Isolation, Characterization, and Antimicrobial Activity of Bacterial and Fungal Representatives Associated With Particulate Matter During Haze and Non-haze Days

Particulate matter (PM) has been a threat to the environment and public health in the metropolises of developing industrial countries such as Beijing. The microorganisms associated with PM have an impact on human health if they are exposed to the respiratory tract persistently. There are few reports on the microbial resources collected from PM and their antimicrobial activities. In this study, we greatly expanded the diversity of available commensal organisms by collecting 1,258 bacterial and 456 fungal isolates from 63 PM samples. A total of 77 bacterial genera and 35 fungal genera were included in our pure cultures, with Bacillus as the most prevalent cultured bacterial genus, Aspergillus, and Penicillium as the most prevalent fungal ones. During heavy-haze days, the numbers of colony-forming units (CFUs) and isolates of bacteria and fungi were decreased. Bacillus, Paenibacillus, and Chaetomium were found to be enriched during haze days, while Kocuria, Microbacterium, and Penicillium were found to be enriched during non-haze days. Antimicrobial activity against common pathogens have been found in 40 bacterial representatives and 1 fungal representative. The collection of airborne strains will provide a basis to greatly increase our understanding of the relationship between bacteria and fungi associated with PM and human health.

Soviet Planning: What and Why Is Relevant in the XXI Century

Planning has become widespread in countries with different socio-economic systems. At the same time, both the evaluation of the results of using planned methods and these planned methods themselves have significant differences. They depend both on the features of the socio-economic systems in which planning was applied, and on the tasks that it solved. To study these dependencies, it is useful to turn to the experience of planning in the USSR, which demonstrates different options for using planning methods. During the years of the new economic policy, planning functioned in the conditions of a broad development of market and capitalist relations. Therefore, the planning methods were adapted to the market conditions. The planning itself was mainly indicative, and the achievement of planned results was built by influencing the economic interests of economic entities. Therefore, it is possible to find a significant similarity in the model of Soviet planning during the years of the new economic policy and those planning methods that were used in the post-war period in Europe, Japan, and then in the new industrial countries. The model of directive planning, which was developed in the USSR in the 1930s of the twentieth century, provided both certain advantages in the development of the economy (the mobilization and concentration of significant masses of resources for deep structural changes in the economy, the implementation of large scientific, technical and social projects), and was burdened with serious contradictions. The Soviet model of directive planning did not have effective institutions that expressed the economic interests of enterprises and their collectives, did not create incentives for technical re-equipment of existing enterprises, and ultimately led to the predominance of the interests of the top government departments. To prevent the development of such contradictions, one-sided reflection of the interests of narrow social groups, the planned system should be built on democratic grounds.

Isolation and Characterization of Group III Campylobacter jejuni–Specific Bacteriophages From Germany and Their Suitability for Use in Food Production

Campylobacter spp. are a major cause of bacterial foodborne diarrhea worldwide. While thermophilic Campylobacter species asymptomatically colonize the intestines of chickens, most human infections in industrial countries have been attributed to consumption of chicken meat or cross-contaminated products. Bacteriophages (phages) are natural predators of bacteria and their use at different stages of the food production chain has been shown to reduce the public health burden of human campylobacteriosis. However, regarding regulatory issues, the use of lytic phages in food is still under discussion and evaluation. This study aims to identify lytic phages suitable for reducing Campylobacter bacteria along the food production chain. Therefore, four of 19 recently recovered phages were further characterized in detail for their lytic efficacy against different Campylobacter field strains and their suitability under food production settings at different temperatures and pH values. Based on the results of this study, the phages vB_CjM-LmqsCP1-4 and vB_CjM-LmqsCP1-5 appear to be promising candidates for the reduction of Campylobacter jejuni in food production settings.

Rethinking Occupational Mobility in Developing Countries

This chapter discusses current methods for measuring and analysing occupational mobility, and the way in which methods designed for the analysis of industrial countries may need to be modified when applied in other contexts. The chapter discusses particular features of some developing countries, such as their large and complex agricultural and informal sectors, and the problem of ‘equivalence of meaning’, which arises when stratification systems involve rather different institutional arrangements, for example with respect to land tenure. The chapter concludes with a discussion of absolute and relative mobility in Chile, China, Egypt, and India, bringing out both the similarities and the differences between these countries in their absolute and relative rates of mobility and intersectionality with gender.

Social Mobility in Developing Countries

Limited attention has been paid to how well social mobility measures developed and used to study industrial countries perform in analysis of low-income settings. Following brief, selective reviews of the axiomatic, econometric and other relevant literature, three mobility concepts illustrate how properties that appear innocuous in industrial country analysis become problematic when downward mobility includes descents into destitution. For origin-independence measures—the most widely used in research on developing countries so far—axiomatic propriety and cognizance of co-residency-induced and other estimation bias are not enough. Adopting a variant of the ‘perverse fluidity’ concept from sociology to define the estimate bias attributable to intergenerational descents into poverty, we use experiments and data from India to find perverse fluidity biases in intergenerational mobility estimates of up to 50 per cent. Seemingly ‘good’ mobility news may thus be ‘bad’ with intergroup, regional and international mobility comparisons more precarious than acknowledged so far.

Obligational Relations in the Midst of Digitalization of Business Activity: The Concept and Types

Introduction: civil obligations are one of the central institutions of the civil law system, which is currently undergoing a new stage of understanding and development. The domestic civil law quite clearly identified the tasks that are urgent for theoretical, as well as comparative and practical research aimed at analyzing the problems of obligations that arise from civil law and business contracts. Purpose: to analyze the features of the regulation of market relations at the contractual level in the midst of digitalization of business activity. Methods: the methods of systematicity, analysis, and comparative law are used in the work. Results: the legal regulation ensures the implementation of equality as one of the most important principles of civil law: by setting additional requirements for entrepreneurs, the state equalized them with other participants in the turnover. This also dictates the need for the active introduction and application of legal means as proactive actions based on the permissibility of the law. One of them is a contract, so the specifics of business relations are most clearly demonstrated by contractual obligations. Conclusions: the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, in addition to the general provisions on obligations, also contain provisions that are only applicable to obligations related to the implementation of business activities. Business obligations are specific in nature, and sometimes directly opposite to traditional obligations. As a result of the process of evolution, the digital economy has become one of the main engines of the growth of the global economic system. The widespread use of digital technologies increases competition in global markets and encourages leading industrial countries to implement appropriate economic policies and develop contractual relations.

New Agriculture Technology in Modern Farming

Progressions in the field of science and innovation alongside worldwide urbanization are the main considerations driving the course and advancement of horticultural examination. Ascend in per capita pay in non-industrial countries, word-related changes, and worldwide linkages have changed the food inclinations. These patterns together with the augmentation in the general population represent an assessment to horticulture for creating more and healthier food. An increase in the efficiency of horticulture by utilizing strategies of traditional agribusiness is representing a limit. The threat to the environment posed by reliance on synthetic manures and pesticides for increasing efficiency and irritation across the board is a major factor impacting global food production. These trends suggest that new farming innovations are urgently needed and that these innovations should be integrated into traditional agribusiness. Vertical cultivating and natural cultivating are the exploration territories to battle these requirements. Vertical cultivating utilizes vertical stacking of the ranches and little land can be used for more creation. This strategy is appropriate for the quickly developing worldwide metropolitan population can be met food supply from inside the urban communities and along these lines decreasing the transportation cost and climate weakening brought about by energizes all the while. Natural cultivating again depends on of minimization of the synthetic contributions to the horticulture and henceforth is climate cordial. As a result, these processes can be employed to increase production and profitability in order to meet the growing food demand.

Municipal Bonds as a Financial Component of the Development of Territorial Communities in Ukraine

The world economic thought has a number of tools, the use of which helps attract financial investment and helps accumulate additional funds for infrastructure and social projects of municipalities. The issue of municipal bonds as a financial component of the development of territorial communities is considered vital for this research in which the factors that determine the ability to borrow are highlighted. The advantages and disadvantages of using municipal bonds by local governments are also identified. It is realized that the world experience in the application of municipal bonds is contradictory and ambiguous. It is established that the best results from the use of bonds have been the municipalities of countries with a high level of development and municipal management, which determines the demand for this type of securities from investors. The use of municipal bond in countries with economies in transition has led to a number of municipal defaults, resulting in severe restrictions on their issuance by central authorities. The united communities of Ukraine require additional financial resources. Smaller municipalities are characterized by a high rate of budget subsidies and low average income per community. Ukrainian territorial communities’ municipal bonds are used insufficiently in comparison to developed industrial countries. Factors that shape the risks of implementing a system of local borrowing in Ukraine are identified and include lack of recognition and registration of local governments as legal entities under public law, imperfection of legislation, lack of experience in local borrowing, lack of clear information about the available resources of local communities and their valuation.