Main Tendency Research Articles

Glucose-6-Phosphate-Functionalized Magnetic Microsphere as Novel Hydrophilic Probe for Specific Capture of N-Linked Glycopeptides.

Developing cost-effective approaches based on hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) has been the main tendency for low-abundance glycopeptides capture before LC-MS/MS analysis. Carbohydrates with outstanding biocompatibility and hydrophilicity are ubiquitous in the kingdoms of animal and plant and could be a wonderful choice as functional groups for glycopeptides enrichment. In this work, glucose-6-phosphate, as one of the indispensable cogs in pivotal metabolic wheels of life, was chosen as functionalized groups to be grafted onto the surface of Fe3O4 microspheres via one-step surface fabrication strategy. The acquired hydrophilic Fe3O4@G6P microspheres showed superior enrichment performance for glycopeptides with high sensitivity (0.5 fmol/μL) and high selectivity (1:100) and good repeatability (10 times at least). Furthermore, the Fe3O4@G6P microspheres also exhibited enrichment ability for glycopeptides in different biosamples. A total of 243 glycopeptides assigned to 92 glycoproteins and 183 glycopeptides corresponding to 74 different glycoproteins was identified from merely 2 μL of serum and saliva, respectively.

Statistical Profiling of One Promiscuous Protein Binding Site: Illustrated by Urokinase Catalytic Domain.

While recent literature focuses on drug promiscuity, the characterization of promiscuous binding sites (ability to bind several ligands) remains to be explored. Here, we present a proteochemometric modeling approach to analyze diverse ligands and corresponding multiple binding sub-pockets associated with one promiscuous binding site to characterize protein-ligand recognition. We analyze both geometrical and physicochemical profile correspondences. This approach was applied to examine the well-studied druggable urokinase catalytic domain inhibitor binding site, which results in a large number of complex structures bound to various ligands. This approach emphasizes the importance of jointly characterizing pocket and ligand spaces to explore the impact of ligand diversity on sub-pocket properties and to establish their main profile correspondences. This work supports an interest in mining available 3D holo structures associated with a promiscuous binding site to explore its main protein-ligand recognition tendency.

Research progress of the interaction between Apis mellifera and Varroa destructor mediated by pheromones

Varroa destructor is a virulent ectoparasitic mite of western honeybee (Apis mellifera), and considered the greatest threat to apiculture around the world. Chemical method is widely used for the management of this mite. However, this method can easily induce the resistance of V. destructor to acaricides, toxicity of acaricides to honeybee and the residues in bee products. Therefore, many safe preventions and control techniques were developed to treat mite in recent years. Using pheromones of honeybee to control V. destructor would be a main tendency. A lot of studies indicated that Varroa mites are able to use honeybee pheromones to distinguish the development stages of the hosts, and show high selectivity for appropriate hosts at a special stage. In recent years, a lot of honey bee pheromones were reported to have effect on V. destructor, including pheromones from adult honeybee, pupa and brood. Some of them have repellent effect on V. destructor, while others have attractant effect on V. destructor. This article reviewed the progresses in pheromones categories, major chemical compositions, and their effects to V. destructor, which would suggest important avenues for further researches and applications in mite control.

ПРОБЛЕМА СТАТУСУ КОСОВО В ПОЛІТИЦІ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОГО СОЮЗУ (1998 – 2016 рр.)

A particular feature of Kosovo’s internal policy development as an independent state and problematic reasons with a full international recognition of this fact is also highlighted. The research studied objective and subjective historical reasons for the state formation of Kosovo Albanians starting from the latent stage of this process within former Yugoslavia and then up to the declaration of Kosovo independence. Influence of Yugoslavia's collapse, as well as of external factors on Kosovo's separation from Serbia is also explored in this dissertation. A particular feature of Kosovo’s internal policy development as an independent state and problematic reasons with a full international recognition of this fact is also highlighted. Problem of Kosovo's status to the diplomacy of «power poles» in modern system of international relations within the context of NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999 is underlined.The paper deals with EU policy on Kosovo Status. The author shows evolution of EU policy on Kosovo Status from diplomatic mission to «humanitarian intervention». These are the need for Kosovo independents. Another problem is to make a peace for Serbian-Kosovo relationship. Problem of Kosovo's status to the diplomacy of «power poles» in modern system of international relations within the context of NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999 is underlined. A main tendency of Serbian policy towards Kosovo after the democratic transformation of political system of this state and in conditions of Serbia’s European integration aspirations was examined. NATO has been leading a peace support operation in Kosovo since Juni 1999 in support of wider international efforts to build peace and stability in the Balkan area. KFOR was established when NATO’s 78-day air campaign against Milosevic’s regime, aimed at putting to violence in Kosovo, was over. The operation derives its mandate from United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) and the Military – Technical Agreement between NATO, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia. KFOR’s original objectives were to deter renewed hostilities establish a secure environment and ensure public safety and order demilitarize the Kosovo Liberation Army, support the international humanitarian effort and coordinate with the international civil presence. KFOR continues contribute towards maintaining a safe and secure environment in Kosovo and freedom of movement for all. NATO strongly supports the Belgrad-Pristina EU-brokered Normalization Agreement. The author shows evolution of Balkans states policy on Kosovo Status from Dayton Agreements for Peace in Bosnia to independence of Kosovo. The Serb minority of Kosovo, which largely opposes the declaration of independence, has formed the Community Assembly of Kosovo in response. Problem of Kosovo's status to the diplomacy of “power poles” in modern system of international relations within the context of NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999 is underlined. A main tendency of Serbian policy towards Kosovo after the democratic transformation of political system of this state and in conditions of Serbia’s European integration aspirations was examined.

Refractometric analysis of proteinemia level and serum electrolyte imbalance of patients with multiple myeloma

Subject of Research. Application of refractometric analysis in multiple myeloma diagnostics is proposed for the first time. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a disease of the hematopoietic system characterized by active monoclonal protein synthesis being detected in blood serum and/or in urine. Method. The essence of method consists in measuring of the sample refractive index. The value of refractive index depends on physicochemical characteristics of the optical mediums. Differences between refractive index of patients with multiple myeloma and donor blood serum connected with typical protein and electrolyte imbalance were researched. Main Results. Refractometric analysis data have shown strong correlations between protein concentrations in serum of patients with multiple myeloma and serumrefractive index. Refractive index of serum of patients with multiple myeloma firstly depends on protein concentration rather than on an electrolyte imbalance. The main tendency for patients with multiple myeloma is a higher level of both protein and electrolytes concentration in serum, in contrast to healthy people. Practical Relevance. According to the obtained data, refractometric analysis is considered as one of the suitable methodsfor express-diagnostics of diseases, in particular, multiple myeloma.

Evaluation of the Droplet-Microarray Platform for High-Throughput Screening of Suspension Cells.

Phenotypic cell-based high-throughput screenings play a central role in drug discovery and toxicology. The main tendency in cell screenings is the increase of the throughput and decrease of reaction volume in order to accelerate the experiments, reduce the costs, and enable screenings of rare cells. Conventionally, cell-based assays are performed in microtiter plates, which exist in 96- to 1536-wells formats and cannot be further miniaturized. In addition, performing screenings of suspension cells is associated with risk of losing cell content during the staining procedures and incompatibility with high-content microscopy. Here, we evaluate the Droplet-Microarray screening platform for culturing, screening, and imaging of suspension cells. We demonstrate pipetting-free cell seeding and proliferation of cells in individual droplets of 3-80 nL in volume. We developed a methodology to perform parallel treatment, staining, and fixation of suspension cells in individual droplets. Automated imaging of live suspension cells directly in the droplets combined with algorithms for pattern recognition for image analysis is demonstrated. We evaluated the developed methodology by performing a dose-response study with antineoplastic drugs. We believe that the DMA screening platform carries great potential to be adopted for broad spectrum of screenings of suspension cells.

Polar Lipids Analysis of Cultured Phytoplankton Reveals Significant Inter-taxa Changes, Low Influence of Growth Stage, and Usefulness in Chemotaxonomy.

The high lipid diversity of microalgae has been used to taxonomically differentiate phytoplankton taxa at the class level. However, important lipids such as phospholipids (PL) and betaine lipids (BL) with potential chemotaxonomy application in phytoplankton ecology have been scarcely studied. The chemotaxonomy value of PL and BL depends on their intraspecific extent of variation as microalgae respond to external changing factors. To determine such effects, lipid class changes occurring at different growth stages in 15 microalgae from ten different classes were analyzed. BL occurred in 14 species and were the less affected lipids by growth stage with diacylglyceryl-hydroxymethyl-N,N,N-trimethyl-b-alanine (DGTA) showing the highest stability. PL were more influenced by growth stage with phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), and phosphatidyletanolamine (PE) declining towards older culture stages in some species. Glycolipids were the more common lipids, and no evident age-related variability pattern could be associated to taxonomic diversity. Selecting BL and PL as descriptor variables optimally distinguished microalgae taxonomic variability at all growth stages. Principal coordinate analysis arranged species through a main tendency from diacylglyceryl-hydroxymethyl-N,N,N-trimethyl-b-alanine (DGCC) containing species (mainly dinoflagellates and haptophytes) to DGTA or PC containing species (mainly cryptophytes). Two diatom classes with similar fatty acid profiles could be distinguished from their respective content in DGTA (Bacillariophyceae) or DGCC (Mediophyceae). In green lineage classes (Trebouxiophyceae, Porphyridophyceae, and Chlorodendrophyceae), PC was a better descriptor than BL. BL and PL explained a higher proportion of microalgae taxonomic variation than did fatty acids and played a complementary role as lipid markers.

Peculiarities of migration processes in Ukraine

After disintegration of the USSR there were created fifteen sovereign states on post-Soviet space. Therefore after proclamation of the independence of Ukraine, scales of migratory processes became significant, what caused spread of massive flows of refugees, repatriates, seekers of asylum etc. Contemporary migratory tendencies make a considerable influence on formation of national politics. Thus, under the conditions of globalization the main tendency in international relationships became migration of labour force. It is caused by different reasons, which become widely-spread both in Ukraine and in the world. Significant growth of intensity of international migration of labour resources on the whole territory of our state makes a great influence on its economic and social development. This causes the necessity to make a profound research of migratory processes in Ukraine. Every person and citizen has a right for freedom of movement. Given right is a basis of migratory law. External migration from Ukraine increased significantly from the moment of proclamation of independence of our state. Among its main reasons are considerable reduction of the level and quality of life of population at the beginning of 1990s, appearance of massive unemployment and herewith simplification of the procedure of exit abroad and change of the place of residence, which became a consequence of democratization of society. At present a big quantity of the citizens of Ukraine works abroad, what is first of all connected with the following important problems in Ukraine: absence of available market of housing, real possibilities of employment, high level of social protection, what leads to growth of unemployment, ineffective politics of employment. Ukrainians often move abroad primarily because of low profits, condition of quality of life, absence of employment. The main for today is provision of free movement for everyone, who is legally on the territory of Ukraine, and promotion to follow of other rights and freedoms of person and citizen.

СУЧАСНІ ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ РОЗВИТКУ РЕСТОРАННОГО БІЗНЕСУ В УКРАЇНІ

Under a food service now understand not just "service", and services-generating positive emotions and a sense of satisfaction not only to the customer (the guest), and Central office staff.Тo date, the main tendency of development of restaurant business is the creation of a network and further increase its size. Leader in this field is considered to be America. Their restaurants have a policy of active introduction on markets of all countries of the world. And have the advantage of quick service restaurants with a standard menu.Because in the industry the restaurant business have long been improving and changing forms of work, inevitably there are certain methodological difficulties in determining the trends of their development. A distinctive feature of the restaurants on the territory of the former CIS is the preferred position of the elite restaurants in capital cities, associated with higher income levels in these cities.This article discusses and analyzes modern trends in the restaurant business in the world and Ukraine.

Field evidence of swash groundwater circulation in the microtidal rousty beach, France

This manuscript reports on a novel field experiment carried out on a microtidal beach in Camargue, France. For the first time in the field, a comprehensive description of the groundwater dynamics under sandy beach swash zone is presented. A cross-shore network of 15 buried pressure sensors is combined with terrestrial LiDAR measurements to study the swash-groundwater dynamics. The presented data focus on the decay of a moderate storm which allows to monitor the evolution of the groundwater pressure field in response to the retreat of the swash zone. Both horizontal and vertical head gradients are measured within the porous sand soil to estimate the groundwater flow field using Darcy’s law. Time-averaged analysis demonstrates the presence of a rather consistent groundwater circulation pattern under the swash zone, shifting offshore with the swash zone. The main tendency is an offshore directed flow, with infiltration/exfiltration in the upper/lower parts of the swash zone. Time-resolved analysis highlights the typical groundwater response to swash events which consists mainly of an overall infiltration flow during the bed inundation by the swash tongue, a seaward flow during the swash retreat and, for long backwash events, a localized exfiltration flow under the next incoming uprush.

Peculiarities of terrorism financing in the North Caucasus

The article shows the basic sources of terrorism financing in the world and in the North Caucasus. It is shown the interdependence between modern terrorism financing, globalization of economy and the transfer to the network principles of organization of terrorist groups. The research work gives the broad picture of evolution of network terrorism financing in the North Caucasus. The main tendency that centers on the reduction of outer sources and simultaneously increase, diversification of inner sources, development of the system of total extortion, that is motivated as so called «tax on Jehad» is analyzed.

Recent progress on development trend and key technologies of vertical take-off vertical landing reusable launch vehicle

As the Reusable Launch Vehicle can reduce the launching cost, and improve the ability of Operationally Responsive Space (ORS), many aerospace powers in the world consider the Reusable Launch Vehicle as a main development tendency of space transportation system. Recently, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), as the spokesman of private aerospace corporations, has attracted all the world’s attention to the Reusable Launch Vehicle. SpaceX has been developing technologies for rockets’ fully and rapid reusability, and several recovery tests have been conducted on technology-demonstrators and post-mission controlled-descent tests on Falcon 9 rockets’ first stages, both touchdown on the ocean platform and the land. On 22 December 2015, a Falcon 9 FT rocket of SpaceX, carrying 11 Orbcomm communications satellites, lifted off from Cape Canaveral. After cutoff and stage-separation, the Falcon 9s first stage flight back into the atmosphere and pulled off a powered landing on on Landing Zone 1, which is about 10 km far away from the Launch Site of SLC-40, settling to a smooth tail-first touchdown, making it a significant space “first”. After already celebrated a successful booster landing, SpaceX had decided to attempt a landing at sea on this flight despite available margins for a return to land. This decision was prompted by the need to master the landing sequence for sea-based recoveries which will be needed for about half of Falcon 9’s flights when lifting heavy satellites to high-energy orbits. On 8 April 2016, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 FT rocket, carrying CRS-8 Dragon cargo, lifted off from Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9’s first stage has accomplished the first ever successful returning rocket on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS). This is considered a landmark accomplishment on the road to economical interplanetary and asteroid-to- planet space travel because it enables expensive launch vehicles to be reused. In this paper, based on the experiments of Falcon 9, and analyzing the main projects of the Reusable Launch Vehicle abroad in the past 60 years, the critical technologies will be researched and the results will provide references for the research of new type of space transportation systems.

The marketing research of anticancer drugs for the treatment of lung cancer

The results of the analysis of the marketing of anticancer drugs (AD) market are presented, namely physical, social and economic availability of drugs used to treat patients with lung cancer has been determined. It has been found that in the period from 2010 to 2015 the main tendency of the market segment development of the drugs studied was the private foreign domination. In the unstable financial situation in the country this tendency has negative consequences for the society. It has been proven that within 2010-2015 there was the growth of the average purchase prices for AD, the exception was 2013. It has been found that in 2010-2013 and 2015 the average value of accessibility for AD was greater than unity and varied in the range of 1.00 (in 2015) to 1.26 (in 2010). It should be assessed as a positive tendency of developing the pharmaceutical market segment studied.

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE LATVIAN VERSION OF THE COMPUTERIZED EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS TEST “EXAMINER” IN A STUDENTS SAMPLE: RESULTS OF THE PILOT STUDY

The aim of this pilot-study was to assess reliability and validity of the Latvian version of the computerized executive functions test EXAMINER (Executive Abilities: Measures and Instruments for Neurobehavioral Evaluation and Research) in a sample of high school students and university students. The adaptation procedure included translation of the instructions and technical configuration of the test’s computerized version. The Latvian version of the EXAMINER includes tasks that measure executive functions of inhibition, set shifting and working memory updating. Participants included two sub-groups: 22 (14 males, 8 female) students from high school and 39 students (11 males, 28 female) from university. Results showed statistically significant differences between both sub-groups on most of the EXAMINER tasks. The main tendency was that the high school students showed faster reaction time, but made more mistakes. Results also showed good reliability for most of the EXAMINER tasks and good criterion validity. Potential improvements of the test and its potential use in schools and clinics are discussed.

Investigating low-carbon crop production in Guangdong Province, China (1993–2013): a decoupling and decomposition analysis

Low-carbon crop production is a way of raising yield gains in an ecologically and ethically responsible manner in the agricultural sector. Guangdong Province, one of China's major commodity grain production bases, is confronted with considerable challenges in promoting crop production while developing a low-carbon economy with limited croplands. Based on a decoupling index and decoupling stability analysis, this study investigated the dynamic variations of low-carbon development in a crop production system. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method is employed to explore the drivers of the carbon footprint of Guangdong's crop production system from 1993 to 2013. The results indicated the following: (1) increased crop production output is not always positively correlated with an increased carbon footprint; (2) weak decoupling is the main tendency between carbon footprint and crop production; (3) the decoupling stability coefficients show that the threat of high-carbon-emission crop production does exist; and (4) the agricultural economy level is the determining factor for the growth of the carbon footprint in crop production, but agricultural investment, urbanization and technical progress contribute to the reduction of the carbon footprint in Guangdong Province. This study decomposed and quantified the driving factors of the total carbon footprint of a crop production system and provided insights into the potential for low-carbon crop production in Guangdong Province.

Using robust correlation matching to estimate sand-wave migration in Monterey Submarine Canyon, California

Sandwave migration rate is of critical importance for the hydrodynamic research as well as the coastal engineering application. To acquire this information, the correlation matching algorithm is applied in this paper. By searching for similar seafloor areas between multi-temporal digital terrain models, the migration rate can be estimated. To account for the impact of the morphological distortion as well as outliers in the survey data, the correlation matching is adjusted based on the robust estimation theory. By executing the correlation matching based on the least median square criterion, a robust initial estimate is obtained. Afterwards, the potential outliers are detected based on the initial matching result, and the corresponding weights are adjusted to zero. Finally, correlation matching is executed with the updated weights. With the above procedure, the impact of outliers can be accounted for. The developed method is applied on the bathymetry time-series data collected in Monterey Canyon, California. Comparison shows that the presented algorithm significantly improves the credibility of the estimation. The generated migration vector field not only reveals the main tendency of the migration rate in the region, but also highlights the unique local migration patterns, which is helpful for understanding the mechanism of the sandwave migration.

A new device for the liver parenchyma dissection

Introduction: Main tendency in the modern liver surgery is application of parenchyma sparing segmentectomies and mesohepatectomies instead of hemihepatectomies and extended hepatectomies. These procedures are technically demanded and require perfect equipment. Clamp-crashing is the fastest tool of the liver parenchyma dissection, but it is accompanied with the highest blood loss. On the other hand, application of energy devices (radio frequency, harmonic scalpel or bipolar electro cautery) associates with adhesion of the active electrode to the liver tissue and its tearing off leads to more damage of the liver tissue. Materials and methods: We created a new instrument for the liver parenchyma separation, which integrates three principles: clamp-crashing, radio frequency ablation and irrigation. Carrying out 44 liver resections in 42 patients, among them: segmentectomies (16), bisegmentectomies (5), mesohepatectomies (5), hemihepatectomies (10), extended hemihepatectomies (4) and atypical resections (4), we compered blood loss and duration of the surgery applying three devices bipolar electro cautery (n = 19), harmonic scalpel (n = 7) and our instrument (n = 18). Results: Mean blood loss applying our instrument came to 627,04 ± 161,89 ml, applying harmonic scalpel – 1652,29 ± 624,50 ml (p = 0.008) and bipolar electro cautery – 811.01 ± 225,08 ml. Mean duration of the procedure came to 301,67 ± 26,08 min, 386,14 ± 40.40 min and 360,15 ± 29,31 min (p = 0.104) respectfully. Conclusion: Integration of three principles: clamp-crashing, radio frequency ablation and irrigation in one instrument for the liver parenchyma dissection enables to reach less blood loss then application of harmonic scalpel.

Features of the Diamond Cluster Project Implementation in the Vladivostok Free Port Zone

Background/Objectives: The study is aimed at justifying and applying modern economic tools capable of providing favorable conditions for diamond and jewelry manufacturers to be competitive in the world market. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Different methods of analysis have been used in the study: Horizontal (time) and vertical (structural) analysis to determine the structure of the research subject and the effect of each element of the system; trend analysis to determine the main tendency of factors dynamics; comparative analysis of aggregated and averaged indicators on separate elements of the considered sector; factor analysis to assess the impact of individual causes on the performance indicator. Findings: The article presents the results of studying the implementation of the working potential of the diamond cutting and jewelry production in the territory of the free port of Vladivostok on Russky Island. Ground has been given to competitive advantages of creating a diamond cluster project as a resident of the Free Port of Vladivostok, the main risks that could affect the development of the proposed project have been assessed taking into account regional characteristics and the current state of development of the world diamond market and the Russian diamond industry. The model of cooperation with foreign investors has been described and the advantages for manufacturers within the cluster interaction have been shown. The predictive assessment of key financial indicators of the investment project has been made and the synergetic effect of production in the revenue from sales has been calculated. The conceptual suggestions regarding the formation of the cluster infrastructure have been given. Applications/Improvements: Use of cluster coordination strategy mechanisms and other key planning documents will ensure an effective interaction of participants of strategy events implementation.

On the graphic adaptation of proper names in the first Romanian translation of the Septuagint (Ms. 45)

Among the difficulties that have always challenged the translators of the Bible one can mention the adaptation of proper names in each idiom. Certain biblical proper names were adapted into Romanian when the first translations of fragments belonging to the Old and the New Testaments were performed. However, most biblical proper names were adapted into Romanian for the first time in the translation of the Septuagint performed by Nicolae Spătarul (Milescu) in the second half of the 17th century and preserved in a manuscript copy (the Romanian manuscript no. 45) from the same century. The main source of this translation was an edition of the Septuagint issued in Frankfurt in 1597. In accordance with the spirit of literalism in Bible translation in that period, the main tendency of translators and reviewers was to preserve, as much as possible, the original form of proper names as they appeared in the source-text, attempting, at the same time, to integrate them in the formal system (graphy, declension) of the Romanian language. Starting from the formal particularities of the names in the source-text, we aim at describing certain aspects related to the graphic principles that the transposition of proper names from the Greek source into Ms. 45 was based upon.

On the Issue of Athens School Closing in 529 AD

The article describes one of the most important events in the cultural life of Byzantium under Justinian I, namely, th e closure of the pagan school of philosophy in Athens in 529 AD. Referring to legal sources, the author concludes that Justinian’s legal acts were not directly connected with the Academy of Athens but had an Empire-wide character. The Emperor’s policy in the sphere of education did not mean closing of certain pagan schools but the elimination of classical philosophy teaching in Byzantium as a whole. According to John Malalas, there did not exist a special decree ordering to close the School of Athens. Referring to the source studies by J. Thurn, the author concludes that the 529 decree concerned teachers of philosophy, soothsayers, astrologers, and owners of gambling houses. Further on, the decree was carried out by the local municipal authorities and by 531, the School of Athens had ceased to exist. Finally, the author points out the main tendency in the evolution of Early Byzantine higher school of the 6 th century: its most suitable model was a classical one in its content, but Christian in its form of management.