Traditionally, ports have been regarded as hubs responsible for the reception of ships and passengers, but nowadays they have a much wider economic function, being clusters of various activities directly or indirectly linked to maritime transportation and seaborne trade, among which container traffic is the most important segment. The Port of Rijeka as the largest Croatian cargo port, positioned in the North Adriatic Sea, has exceptional but not fully exploited opportunities for further economic development of importance not just for the port and the city but for the Republic of Croatia as well. In addition, its geostrategic position makes it an important international port for Central and South Eastern European countries. The aim of this paper is to investigate and identify the current position of the Port of Rijeka (hereinafter Rijeka) in relation to the container business and, using Benchmarking as the research method, to analyse the established five main factors that have to be taken into consideration where its efficiency is compared to the statistically proven “best container port” in the region – the Port of Koper (hereinafter Koper). The results show significant competitive advantages of the Port of Koper almost in any of the analysed factors. Therefore, recommendations are given for further actions and improvement according to the natural advantages that Rijeka has to utilize in order to enhance its competitiveness and overall performance.

Objective-In the chronic phase of myocardial infarction, the relation between myocardial recovery and infarct related artery status remains unclear. The spontaneous changes in rest-redistribution thallium defect size were prospectively studied over six months in 52 patients with chronic Q wave myocardial infarction. Design-Changes in rest thallium defect size, thallium uptake in the infarct area, and radionuclide left ventricular ejection fraction were compared to the quantitative coronary angiogram data. Two groups of patients were considered: patients with a percentage of stenosis below 100% (group 1, n = 31); and patients with an occluded artery (group 2, n = 21). Results-In the overall population, the mean (SD) defect size decreased from 28.2 (17.2)% to 24.9 (19.3)% of the whole myocardium (p = 0.01), while, in this area, the thallium uptake increased from 62.9 (13.7)% to 66.9 (15.6)% (p < 0.001). At the time of inclusion, the defect size, thallium uptake, and ejection fraction were similar in both groups. In group 1 patients only, the reduction in defect size correlated with the improvement in ejection fraction (r = 0.41, p = 0.02) and was related to the percentage of coronary artery stenosis. TIMI 3 patients reduced the defect size while other patients increased this defect (−5.1 (7.0)% v +11.0 (14.4)%, p < 0.001). In contrast, no significant relations were found in group 2 patients. Conclusion-Late spontaneous recovery in thallium defect can occur in patients with a patent infarct related artery, depending on the TIMI flow grade and a low grade stenosis of the infarct related artery, and is associated with functional improvement. (Heart 1999;81:424-430)