Biodiversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Bulgaria Related to Human Migrations or Ecological Adaptation

Bulgaria is among the 18 high-priority countries of the WHO European Region with high rates of tuberculosis. The causative agent of tuberculosis is thought to have emerged in Africa 70,000 years ago, or during the Neolithic age, and colonized the world through human migrations. The established main lineages of tuberculosis correlate highly with geography. The goal of our study was to investigate the biodiversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Bulgaria in association with human migration history during the last 10 centuries. We analyzed spoligotypes and MIRU-VNTR genotyping data of 655 drug-sensitive and 385 multidrug-resistant M. tuberculosis strains collected in Bulgaria from 2008 to 2018. We assigned the genotype of all isolates using SITVITWEB and MIRU-VNTRplus databases and software. We investigated the major well-documented historical events of immigration to Bulgaria that occurred during the last millennium. Genetic profiles demonstrated that, with the exceptions of 3 strains of Mycobacterium bovis and 18 strains of Lineage 2 (W/Beijing spoligotype), only Lineage 4 (Euro-American) was widely diffused in Bulgaria. Analysis of well-documented immigrations of Roma from the Indian subcontinent during the 10th to the 12th centuries, Turkic peoples from Central Asia in the medieval centuries, and more recently Armenians, Russians, and Africans in the 20th century influenced the biodiversity of M. tuberculosis in Bulgaria but only with genotypes of sublineages within the L4. We hypothesize that these sublineages were more virulent, or that ecological adaptation of imported M. tuberculosis genotypes was the main driver contributing to the current genetic biodiversity of M. tuberculosis in Bulgaria. We also hypothesize that some yet unknown local environmental factors may have been decisive in the success of imported genotypes. The ecological factors leading to local genetic biodiversity in M. tuberculosis are multifactorial and have not yet been fully clarified. The coevolution of long-lasting pathogen hosts should be studied, taking into account environmental and ecological changes.

A Late Würmian and Holocene pollen profile from Tüttensee, Upper Bavaria, as evidence of 15 Millennia of landscape history in the Chiemsee glacier region

A late Würmian and Holocene pollen profile from Tüttensee near Chiemsee, Bavaria, covering 14 millennia of vegetation history, shows the late Würmian reforestation of the area, Holocene woodland development, and later the human impact on the landscape. In the early Holocene a distinct Ulmus phase preceded the Corylus and Quercus expansion. Afterwards, between 6000 and 4000 BCE, Picea was most common. The expansion of Fagus and Abies started at 4000 BCE, together with the decline of Ulmus. Fagus was more common than Abies. From 500 BCE Abies started to decline, Fagus has also declined from 1000 CE onwards. Before the modern times Picea/Pinus phase Quercus is prevailing. The prehistoric human impact is rather weak. A short reforestation phase at ~ 1 BCE – 1 CE hints at the rather complex migration history in this region with so called Celts, Germanic people and Romans involved. Strong human impact indicated by cereals, Plantago lanceolata, other human indicators and deforestation started at 900 CE.

Evolution of “Ethnic” Business in Russia: Comparative Analysis of Entrepreneurship of Migrants from Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan

The article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the entrepreneurial activity of migrants from Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan in Moscow and the Moscow region who have created a business in the period from the 1990s to the mid-2010s. The study was carried out on the analysis of 58 interviews with entrepreneurs and representatives of public organizations and journalists, as well as a survey of entrepreneurs of Kyrgyz origin conducted in 2017-2019. The comparison is based on the analysis of the factors and characteristics such as structural opportunities and limitations; motivation to engage in entrepreneurship; features of the formation of start-up capital, the composition of partners, personnel and consumer audience; types of entrepreneurial strategies; the role of ethnicity and ethnicity, as well as networks based on ties with relatives, fellow countrymen and compatriots. It is concluded that the concept of “middleman minority” is most suitable for describing the ideal type of entrepreneurship of migrants from Azerbaijan, and “ethnic economy” for migrants from Kyrgyzstan. However, the business activity of migrants is not limited to these types. The peculiarities of entrepreneurship of migrants, a variety of specific entrepreneurial strategies are born at the intersection of the mutual influence of migration history, socio-demographic characteristics and various socio-economic, political and local contexts in different historical periods.

Migration History of Iranians in the North Caucasus

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of mass migration of the Persian population to the Russian Empire in the 19th-early 20th centuries, its North Caucasian features. Iranians who migrated to Russia, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. constituted an important part of the entire society in the North Caucasus. They participated in the development of industry and business life, in the revolutionary movement, preserving their own community, and interacted with Russian realities. The article analyzes the stages and characteristic features of the migration of the Persian population to the North Caucasus in the 19th century. after the conclusion of international treaties between Russia and Persia (Gulistan 1813, Turkmanchay 1828, Convention on the movement of subjects of both states in 1844). Taking into account the general determinants of migration, for the first time, the existing explanations for the emergence of migrant workers from Persia to the South of the Russian Empire in the English-language literature have been investigated. The origin of labor and social migration in Iran in the 19th century, its orientation towards the Caucasus and its broad consequences are considered in connection with social factors that arose under the influence of political events in Iran, which determined the historical conjuncture. In the study of the characteristics of the Persian resettlement and long-term residence in the settlements of the North Caucasus, the starting points, routes and accommodation of Iranian migrants in the Terek region are of great importance. The Terek region got into the migration history of Iranians as a result of the migration policy of Russia, its geographical location and the peculiarities of the developing economy, which provided more favorable and sparing working conditions. about a large number of Iranians who received passports at the consulates in Urmia and Tabriz. Unlike other movements of the Iranian population in the 19th century, the migration of Persians to Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries had its own differences: it was characterized by regularity, the involvement of a significant number of people of different ages and genders, and was mainly caused by economic reasons. Developing trade relations, economic decline in Persia became the reasons for the ever-increasing migration of the Persians to the Russian borders.

Vietnamese migrants are as tall as they want to be

Background Members of the same social group tent to have the same body height. Migrants tend to adjust in height to their host communities. Objectives Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors influence growth. We hypothesized that Vietnamese young adult migrants in Germany (1) are taller than their parents, (2) are as tall as their German peers, and (3) are as tall as predicted by height expectation at age 13 years. Sample and Methods The study was conducted in 30 male and 54 female Vietnamese migrants (mean age 26.23 years. SD=4.96) in Germany in 2020. Information on age, sex, body height, school and education, job, height and ethnicity of best friend, migration history and cultural identification, parental height and education, and recalled information on their personal height expectations at age 13 years were obtained by questionnaire. The data were analyzed by St. Nicolas House Analysis (SNHA) and multiple regression. Results Vietnamese young adults are taller than their parents (females 3.85cm, males 7.44cm), but do not fully attain height of their German peers. The body height is positively associated with the height of best friend (p < 0.001), the height expectation at age 13 year (p < 0.001), and father height (p=0.001). Conclusion Body height of Vietnamese migrants in Germany reflects competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments. The magnitude of this intergenerational trend supports the concept that human growth depends on Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors.

A study of the speech of bilingual children of Russian Germans living in Germany

The article presents the relevant issue of analysing the common features of the grammar of Russian as language inherited by the second or third generation of migrant children in Europe and in the world. The novelty of the study is in the fact that it compares the speech of children with different dominant languages and, in particular, studies the speech of a group of children from families of Russian Germans living in Germany under dual language inheritance. Their parents have a very rich migration history, as they are, in turn, also heritage speakers of German, the language, which they spoke in their family. In the present paper, the main task will be to identify the common features determined by the contact between Russian as a heritage language and other languages, especially at morphological and lexical levels. For this purpose, a field research project was conducted at the Learning and Integration Centre Dialog e. V. in Reutlingen. The analysis of oral and written works of bilingual children of the last generation of Russian Germans showed not only the common elements of erosion identified in the heritage grammar, but also the special linguistic features caused by the transition from German-Russian to Russian-German inheritance. The influence of their parents language distinguishes them from other groups of Russian students, emphasizes the importance of studying not only childrens, but also their parents speech, as well as teaching standard Russian in the framework of non-formal education.

Older People in Germany During the COVID-19 Pandemic:The Least, the More, and the Most Affected

Older people have been identified as a particularly vulnerable group during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the question of how older people actually fared during the COVID-19 pandemic has only been sporadically addressed. This article aims to partly fill this gap by classifying subgroups of older people using Latent Class Analysis. Indicators used are: risk perception, safety behavior, and well-being. To predict subgroup membership, age, gender, living arrangement, children, chronic illness, conflict, socioeconomic status, and migration history are controlled for. The data analyzed stem from a phone survey among 491 older people (75–100 years) in Germany conducted in September/October 2020. Results show that three subgroups of older people – the least, the more and the most affected – can be formed based on their risk perception, safety behavior, and well-being, indicating the usefulness of these three constructs for identifying and studying older people particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it.

Independent Epidemic Patterns of HIV-1 CRF01_AE Lineages Driven by Mobile Population in Shenzhen, an Immigrant city of China

Shenzhen, a city with &gt; 12 million migrant population, may play a key role in the spread of HIV-1 in China. The transmission dynamics of CRF01_AE, a predominant subtype in Shenzhen, is a good model to characterize the impact of human mobility on HIV-1 epidemic locally and nationally. We used phylodynamic and phylogeographic methods to estimate the viral transmission dynamics and migration trajectory of variable lineages based on 1,423 CRF01_AE sequences in Shenzhen sampled between 2006 and 2015. Eleven lineages of CRF01_AE were detected in Shenzhen. Of those, four main lineages originated during the 1990s. The basic viral reproduction number (R0) of them ranged 1.96-3.92. The effective viral reproduction number (Re) of two lineages prevalent among heterosexuals/people who inject drugs had reduced &lt; 1 at the end of sampling, and the main sources were the intra-provincial immigrants (72%) for one and local residents of Shenzhen (91%) for another. Within two lineages among MSM, Re had been above or close to 1 at the end of sampling, and the immigrants from Jiangxi/Shaanxi and Hubei as sources accounted for 93% and 68% of all viral migration events, respectively. Moreover, no obvious recipients were found throughout the viral migration history for any lineage. Our findings demonstrate that HIV declining epidemic in Shenzhen coincided with the initiation of the interventions during the 2000s. However, the obvious differences of the epidemic patterns between lineages emphasize the importance of further targeting interventions and continued molecular tracing, focusing on high-risk transmission sources among MSM.

Speech and Language Therapy Service for Multilingual Children: Attitudes and Approaches across Four European Countries

Educational equality and the reduction of discrimination are among the UN’s Sustainability Goals. Previous studies as well as policy recommendations suggest that the extent to which these are implemented in the field of speech and language therapy for multilingual children depends on sufficient knowledge and material. To this end, an online survey was carried out with 300 Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) from Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, investigating their attitudes and approaches regarding the service provision for multilingual children. Their responses were analyzed taking the SLTs’ language background, experience, and country of origin into account. Results were interpreted in the context of country-specific SLT service-related policies and SLT training as well as migration history. There seems to be a gap between the SLTs’ knowledge about the specific requirements for providing Speech Language Therapy (SLT) for multilingual children and their common practice, which—despite the continuous need of further training—points to sufficient awareness but a lack of materials or resources. We found experience in working with multilingual children to be the most influential factor on attitudes and approaches towards multilingualism. This suggests the importance of improving pre-exam and early-career professional experience to foster SLTs’ development of mindful attitudes and appropriate approaches towards multilingualism in their clinical practice.

The Obliquity of HIP 67522 b: A 17 Myr Old Transiting Hot, Jupiter-sized Planet

HIP 67522 b is a 17 Myr old, close-in (P orb = 6.96 days), Jupiter-sized (R = 10 R ⊕) transiting planet orbiting a Sun-like star in the Sco–Cen OB association. We present our measurement of the system’s projected orbital obliquity via two spectroscopic transit observations using the CHIRON spectroscopic facility. We present a global model that accounts for large surface brightness features typical of such young stars during spectroscopic transit observations. With a value of ∣ λ ∣ = 5.8 − 5.7 + 2.8 ° it is unlikely that this well-aligned system is the result of a high-eccentricity-driven migration history. By being the youngest planet with a known obliquity, HIP 67522 b holds a special place in contributing to our understanding of giant planet formation and evolution. Our analysis shows the feasibility of such measurements for young and very active stars.