Behavioural Characteristics of Children with Developmental Disorder Risks

The article is devoted to the study of the temperament and behaviour of children with developmental disorder risks. Early age is most significant in terms of early identifying deviant development markers for implementing effective programmes for early intervention. The article deals with the peculiarities of using the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire - Revised (IBQ-R) and its application in scientific research; the results of domestic and foreign research into temperament as a marker/predictor of deviant behaviour are presented. The paper describes the results of a pilot study of differences in behaviour in a sample of 49 children aged 5.6 months. The research involved two groups of test children, a reference group (typically developing children) and the children of developmental risk groups (which included prematurity, family risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD)/attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), paediatric arterial ischemic stroke). The significant impact of developmental disorder risks on the Perceptual Sensitivity Scale (IBQ-R) as well as the effect of sexand risks on the Approach, Vocal Reactivity (IBQ-R) scale were discovered. There are suggestions that prematurity may have a negative impact on the development of temperament in children aged 6 months. However, in comparison with such factors as the genetic predisposition to atypical development or local brain damage due to paediatric arterial ischemic stroke, prematurity (excluding extremely premature) probably has less influence on the development of temperament and behavioural characteristics. There is a significant heterotypic continuity of individual differences in temperament indicators at an early age, which highlights the need for further research into the issue and the formation of large cohorts of children. Keywords: deviant development markers, behaviour, IBQ-R questionnaire

Evaluation of treatment outcomes in children with maxillofacial vascular tumors: Cohort study

Background. The variety of the clinical features of vascular tumors in the maxillofacial area limits the choice of method and is able to make difficulties in the treatment. The combined method of treatment proposed by the authors (vascular sclerotherapy with concurrent propranolol intake) demonstrates high efficacy, lack of invasiveness, shortening the rehabilitation period and less side effects. Objective. The aim of the study was to increase the effectiveness of conservative treatment of vascular tumors of the maxillofacial area in young children by combining the method of sclerotherapy and taking proprono-lol. Methods. In a cohort study, the results of treatment of 80 children aged 2 months to 2 years with vascular tumors of the maxillofacial region (ICD-10: D18.0) were evaluated. A comparison was made of the results in 2 groups of children who were treated with different methods: combined (n =40; main group; sclerotherapy and taking propranolol) and propranolol monotherapy (n =40; comparison group). Analysis of the data obtained in the main group and the comparison group led to the development of the criteria for evaluating the treatment results: good (regression of vascular tumors and the absence of a cosmetic defect), satisfactory (reduction of vascular tumors by 2/3 or more with maintaining cosmetic defect) and unsatisfactory (gross cosmetic defect) in terms of changes in the volume of tumor, the diameter of the supply vessels and the values of the linear velocity of blood flow according to ultrasound data. Results. Subjects treated by the combined treatment had a significant regression of vascular tumors in the maxillofacial area compared with the comparison group: reduction of the tumor volume, diameter of the supply vessels and linear blood flow velocity according ultrasound data reached zero after 6 months from the start of combined treatment — 6 months earlier than in the comparison group (p <0.001). Conclusion. According to the results of the study, the advantage of the author’s method over the traditional method was demonstrated, which resulted in a reduction in the duration of treatment, a decrease in the risk as well as in a degree of complications. © 2019 Paediatrician Publishers, LLC. All rights reserved

High variation subarctic topsoil pollutant concentration prediction using neural network residual kriging

The work deals with the application of neural networks residual kriging (NNRK) to the spatial prediction of the abnormally distributed soil pollutant (Cr). It is known that combination of geostatistical interpolation approaches (kriging) and neural networks leads to significantly better prediction accuracy and productivity. Generalized regression neural networks and multilayer perceptrons are classes of neural networks widely used for the continuous function mapping. Each network has its own pros and cons; however both demonstrated fast training and good mapping possibilities. In the work, we examined and compared two combined techniques: generalized regression neural network residual kriging (GRNNRK) and multilayer perceptron residual kriging (MLPRK). The case study is based on the real data sets on surface contamination by chromium at a particular location of the subarctic Novy Urengoy, Russia, obtained during the previously conducted screening. The proposed models have been built, implemented and validated using ArcGIS and MATLAB environments. The networks structures have been chosen during a computer simulation based on the minimization of the RMSE. MLRPK showed the best predictive accuracy comparing to the geostatistical approach (kriging) and even to GRNNRK. © 2017 Author(s)

Proton isotropy boundaries as measured on mid- and low-altitude satellites

Polar CAMMICE MICS proton pitch angle distributions with energies of 31-80 keV were analyzed to determine the locations where anisotropic pitch angle distributions (perpendicular flux dominating) change to isotropic distributions. We compared the positions of these mid-altitude isotropic distribution boundaries (IDB) for different activity conditions with low-altitude isotropic boundaries (IB) observed by NOAA&amp;nbsp;12. Although the obtained statistical properties of IDBs were quite similar to those of IBs, a small difference in latitudes, most pronounced on the nightside and dayside, was found. We selected several events during which simultaneous observations in the same local time sector were available from Polar at mid-altitudes, and NOAA or DMSP at low-altitudes. Magnetic field mapping using the Tsyganenko T01 model with the observed solar wind input parameters showed that the low- and mid-altitude isotropization boundaries were closely located, which leads us to suggest that the Polar IDB and low-altitude IBs are related. Furthermore, we introduced a procedure to control the difference between the observed and model magnetic field to reduce the large scatter in the mapping. We showed that the isotropic distribution boundary (IDB) lies in the region where &lt;i&gt;R&lt;sub&gt;c&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/i&gt;/&amp;rho;~6, that is at the boundary of the region where the non-adiabatic pitch angle scattering is strong enough. We therefore conclude that the scattering in the large field line curvature regions in the nightside current sheet is the main mechanism producing isotropization for the main portion of proton population in the tail current sheet. This mechanism controls the observed positions of both IB and IDB boundaries. Thus, this tail region can be probed, in its turn, with observations of these isotropy boundaries.&lt;p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Keywords.&lt;/b&gt; Magnetospheric physics (Energetic particles, Precipitating; Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics; Magnetotail

Environmental engineering applications of electronic nose systems based on MOX gas sensors

Nowadays, the electronic nose (e-nose) has gained a huge amount of attention due to its ability to detect and differentiate mixtures of various gases and odors using a limited number of sensors. Its applications in the environmental fields include analysis of the parameters for environmental control, process control, and confirming the efficiency of the odor-control systems. The e-nose has been developed by mimicking the olfactory system of mammals. This paper investigates e-noses and their sensors for the detection of environmental contaminants. Among different types of gas chemical sensors, metal oxide semiconductor sensors (MOXs) can be used for the detection of volatile compounds in air at ppm and sub-ppm levels. In this regard, the advantages and disadvantages of MOX sensors and the solutions to solve the problems arising upon these sensors’ applications are addressed, and the research works in the field of environmental contamination monitoring are overviewed. These studies have revealed the suitability of e-noses for most of the reported applications, especially when the tools were specifically developed for that application, e.g., in the facilities of water and wastewater management systems. As a general rule, the literature review discusses the aspects related to various applications as well as the development of effective solutions. However, the main limitation in the expansion of the use of e-noses as an environmental monitoring tool is their complexity and lack of specific standards, which can be corrected through appropriate data processing methods applications

Studyng the effects of Cantharellus cibarius fungi on Opisthorchis felineus trematode and on parasite host - C57BL/6 inbred mice

Opisthorchiasis is a dangerous parasitic disease caused by trematodes in the family Opisthorchiidae. One of the causes of this infection is the species Opisthorchis felineus, which is common in the Russian Federation and Western Europe. The disease has a large number of complications and relatively few effective treatments, so nowadays it is relevant to look for new drugs for the treatment of opisthorchiasis, with the maximum antiparasitic and minimal side effect. In this work, a potentially anthelmintic effect of the methanol extract of the golden chanterelle mushroom (Cantharellus cibarius) was investigated. In in vitro experiments, the significantly reduced mobility and survival rates of juvenile O. felineus specimens with increasing concentrations (10-1000 pg/ml) of the C. cibarius extract were shown. In in vivo studies, administration of the C. cibarius extract on the first day after parasitic infection of inbred C57BL/6 mice resulted in a decrease of the number of helminths in the bile ducts of the liver, evaluated 6 weeks after infection. In another series of experiments, administration of the C. cibarius extract for 7 days to mice infected with O. felineus for five weeks had no anthelmintic effect. In both cases, the state of the infected hosts, evaluated by a number of physiological and biochemical parameters (relative weight of organs, blood indices), did not deteriorate, indicating that there was no adverse effect of the C. cibarius extract. The results obtained suggest that the C. cibarius extract might have anthelmintic properties if applied as parasite larvae excyst

Апробация методики «Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development – Third Edition»

Introduction. There is currently no universal comprehensive measurement tool for the assessment of children development in the Russian Federation (RF). The Bayley-III scales developed by American researchers are widely used as such a tool. Numerous research groups recognize the need to modify the original scales before using them in a new linguistic and socio-cultural environment. Methods. The authors (a) translated the original Bayley-III manual into Russian, (b) tested the tool by assessing cognitive, language, and motor development of 163 Russian children aged 2–11 months, and (c) made an indirect comparison of the mean scale scores of neuropsychological development and those obtained from the original American sample of children using Student’s t-test. Results. The modified version of the Bayley-III manual has been successfully tested in the RF. The indices of language and motor development of the children examined in this study did not statistically differ from the original American data (10 points). Higher scores were obtained for the cognitive scale (10.7 versus 10; p = 0.003). However, this effect was not very pronounced (Cohen’s d = 0.25). Discussion. The indices of neuropsychological development of Russian children fully comply with the original Bayley-III norms, which opens up new possibilities for its use in the RF. Slightly higher scores of the cognitive scale among Russian children do not generally affect the compliance with the original tool, since the difference was not significant. The results of this study can be extrapo-lated to full-term Caucasian children aged 2–11 months, whose parents have at least secondary education and average level of earnings. The widespread use of Bayley-III requires its further adaptation in larger and more representative samples of children from different regions of the RF with the additional assessment of social-emotional development as well as adaptive behavior. © 2020, Russsian Psychological Society. All rights reserved

Anamnestic, clinical and laboratory features of the acute period of ischemic stroke in young patients

Objective: to study the anamnestic, clinical and laboratory features of the acute period of ischemic stroke (IS) and to determine the risk factors for its development in young patients. Patients and methods. Clinical and statistical processing of data of 256 patients aged 18 to 44 years included, who had IS, confirmed by computed and/or magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in the acute period, was carried out. Furthermore, in 154 patients and in 117 healthy participants, who made up the control group, eight polymorphisms of the thrombophilic spectrum genes were determined – FGB: -455G>A, F2: 20210G>A, F5: 1691G>A, F7: 10976G>A, F13: 103 G>T, ITGA2: 807C>T, ITGB3: 1565 T>C, PAI-1: -675 5G>4G. Results and discussion. 154 (60.15%) patients demonstrated good recovery (achievement of a level of ≤2 points on the Rankin scale by the patient). None of the patients died during their hospitalization. In the evaluated group of patients, we identified allelic variants of the thrombophilic spectrum genes and gene-gene combinations, the carriage of which increased the likelihood of IS development at the young age by 1.74 and 2.19 times, respectively. Taking into consideration additional examination methods, the pathogenetic variant of IS according to the TOAST classification was verified in 226 (88%) patients. Conclusion. In IS at a young age a detailed assessment of risk factors is required, including an analysis of carrier variants and combinations of procoagulant and prothrombotic spectrum gene polymorphisms. © 2022 Ima-Press Publishing House. All rights reserved