Epobis is a Nonerythropoietic and Neuroprotective Agonist of the Erythropoietin Receptor with Anti-Inflammatory and Memory Enhancing Effects

The cytokine erythropoietin (EPO) stimulates proliferation and differentiation of erythroid progenitor cells. Moreover, EPO has neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidative effects, but the use of EPO as a neuroprotective agent is hampered by its erythropoietic activity. We have recently designed the synthetic, dendrimeric peptide, Epobis, derived from the sequence of human EPO. This peptide binds the EPO receptor and promotes neuritogenesis and neuronal cell survival. Here we demonstrate that Epobis in vitro promotes neuritogenesis in primary motoneurons and has anti-inflammatory effects as demonstrated by its ability to decrease TNF release from activated AMJ2-C8 macrophages and rat primary microglia. When administered systemically Epobis is detectable in both plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, demonstrating that the peptide crosses the blood-brain barrier. Importantly, Epobis is not erythropoietic, but systemic administration of Epobis in rats delays the clinical signs of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an animal model of multiple sclerosis, and the peptide has long-term, but not short-term, effects on working memory, detected as an improved social memory 3 days after administration. These data reveal Epobis to be a nonerythropoietic and neuroprotective EPO receptor agonist with anti-inflammatory and memory enhancing properties

Luminescence properties and time-resolved spectroscopy of rare-earth doped SrMoO4 single crystals

The work of V. Pankratova was supported by the financial support of Scientific Research Project for Students and Young Researchers (SJZ/2020/05) realized at Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia. The Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART2.Luminescence properties of nominally pure and doped with Eu3+ and Pr3+ ions SrMoO4 single crystals grown by the Czochralski method have been studied. Thermal quenching of intrinsic emission of pure and doped SrMoO4 single crystals has been observed, as well as a correlation of thermal quenching activation energies with rare-earth ion concentration has been observed. Tunable laser was used to study time-resolved luminescence in a range from 10 K to room temperature. The effect of dopant nature and concentration on intrinsic emission and decay kinetics has been elucidated. --//-- Viktorija Pankratova, Elizaveta E. Dunaeva, Irina S. Voronina, Anna P. Kozlova, Roman Shendrik, Vladimir Pankratov, Luminescence properties and time-resolved spectroscopy of rare-earth doped SrMoO4 single crystals, Optical Materials: X, Volume 15, 2022, 100169, ISSN 2590-1478, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omx.2022.100169. Article published under the CC BY-NC-ND licence.Scientific Research Project for Students and Young Researchers (SJZ/2020/05); the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART2

Artemin and an Artemin-Derived Peptide, Artefin, Induce Neuronal Survival, and Differentiation Through Ret and NCAM

Artemin (ARTN) is a neurotrophic factor from the GDNF family ligands (GFLs) that is involved in development of the nervous system and neuronal differentiation and survival. ARTN signals through a complex receptor system consisting of the RET receptor tyrosine kinase and a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored co-receptor GFL receptor α, GFRα3. We found that ARTN binds directly to neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and that ARTN-induced neuritogenesis requires NCAM expression and activation of NCAM-associated signaling partners, thus corroborating that NCAM is an alternative receptor for ARTN. We designed a small peptide, artefin, that could interact with GFRα3 and demonstrated that this peptide agonist induces RET phosphorylation and mimics the biological functions of ARTN – neuroprotection and neurite outgrowth. Moreover, artefin mimicked the binding of ARTN to NCAM and required NCAM expression and activation for its neurite elongation effect, thereby suggesting that artefin represents a binding site for NCAM within ARTN. We showed that biological effects of ARTN and artefin can be inhibited by abrogation of both NCAM and RET, suggesting a more complex signaling mechanism that previously thought. As NCAM plays a significant role in neurodevelopment, regeneration, and synaptic plasticity we suggest that ARTN and its mimetics are promising candidates for treatment of neurological disorders and warrant further investigations

The Relationship of Emotional Intelligence and Communicative Tendencies with Professional Burnout

Currently, the nervous load on the person is a fairly common phenomenon, which is associated, first of all, with the increasing pace of life of a modern person. It is especially true for teachers who, due to the specifics of their profession, face stressful situations daily in the process of interpersonal interaction with colleagues, students, and parents. The formation of professional burnout among teachers is affected by a whole range of internal and external factors. External factors include the characteristics of the organizational (or professional) environment. Among the personal determinants of professional burnout, researchers call emotional instability, lack of desire for cooperation, low level of need for achievement. A special place among the factors of the formation of professional burnout among teachers is taken by the level of development of emotional intelligence and communicative tendencies, which are one of the components of the structure of professionally significant qualities of a teacher.Our study aimed to study the relationship between emotional intelligence and communicative tendencies with professional burnout of teachers.The main research methods included a survey and statistical processing of the data. The study involved 75 teachers working in schools in Rostov-on-Don, work experience from 7 to 20 years.As a result of a study of the emotional intelligence and communicative inclinations of teachers, it was revealed that most of them are characterized by an average level of organizational and communicative inclinations; the most pronounced component of emotional intelligence among teachers is “emotional awareness”, and low indicators were identified on the scales “self-motivation”, “empathy”, “management of one’s emotions”, which indicates the insufficient level of formation of such manifestations of emotional intelligence as controlling one’s behavior, due to emotions management, understanding the emotions of other people, the ability to empathize with the current emotional state of another person, emotional longevity and emotional flexibility

Interrelation of career anchors with education and labor activity motives of students

The article is devoted to the research of career orientations (career “anchors”) with education and labor activity motivation of students. 114 students of “Psychological and pedagogical education” took part in the study. It is revealed that the most adequate motivation of education ex-pressed in the predominance of motives for acquiring knowledge and mastering the profession is associated with career orientations “service / dedication to a cause”, “pure challenge”, “technical / functional competence”. In other words, it is connected with aspiration to realize basic values in their careers, to improve the world, to develop and apply professional skills, to solve difficult problems, to overcome obstacles, to win. The career anchor of “service / dedication to a cause” is also associated with an increase of the communicative motive and a decrease of the competitive motive of labor activity. The more students are guided by the formal motive of getting a diploma of higher education, the less the stability of a career is valuable for them. The more utilitarian and pragmatic motive of la-bor activity is expressed in students, the less they are inclined to managerial or entrepreneurial career. The more autonomy and independence in career is valuable for students, the less social usefulness of labor (cooperative motive) is important for them

Feature career structure of the image at different stages of professional development

The paper describes research carried out in the framework of the study of representations of professional identity. The aim of this paper is to study the image of the career structure and its structural elements. The study was conducted on a sample of 635 people, among them - 388 women and girls and 247 boys and men. The empirical study was carried out on the basis of faculty «State and municipal management» (students of 1 and 5 courses) and «training of civil servants», Russian. Career image includes three components: structural; informative and emotional evaluation. The content of the career image components changes depending on what stage of professional development the personality is. The structural component in the process of professional development varies from amorphous and ill-structured at the first stage of professional development to a clear and specific at the last stage of professional development. The career trajectory changes as follows: at the first, third and fourth stages of professional development the most characteristic is the graph of a career «vertical», and at the second stage it is «plateau». As to the content of career image we can note that the most common for all stages of career development is the dominance of financial goals. Emotional-evaluative component of the career image is maximally differentiated at the second stage of professional development, at all other stages the career image has a common neutral color.

Correct and Stable Algorithm for Numerical Solving Nonlocal Heat Conduction Problems with Not Strongly Regular Boundary Conditions

For a nonlocal initial-boundary value problem for a one-dimensional heat equation with not strongly regular boundary conditions of general type, an approximate difference scheme with weights is constructed. A correct and stable algorithm for the numerical solving of the difference problem is proposed. It is proven that the difference scheme with weights is stable and its solution converges to the exact solution of the differential problem in the grid L2h-norm. Stability conditions are established. An estimate of the numerical solution with respect to the initial data and the right-hand side of the difference problem is given

FEATURE CAREER STRUCTURE OF THE IMAGE AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The paper describes research carried out in the framework of the study of representations of professional identity. The aim of this paper is to study the image of the career structure and its structural elements. The study was conducted on a sample of 635 people, among them - 388 women and girls and 247 boys and men. The empirical study was carried out on the basis of faculty «State and municipal management» (students of 1 and 5 courses) and «training of civil servants», Russian. Career image includes three components: structural; informative and emotional evaluation. The content of the career image components changes depending on what stage of professional development the personality is. The structural component in the process of professional development varies from amorphous and ill-structured at the first stage of professional development to a clear and specific at the last stage of professional development. The career trajectory changes as follows: at the first, third and fourth stages of professional development the most characteristic is the graph of a career «vertical», and at the second stage it is «plateau». As to the content of career image we can note that the most common for all stages of career development is the dominance of financial goals. Emotional-evaluative component of the career image is maximally differentiated at the second stage of professional development, at all other stages the career image has a common neutral color