Generation of Long-Lived Isomeric States via Bremsstrahlung Irradiation

A method to generate long-lived isomeric states effectively for Mossbauer applications is reported. We demonstrate that this method is better and easier to provide highly sensitive Mossbauer effect of long-lived isomers (>1ms) such as 103Rh. Excitation of (gamma,gamma) process by synchrotron radiation is painful due mainly to their limited linewidth. Instead,(gamma,gamma') process of bremsstrahlung excitation is applied to create these long-lived isomers. Isomers of 45Sc, 107Ag, 109Ag, and 103Rh have been generated from this method. Among them, 103Rh is the only one that we have obtained the gravitational effect at room temperature.Comment: ICAME 05 conference repor

Interview with Vladimir M. Alpatov

This paper is an interview with Vladimir M. Alpatov, Doctor of Philology, full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, distinguished linguist, and expert on Japanese studies. The focus of the interview is intercultural communication and the problems associated with translating languages and cultural realities. The difference between cultures makes it necessary to provide extensive commentaries to make the text comprehensive to foreign readers. Though, Vladimir M. Alpatov notes, the comments depend on the purposes and types of translation, such as academic or literary translation. Symbols are part of a greater symbolic and cultural system. Often it is not the symbol but one’s attitude towards the object that causes misunderstanding and requires clarification. Vladimir A. Alpatov gives many examples of how the Japanese view and treat life differently from Russian people. Many discrepancies come from domestic life and economic practices: the Japanese are less knowledgeable about cattle than many other nations. At the same time, insects that are found all around the world receive special treatment and admiration. Vladimir A. Alpatov makes a critical point on the absence of a proper method of studying cultural differences. We observe and list numerous cultural differences, but explanations and theories we come up with have no solid methodological basis. Another topic discussed is machine translation and AI Linguistics used to be considered exact science that implied the possibility of machine translation not assisted by humans. However, it did not happen yet, and the need for human-to-human translation or post-editing is obvious. With literary translation and translation from unrelated languages, the case against AI is stronger — human intuition in translating cultural specifics is indispensable, and various translations rather than a single canonic one should be welcome. Differentiation of sciences brought about cultural studies and linguistic-cultural studies that finally embraced the study of language as one of the vital elements of culture. Today many students study foreign languages and are interested in intercultural communication. They need to learn that we can overcome bias and prejudices through personal contact. One more way to promote a different vision of one’s culture and country — is to speak about it in an understandable language, for example, on the Internet

Regulation and standardization of state and municipal services as imperative of their quality and affordability

© 2016 Alpatov et al.The urgency of the problem stated in the article is reasoned by the fact that the development of the idea of state management “state for the citizens” requires effective mechanisms to ensure quality and accessibility of public and municipal services. The purpose of the article is to develop recommendations on the regulation and standardization of state and municipal services. The leading approach to the study is the institutional approach that allows considering of regulation and standardization as tools for typing of state and municipal services for their automotive presentation in electronic form, assessing of their quality and availability. The main results of the study is to generalize the experience of multifunctional centers’ activities providing services and quality assessment experience and availability of services; determining of the nature of administrative regulations and service standards; identifying of criteria to assess the quality and availability of services; clarifying of the content for complex ensuring of the services’ quality and accessibility and the development of evaluation algorithm. The significance of these results is that the generalization of the experience of multi-functional centers’ activities allows minimizing of the costs in providing of high-quality and affordable services; the revealed essence of administrative regulations and standards allow eliminating of contradictions between them; generalization of quality assessment practices and the availability of services allows determining of the methods for identifying of public confidence to the service providers; the proposed services’ quality and availability assessment criteria allow us to calculate the index of customers’ satisfaction; the revealed content of the complex support of the services’ quality and accessibility and their developed evaluation algorithm help to systemize the powers of the state and municipal authorities

The effect of preventive immunotherapy on indicators of cellular immunity of high-class martial art athletes depending on the level of sporting achievements

Objective: to evaluatethe preventive immunotherapy's (PIT) influence on indicators of cellular immunity of highly qualified combat athletes, depending on the level of sporting achievements. Materials and methods: research included 79 sportsmen with average age of 25,2 years, average weight 76,9 kg, sports experience no less than 10 years and sports rank no less than master of sports. Participants were stratified by the level of achievements in sports. The group 1 with highest level of achievements consisted of 31 sportsmen, each of who earned victory or a prize place on biggest international competitions (such as championships of Europe, World and Olympic Games). Remaining 48 participants didn't have such achievements, but theywere a part of national team (Group 2). PIT included probiotic - Fervital, a complex preparation of omega 3-6-9 fatty acids, vitamin-mineral complex - the Alphabet-biorhythm; antioxidant complex - Ubigold Q10 (coenzyme Q + vitamin E); antihypoxant - Hypoxen; sedative - Novo-Passit; adaptogenic drug - Gerimax Ginseng; polyenzyme complex - Wobenzym. Results: there was a great balance of cellular immunity in the group 1 before the PIT due to the higher content of CD4+ and CD19+ cells. A statistically significant increase in the relative content of CD3+ and CD8+ cells and a decrease in the relative and absolute content of CD16+ cells was detected against the background of PIT in the group l. But the group 2, on the contrary, showed an increase in the relative and absolute content of CD16+ cells. Conclusions: the obtained results showed a different reaction in the both groups to the conducted preventive immunotherapy, which, apparently, was due to the initial difference in the biochemical, genetic, psychological potential of athletes of these two groups

Biochemical indicators of sports achievements in highly qualified wrestlers

Objective: to conduct comparative analysis of blood biochemical parameters (urea, ALT, AST, creatinkinase, cortisol, testosterone and testosterone / cortisol ratio) in groups of high­class wrestlers with different levels of sports achievements.Materials and methods: male athletes (n = 78), members of the Russian national team in one of the types of wrestling (the average age is 25.2 (21.5–28.9) years, the average weight is 76.9 (68.4–83.4) kg) were recruited to this study. The examined athletes were divided into two groups according to their sporting achievements. The first one — SHA group (super­high achievements) which included athletes (n = 19) who had victories and prizes at the largest international competitions (European, World, Olympic Games), and the second group — MNT group (members of the national team) which included athletes that did not have similar achievements (n = 59). The following biochemical parameters were studied: urea, creatine kinase, ALT, AST, testosterone, cortisol, anabolic index (AI).Results: the absolute values of all metabolites in the examined athletes were within the reference intervals. Statistically significant differences in most of the biochemical parameters were revealed between the compared groups in terms of the level of sports achievements. The SHA group showed a statistically significant shift in relation to MNT group, in direction of increasing the level of metabolites that characterize the predominance of anabolic processes — ALT, testosterone, AI. Metabolite levels, increase which reflects catabolic processes activity and inadequate or insufficient adaptation processes, in the SHA group were significantly lower than in the MNT group. The above changes of the absolute values of biochemical parameters were confirmed by correlation analysis.Conclusions: the obtained results allow us to state the optimal adaptation of this sport, the adequacy of metabolic processes in the group of highly qualified athletes

Inactivation of PNKP by mutant ATXN3 triggers apoptosis by activating the DNA damage-response pathway in SCA3.

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), also known as Machado-Joseph disease (MJD), is an untreatable autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease, and the most common such inherited ataxia worldwide. The mutation in SCA3 is the expansion of a polymorphic CAG tri-nucleotide repeat sequence in the C-terminal coding region of the ATXN3 gene at chromosomal locus 14q32.1. The mutant ATXN3 protein encoding expanded glutamine (polyQ) sequences interacts with multiple proteins in vivo, and is deposited as aggregates in the SCA3 brain. A large body of literature suggests that the loss of function of the native ATNX3-interacting proteins that are deposited in the polyQ aggregates contributes to cellular toxicity, systemic neurodegeneration and the pathogenic mechanism in SCA3. Nonetheless, a significant understanding of the disease etiology of SCA3, the molecular mechanism by which the polyQ expansions in the mutant ATXN3 induce neurodegeneration in SCA3 has remained elusive. In the present study, we show that the essential DNA strand break repair enzyme PNKP (polynucleotide kinase 3'-phosphatase) interacts with, and is inactivated by, the mutant ATXN3, resulting in inefficient DNA repair, persistent accumulation of DNA damage/strand breaks, and subsequent chronic activation of the DNA damage-response ataxia telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) signaling pathway in SCA3. We report that persistent accumulation of DNA damage/strand breaks and chronic activation of the serine/threonine kinase ATM and the downstream p53 and protein kinase C-d pro-apoptotic pathways trigger neuronal dysfunction and eventually neuronal death in SCA3. Either PNKP overexpression or pharmacological inhibition of ATM dramatically blocked mutant ATXN3-mediated cell death. Discovery of the mechanism by which mutant ATXN3 induces DNA damage and amplifies the pro-death signaling pathways provides a molecular basis for neurodegeneration due to PNKP inactivation in SCA3, and for the first time offers a possible approach to treatment.This study was funded by NIH grant NS073976 to TKH and a John Sealy Grant to PSS

The role of the mammalian DNA end-processing enzyme polynucleotide kinase 3'-phosphatase in spinocerebellar ataxia Type 3 pathogenesis

DNA strand-breaks (SBs) with non-ligatable ends are generated by ionizing radiation, oxidative stress, various chemotherapeutic agents, and also as base excision repair (BER) intermediates. Several neurological diseases have already been identified as being due to a deficiency in DNA end-processing activities. Two common dirty ends, 3'-P and 5'-OH, are processed by mammalian polynucleotide kinase 3'-phosphatase (PNKP), a bifunctional enzyme with 3'-phosphatase and 5'-kinase activities. We have made the unexpected observation that PNKP stably associates with Ataxin-3 (ATXN3), a polyglutamine repeat-containing protein mutated in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), also known as Machado-Joseph Disease (MJD). This disease is one of the most common dominantly inherited ataxias worldwide; the defect in SCA3 is due to CAG repeat expansion (from the normal 14-41 to 55-82 repeats) in the ATXN3 coding region. However, how the expanded form gains its toxic function is still not clearly understood. Here we report that purified wild-type (WT) ATXN3 stimulates, and by contrast the mutant form specifically inhibits, PNKP's 3' phosphatase activity in vitro. ATXN3-deficient cells also show decreased PNKP activity. Furthermore, transgenic mice conditionally expressing the pathological form of human ATXN3 also showed decreased 3'-phosphatase activity of PNKP, mostly in the deep cerebellar nuclei, one of the most affected regions in MJD patients' brain. Finally, long amplicon quantitative PCR analysis of human MJD patients' brain samples showed a significant accumulation of DNA strand breaks. Our results thus indicate that the accumulation of DNA strand breaks due to functional deficiency of PNKP is etiologically linked to the pathogenesis of SCA3/MJD.This research was supported by USPHS grant NS073976 (TKH) and P30 ES 06676 that support the NIEHS Center Cell Biology Core and Molecular Genomics Core of UTMB’s NIEHS Center for DNA sequencing. TKP is supported by CA129537 and CA154320. This work was also supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the project [PTDC/SAU-GMG/101572/2008] and through fellowships [SFRH/BPD/91562/2012 to ASF, SFRH/BD/51059/2010 to ANC]. IB is supported by NIEHS R01 ES018948 and NIAID/AI06288

Observation of the electromagnetic field effect via charge-dependent directed flow in heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

The deconfined quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions enables the exploration of the fundamental properties of matter under extreme conditions. Non-central collisions can produce strong magnetic fields on the order of $10^{18}$ Gauss, which offers a probe into the electrical conductivity of the QGP. In particular, quarks and anti-quarks carry opposite charges and receive contrary electromagnetic forces that alter their momenta. This phenomenon can be manifested in the collective motion of final-state particles, specifically in the rapidity-odd directed flow, denoted as $v_1(\mathsf{y})$. Here we present the charge-dependent measurements of $dv_1/d\mathsf{y}$ near midrapidities for $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, and $p(\bar{p})$ in Au+Au and isobar ($_{44}^{96}$Ru+$_{44}^{96}$Ru and $_{40}^{96}$Zr+$_{40}^{96}$Zr) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=$ 200 GeV, and in Au+Au collisions at 27 GeV, recorded by the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The combined dependence of the $v_1$ signal on collision system, particle species, and collision centrality can be qualitatively and semi-quantitatively understood as several effects on constituent quarks. While the results in central events can be explained by the $u$ and $d$ quarks transported from initial-state nuclei, those in peripheral events reveal the impacts of the electromagnetic field on the QGP. Our data put valuable constraints on the electrical conductivity of the QGP in theoretical calculations