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Genomes of a Campylobacter coli OR12-like strain ChP2023 (1,713,995 bp) isolated from broiler chicken and Campylobacter jejuni subsp. jejuni NCTC 11168R-like strain KF2023 (1,729,995 bp) isolated from turkey, from poultry production facilities in Ukraine in 2023, were sequenced using Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Both genomes included antibiotic resistance genes and other virulence factors.

Laboratory activities are essential and important components of learning chemistry at the undergraduate level. The COVID-19 pandemic led to disruption of traditional modes of teaching and learning over the whole education spectrum including laboratory courses in chemistry. Although unfortunate, the COVID-19 lockdown period and following years challenged well accepted norms leading to new opportunities for higher education. The purpose of this work is to synthesize useful lessons from student experiences during COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic era aiming for improved future chemistry laboratories at the college and university level. Previously published studies addressed advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face vs. remote and online teaching of chemistry laboratory courses. However, there are only a few student-centered studies which analyze students' perceptions of undergraduate chemistry laboratories in the post-pandemic era. Although the study was conducted at the university in the United States, we believe the lessons learned could be used globally. The present study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in this field of research. It is unique because surveyed students experienced different modalities of the laboratory and were given an opportunity to compare both modalities side by side. Therefore, student experiences provide stronger foundations of their preferences and perceptions described in this work. Based on our findings, it appears that post-pandemic undergraduate students taking a non-major course prefer hands-on experiments and a hybrid modality of chemistry laboratory.

OBJECTIVE: Internally displaced persons (IDPs) can have limited access to HIV and hepatitis C Virus (HCV) treatment and prevention. IDPs comprise > 7% of Georgian population but prevalence and levels of HIV and HCV knowledge in this population remain unknown. We tested 100 IDPs in Georgia for HIV and HCV, many of whom had drug injecting experience, and interviewed them about their migration experience, sexual and drug injecting practices, and HIV/HCV transmission knowledge. RESULTS: The average age of participants was 37.5 years (range 18-63); 31% were women. Almost half (N = 48) of participants reported ever injecting drugs; 17% of those (N = 8) started injecting drugs within the last year. Anti-HCV and HIV prevalence was 11% and 0%, respectively. Fewer people without drug use experience compared to people who inject drugs correctly answered all questions on the HIV knowledge test (13% vs. 35%, p = 0.015) or knew where to get tested for HIV (67% vs 98%, p

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second most common cause of early-onset dementia after Alzheimer disease (AD). Efforts in the field mainly focus on familial forms of disease (fFTDs), while studies of the genetic etiology of sporadic FTD (sFTD) have been less common. In the current work, we analyzed 4,685 sFTD cases and 15,308 controls looking for common genetic determinants for sFTD. We found a cluster of variants at the MAPT (rs199443; p = 2.5 × 10-12, OR = 1.27) and APOE (rs6857; p = 1.31 × 10-12, OR = 1.27) loci and a candidate locus on chromosome 3 (rs1009966; p = 2.41 × 10-8, OR = 1.16) in the intergenic region between RPSA and MOBP, contributing to increased risk for sFTD through effects on expression and/or splicing in brain cortex of functionally relevant in-cis genes at the MAPT and RPSA-MOBP loci. The association with the MAPT (H1c clade) and RPSA-MOBP loci may suggest common genetic pleiotropy across FTD and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (MAPT and RPSA-MOBP loci) and across FTD, AD, Parkinson disease (PD), and cortico-basal degeneration (CBD) (MAPT locus). Our data also suggest population specificity of the risk signals, with MAPT and APOE loci associations mainly driven by Central/Nordic and Mediterranean Europeans, respectively. This study lays the foundations for future work aimed at further characterizing population-specific features of potential FTD-discriminant APOE haplotype(s) and the functional involvement and contribution of the MAPT H1c haplotype and RPSA-MOBP loci to pathogenesis of sporadic forms of FTD in brain cortex.

Toxoplasma gondii is an important zoonotic parasite worldwide, but it has received limited attention in Ukraine. A seroepidemiological study was conducted and samples from 452 wild boars that had been hunted in 2006-2011 in 23 of the 25 regions of Ukraine were tested to estimate T. gondii seroprevalence. A locally available commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for the investigation. Additionally, we tested 92 of the sera using a widely used commercial multi-species ELISA and an indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT). With the locally available ELISA, 35 of the 452 wild boars tested positive, yielding a seroprevalence estimate of 7.7% (95% confidence interval 5.5-10.5). The seropositive wild boars originated from eight of the regions. Using the majority criteria, 10/92 samples tested using both ELISAs and the IFAT were considered positive, yielding an estimated seroprevalence of 10.9% within the subset of samples. The highest seroprevalence was observed in wild boars hunted in Luhansk (30.0%), Odesa (17.7%) and Kharkiv (12.7%). Seroprevalence was higher in older animals (13.3% for age group >12 months and 7.7% for age group ≤12 months). This is the first seroepidemiological study of T. gondii in wild boars in Ukraine. Assuming that seropositivity indicates presence of infectious parasites in the tissues, eating undercooked meat of wild boars hunted in Ukraine could be a potential source of infection to other hosts, including humans.

The paper examines the transparency of public finances, with a specific focus on the transparency of Ukraine’s defense budget. The relevance of this study arises from the ongoing war and the increasing public demand for accountability. The study aims to identify concrete measures to address existing gaps in defense budget transparency. The paper applies a comparative methodology, analyzing the feasibility of implementing Scandinavian transparency practices, particularly from Sweden and Norway, which are known for their advanced budgetary oversight mechanisms.The study identifies key challenges, including bureaucratic inertia, limited technical capacity, political constraints, and national security concerns. To address these issues, the paper evaluates strategies such as developing digital budget platforms for real-time access to defense expenditures, participatory budgeting, and enhanced institutional accountability. The results indicate that Ukraine could benefit from secure digital platforms for real-time access to defense budget data, targeted legislative amendments to improve oversight, strengthened institutional capacity for in-depth budget reviews, and public consultations on non-sensitive areas of defense spending to foster public trust.The findings suggest that gradual and context-sensitive improvements in defense budget transparency are both feasible and essential for optimizing resource allocation and strengthening public confidence. By providing a structured approach, this study contributes to the broader discourse on public finance transparency, offering practical recommendations tailored to Ukraine’s specific challenges.

Abstract Background The success of selecting high risk or early-stage Alzheimer’s disease individuals for the delivery of clinical trials depends on the design and the appropriate recruitment of participants. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) show potential for identifying individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Our study comprehensively examines AD PRS utility using various methods and models. Methods We compared the PRS prediction accuracy in ADNI (N = 568) and BioFINDER (N = 766) cohorts using five disease risk modelling approaches, three PRS derivation methods, two AD genome-wide association study (GWAS) statistics and two sets of SNPs: the whole genome and microglia-selective regions only. Results The best prediction accuracy was achieved when modelling genetic risk by using two predictors: APOE and remaining PRS (AUC = 0.72–0.76). Microglial PRS showed comparable accuracy to the whole genome (AUC = 0.71–0.74). The individuals’ risk scores differed substantially, with the largest discrepancies (up to 70%) attributable to the GWAS statistics used. Conclusions Our work benchmarks the best PRS derivation and modelling strategies for AD genetic prediction.

In the competitive field of tourism marketing, verbal strategies play a crucial role in promoting products and services, particularly in specialized areas like health tourism. To effectively engage and persuade potential tourists, marketers employ specific linguistic techniques that shape positive impressions, guide perceptions, and ultimately influence decision-making processes. The choice of verbal content in such contexts is essential, as it directly impacts the persuasiveness of the promotional materials. While tourism marketing shares similarities with broader digital marketing practices, it also exhibits distinct characteristics tailored to the unique demands of promoting travel experiences. This article provides an examination of the verbal strategies employed by prominent health tourism websites, focusing specifically on the “Karpaty” resort and “Solva Resort & SPA” in Ukraine. By analyzing the linguistic features used to promote health tourism services, the study sheds light on how language is strategically used to attract and persuade potential visitors. The analysis delves into the ways in which certain verbal elements are utilized as persuasive tools to encourage users to engage with the websites and make purchasing decisions. The results of this study present concrete examples from the resorts' websites, demonstrating the practical application of some verbal strategies in a real-world context. These findings reveal how persuasive language, tailored specifically for health tourism, can significantly enhance the appeal of services and lead to increased consumer engagement. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of how verbal content can be crafted to optimize persuasion in a highly competitive market. The novelty of this research lies in its focus on the intersection of language and health tourism, an area that has received limited attention in previous studies.

The article suggest to identify the principal types of descriptions of gender violence and their role in shaping the female characters of the historical novel «Man eaters» by the Ukrainian writer Zinaida Tulub, as well as to trace the influence of social and gender issues on the stylistic structure of the novel. Attention is drawn to the reflection of the theme of violence and its evolution in the history of Ukrainian literature. Attention is focused on the writer’s critical view of women’s fate in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Muscovy of the 17th century. The following types of gender-based violence are systematized: rape, murder and abduction of children, human trafficking, everyday violence, religious control over women, etc. The author has recorded the main stylistic means used by Zinaida Tulub when depicting gender violence in the novel (landscapes, symbolic images, similes, etc.). The article offers a comparative analysis of two central female characters in the novel who are victims of these forms of gender violence: the Ukrainian peasant Horpyna Korzh, who finds herself in captivity in a Tatar village, and the Tatar peasant Medzhe, who is kidnapped by Ukrainian Cossacks. The parallel development of these female characters in the novel allows us to draw conclusions about the universality of this violence. An attempt is made to consider Zinaida Tulub’s works in the context of women’s prose in the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries. Delving into the inner state of female characters experiencing deep emotional catastrophes is one of the characteristics of this prose. The appeal to the facts of the writer’s biography makes it possible to offer a feminist understanding of the work’s issues from the point of view of modern humanities. The article emphasizes the relevance of the study of gender violence in contemporary literary studies.

Corruption can be understood as a social phenomenon that emerges from a complex interplay of political, social, and economic factors, particularly in countries undergoing the process of state formation. Notwithstanding the existence of long-standing democratic traditions and a considerable history of anti-corruption measures, this negative phenomenon persists in European Union Member States. In developed countries, the conditions for countering corruption are more favourable; nevertheless, it remains a significant problem. In Ukraine, which is undergoing a process of democratisation of its governmental structure, corruption represents a significant challenge. Radical reforms of the administrative, socio-economic and legal systems are contributing to the emergence of new corruption threats that require active counteraction. The effective fight against corruption is one of the key factors in the development of public administration, ensuring economic stability and public confidence in state institutions. The analysis of economic and legal aspects of combating corruption in administrative law is of particular importance for understanding the ways to overcome this phenomenon and build effective prevention mechanisms. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the legal and economic mechanisms that can be employed to combat corruption in the context of administrative law. The research methodology employs a range of methods, including policy analysis, empirical methods and comparative methods. This article examines the principles of combating corruption in administrative law, with a particular focus on the economic and legal aspects. Corruption represents a significant challenge to the stable development of society and the economy. In the context of globalisation and current management reforms, the issue of combating corruption is particularly salient. The principal administrative and legal instruments for combating corruption are examined, together with their impact on the country's economic development.

The results of mathematical modeling of a building’s thermal insulation influence on the efficiency of intermittent heating mode are presented. This work aim is to assess the influence of thermal insulation on the efficiency of using the intermittent heating mode for the educational building of the Odessa National Polytechnic University’s Heat Engineering Laboratory. The paper analyzes the factors related to improving the efficiency of the programmed heat supply mode. Modeling of the operating modes for heat supply system operated in intermittent heating mode is carried out. There was performed the mathematical modeling of the heating system operation modes for the most unfavorable climatic conditions at low outdoor temperatures, with respective system efficiency indicators obtaining. The potential of energy saving level for administrative, educational, and office buildings depending on the thickness of thermal insulation of external and internal walls is studied. Recommendations have been elaborated for the use of buildings thermal insulation to improve the efficiency of intermittent heating.

Background Ultrasound-guided needle biopsy (USGNB) allows for precise and immediate viewing of pleural lesions, effusions, and needle placement without ionizing radiation. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of US-guided tru-cut needle pleural biopsy in diagnosing unexplained exudative pleural effusion compared to medical thoracoscopy (MT), focusing on safety, accuracy, time, and cost of the treatment. Patients and methods This observational cross-sectional research was conducted on 40 patients over 18 years old, of both sexes, with unexplained exudative pleural effusion. The patients were randomly separated into two equal groups. The girst group is USGNB and the second group is MT. Results Group II exhibited substantially greater costs, sedation levels, procedure duration, biopsy site discomfort, surgical emphysema, lung expansion failure, and psychological distress compared to group I (P

Tau PET has enabled the visualization of paired helical filaments of 3 or 4 C-terminal repeat tau in Alzheimer disease (AD), but its ability to detect aggregated tau in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) spectrum disorders is uncertain. We investigated 2-(2-([18F]fluoro)pyridin-4-yl)-9H-pyrrolo[2,3-b:4,5c']dipyridine ([18F]PI-2620), a newer tracer with ex vivo evidence for binding to FTLD tau, in a convenience sample of patients with suspected FTLD and AD using a static acquisition protocol and parametric SUV ratio (SUVr) images. Methods: We analyzed [18F]PI-2620 PET data from 65 patients with clinical diagnoses associated with AD or FTLD neuropathology; most (60/65) also had amyloid-β (Aβ) PET. Scans were acquired 30-60 min after injection; SUVr maps (reference, inferior cerebellar cortex) were created for the full acquisition and for 10-min truncated sliding windows (30-40, 35-45,…50-60 min). Age- and sex-adjusted z score maps were computed for each patient, relative to 23 Aβ-negative cognitively healthy controls (HC). Mean SUVr in the globus pallidus, substantia nigra, subthalamic nuclei, dentate nuclei, white matter, and temporal gray matter was extracted for the full and truncated windows. Results: Patients with suspected AD neuropathology (Aβ-positive patients with mild cognitive impairment or AD dementia) showed high-intensity temporoparietal cortex-predominant [18F]PI-2620 binding. At the group level, patients with clinical diagnoses associated with FTLD (progressive supranuclear palsy with Richardson syndrome [PSP Richardson syndrome], corticobasal syndrome, and nonfluent-variant primary progressive aphasia) exhibited higher globus pallidus SUVr than did HCs; pallidal retention was highest in the PSP Richardson syndrome group, in whom SUVr was correlated with symptom severity (ρ = 0.53, P = 0.05). At the individual level, only half of PSP Richardson syndrome, corticobasal syndrome, and nonfluent-variant primary progressive aphasia patients had a pallidal SUVr above that of HCs. Temporal SUVr discriminated AD patients from HCs with high accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.94 [95% CI, 0.83-1.00]) for all time windows, whereas discrimination between patients with PSP Richardson syndrome and HCs using pallidal SUVr was fair regardless of time window (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.61-0.92] at 30-40 min vs. 0.81 [95% CI, 0.66-0.96] at 50-60 min; P = 0.67). Conclusion: [18F]PI-2620 SUVr shows an intense and consistent signal in AD but lower-intensity, heterogeneous, and rapidly decreasing binding in patients with suspected FTLD. Further work is needed to delineate the substrate of [18F]PI-2620 binding and the usefulness of [18F]PI2620 SUVr quantification outside the AD continuum.

African swine fever (ASF) is a viral disease, endemic to Africa, that causes high mortality when introduced into domestic pig populations. Since the emergence of p72-genotype II African swine fever virus (ASFV) in Georgia in 2007, an ASF epidemic has been spreading across Europe and many countries in Asia. The epidemic first reached Ukraine in 2012. To better understand the dynamics of spread of ASF in Ukraine, we analyzed spatial and temporal outbreak data reported in Ukraine between 2012 and mid-2023. The highest numbers of outbreaks were reported in 2017 (N = 163) and 2018 (N = 145), with overall peak numbers of ASF outbreaks reported in August (domestic pigs) and January (wild boars). While cases were reported from most of Ukraine, we found a directional spread from the eastern and northern borders towards the western and southern regions of Ukraine. Many of the early outbreaks (before 2016) were adjacent to the border, which is again true for more recent outbreaks in wild boar, but not for recent outbreaks in domestic pigs. Outbreaks prior to 2016 also occurred predominantly in areas with a below average domestic pig density. This new analysis suggests that wild boars may have played an important role in the introduction and early spread of ASF in Ukraine. However, in later years, the dynamic suggests human activity as the predominant driver of spread and a separation of ASF epizootics between domestic pigs and in wild boars. The decline in outbreaks since 2019 suggests that the implemented mitigation strategies are effective, even though long-term control or eradication remain challenging and will require continued intensive surveillance of ASF outbreak patterns.