Opportunities for sustainable economic development of the coastal territories of the Baltic Sea Region in the context of digital transformation

The article explores opportunities for the sustainable economic development of coastal territories in the Baltic Sea region (BSR) arising in blue economy sectors in the framework of digital transformation. The study argues that a more active commercialisation of territorial resources can facilitate the sustainable economic development of the BSR coastal territories, following digitally-driven innovations. The paper provides an overview of methodological approaches to territorial sustainability. It also assesses the 2009-2018 level of the socio-economic development of the BSR coastal territories, underpins the importance of the blue economy and highlights the role of digital transformation in reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the BSR through digitally-driven innovations. A comparative and problem-targeted statistics analyses show significant differences in the level and dynamics of socio-economic development in the BSR coastal territories with their GRP per capita being generally lower than the national or macroregional average. A review of literature on sustainable development in the BSR has shown that a more active use of unique resources of the coastal territories along with a technology-driven growth of blue economy sectors can counterbalance the negative impact of the territories’ uneven development on the progress towards the SDGs in the BSR. Increasing the competitiveness of the BSR coastal territories requires investment in digital solutions in the blue economy sectors and the creation of a communication infrastructure. The review of key innovations in the blue economy sectors shows that their implementation gives impetus to other industries by reducing costs, creating new jobs, and improving the quality of products and services

PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF GLUT-1 EXPRESSION IN THE HIGHLY DIFFERENTIATED THYROID CANCER

OBJECTIVE. Analysis of GLUT1 levels as a prognostic marker for highly differentiated thyroid carcinoma.MATERIAL AND METHODS. The expression levels of GLUT-1, NIS, thyroglobulin and the presence of BRAF mutation were analyzed in 32 patients with highly differentiated thyroid cancer from the Department of Surgical Endocrinology at the Research Institute for Surgery and Emergency Medicine of “Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University”.RESULTS. There was a trend to increased levels of GLUT-1 in patients with regional or intra-organ metastases or peripheral invasion. This suggests that increased expression of GLUT-1 is found in proliferatively active cells. In our study, the expression level of GLUT-1 was independent of the level of NIS, thyroglobulin and the presence of BRAF mutation. Thus, the level of expression of GLUT-1 can be considered as an independent factor of the prognosis of the course of highly differentiated thyroid carcinoma.CONCLUSION. The level of expression of GLUT-1 could potentially be used as a prognostic marker in highly differentiated thyroid cancer

State of the Art of Chromosome 18-Centric HPP in 2016: Transcriptome and Proteome Profiling of Liver Tissue and HepG2 Cells

A gene-centric approach was applied for a large-scale study of expression products of a single chromosome. Transcriptome profiling of liver tissue and HepG2 cell line was independently performed using two RNA-Seq platforms (SOLiD and Illumina) and also by Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) and quantitative RT-PCR. Proteome profiling was performed using shotgun LC–MS/MS as well as selected reaction monitoring with stable isotope-labeled standards (SRM/SIS) for liver tissue and HepG2 cells. On the basis of SRM/SIS measurements, protein copy numbers were estimated for the Chromosome 18 (Chr 18) encoded proteins in the selected types of biological material. These values were compared with expression levels of corresponding mRNA. As a result, we obtained information about 158 and 142 transcripts for HepG2 cell line and liver tissue, respectively. SRM/SIS measurements and shotgun LC–MS/MS allowed us to detect 91 Chr 18-encoded proteins in total, while an intersection between the HepG2 cell line and liver tissue proteomes was ∼66%. In total, there were 16 proteins specifically observed in HepG2 cell line, while 15 proteins were found solely in the liver tissue. Comparison between proteome and transcriptome revealed a poor correlation (<i>R</i>² ≈ 0.1) between corresponding mRNA and protein expression levels. The SRM and shotgun data sets (obtained during 2015–2016) are available in PASSEL (PASS00697) and ProteomeExchange/PRIDE (PXD004407). All measurements were also uploaded into the in-house Chr 18 Knowledgebase at http://kb18.ru/protein/matrix/416126