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The praxis article is devoted to the study of educational cartoon as an interactive method of teaching legal disciplines. The purpose of the article is to argue the usefulness of this methodology for the educational process (e.g., the development of critical thinking, increasing the activity of students when discussing educational tasks on the basis of cartoons, clarification of complex terms), to improve the image of the university (use of educational cartoons in universities during the week of the Faculty of Law), and explain how we assessed the effectiveness of this methodology through quantitative and qualitative methods. While it is a new approach in Russian Law schools, we draw attention to the universality of this methodology; as educational cartoons can be used in schools and across different university departments, and to the specificity of modeling of educational tasks in law, by providing specific examples of such educational tasks. We propose three variants of development of educational cartoons for the educational process at law faculties: (1) placing an order for special production of educational cartoons; (2) use of fragments of already existing cartoons; and (3) creation by the teacher of oral tasks on the motives of national fairy tales. The results of our research substantiate that the greatest effect of the proposed methodology can give only in the case of using for the preparation of educational cartoons national content, which is closest to the culture and mentality of students of a particular university.

AIM OF THE STUDY. Comparative clinical analysis of the efficacy of terlipressin and octreotide as additional drug therapy to mechanical hemostasis with nitinol stent in patients with liver cirrhosis complicated by bleeding from esophageal varices refractory to endoscopic treatment.MATERIAL AND METHODS. Thirty-one patients with liver cirrhosis complicated by esophageal variceal bleeding refractory to endoscopic treatment , in whose complex treatment program, as a first-line life­saving measure, hemostasis with a self-expanding hemostasis was performed nitinol stent were randomly assigned to two groups. In group A, 20 patients were treated with terlipressin as an adjuvant to mechanical hemostasis, and in group B, 11 patients were treated with octreotide. Unpaired Student’s t-test was used for statistical analysis of the results. Graphs for assessing the survival function of patients for 8 weeks after the end of treatment were constructed using the Kaplan-Meier method.RESULTS. In the acute observation period terlipressin and octreotide were equally effective in treating refractory variceal bleeding. In the subacute observation period, the administration of octreotide was generally accompanied by a greater number of side effects (54.5%) than terlipressin (30.0%) (p=0.453). In the remote observation period, 8-week survival in the group of patients receiving terlipressin was higher than in the group of patients receiving octreotide.CONCLUSION. Terlipressin is as effective as octreotide as an adjunct to endoscopic stenting in drug therapy for liver cirrhosis complicated by esophageal variceal bleeding refractory to endoscopic treatment. At the same time, terlipressin has a greater effect than octreotide on reducing 8-week mortality, which approaches statistical significance. In this regard, terlipressin may be the vasoactive drug of choice in acute refractory variceal bleeding.

Abstract Background When running a randomized controlled trial (RCT), a clinical site may face a situation when an eligible trial participant is to be randomized to the treatment that is not available at the site. In this case, there are two options: not to enroll the participant, or, without disclosing to the site, allocate the participant to a treatment arm with drug available at the site using a built-in feature of the interactive response technology (IRT). In the latter case, one has employed a “forced randomization” (FR). There seems to be an industry-wide consensus that using FR can be acceptable in confirmatory trials provided there are “not too many” instances of forcing. A better understanding of statistical properties of FR is warranted. Methods We described four different IRT configurations with or without FR and illustrated them using a simple example. We discussed potential merits of FR and outlined some relevant theoretical risks and risk mitigation strategies. We performed a search using Cortellis Regulatory Intelligence database (IDRAC) ( www.cortellis.com ) to understand the prevalence of FR in clinical trial practice. We also proposed a structured template for development and evaluation of randomization designs featuring FR and showcased an application of this template for a hypothetical multi-center 1:1 RCT under three experimental settings (“base case”, “slower recruitment”, and “faster recruitment”) to explore the effect of four different IRT configurations in combination with three different drug supply/re-supply strategies on some important operating characteristics of the trial. We also supplied the Julia code that can be used to reproduce our simulation results and generate additional results under user-specified experimental scenarios. Results FR can eliminate refusals to randomize patients, which can cause frustration for patients and study site personnel, improve the study logistics, drug supply management, cost-efficiency, and recruitment time. Nevertheless, FR carries some potential risks that should be reviewed at the study planning stage and, ideally, prospectively addressed through risk mitigation planning. The Cortellis search identified only 9 submissions that have reported the use of FR; typically, the FR option was documented in IRT specifications. Our simulation evidence showed that under the considered realistic experimental settings, the percentage of FR is expected to be low. When FR with backfilling was used in combination with high re-supply strategy, the final treatment imbalance was negligibly small, the proportion of patients not randomized due to the lack of drug supply was close to zero, and the time to complete recruitment was shortened compared to the case when FR was not allowed. The drug overage was primarily determined by the intensity of the re-supply strategy and to a smaller extent by the presence or absence of the FR feature in IRT. Conclusion FR with a carefully chosen drug supply/re-supply strategy can result in quantifiable improvements in the patients’ and site personnel experience, trial logistics and efficiency while preventing an undesirable refusal to randomize a patient and a consequential unblinding at the site. FR is a useful design feature of multi-center RCTs provided it is properly planned for and carefully implemented.

The propulsive motion of a multimass system, vibration-driven robot (VR), in a viscous incompressible fluid was studied. The VR consisted of a round cylindrical body submerged in the fluid and an internal mass (IM) performing small-amplitude pendulum-like oscillations inside the body. Using the method of asymptotic expansions, the combined mechanical and hydrodynamic problems that describe the self-propulsion of the system in the fluid were solved. The hydrodynamic problem was formulated on the basis of the complete non-stationary Navier– Stokes equation. An analytical solution was derived to describe the cruising regime of the VR motion in the fluid. The non-stationary hydrodynamic influence on the VR was determined. The efficiency of the propulsive system’s motion was assessed.

Healthcare quality depends on medical personnel, i.e., motivation, professional burnout, work-life balance, etc. The authors used standard research methods to investigate the relationship between performance, staff turnover, salary, and motivation in healthcare in various federal districts. The hypothesis was that the high workload and a disproportionate payment system reduce the motivation, which increases staff turnover and leads to shortage of qualified personnel. In this research, stronger labor intensity indeed contributed to lower motivation of medical personnel and triggered staff turnover. The labor intensity correlated with the level of staff turnover, but no correlation was revealed between the labor intensity and the wages. The article explains the need for a more effective labor rationing system and a more rational workload distribution.

Polyphenols are present as nutrient components in many functional food formulations. However, their bioavailability is quite low, and they tend to degrade under extreme technological conditions, e.g., heating, pH, etc. Moreover, polyphenols are known for their specific bitter taste. As a result, a large amount of polyphenols spoils the sensory properties of the finished product. Encapsulation seems a prospective solution to this problem. This article provides a comprehensive review of scientific publications on various methods of polyphenol encapsulation. The review covered publications registered in PubMed, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Elsevier, eLIBRARY.RU, and Cyberleninka in 2002–2023 with a focus on original research articles published after 2012. The search involved such keywords as polyphenols, encapsulation, flavonoids, delivery systems, and functional products. Encapsulating materials are made of organic or inorganic substances, as well as of their combinations. Mineral salts delay the contact between polyphenols and taste buds. However, they are not resistant enough to gastric juice. In this respect, organic matrices are more effective. Carbohydrates protect active molecules from degradation in the stomach. Liposomes increase the bioavailability of polyphenols. Milk or whey proteins also proved quite effective for a number of reasons. First, they mask the astringent taste, which makes it possible to include more polyphenols in functional food formulations. Second, the resulting product is fortified with valuable proteins and essential amino acids. Third, high concentrations of polyphenols possess enough antioxidant properties to increase the shelf-life. Polyphenol encapsulation is an effective method of functional product design, especially in the sphere of foods made for dietary nutrition, sports, preventive diets, etc.

The banking sector was among the first to join digital transformation of economy and became a driver of digital technologies used within the frames of B2C and B2B. Bank executives consider banking-process digitalization as a key factor of competitiveness and success on market. Digitalization process in the banking sphere goes on intensively, which requires modernization and adaptation to constantly changing conditions. Therefore, the acute objective is to trace key trends in digital transformation of the banking sector. Major goals of the research are to analyze digitalization rate of the banking sphere and to make up a list of serious problems arising in the process of digital transformation of banks. The authors used such methods of research as comparative analysis, statistical analysis, benchmarking, classification and rating. As a result of the research the article mentioned a list of acute problems of digital transformation of existing Russian banks and possible lines in their solution or minimization of adverse impacts. The authors came to the conclusion that the process of banking activity digitalization is accompanied by both positive and negative factors, the latter forms problematic fields requiring fast settlement.

Background. In case of ineffective conservative antiepileptic therapy, surgical treatment aimed at removing the epileptogenic focus may be applied. Resection procedures allow to eliminate seizures in most patients, but in 20–30% cases they persist or recur, thereby proposing to use some neuromodulation.Objective: to assess effectiveness of neuromodulation in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) after failed resection surgical interventions.Material and methods. A retrospective data analysis was carried out involving 23 DRE patients who had undergone vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) or deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT) or hippocampus (HP) after failed surgeries. The VNS system was implanted in 18 (78.3%) patients, the HP-DBS system – in 3 (13.0%), and the ANT-DBS system – in 2 (8.7%). The results after surgical interventions were assessed according to the Engel scale, VNS therapy – by the McHugh (MH) scale, DBS therapy – by the degree of reduced seizure rate as a percentage. The average follow-up was 56.5 months.Results. Patients with implanted VNS system were found to have the outcome presented as MH Ia–IIb in 3 (16.7%) cases, MH IIIa–IIIb in 10 (55.5%) cases, MH IV–V in 5 (27.8%) cases. In HP-DBS group, 2 out of 3 patients showed a decline in seizure rate by more than 50% from the baseline level, and 1 patient experienced an improvement in seizure severity. In the ANT-DBS group, one patient had a 60% reduction in seizure rate and an improvement in seizure severity, another one showed no change in seizure rate.Conclusion. Neuromodulation in DRE patients can significantly lower seizure rate in more than half of patients after failed surgical treatment.

Introduction. There is an annual increasing of kidney transplantion all over the world. The number of recipients with hyperhomocysteinemia before and after the operation is also increasing, which increases the risk of cardiovascular complications, graft loss and patients’ death.Materials and methods. A 28-year-old patient with terminal chronic renal desiase in the outcome of chronic glomerulonephritis had underwent an allogeneic kidney transplant from a 52-year-old donor, with confirmed brain death in the outcome of acute hemorrhagic cerebral circulatory disorders.Results. The early postoperative period has complicated by thrombosis.Conclusion. The study of blood homocysteine levels is mandatory when examining patients for kidney transplantation.

Background. Simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplantation is a gold standard in the treatment of diabetes mellitus complicated by stage 5 chronic kidney disease as a result of diabetic nephropathy. One of the main problems of clinical pancreas transplantation is the pancreas graft exocrine drainage. In order to preserve the advantages of the retroperitoneal graft location and avoid the main disadvantage of duodenal drainage, namely, fatal complications potentially arising in case of necessary graft removal, we have proposed a modified method of retroperitoneal pancreatic transplantation with exocrine drainage via a modified Roux-en-Y duodenojejunostomy. It reduces the number of severe surgical complications and increases the recipient survival rate. When this method was used in previous years, it was not possible to assess the condition of donor duodenum mucosa and interintestinal anastomoses.Objective. To demonstrate the possibility of endoscopic assessment of interintestinal anastomoses when performing retroperitoneal pancreas transplantation with small intestine drainage of exocrine secretions.Results. The article presents the initial experience of endoscopic assessment of the interintestinal anastomoses and the mucous membrane of the donor duodenum after retroperitoneal pancreas transplantation with exocrine drainage via a Roux-en-Y duodenojejunostomy.Conclusion. The presented case demonstrates the feasibility of diagnostic endoscopic interventions when performing retroperitoneal pancreas transplantation with small intestine drainage of pancreatic secretions.

Linguocultural concepts in the film text are a complex aspect of translation. This paper is devoted to the study of the localization potential of linguistic and cultural concepts in the implementation of the film text translation in French-English language pair. The purpose of the article is to analyze the localization potential of linguistic and cultural concepts in intermediated intercultural communication through the cinema resource. The paper provides examples of un\ successful localization, compiled on the basis of a films target audience anonymous survey. The research material included 4 concepts ( Amour/Love, Amitié /Friendship, Famille/ Family, Patrimoine/National Treasure ) implemented in 70 French films with official localizations into English, released in the period of 1966-2022. The methods of random sampling, mathematical statistics, quantitative analysis, semantic and linguocultural analysis of the text, method of anonymous questioning were used in the study. To conduct a qualitative evaluation of the film text original and localized units perception, we conducted a survey of anglophone and francophone viewers. The results of the study were the identification of various translation transformations used in the localization of functional and pragmatic units of the film text with an analize of their effectiveness by viewers perceiving the film text in the source language and by viewers perceiving the film text in the target language. The use of statistical analysis methods made it possible to verify the data obtained empirically, and semantic and linguocultural analysis made it possible to analyze the obtained linguistic units in terms of their assessment and linguistic systematization.