Russian-Estonian economic and investment cooperation during the crisis: dynamics and possibilities

The article deals with the development in Russian-Estonian relations during the crises of 2007 and 2014, taking into consideration the balance between political and economic factors in the decision-making by Estonian government. A number of special aspects, trends and problems in trade and investment ties are detected. The aim of the study is to uncover key motivation behind the actions of both Russia and Estonia, to identify the drivers for economic and political development in the region, and to work out recommendations to adjust them. The questions put forward by the authors of this article could not be more topical at the time, when Russian economic situation is obviously getting worse and capital flight (to the neighboring EU Member States) is likely to increase. The method of the study is comparative analysis of the impact on economic ties made by Russian-Estonian crisis of 2007 and the current international tension around Ukraine. The regional fossil fuel market and the possibilities of Gazprom involvement in its development are also analyzed. It is concluded that political motives are still important for Estonian decisionmaking, though they are balanced out by measures of business support (despite some of these measures being taken by the EU bodies). The role of political factor for the Russian side is increasing. It is acknowledged that there is a growing number of missed economic opportunities in the Russian Northwest

National competitiveness as the object of indicative planning in the context of re-industrialization

Three years after the adoption of legislation regarding strategical planning we are able to see the first statistical results, reflecting actual conditions of regulated objects. The subject of this article is to examine the system of indicators of state economic policy, targeting to stimulate the development of economic potential with the aim to improve national economic competitiveness. The objective is the competitiveness of domestic economy as the subject of regulation. The aim is the analysis of the system of indicators on the basis of comparison of actual and planned data, detecting weakly correlated indicators and to make recommendations to correct the system of indicators. The article analyses the indicators that are being used in normative and legal documents. The authors consider long-term and medium-term targets for economic frontier development, as well as main factors that should be accounted while formulating the system of indicators for the economic potential in long- and medium-term. As the list of indicators of economic development in the strategic documents is vast, the chosen direction considers the production with high added value. The indicators considered reflect the indicative aim of scientific development, national innovation system and technology as the most important foundations for improvement of national economic competitiveness. Multidirectional trend of economic development and administration indicators has been detected. The formation of system of supplementary indicators that reflect the development of production frontier has been proposed.peer-reviewe

Динамика развития партийной системы современной России: тенденции и проблемы

As you know, last year there were almost 70 new political parties and more than a hundred waiting for registration and institutionalization. The article focuses on the dynamics of the party system in modern Russia, identifies key trends and issues. It was at this time gradually evolved a unique situation, which largely contributed to the accumulation of protest consciousness in a certain part of Russian society, the real protest ignited political behavior during the last federal election, the legislature and the head of state.Как известно, за 2013 г. было зарегистрировано почти 70 новых политических партий и еще более ста ждут регистрации и институционализации. В статье делается акцент на динамике партийной системы современной России в 2000-е гг., выявляются основные тенденции и проблемы. Именно в это время постепенно складывалась своеобразная ситуация, которая во многом способствовала накоплению протестного сознания у определенной части российского общества, вылившегося в реальное протестное политическое поведение в период последних федеральных выборов законодательной власти и главы государства

Информационная составляющая гибридных войн

The war of the new generation - hybrid war, the information component which is directed not so much on the direct destruction of the enemy, how to achieve the goals without warfare. Fighting in the information field is no less important than immediate military action.Война нового поколения - гибридная война, информационная составляющая которой направлена не столько на непосредственное уничтожение противника, сколько на достижение целей без ведения боевых действий. Борьба на информационном поле является не менее важной, чем непосредственные боевые действия

Homobivalent Lamellarin-Like Schiff Bases: In Vitro Evaluation of Their Cancer Cell Cytotoxicity and Multitargeting Anti-Alzheimer's Disease Potential

Marine alkaloids belonging to the lamellarins family, which incorporate a 5,6-dihydro-1-phenylpyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline (DHPPIQ) moiety, possess various biological activities, spanning from antiviral and antibiotic activities to cytotoxicity against tumor cells and the reversal of multidrug resistance. Expanding a series of previously reported imino adducts of DHPPIQ 2-carbaldehyde, novel aliphatic and aromatic Schiff bases were synthesized and evaluated herein for their cytotoxicity in five diverse tumor cell lines. Most of the newly synthesized compounds were found noncytotoxic in the low micromolar range (<30 μM). Based on a Multi-fingerprint Similarity Search aLgorithm (MuSSeL), mainly conceived for making protein drug target prediction, some DHPPIQ derivatives, especially bis-DHPPIQ Schiff bases linked by a phenylene bridge, were prioritized as potential hits addressing Alzheimer's disease-related target proteins, such as cholinesterases (ChEs) and monoamine oxidases (MAOs). In agreement with MuSSeL predictions, homobivalent para-phenylene DHPPIQ Schiff base 14 exhibited a noncompetitive/mixed inhibition of human acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with Ki in the low micromolar range (4.69 μM). Interestingly, besides a certain inhibition of MAO A (50% inhibition of the cell population growth (IC50) = 12 μM), the bis-DHPPIQ 14 showed a good inhibitory activity on self-induced β-amyloid (Aβ)1-40 aggregation (IC50 = 13 μM), which resulted 3.5-fold stronger than the respective mono-DHPPIQ Schiff base 9

EXPERIENCE OF USING THE “ANTI-PLAGIARISM. HIGHER SCHOOL INSTITUTION” SYSTEM IN THE COURSE OF CHEMISTRY FOR STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING ACADEMY RUDN

When checking the written work of students each teacher faced with the problem of determining the originality of the work. At the department of General Chemistry RUDN University the system “Anti-plagiarism. Higher School Institution” is used for this purpose. Using this system when checking the work for borrowings from online sources, saves the teacher the routine of searching for matching blocks. In addition, the using of this system is aimed at improving the implementation of a culture of scientific citation, without which no research project in chemistry can be done, is aimed at increasing the level of scientific educational process of the students

Systematic analysis of the literature in search of defining systemic sclerosis subsets

OBJECTIVE: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multisystem disease with heterogeneity in presentation and prognosis. An international collaboration to develop new SSc subset criteria is underway. Our objectives were to identify systems of SSc subset classification and synthesize novel concepts to inform development of new criteria. METHODS: Medline, Cochrane MEDLINE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EMBASE, and Web of Science were searched from their inceptions to December 2019 for studies related to SSc subclassification, limited to humans and without language or sample size restrictions. RESULTS: Of 5686 citations, 102 studies reported original data on SSc subsets. Subset classification systems relied on extent of skin involvement and/or SSc-specific autoantibodies (n = 61), nailfold capillary patterns (n = 29), and molecular, genomic, and cellular patterns (n = 12). While some systems of subset classification confer prognostic value for clinical phenotype, severity, and mortality, only subsetting by gene expression signatures in tissue samples has been associated with response to therapy. CONCLUSION: Subsetting on extent of skin involvement remains important. Novel disease attributes including SSc-specific autoantibodies, nailfold capillary patterns, and tissue gene expression signatures have been proposed as innovative means of SSc subsetting

Проблема активности при системной склеродермии

The problem of systemic scleroderma (SSD) activity enters into the view of standardized patient examination and it is important for choosing a therapeutic complex, for determining the dose of drugs, and for monitoring therapy. Great difficulties in the determination of activity in SSD are caused by the pathogenetic and morphogenetic features of the disease. It should be emphasized that there are no clearly defined exacerbation and remission periods. It is difficult to differentiate the potentially reversible inflammatory changes determining the activity of SSD from the irreversible fibrous changes characterizing the severity of the disease. The laboratory parameters of inflammatory activity are also of little informative value. The complicated problem of activity in SSD is to be further investigated both to improve and modify existing indices and to search for a common specific marker and/or key pathogenetically and clinically relevant markers of disease activity.Проблема активности системной склеродермии (ССД) непосредственно связана со стандартизацией обследования больных и важна для выбора лечебного комплекса, определения дозы лекарственных препаратов, контроля терапии. Большие трудности в определении активности при ССД обусловлены особенностями патогенеза и морфогенеза заболевания. Следует подчеркнуть, что при ССД нет четко очерченных периодов обострения и ремиссии. Разграничить потенциально обратимые воспалительные изменения, определяющие «активность» ССД, от необратимых фиброзных, характеризующих тяжесть заболевания, сложно. Лабораторные показатели воспалительной активности также мало информативны. Непростая проблема активности при ССД подлежит дальнейшему изучению в отношении как совершенствования и модификации имеющихся индексов, так и поиска единого специфического и/или «ключевых» патогенетически и клинически значимых маркеров активности заболевания

Cytokine profile and expression of FYN, ZAP-70 and LAT during concanavalin a stimulation in patients with resistant bronchial asthma

Background: Bronchial asthma (BA) is one of the most spreading chronic lung pathology in the world. The disease is characterized by high heterogeneity of clinical phenotypes including resistant forms which provoke significant clinical problem. Immune shift from Th2 to alternative immunological response is considered to be a mechanism of drug-resistance in BA treatment but this issue is not considerably studied yet. Aims: Detection of distinctive patterns in cytokine secretion and genetic expression (ZAP-70, FYN and LAT) of naïve and concanavalin A stimulated lymphocytes in patients with resistant BA. Materials and methods: The study enrolled ten patients in each group: subjects with treatment resistant BA, severe BA, and controls (30 in total). During the experiment, all patients with BA received treatment according to the condition. For each participant lymphocytes isolation from venous blood was performed. Cells were cultured with concanavalin A and without stimulation. Concentrations of cytokines IL-2, IL-12, TNF-α, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-6 in supernatants were measured with ELISA. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the mRNA expression of LAT, ZAP-70, and FYN genes. Results: Significant disease contribution to the lymphocyte secretion profile was established without concanavalin A stimulation: increased levels of IL-2 and IL-4 was observed in lymphocytes of patients with resistant BA if compared to the results of gorup with severe BA. Patients with resistant BA were characterized by weak cytokine response to the stimulation: only TNF-α and IL-5 levels were significantly increased whereas in group with severe BA all cytokines concentrations increased except IL-12, in controls - except IL-12 and IL-2. Significant FYN upregulation was identified in resistant BA group if compared with other groups, and in severe BA patients if compared with controls. The concanavalin A-stimulated cells showed increased expression of ZAP-70 in cells of patients with resistant BA compared to control group. Conclusions: Lymphocytes from patients with resistant BA are characterized by lack of cytokine response to concanavalin A stimulation, alteration of cytokine secretion, and genetic expression profile similar to cells with low sensitivity to apoptosis. The FYN gene is a perspective target for finding approaches to overcome resistance to steroid drugs in bronchial asthma. © 2018 Izdatel'stvo Meditsina. All rights reserved

SCLERODERMA SYSTEMATICA WITH INTERSTITIAL LUNG LESION: COMPARATIVE CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICSWITH PATIENTS WITHOUT LUNG LESION

Objective. To compare disease history data and clinical and laboratory parameters in patients with scleroderma systematica (SDS) with high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT)-verified interstitial lung lesion (ILL) versus those without lung involvement. Subjects and methods. An examination was made in 138 patients with SDS who had been consecutively admitted in 2006-2008, female/male ratio, 124 : 14; limited : diffuse : mixed forms, 78 : 40 : 20; mean age, 47±13 years; median disease duration, 6 (2.5 11) years. The history data (occupational hazards, smoking, respiratory diseases) and clinical manifestations of SDS and laboratory data were studied. The diagnosis of ILL was established on the basis of chest HRCT. Results. According to HRCT data, the signs of varying ILL were found in 82% of the patients with SDS. The duration of SDS was similar in the patients with and without lung involvement; but the latter were younger at the time of disease onset. There were no significant differences between the groups compared in history data, clinical forms of SDS, the frequency of involvement of visceral organs and systems. Crepitation was heard only in the patients with ILL. The frequency of respiratory manifestations increased with a larger number of the involved lung segments. The prevalence of ILL was found to be positively correlated with age at the onset of SDS (r=0.29;