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Context: A geographic information system (GIS) is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data. Department of Community Medicine was tasked with SARS-CoV2-IgG antibody serosurvey by Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, sampling 5000 people spread over an area of 181 sq. km. There were no real-time mapping apps available for field surveys. Aims: Our aim was to develop an easy-to-use GIS system with a shallow learning curve and real-time mapping for field surveys which could be easily deployed. Materials and Methods: The program was developed using PHP hosted on a virtual private server and using Google Maps Application Programming Interface (API). The field investigator shares location through telegram to a bot which parses message, decodes geo-coordinates, team information, and time stamp. The program then passes the information for further processing, viewing, or analyzing. The map is generated using Google Maps API at user request. The teams are segregated using color coding. Results: The data can be accessed at http://test.techlabel.in/. Over 638 households from which samples were taken were plotted by the data from ten teams over ten days. Real-time feedbacks were possible as the study progressed. Households plotted on the maps were verified by the respective field investigators after the study had completed and showed good accuracy. Conclusion: The introduction of GIS software such as ours could bring about a positive impact on small- and medium-scale field researches. The quality and internal validity of small-scale field researches could certainly be improved by using GIS programs.

The demand for innovative solutions to address urban complexities, with accessibility being crucial for sustainable environments, is growing globally. As demographic shifts and disability prevalence evolve, understanding spatial dynamics affecting accessibility becomes urgent. The research hypothesis suggests that investigating both physical and perceived accessibility realms reveals critical insights into challenges individuals face in public spaces. This study explores public participation methods of different nature to evaluate their effectiveness and complementarity in portraying perceived accessibility in urban spaces. A multi-method approach, integrating participant observation tools like self-completion questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with non-participant technology-driven data sources like Foursquare, Twitter, and Google Places, was employed. The analysis focused on two areas in Alicante, Spain. Findings emerge in four phases: (1) identifying perceived accessible public spaces via questionnaires, (2) discerning influential parameters from interviews, (3) conducting a comprehensive analysis incorporating quantitative and qualitative methods, and (4) establishing correlations between parameters gathered through the methods. The results underscore the importance of diverse public participation methods in urban planning, offering a comprehensive framework for future research to improve accessibility and inclusivity in urban environments. Understanding the relationship between physical urban features and citizens' perceptions advocates targeted interventions for improved accessibility and socially inclusive environments.

The care sector has become one of the test beds for developing robotic technologies, which have been promised to mitigate problems with aging populations and labor shortages. Despite these promises, the practical application of such technologies have been met with limited success. Apart from technical limitations, other challenges exist in the way we approach designing these technologies. Critical to the development in the care sector is understanding the complexity of the contexts, the needs and goals of diverse actors, and how these are socio-materially scaffolded. This paper presents a study conducted at the intersection of a value sensitive design and speculative design to understand these sensitivities. Based on the data collected in interviews (n = 6) and card workshops (n = 6) from care workers and residents in mobile care and care home contexts in Austria, we developed five themes capturing situated practices and understandings of good care as built on trust-developing routines, negotiations between different actors, affective and reciprocal dimension of care, care worker self-care, and material mediations. Subsequently, we created six speculative vignettes which serve as rhetorical devices to emphasize the tensions that arise with any technological intervention entering and reshaping existing care practices and relations. We argue that our approach can support robot designers to develop a rich understanding of the values and tensions in the specific context under study from the before design and development begin.

This paper presents an overview of the ethnolinguistic expedition (July 2023) to the Greeks of the North-Eastern Black Sea region (Anapa, Vityazevo, Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk). The modern Greek population of this area was mainly formed by the migrants from the Ottoman Empire, who moved to the Black Sea coast in the 19th–20th centuries. The main motives for the resettlement were persecution by the Ottoman authorities and, subsequently, the genocide of the Greek population. The coastal towns of Russia repopulated by the Greeks (such as Anapa and Gelendzhik) once were the Ancient poleis. The Ancient Greek past of the region therefore became an important element of the group identity, which is emphasized both in the names of the Greek societies and newspapers, and in their visual content. The Greek population of the Krasnodar krai received governmental support from the newly formed Soviet state during the 1920–1930s, but this brief period of recognition was soon interrupted by mass repressions and deportations. The main goal of the field research was to record the vocabulary of funeral and memorial rituals. The Pontic dialect vocabulary in this region coincides with one recorded in previous expeditions during 2022–2023. Among the lexemes which were not previously recorded is the term kanona instead of the common Pontic lexeme kokia, both stand for ‘ritual dish from grain’. We also recorded the lexeme Charon for ‘death’. In general, the Greek presence in the region is noticeable primarily in the visual landscape: recognizable Greek fonts of signs as well as the names of cafes, hotels and other businesses hint at the origins of their owners. The main actors promoting Greek culture in the region are cultural societies where the population can learn modern Greek language and traditional dances.

Introduction. The article examines some 2023 narratives recorded in Kalmykia from informants who had recovered from various ailments with the aid of folk healers or who had witnessed such facts. The recorded accounts contain information about individuals with folk medical knowledge and skills, about diagnostic techniques and treatment methods, about medicines of plant, animal and mineral origin — the stories of miraculous healing being the leitmotif of those oral testimonies. Goals. The study investigates individual facts of traditional medicine preserved in the people’s memories in the form of tales, recollections, stories considered hereinafter as narratives. Methods. So, the word ‘narrative’ denote a text recorded at the time of its oral reproduction by the informant, a summary of past events in the time sequence and to the extent how it was preserved in the memory of each particular narrator. The recording procedures involved a number of practical methods instrumental in conducting informal interviews and observations to obtain new empirical material and answers to specific questions pertaining to the research topic. Results. Our efforts aimed at identifying the desired material revealed that various regions of Kalmykia are still represented by efficient individuals possessing certain traditional medicine knowledge and skills. The recorded oral narratives testify to real cases of ‘patients’ who had turned to folk healers with health disorders, describe a variety of employed treatment methods that did prove success. The paper suggests folk knowledge about ancient healing methods has not lost its significance to date, and can successfully coexist with contemporary academic medicine. The warnings and prohibitions presented in oral narratives are as important nowadays to preserve, develop, and transmit traditions relating to human health.

The article considers the issues of applying specific research methods in forensic construction examinations. The authors propose a classification of methods and means based on various criteria, including the impact on objects and the principles of operation. The specifics of their use in field and laboratory research have also been considered. The authors pay special attention to the use of drones for expert inspections of construction sites and associated land plots. In addition, the following methods have been presented in detail: physical and mechanical (elemental, chemical, mineralogical, phase analysis), physical (thermal analysis method), physical and chemical (instrumental methods), mechanical non-destructive methods (methods based on Fizdel, Kashkarov and Schmidt hammers), mechanical destructive methods (using test presses, bursting machines, tensile testing devices), acoustic (ultrasonic, ground-penetrating radar), electro-physical (magnetic, electric, and electromagnetic), radiation (X-ray and gamma-ray), radio wave, thermal, holographic, computer tomography, and calculation methods. It is shown that a timely replenishment of a construction-expert’s instrumental arsenal with modern methods and techniques of examination based on the latest scientific and technological advances guarantees sustainable development of forensic construction examinations as one of the most demanded areas of expert activity in Russian legal proceedings.

The Chaudière River in Quebec, Canada, is well known for its frequent ice jam flooding events. As part of a larger watershed research program, an extensive field campaign has been carried out during the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 winter seasons to quantify the spatiotemporal characteristics of the break-up processes along the Chaudière River. The results showed that mid-winter ice jams have formed in the Intermediate Chaudière and persisted until spring break-up. Spring break-ups were initiated in the Upper Chaudière, and then, almost simultaneously, in the Intermediate and Lower Chaudière reaches. The break-up in the Intermediate Chaudière usually lasts longer than the rest of the river since the slope is much milder, and the occurrence of mid-winter ice jams has been seen to delay the ice clearing. A reach-by-reach characterization of the cumulative degree day of thawing and discharge thresholds for the onset of break-up has been identified. During the field campaign, 51 ice jams were documented together with their location, length, date of formation, and the morphological feature triggering jam formation. Break-up patterns, hydrometeorological thresholds of ice mobilization, and ice jam sites identified in this study can serve as a basis for the implementation of an early warning system. HIGHLIGHTS Effect of mid-winter jamming and the importance of monitoring the entire ice season has been highlighted.; A reach-by-reach break-up sequence of the entire Chaudière River has been documented.; The dependency of the onset of break-up on threshold levels of cumulative degree day of thawing and discharge was assessed.; Fifty-one ice jams were characterized together with the geomorphological features that initiated their formation.;

Purpose. The authors aim to substantiate a new technology for the construction of an escalator tunnel in Ukraine based on the results of field studies performed as part of surveying measurements during the construction of the inclined run of the Dnipro metro. Methodology. The article analyzes the main technology of the escalator tunnel construction, which was based on the development of an inclined working from top to bottom with preliminary preparation of the massif by means of artificial soil freezing. Several cases of application of the bottom-up escalator tunnel construction method using the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM), which is successfully used in metro of other countries, are considered. The main principle of the method is that a shotcrete system is used as a temporary (primary) support, and a reinforcement system with monolithic concrete is used as a permanent support. Findings. The authors analyzed the peculiarities of the escalator tunnel excavation of the Dnipro metro by the Turkish company «Limak» in 2017–2018. It was noted that the excavation was carried out from the bottom up in conditions of strong rock (plagiogranite) using drilling and blasting operations. The characteristic results of field studies during drilling and blasting operations in the process of developing the calotte are analyzed. On the basis of these data, it is possible to trace the tendency to the appearance of minor overburden during sinking. The value of the deformed state (displacement of the contour of the designed casing) is within the normative limits, which indicates the effective use of these works within the framework of NATM. It is proved that in the conditions of military operations, the technology of building an escalator tunnel from the bottom up is a guarantee of the safety of workers and equipment. Originality. The results of the scientific work presented in the article make it possible to determine the level of deformed state during the excavation of the escalator tunnel of the Dnipro metro in hard rocks. During the field studies, the dependences of deformation of plagiogranite in the inclined bore were obtained. Practical value. An alternative technology for the construction of a bottom-up escalator tunnel based on NATM with the provision of normative deformation of the surrounding rock mass is substantiated.

Indoor transitional space is a popular buffer space between buildings’ interior and exterior environments nowadays. Maintaining a comfortable indoor thermal comfort for transitional spaces often poses challenges to building designers and engineers. Some existing studies have already explored this topic, but they are mainly carried out in academic buildings. There are, however, still many other types of buildings containing transitional space, including entertainment buildings such as theaters and tourist centers. To provide useful information about people’s thermal requirements in the transitional space of entertainment buildings, this study has adopted both field measurement and questionnaire methods. Additionally, the same method has been repeated in an academic setting as well, so the results can be compared with existing studies. By comparing participants’ thermal requirements, it indicates that people’s thermal requirements are significantly impacted by operative temperature, which can give architects suggestions to improve the thermal environment in transitional spaces. In addition, in transitional spaces, people had a high tolerance for their thermal environment, especially participants in entertainment buildings, who showed a fairly high thermal satisfaction rate of 96% in winter and 94% in summer, far beyond the rates of 89% and 73% in academic buildings. Combined with the analysis of participants’ thermal preferences and the reason people stay in transitional spaces, it implies a close relationship between participants’ thermal comfort differences and the function that transitional spaces provide.

Pathogenic microorganisms released onto the soil from point or diffuse sources represent a public health concern. They can be transported by rainwater that infiltrates into subsoil and reach the groundwater where they can survive for a long time and contaminate drinking water sources. As part of the SCA.Re.S. (Evaluation of Health Risk Related to the Discharge of Wastewater on the Soil) project, we reviewed a selection of field-scale studies that investigated the factors that influenced the fate of microorganisms that were transported from the ground surface to the groundwater. A total of 24 studies published between 2003 and 2022 were included in the review. These studies were selected from the PubMed and Web of Science databases. Microbial contamination of groundwater depends on complex interactions between human activities responsible for the release of contaminants onto the soil, and a range of environmental and biological factors, including the geological, hydraulic, and moisture characteristics of the media traversed by the water, and the characteristics and the viability of the microorganisms, which in turn depend on the environmental conditions and presence of predatory species. Enterococci appeared to be more resistant in the underground environment than thermotolerant coliforms and were suggested as a better indicator for detecting microbial contamination of groundwater.

Wildfire statistics report an increasing number of deaths, damages, and force society to face exceptional repair costs also due to secondary effects such as landslides, soils erosion and water quality problems. Literature agrees that the extent of the thermal disturbance of the soil due to wildfire is strongly dependent on fire intensity, on its duration and recurrence, as well as on fuel load, and soil properties. The unpredictability of these phenomena is one of the main challenges for scientists trying to study their characteristics. Degradation of the biological, chemical, and physical properties of forest soils due to the wildfires can reduce their capacity to function fully, with such effects either temporary or permanent. Direct measurements of the effects of these phenomena are difficult to be collected in the field, especially when the area affected by fires is a wilderness. In this study, controlled fires reproducing real conditions of wildfire affecting the Susa Valley (NW Italy) in 2017, which induced intense erosion and debris flows, have been monitored both above and below the ground surface. Moreover, numerical simulations based on real data increased the know-how to reproduce real changes on the underground. The small-scale fire simulations have allowed to verify how the depth affected by significant increases in temperatures is truly pellicular. Field tests show that at −2 cm depth temperature never exceed 70°C, meaning that it usually does not affect soil components or properties. The results of the study suggest that temperature variations in the subsoil are very localized and limited. If confirmed by further studies, the processes inferred to produce large ground effects on slopes after wildfires should be re-considered.

Despite long-term research on marine litter there is still insufficient knowledge about benthic organisms associated with these substrates, especially experimental studies and methodology of sampling for complex biofouling assemblages. To predict the fate of plastic in the marine environment it is necessary to know how long the macrolitter can stay in different sea matrices and what are the steps of colonisation by marine organisms. The experiments were carried out during various seasons in situ in the north-western Black Sea coastal area. Three new types of the experimental constructions intended for different durations of exposure (1–10 months) were designed. This article is the first to present the methodology and the results of complex experiments investigating marine fouling (from microalgae to meio- and macrofauna) on plastic surfaces. Overall, 28 genera of microalgae, 13 major groups of meiobenthos and 36 species of macrofauna were found on plastic during the experiments. The microalgae fouling was mainly formed by representatives of genus Cocconeis. The species composition of microalgae was common for the research area. The average density and biomass of meiobenthos were the greatest on I construction type after 8 months of exposure. In the total macrozoobenthos biomass and density of Bivalvia and Crustacea dominated, respectively. The obtained results on the interaction between fouling organisms and plastic materials in the marine environment form an important contribution to the understanding of the "good ecological status" of the sea. Additional studies based on the tested methodology could be used as a component of ecological monitoring during development and implementation of the approaches of the Marine Strategy (descriptor 10).

The clamor for agricultural resources is being pushed up by global climatic change and population growth. Such consequences are huge challenges to food security, wreaking havoc on the agroecosystem and causing biotic and abiotic stresses in plants, which in turn cause metabolic and physiological problems. Food legume crops contribute to food security in underdeveloped countries by playing an essential role in conservation farming methods. Drought has, nevertheless, exhibited a negative impact on productivity in many parts of the world. While water shortage is a significant abiotic barrier to legume crop output, drought impacts differ depending on drought timing, agro-climatic area, soil texture, and legume species. To resolve these concerns, we gathered data from the recent publications that revealed drought-induced changes in the production of monoculture legumes in field circumstances and examined it using meta-analysis approaches. Research findings revealed that the water cut’s quantity was strongly associated with a decrease in yield. However, the magnitude of the effect differed depending on the phenological stage of the drought and legume species. The legumes such as groundnut and lentil exhibited the lowest yield reductions (31.2% and 19.6% for groundnut and lentil, accordingly), however, the biggest yield drop (39.8%) facing the maximum water reduction was for faba bean.

This study proposes an approach to determine transport delays at unsignalized intersections, according to the theory of stationary Poisson flow and considering the priority of vehicle traffic in competing directions. The accuracy of the proposed approach was estimated by comparing the average values of delays of vehicles performing a left turn from a minor road and their actual values obtained as a result of processing data from field studies. The results of the accuracy evaluation at unsignalized intersections of non-equivalent roads indicate the obtained results' reliability, because the calculation error does not exceed 10 %, as well as the possibility of using the developed approach in the process of transport planning and unsignalized intersections modelling.

We have studied the degradation of both full-sized modules and minimodules with PERC and Al-BSF cell variations in fields while considering packaging strategies. We demonstrate the implementations of data-driven tools to analyze large numbers of modules and volumes of timeseries data to obtain the performance loss and degradation pathways. This data analysis pipeline enables quantitative comparison and ranking of module variations, as well as mapping and deeper understanding of degradation mechanisms. The best performing module is a half-cell PERC, which shows a performance loss rate (PLR) of −0.27 ± 0.12% per annum (%/a) after initial losses have stabilized. Minimodule studies showed inconsistent performance rankings due to significant power loss contributions via series resistance, however, recombination losses remained stable. Overall, PERC cell variations outperform or are not distinguishable from Al-BSF cell variations.

A one-day Nordic Concrete Research workshop on “Accelerated freeze-thaw testing of concrete” attracted approx. 30 participants. The workshop included presentations on various aspects, such as observed frost damage in the field and the importance of the temperature curve during testing as well as other interactions with the surroundings of the concrete. The workshop also included examples of recent research, which can improve our knowledge about the frost damage mechanism and therefore provide input to improving the standardised test methods. The present paper is a summary of the nine presentations and the discussion arising from the presentations.

The Michigan–Ontario Ozone Source Experiment (MOOSE) is an international air quality field study that took place at the US–Canada Border region in the ozone seasons of 2021 and 2022. MOOSE addressed binational air quality issues stemming from lake breeze phenomena and transboundary transport, as well as local emissions in southeast Michigan and southern Ontario. State-of-the-art scientific techniques applied during MOOSE included the use of multiple advanced mobile laboratories equipped with real-time instrumentation; high-resolution meteorological and air quality models at regional, urban, and neighborhood scales; daily real-time meteorological and air quality forecasts; ground-based and airborne remote sensing; instrumented Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs); isotopic measurements of reactive nitrogen species; chemical fingerprinting; and fine-scale inverse modeling of emission sources. Major results include characterization of southeast Michigan as VOC-limited for local ozone formation; discovery of significant and unaccounted formaldehyde emissions from industrial sources; quantification of methane emissions from landfills and leaking natural gas pipelines; evaluation of solvent emission impacts on local and regional ozone; characterization of the sources of reactive nitrogen and PM2.5; and improvements to modeling practices for meteorological, receptor, and chemical transport models.

Abstract We studied the natural history knowledge (NHK) of students (18–19 years), considering the salience of nature expressed through the knowledge of names of organisms, routes for knowledge transmission and acquisition and the potential of specific taxa to represent a student's overall knowledge. We report a 2‐year study of the NHK of 149 UK‐resident first‐year biology students surveyed by means of a free‐listing exercise, facilitating the assessment of salience, prior to participation in a residential field course run by the University of Oxford. Each year, students anonymously completed a questionnaire asking them to name any five species in each of five taxonomic groups (birds, trees, mammals, butterflies and wildflowers) found wild in the British Isles, also stating if those named were native or introduced. Metadata were collected on the students' background and sources of knowledge (e.g. family, teachers, etc.). Of the five taxonomic groups, birds were the best known by the students, while butterflies were the most poorly known group. However, although asked for names at species level, while 94% of students could name five British bird taxa, only 55.7% named them at species level, many giving folk generics such as ‘duck’ or ‘seagull’ instead. For butterflies, only 12.8% of students correctly named five British species, and 47% named none. Family influences, self‐motivation and knowledge of birds, rather than formal education, best predicted students’ overall NHK. While urban/rural residency had a small effect on NHK, it strongly influenced the relative importance of other factors. Factor analysis showed that NHK was best represented by knowledge of birds. Furthermore, the bird species named predicted students’ total NHK as well as the students’ knowledge of birds. Asked to name their favourite bird, students with family influence were significantly more likely to name native species. We describe the complex interplay between context, family and formal education in developing nature salience; roles which we define as nature ‘advocacy’. In the urban context, the advocacy of family and teachers was essential to engage young people with nature, while this was not so in a rural context. We briefly consider the implications of our study for natural history education going forward. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

We compared a bead RNA extraction method with a one-tube method that required only a heat block and ice. RNA was first extracted from liver samples from nine rabbits dying from rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus 2 (RHDV2) using magnetic beads, and RT-PCR was used to detect RHDV2 sequence. Following freezing, RNA was extracted a second time using the SwiftX™ Swabs Viral RNA Extraction Reagent. RHDV2 was detected in all nine samples. Cycle threshold values were higher in the RT-PCR following SwiftX extraction (mean: 3.79), indicating that the second extraction method resulted in approximately a 1 log10 reduction in sensitivity. A second freeze–thaw for the samples and less tissue extracted using SwiftX may have contributed additionally to the loss in sensitivity.

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is among the most relevant and widespread immunosuppressive agents, which can severely damage poultry farming by causing direct losses, predisposing the host to secondary diseases and reducing the efficacy of vaccination protocols against other infections. IBDV has thus been the object of intense control activities, largely based on routine vaccination. However, the need for protecting animals from the infection in the first period of the production cycle, when the bursa susceptibility is higher, clashes with the blanketing effect of maternally derived antibodies. To overcome this issue, other strategies have been developed besides live attenuated vaccines, including vector vaccines and immune complex (icx) ones. The present study aims to investigate, in field conditions, the efficacy of these approaches in preventing IBDV infection in laying chickens vaccinated with either live attenuated, vector or immune complex (icx) vaccines. For this purpose, a multicentric study involving 481 farms located in 11 European countries was organized and IBDV infection diagnosis and strain characterization was performed at 6 weeks of age using a molecular approach. Vaccine strains were commonly detected in flocks vaccinated with live or icx vaccines. However, a significantly higher number of field strains (characterized as very virulent IBDVs) was detected in flocks vaccinated with vector vaccines, suggesting their lower capability of preventing bursal colonization. Different from vector vaccines, live and icx ones have a marked bursal tropism. It can thus be speculated that vaccine virus replication in these sites could limit vvIBDV replication by direct competition or because of a more effective activation of innate immunity. Although such different behavior doesn't necessarily affect clinical protection, further studies should be performed to evaluate if vvIBDV replication could still be associated with subclinical losses and/or for viral circulation in a “vaccinated environment” could drive viral evolution and favor the emergence of vaccine-escape variants.

Electrochromic smart windows are promising for green buildings due to energy efficiency, long optical memory effect, and tunable optical transmission. However, their wide application in buildings is impeded by challenges in scalability, cost‐effectiveness, and limited optical contrast. Quantitative field study of energy savings enabled by electrochromic smart windows in buildings is also lacking. Herein, with the established inkjet printing procedures, electrochromic smart windows (900 cm2) are fabricated. With large optical contrast (≈60%), fast switching kinetics (tc = 43 s, tb = 70 s), and long optical memory retention (transmittance

Ethiopia is a major producer of durum wheat in sub-Saharan Africa. However, its production is prone to drought stress as it is fully dependent on rain, which is erratic and unpredictable. This study aimed to detect marker-trait associations (MTAs) and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to indices. Six drought tolerance indices, i.e., drought susceptibility index (DSI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), relative drought index (RDI), stress tolerance index (STI), tolerance index (TOL), and yield stability index (YSI) were calculated from least-square means (lsmeans) of grain yield (GY) and traits significantly (p < 0.001) correlated with grain yield (GY) under field drought stress (FDS) and field non-stress (FNS) conditions. GY, days to grain filling (DGF), soil plant analysis development (SPAD) chlorophyll meter, seeds per spike (SPS), harvest index (HI), and thousand kernel weight (TKW) were used to calculate DSI, GMP, RDI, STI, TOL, and YSI drought indices. Accessions, DW084, DW082, DZ004, C037, and DW092 were selected as the top five drought-tolerant based on DSI, RDI, TOL, and YSI combined ranking. Similarly, C010, DW033, DW080, DW124-2, and C011 were selected as stable accessions based on GMP and STI combined ranking. A total of 184 MTAs were detected linked with drought indices at –log10p ≥ 4.0,79 of which were significant at a false discovery rate (FDR) of 5%. Based on the linkage disequilibrium (LD, r2 ≥ 0.2), six of the MTAs with a positive effect on GY-GMP were detected on chromosomes 2B, 3B, 4A, 5B, and 6B, explaining 14.72, 10.07, 26.61, 21.16, 21.91, and 22.21% of the phenotypic variance, respectively. The 184 MTAs were clustered into 102 QTLs. Chromosomes 1A, 2B, and 7A are QTL hotspots with 11 QTLs each. These chromosomes play a key role in drought tolerance and respective QTL may be exploited by marker-assisted selection for improving drought stress tolerance in wheat.

This article describes a long-term study evaluating the use of the humanoid robot Kaspar in a specialist nursery for children with autism. The robot was used as a tool in the hands of teachers or volunteers, in the absence of the research team on-site. On average each child spent 16.53 months in the study. Staff and volunteers at the nursery were trained in using Kaspar and were using it in their day-to-day activities in the nursery. Our study combines an “in the wild” approach with a rigorous approach of collecting and including users’ feedback during an iterative evaluation and design cycle of the robot. This article focuses on the design of the study and the results from several interviews with the robot’s users. We also show results from the children’s developmental assessments by the teachers prior to and after the study. Results suggest a marked beneficial effect for the children from interacting with Kaspar. We highlight the challenges of transferring experimental technologies like Kaspar from a research setting into everyday practice in general and making it part of the day-to-day running of a nursery school in particular. Feedback from users led subsequently to many changes being made to Kaspar’s hardware and software. This type of invaluable feedback can only be gained in such long-term field studies.

Field and semi-field studies are important tools in the ecotoxicological risk assessment of plant protection products for bees (honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees). While these studies represent far more realistic conditions than laboratory tests, they also present a challenge for the analysis and interpretation due to the large and complex datasets. Therefore, in order to correctly answer the underlying ecotoxicological questions, it is crucial that these studies are not only thoroughly planned and conducted, it is also important that they are subjected to adequate statistical analysis. Our aim is to provide a better understanding on how to conduct and interpret statistical analyses in field and semi-field studies with bees made for regulatory purposes. An overview of how study design and statistics should be aligned with each other is given including the specific challenges of (semi-) field trials, as for instance how to address the problem of pseudoreplication if hives are regarded as experimental units. Different statistical tools are compared and their suitability for different data types and questions are discussed. Generalized Linear (Mixed) Models (GLMMs) are evaluated in more detail as they provide a flexible and robust tool for the analysis of honey bee (semi-) field data. Furthermore, some more light is shed on what p-values really tell us, how they can help to interpret data and how they should not be misinterpreted

Do people cheat more when they have something to gain, or when they have something to lose? The answer to this question isn’t straightforward, as research is mixed when it comes to understanding how unethical people will be when they might acquire something good versus avoid something bad. To wit, research has found that people cheat more in a loss (vs. gain) frame, yet research on regulatory focus has found that people cheat more in a promotion focus (where the focus is on acquiring gains) than in a prevention focus (where the focus is on avoiding losses). Through a large-scale field study containing 332,239 observations including 27,350 transgressions, we address the contradictory results of gain/loss frames and regulatory focus on committing unethical behavior in a context that contains a high risk of detecting unethical behavior (NFL football games). Our results replicated the separate effects of more cheating in a loss frame, and more cheating in a promotion focus. Furthermore, our data revealed a heretofore undocumented crossover interaction, in accordance with regulatory fit, which could disentangle past results: Specifically, we found promotion focus is associated with more cheating in a loss (vs. gain) frame, whereas prevention focus is associated with more cheating in a gain (vs. loss) frame. In gridiron football, this translates to offensive players fouling more when their team is losing (vs. winning) and defensive players fouling more when their team is winning (vs. losing).

Do people cheat more when they have something to gain, or when they have something to lose? The answer to this question isn’t straightforward, as research is mixed when it comes to understanding how unethical people will be when they might acquire something good versus avoid something bad. To wit, research has found that people cheat more in a loss (vs. gain) frame, yet research on regulatory focus has found that people cheat more in a promotion focus (where the focus is on acquiring gains) than in a prevention focus (where the focus is on avoiding losses). Through a large-scale field study containing 332,239 observations including 27,350 transgressions, we address the contradictory results of gain/loss frames and regulatory focus on committing unethical behavior in a context that contains a high risk of detecting unethical behavior (NFL football games). Our results replicated the separate effects of more cheating in a loss frame, and more cheating in a promotion focus. Furthermore, our data revealed a heretofore undocumented crossover interaction, in accordance with regulatory fit, which could disentangle past results: Specifically, we found promotion focus is associated with more cheating in a loss (vs. gain) frame, whereas prevention focus is associated with more cheating in a gain (vs. loss) frame. In gridiron football, this translates to offensive players fouling more when their team is losing (vs. winning) and defensive players fouling more when their team is winning (vs. losing).

As robots are becoming more prevalent and entering hospitality settings, understanding how different configurations of individuals and groups interact with them becomes increasingly important for catering to various people. This is especially important because group dynamics can affect people’s perceptions of situations and behavior in them. We present research examining how individuals and groups interact with and accept a humanoid robot greeter at a real-world café (Study 1) and in an online study (Study 2). In each study, we separately examine interactions of individuals, groups that participants formed after they arrived at the café (new-formed groups), and groups that participants arrived with at the café (pre-formed groups). Results support prior findings that groups are more likely to interact with a public robot than individuals (Study 1). We also report novel findings that new-formed groups interacted more with the robot than pre-formed groups (Study 1). We link this with groups perceiving the robot as more positive and easier to use (Study 2). Future research should examine perceptions of the robot immediately after interaction and in different hospitality contexts.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) issues [...]

Many ecologists have lamented the demise of natural history and have attributed this decline to a misguided view that natural history is outdated and unscientific. Although there is a perception that the focus in ecology and conservation have shifted away from descriptive natural history research and training toward hypothetico-deductive research, we argue that natural history has entered a new phase that we call “next-generation natural history.” This renaissance of natural history is characterized by technological and statistical advances that aid in collecting detailed observations systematically over broad spatial and temporal extents. The technological advances that have increased exponentially in the last decade include electronic sensors such as camera-traps and acoustic recorders, aircraft- and satellite-based remote sensing, animal-borne biologgers, genetics and genomics methods, and community science programs. Advances in statistics and computation have aided in analyzing a growing quantity of observations to reveal patterns in nature. These robust next-generation natural history datasets have transformed the anecdotal perception of natural history observations into systematically collected observations that collectively constitute the foundation for hypothetico-deductive research and can be leveraged and applied to conservation and management. These advances are encouraging scientists to conduct and embrace detailed descriptions of nature that remain a critically important component of the scientific endeavor. Finally, these next-generation natural history observations are engaging scientists and non-scientists alike with new documentations of the wonders of nature. Thus, we celebrate next-generation natural history for encouraging people to experience nature directly.

Creating favorable work conditions is one of the most important priorities in the modern industry production. Observed in the recent years light industry manufacture growth is followed by a negative impact on the occupational air in industrial spaces and thus proves relevance of this research. The purpose of this work is to determine the characteristics of the formation of the occupational air and its impact on workers, taking into account the specifics of light industry production. Investigations of the temperature-humidity of the air state were carried out by the method of full-scale instrumental measurements of the occupational air. A feature of the research is that the measurements were carried out at a significant number of modern operating enterprises during the certification of work places with the involvement of laboratories accredited by the Russian Federation Oversight Committee for Sanitation and Epidemiology. The result of this article is a definition of jobs and areas that do not meet regulatory requirements. General recommendations are given to reduce the negative factors of the indoor air and their impact on the workers.

Small states in the Post-Soviet area have to make a geopolitical choice by leaning towards one of the great powers. The peaceful power transition that took place in Armenia in Spring-Fall 2018 was described by some Russian experts as “a color revolution” actively supported by external actors. However, it was exactly this unique case in which, despite such external influence, Armenian protesters did not demand a change in the geopolitical orientation of the country. Still, in spite of the preservation of the alliance between Russia and Armenia, part of Nikol Pashinyan’s team is evidently oriented to the West.Having conducted focus groups and in-depth interviews with Armenian experts, the authors try to answer the following questions: what is the structure of the Armenian establishment? What do its representatives think of the strategy of Armenia-Russia relations? What messages are they sending to the Russian audience?The authors are convinced that it was not a revolution, though called a “velvet revolution”, but a change of the elite groups. The political system remains as it was, institutions have not been demolished or upgraded. The partnership between Russia and Armenia is still characterized as strategic.Nevertheless, there is some misunderstanding between the current authorities in Russia and Armenia. It has to do not only with the generation and ideological gaps between Russian and Armenian officials but also with the lack of communication between Nikol Pashinyan’s team and Russian decision-makers. The problem is that the Armenian elites do not understand Russia as they do not have an experience of dealing with the country. Hence the importance of enhanced coordination among Russian organizations advancing Russia’s soft power in Armenia.

STUDI LAPANGAN DAMPAK EKOLOGI: PERAN DAN KONTRIBUSINYA TERHADAP PENGEMBANGAN KUALITAS MODEL PENDIDIKAN BERDASARKAN PARADIGMA PENELITIAN Abstrak Mengembangkan model pendidikan yang baik dan dinamis dalam prosesnya, seharusnya dapat meningkatkan kualitas induvidu maupun kelompok mahasiswa atau peserta didik di perguruan tinggi (PT), agar dapat menyesuaikan diri terhadap dinamika perubahan zaman, sehingga studi lapang salah satu langkah yang perlu mendapat perhatian, dimana secara tidak langsung kegiatan ini mampu meningkatkan kualitas (SDM) dalam rangka menghadapi permasalahan dimasa mendatang yang semakin kompleks, disamping sebagai modal utama dalam mempersiapkan SDM yang berkualitas, baik sebagai pendidik (guru) maupun seorang peneliti yang professional dan kompeten dalam bidangnya. Tujuan dari kegiatan studi lapang tersebut, masih dihadapkan dengan minimnya SDM, sehingga tidak mudah untuk mengimplementasikannya secara dinamis dan berkelanjutan, sehingga tujuan dari penelitian ini, akan mengeksplore atau mengkaji lebih detail tentang peran dan kontribusi studi lapang di kalangan PT, yang tentunya membutuhkan proses pembelajaran yang lebih baik, dalam membentuk kualitas SDM yang berkualitas. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini, lebih melihat pada dinamika persepsi dan interpretasi mahasiswa, yang berkaitan dengan pengalamannya selama di lapang, dan sejauh mana keberhasilan yang diperoleh atau dicapainya, setelah melakukan studi lapang yang berupa produk ilmiah, seperti naskah ilmiah, baik berupa bentuk laporan penelitian maupun jurnal, kemudian proses diskusi panel di dalam kelas. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa metode studi lapang salah satu kegiatan yang tidak mudah dilakukan, ketika menyusun sebuah laporan yang ilmiah, hal ini dapat dilihat dari aspek lemahnya argumentasi ilmiah yang dibangun, sehingga permasalahan ini, menjadi memberi gambarkan kepada semua pihak, bahwa model pendidikan ini perlu di ubah, dengan memodifikasi sebuah kurikulum yang lebih dinamis, dan tentunya juga disesuaikan dengan perkembangan zaman. Abstract Developing quality of education model in learning process was ought to increase skills of both individual and group of students in order to pave their readiness for today’s competitive era. Field study is an approach in learning that may develop to increase the quality of student, particularly in confronting with real life problems. This research was aimed to study the role and contribution of the field study to increase the quality of students. Using students’ perception and interpretations on the study field learning approach, this study tried to answers queries on the extent of study field approach for their learning success. Results revealed that the current field study approach was one of difficult approaches to be implemented in learning. During report development, for example, it was found that there are writing skills that need to be developed. It is suggested from this study, therefore, that field study approach needs to be more dynamic and its curriculum needs to be adjusted with the current development.

Biochar addition has been proposed to influence soil nitrogen (N) cycle and improve crop productivity. However, a comprehensive understanding of the impact of soil N cycle on the productivity of different crops under biochar addition remains elusive. Thus, a meta-analysis of 93 peer-reviewed field experiments was undertaken to investigate these outcomes of biochar addition. Results show that biochar addition significantly enhances crop productivity by 13.0%. The productivities of legumes, maize, and wheat were significantly increased by 21.2%, 14.3%, and 8.00% following biochar addition in the fields, respectively. However, the improvement in rice productivity is the lowest (3.36%), insignificant following biochar addition. The aggregated boosted tree, and partial least squares path analyses, indicated that the changes in the soil N pool (i.e., TN, NO3−-N, and NH4+-N) and plant N uptake were the most critical factors in increasing crop productivity under biochar addition. Although biochar addition had no significant enhancement on rice productivity, enhancing field rice nitrogen uptake and modest application of nitrogen fertilizers greatly improved rice productivity. The amount of soil NH4+-N was vital to improving legume productivity rather than biological N2 fixation when biochar was applied. Increases in NH4+-N content and decreasing NO3−-N content were favorable to improving maize productivity under biochar addition. In contrast, biochar additions did not significantly regulate the parameters and processes of soil N cycle to enhance wheat productivity. Overall, the productivity of different types of crops is greatly influenced by soil N cycle under biochar addition.

The large-scale adoption of occupational exoskeletons (OEs) will only happen if clear evidence of effectiveness of the devices is available. Performing product-specific field validation studies would allow the stakeholders and decision-makers (e.g., employers, ergonomists, health, and safety departments) to assess OEs’ effectiveness in their specific work contexts and with experienced workers, who could further provide useful insights on practical issues related to exoskeleton daily use. This paper reviews present-day scientific methods for assessing the effectiveness of OEs in laboratory and field studies, and presents the vision of the authors on a roadmap that could lead to large-scale adoption of this technology. The analysis of the state-of-the-art shows methodological differences between laboratory and field studies. While the former are more extensively reported in scientific papers, they exhibit limited generalizability of the findings to real-world scenarios. On the contrary, field studies are limited in sample sizes and frequently focused only on subjective metrics. We propose a roadmap to promote large-scale knowledge-based adoption of OEs. It details that the analysis of the costs and benefits of this technology should be communicated to all stakeholders to facilitate informed decision making, so that each stakeholder can develop their specific role regarding this innovation. Large-scale field studies can help identify and monitor the possible side-effects related to exoskeleton use in real work situations, as well as provide a comprehensive scientific knowledge base to support the revision of ergonomics risk-assessment methods, safety standards and regulations, and the definition of guidelines and practices for the selection and use of OEs.

Studies of the epidemiology of arthropod-borne viruses are based on understanding whether a given virus is found in a particular location or locations, how prevalent the virus is in that area, which vertebrate hosts serve as reservoirs of the virus, the relationship between the size of the populations of these reservoirs and the prevalence of the virus and, of course, whether the virus causes human, livestock, or wildlife diseases, as well as other characteristics. However, seasonal conditions fluctuate, annual conditions fluctuate, human impacts alter the environment, and the habitat and ecosystems naturally change. Because these parameters provide a more encompassing view of the natural history of a virus, it is important to recognize that point prevalence studies comprise only a single view of the situation and that longitudinal studies are required to obtain a more complete and useful understanding of the natural history of the virus. This paper provides details as to whether and how to conduct such studies.

Abstract Flood inundation models are central components of any flood risk analysis system because they transform the bulk discharge outputs from flood‐frequency analyses or rainfall‐runoff models into distributed predictions of flood hazard in terms of water depth, inundation extent, and flow velocity. The accuracy of flood hazard maps depends on the availability of distributed observations of inundation outlines. Unfortunately, the acquisition of aerial photographs or satellite images is costly and in addition, their temporal resolution is strongly limited by weather conditions. Remote sensing based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is becoming increasingly popular due its flexibility and quickly decreasing costs. In particular, UAV can provide precise up to date georeferenced information about the location of a river shorelines, channel geometry, and vegetation. This information is particularly useful for the calibration and validation of distributed flood routing models. The application of cheap, well georeferenced UAV images of river shorelines is an unprecedented source of distributed observations. The aim of this article is to present a procedure for the updating of boundary conditions of the hydrodynamic model, based on UAV‐born data. The approach proposed is also a very effective means of on‐line updating of flood risk maps and their verification.

Purpose: determination of significant parameters and sequence of field studies devoted to the study of features and nature of diffusion pollution of water bodies in areas of intensive agricultural activity. Materials and methods. Materials: works by Russian and foreign scientists, regulatory documents. Methods: comparison, analysis and synthesis of data. Results. As experience shows, significant parameters are: the source of the formation of surface runoff, the hydrographic characteristics of the catchment, the level of development of the territory, soil resources, the dissection of the relief and the slope of the terrain, methods of soil treatment, the timing and dose of fertilization, the use of pesticides, etc. All this influences the choice of the location of representative areas in the catchment area, their size, determination of constant and variable parameters during research. The paper discusses the issues of taking soil samples in the process of preliminary studies, determining the location of the alignment point for sampling water from a water body and the possibility of taking into account the amount of diffusion contamination in the samples obtained. The rationale for conducting preliminary laboratory studies is given. The plan was developed for carrying out field studies devoted to the study of the features and nature of diffusion pollution of water bodies in areas of intensive agricultural activity. Conclusions. It was revealed that to organize monitoring of diffusion pollution of water bodies, it is necessary to carry out a number of studies both in laboratory and in the field. For a preliminary assessment of the removal of nutrients from agricultural fields and their entry into the water body, it is necessary to make a preliminary sampling of soil and water. It is advisable to take soil samples along route lines from the boundaries of agricultural fields to a water body along the slope of the terrain. The site for sampling water from a water body must be coordinated with the location of organized sources of wastewater discharge into it and the boundaries of the action of agricultural fields.

Studies of large free-ranging mammals incorporating physiological measurements typically require the collection of urine or faecal samples, due to ethical and practical concerns over trapping or darting animals. However, there is a dearth of validated biomarkers of immune activation and inflammation that can be measured non-invasively. We here evaluate the utility of urinary measurements of the soluble form of the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), for use as a health marker in studies of wild large mammals. We investigate how urinary suPAR concentrations change in response to viral infection and surgical trauma (inflammation), comparing it to the measurement of a marker of cellular immune activation, urinary neopterin (uNEO), in captive rhesus macaques. We then test the field utility of urinary suPAR, assessing the effects of soil and faecal contamination, sunlight, storage at different temperatures, freeze–thaw cycles, and lyophilization. We find that suPAR concentrations rise markedly in response to both infection and surgery-associated inflammation, unlike uNEO concentrations, which only rise in response to the former. Our field validation demonstrates that urinary suPAR is reasonably robust to many of the issues associated with field collection, sample processing, and storage, as long as samples can be stored in a freezer. Urinary suPAR is thus a promising biomarker applicable for monitoring various aspects of health in wild primates and potentially also other large mammals.

October 16, 2018 is the 75th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding ethnomusicologist and folklorist, Doctor of Art History, professor M. A. Lobanov. His life and work are the examples of selfless devotion and service to science. The name of the scholar is inseparable from the processes of the development of musicology and folklore of the last decades. Lobanov contributed to the formation of new areas of research in ethnomuscology and exact academic research base, laid the conceptual basis for the study of genre and types of folklore style discovered by him, created an academic and pedagogical school in the field of studying archaic forms of traditional music and inter-ethnic interrelations. His numerous works, fundamental multi-volume works on bibliography, systematics of tunes, indexes have enriched modern science, laid solid foundations for future research in the field of theory and history of ethno-musicology. The materials of the study were the works of the scholar, personal impressions obtained during many years of communication with him, as well as the articles published in encyclopedias, journals and newsletters. The work uses the principles of historical analysis and generalization. The article gives a brief description of the activities of the scholar; analyses his fundamental works in the field of musical Slavic and Finno-Ugric Studies, and inter-ethnic folklore connections. It defines the significance of Lobanov’s works for the subsequent development of national and international ethnomuscology.

Operating clinical analyzers within recommended parameters can be challenging during outbreak response. Using the Piccolo Xpress point-of-care blood chemistry analyzer on guinea pig blood, we found that values of many analytes are still readily comparable when samples and reagent discs are handled at various conditions outside of manufacturer recommendations.

Soil nematode communities under the influence of potato cultivation were studied in a laboratory experiment (initial stages of agrocenosis formation) and on the basis of field data (long-term crop cultivation). Natural meadows located nearbyPetrozavodsk(RepublicofKarelia) were considered as controls. Soil nematode community structure in agrocenoses was changed as compared with meadows. The number of bacterial feeders was increased in the short-term observation, the contribution of omnivores and predators as K-strategists to the nematode community, and the abundance of nematodes associated with plants decreased under long-term potato cultivation. In all trials (experimental and field data) values of Maturity index and Structure index decreased. In contrast, the Enrichment index of soil food web increased in field samples. The analysis of nematode metabolic footprints characterizing the magnitudes of carbon flow in the soil food webs is suggested as an effective tool in nematological investigations for assessment of nematode contributions to ecosystem functions of agrocenoses and meadows.

Social Evolution Forum.

Memory in words: On the inadequacy of terms (A Czech-Polish-German example) This article is devoted to the inadequacy of the Polish and Czech terminology related to the displacement of German-speaking communities after 1945. Discussing the example of the terms “Sudety” and “pohraničí” (Borderlands), the author identifies the inadequacy of various equivalents of these concepts in Polish secondary literature. The adopted methodology makes it possible to demonstrate a particular historical entanglement of the term “Sudety” and its incompatibility with metadiscourse (the language of research). The terminological analysis is the starting point for describing the memory of the historical situation in the Czech pohraničí after 1945. The study analyses material collected during interviews with the residents of pohraničí, including their own reflections on terminological issues. Pamięć w słowach – o nieadekwatności pojęć (przypadek czesko-polsko-niemiecki) Artykuł poświęcony jest nieadekwatności terminologii dotyczącej wysiedleń społeczności niemieckojęzycznych po roku 1945 w językach polskim i czeskim. Autorka na przykładzie pojęć „Sudety” i „pohraničí” wskazuje na nieadekwatność różnych istniejących w polskiej literaturze przedmiotu ekwiwalentów tych pojęć. Przyjęta przez autorkę metodologia pozwala na wykazanie szczególnego uwikłania historycznego terminu „Sudety” i jego nieprzystawalność do metadyskursu, jakim jest język badawczy. Analiza terminologiczna stanowi punkt wyjścia do opisu pamięci o sytuacji historycznej na czeskim pohraničí po 1945 roku. Materiał do analiz stanowią wywiady z mieszkańcami pohraničí i znajdujące się w nich prowadzone przez samych rozmówców refleksje terminologiczne.

From 17 to 23 of June 2014 the members of research laboratory "New religious movements in modern Russia and Europe" of Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University of Kozma Minin conducted a questionnaire survey among the representatives Russian pagan community who gathered at the celebration of Kupala Day. Kupala feast held in the open field (the so-called "Red Meadow") near the village Ignatievskaya Maloyaroslavetsky region Kaluga region. 230 people took part in the survey."Questionnaire number two», which is discussed in this article included 15 different issues. The first block of questionnaire called "Ontological". It describes the cosmological ideas of modern pagans. And to determine what the motive forces are important for worldview of neo-pagans. The first question was: "Do you think that the supreme principle - that," his aim was to identify that there is a Supreme Being modern polytheists.The third question in the questionnaire was: "Do you think that the world is governed ...", it was directed out to establish which motive forces historical and social reality, allocate the representatives of of modern paganism.The fourth survey question disclose the relation of fate and free will in the worldview of neo-pagans. The fifth survey question covered thanatological aspect in the neo-pagan’s worldview. The fifth question in the questionnaire covered thanatological aspect of neo-pagans in the outlook. Respondents were asked to answer the question of what awaits man after bodily death. It is worth noting that this matter has caused difficulty for the largest number of respondents, 15% (35 participants) midsummer festival took part in the survey were unable to give an answer.

Controlling black-grass in winter wheat production in northern Europe is an increasing problem because of more frequent winter crops and development of herbicide resistance in weeds. Alternative weed management strategies are needed, e.g., use of more competitive cultivars. Factors that increase cultivar competitiveness include early vigor and straw length, but also allelopathy. Therefore, the allelopathic properties of wheat cultivars included in the Swedish national list or in the release pipeline were investigated using a bioassay with herbicide-resistant and herbicide-sensitive black-grass as receiver plants. Wheat-rye translocation lines were also included in this screening to identify possible sources of high allelopathic activity. The bioassay results were followed up in two-year field trials. The results revealed large variations in allelopathic activity between cultivars. Most cultivars showed interference with both herbicide-sensitive and herbicide-resistant black-grass, although the allelopathic effect was lower on the herbicide-resistant biotype. Cultivars with high allelopathic activity gave only half the black-grass biomass of low allelopathic cultivars. Dinaro, a triticale (wheat-rye hybrid) cultivar and the new wheat cultivar Nimbus showed the highest allelopathy and inhibition of black-grass growth. Only a few wheat lines with rye chromatin, all or part of a rye chromosome, showed high allelopathy. Use of cultivars with high allelopathic activity can thus be important in integrated weed management of black-grass.

The author studies the early stage of the history of toponymic lexicography and field studies in Russia. More particularly the article focuses on the discussion provoked by I. P. Filevitch’s report “On elaboration of geographic nomenclature” at the Archeological Congress in Odessa (1896), as well as on some publications of 1920s containing results of toponymic research, revealing the importance of collecting toponyms, considering different aspects of toponymic studies, elaborating methods of fieldwork.