Single - particle correlations in events with the total disintegration of nuclei

New experimental data on the behaviour of the single-particle two-dimensional correlation functions R versus Q (Q is the number of nucleons emitted from nuc- lei) and Ap (Ap is the mass of projectile nuclei) are presented in this paper. The interactions of protons, d, 4He and 12C nuclei with carbon nuclei (at a momentum of 4.2 A GeV/c) are considered.The values of R are obtained separately for pi minus mesons and protons.In so doing,the values of R are normalized so that -1=<R=<1.The value of R=0 corresponds to the case of the absence of corre- lations.It has been found that the Q- and Ap-dependence of R takes place only for weak correlations (R< 0.3).In the main (90 %),these correlations are con- nected with the variable pt and have a nonlinear character, that is the regi- ons with different characters of the Q-dependence of R are separated: there is a change of regimes in the Q-dependences of R.The correlations weaken with increasing Ap, and the variable R gets the least values of all the considered ones in 12CC interactions.Simultaneously with weakening the correlations in the region of large Q, the character of the Q-dependence of R changes.Comment: 17 pages, submitted to Phys. Rew.

A simulated annealing-based maximum-margin clustering algorithm

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Maximum-margin clustering is an extension of the support vector machine (SVM) to clustering. It partitions a set of unlabeled data into multiple groups by finding hyperplanes with the largest margins. Although existing algorithms have shown promising results, there is no guarantee of convergence of these algorithms to global solutions due to the nonconvexity of the optimization problem. In this paper, we propose a simulated annealing-based algorithm that is able to mitigate the issue of local minima in the maximum-margin clustering problem. The novelty of our algorithm is twofold, ie, (i) it comprises a comprehensive cluster modification scheme based on simulated annealing, and (ii) it introduces a new approach based on the combination of k-means++ and SVM at each step of the annealing process. More precisely, k-means++ is initially applied to extract subsets of the data points. Then, an unsupervised SVM is applied to improve the clustering results. Experimental results on various benchmark data sets (of up to over a million points) give evidence that the proposed algorithm is more effective at solving the clustering problem than a number of popular clustering algorithms

Suitability and managerial implications of a Master Surgical Scheduling approach

Abstract: Operating room (OR) planning and scheduling is a popular and challenging subject within the operational research applied to health services research (ORAHS). However, the impact in practice is very limited. The organization and culture of a hospital and the inherent characteristics of its processes impose specific implementation issues that affect the success of planning approaches. Current tactical OR planning approaches often fail to account for these issues.Master surgical scheduling (MSS) is a promising approach for hospitals to optimize resource utilization and patient flows. We discuss the pros and cons of MSS and compare MSS with centralized and decentralized planning approaches. Finally, we address various implementation issues of MSS and discuss its suitability for hospitals with different organizational foci and culture

Dynamics of the biodiversity of black and white cattle influenced by cross-breeding

The inter-breed crossing (crossbreeding) permits one to introduce new alleles, extend genetic diversity, and achieve desired phenotypic characteristics of initial breeds. On the other hand, crossbreeding may cause a decrease in genetic differentiation of indigenous breeds due to loss of the part of their unique allele pool. The objective of the present work was to investigate the effect of crossbreeding on the allele pool variability of Russian Black and White cattle by using 10 microsatellite loci (BM1818, BM2113, ETH10, ETH225, TGLA122, TGLA126, TGLA227, ILST005, ETH185, and ILST006). The study was performed with purebred pedigree bulls of the Russian Black and White breed (BW_PB, n = 14) and two groups of their crosses with Holsteins carrying 25,0–62,5 % (BW_KR1, n = 16) and less than 12,5 % of the Black and White gene pool (BW_KR2, n = 67). Purebred Holstein bulls (HOLST, n = 42) were used as a reference group. It was found that the increase in Holstein’s blood could lead to the observed decrease in genetic diversity evaluated by the average number of effective alleles per loci (from 4,59 ± 0,46 to 3,87 ± 0,53), by the value of the Shannon index (from 1,60 ± 0,13 to 1,46 ± 0,14) and by the observed heterozygosity degree (from 0,779 ± 0,053 to 0,687 ± 0,055). It is shown that crossbreeding with Holsteins increases the genetic similarity to HOLST: Fst = 0,058, 0,036, and 0,026; Rst = 0,088, 0,060, and 0,050; DNei = 0,306, 0,178, and 0,123 for BW_PB, BW_KR1, and BW_KR2, respectively. Decrease in the genetic difference between the Black and White breed and Holsteins due to crossbreeding is confirmed by cluster analysis. Thus, evaluation of the allele pool and the level of genetic variability in populations are necessary for the efficient management of farm animal genetic recourses

Successful surgical treatment of mediastinal lung hernia with a mesh implant. Consequent results

An observation from practice is given – surgical treatment of mediastinal pulmonary hernia in a patient after pneumonectomy using the method of anterior mediastinal plastic surgery with a mesh implant with demonstration of long-term results.The patient I. 31 years old was ill with pulmonary tuberculosis for 3 years, treatment was carried out, against which the stenosis of the left main bronchus progressed. The patient underwent endoscopic operations: argonoplasmic destruction of the left main bronchus, balloon dilation of the left main bronchus, with a temporary effect. Due to recurrent stenosis of the left main bronchus, a pneumonectomy was performed on the left. After 7 months, she complained of severe shortness of breath at rest. Computed tomography revealed a displacement of the mediastinal organs to the left, an upper-anterior pulmonary mediastinal hernia of the right lung to the left midclavicular line at the level of the anterior I-IV intercostals on the left. The patient underwent plastic surgery of the anterior mediastinum on the right using a polymer mesh implant. As a result of treatment, after 3 years, radiologically stable restoration of the position of the only right lung in its hemithorax. The patient is functionally compensated, shortness of breath is not observed. The patient has completely returned to her usual lifestyle

An example of successful treatment of advanced tuberculosis with simultaneous correction of postpneumonectomy mediastinal pulmonary hernia with a polymer mesh implant

An observation from practice is given – surgical treatment of a patient with widespread tuberculosis of the only left lung and a pronounced displacement of the mediastinal organs into the right hemithorax. Patient P., 43 years old, has been suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis for 11 years, 8 years ago, a pneumonectomy on the right side was performed due to fibrouscavernous tuberculosis of the right lung. According to computed tomography of the chest organs, upon admission, a picture of cavernous tuberculosis of the lower lobe was noted, a pronounced displacement of the mediastinal organs and the only left lung to the right. She was admitted to the clinic with complaints of shortness of breath at rest, weakness, dizziness. The patient underwent resection of a lung containing a cavity with simultaneous correction of the mediastinal pulmonary hernia with a mesh implant. Histological examination of the removed preparation revealed a high level of activity of tuberculous inflammation. As a result, the manifestations of dyspnea decreased in the patient, radiographically, the only left lung was visualized in the hemithorax of the same name

A clinical example of the effective use of collapse surgery in a patient with a cavity formation of an operated lung complicated by recurrent pulmonary hemoptysis

Relevance. To date, all pathognomonic clinical and radiological signs have not been identified for any disease manifested in the form of cavities in the lung, which leads to diagnostic errors, the frequency of which varies from 19 to 93.7% in various pathological processes in the lungs. The clinical course of most forms of cavities can often be complicated by the development of respiratory failure and/or pulmonary hemoptysis/bleeding.Aim: to demonstrate the result of surgical treatment of a patient with a cavity formation of an operated lung complicated by recurrent pulmonary hemoptysis. Object and methods. A clinical case of successful application of extrapleural pneumolysis with the installation of a silicone implant from the operated lung as a method of eliminating sanitized cavities is described.Clinical case description. Patient M., 54 years old, long-term follow-up for rheumatoid arthritis, receiving courses of immunosuppressive therapy, noted the appearance of cough, a single episode of hemoptysis. Pulmonary tuberculosis was excluded based on the clinical and radiological picture. Due to the recurrence of hemoptysis, an upper lobectomy was performed on the left. In the histological examination of the surgical material: the morphological picture is characteristic of bronchiectasis of the lung with the development of nonspecific purulent granulomatous inflammation. Due to repeated episodes of hemoptysis, extrapleural pneumolysis was performed with the installation of a silicone implant, after which the episodes were not repeated.Conclusion. The EPSI collapsosurgical method made it possible to preserve the patient's functional reserves as much as possible and compress the lung cavity formation, which confirms its high effectiveness

Chromosome synapsis, recombination and epigenetic modification in rams heterozygous for metacentric chromosome 3 of the domestic sheep Ovis aries and acrocentric homologs of the argali Ovis ammon

Hybridization of domestic animal breeds with their wild relatives is a promising method for increasing the genetic diversity of farm animals. Resource populations derived from the hybridization of various breeds of domestic sheep with mouflon and argali are an important source of breeding material. The karyotypes of argali and domestic sheep differ for a Robertsonian translocation, which occurred in the common ancestor of mouflon and domestic sheep (Ovis aries) due to the centric fusion of chromosomes 5 and 11 of the argali (O. ammon) into chromosome 3 of sheep. It is known that heterozygosity for translocation can lead to synapsis, recombination and chromosome segregation abnormalities in meiosis. Meiosis in the heterozygotes for translocation that distinguishes the karyotypes of sheep and argali has not yet been studied. We examined synapsis, recombination, and epigenetic modification of chromosomes involved in this rearrangement in heterozygous rams using immunolocalization of key proteins of meiosis. In the majority of cells, we observed complete synapsis between the sheep metacentric chromosome and two argali acrocentric chromosomes with the formation of a trivalent. In a small proportion of cells at the early pachytene stage we observed delayed synapsis in pericentromeric regions of the trivalent. Unpaired sites were subjected to epigenetic modification, namely histone H2A.X phosphorylation. However, by the end of the pachytene, these abnormalities had been completely eliminated. Asynapsis was replaced by a nonhomologous synapsis between the centromeric regions of the acrocentric chromosomes. By the end of the pachytene, the γH2A.X signal had been preserved only at the XY bivalent and was absent from the trivalent. The translocation trivalent did not differ from the normal bivalents of metacentric chromosomes for the number and distribution of recombination sites as well as for the degree of centromeric and crossover interference. Thus, we found that heterozygosity for the domestic sheep chromosome 3 and argali chromosomes 5 and 11 does not cause significant alterations in key processes of prophase I meiosis and, therefore, should not lead to a decrease in fertility of the offspring from interspecific sheep hybridization

Dynamics of respiratory indicators in patients with bilateral destructive tuberculosis after surgical treatment using staged bilateral extrapleural pneumolysis with silicone plombage

Introduce. Patients with a high prevalence of the process and extensive destruction of the pulmonary parenchyma have reduced lung reserves, which limits the use of resection interventions.Objective. To study the dynamics of respiratory function indicators in patients with bilateral widespread destructive tuberculosis during surgical treatment using staged bilateral extrapleural pneumolysis with silicone plombage (ESP).Object and methods. The main group consisted of 11 patients who underwent surgical treatment using staged bilateral ESP. The comparison group included 8 patients with bilateral widespread destructive pulmonary tuberculosis who underwent consecutive bilateral lung resections with a volume of more than 3 segments. The dynamics of respiratory function indicators were studied 3–5 weeks after surgery.Results. In the main group, after stage-by-stage surgical treatment, the FVC index decreased by 0.9 ± 0.6 liters, while in the comparison group by 1.3 ± 0.7 liters (p &lt; 0.01). The index of FEV1 in patients of the main group decreased by 0.5 ± 0.5 liters, and in the comparison group by1 ± 0.3 liters (p &lt; 0.01).Conclusion. Staged surgical treatment with the use of bilateral ESP is accompanied by a significantly smaller decrease in functional parameters and can be used in patients with widespread bilateral destructive tuberculosis with low respiratory function

A case of treatment of chronic constrictive pericarditis of tuberculous etiology

An observation from practice is given tuberculous constrictive pericarditis, which has been occurring for a long time with symptoms of polyserositis without identifying of etiology. The recurrent course of the disease, the constant accumulation of effusion in the abdominal and pleural cavities was the basis for the diagnosis: "compressive pericarditis complicated by calcification of unknown genesis and of constant patronage of cardiologists. Considering the tuberculous process suffered more than 10 years ago, to exclude the tuberculous etiology of polyserositis, the patient underwent pericardial resection. According to the results of microbiological examination of the surgical material, the tuberculous nature of pericarditis was established, however, according to the results of histological examination, no foci of necrosis and granuloma elements were found. The clinical case demonstrates the complexity of the diagnosis of tuberculous constrictive pericarditis with the phenomena of pronounced polyserositis, which was detected only as a result of diagnostic surgery: partial excision of the pericardium