Reconstruction of the Battle on the Hills in the South of Stalingrad of September 8 - September 10, 1942

Introduction. The result of the Battle of Stalingrad supersedes the course of the battle itself in a great deal of historical literature. Therefore, it is no coincidence that in recent literature Stalingrad is increasingly becoming “mythologized” (A. Isaev), “unknown” (E. Kobyakov) or “forgotten” (A. Chunikhin), the return to the actual history of the Battle of Stalingrad takes the form of criticism of a generalized view, which on examination often turns out to be incorrect. Methods and materials. The work uses the methods of microhistory formulated in 1958 by the American historian J. Stewart. The actions of Red Army units are reconstructed on the basis of documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The actions of Wehrmacht units are described on the basis of captured German documents from Fund 500 of the same archive. The data from the battle log of the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps and the battle log of the 24th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht were taken from the book of Australian historian J. Mark. Analysis. The terrain to the south and south-east of Stalingrad largely determined the course of battle of the operational group of Major-General N.M. Pozharsky and the right flank divisions of the 64th Army with units of XXXXVIII Panzer Corps of General V. Kämpf. The essence of this confrontation was a fierce struggle for commanding heights. Results. At 16:30 on 11 September Major von der Lancken’s group was disbanded, and the tanks returned to their divisions. As a result of the offensive of September 8-11 the Germans managed to capture key heights in the south of Stalingrad. Nevertheless, in these battles XXXXVIII Panzer Corps suffered losses that it could not make up for. This gave the defenders of Stalingrad a chance, which they took. Due to the large volume of archival materials, the author’s team was divided. A.K. Elokhina processed German sources, and E.V. Stelnik processed data from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The concept of the article emerged in the course of joint discussions.

Farmers’ Participation in Operational Groups to Foster Innovation in the Agricultural Sector: An Italian Case Study

Recently, the interpretation of the innovation process has changed significantly. Its linear model has evolved to a dynamic and ongoing participatory approach where cooperation, oriented to generate co-ownership, is the essence to co-produce knowledge among multiple actors. Farmers’ direct participation in the process is widely accepted since they contribute with first-hand information, perceptions, field experiences, and feedback that are essential for the design and implementation of a project. The European Union encourages their participation through the European Rural Development Policy that promotes competitiveness and sustainability in the agriculture and forestry sectors, building bridges among heterogeneous stakeholders that complement each other to find an innovative solution to a given problem. Thus far, despite participation importance, few details have been provided about producer’s contributions within the process. Consequently, this paper attempts to explore the modus operandi of an Italian Operational Group to get insights about the farmers’ participation and identify the factors that could influence and foster the interactive innovation process. The results, based on a participatory observation, key informants’ interviews, and theory reflection, revealed that farmers are active players in the design and implementation phases. Yet, their participation is not constant throughout the entire process. Empower them to find solutions with different players is a complex challenge as it requires motivation, commitment, trust, and an open communication among different actors.

A Review on the Biotechnological Applications of the Operational Group Bacillus amyloliquefaciens

Bacteria under the operational group Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (OGBa) are all Gram-positive, endospore-forming, and rod-shaped. Taxonomically, the OGBa belongs to the Bacillus subtilis species complex, family Bacillaceae, class Bacilli, and phylum Firmicutes. To date, the OGBa comprises four bacterial species: Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus siamensis, Bacillus velezensis and Bacillus nakamurai. They are widely distributed in various niches including soil, plants, food, and water. A resurgence in genome mining has caused an increased focus on the biotechnological applications of bacterial species belonging to the OGBa. The members of OGBa are known as plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) due to their abilities to fix nitrogen, solubilize phosphate, and produce siderophore and phytohormones, as well as antimicrobial compounds. Moreover, they are also reported to produce various enzymes including α-amylase, protease, lipase, cellulase, xylanase, pectinase, aminotransferase, barnase, peroxidase, and laccase. Antimicrobial compounds that able to inhibit the growth of pathogens including non-ribosomal peptides and polyketides are also produced by these bacteria. Within the OGBa, various B. velezensis strains are promising for use as probiotics for animals and fishes. Genome mining has revealed the potential applications of members of OGBa for removing organophosphorus (OPs) pesticides. Thus, this review focused on the applicability of members of OGBa as plant growth promoters, biocontrol agents, probiotics, bioremediation agents, as well as producers of commercial enzymes and antibiotics. Here, the bioformulations and commercial products available based on these bacteria are also highlighted. This review will better facilitate understandings of members of OGBa and their biotechnological applications.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR OPERATIONAL GROUPS OF THE FIRE AND RESCUE GARRISON

Support for management decision-making in emergencies (firefighting), in uncertain conditions of its occurrence and uncertainty of its development is necessary for the organization of optimal distribution of the forces and resources of operational units involved in firefighting, and the knowledge of the Manager. The process of our research is limited only to the case of fire. Taking into account the fact that the data in the fire-extinguishing card does not always coincide with the state of the object where the fire occurred and the unpredictability of the direction of fire propagation, the decision-maker in this situation will organize work to obtain reliable information. These features allow us to consider the object where the fire occurred as a complex system. In this case, the main difficulty of information and analytical support for operational groups, as a management entity, is that at the first stage, the decision-maker in the operational group, without having complete reliable information, organizes its clarification. With the correct organization of their work, the task force ensures maximum efficiency of using the units of the Ministry of emergencies of Russia, when solving their combat tasks. At the same time, it can collect information about an emergency when it receives a notification of its occurrence, as well as on the way of the operational units to the specified area. The issues that determine the development of documents in different periods of the operational situation are considered, and the actions of the decision-maker in the operational group during fire extinguishing are highlighted separately. In this mathematical model, in which the transition of the system from the state of “fire occurrence” to the state of “fire extinguished” is modeled, the properties of a continuous Markov process are used. The solution of Kolmogorov’s system of differential equations determines the probability that characterizes the competence of the decision-maker in the task force.

Taxonomic note: speciation within the operational group Bacillus amyloliquefaciens based on comparative phylogenies of housekeeping genes

Many of the publically available Bacillus 16S rRNA genes and genomes in the NCBI database are inconsistently assigned as B. amyloliquefaciens. The highly conserved nature of the 16S rRNA gene makes it fail to differentiate species within the operational group B. amyloliquefaciens. Here, comparative phylogenies of the complete 16S rRNA, gyrB, rpoB, trpB, recA, and cheA nucleotide sequences of bacterial strains within the operational group were analyzed. As the result, the gyrB, rpoB, and trpB phylogenetic analyses showed stable topology that comprised three monophyletic clades: (i) B. amyloliquefaciens; (ii) B. siamensis; and (iii) B. velezensis. Phylogenies derived by comparison of the gyrB, rpoB, trpB, recA, and cheA with the 16S rRNA gene-derived phylogeny was significant as evaluated by the likelihood ratio test. The trpB, rpoB, and trpB gene-derived phylogenies provide a tool for speciation within the operational group B. amyloliquefaciens.

STIMULATING INNOVATIVENESS IN RURAL AREAS AS PART OF THE “COOPERATION” MEASURE WITH THE ANCIENT GRAIN OPERATIONAL GROUP – A CASE STUDY

The article aims at a preliminary evaluation of the performance of the “Cooperation” measure as part of PROW 2014-2020 which is to support innovativeness in the agri-food sector by accelerating the transfer of knowledge from scientific research institutions and the cooperation of farmers with consulting institutions, entrepreneurs and various social partners. Rural areas in Poland are a place of abode of a large part of society and agriculture is an important sector of the national economy. A serious problem of many agricultural family farms in Poland is low competitiveness on the international market of agricultural producers. It comes from e.g. no possibility of competing with large-size farms, which can benefit from the effect of the scale of production and which, frequently, enjoy better access to consulting, market and process information. The response to these problems can be provided by integration (horizontal and vertical) and triggering the innovativeness processes throughout the agribusiness sector. Two application acceptance dates, so far, addressed at Operational Groups have shown great innovative potential of Polish agriculture and a growing interest of scientists and entrepreneurs in innovations. A perfect example of such an Operational Group EPI is Ancient Grain, where innovation is a response to market needs and is to support food quality enhancement by optimising crop technology, processing and effective marketing. The aim of the operation is to launch the cultivation of original forms of wheat cultivars (Indian dwarf wheat and Persian wheat) with a higher nutritional value. The preliminary research results confirm that such wheat forms show a high content of macro- and microelements as well as essential amino acids and that consumers demonstrate much interest in the foodstuff to be developed based on these wheat forms.

Epidemiological monitoring of cancer risk in cancer center workers

Based on the results of cancer monitoring in the staff of a large Cancer Center cancer risk research was performed using the method of nested “case–control” study within a cohort. The cohort comprised 7269 persons who were followed up through the cancer-register of the Cancer Center. Four hundred eighty-four (139 male and 345 female) cancer cases were revealed. For every case a control individual of the same sex and age was randomly selected from the staff who had no cancer as of January 1, 2019. A statistically insignificant increase in the overall cancer risk was observed in male operational staff (odds ratio (OR) being 1.14, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.64–2.05) and other doctorsclinicians (OR 1.36; 95 % CI 0.68–2.73). In a combined group of male clinicians and experimenters 4 cases of thyroid cancer were revealed and no members of this group were present in controls. An insignificantly increased risk of hemoblastoses, skin and brain cancer were also observed in this group. In the female stuff an insignificantly increased risk of all cancer sites combined was recorded in operational group (OR 1.28; 95 % CI 0.58–2.87) and nurses (OR 1.21; 95 % CI 0.85–1.72), as well as in the female stuff of experimental scientific units (OR 1.31; 95 % CI 0.90–1.92). An insignificant increase in breast cancer risk was observed in women clinicians and experimenters, exposed to the occupational factors. Female employees of experimental scientific units demonstrated a statistically significant increased risk of digestive organs cancer (OR 2.95; 95 % CI 1.14–7.67) and hemoblastoses (OR 5.71; 95 % CI 1.05–31.07). The results of the study demonstrate the need for epidemiological monitoring and data accumulation on cancer risk in different groups of medical workers.