Status and Trends of Urban Beekeeping Regulations: A Global Review

Urban beekeeping is gaining salience worldwide. Though beekeeping brings benefits to humanity, it has certain negative aspects. We conducted surveys in eight countries where urban beekeeping is practiced to understand the status of the governance of urban beekeeping. There were a wide variety of rules, ranging from detailed ones to the absence of any. The organizations creating regulations included regional governments, basic governments, and even NGOs. Regulatory items for urban beekeeping were biased toward safety, with few regulations of the other aspects, such as biodiversity conservation and apicultural production. We found a wide range of numerical provisions for this regulation type, with no scientific basis provided, and there is further need for improvements.

Vegetative status and adaptation peculiarities possibilities in student youth depending on blood circulation self-regulation type

Vegetative status and adaptive capabilities peculiarities of aged 19 to 21 girls depending on their blood circulation self-regulation type were studied in this work. The study was conducted at the Biology Faculty of Zaporizhzhia National University, Zaporizhzhia. Such primary indices as heart rate and blood pressure were studied in all test individuals. Based on the obtained data, the blood circulation self-regulation type in each subject was determined separately, which allowed to form three groups (individuals with cardiovascular, vascular and mixed blood circulation self-regulation types). The assessment scheme included cardiovascular system indices calculation such as average dynamic arterial pressure, specific peripheral resistance, cardiac output, cardiac index, stroke volume, external myocardial function, myocardial stress index, myocardial efficiency criterion, autonomic regulation index (vegetative Kerdo’s index) and adaptive potential. The results were processed by variation statistics methods, and the obtained data were subjected to correlation analysis. Deviations from the reference values were revealed in systemic hemodynamics ave­rage group parameters analysis in female students with different blood circulation regulation types. It was recorded that the average dynamic pressure exceeded the normal upper limit by 2.5 % and 6.2 %, respectively, in persons with mixed and vascular regulation type. Specific peripheral resistance indices obtained from data analysis in girls with different blood circulation self-regulation types revealed that this index did not exceed the normal in the groups with mixed and vascular type, in contrast to the group with the cardiac type. The specific peripheral resistance was lower by 5.2 % than the lower limit of the reference value for this index in the latter group. Statistically significant differences were identified in cardiac output, cardiac index and stroke volume parameters in girls with different self-regulation circulatory types. Specific trends were identified in the average group and individual myocardial function indices in girls depending on the self-regulation type. Statistical significance was found between myocardial stress indices in girls with different self-regulation types. Both the average group and individual vegetative Kerdo’s index indices fluctuated within eytony in the mixed type persons group. The mean group autonomic index values in girls with vascular type indicated pronounced vagotonia. We found that the largest percentage of all respondents had satisfactory adaptation. The largest number of girls with satisfactory adaptation had a vascular self-regulation type (83.33 %) and a mixed type (81.82 %), a smaller percentage of girls from these groups (16.68 % and 18.18 %, respectively) had adaptation mechanisms functional stress. In the group with the cardiac type, almost half (46.15 %) had adaptation mechanisms functional stress, and the rest (53.85 %) had satisfactory adaptation. Thus, the differences in cardiovascular system indices, the autonomic nervous system sympathetic and parasympathetic parts influences ratio on the cardiovascular system were determined, as well as the adaptive potential in 19-21 years old girls can be attributed to blood circulation compensatory-adaptive reactions.

Autonomic and endothelial dysfunction with neurocirculatory asthenia in young men of call-up age

Young men of call-up age with neurocirculatory were asthenia were examined for autonomic regulation of cardiac activity and vasodilatory reserve of the arteries. The functional state of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) was studied with the aid of rythmography with analyse of heart rate variability. The following parameters were studied: vegetative regulation type, responsiveness of departments of ANS and autonomic provision of cardiac activity. The type of vegetative regulation was determined by the mean value of RR interval and indication of the heart rate variability (∆RR). Reactivity of parasympathetic and sympathetic divisions of the ANS and autonomic support of cardiac activity were investigated using breathing test. To ensure vegetative dysadaptation cardiac activity includes reaction with low vegetative coverage of both divisions of the ANS and paradoxical reaction in which there is a decrease in ∆RRmax (instead of increase) and an increase in ∆RRmin instead of decrease. These reactions indicate autonomic dysfunction. Vasodilatory reserve of the arteries was investigated using ultrasonography of the brachial artery with compressive sample and determination of endothelium-dependent vasodilation. It was found that in boys with neurocirculatory asthenia vagotonic and sympathetic types of vegetative regulation are often determined by disadaptative vegetative provision of cardiac activity, which is accompanied by endothelial dysfunction with reduced vasodilator reserve of the arteries.

Modernizing Relationship Therapy through Social Thermoregulation Theory: Evidence, Hypotheses, and Explorations

In the present article the authors propose to modernize relationship therapy by integrating novel sensor and actuator technologies that can help optimize people’s thermoregulation, especially in social contexts. Specifically, they propose to integrate Social Thermoregulation Theory (IJzerman et al., 2015a; IJzerman & Hogerzeil, 2017) into Emotionally Focused Therapy. As such, the authors suggest to craft a Social Thermoregulation (the pleisiomorphic reliance of relationships on temperature regulation) type therapy to further improve relationship therapy. The authors outline what is known and not known in terms of social thermoregulatory mechanisms, what kind of data collection and analyses are necessary to better understand social thermoregulatory mechanisms, and stress the need to conduct Randomized Clinical Trials prior to implementation. They further warn against too hastily applying these theoretical perspectives. The article concludes by outlining why Social Thermoregulation Therapy is the way forward in improving relationship functioning.This paper was published in Frontiers:IJzerman, H., Heine, E. C., Nagel, S. K., & Pronk, T. M. (2017). Modernizing Relationship Therapy through Social Thermoregulation Theory: Evidence, Hypotheses, and Explorations. Frontiers in Psychology, 8.

Ligand-responsive upregulation of 3′ CITE-mediated translation in a wheat germ cell-free expression system

We rationally designed a novel regulation-type of artificial riboswitch that upregulates the 3′ CITE-mediated translation in response to a specific ligand without major hybridization switches in a plant expression system.

Variability of heart rhythm and features of psychological status in young hockey players

Aim. To study the heart rate variability and characteristics of psychological status in young hockey players in professional sports. Methods. 65 young hockey players of «Salavat Yulaev» children’s youth sports school of Olympic reserve were examined. The mean age was 14.7±0.5 years, sports experience - 8.75±1.5 years. Determination of the vegetative regulation type and spectral analysis of heart rate variability was performed on a hardware-software «Polispektr-8» complex manufactured by «Neurosoft». Vegetative regulation state was determined by the vagosympathetic balance ratio (LF/HF). The following parameters of heart rate variability were measured: TP (total power of spectrum), HF (high-frequency waves power), LF (low-frequency waves power), VLF (very low frequency waves power), heart rate was calculated. A questionnaire survey was performed using five-factor personality questionnaire known as the «Big Five». Results. Parasympathetic type of vegetative tone regulation was identified in 30 (46.1%) of young hockey players, balanced initial vegetative tone - in 28 (43.1%) patients, sympathetic type - in 7 (10.8%) patients. Changing of the vegetative regulation type in athletes with sympathetic regulation demonstrates a shift in autonomic balance towards the predominance of sympathetic influence, which is non-physiological for athletes. Such a state of maladjustment can lead to overwork, overstrain, significant reduction in work efficiency and later - to the development of diseases and injuries. According to psychological testing signs of mental and emotional stress and adaptive processes strain were revealed. Conclusion. The results of the study allow to reasonably implement a differentiated approach to psychological support of the training process taking in account the functioning of the autonomic nervous system.

Alternative splicing can lead to chaos

Alternative splicing is a widespread phenomenon in higher eukaryotes, where it serves as a mechanism to increase the functional diversity of proteins. This phenomenon has been described for different classes of proteins, including transcription regulatory proteins. We demonstrated that in the simplest genetic system model the formation of the alternatively spliced isoforms with opposite functions (activators and repressors) could be a cause of transition to chaotic dynamics. Under the simplest genetic system we understand a system consisting of a single gene encoding the structure of a transcription regulatory protein whose expression is regulated by a feedback mechanism. As demonstrated by numerical analysis of the models, if the synthesized isoforms regulate the expression of their own gene acting through different sites and independently of each other, for the generation of chaotic dynamics it is sufficient that the regulatory proteins have a dimeric structure. If regulatory proteins act through one site, the chaotic dynamics is generated in the system only when the repressor protein is either a tetrameric or a higher-dimensional multimer. In this case the activator can be a dimer. It was also demonstrated that if the transcription factor isoforms exhibit either activating or inhibiting activity and are lower-dimensional multimers (< 4), independently of the regulation type the model demonstrates either cyclic or stationary trajectories.

A Comparative Study of Renewable Energy Industry Regulation on Feed-In Tariffs Based on Pricing Strategy of Value Standard Method

Based on pricing strategy of value standard method, we establish a three-stage game model of energy production to compare the differences of optimal regulated price and social welfare under three regulation types of feed-in tariffs. We show that the optimal price levels under three main regulation types are different. But the choice of regulation type does not impact the optimal social welfare. So policymakers with different preferences may make regulation decisions in different ways. This successfully explains why many regulation types exist in different countries. Moreover, although it is difficult to determine the optimal price by the value standard method in practice, the conclusions of this paper also provide a judgment criterion for other pricing strategies on how to choose a suboptimal regulation type.