The influence of the crisis on corporate governance and its legislative regulation: evidence from Ukraine

The crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world community, changed the usual way of operating and managing each organization. The article aims to outline possible ways to optimize corporate management in crisis conditions in Ukraine. Based on the statistical methods the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on the activity of organisations in these conditions in Ukraine was determined, thus, this period was characterized by enterprises’ income fall, growing share of dismissed employees, new challenges for administrative staff in the area of innovation and change management etc. The most significant factors influencing the organization's crisis management were classified: negative (economic loss, lack of working capital, lack of demand for the products of the company, reducing staff, closing the economic areas that affect the company's operations, interruptions in the work of contractors) and positive (ensuring the stability of wages, changes in labor legislation, management flexibility, development of new forms of business, improving communication between the administration of the organization and the state). Determined that optimize crisis management organization possible through the implementation of management, economic and legislative measures. The optimization of crisis management of the organization will lead to economic development and preservation of human capital in the country

Work functions, ionization potentials, and in-between: Scaling relations based on the image charge model

We revisit a model in which the ionization energy of a metal particle is associated with the work done by the image charge force in moving the electron from infinity to a small cut-off distance just outside the surface. We show that this model can be compactly, and productively, employed to study the size dependence of electron removal energies over the range encompassing bulk surfaces, finite clusters, and individual atoms. It accounts in a straightforward manner for the empirically known correlation between the atomic ionization potential (IP) and the metal work function (WF), IP/WF$\sim$2. We formulate simple expressions for the model parameters, requiring only a single property (the atomic polarizability or the nearest neighbor distance) as input. Without any additional adjustable parameters, the model yields both the IP and the WF within $\sim$10% for all metallic elements, as well as matches the size evolution of the ionization potentials of finite metal clusters for a large fraction of the experimental data. The parametrization takes advantage of a remarkably constant numerical correlation between the nearest-neighbor distance in a crystal, the cube root of the atomic polarizability, and the image force cutoff length. The paper also includes an analytical derivation of the relation of the outer radius of a cluster of close-packed spheres to its geometric structure.Comment: Original submission: 8 pages with 7 figures incorporated in the text. Revised submission (added one more paragraph about alloy work functions): 18 double spaced pages + 8 separate figures. Accepted for publication in PR

Variant of the <i>FLNC</i> gene nucleotide sequence in a family with different phenotypic manifestations of left ventricular non-compaction

Left ventricular non-compaction is a heterogeneous heart disease with various phenotypic and clinical manifestations. The article presents the results of clinical, instrumental and molecular genetic investigations of a family with diagnosed left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) with different clinical and phenotypic manifestations. As a result of a molecular genetic testing, all family members with the LVNC phenotype were found to have a likely pathogenic variant in the FLNC gene. Variants in this gene are associated with a number of cardiomyopathies: dilated, hypertrophic, and restrictive. In the international scientific literature, isolated clinical cases of LVNC development with variants of the FLNC gene nucleotide sequence are presented. In our work, we present a case report of LVNC with a variety of clinical manifestations within the same family

Conference of Soviet and American Jurists on the Law of the Sea and the Protection of the Marine Environment

Included in the papers for the Conference of Soviet and American Jurists on the Law of the Sea and the Protection of the Marine Environment: Introduction by Milton Katz and Richard R. Baxter, p. 1 Freedom of Scientific Research in the World Ocean by A.F. Vysotsky, p. 7 The International Law of Scientific Research in the Oceans by Richard R. Baxter, p. 27 Responsibility and Liability for Harm to the Marine Environment by Robert E. Stein, p. 41 Liability for Marine Environment Pollution Damage in Contemporary International Sea Law by A. L. Makovsky, p. 59 Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution by Richard A. Frank, p. 73 The Freedom of Navigation and the Problem of Pollution of the Marine Environment by V. A. Kiselev, p. 93 The Freedom of Navigation Under International Law by William E. Butler, p. 107 International Fisheries Management Without Global Agreement: United States Policies and Their Impact on the Soviet Union by H. Gary Knight, p. 119 Some Biological Background for International Legal Acts on Rational Utilization of the Living Resources of the World Ocean by P. A. Moiseev, p. 143 An International Regime for the Seabed Beyond National Jurisdiction by Thomas M. Franck, p. 151 Settlement of Disputes Under the Law of Ocean Use, with Particular Reference to Environmental Protection by John Lawrence Hargrove, p. 18

Neural Correlates of Behavioural Olfactory Sensitivity Changes Seasonally in European Starlings

Possibly due to the small size of the olfactory bulb (OB) as compared to rodents, it was generally believed that songbirds lack a well-developed sense of smell. This belief was recently revised by several studies showing that various bird species, including passerines, use olfaction in many respects of life. During courtship and nest building, male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) incorporate aromatic herbs that are rich in volatile compounds (e.g., milfoil, Achillea millefolium) into the nests and they use olfactory cues to identify these plants. Interestingly, European starlings show seasonal differences in their ability to respond to odour cues: odour sensitivity peaks during nest-building in the spring, but is almost non-existent during the non-breeding season.This study used repeated in vivo Manganese-enhanced MRI to quantify for the first time possible seasonal changes in the anatomy and activity of the OB in starling brains. We demonstrated that the OB of the starling exhibits a functional seasonal plasticity of certain plant odour specificity and that the OB is only able to detect milfoil odour during the breeding season. Volumetric analysis showed that this seasonal change in activity is not linked to a change in OB volume. By subsequently experimentally elevating testosterone (T) in half of the males during the non-breeding season we showed that the OB volume was increased compared to controls.By investigating the neural substrate of seasonal olfactory sensitivity changes we show that the starlings' OB loses its ability during the non-breeding season to detect a natural odour of a plant preferred as green nest material by male starlings. We found that testosterone, applied during the non-breeding season, does not restore the discriminatory ability of the OB but has an influence on its size

Human Tumor Cell Proliferation Evaluated Using Manganese-Enhanced MRI

Tumor cell proliferation can depend on calcium entry across the cell membrane. As a first step toward the development of a non-invasive test of the extent of tumor cell proliferation in vivo, we tested the hypothesis that tumor cell uptake of a calcium surrogate, Mn(2+) [measured with manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI)], is linked to proliferation rate in vitro.Proliferation rates were determined in vitro in three different human tumor cell lines: C918 and OCM-1 human uveal melanomas and PC-3 prostate carcinoma. Cells growing at different average proliferation rates were exposed to 1 mM MnCl(2) for one hour and then thoroughly washed. MEMRI R(1) values (longitudinal relaxation rates), which have a positive linear relationship with Mn(2+) concentration, were then determined from cell pellets. Cell cycle distributions were determined using propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry. All three lines showed Mn(2+)-induced increases in R(1) compared to cells not exposed to Mn(2+). C918 and PC-3 cells each showed a significant, positive correlation between MEMRI R(1) values and proliferation rate (p≤0.005), while OCM-1 cells showed no significant correlation. Preliminary, general modeling of these positive relationships suggested that pellet R(1) for the PC-3 cells, but not for the C918 cells, could be adequately described by simply accounting for changes in the distribution of the cell cycle-dependent subpopulations in the pellet.These data clearly demonstrate the tumor-cell dependent nature of the relationship between proliferation and calcium influx, and underscore the usefulness of MEMRI as a non-invasive method for investigating this link. MEMRI is applicable to study tumors in vivo, and the present results raise the possibility of evaluating proliferation parameters of some tumor types in vivo using MEMRI

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of Parkinson’s disease

\ua9 2023, This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply. Although over 90 independent risk variants have been identified for Parkinson’s disease using genome-wide association studies, most studies have been performed in just one population at a time. Here we performed a large-scale multi-ancestry meta-analysis of Parkinson’s disease with 49,049 cases, 18,785 proxy cases and 2,458,063 controls including individuals of European, East Asian, Latin American and African ancestry. In a meta-analysis, we identified 78 independent genome-wide significant loci, including 12 potentially novel loci (MTF2, PIK3CA, ADD1, SYBU, IRS2, USP8, PIGL, FASN, MYLK2, USP25, EP300 and PPP6R2) and fine-mapped 6 putative causal variants at 6 known PD loci. By combining our results with publicly available eQTL data, we identified 25 putative risk genes in these novel loci whose expression is associated with PD risk. This work lays the groundwork for future efforts aimed at identifying PD loci in non-European populations

Cytoarchitectural and metabolic adaptations in muscles with mitochondrial and cytosolic creatine kinase deficiencies

Item does not contain fulltext12 p

Author Correction: Elucidating causative gene variants in hereditary Parkinson’s disease in the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2)

Correction to: s41531-023-00526-9 npj Parkinson’s Disease, published online 27 June 2023 In this article the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2) members names and affiliations were missing in the main author list of the Original article which are listed in the below

The combination of left ventricular non-compaction and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in one family with a pathogenic variant in the MYBPC3 gene (rs397516037)

The article presents the results of clinical, instrumental and molecular genetic tests of three generations of a family with inherited cardiomyopathy caused by a new variant in the MYBPC3 gene. A specific feature of this case is the phenotypic heterogeneity of the mutation — a combination of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and left ventricular non-compaction in family members. Attention is drawn to the various severity of clinical manifestations in relatives of carriers of mutation: from asymptomatic to severe heart failure and acute cerebrovascular accident