Morphofunctional parameters and adaptation capabilities of students at the beginning of the third millennium

On the basis of comprehensive anthropometrical observation of 1st and 2nd year students from different faculties of Moscow State University (MSU) carried out in 2002-2003, functional characteristics of the cardiovascular system (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate) were investigated in 205 young men and 327 young women along with traditional morphological parameters. In comparisons of contemporary young men and women with their peers, whose characteristics were obtained in the course of investigations carried out over the period 1920-1990, secular trends towards an increase of body length and a worsening of strength indices were detected. Evaluation and comparative analysis of adaptation capabilities of students were carried out based on screening and assessment of adaptation potential using the Bayevsky method (1987). It was shown that the parameters of physical development and the level of adaptation of an organism to environmental conditions can be used as additional markers for determination of the health status of contemporary students for early prevention of some diseases, improvement of their physical status and increase of adaptation potentials.     

Parameters of cardiac hemodynamics and physical development in indigenous inhabitants and caucasoids of military age born in different Northeastern Regions of Russia

Comparative analysis of the basic parameters of physical development and cardiovascular system in indigenous inhabitants and north-born Caucasoids of different northeastern regions of Russia (the Chukotka Autonomous District, Magadan oblast) has been performed. No significant differences in most of morphological and functional parameters have been found between the groups of subjects, which proves that convergent adaptation processes occur under the current social conditions in both ethnic groups regardless of the region.     

Lateral Preferences as Possible Phenotypic Predictors of the Reserves of the Cardiovascular System and the Features of Sensorimotor Integration in Climbers

The lateral preferences of the hands, the reserves of the cardiovascular system and the features of sensorimotor integration in mountain climbers as possible predictors of adaptation to extreme factors of the external environment have been investigated. The subjects were 15 climbers of high class (men aged 25.5–62.8 years). We used the following methods: reflexometric technique ReBFB (complex sensorimotor reaction in the model of go/no-go, computer simulation according to Chernikov); the assessment of lateral preferences using the standard samples; the orthostatic test (with the recording of the heart rate and evaluation of adaptive reserves based on the indices of mathematical analysis of the cardiac rhythm in the transition period according to a technique by Riftin). Sensorimotor integration was performed under normal conditions and under normobaric hypoxia. All indicators were correlated with the age and proficiency of the climbers. We observed no statistically significant correlations between age and the reserves of the cardiovascular system in the group of climbers. Reflexometry in normoxic conditions showed an improvement in the orientation of subjects in the sensory flow as compared with the initial level. The sensorimotor integration (as a response of sensorimotor responses) was more stable during hypoxia as compared with the same indices in normoxia. Noticeable correlation was observed between the results of the humeral test and the reserves of the cardiovascular system defined by orthostatic hypotension: the reserves were higher in the subjects with a higher level of left-hand preference. The regulation of the autonomic nervous system is correlated with left-handedness, which results in more effective adaptation to the high altitude in left-handers. The parameter of handedness can be used as a phenotypic predictor of the level of the cardiovascular system reserves in climbers. It is suggested that the factor of hypoxia with small exposure has a stimulating effect on sensorimotor integration in climbers.     

Mechanisms of human adaptation to hypoxia

The effects of adaptation to cold-and-hypoxic exposure on the cardiovascular system, lipid peroxidation and concentrations of adaptogenesis involved hormones were studied in male students. The two weeks cold- and hypoxic training was shown to be accompanied by a significant increase of apnea duration, reduced velocity of bradycardia development and a more rapid ECG post-cold and- hypoxic exposure normalization, as well as by inhibition of activation of adrenal cortex and thyroid gland after stress of different nature. The changes of the character of influences between the indices under study, were demonstrated. The correlation analysis showed an increase of the human's adaptive potential and a decrease of its dependence on the adrenal cortex hormones.     

Social mobility of ethnic minority students in Laos

Idealistically speaking, schools are engines for upward social mobility. Education for ethnic minorities in Laos was set up to achieve nationalist, political, economic and sociocultural goals of ‘equity’ and ‘equality’. It was hoped that education would shift ethnic minorities from a lifestyle based on superstitious beliefs to a modern one, so that they could participate and enjoy ‘equality’ through educational equity. The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of how equality as a promise in education has impacted on students’ upward mobility, particularly the political discourse of the ‘big man’. This paper explores social mobility provided by national education for ethnic minorities through boarding schooling. It finds that such education has yet to reposition ethnic minorities into the ethnic Lao sociocultural hierarchy. As a result, regardless of their educational success, students are still ranked as ‘ethnic minorities’ and as being ‘poor’ in the eyes of urban students, middle class and rich students, and the ethnic Lao elite.     

Fetal programming of adipose tissue function: an evolutionary perspective

Obesity is an escalating threat of pandemic proportions and has risen to such unrivaled prominence in such a short period of time that it has come to define a whole generation in many countries around the globe. The burden of obesity, however, is not equally shared among the population, with certain ethnicities being more prone to obesity than others, while some appear to be resistant to obesity altogether. The reasons behind this ethnic basis for obesity resistance and susceptibility, however, have remained largely elusive. In recent years, much evidence has shown that the level of brown adipose tissue thermogenesis, which augments energy expenditure and is negatively associated with obesity in both rodents and humans, varies greatly between ethnicities. Interestingly, the incidence of low birth weight, which is associated with an increased propensity for obesity and cardiovascular disease in later life, has also been shown to vary by ethnic background. This review serves to reconcile ethnic variations in BAT development and function with ethnic differences in birth weight outcomes to argue that the variation in obesity susceptibility between ethnic groups may have its origins in the in utero programming of BAT development and function as a result of evolutionary adaptation to cold environments.     

Imagined futures: why business studies dominate the higher education choices of second-generation Turks in the Netherlands

Relying on in-depth interviews with higher education students and young graduates the study investigates the factors underpinning the participation patterns of second-generation Turks in the Dutch higher education system. The paper highlights how ethnic minority students accommodate the constraints faced by the Dutch educational system by rationalizing economics at professional colleges as a suitable alternative to studying medicine at university, an alternative that will meet both their aspirations for a more successful and secure life than their parents’ while maintaining the traditional family ties in line with the work-life balance offered by a ‘nine-to-five job’.     

Physical work capacity of athletes with different types of adaptation of the cardiorespiratory system

Indices of physical work capacity in athletes with different types of adaptation of the cardiorespiratory system that are engaged in various kinds of sports and have sports ranks from Master of Sports to Grade 2 have been studied. It has been shown that the highest physical work capacity is typical of athletes that have the inotropic type of adaptation, and the lowest, of athletes with the chronotropic type of adaptation. High indices of physical work capacity were recorded in athletes with the respiratory type of adaptation. Types of adaptation affect the indices of physical work capacity, and it is possible to forecast sports results on their basis.     

Regulation of hemodynamics in sympathectomized rats after adaptation to tail suspension

The organism adapts to actual or simulated microgravity by complex interactions of nervous, hormonal and local control mechanisms. Sympathetic nervous system is believed to play the leading role in this adaptation (Robertson et al. 1994). However, this conclusion seems to be rather deductive, as it has not been proved directly. Chronic sympathectomy provides a straightforward approach to this problem. We have studied the role of sympathetic nervous system in adaptation of cardiovascular system to simulated microgravity by tail suspension in intact and sympathectomized rats.     

Constitution and reactivity of the organism

A new principle of somatotyping according to the set of the most informative anthropometric indices is offered. For the first time we carried out a comparative analysis of anthropometric indices of physical development, of cardiovascular system functioning and its vegetative regulation for the representatives of different somatotypes. The purpose of the analysis was to define constitutional peculiarities of adaptation reactions in young males and females to the deficiency of vital macro- and microelements in soils and drinkable water of the Southern region of Belarus. Typological specificity of organism reactivity to the unfavorable geochemical situation of the Southern region of Belarus was revealed in young males and females in different degrees of tension in adaptation processes. The suggested approach to somatotyping has allowed us to define more precisely the constitutional properties of organism reactivity in a discomfort environment.     

‘I don't want to see it’: decoupling ethnicity and class from social structure in Jewish Israeli high schools

Social inequality in Israel's education system has often been analysed with top-down structural models. This study inquires, instead, how students understand their position in the stratified structure of opportunities at school. Our quantitative and qualitative data, gathered in Jewish high schools in Israel, indicate that, despite clear ethno-class distribution in academic tracking, students reject the logic of identity politics and consider ‘free will’ to be the main factor determining tracking. In light of the Jewish-Israeli national identity, which rejects class and ethnic divides, the reference point for the system of classification at school shifts to the autonomous individual. Our findings show that students use consumerist and psychological discourses to dismantle ethno-class identities and depoliticize the classification system at school.     

Influence of the Environment on the Physiological Status of Northerner Students

The authors examined students of specialized secondary education institutions of Syktyvkar during a three-year-long period. Some morphofunctional indices are worse in them than in similar cohorts in Central Russia. The unfavorable environmental situation impaired tolerance to hypoxemia, cardiac rhythm regulation, central hemodynamics, and balance of autonomic processes and affected dynamics of the physiological status of the body during social adaptation to learning.     

Functional characteristics of hemodynamics in adolescents under the conditions of different motor activities

The formation of functional systems in correspondence with the conditions of natural activity is the most important issue of developmental physiology. In this study, data on the assessment of the state of central and cerebral hemodynamics, as well as indices of spectral analysis of the heart rate’s variability (HRV) in adolescents depending on the level of motor activity has been collected and systematized. The possibility of integration of methods of rheoencephallography and cardiorythmography for the assessment of the characteristics of the ontogenetic formation of the cardiovascular system has been studied. Analysis of the formation of indices of hemodynamics during an academic year and the training cycle in swimmers and healthy adolescents who do not enroll in sports classes has been made. Changes in, and correlations between, the parameters of central hemodynamics and cerebral circulation, as well as parameters of HRV, have been detected. Analysis of the changes in the statistical indices of the cardiac rhythm in adolescents during an academic year on the basis of the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the state of regulatory systems, as well as the determination of the direction of the response to the combination of academic loads and the factor of physical training, permitted a detailed study of changes that take place in some hemodynamic parameters in athletes and students, which is of particular importance for the diagnosis of their functional state.     

‘Structure liberates?’: mixing for mobility and the cultural transformation of ‘urban children’ in a London academy

Abstract

This paper explores how the creation of a socially and ethnically mixed student body relates to mobility within the context of Beaumont Academy. This authoritarian school opened in 2004 under the ethos ‘structure liberates’. Based in a predominantly deprived, ethnic minority area of London, Beaumont seeks to culturally transform its students. With its outstanding GCSE results, the school has been championed as a blueprint for reform, yet the cultural implications underlying this approach remain unexamined. The ethos pathologizes the surrounding area while essentializing itself as an ‘oasis in the desert’ liberating students through discipline. The paper explores how mobility is embodied by students and the alterations or eliminations necessary to achieve it. These alterations produce raced and classed positions and bring them into focus, highlighting who needs to ‘adjust’ themselves to accrue value. Uncritical celebrations of mixed-ness conceal structural inequalities lingering beneath the rhetoric of happy multiculturalism and aspirational citizenship. These inequalities are exacerbated by a marketized education system.     

Endocrine factors in the neonatal adaptation

In this review an attempt has been made to summarize our current knowledge on the involvement of various endocrine systems in the adaptation of the neonate to extrauterine life. Clinical and experimental evidence has been provided to indicate the role of catecholamines, glucocorticoids, prostaglandins, vasopressin, endorphins and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in the cardiovascular and respiratory adaptation. Furthermore, the contribution of prolactin, vasopressin and the renin-angiotensin system to the redistribution of the body fluid compartments after birth and to the regulation of neonatal salt and water metabolism has been demonstrated. It has been concluded that the endocrine reactions induced by birth process and perinatal pathological events are important regulators of successful transition.     

Morphofunctional characteristics of the conjunctival microcirculation of students of different regions of the world

By means of vital microscopy, the conjunctival microcirculation has been estimated in students from various regions of the world depending on duration of the time of their life in the USSR. Adaptive rearrangements of the conjunctival microcirculation of the eye ball have been revealed in various time of adaptation. Integral estimation of the conjunctival microcirculation has demonstrated that at initial phase of adaptation synchronization in the work of separate links of the microcirculatory bed is observed. These changes can be interpreted as strain of the compensatory mechanisms. In two years of study, certain stabilization of the microcirculation system activity is observed in the foreign students; this can be considered as the phase of stable adaptation. In the students arrived from hot regions of the world, pigmentation in the eye ball conjunctiva has been revealed. By means of the correlative analysis it has been demonstrated that the pigmentation influences the most labile parts of the microcirculatory bed-capillaries and venules. Pigmentation is usually regarded as a pathological sign peculiar for some diseases. Our investigations have demonstrated that pigmentation should be interpreted carefully and the place of residence of the students investigated should be taken into account, since pigmentation can be the result of elevated solar radiation, specific for hot regions of the Earth.     

ESP理论参照下的临床医学英语教学实践探讨

目的:由于传统的英语教学无法满足全球化对于双语医学教育的新要求,ESP特殊用途英语如何在中国医学教育中得以实践并取得有效成果成了医学教育者的新课题。方法:为了解决这一课题,在上海交通大学医学院进行医学双语教学的试点培训,以学士,硕士和博士三种学历组成人数为3-5人的小型试点班级,目的在跟踪不同阶段的医学生在培训期间的专业素质水平与英语水平的成效,并参照语言学家Pauline Robinson的ESP方法论,归纳总结出适应我国不同阶段学生的教学方法。Pauline Robinson的ESP方法分别为:角色扮演和模仿,案例学习法,项目教学法和演讲。结果:培训教师从三组不同学生的实际情况出发,结合上述四种教学方法,经过三个学期的培训分别得出了博士生组的口语能力,硕士生组听力能力以及本科生的写作阅读能力进步比较突出的结果。结论:中国教育体制所导致的被动接受的学习习惯是中国的特殊情况,而角色扮演和模仿,案例学习法,项目教学法和演讲是紧密相扣的四环相连的教学方法,每一种教学方法都是对彼此的补充和丰富,符合我国当代学生的个性特点和医学教育的方向,从而需要更多的医学教育工作者更好地利用四种教学方法以不断提升医学英语教学的教育事业以更好地帮助医学工作者融入国际舞台。     

Hemodynamic indices of the cardiovascular system in children as related to their constitutional characteristics

In children five to seven years of age, the adaptation of their cardiovascular system to a high physical activity as related to their individual somatic characteristics was studied. The methods of rheography and bicycle ergometry were used under physical loads with the power increasing from 1 and 1.5 W/kg body weight. During exercises, load grading according to the body’s somatic characteristics led to a significant increase in the degree of the children’s functional training. In children of different somatotypes, the indices of absolute physical efficiency and of both cardiac output (Q) and stroke volume (SV) increased significantly. The increase in hemodynamic indices in girls was higher than in boys of the same age.     

Short-term adaptation of five- to seven-year-old children to mental load

Tetrapolar rheography according to Kubicek has been used to estimate the adaptive capacity of the cardiovascular system in 150 five- to seven-year-old children at rest and during mental load. Mental load evokes two variants of stroke volume (SV) responses, one of them characterized by an increase in the SV, and the other, by a decrease in the SV and an increase in the diastolic blood pressure (BP_d). Irrespective of the direction of the change in the SV, short-term adaptation to mental load in most five- to seven-year-old children does not stress the mechanisms of the cardiovascular system control and is generally favorable. In 13–15% of the children examined, short-term adaptation to mental load considerably stressed the cardiovascular system control. This is expressed in increased systolic blood pressure (BP_s), BP_d, and heart rate (HR); decreased CV and cardiac output (Q); and a prolonged restoration period for most central hemodynamic parameters.     

民办高校科研导师制的探索、实践与成效

大学生创新能力的培养是高等教育的重要内容之一.我院开展了基于大学生科技创新项目的科研导师制,以培养学生的创新实践能力和科研的"工匠精神",并帮助学生进行学业规划.科研导师还将项目成果转化为教学案例引入课堂,扩大受益面.科研导师制的实施得到了学生的普遍认可,人才培养质量明显提高.本文还探讨了科研导师制实施中需要关注的问题...