Abstract: Traditional knowledge is of real danger to be lost in modern society. This research is a part of an ethnobotanical survey aimed on documentation of current status of folk medicine in Central and Northeastern Bulgaria. Semi-structured interviews with local knowledgeable persons were provided. Quantitative ethnobotanical indices consisting of Fidelity level (FL) and Informant consensus factor (ICF) were calculated as indicatives of local importance of species and prevalent uses of species. The respondents reported 15 category uses: to treat 12 health disorders, for prophylaxis/immune stimulation, other health connected conditions and plants included in the diet as food/spices. The highest number of plants was used for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases (65.9%), cardiovascular problems (53.4%) and urinary system problems (46.6%). It should be noted that many herbal medicines are related to disease prevention (52.3%). Maximum FL value (100%) of Hypericum perforatum for digestive and nervous system disorders and Thymus sp. for respiratory system diseases was calculated. Numerous species and specific applications were listed in the paper, contributing to the base ethnobotanical data. Specific use categories indicate most spread health disorders and proved treatments in the studied regions. Results also reflect the growing interest in disease prevention (immune stimulation) and a healthy diet. PubDate: Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The most commonly used method to control wheat powdery mildew is by fungicides. The aim of the present study is to determine the duration of the fungicide activity of three fungicides: azoxystrobin; triadimenol; tebuconazole+spiroxamine+triadimenol. They were applied in three concentrations in phenophase 3-4 leaf of susceptible wheat variety. After treatment, each day one pot of the tested fungicide concentrations was inoculated with Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici. When using azoxystrobin at concentrations of 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.8%, symptoms of powdery mildew appeared on plants inoculated with Blumeria graminis f.sp. tritici in the next day after treatment. When using triadimenol, first symptoms appeared in plants inoculated with the pathogen on the next day after applying a concentration 0.12%, on the second day after applying a concentration 0.25% and on the third day after treatment with a concentration 0.5%. With tebuconazole+spiroxamine+triadimenol, first postules appeared on plants inoculated with Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici on the third day after treatment with a concentration 0.15%, on the 13th day after treatment with a concentration 0.3% and on the 14th day after treatment with a concentration 0.6%. This fungicide at a concentration of 0.6% (13 days) and 0.3% (12 days) has the longest duration of fungicide activity. PubDate: Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Nowadays, an increased interest towards the integration of the concept of ecosystem services has been observed, both in regards to processes related to forest and water resources management, as well as in the context of sustainable development of the economy on a local, regional and national level. In the most common case, what is referred to as forest ecosystem services are possible benefits, which man can reap directly or indirectly from ecosystem functions of forest territories. Therefore, it is of great importance to analyse and assess the interactions between the human factor with the conditions and processes through which forest ecosystems create and sustain ecosystem services. The water ecosystem service provided by forest territory could cause the need to process large amounts of spatial data in the form of forest management and hydrological information, as well as information about sanitary protection zones around water sources, in the context of the administrative territorial division of the country at different levels, creates considerable challenges. The difficulties are due to both the various electronic formats in which the necessary information is maintained, and the need to perform different operations on the input data for the purpose of analysis and decision making. The present paper investigates the possibilities of automating the processing of large volumes of spatial data in the context of the ecosystem water service, provided by forest territories by developing a set of tools operating into the environment of open source GIS. The main purpose is to develop a unified approach based on the use of GIS and suitable for the creation and implementation of methods for analysis and management of processes related to the ecosystem water service provided by forest territories. The approach can be applied in different sectors of the economy, public relations and the environment. PubDate: Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This study is based on observations of MWC560 during the last two observational seasons (2020/2021 and 2021/2022). Other than looking for flickering we were interested in following the variability of brightness in the same period. Looking for similarities in the spectra with other types of stars is also of great interest to us because it could help clarify the stellar configuration of such objects. Our observations during the last two observational seasons of MWC560 confirm the absence of flickering. From the similarities of the gathered spectra of XX Oph and MWC560 we assume that the components in XX Oph are a red giant and a white dwarf, which are also surrounded by a common shell. PubDate: Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: At present, the inventory lists of the Myriapoda of many geographical areas in Bulgaria and the comparative analyzes of the similarity between such local faunas are scarce or completely missing. The present paper presents the results of the comparative analysis of α- and β-diversity of the myriapoda communities in natural habitats in two regions in Northeastern Bulgaria – the Shumen Plateau and the Madara Plateau. The compared habitats in these plateaus have similar geographical, soil and climatic conditions, and similar species composition of plant formations. The analysis of the structure of the myriapoda communities included estimation of species diversity by determining the Shannon-Wiever index (H’) and the Berger-Parker index (d). The degree of similarity between the species composition of the communities was analyzed by the Czekanowski-Dice-Sörensen, Jaccard, Bray-Curtis, Horn, Morisita-Horn indices and the corrected Chao-Sörensen and Chao-Jaccard indices. The species diversity of the millipede community in the Shumen Plateau is much greater than that of the Madara Plateau, while the diversity of the centipede communities in the two plateaus does not differ significantly. In both classes the greatest species diversity is registered in deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous forests. Chao-Sörensen and Chao-Jaccard indices of similarity for the myriapod communities in these habitats are the highest, approaching 1, in contrast to the other sites where the registered species composition of the centipedes is smaller and the degree of similarity is about 0.6. PubDate: Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Interactions between pentacyclic triterpenes isolated from white birch (Betula pendula Roth.) bark samples from Northeast Bulgaria and bovine serum albumin or human serum albumin were investigated using fluorescence techniques. The experimental results show the formation of complexes between the isolated triterpenes with serum albumins. Quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence of human serum albumins was monitored by emission spectra of varied quencher concentration solutions. By analysing the fluorescence spectra and fluorescence intensity, some parameters of the serum albumins - quencher interaction were determined to evaluate the type of quenching. An extract containing the isolated triterpenes formed complexes with both bovine serum albumin and human serum albumin, leading to quenching the fluorescence of both albumins by a combined quenching mechanism. PubDate: Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: An exopolysaccharide (EPS) was isolated from Lactobacillus plantarum Ts and purified by size exclusion chromatography train. L. plantarum showed the highest production (9.4 ± 0.8 g/l) of EPS. Furthermore, L. plantarum was cultured in medium with volume of 5 L and the EPS was extracted by ethanol precipitation. By HPLS analysis demonstrated, that the EPS has two fractions - polymer and olygomer. The molecular mass of the EPS from both fractions is respectively 8.3x104 Da for the greater pic and 5.0x102 Da. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis showed the presence of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups and glycosidic linkages. TLC analysis indicated that the EPS was a heteropolymer composed of fructose, and sucrose as monomeric constituent units. The strain L. plantarum and pathogenic E. coli 3398, St. aureus 745, B. subtilis 6633, S. typhimurium 3591, L. monocytogenes 863 and E. aerogenes 3691 were tested for their growth utilizing the EPS from L. plantarum as the sole carbon source for its possible use as a prebiotic. L. plantarum exhibited growth in the EPS supplied medium compared with sucrose as carbon source, whereas the pathogenic strains did not grow in the EPS-supplied medium. In vitro evaluations showed that, like other reported polysaccharides, this EPS displayed significant prebiotics properties. PubDate: Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The present development uses the modeling method described in the literature and proposed a new didactic, functional model of the “chemistry training” system in the application of semiotic approaches: semantic, pragmatic, and syntactic. The main objective of creating such a model is to demonstrate the specific activities of the subjects “teacher” and “pupil” when familiarizing themselves with chemical symbols and their study by students. The added new components in the model “Technology of chemistry training”, “Semiotic information” and the clarified links between them, lead to a complete change in the way the described system works. The developed didactic model makes it easy to guess the relationship between a new learning situation and a result, that is, to predict an unknown process or phenomenon. This model makes it possible to formulate a reasoned hypothesis of the study. PubDate: Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: In the present study, we report on new localities in Northeastern Bulgaria, where Elaphe sauromates (Pallas, 1814) was recently detected. We registered five Blotched snakes in the region of Shumen town in the period 2018 - 2022. All of the snakes were adults, three were killed by tools impacts and two of them were road kills. To date, the Blotched snake was registered extremely rare and in rather long intervals (of several decades) in the region of Shumen. Our findings indicate that the species currently inhabits the suburban and urban territories near the villages of Ivanski, Radko Dimitrievo and Konyovets. Two of the locations are new for the 10 km grid-system used for standard monitoring of the biodiversity in Bulgaria. PubDate: Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The morphostructural features of the Lilyak Plateau and it’s spatial and morphotectonic relationships with the adjacent parts of the Eastern Pre-Balkan Mountains are examined in the light of modern mobilist ideas. The Lilyak Plateau landform is part of the South Moesian morphostructural zone. This morphostructure borders distinctly to the south with the northern border of the corresponding part of the Fore Hemus morphostructural zone. There are significant morphostructural and morphotectonic differences between these two regional morphostructural units. PubDate: Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Experimental work in its milestones is carried out according to the following algorithm:1. Development of a methodological system, including additional training content in Chemistry and Environmental Protection for the seventh and eighth grades /purposefully selected urological fragments, exercises and summary lessons/, in which the subject of study is chemical symbolism, with the application of semiotic approaches - semantic, pragmatic and syntactic.2. Conducting a pedagogical experiment to establish the effectiveness of the developed methodological system.3. Analysis of the results of the pedagogical experiment.The pedagogical experiment is included in the work as the main method of researching the influence of semiotic approaches on the knowledge and skills of students for the proper use of chemical symbols. By conducting a pedagogical experiment, it has been shown that the use of the three semiotic approaches in Chemistry and environmental training facilitates and improves the understanding of the complex meaning of chemical symbols by students. The analysis of the results of the written control works in the seventh and eighth grades shows the existence of significant qualitative differences in students’ knowledge of how to identify chemical objects and the degree of skills formed to reveal the information embedded in chemical symbols. PubDate: Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: At the modern stage of society’s development, ecology is seen as a complex, interdisciplinary science of the relationships of organisms, society and the environment. Ecology is a science that studies the regularities of the life of organisms in their natural living environment and taking into account the changes made in this environment as a result of human activity. In recent years, the mass media has been constantly talking and writing about ecology, environmental problems related to anthropogenic activity. The person with his activity is heavily polluted and continues to negatively affect the environment at increasing rates. This reckless behavior of humans and the whole of society threatens planet Earth with imminent doom, no less than the use of nuclear weapons. Only from the positions of modern science ecology is it possible to develop issues related to the prudent use of the natural resources of the biosphere and the fight against changes brought about in nature by human activity in the age of the scientific and technical revolution. For this reason, it is necessary to seek information and a solution to the key current problems: What are the main pollutants of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere' What is the origin of these substances' How does their impact affect life on Earth' What approaches and methods are needed to prevent environmental pollution' PubDate: Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Citizen science plays an important role in the early detection of invasive alien species (IAS). The involvement of young people in initiatives related to citizen science in Bulgaria could contribute to better monitoring of IAS because of mobility and digital skills of those people. Based on a questionnaire survey, key aspects of involvement of young people in citizen science initiatives were analysed. Two groups of respondents, including professionals (with an educational background in biology or with professional activities related to the bioresources) and non-professionals (not connected with bioresources) were asked to make judgments about their own level of knowledge about: (1) IAS issues, (2) the level of awareness of citizen science; (3) the motivation and preferable ways to participate in citizen science; and (4) the most appropriate approaches for IAS awareness raising. A total of 337 young people in the age range of 15-30 years were questioned during the period 2019-2021. The results show that there is no significant difference between the responses of the two groups of respondents to the questionnaire - professionals and non-professionals. In both groups, less than 50% of respondents are aware of issues related to IAS. Less than 40% of respondents indicated the correct definition of citizen science. The leading motivation factor to participate in citizen science initiatives is “caring for nature” followed by “to contribute to nature conservation” and “to learn more about nature”. Most of the respondents are interested in additional information related to IAS and prefer online sources for information. PubDate: Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The present research focuses on a theoretical study of structural and electronic properties of pure graphene sheet and then adding different number of N2 atoms. The calculations are carried out using the density functional theory (DFT) with hybrid functional B3LYP/6-31G level to investigate the proposed structures. Gauss View 5.0.8 program is used to design the structures of pure and doped graphene sheets. These structures are relaxed by employing the PM6 semi-empirical method with the hybrid functional B3LYPDFT at Gaussian 09 package. The results of the structural properties of the studied graphene sheets showed that good relaxation of the structures, the constant bonds values in the pure graphene sheets in the same ranges of the carbon rings structures. We calculate the total energy, High Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) and Low Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) energies and forbidden energy gap. The result of the total energy of that doping graphene sheets is result of the binding energy of each structure and indicates that these structures have relaxation, and the effect of adding N2 atoms in pure graphene sheet on the total energy of the molecule is effective. All doping graphene sheets have small forbidden energy gap, but it vibrates depending on the length and number of each sheet and the position of N2 atoms in the sheets. PubDate: Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The aim of this survey is to present an up-to-date list of medicinal plants on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria and to systematize the information on: usable parts, the number of medicinal plants used in various fields of medicine, in cosmetics, the degree of toxicity and availability of information on contraindications for all wild medicinal plants that are found in the Republic of Bulgaria. As a result, we identified a total of 845 species of wild medicinal plants. Most of them are described in a special annex to the Medicinal Plants Act of the Republic of Bulgaria. In the literature on the use of medicinal plants in Bulgaria we found information about another 115 species of wild medicinal plants. In the present survey we did review of the usable parts of medicinal plants. We made a comparative analysis of the use of medicinal plants in the official, popular and veterinary medicine. The method of application of medicinal plants in medicine is discussed: externally and internally. Attention is paid to the use of medicinal plants in aromatherapy, dentistry and cosmetics. Considered are the poisonous plants among the medicinal plants and their degree of toxicity. A review of the available data on contraindications for the use of medicinal plants has been made. PubDate: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Advances in information technology developments have led to improved ways and means of sharing information and good practices in various areas of social development. Providing the necessary tools enables Citizen Sciences (CS) to play an important role in raising awareness and engaging various stakeholders in the prevention of invasive alien species (IAS). In Bulgaria, up until this point, it is poorly developed, and this is largely due to the lack of information to the general public regarding the categorization of species, pathways of introduction and their negative impact. The article examines the possibilities for introduction and use of an advanced ontological model in the area of invasive alien species research, which will aid the process of involving a wide range of stakeholders in various initiatives that will contribute to preventing the introduction and spread of IAS. The researched approach using the advantages of modern information and communication technologies includes acquaintance with the basic concepts in the area of IAS, the processes related to their introduction and spread, as well as taking into account the existing interrelationships, which would provide opportunities for early detection and the rapid eradication of IAS. The developed model will also be applied to measures and policies put in place to change the attitudes of the general public to the problem of IAS. PubDate: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Improper use of antibiotics is an extremely worrying trend worldwide. This leads to the development of resistance to these drugs. As a result, antibiotics stop working and bacteria continue to grow. The highest levels of resistance, both in our country and worldwide, are to second and third-generation cephalosporins, some aminoglycosides, and others. The reason is that these antibiotics have been used most irrationally over the years. The pandemic of COVID-19 and Antimicrobial drug resistance (AMR) are parallel and interrelated serious health situations, between which there is a causal link, manifested in high mortality among the human population. This review highlights relations between growth rates of antimicrobial resistance and the Covid-19 pandemic situations in Bulgaria and Europe in this fast-growing research area. PubDate: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Open Access journal
