A universal soil classification system from the perspective of the General Theory of Classification: a review

The paper addresses issues of the application of the General Theory of Classification in the development of a universal soil classification system. Requirements for such a system, the comparison of different approaches to its development, and obstacles on the way to it are outlined. Besides, the problem of the definition of soils and importance of distinguishing between differentiating and diagnostic criteria are discussed. It is shown that, from the perspective of the General Theory of Classification, a universal soil classification system should be natural, genetic, “fundamental-and-specific”, and hierarchical. It is concluded that the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) does not meet these requirements and therefore cannot be considered as universal. The ways of addressing the problems of a universal soil classification system are suggested

DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATIVE CULTURE VIA ONLINE FOREIGN LANGUAGE INTERACTION

The article focuses on the use of digital technologies in the foreign language learning process and the formation of students’ communicative culture via online interaction. The issue discussed in this paper is very urgent because nowadays digital technologies are viewed as a comprehensive means of teaching a foreign language in a higher educational institution. General cultural competency and communicative culture, particularly, are considered as an integrative quality of a specialist concerning his potential for self-realization in his future career. In this regard, the actual problem is the methodically correct organisation of the educational process for students’ cultural development on the basis of digital technologies. The research is aimed at the theoretical substantiation of pedagogical effectiveness of the organization of online training in foreign language communication as a condition for the formation of the communicative culture of undergraduate students as well as the generalization of the results of experimental training. To verify the productivity of digital resources in foreign language training and cultural development of university students the authors conducted a pedagogical experiment using theoretical and empirical methods of scientific research. The results of the experiment proved the effectiveness of online teaching in mastering communicative culture components

ECOLOGICAL WORLDVIEW FORMATION OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRAINING

The educational space of a non-linguistic university makes it possible to conduct a purposeful process of forming the ecological worldview and culture of future specialists in the logic of their professional development. According to the authors, the eco-oriented content of teaching a foreign language can make a great contribution to the implementation of this mission due to the great general cultural and educational potential of this discipline. The paper offers a comprehensive theoretical substantiation of the problem under study, reveals the essence, structure and methodology of the ecological worldview formation of engineering students. The authors make an attempt to model the educational process on the basis of interactive pedagogical technologies, the use of which allows students of non-linguistic areas to solve communicative problems on the basis of environmental topics. The totality of data obtained as a result of the experimental work carried out by the authors confirms the effectiveness of students’ ecological worldview formation through the inclusion of environmental-oriented content in the system of language training at the university

State Support Mechanisms for Small and Medium Business Subjects in The Russian Federation

In the developed countries, small and medium business is a full-fledged, significant participant of economy who is treated not by the residual principle, and it is the development driver for primary branches of the states. At the moment time the development problem of small and medium business is one of the main tasks for executive bodies of all levels of power in Russia, so the Government of the Russian Federation approved profile Strategy till 2030 and the plan for its realization in which its main performers are fixed.Despite a huge amount of the materials devoted to the description of various forms, methods and mechanisms of small and medium business support it is represented extremely important to show experience of the Russian Federation in the matter in the aggregated look. Within article authors tried to analyze activity of the public authorities responsible for development and small and medium business support, and also to provide in a condensed form information on the main federal services realizing state support in the territory by types of the provided measures.Conclusions of authors that in Russia there is a big variety of types of the state support, however, all the same it insufficiently are presented in the conclusion, and introduction of effective system on estimates of results of its activity is required

Evaluation of Colon-Specific Plasma Nanovesicles as New Markers of Colorectal Cancer

Purpose: Developing new and efficient approaches for the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) is an important issue. Circulating extracellular nanovesicles (ENVs) present a promising class of cancer markers. Cells of well-differentiated adenocarcinomas retain the molecular characteristics of colon epithelial cells, and the ENVs secreted by these cells may have colon-specific surface markers. We hypothesize that an increase in the number of ENVs carrying colon-specific markers could serve as a diagnostic criterion for colorectal cancer. Experimental design: Potential colon-specific markers were selected based on tissue-specific expression profile and cell surface membrane localization data. Plasma was collected from CRC patients (n = 48) and healthy donors (n = 50). The total population of ENVs was isolated with a two-phase polymer system. ENVs derived from colon epithelium cells were isolated using immune-beads with antibodies to colon-specific markers prior to labelling with antibodies against exosomal tetraspanins (CD63 and CD9) and quantification by flow cytometry. Results: The number of ENVs positive for single colon cancer markers was found to be significantly higher in the plasma of CRC patients compared with healthy donors. The efficacy of detection depends on the method of ENV labelling. The diagnostic efficacy was estimated by ROC analysis (the AUC varied between 0.71 and 0.79). The multiplexed isolation of colon-derived ENVs using immune-beads decorated with antibodies against five markers allowed for a further increase in the diagnostic potency of the method (AUC = 0.82). Conclusions: ENVs derived from colon epithelium may serve as markers of differentiated CRC (adenocarcinomas). The composition of ligands used for capturing colon-derived ENVs and their method of labelling are critical for the efficacy of this proposed diagnostic approach

Development strategy of informative footpaths of the Crimea

In modern conditions of development of the Russian tourism market, the practice of introducing “informative paths” routes as one of the forms of interpretation of a healthy lifestyle and a desire to protect the environment is becoming popular. For high-quality functioning of walking routes in Russia in general and the Republic of the Crimea in particular, it is necessary to carry out systematization and expert assessment of old routes, to carry out routine planning of the new ones. For the development and deployment of the existing and new informative walking tours, working out and adaptation of the development strategy of such tourist routes are necessary. The authors claim that a necessary element in developing a strategy for organizing informative walking tours is the diagnosis of the current strategy for managing informative walking tourism. During the research, its own development strategy of modern informative footpaths was developed, which is based on four main forms of strategic development: strategy of growth, development strategy, strategy of business, and strategy of competitiveness. Proceeding from the proposed mechanisms for the development strategy of informative footpaths, quality indicators can be achieved through a methodical approach to the development of a strategy for the development of “informative paths” to achieve compliance with the requirements of the tourist services market, existing goals, forms, methods, procedures, and projects

ATM and atr expression potentiates hbv replication and contributes to reactivation of hbv infection upon DNA damage

Funding Information: Funding: This work was performed within RSF grant no. 16-15-10426. Funding Information: National Medical Research Center of Tuberculosis and Infectious Diseases, Ministry of Health, Moscow 127994, Russia; [email protected] (S.B.); [email protected] (V.C.) Institute of Immunology, Federal Medical Biological Agency, Moscow 115522, Russia NF Gamaleya Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow 123098, Russia; [email protected] (E.B.); [email protected] (I.G.); [email protected] (M.I.) Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 108819, Russia Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow 119146, Russia; [email protected] Department of Pathology, Riga Stradins University, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational Health, Gene Engineering and Biotechnology, Moscow 105275, Russia; [email protected] (I.G.); [email protected] (F.U.); [email protected] (A.N.) Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Moscow 111123, Russia Correspondence: [email protected] (A.K.); [email protected] (D.K.) Publisher Copyright: © 2019 by the authors.Chronic hepatitis B virus infection (CHB) caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the most common viral infections in the world. Reactivation of HBV infection is a life-threatening condition observed in patients with CHB receiving chemotherapy or other medications. Although HBV reactivation is commonly attributed to immune suppression, other factors have long been suspected to play a role, including intracellular signaling activated in response to DNA damage. We investigated the effects of DNA-damaging factors (doxorubicin and hydrogen peroxide) on HBV reactivation/replication and the consequent DNA-damage response. Dose-dependent activation of HBV replication was observed in response to doxorubicin and hydrogen peroxide which was associated with a marked elevation in the mRNA levels of ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and ATM- and RAD3-related (ATR) kinases. Downregulation of ATM or ATR expression by shRNAs substantially reduced the levels of HBV RNAs and DNA. In contrast, transcriptional activation of ATM or ATR using CRISPRa significantly increased HBV replication. We conclude that ATM and ATR are essential for HBV replication. Furthermore, DNA damage leading to the activation of ATM and ATR transcription, results in the reactivation of HBV replication.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Transcription factors relevant to auxin signalling coordinate broad-spectrum metabolic shifts including sulphur metabolism

A systems approach has previously been used to follow the response behaviour of Arabidopsis thaliana plants upon sulphur limitation. A response network was reconstructed from a time series of transcript and metabolite profiles, integrating complex metabolic and transcript data in order to investigate a potential causal relationship. The resulting scale-free network allowed potential transcriptional regulators of sulphur metabolism to be identified. Here, three sulphur-starvation responsive transcription factors, IAA13, IAA28, and ARF-2 (ARF1-Binding Protein), all of which are related to auxin signalling, were selected for further investigation. IAA28 overexpressing and knock-down lines showed no major morphological changes, whereas IAA13- and ARF1-BP-overexpressing plants grew more slowly than the wild type. Steady-state metabolite levels and expression of pathway-relevant genes were monitored under normal and sulphate-depleted conditions. For all lines, changes in transcript and metabolite levels were observed, yet none of these changes could exclusively be linked to sulphur stress. Instead, up- or down-regulation of the transcription factors caused metabolic changes which in turn affected sulphur metabolism. Auxin-relevant transcription factors are thus part of a complex response pattern to nutrient starvation that serve as coordinators of the metabolic shifts driving sulphur homeostasis rather then as direct effectors of the sulphate assimilation pathway. This study provides the first evidence ever presented that correlates auxin-related transcriptional regulators with primary plant metabolism

Snake venom phospholipase A2s exhibit strong virucidal activity against SARS-CoV-2 and inhibit the viral spike glycoprotein interaction with ACE2.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 requires new treatments both to alleviate the symptoms and to prevent the spread of this disease. Previous studies demonstrated good antiviral and virucidal activity of phospholipase A2s (PLA2s) from snake venoms against viruses from different families but there was no data for coronaviruses. Here we show that PLA2s from snake venoms protect Vero E6 cells against SARS-CoV-2 cytopathic effects. PLA2s showed low cytotoxicity to Vero E6 cells with some activity at micromolar concentrations, but strong antiviral activity at nanomolar concentrations. Dimeric PLA2 from the viper Vipera nikolskii and its subunits manifested especially potent virucidal effects, which were related to their phospholipolytic activity, and inhibited cell-cell fusion mediated by the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. Moreover, PLA2s interfered with binding both of an antibody against ACE2 and of the receptor-binding domain of the glycoprotein S to 293T/ACE2 cells. This is the first demonstration of a detrimental effect of PLA2s on β-coronaviruses. Thus, snake PLA2s are promising for the development of antiviral drugs that target the viral envelope, and could also prove to be useful tools to study the interaction of viruses with host cells