The Social Significance of the Cluster in the Economy

Transition of the Russian Federation's policy to the innovative way of economic and social development is indispensable imperative to ensure its output to a leading position in the modern globalized world. Among the wide range of means, methods, forms, the mechanisms by which it is possible sharp acceleration of the process of formation of an innovative economy in our country, a special place belongs to the cluster approach. International scientific community is justified, and the practice of developed countries proved that the cluster approach to the structuring of the national economy and regional systems are an important source to improve production efficiency, increase its competitiveness, and increase public welfare. Questions of cluster formation and management of the development of the Russian economy in recent years, becomes the subject of numerous studies by Russian scientists - economists. Cluster policies are becoming increasingly recognized in public authorities. Moreover, there are already official documents, which examine the content and direction of the cluster policy. Keywords: society, cluster, economy, innovation, importance, competitiveness JEL Classifications: A19, O35, O3

Uniparental Genetic Heritage of Belarusians: Encounter of Rare Middle Eastern Matrilineages with a Central European Mitochondrial DNA Pool

Ethnic Belarusians make up more than 80% of the nine and half million people inhabiting the Republic of Belarus. Belarusians together with Ukrainians and Russians represent the East Slavic linguistic group, largest both in numbers and territory, inhabiting East Europe alongside Baltic-, Finno-Permic- and Turkic-speaking people. Till date, only a limited number of low resolution genetic studies have been performed on this population. Therefore, with the phylogeographic analysis of 565 Y-chromosomes and 267 mitochondrial DNAs from six well covered geographic sub-regions of Belarus we strove to complement the existing genetic profile of eastern Europeans. Our results reveal that around 80% of the paternal Belarusian gene pool is composed of R1a, I2a and N1c Y-chromosome haplogroups – a profile which is very similar to the two other eastern European populations – Ukrainians and Russians. The maternal Belarusian gene pool encompasses a full range of West Eurasian haplogroups and agrees well with the genetic structure of central-east European populations. Our data attest that latitudinal gradients characterize the variation of the uniparentally transmitted gene pools of modern Belarusians. In particular, the Y-chromosome reflects movements of people in central-east Europe, starting probably as early as the beginning of the Holocene. Furthermore, the matrilineal legacy of Belarusians retains two rare mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, N1a3 and N3, whose phylogeographies were explored in detail after de novo sequencing of 20 and 13 complete mitogenomes, respectively, from all over Eurasia. Our phylogeographic analyses reveal that two mitochondrial DNA lineages, N3 and N1a3, both of Middle Eastern origin, might mark distinct events of matrilineal gene flow to Europe: during the mid-Holocene period and around the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, respectively

The Effect of a New N-hetero Cycle Derivative on Behavior and Inflammation against the Background of Ischemic Stroke

Ischemic stroke triggers a whole cascade of pathological changes in the brain, one of which is postischemic inflammation. Since in such cases thrombolytic therapy is often not possible, methods that modulate inflammation and affect microglia become particularly interesting. We synthesized 3-(2-oxo-4-phenylpyrrolidin-1-yl)propane-1-sulfonate calcium(II) (Compound 4) and studied its anti-inflammatory activity in in vitro and in vivo models of inflammation and ischemia. Macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 was treated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and Compound 4 at various dosages to study the cytokine profile using real-time PCR and cytometric bead array (CBA). Stroke in rats was simulated by the middle cerebral artery occlusion method (MCAO). Several tests were performed to characterize the neurological deficit and locomotor activity of the rats, and afterwards, postmortem, the number of astrocytes was counted using immunohistochemistry. Compound 4 in in vitro tests dose-dependently reduced the expression of interleukin-1β (IL1β), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) genes in cell culture and increased the concentration of cytokines: interleukin-2, 4, 6 (IL-2, IL-4, and IL-6). In vivo Compound 4 increased the orienting-exploratory behavior, and reduced neurological and motor deficit. The number of astrocytes that promote and support inflammation was lower in the group treated with Compound 4. The stroke volume measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed no difference. We have shown that Compound 4 demonstrates anti-inflammatory activity by increasing the synthesis of anti-inflammatory and reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines, and positively affects the neurological deficit in rats. Thus, Compound 4 has a high therapeutic potential in the management of patients after a stroke and requires further study of its neuroprotective properties

A Novel Phenylpyrrolidine Derivative: Synthesis and Effect on Cognitive Functions in Rats with Experimental Ishemic Stroke

We performed an in silico, in vitro, and in vivo assessment of a potassium 2-[2-(2-oxo-4-phenylpyrrolidin-1-yl) acetamido]ethanesulfonate (compound 1) as a potential prodrug for cognitive function improvement in ischemic brain injury. Using in silico methods, we predicted the pharmacological efficacy and possible safety in rat models. In addition, in silico data showed neuroprotective features of compound 1, which were further supported by in vitro experiments in a glutamate excitotoxicity-induced model in newborn rat cortical neuron cultures. Next, we checked whether compound 1 is capable of crossing the blood–brain barrier in intact and ischemic animals. Compound 1 improved animal behavior both in intact and ischemic rats and, even though the concentration in intact brains was low, we still observed a significant anxiety reduction and activity escalation. We used molecular docking and molecular dynamics to support our hypothesis that compound 1 could affect the AMPA receptor function. In a rat model of acute focal cerebral ischemia, we studied the effects of compound 1 on the behavior and neurological deficit. An in vivo experiment demonstrated that compound 1 significantly reduced the neurological deficit and improved neurological symptom regression, exploratory behavior, and anxiety. Thus, here, for the first time, we show that compound 1 can be considered as an agent for restoring cognitive functions

Maximum parsimony tree of mtDNA haplogroup N1a3.

<p>The tree includes 20 novel complete sequences (marked with an asterisk and underlined accession numbers) and eight previously published <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499-Fernandes1" target="_blank">[42]</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499-Schnberg1" target="_blank">[50(and references therein)]</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499-Behar1" target="_blank">[51]</a>. Mutations relative to the RSRS <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499-Behar1" target="_blank">[51]</a> are indicated on the branches; transversions are specified with a lower case letter; Y and R stand for heteroplasmy; underlining indicates positions experiencing recurrent mutations within the tree while exclamation marks refer to one (!) or two (!!) back mutations relative to the RSRS. Coalescence age estimates for N1a3 and N1a3a obtained by employing the complete genome and synonymous (ρ) clocks, indicated by # and @, respectively, are also shown.</p

Maximum parsimony tree of mtDNA haplogroup N3.

<p>The tree includes 13 novel (marked with an asterisk and underlined accession numbers) and three previously published <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499-Schnberg1" target="_blank">[50]</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499-Behar1" target="_blank">[51]</a> complete sequences. Mutations relative to the RSRS <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499-Behar1" target="_blank">[51]</a> are shown on the branches; transversions are specified with a lower case letter; underlining indicates positions which experienced recurrent mutations within the tree, while the exclamation mark (!) refers to one back mutation relative to the RSRS. Rho coalescence time estimates and their confidence intervals for haplogroup N3 and its major sub-branch N3a obtained from the complete genome clock are also shown.</p

Phylogeny of NRY haplogroups and their relative frequencies in Belarusians.

<p>Haplogroup-defining biallelic markers are in parentheses. Belarusian sub-populations are designated as BeN – North, BeC – Centre, BeE – East, BeW – West, BeWP – West Polesie, BeEP – East Polesie. Sample sizes and absolute frequencies are also given.</p

Geographic position of Belarus within Europe.

<p>Map of Belarus demonstrating the six geographic sub-regions studied is shown on the right. Numbers 1–19 correspond to the location of sampling points (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499.s006" target="_blank">Table S1</a>). Lit – Lithuania, Lat – Latvia, Est – Estonia.</p

PC plot based on NRY haplogroup frequencies among eastern Europeans and Balkan populations.

<p>The contribution of each haplogroup to the first and the second PCs are shown in gray. Population abbreviations are as follows: BeN, BeW, BeC, BeWP, BeEP, BeE – Belarusians from North, West, Central, West Polesie, East Polesie and East sub-regions, respectively, filled red circle denotes the total Belarusian population; RuS, RuC, RuN – Russians from southern, central and northern regions, respectively; Finns K – Finns from Karelia. K*(x N,P) refers to samples with M9, M20, M70 derived alleles and 92R7, M214 ancestral alleles; P*(xR) refers to samples with 92R7, M242 derived alleles and M207 ancestral allele; F*(xI,J,K) refers to samples with M89 derived allele and M9, M201, M170, 12f2 ancestral alleles; C(xF)DE refers to samples with Yap and M130 derived and M89 ancestral alleles. Frequencies of NRY haplogroups and references are listed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066499#pone.0066499.s008" target="_blank">Table S3</a>.</p