AUTOCHTHONOUS BREEDS OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND CONSERVATION MEASURES

Recently, highly productive breeds of various species of domestic animals have been used in livestock production, which has resulted in the destruction of indigenous breeds of domestic animals around the world, even in our area. This is the first reason why indigenous races and strains have been endangered. Another reason is that domestic, indigenous breeds were crossed with specialized breeds, which were imported, and in that way their genetic diversity was negatively affected. Resistance is lost, adaptation to the conditions in which they were created, the ability to survive in nature. Indigenous breeds of different species of domestic animals, which are recognized in the Republic of Srpska (BiH) are gatačko cattle and buša (cattle), Vlašić pramenka, Podveleška pramenka, Kupres pramenka (sheep), domestic Balkan horned goat (goats), Bosnian mountain horse (horses), mangulica (pigs) and pogrmuša hen or živičarka hen (poultry). By acceding to international conventions, BiH /Republic of Srpska has committed itself to establishing a system of measures that will enable the conservation of biological diversity and the protection of indigenous and endangered breeds of domestic animals. The choice of a strategy for the conservation of diversity, the establishment of an adequate conservation scheme, and the implementation of a conservation strategy are some of the key elements of any process for the conservation of genetic diversity. Preservation of autochthonous and protected breeds of domestic animals is possible through preservation in the original environment (in situ) and preservation outside the original environment (ex situ). There is a possibility of combining these models of conservation of animal genetic resources.

The conditions and methods of biological diversity preservation and restoration on post-technogenic lands

Oil production, as well as the transportation of oil and gas through pipeline systems, cause the destruction and man-made transformation of the natural ecosystems of Northern Eurasia, an increase in the area of disturbed lands, and a reduction in the habitats of specially protected plant species. In this regard, the most significant measures for biological diversity are the identification of conditions for the growth of populations of rare plants in man-made biotopes and the development of methods for their conservation and restoration. 12 species (Carex sylvatica, Dactylorhiza baltica, D. fuchsii, D. incarnata, D. maculata, Fragaria moschata, Glyceria lithuanica, Listera ovata, Neottia nidus-avis, Ophioglossum vulgatum, Platanthera bifolia, Veratrum lobelianum) from the Red Book of the Yaroslavl region and 1 species (Dactylorhiza baltica) from the Red Book of the Leningrad region were recorded in the protected area of oil pipelines. Moreover, Dactylorhiza baltica is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. For Dactylorhiza fuchsii, D. incarnata, D. maculata, Fragaria moschata, at the risk of complete destruction of their biotopes, methods of their transplantation, repatriation and rehabilitation have been developed and transferred to the appropriate Department of the Yaroslavl region. For the restoration of biotopes on bulk sand dams of an oil field in Western Siberia, an experimental study of the wild species Leymus arenarieus as a fixative of technogenic sands showed good results.

A pareto ensemble based spectral clustering framework

Similarity matrix has a significant effect on the performance of the spectral clustering, and how to determine the neighborhood in the similarity matrix effectively is one of its main difficulties. In this paper, a “divide and conquer” strategy is proposed to model the similarity matrix construction task by adopting Multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA). The whole procedure is divided into two phases, phase I aims to determine the nonzero entries of the similarity matrix, and Phase II aims to determine the value of the nonzero entries of the similarity matrix. In phase I, the main contribution is that we model the task as a biobjective dynamic optimization problem, which optimizes the diversity and the similarity at the same time. It makes each individual determine one nonzero entry for each sample, and the encoding length decreases to O(N) in contrast with the non-ensemble multiobjective spectral clustering. In addition, a specific initialization operator and diversity preservation strategy are proposed during this phase. In phase II, three ensemble strategies are designed to determine the value of the nonzero value of the similarity matrix. Furthermore, this Pareto ensemble framework is extended to semi-supervised clustering by transforming the semi-supervised information to constraints. In contrast with the previous multiobjective evolutionary-based spectral clustering algorithms, the proposed Pareto ensemble-based framework makes a balance between time cost and the clustering accuracy, which is demonstrated in the experiments section.

Concepts, History, Principles, and Application of Germplasm Cryopreservation Technology

Germplasm are living genetic resources that can serve as bearers of heredity, and include germ cells and their precursors, plant seeds and pollen, animal sperm, oocytes, embryos, and larvae. Cryopreservation refers to the preservation of biological materials at extremely low temperatures, typically using solid carbon dioxide at -80°C or liquid nitrogen at -196°C for freezing, and cryogenic storage in perpetuity. Germplasm cryopreservation is an important technology applied for medical treatment, maintenance of biological diversity, preservation of valuable genetic resources, assistance of breeding programs, and conservation of imperiled species. This extension publication is intended to introduce the basic concepts, history, principles, and applications of germplasm cryopreservation technology.

Modern Age empires: colony management principles on the example of Great Britain and France

The object of this research is the colonial policy of the two largest European empires of the Modern Age: France and Great Britain. In the course of conquering new lands, these countries faced the problem of managing vast territories and diverse indigenous population. The solution consisted in establishment of effective colonial management systems. The peculiarities of functionality of such systems became the subject of this research. The goal lies in determination of specificity of organization and operation of the systems of colonial management in the British and French Empires from the perspective of their interrelation with cultural factors. The conclusion is made that the British Empire retained the traditional government system on the conquered territories – indirect management. The French Empire either replaced the traditional government institutions with European analogues or included traditional system into their system of management as a lower administrative link – direct management. Comparing the described management system, the author notes the French approach was more resource-intensive and did not allow gaining a large profit. This lead to an assumption that the colonial management policy was affected by both, cultural and economic factors. The scientific novelty consists in examination of the systems of colonial management from the perspective of their interrelation with the imperial strategies that are based on the policy of recognition of population differences. Such strategies could be implemented within the framework of two paradigms: unification (formation of the unified imperial culture and institutions in all subordinated territories), and diversity (preservation on the conquered territories of the local cultural and political institutions). Further on, the examples of India, Africa and other regions would demonstrate that there is a direct link between the indicated British and French imperial strategies and systems of colonial management.