Natural and medical sciences

The article considers the issues of the transport system evolution in the modern territory of the Russian-Belarusian border area. Transport is noted for its special role in regional development and its contribution to the develop­ment of interregional ties, the formation of cross-border regions. The transport net­work forms a certain infrastructure in the regions, thanks to it con­nec­tivity and integrity are achieved. The development of the transport system ref­lects the main stages of the development of civilization as a whole and within individual regions. The article highlights the main stages of such development of the transport network in the modern territory of the Russian-Belarusian border area. Particular attention is paid to its transit, intercapital geogra­phi­cal position, and the impact of transport development on regional growth. The author remarks that in modern conditions, transport connectivity acts as the most important factor in the integrity of the Union State.

Widespread introduction of digital technologies into human life has resulted in the accumulation of huge amounts of digital data that enables quantitative assessment of various social processes. This article uses data on Internet search user queries in the border region, namely the Kaliningrad region of Russia, to assess the interest of its inhabitants in establishing local cross-border links with the border regions of Poland and Lithuania. The data source is the Yandex. Wordstat open service, which displays statistics and geo­graphy of queries in the Yandex search engine. The study covered 101 sett­le­ments in the Russian-Polish and 93 in the Russian-Lithuanian border area. The authors analyzed the frequency and the content of 3,277 unique queries ma­de between February and April 2022 and containing at least one place­na­me of the primary sample. The study came up with the calculation of monthly indices of user digital interest in the Kaliningrad region — general (for each lo­cality) and thematic (for certain areas of cross-border interactions — tou­rism and recreation, trade and shopping, education, work, housing and mo­ving). It was revealed that in the 100-km border zone, fewer than 40 % of sett­lements with a population of 1 thousand people in Lithuania and 2 thousand people in Poland were the object of a targeted search for residents of the Rus­sian region. A higher level of frequency and variety of search queries is typical for larger cities, while their territorial proximity to the border did not signi­ficantly affect the dynamics of Internet search. Only five cities — Polish Gdansk, Olsztyn, Gdynia and Lithuanian Kaunas, Klaipeda, are represented in all five thematic categories of requests in the areas of cross-border inte­ractions.

Chemical pollution of watercourses can be considered as one of the integral indicators of the geoecological state of the catchment area. Such an indicator is most likely to be taken into account in the two-way interaction of a person with watercourses, both for a water user and a negative impact on them, since in both cases, water quality very often comes high in priority. Thanks to the analysis of data on pollution, it is possible to find out its sour­ces, both anthropogenic and natural, the dominant pollutants, together with their intensity and dynamics, the need for treatment and environmental pro­tec­tion measures and their nature, and more. Hydrochemical indicators, the back­ground of water pollution assessment, can be roughly divided into 2 groups: qualitative (concentration of chemicals) and quantitative (mass of che­mi­cals). If the concentrations of certain chemicals can be obtained in labo­ra­to­ry conditions, using the methods described in the regulatory documents adop­ted in the territory of the Russian Federation, then obtaining their mass indicators, for a certain period of time, is not a trivial task. The main methods for calculating this characteristic indicate the need for a diverse and capacious information base, which is almost completely absent for the polder lands of the region. The aim of the work is to develop a methodological approach for obtai­ning a geoecological indicator represented by a quantitative indicator of pollu­ting chemicals in water, leveling the information deficit, by means of a coup­led analysis of available, but very limited hydrological, hydrochemical and geoecological data. To achieve the goal, hydrological calculations, full-scale and retrospective hydro-chemical researches were carried out, geoecological cha­racteristics were analyzed. The work resulted in creating methodological sup­port for obtaining an additional indicator for the assessment of the geo­ecological state of the basins of small streams of polder lands in the Kali­nin­grad region.

Environmental and land management systems at the regional level are the main object of management at large. The scripts for developing manage­ment programs include analysis and assessment of the regional environmental ma­nagement system and the history of its setup, identification of the main trends, development of the most rational scenarios for its development and cor­rection based on monitoring.

The article considers the main provisions of the concept plan of regional nature management systems, characterizes polychronic elements, and propo­ses approaches to the typology of the dynamics of nature management in re­gions. The analysis of similar management systems in the North-West of Rus­sia and the Baltic countries from 1910—14 to 2016—19 identified the main direc­tions of the dynamics of nature management and proposed their typo­logy. Synchronous multifactorial analysis of changes in the territorial and functional structure of nature management in the region made it possible to determine the factors that determine its dynamics. The most significant events which caused a radical transformation of the systems of nature management in the North-West of Russia and the Baltic countries include both World Wars, the economic crisis of the 1930s, government programs for economic recovery in the mid-1950s, the economic and political crisis of the early 1990s years and economic support programs that have been in effect since the early 2000s, sanctions and anti-sanctions.

The period of the development of the Northern Territories, the process of urbanization, the mixing of blood had a negative impact on the way of life formed for centuries, morphometric indicators and, accordingly, on the health of the indigenous peoples of the North. The authors compared the morpho­met­ric indicators of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the north living in camps, in rural areas and migrating to the city. A retrospective analysis of the birth histories selected by the continuous sampling method was carried out. Statistical processing relied on the SPSS, Statistica 8.0 software package, as well as the Microsoft Excel analysis package. Most often, women from among the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the north living in the city were underweight, while growth rates approached the newcomer population. The circumference of the hips and abdomen was statistically significantly higher among the small peoples of the North migrating to the city in comparison with those living in the village, as well as complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Newborns had the highest Apgar scores among the indigenous peoples living in the village. Thus, these studies allow us to conclude that for the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, the processes associated with the development of the North, urbanization, changes in nutrition, blood mixtures led to a change in morphometric indicators and negatively affected the course of childbirth and, accordingly, the health of newborns.

Women are the core population group responsible for new HIV infections and the persistence of the HIV pandemic. A key determinant of susceptibility to HIV infection is the composition of the vaginal microbiome, which can influence the local immune cell population and inflammation status. While a low diversity microbial composition dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus is associated with a reduced risk of HIV infection, a high microbial diversity environment associated with bacterial vaginosis increases the risk of HIV infection. Given the important role of the vaginal microbiome in determining HIV susceptibility, changing the microbiome towards Lactobacillus spp. dominance is an attractive additional strategy to reduce the incidence of HIV infection. The review provides an analysis of the mechanisms and factors by which the vaginal microbiome can contribute to HIV infection. Most viral infections begin to develop on the mucous membranes. At the same time, the female reproductive tract has a unique susceptibility to viral infection, since tissue-specific immunity must cause rapid antimicrobial responses to patho­gens, while maintaining tolerance to spermatozoids. In addition, the vagina is lined with stratified squamous epithelium in which continuous cell turnover occurs, a process that requires cells to differentiate without provoking an in­flam­matory immune response. This defines a susceptibility unique to wo­men of reproductive age, who are at disproportionate risk of morbidity and mor­ta­lity associated with viral pathogens such as HIV infection.

The study assessed the functional state of the kidneys and urodynamics in 207 patients aged 3 to 17, depending on the degree, level and type of conge­ni­tal obstruction of the upper urinary tract. The congenital hydronephrosis was found in 151 children of those, the obstructive ureterohydronephrosis — in 30, and refluxing ureterohydronephrosis in 26 patients. The transformation of the kidney and upper urinary tract in obstructive uropathy in children before and after surgical treatment was monitored with the help of ultrasound and X-ray methods. The results showed that in grade II urinary tract obst­ruc­tion, the rate of good outcomes after reconstructive surgery was significantly higher than in grade III, regardless of the cause of the congenital obstruction. The frequency of satisfactory and unsatisfactory postoperative results also de­pended on the degree of initial obstruction.