Nutrition of soldiers in battle conditions: the evolution from Zaporizhzhia Sich until today.

Nutrition of military personnel in the field or during combat operations is of great importance for maintaining force performance. An indispensable element in the provision of service personnel with food is individual “dry rations”, which are most often formed based on the nutrition of one soldier for one to three days. Of interest was the question of how the nutrition of the service personnel changed in combat operations meanwhile. Objective – to study the historical aspect of nutrition in battle conditions during the period from the Zaporizhzhia Sich to the present day. Materials and methods – literary sources, regulatory documents, research results. The information retrieval and the theoretical analysis method are used. The literature data, legislative and regulatory documents, the results of scientific research related to the nutrition of Ukrainian service personnel in the combat operations for the period from XVII-XXI centuries are analyzed. The evolution of “dry operational ration” over several centuries took place depending on the development of the food industry: from dry products that do not spoil with long-term keepeng (crackers, cereals, dry meat, dry fish), dry food concentrates and canned foods to ready-to-eat first and second courses. The caloric content of dry rations from the middle of the twentieth century ranged from 3100 kcal to 3350 kcal. In the Ukrainian army it is from 3,500 kcal to 3,800 kcal, and only for Joint Force Operation (JFO) – 4,100. Until recently, the energy value (calorific value) of dry rations was calculated without taking into account the actual energy consumption of service personnel in carrying out combat operations. Further studies on improving the nutritional standards of service personnel should be aimed, first of all, at establishing real energy costs when they perform their mission, including military ones

Inadecuación de la audiencia al rebelde para denunciar la infracción del derecho de audiencia debida a notificación irregular

The purpose of this study was to analyze students’ awareness and con­sciousness about the threat to health of risk factors for the development of chronic non-infectious diseases, to determine whether they have the skills of a healthy lifestyle and to develop and scientifically substantiate the Algorithm for introducing health-saving educational technologies in the educational process of higher educational institutions of Ukraine. A sociological survey was conducted among students of higher educational institutions of Ukraine regarding the levels of awareness and consciousness about certain factors in the development of non-infectious diseases. 430 students of the Kiev National University of Trade and Economics and 216 students of SumyStatePedagogicalUniversitywere interviewed. A specially designed questionnaire was used. A high level of awareness of students about the main factors in the development of non-infectious diseases – poor nutrition, low physical activity, smoking and alcohol abuse has been established. At the same time, students are not sufficiently conscious about the risk of developing diseases and are unsufficiently motivated to a healthy lifestyle. It is shown a significant difference in indicators of healthy lifestyle among students of institutions of various profile. The Algorithm for the introduction of a health-saving educational technologies into the educational process of higher educational institutions, which is a scientifically substantiated system containing the main tasks, principles and measures aimed at raising the level of awareness and consciousness of young students about the health threat of risk factors for the development of chronic non- infectious diseases has been developed. The data obtained are the basis for the improvement of measures for the prevention of non-infectious diseases among students inUkraine

Electrode Polarization Effects in Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy

In the present work, we provide broadband dielectric spectra showing strong electrode polarization effects for various materials, belonging to very different material classes. This includes both ionic and electronic conductors as, e.g., salt solutions, ionic liquids, human blood, and colossal-dielectric-constant materials. These data are intended to provide a broad data base enabling a critical test of the validity of phenomenological and microscopic models for electrode polarization. In the present work, the results are analyzed using a simple phenomenological equivalent-circuit description, involving a distributed parallel RC circuit element for the modeling of the weakly conducting regions close to the electrodes. Excellent fits of the experimental data are achieved in this way, demonstrating the universal applicability of this approach. In the investigated ionically conducting materials, we find the universal appearance of a second dispersion region due to electrode polarization, which is only revealed if measuring down to sufficiently low frequencies. This indicates the presence of a second charge-transport process in ionic conductors with blocking electrodes.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, experimental data are provided in electronic form (see "Data Conservancy"

Engineering Bispecificity into a Single Albumin-Binding Domain

Bispecific antibodies as well as non-immunoglobulin based bispecific affinity proteins are considered to have a very high potential in future biotherapeutic applications. In this study, we report on a novel approach for generation of extremely small bispecific proteins comprised of only a single structural domain. Binding to tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) was engineered into an albumin-binding domain while still retaining the original affinity for albumin, resulting in a bispecific protein composed of merely 46 amino acids. By diversification of the non albumin-binding side of the three-helix bundle domain, followed by display of the resulting library on phage particles, bispecific single-domain proteins were isolated using selections with TNF-α as target. Moreover, based on the obtained sequences from the phage selection, a second-generation library was designed in order to further increase the affinity of the bispecific candidates. Staphylococcal surface display was employed for the affinity maturation, enabling efficient isolation of improved binders as well as multiparameter-based sortings with both TNF-α and albumin as targets in the same selection cycle. Isolated variants were sequenced and the binding to albumin and TNF-α was analyzed. This analysis revealed an affinity for TNF-α below 5 nM for the strongest binders. From the multiparameter sorting that simultaneously targeted TNF-α and albumin, several bispecific candidates were isolated with high affinity to both antigens, suggesting that cell display in combination with fluorescence activated cell sorting is a suitable technology for engineering of bispecificity. To our knowledge, the new binders represent the smallest engineered bispecific proteins reported so far. Possibilities and challenges as well as potential future applications of this novel strategy are discussed

Fall risk in an active elderly population – can it be assessed?

BACKGROUND: Falls amongst elderly people are often associated with fractures. Training of balance and physical performance can reduce fall risk; however, it remains a challenge to identify individuals at increased risk of falling to whom this training should be offered. It is believed that fall risk can be assessed by testing balance performance. In this study a test battery of physiological parameters related to balance and falls was designed to address fall risk in a community dwelling elderly population. RESULTS: Ninety-four elderly males and females between 70 and 80 years of age were included in a one year follow-up study. A fall incidence of 15% was reported. The test battery scores were not different between the fallers and non-fallers. Test scores were, however, related to self-reported health. In spite of inclusion of dynamic tests, the test battery had low fall prediction rates, with a sensitivity and specificity of 50% and 43% respectively. CONCLUSION: Individuals with poor balance were identified but falls were not predicted by this test battery. Physiological balance characteristics can apparently not be used in isolation as adequate indicators of fall risk in this population of community dwelling elderly. Falling is a complex phenomenon of multifactorial origin. The crucial factor in relation to fall risk is the redundancy of balance capacity against the balance demands of the individuals levels of fall-risky lifestyle and behavior. This calls for an approach to fall risk assessment in which the physiological performance is evaluated in relation to the activity profile of the individual

Does clinical examination aid in the diagnosis of urinary tract infections in women? A systematic review and meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Clinicians should be aware of the diagnostic values of various symptoms, signs and antecedents. This information is particularly important in primary care settings, where sophisticated diagnostic approaches are not always feasible. The aim of the study is to determine the probability that various symptoms, signs, antecedents and tests predict urinary tract infection (UTI) in women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a systematic search of the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases to identify articles published in all languages through until December 2008. We particularly focused on studies that examined the diagnostic accuracy of at least one symptom, sign or patient antecedent related to the urinary tract. We included studies where urine culture, a gold standard, was preformed by primary care providers on female subjects aged at least 14 years. A meta-analysis of the likelihood ratio was performed to assess variables related to the urinary tract symptoms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 1, 212 articles identified, 11 met the selection criteria. Dysuria, urgency, nocturia, sexual activity and urgency with dysuria were weak predictors of urinary tract infection, whereas increases in vaginal discharge and suprapubic pain were weak predictors of the absence of infection. Nitrites or leukocytes in the dipstick test are the only findings that clearly favored a diagnosis of UTI.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Clinical findings do not aid in the diagnosis of UTI among women who present with urinary symptoms. Vaginal discharge is a weak indicator of the absence of infection. The urine dipstick test was the most reliable tool for detecting UTI.</p