Evaluation of microbial-based products and an inorganic chemical for control of Мonilinia spp. in plum organic production

The plum (Prunus domestica L.) is one of the most important fruit crops in Bulgaria and ranks first place among all fruit species in terms of production. Organic fruit cultivation has increased rapidly worldwide in the last two decades, including in Bulgaria. Brown rot caused by fungi Monilinia laxa, M. fructigena, and M. fructicola is one of the economically most important and challenging diseases to manage in organic stone fruit production. In a 3-year study, the effectiveness of the organic liquid fertilizer Ecosist-Arbanasi (Bacillus subtilis TS 01), commercially available biofungicide Serenade ® ASO (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens QST 713), and inorganic chemical (calcium polysulphide) to control brown rot in organic plum production was investigated. The study was conducted in an organic orchard of the Institute of Agriculture – Kyustendil at Kyustendil region of Bulgaria with plum cultivar Stanley during 2020-2022. The agro-climatic characteristics of the region have all the objective factors for the development of Monilinia spp. Calcium polysulphide applied two times alone insufficiently reduced the incidence of brown rot (45.5% efficacy). Two soil applications of Ekosist-Arbanasi (77.5% efficacy), three foliar spraying with it (71.6% efficacy), and seven spraying applications of Serenade ® ASO (73.2% efficacy) may be sufficient against brown rot in plums. However, none of the treatments completely controlled Monilinia spp. These results show that improved integrated control management is needed for brown rot control in organic plum production

The maritime medicine as a free elective course for medical students at the Medical University - Varna

From the countries in Southeast Europe, only in Bulgaria, at the Medical University - Varna (MU-Varna) there is a training in the discipline "Maritime Medicine". The course is revealed by the Academic Board of the MU-Varna on 26 March 2007 at the initiative of assoc. prof. Hristo Bozov, MD, PhD, and with the support of Prof. Anelia Klisarova, MD, PhD, DSc - Rector of MU-Varna. For a short period of three years a team of doctors and other professionals succeeded in meeting the public need for the creation and development of this new medical discipline. The course includes 24 lectures and 6 practical classes. Speakers and instructors are lecturers from the Medical university -Varna, the Naval hospital - Varna to the Military Medical Academy (MMA - Varna), the Naval Academy - Varna (NA-Varna), the Naval Forces, the Naval Base - Varna and the Bulgarian Red Cross - Varna (BRC). It is held with great interest by students and ends with a 2-days rowing march to Tsonevo dam, together with the marina "Varna - S.T." and the medical university club "Sky and tourism". The new course will be conducted during the summer semester of the academic year 2010-2011 and the expecting volunteers have been are already enrolled

Prestige-seeking Consumer Behavior and Advertising

The paper presents the relationship between prestige-seeking consumer behavior and its refl ection in advertising. Prestige as a motive for consumption is included as the most often met values that consumers oriented to prestige give the goods. The second section of the paper analyzes the opportunities of advertising for motivation of the recipient. The context effect and use of characters in advertising are discussed as the most common methods for visualization of the motive for prestige consumption.В студията е представена връзката между проблема за престижното потребление и отражението му в рекламата. В първата част е включен престижът като мотив за потребле- ние и са представени най-често срещаните стойности, които ориентираните към престиж потребители придават на стоките. Във втората част на студията се анализират възмож- ностите на рекламата за мотивиране на реципиента. Контекст–ефектът и използването на персонажи в рекламата са разгледани като най-често прилагани методи за визуализация на мотива за престижно потребление

ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS OF APPLYING THE METHOD PLATELET-RICH PLASMA (PRP) FOR THE TREATMENT OF PROBLEMATIC SKIN WOUNDS

OBJECTIVE: To show analysis of the results of applying the method platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for the treatment of problematic skin wounds. The paper’s objective is to prove its reliability and relevance, to evaluate its efficiency and applicability to Bulgarian patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Out of a total of 154 hospitalized patients with problematic skin wounds 83 have been treated with platelet-rich plasma, comprising the Experimental group (EG), and 71 patients with similar wounds have been treated by using traditional methods for the respective pathology at the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Vessel and Plastic Surgery Department, comprising the Control Group (CG). Data on the condition of monitored symptoms of researched cases was collected for the research. A variable is defined for every symptom and its value and weight is correspondingly introduced. Scores introduced by Cancela AM are used for the assessment of the respective wound. Each of these scores is used for assessing specific wound parameters: Total Wound Score (TWS); total anatomic score (TAS) of wound and Total Score of Wound data (TSWD). RESULTS: Analysis of variance was performed to achieve the objectives and solve the research tasks; variables containing information on initial and final data from each series of experiments have been analyzed in order to determine basic numerical characteristics of variables, and by comparative analysis to check how they tend to vary in experimental (EG) and control (CG) group. Statistical survey shows that the platelet-rich plasma method gives significant results when treating problematic skin wounds leading to full recovery as compared to traditional methods typical for the pathology. The graphical interpretation allows to identify forecast relations between assessed aspects of problematic wounds and weeks of treatment. CONCLUSION: By analyzing the results of our study we can conclude that the use of platelet-rich plasma to treat problematic skin wounds is a safe and effective treatment method. It is not universal for every wound, but follows the principles of biological wound treatment and leads to full recovery of high percentage of problematic skin wounds. We support proponents of the application of platelet-rich plasma to treat problematic skin wounds

Effect of the Addition of WO₃ on the Structure and Luminescent Properties of ZnO-B₂O₃:Eu³⁺ Glass

Glasses with the compositions in mol % of 50ZnO:(50 − x)B2O3:0.5Eu2O3:xWO3, x = 0, 1, 3, 5 and 10 were obtained by applying the melt-quenching method and investigated by Raman spectroscopy, DSC analysis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Raman spectra revealed that tungstate ions incorporate into the base zinc borate glass as tetrahedral [WO4]2− groups, and octahedral [WØ4O2]2− species with four bridging and two non-bridging oxygen atoms. There are also metaborate, [BØ2O]− and pyroborate units, [B2O5]4−, in the glass networks. The glasses are characterized by good transmission in the visible region, at about 80%. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra evidenced that WO3 is an appropriate constituent for the modification of zinc borate glass structure and for enhancing the Eu3+ luminescent intensity. The most intense luminescence peak observed, at 612 nm, suggests that the glasses are potential materials for red emission

Structure and Luminescent Properties of Niobium-Modified ZnO-B₂O₃:Eu³⁺ Glass

The effect of the addition of Nb2O5 (up to 5 mol%) on the structure and luminescent properties of ZnO-B2O3 glass doped with 0.5 mol% (1.32 × 1022) Eu2O3 was investigated by applying infrared (IR), Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Through differential thermal analysis and density measurements, various physical properties such as molar volume, oxygen packing density and glass transition temperature were determined. IR and Raman spectra revealed that niobium ions enter into the base zinc borate glass structure as NbO4 tetrahedra and NbO6 octahedra. A strong red emission from the 5D0 level of Eu3+ ions was registered under near UV (392 nm) excitation using the 7F0 → 5L6 transition of Eu3+. The integrated fluorescence intensity ratio R (5D0 → 7F2/5D0 → 7F1) was calculated to estimate the degree of asymmetry around the active ion, suggesting a location of Eu3+ in non-centrosymmetric sites. The higher Eu3+ luminescence emission observed in zinc borate glasses containing 1–5 mol% Nb2O5 compared to the Nb2O5-free zinc borate glass evidences that Nb2O5 is an appropriate component for modifying the host glass structure and improving the emission intensity

A method to screen and evaluate tissue adhesives for joint repair applications

Abstract Background Tissue adhesives are useful means for various medical procedures. Since varying requirements cause that a single adhesive cannot meet all needs, bond strength testing remains one of the key applications used to screen for new products and study the influence of experimental variables. This study was conducted to develop an easy to use method to screen and evaluate tissue adhesives for tissue engineering applications. Method Tissue grips were designed to facilitate the reproducible production of substrate tissue and adhesive strength measurements in universal testing machines. Porcine femoral condyles were used to generate osteochondral test tissue cylinders (substrates) of different shapes. Viability of substrates was tested using PI/FDA staining. Self-bonding properties were determined to examine reusability of substrates (n = 3). Serial measurements (n = 5) in different operation modes (OM) were performed to analyze the bonding strength of tissue adhesives in bone (OM-1) and cartilage tissue either in isolation (OM-2) or under specific requirements in joint repair such as filling cartilage defects with clinical applied fibrin/PLGA-cell-transplants (OM-3) or tissues (OM-4). The efficiency of the method was determined on the basis of adhesive properties of fibrin glue for different assembly times (30 s, 60 s). Seven randomly generated collagen formulations were analyzed to examine the potential of method to identify new tissue adhesives. Results Viability analysis of test tissue cylinders revealed vital cells (>80%) in cartilage components even 48 h post preparation. Reuse (n = 10) of test substrate did not significantly change adhesive characteristics. Adhesive strength of fibrin varied in different test settings (OM-1: 7.1 kPa, OM-2: 2.6 kPa, OM-3: 32.7 kPa, OM-4: 30.1 kPa) and was increasing with assembly time on average (2.4-fold). The screening of the different collagen formulations revealed a substance with significant higher adhesive strength on cartilage (14.8 kPa) and bone tissue (11.8 kPa) compared to fibrin and also considerable adhesive properties when filling defects with cartilage tissue (23.2 kPa). Conclusion The method confirmed adhesive properties of fibrin and demonstrated the dependence of adhesive properties and applied settings. Furthermore the method was suitable to screen for potential adhesives and to identify a promising candidate for cartilage and bone applications. The method can offer simple, replicable and efficient evaluation of adhesive properties in ex vivo specimens and may be a useful supplement to existing methods in clinical relevant settings.</p

Buffer Green Patches around Urban Road Network as a Tool for Sustainable Soil Management

Urban areas are facing a range of environmental challenges including air, water and soil pollution as a result of industrial, domestic and traffic emissions. In addition, global climate change is likely to aggravate certain urban problems and disturb the urban ecology by increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. In the context of urbanization growth and the consequent impact on the environment, there is a growing interest in maintaining urban soil quality and functions as they are the medium for green infrastructure development. Furthermore, urban soils are becoming one of the key factors in the delivery of many ecosystem services such as carbon storage, climate regulation, water flow regulation, etc. On the other hand, urban soils are well-known to be a major sink of air pollutants due to the wet and dry atmospheric deposition and recirculation. Soil has the ability to degrade some chemical contaminants but when the levels are high, urban soils could hold on large amounts and pose a risk to human health. A cost-effective technological solution is to use the ability of some plant species to metabolize, accumulate and detoxify heavy metals or other harmful organic or inorganic compounds from the soil layer. The establishment of urban lawns (grass covered surfaces) is a helpful, environmentally friendly, economically sustainable and cost-effective approach to remove contaminants from polluted soils (terrains), which also has some aesthetic benefits. In this paper, an overview of the benefits and limitations of urban lawn construction is presented. The focus is on the perspectives for sustainable management of urban lawns, especially as buffer green patches in the road network surroundings, that can represent strategies to provide ecological and social multifunctionality of urban soils, and thus, increasing their ecosystem services capacity. Specifically, the paper highlights (i) the possibilities for phytoremediation of urban soils, (ii) potential of some perennial grasses and (iii) key issues that should be considered in the planning and design of urban lawns

Miscibility of hBest1 and sphingomyelin in surface films – a prerequisite for interaction with membrane domains

Human bestrophin-1 (hBest1) is a transmembrane Ca2+- dependent anion channel, associated with the transport of Cl−, HCO3- ions, γ-aminobutiric acid (GABA), glutamate (Glu), and regulation of retinal homeostasis. Its mutant forms cause retinal degenerative diseases, defined as Bestrophinopathies. Using both physicochemical - surface pressure/mean molecular area (π/A) isotherms, hysteresis, compressibility moduli of hBest1/sphingomyelin (SM) monolayers, Brewster angle microscopy (BAM) studies, and biological approaches - detergent membrane fractionation, Laurdan (6-dodecanoyl-N,N-dimethyl-2-naphthylamine) and immunofluorescence staining of stably transfected MDCK-hBest1 and MDCK II cells, we report: 1) Ca2+, Glu and GABA interact with binary hBest1/SM monolayers at 35 °C, resulting in changes in hBest1 surface conformation, structure, self-organization and surface dynamics. The process of mixing in hBest1/SM monolayers is spontaneous and the effect of protein on binary films was defined as “fluidizing”, hindering the phase-transition of monolayer from liquid-expanded to intermediate (LE-M) state; 2) in stably transfected MDCK-hBest1 cells, bestrophin-1 was distributed between detergent resistant (DRM) and detergent-soluble membranes (DSM) - up to 30 % and 70 %, respectively; in alive cells, hBest1 was visualized in both liquid-ordered (Lo) and liquid-disordered (Ld) fractions, quantifying protein association up to 35 % and 65 % with Lo and Ld. Our results indicate that the spontaneous miscibility of hBest1 and SM is a prerequisite to diverse protein interactions with membrane domains, different structural conformations and biological functions

Long-term safety and efficacy of benralizumab in patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma: 1-year results from the BORA phase 3 extension trial

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