An influence of technological contraflexure of crane bridges on its durability

Standard requirements till 1996 year during bridge crane manufacturing demanded a positive technological contraflexure. As a result of this process were implemented technological compressive stress into tensile zone from inertial and operational loads and tensile stress into compressive zone. This way there were redistributed resultant stress which have increased fatigue strength of exploited crane bridges. Actually valid standard PN-ISO 7363 has removed this obligatory requirement. Its use depends of crane buyer demands. Reduction of initial positive deflection can be seen after few years of crane operations. It is a case of girders permanent deflections increment. Article presents method of technological prestressing of bridge girders with its practical application to obtain positive contrafexure

Emergency diagnostics of load-carrying structures into the works transport

Sudden increase of exploited cranes since 1970 year and implementation of European standards restricting safety factors ware cause of many breakdowns and accidents. That’s why act about technical supervision from 2000 year impose checkups of technical conditions of supporting structures every 12 months. Checkups include also welded joint and crane tracks. Aim of routine test is to find out if there are no damages which may affect on constructions safe exploitation. Routine tests give information if construction can be exploited. Article presents methodology of diagnostics inspection for defect detection of constructions and its practical application

Assessment of the possibility of increasing a load - carrying strength of truss bridges of overhead travelling cranes

A possibility of increasing the load-carrying strength of truss bridges of overhead travelling cranes by transferring a part of a useful load from the main truss (which transfers directly the load originated from road wheels of the crane carriage) on the parallel auxiliary truss by means of increasing rigidity of truss members joining both trusses - was presented in the paper. The verification of a static relief of the main truss by the auxiliary one as a function of rigidity of transverse and skew space trusses was performed. The A. Blum method was used in analytical calculations. The obtained results were verified by means of the ANSYS 12.1 program utilising the finite element method (FEM)

miRegulome: a knowledge-base of miRNA regulomics and analysis

miRNAs regulate post transcriptional gene expression by targeting multiple mRNAs and hence can modulate multiple signalling pathways, biological processes, and patho-physiologies. Therefore, understanding of miRNA regulatory networks is essential in order to modulate the functions of a miRNA. The focus of several existing databases is to provide information on specific aspects of miRNA regulation. However, an integrated resource on the miRNA regulome is currently not available to facilitate the exploration and understanding of miRNA regulomics. miRegulome attempts to bridge this gap. The current version of miRegulome v1.0 provides details on the entire regulatory modules of miRNAs altered in response to chemical treatments and transcription factors, based on validated data manually curated from published literature. Modules of miRegulome (upstream regulators, downstream targets, miRNA regulated pathways, functions, diseases, etc) are hyperlinked to an appropriate external resource and are displayed visually to provide a comprehensive understanding. Four analysis tools are incorporated to identify relationships among different modules based on user specified datasets. miRegulome and its tools are helpful in understanding the biology of miRNAs and will also facilitate the discovery of biomarkers and therapeutics. With added features in upcoming releases, miRegulome will be an essential resource to the scientific community. Availability:http://bnet.egr.vcu.edu/miRegulome

Biochemical and allelopathic features of Adonis vernalis, Allium ursinum, and Leucojum vernum in the M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the NAS of Ukraine

The article presents the results of a study on the content and dynamics of the accumulation of biogenic elements and brassinolides in plants of Adonis vernalis, Allium ursinum, and Leucojum vernum in Kyiv, Ukraine. Data is provided on allelopathic activity, content of macro- and microelements, phenolic compounds, and laccase activity in plants and the rhizosphere soil under the conditions of the M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NBG). The plants from the collection of the NBG were used as objects of study in field experiments. The content of biogenic elements in plant tissues and soil was analyzed using an inductively coupled plasma spectrometer. The allelopathic analysis of soil was conducted using a direct bioassay method with Lepidium sativum seedlings as the test object. Phenolic compounds were extracted from the soil using the ion exchange (desorption) method. The content of brassinosteroids was measured spectrophotometrically at a wavelength of 450 nm. The content of laccase was measured spectrophotometrically at a wavelength of 530 nm. The results demonstrate that model plant species employ a wide range of physiological mechanisms throughout the vegetation period to enhance their resistance to abiotic factors. These mechanisms include maintaining potassium and calcium balance and utilizing hormonal compounds. Plants have been proven to have compensatory mechanisms in response to stress factors, substituting one biochemical marker of resistance with another. Both, brassinosteroids and silicon, contribute to the adaptive capacity of organisms

PIPS: Pathogenicity Island Prediction Software

The adaptability of pathogenic bacteria to hosts is influenced by the genomic plasticity of the bacteria, which can be increased by such mechanisms as horizontal gene transfer. Pathogenicity islands play a major role in this type of gene transfer because they are large, horizontally acquired regions that harbor clusters of virulence genes that mediate the adhesion, colonization, invasion, immune system evasion, and toxigenic properties of the acceptor organism. Currently, pathogenicity islands are mainly identified in silico based on various characteristic features: (1) deviations in codon usage, G+C content or dinucleotide frequency and (2) insertion sequences and/or tRNA genetic flanking regions together with transposase coding genes. Several computational techniques for identifying pathogenicity islands exist. However, most of these techniques are only directed at the detection of horizontally transferred genes and/or the absence of certain genomic regions of the pathogenic bacterium in closely related non-pathogenic species. Here, we present a novel software suite designed for the prediction of pathogenicity islands (pathogenicity island prediction software, or PIPS). In contrast to other existing tools, our approach is capable of utilizing multiple features for pathogenicity island detection in an integrative manner. We show that PIPS provides better accuracy than other available software packages. As an example, we used PIPS to study the veterinary pathogen Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, in which we identified seven putative pathogenicity islands

Travel burden and clinical presentation of retinoblastoma: analysis of 1024 patients from 43 African countries and 518 patients from 40 European countries

BACKGROUND: The travel distance from home to a treatment centre, which may impact the stage at diagnosis, has not been investigated for retinoblastoma, the most common childhood eye cancer. We aimed to investigate the travel burden and its impact on clinical presentation in a large sample of patients with retinoblastoma from Africa and Europe. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis including 518 treatment-naïve patients with retinoblastoma residing in 40 European countries and 1024 treatment-naïve patients with retinoblastoma residing in 43 African countries. RESULTS: Capture rate was 42.2% of expected patients from Africa and 108.8% from Europe. African patients were older (95% CI -12.4 to -5.4, p<0.001), had fewer cases of familial retinoblastoma (95% CI 2.0 to 5.3, p<0.001) and presented with more advanced disease (95% CI 6.0 to 9.8, p<0.001); 43.4% and 15.4% of Africans had extraocular retinoblastoma and distant metastasis at the time of diagnosis, respectively, compared to 2.9% and 1.0% of the Europeans. To reach a retinoblastoma centre, European patients travelled 421.8 km compared to Africans who travelled 185.7 km (p<0.001). On regression analysis, lower-national income level, African residence and older age (p<0.001), but not travel distance (p=0.19), were risk factors for advanced disease. CONCLUSIONS: Fewer than half the expected number of patients with retinoblastoma presented to African referral centres in 2017, suggesting poor awareness or other barriers to access. Despite the relatively shorter distance travelled by African patients, they presented with later-stage disease. Health education about retinoblastoma is needed for carers and health workers in Africa in order to increase capture rate and promote early referral

The global retinoblastoma outcome study : a prospective, cluster-based analysis of 4064 patients from 149 countries

DATA SHARING : The study data will become available online once all analyses are complete.BACKGROUND : Retinoblastoma is the most common intraocular cancer worldwide. There is some evidence to suggest that major differences exist in treatment outcomes for children with retinoblastoma from different regions, but these differences have not been assessed on a global scale. We aimed to report 3-year outcomes for children with retinoblastoma globally and to investigate factors associated with survival. METHODS : We did a prospective cluster-based analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed between Jan 1, 2017, and Dec 31, 2017, then treated and followed up for 3 years. Patients were recruited from 260 specialised treatment centres worldwide. Data were obtained from participating centres on primary and additional treatments, duration of follow-up, metastasis, eye globe salvage, and survival outcome. We analysed time to death and time to enucleation with Cox regression models. FINDINGS : The cohort included 4064 children from 149 countries. The median age at diagnosis was 23·2 months (IQR 11·0–36·5). Extraocular tumour spread (cT4 of the cTNMH classification) at diagnosis was reported in five (0·8%) of 636 children from high-income countries, 55 (5·4%) of 1027 children from upper-middle-income countries, 342 (19·7%) of 1738 children from lower-middle-income countries, and 196 (42·9%) of 457 children from low-income countries. Enucleation surgery was available for all children and intravenous chemotherapy was available for 4014 (98·8%) of 4064 children. The 3-year survival rate was 99·5% (95% CI 98·8–100·0) for children from high-income countries, 91·2% (89·5–93·0) for children from upper-middle-income countries, 80·3% (78·3–82·3) for children from lower-middle-income countries, and 57·3% (52·1-63·0) for children from low-income countries. On analysis, independent factors for worse survival were residence in low-income countries compared to high-income countries (hazard ratio 16·67; 95% CI 4·76–50·00), cT4 advanced tumour compared to cT1 (8·98; 4·44–18·18), and older age at diagnosis in children up to 3 years (1·38 per year; 1·23–1·56). For children aged 3–7 years, the mortality risk decreased slightly (p=0·0104 for the change in slope). INTERPRETATION : This study, estimated to include approximately half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017, shows profound inequity in survival of children depending on the national income level of their country of residence. In high-income countries, death from retinoblastoma is rare, whereas in low-income countries estimated 3-year survival is just over 50%. Although essential treatments are available in nearly all countries, early diagnosis and treatment in low-income countries are key to improving survival outcomes.The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and the Wellcome Trust.https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/homeam2023Paediatrics and Child Healt