Studying of the Factors of Longevity in Smolyan Municipality, Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria as Area of Oxidant/Antioxidant Balance

This paper shows the research of factors for health and longevity in Smolyan Municipality, Bulgaria in Rhodope Mountains. The factors are – hereditary, gender, mountain water, body weight, food, movement, psychological status, family relationships. This area is popular with mountain water and yogurt and higher attitude above see level (over 1000 m attitude above sea level). Yogurt is typical as food in Rhodope Mountains. Natural mountain waters were studied from various Bulgarian water springs from the period of 2010-2018.In 1910 in Bulgaria lived 2067 centenarians from 4 337 513 inhabitants. There were 477 centenarians per million. The most of these people lived in Rhodope mountains.  There are the most centenarians in Europe. In the early 1900s, the Bulgarian scientist, Stamen Grigorov, found the specific Lactobacillus bacteria responsible for Bulgarian yogurt fermentation. Interested in Grigorov’s discoveries, the Nobel prize-winning, Russian scientist, Ilya Mechnikov, noted that more people lived to the age of 100 in Bulgaria than in any of the 36 other countries he studied. He directly linked this to Bulgaria’s consumption of yogurt. According to Metchnikoff, aging is promoted by putrefactive microbes in the large bowel. He knew that milk fermented with lactic acid bacteria inhibits the growth of toxic bacteria, because of the low pH (4.4) produced from lactose fermentation. Metchnikoff proposed that fermented milk would “seed” the intestine with lactic acid bacteria, decrease intestinal pH, and suppress growth of toxic bacteria. Metchnikoff named the primary yogurt microorganism Lactobacillus bulgaricus after the Bulgarians. In the early 1900s, Mechnikov worked to popularize yogurt as a foodstuff throughout Europe.There was performed research of mountain water from village of Momchilovtsi, Smolyan Municipality. There was performed study of blood serum of cancer patients between 50 and 70 years old were investigated by IR, NES and DNES-methods (Ignatov&Mosin, 2012). As estimation factor was measured the values ​​of the average energy of hydrogen bonds (∆EH...O) among H2O molecules, as well as local extremums in DNES- and IR-spectra of various samples of water and human blood serum, detected at -0.1387 eV and wavelength – 8.95 μm. For a group of people in critical condition of life and patients with malignant tumors the greatest values ​​of local extremums in DNES- and IR-spectra are shifted to lower energies relative to the control group. The IR-spectrum of mountain water is most similar to the IR-spectrum of blood serum of healthy group of people with a local extremum at l = 8,95 mm. The authors study the local extremum at l = 8,95 mm of water in Momchilovtsi. This is the indicator for preservation of energy among water molecules in people, who are living in near the mountain sources.The authors show in the report that mountain water and yoghurt are part of secret of longevity. They and also natural food contain whole ballasting microelements – Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Potassium (K), Sodium (Na), Manganese (Mn), Zink (Zn).  The author shows that in Smolyan Municipality, Rhodope Mountain there is balance between oxidant and antioxidant activity in the human organism of the people, who are living here. The report shows the proofs. Keywords: longevity, mountain water, yoghurt, factors of longevity, oxidants/antioxidant

A Pharmacist’s Role in the Prevention of Depression in Patients with Chronic Diseases

Depression is one of the leading disability factors worldwide, causing a loss of workability as well as economic and financial burdens. Depression walks hand-in-hand with different chronic illnesses like cardiovascular, endocrine, neurodegenerative, rheumatological, or oncological, due to which it can be overlooked and stay undiagnosed for a long time. The pharmacist’s role in finding and preventing depression in patients that are at risk, suffering from concomitant chronic diseases, has been researched. Patients were screened with the help of a specifically made questionnaire that gathers information on patients’ socio-demographic characteristics, as well as the PHQ-9, which focuses on finding how big the risk of depression is. The questionnaires were filled out in pharmacies in Sliven and Yambol from March to April 2022 and included 74 patients with chronic diseases. Results from the screening show that every chronically ill person who answered the questionnaire is at risk for depression, with 34% having moderately severe depression, 30% being severely depressed, 27% being moderately depressed, and only 9% showing slight signs of depression. This reinforces previous medical research indicating individuals suffering chronic diseases are more prone to developing depression, which might go unnoticed due to their primary illness. Implementing screening programs in pharmacies and making them available around the country can be an effective tool for the early identification of depressive symptoms in patients with chronic diseases.

Zinc(II) Complexes - A New Group of Non-Mutagenic Herpes Simplex Virus Inhibitors

Former studies showed that complexes of Zn(II) with picolinic and with aspartic acids, Zn(pic)2 and Zn(asp)2, are able to inhibit HSV infection in cultured cells by affecting key steps of virus replication. As these complexes are candidates for a novel class anti-HSV drugs, further studies on their mutagenicity are of particular interest. In the present paper we present data showing that Zn(pic)2 and Zn(asp)2 do not express mutagenic effect in both prokaryotic (Salmonella typhimurium) and eukaryotic (Saccharomices cerevisiae) test systems

Contact angle hysteresis and pinning at periodic defects in statics

International audienceThis article deals with the theoretical prediction of the wetting hysteresis on nonideal solid surfaces in terms of the surface heterogeneity parameters. The spatially periodical chemical heterogeneity is considered. We propose precise definitions for both the advancing and the receding contact angles for the Wilhelmy plate geometry. It is well known that in such a system, a multitude of metastable states of the liquid meniscus occurs for each different relative position of the defect pattern on the plate with respect to the liquid level. As usual, the static advancing and receding angles are assumed to be a consequence of the preceding contact line motion in the respective direction. It is shown how to select the appropriate states among all metastable states. Their selection is discussed. The proposed definitions are applicable to both the static and the dynamic contact angles on heterogeneous surfaces. The static advancing and receding angles are calculated for two examples of periodic heterogeneity patterns with sharp borders: the horizontal alternating stripes of a different wettability (studied analytically) and the doubly periodic pattern of circular defects on a homogeneous base (studied numerically). The wetting hysteresis is determined as a function of the defect density and the spatial period. A comparison with the existing results is carried out

Quasi-static relaxation of arbitrarily shaped sessile drops

International audienceWe study a spontaneous relaxation dynamics of arbitrarily shaped liquid drops on solid surfaces in the partial wetting regime. It is assumed that the energy dissipated near the contact line is much larger than that in the bulk of the fluid. We have shown rigorously in the case of quasi-static relaxation using the standard mechanical description of dissipative system dynamics that the introduction of a dissipation term proportional to the contact line length leads to the well known local relation between the contact line velocity and the dynamic contact angle at every point of an arbitrary contact line shape. A numerical code is developed for 3D drops to study the dependence of the relaxation dynamics on the initial drop shape. The available asymptotic solutions are tested against the obtained numerical data. We show how the relaxation at a given point of the contact line is influenced by the dynamics of the whole drop which is a manifestation of the non-loca