Sustainable Development and Coastal Tourism: A Stakeholders’ Perspective

This study employs the example of Bulgaria’s North Black Sea coast to examine the destination stakeholders’ perceptions of sustainable tourism development and the degree to which the principles of sustainability have been implemented in the policies and practices in the past three decades. It aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on coastal tourism development and its problematic relationship with the concept of sustainability in times of rapid changes. A multidisciplinary and holistic approach is adopted to develop an analytical framework for the study of sustainable tourism development

Dialogue and professionalism in the contemporary organization

The dynamic changes as an integral part of everyday life are highly characteristic for the workplace. On the other hand, differences in cultural norms and values affect the changes specifically and add a different dimension to the processes that form the individual professionalism and the new reality in organizations expressed through collective intelligence. One of the resources for their formation is the dialogue. According to the varieties of dialogic interaction there are three types of dialogic subject and according to the prevailing type of individuals - three types of organizationsyesBelgorod State Universit

Tourism development in transition economies: an evaluation of the development of tourism at a Black sea coastal destination during political and socio-economic transition.

The present research addresses a gap in the academic literature on the transformation and development of coastal destinations in the transition economy of Bulgaria. It takes further the tradition in tourism studies that calls for the incorporation of the contextual change in the process of destination development. The purpose of this study was to determine whether, and in what ways, the nature of the socio-economic and political transition has influenced the processes of tourism development of a coastal tourism destination in the period 1989-2009 and if the tourism stakeholders have incorporated and implemented the principles of sustainability in the transformation and operation of the tourism sector, with the associated questions of why, why not, and how. In order to answer the research questions, a case study research was undertaken in the Varna-Balchik destination on Bulgaria‟s North Black Sea coast, which allowed the study of the whole spectrum of developmental processes in the period of transition. Data for the research was collected using a multi-method research approach with a combination of secondary data and primary data gathered using qualitative research techniques including a series of stakeholder interviews and observation. The semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with decision-makers, involved in tourism development in the destination studied at some time over the studied period (1989-2009), from the stakeholder groups at a local, regional and national level. This research employed the path-dependent path-creative approach to analyse the nature of transformation and conceptualise the forces which impact on tourism development on Bulgaria‟s North Black Sea coast. The research findings indicated that sustainability did not fit well into the rapidly changing CEE transition context. In spite of the increasing empowerment of the local communities and their attempts to achieve balanced development by implementing integrated and long-term planning, the primary data revealed growing concerns over the ineffectiveness of policy-making, the increasing urbanisation of the coastal strip and the competitiveness of Bulgaria‟s North Black Sea coast tourism offer. An analytical framework was developed based on the research findings to explain the specific development path(s) of the destination studied. It took into account the political (politicising), psychological (mentalities), institutional dimensions of transition (property rights, social networks and local empowerment), the role of the state (reduced state intervention) and the individual (human capital). Some of these themes (politicising and mentalities in particular) have been largely absent from previous research on tourism in transition and from the wider tourism studies

Superconducting BSCCO Ceramics as Additive to the Zinc Electrode Mass in the Rechargeable Nickel-Zinc Batteries

The electronic conductivity of the main component of the zinc electrode in the rechargeable zinc-nickel battery – ZnO,  is rather poor and this is the main reason for the electrochemical heterogeneity of the anode mass and the loss of active surface area during charge/discharge cycling with a corresponding negative effect on the electrode characteristics In the present work, the possibility of application of superconductive cuprate Bi-Pb-Sr-Ca-Cu-O (BSCCO) ceramic as a multifunctional conductive additive to the zinc electrode mass is studied. Powder samples of the BSCCO ceramic Bi1,7Pb0,3Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox are produced by two-stage solid-state synthesis and they are physicochemically characterized. The XRD patterns and SEM observation reveal a well crystallized single phase of superconducting 2212 BSCCO system with average crystallite size 5-10 µm. The chemical stability of BSCCO ceramics in highly alkaline medium of the Ni-Zn battery is confirmed by structural and morphological analysis (XRD, SEM and EDX) of the samples before and after prolong exposure (96 h) to 7M KOH. The electrochemical tests are carried out by a specially designed prismatic alkaline Ni-Zn battery cell with conventional sintered type nickel electrodes and pasted zinc electrode with active electrode mass based on ZnO (88 wt.%) and addition of BSCCO powder or acetylene black as conductive additives. The study show that the zinc electrode with BSCCO superconducting ceramic additive exhibits very good cycleability, remarkable capacity stability and much higher discharge capacity at prolong charge/discharge cycling in comparison to the  zinc electrode with the “classic” carbon conductive additive. It is suggested that the addition of BSCCO ceramics improves not only conductivity of the electrode mass and reduces the gas evolution but also stabilizes porosity structure. The results obtained prove the possibility of application of superconducting BSCCO ceramics as a multifunctional additive to the active mass of the zinc electrodes for alkaline battery systems

A QUANTITATIVE METHOD FOR COPPER DETERMINATION IN THE BLOOD SERUM

No abstract

Ebonex-Supported PtM Anode Catalysts for PEM Water Electrolysis

The work presents a research on the preparation of Pt-based bimetallic catalysts dispersed on commercial Magnelli phase titania (Ebonex@) by sol gel method and investigation of their activity toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE). The catalytic support is also used for preparation of a carbon-free gas diffusion layer (ET30) integrated in the oxygen electrode of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The performance characteristics of MEA with PtM/Ebonex on ET30 are investigated in a laboratory PEMWE and compared to those of MEA with commercial carbon-based GDL with the same anode catalyst. It is proven that the chemical nature and electron density of the second metal have an essential effect on the catalyst surface structure and properties, including the lattice parameter, particle size, and electronic surface state state which in turn, reflect on the electrochemical behavior and catalytic activity. The catalysts PtCr/Ebonex and PtMn/Ebonex having deficiency of electrons in the valent d-orbital do not form an alloy with Pt and have lower catalytic activity. In contrast, the metallic components in PtFe/Ebonex and PtCo/Ebonex form a solid solution which results in changes in the catalyst structure and surface electron state, leading to enhanced OER efficieny compared to pure Pt/Ebonex

Kitaev interactions between j=1/2 moments in honeycomb Na2IrO3 are large and ferromagnetic: insights from ab initio quantum chemistry calculations

Na$_2$IrO$_3$, a honeycomb 5$d^5$ oxide, has been recently identified as a potential realization of the Kitaev spin lattice. The basic feature of this spin model is that for each of the three metal-metal links emerging out of a metal site, the Kitaev interaction connects only spin components perpendicular to the plaquette defined by the magnetic ions and two bridging ligands. The fact that reciprocally orthogonal spin components are coupled along the three different links leads to strong frustration effects and nontrivial physics. While the experiments indicate zigzag antiferromagnetic order in Na$_2$IrO$_3$, the signs and relative strengths of the Kitaev and Heisenberg interactions are still under debate. Herein we report results of ab initio many-body electronic structure calculations and establish that the nearest-neighbor exchange is strongly anisotropic with a dominant ferromagnetic Kitaev part, whereas the Heisenberg contribution is significantly weaker and antiferromagnetic. The calculations further reveal a strong sensitivity to tiny structural details such as the bond angles. In addition to the large spin-orbit interactions, this strong dependence on distortions of the Ir$_2$O$_2$ plaquettes singles out the honeycomb 5$d^5$ oxides as a new playground for the realization of unconventional magnetic ground states and excitations in extended systems.Comment: 13 pages, 2 tables, 3 figures, accepted in NJ