Dependency between digital competence and professional competence of students

The report aims to find out the existence of a dependency between the digital and specialized professional competence of students. The acquisition of certain competences is the basis of the effective exercise of a given profession. The role of information and communication technologies in the formation of the necessary abilities for effective professional career of the graduating specialists is analyzed. The primary data for the empirical study has been collected through the use of the survey method. The results show a statistically significant influence of digital competence on subjective assessments of professional competence, language competence and the contribution of university education to professionalisation. It can be concluded that directing learning in higher education to increase digital competence would have a positive effect on increasing the professional competence of future specialists

Influence of the occupational burnout syndrome on the work attractiveness among social workers

The objective of this article is to study and analyze the influence of burnout syndrome on the "work attractiveness" in social workers. For the purposes of the analysis, an empirical study was conducted among 170 social workers from 142 social services in Bulgaria. The data from the study confirmed though partially but statistically significant, the dependence of work attractiveness on the parameters of the occupational burnout syndrome in the professional social work practice. The following tendencies have been outlined: Influence of the “occupational burnout syndrome” in the part of emotional exhaustion on the work attractiveness. The high level of emotional exhaustion does not presuppose low work attractiveness, just the opposite. Influence of the “occupational burnout syndrome” in the part of emotional exhaustion on the probability of leaving. The dependency between the high emotional exhaustion and the low work dissatisfaction precondition a higher probability of leaving. Influence of the “occupational burnout syndrome” in the part reduction of personal achievements on the work attractiveness. The high reduction determines the higher level of occupational dissatisfaction. Our study shows that specification of social work depends both on the conditions of labor and the personal qualities of the social workers

Development of an ultrasonic device for quality evaluation of yogurt

In this article a possibility of application of the ultrasonic non-contact method for assessing the quality of yogurt was researched. A prediction assessment was made by an ultrasound based on four parameters – pH, conductivity, fat content, and viscosity. An ultrasonic device was developed to determine the parameters of yoghurt by modified ultrasound sensor available commercially. In order to obtain data for post-processing, a software application was designed for recognizing the ultrasonic signal through the image processing and analysis techniques.The developed algorithms and procedures were applied to determine the distance between the object and the sensor, whereby basic physico-chemical parameters of yogurt could be predicted with the lowest relative error. The working distance was 35 cm for the considered system. The survey results show that the parameters fat content, pH, conductivity, and viscosity of yogurt could be predicted by the proposed system for contactless measurement with accuracy of 94-97%

Dependency between digital competence and professional competence of students

The report aims to find out the existence of a dependency between the digital and specialized professional competence of students. The acquisition of certain competences is the basis of the effective exercise of a given profession. The role of information and communication technologies in the formation of the necessary abilities for effective professional career of the graduating specialists is analyzed. The primary data for the empirical study has been collected through the use of the survey method. The results show a statistically significant influence of digital competence on subjective assessments of professional competence, language competence and the contribution of university education to professionalisation. It can be concluded that directing learning in higher education to increase digital competence would have a positive effect on increasing the professional competence of future specialists

Influence of Gender on the Advertising Responses of Young People for Products of Mobile Operators in Bulgaria

The use of gender as a marketing strategy for market segmentation requires consideration of gender differences in information processing. This would increase the effect of advertising campaigns by adapting them to the dynamically changing market. he presented empirical study was conducted after 300 men and women aged 18 to 25 years, users of functional mobile products. The aim of the study is to determine the extent to which gender determines positive and negative advertising responses, identifying subjective judgments. The results of the research are empirical confirmation of some basic hypotheses of the Selective model of information processing in advertising messages: objectivity in the processing of information by men and subjectivity in the processing of information by women; selectivity in the perception of the attributes of the product by men and integrity - by women and a stronger willingness to use new products by women than by men. The present study offers an empirical hypothesis that women form positive responses to a larger number of signals in advertising, while men form negative responses to a larger number of signals in advertising messages. Satisfaction is proving to be a very important factor in advertising responses for both sexes, as it is a stronger factor for women, and men’s frustration with a mobile product is stronger than for women

GÜNEYDOĞU BULGARİSTAN’DAKİ YABANCILARIN ENTEGRASYONUNDA ORTAK EĞİLİMLER

The current research aims at outlining some common tendencies for the integration of foreigners residing in southeastern Bulgaria on the basis of their attitude to the surrounding environment. 106 questionnaire forms have been filled in by English-speaking foreigners who at the time of the research were residing in the above mentioned region. Most of the respondents (89,62 %) were fromthe United Kingdomand 66,98% were above 50 and retired. The results point out towards a strong correlation drive between the overall time in Bulgaria and foreigne settlers’ attitude to life in the country. The longer the time period (> 5 years) the more likely they are to say they don’t like living in Bulgaria. The beauty of Bulgarian nature, national culture and traditions might be an attraction to foreigners but there are other factors such as bad infrastructure, animal treatment, bureaucracy, garbage disposal and other problems resulting in negative perceptions about Bulgaria that might interfere with immigrants’ attitude and willingness to settle in the country. What is needed is an effective mechanism for coordination between competent agencies in Bulgaria for achieving a better management of immigration processes, an improvement on legislative level and a better cooperation between state institutions and the non-government sector.Güncel araştırmalar, Güneydoğu Bulgaristan’da yaşayan yabancıların entegrasyonu için ortak bazı eğilimleri, sergiledikleri yaklaşımlar temelinde, anahatları ile çizmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu doğrultuda söz konusu bölgede araştırma esnasında yaşayan ve İngilizce konuşan yabancılar tarafından 106 anket formu doldurulmuştur. Katılımcıların çoğunluğu (%89.62) Birleşik Krallık’tan ve %66.98’i 50’nin üzerinde ve emeklidir. Sonuçlar ülkede yabancı yerleşimcilerin davranışları ve Buşgaristan’da geçirilen tüm zaman arasında güçlü bir korelasyona işaret etnektedir. Uzun zaman diliminde (>5 yıl) büyük olasılıkla yabancılar Bulgaristan’da yaşamayı sevmediklerini ifade etmektedirler. Bulgaristan; doğası, milli kültürü ve gelenekleriyle yabancılar için çekici olabilir fakat kötü altyapı, hayvanlara muamele, çöplerin imhası ve diğer problemler Bulgaristan hususunda olumsuz algılara yol açarak göçmenlerin tutumlarını etkilemekte ve ülkeye yerleşme isteklerini engellemektedir. Bu doğrultuda göç süreçlerinin daha iyi yönetiminin sağlanabilmesi adınaBJSS Balkan Journal of Social Sciences / Balkan Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Vol/Cilt: 3, No/Sayı:5, 2014,4-13 gereken; Bulgaristan’da yetkili kurumlar arasında etkili bir mekanizma, yasama düzeyinde bir iyileşme, devlet kurumları ve sivil toplum kuruluşları arasında daha iyi bir işbirliğinin sağlanmasıdır

Study of the values of the social workers in Bulgaria

The purpose of this article is to study the priority motivation values of the social workers in Bulgaria and the factors influencing them. The study covers 205 social workers, participating voluntarily and anonymously. The Schwartz questionnaire: The Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) was used, adapted by Karandashev (2004). The factor influences between the most significantly manifested values of the social workers and the parameters age, sex, education, improvement of the qualification, work experience, choice of profession and need for specific knowledge and skills were verified. It has been found out that only the parameter ‘choice of profession’ has an influence on the value of “benevolence”. The results of the study show that the priority values of the social workers coincide with the mission and purpose of the social work and confirm the results of other researchers

Membrane Lesions and Reduced Life Span of Red Blood Cells in Preeclampsia as Evidenced by Atomic Force Microscopy

Preeclampsia (PE) presents with maternal de novo hypertension and significant proteinuria and is one of the leading causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality with unknown etiology. The disease is associated with inflammatory vascular response and severe red blood cell (RBC) morphology changes. This study examined the nanoscopic morphological changes of RBCs from PE women versus normotensive healthy pregnant controls (PCs) and non-pregnant controls (NPCs) applying atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging. The results revealed that the membrane of fresh PE RBCs differed significantly from healthy ones by the presence of invaginations and protrusions and an increased roughness value (Rrms) (4.7 ± 0.8 nm for PE vs. 3.8 ± 0.5 nm and 2.9 ± 0.4 nm for PCs and NPCs, respectively). PE-cells aging resulted in more pronounced protrusions and concavities, with exponentially increasing Rrms values, in contrast to the controls, where the Rrms parameter decreased linearly with time. The Rrms, evaluated on a 2 × 2 µm2 scanned area, for senescent PE cells (13 ± 2.0 nm) was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than that of PCs (1.5 ± 0.2 nm) and NPCs (1.9 ± 0.2 nm). Furthermore, the RBCs from PE patients appeared fragile, and often only ghosts were observed instead of intact cells at 20–30 days of aging. Oxidative-stress simulation on healthy cells led to RBC membrane features similar to those observed for PE cells. The results demonstrate that the most pronounced effects on RBCs in PE patients are related to impaired membrane homogeneity and strongly altered roughness values, as well as to vesiculation and ghost formation in the course of cell aging