THE PREVENTION, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT OF VITAMIN D AND CALCIUM DEFICIENCIES IN THE ADULT POPULATION OF RUSSIA AND IN PATIENTS WITH OSTEOPOROSIS (ACCORDING TO THE MATERIALS OF PREPARED CLINICAL RECOMMENDATIONS)

The paper presents data on the role of vitamin D and calcium in the function of many human organs and tissues. Lifestyle, dietary preferences, and insufficient physical activity contribute to the high prevalence of vitamin D and calcium deficiencies in the adult population of Russia, causing different diseases and abnormalities. The authors have worked out recommendations for the preventive use of vitamin D and calcium in healthy population, give consumption rates for these substances, and describe the clinical and laboratory signs of vitamin D deficiency and indications for screening. They also propose treatment regimens for vitamin D deficiency and depict the signs of intoxication inoverdose. Particular emphasis is laid on the place of vitamin D and calcium in the therapy of osteoporosis

Bridgman growth and site occupation in LuAG:Ce scintillator crystals

LuAG:Ce single crystals with various activator concentrations were grown by the vertical Bridgman technique. Characterization of crystals was done in terms of actual doping level, macroscopic defects and degree of non-equivalent substitutions by Lu for Al in octahedral lattice sites. Scintillation measurements were performed using 2 x 2 x 8 mm(3) shaped samples with Ce concentration in the range 0.05-0.55 at\%. Essential improvement of performance was demonstrated in samples containing >= 0.2 at\% of Ce; the light yield measured in LuAG:Ce (0.55 at\%) was about 26000 ph/MeV, or close to that of LSO.(C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Carr Goes East:Reconsidering Power and Inequality in a Post-Liberal Eurasia

This paper analyses Western policies towards Russia from the realist perspective of E.H. Carr. His critique of inter-war liberal ‘utopianism’ pointed to the tendency of liberal states to disregard the role of power in shaping an international normative order of their making; their discounting of contingency in favour of a progressive, teleological view of history; and their insensitivity to the structural inequalities reproduced by that order. These predispositions can also be observed in the liberal West’s policies towards Russia since the end of the Cold War. A teleologically expanding ‘Kantian zone of peace’ centred on the EU and NATO – and based on the liberal tripod of institutions, democracy, and free trade – became the core of Europe’s de facto security regime. Uncovering the power-political behind the normative, a Carrian perspective explains the gradual deterioration in relations between the West and Russia through the latter’s exclusion from institutions shaped at a time of its acute weakness, its inability to counter the symbolic power of democracy through political reforms, and its structural consignation to the semi-periphery of the globalised economic system. The article concludes by proposing a realist alternative for future engagement with Moscow