Natural and medical sciences

The socio-economic development of countries and world regions during recent decades has been affected by the confrontation of global and regional centres of power, their growing geoeconomic and geopolitical rivalry, accom­panied by increasing geopolitical turbulence. The article aims to substantiate the concept of geopolitical turbulence in its socio-geographical projection. Spe­cial emphasis is made on its manifestations in the territorial organization of society and its structures. The author reveals the most relevant aspects of the territorial restructuring of the Russian economy, which is being influenced by recent geopolitical changes. The author assesses the economic resistance of Russia’s western border regions to geopolitical turbulence. Special attention is paid to the typology of border regions, which is built taking into account the impact of geopolitical turbulence and compensatory measures of state support on regional socio-economic systems. The study offers a general conceptual vi­sion of geopolitical turbulence as a permanent (poorly predictable and only partially regulated) series of changes in the global political order as a whole and in the position of a particular country and its spatial units — regions and large urban agglomerations. Such changes are obvious and significant for so­ciety; they are reflected in the public consciousness and embodied in scientific discourse.

The article evaluates the economic security of the Rostov region, a west­ern border region of Russia under the conditions of geoeconomic turbulence. Using complementary methods of the economic-statistical analysis of dynamic series and expert interviewing, the author describes multidimensional intra-regional processes triggered by external economic shifts. Empirical research shows a decrease in several economic indicators and the response of the re­gion's economy to external challenges. The Rostov region is capable of the mobilization of its productive forces while forming new market niches in the process of import substitution. The research shows that the Rostov region is relatively stable economically and has enough potential for progressive devel­opment. However, over the past 4 years, some negative trends have been ob­served. They were mainly caused by the deterioration of the regional business environment. A comparative analysis of the regional and all-Russia economic indicators, as well as the average indicators of Russia's western border re­gions and the Krasnodar Krai, reveals a growing competition between regions in the economically prosperous South-West of Russia. The study identified the main threats caused by both the geoeconomic situation and its projection onto the intra-regional environment. These threats aggravated system-wide eco­nomic problems.

The modern socio-economic model entails the intensification of rural – urban interaction. First of all, the process manifested itself in the growth of population flows, daily commuting between the village and the city. As a re­sult, the rural population expects a high-quality transport infrastructure and an efficiently functioning public transport network. Using sociological tools, the authors analyze the degree of satisfaction of the rural population from the eastern municipalities of the Kaliningrad region with a current public transport network and the quality of transport services provided. The findings led to the conclusion that the existing passenger management system satisfies most of the respondents. At the same time, according to the responses, the network asks for both infrastructural and systematic development, especially in the most ‘challenged’ municipalities of the Kaliningrad region. The Slavsky municipality is considered to be the most exposed nfrastructurally, while Gvardeysk experiences organizational difficulties.

Recently published papers and our own research results have enabled the authors to generalize the data on the paleofauna of Dominican amber, the largest deposit of the Miocene age fossil organisms. The research tasks includ­ed geographic and stratigraphic examinations, the study of research history and an attempt of synchronization of paleofans with other Lagerstättes. The authors show the absence of endemism at the family level. The Mesozoic La­gerstättes are linked to the modern Neotropical fauna. The most obvious simi­larities among the fossil communities are found in the Baltic amber. Faunistic relations with recent communities are more pronounced than with any of the known Lagerstättes. It gives grounds for characterizing the Dominican fauna as the closest to the modern one.

The article reviews the influence of various factors on the accuracy and reproducibility of liver stiffness measurements using shear wave elastography (SWE), as well as on the reliability of judgments about the norm and patholo­gy. The tasks included analyzing the factors affecting the accuracy of meas­urements of liver stiffness depending on the equipment; testing various SWE techniques for their advantages and disadvantages; identifying the factors de­pending on the patient (body mass index, gender, respiration, etc.); finding out the reproducibility of liver stiffness measurements in SWE, depending on the skills of the operator, the minimal measurements, the use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound. The most important factors affecting the results of liver stiffness measurements include using SWE method, the diagnostic equipment and the sensors, the measurement depth and acoustic access; the reliability of various SWE methods is approximately equivalent. Among modern ultrasonic SWE technologies, the most efficient to visualize the measurement area are ARFI technologies — point shear wave elastography (pSWE) and two-di­men­sional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE). Two-dimensional SWE (2D-SWE) provides maximum color visual information about the state of liver tis­sue elasticity.

Spleen, as a lymphoid organ, can activate itself in certain diseases, which is macroscopically manifested by splenomegaly. At certain stages of a disease development, splenomegaly may be an only symptom. There are different ways to detect splenomegaly with physical diagnostic methods and instru­mental studies, but their results can be rather contradictory. The aim of the research is to provide a critical analysis of a varity of instruments. The article offers a good review of a varity of papers and methodologies on this topic in the RSCI and PubMed databases. There are different methods for determining splenomegaly in children and adults. Most researchers note relationship be­tween the size and volume of the spleen with the height of patients and the lack of connection with the patient’s weight and body mass index. Historical­ly, there is a transition from strict criteria for splenomegaly (a certain value of the length, volume of an organ, the area of its transverse section) to formulas that take into account the anthropometric characteristics of patients (gender, height).

The authors try to characterize changes in viscosities of blood and throm­boresistance of vascular endothelium after stab wounds of heart. To achieve the goal, the indicators of microblood circulation were studied in 34 patients. All patients were divided into two groups: the first group of 17 people has been operated for the wounds of heart with the thoracotomy, suturing heart wounds and the pleural cavity drainage. The second group of 17 patients had stab wounds of the chest, they underwent primary surgical treatment of wounds, drainage of the pleural cavity. A study of the patient’s blood coagula­tion capacity, the examination of markers of intravascular coagulation of the blood, the level of D-dimer, and the viscosity of the blood were made. The study established that the heart wounds are characterized by disturbances of the microcirculatory bed in the nearest post-surgery term. At the same time the maximum changes are revealed for 5—7 post-surgery days when all stud­ied indicators showed some changes of, in particular a coagulative hemostasis system got more activated which was manifested by shortening of blood plas­ma recalcification time, thrombin time, at the same time, the final process of blood coagulation was activated, which resulted in an increase in the level of fibrin in the blood. In addition, this period was characterized by a decrease in the activity of antithrombin III and an increase in HAEM-kallikrein-dependent fibrinolysis as well as the increased level of D-dimer in the blood, the increase of the viscosity of blood at all shear rates, in addition, in this peri­od there was a decline in anticoagulant and fibrinolytic activity of the endo­thelium, which can be regarded as a manifestation of DIC. The complete re­covery of the studied indicators occurred on 17—19 postoperative days. Heart wounds lead to a change in the microcirculation, the maximum of which falls on 5—7 post-surgery days. Patients with heart wounds can be referred to as thrombotic for 5—7 post-surgery days.