Editorial Note: Veleka Beach - the place where the mountain touches the sea

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The present research focuses on a theoretical study of structural and electronic properties of pure graphene sheet and then adding different number of N2 atoms. The calculations are carried out using the density functional theory (DFT) with hybrid functional B3LYP/6-31G level to investigate the proposed structures. Gauss View 5.0.8 program is used to design the structures of pure and doped graphene sheets. These structures are relaxed by employing the PM6 semi-empirical method with the hybrid functional B3LYPDFT at Gaussian 09 package. The results of the structural properties of the studied graphene sheets showed that good relaxation of the structures, the constant bonds values in the pure graphene sheets in the same ranges of the carbon rings structures. We calculate the total energy, High Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) and Low Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) energies and forbidden energy gap. The result of the total energy of that doping graphene sheets is result of the binding energy of each structure and indicates that these structures have relaxation, and the effect of adding N2 atoms in pure graphene sheet on the total energy of the molecule is effective. All doping graphene sheets have small forbidden energy gap, but it vibrates depending on the length and number of each sheet and the position of N2 atoms in the sheets.
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The Effect of Nitrogen on the Structural and Electronic Properties of Graphene Sheet using Density Functional Theory

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Citizen science plays an important role in the early detection of invasive alien species (IAS). The involvement of young people in initiatives related to citizen science in Bulgaria could contribute to better monitoring of IAS because of mobility and digital skills of those people. Based on a questionnaire survey, key aspects of involvement of young people in citizen science initiatives were analysed. Two groups of respondents, including professionals (with an educational background in biology or with professional activities related to the bioresources) and non-professionals (not connected with bioresources) were asked to make judgments about their own level of knowledge about: (1) IAS issues, (2) the level of awareness of citizen science; (3) the motivation and preferable ways to participate in citizen science; and (4) the most appropriate approaches for IAS awareness raising. A total of 337 young people in the age range of 15-30 years were questioned during the period 2019-2021. The results show that there is no significant difference between the responses of the two groups of respondents to the questionnaire - professionals and non-professionals. In both groups, less than 50% of respondents are aware of issues related to IAS. Less than 40% of respondents indicated the correct definition of citizen science. The leading motivation factor to participate in citizen science initiatives is “caring for nature” followed by “to contribute to nature conservation” and “to learn more about nature”. Most of the respondents are interested in additional information related to IAS and prefer online sources for information.
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Department of Ecology, Protection and Remediation of the Environment, Faculty of Ecology and Landscape Architecture

Department of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Faculty of Forest Industry

Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agronomy

Involvement of young people in the citizen science of invasive alien species in Bulgaria

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In the present study, we report on new localities in Northeastern Bulgaria, where Elaphe sauromates (Pallas, 1814) was recently detected. We registered five Blotched snakes in the region of Shumen town in the period 2018 - 2022. All of the snakes were adults, three were killed by tools impacts and two of them were road kills. To date, the Blotched snake was registered extremely rare and in rather long intervals (of several decades) in the region of Shumen. Our findings indicate that the species currently inhabits the suburban and urban territories near the villages of Ivanski, Radko Dimitrievo and Konyovets. Two of the locations are new for the 10 km grid-system used for standard monitoring of the biodiversity in Bulgaria.
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University of Shumen Bishop Konstantin Preslavski

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Biology

New data on the presence of the Blotched snake (<italic>Elaphe sauromates</italic> Pallas, 1814) in the region of Shumen town (Bulgaria), with emphasis on the negative human attitude toward the species

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The present development uses the modeling method described in the literature and proposed a new didactic, functional model of the “chemistry training” system in the application of semiotic approaches: semantic, pragmatic, and syntactic. The main objective of creating such a model is to demonstrate the specific activities of the subjects “teacher” and “pupil” when familiarizing themselves with chemical symbols and their study by students. The added new components in the model “Technology of chemistry training”, “Semiotic information” and the clarified links between them, lead to a complete change in the way the described system works. The developed didactic model makes it easy to guess the relationship between a new learning situation and a result, that is, to predict an unknown process or phenomenon. This model makes it possible to formulate a reasoned hypothesis of the study.
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Didactic model of the “Chemistry training process” system when applying semiotic approaches

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Experimental work in its milestones is carried out according to the following algorithm:
1. Development of a methodological system, including additional training content in Chemistry and Environmental Protection for the seventh and eighth grades /purposefully selected urological fragments, exercises and summary lessons/, in which the subject of study is chemical symbolism, with the application of semiotic approaches - semantic, pragmatic and syntactic.
2. Conducting a pedagogical experiment to establish the effectiveness of the developed methodological system.
3. Analysis of the results of the pedagogical experiment.
The pedagogical experiment is included in the work as the main method of researching the influence of semiotic approaches on the knowledge and skills of students for the proper use of chemical symbols. By conducting a pedagogical experiment, it has been shown that the use of the three semiotic approaches in Chemistry and environmental training facilitates and improves the understanding of the complex meaning of chemical symbols by students. The analysis of the results of the written control works in the seventh and eighth grades shows the existence of significant qualitative differences in students’ knowledge of how to identify chemical objects and the degree of skills formed to reveal the information embedded in chemical symbols.
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Experimental study on the impact of semiotic approaches on students’ knowledge of chemical symbolism in seventh and eighth grade

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At the modern stage of society’s development, ecology is seen as a complex, interdisciplinary science of the relationships of organisms, society and the environment. Ecology is a science that studies the regularities of the life of organisms in their natural living environment and taking into account the changes made in this environment as a result of human activity. In recent years, the mass media has been constantly talking and writing about ecology, environmental problems related to anthropogenic activity. The person with his activity is heavily polluted and continues to negatively affect the environment at increasing rates. This reckless behavior of humans and the whole of society threatens planet Earth with imminent doom, no less than the use of nuclear weapons. Only from the positions of modern science ecology is it possible to develop issues related to the prudent use of the natural resources of the biosphere and the fight against changes brought about in nature by human activity in the age of the scientific and technical revolution. For this reason, it is necessary to seek information and a solution to the key current problems: What are the main pollutants of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere? What is the origin of these substances? How does their impact affect life on Earth? What approaches and methods are needed to prevent environmental pollution?
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Global Ecological Problems of Modern Society

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The morphostructural features of the Lilyak Plateau and it’s spatial and morphotectonic relationships with the adjacent parts of the Eastern Pre-Balkan Mountains are examined in the light of modern mobilist ideas. The Lilyak Plateau landform is part of the South Moesian morphostructural zone. This morphostructure borders distinctly to the south with the northern border of the corresponding part of the Fore Hemus morphostructural zone. There are significant morphostructural and morphotectonic differences between these two regional morphostructural units.
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Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Geography, Regional Development and Tourism

Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Geography, Ecology and Environment Protection

Morphotectonic affilation of the Lilyak Plateau

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 11 (2024): Issue 1 (March 2024)

Volume 10 (2023): Issue 3 (November 2023)

Volume 10 (2023): Issue 2 (July 2023)

Volume 10 (2023): Issue 1 (March 2023)

Volume 9 (2022): Issue 3 (November 2022)

Volume 9 (2022): Issue 2 (July 2022)

Volume 9 (2022): Issue 1 (March 2022)

Volume 8 (2021): Issue 3 (November 2021)

Volume 8 (2021): Issue 2 (July 2021)

Volume 8 (2021): Issue 1 (March 2021)

Volume 7 (2020): Issue 3 (November 2020)

Volume 7 (2020): Issue 2 (July 2020)

Volume 7 (2020): Issue 1 (March 2020)

Volume 6 (2019): Issue 2 (December 2019)

Volume 6 (2019): Issue 1 (March 2019)

Volume 5 (2018): Issue 2 (December 2018)

Volume 5 (2018): Issue 1 (March 2018)

Volume 4 (2017): Issue 1 (March 2017)

Volume 3 (2016): Issue 1 (March 2016)

Volume 2 (2015): Issue 1 (December 2015)

Acta Scientifica Naturalis

 Acta Scientifica Naturalis is the official journal of the Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen and has been published with no major interruptions since 1973 under the name of the Annual of the Konstantin Preslavsky University- Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Geography.   The main objective of Acta Scientifica Naturalis is to publish original research findings in the fields of the Natural Sciences and related sciences:    Chemistry - Atmospheric Chemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry, Bioorganic Chemistry, Catalysis, Combinatorial Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, Coordination Chemistry, Geochemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Macromolecular Chemistry, Materials Science, Medicinal Chemistry, Ocean Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Organometallic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, Theoretical Chemistry.   Biology and Ecology - Animals Physiology, Anthropology, Applied Ecology, Biochemistry, Bioecology,　Biophysics, Botany, Cell Biology, Embryology, Entomology, General Ecology, Genetics, Helminthology, Human Physiology, Hydrobiology, Immunology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Molecular Genetics, Morphology, Mycology, Neurobiology, Parasitology, Plant Physiology, Radiobiology, Virology, Zoology.   Plant Growing and Plant Protection - Biological Plant Protection, Cereals, Entomology, Fruit growing, Herbology, Horticulture, Integrated Plant Protection, Legumes, Phytopathology, Technical crops, Vegetable production, Viticulture.   Physics - Atomic and Molecular Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Electromagnetism, Gas Discharge and Plasma Physics, High Energy Physics, Hydrodynamics, Interdisciplinary Physics, Mathematical Physics, Medical Physic, Neutron Physics and Nuclear Reactor, Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics, Radiophysics and Electronics, Theoretical Physics, Thermal Physics, Wave Physics.   Astronomy and Astrophysics - Applied Geophysics, Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy, Atmospheric Physics, Earth Magnetism and Gravimetry, Geophysics, Heliophysics, Meteorology, Near-Earth Space Physics, Oceanic Physics, Seismology, Stellar Mechanics.   Earth Sciences - Cartography, Climate Change, Geodemography, Geography of Tourism, Geomorphology, GIS, Hydrology, Morphostructurs, Morphotectonic, Paleogeography, Quaternary Movements, Risk, Social Geography.　   Tourism - Cognitive Tourism, Ecotourism, Extreme Tourism, Mountain Tourism, Recreational Tourism, River Tourism, Rural Tourism, Sea Tourism, etc.      The abbreviated title of the journal is ASN, which should be used in bibliographies, footnotes and bibliographical references strips.   Article Publication Charges (APC)   To publish in Acta Scientifica Naturalis, authors are required to pay an article processing charge (EUR 120). It includes our maintenance, publication and submission to global indexing and tracking organizations and archiving to allow instant access to the article and associated supplementary documents for each user.   Archiving   Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.   Plagiarism Policy   The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.   Open Access License   This journal provides immediate open access to its content under the Creative Commons BY 3.0 license. Authors who publish in this journal agree to the terms of the Creative Commons BY 3.0 license. 