Improving the Socio-emotional Well-being of the Older Generation through the Implementation of Territorial Marketing

This article is based on the analysis of the possibility of using Berkman's conceptual model of mechanism of social networks influence on human health to improve the well-being of the older generation in Russia. The emphasis is put on the development of social contacts of older people through the implementation of territorial marketing. Objective and subjective indicators of well-being of older people are directly related to the characteristics and peculiarities of the territory where they live and carry out their activities (city, region, country). In this context, marketing of territory can be regarded as an activity aimed at creating and maintaining comfortable living conditions of different age groups, taking into considerations their characteristics. Special attention is paid to the social and emotional mechanisms of social support, social influence, social inclusion, social participation, interpersonal contacts and access to resources and benefits the territory of older generation. Specificity of older adults segmentation of the region (the city) is defined. The importance of active cooperation of various age groups identified in the process of territorial segmentation of the market is particularly stressed, in terms of improving the lives of older adults

Folding, function and subcellular localization of parkin

Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimers disease. The specific molecular events that provoke neurodegeneration in PD are still unknown, which is an impediment to the development of neuroprotective drugs. Only recently, genes linked to hereditary forms of PD have been identified. Idiopathic and hereditary variants of PD share important pathological features, most notably the demise of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Functional characterization of PD-associated gene products might help to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and maybe, in the future, to find preventive and curative treatments for PD. Among the mutated genes is the parkin gene (PARK2), encoding a E3 ubiquitin ligase. Mutations in the parkin gene are responsible for the majority of autosomal recessive parkinsonism. Previous work of our group revealed that misfolding and aggregation of parkin is a major mechanism of parkin inactivation, accounting for the loss-of-function phenotype of various pathogenic parkin mutants, including C-terminal deletion mutants and some missense mutants [1,2]. Remarkably, also wildtype parkin is prone to misfolding under certain cellular conditions, suggesting a more general role of parkin in the pathogenesis of PD. One aim of this thesis was to study the folding characteristics of parkin. To this end, I cloned several parkin mutants and analyzed them in cell-culture based assays to determine their folding properties. Folding analysis of these mutants revealed that pathogenic mutations can lead to aberrant parkin conformers with two distinct phenotypes. One class of mutations destabilized the native conformation of parkin, leading to its proteasomal degradation immediately after synthesis. Another class of mutants first adopted a detergent-soluble conformation, similarly to wildtype parkin. However, within hours these mutants formed relatively stable detergent-insoluble aggregates. A comparative analysis of HHARI, an E3 ubiquitin ligase with a similar modular signature, revealed that folding of parkin is specifically dependent on the integrity of the C-terminal domain, but not on the presence of a putative PDZ binding motif at the extreme C-terminus. This study provided new insight into the propensity of parkin to misfold and suggested that pathogenic mutations can induce the formation of non-native conformers at distinct steps in the folding pathway of parkin. Another focus of this thesis was the functional characterization of parkin. We and others observed that parkin protects neurons against diverse cellular insults in different model systems, indicating that it may play a role in maintaining neuronal integrity. To address the underlying mechanism, we analyzed the effect of parkin on different signaling pathways. Our results revealed that parkin has a permissive effect on NFkappaB signaling by ubiquitylating two components of the signaling cascade in a non-degradative manner. Notably, parkin lost its neuroprotective capacity in the presence of a dominant negative inhibitor of NFkappaB. In addition, we could show that parkin expression is significantly up-regulated in neurons under stress conditions, indicating that parkin is a stress-responsive protein

Определение объема вычислительных экспериментов при решении задач оптимизационного синтеза динамических систем методом ПЛП-поиска

Даются рекомендации по выбору необходимого числа машинных экспериментов при решении конкретных задач исследования и оптимального проектирования методом ПЛП-поиска, позволяющего осуществлять глобальный квазиравномерный просмотр заданной области варьируемых параметров и применить формальные оценки из математической статистики.Recommendations about the choice of necessary number of machine experiments at the solution of specific objectives of a research and optimum design are made by method of the PLP-search allowing to carry out global quasi uniform viewing of the set area of the varied parameters and to apply formal estimates from mathematical statistics

Nach dem Erdbeben auf Java. Kulturelle Polarisierungen, soziale Solidarität und Abgrenzung

This article documents and analyzes the ways people in Yogyakarta and in the villages of Bantul reacted to an earthquake that had claimed around 6,000 victims and left more than one million people homeless on May 27, 2006. Based on eight weeks of anthropological fieldwork conducted after the disaster, the author focuses on both social responses and cultural interpretations of the event. The former include the application of and limits to the traditional system of mutual help (gotong royong) as well as the government's approach and the instrumentalization of aid. The latter - cultural interpretations and related ritual activities - are of special interest as the affected area had been seen as protected by a mythical relationship between the Sultan and the local guardian spirits of both the Indian Ocean and the volcano Merapi. Therefore the crucial question was: should the earthquake be regarded as a sign that the spirits are angry with the Sultan or the people - and if so, why? - or was it a message from Allah? The many answers to that question reveal what people perceive as problematic in their society: above all, the tensions and interactions between what they see as tradition and modernity with all associated representations

Moderne Paranormale als spirituelle Unternehmerlnnen in Indonesien?

Paranormal or supranatural are a contemporary reconfiguration of dukun or mystical spiritual experts and traditional healers. Most paranormal belong to the urban middle class, are well educated, professional, highly mobile, members of national organizations, and they make extensive use of modern mass media to advertise their supernatural skills. They offer general strengthening and solutions for all problems of life, success in political elections, business, career, love affairs as well as assistance to overcome health problems. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of their advertisements as well as results from qualitative anthropological fieldwork encounters. The latter bring an ambivalent attitude towards money and materiality to the fore: Although most paranormal practitioners make a living - and some of them a fortune - from their clients, money-orientedness is seen in a negative light. Their success depends on the staging of magical powers and traditionality. Thus, the spiritual economy of the modern paranormal relies on both entrepreneurship and cultural values. But what does "tradition" mean in this context? This article argues that the paranormal tend to emphasize a cosmopolitan outlook and hence can be regarded as potentially counterbalancing fundamentalist stances. The paper deals with a wide variety of theoretical frameworks and is based on anthropological field research in 2011, as well as 25 years of engagementwith Java

Identification of a DMBT1 polymorphism associated with increased breast cancer risk and decreased promoter activity

According to present estimations, the unfavorable combination of alleles with low penetrance but high prevalence in the population might account for the major part of hereditary breast cancer risk. Deleted in Malignant Brain Tumors 1 (DMBT1) has been proposed as a tumor suppressor for breast cancer and other cancer types. Genomewide mapping in mice further identified Dmbt1 as a potential modulator of breast cancer risk. Here, we report the association of two frequent and linked single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with increased breast cancer risk in women above the age of 60 years: DMBT1 c.-93C>T, rs2981745, located in the DMBT1 promoter; and DMBT1 c.124A>C, p.Thr42Pro, rs11523871(odds ratio [OR]=1.66, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.21-2.29, P=0.0017; and OR=1.66; 95% CI=1.21-2.28, P=0.0016, respectively), based on 1,195 BRCA1/2 mutation-negative German breast cancer families and 1,466 unrelated German controls. Promoter studies in breast cancer cells demonstrate that the risk-increasing DMBT1 -93T allele displays significantly decreased promoter activity compared to the DMBT1 -93C allele, resulting in a loss of promoter activity. The data suggest that DMBT1 polymorphisms in the 5'-region are associated with increased breast cancer risk. In accordance with previous results, these data link decreased DMBT1 levels to breast cancer risk

Earthquakes, Volcanoes and God: Comparative Perspectives from Christianity and Islam

This paper asserts that both Christian and Islamic traditions of faith affect the ways in which people both try to make sense of, and respond to, disasters. This contention is supported by the results of empirical research, which demonstrates that differing Islamic and Christian perspectives on human suffering caused by disasters are neither as diverse, nor are they so intractable, as is commonly supposed. Today pastoral convergence between the two traditions may also be discerned, together with a general acceptance of the policies of both State agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which are concerned with hazard relief and the propagation of policies of disaster risk reduction (DRR). Indeed some important disaster relief NGOs have emerged from Islamic and Christian faith communities and are supported by charitable donations