Issue #1, 2020
PROBLEMS OF ECOLOGY, EDUCATION, ECOLOGICAL CULTURE, EARTH SCIENCES
Problems of the \\\"single\\\" and \\\"unique\\\" condition in the socio-natural history of mankind for the formation of solidarity in civilizational dynamics are discussed in the paper. The role of culture of thinking, universally valid civilizational criteria, innovative thinking techniques, and harmonization in values of world cultures in the formation of humanity solidarity is justified. The article is dedicated to the memory of a full member of the International Academy of Sciences (Health and Ecology), Russian Section, Professor N.N. Moiseev. Keywords: solidarity, culture of thinking, values of world cultures, humanity, civilization
Adaptation of the Human to Environmental Influences: Naturalistic and Sociocultural Components
Adaptation of the person to changes of the external environment actually defined the direction of its evolution. The person, unlike other biological organisms, since that moment when he began to become actually a person, strove for independence of the outside world. The essence of its adaptation consisted not only in establishment of unity with environment, and confrontation, constant with it, the invention of those mechanisms and tools which could promote submission of the nature. For this reason the person throughout all his history acts as a source of ecological crises – beginning from neolytic and continuing by today\\\'s global crisis of an ecosystem. In this aspect the main objective of the person his appeal to reason which one can help it to realize that that environment in which the person was created is most adequate for his functioning and today seems, so, this environment needs to be kept as a condition of survival of a human as a specie. Keywords: person, society, nature, ecosystem, ecology, adaptation, evolution, crisis, global problems.
COMPARATIVE STUDY ON AIR POLLUTION AND HEALTH DAMAGE — A CASE OF OSAKA CITY
In this study, a trend analysis was conducted using the interannual data of measured values of sulfur dioxide in the air and the number of officially recognized victims of pollution-related diseases, in Osaka City, in order to clarify the health impact of air pollution. As a result, it has been shown that the number of victims tends mostly to decrease as the level of sulfur dioxide in the air becomes lower. Keywords: Environmental pollution, air pollution, health damage, trend analysis
The paper shows that without an object-ontological mental construction there is no prospect of environmental development with the certainty that is adequate to the needs of society. Only then can we adequately hierarchize the dangers and overcome the randomness of seeing problems. Based on the ontological support of the formulation and solution of environmental problems, options are developed for full-value systems that introduce the dependence of the orig-inal foundations and changing circumstances. The use of new opportunities implies a different attitude to modern education, primarily environmental. It becomes including as its basis a worldview and world-related component and, at the center of interests, a culture of thinking and a culture of reflection. Key words: ontology, environmental problems, universal paradigm of thinking, civiliza-tion, evolution
Current sociocultural situation, the permanent reform of education system of any civilized country determines the constant updating and adjustment of the content of education. The reflection of innovative educational practice allows us to determine one of the strategic guidelines for such an update, contributing to the constructive development of the life competence of an individual, to increase the level of his subjectivity, formation of personality’s ecological culture. What is human environmental/ecological culture? What is its content? What is the structure of ecological culture of a person? How can a teacher shape the students\' ecological culture? This article is dedicated to finding answers to these and other questions. Key words: ecological culture, personality, content of education.
MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
The article considers the biological nature and origin of emotional stress. Emotional stress is primarily formed in the mental activity of the brain in the form of pronounced emotions. The «Dynamic theory of emotions» characterizes the appearance of a continuous negative emotional state in conflicting behavioral situations in which the subject for a long time is not able to satisfy his strong dominant need. The dual nature of emotional stress is shown, which has a biologically negative - pathogenetic effect on health, and it has a positive property - the adaptation of individuals, self-preservation and evolutionary change of species. Key words: emotions, emotional stress, psychosomatic diseases, health, adaptation, evolution.
Neurotrophins are a large group of polypeptides - endogenous regulators of development (neuro- and sanoptogenesis, neuroplasticity) and regeneration of the nervous system. A wide range of neurological / neurodegenerative and mental diseases are associated with their deficiency, which actualizes the development of \"neurotrophic therapy\". Based on neurotrophins, drugs are being developed and tested for targeted therapeutic effects on neurogenesis. However, nonpharmacological stimulation of their endogenous synthesis is supposed and tested, since neurotrophins are involved in an organism’s adaptation to environmental stimuli of various nature, activating the functions of memory, attention, and cognitive processes. It is important to understand what methods and techniques based on adaptive direct and cross-effects formation to repeated extreme and sub-extreme stressors in this regard are most effective and how to correlate the dynamics of neurotrophins in blood plasma with tissue regeneration and with an increase in psychophysiological stress-resistance. In this mini-review, we tried to analyze and generalize the approaches being developed to expand the \"therapeutic potential\" of neurotrophins. Key words: neurotrophins, neurotrophic factor, adaptation, neurogenesis.
This article is the continuation of the article “Light and health”, published in the Journal in 2018, №1. It deals with the influence of light on the hormones serotonin and melatonin. On the one hand, the importance of daylighting on serotonin production and our research work and results concerning this topic will be presented in this article. For the synchronisation of the inner clock daylight is essential. Our indoor society works and lives in spaces with a lack of natural daylight. The indoor (standard) illuminances may be enough for certain visual tasks but for the synchronisation of the circadian rhythm higher illuminances are needed. This can be achieved by light guiding systems as illustrated by application examples in this article. Light guiding lamella harvest the light and guide it to the reflective ceiling and therefore to the depth of the room. A conventional glazed façade is “repaired” by this light guiding systems. The more appropriate measure to improve daylight quality in buildings is another one: Daylight should be the decisive design parameter in the architectural designing process – new building typologies should be created. Additionally, in this process the knowledge about the avoidance of glare and the creation of visual comfort is crucial. On the other hand, the effect of light at night is discussed in this article. The melatonin secretion is suppressed by exposure to light which has a negative effect on our health. This topic concerns everybody, but especially people that are working during the night. Studies that aimed at preserving the melatonin production at night have provided insights into the necessary spectral distribution, the lighting system and the light and space atmosphere that is created. We have defined a melatonin-preserving spectrum for a laboratory research. The results of this research, which was carried out during the night and used high light with sufficient illuminance for the visual tasks was that with the melatonin light, production of melatonin was maintained to a significant degree. In further consequence we have implemented this melatonin sustaining light in our projects (e.g. Psychiatric Hospital Slagelse, Denmark). The melatonin light serves as “night light” for the patients and the stuff and should be applied to the whole building. Key words: serotonin, melatonin, night light, light guiding lamella
HUMANITARIAN SCIENCES
«DARWINISM» AND THE FUTURE OF A GLOBALIZED WORLD
The given political situation is dominated on a loss of predictability and of the validity of signed contracts. Classic Darwinist can justify this with the evolutionary principle of natural selection that the fittest will/ should survive. But Darwin relativized this position for the understanding of the evolution of humans as social beings. He introduced “sympathy distinct from love”. Both principles seem to exclude each another as mechanics and electromagnetism seemed to be incompatible. Einstein developed the technique of hypothetic-deductive theories of principle and could interlink both with the Relativity Theories. This technique is used to interlink both positions of Darwin. The joint basis of both evolutionary principles is surprisingly “win-win”. Its principles are demonstrated on the metaphor of chess. It is explained why also the genetically based evolution can be understood as a special case of “win-win”. Therefore, evolution on the basis of “sympathy” is understandable as the next step of evolution with natural selection as the precursor principle. All the demands of precursor levels have to be taken further on in consideration. “Sympathy” is never sufficient to deal adequately with the challenges of the globalized world. Responsibility would be a possible solution. Keywords: evolution, survival of the fittest, sympathy distinct of love, WIN-WIN strategy, responsibility, loss of credibility, sense of coherence
«New Man» in Transhumanistic and The Attitude of Russian Youth to Its Main Features
The article deals with the features of the \\\"transhuman\\\", which should change the nature of man in the future and become a step to the \\\"Posthuman\\\", the ideal of which is represented in transhumanism. The data of studies conducted among young people in various territories of Russia in 2016/2017 and 2019, showing that in this category of the population, which is considered the most open to human experiments, there is no unity regarding the estimates of the expected signs of \\\"transhumans\\\"in transhumanism. Key words: Transhuman; Posthuman; youth; transhumanism; empirical research
Representations on Ripeyan Mountains in Ancient Greek and Indopersian Literature
The mythical mountains located in the North, beyond which is the North Ocean, are reflected in the written ancient monuments of Greece and Rome and in the Indo-Aryan sources: Rigveda, Mahabharata, Avesta, Bundakhishn. The localization of the Riphean mountains, causing controversy to date, suggests, first of all, to geographically designate the Northern Ocean. Keywords: Riphean mountains, Caspian Sea, Hyrcanic Sea, North Ocean, Caucasus.
HISTORY OF SCIENCE
Nikita Moiseev and the Modern World
The article discusses the main directions of the scientist\'s scientific thoughts about the fate of Russia and the world in the 21st century from the standpoint of the concept of universal evolutionism developed by him. The “TEACHER” system, ecological and moral imperatives, Collective intelligence and noospherogenesis, co-evolution of man, nature and society are the most important components of the concept, allowing not only to outline the modern scientific picture of the world, but also to look beyond the historical horizon and formulate a Strategy for the survival of mankind. Extensive experience in theoretical and empirical research in mechanics, mathematics, computer science, and synergetics has allowed the scientist to come up with co-evolutionary ideas and the conclusion about the inevitability of the death of civilization, if the uncontrolled evolution of human society is not stopped. The scientist proclaimed the 21st century the century of humanism and humanitarian knowledge. He emphasized that evolutionary processes in nature and society take place in the name of man, but to the extent successful, in which man least violates the evolutionary laws of nature. Key words: concept; universal evolutionism; environmental and moral imperatives; noоsрherogenesis; collective mind; transition strategy; global challenges and risks.
Pyotr Kuzmich Anokhin — My Teacher
The author shares his personal memories concerning outstanding Russian physiologist, his scientific school, vividly conveys the atmosphere of a research in the medical and physiological community, at the Department of Normal Physiology, when P.K. Anokhin was in charge of it, The priorities and achievements of the theory of functional systems, the main postulates of which were formulated by academician P.K. Anokhin popularly sets out in the article.
CHRONICLE
Members of the Presidium, the International Academy of Science (Health & Ecology e.v.) for the period 2019–2023 have been elected at the General Assembly of the Academy.