Psychology of Mobbing as a Form of Conflict in the Workplace: Finding and Testing Project-Based Learning in Students’ Education

Project-based learning has long been used in universities when preparing students. However, project-based technologies are currently being increasingly used in work with students. The authors found various options for the application of these technologies in teaching psychological and pedagogical disciplines. The research aims to determine the practice of implementing project-based learning to provide a deeper practice-oriented understanding of academic disciplines. The authors use a set of methods of theoretical analysis and practical psychological techniques. The authors present the research results in the form of several generalizations. The first one concerns the fact that mobbing has recently become a stable trend in teams; a conflict often manifests itself in the form of mobbing. The study of various organizational cultures and their models shows that the optimal and morally oriented model of organizational culture is the barrier preventing the development of mobbing in the company. The practical application of the developed theory provides methodological support for training a successful specialist

Analysis of the interaction and proliferative activity of adenocarcinoma, peripheral blood mononuclear and mesenchymal stromal cells after co-cultivation in vitro

The tumor microenvironment is a heterogeneous population of cells actively involved in the process of growth and development of a tumor. Research has demonstrated the interactions between the different populations of cells are critical for the formation of the tumor microenvironment and, if recapitulated experimentally, can be used to produce more effective models for preclinical screening of anticancer drugs. In this study, we demonstrate co-culturing HeLa adenocarcinoma cells, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and mesenchymal stromal cells results in changes in the proliferative activity of the peripheral blood mononuclear cells and mesenchymal stromal cell populations. This data supports the further development of in vitro co-culture systems utilizing these cell types for pre-clinical screening of anticancer drugs

Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Overexpressing Interleukin 2 Can Suppress Proliferation of Neuroblastoma Cells in Co-Culture and Activate Mononuclear Cells In Vitro

High-dose recombinant interleukin 2 (IL2) therapy has been shown to be successful in renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma. However, systemic administration of high doses of IL2 can be toxic, causing capillary leakage syndrome and stimulating pro-tumor immune response. One of the strategies to reduce the systemic toxicity of IL2 is the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a vehicle for the targeted delivery of IL2. Human adipose tissue-derived MSCs were transduced with lentivirus encoding IL2 (hADSCs-IL2) or blue fluorescent protein (BFP) (hADSCs-BFP). The proliferation, immunophenotype, cytokine profile and ultrastructure of hADSCs-IL2 and hADSCs-BFP were determined. The effect of hADSCs on activation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and proliferation and viability of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells after co-culture with native hADSCs, hADSCs-BFP or hADSCs-IL2 on plastic and Matrigel was evaluated. Ultrastructure and cytokine production by hADSCs-IL2 showed modest changes in comparison with hADSCs and hADSCs-BFP. Conditioned medium from hADSC-IL2 affected tumor cell proliferation, increasing the proliferation of SH-SY5Y cells and also increasing the number of late-activated T-cells, natural killer (NK) cells, NKT-cells and activated T-killers. Conversely, hADSC-IL2 co-culture led to a decrease in SH-SY5Y proliferation on plastic and Matrigel. These data show that hADSCs-IL2 can reduce SH-SY5Y proliferation and activate PBMCs in vitro. However, IL2-mediated therapeutic effects of hADSCs could be offset by the increased expression of pro-oncogenes, as well as the natural ability of hADSCs to promote the progression of some tumors

Combined Subchronic Toxicity of Aluminum (III), Titanium (IV) and Silicon (IV) Oxide Nanoparticles and Its Alleviation with a Complex of Bioprotectors

Stable suspensions of metal/metalloid oxide nanoparticles (MeO-NPs) obtained by laser ablation of 99.99% pure elemental aluminum, titanium or silicon under a layer of deionized water were used separately, or in three binary combinations, or in a ternary combination to induce subchronic intoxications in rats. To this end, the MeO-NPs were repeatedly injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) 18 times during 6 weeks before measuring a large number of functional, biochemical, morphological and cytological indices for the organism’s status. In many respects, the Al2O3-NP was found to be the most toxic species alone and the most dangerous component of the combinations studied. Mathematical modeling with the help of the Response Surface Methodology showed that, as well as in the case of any other binary toxic combinations previously investigated by us, the organism’s response to a simultaneous exposure to any two of the MeO-NP species under study was characterized by a complex interaction between all possible types of combined toxicity (additivity, subadditivity or superadditivity of unidirectional action and different variants of opposite effects) depending on which outcome this type was estimated for and on effect and dose levels. With any third MeO-NP species acting in the background, the type of combined toxicity displayed by the other two remained virtually the same or changed significantly, becoming either more or less unfavorable. Various harmful effects produced by the (Al2O3-NP + TiO2-NP + SiO2-NP)-combination, including its genotoxicity, were substantially attenuated by giving the rats per os during the entire exposure period a complex of innocuous bioactive substances expected to increase the organism’s antitoxic resistance

A close view of the organic linker in a MOF: structural insights from a combined ¹H NMR relaxometry and computational investigation

Fast Field Cycling NMR combined with ReaxFF MDs and the PAW/GIPAW approach is used to characterize the amine nitrogen EFG tensor and its dynamics

Phylogenetic relations and range history of jerboas of the Allactaginae subfamily (Dipodidae, Rodentia)

Five-toed jerboas of the subfamily Allactaginae comprise several complex taxa occurring over a wide distribution range covering a large part of the Eurasian arid belt. In this study, we employed current methods of molecular phylogenetics based on 15 nuclear genes and the mitochondrial gene cytb to revise relations and systematics within Allactaginae. We also applied species distribution modelling projected on paleo-environmental data to reconstruct the geographic patterns of speciation in Allactaginae. We elucidated the intergeneric relationships within this subfamily and clarifed interspecies relations within the genus Scarturus. Moreover, our results demonstrate the species status of S. caprimulgaoutline the currently understudied diversity within Orientallactaga, Allactaga, and Pygeretmusand improve the divergence estimates of these taxa. Based on our results from modelling of geographic range fragmentation in allactagines, we suggest the dating and location of speciation events and present hypotheses regarding general habitat niche conservatism in small mammals

MS/MS-Free Protein Identification in Complex Mixtures Using Multiple Enzymes with Complementary Specificity

In this work, we present the results of evaluation of a workflow that employs a multienzyme digestion strategy for MS1-based protein identification in “shotgun” proteomic applications. In the proposed strategy, several cleavage reagents of different specificity were used for parallel digestion of the protein sample followed by MS1 and retention time (RT) based search. Proof of principle for the proposed strategy was performed using experimental data obtained for the annotated 48-protein standard. By using the developed approach, up to 90% of proteins from the standard were unambiguously identified. The approach was further applied to HeLa proteome data. For the sample of this complexity, the proposed MS1-only strategy determined correctly up to 34% of all proteins identified using standard MS/MS-based database search. It was also found that the results of MS1-only search were independent of the chromatographic gradient time in a wide range of gradients from 15–120 min. Potentially, rapid MS1-only proteome characterization can be an alternative or complementary to the MS/MS-based “shotgun” analyses in the studies, in which the experimental time is more important than the depth of the proteome coverage

IdentiPy: An Extensible Search Engine for Protein Identification in Shotgun Proteomics

We present an open-source, extensible search engine for shotgun proteomics. Implemented in Python programming language, IdentiPy shows competitive processing speed and sensitivity compared with the state-of-the-art search engines. It is equipped with a user-friendly web interface, IdentiPy Server, enabling the use of a single server installation accessed from multiple workstations. Using a simplified version of X!Tandem scoring algorithm and its novel “autotune” feature, IdentiPy outperforms the popular alternatives on high-resolution data sets. Autotune adjusts the search parameters for the particular data set, resulting in improved search efficiency and simplifying the user experience. IdentiPy with the autotune feature shows higher sensitivity compared with the evaluated search engines. IdentiPy Server has built-in postprocessing and protein inference procedures and provides graphic visualization of the statistical properties of the data set and the search results. It is open-source and can be freely extended to use third-party scoring functions or processing algorithms and allows customization of the search workflow for specialized applications