A study on the effects of water of different hardness on the functional state of blood

The purpose of the study - to study the effect of drinking water of different hardness on the functional state of human blood.Цель исследования – изучить влияние питьевой воды разной степени жесткости на функциональное состояние крови человека

Bulgarian sport policy 1945-1989: A strategic relation perspective

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have stimulated discussions about the success of different sport systems and the Chinese model in particular. Revisiting explanations of sport in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War seems timely, as the current Chinese model of sport was largely designed after the Soviet example established in this period. This paper examines Bulgarian sport policy between 1945 and 1989. It employs a Strategic Relation approach (Jessop, 1990) to analyse sport policy making as a strategic relation closely linked to the dominant state project of building a new stateness. It goes beyond ideological interpretations and argues that the state represents a strategic terrain where these relations have to be established in struggles, the outcomes of which are always uncertain. Furthermore, past and present struggles and their outcomes create various socio-political environments that presuppose the forms of state selectivity and intervention in sport. The process of constructing sport policy was influenced by two main categories of strategic relations: intra-state, including political, organisational and personal relations between the Party, state apparatus and various sport and non-sport organisations and their managers, and transnational, concerning ideological, political, economic and organisational relations with both communist and western countries and international sport organisations

Plasmalogen enrichment in exosomes secreted by a nematode parasite versus those derived from its mouse host: implications for exosome stability and biology

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) mediate communication between cells and organisms across all 3 kingdoms of life. Several reports have demonstrated that EVs can transfer molecules between phylogenetically diverse species and can be used by parasites to alter the properties of the host environment. Whilst the concept of vesicle secretion and uptake is broad reaching, the molecular composition of these complexes is expected to be diverse based on the physiology and environmental niche of different organisms. Exosomes are one class of EVs originally defined based on their endocytic origin, as these derive from multivesicular bodies that then fuse with the plasma membrane releasing them into the extracellular environment. The term exosome has also been used to describe any small EVs recovered by high-speed ultracentrifugation, irrespective of origin since this is not always well characterized. Here, we use comparative global lipidomic analysis to examine the composition of EVs, which we term exosomes, that are secreted by the gastrointestinal nematode, Heligmosomoides polygyrus, in relation to exosomes secreted by cells of its murine host. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) analysis reveals a 9- to 62-fold enrichment of plasmalogens, as well as other classes of ether glycerophospholipids, along with a relative lack of cholesterol and sphingomyelin (SM) in the nematode exosomes compared with those secreted by murine cells. Biophysical analyses of the membrane dynamics of these exosomes demonstrate increased rigidity in those from the nematode, and parallel studies with synthetic vesicles support a role of plasmalogens in stabilizing the membrane structure. These results suggest that nematodes can maintain exosome membrane structure and integrity through increased plasmalogens, compensating for diminished levels of other lipids, including cholesterol and SM. This work also illuminates the prevalence of plasmalogens in some EVs, which has not been widely reported and could have implications for the biochemical or immunomodulatory properties of EVs. Further comparative analyses such as those described here will shed light on diversity in the molecular properties of EVs that enable them to function in cross-species communication