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Problem and purpose. Along with the obvious benefits, the digitalization of society carries its own risks. At the same time, in modern psychology there is not enough information about the differences in representations of such risks in different cultures. The purpose of the article is to empirically verify the assumption about the dependence of risk perceptions on the socio-cultural context. Methodology. The empirical part of the study was carried out through questionnaires, collected in different universities in three countries during academic and scientific visits (Russia: n = 112, Romania: n = 94, Brazil: n = 98) and drafting the evaluation reports of social risks perceptions (Abric coefficient). During the translation of the questionnaires, we used the focus group method and the method of translation of psychodiagnostic tools and questionnaires (S.V. Kudrya). Results. The data obtained showed that perceptions of risks depend on general perceptions of risks in the culture of a given country, legislation in the field of Internet security, as well as the duration and experience of interaction in social networks of the Internet. Thus, the" core " of the social representation of Russian and Romanian students about the results of risky behavior on the Internet are unproductive behavior in the information environment (TCP-92); demonstration of indifference (TCP-78) or aggressiveness (TCP-75), and for the Brazilian sample, the demonstration of psychological affliction is more typical (TCP-65). In addition, the lexical-semantic analysis of terms and concepts in the field of riskology used for empirical survey of students showed the presence of semantic cross-cultural differences in their understanding. Discussion and conclusion. The data obtained allow us to say that social perceptions of risks are influenced by socio-cultural and legislative peculiarities: The empirical part of the study showed a clear difference between the "core" and "periphery" both in the cross-cultural dimension and within the country samples. The lexico-semantic analysis of risk-generating behavioral patterns and ideas about risks showed cultural (linguistic) differences in this area and the need not only for adaptation and verification of diagnostic tools, but also for clarifying the meaning of various risk factors in the verbal plan. © 2021 LLC Ecological Help. All rights reserved. Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке РФФИ в рамках научного проекта No 19-29-14067.

Background: Predicting the progression of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is important for treatment selection and patient counseling. Structural MRI markers such as hippocampus or basal forebrain volumes might represent useful instruments for the prediction of cognitive decline. The primary objective was to determine the predictive value of hippocampus and basal forebrain volumes for global and domain specific cognitive decline in AD dementia during cholinergic treatment.Methods: We used MRI and cognitive data from 124 patients with the clinical diagnosis of AD dementia, derived from the ADNI-1 cohort, who were on standard of care cholinesterase inhibitor treatment during a follow-up period between 0.4 and 3.1 years. We used linear mixed effects models with cognitive function as outcome to assess the main effects as well as two-way interactions between baseline volumes and time controlling for age, sex, and total intracranial volume. This model accounts for individual variation in follow-up times.Results: Basal forebrain volume, but not hippocampus volume, was a significant predictor of rates of global cognitive decline. Larger volumes were associated with smaller rates of cognitive decline. Left hippocampus volume had a modest association with rates of episodic memory decline. Baseline performance in global cognition and memory was significantly associated with hippocampus and basal forebrain volumes; in addition, basal forebrain volume was associated with baseline performance in executive function.Conclusions: Our findings indicate that in AD dementia patients, basal forebrain volume may be a useful marker to predict subsequent cognitive decline during cholinergic treatment.

In crisis situations, public or private organi-zations become vulnerable. When organizations adopt the silence strategy, the public seeks in-formation in the news media which may induce the attribution of crisis responsibility. The crisis managers should check the news media framing of the (organizational and/or individual) respon-sibility level, the news practices of daily and tabloid press and the journalists’ use of the cri-sis issues and news frames of the situation. Our study will focus on one of the greatest tragedies in Romania, the newborn babies’ death during the 2010 fre at the Giuleşti Maternity Hospital in Bucharest. The comparative analysis focuses on the news media coverage of this crisis in the online versions of four national newspapers with the largest circulation. The content analysis high-lights the crisis news frames and issues in Roma-nian daily and tabloid newspapers. The fndings suggest that, despite the same salience of crisis frames (attribution of responsibility, human inter-est, economic consequences, confict, morality), the sensationalist and sober news stories differ in three ways: the assigning of the level of re-sponsibility, the crisis issues associated with the fve frames, and the coverage of the micro and macro-relations established between the organi-zations during the crisis situation.

BACKGROUND: Excessive checking is a common, debilitating symptom of obsessive–compulsive disorder. To further examine cognitive processes underpinning checking behaviour, and clarify how and why checking develops, we designed a novel operant paradigm for rats, the observing response task. The present study used the observing response task to investigate checking behaviour following excitotoxic lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens core and dorsal striatum, brain regions considered to be of relevance to obsessive–compulsive disorder. METHODS: In the observing response task, rats pressed an ‘observing’ lever for information (provided by light onset) about the location of an ‘active’ lever that provided food reinforcement. Following training, rats received excitotoxic lesions of the regions described above and performance was evaluated post-operatively before histological processing. RESULTS: Medial prefrontal cortex lesions selectively increased functional checking with a less-prominent effect on non-functional checking and reduced discrimination accuracy during light information periods. Rats with nucleus accumbens core lesions made significantly more checking responses than sham-lesioned rats, including both functional and non-functional checking. Dorsal striatum lesions had no direct effect on checking per se, but reduced both active and inactive lever presses, and therefore changed the relative balance between checking responses and instrumental responses. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens core are important in the control of checking, perhaps via their role in processing uncertainty of reinforcement, and that dysfunction of these regions may therefore promote excessive checking behaviour, possibly relevant to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Plastic surgery is by excellence a surgery in permanent search for new reconstructive options. In the last 50 years researches in the field of allotransplantation led to obtaining promising results for solving difficult cases when autologous tissues are not available for reconstruction, despite all the bioethical issues of this subject. This field of composite tissue transplantation evolved constantly, the top of it being total face transplantation, successfully accomplished while being based on the knowledge accumulated. There are many clinical applications of CTA, hand transplantation or only flexor tendon apparatus, lower limb, partial or complete face transplantations represent the most important part for us, plastic surgeons for obtaining the best reconstruction possible.

By applying the content analysis technique of communication andby using analysis patterns such as the theory of rational choices, thedramaturgical model, the attraction model, the transactional analysis, this study identifies 4 typical categories of candidates to Romania’s presidency(elitist, dominating, reactive, sociable). In the analysis of the electoral itinerary of candidate Sorin Oprescu there are considered aspects such as identity, symbolism, volunteering, propagandas and media exposure, in order to make a SWOT analysis, thus facilitating the understanding of the candidate failure within the election process.

© 2015 Coman, Chiriac, Robeson, Ionescu, Dragos, Barbu-Tudoran, Andrei, Banciu, Sicora and Podar. Modern mineral deposits play an important role in evolutionary studies by providing clues to the formation of ancient lithified microbial communities. Here we report the presence of microbialite-forming microbial mats in different microenvironments at 32°C, 49°C, and 65°C around the geothermal spring from an abandoned oil drill in Ciocaia, Romania. The mineralogy and the macro- and microstructure of the microbialites were investigated, together with their microbial diversity based on a 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing approach. The calcium carbonate is deposited mainly in the form of calcite. At 32°C and 49°C, the microbialites show a laminated structure with visible microbial mat-carbonate crystal interactions. At 65°C, the mineral deposit is clotted, without obvious organic residues. Partial 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing showed that the relative abundance of the phylum Archaea was low at 32°C (1%. The dominant bacterial groups at 32°C were Cyanobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Thermi, Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Defferibacteres. At 49°C, there was a striking dominance of the Gammaproteobacteria, followed by Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Armantimonadetes. The 65°C sample was dominated by Betaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, [OP1], Defferibacteres, Thermi, Thermotogae, [EM3], and Nitrospirae. Several groups from Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, together with Halobacteria and Melainabacteria were described for the first time in calcium carbonate deposits. Overall, the spring from Ciocaia emerges as a valuable site to probe microbes-minerals interrelationships along thermal and geochemical gradients.