Short-Term Student Mobility: Motivation, Expectation and Barriers

The article analyses short-term student mobility. In the context of internationalisation of higher education and the development of the global market of educational services universities develop and implement short-term programmes of student mobility in order to recruit international students. These programmes are less restricted than full time programmes, which allows them to meet the needs and expectations of students. International experience gained as a result gives them the opportunity to choose their path in postgraduate education in institutions abroad. A questionnaire survey of the Chinese students participating in the short-term student mobility programmes (n=31) is reported. In addition, a number of interviews with the staffwhose work is connected with teaching overseas students (n=5) was conducted in 2019. The findings of this research may demonstrate that Chinese students intend to become familiar with an additional set of common cultural competences. In other words, their interest in Russia, its history, culture, traditions and customs is becoming a strong motivation in choosing a university and a short-term educational programme. It could be the case that low language proficiency, bureaucracy, (namely, difficulties in acquiring the necessary paperwork and being accommodated in a hall of residence) become hurdles on the way to completing such a programme successfully. While developing programmes, host universities should be guided by common cultural competences in order to promote further development of short-term student mobility

Structural Properties of Ribosomal Protein S8 from the Extreme Thermophile Thermus Thermophilus

The gene of ribosomal protein S8 from the extreme thermophile Thermus thermophilus was expressed in E. coli using the strain BL21(DE3) and vector pET3-1. A method of isolating this protein from the super producing strain was developed, which makes it possible to obtain 8-12 mg of product from 11 of culture. The secondary structure of protein S8 was determined by using CD spectroscopy. The protein was shown to be highly resistant to denaturants

Structural Properties of Ribosomal Protein S8 from the Extreme Thermophile Thermus Thermophilus

The gene of ribosomal protein S8 from the extreme thermophile Thermus thermophilus was expressed in E. coli using the strain BL21(DE3) and vector pET3-1. A method of isolating this protein from the super producing strain was developed, which makes it possible to obtain 8-12 mg of product from 11 of culture. The secondary structure of protein S8 was determined by using CD spectroscopy. The protein was shown to be highly resistant to denaturants

Development and validation of a 36-gene sequencing assay for hereditary cancer risk assessment

The past two decades have brought many important advances in our understanding of the hereditary susceptibility to cancer. Numerous studies have provided convincing evidence that identification of germline mutations associated with hereditary cancer syndromes can lead to reductions in morbidity and mortality through targeted risk management options. Additionally, advances in gene sequencing technology now permit the development of multigene hereditary cancer testing panels. Here, we describe the 2016 revision of the Counsyl Inherited Cancer Screen for detecting single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), short insertions and deletions (indels), and copy number variants (CNVs) in 36 genes associated with an elevated risk for breast, ovarian, colorectal, gastric, endometrial, pancreatic, thyroid, prostate, melanoma, and neuroendocrine cancers. To determine test accuracy and reproducibility, we performed a rigorous analytical validation across 341 samples, including 118 cell lines and 223 patient samples. The screen achieved 100% test sensitivity across different mutation types, with high specificity and 100% concordance with conventional Sanger sequencing and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). We also demonstrated the screen’s high intra-run and inter-run reproducibility and robust performance on blood and saliva specimens. Furthermore, we showed that pathogenic Alu element insertions can be accurately detected by our test. Overall, the validation in our clinical laboratory demonstrated the analytical performance required for collecting and reporting genetic information related to risk of developing hereditary cancers