Humanitarian Expertise As A Tool For Creating The Image Of Well-Being Future

The article considers the importance of humanitarian expertise in assessing innovations and projects in social technologies. It states the basis for defining the criteria of the assessment that identify whether the innovations are centred at a man's well-being and his development as the agent of socialcultural and social interactions. The aim of the article is to specify and to give scientific credence to the humanitarian expertise of technological and social innovations revealing their direction at the well-being and the development of a person as the agent of cultural work and social interactions. The methodology of the approach implemented here is based on the logic of event. It helps to conceptualize the future in its balance with the present and, in particular, to apply the differential rendering of modality of the eventual in the notions of logically possible, actualizable, admissible and probable. The outcome of the work proves the idea that while specifying the criteria it is important to base them on the principle of optimum which can be expressed in terms of safety, well-being, identity and development. The aspect of wellbeing reflects the optimum in the balance of material-spiritual in a man's reality and in this respect it can serve as one of the most important criteria of humanitarian expertise. The authors emphasize the challenges of the innovations in the field of human reality alteration that are manifested in the posthuman discourse and in the modern theories of educational system reforming

Modification of low-density lipoproteins by low molecular weight carbonyl products of free-radical oxidation of lipids and carbohydrates plays a key role in atherosclerotic lesion of the vascular wall and in endothelial dysfunction

The review presents evidence of the participation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) modified by low molecular weight dicarbonyl compounds formed during freeradical oxidation of lipids (malondialdehyde) and carbohydrates in the development of endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerotic vascular lesions. The authors believe that it is they, and not oxidized (hydroperoxide-containing) LDL, that are the main factors of pathogenesis. The role of dicarbonyl-modified LDL in LOX-1 dependent induction of processes leading to the development of endothelial dysfunction is discussed. The results of studies proving that damage to the glycocalyx (a layer of macromolecules that prevent the development of endothelial dysfunction) covering the luminal surface of the endothelium is caused by hyperproduction of reactive oxygen species. Ways of pharmacological correction of free-radical oxidation processes are discussed, due to which inhibition of atherogenesis and diabetogenesis can be achieved

Clearance of carbonyl-modified lipoproteins from the bloodstream of rabbits

We have suggested that the molecular mechanism of vascular wall damage in diabetes is not substantially different from that in atherosclerosis. Thus, it can be assumed that aldehyde-modified LDL should be eliminated from the blood stream with much greater speed than non-oxidized LDL. In the available literature there is information about the clearance of native human LDL from the bloodstream, whereas information on the clearance of the aldehyde-modified LDL in animals or humans was not found. Based on this, the present work is devoted to the clearance of aldehyde-modified LDL of rabbits and humans introduced into the bloodstream of rabbits. We investigated the clearance of glyoxal-, methylglyoxal- and MDA-modified LDL from the bloodstream of rabbits. We used biotinylated LDL of rabbit blood plasma and FITC-labeled LDL of human blood plasma. LDL was isolated with preparative ultracentrifugation in NaBr gradient. It was shown that glyoxal- and methylglyoxal-modified LDL of rabbits and humans circulated in the bloodstream for the same time as native LDL while MDA-modified LDL was rapidly eliminated from the bloodstream. The data obtained indicated the possibility of greater atherogenic potential of glyoxal- and methylglyoxal-modified LDL as they circulate in the bloodstream for a rather long time. At the same time, MDA-modified LDL is likely to be exposed to enhanced elimination by macrophages after their "linkage" to blood cells

On the Specific Features of Temperature Evolution in Ultracold Plasmas

A theoretical interpretation of the recent experimental studies of temperature evolution in the course of time in the freely-expanding ultracold plasma bunches, released from a magneto-optical trap, is discussed. The most interesting result is finding the asymptotics of the form T_e ~ t^{-(1.2 +/- 0.1)} instead of t^{-2}, which was expected for the rarefied monatomic gas during inertial expansion. As follows from our consideration, the substantially decelerated decay of the temperature can be well explained by the specific features of the equation of state for the ultracold plasmas with strong Coulomb's coupling, whereas a heat release due to inelastic processes (in particular, three-body recombination) does not play an appreciable role in the first approximation. This conclusion is confirmed both by approximate analytical estimates, based on the model of "virialization" of the charged-particle energies, and by the results of "ab initio" numerical simulation. Moreover, the simulation shows that the above-mentioned law of temperature evolution is approached very quickly--when the virial criterion is satisfied only within a factor on the order of unity.Comment: LaTeX + 3 eps figures, 16 pages. Plasma Physics Reports, v.37, in press (2011

Regulation of free radical processes in healthy volunteers during experimental hyperthermia and in patients with coronary artery disease during summer heat waves

Background. In view of the worsening forecast for global temperature rise worldwide, it seems relevant to study the effects of abnormal heat waves on systemic regulatory processes in people with chronic diseases, in particular coronary artery disease (CAD).Aims. This study aimed to investigate the effect of hyperthermia on oxidative stress parameters in patients with various severity of CAD and in healthy subjects.Materials and methods. We studied the level of malonic dialdehyde (MDA) and the activity of Cu,Zn-containing superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD) in healthy subjects under conditions of 30-day long simulated hyperthermia and in patients with different severity of CAD after the summer heat wavesResults. We revealed signs of oxidative stress in healthy volunteers during model hyperthermia that manifested as an increase in content of MDA in blood plasma. At the  same time we observed increasing activity of Cu,Zn-SOD in erythrocytes that  utilizes reactive oxygen species. The increase of Cu,Zn-SOD activity started with a certain latency what also can be explained by de novo enzyme biosynthesis induction. We also studied oxidative stress parameters in patients at high and moderate cardiovascular risk according to the SCORE risk chart with uncomplicated CAD course and in patients with complicated CAD with severe coronary damage according to angiography during the summer heat waves. We observed accumulation of MDA in blood plasma and increasing activity of erythrocyte Cu,Zn-SOD in patients with uncomplicated CAD. At the same time we noted that accumulation of MDA in blood plasma was not followed by any increase in activity of red blood cell Cu,Zn-SOD in patients with severe complicated CAD. This fact indicates dysregulation of free radical processes in patients with severe course of CAD during the heat waves.Conclusions. The dysregulation of free-radical processes in patients with a severe clinical course of CAD has been revealed

Structure and Anti-TB Activity of Trachylobanes from the Liverwort Jungermannia exsertifolia ssp. cordifolia

In the critical search for new antituberculosis lead compounds, bryophytes represent a largely untapped resource of chemically diverse structures. From the liverwort Jungermannia exsertifolia subsp. cordifolia, 11 new trachylobane diterpene derivatives, as well as three known compounds, were isolated. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic means, and full 1H NMR spin analysis of one model compound confirmed the relative configurational assignments of the congeners. Four of the isolates exhibited noticeable activity against virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv with minimal inhibitory concentrations of 61−24 μg/mL. This finding suggests that bryophytes in general and trachylobanes in particular deserve further attention in the search for new antimycobacterial leads

The Fukushima Daiichi Accident

The Fukushima Daiichi Accident consists of a Report by the IAEA Director General and five technical volumes. It is the result of an extensive international collaborative effort involving five working groups with about 180 experts from 42 Member States with and without nuclear power programmes and several international bodies. It provides a description of the accident and its causes, evolution and consequences, based on the evaluation of data and information from a large number of sources available at the time of writing. The set contains six printed parts and five supplementary CD-ROMs. Contents: Report by the Director General; Technical Volume 1/5, Description and Context of the Accident; Technical Volume 2/5, Safety Assessment; Technical Volume 3/5, Emergency Preparedness and Response; Technical Volume 4/5, Radiological Consequences; Technical Volume 5/5, Post-accident Recovery; Annexes. The JRC contributed to volumes 1,2 and 3, which are attached.JRC.F.5-Nuclear Reactor Safety Assessmen

Density and Nonideality Effects in Plasmas

Self-consistent Joint description of free and weakly bound electron states in plasmas is considered. Existence of two problems is emphasized: restriction of the number of atomic excited states and description of the smooth crossover from bound pair electron-ion excited states to collective excitations of tree electrons. The spectrum domain intermediate between low-lying excited atoms and free electron continuous energy levels is Studied. Density and nonideality effects arc separated. The density effects are predominant for the shape of the curve of the energy spectrum near the ionization limit. It corresponds to the Suppression of spectral lines in ideal multi-charge plasma of warm dense matter. A Suppression of collisional recombination turns Out to be a nonideality effects. The suppression agrees with the measurements for ultracold plasmas and Warm dense matter. (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. Weinehi

Pressure Fluctuations in Nonideal Plasma

Fluctuations of pressure of singly ionized nonideal plasma are studied using the fluctuation approach which provides the self-consistent joint description of free and weakly bound electron states. The classical molecular dynamics method is used. The electron-ion interaction is described by the density- and temperature-independent cutoff Coulomb potential. The results for partially ionized plasma are related to the Gryaznov-losilevsky effective repulsion which could suppress the thermodynamic plasma instability. The fully ionized plasma region is found where pressure fluctuation distribution can be approximated by the superposition of two Gauss distribution functions. It could be considered as a precursor of the plasma phase transition. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinhei