Muutused DNA metüültransferaaside ja demetülaaside tasemetes naalduvas tuumas kokaiini sensitisatsioonil erineva uudistamisaktiivsusega rottidel

Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, are involved in the development of cocaine-induced behavioural sensitisation. This study investigated the development and expression of cocaine-induced behavioural sensitisation in rats with high and low exploratory activity (HE and LE, respectively), and the drug-induced changes in the mRNA levels of Dnmt and Tet family genes in the nucleus accumbens. Only LE-animals had increased locomotor activity over continuous test sessions in response to repeated cocaine (12 mg/kg) administration and they developed a more pronounced behavioural sensitisation. Repeated cocaine treatment resulted in upregulated mRNA of Dnmt3b in HE-, but not in LE-rats, and upregulated mRNA levels of Tet3 in both. Thus, our results suggest that LE- and HE-rats differ in the development and expression of cocaine-induced behavioural sensitisation. The aim of future research is to further examine, whether the observed changes in Dnmt and Tet levels could explain the behavioural differences between HE- and LE-animals in response to cocaine

Alaseljavaluga haige käsitluse põhimõtted

Alaseljavalu on levinud tervisehäire. Need haiged on perearstide, närviarstide, ortopeedide, reumatoloogide sagedased külastajad. Enamasti on tegemist hea prognoosiga, sageli iseparaneva mittespetsiifilise seljavaluga. Nii äge kui ka krooniline alaseljavalu võib olla ka ohtliku halva prognoosiga haiguse sümptomiks. Need seisundid on vaja õigel ajal diagnoosida ja ravida. Seljavaluga võib kaasneda ka radikulopaatia sümptomaatika. Kõikidel juhtudel, eriti retsidiveeruva, alaägeda ja kroonilise kulu korral on vaja täpsustada vaevuste põhjus. Esmaseks uuringuks on haige püstiasendis tehtud spondülogrammid, visualiseerimismeetoditest on eelistatuim MRT. Seljavaluga haige ravi on kompleksne (füsiaatriline ja medikamentoosne). Tähtsal kohal on haige nõustamine, tema aktiivne osavõtt raviprotsessist. Kirurgiline ravi on rakendatav kindlatel näidustustel. Eesti Arst 2010; 89(1):32−3

MikroRNA-d keratinotsüütide rakulise vastuse reguleerimisel naastulise psoriaasi ja atoopilise dermatiidi korral

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneNahk on meie organismi suurim organ, mis kaitseb meid väliskeskkonna mõjude eest. Häired naharakkude omavahelises suhtlemises ja kaitsefunktsioonis võivad viia erinevate põletikuliste nahahaiguste välja kujunemiseni. Psoriaas ja atoopiline dermatiit on ühed sagedasemad kroonilised põletikulised nahahaigused. Psoriaasi sagedus on keskmiselt 2-3% ning atoopilise dermatiidil täiskasvanutel 2-5% ja lastel isegi kuni 20%. Psoriaasi kirjeldab punane põletikuline selgelt piiritletavate laikudega kestendav lööve. Atoopilist dermatiiti iseloomustab põletikune sügelev lööve. Neid haigusi põdevate patsientide elukvaliteet on langenud ja samuti esinevad neil mitmed kaasuvad haigused, nagu näiteks psoriaatiline artriit, südameveresoonkonna haigused ja vaimsed probleemid. Mõlemate haigusi väljakujunemisel on kaasatud naharakud, mis on võimelised tootma signaalmolekule, mis mõjutavad immuunrakkude liikumist ja aktiivsust nahas ning immuunrakud omakorda mõjutavad naha rakke. Tulemusena kujunebki psoriaasile ja atoopilisele dermatiidile iseloomulik kliiniline pilt. miRNA-d on lühikesed RNA molekulid, mis reguleerivad väga suure hulga geenide ekspressiooni rakkudes. Töös kirjeldati miR-146a ja miR-146b (miR-146a/b) ning miR-10a funktsioone naha rakkudes vastavalt seoses psoriaasi või atoopilise dermatiidiga. Eelnevalt oli näidatud, et miR-146a on võimelised alla suruma põletikulisi protsesse nahas, kuid miR-146b ja miR-10a roll naha rakkudes oli teadmata. Leidsime, et psoriaasis patsientide nahas on miR-146a/b tase suurenenud ja need suruvad alla selliste geenide taset, mis omakorda mõjutavad põletikulisi protsesse ja naharakkude jagunemist. Näitasime, et läbi selle pärsivad miR-146a/b psoriaasile iseloomulikke rakulisi protsesse, kuid miR-146a/b kõrgem ekspressioon nahas psoriaasi korral ei ole suutelised haiguse väljakujunemist ära hoidma. Teiseks tuvastasime miR-10a suurenenud taseme atoopilise dermatiidi patsientide nahas. Leidsime, et miR-10a tase naharakkudes sõltub rakkude diferentseerumise staadiumist ning et miR-10a peamiseks rolliks on naharakkude jagunemise aeglustamine ning lisaks surub miR-10a alla naharakkudes põletikulisi protsesse. Seetõttu võib oletada, et miR-10a mõjutab atoopilise dermatiidi teket ja kulgu.The skin is the largest organ in our body that protects us from the outside environment. Dysfunction in the interaction and protective functions of the skin cells can lead to the development of various inflammatory skin diseases. Psoriasis and atopic dermatitis are among the most common chronic inflammatory skin diseases. The incidence of psoriasis is on average 2-3% and in atopic dermatitis 2-5% in adults and even up to 20% in children. Psoriasis is characterized by a red inflammatory rash with scaly patches. Atopic dermatitis is characterized by an inflammatory itchy rash. Patients with these diseases have a reduced quality of life and also have several co-morbidities, such as psoriatic arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and mental health problems. The development of both diseases involves the skin cells that are capable of producing signaling molecules that affect the movement and activity of immune cells in the skin, and immune cells in turn affect skin cells. The result is a clinical phenotype seen in psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. miRNAs are short RNA molecules that regulate the expression of a very large number of genes in cells. In this thesis, the functions of miR-146a and miR-146b (miR-146a / b) and miR-10a in skin cells in relation to psoriasis or atopic dermatitis, respectively, were described. MiR-146a has previously been shown to be able to suppress inflammatory processes in the skin, but the role of miR-146b and miR-10a in skin cells was unknown. We found that the levels of miR-146a/b in the skin of patients with psoriasis were increased and suppressed the levels of genes that in turn affect inflammatory processes and the division of skin cells. We have shown that miR-146a/b inhibits the cellular processes characteristic to psoriasis, however, the higher expression of miR-146a/b in the skin of psoriasis patients is not able to prevent the development of the disease. Secondly, we detected elevated levels of miR-10a in the skin of atopic dermatitis patients. We found that the level of miR-10a in skin cells depends on the stage of cell differentiation and that the main role of miR-10a is to slow down the division of skin cells and, also, to suppress inflammatory processes in skin cells. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that miR-10a affects the development and course of atopic dermatitis.https://www.ester.ee/record=b537104

The viscous evolution of circumstellar discs in young star clusters

Stars with circumstellar disks may form in environments with high stellar and gas densities which affects the disks through processes like truncation from dynamical encounters, ram pressure stripping, and external photoevaporation. Circumstellar disks also undergo viscous evolution which leads to disk expansion. Previous work indicates that dynamical truncation and viscous evolution play a major role in determining circumstellar disk size and mass distributions. However, it remains unclear under what circumstances each of these two processes dominates. Here we present results of simulations of young stellar clusters taking viscous evolution and dynamical truncations into account. We model the embedded phase of the clusters by adding leftover gas as a background potential which can be present through the whole evolution of the cluster, or expelled after 1 Myr. We compare our simulation results to actual observations of disk sizes, disk masses, and accretion rates in star forming regions. We argue that the relative importance of dynamical truncations and the viscous evolution of the disks changes with time and cluster density. Viscous evolution causes the importance of dynamical encounters to increase in time, but the encounters cease soon after the expulsion of the leftover gas. For the clusters simulated in this work, viscous growth dominates the evolution of the disks.Comment: Added link to code developed for the paper, plus a couple new references. 11 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Prima Vista ellujäämise kunst

Prima Vista’s Art of SurvivalLiterature festival Prima Vista is one of the oldest continuously held cultural events in Tartu. Although Tartu is Prima Vista’s home, we have always wanted to be the festival for the whole Estonia and several events take place in other cities. Guests of Prima Vista have, from the very first festival, come from many countries. Umberto Eco’s visit in 2009 has so far been the undisputable culmination of the festival history regarding both the interest of the audience and the attention of the media. Other authors of great renown have visited the festival, such as Sten Nadolny (2005), Wolf Biermann (2012, Klaus-Peter Wolf (2014) from Germany, the influential British-American theoretician of pop culture Simon Reynolds (2012) and the American classic of cyberpunk Bruce Sterling (2013), the Finnish-Swede Kjell Westö (2015), Etkar Kerett (2021) from Israel and many others. The festival has welcomed numerous top writers from Latvia, Finland and Hungary, and guests from France, Spain, Japan and India. The Russian-language programme has had a special meaning for Prima Vista. Our mission has been to invite and introduce to the Russian-language public the supporters of democracy and writers who are dissidents in the eyes of the Russian governing regime, many of whom have to live in exile. In 2024, when Tartu will be the cultural capital of Europe, we will present a special programme The Better and Worse Futures and we hope that the Prima Vista of that year will be a greater and more internationalevent than ever before

The portrayal of social and internal conflict in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility

This thesis focuses on the study of the social and internal conflicts of characters in Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility. The aim of this thesis is to find out what kind of social and internal conflicts come up in the novel and what is the reason behind their existence. This analysis focuses on the two main characters of the story, sisters Elinor Dashwood and Marianne Dashwood. It is further extended by the study of side characters including John Willoughby, Colonel Brandon, Edward Ferrars, Mrs. Jennings, Lucy Steele as well as Mrs. Ferrars.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5376240*es

The use of first person pronoun in academic texts

Academic writing has a set of rules that everyone in academia follows. One of these set rules is related to neutrality. In academia neutrality means that the author does not make their own presence noticeable in the text. This project was carried out because contemporary studies have shown that the rule of anonymity is not always the best option and an author’s stance in the form of self promotion is encouraged. This thesis focuses on self promotion in academic papers written in the department of English studies in the University of Tartu. The aim of this paper is to analyze the extent to which authors use self-promotion pronouns in their academic papers and what functions do those pronouns hold. In addition, this paper also reports on the differences between gender usage of pronouns and to control the differences between the four fields of the English studies department. This analysis focuses on master dissertations written by students of the English language department between the years 2013-2021. AntConc software was used to analyse a corpus of 36 Master’s theses.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5461172*es

Unemeditsiin

Eesti Arst 2012; 91(5):25

Runaway and walkaway stars from the ONC with Gaia DR2

Theory predicts that we should find fast, ejected (runaway) stars of all masses around dense, young star-forming regions. $N$-body simulations show that the number and distribution of these ejected stars could be used to constrain the initial spatial and kinematic substructure of the regions. We search for runaway and slower walkaway stars within 100 pc of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) using $Gaia$ DR2 astrometry and photometry. We compare our findings to predictions for the number and velocity distributions of runaway stars from simulations that we run for 4 Myr with initial conditions tailored to the ONC. In $Gaia$ DR2, we find 31 runaway and 54 walkaway candidates based on proper motion, but not all of these are viable candidates in three dimensions. About 40 per cent are missing radial velocities, but we can trace back 9 3D-runaways and 24 3D-walkaways to the ONC, all of which are low/intermediate-mass (<8 M$_{\odot}$). Our simulations show that the number of runaways within 100 pc decreases the older a region is (as they quickly travel beyond this boundary), whereas the number of walkaways increases up to 3 Myr. We find fewer walkaways in $Gaia$ DR2 than the maximum suggested from our simulations, which may be due to observational incompleteness. However, the number of $Gaia$ DR2 runaways agrees with the number from our simulations during an age of $\sim$1.3-2.4 Myr, allowing us to confirm existing age estimates for the ONC (and potentially other star-forming regions) using runaway stars.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Validation of SMART stellar atmosphere models

http://www.ester.ee/record=b448447