Construction of a Narrativeabout Socialist Realism in English-Language Art Criticism Discourse (based on Texts of Matthew Bown)

Based on the texts of the British expert Matthew Bown, the article deals with the issue of constructing a narrative about the Soviet fine arts. The aim of the study is to analyze the patterns of narrative formation and identify its significant elements. The frame CREATING NEW ART serves as the cognitive basis of the narrative. This frame is characterized by variability and has two main configurations, which can be represented as two scenarios. These scenarios differ in the composition of the actors and the content of the tasks they solve. The actors of the first scenario, actualized in the narrative within the framework of the “friend or foe” opposition, are the ideologists of socialist realism, party leaders and representatives of the creative elite. Their tasks include the formation of the ideology and content of the new art. The actors of the second scenario, updated within the framework of the opposition “self / other”, are Soviet artists. Their task is to develop a language of art that meets ideological requirements and at the same time realizes their creative potential. The article substantiates M. Baun’s willingness to see in socialist realism not only an ideological trend, but also a significant artistic direction. This approach contributes to the disclosure of the value component of socialist realism painting and the transmission of the historical cultural memory of this phenomenon to the world community

NK cells expansion <i>in vitro</i> is followed by loss of inhibitory KIR expression

NK cells are innate lymphocytes that are able to eliminate altered cells, which makes them promising for the immunotherapy of viral diseases and tumors. The NK cell population is characterized by high phenotypic and functional diversity. In particular, in the pool of highly differentiated NK cells in the presence of cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a population of adaptive cells can be formed, characterized by a high lifespan and high cytotoxicity. However, in order to carry out a cytotoxic reaction, a NK cell must undergo a licensing process, during which it acquires the expression of NKG2A and KIRs. Currently, there are many effective methods of NK cell accumulation for subsequent use in therapy, one of them is the stimulation with IL-2 and K562-mbIL21 feeder cells. Highly differentiated adaptive-like NK cells are able to expand in respond to such stimulation. However, the phenotype of actively expanding NK cells dynamically changes. Loss of inhibitory KIR expression during intense proliferation of NK cells may adversely affect their cytotoxic potential. This work shows that highly differentiated CD56dimNKG2C+ NK cells from HCMV-seropositive individuals have a high proportion of KIR2DL2/3+ cells. This may indicate a high stability of KIR receptor expression in this population. We have shown that CD56dimNKG2C+ clonal cultures obtained by stimulation with IL-2 and K562- mbIL21 are characterized by high stability of KIR2DL2/3 expression compared to NKG2C-negative and less differentiated CD56brightNKG2C+. Also, in heterogeneous cultures of adaptive NK cells precursors CD57- CD56dimNKG2C+, a higher expression level of KIR2DL2/3 was observed in comparison with NKG2C-negative cultures of CD57-CD56dimNKG2C-. Thus, the accumulation of NK cells upon stimulation with IL-2 and K562- mbIL2 feeder cells can lead to loss of expression of KIR receptors and a decrease in their functional activity. However, cultures of highly differentiated NK cells of HCMV-seropositive individuals CD56dimNKG2C+, as well as cultures of precursors of adaptive NK cells CD57-CD56dimNKG2C+, are characterized by a greater stability of KIR2DL2/3 expression. As a result, stimulation with IL-2 and K562-mbIL21 feeder cells can be used to accumulate adaptive-like cells and their progenitors with stable inhibitory KIR expression and high cytotoxic potential

Инвестиционные банки США в свете посткризисной реформы международного банковского регулирования

The article looks into the reasons underlying the outspread of the full-scale mechanism of banking regulation over U. S. investment banks. We analyze the effect of the Basel III standards on stress-resilience of investment banks and examine the role of U. S. investment banks in ensuring financial stability. Based on regression analysis we found that minimum capital adequacy standards of Basel III do not have negative effect on ROE of the U. S. investment banks that are G-SIB category-designate; however, additional capital requirements (Higher Loss Absorbency (HLA) surcharge) that depend on G-SIB’s systemic significance according to their bucket as per Financial Stability Board classification do have significant and negative effect on ROE in the post crisis period. Besides, leverage requirements that also depend on G-SIB’s systemic significance have a statistically significant effect on ROE.В статье рассматриваются предпосылки распространения полноформатного механизма банковского регулирования на инвестиционные банки США в посткризисный период; исследуется значение стандартов Базеля III для обеспечения стрессоустойчивости глобальных системно значимых инвестиционных банков; анализируется роль инвестиционных банков США в обеспечении финансовой стабильности. На основе регрессионного анализа выявлено, что стандарты Базеля III в части минимальной достаточности капитала не оказывают статистически значимого влияния на показатель рентабельности капитала (ROE) глобальных системно значимых инвестиционных банков США, однако дополнительные требования к капиталу (Higher Loss Absorbency (HLA) surcharge) в зависимости от категории системной значимости по методологии Совета по финансовой стабильности оказывают негативный статистически значимый эффект на ROE в посткризисный период. Кроме того, на рентабельность собственного капитала влияют требования к левериджу, которые также зависят от категории системной значимости инвестиционного банка

Early IgE production is associated with accumulation of CD11b+ classical dendritic cells and CD11b+CD11c- macrophages in subcutaneous adipose tissue

In view of increased incidence of IgE-mediated diseases in Russia and worldwide, the efforts of various research groups are focused on studying the mechanisms that trigger the process of switching B-lymphocytes to IgE synthesis upon human exposure to harmless allergens, including the role of various antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in this process. However, the role of distinct APCs upon long-term penetration of low antigen doses via the tissue barriers, is yet poorly understood, as well as specific features of these events upon entrance of the antigen through the subcutaneous adipose tissue which contains tissueassociated lymphoid clusters (TALC).The aim of this work was to determine the relationship between the local accumulation of various APCs in the subcutaneous adipose tissue and development of early IgE production in a clinically relevant experimental model of allergy with long-term administration of low allergen doses. In this experimental model, specific IgE synthesis is induced, with minimal concomitant IgG production, thus mimicking the situation observed in patients with clinically sound allergies. BALB/c mice were immunized for 4 weeks subcutaneously in the withers area or intraperitoneally with low (100 ng) or high (10 μg) doses of the model allergen (ovalbumin). Blood samples were taken weekly from mice for ELISA testing, to determine the production of specific antibodies. Provocation tests were performed with high dose of the allergen, and adipose tissue samples were taken from the site of antigen injection for flow cytometric assays, in order to evaluate the contents of various APC subpopulations. Specific IgE production was induced mainly by subcutaneous injection of the antigen at low doses (100 ng) into the area of withers. When using this experimental regimen, we observed accumulation of classical CD11b+ cells in adipose tissue at the withers site, but not in the peritoneal adipose tissue, in absence of CD11b- classical, inflammatory or plasmacytoid, dendritic cells. These findings coincided in time with increased production of specific IgE on days +14 to +21. Accumulation of CD11b+CD11c- macrophages and their CD206+ M2 subpopulations at early terms (days +7 and +21) was also observed only after subcutaneous injection of the antigen into the withers area. The high-dose antigen injection (10 μg) which mediated IgG1 production to greater extent than production of IgE, led to earlier accumulation of CD11b+ classical dendritic cells (on day 7th), and to the absence of macrophage accumulation at later stages (day 21th). Thus, the early start of specific IgE production upon low-dose injection of the antigen into the subcutaneous adipose tissue may be associated with its presentation by CD11b+ classical dendritic cells in the presence of CD11b+CD11c- macrophages

Management of students professional competencies formation on the basis of interdisciplinary integration

© 2016, Econjournals. All rights reserved.The relevance of the study is conditioned by the modernization of professional training the leading strategy of which is the formation of professional competencies. Professional education is characterized by the desire to overcome the professional isolation and to develop a more democratic and effective professional training systems focused on competitive creative professional. The purpose of the article is to provide a control mechanism for the formation of professional competencies of future specialists on the basis of interdisciplinary integration. The leading method has become the method of action research, which allows gaining of new knowledge about the future specialists’ professional training, focused on the formation of entity-entity relations, personal meanings and life values on the basis of interdisciplinary integration. The article reveals leading trends in the development of future specialists’ professional training (reforming, accessibility, solidity and continuity); structure-forming components of professional competencies are allocated (epistemological, normative and functional); the peculiarities of future specialists’ professional competencies formation on the basis of interdisciplinary integration are clarified (focus on holistic education throughout life; upbringing of sustainable civil qualities of the person; the relationship of academic disciplines, ensuring complementarities of content, forms, methods and means of professional training and the creation of common educational modules for various logical reasons); the idea of case-method implementation in the training process is suggested. The paper submissions can be useful for teachers of research universities; centers to enhance personnel training and retraining while selecting and structuring of the content for professional development of the research universities’ teaching staff

Snake venom phospholipase A2s exhibit strong virucidal activity against SARS-CoV-2 and inhibit the viral spike glycoprotein interaction with ACE2.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 requires new treatments both to alleviate the symptoms and to prevent the spread of this disease. Previous studies demonstrated good antiviral and virucidal activity of phospholipase A2s (PLA2s) from snake venoms against viruses from different families but there was no data for coronaviruses. Here we show that PLA2s from snake venoms protect Vero E6 cells against SARS-CoV-2 cytopathic effects. PLA2s showed low cytotoxicity to Vero E6 cells with some activity at micromolar concentrations, but strong antiviral activity at nanomolar concentrations. Dimeric PLA2 from the viper Vipera nikolskii and its subunits manifested especially potent virucidal effects, which were related to their phospholipolytic activity, and inhibited cell-cell fusion mediated by the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. Moreover, PLA2s interfered with binding both of an antibody against ACE2 and of the receptor-binding domain of the glycoprotein S to 293T/ACE2 cells. This is the first demonstration of a detrimental effect of PLA2s on β-coronaviruses. Thus, snake PLA2s are promising for the development of antiviral drugs that target the viral envelope, and could also prove to be useful tools to study the interaction of viruses with host cells

DISTRIBUTION OF <i>MICA</i> ALLELES IN THE RUSSIAN POPULATION

Stress factors, infections, tumor transformation of the cells of organism induce the expression of MICA protein, which is a ligand for the NKG2D receptor of NK and T cells. The interaction of the NKG2D receptor on the surface of the cells of the immune system with MICA results in activation of lymphocytes and elimination of the ligand carrier. The MICA gene has a high level of polymorphism. To date, 87 alleles have been described; their products differ in ability to activate cytotoxic lymphocytes, that can affect the progression of a number of diseases, such as cancer, viral infections, autoimmune diseases. The distribution of MICA alleles in different ethnic groups varies considerably. The analysis of MICA polymorphism in a current ethnos is necessary for revealing the relationships between certain MICA alleles and different diseases. Goal. This work is aimed at studying of the distribution of MICA alleles in Russian population. Materials and methods. Polymorphism of MICA was analyzed according to the procedure proposed by Yizhou Zoe and Peter Stastny. The procedure included: 1) isolation of genomic DNA from whole blood; 2) PCR for amplification of a fragment of the MICA gene; 3) sequencing of the resulting PCR fragments. Analysis of the results of sequencing was carried out using the programs Vector NTI and Chromas Lite. Results. The genotype of the MICA alleles of 119 donors has been determined. Of the 87 MICA alleles described in the literature, 15 were found among the samples studied. The frequencies of MICA alleles were the following: *002 – 19.3%, *004 – 6.7%, *007 – 3.0%, *008 – 35.7%, *009 – 10.1%, *010 – 5.0%, *011 – 3.8%, *012 – 2.1%, *016 – 2.5%, *017 – 3.4% *018 – 5.5%, *019 – 0.4%, *027 – 1.3%, *053 – 0.8%, *068 – 0.4%. The distribution of MICA alleles in Russia was found to be similar to that of European countries. When comparing literary data for different countries of the world, it was found that the differences in the distribution of MICA alleles are expressed mainly between races, and not nations. Conclusions. In this paper, the distribution of MICA alleles in Russian population has been analyzed. It turned out to be very similar to those of other European countries and has a number of significant differences from the ethnoses of the Mongoloid race (Japan, China, Korea). The analysis of the distribution of MICA alleles in the Russian population may be useful for identifying the predisposition of individuals to certain diseases

ML/DL/HPC Ecosystem of the HybriLIT Heterogeneous Platform (MLIT JINR): New Opportunities for Applied Research

The work presents the possibilities for using the ML/DL/HPC ecosystem deployed on the HybriLIT Heterogeneous Platform (Meshcheryakov Laboratory of Information Technologies JINR) on top of JupyterHub, which provides opportunities for solving tasks not only in the field of machine learning and deep learning, but also for the convenient organization of calculations and scientific visualization. The ecosystem allows one to develop and implement program modules in Python, as well as to carry out methodical computations. The relevance of deploying such an environment is primarily associated with the great demand for software modules that are provided to a group of researchers or the scientific community, when all stages of the study can be reproduced; the code has been modified and used by the scientific community. Using the example of solving a specific problem to study the dynamics of magnetization in a Phi-0 Josephson Junction (Superconductor-Ferromagnet-Superconductor structure), a methodology for developing software modules is presented; it enables not only to carry out calculations, but also to visualize the results of the study and accompany them with the necessary formulas and explanations. The possibility of parallel implementation of the algorithm for performing computations for various values of parameters of the model based on the Joblib Python library is shown, and the results of computational experiments demonstrating the efficiency of parallel data processing are presented

NOVOSIBIRSK REGION PROGRAM OF THE LIVER TRANSPLANTATION IN CHILDREN

The aim of the study was to analyze the early and late outcomes of pediatric liver transplantation (LTx) program in the Novosibirsk region. Material and Methods. The retrospective study included 24 patients aged 72 ± 74.8 months (from 4 to 212 months, median – 20 months) with a body weight of 21.7 ± 18.1 kg (from 4.5 to 55 kg, median – 12.5 kg). Two (8.3 %) cadaveric whole liver grafts, 19 (79.2 %) living donor liver grafts, and 3 (12.5 %) cadaveric liver fragments (reduced-size or split-liver) were transplanted. Results. The features of vascular and biliary reconstruction in different types of LTx are discussed. The incidence of vascular and biliary complications was 8.3 and 20.8%, respectively. The patients stayed in the intensive care unit for 9 ± 5.1 days (from 4 to 22 days, median 8 days) and total length of hospital stay was for 40 ± 25.4 days (from 19 to 136 days, median 32 days). Two (8.3 %) recipients had early graft dysfunction. Perioperative mortality (up to 90 days) was absent. The overall 5-year patient and graft survival rates were 95 and 88 %, respectively. Conclusion. The Novosibirsk region has a pediatric LTx program with outcomes comparable to the data of the leading world and Russian centers

Unconfined Aquifer Flow Theory - from Dupuit to present

Analytic and semi-analytic solution are often used by researchers and practicioners to estimate aquifer parameters from unconfined aquifer pumping tests. The non-linearities associated with unconfined (i.e., water table) aquifer tests makes their analysis more complex than confined tests. Although analytical solutions for unconfined flow began in the mid-1800s with Dupuit, Thiem was possibly the first to use them to estimate aquifer parameters from pumping tests in the early 1900s. In the 1950s, Boulton developed the first transient well test solution specialized to unconfined flow. By the 1970s Neuman had developed solutions considering both primary transient storage mechanisms (confined storage and delayed yield) without non-physical fitting parameters. In the last decade, research into developing unconfined aquifer test solutions has mostly focused on explicitly coupling the aquifer with the linearized vadose zone. Despite the many advanced solution methods available, there still exists a need for realism to accurately simulate real-world aquifer tests