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Objectives: To identify the ocuurrence, distribution, and factors associated with lost molars and furcation defects in a sample of the Bulgarian population., Material and Methods: The full mouth cone-beam computed tomography of 56 male and 57 female patients, aged between 19 and 84 years, were examined. A comprehensive evaluation was performed on a total of 675 molars-339 in maxilla and 336 in mandible. Associations with variables such as age, gender, and periodontal disease were analyzed., Results: With aging the number of missing teeth and interradicular lesions increased. No significant links between gender and molar loss (p = .64) or gender and furcation involvement (p = .25) was found. Periodontitis was strongly associated with both studied dental problems (p < .001). The occurrence of furcation defects was more frequently observed in the maxilla than in the mandible., Conclusion: The occurrence and distribution of lost molars and furcation defects is substantial within the studied sample. Further investigation with a larger patient cohort is needed. Pertinent healthcare strategies to address the observed dental health issues also have to be developed., (© 2024 The Authors. Clinical and Experimental Dental Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

A new approach for the botanical origin determination of monofloral bee honey is developed. The methodology combines mineral content and physicochemical parameters determination with intelligent statistics such as self-organizing maps (SOMs). A total of 62 monofloral bee honey samples were analysed, including 31 linden, 14 rapeseed, 13 sunflower, and 4 acacia. All of them were harvested in 2018 and 2019 from trusted beekeepers, after confirming their botanical origin, using melissopalynological analysis. Nine physicochemical parameters were determined, including colour, water content, pH, electrical conductivity, hydroxymethylfurfural content, diastase activity, specific optical rotation, invertase activity, and proline. The content of thirty chemical elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, In, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, S, Se, Sr, Te, V, and Zn) was measured using ICP-OES, ICP-MS, and FAAS as instrumental techniques. The visualisation of the SOMs shows an excellent separation of honey samples in five well-defined clusters-linden, rapeseed, acacia, sunflower, and polyfloral honey-using the following set of 16 descriptors: diastase activity, hydroxymethylfurfural content, invertase activity, pH, specific optical rotation, water content, Al, B, Cr, Cs, K, Na, Ni, Rb, V, and Zn.

Background and Aim: Sodium nitrite (NaNO 2 ) is an inorganic salt with numerous applications in a variety of industries, as well as in medicine. Nevertheless, exposure to high levels of NaNO 2 is toxic for animals and humans. Sodium nitrite intoxication is shown to decrease the activity of major antioxidant defence enzymes which is dependent on the maintenance of specific ion equilibrium. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of acute NaNO 2 intoxication on the content of the essential metals iron (Fe), calcium (Ca) and zinc (Zn) in mouse spleen., Methods: Mature male ICR mice were divided into four groups and subjected to acute NaNO 2 exposure by a single intraperitoneal injection of 120 mg/kg body weight. Animals in each group were sacrificed at certain time interval after treatment (1 h, 5 h, 1 day and 2 days). Spleens were excised and processed for atomic absorption spectrometry analysis of Fe, Ca and Zn content., Results: At the first hour after treatment, a decrease in Fe and Ca levels was observed. One day following NaNO 2 administration, Zn concentration reached its lowest value and Ca levels remained lower, compared to the untreated controls. In contrast, Fe concentration increased on the first and second day after treatment., Conclusion: The results of the present study demonstrate that acute NaNO 2 intoxication provokes changes in the endogenous levels of Fe, Ca and Zn in mouse spleen. These findings suggest disruption of the ionic balance and impact on the activity of antioxidant defence enzymes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing Interest The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

The management of the quality large water catchments is a complex problem which requires intelligent data analysis on various levels - analytical, spatial, and temporal. Recently, a successful approach is developed combining advanced multivariate data treatment approaches like self-organizing maps of Kohonen (SOM) and Hasse diagram technique (HDT). In the first step of the environmetric analysis the monitoring data were subject to pre-processing using SOMs to reduce the number of objects and/or water quality parameters. In the next step HDT for partial ranking (both in spatial and temporal aspect) was applied according to the pre-selected set of the water quality parameters. The use of the water quality norms issued by the Bulgarian environmental authorities revealed important details in assessing the Maritsa River water quality. Thus, the relations between different water quality patterns and sampling stations could be used by water management authorities during the period of observation., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)