Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of cancers associated with human papillomavirus in the regions of North-West Russia

Introduction. The leading role of the human papillomavirus in the etiopathogenesis of malignant neoplasms of some localizations is generally recognized. Vaccines that are used in the world and in Russia for the prevention of papillomavirus infection create the basis for the elimination of diseases associated with the human papillomavirus in the future. The aim of the study is to determine the regional, gender and age-specific features of cancers associated with the human papillomavirus to substantiate the development of a unified system of epidemiological surveillance and vaccination. Materials and methods. The retrospective epidemiological analysis of the incidence of cancers associated with the human papillomavirus and mortality due to these neoplasms in the regions of the North-Western Federal District of Russia in 20112020 was carried out based on data from Statistic Form 7 "Information on malignant neoplasms" and the Population cancer Registers of St. Petersburg (13,117 cases), Leningrad region (3204 cases) and the Kaliningrad region (2898 cases). Results. In the structure of cancers associated with the human papillomavirus in St. Petersburg, Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions, more than 90% of men had tumors of the oral cavity, oropharynx and larynx, more than 60% of women had cervical cancer. Regional and age-specific features of the incidence of cervical cancer and mortality from this pathology have been established. Statistically significant differences in the incidence of cancer of the head and neck, anus and anal canal in different age groups of the male and female population were revealed. Conclusion. As a result of the study, regional, gender and age-specific features of the incidence of human papillomavirus-associated malignant neoplasms in the North-West of Russia were established. These data should be used to develop a system of epidemiological surveillance of papillomavirus infection and vaccination program

Evaluation of the upper extremity motor skills with a computer kinetic system in multiple sclerosis patients

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating neurodegenerative disorder with multiple lesions in the central nervous system. Motor abnormalities are considered to be a major cause of permanent occupational, social and daily disability of MS patients. However, due to serious limitations of existing methods for assessment of upper limb functioning, evaluation of coordinator and motor abnormalities in the upper extremities in clinical practice is difficult. Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of a computer kinetic method in the diagnosis of fine motor abnormalities of upper limbs in MS patients at early stage of the disease, when motor abnormalities in the upper limbs are not yet obvious. Materials and methods: The main study group included 42 patients with confirmed MS, who consented for testing and met the inclusion criteria (among them, absence of obvious motor and coordinator abnormalities in the arms). The mean age of the patients was 36 [29; 44] years. The control group included 31 healthy subjects with a mean age of 28 [21; 37] years. All the patients were assessed with an original computer kinetic system, including a two-minute test, when the patient had to follow a moving object on the screen with a computer mouse. Every test series resulted in 13 final characteristics. Results: The test of the dominant hand showed that compared to the control group, the MS patients without clinical motor abnormalities in the upper extremities spend 20% more time to move to the aim object (p 0.001), have a 18% lower output motor performance (p 0.001), make by 54% more recurrent returns to the aim object (p = 0.012), by 7% more crosses of the ideal trajectory of moving to the aim (p = 0.036), by 32% more deviations from the ideal trajectory of moving along the x axis and by 52% more along the y axis (p 0.001 for both comparisons), as well as they have a 12% lower mean rate of the movements during the computer test (p 0.001) and by 12% more rate picks (p = 0.003). Conclusion: Patients with confirmed MS, low degree of disability and absence of any clinically confirmed motor abnormalities in the upper limbs do have subclinical signs of motor abnormalities in the arms that can be identified by computer kinetic system

Virtual Herbarium ALTB: collection of vascular plants of the Altai Mountain Country

Background The herbarium of the South-Siberian Botanical Garden of Altai State University (ALTB) houses the largest collection of plants from the Altai Mountain Country (AMC), an area that extends across Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. The collection of ALTB includes more than 450,00 specimens, making it the seventh largest in Russia and the fourth largest amongst Russian university herbaria. Altai State University (ASU), the home of ALTB, is one of the most important centres of academic education and research in Siberia and the Russian Far East. It is a sociocultural centre that provides a distinguished learning environment for undergraduate and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields, meeting the needs of today's knowledge-based post-industrial society and contributing to regional development. It actively promotes international cooperation and strategic collaboration amongst countries of the AMC in the fields of science, education and culture. In particular, the activities of the South-Siberian Botanical Garden include: development of measures to protect rare and endangered plant species, research on the flora and vegetation of the AMC, preparation and publication of a multi-volume work "Flora Altaica", monographic study of individual plant groups, conducting laboratory classes, summer practicals and special courses. The main purpose of this article is to attract the attention of the scientific community to the botanical research of transboundary territory of the Altai Mountain Country (Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia) and to the future development of digital plant collections in partnership with Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). New information The Virtual Herbarium ALTB (Russian interface - altb.asu.ru) is the largest digital collection of plants from the transboundary territory of the Altai Mountain Country and the main source of primary material for the "Flora Altaica" project (http://altaiflora.asu.ru/en/). Since 2017, when Altai State University became a GBIF data publisher, data from the Virtual Herbarium ALTB has been exported to the dataset "Virtual Herbarium ALTB (South-Siberian Botanical Garden)" in GBIF. Currently, it includes images and data from 22,466 vascular plants, of which 67% have geographic coordinates (accessed on 30.03.2021). Most of the specimens have been collected since 1977, with the most intensive collecting years being 1995-2008. In 2019, the label-data table of the Virtual Herbarium ALTB was modified to bring it into conformity with the Darwin Core specification (http://altb.asu.ru/). This effectively solved the major impediment to sharing plant diversity data from the AMC and adjacent regions in a multilingual environment