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We present eight metatranscriptomic datasets of light algal and cyanolichen biological soil crusts from the Mojave Desert in response to wetting. These data will help us understand gene expression patterns in desert biocrust microbial communities after they have been reactivated by the addition of water.

Plasmids are mobile genetic elements found in many clades of Archaea and Bacteria. They drive horizontal gene transfer, impacting ecological and evolutionary processes within microbial communities, and hold substantial importance in human health and biotechnology. To support plasmid research and provide scientists with data of an unprecedented diversity of plasmid sequences, we introduce the IMG/PR database, a new resource encompassing 699 973 plasmid sequences derived from genomes, metagenomes and metatranscriptomes. IMG/PR is the first database to provide data of plasmid that were systematically identified from diverse microbiome samples. IMG/PR plasmids are associated with rich metadata that includes geographical and ecosystem information, host taxonomy, similarity to other plasmids, functional annotation, presence of genes involved in conjugation and antibiotic resistance. The database offers diverse methods for exploring its extensive plasmid collection, enabling users to navigate plasmids through metadata-centric queries, plasmid comparisons and BLAST searches. The web interface for IMG/PR is accessible at https://img.jgi.doe.gov/pr. Plasmid metadata and sequences can be downloaded from https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/portal/IMG_PR.

One well-known prediction of linguistic relativity theories is the effect of a noun's grammatical gender on its semantics; for instance, ”key” is feminine in Spanish but masculine in German and thus might be associated with feminine traits for Spanish speakers but with masculine traits for German speakers. Experimental and corpus evidence for these effects has been mixed. In this work, we considered a distributional semantics account of putative grammatical gender effects on semantics and tested its predictions in Spanish, German, and English (control). In Part 1, we hypothesized that grammatical gender of concrete nouns affects the similarity of noun embeddings to embeddings of adjectives semantically associated with men or with women. We found support for this hypothesis in fastText embeddings, showing that nouns with the same meaning but with opposite genders in Spanish and German show opposite attraction effects both for words “man” and “woman” and for adjectives associated with men and women, although the effect size was weaker for German than for Spanish. BERT embeddings also showed consistent effects for Spanish but mixed results for German, suggesting possible variation across languages. In Part 2, we asked whether people systematically choose adjectives associated with women/men for grammatically feminine/masculine nouns, respectively. In a noun-adjective matching experiment (432 participants total), we found predicted grammatical gender effects for Spanish but not for German. Cosine similarity between the noun and the adjectives in fastText embeddings significantly predicted trial-level responses in all 3 languages; however, Spanish showed an additional effect of grammatical gender, indicating that participant noun-adjective associations are not fully explained by distributional semantics.

Large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI's GPT-4 (OpenAI et al., 2023), or Google's PaLM (Chowdhery et al., 2022) generate text responses to user-generated text prompts. In contrast to work that evaluates the extent to which model-generated text coheres with linguistic rules (i.e., formal competence) (Chomsky et al., 2023; Piantadosi, 2023), the present symposium discusses the work of cognitive scientists aimed at assessing the extent and manner in which LLMs show effective understanding, reasoning and decision making, capacities associated with human higher cognition (i.e., functional competence) (Binz & Schulz, 2023; Mahowald et al., 2023; Webb et al., 2023). Given both their expertise and their interest in clarifying the nature of human thinking, cognitive scientists are in a unique position both to carefully evaluate LLMs' capacity for thought (Bhatia, 2023; Han et al., 2024; Mitchell, 2023) and to benefit from them as methodological and theoretical tools. This symposium will thus be of interest not only to cognitive scientists concerned with machine intelligence, but also to those looking to incorporate advances in artificial intelligence with their study of human intelligence.

A number of studies have investigated whether cross-modal correspondence effect occurs in purely automatic manner or whether top-down processes can be involved in the processing. The current study addresses the disparity in the research conducting two experiments, using a classical audiovisual cross-modal correspondence paradigm and testing possible involvement of the endogenous component in the effect. Experiment 1 replicated previous findings and showed presence of cross-modal correspondence between pitch and spatial position. However, the effect was significant only in upper spatial position. Experiment 2 showed that task-related pitch probability manipulation made the cross-modal correspondence effect to disappear, however revealing an asymmetrical pattern that was highly dependent on pitch probability and spatial position. Overall, the results suggested a non-automaticity of the cross-modal correspondence effect and a possible involvement of endogenous component in the effect.

INTRODUCTION: Alcohol expectancies predict subsequent alcohol use and related problems among adolescents, although predictors of alcohol expectancies remain unclear. This study examined the longitudinal association between family conflict, a sociocultural factor strongly implicated in adolescent alcohol use, and positive and negative alcohol expectancies of adolescents of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. METHODS: Data were from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study 4.0 release, a multisite longitudinal study (N = 6,231, baseline age 9-10). Linear mixed-effects regression, with interactions between race/ethnicity and family conflict, tested the association between family conflict and alcohol expectancies, for each racial/ethnicity (e.g., Black vs. non-Black; White vs. non-White). RESULTS: Interactions of family conflict with race/ethnicity in predicting negative and positive alcohol expectancies were statistically significant for models testing Black and White adolescents, but not for Asian, Hispanic, and Other. Family conflict at baseline predicted lower negative alcohol expectancy for Black adolescents (B = -.166, p = 0.033) and positive alcohol expectancy for White adolescents (B = 0.71, p = 0.023) at the year 3 follow-up. All models controlled for sex, age, family socioeconomic status, alcohol expectancies at year 1, and family conflict at year 3. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that family conflict is a potential risk factor for problematic alcohol expectancies for Black and White adolescents. Although we did not directly compare Black and White adolescents, our findings indicate that family conflict may operate differently for Black and White adolescents. Prevention and intervention efforts targeting family conflict may be relevant for different aspects of alcohol expectancies in Black and White families.

Stroke alters blood flow to the brain resulting in damaged tissue and cell death. Moreover, the disruption of cerebral blood flow (perfusion) can be observed in areas surrounding and distal to the lesion. These structurally preserved but suboptimally perfused regions may also affect recovery. Thus, to better understand aphasia recovery, the relationship between cerebral perfusion and language needs to be systematically examined. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate (i) how stroke affects perfusion outside of lesioned areas in chronic aphasia and (ii) how perfusion in specific cortical areas and perilesional tissue relates to language outcomes in aphasia. We analysed perfusion data from a large sample of participants with chronic aphasia due to left hemisphere stroke (n = 43) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 25). We used anatomically defined regions of interest that covered the frontal, parietal, and temporal areas of the perisylvian cortex in both hemispheres, areas typically known to support language, along with several control regions not implicated in language processing. For the aphasia group, we also looked at three regions of interest in the perilesional tissue. We compared perfusion levels between the two groups and investigated the relationship between perfusion levels and language subtest scores while controlling for demographic and lesion variables. First, we observed that perfusion levels outside the lesioned areas were significantly reduced in frontal and parietal regions in the left hemisphere in people with aphasia compared to the control group, while no differences were observed for the right hemisphere regions. Second, we found that perfusion in the left temporal lobe (and most strongly in the posterior part of both superior and middle temporal gyri) and inferior parietal areas (supramarginal gyrus) was significantly related to residual expressive and receptive language abilities. In contrast, perfusion in the frontal regions did not show such a relationship; no relationship with language was also observed for perfusion levels in control areas and all right hemisphere regions. Third, perilesional perfusion was only marginally related to language production abilities. Cumulatively, the current findings demonstrate that blood flow is reduced beyond the lesion site in chronic aphasia and that hypoperfused neural tissue in critical temporoparietal language areas has a negative impact on behavioural outcomes. These results, using perfusion imaging, underscore the critical and general role that left hemisphere posterior temporal regions play in various expressive and receptive language abilities. Overall, the study highlights the importance of exploring perfusion measures in stroke.

Emoticons are a vivid example of graphic emotionology in virtual communication. The interdisciplinary character of this research made it possible to combine linguistics with exact and natural sciences, including the young science of emotional artificial intelligence. Transmitting psycho-emotional experiences is important for effective virtual communication. Emotional pictography provides a more accurate understanding of the emotive content in a message. It relies on associative links between the image of a specific psycho-emotional state and its perception by a carrier of a specific linguistic culture. Basic emoticons are of universal nature, and internet users with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds tend to interpret them similarly. However, members of different ethno-linguistic communities sometimes decode the same emotions differently, which may lead to misunderstanding, as well as to serve as a marker on the friend – foe axis. Emoticons represent a clearly verified range of emotive states, which can be appealed to in virtual communication. The authors developed a classification of emoticons and proposed graphic emotionology as a new branch of linguistic semiotics. The metaphorical nature of the emoticon as a coded emotion with additional evaluative shades is revealed as a certain unified image or a complex of signs due to the accepted emotive norms of speech behavior. In addition, emoticons provide efficient compression during virtual communication. Intercultural virtual communication enriches the range of emoticons both linguistically and culturally, thus developing graphic emotionology internationally. Emoticons provide insight into the development of graphic emotionology.

Sports ballroom dancing is a group of paired dances that are divided into two directions, “Latin” and standard, and, as a rule, were performed at balls held in large rooms covered with parquet. Dances are divided into elite (historikohousehold) and folk, characterized by several differences. Ballroom dances are paired, a man and a woman form a couple, as well as two women (“lady and lady”) and two men (“man and man”). In addition to doubles, there are single competitions “Solo Ladies”, where ladies perform dances without a partner. Ballroom dancing or dance sports has become very popular among young people in recent decades. Ballroom dancing has noticeably rejuvenated, attracting children, juniors and students to its ranks. Practicing sports and ballroom dancing requires development of all the muscles of the human body, the respiratory system, trains coordination and a sense of rhythm. Athletes, in addition to dancing, are actively engaged in special physical training, without which they will not be able to achieve high results.

In this article, we present a clinical case of a 63-year-old patient who was treated in the COVID unit of the Clinic for Internal Diseases of UMBALSM (University General Hospital for Active Care and Emergency Medicine) “N. I. Pirogov” on the occasion of a proven coronavirus infection with a PCR positive test for SARS-CoV2-virus, clinical symptoms of severe coronavirus pneumonia, and with accompanying disease - lymphoma with skin localization, condition after lower right lobectomy, chemotherapy and checkpoint therapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. We also examined the role of the transcription factor NF-kB in the course of the coronavirus infection in a patient with the indicated lymphoproliferative disease and a history of active smoking. We tried to clarify questions such as “Do severe forms of coronavirus infection and the relatively rare disease lymphoma with cutaneous localization have a common pathogenesis?” Is it possible to effectively pharmacotherapeutically influence two, at first glance, so heterogeneous diseases?’’ The conclusions drawn can help us to specify certain nosological units as “more vulnerable” to severe forms of COVID19 infection.

Introduction: Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasia (IPMN) is a benign cystic neoplasm that has the potential to transform into pancreatic cancer over time. These lesions are usually asymptomatic. A main pancreatic duct IPMN is usually symptomatic and may present as an emergency when occlusion of the common bile duct with thick mucinous secretion and jaundice develop. This complication is hard to manage pharmacotherapeutically or by endoscopic procedure and may require surgical treatment. Purpose: This is a case report of a complicated main pancreatic duct IPMN that required an urgent, two-stage operation. A review of the literature on the topic was carried out. Case description: A 67-year-old male patient with symptoms of jaundice was diagnosed with acute cholangitis, cholecystitis, and pancreatitis as complications of the mucinous obstruction of the main pancreatic duct and of the common bile duct (CBD) caused by IPMN. The condition was confirmed by cholangio-pancreatoscopy and biopsy. Stenting of CBD was attempted, but the procedure turned out unsuccessful, and we proceeded to an emergency two-stage operation. The first operation consisted of the clearance of the bile ducts from infected mucinous secretion, cholecystectomy, and hepatico-jejunostomy. A Whipple procedure was performed as a second-stage operation. Discussion: Cases of emergency are not common in patients with IPMN. However, obstructive jaundice by mucinous secretion due to the disease is hard to treat only by endoscopy because of the high risk of obstruction of the endoprosthesis. On the other hand, emergency pancreatic resections are associated with a high risk of perioperative complications. Conclusion: Sometimes, the complicated main pancreatic duct IPMNs can pose a challenge for the interdisciplinary team of invasive gastroenterologists and surgeons, and the key to a successful outcome is surgical interventions in two- or three stages that include complications management as the first stage, followed by surgical resection as a second stage operation. Biliary drainage improvement is usually only temporarily successful with the insertion of biliary stents because of the rapid mucinous occlusion and the remaining risk of cholangitis and cholecystitis.

The cytokine storm has been identified as one of the leading causes of the severe course and, in some cases, the fatal outcome of COVID-19 infection. Other factors aggravating the course of the disease are accompanying disorders such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, diseases of the respiratory system, and oncological diseases. In this article, we present the course of the coronavirus infection in patients with an accompanying malignant disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), namely. The study included 8 patients with proven PCR-positive tests for SARS-CoV2 and confirmed chronic lymphocytic leukemia as a comorbidity. The course of the coronavirus infection in the CLL group was compared with that in the control group of 100 patients. In both groups, we compared subjective complaints such as tiredness, fatigue, and joint and muscle pain with objective criteria such as temperature, laboratory markers of inflammation, X-ray imaging, and frequency of necessary intubation. Despite the expected poor prognosis in patients with concomitant oncological disease, in the case of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, our results showed a quite different milder coronavirus infection course. Obviously, patients with CLL cannot develop a pronounced cytokine storm, most probably due to certain immunosuppression related to the pathogenesis and drug treatment options for the comorbidity of CLL.

Abstract Tiger sharks are apex predators with a circumglobal tropical and warm-temperate distribution, with a general lack of population data for the central Indian Ocean. In Fuvahmulah, Maldives, tiger sharks display frequent use of the harbour area, attracted by discarded fish waste. Here, we document the population structure, residency, and reproductive characteristics of the world’s largest known tiger shark aggregation in a geographically-restricted area. Using non-invasive methods, photo identification and laser photogrammetry, we identified 239 individual tiger sharks over a 7-year study period. The aggregation was female-dominated (84.5%), with both large juveniles and adults present. Adult females were resighted over the entire study period displaying strong inter- and intra-annual site fidelity. Modelled residency using maximum likelihood methods suggests they spent 60.7 ± S.E. 7.5 days in Fuvahmulah, with a larger aggregation size, shorter residence periods and longer absence periods compared to juvenile females. Prolonged abdominal distensions of adult females indicate they likely stay near Fuvahmulah during gestation and reproduce biennially. Fuvahmulah seems to provide suitable conditions for gestation given the year-round provision of food and warm waters, exhibited by strong site fidelity and temporal residency. Our results show indications of a thriving population within the confines of protected waters.

The article presents the results of monitoring observations on the temporal distribution of the qualitative and quantitative components of the Dnipro River suspended matter within Zaporizhzhia city. The research on the territory of this powerful industrial center of Ukraine with a developed metallurgical complex was carried out from 2015 up to 2019 and from the end of 2021 to the present time. The main task of the research was determining the distribution of iron and a group of heavy metals of anthropogenic origin in the composition of the river suspension, and identifying the connections of their concentrations and forms with the natural conditions of the region. Sedimentary matter from the water flows of Dnipro River within research area was sampled once per month using sedimentary traps developed by authors. The methods of electron microscopy (with microprobe analysis) and laser diffraction analysis were used to study the suspension granulometric and chemical composition in the Center for Shared Use of Scientific Equipment of the IGS NASU. SEM studies were carried using scanning electron microscope SEM JEOL-6490 LV (Jeol Ltd., Japan) with an energy dispersive spectrometer of the X-ray microanalysis system INCA Energy+ (Oxford Instruments plc., Great Britain). Particle size analysis was determined using the laser particle size analyzer Mastersizer 2000 with a Hydro 2000S wet dispersion module (Malvern Ins. Ltd, UK).The study results of the samples taken in the first year of hostilities in Ukraine revealed a number of features which were not observed in the previous series of studies. Those peculiarities are the following ones: reduction in the intensity of sedimentary matter accumulation; decrease of technogenic components in the suspension content (in particular, the amount of ferrous metals, changes in the ratio of condensed and dispersed iron particles of silt size, as well as the component composition of fragments of alloys of non-ferrous and ferrous metals). The obtained results may indicate the sensitivity of the component composition of the suspension to changes in the external environment in general, as well as the significant impact of the anthropogenic component on the distribution of iron in suspended matter.

Background: Ovarian tumors are characterized by asymptomatic progression until their late stages, when at the time of diagnosis the patient already has extensive metastatic disease. In addition to lymphogenous and hematogenous metastasis in ovarian cancer, there are peritoneal dissemination and metastasis to the greater omentum with ascites; moreover, peritoneal carcinomatosis is the predominant route of metastasizing of ovarian cancer. Epigenetic factors, such as gene methylation, regulatory microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), contribute to progression of this cancer. Our previous bioinformatic and experimental studies have identified 13 genes of lncRNAs (GAS5, HOTAIR, LINC00472, LINC00886, MAFG-DT, PLUT/PDX1-AS1, SNHG1, SNHG6, SNHG12, SNHG17, TINCR, TP53TG1, TUG1) hypermethylated in the ovarian neoplasms. Aim: To evaluate the clinical significance of methylation levels of 13 lncRNA genes (GAS5, HOTAIR, LINC00472, LINC00886, MAFG-DT, PLUT/PDX1-AS1, SNHG1, SNHG6, SNHG12, SNHG17, TINCR, TP53TG1, TUG1) associated with various types of ovarian cancer metastasis, including lymphogenous, peritoneal, omental, and distant metastases. Methods: The methylation levels of lncRNA genes GAS5, HOTAIR, LINC00472, LINC00886, MAFG-DT, PLUT/PDX1-AS1, SNHG1, SNHG6, SNHG12, SNHG17, TINCR, TP53TG1, TUG1 were analyzed by quantitative real-time methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. We tested 122 duplicate samples of ovarian neoplasms, including 104 malignancies and 18 borderline tumors, as well as 45 peritoneal macro metastases, collected in the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology in 2020 to 2023. The study included 21 samples of primary tumor from patients with lymphogenous metastases, 45 samples from patients with peritoneal dissemination, 61 from those with omental metastases, 49 from patients with ascites, and 9 with distant metastases. Results: The tumor samples from the patients with lymphatic nodes metastases showed a significant increase in the methylation level of two lncRNA genes: SNHG6 (p = 0.044) and SNHG12 (p = 0.006). Peritoneal dissemination was associated with hypermethylation of four lncRNA genes: GAS5, HOTAIR, LINC00472 (p 0.05), and most significantly TINCR (p = 0.001). GAS5, HOTAIR, LINC00886 (p 0.05) and most significantly LINC00472 (p 0.001) hypermethylation was typical for omental metastasis, and that of LINC00472 and LINC00886, with ascites (p 0.05). Peritoneal macroscopic metastases demonstrated increased methylation of MAFG-DT (p 0.001) and TP53TG1 (p 0.001) and desmethylation of LINC00886 (p = 0.003) and SNHG12 (p = 0.002), compared to their primary tumors. Conclusion: We performed the analysis of clinical significance of 13 hypermethylated lncRNA genes in ovarian cancer and were the first to show that 10 genes (GAS5, HOTAIR, LINC00472, LINC00886, MAFG-DT, SNHG6, SNHG12, TINCR, TP53TG1, TUG1) were associated with various types of ovarian tumor metastasis. Also, we were able to determine certain panels of lncRNA, which, if demonstrate abnormal methylation, were specific for lymphogenous and peritoneal metastasis of ovarian tumors.

Abstract The North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research (NTL-LTER) program has been extensively used to improve understanding of how aquatic ecosystems respond to environmental stressors, climate fluctuations, and human activities. Here, we report on the metagenomes of samples collected between 2000 and 2019 from Lake Mendota, a freshwater eutrophic lake within the NTL-LTER site. We utilized the distributed metagenome assembler MetaHipMer to coassemble over 10 terabases (Tbp) of data from 471 individual Illumina-sequenced metagenomes. A total of 95,523,664 contigs were assembled and binned to generate 1,894 non-redundant metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) with ≥50% completeness and ≤10% contamination. Phylogenomic analysis revealed that the MAGs were nearly exclusively bacterial, dominated by Pseudomonadota (Proteobacteria, N = 623) and Bacteroidota (N = 321). Nine eukaryotic MAGs were identified by eukCC with six assigned to the phylum Chlorophyta. Additionally, 6,350 high-quality viral sequences were identified by geNomad with the majority classified in the phylum Uroviricota. This expansive coassembled metagenomic dataset provides an unprecedented foundation to advance understanding of microbial communities in freshwater ecosystems and explore temporal ecosystem dynamics.

Abstract Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) offers a viable solution to reduce the carbon footprint in the petroleum industry, and foam injection presents a promising method to achieve this while simultaneously increasing oil recovery. In this work, we studied the feasibility of CO2 foam for co-optimizing enhanced oil recovery and CO2 storage in a high-salinity carbonate formation. The simulated hydrodynamic model is a depleted formation containing 30% residual oil, with three mechanisms for CO2 storage: solubility, residual, and mineralization trapping mechanisms. The results showed that after 20 years, oil recovery during foam injection was 2.7 times higher than CO2 injection, and the CO2 stored during foam flooding was 38% higher than CO2 injection. Notably, foam injection also increased CO2 storage capacity by 2.6 times, indicating the potential to store around 2 gigatons of CO2 in the simulated model. This was attributed to the ability of foam to significantly reduce gas mobility and thus form isolated bubbles through its Jamin effect. Residual trapping was the dominant trapping mechanism, contributing to over 70% of the total CO2 trapped, attributed to the reduction in the dissolution of CO2 in brine due to the high salinity of the aqueous medium. CO2 mineralization was also studied, showing the least trapping efficiency and the dissolution trend of all the carbonate minerals. This study illustrates a novel CO2 utilization and storage technique in which CO2 is concurrently sequestered while enhancing oil recovery in a depleted oil reservoir by injecting CO2 as foam. The relevance of this study lies in its potential to provide a dual benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and boosting oil production, offering a sustainable approach for the petroleum industry.

This study presents the synthesis, characterization and Hirshfeld surface analysis of the title mononuclear complex, [PdCl2(C12H14N4)]·C3H7NO. The compound crystalizes in the P21/c space group of the monoclinic system. The asymmetric unit contains one neutral complex Pd(HLc-Pe)Cl2 [HLc-Pe is 2-(3-cyclopentyl-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)pyridine] and one molecule of DMF as a solvate. The Pd atom has a square-planar coordination. In the crystal, molecules are linked by intermolecular N—H...O and C—H...N hydrogen bonds, forming layers parallel to the bc plane. A Hirshfeld surface analysis showed that the H...H contacts dominate the crystal packing with a contribution of 41.4%. The contribution of the N...H/H...N and H...O/O...H interactions is somewhat smaller, amounting to 12.4% and 5%, respectively.

The relevance of the study of D. V. Pivovarov’s philosophical heritage, his proposed approach to under¬standing religious spirituality, the developed concept of forms of religion and religiosity (cosmocentrism, egocentrism, sociocentrism) is related to the fact that today Russia is in search of that spiritual foundation that could unite all Rus¬sians. The purpose of the article is to show the methodological possibilities of applying D. V. Pivovarov’s concept to com¬prehend the phenomenon of «new spirituality» expressed through such concepts introduced by modern Russian legal acts: «Russian nation», «all-Russian civil identity», «common cultural (civilizational) code of the Russian people». To describe the approach of D.V. Pivovarov, the principles of system analysis are used, which allows us to evaluate the contribution of an outstanding Ural scientist to Russian religious studies; the judgments and conclusions of the author of the concept are used as methodological guidelines for the analysis of the phenomenon of «new spirituality». As a result of the study, the authors came to the conclusion that it is possible to interpret the phenomenon of «new spirituality» as an attempt to create such a «solid core» of sacred values of the unified Russian culture, which will en¬sure the non-conflict coexistence of the ideals of cosmocentrism, sociocentrism and egocentrism. The practical significance is seen in the fact that, being an important methodological tool, the approach proposed by D. V. Pivovarov will find application in the study and explanation of new religious ideas and spiritual practices ad¬equate to the needs of the time, in the teaching of historical and religious studies courses, in assessing the effectiveness of mechanisms for strengthening Russian identity.

Introduction: The disorder known as burnout develops as a reaction to the damaging impacts of workplace stress. When occupational stress is poorly managed, it can result in burnout, which has a detrimental impact on workers’ performance and emotional and physical well-being. Those who work in the helping profession are the most vulnerable. Pharmacy practitioners are among the most vulnerable groups in the healthcare industry. Aim: The aim of the study was to look into how community pharmacists’ work environments affect their levels of occupational burnout. Materials and methods: The current survey included 127 pharmacists holders of a Master of Pharmacy degree who practice in Bulgaria’s northeast. A paper-based questionnaire with details about the workplace of these pharmacists and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-HSS-MP), a validated assessment instrument, were used to conduct the survey. Results: The majority of those surveyed (53%) had a medium to high degree of burnout at work. The highest percentage of pharmacists (51%) received high scores on the depersonalization scale, which is associated with a lack of motivation for providing patient care. The degree of burnout was found to be unaffected by the kind of community pharmacy – chain or individually owned. Burnout was more prevalent among responsible and non-responsible pharmacists than among pharmacy owners. Conclusion: It was determined that pharmacists needed training and preventative measures to avoid occupational burnout, even though there was no evidence of a statistically significant relationship between the job position and burnout.

Aim: The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to compare the qualitative (linear alveolar ridge changes) and quantitative (healing complications) outcomes after guided bone regeneration (GBR) using a custom-made 3D printed titanium mesh versus titanium reinforced dense PTFE membrane for vertical and horizontal augmentation of deficient alveolar ridges. Materials and methods: Forty patients (40 defect sites) were included in the analysis. The patients were divided into two groups – a test group that received custom made Ti mesh and a control group which received a titanium reinforced dense polytetrafluoroethylene membrane. This case series documented consecutive patients treated with vertical bone augmentation to facilitate the future placement of dental implants. The procedure was performed using xenograft and autograft in a ratio of 1:1. Baseline vertical and horizontal deficiencies, acquired bone height and width as well as absolute bone gain (height and width) were recorded radiographically; postoperative complication rate was recorded clinically. Results: The absolute bone height acquired for the test group was 3.65±1.73 mm, and for the control group - 4.24±2.19 mm; the absolute bone width acquired for the test group was 2.48±1.03 mm and for the control group - 2.60±0.82 mm. Postop complication rate was 33.3% for the test group and 38.9% for the control group. Conclusion: The use of a custom-made 3D printed titanium mesh for needs of vertical and horizontal guided bone regeneration showed results comparable to those of – Ti d-PTFE both in terms of height and width gain and complication rate.

Laboratory experiments on the use of expanded vermiculite for seed germination of five vegetable plant species promising for cultivation in the Kola Subarctic (Beta vulgarisL.,Brassica oleraceaL.,Brassica oleraceaL. var.botrytisL.,Brassica rapaL. Chinese Cabbage Group,Lactuca sativaL.) were carried out. The research used two types of substrates from Kovdor vermiculite differing in firing conditions; agricultural soil was used as acontrol. Plant growth and development at the juvenile stage of ontogenesis differed significantly (p0.005) for three variants of the experiment. The best results were obtained in the variants with the use of vermiculite substrates, which promoted more intensive seed germination, growth of shoots and roots in seedlings of all five vegetable crops, compared to the control (soil). Significant differences in accumulation of green biomass by seedlings were observed only in the experiment with beetroot. In the other four species, the difference in seedling weight was insignificant. New type of thermovermiculite(TV2-H), obtained by firing in an innovative furnace of A.I. Nizhegorodovs design, had amore pronounced positive effect on seed germination, seedling growth and root length of the studied species of vegetable crops, compared with Vipon-2 thermovermiculite. TV2-H thermovermiculite can be recommended for the use in crop production for germination of vegetable seeds.

In the present study, a systematic literature review was conducted to examine the prevalence of homo- and heterozygous forms of Familial hypercholesterolemia among different racial and ethnic groups. Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an inherited disorder characterised by elevated blood levels of cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Databases PubMed, Web of Science, and Elsiever were searched and only peer-reviewed articles with a large number of contributors and sufficient prevalence and ethnicity data were included. Diagnosis of FH was based on genetic testing or clinical criteria. The results of the study indicate inadequate and untimely diagnosis of FH, resulting in inadequate treatment. To date, only 9% of countries have statistical data on the prevalence of FH in the general population. In order to develop effective prevention strategies for cardiovascular diseases associated with FH, further research is needed to obtain accurate epidemiological data, including the race and ethnicity of patients. This will allow optimisation of strategies to reduce the burden of preventable cardiovascular disease associated with FH.

Abstract Background The previously underestimated effects of commensal gut microbiota on the human body are increasingly being investigated using omics. The discovery of active molecules of interaction between the microbiota and the host may be an important step towards elucidating the mechanisms of symbiosis. Results Here, we show that in the bloodstream of healthy people, there are over 900 peptides that are fragments of proteins from microorganisms which naturally inhabit human biotopes, including the intestinal microbiota. Absolute quantitation by multiple reaction monitoring has confirmed the presence of bacterial peptides in the blood plasma and serum in the range of approximately 0.1 nM to 1 μM. The abundance of microbiota peptides reaches its maximum about 5 h after a meal. Most of the peptides correlate with the bacterial composition of the small intestine and are likely obtained by hydrolysis of membrane proteins with trypsin, chymotrypsin and pepsin – the main proteases of the gastrointestinal tract. The peptides have physicochemical properties that likely allow them to selectively pass the intestinal mucosal barrier and resist fibrinolysis. Conclusions The proposed approach to the identification of microbiota peptides in the blood, after additional validation, may be useful for determining the microbiota composition of hard-to-reach intestinal areas and monitoring the permeability of the intestinal mucosal barrier.

The purpose of the study: the study of the characteristics of the intestinal microbiome in young men who are professionally engaged in sports.Materials and methods: the study involved 36 young men aged 18 to 26 years. Fecal samples were taken from the study participants and then bacterial DNA was isolated from the obtained samples.Results: comparing the intestinal microbe of athletes with the control group, it is possible to trace the positive effect of sports on the overall diversity of representatives of the intestinal microbiota. When analyzing the taxonomic composition, it is worth separately noting the increase in representatives of lactate-producing bacteria and the increased content of Akkermansia muciniphila in athletes.Conclusions: the results of the study indicate the effects of sports training on the human gut microbiota and suggest the presence of a close two-way relationship “microbiome — muscle tissue”.

Abstract Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a pneumonia with extremely heterogeneous clinical presentation, ranging from asymptomatic to severely ill patients. Previous studies have reported links between the presence of host genetic variants and the outcome of the COVID-19 infection. In our study, we used whole exome sequencing in a cohort of 444 SARS-CoV-2 patients, admitted to hospital in the period October-2020–April-2022, to search for associations between rare pathogenic/potentially pathogenic variants and COVID-19 progression. We used gene prioritization-based analysis in genes that have been reported by host genetic studies. Although we did not identify correlation between the presence of rare pathogenic variants and COVID-19 outcome, in critically ill patients we detected known mutations in a number of genes associated with severe disease related to cardiovascular disease, primary ciliary dyskinesia, cystic fibrosis, DNA damage repair response, coagulation, primary immune disorder, hemoglobin subunit β, and others. Additionally, we report 93 novel pathogenic variants found in severely infected patients who required intubation or died. A network analysis showed main component, consisting of 13 highly interconnected genes related to epithelial cilium. In conclusion, we have detected rare pathogenic host variants that may have influenced the COVID-19 outcome in Bulgarian patients.