Women and the Canon. Are We Justified to Speak of a Female Literary Canon Nowadays?

The paper is initiated by a brief outline of the development of women’s literature in the ex-“East European” countries since 1989. Then it turns to feminist literary theory tracking two different periods of its reception by, and adaption to, literary criticism in post-communist academic research. The concepts of women’s generations and women’s literary canon, vital for the western tradition of gynocriticism, are closely analyzed in line with their relevance to present-day women’s literature in post-communist culture. The paper ends with a presentation of a threefold model of the prospective to speak of women’s literature imbedded in, or in counter stance to, the traditional literary canon

Covid-19 shift in the insurance market concentration in Bulgaria

The pandemic had a decelerating impact on the development of the insurance market in Bulgaria, but it did not significantly contribute to market consolidation. There is no reason to say that the pandemic years from 2020 to 2023 had a catalyzing effect on the processes in the long term. The direction and strength of the market concentration follows the trends since before Covid-19. All indices measuring insurance market power displayed fluctuations during 2020- 2021 but these were insufficient to reverse the established trend. However, market concentration has the potential to become a tangible problem for Bulgaria and the main reason for that will not be the "post-covid syndrome" but the ongoing processes of business consolidation. Notably, life insurance has been affected to a much greater extent by the accumulation of market power

Industry 4.0 implementation factors for agri-food and manufacturing SMEs in Central and Eastern Europe

In partnership with the project “Possibilities and barriers for Industry 4.0 implementation in SMEs in V4 countries and Serbia” - funded by the Visegrad Fund, the authors conducted a survey with 124small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Central and Eastern Europe. Respondents (middle and top managers) from Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic were questioned about strategic factors affecting digitalization. We analyze theoretical factors based on literature review and if they are valid in the managerial context, not only for manufacturing, but also for the agri-food sector, where digital transformation (Agriculture 4.0) is considered to be in its infancy. Results indicate 21 variables that were aggregated to form five (5) strategic factors(Leadership, Management Strategy, Organizational culture, Business environment and Circular economy) with key importance for Industry 4.0 implementation in the organizations. The comparison based on Exploratory Factor Analysis between the manufacturing and agri-food sector results in statistical differences for all five factors. This study contributes to the management literature, and the identified factors can guide companies to develop a business model to be implemented in SMEs companies in their digital transition

Teaching the Bible as literature in university education

Studying the biblical corpus as an object of literary observation has been practised for decades in parts of Europe and the United States, but has only recently appeared in the universities of the "post-communist" countries. It constitutes a feature of a more general process of secularisation and scholarly analysis, in which the Scriptures are understood, yet disputed, as a cultural and psychological fundamental of the modern individual. The proposed paper endeavours to outline the general parameters within which the Bible could be treated in the academic curricula of philological departments, systematising the various possibilities of a literary approach. The traditional concept of a "historical-critical" interpretation is contrasted with a synchronic reading that facilitates an acknowledgment of the literary qualities of a text that is commonly viewed as a finalised and closed entity. The paper discusses the possibilities offered by different schools and methodologies of literary criticism: structuralism and semiotics, New Criticism, archetypal criticism, reader-response criticism, deconstruction, feminism and Gender Studies.Korpus besedil Svetega pisma je že desetletja predmet literarnega preučevanja v delih Evrope in v Združenih državah, v "postkomunističnih" deželah pa so se na univerzah s to tematiko začeli ukvarjati šele pred kratkim. Preučevanje korpusa predstavlja značilnost splošnejšega procesa sekularizacije in znanstvene analize, v katerem se Sveto pismo razume kot kulturna in psihološka osnova sodobnega človeka, čemur pa nekateri nasprotujejo. V pričujočem prispevku skušam orisati splošne parametre, v okviru katerih bi lahko Sveto pismo obravnavali v visokošolskih učnih načrtih filoloških oddelkov, ter sistematiziram različne možnosti literarnega pristopa. Tradicionalni koncept "zgodovinsko-kritične" interpretacije primerjam s sinhronim branjem, ki omogoča potrditev literarnih kvalitet besedila, na katerega običajno gledamo kot na dokončano in zaključeno entiteto. V prispevku obravnavam možnosti, ki jih ponujajo različne šole in metodologije literarne kritike: strukturalizem in semiotika, Nova kritika, arhetipska kritika, teorija bralčevega odziva, dekonstrukcija, feminizem in študije spolov

Risk management method for small photovoltaic plants

Risk management is necessary for achieving the goals of the organization. There are many methods, approaches, and instruments in the literature concerning risk management. However, these are often highly specialized and transferring them to a different field can prove difficult. Therefore, managers often face situations where they have no tools to use for risk management. This is the case with small photovoltaic plants (according to a definition by the Bulgarian State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission small applies to systems with a total installed power of 200 kWp). There are some good practices in the energy field for minimizing risks, but they offer only partial risk prevention and are not sufficient. Therefore a new risk management method needs to be introduced. Small photovoltaic plants offer plenty of advantages in comparison to the other renewable energy sources which makes risk management in their case more important. There is no classification of risks for the exploitation of small photovoltaic systems in the available literature as well as to what degree the damages from those risks could spread. This makes risk analysis and evaluation necessary for obtaining information which could aid taking decisions for improving risk management. The owner of the invested capital takes a decision regarding the degree of acceptable risk for his organization and it must be protected depending on the goals set. Investors in small photovoltaic systems need to decide to what degree the existing risks can influence the goals previously set, the payback of the investment, and what is the acceptable level of damages for the investor. The purpose of this work is to present a risk management method, which currently does not exist in the Bulgaria, so that the risks and the damages that could occur during the exploitation of small photovoltaic plants could be identified and the investment in such technology – justified

Deep venous thrombosis in the clinical course of pulmonary embolism.

The aim of the study is to find how concomitant deep venous thrombosis (DVT) changes the clinical course of pulmonary embolism

Recognition of unprovoked (idiopathic) pulmonary embolism – prospective observational study.

Background: The assessment of the clinical symptoms is the weakest link of the pulmonaryembolism (PE) diagnostic algorithm. Despite the presence of highly sensitive and specificimaging methods, verifying PE remains difficult due to nonspecific clinical symptoms andfrequently its subclinical course.Objective: The aim of this study is to improve the recognition of PE by investigating the clinicalpresentation and short-term prognosis of unprovoked PE in comparison to provoked PE. Thestudy was directed to patients who suffer from PE as a primary disease.Methods: This prospective observational study included 331 patients with PE, approved bycomputer tomographic pulmoangiography. They were categorized as having unprovoked orprovoked PE, according to their epidemiological data. The clinical characteristics and one-monthmortality rate were compared between both groups.Results: About 67% of the patients had provoking factors and ~33% had unprovoked PE. Thepatients in the unprovoked PE-group were younger compared to provoked PE-group(56.67±17.95 vs 63.76±14.58, p<0.0001) and the males predominated vs females (62.04% vs37.96%, p=0.012). The patients with unprovoked PE had more previous thromboembolic eventscompared to provoked PE-group (30.56% vs 19.45%, p=0.022) and a larger thrombotic burden(p=0.001). Dyspnea (85.18% vs 85.13%), chest pain (47.22% vs 46.85%), cough (43.92% vs45.94%), hemoptysis (16.67% vs 14.41%), hemodynamic instability (9.26% vs 8.56%), deepvenous thrombosis (49.51% vs 44.5%) had similar frequencies in both groups. No significantdifferences in the means of systolic pressure of arteria pulmonalis, D-dimer, arterial blood gases,Revised Geneva probability score were found. One-month mortality was lower in unprovokedPE-group than in provoked (1.85% vs 8.52%, p=0.042).Conclusions: Unprovoked PE occurs at a younger age, more frequently in males. It ischaracterized by the following significant variables: higher Wells score, lower PESI score, lowerCRP, higher thrombotic burden and lower one-month mortality rate, compared to provoked PE