Fruit and vegetable consumption and mortality in Eastern Europe: Longitudinal results from the Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial Factors in Eastern Europe study

BACKGROUND: It is estimated that disease burden due to low fruit and vegetable consumption is higher in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU) than any other parts of the world. However, no large scale studies have investigated the association between fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake and mortality in these regions yet. DESIGN: The Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial Factors in Eastern Europe (HAPIEE) study is a prospective cohort study with participants recruited from the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia. METHODS: Dietary data was collected using food frequency questionnaire. Mortality data was ascertained through linkage with death registers. Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios were calculated by Cox regression models. RESULTS: Among 19,333 disease-free participants at baseline, 1314 died over the mean follow-up of 7.1 years. After multivariable adjustment, we found statistically significant inverse association between cohort-specific quartiles of F&V intake and stroke mortality: the highest vs lowest quartile hazard ratio (HR) was 0.52 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.28–0.98). For total mortality, significant interaction (p = 0.008) between F&V intake and smoking was found. The associations were statistically significant in smokers, with HR 0.70 (0.53–0.91, p for trend: 0.011) for total mortality, and 0.62 (0.40–0.97, p for trend: 0.037) for cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. The association was appeared to be mediated by blood pressure, and F&V intake explained a considerable proportion of the mortality differences between the Czech and Russian cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that increasing F&V intake may reduce CVD mortality in CEE and FSU, particularly among smokers and hypertensive individuals

A comprehensive ovine model of blood transfusion

Background: The growing awareness of transfusion-associated morbidity and mortality necessitates investigations into the underlying mechanisms. Small animals have been the dominant transfusion model but have associated limitations. This study aimed to develop a comprehensive large animal (ovine) model of transfusion encompassing: blood collection, processing and storage, compatibility testing right through to post-transfusion outcomes. Materials and methods: Two units of blood were collected from each of 12 adult male Merino sheep and processed into 24 ovine-packed red blood cell (PRBC) units. Baseline haematological parameters of ovine blood and PRBC cells were analysed. Biochemical changes in ovine PRBCs were characterized during the 42-day storage period. Immunological compatibility of the blood was confirmed with sera from potential recipient sheep, using a saline and albumin agglutination cross-match. Following confirmation of compatibility, each recipient sheep (n = 12) was transfused with two units of ovine PRBC. Results: Procedures for collecting, processing, cross-matching and transfusing ovine blood were established. Although ovine red blood cells are smaller and higher in number, their mean cell haemoglobin concentration is similar to human red blood cells. Ovine PRBC showed improved storage properties in saline-adenine-glucose-mannitol (SAG-M) compared with previous human PRBC studies. Seventy-six compatibility tests were performed and 17·1% were incompatible. Only cross-match compatible ovine PRBC were transfused and no adverse reactions were observed. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the utility of the ovine model for future blood transfusion studies and highlight the importance of compatibility testing in animal models involving homologous transfusions

The impact of acute lung injury, ECMO and transfusion on oxidative stress and plasma selenium levels in an ovine model

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of smoke induced acute lung. injury (S-ALI), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and transfusion on oxidative stress and plasma selenium levels. Forty ewes were divided into (i) healthy control (n = 4), (ii) S-ALI control (n = 7), (iii) ECMO control (n = 7), (iv) S-ALI + ECMO (n = 8) and (v) S-ALI + ECM + packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusion (n = 14). Plasma thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), selenium and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity were analysed at baseline, after smoke injury (or sham) and 0.25, 1, 2, 6, 7, 12 and 24 h after initiation of ECMO. Peak TBARS levels were similar across all groups. Plasma selenium decreased by 54% in S-ALI sheep (1.36 +/- 0.20 to 0.63 +/- 0.27 mu mol/L, p < 0.0001), and 72% in sheep with S-ALI + ECMO at 24 h (1.36 +/- 0.20 to 0.38 +/- 0.19, p < 0.0001). PRBC transfusion had no effect on TBARS, selenium levels or glutathione peroxidase activity in plasma. While ECMO independently increased TBARS in healthy sheep to levels which were similar to the S-ALI control, the addition of ECMO after S-ALI caused a negligible increase in TBARS. This suggests that the initial lung injury was the predominant feature in the TBARS response. In contrast, the addition of ECM in S-ALI sheep exacerbated reductions in plasma selenium beyond that of S-ALI or ECM alone. Clinical studies are needed to confirm the extent and duration of selenium loss associated with ECMO. Crown Copyright (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved

Diffuse-Charge Dynamics in Electrochemical Systems

The response of a model micro-electrochemical system to a time-dependent applied voltage is analyzed. The article begins with a fresh historical review including electrochemistry, colloidal science, and microfluidics. The model problem consists of a symmetric binary electrolyte between parallel-plate, blocking electrodes which suddenly apply a voltage. Compact Stern layers on the electrodes are also taken into account. The Nernst-Planck-Poisson equations are first linearized and solved by Laplace transforms for small voltages, and numerical solutions are obtained for large voltages. The ``weakly nonlinear'' limit of thin double layers is then analyzed by matched asymptotic expansions in the small parameter $\epsilon = \lambda_D/L$, where $\lambda_D$ is the screening length and $L$ the electrode separation. At leading order, the system initially behaves like an RC circuit with a response time of $\lambda_D L / D$ (not $\lambda_D^2/D$), where $D$ is the ionic diffusivity, but nonlinearity violates this common picture and introduce multiple time scales. The charging process slows down, and neutral-salt adsorption by the diffuse part of the double layer couples to bulk diffusion at the time scale, $L^2/D$. In the ``strongly nonlinear'' regime (controlled by a dimensionless parameter resembling the Dukhin number), this effect produces bulk concentration gradients, and, at very large voltages, transient space charge. The article concludes with an overview of more general situations involving surface conduction, multi-component electrolytes, and Faradaic processes.Comment: 10 figs, 26 pages (double-column), 141 reference

Digitalization of economy: From Neo-Keynesianism to blockchain in health care

Review of a book Deveraz, T., Leitão J., &amp; Sarygulov A. (2021). The Economics of Digital Transformationand Industrial Dynamics. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59959-

The Economy of Well-Being: Creating Opportunities for People’s Well-Being and Economic Growth

Abstract: Review of the paper by Nozal A.L., Martin N., Murtin F. The economy of well-being: creating opportunities for people’s well-being and economic growth. OECD. 2019

Beyond GDP. Measuring What Counts for Economic and Social Performance

A review of Stieglitz J., Fitoussi J.-P., Duran M. Beyond GDP. Measuring Economic Development and Social Progress. OECD: Paris, 2018. 148 p

IT controls in the public cloud : success factors for allocation of roles and responsibilities

The rapid adoption of cloud computing by organizations has resulted in the transformation of the roles and responsibilities of staff in managing the information technology (IT) resources (via IT governance controls) that have migrated to the cloud. Hence, the objective of this research is to provide a set of success factors that can assist IT managers to allocate the roles and responsibilities of IT controls appropriately to staff to manage the migrated IT resources. Accordingly, we generated a set of success factors from behavioral and information systems (IS) literature. These success factors were verified using in-depth interviews of executives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The empirical intervention suggests that the role allocation is driven predominantly by people’s skills, competencies, organizational strategy, structures, and policies. In addition, the research made clear that the most significant competency and skill for a person allocated to IT controls is to be able to evaluate and manage a cloud service provider, especially in terms of risks, compliance, and security issues related to public cloud technology. The findings of this study not only offer new insights for scholars and practitioners involved in assigning responsibilities but also provide extensions for IT governance framework authorities to align their guidelines to the emerging cloud technology

Международная научная конференция «Трансформация системы современных международных экономических отношений в условиях постбиполярности»

.Международная научная конференция «Третьи Ливенцевские чтения “Трансформация системы современных международных  экономических отношений в условиях  постбиполярности”» прошла  5 апреля  2019 г. на площадке  Московского государственного института международных отношений (университета) - МГИМО (У) МИД России

К публикации статьи Эдит Аршамбо «Development of French Civil Society: The View of a Statistician»

.