NOVEL APPROACHES TO TREATING NONSPECIFIC LOW BACK PAIN

Objective: to evaluate the impact of therapy with chondroitin sulfate (CS) and glucosamine (GA) on the clinical manifestations of low back pain (LBP).Subjects and methods. A multicenter open-label observational prospective study was conducted in 22 cities of Russia (46 centers) to investigate the efficacy of a combination of CS and GA in the outpatient treatment of nonspecific LBP. A total of 9761 patients were enrolled in the study that was completed by 8546 patients. Therapeutic efficiency was evaluated from changes in pain intensity during movement and at rest, by using the visual analogue scale. The Oswestry disability index, an global physician and patient assessment of therapeutic efficiency, and a daily need for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were taken into account as additional criteria for efficiency evaluation.Results and discussion. The multicenter open-label observational study established the efficacy of a combination of CS and GA in treating nonspecific LBP: relief in pain during movement and at rest, functional improvement, and a reduction in the daily need for NSAIDs. The patients and physicians highly assessed therapeutic efficiency. The combination of CS and GA was also noted to be well tolerated. The findings may suggest that this combination may be a promising tool to treat LBP and gives proof to the expediency of its use in randomized placebo-controlled studies

Band alignment and interlayer hybridisation in transition metal dichalcogenide/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructures

In van der Waals heterostructures, the relative alignment of bands between layers, and the resulting band hybridisation, are key factors in determining a range of electronic properties. This work examines these effects for heterostructures of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), an ubiquitous combination given the role of hBN as an encapsulating material. By comparing results of density functional calculations with experimental angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) results, we explore the hybridisation between the valence states of the TMD and hBN layers, and show that it introduces avoided crossings between the TMD and hBN bands, with umklapp processes opening `ghost' avoided crossings in individual bands. Comparison between DFT and ARPES spectra for the MoSe$_2$/hBN heterostructure shows that the valence bands of MoSe$_2$ and hBN are significantly further separated in energy in experiment as compared to DFT. We then show that a novel scissor operator can be applied to the hBN valence states in the DFT calculations, to correct the band alignment and enable quantitative comparison to ARPES, explaining avoided crossings and other features of band visibility in the ARPES spectra

Some Trends in Radioactive Waste Form Behavior Revealed in Long-Term Field Tests

Results from long-term field tests with borosilicate glass, cement and bitumen waste forms containing actual intermediate-level radioactive waste are summarized and discussed in the paper. Leaching behavior of the waste forms was evaluated by monitoring the contamination of contacting water. Measured leach rates of the three waste-form materials were in a narrow range in shallow subsurface repositories, but varied in a wide range at an open testing site owing to weathering of bitumen and cement materials. The repositories were opened after 12-year testing for visual examination, sampling and analysis. All retrieved waste forms were in good physical condition. The study has not revealed any negative changes in the waste glass. Some ageing processes were detected in cement and bitumen waste forms, which can positively (bitumen) or negatively (cement) affect physical and containment properties of these waste materials. It has been established that a significant proportion of the radioactive inventory in the bitumen waste form became associated with the bitumen phase. Phase separation of this radioactive bitumen has shown, than the asphaltene fraction is responsible for the major part of the radioactivity retained by the bitumen

Ti2NiCu Based Composite Nanotweezers with a Shape Memory Effect and its Use for DNA Bunches 3D Manipulation

The DNA molecules were controllable deposited on graphene and thin graphite films and visualized using AFM. The mechanical micro- and nanotools, such as nanotweezers with shape memory effect controlled by heating were designed and tested. A technique for fabricating a structure with the inclusion of suspended DNA threads and manipulating those using composite nanotweezers with shape memory effect was suggested.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1811.0294

IMMUNOLOGIC MARKER OF INTRANATAL INFECTIONS

The results of the research established determination of immunologic marker for prognosis of intranatal infection. The authors performed a comparative study of the immunity values of women in a risk group for prenatal infection. As it was shown when prenatal infection develops, there is an increase in the content of proinflammatory cytokines in the pregnant woman serum and activation of the ingestion rate. Account the results to devise an algorithm the pregnant woman care

О распределении цен на рынках недвижимости и «смещенных» оценках рыночной стоимости

The published results of stochastic modeling and experimental studies on the distribution of prices of real estate markets, accompanied by the conclusions of a systematic overestimation of the market value of the consultants-valuers are stated in the article. Displaying the fundamental difference between the distributions of prices on different objects observed in the real estate market and the distribution of possible prices for the estimated object. The conclusion about the absence of grounds for the allegations of a systematic overestimation of the market value as a result of these differences is fixed. Formation unbiased valuations based on the properties of the distribution  of the adjusted average prices of the sample analogs are also explained.В статье обсуждаются опубликованные ранее результаты стохастического моделирования и экспериментальных исследований распределения цен на реальных рынках недвижимости, сопровождающиеся заключениями о систематическом завышении рыночной стоимости консультантами-оценщиками. Показано принципиальное отличие распределения цен на разные объекты, наблюдаемые на рынке недвижимости, от распределения возможных цен на один –оцениваемый объект. Фиксируется отсутствие оснований для утверждения о систематическом завышении оценок рыночной стоимости вследствие этих различий. Также объяснено формирование несмещенных оценок стоимости на основе свойств распределения средней скорректированной цены по выборке аналогов

Strongly localized polaritons in an array of trapped two-level atoms interacting with a light field

We propose a new type of spatially periodic structure, i.e. polaritonic crystal (PolC), to observe a "slow"/"stopped" light phenomenon due to coupled atom-field states (polaritons) in a lattice. Under the tightbinding approximation, such a system realizes an array of weakly coupled trapped two-component atomic ensembles interacting with optical field in a tunnel-coupled one dimensional cavity array. We have shown that the phase transition to the superfluid Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer state, a so-called (BCS)-type state of low branch polaritons, occurs under the strong coupling condition. Such a transition results in the appearance of a macroscopic polarization of the atomic medium at non-zero frequency. The principal result is that the group velocity of polaritons depends essentially on the order parameter of the system, i.e. on the average photon number in the cavity array.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Применение корреляционного метода определения скорости потока теплоносителя при исследованиях гидродинамики турбулентных потоков в элементах ядерных реакторов

The method of correlation measurement of the coolant flow rate, widely used for operational diagnostics of nuclear power plants, can be extensively used in research practice. The aim of this work was to apply a correlation method based on the conductometric measurement system with wire-mesh sensors for measuring a coolant flow rate. Insignificant concentration of a salt solution (NaCl or Na2SO4 ) creates a gradient of the conductivity in the flow, which is used as a passive scalar measured by the system. Authors used turbulent pulsations at the interface of two concurrent flows with identical velocities in a square channel as a signal source for the correlation method. The paper presents the methodology of the tests, test facility description, signalto- noise ratio estimation, the results of digital signal processing and comparison of the measured velocities in the model with the flowrate‒averaged velocity determined by the use of flowmeters. The measured velocity values give acceptable agreement for the turbulent flow modes. It was shown that the measurement accuracy drops sharply for low-Reynolds flows. The obtained results were used for flowrate measurements in core-imitator channels of the nuclear reactor test model. The presented paper is an approbation of this approach for its application as part of an test model of a nuclear reactor in order to determine the each duct flow rates in the channels of the core simulator using wire mesh sensors

Anomalous exponents in the rapid-change model of the passive scalar advection in the order ϵ3\epsilon^{3}

Field theoretic renormalization group is applied to the Kraichnan model of a passive scalar advected by the Gaussian velocity field with the covariance $- <{\bf v}(t,{\bf x}){\bf v}(t',{\bf x'})> \propto\delta(t-t')|{\bf x}-{\bf x'} |^{\epsilon}$. Inertial-range anomalous exponents, related to the scaling dimensions of tensor composite operators built of the scalar gradients, are calculated to the order $\epsilon^{3}$ of the $\epsilon$ expansion. The nature and the convergence of the $\epsilon$ expansion in the models of turbulence is are briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages; REVTeX source with 3 postscript figure

Thermal effects of carbonated hydroxyapatite modified by glycine and albumin

In this work calcium phosphate powders were obtained by precipitation method from simulated solutions of synovial fluid containing glycine and albumin. X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy determined that all samples are single-phase and are presented by carbonate containing hydroxyapatite (CHA). The thermograms of solid phases of CHA were obtained and analyzed; five stages of transformation in the temperature range of 25-1000°C were marked. It is shown that in this temperature range dehydration, decarboxylation and thermal degradation of amino acid and protein connected to the surface of solid phase occur. The tendency of temperature lowering of the decomposition of powders synthesized from a medium containing organic substances was determined. Results demonstrate a direct dependence between the concentration of the amino acid in a model solution and its content in the solid phase