Soil Giant Phage: Genome and Biological Characteristics of Jumbo Phage.

This paper presents the first in-depth research on the biological and genomic properties of lytic rhizobiophage AP-J-162 isolated from the soils of the mountainous region of Dagestan (North Caucasus), which belongs to the centers of origin of cultivated plants, according to Vavilov N.I. The rhizobiophage host strains are nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the genus spp.

Metagenomic profiling of viral and microbial communities from the pox lesions of lumpy skin disease virus and sheeppox virus-infected hosts.

Introduction: It has been recognized that capripoxvirus infections have a strong cutaneous tropism with the manifestation of skin lesions in the form of nodules and scabs in the respective hosts, followed by necrosis and sloughing off. Considering that the skin microbiota is a complex community of commensal bacteria, fungi and viruses that are influenced by infections leading to pathological states, there is no evidence on how the skin microbiome is affected during capripoxvirus pathogenesis.

Methods: In this study, shotgun metagenomic sequencing was used to investigate the microbiome in pox lesions from hosts infected with lumpy skin disease virus and sheep pox virus.

A Temperate Phage, AP-16-3, Closely Related to Phage 16-3: Mosaic Genome and Prophage Analysis.

Soil phage AP-16-3, a strain phylogenetically close to phage 16-3, was isolated in a mountainous region of Dagestan, belonging to the origin of cultivated plants in the Caucasus, according to Vavilov N.I. The genome of phage AP-16-3 is 61 kbp in size and contains 62 ORFs, of which 42 ORFs have homologues in the genome of phage 16-3, which was studied in the 1960s-1980s.

Levamisole-Induced Leukoencephalopathy in Russia: Analysis of 30 Cases.

Aims: The study aims to raise medical specialists' awareness regarding the severity of possible complications of levamisole administration, and demonstrate the role of accurate medical history collection in a differential diagnosis.

Background: Levamisole, an anthelmintic drug with immunomodulatory effects, has long been used worldwide till the early 2000s, when its association with demyelinating leukoencephalopathy was established. However, in the developing countries, it is still widely used for the prevention and treatment of helminthic invasion in humans.

High-risk behaviors and beliefs and knowledge about HIV transmission among school and shelter children in Eastern Europe.

Goal: The goal of this study was to determine sexual behavior, injecting drug use, knowledge and representations of HIV transmission among adolescents in Russia, Georgia, and the Ukraine.

Study: We conducted semistructured interviews on sexual behavior and structured inventories assessing knowledge of HIV transmission, sexual behavior and drug use, and social representations of the epidemic.

Results: Shelter children are more likely than school children to have had sex and injected drugs.

Social representations of HIV/AIDS in five Central European and Eastern European countries: a multidimensional analysis.

Cognitive processing models of risky sexual behaviour have proliferated in the two decades since the first reporting of HIV/AIDS, but far less attention has been paid to individual and group representations of the epidemic and the relationship between these representations and reported sexual behaviours. In this study, 494 business people and medics from Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Poland and Russia sorted free associations around HIV/AIDS in a matrix completion task. Exploratory factor and multidimensional scaling analyses revealed two main dimensions (labelled 'Sex' and 'Deadly disease'), with significant cultural and gender variations along both dimension scores.

HIV/AIDS among adolescents in Eastern Europe: knowledge of HIV/AIDS, social representations of risk and sexual activity among school children and homeless adolescents in Russia, Georgia and the Ukraine.

The two studies reported here focus on knowledge and representations of HIV/AIDS (study 1) plus sexual behaviour and hedonistic values (study 2) among 14-17-year-old school children and similar aged shelter children. Results indicate that shelter children are more sexually active, less knowledgeable about means of HIV transmission and are more likely to hold stereotyped representations of those most at risk of infection. Russian respondents were the most sexually active, a finding which could at least be partly explained by their higher levels of hedonistic values.

Social representations of HIV/AIDS in Central and Eastern Europe.

Although a relatively recent epidemic, HIV is now increasing in Eastern Europe faster than anywhere else in the world. In the study reported in this paper, we interviewed 511 business people and health professionals in five Central and Eastern European nations: Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Poland and Russia, deriving our questions primarily from a Social Representations perspective. Respondents also freely completed their associations with the stimulus word 'AIDS'.

Values and sexual behaviour in central and eastern europe.

Despite the profusion of social cognitive models for the prediction of sexual behaviour, we have only limited knowledge as to the role of individual values in predicting risky sexual activity. This study assessed the relationship between a recently developed value structure and sexual behaviour in the context of rising HIV infection in central and eastern Europe. Five hundred and three respondents (business people, doctors and nurses) from Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Poland and Russia completed Schwartz's Portrait Values Questionnaire and reported their condom use, partnership history and record of sexual disease.