The aim was to analyze the contemporary scientific literature on Devic’s opticomyelitis and to present a case report from our clinical practice. Based on the patient’s complaints, case history and features of clinical course, objective neurological status, clinical laboratory and additional examination methods, characteristic MR-patterns, consultations of related specialists and differential diagnostics, we made the clinical diagnosis according to ICD-10: G36.0 Devic’s opticomyelitis, exacerbation, with a sustained bilateral lesion of the optic nerves in the form of retrobulbar neuritis with the development of partial atrophy of the optic nerves in both eyes, spinal cord lesions with common cystic, cicatrical and atrophic alterations at C1-Th8 level with moderate lower paraparesis, expressed by sensory ataxia, sensory disturbances by the descending conductive type from Th10, impaired function of pelvic organs by the type of acute urinary retention, asthenic and neurotic syndrome. Widespread cases of demyelinating pathology in medical practice and complexity of differential diagnostics determine the need for a specific diagnostic algorithm. This algorithm should consider anamnestic data along with the course of the disease, clinical, laboratory and instrumental examination, including neuroimaging, analysis of CSF for oligoclonal bands, analysis for IgG antibodies to AQP4, which will allow to carry out diagnostics and to decide on tactics for further management of patients of this cohort. Further research is needed to conduct additional studies for optimization of tactics for dynamics monitoring and improvement of diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation measures in patients with Devic’s opticomyelitis, including appropriate immunological control, given the complexity of differential diagnostics and the affinity of this pathology to multiple sclerosis.

The article considers the communicative status of hedging in different genres of the English academic discourse. As a linguistic phenomenon, hedging is associated with the choice of a particular communication strategy, usually aimed at reducing the categorical nature of expressions. Hedging allows authors to limit the degree of reliability or validity of the judgment, to take off responsibility for accuracy of information in a statement, and to avoid critical interpretation. The English language training of researchers and teaching staff at medical universities has become a priority task in higher medical education. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine and systematize the most common challenges in dealing with hedging linguistic constructions in the English academic discourse. The ability to understand and use hedging phrases correctly is an essential prerequisite of successful communication, intercultural reciprocal understanding and international cooperation in the context of rapid development of integration in Ukraine, which renders the present research relevant. The most commonly used hedging constructions, their significance and contextual role in professional communication have been analyzed. The authors have studied the linguistic features of hedging markers, and the functions of hedging constructions depending on the addresser’s intentions. The material of the research is the corpus of research articles and case reports obtained by the method of continuous sampling from the electronic database of medical publications “PubMed”. The analysis of hedging strategies is important to eliminate possible mistakes and avoid misunderstanding in medical communication. The study of the functional implementation of hedging on the basis of certain academic genres of the English medical discourse specifies the "doctor – patient" communicative situation, motivates the communicative behavior of narrative figures, and optimizes international professional communication. The authors believe that paying due attention to this linguistic phenomenon within the framework of the training PhDs and academic staff will promote scientific cooperation, thus contributing to the development of higher medical education in Ukraine.

In the contemporary academic setting, the quality of publications and the publication activity of a scientist, educational or research institution are evaluated using a set of scientific metric indicators. There are the following parameters: total citations, total number of links, the Hirsch index, impact factor, g-index, and-10 index. The aim of the paper is to cover the methods of working with the world scientific and metric databases of literature, as well as to explain the essence and algorithms for calculating the major scientific and metric indicators. We used the bibliosemantic research method in order to analyze the relevant scientific literature. The article describes the principles of mastering the tools of international databases Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Mendeley bibliographic manager, ORCID system. The paper focuses on the essence of scientific and metric indicators, calculated by these resources, as well as their scope and possibilities. The authors analyze the positive aspects of using the scientific metrics to determine the influence of a particular author or institution, as well as a number of subjective disadvantages of their widespread adoption in higher education. The modern tools for working with scientific information play a key role in the research activities of scientists, institutions of higher education, research institutions. The quality of publications is determined by a number of scientific metrics, calculated by authoritative scientific literature databases, such as Scopus and Web of Science. The h-indices are calculated in terms of publications in these bases, and serve as qualitative indicators for scientific activity evaluation. Scopus and Web of Science, in addition to their own built-in tools for searching, visualizing, analyzing and tracking data, integrated with the registers of scientists, bibliographic managers, plugins that allow to automate the processes of citation, lists of literature, preparation of publications according to the requirements of a specific edition, work with full-text versions of articles in different formats.

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