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The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is an international organization for regional economic integration, established by the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, which currently includes 5 countries - Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The EAEU ensures the freedom of goods movement, as well as services, capital and labor, conducting a coordinated, agreed/unified economic policy. The current practice of pharmacovigilance in the EAEU is of interest to potential foreign investors and market players.The aim of this study was to analyze the recent changes in pharmacovigilance in the EAEU countries in order to adopt the strategy of the pharmaceutical industry players.Materials and methods. The regulatory base of pharmacovigilance in the EAEU countries and the unified EAEU provisions on adverse reactions (ADR) were analyzed. A critical analysis of the current periodic safety update reports (PSUR) and risk management plans (RMP) was also carried out.Results. The united EAEU drug market is a complex system that incorporates 35 regulations, including the variety of good practice guidelines regarding the circulation of medicinal products (GMP, GCP, GLP, GDP, and GVP). This group of regulations contains basic documents on the inspection of production lines, the assessment of generic equivalence, the development of biological drugs, and the pharmacovigilance (PV). Currently, the ADR reporting in the EAEU countries is at a level lower than that in Russia. The common EAEU database of identified ADRs has been already initiated, but the number of incoming signals is quite small. The most common flaws of the PSUR are the late reports, the incorrect format and contents of those; the inconsistent information about the product, different from that of Roszdravnadzor, the discrepancy between the Patients information leaflet (“Instruction for medical use”) and the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC), and the lack of important and relevant scientific and clinical information. In the EAEU, the submission of Risk Management Plan (RMP) as part of the registration dossier is required for any new medication (New Chemical Entity), including a new combination of drugs. The present article also covers other updates in the Pharmacovigilance system, regulated by the Good Pharmacovigilance practice, which entered into effect on 01.01.2017, as well as the updated tasks for harmonization within the EAEU.Conclusions. The medicinal products circulating in the EAEU have to be checked for their efficacy and safety in order to identify possible negative consequences and/or individual patient intolerance. This information will serve to warn the medical staff and patients, veterinary specialists and animal owners about potential hazards of using these products. In the near future, the Eurasian Union plans to launch a “sanitation” campaign in the pharmaceutical market and get rid of low-effective and unsafe drugs. In this respect, the issues of pharmacovigilance become particularly relevant.

There is abundant epidemiological and clinical evidence showing that light-moderate drinking is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), total and ischaemic stroke and total mortality in middle-aged and elderly men and women. The epidemiological evidence suggests a J- or U-shaped relationship between alcohol and CHD. However, the apparent benefits of moderate drinking on CHD mortality are offset at higher drinking levels by increasing risk of death from other types of heart diseases (cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia etc.), neurological disorders, cancer, liver cirrhosis, and traffic accidents. The plausible mechanisms for the putative cardioprotective effects include increased levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, decreased levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, prevention of clot formation, reduction in platelet aggregation, and lowering of plasma apolipoprotein(a) concentration. Thus, alcohol reduces the risk of coronary vascular diseases both by inhibiting the formation of atheroma and decreasing the rate of blood coagulation.

A strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been constructed which is deficient in the four alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) isozymes known at present. This strain (adh0), being irreversibly mutated in the genes ADH1, ADH3, and ADH4 and carrying a point mutation in the gene ADH2 coding for the glucose-repressible isozyme ADHII, still produces up to one third of the theoretical maximum yield of ethanol in a homofermentative conversion of glucose to ethanol. Analysis of the glucose metabolism of adh0 cells shows that the lack of all known ADH isozymes results in the formation of glycerol as a major fermentation product, accompanied by a significant production of acetaldehyde and acetate. Treatment of glucose-growing adh0 cells with the respiratory-chain inhibitor antimycin A leads to an immediate cessation of ethanol production, demonstrating that ethanol production in adh0 cells is dependent on mitochondrial electron transport. Reduction of acetaldehyde to ethanol in isolated mitochondria could also be demonstrated. This reduction is apparently linked to the oxidation of acetaldehyde to acetate. Preliminary data suggest that this novel type of ethanol formation in S. cerevisiae is associated with the inner mitochondrial membrane.

This study follows a multi-disciplinary approach to implementing an Energy Community (ECs) in Vega de Valcarce, a rural community in Spain. ECs are entities that encompass collective actions of citizens and other actors towards the open, democratic governance of renewable energy sources; ECs can take various technical and organisational forms. This study developed and evaluated socially accepted, technically optimal and feasible options for the implementation of the EC at Vega de Valcarce. We conducted a participatory multi-criteria analysis incorporating the results of mixed-integer linear programming for energy system optimisation and regulatory analysis of ECs under Spanish law. Our study showed that the main objectives of local stakeholders are the reduction of the energy bill and emissions. The limited liability company fulfilled legal and regulatory restrictions the best by implementing a bigger-sized EC. We summarise the key challenges of implementing an EC in a rural context, mainly legal and financial, and conclude with recommendations on how to overcome these. While contributing to understanding the roll-out of ECs in Spain and Europe, our research aims to provide a structured approach for the uptake of renewable energy in rural areas.

ObjectivesTo investigate the awareness and use of health promotion offers among offshore wind workers and to study associations with demographic and workplace characteristics. To examine employees’ reasons for (non-)participation and their wishes for health promotion activities offshore.DesignMixed-methods study presenting the results from semistructured telephone interviews and a web-based cross-sectional survey.SettingOffshore wind parks in the German exclusive economic zone in the North and Baltic Seas.Participants21 offshore workers in the qualitative study (19 male/2 female; all German). 303 offshore workers in the quantitative study (287 male/13 female; 275 German/24 other nationalities).Outcome measuresAwareness and use of workplace health promotion offers and associations with demographic and workplace characteristics (age, work schedule and wind park phase); reasons for (non-)participation; needs and wishes for health promotion offers.ResultsFew workers indicated being aware of health promotion programmes at their workplace. Single offers were reported, with fitness facilities being the most common offer employees recognised and had used (n=168, 55.6%). Employees with a regular work schedule were more likely to have used fitness facilities offshore (adjusted OR (AOR)=3.22, 95% CI 1.53 to 6.80). Workers in the construction phase were more likely to have used massages (AOR=8.19, 95% CI 2.82 to 23.77). Younger workers were less likely to belong to the group of those who were aware of fitness facilities but had not used them (AOR=0.43, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.98). Employees expressed various needs and wishes for behavioural and environmental preventive measures offshore.ConclusionsThe results demonstrate a perceived need among the workers for the development of health promotion programmes offshore. Since the awareness and use of offers may partly depend on personal and organisational characteristics, this should be taken into account in the planning of health promotion activities.

Abstract BackgroundAccording to sustainable development goals (SDGs), societies should have access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. Deregulated electricity markets have been established to provide affordable electricity for end-users through advertising competition. Although these liberalized markets are expected to serve this purpose, they are far from perfect and are prone to threats, such as collusion. Tacit collusion is a condition, in which power generating companies (GenCos) disrupt the competition by exploiting their market power. MethodsIn this manuscript, a novel deep Q-network (DQN) model is developed, which GenCos can use to determine the bidding strategies to maximize average long-term payoffs using available information. In the presence of collusive equilibria, the results are compared with a conventional Q-learning model that solely relies on past outcomes. With that, this manuscript aims to investigate the impact of emerging DQN models on the establishment of collusive equilibrium in markets with repetitive interactions among players. Results and ConclusionsThe outcomes show that GenCos may be able to collude unintentionally while trying to ameliorate long-term profits. Collusive strategies can lead to exorbitant electric bills for end-users, which is one of the influential factors in energy poverty. Thus, policymakers and market designers should be vigilant regarding the combined effect of information disclosure and autonomous pricing, as new models exploit information more effectively.

A novel paired transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) paradigm with a suprathreshold first and a subthreshold second stimulus was used in healthy volunteers to investigate the acute effects of a single oral dose of various CNS-active drugs on short-interval motor evoked potential (MEP) facilitation. MEPs were recorded from the relaxed abductor digiti muscle. Three peaks of MEP facilitation were consistently observed at interstimulus intervals of 1.1-1.5 ms, 2.3-2.7 ms, and 3.9-4.5 ms. The size of these MEP peaks was transiently suppressed by drugs which enhance gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) function in the neocortex (lorazepam, vigabatrin, phenobarbital, ethanol), while the GABA-B receptor agonist baclofen, anti-glutamate drugs (gabapentin, memantine), and sodium channel blockers (carbamazepine, lamotrigine) had no effect. The interstimulus intervals effective for the production of the MEP peaks remained unaffected by all drugs. The MEP peaks are thought to be due to a facilitatory interaction of I-(indirect) waves in the motor cortex. Therefore, the present results indicate that the production of I-waves is primarily controlled by GABA related neuronal circuits. The potential relevance of this non-invasive paired TMS protocol for the investigation of I-waves in patients with neurological disease will be discussed.

The pattern of development of the economies of Europe and the world in recent decades is a focus on sustainable development. In accordance with the declaration of the United Nations Conference of 1992, sustainable development is defined as ≪equitable meeting the needs of present and future generations in the areas of development and the environment≫ and is established as one of the goals of government policy in many countries of the world. The concept of sustainable development solves the problem of choosing between achieving a high rate of economic growth and maintaining a clean environment. The purpose is to study and quantify the impact of economic factors on the state of the environment in countries with different levels of development. The study revealed existing patterns and built new mathematical models that can be used in strategic planning, allow predicting the possible environmental consequences of economic growth in Europe and the world. The use of the proposed models allows not only to assess the impact of economic growth on the environment in retrospect, but also to highlight the most significant factors contributing to the reduction of environmental pressure in the future. Keywords: CO2 emissions, Environmental policy, Demography, Econometric methods, Economic growth, Environment, European Union, Sustainable development