Mucosal immunity and vaccines against viral infections

Mucosal immunity is realized through a structural and functional system called mucose-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT). MALT is subdivided into parts (clusters) depending on their anatomical location, but they all have a similar structure: mucus layer, epithelial tissue, lamina propria and lymphoid follicles. Plasma cells of MALT produce a unique type of immunoglobulins, IgA, which have the ability to polymerize. In mucosal immunization, the predominant form of IgA is a secretory dimer, sIgA, which is concentrated in large quantities in the mucosa. Mucosal IgA acts as a first line of defense and neutralizes viruses efficiently at the portal of entry, preventing infection of epithelial cells and generalization of infection. To date, several mucosal antiviral vaccines have been licensed, which include attenuated strains of the corresponding viruses: poliomyelitis, influenza, and rotavirus. Despite the tremendous success of these vaccines, in particular, in the eradication of poliomyelitis, significant disadvantages of using attenuated viral strains in their composition are the risk of reactogenicity and the possibility of reversion to a virulent strain during vaccination. Nevertheless, it is mucosal vaccination, which mimics a natural infection, is able to induce a fast and effective immune response and thus help prevent and possibly stop outbreaks of many viral infections. Currently, a number of intranasal vaccines based on a new vector approach are successfully undergoing clinical trials. In these vaccines, the safe viral vectors are used to deliver protectively significant immunogens of pathogenic viruses. The most tested vector for intranasal vaccines is adenovirus, and the most significant immunogen is SARSCoV-2 S protein. Mucosal vector vaccines against human respiratory syncytial virus and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 based on Sendai virus, which is able to replicate asymptomatically in cells of bronchial epithelium, are also being investigated.

Proliferation activity in the polyps of Cassiopea xamachana: where the planuloid buds grow

Polyps of the Cassiopeidae family possess a unique type of asexual reproduction by producing free-swimming buds — planuloids. The process of planuloid development and transformation to polyp has been described earlier, however, the source of tissue formation is still poorly studied. Using the method of EdU incorporation we have analyzed DNA synthesis activity during planuloid formation and growth in Cassiopea xamachana. We revealed the active proliferation zone at the early stage of bud formation. This zone continued to function during planuloid growth, providing the formation of polyp structures, and preserved in polyp calyx after metamorphosis. Its proliferation activity varied at different growth stages, whereas the localization remained relatively the same.

Interior of coworking center as a unique art space of the XXI century

The purpose of the article is to identify trends and patterns of organization of the artistic space of the modern interior of the coworking center, as well as the creation of scientifically sound methods that argue appropriate ways to solve design problems in the field of aesthetics of the XXI century. Research methodology. The theoretical, structural, philosophical, and aesthetic method is applied; method of artistic and stylistic analysis to identify features of the interior design of Kyiv coworking centers; structural-semiotic method, which determines the artistic and figurative content in the interior design of modern coworking space. Scientific novelty. The main theoretical concepts that became the basis for defining the interior of the coworking center as a unique type of artistic space are considered; -an analysis of the basic spatial concepts developed by famous philosophers who understand it as an artistic space; identified and analyzed the features of artistic solutions in the process of designing working interiors of domestic coworking centers; the factors of influence on the artistic and figurative decision of the interior of the coworking space are determined. Conclusions. Based on the analysis of existing spatial concepts, it is determined that the space of a modern coworking center can be considered one of the types of artistic space and identify certain semantic categories (according to Gabrichevsky, Spengler, Heidegger, etc.). Characteristic techniques and means of artistic expression of modern interiors of coworking centers, which are related to the understanding of space as an artistic concept, reflect the idea of ​​its polyphony and determine the artistic and aesthetic principles of domestic interior coworking center in the first decades of the XXI century. The study found that in the interiors of modern Kyiv coworking spaces ("Magazine", "Platform" (Leonardo Business Center and Art Factory), "New Work Labs", "Kooperativ", "Hub 4.0", "Creative Quarter", "LIFT99 Kyiv Hub", "Anthill Space", "Lofti Space", "Creative States", "Toloka", "Garden - Smartwork") implemented Eurasian and European types of organization of artistic space. Keywords: coworking center, interior design, artistic space, subject-spatial environment.

Areology of the Birth and Christening Tunes of the West of the Ukrainian Ethnic Territory and Adjacent Lands: the Perspective from Northern Pidlassia

The considerable progress of Ukrainian ethnomusicology in the field of structural and typological researches in the recent decades has generally clarified the melotypology and melogeography of the most ritual genre cycles of ethnic Ukraine and the adjacent areas, except the birth and christening songs. This is due to the small number or complete absence of recordings of this kind of songs in most regions of Ukraine. However, there are some areas where birth and christening songs exist in more than a few numbers and form a sufficiently integral melotypological complex. These areas are Northern Pidlassiaand Nadsyannia (the Syan river region). Generally, Western Ukraine is represented by a small number of records of birth and christening songs, but this nevertheless dominate over the rest of the territory, which is represented mainly by single samples. In the represented study, an attempt to fill the existing gap in the typological study of birth and christening songs of the western territories of Ukraine is made. The sources are published recordings, the author’s own materials, as well as materials from the Archive of the Laboratory of Music Ethnology at the Lviv National Music Academy named after Mykola Lysenko. Musical and folklore studies of birth and christening rites are not numerous. Among them it is necessary to mention a sizable monograph of Anatolyi Ivanytsky «Songs are from Birth and Christening» (Ivanytsky, 2013) and also collections of Halyna Sokil, Stephan Copa and others.Iryna Klymenko dedicated a special paragraph to this genre in the monograph «Ritual Melodies of the Ukrainians in the Context of the Slavic-Baltic Early-Traditional Melomassive: Typology and Geography» (2020). The comparative analysis of the total amount of the birth and christening tunes reveals a significant role in this genre cycle of the melotypological group on the basis of the spondeic seven-component structure, which is the most represented in the western Ukrainian and adjacent territories. The next melotypological group combines various forms based on the five component structure. Melodic type with a lyric structure V(5+5)2 has two rhythmic versions. Quite often, the same texts can be performed in different rhythmic variants. It has been observed that the tunes of the first rhythmic type are connected mainly with ritual lyrics. Instead, the second type combines mainly with common plots. A unique type based on a five-component structure, which has no analogues, is a three-part form V(5+5+5)2, which spreads on Nadsianna, less on Opillia territories. These melodies usually are combined with the same poetic lines «Early on Sunday, early on Sunday as a white day» rarely with some slight variants in the first line. Speaking of five-syllable structures we should mention songs with the so-called «arrow-like» rhythm. Although only a few fixations are known in Western Ukraine, the central and eastern territories of Ukraine and Belarus are represented more richly. Instead, the West part represents a kind of «hybrid» form based on this rhythmic structure. Perhaps the most widely used ritual melodic type in Eastern Europe with the verse structure V(5+5+7)2 and birth and christening function distribute on the territory of north-western Ukraine with a concentration on Nadsyannia. Another widespread ritual rhythmical form based on the iambic six-component structure is represented in tirade and strophic compositions, but the records of these songs, unfortunately, are rare. Summarizing the melotypological and meloareological characteristics of the birth and christening melodic types of the ethnic west of Ukraine, it should be noted that the two densest centers of their existence are Northern Pidlassiaand Nadsyannia. However, Northern Pidlassiais characterized by a richer melotypological set: six melotypes, while in Nadsyannia there are only three ones. In addition, the folk melodic types of these two areas actually differ. In general, the birth and christening genre cycle of Nadssiannia seems to be separated from the surrounding territories with its «unique» song «Early on Sunday», which partially spread to neighboring territories. Additionally, there is no any recorded sample based on the seven-component structure, as well as no samples of six-syllable melodies were encountered. The range of melotypes based on the five-component structure is the most numerous and most widespread in the territory of the ethnic west of Ukraine. A group of related seven-components melodic types is spread in the BelarusianUkrainian area. The melodic basis of the vast majority of the birth and christening songs is a system of stable tones at a distance of a fifth with a minor inclination of the scale.

The Effect of Cyber Warfare on Raising the Level of Conflict Between the United States of America and Iran

Modern technologies and communication systems are tools to make human life easier, and they have started a revolution in the fields of international securities and international relations. However, modern technologies and cyberspace have to be considered as causes of serious damages, dangers, and represent a serious risk in international security. Cyberspace is accounted as the fifth sphere for the conduct of combat besides land, water, air and space. Cyberspace has occurred in a very new and unique type of war, which is called cyber war. Nowadays, protecting cyberspace becomes a vital part of the national level strategies because cyber war under the shadow of cyberspace is a real phenomenon in international relations, and the United States and Iran's cyber war is the obvious example. Both countries attempt to attack the infrastructure of the other side's information technology and network communication systems in order to cause serious damage financially, economically, politically and militarily. Consequently, cyber war is likely to become the most characterized in the twenty-first century and future military operations.

Unique spicules may confound species differentiation: taxonomy and biogeography of Melonanchora Carter, 1874 and two new related genera (Myxillidae: Poecilosclerida) from the Okhotsk Sea

Sponges are amongst the most difficult benthic taxa to properly identify, which has led to a prevalence of cryptic species in several sponge genera, especially in those with simple skeletons. This is particularly true for sponges living in remote or hardly accessible environments, such as the deep-sea, as the inaccessibility of their habitat and the lack of accurate descriptions usually leads to misclassifications. However, species can also remain hidden even when they belong to genera that have particularly characteristic features. In these cases, researchers inevitably pay attention to these peculiar features, sometimes disregarding small differences in the other “typical” spicules. The genus Melonanchora Carter, 1874, is among those well suited for a revision, as their representatives possess a unique type of spicule (spherancorae). After a thorough review of the material available for this genus from several institutions, four new species of Melonanchora, M. tumultuosa sp. nov., M. insulsa sp. nov., M. intermedia sp. nov. and M. maeli sp. nov. are formally described from different localities across the Atlanto-Mediterranean region. Additionally, all Melonanchora from the Okhotsk Sea and nearby areas are reassigned to other genera; Melonanchora kobjakovae is transferred to Myxilla (Burtonanchora) while two new genera, Hanstoreia gen. nov. and Arhythmata gen. nov. are created to accommodate Melonanchora globogilva and Melonanchora tetradedritifera, respectively. Hanstoreia gen. nov. is closest to Melonanchora, whereas Arhythmata gen. nov., is closer to Stelodoryx, which is most likely polyphyletic and in need of revision.

Topological delocalization transitions and mobility edges in the nonreciprocal Maryland model

Non-Hermitian effects could trigger spectrum, localization and topological phase transitions in quasiperiodic lattices. We propose a non-Hermitian extension of the Maryland model, which forms a paradigm in the study of localization and quantum chaos by introducing asymmetry to its hopping amplitudes. The resulting nonreciprocal Maryland model is found to possess a real-to-complex spectrum transition at a finite amount of hopping asymmetry, through which it changes from a localized phase to a mobility edge phase. Explicit expressions of the complex energy dispersions, phase boundaries and mobility edges are found. A topological winding number is further introduced to characterize the transition between different phases. Our work introduces a unique type of non-Hermitian quasicrystal, which admits exactly obtainable phase diagrams, mobility edges, and holding no extended phases at finite nonreciprocity in the thermodynamic limit.

Biological Prescience: The Role of Anticipation in Organismal Processes

Anticipation is the act of using information about the past and present to make predictions about future scenarios. As a concept, it is predominantly associated with the psychology of the human mind; however, there is accumulating evidence that diverse taxa without complex neural systems, and even biochemical networks themselves, can respond to perceived future conditions. Although anticipatory processes, such as circadian rhythms, stress priming, and cephalic responses, have been extensively studied over the last three centuries, newer research on anticipatory genetic networks in microbial species shows that anticipatory processes are widespread, evolutionarily old, and not simply reserved for neurological complex organisms. Overall, data suggest that anticipatory responses represent a unique type of biological processes that can be distinguished based on their organizational properties and mechanisms. Unfortunately, an empirically based biologically explicit framework for describing anticipatory processes does not currently exist. This review attempts to fill this void by discussing the existing examples of anticipatory processes in non-cognitive organisms, providing potential criteria for defining anticipatory processes, as well as their putative mechanisms, and drawing attention to the often-overlooked role of anticipation in the evolution of physiological systems. Ultimately, a case is made for incorporating an anticipatory framework into the existing physiological paradigm to advance our understanding of complex biological processes.

Phototransduction in Anuran Green Rods: Origins of Extra-Sensitivity

Green rods (GRs) represent a unique type of photoreceptor to be found in the retinas of anuran amphibians. These cells harbor a cone-specific blue-sensitive visual pigment but exhibit morphology of the outer segment typical for classic red rods (RRs), which makes them a perspective model object for studying cone–rod transmutation. In the present study, we performed detailed electrophysiological examination of the light sensitivity, response kinetics and parameters of discrete and continuous dark noise in GRs of the two anuran species: cane toad and marsh frog. Our results confirm that anuran GRs are highly specialized nocturnal vision receptors. Moreover, their rate of phototransduction quenching appeared to be about two-times slower than in RRs, which makes them even more efficient single photon detectors. The operating intensity ranges for two rod types widely overlap supposedly allowing amphibians to discriminate colors in the scotopic region. Unexpectedly for typical cone pigments but in line with some previous reports, the spontaneous isomerization rate of the GR visual pigment was found to be the same as for rhodopsin of RRs. Thus, our results expand the knowledge on anuran GRs and show that these are even more specialized single photon catchers than RRs, which allows us to assign them a status of “super-rods”.

The Effect of Using Plastic Strips and Sheets on the Properties of Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Concrete

Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Concrete (SIFCON) is a high-strong material that is regarded as a unique type of high fiber content concrete. This paper aims to study the influence of the use of plastic strips and plastic sheets in the SIFCON slurry. Three sets (normal SIFCON as control, SIFCON with plastic strips, and SIFCON with plastic sheet), in a 1:1.08 cement-sand ratio by weight has been used with water to cement ratio (w/c) by weight equal to 0.3, and superplasticizer equal to 1% by weight. In addition, 6% by volume crimped steel fibers with an aspect ratio of 60 were applied and 1.34% by volume plastic was used, in strips of 5×1cm for both prism and cube samples and in sheets of 25×5cm and 7×7cm for prism and cube samples respectively. The compressive and flexural strength tests studies were conducted on typical cubes of 10×10×10cm and prisms of 40×7×7cm respectively to find out the way the plastic affects the SIFCON properties. The results indicate that the models with plastic sheets placed in SIFCON slurry give the highest compressive and flexural strength whereas the models with plastic strips gave the lowest. The difference percentages in compressive and flexural strength were -27.3, 8, -3.8 and 66.6% for all sets respectively when compared to the control set (using no plastic).