A novel method for comparison of arterial remodeling in hypertension: Quantification of arterial trees and recognition of remodeling patterns on histological sections

Remodeling of spatially heterogeneous arterial trees is routinely quantified on tissue sections by averaging linear dimensions, with lack of comparison between different organs and models. The impact of experimental models or hypertension treatment modalities on organ-specific vascular remodeling remains undefined. A wide variety of arterial remodeling types has been demonstrated for hypertensive models, which include differences across organs. The purpose of this study was to reassess methods for measurement of arterial remodeling and to establish a morphometric algorithm for standard and comparable quantification of vascular remodeling in hypertension in different vascular beds. We performed a novel and comprehensive morphometric analysis of terminal arteries in the brain, heart, lung, liver, kidney, spleen, stomach, intestine, skin, skeletal muscle, and adrenal glands of control and Goldblatt hypertensive rats on routinely processed tissue sections. Mean dimensions were highly variable but grouping them into sequential 5 μm intervals permitted creation of reliable linear regression equations and complex profiles. Averaged arterial dimensions demonstrated seven remodeling patterns that were distinct from conventional inward-outward and hypertrophic-eutrophic definitions. Numerical modeling predicted at least nineteen variants of arterial spatial conformations. Recognition of remodeling variants was not possible using averaged dimensions, their ratios, or the remodeling and growth indices. To distinguish remodeling patterns, a three dimensional modeling was established and tested. The proposed algorithm permits quantitative analysis of arterial remodeling in different organs and may be applicable for comparative studies between animal hypertensive models and human hypertension. Arterial wall tapering is the most important factor to consider in arterial morphometry, while perfusion fixation with vessel relaxation is not necessary. Terminal arteries in organs undergo the same remodeling pattern in Goldblatt rats, except for organs with hemodynamics affected by the arterial clip. The existing remodeling nomenclature should be replaced by a numerical classification applicable to any type of arterial remodeling

Work within the COVID-19 pandemic — the experience of the biobank of the National Medical Research Center of Oncology

Aim. To present the main results and changes in the work of the biobank of the National Medical Research Center of Oncology during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).Material and methods. The paper presents a dynamic analysis of the delivery of fresh frozen biological samples from operated patients for three quarters of 2019 and 2020, as well as considers possible ways to implement research projects to collect and deposit materials for the biobank within the COVID-19 pandemic. The work included persons over 18 years old, with primary gastrointestinal cancers, who, upon hospitalization, gave informed consent to transfer biological material tothe biobank. One of the inclusion criteria was the presence of a negative nasopharyngeal swabs tested for SARS-CoV-2 by the polymerase chain reaction. Data calculation and comparative analysis of the results was carried out using the Microsoft Office Excel software package.Results. It was revealed that in the first quarter of 2019, 34% of biological samples were received from the total amount for the year, while in 2020 — 50%; in the second quarter of 2019 — 35%. The second quarter of 2020 was characterized by change in the schedule of work of institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a 56% decrease in the number of samples compared to the same period in 2019 and amounted to 14% of material collected for the three quarters of2020. In the third quarter of 2020, the flow was restored and amounted to 65 patients, which corresponds to 36% of material collected in this year and is more than in 2019 by 23%.Conclusion. a critical decrease in the deposited material in the second quarter of 2020 indicated the need to adapt the current biobanking rules inRussia in general and the studied biobank in particular. Possible adaptation ways may consist in the creation of joint projects between groups of scientists from different organizations, taking into account the requirements of information and biological safety. This problem and ways to solve it were widely discussed at international and Russian platforms, including the 4th meeting of the National Association of Biobanks and Biobanking Specialists, dedicated to the organization of biobanking during the COVID-19 pandemic

The state in search of intellectual resources: The image of scientist in the perception of Russians

Under global challenges, the Russian state looks for ways to develop the national intellectual potential as a guarantee of technological sovereignty and country’s competitiveness. National research universities are supported, grant mechanisms for research activities are implemented, and programs for attracting and promoting young scientists are adopted. However, some objective indicators show persistent problems in the academic sphere: the number of research staff declines; “brain drain” continues; the number of graduate students and people who defended the thesis is not enough to solve the key problems of the state. The article considers social representations of the prestige of the scientific profession and the image of the scientist as factors that have a negative impact on human resources in the academic field. The research consisted of two stages: 1) 21 focus groups in 7 large Russian cities to identify the prestige of the scientific profession among three generations; 2) 207 interviews with students of Moscow universities (as the main source of personnel for scientific activities) to get a more detailed understanding of the image of the scientist. According to the results of the study, none of three Russian generations consider the profession of the scientist prestigious (inferior to politicians, businessmen, artists, bloggers, and IT specialists). The youth feel social injustice more acutely: they note the exceptional importance of scientists for national development, outstanding intelligence and complexity of this profession, but consider scientists an undervalued and low-income group. The image of the scientist is extremely distanced from the youth and is not an attractive vector of social mobility. One of the key reasons for the current situation is the absence of scientists in the Russian information space. Neither on television, nor in cinema or on social networks the image of the scientist is attractive to younger generations. If efforts are not made to eliminate this contradiction, the shortage of personnel in science will worsen, which would jeopardize the implementation of Russia’s national development plan

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Operation Position with Rigid Inter-Aggregate Connection.

Горшков Борис Михайлович, доктор технических наук, заведующий кафедрой «Сервис технических и технологических систем», Поволжский государственный университет сервиса, г. Тольятти, [email protected]. Бобровский Игорь Николаевич, кандидат технических наук, заместитель директора института химии и инженерной экологии, Тольяттинский государственный университет, г. Тольятти; научный сотрудник отдела металлофизики и авиационных материалов, Самарский научный центр РАН, г. Самара, [email protected]. Самохина Наталья Станиславовна, кандидат технических наук, старший преподаватель кафедры «Информационный и электронный сервис», Поволжский государственный университет сервиса, г. Тольятти, [email protected]. Савельев Александр Викторович, магистрант, Тольяттинский государственный университет, г. Тольятти, [email protected]. B.M. Gorshkov1, [email protected], I.N. Bobrovskij2, 3, [email protected], N.S. Samokhina1, [email protected], A.V. Saveliev2, [email protected] 1Volga Region State University of Service, Togliatti, Russian Federation, 2Togliatti State University, Russia, Togliatti, Russian Federation, 3Samara Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Samara, Russian FederationСовременное конкурентоспособное машиностроительное предприятие должно обеспечивать оперативный переход с одной номенклатуры на другую. Данная тенденция отражена в стратегии научно-технологического развития РФ в части приоритета цифровизации производства. Наиболее ресурсоемка перекомпоновка автоматических линий массового производства, включающих множество рабочий позиций. Связь между агрегатами автоматических линий в массовом производстве жесткая, характеризуется отсутствием межоперационных заделов. Остановка одного из агрегатов автоматически останавливает всю линию. Оценка времени сохранения работоспособности – безотказности работы позиции с жесткой межагрегатной связью является комплексным и требует оценки многих факторов. В работе для проведения расчета была применена структурная схема надежности. Проведенный расчет показателей работоспособности и надежности рабочей позиции с жесткой межагрегатной связью позволяет получить показатели надежности для второго направления развития перекомпонуемых рабочих позиций с автоматической сменой узлов без нарушения жесткой межагрегатной связи базовых узлов. Отмечено, что при расчете можно не учитывать вероятность возникновения отказа агрегатных узлов по причине простоты их конструкции. При этом определение общей формулы вероятности безотказной работы рабочей позиции с жесткой межагрегатной связью позволяет перейти к определению вероятности безотказной работы элементов рабочей позиции с жесткой межагрегатной связью. Обеспечение гибкости автоматических производственных линий массового производства возможно при переходе от систем с жесткой межагрегатной связью к системам с рабочими позициями переменной компоновки со сменными модулями. Математическое обеспечение расчета надежности систем с жесткой межагрегатной связью позволит расширить область применения концепций «Индустрии 4.0» и «умного» производства. A modern competitive engineering enterprise must provide an effective switching between nomenclature types. This trend underlies the strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation in terms of priority which is given to digitalization of production. Reconfiguration of automatic mass production lines is most resource intensive due to a variety of operation positions. The connection between automatic line aggregates in mass production is rigid and is characterized by the absence of inter-operational reserves. Shutdown of one aggregate automatically stops the entire line. Estimation of operating capacity time, i.e. operational safety of a position with a rigid inter-aggregate connection, requires estimation of many factors. In this paper, we applied a flow chart of reliability to calculation. The calculation of indices of operating capacity and reliability of operation position with a rigid inter-aggregate connection makes it possible to obtain reliability indices for the second line of development of recomposed operation positions with automatic node change without breaking the rigid inter-aggregate connection between the basic nodes. It was noted that when calculating it is possible to ignore the probability of failure of aggregate nodes due to the simplicity of their design. Moreover, determination of the general formula for the probability of operational safety of an operation position with a rigid inter-aggregate connection allows us to determine the probability of operational safety of the operation position elements with a rigid inter-aggregate connection. The flexibility of automatic production lines of mass production can be provided when switching from systems with rigid inter-aggregate connection to systems with operation positions of variable configuration with plug-in modules. Mathematical support for calculating the reliability of systems with rigid inter-aggregate connection will expand the applicability of “Industry 4.0” and “smart” production concepts

Association of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events in working-age people: data from the ESSE-RF study

Aim. To study the relationship of different levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) with cardiovascular events and assess its contribution to the development of outcomes in Russian regions.Material and methods. The work used the data from the multicenter study ESSE-RF — a representative sample of male and female population aged 25-64 years. All participants signed informed consent. The study included 10421 people (women, 6399 (61,4%)). The cohort was followed up from 2012 to 2019 (median follow-up period, 5,5 years). A hard endpoint (cardiovascular mortality and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI)) was determined in 187 people, while a soft endpoint (nonfatal MI, stroke, revascularization, heart failure progression and cardiovascular mortality) — in 319 people.Results. The results showed that hs-CRP is significantly associated with the main risk factors (with the exception of low-density lipoproteins). At the same time, it was found that optimal hs-CRP level for predicting the risk of cardiovascular events (CVE) in Russian population is significantly lower than 3 mg/L, but higher than 1 mg/L (1,54/1,89 mg/dL for men and women, respectively). Adding hs-CRP to sex and age significantly improved risk prediction (AUC, 79,7; 95% CI, 77,8-81,7). At the same time, adding a wide list of confounders to hs-CRP, sex and age does not improve the model’s predictive value (AUC, 79,7; 78,2-82,1).Conclusion. This study for the first time showed a significant independent contribution of hs-CRP to CVEs development in the Russian population, and the addition of hs-CRP to sex and age significantly increased the predictive value of model

Russian Non-Interventional Study of the Efficacy and Tolerability of Rifaximin-α Therapy in Patients with Uncomplicated Diverticular Disease under the Conditions of Outpatient Practice

Aim. This observational (non-interventional) study was aimed at obtaining data on practitioners’ commitment to prescribing rifaximin-α therapy to patients with uncomplicated diverticular disease (UDD), to assess patients’ adherence to such prescriptions, as well as to assess physicians’ and patients’ satisfaction with this drug under the conditions of outpatient practice.Materials and methods. 27 research physicians in 22 research centres located in 15 Russian cities and 250 patients participated in an open, prospective multicentre observational study. The observation lasted for 6 months with an interim assessment after 3 months. Physicians’ prescription of rifaximin-α (dose, duration of administration, number of prescribed courses) was evaluated, as well as patients’ compliance expressed as the ratio of the actual number of taken pills to the number of prescribed pills during each course according to the MMAS-4 scale. Such symptoms, as abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, flatulence and tenesmus were evaluated using a 4-score scale. At the end of the study, physicians’ and patients’ satisfaction with the treatment was evaluated using a 5-score scale.Results. One fifth — 52 patients (20.8%)—had received rifaximin-α therapy prior to inclusion in the study. Most frequently, rifaximin-α therapy was prescribed monthly at a dose of 400 mg 2 times a day for 7 days. 67.6% of patients received 6 courses of treatment during the study period. The proportion of patients who received more than one course of treatment over 6 months was 97.6%. During almost all treatment courses (97.5%), patients’ compliance was more than 80%. The total score of symptom intensity decreased from 5.6 at the inclusion visit, to 2.2 points at the second visit and to 0.9 points at the end of the observation. A statistically significant (p <0.05) positive dynamics was observed in relation to all evaluated symptoms (abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, flatulence, tenesmus). By the end of the study, 59.6% of patients and 68.8% of physicians rated the treatment results as “excellent”, 25.2% of patients and 20.4% of doctors as “good”.Conclusions. During the observation, a significant decrease in the severity of UDD symptoms, such as abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, flatulence and tenesmus was noted. No adverse effects associated with rifaximin-α were reported. The data obtained confirm the previously published results of randomized controlled trials on the efficacy and safety of rifaximin-α in UDD