Rare Species of Vascular Plants, Protected and Supported the Protection of the Volyn Eegion

У результаті проведених польових досліджень виявлено і задокументовано місцезнаходження видів рослин, які рідко трапляються у Волинській області або перебувають на межі ареалу і не включені до попереднього списку рідкісних рослин території дослідження. Складено узагальнений список видів судинних рослин, що охороняються і рекомендовані до охорони у Волинській області. As a result of field studies have found and documented place of growth of plant species which are rare in the Volyn region, or are on the border area and were not included in the provisional list of rare plants studed area. The summary list of vascular plant species are protected and recommended for protection in the Volyn region is compiled.Роботу виконано на кафедрі ботаніки і садово-паркового господарства ВНУ ім. Лесі Українк

Co expression of SCF and KIT in gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) suggests an autocrine/paracrine mechanism

KIT is a tyrosine kinase receptor expressed by several tumours, which has for specific ligand the stem cell factor (SCF). KIT is the main oncogene in gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs), and gain-of-function KIT mutations are present in 70% of these tumours. The aim of the study was to measure and investigate the mechanisms of KIT activation in 80 KIT-positive GIST patients. KIT activation was quantified by detecting phosphotyrosine residues in Western blotting. SCF production was determined by reverse transcriptase–PCR, ELISA and/or immunohistochemistry. Primary cultures established from three GISTs were also analysed. The results show that KIT activation was detected in all cases, even in absence of KIT mutations. The fraction of activated KIT was not correlated with the mutational status of GISTs. Membrane and soluble isoforms of SCF mRNA were present in all GISTs analysed. Additionally, SCF was also detected in up to 93% of GISTs, and seen to be present within GIST cells. Likewise, the two SCF mRNA isoforms were found to be expressed in GIST-derived primary cultures. Thus, KIT activation in GISTs may in part result from the presence of SCF within the tumours

Oil sector of Ukraine: the history and future

Ukraiński sektor naftowy ma długoletnią historię. Na Ukrainie są trzy roponośne regiony – karpacki, dnieprowsko-doniecki i czarnomorski. Pierwsze wydobycie ropy naftowej miało miejsce w XIX wieku. W latach 20.–30. XX wieku Ukraina była eksporterem tego surowca. Obecnie potencjał naftowy Ukrainy jest niewielki. Największe złoża zostały wyeksploatowane, a złoża, które znalazły się na szelfie Morza Czarnego, zostały anektowane przez Rosję. Sektor naftowy Ukrainy jest obecnie w dość trudnej sytuacji. System ropociągowy, który niegdyś transportował ogromne ilości ropy do państw Europy Wschodniej, obecnie prawie nie istnieje. Spośród magistrali rurocią- gowych, ropę transportuje tylko rurociąg Przyjaźń, pozostałe są nieczynne. Z siedmiu ukraińskich rafinerii pracuje jedynie rafineria w Kremeńczuku, pozostałe wymagają modernizacji, która zwią- zana byłaby z poniesieniem dużych nakładów finansowych. Większość rafinerii pozostaje w rękach prywatnych, a ich właściciele nie spieszą się z renowacją. W związku z drastycznym pogorszeniem ukraińsko-rosyjskich stosunków, Ukraina szuka alternatywnych względem Rosji źródeł nabycia ropy. Istnieje kilka perspektywicznych projektów (nawiązania) współpracy z Azerbejdżanem i pań- stwami Bliskiego Wschodu. Jednak to, czy uda się je zrealizować, będzie zależało od sytuacji politycznej na Ukrainie oraz od przeprowadzenia reform gospodarczych.The oil sector has a long history in Ukraine. There are three oil–bearing regions – Carpathian, Dnieper–Donetsk and the Black Sea region. The first production of crude oil began the nineteenth century. In the 20–30 years of the twentieth century, Ukraine was the exporter of the oil. Currently, Ukraine’s oil potential is small, the largest deposits are exploited, and deposits that were on the Black Sea shelf were annexed by Russia. Ukraine’s oil sector is currently in a rather difficult situation – oil pipeline system, which once transported huge amounts of oil to the countries of Eastern Europe, now barely exists. The only oil pipeline “Friendship” transporting crude oil to European Union, the rest of pipelines do not work. Among 7 Ukrainian refineries – works only refinery in Kremenchug, the rest refineries requires reconstruction, which carries a large financial outlay. Most refineries are in private hands, and their owners do not rush to make reforms. In view of the drastic deterioration of the Ukrainian–Russian relations, Ukraine is looking for alternatives to Russian oil. There are several perspective projects with Azerbaijan, and some the countries of the Middle East, but their realization will depend on the political situation in Ukraine and from making of the economic reforms

The role of Turkey in the transit of natural gas from the Caspian Sea region, Central Asia, and Middle East to the EU countries

Położenie geograficzne Turcji w ostatnim dziesięcioleciu zaczyna odgrywać coraz większą rolę. Znajdując się na skrzyżowaniu szlaków przesyłowych biegnących z Azji i Bliskiego Wschodu do Europy, Turcja przykuwa uwagę światowych potęg. W XXI wieku nasiliła się rywalizacja o dostęp do surowców w różnych regionach świata, co jednocześnie skomplikowało stosunki energetyczne Unii Europejskiej z Rosją - głównym dostawcą gazu ziemnego na rynki europejskie. Rosja, aby nie stracić tak ogromnego europejskiego rynku zbytu zaczęła budownictwo nowych rurociągów, omijających państwa tranzytowe, takie jak Ukraina czy Białoruś, czyli bezpośrednio od dostawcy do odbiorcy (np. Nord Stream). Natomiast Unia Europejska, zdając sobie sprawę z tego jak mocno jest zależna od jednego dostawcy, zaczęła szukać nowych tras transportu gazu ziemnego omijając terytorium Rosji i tym samym zmniejszając jej wpływ na politykę energetyczną Unii Europejskiej. W tej sytuacji Turcja stała się miejscem rywalizacji, ponieważ to na jej terytorium łączą się rurociągi z różnych regionów świata. Poza tym Turcja, korzystając z tak wygodnej pozycji geopolitycznej, też pragnie brać udział w polityce energetycznej, jako państwo tranzytowe. Pragnąc wywrzeć wpływ na przyszły rozkład tras gazociągów przez własne terytorium, Turcji już udało się nieco pokrzyżować europejskie i rosyjskie plany budownictwa gazociągów Nabucco i South Stream, poprzez podpisanie porozumienia z Azerbejdżanem o budownictwie gazociągu Transanatolijskiego (TANAP). Taka decyzja zmusiła Rosję do przyspieszenia budowy South Stream, a Unię Europejską do zmiany nazwy i trasy Nabucco na Nabucco-West i znacznego zminimalizowania kosztów budowy gazociągu. Poza tym Turcja liczy na współpracę w sektorze energetycznym z państwami bliskowschodnimi, jak Iran, Irak, w przyszłości również z Syrią. Mimo aktualnych wydarzeń na Bliskim Wschodzie (wojna w Syrii, konflikt pomiędzy Izraelem a Palestyną) Irak nie pozostawia planów na budowę i uruchomienie nowych ekonomicznie opłacalnych gazociągów biegnących z tego regionu przez Turcję do Unii Europejskiej.The geographical location of Turkey has in the last decade, begun to play an increasingly important role. Lying at the crossroads of transit routes running from Asia and the Middle East to Europe, Turkey attracts the attention of world powers. The twenty-first century has seen intensified competition for access to energy resources in different regions of the world, while EU energy relations with Russia - a major supplier of natural gas to European markets - have seen complications. Russia, not wanting to lose such a huge European market, began building new pipelines directly from themsupplier to the customer, bypassing transit countries such as Ukraine and Belarus ((or example, Nord Stream). However, the European Union, increasingly aware of just how much it depended on a single supplier, began to look for new natural gas transportation routes bypassing Russian territory and thereby reducing Russia's impact on EU energy policy. In this context, Turkey has become a local point of interest, because its territory connects pipelines from different regions of the world. Moreover, Turkey taking advantage of its geopolitically comfortable position also wants to be involved in energy policy as a transit state. Wishing to have an impact on the future distribution pipeline routes through its territory, Turkey has managed to somewhat thwart European and Russian plans for construction of the gas pipelines Nabucco and South Stream, by signing an agreement with Azerbaijan for construction of the Transanatolian pipeline (TANAP). Such a decision has forced Russia to speed up the construction of South Stream and the European Union to change Nabucco to Nabucco-West and significantly reduce the cost of building the pipeline. In addition Turkey counts on cooperation in the energy sector of Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, Iraq, and in the future Syria. Despite currently turbulent conditions in theMiddle East (the war in Syria, the conflict between Israel and Palestine), Turkey has not given up on plans for the construction and commissioning of new, economically viable pipelines running from the Middle East through Turkey to the European Union

ANALYSIS OF THE AUTOMATED SPEAKER RECOGNITION SYSTEM OF CRITICAL USE OPERATION RESULTS

Context. The article summarizes the statistical learning theory to evaluate the long-term operation results of the automated speaker recognition system of critical use (ASRSCU) taking into account the features of the system’s operation object and thestructural specificity of such a class of recognition systems.Objective. The goal of the represented work is the development of a complex set of methods for the ASRSCU’s quality parameters stabilization during its long-term operation.Method. The article formulated set of methods for the ASRSCU’s operational risks estimation of its long-term operation. In particular, the dependence of the risk of an incorrect speaker recognition on the features space dimension is described. Based on theformulated measure of informativity, obtained a set of methods to analyze the training sample to identify examples that lead to increased risk. The influence of the phenomenon of the drift of the speech signal parameters on the quality indicators of the ASRSCU is described analytically. An estimation of the operation duration of the ASRSCU, during which it is impractical to re-train its the classifier, is carried out. Recommendations for choosing an optimal ASRSCU’s classifier are formulated from the position of its complexity minimization, taking into account the risks of the ASRSCU’s long-term operation and the possibility of re-training.Results. Represented in the article theoretical results are verified by the DET-curves experiments data, which summarize the information from long-term experiments with the ASRSCU, in which, during the features space configuration were taken intoaccount the features based on the power normalized cepstral coefficients based and the features based on the spectral-temporal receptive fields theory. Within the framework of the created theoretical concept, an estimation of the influence of the features spaceconfiguration and the type and complexity of the classifier on the stability of the ASRSCU’s quality parameters during its long-term operation has been carried out.Conclusions. For the first time the theoretically analyzed the problem of average risk minimization by empirical operation results of a ASRSCU, where, unlike existing approaches, non-stationary input data with the drift of individual speech signals features andthe characteristic parameters of the recognition system classifier were taken into account, which allowed to estimate the risk’s confidence interval for conditions for re-training sessions

JNK-Dependent cJun Phosphorylation Mitigates TGF beta- and EGF-Induced Pre-Malignant Breast Cancer Cell Invasion by Suppressing AP-1-Mediated Transcriptional Responses

Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF beta) has both tumor-suppressive and tumor-promoting effects in breast cancer. These functions are partly mediated through Smads, intracellular transcriptional effectors of TGF beta. Smads form complexes with other DNA-binding transcription factors to elicit cell-type-dependent responses. Previously, we found that the collagen invasion and migration of pre-malignant breast cancer cells in response to TGF beta and epidermal growth factor (EGF) critically depend on multiple Jun and Fos components of the activator protein (AP)-1 transcription factor complex. Here we report that the same process is negatively regulated by Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)-dependent cJun phosphorylation. This was demonstrated by analysis of phospho-deficient, phospho-mimicking, and dimer-specific cJun mutants, and experiments employing a mutant version of the phosphatase MKP1 that specifically inhibits JNK. Hyper-phosphorylation of cJun by JNK strongly inhibited its ability to induce several Jun/Fos-regulated genes and to promote migration and invasion. These results show that MEK-AP-1 and JNK-phospho-cJun exhibit distinct pro- and anti-invasive functions, respectively, through differential regulation of Smad- and AP-1-dependent TGF beta target genes. Our findings are of importance for personalized cancer therapy, such as for patients suffering from specific types of breast tumors with activated EGF receptor-Ras or inactivated JNK pathways.Cancer Signaling networks and Molecular Therapeutic