Regional differentiation of human potential indicators

The purpose of the study presented in this article is an interregional analysis of human potential. The quality of the population proper is investigated at the regional level far less than the quality of the population life. The article provides an extended characteristic of human potential in seven directions: economic activity, demographic processes, physical health, the cultural potential of population, social health, educational potential, the attitude of population to the environment. On the basis of official statistics for 2008–2012, there were selected 63 indicators characterizing human potential in all these directions. In the final result, the correlation analysis has led to the substantiation of the system of indicators for the level of human potential development, consisting of 10 indicators. The system included 3 economic indicators and 7 social indicators characterizing human potential. Upon these indicators the Russian regions were divided in two types of regions by means of hierarchic agglomerative (combining) methods of cluster analysis: the regions with economic indicators and without them. The performed calculations provided the typology of regions by the human potential indicators being stable over time and covering 74.4 % of the Russian population. A substantial interpretation of breaking down regions by groups, identification of both strong and weak aspects of each cluster were made, finding out specific features of the regions falling under the clusters. The obtained results can be used when working out measures for reducing the interregional inequality in the levels of human potential development. To find out what measures can be effective, it is possible to examine the strategic directions of regions’ development in the cluster that is the most successful with respect to the human potential characteristics under investigation

The underdeveloped transformative potential of human rights education : English primary education as a case study

In order for learners to become empowered human rights activists, they must be equipped with relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes. Learner empowerment therefore forms a central element of international Human Rights Education provisions. This article draws upon empirical research to gauge the nature and extent of empowerment in English primary schools, and seeks to better understand the reasons for any deficiencies in its practice. It argues that whilst empowerment-related concepts may be encouraged to a certain extent, learners are unlikely to be emerging from formal schooling with the means to contribute significantly to transformation of the broader human rights culture. Two important barriers are identified: (i) teacher attitudes towards empowerment; and (ii) current government curriculum policy. The article argues on the first of these points that teachers are only likely to become comfortable and confident about such teaching if they are equipped with human rights knowledge, skills and experience in their own training. And on the second, that there needs to be a shift in government policy towards greater learner engagement with empowerment-related skills and relevant community engagement if the current trend towards didactic rote learning is to be reversed

Latent regulatory potential of human-specific repetitive elements

At least half of the human genome is derived from repetitive elements, which are often lineage specific and silenced by a variety of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Using a transchromosomic mouse strain that transmits an almost complete single copy of human chromosome 21 via the female germline, we show that a heterologous regulatory environment can transcriptionally activate transposon-derived human regulatory regions. In the mouse nucleus, hundreds of locations on human chromosome 21 newly associate with activating histone modifications in both somatic and germline tissues, and influence the gene expression of nearby transcripts. These regions are enriched with primate and human lineage-specific transposable elements, and their activation corresponds to changes in DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides. This study reveals the latent regulatory potential of the repetitive human genome and illustrates the species specificity of mechanisms that control it

A novel human glucocorticoid receptor SNP results in increased transactivation potential.

Glucocorticoids are one of the most widely used therapeutics in the treatment of a variety of inflammatory disorders. However, it is known that there are variable patient responses to glucocorticoid treatment; there are responders and non-responders, or those that need higher dosages. Polymorphisms in the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) have been implicated in this variability. In this study, ninety-seven volunteers were surveyed for polymorphisms in the human GR-alpha (hGRα), the accepted biologically active reference isoform. One isoform identified in our survey, named hGR DL-2, had four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), one synonymous and three non-synonymous, and a four base pair deletion resulting in a frame shift and early termination to produce a 743 amino acid putative protein. hGR DL-2 had a decrease in transactivation potential of more than 90%. Upon further analysis of the individual SNPs and deletion, one SNP, A829G, which results in a lysine to glutamic acid amino acid change at position 277, was found to increase the transactivation potential of hGR more than eight times the full-length reference. Furthermore, the hGRα-A829G isoform had a differential hyperactive response to various exogenous steroids. Increasing our knowledge as to how various SNPs affect hGR activity may help in understanding the unpredictable patient response to steroid treatment, and is a step towards personalizing patient care

A model of the electrical behaviour of myelinated sensory nerve fibres based on human data

Calculation of the response of human myelinated sensory nerve fibres to spinal cord stimulation initiated the development of a fibre model based on electro-physiological and morphometric data for human sensory nerve fibres. The model encompasses a mathematical description of the kinetics of the nodal membrane, and a non-linear fibre geometry. Fine tuning of only a few, not well-established parameters was performed by fitting the shape of a propagating action potential and its diameter-dependent propagation velocity. The quantitative behaviour of this model corresponds better to experimentally determined human fibre properties than other mammalian, non-human models do. Typical characteristics, such as the shape of the action potential, the propagation velocity and the strength-duration behaviour show a good fit with experimental data. The introduced diameter-dependent parameters did not result in a noticeable diameter dependency of action potential duration and refractory period. The presented model provides an improved tool to analyse the electrical behaviour of human myelinated sensory nerve fibres

Extending Feynman's Formalisms for Modelling Human Joint Action Coordination

The recently developed Life-Space-Foam approach to goal-directed human action deals with individual actor dynamics. This paper applies the model to characterize the dynamics of co-action by two or more actors. This dynamics is modelled by: (i) a two-term joint action (including cognitive/motivatonal potential and kinetic energy), and (ii) its associated adaptive path integral, representing an infinite--dimensional neural network. Its feedback adaptation loop has been derived from Bernstein's concepts of sensory corrections loop in human motor control and Brooks' subsumption architectures in robotics. Potential applications of the proposed model in human--robot interaction research are discussed. Keywords: Psycho--physics, human joint action, path integralsComment: 6 pages, Late

Event-related brain potential correlates of human auditory sensory memory-trace formation

The event-related potential (ERP) component mismatch negativity (MMN) is a neural marker of human echoic memory. MMN is elicited by deviant sounds embedded in a stream of frequent standards, reflecting the deviation from an inferred memory trace of the standard stimulus. The strength of this memory trace is thought to be proportional to the number of repetitions of the standard tone, visible as the progressive enhancement of MMN with number of repetitions (MMN memory-trace effect). However, no direct ERP correlates of the formation of echoic memory traces are currently known. This study set out to investigate changes in ERPs to different numbers of repetitions of standards, delivered in a roving-stimulus paradigm in which the frequency of the standard stimulus changed randomly between stimulus trains. Normal healthy volunteers (n = 40) were engaged in two experimental conditions: during passive listening and while actively discriminating changes in tone frequency. As predicted, MMN increased with increasing number of standards. However, this MMN memory-trace effect was caused mainly by enhancement with stimulus repetition of a slow positive wave from 50 to 250 ms poststimulus in the standard ERP, which is termed here "repetition positivity" (RP). This RP was recorded from frontocentral electrodes when participants were passively listening to or actively discriminating changes in tone frequency. RP may represent a human ERP correlate of rapid and stimulus-specific adaptation, a candidate neuronal mechanism underlying sensory memory formation in the auditory cortex