Common trends of global education: educational methods in USA and Russia

This article touches upon the issues of changes in the educational system in the knowledge society. The main purpose of this research is the study of new teaching methods, with due regard to the needs of society and human potential. For this purpose, educational methods of the US and Russia were analyzed and compared, their advantages and disadvantages were estimated, and common trends in the development of education were identified. It is stated that during the formation of innovative methods of education for future generations, it is necessary to take into account ethical standards of each ethnic group, culture and traditions of specific country, as well as psycho-physical standards of students. It is justified that the idea of the creation of unified teaching methods for the entire planet population is impossible due to geographic, ethnic, political, and economic differences of every country. However, according to research results of popular techniques, it is possible to develop a model of the most appropriate educational method for the vast majority of countries with due consideration of constant development of science as the main influence factor on methods of education. It is concluded that the general trends of global education are individualization and humanization. They lead to the formation of flexible, critical, creative and effective thinking of students in terms of variability and uncertainty of social reality

A molecular "screw-​clamp": accelerating click reactions in miniemulsions

The interface as a “screw clamp”: the copper-free 1,3-dipolar azide–alkyne cycloaddition at the interface of nanodroplets in miniemulsions was studied in detail by NMR spectroscopic methods. The reaction at the oil–water interface proved to exhibit higher rate constants, increased molecular weights and high regioregularity compared to the reaction in solutio

Omeprazole Inhibits Proliferation and Modulates Autophagy in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

BACKGROUND: Omeprazole has recently been described as a modulator of tumour chemoresistance, although its underlying molecular mechanisms remain controversial. Since pancreatic tumours are highly chemoresistant, a logical step would be to investigate the pharmacodynamic, morphological and biochemical effects of omeprazole on pancreatic cancer cell lines. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Dose-effect curves of omeprazole, pantoprazole, gemcitabine, 5-fluorouracil and the combinations of omeprazole and 5-fluorouracil or gemcitabine were generated for the pancreatic cancer cell lines MiaPaCa-2, ASPC-1, Colo357, PancTu-1, Panc1 and Panc89. They revealed that omeprazole inhibited proliferation at probably non-toxic concentrations and reversed the hormesis phenomena of 5-fluorouracil. Electron microscopy showed that omeprazole led to accumulation of phagophores and early autophagosomes in ASPC-1 and MiaPaCa-2 cells. Signal changes indicating inhibited proliferation and programmed cell death were found by proton NMR spectroscopy of both cell lines when treated with omeprazole which was identified intracellularly. Omeprazole modulates the lysosomal transport pathway as shown by Western blot analysis of the expression of LAMP-1, Cathepsin-D and β-COP in lysosome- and Golgi complex containing cell fractions. Acridine orange staining revealed that the pump function of the vATPase was not specifically inhibited by omeprazole. Gene expression of the autophagy-related LC3 gene as well as of Bad, Mdr-1, Atg12 and the vATPase was analysed after treatment of cells with 5-fluorouracil and omeprazole and confirmed the above mentioned results. CONCLUSIONS: We hypothesise that omeprazole interacts with the regulatory functions of the vATPase without inhibiting its pump function. A modulation of the lysosomal transport pathway and autophagy is caused in pancreatic cancer cells leading to programmed cell death. This may circumvent common resistance mechanisms of pancreatic cancer. Since omeprazole use has already been established in clinical practice these results could lead to new clinical applications

Glutathione Responsive Hyaluronic Acid Nanocapsules Obtained by Bioorthogonal Interfacial “Click” Reaction

Azide-functionalized hyaluronic acid and disulfide dialkyne have been used for “click” reaction polymerization at the miniemulsion droplets interface leading to glutathione responsive nanocapsules (NCs). Inverse miniemulsion polymerization was chosen, due to its excellent performance properties, for example, tuning of size and size distribution, shell thickness/density, and high pay loading efficiency. The obtained size, size distribution, and encapsulation efficiency were checked via fluorescent spectroscopy, and the tripeptide glutathione was used to release an encapsulated fluorescent dye after cleavage of the nanocapsules shell. To show the glutathione-mediated intracellular cleavage of disulfide-containing NC shells, CellTracker was encapsulated into the nanocapsules. The cellular uptake in dendritic cells and the cleavage of the nanocapsules in the cells were studied using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Because of the mild reaction conditions used during the interfacial polymerization and the excellent cleavage properties, we believe that the synthesis of glutathione responsive hyaluronic acid NCs reported herein are of high interest for the encapsulation and release of sensitive compounds at high yields

Predictability of Thermal and Electrical Properties of End-Capped Oligothiophenes by a Simple Bulkiness Parameter

The branching topology of end groups attached to several series of oligothiophenes has a systematic effect on thermal and electrical properties of the oligomers. The series were synthesized in a modular approach and show a distinct drop of the melting point Tm on increasing bulkiness of the substituents. The same trend can be found for the dissociation temperatures Tdis of aggregates in solution. Similarly, monolayer OFET mobilities µFET are significantly decreasing with increasing bulkiness of the substituents. A simple geometric model is presented quantitatively correlating the transition temperatures and mobilities with the substituents’ structure based on a bulkiness parameter P, which allows predicting Tm, Tdis, and µFET of corresponding not yet synthesized oligomers with branched substituents. This model might be generally applicable for end-capped rod-like conjugated oligomers

Molecular Exchange Kinetics of Diblock Copolymer Micelles Monitored by Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy

We investigated the equilibrium chain-exchange kinetics of amphiphilic diblock copolymer micelles, using a new method based on fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. The micelles were formed from polystyrene-<i>block</i>-poly­[oligo­(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate] (PS–POEGMA) in different solvents and studied at various temperatures. This linear-brush copolymer was chosen as a model system, forming micelles with short and bulky corona. Depending on the applied solvent, fast exchange could be observed even at temperatures well below the nominal glass transition of the core-forming PS block. The effect is caused by swelling of the core and allows extensive tuning of the chain-exchange rate by adding to the system minor amounts of good or bad solvent for the core block

Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy in Dilute Polymer Solutions: Effects of Molar Mass Dispersity and the type of fluorescent Labeling

© 2015 American Chemical Society. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) has become an important tool in polymer science. Among various other applications the method is often applied to measure the hydrodynamic radius and the degree of fluorescent labeling of polymers in dilute solutions. Here we show that such measurements can be strongly affected by the molar mass dispersity of the studied polymers and the way of labeling. As model systems we used polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization or free-radical polymerization. Thus, the polymers were either end-labeled bearing one fluorophore per chain or side-labeled with a number of fluorophores per chain proportional to the degree of polymerization.The experimentally measured autocorrelation curves were fitted with a newly derived theoretical model that uses the Schulz-Zimm distribution function to describe the dispersity in the degree of polymerization. For end-labeled polymers having a molecular weight distribution close to Schulz-Zimm, the fits yield values of the number-average degree of polymerization and the polydispersity index similar to those obtained by reference gel permeation chromatography. However, for the side-labeled polymers such fitting becomes unstable, especially for highly polydisperse systems. Brownian dynamic simulations showed that the effect is due to a mutual dependence between the fit parameters, namely, the polydispersity index and the number-average molecular weight. As a consequence, an increase of the polydispersity index can be easily misinterpreted as an increase of the molecular weight when the FCS autocorrelation curves are fitted with a standard single component model, as commonly done in the community.status: publishe

Simplified metabolic network of the MiaPaCa-2 cell line as determined by proton NMR spectroscopy.

<p>The cell line is shown without and upon various treatment regimens (OMP, 5-FU or 5-FU+OMP combination). The nodes of this network symbolize metabolite signals, their colours correspond to relative signal intensity (when compared to an external standard) as indicated in the heatmap scale below. The signal intensity is linearly related to the intracellular concentration. The background of the nodes are left blank when the signal intensity is out of the range indicated by the heatmap scale. The lines between the boxes symbolize strongly simplified metabolic pathways. The colors of these lines indicate significant differences of the signal intensity ratios of the connected metabolites compared to the control group when orange (p<0.05), red lines indicate p<0.01. Upon OMP, the PC/Cho ratios are significantly lower compared to control. Furthermore the acetate/FACH2 ratio is significantly decreased in the OMP group. The latter also showed a higher CH = CH level, the ratio to FACH2 is, however, decreased. Upon 5-FU and 5-FU+OMP, similar changes could be observed. Furthermore, in contrast to ASPC-1 cells, the Ala/Gln/AMP pathway is also involved. Abbreviations: Gln - glutamine, Ala - alanine, PC - phosphatidylcholine, Cho - Choline. Lac1+FACH2 - methyl group signal of lactate and methylene groups of the fatty acids, Lac2 - methylene group of lactate, CH = CH - protons of methin groups of unsaturated fatty acids.</p

Gene expression analysis of autophagy and apoptosis relevant genes by Western blot analysis.

<p>The Bad, Puma and Atg12 proteins were detected in MiaPaCa-2 and ASPC-1 cells. The Bad expression is slightly increased by 5-FU and suppressed by OMP and 5-FU+OMP in ASPC-1, but not in MiaPaCa-2 cells. Puma is induced by OMP in both cell lines indicating involvement of the BH3-only pathway. Atg12 is strongly enhanced by OMP in both cell lines. Abbreviations: K - control, F - 5-FU, O - OMP, FO - 5-FU+OMP.</p

Electron microscopy of the ASPC-1 and MiaPaCa-2 cell lines treated or untreated with OMP.

<p>(A) ASPC-1 cell without treatment (800 fold). (B) ASPC-1 cell undergoing apoptosis upon 160 µg/ml OMP after 24 hours (800 fold). Vacuolisation of the cytoplasma and condensation of the nucleus are visible. (C) Phagophores and autophagosomes in a segment of an ASPC-1 cell treated with omeprazole 80 µg/ml for 24 hours (2800fold enlargement). The phagophores are characterised by a cup-like shape (white arrows). Autophagosomes are closed particles, the number of which is increased in treated cells (black arrows). (D) Early phagophores and autophagosomes are also found in MiaPaCa-2 cells treated with OMP 80 µg/ml after 24 hours in a perinuclear region containing lysosomes and the Golgi complex. In contrast to ASPC-1 cells, early signs of apoptosis such as vacuolization, are also present. (E) Barchart of the numbers of autophagosomes and lysosomes per cell in MiaPaCa-2 and ASPC-1 cells untreated or treated with 5-FU, OMP or the combination of both for 24 hours with standard errors. Significant differences compared to control are marked by *. In ASPC-1 cells there were significant differences compared to the control in the OMP group (p: 0.03) and the 5-FU+OMP group (p: 0.03). In MiaPaCa-2 cells the 5-FU+OMP group differed significantly from control (p<0.001).</p