Scientists report on the year's scientific results at the conference 'Science at St Petersburg University – 2021'
St Petersburg University has hosted the interdisciplinary All-Russian Conference with international participation 'Science at St Petersburg University – 2021'. As part of the natural sciences and humanities sections, participants presented papers in chemistry, medicine, cognitive science, history, art history, and other academic fields.
One of the initiators of the interdisciplinary conference was Sergei Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law of St Petersburg University. Addressing the participants, he stressed that he considered it important to hold a university-wide event that summed up the results of academic research.
In my opinion, the value of such a conference lies in the fact that it provides an opportunity to look at the achievements of colleagues from other fields of knowledge and to learn things that could be of great interest and be the subject of further joint research projects and studies.
Sergei Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law of St Petersburg University
'We have the opportunity to see the results of world-class research centres, projects, and grants. They have been implemented with the participation of leading and most highly cited scientists, as well as those whose work may not be as noticeable in terms of scientometric data. However, it is nevertheless interesting and could be the subject of the most sincere attention from colleagues,' said Sergei Belov.
The conference traditionally presents the results of the most current research that is being carried out at St Petersburg University. Sergei Mazurenko, Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine Propaedeutics, gave a presentation on medicine and healthcare, which is one of the priority areas of the University's development. He said that due to the tendency of ageing in developed countries, the problem of treating diseases of the elderly is becoming more and more topical. In a report devoted to modern achievements in the treatment of osteoporosis, Professor Mazurenko spoke about the causes of the disease and ways to combat it.
Osteoporosis, a disease characterised by decreased bone density, is divided into primary, caused by natural age-related processes, and secondary, associated with a number of specific diseases, including prolonged hypodynamia. This leads to severe changes in bone metabolism and increased bone fragility. Meanwhile, it is the musculoskeletal system that largely determines the basis of human health. The development of the young body follows the path of building up strength reserves, but after the age of 40 it begins to be gradually exhausted, resulting in less adaptability to environmental conditions, and a reduced ability to cope with illness and injury, including fractures. Clinical consequences include decreased bone mineral density and bone strength.
Structural changes in bone tissue, quantitative and qualitative, are largely irreversible, so it is easier to suspend and delay them than to repair them afterwards.
Sergei Mazurenko, Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine Propaedeutics
'Osteoporosis therapy therefore aims to reduce the risk of fractures and improve the quality and length of life of patients,' said Sergei Mazurenko.
Multicentre randomised clinical trials show that increasing bone mineral density can reduce the risk of fracture. Denosumab, Teriparatide and bisphosphonates are currently considered the most successful drugs in the treatment of osteoporosis.
Bisphosphonates distribution pattern in the skeletal bones Bisphosphonates are rapidly fixed on the bone surface at the points of bone remodelling Alendronate (ALN) on the bone surface of rodents ALN on the bone surface after 24 hours Trabecular bone tissue.
Each of them has its own specific characteristics. The patient is therefore examined before the start of therapy. Bone metabolism and bone mineral density are assessed with the help of modern densitometry in order to select the optimal treatment regimen. For example, bisphosphonates, which were first used in the 19th century to demineralise water and clear surfaces of salt deposits and then entered medicine as an effective treatment, block bone resorption (destruction) and are a kind of bone preservative. However, they do not help to restore bone. Denosumab is a more effective method of bone restoration, and it helps to achieve the highest gains in bone mineral density. However, unlike bisphosphonates, it does not accumulate in the body, and after its withdrawal, intensive loss of the accumulated mineral density is observed. This requires the prescription of bisphosphonates to maintain the bone mass. The most powerful stimulator of bone formation today is considered to be Teriparatide. This drug speeds up bone metabolism, which allows rapid bone mass growth. However, due to the risk of side effects, treatment with this drug is limited to the shortest period of time.
During his presentation, Sergei Mazurenko introduced the results of studies on the effectiveness of modern medicines, spoke about their pharmacodynamics, and outlined the prospects for multimodal therapy of osteoporosis.
The health not only of the human being, but also of the buildings was offered for discussion by Vladimir Torbik, Associate Professor in the Department of Restoration at St Petersburg University. He shared with the audience his observations on the remodelling, repairs, and restoration of the interiors of the Vladimir Nabokov Museum.
The Nabokov family left the house in 1917, and until the 1970s, when the building was taken under state protection, it was occupied by various organisations, each of which made alterations and repairs to suit their needs. The 1961 renovation, for example, significantly altered the appearance of the Green Drawing Room, which Vladimir Nabokov recalls in his works. The room was divided into two smaller rooms, the mouldings on the ceiling were knocked down, and the picturesque plafond was painted over with white paint.
Reconstruction of the plafond painting with stucco details This is not a project yet, but a picture to find solutions to the rather complex problem of replacing of the lost moulding.
'After uncovering the painting, the composition of the plafond became clear. It had previously included mouldings characteristic of the second half of the 19th century. Without them, the panels depicted completely unclear fields. It was very difficult to decipher it, and it took a lot of research work to establish the original design,' said Vladimir Torbik. 'Further research led to a hypothesis of what the plafond could have been, but the very task of working with the memorial monument ruled out any kind of recreation. A key provision of the 1966 Venice Charter states that restoration ends where hypothesis begins. It is only a question of revealing, preserving and conserving the authentic elements of the interiors that Nabokov himself saw when he lived in the house.'
Since 2010, specialists at St Petersburg University have been working on uncovering and preserving authentic historic interiors which have suffered greatly over almost half a century. The staff of the University has done a great deal of work to study the condition of the surviving decorative elements, as well as the composition of the paints and the techniques used for the paintings. The research was carried out jointly with specialists from the Centre for Optical and Laser Materials Research of the Research Park of St Petersburg University. Micro-slips were made from the samples taken from the painting sections, the study of which made it possible to determine the thickness of the layers to a micron precision and to characterise the components of the paints.
Specialists and restoration students from St Petersburg University began the work on revealing the interiors and preserving them at the request of the Committee for the State Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments. The project was supervised by experts from the State Hermitage Museum and the Naslediye Restoration Workshop. The work programmes are being coordinated with specialists from the Russian Academy of Arts and the Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design.
In addition to the plafond, the restorers of St Petersburg University uncovered the dessus de portes – the decorative compositions above the doors – and the doorways, which presented researchers with an interesting discovery.
The first part of the dessus de portes in the process of removing the paint coatings.
'When the first discoveries were underway, we saw images of nets on the paintings of the doors, and museum workers assumed that they were represented here as the attribute of an entomologist. However, at the time, Nabokov was not yet engaged in the study of insects,' remarked Vladimir Torbik. 'In fact, it was not a net for catching butterflies, but a part of a set of compositional elements with symbols of fishing typical for that time. Similar compositions were often used in the decoration of wall panels, and we can see images with hunting attributes in the decoration of the door panelling here.’
After the plenary sessions, poster presentations and free discussions were held in each section, with almost 300 researchers participating. A total of 815 papers in the natural sciences and humanities were presented at the conference.