Neoliberal governance, sustainable development and local communities in the Barents Region

There are currently high hopes in the Barents Region for economic growth, higher employment and improved well-being, encouraged by developments in the energy industry, tourism and mining. The article discusses these prospects from the perspective of local communities in five locations in the region, which spans the northernmost counties of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Northwest Russia. The communities studied are remote, relatively small, multicultural, and dependent on natural resources. The salient dynamic illuminated in the research is how ideas of sustainability and neoliberal governance meet in community development. While the two governmentalities often conflict, they sometimes also complement one another, posing a paradox that raises concerns over the social aspect of sustainable development in particular. The article is based on international, multidisciplinary research drawing on interviews as well as statistical and documentary analysis

The development of mental abilities of preschool children by means of physical culture

The concept of school age covers the age period from 3 to 6-7 years. It was during this period of life a child needs an active all-round development. Exercise ensure harmonious and comprehensive development of the personality, including affect mental development, so teachers of preschool children should pay special attention to physical exercises with a minimum and a maximum allowable load of mobile games and exercises for development of fine motor skills of handsПонятие дошкольного возраста охватывает возрастной период от 3 до 6-7 лет. Именно в этот период жизни ребенок нуждается в активном всестороннем развитии. Занятия физической культурой обеспечивают гармоничное и всестороннее развитие личности, в том числе оказывают влияние на умственное развитие, поэтому воспитателям дошкольников следует уделить особое внимание физическим упражнениям с минимальной и максимально допустимой нагрузкой, подвижным играм и упражнениям для развития мелкой моторики ру

Assessment of Feather Hydrolysate from Thermophilic Actinomycetes for Soil Amendment and Biological control Application, Int

ABSTRACT: Protein-rich hydrolysate from feather waste was obtained using a mixed culture of selected thermophilic actinomycete strains, and was tested for possible application as soil amendment and biological control agent. For this purpose, a 4 months laboratory experiment was carried out using two types of urban soils (Sofia, Bulgaria): native park soil and anthropogenic soil. The effect of the obtained hydrolysate on some soil parameters (pH, some enzyme activities and microbial activity), seed germination and ryegrass growth, and activity against some plant pathogenic fungi was studied. The results demonstrated that soil enrichment with the organic solution in low concentrations exerted a positive effect on soil urease and microbial activity, seed germination and ryegrass growth, and this trend was better expressed in the anthropogenic soils. Feather hydrolysate showed good activity against plant pathogenic fungi Fusarium solani, Fusarium oxysporum, Mucor sp. and Aspergillus niger. Produced antifungal compounds were isolated and partially characterized as amphiphilic peptides. To the best of our knowledge, antifungal peptides produced by Thermoactinomyces sp. have not been reported. Therefore, the feather hydrolysate obtained by means of the mixed culture of Thermoactinomyces strains has potential to be used as alternative organic amendment for restoration of contaminated soils and for accelerating ryegrass growth. It could successfully used also for as biocontrol agent applicable to crop plant soil

Rhamnolipids: diversity of structures, microbial origins and roles

Rhamnolipids are glycolipidic biosurfactants produced by various bacterial species. They were initially found as exoproducts of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and described as a mixture of four congeners: α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-β-hydroxydecanoyl-β-hydroxydecanoate (Rha-Rha-C10-C10), α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-β-hydroxydecanoate (Rha-Rha-C10), as well as their mono-rhamnolipid congeners Rha-C10-C10 and Rha-C10. The development of more sensitive analytical techniques has lead to the further discovery of a wide diversity of rhamnolipid congeners and homologues (about 60) that are produced at different concentrations by various Pseudomonas species and by bacteria belonging to other families, classes, or even phyla. For example, various Burkholderia species have been shown to produce rhamnolipids that have longer alkyl chains than those produced by P. aeruginosa. In P. aeruginosa, three genes, carried on two distinct operons, code for the enzymes responsible for the final steps of rhamnolipid synthesis: one operon carries the rhlAB genes and the other rhlC. Genes highly similar to rhlA, rhlB, and rhlC have also been found in various Burkholderia species but grouped within one putative operon, and they have been shown to be required for rhamnolipid production as well. The exact physiological function of these secondary metabolites is still unclear. Most identified activities are derived from the surface activity, wetting ability, detergency, and other amphipathic-related properties of these molecules. Indeed, rhamnolipids promote the uptake and biodegradation of poorly soluble substrates, act as immune modulators and virulence factors, have antimicrobial activities, and are involved in surface motility and in bacterial biofilm development

Potential therapeutic applications of microbial surface-activecompounds

Numerous investigations of microbial surface-active compounds or biosurfactants over the past two decades have led to the discovery of many interesting physicochemical and biological properties including antimicrobial, anti-biofilm and therapeutic among many other pharmaceutical and medical applications. Microbial control and inhibition strategies involving the use of antibiotics are becoming continually challenged due to the emergence of resistant strains mostly embedded within biofilm formations that are difficult to eradicate. Different aspects of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm control are becoming issues of increasing importance in clinical, hygiene, therapeutic and other applications. Biosurfactants research has resulted in increasing interest into their ability to inhibit microbial activity and disperse microbial biofilms in addition to being mostly nontoxic and stable at extremes conditions. Some biosurfactants are now in use in clinical, food and environmental fields, whilst others remain under investigation and development. The dispersal properties of biosurfactants have been shown to rival that of conventional inhibitory agents against bacterial, fungal and yeast biofilms as well as viral membrane structures. This presents them as potential candidates for future uses in new generations of antimicrobial agents or as adjuvants to other antibiotics and use as preservatives for microbial suppression and eradication strategies

Prosody and the development of comprehension

Contains fulltext : 5946.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Four studies are reported in which young children's response time to detect word targets was measured. Children under about six years of age did not show the response time advantage for accented target words which adult listeners show. When semantic focus of the target word was manipulated independently of accent, children of about five years of age showed an adult-like response time advantage for focussed targets, but children younger than five did not. It is argued that the processing advantage for accented words reflects the semantic role of accent as an expression of sentence focus. Processing advantages for accented words depend on the prior development of representations of sentence semantic structure, including the concept of focus. The previous literature on the development of prosodic competence shows an apparent anomaly in that young children's productive skills appear to outstrip their receptive skills; however, this anomaly disappears if very young children's prosody is assumed to be produced without an underlying representation of the relationship between prosody and semantics

Production of cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) from alkalophilic Bacillus sp. TS1-1: Media optimization using experimental design

Cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) was produced when the Bacillus sp. TS1-1 was grown in a medium containing sago starch, yeast extract, phosphorus and mineral salt sources, using shake flask mode at 37°C for 24 h. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the medium constituents with respect to CGTase production and activity. A 24 full factorial design (first order model) was carried out to identify the significant effect of medium components towards CGTase production. The variables involved in this initial screening study were sago starch, yeast extract, K2HPO 4 and MgSO4·7H2O. Statistical analysis of results have shown that only sago starch and yeast extract have a significant effect on CGTase production. A second-order model was proposed by using 2 2 central composite design to represent the production CGTase activity as a function of sago starch and yeast extract. The optimized values of 1.48% and 1.89% of sago starch and yeast extract was obtained, respectively. Under these proposed optimized conditions, the model predicted a CGTase activity of 79.66 U/ml and via experimental rechecking the model, an activity of 84 U/ml was attained