Perception of state policy in the sphere of youth employment in the context of graduates’ precarization

Objective: to assess the students and graduates’ perception of the state policy aimed at supporting young professionals in the labor market.Methods: qualitative methods were used to analyze labor market institutions, in-depth interviews were conducted, and interpretative analysis of actors’ discourses was made.Results: the authors’ conceptual conclusions make it possible to characterize the unstable position of university graduates in the structure of precariat in the Russian labor market. Two types of reasons are considered that determine whether university graduates are included in the precariat within the framework of the “work experience - education” dichotomy. The article analyzes the features of the Russian labor market and the proposed state policy measures to transform traditional forms of employment using the achievements of digitalization. In-depth interviews were conducted with students and graduates of the Southern Federal University to assess their perception of the state policy and attitude to unstable employment.Scientific novelty: to understand the place and role of precariat in the structure of employment, it is necessary to consider such characteristics, in addition to instability, as the level of education and the level of skills acquired.Practical significance: the identified social values and employment characteristics of Russian university graduates can be used to develop recommendations for improving the system for monitoring the level of labor precarization in regional labor markets

Precarization of the youth’s employment in the context of COVID-19 pandemic consequences

Objective: to assess the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on the youth labor market in the context of the spread of precarization processes in employment.Methods: qualitative methods were used to analyze labor market institutions, together with in-depth interviews and interpretative analysis of actors’ discourses.Results: the COVID-2019 pandemic posed new challenges to the economy and contributed to the active development of new employment formats and employer-employee interaction in the form of informal employment, freelance platforms, and precariat development. The article considers the features and risks of informal and non-standard employment. Based on the labor market analysis, we determined the impact of the pandemic on working conditions, inequality growth and the increasing role of the informal sector. The impact of the crisis on employment conditions for young people with higher education is particularly emphasized. To form the models of students’ behavior under the conditions of labor market instability, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with students and graduates of the Southern Federal University to assess the employment opportunities of university graduates. The characteristics of respondents’ perception of the processes associated with precarization in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic consequences are clarified and specified. Scientific novelty: it consists in the development of theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of precarization of youth employment in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic consequences. It is shown that the observed increase of employment precarization is associated with behavioral features caused by dominant behavioral models and distortions in the perception of unstable employment by university graduates in relation to the structural opportunities provided by the labor market.Practical significance: the identified features of employment of the Russian university graduates can be used to develop recommendations for improving the system for monitoring the employment precarization level in the regional labor markets

Cancer stem cells are new vistas for predicting the course of breast cancer

Despite progress in treating breast cancer (BC) using a combined approach in view of morphological findings, distant metastases may develop in 30–90 % of patients with primary BC even at its early stages. The cancer stem cell (CSC) theory is one of the versions that could at least partially explain therapeutic inefficiency. This theory suggests that cancer may occur and arise from a small proportion of stem cells that are able to induce tumor growth and to affect resistance to chemoand radiotherapy. CSCs were identified in different malignant tumors, including BC, cancer of the prostate, colon, pancreas, head and neck, melanoma, and multiple myelomas. This investigation analyzed aldehyde dehydrogenase type 1 (ALDH1) expression in patients with BC. Moreover, the investigators examined the relationship between this marker and the clinical and pathological features of BC. The investigation enrolled 83 locally advanced BC (T1–4N0–3M0) patients treated in 2005 to 2009. To detect CSCs, 83 histological specimens obtained at biopsy in BC patients treated at the Russian Research Center for Radiology and Surgical Technologies underwent immunohistochemical examination for ALDH1 according to the developed protocol. Analysis of a relationship between time to metastases and ALDH1 expression showed a statistically significant decrease in time to disease progression in BC patients with high ALDH1 expression versus those with low ALDH1 expression. The similar trend was observed in overall survival. The survival of patients with less than 1 % ALDH1 expression in the cancer cells was statistically higher than that in the patients with high ALDH1 expression (more than 1 %)

Prognostic value of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B (RANK) marker in patients with breast cancer

Despite notable progress made in studying breast cancer (BC), the mechanisms of metastases, in view of the classification into molecular subtypes, in patients with BC remain to be fully uninvestigated, in the presence of a good prognosis in particular. To study novel diagnostic and predictive markers in a new way presents current problems in the pathology of BC. This investigation deals with the expression of osteoprotegerin (OPG) in the tumor cells of patients with BC. It enrolled 83 patients with locally advanced BC (T2–4N0–3M0) who had been treated in 2003 to 2010. The inclusion criterion was a histologically verified diagnosis of invasive BC. To study the level of OPG, the investigators conducted an immunohistochemical study of biopsy sections according to the standard protocol. The mean expression of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B (RANK) in the BC cells was 18.7 %; itsmedian was 5 % (range, 0–90 %). The patients were divided into 2 groups according to the level of RANK expression: 1) high (higher than the median); 2) low (lower than the median). The high RANK group included 39 patients; the low RANK group comprised 44 patients. Analysis of the clinical and pathological characteristics of BC patients with regard RANK expression did not show any statistically significant differences in the presence or absence of affected regional lymph nodes, T category, and Ki-67 index. The analysis of clinical and pathomorphological and immunohistochemical characteristics in patients with breast cancer, taking into consideration RANK expression level, did not show any statistically significant differences with respect to presence or absence of affected regional lymph nodes, age, T category and Ki-67 index (р > 0.05). However, it revealed the following pattern: the high expression of RANK was more common in patients positive for estrogen and progesterone receptors than in those for negative receptors (p = 0.04)

OSTEOPROTEGERIN AS A PREDICTIVE MARKER OF THE COURSE OF BREAST CANCER

Despite the considerable progress in research of breast cancer (BC), taking into consideration the division into molecular subtypes, the mechanics of metastasis development in BC patients are not definitely investigated, especially at favorable prognosis. Research of new informative diagnostic and prognostic markers represents the modern problems of BC pathology in a new way.This paper is devoted to study of osteoprotegerin (OPG) expression levels in tumor cells in BC patients. The study covered 83 female patients with regional BC (T2–4N0–3M0), treated from 2003 to 2010. The inclusion criteria were histologically proved diagnosis of invasive BC, age over 18 y. o., ECOG 0 or 1. In order to study OPG levels, we carried out immune histochemical test, which was carried out according to standard protocol on the sections of biopsy material. The OPG antibody from GeneTex, used in the study, was rabbit polyclonal, dilution 1:1000, incubation time – 30 minutes. Vizualization system was Real EnVision, anti-rabbit (by DAKO, Denmark). Immunohistochemical staining was studied by counting of number of positive cells in reference to total number of malignant cells. Expression over 50 % of cells was regarded as high, less than 50 % – as low. Average value of OPG expression level was 49 %, median – 50 %. Minimal value – 0 %, maximum value – 90 %. The patients were divided into 2 groups according their expression levels: Group 1 – OPG (high) expression (more than median), Group 2 – OPG (low) expression (less than median). OPG (high) Group was made by 47 patients, OPG (low) Group – by 36. When analyzing clinical and pathological characteristics of BC patients, taking into consideration OPG expression, there were noticed no reliable differences with respect to availability  or absence of affected regional lymph nodes, category T and Ki-67 indice. The group with positive estogen-progesteron receptors showed reliably more often the high values of OPG than the group with negative receptors (p < 0,05). When analyzing the duration till the progression and overall survival, a difference between the survival and time to progression (rise of metastases) in patients with low OPG levels and the same exponents in patients with high OPG levels was established

Application of heteroduplex analysis for CALR mutation screening detection in patients with Ph-myeloproliferative neoplasms

Background. In accordance with the World health organization clinical guidelines, the analysis of somatic mutations in the CALR gene, as well as mutations in the JAK2 and MPL genes, are included in the list of criteria for the Ph-myeloproliferative neoplasms diagnosis.More than 50 different mutation variants have been found in the CALR gene, among which the most frequent are a 52 bp deletion (c.1092_1143del), also called type 1, and a 5 bp insertion (c.1154_1155insTTGTC), also called type 2 (88 %).The remaining 12 % are other type less frequent indels or combinations thereof.It is most convenient to use sequencing methods to identify all possible variants of CALR mutations. It is also important to develop inexpensive screening test that can detect any mutations in the analyzed DNA fragment of CALR gene. This method can be heteroduplex analysis followed by electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel (PAGE).The objective: to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of using heteroduplex analysis with separation of the PCR product by electrophoresis on non-denaturing PAGE for the CALR exon 9 mutations detection as the screening test. Materials and methods. DNA samples of 13 CALR-positive patients with different phenotypic variants of Ph-myeloproliferative neoplasms were screened by heteroduplex analysis. For the most common variants of CALR mutations (c.1092_1143del and c.1154_1155insTTGTC), a threshold determination of the mutant allele presence was analyzed.Nucleotide sequence of exon 9 fragment was determined using Sanger sequencing. Also, all 13 samples were analyzed using the pyrosequencing method to assess the allelic burden level.Results. Heteroduplex analysis revealed mutations in exon 9 of the CALR gene in all 13 patients. The threshold determinations of the method in the case of the c.1154_1155insTTGTC and c.1092_1143del analysis are 6.25 % and 3.13 % of the mutant allele presence in the patient sample, respectively.Conclusion. The proposed variant of the heteroduplex analysis with separation of the PCR product by electrophoresis on non-denaturing PAGE can be recommended for use as the preliminary screening test which is carried out before the confirming sequencing methods for the different indels (or combinations thereof) CALR mutations determine.The presence of heteroduplexes indicates the presence of a mutation, even if the mutant product is not visualized (in case of small mutations)

Using the Minor Variant Finder software to identify and quantify the allelic burden level of somatic mutations in oncohematologic diseases

Background. There are problems related to both quantitative assessment of an allele burden level of a mutant gene and interpretation of results in DNA samples with the burden level of the mutant allele less than 15–20 %, when using Sanger sequencing for analyzing somatic mutations. Applied Biosystems (USA) has developed new software Minor Variant Finder, which allows determining mutations with the allele burden level from 5 %.The objective: to determine the allele burden level and identification of minor variants of somatic mutations in the ASXL1, JAK2 genes and BCR-ABL oncogene using Minor Variant Finder software in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms.Materials and methods. The level of mutant allele burden for 15 patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms was determined by the identified mutations using the Minor Variant Finder software, after analysis of point somatic mutations in the ASXL1, JAK2 genes and BCR-ABL oncogene by Sanger sequencing.Results. The allele burden level in all 5 ASXL1-positive samples and BCR-ABL-positive sample was determined as higher than 20 % using the Minor Variant Finder software. The allele burden level in 2 cases was higher than 20 % and in 7 cases lower than 20 %, when we analyzed 9 JAK2-positive samples.Conclusion. Minor Variant Finder software can be used to estimate the allele burden level and to identify minor variants of somatic mutations in the ASXL, JAK2 and BCR-ABL genes