Trypanosomatids in Phlebotomine Sand Flies (Diptera: Phlebotominae) From Anthropic and Sinantropic Landscapes in a Rural Settlement in the Brazilian Amazon

Trypanosomatids (Kinetoplastida:Trypanosomatidae) protozoa are a diverse group of obligate parasites. The genera Trypanosoma and Leishmania are the most studied because of their medical importance. This work aims to evaluate the effects of anthropization processes on the composition of the phlebotomine sand fly fauna and the natural infection by Trypanosomatids, with emphasis on Leishmania. At all 3,186 sand flies were collected, distributed in 13 genera and 52 species, being Ny. umbratilis the most abundant species. There was no difference in the diversity between canopy and soil environments. The species abundance and richness were higher in the forest environment while species diversity and evenness were highest in the forest edge. The ITS1 region was used by PCR-RFLP to identify the fragment profiles of Leishmania species, followed by genetic sequencing. Here were analyzed 100 pools of female sand flies, being six positive for DNA parasite. PCR-RFLP fragment patterns similar to Endotrypanum sp. were observed in Nyssomyia anduzei, Psychodopygus amazonensis and Lutzomyia gomezi, and those fragments similar to Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis were observed in Bichromomyia flaviscutellata. ITS1 sequencing confirmed the presence of Leishmania sp. in Bi. flaviscutellata, and Leishmania (Viannia) naiffi in Ny. anduzei, Psychodopygus amazonensis, and Lu. gomezi. This is the first record of Lu. gomezi and Ps. amazonensis infection by L. naiffi in the State of Amazonas. These results show the trypanosomatid infection in sandflies from different landscapes in a rural settlement, and the finding of species infected with L.(V.) naiffi suggest that they can develop a role in the transmission cycle of leishmaniasis.

Fortified Villages of Mediaeval Byzantium: Town or Village?

The search for a model rural settlement – “village” is the common position in interpretation of the problem on the “fortified villages” of Mediaeval Byzantium. On the one hand, the multiformity of the settlement’s types in the Byzantine Middle Ages is conditioned by climatic and local natural specificities. On the other hand, the patterns of rural settlement are predetermined by the social and economic structure and development of all the other sides of life of habitants of the village, including a dwelling. The tasks of the defence of population foreordain a necessary of construction of fortresses (“kastra”) and their deployment into defensive system. It quite corresponds to the processes, developed in many south regions of Mediaeval Europe, where the building of fortifications, transmuting the village into the fortress – “castrum”, becomes as rule. The building of the fortresses and other fortifications in towns and rural settlements of Mediaeval Byzantium creates a trend, designating the degree of necessary defence of its habitants. This tendency makes itself felt in Late Byzantium. The guarded by walls rural settlements here were not unique. The “pyrgoi” and so named “dwelling towers” were built everywhere, these served as refuges for villagers in the ordeals of the war years. The appellation “pyrgos” turned into synonym of the designation of the rural settlement, as a landlord’s state, and a substitute of term “chorion”. The “pyrgoi” appeared practically as “keypoints” of every description of the territories of large landownings, the passed ways and the households arranged there. The system of fortifications as a defence of whole region was deployed in Byzantine country, where the rural settlement has significant position. The article consists of the Introduction (“Introduction. The Village and key Problems of its Studying”), three parts (“The fortified Settlement”, “The rural Fortifications”, “The Pyrgos”) and the part “The Results and Conclusion. The Common Trends”, where the main problems are examined, touching the study of the Mediaeval Byzantine village, pyrgoi and common regularities of fortification of Late Byzantine village.

Development of the Land Transport System of the Rural Settlement Network in the Tomsk Uyezd (District-Union) in the Second Half of the 19th Century and the First Quarter of the 20th Century

The process of development of the land transport system — postal and zemstvo tracts, volost roads, railway communication is considered. The degree of influence of the transport component on the development of the rural settlement network of the Tomsk Uyezd (district-union) in the Tomsk Province in the second half of the 19th — first quarter of the 20th century is estimated. The author shows the role and significance of the Moscow-Siberian, Tomsk-Kuznetsk, Tomsk-Barnaul, Barnaul-Kolyvansky, Narymsky tracts, local volost roads, as well as the Trans-Siberian Railway on the process of formation of a group of rural settlements of peasant and “foreign” volosts of the Tomsk Uyezd. The work focused on cartographic materials of the corresponding period, as well as a schematic cartographic model of the key transport communications of the northern, central and southern groups of parishes. According to the author, the basis of the land transport network was formed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. In the 1920s, there was only a modernization of the already established lines of communication.

Does Coal Mining Have Effects on Land Use Changes in a Coal Resource-Based City? Evidence from Huaibei City on the North China Plain

Continuous coal mining results in dramatic regional land use change, and significantly influences the sustainable development of coal resource-based cities. Present studies pay little attention to the characteristics and regularities of land use change in coal resource-based cities, caused by underground coal mining in high groundwater areas. Based on the Landsat remote sensing images of 1999, 2000, 2010, and 2018 of Huaibei City, a typical coal resource-based city of a high ground water area on the North China Plain, this paper applies the dynamic degree and transition matrix of land use to analyze the land use change characteristics, and identify the regularity between land use type and coal mining production in this coal resource-based city. Results show that the land use change in the research area presents an overall characteristic of a constant increase in water area, urban construction land, and rural settlement land, and a continuous decrease in cultivated land. Cultivated land is converted into a water area, urban construction land, and rural settlement land, and rural settlement land and cultivated land are converted bidirectionally. The land use change in this coal resource-based city demonstrates significant reliance on coal resources, and coal mining is significantly related to the area of cultivated land, water area, and rural settlement land, which demonstrates that continuous large-scale coal mining results in damage to cultivated land, a decrease in rural settlement land, and an increase in water area. The research result contributes to the sustainable land use of coal resource-based cities.

Evaluation Model for Sustainable Development of Settlement System

Sustainability of settlement systems is of greatest relevance in political and socio-economic stability all over the world. The development effectiveness of a rural settlement system involves the solution of a number of matters in sustainable development, namely social welfare and environmental balance, economy and industry development, improving the pipeline and utility infrastructure, and improving the efficiency of the decision-making process. Currently, the sustainability of a rural settlement system is one of the key objectives in regional planning in post-Soviet countries. The introduction of new tools for assessing and managing the settlement system development is particularly true for Belarus, as a country with a strong focus on agricultural industry. The research aim was to develop and approve a model for evaluating the settlement system development. The research methods were based on the complex and interdisciplinary approaches, namely the system-element approach, the comparative analysis, spatial and mathematical modelling, factor analysis, and the cartographic analysis. The model was approved by practical consideration for evaluating the development of the analogue object at the local planning level. The practical relevance of the research is associated with the potential for using the model as a significant tool in land use planning. The model employs both quantitative and qualitative evaluation to obtain alternative solutions towards sustainable development of rural areas. Another advantage of the model is its multifunctionality, which enables: (1) sustainability evaluation of a settlement system, (2) establishment of regional planning priority areas, and (3) development of specific measures for ensuring the sustainability of a regional settlement system and its elements.

Multi-Dimensional Feature Recognition and Policy Implications of Rural Human–Land Relationships in China

Rural decline has become an indisputable fact and a global issue. As a developing country, China is simultaneously facing unprecedented rapid urbanization and severe rural decline. The coordinated development of its rural human–land relationship is therefore of great significance for ensuring the country’s food security and achieving both rural revitalization and sustainable development. Yet, the related research on this complex subject has mostly focused on a single element: rural settlements. Since studies of the rural human–land relationship tend to only discuss the coordinated change in rural populations vis-à-vis rural settlement area, their degree of spatial matching and intensive utilization level of rural settlements has been largely overlooked. To rectify this imbalance, using data on rural populations and rural settlement area in counties of Shandong Province in 2009 and 2018, this paper applied the methods of per capita rural settlement area, the Theil index, and Tapio’s decoupling model to quantitatively identify the rural human–land relationship along three dimensions: intensive utilization level, spatial matching degree, and change coordination degree. The results revealed that the per capita rural settlement area in Shandong Province was as high as 212.18 m2/person in 2018, which exceeded the standard to varying degrees in all cities, having an overall geographical pattern of being high in the north and low in the south. The Theil index for all cities was small, which indicates that the spatial matching between rural population and rural settlements is high. To sum up, there are small differences in the utilization of rural settlements among cities, and their extensive utilization of rural settlements is a common phenomenon. In addition, the relationship between the changes in the rural population size and rural settlement area corresponded to a discordant state, in the form of strong negative decoupling, expansive negative decoupling, and expansive coupling; however, among them, the strong negative decoupling type was the dominant type. It is worth noting that all of these three types will exacerbate the extensive utilization of rural settlements. Accordingly, this paper proposes policies and measures, such as the paid withdrawal of rural homesteads, an expanded scope of homestead transfer, cross-regional “increasing versus decreasing balance”, classified promotion of rural revitalization, and improved village planning.

The Landscape of Węgajty Theatre

The alternative culture in Poland formed between the late 1970s and the second half of the 1990s. In this period many artists were moving from cities into the countryside in order to find space for independent and experimental art. Among these new settlers were Erdmute and Wacław Sobaszek, who made their home in a small rural settlement of Węgajty in the 1980s. The Sobaszeks converted an abandoned farm into a stage and soon their undertaking became one of the most prominent alternative theatres in Poland. This article explores intersections of the Sobaszeks's art and rural landscape through the lens of humanistic geography, anthropology and philosophy. The purpose of the article is to reveal a deep attachment of the artists to local, rural space and to examine how it shapes their performances and community building. In the article, the Węgajty Theatre is recognized as ‘landscape theatre’, a term which attempts to emphasize a bond between the theatre and the natural environment.

Assessment of the extent of possible damage by mudfl ows to the Verkhne-Chegemskoye rural settlement (Chegem River basin, Central Caucasus)

Рассматриваются вопросы обеспечения безопасности территорий горных поселений и объектов инфраструктуры в условиях изменения в результате потепления климата гляциальной обстановки в верховьях селеносных рек. Представлены результаты проведенного исследования, которые показывают, что селевые риски и опасности в сложившейся обстановке не только останутся актуальными в обозримом будущем, но и, по всей вероятности, возрастут. The issues of ensuring the security of the territories of mountain settlements and infrastructure facilities, in the conditions of changes, as a result of climate warming, of the glacial situation in the upper reaches of mudfl ow rivers are considered. The results of the conducted research are presented, which show that mudfl ow risks and dangers in the current situation will not only remain relevant in the foreseeable future, but also, in all probability, will increase.