Historical Retrospective Review of Idea of University: Complementarily of Reason and Spirituality

Background: In the paper the Idea of the University and its transformations throughout the history are analysed. The content of the Idea of the University was based on understanding of spirituality when the man is upcoming to enlightening. Religion, philosophy, and education get together, when spirituality is defined as the categories and personal characteristics of a human. According to philosophy, spirituality is a non-physical way of a human being, which was granted to him as the ability of self-education. Religion understands spirituality as invariant of enlightening. The scientific-methodical apparatus of education was created to realize the potential ways for raising a person to enlightening in secular or religious schools. The spiritual aura was constantly presented at the University. Methods: A general philosophical approach and comparative historical method were used in the research. Results: Understanding the role of spirituality in the University education was absolutely manifested. The University was based on the idea of going up from individual towards the Universal Truth and Absolute Spirit. Knowledge and Truth are ideological categories of the University. Truth contained the spirituality and rational knowledge in the unity. Conclusions: The University has not lost its Idea throughout the history. The basic conclusion of the paper is that its Idea as well as its essence is the change of its criteria in response to the new historical reality

Educational technologies as a means of developing students' independence

The current stage of development of society is characterized by the development of scientific and technological progress, the emergence of various innovative processes that affect the course of development of all spheres of life, including higher education. With the emergence of a competency-based approach and a corresponding change in educational goals, higher education institutions, fulfilling the requirements of the Federal state educational standards, should use innovative educational technologies in the preparation of students to form their professional competence. The purpose of the article is to consider the experience of implementing educational technologies as a tool for developing students' independence. The independence of the student is an integral part of the development of his competence. The article presents an examination of the concepts of “independence” and “educational technology” from various points of view. The dependence of independence on the use of innovative educational technologies in the educational process is traced. The stages of the process of organizing students' independent work using innovative educational technologies are highlighted. The presented study on identifying students' level of independence when studying the discipline “Teaching Technologies of the Teachers of the Past” allows us to conclude that students are more successful with the active implementation of educational technologies, since they make the process more active and creative, make the interaction process more efficient. The study was conducted over two years (in 2018 and 2019). We checked the level of independence of students before the introduction of innovative technologies in the study of the discipline "Technology of teaching teachers of the past" and after. The more often educational technologies are used in the educational process, the more students get used to independent work, the better it becomes. The use of educational technologies allows the formation of a highly educated competent specialist who independently and creatively solves professional problems

In situ synthesis, structural chemistry and vibrational spectroscopy of Zn-doped Ca5Mg4(VO4)6

The phase formation of the solid solution Ca5Mg4–xZnx(VO4)6 (0≤x≤4) was studied in situ using differential scanning calorimetry and high-temperature X-Ray powder diffraction (XRPD). XRPD analysis shows the appearance of unavoidable secondary pyrovanadate phases using conventional synthesis methods. The local structure of the solid solution was verified by vibrational spectroscopy. The analysis of the infrared and Raman spectroscopy data allows establishing the main features between vanadate garnets and their isostructural analogs among natural silicates

THE STUDY OF HYPER ELASTIC MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS IN CASE OF THIN ROD STRUCTURE CALCULATION

The article investigates the deformation hyper elastic material characteristics, i.e. rubber, and determines a mathematical model to calculate the characteristics of test material structure

Risk of sperm disorders and impaired fertility in frozen–thawed bull semen: a genome-wide association study

Simple Summary This study tackles the genetic aspects of the risk of sperm damage and related impaired fertility when handling frozen–thawed bull semen for artificial insemination. To this end, we performed genomic association analysis to identify relevant genetic markers and candidate genes associated with various abnormalities in frozen–thawed Holstein cattle sperm. The results provide important insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying sperm morphology and abnormalities after cryopreservation. Further research is needed to explore causative genetic variants and implement these findings to improve animal reproduction and breeding. Abstract Cryopreservation is a widely used method of semen conservation in animal breeding programs. This process, however, can have a detrimental effect on sperm quality, especially in terms of its morphology. The resultant sperm disorders raise the risk of reduced sperm fertilizing ability, which poses a serious threat to the long-term efficacy of livestock reproduction and breeding. Understanding the genetic factors underlying these effects is critical for maintaining sperm quality during cryopreservation, and for animal fertility in general. In this regard, we performed a genome-wide association study to identify genomic regions associated with various cryopreservation sperm abnormalities in Holstein cattle, using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers via a high-density genotyping assay. Our analysis revealed a significant association of specific SNPs and candidate genes with absence of acrosomes, damaged cell necks and tails, as well as wrinkled acrosomes and decreased motility of cryopreserved sperm. As a result, we identified candidate genes such as POU6F2, LPCAT4, DPYD, SLC39A12 and CACNB2, as well as microRNAs (bta-mir-137 and bta-mir-2420) that may play a critical role in sperm morphology and disorders. These findings provide crucial information on the molecular mechanisms underlying acrosome integrity, motility, head abnormalities and damaged cell necks and tails of sperm after cryopreservation. Further studies with larger sample sizes, genome-wide coverage and functional validation are needed to explore causal variants in more detail, thereby elucidating the mechanisms mediating these effects. Overall, our results contribute to the understanding of genetic architecture in cryopreserved semen quality and disorders in bulls, laying the foundation for improved animal reproduction and breeding

Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre. This study examined the associations of major plant foods, their subtypes and dietary fibre with risk of IHD in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). METHODS: We conducted a prospective analysis of 490 311 men and women without a history of myocardial infarction or stroke at recruitment (12.6 years of follow-up, n cases = 8504), in 10 European countries. Dietary intake was assessed using validated questionnaires, calibrated with 24-h recalls. Multivariable Cox regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of IHD. RESULTS: There was a lower risk of IHD with a higher intake of fruit and vegetables combined [HR per 200 g/day higher intake 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.90-0.99, P-trend = 0.009], and with total fruits (per 100 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend = 0.021). There was no evidence for a reduced risk for fruit subtypes, except for bananas. Risk was lower with higher intakes of nuts and seeds (per 10 g/day 0.90, 0.82-0.98, P-trend = 0.020), total fibre (per 10 g/day 0.91, 0.85-0.98, P-trend = 0.015), fruit and vegetable fibre (per 4 g/day 0.95, 0.91-0.99, P-trend = 0.022) and fruit fibre (per 2 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend = 0.045). No associations were observed between vegetables, vegetables subtypes, legumes, cereals and IHD risk. CONCLUSIONS: In this large prospective study, we found some small inverse associations between plant foods and IHD risk, with fruit and vegetables combined being the most strongly inversely associated with risk. Whether these small associations are causal remains unclear

Ultradeep Sequencing of a Human Ultraconserved Region Reveals Somatic and Constitutional Genomic Instability

Ultradeep sequencing of genomes permits the detection of very low-level genomic instability in non-neoplastic tissues of patients with the most common form of inherited colorectal cancer

Defining functional diversity for lignocellulose degradation in a microbial community using multi-omics studies

Abstract\ud \ud Background\ud Lignocellulose is one of the most abundant forms of fixed carbon in the biosphere. Current industrial approaches to the degradation of lignocellulose employ enzyme mixtures, usually from a single fungal species, which are only effective in hydrolyzing polysaccharides following biomass pre-treatments. While the enzymatic mechanisms of lignocellulose degradation have been characterized in detail in individual microbial species, the microbial communities that efficiently breakdown plant materials in nature are species rich and secrete a myriad of enzymes to perform “community-level” metabolism of lignocellulose. Single-species approaches are, therefore, likely to miss important aspects of lignocellulose degradation that will be central to optimizing commercial processes.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud Here, we investigated the microbial degradation of wheat straw in liquid cultures that had been inoculated with wheat straw compost. Samples taken at selected time points were subjected to multi-omics analysis with the aim of identifying new microbial mechanisms for lignocellulose degradation that could be applied in industrial pre-treatment of feedstocks. Phylogenetic composition of the community, based on sequenced bacterial and eukaryotic ribosomal genes, showed a gradual decrease in complexity and diversity over time due to microbial enrichment. Taxonomic affiliation of bacterial species showed dominance of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria and high relative abundance of genera Asticcacaulis, Leadbetterella and Truepera. The eukaryotic members of the community were enriched in peritrich ciliates from genus Telotrochidium that thrived in the liquid cultures compared to fungal species that were present in low abundance. A targeted metasecretome approach combined with metatranscriptomics analysis, identified 1127 proteins and showed the presence of numerous carbohydrate-active enzymes extracted from the biomass-bound fractions and from the culture supernatant. This revealed a wide array of hydrolytic cellulases, hemicellulases and carbohydrate-binding modules involved in lignocellulose degradation. The expression of these activities correlated to the changes in the biomass composition observed by FTIR and ssNMR measurements.\ud \ud \ud Conclusions\ud A combination of mass spectrometry-based proteomics coupled with metatranscriptomics has enabled the identification of a large number of lignocellulose degrading enzymes that can now be further explored for the development of improved enzyme cocktails for the treatment of plant-based feedstocks. In addition to the expected carbohydrate-active enzymes, our studies reveal a large number of unknown proteins, some of which may play a crucial role in community-based lignocellulose degradation.This work was funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research\ud Council (BBSRC) Grants BB/1018492/1, BB/K020358/1 and BB/P027717/1, the\ud BBSRC Network in Biotechnology and Bioenergy BIOCATNET and São Paulo\ud Research Foundation (FAPESP) Grant 10/52362-5. ERdA thanks EMBRAPA\ud Instrumentation São Carlos and Dr. Luiz Alberto Colnago for providing the\ud NMR facility and CNPq Grant 312852/2014-2. The authors would like to thank\ud Deborah Rathbone and Susan Heywood from the Biorenewables Develop‑\ud ment Centre for technical assistance in rRNA amplicon sequencing