A Trade Street of a Small Town as a Public Space(by the Example of Nizhny Novgorod Region)

Located round Nizhny Novgorod one of thelarge commercial and industrial centres of the Povolzhie (the Volga region), these towns possess their own regional specific character determined by the historically developed trade and craft traditions. The location of the main trade street in the town generallayout its relation to the transportation scheme, its planning, housing, architectural dominants, transformations and losses, today's state are studied for each town. Various types of trade streets built in thelate XVIII - early XX centuries are shown: a street-corridor with straight tracing and continuous masonry housing (Gostinny Ryad street in Arzamas), a street with direct tracing and dispersed masonry and masonry-wooden housing (Bolshaya Sovetskaya street in lyskovo), a street with curved picturesque tracing and continuous masonry housing (Nizhegorodskaya street in Pavlovo), space formed by three streets with a multiraw arrangement of continuous masonry buildings (Gorky street Bolshoy Kirovskiy sezd Kooperativny sezd in Gorodets). Two types of today's existence of historically formed trade streets of a smalltown are revealed i.e. an active use (Arzamas, Pavlovo) and stagnation (Lyskovo, Gorodets). Main problems of trade streets' modern use and conditions under which these streets may become valuable public spaces in contemporary understanding of this meaning are identified based on studying historical-culturat natural-ecologicat social-economic, architectural and town-planning criteria of assessment of trade streets' viability in modern conditions and ascertaining potential of their development related to the high historical-cultural value of such complexes

Global phylogeography and ancient evolution of the widespread human gut virus crAssphage

Microbiomes are vast communities of microorganisms and viruses that populate all natural ecosystems. Viruses have been considered to be the most variable component of microbiomes, as supported by virome surveys and examples of high genomic mosaicism. However, recent evidence suggests that the human gut virome is remarkably stable compared with that of other environments. Here, we investigate the origin, evolution and epidemiology of crAssphage, a widespread human gut virus. Through a global collaboration, we obtained DNA sequences of crAssphage from more than one-third of the world's countries and showed that the phylogeography of crAssphage is locally clustered within countries, cities and individuals. We also found fully colinear crAssphage-like genomes in both Old-World and New-World primates, suggesting that the association of crAssphage with primates may be millions of years old. Finally, by exploiting a large cohort of more than 1,000 individuals, we tested whether crAssphage is associated with bacterial taxonomic groups of the gut microbiome, diverse human health parameters and a wide range of dietary factors. We identified strong correlations with different clades of bacteria that are related to Bacteroidetes and weak associations with several diet categories, but no significant association with health or disease. We conclude that crAssphage is a benign cosmopolitan virus that may have coevolved with the human lineage and is an integral part of the normal human gut virome

Global phylogeography and ancient evolution of the widespread human gut virus crAssphage

Microbiomes are vast communities of microorganisms and viruses that populate all natural ecosystems. Viruses have been considered to be the most variable component of microbiomes, as supported by virome surveys and examples of high genomic mosaicism. However, recent evidence suggests that the human gut virome is remarkably stable compared with that of other environments. Here, we investigate the origin, evolution and epidemiology of crAssphage, a widespread human gut virus. Through a global collaboration, we obtained DNA sequences of crAssphage from more than one-third of the world’s countries and showed that the phylogeography of crAssphage is locally clustered within countries, cities and individuals. We also found fully colinear crAssphage-like genomes in both Old-World and New-World primates, suggesting that the association of crAssphage with primates may be millions of years old. Finally, by exploiting a large cohort of more than 1,000 individuals, we tested whether crAssphage is associated with bacterial taxonomic groups of the gut microbiome, diverse human health parameters and a wide range of dietary factors. We identified strong correlations with different clades of bacteria that are related to Bacteroidetes and weak associations with several diet categories, but no significant association with health or disease. We conclude that crAssphage is a benign cosmopolitan virus that may have coevolved with the human lineage and is an integral part of the normal human gut virome

A window to Europe: synthesis of "the western" and "the eastern" in the architecture of Alexandria in the first half of the 20th century

The article deals with the architectural environment of Alexandria that existed during the period of European presence in Egypt. The historical prerequisites that led to the cultural dialog between the West and the East in the architectural space of the city are outlined. The main elements of the planning structure and the built environments of the main streets and squares are analyzed. The prevailing styles are identified on the example of some significant works (mansions, tenement houses, public buildings, mosques). Support is provided for the claim that Alexandria was included in the general cultural context of the Mediterranean and maintained close ties with the Arabic artistic traditions. Alexandria’s architecture of the first half of the 20th century is positioned as a significant layer of the country's cultural heritage

COVID-19 Vaccine Education: Is It Effective?

The article presents experiment findings to verify the educational activities program in the field of COVID-19 vaccine prevention for students. The study was conducted at the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, the analytical sample size is N = 780. Five aspects (as measuring scales) of attitudes towards vaccination against COVID-19 were identified: the benefits of vaccination against coronavirus for a person and society; denial of the coronavirus danger and hope for natural immunity; fear of the side effects of vaccination against coronavirus and distrust of vaccination safety information; confidence in the serious negative consequences of the coronavirus vaccine; disbelief in the proven effectiveness of Russian vaccines at the international level. A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of 4 strategies for influencing student's attitudes to vaccination against COVID-19 was carried out: lectures only (CG), lectures in combination with seminars / webinars in the traditional format (EG1), with discussions of real life cases related to vaccination and its effects (EG2), with holding student's debates (EG3). There are no gender differences between groups. There are differences in age, but the mean difference does not exceed 2 years. At the ascertaining stage, there are no differences on the scales; at the control stage, differences are revealed. On all 5 scales, positive and negative effects in the whole sample are almost equally likely. It was not possible to single out a fundamentally best strategy for educational influence. In general, the effectiveness of educational activities is somewhat greater when conducting lectures in combination with various kinds of seminars compared to lectures alone, but the effectiveness is low everywhere. Cohen's d standard effect sizes do not exceed 0,44. Slightly higher is efficiency when conducting lectures in combination with traditional seminars / webinars or case studies. The student's debates holding strategy did not meet expectations. A number of significant correlations were found between various aspects of attitudes towards vaccination with natural science literacy, logical thinking, verbal intelligence, the degree of fear of COVID-19, personal and situational anxiety. All correlations are weak, but their direction is as expected

Genome analysis of E. coli isolated from Crohn’s disease patients

Abstract Background Escherichia coli (E. coli) has been increasingly implicated in the pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease (CD). The phylogeny of E. coli isolated from Crohn’s disease patients (CDEC) was controversial, and while genotyping results suggested heterogeneity, the sequenced strains of E. coli from CD patients were closely related. Results We performed the shotgun genome sequencing of 28 E. coli isolates from ten CD patients and compared genomes from these isolates with already published genomes of CD strains and other pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains. CDEC was shown to belong to A, B1, B2 and D phylogenetic groups. The plasmid and several operons from the reference CD-associated E. coli strain LF82 were demonstrated to be more often present in CDEC genomes belonging to different phylogenetic groups than in genomes of commensal strains. The operons include carbon-source induced invasion GimA island, prophage I, iron uptake operons I and II, capsular assembly pathogenetic island IV and propanediol and galactitol utilization operons. Conclusions Our findings suggest that CDEC are phylogenetically diverse. However, some strains isolated from independent sources possess highly similar chromosome or plasmids. Though no CD-specific genes or functional domains were present in all CD-associated strains, some genes and operons are more often found in the genomes of CDEC than in commensal E. coli. They are principally linked to gut colonization and utilization of propanediol and other sugar alcohols