THE ESSENCE AND STRUCTURE OF EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FORMATION OF PARTNERSHIPS OF ADOLESCENTS

The successful formation of partnerships of adolescents is conditioned by certain factors and elements of educational environment, contributing to the formation of motivational-value, cognitive and operational-activity components of personality development of children of this age category. The peculiarities of the influence of this environment have a certain specificity associated with the conditions of formation of its structural components. Due to the action of these elements of the educational environment, certain age characteristics of adolescents are formed, which are necessary to ensure the effective principles of partnership, which will affect personal development and further development of academic achievement. Taking into account the importance of considering the theoretical aspects of determining the characteristics of the educational environment of adolescents, which determines the formation of their partnership, the study of this issue is considered relevant and will ensure the development of scientific thought. The purpose of the article is to systematize the approaches to defining the essence of the concept and structure of the educational environment of adolescents as a sphere of development of their partnership. Research methods applied: a systematic approach, which is used to systematize the provisions of scientific views related to the evaluated issues; comparative method used to compare the approaches of scientists. The study presents a systematization of approaches to defining the essence of the concept and structure of the educational environment of adolescents, which contributes to the development of their partnerships. It is proved that the main essential features of the concept of educational environment of adolescents, which contributes to the development of their partnerships include: structural feature (in the interpretations of the authors, mainly determined by reference to certain components of this phenomenon), performance feature (emphasis on areas of influence - behavior, development of value beliefs, etc.), organizational feature (indication that the subjects of the environment provide active assistance in the development of certain skills, qualities of adolescents), subject-oriented feature, which involves the formation and development of the educational environment of adolescents in the context of subject-subject direction (humanistic approach ). The composition of the conditions for the formation of this phenomenon is determined, which include general categories, in particular: objective, specially (artificially) created, static, dynamic. The interpretation of the studied concept is formulated, which is based on taking into account the list of basic essential features and categories of conditions of formation of the educational environment, which promotes the development of their partnership.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO DEVELOP ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT SCHOOL?

Entrepreneurship will make it possible for young people to adapt to the employment market and participate in not only professional but also social and personal adult life effectively and satisfactorily. This article aimed to emphasize the way of developing entrepreneurship in the educational practice. The base of reflection as Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Karney’s definition of entrepreneurship. These approaches may open schools as environments for the coordination of all processes hidden in their culture on the way to effectiveness. The category of entrepreneurship understood as a personal and organizational feature, an attitude, an activity mode, and a path of individual and institutional development were considered. When introducing challenges connected with the development of Entrepreneurship, some tools were described which make it possible to evaluate the changes taking place in the didactic process. This means that reflection on the process of development of must appears in various implementation spaces. It would be observable both at the level of individual development (students’ and teachers’ competencies), about activities undertaken within an organization, as well as changes in organizational climate and overall educational environment.

The natural axis of transmitter receptor distribution in the human cerebral cortex

Transmitter receptors constitute a key component of the molecular machinery for intercellular communication in the brain. Recent efforts have mapped the density of diverse transmitter receptors across the human cerebral cortex with an unprecedented level of detail. Here, we distill these observations into key organizational principles. We demonstrate that receptor densities form a natural axis in the human cerebral cortex, reflecting decreases in differentiation at the level of laminar organization and a sensory-to-association axis at the functional level. Along this natural axis, key organizational principles are discerned: progressive molecular diversity (increase of the diversity of receptor density); excitation/inhibition (increase of the ratio of excitatory-to-inhibitory receptor density); and mirrored, orderly changes of the density of ionotropic and metabotropic receptors. The uncovered natural axis formed by the distribution of receptors aligns with the axis that is formed by other dimensions of cortical organization, such as the myelo- and cytoarchitectonic levels. Therefore, the uncovered natural axis constitutes a unifying organizational feature linking multiple dimensions of the cerebral cortex, thus bringing order to the heterogeneity of cortical organization.

The Two-Level System of Power of the Federal State

A contemporary theory of the state and law considers the two-level system of power as an indispensable feature of federal states. The interpretation of this organizational feature of state power depends on how the sovereignty of the federal state is interpreted, the nature of federal relations, the federal form of government itself. The purpose of the study is to identify the essential features of the two-level construction of the power system in the federation, characterize both levels of state power and their relations between each other. As a result of the study, the author highlights the concept of two-level construction of state power, describes the reasons for this structural feature of the power system, demonstrates the internal logic of relations between federal and regional levels of government in the general context of the federal model of the state structure. The study of the state power features in the federation allowed the author to look at the essence of federalism “from the inside”, from the point of view of the system-structural organization of the power apparatus. The two-level system of power appears as an internally agreed way of organizing the state mechanism, where every level has the functions and characteristics inherent only to it and that in their interaction reveal the main meaning of the federal structure— the preservation of state integrity.

The natural axis of transmitter receptor distribution in the human cerebral cortex

Transmitter receptors constitute a key component of the molecular machinery for inter-cellular communication in the brain. Recent efforts have mapped the density of diverse transmitter receptors across the human cerebral cortex with an unprecedented level of detail. Here, we distil these observations into key organizational principles. We demonstrate that receptor densities form a natural axis in the human cerebral cortex, reflecting decreases in differentiation at the level of laminar organization, and a sensory-to-association axis at the functional level. Along this natural axis, key organizational principles are discerned: progressive molecular diversity (increase of the diversity of receptor density), excitation/inhibition (increase of the ratio of excitatory-to-inhibitory receptor density) and mirrored, orderly changes of the density of ionotropic and metabotropic receptors. The uncovered natural axis formed by the distribution of receptors aligns with the axis that is formed by other dimensions of cortical organization, such as the myelo- and cytoarchitectonic levels. Therefore, the uncovered natural axis constitutes a unifying organizational feature linking multiple dimensions of the cerebral cortex, thus bringing order to the heterogeneity of cortical organization.

Action-based organization and function of cerebellar cortical microcircuits

The cerebellum is the largest sensorimotor structure in the brain, but its mode of operation is not well understood. However, a fundamental organizational feature of the cerebellar cortex is division into elongated zones, defined by their inputs from specific parts of the inferior olive and Purkinje cell output to cerebellar and vestibular nuclei. Little is known about how the pattern of neuronal activity in zones, and their functional microcircuit subdivisions, microzones, is related to behaviour in awake animals. Here, we studied the organization of microzones within the C3 zone and their activity during a skilled forelimb reaching task in cats. Neurons in different parts of the C3 zone, functionally determined by receptive field characteristics, differed in their patterns of activity during movement. Our results suggest that the cerebellar C3 zone is organized and operates within an action-based frame of reference, with different microcircuits within the zone controlling specific muscle synergies.

Governing by Silos

Government organizational silos have been blamed for a multitude of sins. Yet they have proved to be resilient, principally because they provide opportunities for centralized government, political control over the bureaucracy, and the prospect of rapid decision-making, effective implementation, and support for economic development. But silos often also suffer from serious dysfunctions that impede smooth progress from decision to action. Their relationships with other government, private, and third-sector organizations frequently reflect inadequate horizontal coordination, a failure to communicate and to share information, and disputes over funding and jurisdictional responsibilities. It is instructive to compare how countries in Europe and Asia view government silos and attempt to deal with their shortcomings. Radical reforms in Europe have mitigated some dysfunctions by creating flatter structures, decentralized organizations, and improved horizontal coordination within government and between government, the market, and society. But the reforms have not entirely overcome the “silos mentality,” which may result in failure to share information and may affect implementation. Nor have European governments entirely overcome the tendency to reintroduce centralization and more rigid hierarchies when faced with problems. In Asia, silos continue to be a dominant and valued organizational feature of most governments because they are seen to have an important role in maintaining political stability and promoting economic development. Although political leaders acknowledge their weaknesses and there have been some efforts to improve horizontal coordination, particularly in crisis management, the macro-level public sector reforms that dismantling the silos would entail has not been on the agenda. On both continents, resolving the problems of the silos and finding the right mix between vertical and horizontal coordination remain major challenges.

Synaptic neurexin-1 assembles into dynamically regulated active zone nanoclusters

Neurexins are well-characterized presynaptic cell adhesion molecules that engage multifarious postsynaptic ligands and organize diverse synapse properties. However, the precise synaptic localization of neurexins remains enigmatic. Using super-resolution microscopy, we demonstrate that neurexin-1 forms discrete nanoclusters at excitatory synapses, revealing a novel organizational feature of synaptic architecture. Synapses generally contain a single nanocluster that comprises more than four neurexin-1 molecules and that also includes neurexin-2 and/or neurexin-3 isoforms. Moreover, we find that neurexin-1 is physiologically cleaved by ADAM10 similar to its ligand neuroligin-1, with ∼4–6% of neurexin-1 and ∼2–3% of neuroligin-1 present in the adult brain as soluble ectodomain proteins. Blocking ADAM10-mediated neurexin-1 cleavage dramatically increased the synaptic neurexin-1 content, thereby elevating the percentage of Homer1(+) excitatory synapses containing neurexin-1 nanoclusters from 40–50% to ∼80%, and doubling the number of neurexin-1 molecules per nanocluster. Taken together, our results reveal an unexpected nanodomain organization of synapses in which neurexin-1 is assembled into discrete presynaptic nanoclusters that are dynamically regulated via ectodomain cleavage.