that nonmanual markings have pragmatic roles, and could have syntactic functions which await further research.

The authors' research activities connected information and communication technologies affecting teaching methods in higher education. A total of 201 respondents studying Programming 2 participated in this research. Two hypotheses were created, as well as a pre-test (ensuring that the initial condition of equality among the group members was met) and a post-test (measuring the shift of knowledge among the respondents of the same group). An analysis based on the t-test showed the presence of a statistically significant difference among the male respondents with regard to the test results. H1 hypothesis was accepted. No statistically significant difference was detected among the female respondents, so the H2 hypothesis was rejected. Our results showed that major difference have been found only in male population, which is interesting since female respondents tend to use LMS systems more often and since male respondents are more frequently in computer games activities.

This paper presents the results of research on information structure and word order in narrative sentences taken from signed short stories in Croatian Sign Language (HZJ). The basic word order in HZJ is SVO. Factors that result in other word orders include: reversible arguments, verb categories, locative constructions, contrastive focus, and prior context. Word order in context depends on communication rules, based on the relationship between old (theme) and new (rheme) information, which is predicated of the theme. In accordance with Grice's Maxim of Quantity, HZJ has a tendency to omit old information, or to reduce it to pronominal status. If old information is overtly signed in non-pronominal form, it precedes the rheme. We have observed a variety of sign language mechanisms that are used to show items of reduced contextual significance: use of assigned spatial location for previously introduced referents; eyegaze to indicate spatial location of previously introduced referents; use of the non-dominant hand for backgrounded information; use of a special category of signs known as classifiers as pronominal indicators of previously introduced referents; and complex noun phrases that allow a single occurrence of a noun to simultaneously serve multiple functions. These devices permit information to be conveyed without the need for separate signs for every referent, which would create longer constructions that could be taxing to both production and perception. The results of this research are compatible with well-known word order generalizations - HZJ has its own grammar, independent of spoken language, like any other sign language.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a significant role in the growth and development of almost every national economy. The aim of this paper is to estimate the overall contribution of final expenditures on ICT goods and services on the domestic output and imports of Croatia in terms of gross value added (GVA) and employment. In order to quantify the direct, indirect and induced effects of final expenditures on ICT goods and services to the overall Croatian economy, input-output (IO) analysis is applied. The results of the empirical analysis show that of all three categories of total final uses, the final consumption expenditure on ICT goods and services recorded the highest total contribution in terms of GVA and in terms of employment. The final consumption expenditure of households had the most important role in generating GVA and employment, while the impact of government and non-profit organisations serving households expenditures was limited. At the activity section level, the majority of GVA and the number of jobs were generated in the activity section J-Information and Communication. The total number of employees induced by final expenditures on goods and services produced by the ICT sectors is estimated at 2.8%. The ICT sectors contributed to the total Croatian GVA in a range higher than 4.5%.

Parenting desires, intentions, and the underlying motivation for parenthood are well documented in the context of heterosexual couple parenthood, while among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people research is limited. The main goal of this study was to explore parenting desire and different reasons to become a parent or remain childfree among LGBTIQ people in Croatia. 486 childless LGBTIQ people participated in an on-line survey. In the quantitative part of the study, parenting desire and reasons for and against parenthood were measured, while the qualitative part analysed the answers to open-ended questions about additional reasons that influence the desire to want or not to want children. The results showed that 46% of the participants want to become parents, 35% did not know, and 19% reported they do not want to have children. The main reasons for parenthood among the participants who want children were internal-the desire to give love, share knowledge, and develop a special bond with a child. The participants who do not want to have children also stressed internal reasons against parenthood, such as restricted personal freedom, high responsibility, and the amount of workload they perceive as a part of parenthood. Several additional reasons for and against parenthood emerged from the qualitative data. Some reasons reflected universal issues unrelated to sexual orientation or gender identity, while others conveyed concerns related to social and legal barriers that LGBTIQ people face when it comes to parenthood.

Original scientific paper The issue of the optimal management of the traffic flow and the ensuring of an adequate number of parking spaces is present in the majority of highly developed urban areas of the European Union, including the Republic of Croatia. The formation of an adequate raster of the transport network, conditioned by the historical and existing buildings and areas is an extremely challenging task. Similarly, ensuring an adequate availability of free parking capacities in times of rush hours in the very centres of urban areas is also very demanding. However, what often occurs, even when adequate parking capacities are ensured, is a halt on the input and output terminals of parking lots and garage facilities that are derived by a disproportion of their capacities and traffic needs at a specific time. Precisely for that reason, this paper presents a potential model for determining of an optimal number of input service places (terminals) by using the queuing theory.Keywords: queue; queuing system; parking; traffic modelling; traffic planning Model dimenzioniranja broja uslužnih mjesta na ulazima u parkirališta primjenom teorije redova čekanjaIzvorni znanstvni članak Problematika optimalnog vođenja prometnog toka te osiguranja odgovarajućeg broja parkirnih mjesta prisutan je u većini visokorazvijenih urbanih sredina Europske unije pa i Republike Hrvatske. Formiranje odgovarajućeg rastera prometne mreže, uvjetovane povijesnim i postojećim građevinama i zonama izuzetno je izazovan zadatak. Isto tako, zahtjevno je i osiguranje odgovarajuće dostupnosti do slobodnih parkirnih kapaciteta u vremenima vršnih opterećenja u samim središtima urbanih područja. No, vrlo su česti slučajevi u kojima, čak i u trenutku kada se osiguraju odgovarajući parkirni kapaciteti, dolazi do zastoja na ulaznim i izlaznim terminalima parkirališta i garažnih objekata koja su derivirana nesukladnostima njihovih kapaciteta i prometnih potreba u određenom vremenskom trenutku. Upravo iz tog razloga, u radu se predstavlja potencijalni model određivanja optimalnog broja ulaznih uslužnih mjesta (terminala) primjenom teorije redova čekanja.

The ultimate goal of each production process is to optimize all the subprocesses leading to the high quality final product. Within the printing process, dot gain is identified as one of the most important variables to control because of the extremely negative impact to middle tone contrast and the overall reproduction. Dot gain consists of two components, mechanical and optical dot gain, as a result of two different contributions. This article proposes a model for separately analyzing components of dot gain for electrophotography prints using gradient method, where the impact of printing technique and paper type will be examined. It is shown that mechanical dot gain for electrophotography prints can be satisfactorily approximated with Gaussian, whilst optical dot gain is once again confirmed to have the form of a Lorentzian.