Educational technologies as a means of developing students' independence

The current stage of development of society is characterized by the development of scientific and technological progress, the emergence of various innovative processes that affect the course of development of all spheres of life, including higher education. With the emergence of a competency-based approach and a corresponding change in educational goals, higher education institutions, fulfilling the requirements of the Federal state educational standards, should use innovative educational technologies in the preparation of students to form their professional competence. The purpose of the article is to consider the experience of implementing educational technologies as a tool for developing students' independence. The independence of the student is an integral part of the development of his competence. The article presents an examination of the concepts of “independence” and “educational technology” from various points of view. The dependence of independence on the use of innovative educational technologies in the educational process is traced. The stages of the process of organizing students' independent work using innovative educational technologies are highlighted. The presented study on identifying students' level of independence when studying the discipline “Teaching Technologies of the Teachers of the Past” allows us to conclude that students are more successful with the active implementation of educational technologies, since they make the process more active and creative, make the interaction process more efficient. The study was conducted over two years (in 2018 and 2019). We checked the level of independence of students before the introduction of innovative technologies in the study of the discipline "Technology of teaching teachers of the past" and after. The more often educational technologies are used in the educational process, the more students get used to independent work, the better it becomes. The use of educational technologies allows the formation of a highly educated competent specialist who independently and creatively solves professional problems

Monitoring of Neuromuscular block during emergency abdominal surgery

Relevance. Sixty percent of cases of residual neuromuscular block (rNMB) were recorded globally, yet this issue of rNMB in critically ill patients remains taboo. To predict any leftover NMB, a train-of-four stimulation (TOF) Watch SX was utilized to track the depth of muscle relaxant in emergency patients both during and after surgery, even when they were transported to the intensive care unit. This study aimed to investigate differences in the variability of neuromuscular block between two distinct surgical procedures: laparoscopic cholecystectomy (the control group) and emergency abdominal surgery (the investigation group). Materials and Methods. Using two different muscle relaxants and assessing their depth using accelerometry notably the TOF Watch SX. A total of 140 patients, aged 18-60 years with a BMI of 18-30 kg/m², participated in the study. Group I underwent planned cholecystectomy (control group), while Group II underwent emergency abdominal surgery (investigation group). The muscle relaxants Ridelat-C, generic of atracurium benzilate (Verofarm OOO, Harabovsk, Russia) and Kruaron, generic of rocuronium bromide (Verofarm OOO, Harabovsk, Russia) were administered, with various monitoring methods, including Drager Fabius, ECG, and lab results, Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021 advanced with graphs and ANOVA. Results and Discussion. The results demonstrated profound skeletal muscle relaxation for planned cholecystectomy, with TOF 0 achieved at 165.9 ± 95 seconds for Kruaron and 183.3 ± 90 seconds for Ridelat-C. In emergency abdominal surgery, it took 207.1 ± 120 seconds with Kruaron and 255.5 ± 109.5 seconds with Ridelat-C at TOF0. Notably, Kruaron exhibited prolonged effects in Group II, leading to residual neuromuscular block in critically ills even 2.5 hours post-surgery. Conclusion . Neuromuscular blocking agents modestly exacerbated neuromuscular dysfunction, potentially contributing to acquired critical illness polyneuropathy/myopathy, severe sepsis/septic shock, and massive blood loss/haemorrhagic shock. In critically ills, a minimal calculated dose of Kruaron is recommended, while Ridelat-C, which metabolized within the blood plasma without involving the kidneys or liver, might be a better choice. Suggamadex was suggested for reversing Kruaron effects due to its rapid effect as compared to proserine

A comparative clinical study of the effectiveness of computer cognitive training in patients with post-stroke cognitive impairments without dementia

Introduction. A complex of computer neuropsychological programs was developed at KrasSMU, which in several pilot studies has shown effectiveness in cognitive training for patients with vascular cognitive impairments (VCI). Objectives. The aim of the present study was to compare changes in cognitive status in those patients with post-stroke VCI who worked with neuropsychological computer programs, with those changes experienced by a group of similar patients who played entertaining computer games. Methods. Patients in the early recovery period after a hemispheric stroke with VCI without dementia (N=26, age 40-67) were randomized into three groups. All patients underwent conventional treatment in a rehabilitation hospital. Patients in the intervention group had ten daily 40-minute training sessions with neuropsychological computer programs. Participants in the active control group played entertaining computer games, and kept an identical regimen. Patients in the passive control group received only conventional treatment. Cognitive, neurological, affective, and functional states were assessed before and after the training periods. Results. Significant improvements were observed in the intervention group as compared to the passive control group on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA, p=0.0004), the Clock Drawing Test (CDT, p=0.001), and the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB, p=0.01). Differences between the groups of patients playing neuropsychological and entertaining games were statistically insignificant (Mann-Whitney U test, p>0.05), although in the intervention group there were improvements on every cognitive scale after the training period (Wilcoxon matched pairs test, p<0.05), while in the active control group, enhancements were evident only on some cognitive scales (p<0.05). No changes were observed in the passive control group

Nutrition Management in Neurogenic Dysphagia

Neurogenic dysphagia is an increasingly common problem. This chapter describes current approaches to enteral nutrition in patients with neurogenic dysphagia. We have shown the possibilities and our experience of using diet with a measured degree of density, specialized thickeners for drinks and food, ready-made enteral mixtures. We also identified patients who need a nasogastric tube or gastrostomy

Uncoupling DISC1 × D2R Protein-Protein Interactions Facilitates Latent Inhibition in Disc1-L100P Animal Model of Schizophrenia and Enhances Synaptic Plasticity via D2 Receptors

Both Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) and dopamine receptors D2R have significant contributions to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Our previous study demonstrated that DISC1 binds to D2R and such protein-protein interaction is enhanced in patients with schizophrenia and Disc1-L100P mouse model of schizophrenia (Su et al., 2014). By uncoupling DISC1 × D2R interaction (trans-activator of transcription (TAT)-D2pep), the synthesized TAT-peptide elicited antipsychotic-like effects in pharmacological and genetic animal models, without motor side effects as tardive dyskinesia commonly seen with typical antipsychotic drugs (APDs), indicating that the potential of TAT-D2pep of becoming a new APD. Therefore, in the current study, we further explored the APD-associated capacities of TAT-D2pep. We found that TAT-D2pep corrected the disrupted latent inhibition (LI), as a hallmark of schizophrenia associated endophenotype, in Disc1-L100P mutant mice—a genetic model of schizophrenia, supporting further APD’ capacity of TAT-D2pep. Moreover, we found that TAT-D2pep elicited nootropic effects in C57BL/6NCrl inbred mice, suggesting that TAT-D2pep acts as a cognitive enhancer, a desirable feature of APDs of the new generation. Namely, TAT-D2pep improved working memory in T-maze, and cognitive flexibility assessed by the LI paradigm, in C57BL/6N mice. Next, we assessed the impact of TAT-D2pep on hippocampal long-term plasticity (LTP) under basal conditions and upon stimulation of D2 receptors using quinpirole. We found comparable effects of TAT-D2pep and its control TAT-D2pep-scrambled peptide (TAT-D2pep-sc) under basal conditions. However, under stimulation of D2R by quinpirole, LTP was enhanced in hippocampal slices incubated with TAT-D2pep, supporting the notion that TAT-D2pep acts in a dopamine-dependent manner and acts as synaptic enhancer. Overall, our experiments demonstrated implication of DISC1 × D2R protein-protein interactions into mechanisms of cognitive and synaptic plasticity, which help to further understand molecular-cellular mechanisms of APD of the next generation

Three-year survival rate and changes in the level of consciousness in outpatients after severe brain injuries

Introduction. There is a worldwide lack of statistical data about the patients with chronic disorders of consciousness (DOC). In Russia, there are no such data at all. Objective: to perform the first study in Russia to assess the survival rate and changes in the level of consciousness in outpatients with the chronic DOC after their hospital discharge as well as to identify the predictors of survival and improvement in the level of consciousness. Materials and methods. All the participants (n = 142) underwent their treatment and rehabilitation in Federal Research and Clinical Center of Intensive Care Medicine and Rehabilitology from January 2016 to January 2020. We recorded the changes in patient's vital status and their level of consciousness at the endpoints of 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months from the brain injury (both for hospital and outpatient stages). We used the KaplanMeier method to assess the survival rate. We also used the logistic regression model to determine the correlation between the predictors of the survival and the improvement in the level of consciousness at baseline and 36 months after the injury. Results. The mortality rate in the study group 3 years after the brain injury was 86.6%. Regardless of the survival rate, the level of consciousness had significantly improved (i.e., they regained communication) in 22.5% of patients within 3 years after the index event. The statistically significant final model of the regression analysis (for 142 patients) showed that younger age and higher overall CRS-R score improved the survival rate. The logistic regression model used to determine the predictors of the improvement in the level of consciousness among the survivors gave no significant results. Conclusions. High mortality rate among the outpatients, whose level of consciousness had improved at discharge, proves the ineffectiveness of the outpatient rehabilitation. Thus, we need to find a way to improve it. The authors hope that the data obtained in this study will form the basis of their research