Teaching Literature to Foreign Audience at the Stage of Pre-University Training

AbstractThe paper considers the problems of applying the Russian as a foreign language teaching technique for teaching literature at pre-university department. In spite of the reduced scope of additional educational program in literature as provided for by the new requirements, in this audience, studying the Russian writers’ works corps is coupled with difficulties of both linguistic and mental nature. The teaching starts in groups having A1 mastery level of Russian, and, alongside with the non-mother tongue, the attendees have to master a course of Russian literature ranging from folklore and Old Russian literature to that of the 20th century within an incomplete academic year. The specific character of students’ audience and program requirements prescribe the necessary use of the main principles of RFL teaching – communicative, linguistic, didactic and psychological ones. The authors of the paper pay a special attention to practical application of the said principles giving numerous examples of study assignments and exercises of various types. The paper can be targeted to RFL teachers, students of philology and to everyone interested in problems of techniques of teaching literature in a non-mother tongues

ESG Investment Profitability in Developed and Emerging Markets with Regard to the Time Horizon

The development of the ESG (Environmental, social, and governance) concept has led to the rapid spread of financial instruments for investing in sustainable development on all continents. The purpose of the article is to study the attractiveness of sustainable investing in the developed and emerging markets of America, Europe and Asia, in particular, to conduct a comparative analysis of the returns of market indices based on ESG criteria and those of indices that do not take them into account. Particular attention is paid to the duration of the investment period: the authors studied profitability on time intervals from one to five years. The object of the study is stock indices. The subject of the study is profitability of ESG-oriented and ESG-neutral indices. A comparative analysis of 28 market indices, 15 of which were formed with ESG indicators in the period from 2013 to 2022 led to the conclusion that it is advisable to invest in ESG index funds in both developed and emerging markets, since in more than 50% of cases, the return of ESG indices is higher than that of non-ESG indices. Investments in ESG indices over a longer time horizon tend to have higher returns on invested capital than traditional investments in non-sustainable indices. Analysis of European stock market returns has shown insufficient efficiency of ESG investments and requires additional analysis of the factors that have influenced this. A promising direction for further research is also the analysis of the mutual influence of stock markets of developed and developing countries on financial ESG instruments and indices. The applied value of the study lies in the possibility of using the results of the analysis in the reorientation of Russian investors in the face of sanctions pressure on stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region

Kind granddaughters of angry grandmothers: The effect of domestication on vocalization in cross-bred silver foxes

a b s t r a c t The genetic basis of the effects of domestication has previously been examined in relation to morphological, physiological and behavioural traits, but not for vocalizations. According t

South in W. Faulkner’s creative life

The article focuses on the works by William Faulkner, the plot of which cover the Civil War period – the novel “Undefeated” (1938), stories “Sermon victory” (1932) and “My Grandmother Millard, General Forrest and the Battle of Harrykin Creek” (1943). The image of the war is compared with the works of W. Faulkner and T.N. Page – in his apologetic southern collection of stories “The old Virginia or Mars Chan and Other Stories” (1887). It is studied how in the works of Faulkner the typical of the works of that era of Reconstruction concept of the “Lost Case” is refracted, according to which the North-South war was an attack of the barbarian Northerners on a supreme civilization, populated by noble cavaliers-Southerners. This article shows the transformation of Faulkner’s topos of classical southern military novel: devotion of the freed slave to his master, Yankees invasion of the plantation, love against the backdrop of the war, a heroic death. Faulkner deprives the uniqueness of the image of the war, his characters do not match the roles, or match them partially. Faulkner reduces the heroic pathos by means of irony, and travesty, refuting the myth cultivated by decades of great and glorious war

Oxyethylated Fluoresceine—(thia)calix[4]arene Conjugates: Synthesis and Visible-Light Photoredox Catalysis in Water–Organic Media

Fluorescent derivatives attract the attention of researchers for their use as sensors, photocatalysts and for the creation of functional materials. In order to create amphiphilic fluorescent derivatives of calixarenes, a fluorescein derivative containing oligoethylene glycol and propargyl groups was obtained. The resulting fluorescein derivative was introduced into three different (thia)calix[4]arene azide derivatives. For all synthesized compounds, the luminescence quantum yields have been established in different solvents. Using UV-visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, as well as transmission and confocal microscopy, aggregation of macrocycles was studied. It was evaluated that calixarene derivatives with alkyl substituents form spherical aggregates, while symmetrical tetrafluorescein-containing thiacalix[4]arene forms extended worm-like aggregates. The macrocycle containing tetradecyl fragments was found to be the most efficient in photoredox ipso-oxidation of phenylboronic acid. In addition, it was shown that in a number of different electron donors (NEt3, DABCO and iPr2EtN), the photoredox ipso-oxidation proceeds best with triethylamine. It has been shown that a low molecular weight surfactant Triton-X100 can also improve the photocatalytic abilities of an oligoethylene glycol fluorescein derivative, thus showing the importance of a combination of micellar and photoredox catalysis

Discovery of antitumor anthra[2,3-b]furan-3-carboxamides: Optimization of synthesis and evaluation of antitumor properties

Anthraquinones and their analogues, in particular heteroarene-fused anthracendiones, are prospective scaffolds for new compounds with improved antitumor characteristics. We herein report the use of a 'scaffold hopping' approach for the replacement of the core structure in the previously discovered hit compound naphtho[2,3-f]indole-5,10-dione 2 with an alternative anthra[2,3-b]furan-5,10-dione scaffold. Among 13 newly synthesized derivatives the majority of 4,11-dihydroxy-2-methyl-5,10-dioxoanthra[2,3-b]furan-3-carboxamides demonstrated a high antiproliferative potency against a panel of wild type and drug resistant tumor cell lines, a property superior over the reference drug doxorubicin or lead naphtho[2,3-f]indole-5,10-dione 2. At low micromolar concentrations the selected derivative of (R)-3-aminopyrrolidine 3c and its stereoisomer (S)-3-aminopyrrolidine 3d caused an apoptotic cell death preceded by an arrest in the G2/M phase. Studies of intracellular targets showed that 3c and 3d formed stable intercalative complexes with the duplex DNA as determined by spectral analysis and molecular docking. Both 3c and 3d attenuated topoisomerase 1 and 2 mediated unwinding of the supercoiled DNA via a mechanism different from conventional DNA-enzyme tertiary complex formation. Furthermore, 3d decreased the activity of selected human protein kinases in vitro, indicating multiple targeting by the new chemotype. Finally, 3d demonstrated an antitumor activity in a model of murine intraperitoneally transplanted P388 leukemia, achieving the increase of animal life span up to 262% at tolerable doses. Altogether, the 'scaffold hopping' demonstrated its productivity for obtaining new perspective antitumor drug candidates.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Discovery of antitumor anthra[2,3-b]furan-3-carboxamides: Optimization of synthesis and evaluation of antitumor properties journaltitle: European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2016.01.050 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS All rights reserved.status: publishe