Staphylinids (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) of Ukrainian metropolises

During hundreds of years, in large cities man has been forming a specific urban environment with original species composition of insect communities, including the most diverse group of predatory beetles – Staphylinidae family. Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro are the three most populated cities of Ukraine. In the urban cenoses of these cities, over 140 species from 66 genera of Staphylinidae have been recorded. The total of 69 species (43 genera) were recorded in Kyiv, 67 (39 genera) in Dnipro and 66 (37 genera) in Kharkiv. Among them, , eight species in the catalogue of Palearctic staphylinds had not been previously recorded for Ukraine: Arpedium quadrum Grav., Atheta laticeps Thomson, Medon apicalis Kraatz, Ocalea rivularis Müll., Philonthus salinus Kiesenwetter, Quedius invreae Gridelli, Tasgius pedator Grav. and Xantholinus gallicus Coiffait. By number, common species accounted for 29 in Dnipro, 21 in Kyiv and 19 in Kharkiv. In all the metropolises, two species (Staphylinus caesareus Cederhjelm and Drusilla canaliculata (F.)) were identified as eudominants. Dominants and subdominants comprised 18–25 species. Almost two thirds of the fauna of staphylinids of the cities was classified as rare species. The lowest faunistic similarity was seen between the staphylinids of the urban cenoses of Dnipro and those in Kyiv and Kharkiv (15.3% and 17.5%), similarity was higher for Staphylinidae of Kyiv and Kharkiv (36.0%). Similarity by common species of staphylinids for Kyiv and Kharkiv equaled 73.9%, 28.2% for Dnipro and Kyiv and 37.1% for Dnipro and Kharkiv. The article offers a review of species diversity, number and ecological structure (biotopic confinedness, hygrothermal preference) of typical species of staphylinids in different urban cenoses of Kharkiv. Differences in qualitative-quantitative and ecological structures of staphylinids are related to the diversity of the conditions in a particular urban cenoses. The commonest representatives of the family in the metropolises were polytopic mesophilous carnivorous species

Is early limited surgery associated with a more benign disease course in Crohn’s disease?

AIM: To analyze the difference in disease course and need for surgery in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS: Data of 506 patients with incident CD were analyzed (age at diagnosis: 31.5 ± 13.8 years). Both hospital and outpatient records were collected prospectively with a complete clinical follow-up and comprehensively reviewed in the population-based Veszprem province database, which includes incident CD patients diagnosed between January 1, 1977 and December 31, 2008. Follow-up data were collected until December 31, 2009. All patients included had at least 1 year of follow-up available. Patients with indeterminate colitis at diagnosis were excluded from the analysis. RESULTS: Overall, 73 patients (14.4%) required resective surgery within 1 year of diagnosis. Steroid exposure and need for biological therapy were lower in patients with early limited surgery (P < 0.001 and P = 0.09). In addition, surgery rates during follow-up in patients with and without early surgery differed significantly after matching on propensity scores (P < 0.001, HR = 0.23). The need for reoperation was also lower in patients with early limited resective surgery (P = 0.038, HR = 0.42) in a Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression (P = 0.04) analysis. However, this advantage was not observed after matching on propensity scores (P(Logrank) = 0.656, P(Breslow) = 0.498). CONCLUSION: Long-term surgery rates and overall exposure to steroids and biological agents were lower in patients with early limited resective surgery, but reoperation rates did not differ

Revisiting the mechanism of coagulation factor XIII activation and regulation from a structure/functional perspective

The activation and regulation of coagulation Factor XIII (FXIII) protein has been the subject of active research for the past three decades. Although discrete evidence exists on various aspects of FXIII activation and regulation a combinatorial structure/functional view in this regard is lacking. In this study, we present results of a structure/function study of the functional chain of events for FXIII. Our study shows how subtle chronological submolecular changes within calcium binding sites can bring about the detailed transformation of the zymogenic FXIII to its activated form especially in the context of FXIIIA and FXIIIB subunit interactions. We demonstrate what aspects of FXIII are important for the stabilization (first calcium binding site) of its zymogenic form and the possible modes of deactivation (thrombin mediated secondary cleavage) of the activated form. Our study for the first time provides a structural outlook of the FXIIIA 2 B 2 heterotetramer assembly, its association and dissociation. The FXIIIB subunits regulatory role in the overall process has also been elaborated upon. In summary, this study provides detailed structural insight into the mechanisms of FXIII activation and regulation that can be used as a template for the development of future highly specific therapeutic inhibitors targeting FXIII in pathological conditions like thrombosis

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

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