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Abstract Counterstereotypes challenge the deleterious effects that gender-typed beliefs exert on people’s occupational aspirations and lifestyle choices. Surprisingly, however, the critical issue of how readily unexpected person-related knowledge can be acquired remains poorly understood. Accordingly, in two experiments in which the facial appearance of targets was varied to manipulate goodness-of-stereotype-fit (i.e., high vs. low femininity/masculinity), here we used a probabilistic selection task to probe the rate at which counter-stereotypic and stereotypic individuals can be learned. Whether occupational (Expt. 1) or trait-related (Expt. 2) gender stereotypes were explored, a computational analysis yielded consistent results. Underscoring the potency of surprising information (i.e., facial misfits), knowledge acquisition was accelerated for unexpected compared to expected persons, both in counter-stereotypic and stereotypic learning contexts. These findings affirm predictive accounts of social perception and speak to the optimal characteristics of interventions designed to reduce stereotyping outside the laboratory.

The example of a service company demonstrates the need to prevent corruption risks, develop and implement a Regulation on Anti-Corruption Policy (hereinafter – the Regulation) and its implementation even in small companies. Potential corruption risks have been analyzed. The occurrence probability and the risks impact on a company’s goals and results have been assessed. The corruption risks map before and after the Regulation implementation have been developed and the expected results presented. The purpose of the study is to assess the importance of implementing anti-corruption policy for organizations of different sizes in the framework of modern socio-economic realities. The following objectives have been set: to disclose the corruption risks essence based on the analysis of the current crime situation in Russia; to analyze the specifics of a service company’s activities from the point of view of anti-corruption policy; to draw up a risk map based on a predetermined list of potential corruption risks typical for a service company; to develop a Regulation on anti-corruption policy; to assess the expected effect on the organization from its implementation. In order to achieve the stated goal and solve the specified tasks, such research methods as social audit, literature review, documentary sources study, analysis, analogy, description, synthesis, and generalization of the obtained data were used. The application of the above mentioned research methods allowed the most objective and comprehensive study and assessment of the HR corruption risks impact on a company’s objectives, its development trajectory, and the social responsibility degree to all stakeholders (employees, partners, customers, etc.).

At the beginning of the 20th century in Europe, a scientific direction was formed, called phytosociology, the founder of which was the Swiss botanist and ecologist J. Braun- Blanquet. The approach he developed has become widespread throughout the world and has formed the basis for a large number of vegetation classifications. The article provides a description of the ecological-floristic approach to vegetation classification according to the following parameters: the scope of the concept of association, the peculiarities of its boundary allocation, the classification criteria for establishing the type of forest conditions and for determining the association, consideration of the succession dynamics and the influence of anthropogenic factors, the level of implementation in forestry, forest management and reporting. An overview of the current state of the approach is given and the results of its comparison to the Russian forest typologies are presented. The advantages of the Braun-Blanquet classification include its versatility, developed methodology, flexibility of classification criteria and a carefully thought-out nomenclature. The development of the Turboveg software package for entering, storing and processing vegetation data has contributed to the increase in the use of this classification. Currently, in addition to vegetation features, it is becoming mandatory to take into account climatic parameters, and when identifying syntaxa and forming cartographic representations of vegetation, modern advances in the field of GIS technologies are used to assess the factors that influence the vegetation structure. The reflection of successional dynamics in syntaxonomic units still remains an urgent task for both the ecological-floristic approach and the domestic forest typologies. Within the framework of the Braun-Blanquet approach, aspects related to the consideration of anthropogenic transformations of plant associations are also being actively studied. This is evidenced by a number of successful examples of assessing forest synanthropization and modeling the response functions of plant communities to environmental factors, including anthropogenic ones. As in forest typologies, multidimensional methods of data analysis (DCA, CCA, PCA with superimposition of vectors on ordination diagrams) are widely used in the development of eclological-floristic classifications for studying the structure of forest vegetation.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that affects multiple organs or organ systems. SLE and one of its most common complications, lupus nephritis (LN), are characterized by chronic inflammation due to the secretion of pro-inflammatory molecules and a tissue deposition of immune complexes formed by autoantibodies and their target antigens, such as double-stranded DNA, other nuclear antigens, and complement proteins. Increased activity of phospholipase A2 enzymes (PLA2) like calcium-independent PLA2 (iPLA2), secretory PLA2 (sPLA2), and cellular PLA2 (cPLA2) has a crucial role in the maintenance of the inflammatory process during the course of SLE. This study aimed to evaluate PLA2 activity and identify the dominant type of PLA2 enzymes in a cohort of Bulgarian patients with SLE and LN. Additionally, we investigated whether the increased PLA2 activity was correlated with the presence of autoantibodies specific to the complement proteins C3 and factor H.

Purpose: This study aims to explore the range of sustainability-related discourses by the stakeholders within a particular Finnish Higher Education Institution (HEI); interaction between the discourses and the context of the HEI; and the extent to which different understandings of sustainability cause challenges for the implementation of the university strategy for sustainability. Specifically, the paper explores how the employees within the HEI make sense of sustainability in their teaching, research and daily life and the extent to which sustainability-related discourses are aligned with the university strategy. Design/methodology/approach: This research draws upon collected qualitative and quantitative data. It focuses on individual discourses by executives, teaching and research staff within an HEI regarding their understandings of sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Findings: This paper illustrates the key challenges of sustainability and SDG implementation that may emerge in HEIs due to varied understandings. The results indicate a need for efficient HEI strategic vision communication and consideration of the stakeholders' multiplicity of sustainability values. Originality/value: This paper sheds light on the challenges involved in seeking to enhance sustainable development in an academic setting with multiple disciplines and categories of staff guided by academic freedom. The analysis thus advances the understanding of academic sustainability-related discourses and framings as well as mechanisms through which the implementation of sustainability-related efforts can be enhanced in such a context.

In recent years, the opportunities for academic libraries to engage as a partner in digital initiatives in academia have expanded significantly. The traditional focus on digitization, preservation, and dissemination of collections has developed and shifted considerably, bringing new strategies for adequately serving the changed academic needs, as well as building and utilizing different types of collections. The goal of this article is to elaborate on these strategic shifts by presenting one of Panitza Library's newest digital collections projects - the "Sound Library" of the American University in Bulgaria, thus sharing insights into the practical process.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that speech substantially changes in ageing. As a complex neurophysiological process, it can accurately reflect changes in the motor and cognitive systems underpinning human speech. Since healthy ageing is not always easily discriminable from early stages of dementia based on cognitive and behavioural hallmarks, speech is explored as a preclinical biomarker of pathological itineraries in old age. A greater and more specific impairment of neuromuscular activation, as well as a specific cognitive and linguistic impairment in dementia, unchain discriminating changes in speech. Yet, there is no consensus on such discriminatory speech parameters, neither on how they should be elicited and assessed. Aims: To provide a state-of-the-art on speech parameters that allow for early discrimination between healthy and pathological ageing; the aetiology of these parameters; the effect of the type of experimental stimuli on speech elicitation and the predictive power of different speech parameters; and the most promising methods for speech analysis and their clinical implications. Methods & Procedures: A scoping review methodology is used in accordance with the PRISMA model. Following a systematic search of PubMed, PsycINFO and CINAHL, 24 studies are included and analysed in the review. Main Contribution: The results of this review yield three key questions for the clinical assessment of speech in ageing. First, acoustic and temporal parameters are more sensitive to changes in pathological ageing and, of these two, temporal variables are more affected by cognitive impairment. Second, different types of stimuli can trigger speech parameters with different degree of accuracy for the discrimination of clinical groups. Tasks with higher cognitive load are more precise in eliciting higher levels of accuracy. Finally, automatic speech analysis for the discrimination of healthy and pathological ageing should be improved for both research and clinical practice. Conclusions & Implications: Speech analysis is a promising non-invasive tool for the preclinical screening of healthy and pathological ageing. The main current challenges of speech analysis in ageing are the automatization of its clinical assessment and the consideration of the speaker's cognitive background during evaluation.

It has been demonstrated previously that human leukocyte antigen class I (HLA-I) and class II (HLA-II) alleles may modulate JAK2 V617F and CALR mutation (CALRmut)-associated oncogenesis in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). However, the role of immunogenetic factors in MPNs remains underexplored. We aimed to investigate the potential involvement of HLA genes in CALRmut+ MPNs. High-resolution genotyping of HLA-I and -II loci was conducted in 42 CALRmut+ and 158 JAK2 V617F+ MPN patients and 1,083 healthy controls. A global analysis of the diversity of HLA-I genotypes revealed no significant differences between CALRmut+ patients and controls. However, one HLA-I allele (C*06:02) showed an inverse correlation with presence of CALR mutation. A meta-analysis across independent cohorts and healthy individuals from the 1000 Genomes Project confirmed an inverse correlation between the presentation capabilities of the HLA-I loci for JAK2 V617F and CALRmut-derived peptides in both patients and healthy individuals. scRNA-Seq analysis revealed low expression of TAP1 and CIITA genes in CALRmut+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. In conclusion, the HLA-I genotype differentially restricts JAK2 V617F and CALRmut-driven oncogenesis potentially explaining the mutual exclusivity of the two mutations and differences in their presentation latency. These findings have practical implications for the development of neoantigen-based vaccines in MPNs.

Xenorhabdus species are bacterial symbionts of entomopathogenic Steinernema nematodes, in which they produce diverse secondary metabolites implicated in pathogenesis. To expand resources for natural product prospecting and exploration of host-symbiont-pathogen relationships, the genomes of Xenorhabdus cabanillasi, Xenorhabdus ehlersii, Xenorhabdus japonica, Xenorhabdus koppenhoeferii, and Xenorhabdus mauleonii were analyzed.

Metagenomes encode an enormous diversity of proteins, reflecting a multiplicity of functions and activities1,2. Exploration of this vast sequence space has been limited to a comparative analysis against reference microbial genomes and protein families derived from those genomes. Here, to examine the scale of yet untapped functional diversity beyond what is currently possible through the lens of reference genomes, we develop a computational approach to generate reference-free protein families from the sequence space in metagenomes. We analyse 26,931 metagenomes and identify 1.17 billion protein sequences longer than 35 amino acids with no similarity to any sequences from 102,491 reference genomes or the Pfam database3. Using massively parallel graph-based clustering, we group these proteins into 106,198 novel sequence clusters with more than 100 members, doubling the number of protein families obtained from the reference genomes clustered using the same approach. We annotate these families on the basis of their taxonomic, habitat, geographical and gene neighbourhood distributions and, where sufficient sequence diversity is available, predict protein three-dimensional models, revealing novel structures. Overall, our results uncover an enormously diverse functional space, highlighting the importance of further exploring the microbial functional dark matter.

In 2019, the National Health Interview survey found that nearly 59% of adults reported pain some, most, or every day in the past 3 months, with 39% reporting back pain, making back pain the most prevalent source of pain, and a significant issue among adults. Often, identifying a direct, treatable cause for back pain is challenging, especially as it is often attributed to complex, multifaceted issues involving biological, psychological, and social components. Due to the difficulty in treating the true cause of chronic low back pain (cLBP), an over-reliance on opioid pain medications among cLBP patients has developed, which is associated with increased prevalence of opioid use disorder and increased risk of death. To combat the rise of opioid-related deaths, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiated the Helping to End Addiction Long-TermSM (HEAL) initiative, whose goal is to address the causes and treatment of opioid use disorder while also seeking to better understand, diagnose, and treat chronic pain. The NIH Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program, a network of 14 funded entities, was launched as a part of the HEAL initiative to help address limitations surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of cLBP. This paper provides an overview of the BACPAC research program's goals and overall structure, and describes the harmonization efforts across the consortium, define its research agenda, and develop a collaborative project which utilizes the strengths of the network. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a blueprint for other consortia tasked with the advancement of pain related science.

The transcendental philosophy of I. Kant had a significant influence on subsequent world thought. Not a single independent philosopher could ignore it when constructing his own theory of knowledge. There was a development of the ideas of the great thinker or polemics with them. Russian philosophers were no exception here, whose work to one degree or another reflected the ideas of the great German thinker about transcendental knowledge. This was typical both of his direct followers, Russian neo-Kantians, and of Russian religious philosophers, who were seemingly ideologically distant from him, who conceptualized the theological heritage of Orthodoxy. The article examines the influence of I. Kant’s ideas on one of the Russian thinkers, the famous historian of philosophy V.V. Zenkovsky. Moreover, attention is focused not on his historical and philosophical assessment of Russian neo-Kantianism, but on his use of Kantian ideas in constructing a metaphysical system in which he, according to his own words, “overcame” transcendentalism. Based on the analysis of the theory of knowledge by V.V. Zenkovsky, presented by him in his unfinished systematizing work “Fundamentals of Christian Philosophy,” as well as in some scientific articles, the authors draw the following conclusion. The Russian philosopher, “overcoming” transcendentalism, at the same time, actively used ideas about transcendental knowledge and tried to solve the problem of the epistemological subject in an original way. By transcendentalism he understood, first of all, the unlawful distortion of I. Kant’s ideas by followers. The thinker received, interpreted, and, if necessary, transformed the positive aspects of transcendental philosophy from his point of view.

This article presents the outcomes of a study that investigates the perceptions among residents of Russia regarding their membership in the Russian nation or society. The study employs interviews (100) and focus groups (40), carried out across five regions of Russia, as its primary data collection methods. The key methodological approach was to pose questions about societal membership and the integration of various migrant types into Russian society, thus revealing underlying beliefs about the criteria for belonging to the Russian nation or society. This approach was especially insightful for understanding perceptions about groups that are typically not questioned about their societal membership. The study identifies two distinct types of societal membership: “organic” and “acquired”. Organic membership is socially ascribed to individuals born in Russia or those with ancestors born in Russia. This category often overlaps with national identity, rendering ethnic Russians born in Russia the quintessential members of Russian society. However, organic membership is not exclusively reserved for ethnic Russians; it extends to other ethnic groups considered part of “the peoples of Russia”, though they are seen as less typical members. Interestingly, the perception of these membership categories varies between regions with distinct national identities and those without such distinctions. Acquired membership, on the other hand, is contingent upon fulfilling specific criteria, such as familiarity with Russian (or regional) culture and a desire to be part of Russian society. Exceptionally, notable achievements can override these criteria. Unlike organic members, individuals with acquired membership can lose their societal status, except in cases of betrayal, which is nearly impossible for organic members. The findings are contextualized within citizenship studies, positing that the described constructs serve as a foundation for the institution of citizenship rather than the converse. Additionally, the study contributes to the ongoing cognitive turn in ethnicity research, offering new insights into the conceptualization of national and societal belonging.