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The present paper examines the digital competences of secondary school students in Bulgaria in the light of the National External Evaluation of the 10th grade that has been held during the last years by the Ministry of Education and Science. There are ways to raise these competences and to improve the practical experience using the results of a specific experiment in a school in the city of Plovdiv. The main results are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main task of the National Research Program "Smart crop production", supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria and approved by the Council of Ministers, is the development of a regional data center to facilitate the work of farmers. The regional data center is part of the implementation of a smart crop production environment called ZEMEL which provides personal assistants supporting the work of farmers. The environment provides intelligent services for crop analysis and prevention and assists farmers in performing basic tasks related to crop production. The objective of the proposed article is to present the implementation of the architecture, infrastructure, and data architecture of a regional data center in the Plovdiv region. In order to clearly present the results of this work, which are the architectural and physical implementations of a regional data center and the storage of dynamic data and background knowledge, a methodology consisting of several steps is followed: the system infrastructure of the data center and the data architecture are discussed; one of the local pieces of infrastructure, implemented in the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (IPGR) in the town of Sadovo in the Plovdiv region, is presented in detail, including the different types of sensors and their connection to the data center in wheat cultivation; the data repositories are discussed where dynamic data and background knowledge are stored. The paper pays special attention to background knowledge developed as ontologies for winter wheat cultivation. The results are summarized by drawing some conclusions and recommendations for the design of the local infrastructure of the center and the stored data to improve its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic farming is a multifunctional set of activities that integrates economic and social issues with those related to environmental protection and is a suitable alternative for producers, processors and traders, helping to make the best decision for the organization, management and development of their farms. This production method contains both its organizational and economic features and all the characteristics of agriculture. The goal of the present scientific paper is to analyse and evaluate the important role of organic farming for the agricultural sector development in Bulgaria. The study is based on directly collected empirical information from 73 organic farms operating on the territory of Plovdiv District in Bulgaria. Our research reveals prerequisites, opportunities, strategic guidelines and recommendations for increasing the economic efficiency of the organic production, and country's agriculture respectively for the next Programming Period 2021-2027. After overcoming the organizational and economic problems that accompany it, we believe that organic farming is substantial practical way and sustainable approach to the future progress of contemporary agriculture in Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life of Edhem Ruhi Balkan, who was one of the unknown figures of the Young Turks, the opponents of Sultan Abdulhamit II’s absolute power, in the empire and abroad, and his continuous political opposition to either Sultan Abdulhamit II or the Bulgarian governments for the rights of Muslim Turkish minority, are going to be discussed in this paper. His main instrument for this political opposition was his Balkan newspaper. Balkan, which was published by Edhem Ruhi in Plovdiv, was struggling for a constitutional regime in the Ottoman Empire on one hand and for the rights of the Muslim Turkish minorty in Bulgaria on the other hand. His efforts against the absolute regime of the Sultan and the pressures of the Bulgarians on the Muslim Turkish minority in Bulgaria put him in a different position in the Young Turk movement. In this paper, first, the characteristics of Balkan newspaper and the articles of Edhem Ruhi in this newspaper was analyzed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid installation that includes solar collectors and a ground source heat pump was developed and tested. There are many studies in the field of combined heat pump systems describing relatively large installations, designed for climatic conditions and soil thermal properties different from those in Bulgaria, where the experimental data are limited. The paper presents the construction of a small size hybrid installation containing diurnal and seasonal storages and supporting five different modes of operation with emphasis on the charging of borehole heat exchanger (BHE), heating mode with ground source heat pump (GSHP) and the followed natural relaxation. The paper also proposes a methodology for determination of different system energy efficiencies. High quality data for the different system operation modes in terms of soil and weather conditions typical of the Plovdiv region were obtained. The study proves the necessity of BHE charging with thermal energy from the sun during the summer mainly to avoid the ground thermal depletion. The comparison of the three heating modes investigated shows evident advantage of the ground source heat pump heating (GSHPH). The installation must be tested in the future for a longer time period. • Hybrid system with solar collectors & ground source heat pump was created and tested. • Methodology for calculation of different system energy efficiencies was created. • It is accentuated on BHE charging, GSHP heating mode and followed natural relaxation. • Precise realization of TRT and 5 operation modes resulted in detailed energy diagrams. • GSHPH mode (efficiency of 96.46%) has higher potential compared with the other modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first-of-its-kind University of Plovdiv transdisciplinary project "Vita Plus" is deemed to adopt some positive international practices to initiate and announce that there are researchers at the University of Plovdiv, interested in realizing tech transfers in the field of biotech innovations. Thus, the goal of the present paper is to explain what factors might be crucial to both characterize technological transfer of biotech innovations as successful from University researchers' viewpoint, and present them to business ventures for commercial purposes. Research methods of the study include data of the most recent thematic study of the World Bank on Bulgaria and analytical reviews of contemporary scientific literature to establish a modern Bulgarian platform for transfer of biotechnological know-hows to bio-based industries in the forthcoming era of bioeconomy. The results of the research are aimed at formation of comparativeanalytical parameters and benchmark indicators for economic valuation of implementation of biotechnological solutions in the emerging Bulgarian circular economy, based on observations at the "Vita Plus" project. Conclusions relate to derivation of a set of recommendations for formation of a new integrated approach for creating a working model for technological transfer of University researches and solutions in real bio-based industrial production through the University platform "Vita Plus". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mathematical model has been developed to assess the digitization of the beekeeping sector. For this purpose, the summarized results of questionnaire surveys of 37 apiaries located in the regions of Plovdiv and Pleven municipalities in Bulgaria were used. For evaluation on the degree of digitization of the apiaries we took under consideration only what software and hardware products are used. The results showed a low degree of digitization of the studied apiaries - in 27 out of 37 studied apiaries there were no data about the use of software and hardware applications, and the average level of digitization for the studied apiaries according to the model we developed was within 8-9 %. A survey on the awareness of those employed in the beekeeping about some basic digital products for collecting, storing and distributing information and their willingness to use them in the future was also conducted. It was found that between 21% and 35% of the respondents were not familiar with the basic digital products. Far more worrying was that between 50 % and 70% of respondents stated that they were familiar with the listed digital products, but did not intend to use them in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is a study of the opportunities and constraints for youth transitions from education to employment vis-a-vi the structural relationships (of compliance and discrepancy) between the sectors of education, training and the labor market. The analysis examines the deficiencies in the coordination of the demand and supply of skills in Bulgaria, which hinder the successful employment integration of the current young generation. The mismatches in the system are highlighted on the national and the regional level where we focus on the contextual cases of Blagoevgrad and Plovdiv functional regions. The paper reveals that there is a discrepancy between labor supply and demand in the skills systems in both regions where less than half of university graduates work in the specialty they have acquired during studies. One of the conclusions of the study is that social changes under way require new strategies and approaches of lifelong learning policies that should go deeper into the regional and local level taking into account both the needs of young people for training throughout their lives and the needs of the regional labor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the key events leading to the ideation, initiation, and establishment of the first programming contests for high school students in Bulgaria. The competitions preceding the First National Olympiad in Informatics (NOI) are presented in detail. More specifically, they include the programming contests, initiated by the author and held in Shoumen, Plovdiv and Pazardjik in 1982, 1983, and 1984 respectively. At the time, the main programming language used was FORTRAN for IBM/360 compatible computers. Next, the first NOI is discussed at length. Some of the subsequent NOIs are also outlined. The paper also includes facts about the Winter Mathematics Competitions and the high school student competitions held during the Spring Conferences of the Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians. A brief historical data about the Spring Tournament in Informatics is also presented. Due to its factual nature, the article contains an extensive list of references, including text excerpts, citations, pictures, and other relevant materials, supporting the historical facts related to the competitions in informatics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social economy model is one of the key tools for achieving socially significant goals within the frames of a sustainable and including growth. The social entrepreneurship and social economy, as concepts, allow the creation of alternative models for conducting business. They are market-oriented and at the same time integrate all of the free market participants - employees, employers, investors, consumers and others. Social enterprises have a key role in regeneration and economic development and in the promotion of social inclusion. The aim of this article is to explore the training needs in social entrepreneurship: measures and experience of Bulgaria and skills and qualifications of business advisors to provide the necessary consulting services to social intermediaries and social enterprises. The results of a pilot study under the Erasmus+ project "Social enterprise skills for business advisors" are used. The collection of the primary data included a questionnaire survey to collect information and data by using a face-to-face interview. 104 representatives of different types of organizations from the South Central Region, administrative district of Plovdiv were interviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The probabilistic method for seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) is one of the most preferred today. It is flexible, and takes into account as much data as you can collect. Undoubtedly, the earthquake catalogue is first of all but often is too short to show all the sorts of earthquakes that might happen in the future. It is therefore necessary to make a number of interpretative decisions based on integration of geological, geophysical and seismological data in order to build up the initial seismic source zone model. Recent papers have emphasized the importance of integrating and processing different geodatasets which are connected to the possible sources of earthquakes. Our study presents the results from calculation of a specially derived numeric parameter which shows the existence or not of a match in the spatial manifestation of any two features (characteristics) regardless their type or units of measure.The territory of Bulgaria, located in the seismically active region of the Balkans, requires a very thorough analysis of the information when performing PSHA. In 2018, we used the opportunity to test the applicability of our spatial matching index (SMI) performed in GIS for integration of different types of data. During the last two decades a number of high quality geological, geophysical and seismological data were collected and we used them for the purposes of seismic hazard assessment. The algorithm of the spatial matching index (SMI) calculation was used to define the coincidence of independent information showing any indications for existence of a fault structure. It was applied for evaluation of the seismic potential of 416 square blocks, 20x20 km in size covering the entire territory of Bulgaria and extended by 20 km outside of the country borders. All operations were carried out in GIS environment using its capabilities to work with different types of georeferenced spatial data. Results show that the highest seismic potential (largest SMI) is observed in 56 block elements (13% of the territory). Expected, those are the regions near Varna, Dulovo, V. Tarnovo, Sofia, Plovdiv, Krupnik and some other places possessing a full set of studied characteristics. Partial match is registered in 98 block elements when one of the features is missing. Not any evidence for earthquake occurrence is predicted by our calculation in 117 elements, comprising 28% of the examined area.The proper integration of large amounts of data (geological, geophysical and seismological) was used to justify the seismotectonic model thus increasing the power of the PSHA method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]