The Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age – challenges for the Bulgarian Industry

On 1st of February 2023, the European Commission presented an Industrial plan in the context of the Green Pact to boost the competitiveness of Europe's zero net emissions industry and support the rapid transition to climate neutrality. The plan aims to provide a more favourable framework for the expansion of EU production capacity for the zero net emission technologies and products needed to meet Europe's ambitious climate targets. The aim of the study is to identify the challenges that this plan poses to the Bulgarian industry. In Bulgaria, industrial transformation is a continuous process. In the context of the overall development of this key economic sector, the importance of the concepts of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 should be considered, along with the assessment of the risks that disruptive technologies bring

Eddy current testing probe optimization using a parallel genetic algorithm

This paper uses the developed parallel version of Michalewicz's Genocop III Genetic Algorithm (GA) searching technique to optimize the coil geometry of an eddy current non-destructive testing probe (ECTP). The electromagnetic field is computed using FEMM 2D finite element code. The aim of this optimization was to determine coil dimensions and positions that improve ECTP sensitivity to physical properties of the tested devices

Ribosomal frameshifting in decoding antizyme mRNAs from yeast and protists to humans: close to 300 cases reveal remarkable diversity despite underlying conservation

The protein antizyme is a negative regulator of intracellular polyamine levels. Ribosomes synthesizing antizyme start in one ORF and at the codon 5′ adjacent to its stop codon, shift +1 to a second and partially overlapping ORF which encodes most of the protein. The ribosomal frameshifting is a sensor and effector of an autoregulatory circuit which is conserved in animals, fungi and protists. Stimulatory signals encoded 5′ and 3′ of the shift site act to program the frameshifting. Despite overall conservation, many individual branches have evolved specific features surrounding the frameshift site. Among these are RNA pseudoknots, RNA stem-loops, conserved primary RNA sequences, nascent peptide sequences and branch-specific ‘shifty’ codons

Open Access to Resource Management in Multimedia Networks

The paper is dedicated to mechanisms for open access to resource management in the Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia networks. First we present the concept of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and explain the IMS functional architecture, principles of quality of service management and service control in IMS. Then we describe the idea behind the opening of network interfaces for third parties so that others besides the network operator can create and deploy services. Open Service Access (OSA) and Parlay appear to be the technologies for value-added service delivery in multimedia networks. In the paper we take a closer look to the Parlay/OSA interfaces that allow third party applications to access the resource management functions in IMS. OSA "Connectivity Manager" interfaces and OSA "Policy Management" interfaces are considered. Parlay X Web Services interfaces provide a higher level of abstraction than Parlay/OSA interfaces and gain an amazing amount of support among service developers. We address "Applicationdriven Quality of Service" Parlay X Web Service and "Policy" Parlay X Web Service also

Evolutionary specialization of recoding: frameshifting in the expression of S. cerevisiae antizyme mRNA is via an atypical antizyme shift site but is still +1

Journal ArticleAn autoregulatory translational shift to the +1 frame is required for the expression of ornithine decarboxylase antizyme from fungi to mammals. In most eukaryotes, including all vertebrates and a majority of the studied fungi/yeast, the site on antizyme mRNA where the shift occurs is UCC-UGA. The mechanism of the frameshift on this sequence likely involves nearly universal aspects of the eukaryotic translational machinery. Nevertheless, a mammalian antizyme frameshift cassette yields predominantly -2 frameshift in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, instead of the +1 in mammals. The recently identified endogenous S. cerevisiae antizyme mRNA has an atypical shift site: UGC-GCG-UGA. It is shown here that endogenous S. cerevisiae antizyme frameshifting is +1 rather than -2. We discuss how antizyme frameshifting in budding yeasts exploits peculiarities of their tRNA balance, and relate this to prior studies on Ty frameshifting

Study of regional inequalities: case of Bulgaria

The sustainable development of a country depends on many factors. One of them is the balanced development of regions. The aim of this research is to study the inequalities between regions (NUTS 3 level) in Bulgaria by application of the Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI), a tool, which is based on 10 important for regional development indicators. The paper presents the last RCI ranking list (for the 2016 year) and analyses and compares it with the ranking lists for previous years. The results show significant inequalities between the capital region and other regions for the whole period and relative small imbalances between other regions. The RCI ascertained relatively stable groups of most competitive and most non-competitive regions

Integrative Modeling of Macromolecular Assemblies from Low to Near-Atomic Resolution

While conventional high-resolution techniques in structural biology are challenged by the size and flexibility of many biological assemblies, recent advances in low-resolution techniques such as cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) have opened up new avenues to define the structures of such assemblies. By systematically combining various sources of structural, biochemical and biophysical information, integrativemodeling approaches aimto provide a unified structural description of such assemblies, starting from high-resolution structures of the individual components and integrating all available information from low-resolution experimental methods. In this review, we describe integrative modeling approaches, which use complementary data from either cryo-EM or SAXS. Specifically, we focus on the popular molecular dynamics flexible fitting (MDFF) method, which has been widely used for flexible fitting into cryo-EM maps. Second, we describe hybrid molecular dynamics, Rosetta Monte-Carlo and minimum ensemble search (MES) methods that can be used to incorporate SAXS into pseudoatomic structural models. We present concise descriptions of the two methods and their most popular alternatives, along with select illustrative applications to protein/nucleic acid assemblies involved in DNA replication and repair

REVIEW OF METHODS FROM AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL PRACTICE USED IN PROJECTS RELATED TO THE RESTORATION OF NATURAL HABITATS

Review of methods from agricultural and horticultural practice used in projects related to the restoration of natural habitats. Ecological restoration supports the reconstruction of degraded, damaged or destroyed natural habitats. Restoration activities lead to an increased demand for seeds or seedlings of plant species characteristic of different habitats. This creates a demand that cannot be met by the supply of wild plant seeds. In order to ensure sufficient quantities of seeds for restoration activities, methods typical of agricultural production are increasingly applied. Often, seeds intended for ecological restoration are obtained under natural conditions from natural populations that reflect the genetic diversity of the given species. Obtaining seeds in this way is a labour-intensive and expensive process and does not meet the requirements for large-scale restoration activities required by practice. In this case, to improve seed production and to reduce costs, different wild seed production systems are integrated that are based on agricultural or horticultural production methods (Pedrini et al. 2020), providing a new intersection between habitat restoration and agriculture. Both the classic selection methods and the methods of modern selection science are applied in the restoration practice. Restoration ecology in its application combines selection, agricultural seed production and plant physiology. Some of the reviewed methods were applied in practice during the implementation of a project related to the restoration of natural habitat 62С0* Ponto-Sarmatian steppes in Bulgaria

The role of leadership for shaping organizational culture and building employee engagement in the Bulgarian gaming industry

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the impact of leadership styles on organizational culture and employee engagement, and gain understanding of how these conceptual variables influence organizational performance. Through in-depth interviews, the participants from three Bulgarian gaming enterprises revealed their perceptions of how their previous and current casino managers were able to form organizational culture and build employee engagement. The study revealed that the change of leadership led to significant changes in organizational culture and the level of employee engagement. The results showed that the visionary style creates the highest level of engagement while commanding and pacesetting styles create the lowest. The affiliative style revealed rather controversial influence; after a visionary leader, it had a negative impact on engagement, but after a commanding style, it had a positive effect. During the research, a flaw in the Goleman\u27s leadership model was found. Therefore, in the last part of the paper, a new 3-D Leadership-Style Model (3-D LSM) for determining the predominant leadership style is proposed. It is a more structured model, based on the combination of a few existing theories of leadership, improved with two new leadership sub-styles

The Professed Culture of the Business Organizations in the Defense Industry in Bulgaria. What Does it Look Like? And do they Need it?

Purpose – This article aims to outline and analyze the role, structure and dominating content of professed organizational culture among the companies in the defense industry in Bulgaria as conscious and the official expression of their leadership intentions within the contemporary business environment, uniquely justifying the existence of each entity. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative study is conducted, based on a literature review of academic publications in the sphere of professed organizational culture. Furthermore, the websites of the target companies were carefully examined in order to outline the practical approach to presenting the unique official culture of defense business organizations. Findings – An elaborate set of cultural attributes to be found on the second level in Edgar Schein’s model of organizational culture is identified. Based on literature review, the intersection between official corporate culture expressions and defense sector is outlined. Important nuances in the development of Bulgarian defense, technological and industrial base are described, encompassing the transition period to market economy and democratic political system. A survey of professed culture attributes is conducted among the members of Bulgarian defense, technological and industrial base. It is concluded that these companies prefer disclosing their official cultures in a very succinct way to utilizing the potential power and impact of the most popular firm documents in this field as mission and vision or relying on small number of their simpler building elements. Recommendations to senior managers of the Bulgarian defense companies regarding smart and intensive use of official culture elements are given