Results of the national radon indoors survey in Bulgaria

Purpose: To present the results of the annual average indoor radon concentrations from National survey in Bulgarian regions. Variability of measured data between 28 regions was investigated in order to achieve the preliminary assessment the distribution of indoor radon concentration through Bulgarian territory. Argument: The National survey on average radon concentration in Bulgarian dwellings was carried out from 2015 to 2016, with the co-operation of the Regional Health Inspectorate under the National Radon Program. Data were collected through personal interviews with residents and deployment of alpha track detectors for one year through two phases. The first phase was from March 2015 to December 2015 and second from December 2015 to April 2016 approximately. For each region 100 detectors were distributed and spread to villages in regions depending on the population. The measurements were completed in 2775 dwellings. The distribution of indoor radon levels has been found to be log-normal with a geometric mean (GM) of 81.6 Bq•m−3 and a standard deviation of 2.1. The highest value of the radon concentration found was 1314 Bq•m−3 in the Sliven region. Region with high GM of 184 Bq•m−3 and a standard deviation of 1.7 is Yambol in Southeast Bulgaria. In about 6% of the houses, the radon concentration was found to be in excess of the recommended reference value of 300 Bq•m−3, suggested by the Council of the European UnionCommission in in new EU Directive 2013/59/Euratom. Conclusion: The data from National survey are the first systematic results and are received to complete the National Program, which will finish in 2017. The preliminary results clearly show that the national action plan to address long-term risks from radon exposures should be developed taking into account the results achieve in this program and in accordance with the new Directive 2013/59/Euratom

Combining Ability of Common Winter Wheat Cultivars

Abstract TSENOV, N. and E. TSENOVA, 2011. Combining ability of common winter wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.) by date to heading and date to physiological maturity. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., This investigation was carried out with a view of evaluating the combining ability and the heritability regularities of a group of wheat cultivars which differed significantly by their date to heading (DH) and date to physiological maturity (DPM). Six common winter wheat cultivars were combined in a complete diallele crossing scheme. The two traits were represented as number of days from 1 st January to the respective date for each of them. During three successive years, the early F 1 and F 2 hybrid generations were analyzed. They were grown in a randomized design, the distance between the rows being 20 cm and the distance between the plants in each row -10 cm. Each cultivar was evaluated for combining ability and the breeding value of each combination was assessed for the above two traits. The combining ability and the genetic parameters were calculated using the program Dial 98. Lack of reciprocal effect was established although the mother component strongly affected the phenotypic expression of the two traits. There were significant variations between the investigated cultivars in the expression of the two traits within 5-7 days. The values of GCA were predominant as a rule over the values of SCA in the variation analysis performed on the entire crossing scheme. This was evidence for some dominance of the genes with additive effect of the factors determining the two traits. GCA of each cultivar was directly related to the expression of the two traits, the correlation being as high as 0.95. The heritability of the two traits was analogous and resulted from complex combinations of genes with different effects (additive or dominant). The higher the difference between the parental cultivars in a combination by the two traits, the higher the inherited DH and DPM values were. The regularities in the genetic control and the combining ability of the investigated cultivars by DH were completely analogous for the trait DPM, as well. This means that earliness could be easily evaluated by DH. Cultivars Pliska, Vratsa and Obriy had high combining ability towards earlier dates to heading and maturity. Cultivar Pryaspa had the latest dates in the diallele crossing scheme, but its breeding value implied successful breeding of earliness in combination with high productivity

Designing with Genius Loci: An Approach to Polyvocality in Interactive Heritage Interpretation

Co-design with communities interested in heritage has oriented itself towards designing for polyvocality to diversify the accepted knowledges, values and stories associated with heritage places. However, engagement with heritage theory has only recently been addressed in HCI design, resulting in some previous work reinforcing the same realities that designers set out to challenge. There is need for an approach that supports designers in heritage settings in working critically with polyvocality to capture values, knowledges, and authorised narratives and reflect on how these are negotiated and presented in the designs created. We contribute “Designing with Genius Loci” (DwGL)—our proposed approach to co-design for polyvocality. We conceptualised DwGL through long-term engagement with volunteers and staff at a UK heritage site. First, we used ongoing recruitment to incentivise participation. We held a series of making workshops to explore participants’ attitudes towards authorised narratives. We built participants’ commitments to collaboration by introducing the common goal of creating an interactive digital design. Finally, as we designed, we enacted our own commitments to the heritage research and to participants’ experiences. These four steps form the backbone of our proposed approach and serve as points of reflexivity. We applied DwGL to co-creating three designs: Un/Authorised View, SDH Palimpsest and Loci Stories, which we present in an annotated portfolio. Grounded in research through design, we reflect on working with the proposed approach and provide three lessons learned, guiding further research efforts in this design space: (1) creating a conversation between authorised and personal heritage stories; (2) designing using polyvocality negotiates voices; and (3) designs engender existing qualities and values. The proposed approach places polyvocality foremost in interactive heritage interpretation and facilitates valuable discussions between the designers and communities involved

INCIDENCE OF DENTINAL MICROCRACKS AFTER ROOT CANAL PREPARATION WITH TWO RECIPROCATING SYSTEMS: A STEREOMICROSCOPIC STUDY

Purpose: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the incidence of microcracks after root canal preparation with two reciprocating systems. Materials and methods: Thirty – six freshly extracted mandibular incisors were selected for this in vitro study. The samples were allocated in three groups (n=12): negative control, Reciproc, WaveOne Gold. Roots in the control group were left unprepared. Reciproc R25 and WaveOne Gold Primary files were used in the other groups. After shaping of the root canals teeth were horizontally sectioned at 3, 6, 9 mm from the apex and the presence of dentinal defects were registered. These data were analyzed statistically by Fisher’s exact and chi-square tests (p < 0.05). Results: No defects were observed in the control group. All instruments caused dentinal microcracks with no statistically significant differences between the two systems. Defects in the apical region in both experimental groups differed statistically from those in the coronal portion of the roots. Conclusions: WaveOne Gold and Reciproc systems performed equally and resulted in dentinal defect formation regardless of their alloy type, taper and cross-section

Designing with Genius Loci: An Approach to Polyvocality in Interactive Heritage Interpretation

Co-design with communities interested in heritage has oriented itself towards designing for polyvocality to diversify the accepted knowledges, values and stories associated with heritage places. However, engagement with heritage theory has only recently been addressed in HCI design, resulting in some previous work reinforcing the same realities that designers set out to challenge. There is need for an approach that supports designers in heritage settings in working critically with polyvocality to capture values, knowledges, and authorised narratives and reflect on how these are negotiated and presented in the designs created. We contribute “Designing with Genius Loci” (DwGL)—our proposed approach to co-design for polyvocality. We conceptualised DwGL through long-term engagement with volunteers and staff at a UK heritage site. First, we used ongoing recruitment to incentivise participation. We held a series of making workshops to explore participants’ attitudes towards authorised narratives. We built participants’ commitments to collaboration by introducing the common goal of creating an interactive digital design. Finally, as we designed, we enacted our own commitments to the heritage research and to participants’ experiences. These four steps form the backbone of our proposed approach and serve as points of reflexivity. We applied DwGL to co-creating three designs: Un/Authorised View, SDH Palimpsest and Loci Stories, which we present in an annotated portfolio. Grounded in research through design, we reflect on working with the proposed approach and provide three lessons learned, guiding further research efforts in this design space: (1) creating a conversation between authorised and personal heritage stories; (2) designing using polyvocality negotiates voices; and (3) designs engender existing qualities and values. The proposed approach places polyvocality foremost in interactive heritage interpretation and facilitates valuable discussions between the designers and communities involved

Éducation Sentimentale of Game Playing ASD Kids

Conference presentation: https://youtu.be/Xt91gRukjNY. The paper presents a pilot project developed in 2016 by lecturers and students from the Digital Humanities program at New Bulgarian University. The project focuses on the design of a practically oriented technological solution for introducing 6-7 years old participants with Autism Spectrum Disorders to the emotional alphabet. We present a multisensory educational game as a didactic solution which helps ASD kids to build a bridge between specific details of each universal emotion and its symbolic value as a whole. The game is designed to detect three of the seven universal emotions (based on Paul Ekman’s theory) and derives from Violeta Boyanova’s long-term therapy experience with PECS pedagogy. Lozanov’s TENDER SUGGESTION also plays a crucial role in the introduction of musical background (Vivaldi) for the game

Graupel mixing ratio forecast from a cloud resolving numerical weather prediction model as a tool for lightning activity prediction

Graupel mixing ratio over Bulgaria for the warm half year of 2021 based on the AROME-BG numerical weather prediction (NWP) model, is evaluated and connected lightning data detected by the ATDnet lightning location network. Lightning data and forecasted graupel mixing ratios were considered on resolutions of 5×5 km and 10×10 km with flash rate for one and three hours, as well on a daily base using upscaling neighborhood method. Two daily model runs are considered – at 06 and 18 UTC. Commonly used skillscores in meteorological forecasts are used as evaluation metrics – probability of detection (POD), false alarm rate (F), proportion correct index (PC), and frequency bias index (FBI). Lightning probability forecast (based on graupel mixing ratio) is evaluated at diurnal, monthly, and spatial bases. Results show that graupel mixing ratio taken from the cloud resolving NWP model AROME-BG could be used as a tool to forecast lightning probability with a relatively high performance. Decreases of forecast spatial resolution and time frequency lead to improvement of forecast probability of detection (POD) and frequency bias index (FBI) and to a slight deterioration of its false alarm rate (F) and its percent correct (PC), and the impact of forecast time frequency is more pronounced

Infrastructuring public history: When participation deals with the past

peer reviewedIn this paper, we relate participatory design (PD) scholarship with public history (PH) research, deepening the understanding of the relationship of PD with history, focusing on "history with PD". The latter refers to when history itself is explicitly the object of participation, and we discuss it by presenting a secondary analysis of a PH project, HistorEsch, conducted through the conceptual lens of infrastructuring. In this way, we show how PD and PH practices consider the past of a place and how they relate to public formation, intermediation, and proliferation

Adjunctive Phosphodiesterase-4 Inhibitor Therapy Improves Antibiotic Response to Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a Rabbit Model

Objectives: Adjunctive host-directed therapy is emerging as a new potential approach to improve the outcome of conventional antimicrobial treatment for tuberculosis (TB).We tested the ability of a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor (PDE4i) CC-11050, co-administered with the first-line anti-TB drug isoniazid (INH), to accelerate bacillary killing and reduce chronic inflammation in the lungs of rabbits with experimental Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. Methods: A rabbit model of pulmonary TB that recapitulates the pathologic manifestations seen in humans was used. Rabbits were infected with virulent Mtb by aerosol exposure and treated for eight weeks with INH with orwithout CC-11050, starting at fourweeks post infection. The effect of CC-11050 treatment on disease severity, pathology, bacillary load, T cell proliferation and global lung transcriptome profiles were analyzed. Results: Significant improvement in bacillary clearance and reduced lung pathology and fibrosis were noted in the rabbits treated for eight weeks with INH + CC-11050, compared to those treated with INH or CC-11050 only. In addition, expression of host genes associated with tissue remodeling, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) regulation, macrophage activation and lung inflammation networks was dampened in CC-11050- treated, compared to the untreated rabbits. Conclusions: Adjunctive CC-11050 therapy significantly improves the response of rabbits with experimental pulmonary TB to INH treatment.We propose that CC-11050 may be a promising candidate for host directed therapy of patients with pulmonary TB, reducing the duration and improving clinical outcome of antibiotic treatment