We report for the first time the data on the fauna of amphibians and reptiles of bio-cenoses of the Divichi Estuary which is situated in Eastern Azerbaijan on the western coast of the Middle Caspian. Total of 4 species of amphibians and 18 species of reptiles are found, of which 8 species are included in the IUCN Red List and the Appendix of the Bern Convention events as rare and declining in numbers. The discovery of such species as Hyla orientalis, Hyla savigni, Triturus karelinii, and Anguis fragilis seems promising.

The influence of recultivation on the properties of oil-polluted brown semidesertic soils of Kalmykia is studied. The changes in enzymatic activity of soils and features of growth and development of test plants on the remediated samples are investigated. The analysis of a number of enzymes, such as catalase, urease, phosphatase and invertase, is the cornerstone of the research. Having carried out chemical and biological analyses of remediated and polluted soils, a conclusion is drawn that in the remediated soils there is no jump of activity of enzymes, and the soil is less phytotoxic in comparison with oil-polluted exemplars.

The interdependence of Cryptosporidium contamination of rodents, cattle and sheep living in close proximity to each other is analyzed. The study compares data from several ecosystems in Azerbaijan. A morphological study of cryptosporidium species composition of commensal rodents, red-tailed gerbils, cattle and sheep suggests that the rodents serve as a reservoir of protozoan pathogens.

The paper describes the primary structure polymorphism of the oomycete virulence gene Avr4 in field samples of P. infestans from the Moscow and Vladimir regions of Russia. It is found that in nucleotide sequences the Avr4 gene exhibits four site of single nucleotide polymorphism that can be attributed to hot spots of mutagenesis (at 180, 278, 376 and 439). Depending on the nucleotide composition, among the non-functional variants of the Avr4 gene, five allelic variants are identified. Based on these data, it was concluded that the Avr4 gene has considerable polymorphism of the primary structure, but in order to elucidate the causes of this polymorphism and the nature of the evolution of this gene, as well as to establish the allele frequencies in populations of P. infestans, additional population-genetic studies are required.

In this paper, we provide results of the analysis of the root growth at a cellular level in Arabidopsis thaliana mutants cre1-12ahk3-3, cre1-2ahk3-7 with reduced cytokinin signaling, shy2-31 with infringement response to the auxin signal and mutants pin2, pin4 with infringement of polar auxin transport. We show the possibility of using this mutant for finding how auxin and cytokinin affect the individual processes that make up the proliferation and growth of cells, namely, the duration of the cell cycle, lifetime of cells in the meristem, rate of cell proliferation and rate of transition to elongation.

The manifestation of anomalous thermodynamics of water on the kinetics of swelling and germination of wheat seeds is studied. As a controlled parameter use is made of speed weight gain of weevils. The activation energy of germination and swelling is estimated and a linear dependence of the second value on the proportion of hydrophilic substances in the seeds of oats, wheat and beans is found. The transitions between ice-like and spiral water clusters are explained by optimization of temperature stratification and germination of seeds of most plants. It is found that the magnetic field does not affect the kinetics of swelling and slightly reduces the speed of germination. The negative field effect is explained by the action of the Lorentz force on the protons as they move in the plazmalemma scutellum.

The kineto-static method based on D'Alembert' principle is used to develop a mathematical model of the vibrational refining of molten metals. The model calculations show the possibility of increasing the efficiency of the removal process from melt gases and impurities.
The impact of physico-chemical properties of metal, the vibration parameters and mold on the refining process is discussed. The calculations are performed by the model for the molten steel, which show that in the case of inclined vibration (a=45°) and bubble size R from 0.1 to 1 mm, surface forces dominate over the static pressure and the floating of particles is accelerated.

We have refined the previously introduced concept "biosoil environment". At the present level of knowledge, biosoil environment is soil, vegetation, fungi and animals, representing a set of natural and manmade formations that, when subjected to the influence of exogenous and anthropogenic forces, affect the man and his economic activities, as well as natural bodies and phenomena. The degradation of biosoil environment is discussed. Indices of biophotonic resources per capita by regions of the world are presented. The geoecological processes that affect human, plant and animal organisms are discussed. The mechanism of the formation of biogenic oxygen is outlined. The essence of geotechnopedogenesis and geotechnobiogenesis
in the management of biosoil environment is analyzed. Attention is drawn to the adverse effects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), consumption of products derived from GMOs.