Mapping of Cortical Motor Reorganization in Spinal Cord Injury

The annual incidence of spinal cord injury (SCI), not including those who die at the scene of the accident, is approximately 10,000 new cases in the United States. SCI, in its best outcome, may partially and temporarily disconnect the spinal cord from the brain. Some neuronal pathways remain intact in most S CI individuals, whose recovery depends on the utilization of the surviving connections. There is a change in the control of voluntary movements of the extremities by the cerebral cortex of the brain following spinal cord injury. The technology of high-resolution EEG co-registered with MRI was applied to non-invasively investigate the brain’s movement control network in both SCI and normal subjects. A series of active and passive movement tests were carried out to explore the changes that o ccur in the brain’s cortical motor control after SCI. The spatial location of the brain areas active during motor tasks was identified in each individual and a statistical analysis was performed. It was found that activation of the motor cortex in SC I patients originated from a posterior part of the brain compared to the normal controls. The spatial difference was found to be statistically significant in the two groups with the p-values less than 0.05 in both active and passive movement tests. We trust this study will contribute to the understanding of how the brain reorganizes its motor pathways after SCI. The clinical goal is the maximum utilization of the surviving connections to improve patient recovery. Also, understanding the neurona l activity and its topography in the brain is important in view of recent advances in experiments on primates. EEG can serve as an interface between the brain and computer-driven prostheses

Consistency of personal identity as a resource of pedagogical prevention of adolescents’ radicalization

The article discusses the problem of countering the radicalization of adolescents. It is assumed that adolescents are a social group that is subject to radical influence. This paper emphasizes the growing tendency to involve adolescents and young men in extremist and terrorist acts. Modern theoretical concepts of radicalization are considered and their specific nature is determined. It is noted that all concepts take into account the role of disturbed or difficult social relationships as a latent factor of radicalization

Phenological shifts of abiotic events, producers and consumers across a continent

Ongoing climate change can shift organism phenology in ways that vary depending on species, habitats and climate factors studied. To probe for large-scale patterns in associated phenological change, we use 70,709 observations from six decades of systematic monitoring across the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Among 110 phenological events related to plants, birds, insects, amphibians and fungi, we find a mosaic of change, defying simple predictions of earlier springs, later autumns and stronger changes at higher latitudes and elevations. Site mean temperature emerged as a strong predictor of local phenology, but the magnitude and direction of change varied with trophic level and the relative timing of an event. Beyond temperature-associated variation, we uncover high variation among both sites and years, with some sites being characterized by disproportionately long seasons and others by short ones. Our findings emphasize concerns regarding ecosystem integrity and highlight the difficulty of predicting climate change outcomes. The authors use systematic monitoring across the former USSR to investigate phenological changes across taxa. The long-term mean temperature of a site emerged as a strong predictor of phenological change, with further imprints of trophic level, event timing, site, year and biotic interactions.Peer reviewe

Chronicles of nature calendar, a long-term and large-scale multitaxon database on phenology

We present an extensive, large-scale, long-term and multitaxon database on phenological and climatic variation, involving 506,186 observation dates acquired in 471 localities in Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. The data cover the period 1890-2018, with 96% of the data being from 1960 onwards. The database is rich in plants, birds and climatic events, but also includes insects, amphibians, reptiles and fungi. The database includes multiple events per species, such as the onset days of leaf unfolding and leaf fall for plants, and the days for first spring and last autumn occurrences for birds. The data were acquired using standardized methods by permanent staff of national parks and nature reserves (87% of the data) and members of a phenological observation network (13% of the data). The database is valuable for exploring how species respond in their phenology to climate change. Large-scale analyses of spatial variation in phenological response can help to better predict the consequences of species and community responses to climate change.Peer reviewe

Forest Carbon Resources of Belarus

The monograph outlines the views of Belarusian experts on the contribution of the forest sector of Belarus to mitigation of weather and climate impacts on the environment which is made through carbon dioxide absorption by foreste and partial sequestration of carbon in the forest and components. It touches upon the calculation of carbon dioxide emmissions and absorption, the carbon budget of the Belarusian forest fund, relationship between the age and species structure and the carbon dioxide absorption by forests, measures on increasung of carbon dioxide absorption by forests, etc

Analysis of the economic and clinical effectiveness of one- and two-stage revisions in the treatment of periprosthetic infection of the hip joint (literature review)

Introduction Infection is a devastating complication of joint replacement surgery and is associated with significant medical costs of treatment and rehabilitation. This review is based on the analysis of modern domestic and foreign literature and demonstrates the problem of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) in terms of etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and surgical treatment options for PJI, as well as economic costs in different countries. Currently, two-stage revision arthroplasty is the most used treatment method in the world. At the same time, the number of publications on the effectiveness of one-stage revision arthroplasty in PJI has been increasing every year. Purpose Analysis of the clinical and economic efficiency of one- and two-stage revision arthroplasty interventions for suppression of the purulent inflammatory process and their medical costs Materials and methods The literature search was carried out in open electronic databases of scientific literature PubMed, eLIBRARY and Scopus. The search depth was 22 years. Sixteen articles were selected for economic analysis in which the expenditures on PJI management in developed and developing countries were reported. Also, there were 15 studies on evaluating the effectiveness of two-stage revisions and 26 articles on evaluating the effectiveness of one-stage revisions and 15 articles on analyzing the functional state of the affected limb according to the Harris Hip Score. The following inclusion criteria were used: systematic reviews, literature reviews, cohort studies on the topic of periprosthetic infection. Results The rate of PJI arrest with one-stage method was 89.5 % (Me-88.6; Q1-86 Q3-94) and the average mortality was 2.23 ± 2.24 (Me-1.2 Q1-0.8 Q3 -2.7). The rate of PJI suppression by two-stage method averaged 91.4 % (Me-93;Q1-88.2 Q3-96) with an average mortality rate of 3.2 %. The functional HHS after onestage replacement averaged 81.8 points, and after two-stage revision arthroplasty it was 77.4 points. The economic cost of treating one patient with PJI, according to various authors, varies from 6,500 to 150,000 dollars. Conclusions One-stage revision is cost-effective, has better functional parameters and lower mortality with comparable results in PJI arrest if strict adherence to indications is followed

Ecologically Oriented Forestry Development in Belarus in the Context of Climate Change

This brochure is a result of implementing Activity 3.1.4: Consultancy Services to Develop Strategies and Actions Plans for the Adaptation of the Belarusian Forestry Sector to Climate Change and to Implement the Principles of “Green Economy” under Contract № BFDP/GEF/CQS/16/25-26/17 dated October 23, 2017, within the Belarus Forestry Management Project (TFОA1173 GEF/World Bank). It incorporates conceptual approaches to forest management in Belarus in the context of weather and climate change observed in recent decades. The brochure addresses the ways of combating adverse climate change impacts on the forestry, the challenges of reforestation, afforestation and forest tending techniques in order to adapt them to climate change. The report includes analysis of contribution of the Belarusian forestry to climate change mitigation as concerns atmospheric carbon dioxide absorption by forests and its partial sequestration as phytomass carbon, soil organic carbon and other forest fund components. The “green economy” principles and criteria have been developed for the Belarusian forestry, the ways to promote them in the emerging “green economy” have been proposed. A new concept of sustainable forest management has been formulated, which is based on the climate-oriented strategy of forestry development

Angiogenesis in Lung Cancer: Understanding the Roles of Growth Factors

Research has shown the role of growth factors in lung cancer angiogenesis. Angiogenesis promotes lung cancer progression by stimulating tumor growth, enhancing tumor invasion, contributing to metastasis, and modifying immune system responses within the tumor microenvironment. As a result, new treatment techniques based on the anti-angiogenic characteristics of compounds have been developed. These compounds selectively block the growth factors themselves, their receptors, or the downstream signaling pathways activated by these growth factors. The EGF and VEGF families are the primary targets in this approach, and several studies are being conducted to propose anti-angiogenic drugs that are increasingly suitable for the treatment of lung cancer, either as monotherapy or as combined therapy. The efficacy of the results are encouraging, but caution must be placed on the higher risk of toxicity, outlining the importance of personalized follow-up in the management of these patients

Differences in spatial versus temporal reaction norms for spring and autumn phenological events

For species to stay temporally tuned to their environment, they use cues such as the accumulation of degree-days. The relationships between the timing of a phenological event in a population and its environmental cue can be described by a population-level reaction norm. Variation in reaction norms along environmental gradients may either intensify the environmental effects on timing (cogradient variation) or attenuate the effects (countergradient variation). To resolve spatial and seasonal variation in species' response, we use a unique dataset of 91 taxa and 178 phenological events observed across a network of 472 monitoring sites, spread across the nations of the former Soviet Union. We show that compared to local rates of advancement of phenological events with the advancement of temperature-related cues (i.e., variation within site over years), spatial variation in reaction norms tend to accentuate responses in spring (cogradient variation) and attenuate them in autumn (countergradient variation). As a result, among-population variation in the timing of events is greater in spring and less in autumn than if all populations followed the same reaction norm regardless of location. Despite such signs of local adaptation, overall phenotypic plasticity was not sufficient for phenological events to keep exact pace with their cues-the earlier the year, the more did the timing of the phenological event lag behind the timing of the cue. Overall, these patterns suggest that differences in the spatial versus temporal reaction norms will affect species' response to climate change in opposite ways in spring and autumn