Revisiting Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ Innovation and Resilience during COVID-19: The Tourism Sector

Every day, companies are exposed to various risks arising from their environment, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the most affected. This study emphasizes innovation and resilience as the starting points to understand how SMEs are influenced by external factors which are independent of the managers’ will. To date, we have seen several extreme factors that have conditioned businesses and entrepreneurs of these types of companies, such as the financial crisis of 2008. However, last year, in 2020, we saw the beginning of a worldwide pandemic: COVID-19. Thus, this research seeks to understand the extent to which this pandemic influenced the resilience and innovation of SMEs in the tourism area. Thus, eight hypotheses were raised based on four independent variables: access to finance, risk taking, working conditions, and personal network. The study of these variables was developed from an online questionnaire and in-depth interviews. After analyzing the results, it is possible to infer that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in consequences never observed in previous crises, to such an extent that the study showed that: (1) a company’s network positively influences its resilience; (2) risk taking influences innovation and resilience of these SMEs.

The Importance of Statebuilding: Additional Contributions from a Military Perspective

Since the early beginning, stability, prosperity and security have been core values for the members of the transatlantic community. Efforts have been made for reconciliation over human lives lost in war, to understand and to solve dramatic changes in societies, to rebuild economies after heavy losses in goods, and to repair and maintain destroyed basic infrastructure; these are still ongoing concerns that present periodical challenges for all participating states. Statebuilding approaches can be described in many theoretical ways, but in practice – based on historical experience – they can be either peaceful or very bloody. In order to realise unknown and extreme factors and to give them adequate answers there is an urgent need for a stable, reliable and effective system.The Hungarian Defence Forces has a long history in peace operations, however, the latest missions conducted, especially in the Balkans and in Afghanistan, provided lots of useful experience related to different statebuilding efforts. In this paper the authors explain the basic general relations between state and the military, in normal – or ideal – circumstances, illustrated – as a comparison – with different elements and factors in statebuilding efforts in case of extreme conditions such as war, failing states or even a hypocritical emergence of state-like entities.

Microbiological bases of natural milk starter culture

For the first time, the educational and methodological manual summarizes knowledge about the peculiarities of the ecology of lactobacilli of natural starter cultures of different geographical zones of Russia. Geographical races of lactobacilli and yeast of dairy national products can be a source of new, more resistant to extreme factors (including medicinal preparations) enzymes that will be in demand in biotechnology, medicine. Gives fundamentally important predictions that can be experimentally verified. The prospect of treating the microbiome of the digestive organs is shown — eliminating therapy with bacteriophages, lactotherapy instead of chemotherapy. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. It is intended for the preparation of students of biological specialties, agricultural technologists, as well as bachelors in the profiles "Technology of production, storage and processing of animal products" and "Natural starter cultures" in the directions: 35.03.07 "Technology of production and processing of agricultural products", 19.03.03 and 19.04.03 "Food of animal origin".

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRESS RESISTANCE OF ADOLESCENTS

Обозначена необходимость развития стрессоустойчивости подростков, характеризующаяся степенью адаптации личности к воздействию экстремальных факторов социальной среды. Стрессоустойчивость подростков представлена как органично взаимосвязанное единство трех структурных компонентов - когнитивного, эмоционально-волевого, поведенческого. Представлены результаты проведенного психологического исследования по реализации программы психолого-педагогического сопровождения развития стрессоустойчивости подростков. The authors indicate the need for the development of stress resistance in adolescents, characterized by the necessary degree of her (personality) adaptation to the impact of extreme factors of the social environment. Stress resistance of adolescents is presented as an organically interconnected unity of three structural components - cognitive, emotional-volitional, and behavioral. The results of the psychological research on the implementation of the program of psychological and pedagogical support for the development of stress resistance in adolescents are presented.

FACTORS DETERMINING THE PHENOMENA IN THE UPER TREE LINE ECOTONE IN THE POLAR URALS MOUNTAINS

The article presents the results of the analysis of long-term studies dedicated to the reaction of woody plants to various extreme factors in the Rai-Iz mountain massif and Chernaya mountain, which are located on the southeastern slope of the Polar Urals in the Sob River basin (Russia). The analysis was performed using a unique archive of landscape photos, which were made by the authors from the beginning of the 1960s until the present. The classifi cation and description of the phenomena that are caused by the infl uence of environmental factors on woody vegetation, as well as their presentation using landscape photos, allow us to expand the possibilities of using ground-based images for the purposes of environmental photo monitoring of woody vegetation at the tree line. They can be used as an independent data source to identify factors that determine a morphological structure and spatial altitude of woody vegetation.

The Resistance of Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae to Extreme Conditions

The resistance of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae DAW-3а and Y-503 to the conditions of extreme values of pH, NaCl, temperature has been studied. Under different cultivation modes, the rounded shape of DAW-3a cells is pre-served and this parameter Y-503 changes. Under conditions of different pH values and 30°C, the maximum sizes of cells and giant colonies of the polyploid Y-503 strain were found in comparison with the haploid DAW-3a; at 37°C, the advantage of Y-503 was not observed and the colony sizes of both strains were practically the same. The reaction of the strains to critical concentrations of NaCl in the medium was identical: a decrease in the size of cells and colonies was found; change in the shape, surface, color and structure of colonies. Under conditions of the simultaneous influence of an elevated temperature of 37°C, a wide range of pH and 5 % NaCl, the cell size decreased slightly; under neutral and alkaline conditions of cultivation, a slightly greater tolerance of yeast to salt stress was established; a decrease in the size of giant colonies was found, while the maximum size of the studied strains was noted at pH 11.0, the minimum at pH 3.0. The study of the tolerance of the yeast S. cerevisiae DAW-3a and Y-503 to extreme factors is of particular interest in connection with the possibility of using stress-resistant strains in biotechnological processes.

Modifications of proteins of membrane-cytoskeleton complex and production of reactive oxygen species in erythrocytes cryopreserved with polyethylene glycol

Protein modifications in the membrane-cytoskeleton complex (MCC) of human erythrocytes, as well as changes in the intensity of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production upon cell cryopreservation with polyethylene glycol (PEG) were investigated. The protein profile of ghosts of erythrocytes frozen with PEG has common features with both the control and cells frozen without cryoprotectant. PEG makes it possible to restrict the structural rearrangements of the main MCC proteins under the effect of extreme factors and to restrain the amount of high molecular weight polypeptide complexes induced by the protein-cross-linking reagent diamide at the control level, in contrast to cells frozen without a cryoprotectant. However, changes related to the protein peroxiredoxin 2 in ghosts of erythrocytes cryopreserved with PEG are also attributed to cells frozen without a cryoprotectant that may be associated with the activation of oxidative processes. This is evidenced by a 10-fold increase in ROS formation in erythrocytes frozen under PEG protection. Thus, upon cryopreservation of erythrocytes with PEG, certain disorders in MCC proteins may be associated with increased formation of ROS, which may contribute to the disorganization of the structural components of MCC and disrupt the stability of cryopreserved cells under physiological conditions.

PSYCHOLOGICAL, NEUROHORMONAL AND METABOLIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SIRIUS-18/19 MEMBERS' ADAPTATION TO THE 120-DAY ISOLATION IN A PRESSURIZED MODULE

In the SIRIUS-18/19 project, psychological, neurohormonal and metabolic adaptation to 120-d isolation was studied with participation of 3 male and 3 female subjects at the age of 28 to 44 years. Mood assessments and biochemical investigations attested to a moderate stress. After 63 days of the life in isolation, weighing showed a significant loss of the body fat mass; blood analysis pointed to activation of lipolysis and atherogenesis. Homeostasis was relatively stable despite mobilization of deposited fats and shifts in metabolic reactions. These changes in energy metabolism and reactions to the extreme factors should be taken into consideration during planning of future isolation studies in order to minimize potential cardiac risks.

FUNCTIONAL CHANGES IN THE CONCENTRATION OF TOTAL PROTEIN IN RESIDENTS OF THE KYZYLORDA REGION

Taking into account the ever-increasing role of prevention in modern conditions, a comprehensive understanding of the morph physiological and chronobiological organization of human life is necessary, which is most optimal for living in specific environmental conditions, in other words, the conditions for the formation of population health and its pathological deviations due to factors that exist in the very organism, as well as acting on it from the outside. The process of cleansing the body of denatured, aged proteins occurs in many organs, primarily in the liver. Degradation processes in a cell can both recognize proteins to be degraded and begin degradation, but these processes must be selective, since there is significant heterogeneity in the rates of degradation of various proteins in one cell. Proteases are usually required for the implementation of catabolic processes, and apparently, lysosomal and extra-lysosomal proteases are involved in the catabolism of cellular proteins. The concentration of total protein and its fractions in the blood plasma in people living in various districts of the Kyzylorda region does not depend on the severity of the action of extreme factors characteristic of the Aral Sea zone.

STATE OF THE HUMAN INNATE IMMUNITY CELL COMPONENT DURING 120-DAY ISOLATION IN A PRESSURIZED MODULE

Innate immunity was investigated in six 28 to 44 y.o. volunteers for 120-d isolation in controlled environment. Peripheral blood samples gathered during isolation were analyzed to determine monocytes and granulocytes expressing intracellular (TLR3, TLR8, TLR9) and surface (TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, TLR6) TLRs, and lymphocytes-natural killers (CD3-CD16+CD56+). The system of pattern-recognition cell receptors displayed a heterogenic reaction with primary activation throughout the period in isolation. The observed changes represent evidently the processes of establishing a dynamic balance of immunity with extreme factors of the life in isolation and confinement, including the reactions to endogenous and exogenous stimuli.