The Game as an Instrument of Honors Students’ Personal Development in the SibFU Honors College

Honors colleges often serve as laboratories for pedagogical innovation, where new learning strategies and technologies are created both in the sphere of honors education and in the broader context of universities. This study describes a method of “organizational activity games” (OAG) introduced in the honors college of Siberian Federal University (SibFU) in Russia. The author explores the advantages of the game method for reaching the goal of honors students’ personal development. The theory and history of the game, invented in the Russian school of methodology by G. P. Shchedrovitskii, is explored in its relation to the theoretical principles of honors education. This research shows that the philosophy of games designed to create an intellectual elite of independently thinking citizens can be effectively employed in honors education. The study reveals how the objectives of the game—to develop and study new methods of teaching and learning in universities—contribute to the inventive pedagogies of honors colleges. The author provides insight into the various stages of the inaugural organizational activity game conducted at the SibFU Honors College. Results prove that the game may be regarded as a new method of honors teaching and learning applicable to honors programs in institutions worldwide

Environmental projects implementation effectiveness in business structures within the corporate social responsibility

Rapid economic growth impacts our environment and consequently ecosystem services greatly. Recognizing the value and the need for conservation of ecosystem services is essential to business, the latter can reduce the risks as well as provide new opportunities for further development. It is quite possible that business can become a leading sector in environmental protection. As social corporate responsibility (CSR) in Ukraine becomes more and more popular, companies implement projects on energy efficiency, climate change, green building, and biodiversity conservation. However, the projects’ effectiveness should undergo assessment in order to prevent green-washing. This research aims at evaluating the companies’ performance in environmental projects implementation within the CSR. Its another attempt is to prove that environmental projects are a new trend that could become an effective tool for environmental protection

Establishing a proteomics-based monocyte assay to assess differential innate immune responses

The innate immune system represents the first line of organism defense. Monocytes and their derivatives, the macrophages, play a central role in this response. The monocyte response to various stimuli is complex and includes simultaneous activation in a variety of ways. The common methods currently used to estimate this response usually focus on one of the modes of activation. The aim of this thesis was to assess the possibility of designing an assay based on unbiased proteome analysis that would be capable of predicting the monocyte response to various challenges. The underlying hypothesis of the project was that the cell proteome response to different activating molecules would reflect the immunogenicity of these molecules. The assay is based on comparison between the proteomes of human monocytic THP-1 cells treated with a stimulus of interest and the ‘reference’ proteomes obtained from THP-1 cells treated with positive and negative controls. The study described in Paper I (Project 1) revealed two main types of monocyte responses and features of monocyte separation into adherent and non-adherent subpopulations. The first subpopulation differentiated into macrophages, while the second one was activated by cytokines according to the changes in their proteomes compared to the control cells. The Pam3CSK4 and PMA stimuli were concluded to be the best positive controls for pro-inflammatory activation and differentiation, respectively, among the tested nine treatments (Paper II, Project 2). Anti- cancer drugs with known mechanisms of action were chosen as positive controls for cell death (Paper III). The workflow of the assay was optimized and validated in Paper II (Project 2). The established assay was applied to identify the response of monocytes to peptide containing isoaspartate (Paper II, Project 3) and nanoparticles (Paper III, Project 3). The epidermal growth factor (EGF) peptide containing isoaspartate primed monocytes for differentiation but not for pro-inflammatory activation. The three studied nanoparticles induced distinct proteome signatures despite equivalent overall toxicity effect (induction of 50±10% cell death). The CdTe-NH2 nanoparticles induced the strongest response characterized by down-regulation of topoisomerases and similar to the effect of Camptothecin. The response to CuO nanoparticles included up-regulation of proteins involved in heat response. The gold nanoparticles showed the weakest response among the studied three nanoparticles and induced up-regulation of NF-κB and a number of proteins related to energy metabolism consistent with pro-inflammatory activation. The established and validated assay has several possibilities for extension as well as optimization for particular aims of the experiment. For instance, the identification of induced post- translational modifications upon stimulation can be performed (Paper IV, Project 4). Because of its versatility, robustness and specificity, this new assay is likely to find a niche among the more established immunological methods

The tourism sector ad business tourism activities in Rusia

Resume: In this study, we briefly describe the global market of tourism. We will report the general situation and trends of tourism sector in Russia, and give some macroeconomics indicators. We will consider and analyze the main indicators of inbound and outbound tourism in Russia. And namely: the evolution of number of tourists arriving to Russia; arrivals to Russia by regions; arrivals to Russia by purpose; and, particularly - by business reason and Leisure&Culture reason. We will try to explain, why an international tourists utilize so less the air transportation. And we will compare expenditures between business tourists and leisure travellers. Within above said we will consider the situation related with inbound tourism in Russia. After that we will notify what are principal destinations for Russian tourists and pay a special attention to arrivals of Russian tourists to Spain. Separately, we will describe types of accommodation in tourist industry of Russia. After all we come to the conclusion.Facultad de Ciencias de la EmpresaUniversidad Politécnica de Cartagen