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Purpose: substantiation and development of the facility design for local treatment of drainage runoff discharged from an irrigated area. Materials and methods. The study was carried out on the example of a representative object – a collection-discharge (drainage) well of a collector-drainage network located on an irrigated site of the Nizhne-Donskaya irrigation system of the Rostov region. The source materials were the results of field studies of the hydrochemical parameters of drainage water in the well and the central collector. Results and discussion. Since the drainage water quality in the drainage well is much higher than in the mouth of the central collector, the reconstruction of the well will allow effective treatment of low drainage flow rates with minimal financial costs. The proposed design is based on dividing the collector-drainage network into areas with their respective wells, on the outgoing collector pipes on which devices for drainage runoff treatment are mounted. The principle of the device is based on the use of removable cartridges filled with various filter materials, depending on the quality of the treated drainage flow. For example, for water desalination, it is recommended to use loads from ion-exchange resins (cation exchanger, anion exchanger). The example shows that cleaning from the main salt-forming ions of drainage flow with a flow rate of 7 m³/month will require 39.5 liters of cation exchanger and 89.3 liters of anion exchanger, this will amount to 31.7 thousand rubles. Conclusions. The use of drainage wells as local treatment facilities will improve the ecological situation in the zone of irrigated agriculture, distribute responsibility between agricultural producers and owners of reclamation systems for the quality of drainage flow discharged into natural water bodies. The proposed design will provide a multi-variant operation of the device for drainage runoff treatment due to combinations of filter media and sets of various removable cartridges.

The purpose of the study is to identify the ecological aspects of the state of natural and technical systems in the zone of irrigated agriculture effect on the example of the hydrographic network of the left bank of the Lower Don. The Semikarakorsky district of the Rostov region was chosen as the object of the study. The subject of the study was the water quality in natural-technical systems – receivers of collector-drainage runoff from reclaimed lands, collector-drainage network, irrigation channels, as well as hydrochemical indicators of groundwater with a depth of no more than 5 m, soils from irrigated fields and fields with natural irrigation (boghara). The analysis of the results showed the widespread effect of groundwater on the formation of the drainage runoff and natural water composition, the accumulation of sodium ions and sulfates in soils, which is due to the rise of the capillary fringe due to the rise of the groundwater level. In general, the chemical composition of drainage water corresponds to the geochemical background of the territory and is a consequence of their natural desalinisation.

Vocal production learning (vocal learning) is a convergently evolved trait in vertebrates. To identify brain genomic elements associated with mammalian vocal learning, we integrated genomic, anatomical, and neurophysiological data from the Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) with analyses of the genomes of 215 placental mammals. First, we identified a set of proteins evolving more slowly in vocal learners. Then, we discovered a vocal motor cortical region in the Egyptian fruit bat, an emergent vocal learner, and leveraged that knowledge to identify active cis-regulatory elements in the motor cortex of vocal learners. Machine learning methods applied to motor cortex open chromatin revealed 50 enhancers robustly associated with vocal learning whose activity tended to be lower in vocal learners. Our research implicates convergent losses of motor cortex regulatory elements in mammalian vocal learning evolution.

In this study, a comprehensive investigation was conducted for the first time to systematically explore the impact of deformation-heat treatment (DHT) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of ultrafine-grained (UFG) Al–5Mg (wt.%) alloy. The UFG structure was formed by high pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature (RT). The proposed DHT of the UFG alloy includes annealing at 150–230 °C and additional deformation by HPT at RT to 0.25–0.75 turns. As was demonstrated, annealing does not lead to an increase in the ductility of the UFG alloy, and subsequent additional deformation leads to the manifestation of the effect of deformation-induced softening: ductility increases from

This article explores the social functions of the contemporary Chechen language and assesses its vitality within the current linguistic landscape of the Chechen Republic. It presents the results of a comprehensive study on the co-functioning of the Chechen and the Russian across key communicative domains in the lives of Chechen people. The paper synthesizes and systematizes data collected during field research conducted in the Chechen Republic from 2022 to 2023, alongside various statistical and factual information sourced from publicly available resources. A thorough analysis of the gathered data provides a detailed picture of the functional distribution of languages in the Chechen Republic, characterizing the specifics of bilingualism in the region and the ethno-linguistic identity of contemporary Chechens. It highlights that the Chechen language, like other languages in the Russian Federation, faces challenges related to urbanization and digitalization, which contribute to linguistic centralization and a gradual imbalance favoring dominant languages. The study finds that the Chechen language currently exhibits a relatively stable level of vitality, particularly in familial and ethnocultural contexts, bolstered by its high symbolic value and a persistent need for identity expression among Chechen speakers.

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected people’s travel behavior and travel desires, particularly regarding trips to prominent destinations. This study explores the pandemic’s impact on travel behavior and online search patterns for 12 landmarks across six continents, utilizing data from three online platforms, i.e., Google Trends, X, and Tripadvisor. By comparing visitation and search behavior before (2019) and during (2020/2021) the pandemic, the study uncovers varying effects on the spatial separation between user location and landmarks. Google Trends data indicated a decline in online searches for nearby landmarks during the pandemic, while data from X showed an increased interest in more distant sites. Conversely, Tripadvisor reviews reflected a decrease in the distance between users’ typical review areas and visited landmarks, underscoring the effects of international travel restrictions on long distance travel. Although the primary focus of this study concerns the years most affected by COVID-19, it will also analyze Tripadvisor data from 2022 to provide valuable insights into the travel recovery beyond the pandemic.

Interactive graphical genome browsers are essential tools in genomics, but they do not contain all the recent genome assemblies. We create Genome Archive (GenArk) collection of UCSC Genome Browsers from NCBI assemblies. Built on our established track hub system, this enables fast visualization of annotations. Assemblies come with gene models, repeat masks, BLAT, and in silico PCR. Users can add annotations via track hubs and custom tracks. We can bulk-import third-party resources, demonstrated with TOGA and Ensembl gene models for hundreds of assemblies.Three thousand two hundred sixty-nine GenArk assemblies are listed at https://hgdownload.soe.ucsc.edu/hubs/ and can be searched for on the Genome Browser gateway page.

Annotating coding genes and inferring orthologs are two classical challenges in genomics and evolutionary biology that have traditionally been approached separately, limiting scalability. We present TOGA (Tool to infer Orthologs from Genome Alignments), a method that integrates structural gene annotation and orthology inference. TOGA implements a different paradigm to infer orthologous loci, improves ortholog detection and annotation of conserved genes compared with state-of-the-art methods, and handles even highly fragmented assemblies. TOGA scales to hundreds of genomes, which we demonstrate by applying it to 488 placental mammal and 501 bird assemblies, creating the largest comparative gene resources so far. Additionally, TOGA detects gene losses, enables selection screens, and automatically provides a superior measure of mammalian genome quality. TOGA is a powerful and scalable method to annotate and compare genes in the genomic era.

Climate change poses a challenge to agricultural production. To avoid production losses and exploit the emerging potential, adaptation in agricultural management will inevitably be required, in particular through the development of highly adapted and plastic varieties. To obtain wheat varieties combining productivity and stability, in 2018-2021, eight promising breeding lines of common winter wheat were studied in multi-environment eighteen trials at the V.M. Remeslo Myronivka Institute of Wheat of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine using three sowing dates after two preceding crops. Using ANOVA, it was established that environmental conditions had the highest reliable contribution to the yield variation (72.09%), genotype-environment interaction and genotype had significantly less (25.30% and 2.61%, respectively). The sowing dates for the preceding crops had a significant effect on the variation in the line productivity. Higher yields were received after green manure (mustard) in 2019 and 2020. The stable maximum level of productivity in terms of sowing dates was after preceding crop mustard as green manure for sowing on October 5 (the third term) and after maize for silage for sowing on September 25 (the second term). It was found that the conditions of the second sowing date were as an analytical background for selection of high-yielding lines of winter wheat. For practical breeding work, the breeding lines Lutescens 36921, Erythrospermum 36866, Erythrospermum 36802 were selected and released as new varieties Trudovnytsia Myronivska, MIP Vyshyvanka, and Gracia Myronivska, which have high yields and adaptability

The precise pattern and timing of speciation events that gave rise to all living placental mammals remain controversial. We provide a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of genetic variation across an alignment of 241 placental mammal genome assemblies, addressing prior concerns regarding limited genomic sampling across species. We compared neutral genome-wide phylogenomic signals using concatenation and coalescent-based approaches, interrogated phylogenetic variation across chromosomes, and analyzed extensive catalogs of structural variants. Interordinal relationships exhibit relatively low rates of phylogenomic conflict across diverse datasets and analytical methods. Conversely, X-chromosome versus autosome conflicts characterize multiple independent clades that radiated during the Cenozoic. Genomic time trees reveal an accumulation of cladogenic events before and immediately after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, implying important roles for Cretaceous continental vicariance and the K-Pg extinction in the placental radiation.

We reconstruct the phenotype of Balto, the heroic sled dog renowned for transporting diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska, in 1925, using evolutionary constraint estimates from the Zoonomia alignment of 240 mammals and 682 genomes from dogs and wolves of the 21st century. Balto shares just part of his diverse ancestry with the eponymous Siberian husky breed. Balto's genotype predicts a combination of coat features atypical for modern sled dog breeds, and a slightly smaller stature. He had enhanced starch digestion compared with Greenland sled dogs and a compendium of derived homozygous coding variants at constrained positions in genes connected to bone and skin development. We propose that Balto's population of origin, which was less inbred and genetically healthier than that of modern breeds, was adapted to the extreme environment of 1920s Alaska.

Species persistence can be influenced by the amount, type, and distribution of diversity across the genome, suggesting a potential relationship between historical demography and resilience. In this study, we surveyed genetic variation across single genomes of 240 mammals that compose the Zoonomia alignment to evaluate how historical effective population size (Ne) affects heterozygosity and deleterious genetic load and how these factors may contribute to extinction risk. We find that species with smaller historical Ne carry a proportionally larger burden of deleterious alleles owing to long-term accumulation and fixation of genetic load and have a higher risk of extinction. This suggests that historical demography can inform contemporary resilience. Models that included genomic data were predictive of species' conservation status, suggesting that, in the absence of adequate census or ecological data, genomic information may provide an initial risk assessment.

Conserved genomic sequences disrupted in humans may underlie uniquely human phenotypic traits. We identified and characterized 10,032 human-specific conserved deletions (hCONDELs). These short (average 2.56 base pairs) deletions are enriched for human brain functions across genetic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic datasets. Using massively parallel reporter assays in six cell types, we discovered 800 hCONDELs conferring significant differences in regulatory activity, half of which enhance rather than disrupt regulatory function. We highlight several hCONDELs with putative human-specific effects on brain development, including HDAC5, CPEB4, and PPP2CA. Reverting an hCONDEL to the ancestral sequence alters the expression of LOXL2 and developmental genes involved in myelination and synaptic function. Our data provide a rich resource to investigate the evolutionary mechanisms driving new traits in humans and other species.

Protein-coding differences between species often fail to explain phenotypic diversity, suggesting the involvement of genomic elements that regulate gene expression such as enhancers. Identifying associations between enhancers and phenotypes is challenging because enhancer activity can be tissue-dependent and functionally conserved despite low sequence conservation. We developed the Tissue-Aware Conservation Inference Toolkit (TACIT) to associate candidate enhancers with species' phenotypes using predictions from machine learning models trained on specific tissues. Applying TACIT to associate motor cortex and parvalbumin-positive interneuron enhancers with neurological phenotypes revealed dozens of enhancer-phenotype associations, including brain size-associated enhancers that interact with genes implicated in microcephaly or macrocephaly. TACIT provides a foundation for identifying enhancers associated with the evolution of any convergently evolved phenotype in any large group of species with aligned genomes.

Human accelerated regions (HARs) are conserved genomic loci that evolved at an accelerated rate in the human lineage and may underlie human-specific traits. We generated HARs and chimpanzee accelerated regions with an automated pipeline and an alignment of 241 mammalian genomes. Combining deep learning with chromatin capture experiments in human and chimpanzee neural progenitor cells, we discovered a significant enrichment of HARs in topologically associating domains containing human-specific genomic variants that change three-dimensional (3D) genome organization. Differential gene expression between humans and chimpanzees at these loci suggests rewiring of regulatory interactions between HARs and neurodevelopmental genes. Thus, comparative genomics together with models of 3D genome folding revealed enhancer hijacking as an explanation for the rapid evolution of HARs.

Zoonomia is the largest comparative genomics resource for mammals produced to date. By aligning genomes for 240 species, we identify bases that, when mutated, are likely to affect fitness and alter disease risk. At least 332 million bases (~10.7%) in the human genome are unusually conserved across species (evolutionarily constrained) relative to neutrally evolving repeats, and 4552 ultraconserved elements are nearly perfectly conserved. Of 101 million significantly constrained single bases, 80% are outside protein-coding exons and half have no functional annotations in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) resource. Changes in genes and regulatory elements are associated with exceptional mammalian traits, such as hibernation, that could inform therapeutic development. Earth's vast and imperiled biodiversity offers distinctive power for identifying genetic variants that affect genome function and organismal phenotypes.

Thousands of genomic regions have been associated with heritable human diseases, but attempts to elucidate biological mechanisms are impeded by an inability to discern which genomic positions are functionally important. Evolutionary constraint is a powerful predictor of function, agnostic to cell type or disease mechanism. Single-base phyloP scores from 240 mammals identified 3.3% of the human genome as significantly constrained and likely functional. We compared phyloP scores to genome annotation, association studies, copy-number variation, clinical genetics findings, and cancer data. Constrained positions are enriched for variants that explain common disease heritability more than other functional annotations. Our results improve variant annotation but also highlight that the regulatory landscape of the human genome still needs to be further explored and linked to disease.

BACKGROUND: The Nile rat (Avicanthis niloticus) is an important animal model because of its robust diurnal rhythm, a cone-rich retina, and a propensity to develop diet-induced diabetes without chemical or genetic modifications. A closer similarity to humans in these aspects, compared to the widely used Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus models, holds the promise of better translation of research findings to the clinic. RESULTS: We report a 2.5 Gb, chromosome-level reference genome assembly with fully resolved parental haplotypes, generated with the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). The assembly is highly contiguous, with contig N50 of 11.1 Mb, scaffold N50 of 83 Mb, and 95.2% of the sequence assigned to chromosomes. We used a novel workflow to identify 3613 segmental duplications and quantify duplicated genes. Comparative analyses revealed unique genomic features of the Nile rat, including some that affect genes associated with type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunctions. We discuss 14 genes that are heterozygous in the Nile rat or highly diverged from the house mouse. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reflect the exceptional level of genomic resolution present in this assembly, which will greatly expand the potential of the Nile rat as a model organism.

The article is devoted to the problem of regulating parallel imports in the countries of the Eurasian region, which is significant in the conditions of the modern world economy. The relevance of this issue is related to the economic sanctions applied to such states of the Eurasian region as the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. The legal regulation of issues of protection of intellectual property rights in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, and Azerbaijan is analyzed. Special attention is paid to the consideration of the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, as well as legal acts regulating the rights of both copyright holders and importers and consumers, who are subject to the consequences of certain decisions of copyright holders who do not consent to the import of goods into different states.Aim. Research of the legal regulation of the institution of parallel imports in the states of the Eurasian region in the context of economic sanctions.Tasks. Analysis of regulations governing the protection of intellectual property rights in the states of the Eurasian region, research of the main directions of parallel imports in the states of the Eurasian region, as well as identification of the main legal problems associated with the legalization of parallel imports in the region.Methods. Comparative legal and cross-temporal analysis of international and national regulations in the field of antitrust, copyright and customs law, as well as the study and analysis of general scientific literature and the formation of one’s own conclusions during the research.Results. As a rule, the states of the Eurasian region have established the national principle of exhaustion of rights to a trademark, and the international principle is used as an exception for certain groups of goods. The legalization of parallel imports raises several formal questions about the compliance of permission to import without the consent of the copyright holder with the international obligations of various states.Conclusions. In connection with the introduction of economic sanctions against some states of the Eurasian region, parallel imports are an effective mechanism for protecting the domestic market from abuses by copyright holders who unreasonably deny importers the right to distribute goods. Also, one of the methods to neutralize the consequences of sanctions regulation is to use the markets of other countries in the Eurasian region, which do not directly prohibit parallel imports.

This work investigates the influence of parameters of initial ultrafine-grained (UFG) structure in commercially pure (CP) Al on annealing-induced hardening (AIH) and deformation-induced softening (DIS) effects. UFG structures were formed via processing CP Al by various methods of severe plastic deformation (high pressure torsion (HPT), equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) and combination of ECAP and cold rolling (CR)). AIH and DIS effects are observed in all the studied UFG structures. However, HPT Al demonstrates large increase of strength due to annealing and drastic gain of ductility after subsequent additional deformation whereas in ECAP Al and ECAP + CR Al both effects are much less pronounced. Microstructure characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed for HPT Al and ECAP + CR Al in the three studied states: before and after annealing and after annealing and subsequent additional deformation. Analysis of microstructure evolution during annealing and subsequent additional deformation shows that the key microstructure parameter which is responsible for AIH and DIS effect is the change of dislocation density in grain interior in ECAP + CR Al, whereas in HPT Al the effects are related to the change of dislocation density at/near grain boundaries. In addition, outstanding combination of high strength (∼210 MPa), high electrical conductivity (∼62 %IACS) with sufficiently good ductility (7–10 %) and thermal stability (up to 150°С, at least) was achieved for ECAP + CR Al after annealing at 150 °C, 1h.

Subject and Purpose. The research focuses on how the resonance frequencies, the Q-factor of resonances, and the polarization plane rotation ability are influenced by the topology of individual components of a planar-chiral double-layer object consisting of a pair of conjugated irises having rectangular slots and accommodated in a circular waveguide. Methods and Methodology. All the numerical results are obtained by the mode-matching technique (MMT) and the transverse resonance method on the basis of our own proprietary MWD-03 software package. Results. By the waveguide example, it has been shown that the internal structure of individual components and dihedral symmetry of the conjugated bilayer allow all the conclusions of the spectral theory (theory of eigen-oscillations) to be carried over to all the objects of the type. On the other hand, these objects behave as symmetric two-port waveguide components with conventionally "symmetric" and "antisymmetric" eigen-oscillations. The mutual coupling of these eigen-oscillations depends on the bilayer parameters. Where the frequencies of these eigen-oscillations are close enough, the polarization plane rotation and the transmission bandwidth reach their highest. It has been demonstrated that as a slot number increases, the resonance frequency decreases. The theoretical results have been confirmed by the measurements at the X range of frequencies for pairs of conjugated irises with various numbers of rectangular slots. Conclusions. A pair of conjugated chiral irises can rotate the polarization plane. The iris topology, iris spacing, and the mutual rotation angle alter resonance frequencies. The resonance frequencies can be reduced by increasing the rectangular slot length and/or slot number. Even though they have not longitudinal symmetry, such objects have properties of two-port waveguide components. In particular, the phase shift of their reflection and transmission coefficients is modulo 90°. Besides, a possibility exists to divide eigen-oscillations into conventionally "symmetric" and "antisymmetric" based on the proximity of their fields to those whose type of symmetry is known before- hand. This makes it possible to approximate the reflection and transmission coefficients through corresponding eigenfrequencies.

Spatial competition considerations are important in hotel location selection. This study proposes and demonstrates a method of colocation network analysis to quantify the potential encroaching effect of spatial inter- and intra-competition between units of business brands that seek expansion. The environmental context of the study is a network of the top five budget hotel brands in the Beijing hotel market. The results reveal that brands implement different strategies in their hotel placement, which are subject to different levels of the encroaching effect. However, the method is applicable in a variety of hospitality settings, specifically in those that involve the development strategies of chain brands. The simulation capability of the method can assist hospitality brands in assessing the outcomes of a proposed development and, thus, aid hoteliers in the spatial allocation of new units with the least adverse effects on their existing business networks.