28 research outputs found

    Distant Technologies as Cost Effective Way of Teaching

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    This paper investigates experience relating to the distance education in technology by means of e-learning courses as the most resource-efficient method to provide quality education. Training content of the E-learning course consists of basic and additional theoretic materials, practice tasks etc. and it can be implemented with the help of various tools. This paper is focused on the analysis of different tools in e-learning courses for practical training such as Screen cast (mp4 video), info graphic guidelines, records of webinars. The article evaluates the cost effectiveness of these tools both in costs for training production (content wrapping) and learning by the students. Resource efficiency was evaluated for the following: work input, staff time, value, relevance of the e-learning course’s tools for students, and academic progress of the students. The practice-oriented E-learning courses and LMS Moodle as a special educational environment are the most resource-efficient approaches to provide a distance teaching process

    Inhibition of protease-activated receptor 1 ameliorates behavioral deficits and restores hippocampal synaptic plasticity in a rat model of status epilepticus

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    © 2018 The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a unique structure that controls substances exchange between the systemic circulation and the brain. Disruption of its integrity contributes to the development and progression of a variety of brain disorders including stroke, epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases. It was shown that intracerebral thrombin level substantially increases following status epilepticus (SE). Inhibition of protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1), the major thrombin receptor in the brain, produces an anti-epileptogenic and neuroprotective effects in an experimental model of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Since serine proteases and PAR1 are implicated in the synaptic plasticity and memory formation, the aim of the present study was to elucidate the involvement of PAR1 in synaptic plasticity and behavior deficits following SE. Using lithium-pilocarpine model of TLE, we demonstrate that inhibition of PAR1 rescues SE-induced synaptic plasticity deficits in CA1 region of hippocampus. Although treatment with PAR1 antagonist does not ameliorate spatial learning deficits, it attenuates anxiolytic-like behavior in experimental rats after SE. Taken together; our data suggest an important role of PAR1 in SE-induced synaptic and behavioral alterations and provide a new insight into cellular mechanisms underlying behavioral impairments associated with epilepsy

    ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tools Retrospective version (ICAST-R): Delphi study and field testing in seven countries

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    Objectives: To gain consensus among an ethnically and linguistically diverse group of international child protection experts on the structure and content of a new survey tool for retrospective measurement of child abuse, and to determine the performance of the instrument through an international field trial with young adults. Methods: The questionnaire was developed through focus group discussions with international experts, and then subjected to a Delphi study in two waves to determine the perceived importance and translatability of items. The resultant questionnaire was translated into six languages and field tested in seven countries with convenient samples of young adults aged 18–26 years (N = 842). Results: Child maltreatment experts from 28 countries provided input to questionnaire development. Satisfactory agreement on draft item inclusion and exclusion and the translatability of items was gained. The tool includes 15 primary questions about potentially abusive physical, sexual and emotional events, with follow-up questions about perpetrator characteristics, frequency of acts and periods in childhood when the recalled abuse occurred. The field test revealed lifetime prevalence per item usually exceeded 10% (11/15 items; range 2.1–49.5%). Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was moderate to high for each of three item sub-sets (between .61 and .82) and the rates of missing data were low (less than 1.5% for 14 of 15 items). The great majority of respondents nominated either peer and/or adult perpetrators (between 82.3% and 98.2% depending upon the item), and among these, child/adolescent peers and non-family adults (including teachers for emotional and physical acts) were nominated often. Conclusions: The ICAST-R is based on consensus from international experts, translates clearly and has satisfactory properties for adoption as a survey tool to estimate prevalence and describe perpetrators and other contextual aspects of child abuse. Practice implications: This tool can be utilized in a broad range of cultures and languages and may contribute to improved research practice. Although the core items are limited to just 15 acts of maltreatment, if these behaviorally specific questions are adopted as key indicators and incorporated into comprehensive local, national or regional surveys, eventually there should be greater comparability in survey estimates

    Classical Eurasianism Variations During the Second Half of the 20th and Early-21st Centuries

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    This article explores classical eurasianism as a specific branch of russian philosophy abroad in the early twentieth century, the ideas of which remain relevant and are currently revived by its followers. The author highlighted the main features and ideas of classical eurasianism (the idea of Russia-eurasia as a unique developmental space, the doctrine of sobornost, and the philosophy of an organizational idea) and compared them with the theories of L. N. Gumilyov and A. G. Dugin. However, the teaching of L. N. Gumilyov and the Neo-eurasianism of A. G. Dugin do not possess the original philosophical component of classical eurasianism.Este artículo explora el eurasianismo clásico como una rama específica de la filosofía rusa en el extranjero a principios del siglo XX, cuyas ideas siguen siendo relevantes, y actualmente son revividas por sus seguidores. El autor destacó las principales características e ideas del eurasianismo clásico (la idea de Rusia-Eurasia como un espacio de desarrollo único, la doctrina de sobornost y la filosofía de una idea organizativa) y las comparó con las teorías de L. N. Gumilyov y A. G. Dugin. Sin embargo, la enseñanza de L. N. Gumilyov y el neo-eurasianismo de A. G. Dugin no poseen el componente filosófico original del eurasianismo clásico

    Lithologic and petrographic features and reservoir properties of rocks of the AV1 horizon in the Las-Egan oil field

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    Nowadays the problem of the efficient methods for exploring unconventional reservoirs and poor reservoir rocks are of great importance. Such rocks include the «ryabchik»-type AV1 horizon of Las-Egansky oilfield, represented by interbedded fine layers of sandstone, siltstone and claystone. This horizon is widely distributed in the Nizhnevartovsk Arch. The aim of the research is the detailed and systematic study of lithological and petrographic features of sediment horizon AB1 of the investigated oilfield and their typification on the basis of two or more parameters. The methods used. The core samples from sediments AV1 horizon of Las-Yogansky oilfield (wells 3001, 187r, 9609, 9617 were used for the study. The authors have analyzed more than 50 core samples using sedimentological and lithological research techniques of clastic sedimentary formations and carried out macro description of the core defining the textural features. The laboratory work included optical microscopy, particle size distributions, X-ray, electron-microscopic methods of study of the given rock samples, which allowed identifying their distinctive features by the physical and petrophysical parameters. Results. The AV1 horizon in the oil fields of Sublatitudinal Near-Ob region is characterized by a complex structure. The upper part of the horizon is composed of rocks with a high content of clay component. Lower section the clay «ryabchiks» are replaced by sandstone-bearing «ryabchiks», then the interlayers of laminar siltstones and siltstone-sandstones with flazernymi textures are observed. One can observe the top-down coarsening of terrigenous material, while the density of the rock is reduced, and the coefficient of porosity and permeability increases. Regional marker represented by the clayey deposits of the Koshai member occurs in the upper part of the AV1 horizon. The low marker is lumpy variegated clayey sediments of the Vartovsk formation. Two pay zones (АV1 [1+2] и АV1 [3]) are known in the AV1 horizon. They differ in lithology, depositional environment and oil flow rate

    Computational Insight into Intraspecies Distinctions in <i>Pseudoalteromonas distincta</i>: Carotenoid-like Synthesis Traits and Genomic Heterogeneity

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    Advances in the computational annotation of genomes and the predictive potential of current metabolic models, based on more than thousands of experimental phenotypes, allow them to be applied to identify the diversity of metabolic pathways at the level of ecophysiology differentiation within taxa and to predict phenotypes, secondary metabolites, host-associated interactions, survivability, and biochemical productivity under proposed environmental conditions. The significantly distinctive phenotypes of members of the marine bacterial species Pseudoalteromonas distincta and an inability to use common molecular markers make their identification within the genus Pseudoalteromonas and prediction of their biotechnology potential impossible without genome-scale analysis and metabolic reconstruction. A new strain, KMM 6257, of a carotenoid-like phenotype, isolated from a deep-habituating starfish, emended the description of P. distincta, particularly in the temperature growth range from 4 to 37 °C. The taxonomic status of all available closely related species was elucidated by phylogenomics. P. distincta possesses putative methylerythritol phosphate pathway II and 4,4′-diapolycopenedioate biosynthesis, related to C30 carotenoids, and their functional analogues, aryl polyene biosynthetic gene clusters (BGC). However, the yellow-orange pigmentation phenotypes in some strains coincide with the presence of a hybrid BGC encoding for aryl polyene esterified with resorcinol. The alginate degradation and glycosylated immunosuppressant production, similar to brasilicardin, streptorubin, and nucleocidines, are the common predicted features. Starch, agar, carrageenan, xylose, lignin-derived compound degradation, polysaccharide, folate, and cobalamin biosynthesis are all strain-specific

    Kunitz-Type Peptide HCRG21 from the Sea Anemone Heteractis crispa Is a Full Antagonist of the TRPV1 Receptor

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    Sea anemone venoms comprise multifarious peptides modulating biological targets such as ion channels or receptors. The sequence of a new Kunitz-type peptide, HCRG21, belonging to the Heteractis crispa RG (HCRG) peptide subfamily was deduced on the basis of the gene sequence obtained from the Heteractis crispa cDNA. HCRG21 shares high structural homology with Kunitz-type peptides APHC1–APHC3 from H. crispa, and clusters with the peptides from so named “analgesic cluster” of the HCGS peptide subfamily but forms a separate branch on the NJ-phylogenetic tree. Three unique point substitutions at the N-terminus of the molecule, Arg1, Gly2, and Ser5, distinguish HCRG21 from other peptides of this cluster. The trypsin inhibitory activity of recombinant HCRG21 (rHCRG21) was comparable with the activity of peptides from the same cluster. Inhibition constants for trypsin and α-chymotrypsin were 1.0 × 10−7 and 7.0 × 10−7 M, respectively. Electrophysiological experiments revealed that rHCRG21 inhibits 95% of the capsaicin-induced current through transient receptor potential family member vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) and has a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of 6.9 ± 0.4 μM. Moreover, rHCRG21 is the first full peptide TRPV1 inhibitor, although displaying lower affinity for its receptor in comparison with other known ligands. Macromolecular docking and full atom Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of the rHCRG21–TRPV1 complex allow hypothesizing the existence of two feasible, intra- and extracellular, molecular mechanisms of blocking. These data provide valuable insights in the structural and functional relationships and pharmacological potential of bifunctional Kunitz-type peptides

    Peptide fingerprinting of the sea anemone Heteractis magnifica mucus revealed neurotoxins, Kunitz-type proteinase inhibitors and a new β-defensin α-amylase inhibitor

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    Sea anemone mucus, due to its multiple and vital functions, is a valuable substance for investigation of new biologically active peptides. In this work, compounds of Heteractis magnifica mucus were separated by multistage liquid chromatography and resulting fractions were analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS. Peptide maps constructed according to the molecular masses and hydrophobicity showed presence of 326 both new and known peptides. Several major peptides from mucus were identified, including the sodium channel toxin RpII isolated earlier from H. magnifica, and four Kunitz-type proteinase inhibitors identical to H. crispa ones. Kunitz-type transcript diversity was studied and sequences of mature peptides were deduced. New β-defensin α-amylase inhibitor, a homolog of helianthamide from Stichodactyla helianthus, was isolated and structurally characterized. Overall, H. magnifica is a source of biologically active peptides with great pharmacological potential. Biological significance Proteinase and α-amylase inhibitors along with toxins are major components of H. magnifica mucus which play an important role in the successful existence of sea anemones. Obtained peptide maps create a basis for more accurate identification of peptides during future transcriptomic/genomic studies of sea anemone H. magnifica
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