Table of Contents

  • SCIENCE

    • Abiogenic Metals in Medicine. Insights from Theoretical Studies of the Mechanisms of Action of Silver (I), Strontium (II), and Gallium (III)

      pg(s) 3-6

      Almost half of all known to date proteins contain metal co-factors. Over the course of 3–4 billion years of organism evolution, several metal species of different oxidation state (Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Fe2+/3+, Co2+/3+, Ni2+ and Cu+/2+) have been chosen to participate in key biological processes. They are known as “native”, or “biogenic” metals. On the other end stand toxins like mercury and lead, which poison the recipient by competing with the natural co-factors for binding the essential proteins. As a third example, however, should be outlined some abiogenic metal species, which exert a curative effect on the host organism, and are, therefore, applied in medicine as novel drugs. Such are silver (Ag+), strontium (Sr2+), and gallium (Ga3+). The current study investigates their ability to compete with the native cuprous (Cu+), calcium (Ca2+), and ferric (Fe3+) cations, respectively, by exploiting the methods of the computational chemistry. Nowadays, silver finds broad application in many areas of medicinal use, e.g. being added to dressings of burn wounds as a concomitant therapy of skin ulcers, as a potential water disinfectant, or even in ophthalmology as an active component in eye drops. Strontium prevents the destruction of bones and contributes to their restoration. Sr2+ salt of ranelic acid is a medication (under the names Protelos, Protos, Strontium ranelate Aristo) used for treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and very elderly patients. Gallium, in its cationic form (Ga3+), is well known for its anticancer activity. Nonetheless, recent experimental studies have considered the employment of gallium as a promising “Trojan horse” strategy against pathogenic microorganisms. Herewith, we set on a quest for deciphering the most acclaimed mechanisms of therapeutic action of the aforementioned metal cations at atomic level. The obtained results shed light on the intimate echanisms of metal recognition, thus revealing key factors governing the processes of native/abiogenic metal rivalry. This approach serves not only for explaining already existing experimental findings, but also as a first step in designing/engineering novel drug molecules of potential therapeutic value.

  • BUSINESS

    • Research of the main factors’ influence on the strategy realization in the bulgarian entreprises

      pg(s) 7-10

      The practice shows that the segmentation of the company business environment is making the strategic decisions difficult task for the bulgarian managers. A cardinal unit for company’s environment analysis is the so called strategic business-zone (SBZ) – separate section by the company’s surraunding, that the company has or wants to receive access to. SBZ qualified itself with consumer’s demand and needs and specific technology. They are characterized from parameters like: perspectives of the growth, from demand’s life cycle vew point; expected degree of instability and factors of successful competition for the future. The main task of survey is: to be explored the specific factors’ influence on the strategic decisions in the bulgarian enterprises.
      The main exploratory theory is confirmed, that to be made enough adequately strategic decision bulgarian managers must to decide among so many different factors and select the appropriate strategic business zones with the biggest potential for the company.

    • The wood-processing sector and its potential to became the pillar of national economy of Slovak Republic

      pg(s) 11-14

      The position of the wood-processing industry in Slovakia has a stable and long-term tradition. The wood-processing industry has great potential in the country economy, to which high forest cover contributes. The aim of the submitted paper was to define the position of the wood-processing industry within the national economy of Slovakia, considering the age structure of enterprises and thus to present its potential. Current information on the researched issues was obtained through an empirical survey in the form of a questionnaire. The achieved results were subsequently processed by statistical methods and presented descriptively a graphically. It follows that most woodprocessing enterprises in Slovakia have a long-term tradition, and therefore the sector has the potential to become a pillar of the national economy.

    • Trends in the development of transnational business in the context of globalization and the pandemic (COVID-19)

      pg(s) 15-20

      The combination of interests of TNCs and the state is considered. An assessment of the activities of the world’s largest TNCs. The dynamics of the number of TNCs in the top 100 companies in the world by country is determined. A comparative analysis of the size of market capitalization by sectors of companies. The contradiction between the international global nature of TNC operations and the territorially limited jurisdiction of the state was revealed. It was found that the market capitalization of multinational companies in the top 100 has decreased, but global companies have shown significantly better results than their smaller representatives have.

    • An evaluation of wind energy potential in Topoja area, Albania.

      pg(s) 21-25

      Climate change and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, have significantly increased interest globally in implementing technologies utilising renewable energy sources such as wind energy. This rise in interest it also in countries in which there is a lack of data showing longitudinal measures of wind speed. Balkan Wind Atlas was developed from Sander&Partner Institute in October 2014. It offers wind maps that are suitable to identify the windiest areas covering a surface of 325 000 km2 and a database for secured planning of wind energy for Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. This study investigated the high level of consistency of empirical wind measurements conducted on-site, compared to the ones offered in Balkan Wind Atlas. We also explore the ways of utilising the atlas through the WasP software to study wind potencial even in those areas where there are no on-site measurements, thus lowering costs for investments in wind farm projects. The evaluation of the wind energy potential in Topoja area was taken as a case study.

  • SOCIETY

    • Study on the birds’ impacts of wind generators in the region of North – Eastern Bulgaria

      pg(s) 26-29

      The future development of the renewable energy sector in Bulgaria is already set by the European Commission in the “Energy Map of Europe – 2050”. The goals of the Green Deal should not predominant the goals of environmental protection and reverse. Bulgaria should ensure balance and sustainability in the development especially of wind energy sources due to the fact that most energy potential areas fall in the protected areas and territories by Natura 2000. The biggest such conflict observed in that report is the region of North- Eastern Bulgaria. The production of electricity from wind is one of the activities that has a potential impact on birds. For this reason, the subject of this study analyses the available data and summarize the birds’ impacts of wind generators in the region of North – Eastern Bulgaria.

    • The concept of greening in the neo-industrial development of regions

      pg(s) 30-32

      An analysis of methodological approaches to the development of a strategy for neo-industrial development of the economy of various levels was carried out. The absence of systematic ideas about the mechanisms of influence of convergent (NBIC) technologies on existing production processes and the functioning of societies with the prevalence of predominantly overestimated expectations is shown. A local assessment of the effectiveness of the application of convergent technologies forms the prerequisites for the emergence of risks with unpredictable social and environmental consequences. The methodological imperfection of the concept of technology convergence is shown, due to different principles for the development of technologies with given functionality. The principle of intellectual convergence is proposed, the implementation of which in the form of integration interaction of the intellectual potentials of institutional components allows minimizing the risks in the innovative activity of business entities and the sustainable development of societies.
      An expedient methodological approach to implement intellectual convergence is the green life cycle of innovative products.

    • Environmental aspects and GHG credits impact on LCOE and key indicators for small installed PV plants in Albania

      pg(s) 33-37

      A lot of techno-economic analyses have been conducted to seek the most cost-effective solution for electricity generation applied in the interval time of 25 years of project life. The actual benefits taken from small PV plants up to 2MW have been identified, as well as the effects of the most sensitive parameters, such as installation price, incentives and other credit options such as carbon credit rate or feed in tariff. The output carried out from the simulation performed in RETScreen Expert tool shows that PV system represents the best solution to provide free carbon and costless electricity to run the water pump for sprinkler irrigation in the agriculture sector in Albania. The environmental benefits have been also addressed, evaluating the CO2 emissions saving achievable from the PV system operation and some financial aspects such as simple payback period (SPP), NPV, IRR. The annual electricity production from PV plant located in the village of Tërbuf, Divjaka Municipality with an installed capacity of 2MW results 3319MWh and would avoid 3253 tCO2. The effects of ETS schemes on the LCOE from small PV plants are highlighted.