Selection of Monitoring points for the Number and Infectivity of the Main Vectors of West Nile Virus in the Volgograd Region

Relevance. Since 1999, the incidence of West Nile fever has been recorded in the Volgograd region. The main vectors of West Nile virus in Russia are Cx mosquitoes. pipiens L. and Cx. modestus Fic. An objective assessment of the entomological situation and infection rate of these species within the framework of epidemiological surveillance of West Nile fever is possible only in biotopes with sufficiently high numbers of mosquitoes; therefore, the choice of sampling points is an urgent task. Purpose of the study. Analysis of the West Nile virus main vectors - mosquitoes Cx. pipiens L. and Cx. modestus Fic. average number, occurrence and infection rate at the various open biotopes of the Volgograd region to justify the choice of optimal points for entomological monitoring. Materials and methods. The catching and accounting of the mosquitoes’ number was carried out in 2015–2019 from May to August in the third decade of each month in a floodplain forest, at a personal plot, a summer cottage and on bank of water body. To catch mosquitoes, automatic traps Mosquito Magnet Executive and LovKom-1 were used. The accounting unit was the number of mosquitoes collected in both traps per trap-night. The average number, the index of occurrence and infection rate were determined by generally accepted methods. Detection of West Nile virus RNA in samples of mosquito pool suspensions was performed by RT-PCR using the AmpliSense WNV-FL reagent kit. The results were statistically processed using Microsoft Excel 2016 (Microsoft Corporation, USA). Results. In the 2015-2019 period, 17468 mosquitoes of the genus Culex: 8258 species – Cx. pipiens L., 9210 species – Cx. modestus Fic. were collected in over than 80 trap nights at the selected stationary points of the Volgograd region. Average number of Cx. pipiens L. was: in the floodplain forest – 4.6 individuals per 1 trap-night; at the personal plot – 183.9; at the summer cottage – 30.2; on the bank of water body – 194.3. Average number of Cx. modestus Fic. was: in the floodplain forest – 5.2 individuals per 1 trapnight; at the personal plot – 8.3; at the summer cottage – 2.5;on the bank of water body – 444.6. Occurrence index Cx. pipiens L. was highon the bank of water body and at the personal plot (47.1% and 44.5%, respectively), much lower – at the summer cottage (7.3%) and in the floodplain forest (1.1%). Level of WNV infection among Cx. pipiens L.on a personal plot was 5.4%, on a summer cottage – 3.6%,on the bank of water body – 2.2%. No infected samples were found among Cx. pipiens L. collected from the floodplain forest. WNV RNA in samples from mosquitoes Cx. modestus Fic. found only in individuals caughton the bank of water body. Their infection rate was 1.2%. Discussion. Ecological plasticity of Cx. pipiens L. mosquitoes allows them to live in settlements and near water bodies. Mosquitoes of the species Cx. modestus Fic. do not fly away from ponds, breeding places. Conclusion. High numbers and occurrence of the Cx. pipiens L. mosquitoes were observed at a personal plot within the city andon the bank of water body, Cx. modestus Fic. –on the bank of water body. WNV RNA positive samples were detected from mosquitoes collected at the personal plot, the summer cottage andon the bank of water body. To monitor the number and infection rate among Cx. pipiens L., points of registration and sampling should be placed in open stationson personal plots in settlements, banks of water bodies and summer cottages. We recommend to carry entomological monitoring for Cx. modestus Fic. out onlyon the banks of water bodies along the water's edge in reed thickets. The placement of the main WNV vectors number and infection rate monitoring points in the floodplain forest is not advisable.

TECHNOLOGICAL FLOW OF PERFORMANCE OF WORKS ON PREPARATION OF DOCUMENTS FOR REGISTRATION OF GARDEN HOUSES

To maintain and develop the modern digital economy of the Russian Federation in an unstable economic situation, it is important to provide continuous replenishment of the budget, a significant part of which is formed by collecting property taxes from the owners of real estate. Therefore, the task arises of fully filling out the Unified State Register of Real Estate with data on such real estate objects. Analyzing the information of the unified state register of real estate, it can be noted that the completeness and correctness of the data on recorded and registered objects in the city territory do not bring us any questions. At the same time, the analysis of data on real estate located within the boundaries of summer cottage and horticultural partnerships allowed us to conclude that there is a large number of land plots and garden houses located on them that had not been taken into account or registered with registry errors. In this regard, the Government of the Russian Federation is implementing a set of measures, one of the most significant is the introduction of a “summer cottage amnesty”, which allows cadastral registration and registration of rights to garden and individual residential buildings located on lands intended for gardening and horticulture, as well as previously recorded land, in a simplified procedure. At the same time, in 2020, a number of amendments were adopted and changed the established procedure for preparing documents by cadastral engineers. Therefore, the relevant topic is the coverage of the features of the preparation of technical plans based on the accumulated practical experience. In this regard, the goal of the study is to prepare a technological scheme for cadastral engineers to provide cadastral registration and registration of rights to garden houses, which will allow them to optimize their work. The study is practical, aimed at increasing the efficiency of cadastral engineers and reduction of errors in the preparation of technical documentation.

The decadent on plain-air: Scenes from dacha’s life of Valery Bryusov

Famous first of all as “the poet of the town” Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov (1873–1924) was rarely mentioned among famous literary dachniks of Silver Age, and his poems depicting Russian nature are not well known or appreciated. Bryusov didn’t know either peasants’ or country squires’ life, but living on dacha (hired summer cottage in the suburbs) took a significant place in his biography and literary work. For Bry- usov dacha was neither a town as a usual place of living, nor a Town as a “world”, and DOI: 10.22455/978-5-9208-0627-7-239-250 240 also not a country as opposite to a town. Dacha was the place to continue comfortable town’s life on plain-air, not really separated from a town because it was hired in the suburbs, usually near a railway station, so it was possible to go there and back again in the same day or to spent a nignt in the town. This article deals with known facts of dacha’s life of the Bryusov family in the suburbs of Moscow. The study may be continued using unpublished sources to verify details, including their dacha’s addresses.

The image of the summer cottage in the works of I.S. Shmelev and V.A. Nikiforov-Volgin

The article analyzes the image of the summer cottage (dacha) in the four essays (1925–1935) by V. Nikiforov-Volgin and in the epopee “Sun of the Dead” (1923) by I. Shmelev. The essays describe the summer cottages near the Narva Bay. Their abandonment is a sign, that the old Russian life, everyday life, is leaving modern Estonia. The epopee depicts the summer cottages of the “Professorial corner” near Alushta, devastated by the Red Terror in the Crimea. The image is animated, the fate of the cottage associated with the fate of its owner. The destruction aggregated to the size of the universe, becomes a sign of the victory of Chaos over the Cosmos.

Dachas on permafrost: the creation of nature among Arctic Russian city-dwellers

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the phenomenon of the post-Soviet Russian summer cottage, dacha, in the Arctic. We take an ethnographic comparative perspective for contributing to the refinement of our understanding of human-environment relations and urban anthropology of incomer-northerners, those with roots somewhere outside the north. Evidence from fieldwork in Murmansk Oblast, West Siberia and Sakha-Yakutia shows how for a socialist and post-socialist northern urban livelihood, the dacha has become an indispensable counterpart of life in the urban concrete housing blocks for most Russian northern inhabitants. We explore in this article the importance of dacha for northern identity of urban dwellers, by analysing spheres of individual and collective agency, freedom, attachment to place and land. We conclude that the dacha movement has filled a gap that had been left open by Soviet Arctic urbanisation: a dacha has come to stand for a human-environment relationship that gradually re-introduces rurality to urban life in the Russian Arctic so permanently that dacha places start losing their seasonal character.

Attitudes towards fishery and conservation of the Saimaa ringed seal in Lake Pihlajavesi, Finland

The Saimaa ringed seal (Phoca hispida saimensis) is the only endemic mammal in Finland. At present the total population size of this subspecies is c. 250 individuals. Because the seal feeds on fish, and because of its value particularly as a source of meat, oil and leather, hunting was allowed until 1955. Conservation of the seal and some of its lairing areas by means of fishing restrictions requires the adoption of new attitudes. Semi-structured interviews elucidated the basis of conflicts concerning protection of the Saimaa ringed seal and fishing in Lake Pihlajavesi, Finland, where one of the most viable populations of the seal lives. Socio-economic position largely determined personal attitudes towards conservation; local landowners felt that their use of natural resources was restricted, while summer cottage owners wanted strict conservation. Commercial fishers considered the protection of the ringed seal unnecessary and a waste of money. Conservation biologists believed that the proposed actions were necessary to reduce the risk of extinction. Attitudes were also widely influenced by culture and social backgrounds. Those influenced by the traditional Finnish peasant/nature relationship had a different vision of nature from the conservationists who were influenced by modern science. Questions raised by the protection of the Saimaa ringed seal form an example of transition of an environmental conflict to larger-scale criticism of ongoing structural transformation in society. It is obvious that if nature conservation requires the approval of all social groups, it needs a change of authoritarian measures and acceptance of local knowledge, which should be used alongside scientific knowledge in management. Nature conservation policy led by specialists and authorities could be seen as widening the gap between urban and rural areas.

Impressions of IAU-Symposium 200

Hans Zinnecker has asked me to express my impressions of this conference. My first impression here was this very modern lecture room. It contains no blackboard any more, and instead very modern tools for projecting slides and films. The room also has a supply of fresh air at EVERY seat of this room, so nobody has an excuse any more to fall asleep. When I heard the lectures on Monday, I had the feeling the whole universe was made out of binaries only. This impression reminds me of a story I have heard about Bohr and Pauli: Pauli visited Bohr at his summer cottage one day for a discussion on Quantum Theory. When Pauli approached the cottage, he saw a horse-shoe over the entrance door - a sign of good luck as you may know. Pauli, a very critical person, asked Bohr: “Do you believe in it, and that it will bring luck to you?” Bohr answered: “No, I don't believe in it. But I was told that it helps even if one does not believe in it.” This story shows you the deeply positive way of how physicists think, and may therefore also encourage us to solve our problem.