X-ray spectral diagnostics of activity in massive stars

X-rays give direct evidence of instabilities, time-variable structure, and shock heating in the winds of O stars. The observed broad X-ray emission lines provide information about the kinematics of shock-heated wind plasma, enabling us to test wind-shock models. And their shapes provide information about wind absorption, and thus about the wind mass-loss rates. Mass-loss rates determined from X-ray line profiles are not sensitive to density-squared clumping effects, and indicate mass-loss rate reductions of factors of 3 to 6 over traditional diagnostics that suffer from density-squared effects. Broad-band X-ray spectral energy distributions also provide mass-loss rate information via soft X-ray absorption signatures. In some cases, the degree of wind absorption is so high that the hardening of the X-ray SED can be quite significant. We discuss these results as applied to the early O stars zeta Pup (O4 If), 9 Sgr (O4 V((f))), and HD 93129A (O2 If*).Comment: To appear in the proceedings of IAU 272: Active OB Star

Romantic and Neo-Romantic in W. B. Yeats’s Poetry

The question of categories “romanticism” and “romantic” in connection with the works by the Irish poet and playwright W. B. Yeats is considered. The analysis of existing works on this topic reveals conceptual and terminological lacunae. The necessity of using the term neo-romantic when studying Yeats’s poetry is substantiated. The author raises the question of the perception of the concepts of “romantic (noun)” and “romantic (adjective)” by the poet himself (“the last romantic,” “romantic Ireland”), as well as romanticism as a cultural and historical era. The novelty of the study is seen in the analysis of Yeats’s neo-romanticism, which is understood as a new version of romanticism, “anti-romantic romanticism,” which abandoned the “old romantic dreaminess” of the early 19th century and its peculiar language. The author of the article believes that Yeats’s neo-romanticism is based on the socio-cultural foundations of the early 20th century (“end of the century,” “death of God,” acceleration of the process of secularization, social cataclysms, such as the Easter uprising in Ireland, the First world war, the revolution in Russia) and acquires the appropriate language. It is shown that the rhythms and pulsations of the era found their expression in the “passionate syntax” - a special style of writing developed by Yeats. Two poems are analyzed (“Adam’s Curse” and “No Second Troy”), written in the “middle” period of the poet’s work, exactly when his style began to change noticeably

“Underground Love”: D. H. Lawrence and “Notes from the Underground” by F. M. Dostoevsky

The reception of the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “Notes from the Underground” in the works and correspondence of D. H. Lawrence is analyzed in the article. The novelty of the study is in the fact that the influence of this story on Lawrence’s prose is being studied for the first time. Particular attention is paid to Lawrence’s letters to the translator S. S. Kotelyansky, with whom the English writer shared his impressions of reading the works of Russian classics, especially Dostoevsky, as well as to one of the letters addressed to the writer G. Campbell, which contains the only direct reference to “Notes from the Underground” in Lawrence. This letter reveals an individual interpretation of the story by Lawrence. It is proved that this interpretation turns out to be close to the reading of the Notes by L. Shestov. The question is raised about the existing parallels between the text of Dostoevsky and the novels of D. G. Lawrence (“Women in Love”, “The Lost Girl”, “Rainbow” and “Aaron’s Rod”). The similarity is seen in the peculiar interpretation of the Underground concept by Lawrence. It is shown that the image of the Underground in the works of the English writer (usually expressed by the words “underworld”, “subterranean”) is always somehow connected with the irrational principle and is involved in the formation of Lawrence sensualism

Creative Works of S. Beckett in the Context of “Notes from the Underground” by F. M. Dostoevsky

The results of a comparative analysis of the story “Notes from the Underground” by F. M. Dostoevsky and the works of S. Beckett are presented in the article. It is shown how Beckett critically interprets the main novels of the Russian writer. The novelty of the work is seen in the fact that the problem of Beckett as the “heir” of Dostoevsky and his “Notes from the Underground” is considered in Russian literary criticism for almost the fi time. Based on the plays “Waiting for Godot”, “All that Fall”, the novel “Molloy” and the story “First Love”, the author demonstrates how Dostoevsky’s themes, motives and images are refracted in Beckett’s work. Particular attention is paid to the motive of “underground” love. A similarity was found between Dostoevsky’s story and Beckett’s works in spatial and temporal characteristics (uncertainty of the scene, nonlinearity of time, repetition of situations). It has been proven that these characteristics serve to designate a world without God, in which landmarks and goals are lost, positive and rational foundations are broken. It has been established that for Dostoevsky the Underground remains a “dark corner” behind which there is a “big world”, while for Beckett it fi the whole world

Immunomodulatory properties of caffeine and caffeine-treated immune cells in depression-like state

Depression is one of the leading global health problems worldwide. A significant increase in prevalence among the working-age population, as well as high comorbidity, partial or complete drug resistance in a third of patients determines the need to develop new approaches to the treatment of depression. Violation of mutual regulation of the main homeostatic systems plays an important role in the pathogenesis of depression. Psycho- and immunopathology are closely interrelated: pathological changes in the functioning of both systems occur simultaneously and are interdependent. This determines the prospects for the treatment of depression based on immunological approaches. Caffeine, a drug known for its psychoneuromodulatory properties, is an adenosine receptor antagonist with a pronounced dose-dependent effect. Adenosine receptors are expressed by both CNS cells and cells of the immune system, which determines its immunomodulatory properties. The similarity of both phenotypes and functions of the cellular elements of the immune and nervous systems, as well as the unidirectional effect of most psychoactive drugs on the central nervous system and the immune system, determines the interest in studying the immunomodulatory properties of caffeine for a targeted effect on the functional activity of immune cells, with a view to their subsequent use as model objects for the normalization of neuroimmune regulatory connections disturbed in a depressive state. Previously, we first demonstrated the possibility of editing depression-like behavior by immune cells precultivated with caffeine and showed the central mechanisms of this effect aimed at stimulating neuroplasticity processes and reducing neuroinflammation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional phenotype of immune cells in depressive-like animals after in vitro treatment of cells with caffeine, as well as the effects of transplantation of caffeine-precultured immune cells on the parameters of the functional activity of the immune system of syngeneic depressive-like recipients. As a result of the study, it was shown that low concentrations of caffeine increase the spontaneous and mitogen-induced proliferative activity of splenocytes of depression-like male mice (CBA x C57BL/6)F1 in vitro; this changes the spontaneous and mitogen-stimulated production of cytokines TNFa IL-1b, IFNg, IL-2, and IL-10 by these cells. After intravenous administration of the precultured with caffeine depression-like donor’s splenocytes to syngeneic depression-like recipients, stimulation of the humoral immune response was observed in the latter, assessed by an increase in both the relative and absolute number of antibody-forming spleen cells. Stimulation of spontaneous proliferative activity of lymphocytes in splenocyte culture was also registered. The data obtained indicate a positive effect of caffeine in vitro on the immune cell’s functional activity, as well as a positive immunomodulatory effect of the immune cells precultured with caffeine in a depression-like state in vivo

IMMUNE CELLS AS A POTENTIAL THERAPEUTIC AGENT IN THE TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION

The immune and neuroendocrine systems play a critical role in maintaining a dynamic homeostasis in normal conditions and at mental maladaptation. Psycho- and immunopathology closely interrelated: pathological changes in the functioning of both systems occur simultaneously and are interdependent. Depression, as a mental disorder, is a major public health concern. The estimations are showing rise of the depression’s incidence in the future. However, currently used therapy of depression doesn’t provide a complete cure. It is known that a violation of neuroimmune interaction is an essential link in the pathogenesis of the disease, having a negative impact on its course, making the clinical picture worse, reducing effectiveness of the therapy, therefore, it’s urgent to search for a new treatment approaches. There are a sufficient amount data on the immune cells and their biologically active products leading role in the pathogenesis of depression. The unidirectional effect of most psychoactive substances on the central nervous system and the immune system confirms intersystem mutual regulation and allows considering the immune cells as model objects for influencing the intersystem functional relationship; so, cells immunotherapy can be the method of choice in the treatment of depressive disorders. We first demonstrated the possibility of animal’s behavior directed regulation by the transplantation of immune cells with definite functional characteristics, including those with functional activity modulated extracorporeally by a psychoactive substance. Based on the previous results we investigated the effect of the in vitro caffeine- treated immune cells on the behavior and immune phenotypes in depressive-like singeneic recipients. Transplantation of caffeine-treated splenocytes from depressive-like donors has been shown to induce depressive-like behavior editing in syngeneic recipients, which was manifested in anhedonia decrease, stimulation of exploratory behavior in the Open Field test and motor activity in the Porsolt forced swimming test. Recipient’s behavioral changes were registered on the background of decreased brain pro- inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, IFNγ) and IL-10 increased in some pathogenetically significant for depressive-like state brain structures (hippocampus, hypothalamus, frontal cortex, striatum), which indicates a decrease in neuroinflammation. It was also detected recipient’s immune system functional activity modulation. The cytokines-mediated mechanisms of depressive-like behavior editing by the in vitro caffeine- modulated immune cells are discussed

A comparative study of human endogenous retrovirus <i>HERV-E λ 4-1</i> activation in autoimmune pathology

Considering the presence of immunomodulatory properties of human endogenous retroviruses, namely (i) the ability to activate the innate immune response by HERVs nucleic acids; (ii) the antigenicity of transcriptionally competent endogenous retroviruses envelope protein molecule, which causes polyclonal activation of lymphocytes; (iii) the absence of HERVs expression and protein production in the thymus during the immune tolerance formation, which allows us to consider these proteins as autoantigens or neoantigens, it seemed relevant to investigate the association of replication-competent human endogenous retrovirus HERV-E λ 4-1 with course of some of autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. The aim of this work was a comparative study of the human endogenous retrovirus HERV-E λ 4-1 activation frequency in blood mononuclear cells in multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, as well as in chronic nervous system non-progressive diseases and the degenerative-dystrophic disease of the musculoskeletal system. The peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated by the venous blood centrifugation on Ficoll density gradient of 1.078 g/cm3. Expression of the HERV-E λ 4-1 envelope gene was detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. It was found that the HERV-E λ 4-1 envelope gene expression frequency in the chronic non-progressive diseases of nervous system, as well as in degenerative-dystrophic joint disease, is comparable to the expression frequency in conditionally healthy individuals. However, the HERV-E λ 4-1 envelope gene expression frequency in autoimmune diseases significantly exceeded that in conditionally healthy individuals and in non-inflammatory diseases. The maximum values of expression frequency were observed in active multiple sclerosis, significantly higher than in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis in the acute stage. Moreover, the expression frequency in the remission stage of multiple sclerosis was significantly lower than in the acute stage of the relapsing-remitted course, as well as in the progredient course. Estimation of HERV-E λ 4-1 envelope gene expression frequency at different severity levels of multiple sclerosis revealed its maximum rates at III and IV-V severity levels, both in relapsing-remitting and progressive course of multiple sclerosis. Thus, activation of the human endogenous retrovirus HERV-E λ 4-1 is associated with the course of autoimmune diseases, namely multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus; it positively correlates with the activity and severity of multiple sclerosis

INVESTIGATION OF BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS CYTOKINE-PRODUCTION FUNCTION FROM PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS TREATED WITH THE ENDOGENOUS RETROVIRUS HERV-E λ 4-1 CONSERVATIVE REGION SYNTHETIC OLIGOPEPTIDE

Considering to the data of class I human endogenous retrovirus HERV-Е λ 4-1 subgroup association with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease accompanied by neuroinflammation, changes in the neurotransmitters level, progressive neurological dysfunction, as well as the ability of this retrovirus to replicate and to produce proteins with potential immunomodulatory properties, the aim of this work was a comparative study of the blood immune cells cytokine synthesizing function in conventionally healthy individuals and multiple sclerosis patients under the synthetic 17 – amino acid oligopeptide homologous to the hydrophobic transmembrane protein р15Е HERV-Е λ 4-1 conserved region influence. The 40 patients, 17 male persons aged 38.0 (31.0-47.0) years old and 23 female persons aged 39.0 (31.0-50.0) years old with an established diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (G 35, ICD-10), corresponding to the McDonald 2005, modified in 2010 criteria with a continuously progressive disease course and the disease duration of 17.0 (14.0-18.0) years, and 30 conditionally healthy individuals, 12 male persons aged 32.0 (23.0-43.0) years old and 18 female persons aged 36.0 (29.0-46.0) years old were the objects of the study. An open-label, observational, single-center, cohort, controlled, randomized trial was conducted. It was found that the donor’s blood mononuclear cells IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα, IFNγ and IL-2 spontaneous production in culture was stimulated, but that of IL-4 and IL-10 did not change under the retroviral oligopeptide influence. At the same time, the spontaneous and mitogenstimulated production of all studied cytokines did not change under the control oligopeptide influence. The PHA-stimulated donor’s blood mononuclear cells cultivation in presence of the retroviral oligopeptide, as compared to the control one, was accompanied by an increase in the IL-1β, IL-6 and TNFα release into the culture supernatant. The multiple sclerosis patients were characterized by IL-1β, IL-6 and IFNγ higher content in the mitogen-unstimulated blood mononuclear cells culture supernatant, compared with conditionally healthy individuals, as well as by a higher production of IL-6 and IFNγ in response to PHA stimulation. The retroviral oligopeptide, in contrast to the control one, stimulated the IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα and IFNγ spontaneous production without altering that of IL-4 and IL-10 in multiple sclerosis patients. The obtained results indicate that the synthetic oligopeptide homologous to the conserved region of the hydrophobic transmembrane protein p15E HERV-Е λ 4-1 has the pro-inflammatory properties, which is probably the one of human endogenous retrovirus HERV-Е λ 4-1 pathological abilities realization mechanism in multiple sclerosis

Политика Украины в языковой сфере: основные итоги

In its almost three decades history, Ukrainian language policy has gone through several stages of its development. Formed before the collapse of theUSSR, the Ukrainian elite actively used the issue of the language to achieve its political goals. Even at the turn of the 80-90s of the last century, the issue on the status of the Russian language was in the focus of the political struggle. Relying on the party and bureaucratic apparatus support, the nationalistically-spirited elite ofUkrainebegan to use the language issue for winning over the population of the southeastern regions. At that time, it was of great importance, since before the collapse of theUSSR, the Ukrainian elite was interested in preventing the growth of protest sentiment within the country. In subsequent years, the issue of the Russian language status has repeatedly become the subject of intense political battles and speculation as well. The Party of Regions, the Communist Party exploited the theme of “protecting” the Russian language to consolidate their electorate before the parliamentary and presidential elections. Concurrently, the Western Ukrainian elites defended a different position, proposing to expand the scope of the Ukrainian language while at the same time confine the Russian language.Despite the turmoil between the Western Ukrainian and Eastern Ukrainian elites, especially during the pre-election periods,Ukrainegradually “drifted” towards restricting the use of the Russian language and expanding Ukrainian in education and culture.The situation in the linguistic sphere inUkrainechanged dramatically after 2014, when representatives of nationalist forces came to power. It became a policy to revise the legislation governing on the use of languages of national minorities, to which the Russian language began to fall into. As a result, the possibilities for using the Russian language were confined, while enhancing the role of the Ukrainian language. This situation has already aggravated the relations betweenUkraineand neighboring countries, in which they negatively evaluatedUkraine’s policy in the language sphere. In addition, limited scope for the Russian language has ratcheted up tension within the country, provoking new inter-regional contradictions.За почти тридцатилетнюю историю украинская политика в языковой сфере прошла несколько этапов своего развития. Украинская элита, которая формировалась еще до распада СССР, активно использовала вопрос о языке для достижения своих политических целей. Еще на рубеже 80-90-х годов прошлого века вопрос о статусе русского языка оказался в фокусе политической борьбы. Националистически настроенная элита Украины, опираясь на поддержку партийного и бюрократического аппарата стали использовать вопрос о языке, чтобы завоевать симпатии населения юго-восточных регионов. В тот период это имело огромное значение, поскольку до распада СССР, украинская элита была заинтересована в том, чтобы не допустить роста протестных настроений внутри страны.В последующие годы вопрос о статусе русского языка не раз становился предметом острых политических баталий и одновременно спекуляций. Партия регионов, коммунистическая партия использовали тему «защиты» русского языка для консолидации своего электората перед парламентскими и президентскими выборами. При этом западно-украинские элиты отстаивали иную позицию, предлагая расширить сферу применений украинского языка и одновременно — ограничить сферу использования русского языка.Несмотря на острую борьбу между западно-украинскими и восточно-украинскими элитами, особенно в предвыборные периоды, Украина постепенно «дрейфовала» в сторону ограничения использования русского языка и расширения украинского в образовании и культуре.Ситуация в языковой сфере на Украине кардинально изменилась после 2014 года, когда к власти пришли представители националистических сил. Был взят курс на ревизию законодательства, регулирующего применение языков национальных меньшинств, к которым стал относиться и русский язык. В итоге, возможности для использования русского языка были резко ограничены, при одновременном усилении роли украинского языка. Данная ситуация уже привела к обострению отношений Украины с сопредельными странами, в которых негативно оценили политику Украины в языковой сфере. Кроме того, ограничение возможностей для использования русского языка привело к росту напряженности внутри страны, провоцируя новые межрегиональные противоречия