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In this report, spiritual health is conceived as well-being in the relationship that the individual has with himself, with nature, with others and with God, a subject that has increasingly occupied the interest of researchers and educators during the last three decades. This research has estimated the validity and reliability of the Spiritual Well-being Scale, Romanian children’s version. The instrument consists of 27 statements to assess spiritual well-being in children and adolescents, on a five-point Likert scale. For content validity, six experts participated evaluating the clarity and relevance of the statements. For construct validity, 503 students from primary and middle school level attending Romanian schools from different regions participated. An exploratory factor analysis was performed using the principal axis method, with an oblimin rotation. It is concluded that the resulting instrument has the appropriate psychometric properties and can be useful for the assessment of the spiritual wellbeing of minors in clinical and educational contexts.

Influenza is a disease with a major impact on public health due to epidemic and pandemic developments, but also through severe forms of illness that frequently cause complications and deaths in people at high risk. But flu is also a disease that ”costs” the sick individual and the community in which he lives and works. An important step in controlling influenza in children would be the vaccination of small children in the community, a measure that can be sustained by reducing spending on illness, complications and admissions.

Research background. Cross-border cooperation promotes multifield relations in the global economy with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) aiming to find new markets and business networks and achieve any higher economic performance. In addition, it is more than healthy for businesspeople to use their experience to address the challenges of multi-cultural interactions and to form, develop, adjust and strengthen relationships within dynamic environments. Current studies on business-to-business (B2B) relationships and internationalization provide evidence that there is no single theoretical framework, and the analysis of the correlation between the two processes is an area of interest for future research. Thus, international relationships which take into account the general challenges of global intricacies, the cultural differences between target markets, emerge as relevant. Purpose of the article . The paper seeks to examine managers' perception and attitude towards different facets of B2B relationships availed by SMEs in international contexts. Methods: The research method used is the interview-based survey, a qualitative, eminently exploratory method which facilitates an investigation of presumed relationships between different constructs and, implicitly, a pertinent description of socio-human processes and phenomena. Findings & Value added. The qualitative analysis of the collected data pointed to several main conclusions. Firstly, most of the interviewed subjects rated the dimensions related to B2B relationships as important in the internationalisation process of their SMEs. Secondly, managers consider that economic interests and overall business details prevail over socio-cultural differences between business partners and over the characteristics of the country of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital service has firmly entered all areas of social and economic activity, including education. The activity of a modern teacher in the digital educational environment is its integral component. The development of “digital citizenship” as a whole largely depends on the formation of the digital culture of a teacher as a translator of the ideas of the state educational policy. The relevance of considering the problem of digital culture formation among teachers is due to the following contradictions: between the increasing importance of a teacher in the process of digitalization of education and poor development of the content of its digital culture and its components as determinants of professional pedagogical activity in a digital educational environment; between the growth of digitalization of the educational process and the insufficient level of formation of digital culture among teachers. These contradictions form the basis of our research, the problem of which is to reveal the features of the digital culture of a modern teacher as a resource for his professional activity in the context of the digital transformation of the educational space.The purpose of the research is to theoretically substantiate the essence and component composition of the digital culture of a modern teacher as a resource for his professional activities in a digital educational environment. This goal was achieved through the use of the following research methods: literature analysis, classification, modeling, description, ways of visualizing data in the form of figures and tables.The results of the research: 1) the analysis of scientific sources has made it possible to determine the conceptual approaches to considering the problem of the digital culture of a teacher, which made it possible to accumulate information and develop a map of the component composition of a teacher’s digital culture; 2) the basic components of a teacher’s digital culture have been theoretically substantiated: digital literacy and motivational-value attitude; 3) a procedure for assessing the level of formation of a teacher’s digital culture has been proposed.Key conclusions: 1) the map of the component composition of the digital culture of a teacher is an integrative information about the essence and composition of the digital culture of a teacher and includes the types of digital competence, their corresponding competencies, indicators and digital skills; 2) the basic components of a teacher’s digital culture are digital literacy and a motivationalvalue attitude, each of which is represented by indicators and digital skills corresponding to it; 3) the methodology for assessing the formation of a teacher’s digital culture includes a level scale and the calculation of an individual index of digital competence. The information contained in the article can be used as the basis for developing a program of advanced training courses and professional retraining of teachers aimed at creating a digital culture in the educational environment.

The indication of the need for the formation of universal competencies in students in the current FSES HE 3++ has activated the scientific and pedagogical community to search for ways to solve this problem. The article reveals the possibilities of the «Training professional communication» discipline in the formation of universal competencies in the process of professional training of bachelors at a university in the direction of 44.03.02 «Psychological and pedagogical education», «Psychology and Social Pedagogy» direction. The purpose of the research is to reveal the experience of the formation of universal competencies in students as a factor in increasing the effectiveness of the educational process. The research methods are represented by a set of theoretical methods of cognition, such as generalization, design, comparison, forecasting. The research results. The category «universal competences» and its indicators have been clarified; the planned learning outcomes in the discipline of «Training professional communication» in the context of a competence-oriented approach have been proposed, a criterion scale for assessing UC-3 universal competence formation in the field of training of 44.03.02 «Psychological and pedagogical education» in the framework of the discipline of «Training professional communication» has been developed. Key findings: universal competencies are certain qualities, types of behavior that people tend to exhibit, striving to achieve work goals; the list of planned learning outcomes in accordance with the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3++ correlates with indicators of achievement of each universal competence through the triad «knows; knows how; owns» for each indicator of achievement of competencies. The criterion scale for assessing UK-3 universal competence formation in the corresponding direction of training includes four levels: unsatisfactory, satisfactory, good and excellent, which are revealed in the process of current and intermediate control of knowledge among students in an academic discipline.

The situation associated with the coronavirus pandemic has greatly changed the life of every person and society as a whole over the past two years. Self-isolation and remote operation as means to contain the spread of infection have prompted the search for new ways to implement various types of activities, which were previously carried out mainly in full-time format. Digital technologies and tools have come to the rescue, which at the time of the pandemic were in demand only in certain areas and were not so widespread. In the current difficult conditions, digital transformations, which began even before the pandemic in all spheres of public life, including education, have greatly accelerated. Understanding the changes taking place in education, assessing their impact on the interaction of subjects of the pedagogical process and the effectiveness of training require analysis of domestic and foreign experience, available data in the field of using digital educational technologies, and the implementation of distance learning. The research problem is the use of distance learning in the system of university training of specialists. The purpose of the research is to analyze and systematize the experience of the transition of universities to distance learning, to study the preliminary results of large-scale application of digital technologies and online learning in universities. The research methods used are analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, questioning, conversation. The research base is FSBEI HE “Maykop State Technological University” and FSBEI HE “Adygh State University”. The results of the research are the following: studies on the problem of transition to distance learning in the context of university training have been analyzed; the attitude of the subjects of the educational process to interaction in a new format has been studied, the most convenient digital technologies and tools for teaching have been identified; the advantages and disadvantages of using the distance format in the educational process have been revealed. The key findings: distance technologies make it possible to make education accessible to certain categories of students (for example, for people with disabilities who are in forced isolation as a result of the spread of COVID-19), expand the format of self-education, and provide professional training at a qualitatively different level; a complete transition to a distance learning format reduces the quality and efficiency of the learning process, since new tools do not have the potential that is inherent in traditional tools. The combination of distance learning with traditional, full-time education has more opportunities to meet the challenges facing modern education.

Today an electronic educational environment is an integral innovative component of vocational education functioning. The construction of electronic educational environments in Russia is supported by government initiatives in the context of the modernization of the entire educational institution, taking into account global trends. Today, our country has accumulated a certain experience in the development and use of electronic educational resources in the educational process, which needs analysis and systematization. The research problem: what are the mechanisms of using electronic educational environment of a university in the professional training of future psychologists and social teachers? The purpose of the research is to substantiate the expediency of using electronic educational environment in the professional training of future psychologists and social teachers. The research methods used are synthesis, systematization, desk research, generalization. The research results are the following: the relevance of using the electronic educational environment of a university as an innovative resource in the professional training of future psychologists and social teachers has been confirmed; the components of the electronic educational environment of a university have been characterized; electronic resources used in educational activities for the purpose of resource and information support of psychological and pedagogical disciplines have been disclosed Key conclusions: digital service is viewed as an additional, promising innovative educational resource in the professional training of future psychologists and social educators; the components of the electronic information and educational environment of a university are the official website, an electronic library, electronic an educational environment; the effectiveness of professional training of future psychologists and social teachers is possible with the additional use of Moodle, Zoom, YouTube, Google electronic resources.

Professional activity in the digital environment is an integral component of modern life in Industry 4.0. The success of the formation of digital competence of an individual in modern realities is largely determined by the level of digital culture of a teacher himself as a translator of the values of the digital society. In this regard, the problem of the research can be formulated as follows: what are the theoretical approaches to substantiating the category of "digital culture" in modern pedagogical discourse?The purpose of the research is to reveal the essence of the concept of "digital culture" as an actual pedagogical category. The research methods used are analysis, synthesis, differentiation, description.The results of the study are based on the analysis and synthesis of derivatives of the definition of "digital culture". Theoretical approaches to the content of the concept of "digital culture" as an innovative component of the teacher's professional activity have been presented; the concept of "digital culture" has been clarified; the basic components of a teacher's digital culture have been proposed.The key conclusions are the following: derivatives of the definition of "digital culture" are "digital literacy", "digital competence", ICT culture; The digital culture of a teacher is understood as the formation of the necessary skills for successful functioning in mixed reality, including the skills of safe and effective work with content, communication with other users in the electronic educational environment, search and consumption of information, continuous improvement, motivational and value attitude to the digital service, providing ergonomic functioning in the new digital educational space; the basic components of a teacher's digital culture are: digital literacy, ICT competencies, motivational-value attitude.

Background: the general lifespan has been prolonged greatly during the past century, and the incidence of age-associated diseases, including neurodegenerative ones, has increased as well. However, modelling of age-related pathologies is mostly conducted on adult rodents. We studied morphofunctional changes in the brain and peripheral blood of adult Wistar rats in comparison with old Wistar rats to determine age-related physiological changes and differences in adaptive reactions to AlCl3 exposure. Methods: the work was performed on adult and old male Wistar rats. The animals consumed a 100 mg/kg solution of AlCl3 each day for 60 days. Morphological changes of neurons and microglia, mRNA expression levels of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines, microglia activation markers, amyloid-related proteins, and hallmarks of cellular senescence, monocyte, and lymphocyte subpopulations in the peripheral blood were examined. Results: old rats showed increasing hyperchromic neurons in the hippocampus; activation of microglia; upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines and cellular senescence markers; downregulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines; and Hif-1a and a decrease in B-cells and monocyte in peripheral blood. Conclusion: compared to young animals, aged rats respond to aluminum exposure with a severe decline of most cells’ function and irreversible neuronal loss. Regarding all reported data, neurodegeneration modelling and investigating of factors capable of accelerating or preventing it should be performed in experimental work on aged animals.

The paper is devoted to the study of the solvability of nonlocal problems with an integral variable $t$ condition for the equations $$u_{tt}+(\alpha\frac{\partial}{\partial t}+\beta)\Delta u=f(x,t)$$($\alpha$, $\beta$ are valid constants, $\Delta$ is Laplace operator by spatial variables). Theorems are proved for the studied problems existence and non-existence, uniqueness and non-uniqueness solutions (having all derivatives generalized by S. L. Sobolev included in the equation).

Purpose. The article is devoted to the study of phrasal verbs functioning as one of the speech means that makes up the system of speech expression of the communicative intention of the author of a publicistic article. The purpose of the article is to analyse the speech means used in the English-language quality press to form an evaluative color of events, a certain image, and produce a pragmatic impact on the recipient. Methodology. The authors use the method of functional analysis of discourse. Results. As a result, it was determined that the targeted choice of effective pragmatic means of influence is based on the communicative intention of the author, the use of speech strategies and tactics is intentional. Mass media discourse is a functionally determined system of meanings in which propositions are linked by pragma-semantic and logical-semantic relations. Conclusions. It is concluded that knowledge of the mechanisms of speech influence can help specialists in various professional spheres in improving their communicative competence, and contributes to the resistance to speech manipulations.

Abstract Background The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is altered in several diseases of the central nervous system. For example, the breakdown of the BBB during cerebral ischemia in stroke or traumatic brain injury is a hallmark of the diseases’ progression. This functional damage is one key event which is attempted to be mimicked in in vitro models. Recent studies showed the pivotal role of micro-environmental cells such as astrocytes for this barrier damage in mouse stroke in vitro models. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of micro-environmental cells for the functional, paracellular breakdown in a human BBB cerebral ischemia in vitro model accompanied by a transcriptional analysis. Methods Transwell models with human brain endothelial cell line hCMEC/D3 in mono-culture or co-culture with human primary astrocytes and pericytes or rat glioma cell line C6 were subjected to oxygen/glucose deprivation (OGD). Changes of transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) and FITC-dextran 4000 permeability were recorded as measures for paracellular tightness. In addition, qPCR and high-throughput qPCR Barrier chips were applied to investigate the changes of the mRNA expression of 38 relevant, expressed barrier targets (tight junctions, ABC-transporters) by different treatments. Results In contrast to the mono-culture, the co-cultivation with human primary astrocytes/pericytes or glioma C6 cells resulted in a significantly increased paracellular permeability after 5 h OGD. This indicated the pivotal role of micro-environmental cells for BBB breakdown in the human model. Hierarchical cluster analysis of qPCR data revealed differently, but also commonly regulated clustered targets dependent on medium exchange, serum reduction, hydrocortisone addition and co-cultivations. Conclusions The co-cultivation with micro-environmental cells is necessary to achieve a functional breakdown of the BBB in the cerebral ischemia model within an in vivo relevant time window. Comprehensive studies by qPCR revealed that distinct expression clusters of barrier markers exist and that these are regulated by different treatments (even by growth medium change) indicating that controls for single cell culture manipulation steps are crucial to understand the observed effects properly.

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common age-related neurodegenerative disorders. The main theory of Alzheimer’s disease progress is the amyloid-β cascade hypothesis. However, the initial mechanisms of insoluble forms of amyloid-β formation and hyperphosphorylated tau protein in neurons remain unclear. One of the factors, which might play a key role in senile plaques and tau fibrils generation due to Alzheimer’s disease, is inflammaging, i.e., systemic chronic low-grade age-related inflammation. The activation of the proinflammatory cell phenotype is observed during aging, which might be one of the pivotal mechanisms for the development of chronic inflammatory diseases, e.g., atherosclerosis, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and Alzheimer’s disease. This review discusses the role of the inflammatory processes in developing neurodegeneration, activated during physiological aging and due to various diseases such as atherosclerosis, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and depressive disorders.

Microphysiological systems play a pivotal role in progressing toward a global paradigm shift in drug development. Here, we designed a four-organ-chip interconnecting miniaturized human intestine, liver, brain and kidney equivalents. All four organ models were predifferentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells from the same healthy donor and integrated into the microphysiological system. The coculture of the four autologous tissue models in one common medium deprived of tissue specific growth factors was successful over 14-days. Although there were no added growth factors present in the coculture medium, the intestine, liver and neuronal model maintained defined marker expression. Only the renal model was overgrown by coexisting cells and did not further differentiate. This model platform will pave the way for autologous coculture cross-talk assays, disease induction and subsequent drug testing.

The problems associated with the possibility of the effective use of percussion-wave phenomena to create and implement advanced technological processes in industries are considered. Based on the analysis of vibrowave treatment process diagrams, the main steps of the method implementation are identified: deformation wave shaping, wave propagation, behavior, and affecting on the processed surface of the workpiece material. The experimental research on the wave processes under vibrowave part processing is resulted. It is shown that the skin hardening is affected by the deformation waves (their summation, dispersion into the environment, refraction), as well as by some part specifications of the waveguide devices and instruments. The most common vibrowave treatment process diagrams are performed, issues on their development are considered.

Background: Human papilloma virus (HPV) is acknowledged as a risk factor for oropharyngeal squamous cellular cancers (OPSCC), of which the dominant types are tonsillar (TSCC) and base of tongue cancer (BOTSCC). Objective: To assess the role of HPV in selected OPSCC cases, from Romanian patients by sensitive and complementary molecular assays. Material and Methods: Fifty-four formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) OPSCC samples were analyzed for HPV DNA by a PCR-based bead-based multiplex-assay. Thirty-four samples were tested for HPV RNA and for overexpression of p16INK4a by immunohistochemistry. Twenty samples were evaluated by Competitive Allele-Specific Taqman PCR (CAST-PCR) for fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 protein (FGFR3) status. Results: A total of 33.3% (18/54) OPSCC samples were positive for HPV DNA. HPV16 was the most frequent type (30%, 16/54); followed by HPV18 (3.7%, 2/54); and 1 sample (1.8%) was positive for both HPV16 and 18. HPV18 E6*I was detected in a HPV18 DNA-positive oropharynx tumor. Four samples positive for HPV16 were also positive for p16INK4a. All the tested samples were negative for FGFR3. Conclusions: The increased HPV16 prevalence is in line with similar studies and is a new confirmation that HPV16 is the most prevalent type in our country; supporting the potential benefit of prophylactic vaccines. Overall, there is no concordance between DNA and any of the two other analytes that are considered being markers of HPV-driven cancers. There is a need to explore novel screening strategies that could be broadly used in the clinical routine to initiate preventive measures.