IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA EDUCATION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE FIELD OF FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY

Influence of the media on the market of biotechnological products has been studied. Awareness of citizens about food technologies and genetically modified foods has been analysed. Position of state institutions and the scientific community regarding genetic engineering, broadcast through the media, indirectly affects the attitude of young people to genetically modified foods. The results of a sociological survey of young people and an analysis of media materials have revealed the importance of media resources in shaping public opinion. The study has clarified that among young people the attitude to genetically modified foods is largely determined by expert assessments of public people and advertising that creates the image of the product. The relevance of the issue lies in understanding the importance of informing the population in matters of biotechnology in general and media education of the youth audience in particular. The conducted study on the attitude of young people to genetically modified products and food bioengineering has assisted in revealing the importance of the issue raised by the authors and allowed them to formulate recommendations on providing a comprehensive program to increase youth media literacy in food biotechnology. The proposals aimed at providing a comprehensive program for improving media literacy are related to the search for ways to increase the level of public confidence in genetically modified foods

INTERNAL PR AS PART OF CORPORATE CULTURE

The identification of mechanisms for the implementation of public relations and the selection of effective internal PR tools can affect the organization’s management. The main objective of internal PR is to stabilize the workforce and increase employee satisfaction. The possibilities of internal PR in the formation and maintenance of corporate culture have been investigated in the article. The indicators of labor assessment presented not only help determine the level of professionalism of the employee, but also demonstrate his personalized labor achievements to the whole team. The motivation of the participants of the labor process to the awareness of the importance of the implementation of the collective tasks has a beneficial effect on the formation of corporate culture. Monitoring of events and internal PR tools will allow you to adjust the formation of corporate culture and provide a high level of management at the enterprise

Phenomenon of mass culture: Problems and controversies

© 2015, Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research. All rights reserved. The authors’ subject of investigation is mass culture as a phenomenon. Material achievement is one of the reasons for the dominance of popular culture, because the quality of its products is measured by commercial interest. That’s why the philosophy of mass culture is a philosophy of material success. The authors determine other characteristic features of mass culture and differentiate mass culture of industrial society and mass culture of postindustrial society. They highlight all dangers that exist in the development of mass culture and underline the importance of ethnic cultures’ keeping. Modern popular culture in its global modern form is a system of values, lifestyle, style and way of thinking of the American cultural model. Each ethnonational identity has its own mentality, values, traditions, customs, in contrast to mass culture, elusive, and based on technological progress, and on the desire to please an audience. We should keep ethnic cultures. The authors note that the solution of this problem depends on the content of future generations, generations of civilization of the third wave

The urban environment of Italy in prose of W. D. Howells

The Italian experiences of an American writer of the late nineteenth century, William Dean Howells (1837-1920) reflected in travelogues provide researchers of literature the opportunity to study the genesis of his work in the paradigm of the culture of the United States. Accompanying him throughout life, they were the aesthetic basis for literary work of Howells. The influence of Italian works of art and literature can be seen in the choice of the individual style of the writer. Of special interest is the influence of the process of the creative development of American writer on his attitude to changing environment in the capital and the provincial towns of Italy. The topicality of this work is associated with the peculiarities of artistic interpretations of the different cultural environment through the author's perception of reality. The mental concept of "another" life, the recognition of the specificity of the foreign country" often take place in the process of reading the literary works of different genres. In prose of W. D. Howells the perception of the city is connected with the author's point of view on the depicted object, so the leading method in the study was the biographical. This is the first time in the Russian literature of XXI century that the travelogues by W. D. Howells are analyzed, the main motives of the narration are identified, the archetypal images, expressed in literary form, are determined. Fiction affects the formation of the cultural image of the city, the perception of its environment, plunging into the epicenter of the described lives of citizens. The practical significance of the research of the cultural phenomenon of the city is to identify the specific features, forms and techniques creating its image, enclosed in the space-time continuum of the works of W. D. Howells

Risk factors and diagnostic value of urinary N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide for verification of heart failure in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients

Aim. To determine the risk factors and diagnostic value of urinary N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) for verification of heart failure in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patientsMaterial and methods. This cross-sectional screening clinical trial included 115 HIV-infected patients who were hospitalized during 24 months. The patients were divided into 2 groups, depending on the data suggestive of HF and the blood and urinary NT-proBNP concentration. So, group 1 included 69 HIV-infected patients with HF symptoms and increased blood and urinary NTproBNP, while group 2 — 46 HIV-infected patients not meeting HF criteria. NTproBNP concentration was determined on Immulite 1000 Immunoassay System (DPC, USA) in blood plasma and frozen urine using Vector Best reagents (Russia).Results. Correlation analysis revealed a significant direct moderate correlation between blood and urinary NT-proBNP in the entire cohort of studied patients (r=0,367; p<0,05). Urinary NT-proBNP ≥8,6 pg/ml ml is diagnostic for HF verification in HIV-infected patients. Significant differences between the groups were obtained in the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias, viral hepatitis B and C, liver cirrhosis, infective endocarditis, other inflammatory diseases, thrombocytopenia, left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction and its severity. In addition, there were differences in LV mass index, left atrial volume index, incidence of LV hypertrophy and left atrial enlargement, concentration of hemoglobin and CD4 cells <200 in 1 µl. The preserved LV ejection fraction was detected significantly more often (p<0,001). Conclusion. In HIV-infected patients, blood plasma and urinary NT-proBNP concentration correlates with each other. Urinary NT-proBNP ≥8,6 pg/ml is diagnostic for HF verification in HIV-infected patients. Risk factors and features of developing HF, estimated by NT-proBNP concentration in frozen urine in HIV-infected patients, are comparable to data obtained from blood plasma NTproBNP

Collaborative Online Learning: Plurilingual and Pluricultural Development

Background. The growing importance of international cooperation among universities have increased the number of joint training projects. Common Bologna principles followed by Russian and Spanish tertiary institutions helped perform a pilot study focused on telecollaboration and plurilingual and pluricultural competence implementation. The project aimed at forming plurilingual and pluricultural competence and communicative competence among students studying either English or Spanish or both through the integration of digital technologies into the learning process.Methods. This 7-month study took place in Moscow (Russian Federation) and Valencia (Spain) from November 2019 to June 2020. Participants were university students aged 20–23 from Teaching Training Faculties from Lomonosov Moscow State University and CEU Cardenal Herrera University. The undergraduates who volunteered to participate in the focus group took part in five telecollaboration sessions (March-May 2020). The participants were divided into two mixed (50% Russian and 50% Spanish learners) subgroups and discussed suggested topics during online studentled bilingual sessions. After each online interaction, researchers collected their opinions through questionnaires and discussion with a lecturer.Outcomes. All participants announced that the study gave them a chance to improve their language abilities, update their vocabulary and enhance their intercultural experience. None of the partakers reported having experienced any difficulty doing the project and only regretted that interaction time was too short. Additionally, lecturers were able to test new curricula implementation and assessment procedures.Conclusions. The pilot study was feasible to deliver and there was a clear, satisfactory result with the focus groups participants and teaching staff

Contribution of inflammation to heart failure development in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients

Aim. To determine the peculiarities of heart failure (HF) development in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients, depending on the blood concentration of C-reactive protein (CRP).Material and methods. This cross-sectional screening clinical trial included 100 patients hospitalized with HIV infection and a history of HF for 28 months. The patients were divided into 2 groups depending on blood CRP concentration. The cut-off point was CRP of 15 mg/l. The first group included 37 HIV-infected patients with HF and blood CRP <15 mg/l, while the second group — 63 HIV-infected patients with HF and CRP concentration ≥15 mg/l. The inclusion criteria were HIV infection and prior HF, stable medical state, taking into account the underlying disease that required hospitalization. The study did not include patients with acute cardiovascular diseases within prior 3 months, acute decompensated and acute heart failure, cancer, infectious diseases, conditions that required surgical intervention. N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) was determined in all patients.Results. Correlation analysis revealed a strong inverse relationship between the blood concentrations of NT-proBNP and CRP (r=-0,639; p<0,005). A ROC curve revealed the most optimal cut-off threshold of 9,8 mg/l (AUC=0,796, p<0,05), which ensures sensitivity of 92,9% (p<0,05) and specificity of 57,6% (p<0,05). The odds ratio (OR) of an increase in NT-proBNP >450 pg/ml, and hence the risk of acute decompensated HF in the presence of a CRP concentration of 1-9,8 mg/l in HIV-infected patients with HF was 44,73 (95% CI=8,62;311,10), while relative risk (RR) — 18,73 (95% CI=4,94;112,94). In the presence of in hospital inflammatory diseases and CRP ≥15 mg/l in HIV-infected patients and prior HF, the RR of acute decompensated HF is reduced by 88% (RR=0,12, 95% CI=0,03-0,33).Conclusion. CRP values from 1 to 9,8 mg/l in HIV-infected patients with HF are predictors of its severity, characterized by a higher incidence of HF with reduced ejection fraction, diastolic dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy without significant differences with patients who have CRP >9,8 mg/l. CRP concentration >9,8 mg/l in HIV-infected patients and prior HF indicates the development of an inflammatory process, and not a worsening of the HF course

New palynological data for Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) deep-marine sandstones of the Western Caucasus, southwestern Russia

Information on Jurassic palynomorphs from the Greater Caucasus is potentially of great importance, but its availability to the international research community is severely limited. New palynological data for Toarcian deposits of the Western Caucasus are recorded in the present paper. Particularly, dinoflagellate cysts are described for the first time from the Bagovskaja Formation; palynomorphs are found in sandstone levels within this unit. The most representative assemblage includes pollen (with predominant bisaccate pollen), spores (Cyathidites being commonest), and dinoflagellate cysts amongst which the predominant taxon is Nannoceratopsis spiculata. The dinocyst assemblage implies a late Toarcian age for the upper part of the Bagovskaja Formation. On the basis of these new palynostratigraphical results, the range of the formation is extended; previously, only the lower part had been dated on ammonite evidence

New palynological data for Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) deep-marine sandstones of the Western Caucasus, southwestern Russia

© 2018 Anna A. Goryacheva et al., published by Sciendo 2018. Information on Jurassic palynomorphs from the Greater Caucasus is potentially of great importance, but its availability to the international research community is severely limited. New palynological data for Toarcian deposits of the Western Caucasus are recorded in the present paper. Particularly, dinoflagellate cysts are described for the first time from the Bagovskaja Formation; palynomorphs are found in sandstone levels within this unit. The most representative assemblage includes pollen (with predominant bisaccate pollen), spores (Cyathidites being commonest), and dinoflagellate cysts amongst which the predominant taxon is Nannoceratopsis spiculata. The dinocyst assemblage implies a late Toarcian age for the upper part of the Bagovskaja Formation. On the basis of these new palynostratigraphical results, the range of the formation is extended; previously, only the lower part had been dated on ammonite evidence

Theory of differential inclusions and its application in mechanics

The following chapter deals with systems of differential equations with discontinuous right-hand sides. The key question is how to define the solutions of such systems. The most adequate approach is to treat discontinuous systems as systems with multivalued right-hand sides (differential inclusions). In this work three well-known definitions of solution of discontinuous system are considered. We will demonstrate the difference between these definitions and their application to different mechanical problems. Mathematical models of drilling systems with discontinuous friction torque characteristics are considered. Here, opposite to classical Coulomb symmetric friction law, the friction torque characteristic is asymmetrical. Problem of sudden load change is studied. Analytical methods of investigation of systems with such asymmetrical friction based on the use of Lyapunov functions are demonstrated. The Watt governor and Chua system are considered to show different aspects of computer modeling of discontinuous systems