The international and legal framework for transregionalization of trade and economic cooperation of the BRICS countries

The emergence of a multipolar world is an integral part of the globalization processes. Strategic partnership at the regional, interregional and transregional levels is becoming a new institution and at the same time an instrument of modern international relations. The international and legal framework for the cooperation of BRICS as a transregional association is considered herein. The importance of converging the positions of the BRICS countries in the global political and economic system is emphasized. The research is aimed at the analysis of the international legal foundations of trade and economic cooperation of the BRICS countries within the system of transregional relations, factors, conditions and prospects for development. The measures to enhance and expand mutually beneficial trade and economic partnerships within the framework of BRICS will most effectively utilize their resource, technological, and trade and economic potential, creating the basis for the sustainable growth of the national economy and competitiveness in global development. The practical significance of the study lies in the analysis of the mechanisms of integration of BRICS. The results obtained may be useful in shaping the strategy of trade and economic cooperation within the framework of BRICS.peer-reviewe

Age-related features of anthropometric and biochemical status of men from infertile couples

Introduction. The obesity seems to grow into a real pandemic. As one of the consequences of obesity we observe a significant increase of infertility in married couples, including male infertility. As the situation with male fertility continues to deteriorate, we consider further investigation of etiology and pathogenesis of male infertility important. Aim of the study was to investigate age-related anthropometric characteristics and metabolic status in men from infertile couples. Material and methods. 426 men from infertile couples were divided into 5 groups according to age: 1) < 30 years old, 2) 30.0-34.9 years old, 3) 35.0-39,9 years old, 4) 40.0-44.9 years old, 5) ≥ 45 years old. We carried out anthropometric examination and biochemical blood analysis. Results. Within groups 2 to 4 we observed group-to- group consecutive increase in body weight, body mass index values, waist circumference and waist circumference to hip circumference values which are related to the increase of adipose tissue mass in the abdominal region. We also detected the increase of hyperglycemia occurrence. Higher values of the abovementioned anthropometric parameters were detected for the test subjects of the group 1 despite the younger age. We observed 60 and 40 % of upper and lower types of abdominal fat distribution respectively for the group 1 test subjects. Conclusions. Based on the anthropometric parameters we conclude that the infertility can be caused by negative influence of subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue accumulation for the youngest test subjects (age < 30 years). For the older test subjects, infertility results of the cumulative effect of abdominal obesity and other medical and social factors. Group 4 test subjects (age 40-45) exhibit the most frequent abdominal obesity and associated with metabolic status disorders

Retrieval of Effective Parameters of Subwavelength Periodic Photonic Structures

We revisit the standard Nicolson–Ross–Weir method of effective permittivity and permeability restoration of photonic structures for the case of subwavelength metal-dielectric multilayers. We show that the direct application of the standard method yields a false zero-epsilon point and an associated spurious permeability resonance. We show how this artifact can be worked around by the use of the cycle shift operator to the periodic multilayer in question

QUALITY OF INCOME AS THE INDICATOR OF SOCIAL JUSTICE: ANALYTICAL METHODOLOGY

Social justice is a path to the reduction of inequality and one of the key milestones of sustainable development in the materials by the UN. However, there is a methodological gap, which hinders measuring the level of an economic system's social justice. The discovered gap is filled in here through the development of the analytical methodology of measuring social justice with the help of such criterion as the quality of income. Quality of income is measured from the positions of the influence of the quality of income on the quality of the population's life (according to the materials of "Quality of Life Index of the Numbeo (2021)) and the level of happiness in society (according to the materials of World Happiness Report (2021)). For the treatment of the results of the evaluation, we develop an analytical matrix. According to it, high (nominal, quantitative) income must ensure an increase in the quality of life and an increase in the level of happiness in society. In this case, the quality of income could be deemed high, and society - just. The developed proprietary methodological approach is approbated by the example of various developed and developing countries, which allows characterizing the level and differences in the quality of income and social justice of countries of the selected categories and proposing recommendations for the increase in the quality of income

Unsupervised quality estimation for neural machine translation

Quality Estimation (QE) is an important component in making Machine Translation (MT) useful in real-world applications, as it is aimed to inform the user on the quality of the MT output at test time. Existing approaches require large amounts of expert annotated data, computation and time for training. As an alternative, we devise an unsupervised approach to QE where no training or access to additional resources besides the MT system itself is required. Different from most of the current work that treats the MT system as a black box, we explore useful information that can be extracted from the MT system as a by-product of translation. By employing methods for uncertainty quantification, we achieve very good correlation with human judgments of quality, rivalling state-of-the-art supervised QE models. To evaluate our approach we collect the first dataset that enables work on both black-box and glass-box approaches to QE

Hormonal characteristics of androgen status and their relationship with the anthropometric and metabolic parameter in men depending on the severity of hypertension

Background. According to the literature data, long-term and poorly controlled hypertension (HTN) leads to target organs damage, and in some cases, to the development of associated diseases, the severity of which in men may be partly due to the characteristics of the androgenic status.The aim: to reveal the features of hormonal indicators of androgen status and their relationship with the anthropometric and metabolic characteristics of the therapeutic clinic male patients, depending on the severity of HTN.Materials and methods. 296 men aged 59,0 [54,0; 65,0] years with confirmed HTN were examined. All study participants in the morning on an empty stomach underwent anthropometry, determination of metabolic and androgenic status, and assessment of comorbid burden. Depending on the severity of hypertension, all patients were divided into two groups (G): G1 (n = 134) – patients with hypertension without a history of coronary artery disease or stroke; G2 (n = 162) – patients with hypertension with a history of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and/or stroke.Results. In male patients of G2 with severe HTN, a decrease in the levels of free testosterone (FT) and, to a greater extent, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), as well as total cholesterol, high and low density lipoproteins, was revealed. The correlation analysis performed revealed statistically significant negative correlations between the levels of total testosterone (TT) and FT with body mass index, the value of the ratio of waist circumference to hips, only the level of FT – with the presence of IHD, chronic heart failure (CHF), disorders of carbohydrate metabolism and abdominal type of fat distribution, and the level of DHEA-S – with the presence of IHD and CHF.Conclusion. A decrease in FT and DHEA-S is associated with early progression of atherosclerosis and the risk of developing HTN-associated cardiovascular events, which can aggravate the course of HTN

Association of сarriage of the rs4646994 polymorphism of the ACE gene with obesity and androgen deficiency in men

BACKGROUND: Obesity and androgen deficiency (AnD) are characterized by similar disturbances in metabolic parameters, the presence of signs of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and vascular complications. These facts indicate the possibility of the presence of common mechanisms that determine the predisposition to the development of obesity and AnD, which may include genetic factors, in particular, the rs4646994 polymorphism of the ACE gene, which, according to recent data, is associated with the risk of developing CVD, hypertension, and obesity.AIM: To study the association of the carriage of polymorphic variants of the rs4646994 locus of the ACE gene with the features of anthropometric and androgenic status in men.MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the period from April 2020 to October 2021 there were observed male patients aged 18–75 years old, who were hospitalized in a therapeutic hospital because of comorbid somatic pathology (hypertension, coronary heart disease, dorsopathy, vegetative-vascular dystonia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and others). Anthropometry, a study of the content of hormones of the reproductive system in the blood serum using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), as well as a genetic study for the carriage of polymorphic variants of the rs4646994 locus of the ACE gene by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, followed by electrophoresis of PCR products, were carried out. RESULTS: 82 patients took part in research. According to the results of genetic analysis, 17 people were assigned to the group of homozygotes for the wild type (I/I, G1), 41 people were assigned to the group of heterozygotes (I/D, G2), and 41 people were assigned to the group of homozygotes for the mutant allele (D/D, G3) 24 people. Body weight, chest circumference, waist and hips, body mass index in patients carrying the D allele of the rs4646994 polymorphism were statistically significantly higher than in I/I homozygotes. Differences in hormonal status also turned out to be statistically significant: patients from G1 compared with G2 and G3 had higher levels of total testosterone; from G1 compared to G3 — a higher level of free testosterone.CONCLUSION: An association of the carriage of the D allele of the rs4646994 polymorphic locus of the ACE gene with overweight and ADI was revealed

Association of rs9939609 polymorphism in the FTO gene with features of androgen status in men

The purpose of the study was to investigate the association of carriage of rs9939609 polymorphism in the FTO gene with features of androgen status in men.Material and methods. The observational one-stage examination of 139 male patients aged 22 to 69 years, admitted to a therapeutic hospital in a planned manner has been carried out in the Clinic of the Federal Research Center for Fundamental and Translational Medicine in the period 2020–2021. All fasting men in the morning (8:00–8:30) were carried out of an anthropometric examination to determine physical development, sampling of venous blood from the cubital vein to assess the hormonal parameters of androgen status, and taking a sample of the buccal epithelium for molecular genetic research. Based on the carriage of the rs9939609 (T>A) polymorphism of the FTO gene, the following groups (G) of patients were distinguished: G1 – wild-type homozygotes (WT/WT), G2 – heterozygotes (WT/A), G3 – homozygotes for the mutant allele (A/A).Results and discussion. The statistically significant differences were found in the levels of total testosterone between G1 and G3 (11.6 vs 14.5 nmol/L, p = 0.010), as well as free testosterone in G1 compared to G2 (0.233 vs 0.287 nmol/L, p = 0.012) and G3 (0.233 vs 0.321 nmol/L, p = 0.002) when analyzing the clinical-anthropometric and hormonal features of the androgen status of the examined male patients in the selected groups. Assessment of the association revealed statistically significant positive correlations between the carriage of the mutant allele and the levels of total (r = 0.247; p = 0.013) and free (r = 0.296; p = 0.003) testosterone, and negative - with the frequency of androgen deficiency according to the free testosterone criteria (r = –0.240; p = 0.016).Conclusions. It has been shown that the carriage of the A/A genotype of rs9939609 polymorphism of the FTO gene is associated with an increase in the levels of total and free testosterone, that indicates a protective effect against the development of androgen deficiency in men. The obtained results suggest that this effect is due to the epigenetic effect of the FTO gene protein product on the expression of other genes involved in the synthesis of androgens in the gonads, but also in the adrenal cortex since no association of the carriage of the rs9939609 polymorphism of the FTO gene with the DHEA-C level was found