The use of modern ICT as tools for development of learning communication in the contemporary university

The article presents a problem-projective study, which is aimed at pedagogical modeling of the introduction modern ICT in the university educational process. The authors explore the idea that the use of modern ICT at the university should ensure the development of a variety of learning communications. This type of complex communications are a cumulative set of methods, channels, techniques, modes and formats for transportation of knowledge that form the information environment of students trainin

Features of shear transformation texture in seamless pipes

Microstructure and texture in seamless 0.08C-Cr-Mo-V, 0.25C-Cr-Mo-V-Nb, 0.08-13Cr-3Ni-Mo-V-Nb, and 18Cr-9Ni steel pipes are studied in the as-rolled and heat-treated states using orientation EBSD microscopy. It has been found that all types of microstructure (ferrite, martensite, and bainite) in products, both after hot rolling and after heat treatment, have well-defined axial crystallographic texture, where the direction is predominately perpendicular to the pipe surface. It is demonstrated that texture formation in heat-treated states is inherited due to the following factors important for the rules of orientation selection during the γ→α phase transformation: 1) occurrence of stable orientation of austenite grains resulted from straining; 2) special misorientation (boundaries) of austenite grains where transformation starts; 3) orientation relationships known for phase transformation; 4) thermal stresses in a product, formed during cooling. The latter can be considered as factor determining special texture in seamless steel pipes. © 2018 Author(s)

Proteomic similarity of the Littorinid snails in the evolutionary context

Background The introduction of DNA-based molecular markers made a revolution in biological systematics. However, in cases of very recent divergence events, the neutral divergence may be too slow, and the analysis of adaptive part of the genome is more informative to reconstruct the recent evolutionary history of young species. The advantage of proteomics is its ability to reflect the biochemical machinery of life. It may help both to identify rapidly evolving genes and to interpret their functions. Methods Here we applied a comparative gel-based proteomic analysis to several species from the gastropod family Littorinidae. Proteomes were clustered to assess differences related to species, geographic location, sex and body part, using data on presence/absence of proteins in samples and data on protein occurrence frequency in samples of different species. Cluster support was assessed using multiscale bootstrap resampling and the stability of clustering—using cluster-wise index of cluster stability. Taxon-specific protein markers were derived using IndVal method. Proteomic trees were compared to consensus phylogenetic tree (based on neutral genetic markers) using estimates of the Robinson–Foulds distance, the Fowlkes–Mallows index and cophenetic correlation. Results Overall, the DNA-based phylogenetic tree and the proteomic similarity tree had consistent topologies. Further, we observed some interesting deviations of the proteomic littorinid tree from the neutral expectations. (1) There were signs of molecular parallelism in two Littoraria species that phylogenetically are quite distant, but live in similar habitats. (2) Proteome divergence was unexpectedly high between very closely related Littorina fabalis and L. obtusata, possibly reflecting their ecology-driven divergence. (3) Conservative house-keeping proteins were usually identified as markers for cryptic species groups (“saxatilis” and “obtusata” groups in the Littorina genus) and for genera (Littoraria and Echinolittorina species pairs), while metabolic enzymes and stress-related proteins (both potentially adaptively important) were often identified as markers supporting species branches. (4) In all five Littorina species British populations were separated from the European mainland populations, possibly reflecting their recent phylogeographic history. Altogether our study shows that proteomic data, when interpreted in the context of DNA-based phylogeny, can bring additional information on the evolutionary history of species

Полиморфизм гена NAT2 и развитие туберкулеза с множественной лекарственной устойчивостью у пациентов с ВИЧ-инфекцией

The objective: to run the comparative study of frequencies of variants of polymorphic loci of NAT2 gene in the development of multiple drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) and drug sensitive tuberculosis (DS TB) in patients with HIV infection.Subjects and Methods. 70 patients with TB/HIV co-infection at the age from 24 to 58 years old were examined when admitted to hospital.54 (77.1%) patients were new cases, the remaining 16 cases underwent repeated treatment. MDR TB was diagnosed in 47 patients: 33 patients had primary MDR, and 14 patients suffered from acquired MDR. Drug susceptible tuberculosis was diagnosed in 23 patients. Allele-specific PCR was used for genotyping of patients by rs1208, rs1799930, and rs1799929 polymorphic loci of N-acetyltransferase-2 (NAT2) gene.Results. A high probability of carriage of wild genotype of NAT2Arg197Arg(G590G) and allele NAT2Arg197(590G) was revealed in MDR TB(n = 70, OR = 3.63, p = 0.02 and OR = 2.24, p = 0.05, respectively) and it was found low in DS TB (n = 70, OR = 0.28, p = 0.02 and OR = 0.45, p = 0.05, respectively). Among patients with acquired MDR TB (n = 14), carriers of the wild genotype of NAT2Arg197Arg(G590G) prevailed (n = 11; 79%), of them 10 were chronic cases and 1 had a relapse. Among patients with DS TB (n = 23), the carriage of the wild genotype of NAT2Arg197Arg G590G was found in 35% of patients (n = 8), of them 7 were new cases and 1 patient suffered from chronic tuberculosis.Carriage of a combination of three studied wild genotypes of NAT2Lys268Lys(A803A)×NAT2Arg197Arg(G590G)×NAT2Leu161Leu(C481C) was more often recorded in secondary MDR TB. In secondary MDR TB, the risk of carriage of wild genotypes of NAT2 gene versus primary MDR TB turned out to be high among all cases of diagnosed MDR TB (n = 43, OR = 6.67 [1.28-34.86], p = 0.0277 ) and in the entire sample (n = 65, OR = 11.91 [2.32-61.11], p = 0.0039).Conclusion. The results of genotyping in patients with TB/HIV co-infection and secondary MDR TB are associated with the carriage of acombination of wild genotypes of gene NAT2Lys268Lys(A803A)×NAT2Arg197Arg(G590G)×NAT2Leu161Leu(C481C).Цель: сравнительное изучение частот вариантов полиморфных локусов гена NAT2 при развитии туберкулеза с множественной лекарственной устойчивостью (МЛУ-ТБ) и лекарственно-чувствительного туберкулеза (ЛЧ-ТБ) у больных ВИЧ-инфекцией.Материал и методы. Обследованы 70 госпитализированных больных с коинфекцией (ТБ/ВИЧ-и/) в возрасте от 24 до 58 лет. У 54 (77,1%) больных имел место впервые выявленный туберкулез, у остальных 16 – случаи повторного лечения. МЛУ-ТБ был установлен у 47 больных: первичная МЛУ микобактерий туберкулеза (МБТ) ‒ у 33 пациентов, приобретенная – у 14 пациентов. ЛЧ-ТБ диагностирован у 23 больных. Генотипирование пациентов по полиморфным локусам rs1208, rs1799930 и rs1799929 гена N-ацетилтрансферазы-2 (NAT2) проводили методом аллель-специфической ПЦР.Результаты. Выявлена высокая вероятность носительства дикого генотипа NAT2Arg197Arg(G590G) и аллеля NAT2Arg197(590G) при МЛУ-ТБ (n = 70, OR= 3,63, p = 0,02 и OR = 2,24, p = 0,05 соответственно) и низкая – при ЛЧ-ТБ (n = 70, OR = 0,28, p = 0,02 и OR = 0,45, p = 0,05 соответственно). Среди пациентов с приобретенной МЛУ МБТ (n = 14) носители дикого генотипа NAT2Arg197Arg(G590G) преобладали (n = 11; 79%), из них 10 ‒ с хроническим течением заболевания и 1 – с рецидивом. Среди больных с ЛЧ-ТБ (n = 23) носительство дикого генотипа NAT2Arg197Arg G590G обнаружено у 35% больных (n = 8), из них у 7 впервые выявленных больных и 1 пациента с хроническим течением туберкулеза.Носительство сочетания трех исследованных диких генотипов NAT2Lys268Lys(A803A)×NAT2Arg197Arg(G590G)×NAT2Leu161Leu(C481C) чаще регистрировали при вторичной МЛУ МБТ. При вторичной МЛУ МБТ риск носительства диких генотипов гена NAT2 в сравнении с первичной МЛУ МБТ оказался высоким как среди всех случаев установленной МЛУ МБТ (n = 43, OR = 6,67 [1,28-34,86], p = 0,0277), так и во всей выборке больных (n = 65, OR = 11,91 [2,32-61,11], p = 0,0039).Заключение. Результаты генотипирования у пациентов с коинфекцией ТБ/ВИЧ-и с вторичной МЛУ МБТ ассоциированы с носительством сочетания диких генотипов гена NAT2Lys268Lys(A803A)×NAT2Arg197Arg(G590G)×NAT2Leu161Leu(C481C)

Dimensional reduction at a quantum critical point

Competition between electronic ground states near a quantum critical point (QCP) - the location of a zero-temperature phase transition driven solely by quantum-mechanical fluctuations - is expected to lead to unconventional behaviour in low-dimensional systems. New electronic phases of matter have been predicted to occur in the vicinity of a QCP by two-dimensional theories, and explanations based on these ideas have been proposed for significant unsolved problems in condensed-matter physics, such as non-Fermi-liquid behaviour and high-temperature superconductivity. But the real materials to which these ideas have been applied are usually rendered three-dimensional by a finite electronic coupling between their component layers; a two-dimensional QCP has not been experimentally observed in any bulk three-dimensional system, and mechanisms for dimensional reduction have remained the subject of theoretical conjecture. Here we show evidence that the Bose-Einstein condensate of spin triplets in the three-dimensional Mott insulator BaCuSi2O6 provides an experimentally verifiable example of dimensional reduction at a QCP. The interplay of correlations on a geometrically frustrated lattice causes the individual two-dimensional layers of spin-1/2 Cu2+ pairs (spin dimers) to become decoupled at the QCP, giving rise to a two-dimensional QCP characterized by power law scaling distinctly different from that of its three-dimensional counterpart. Thus the very notion of dimensionality can be said to acquire an 'emergent' nature: although the individual particles move on a three-dimensional lattice, their collective behaviour occurs in lower-dimensional space.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of the branching fraction of J/ψ→ρπJ/\psi\rightarrow\rho\pi at KEDR

We present the study of the decay $J/\psi \rightarrow \rho \pi$. The results are based on of 5.2 million $J/\psi$ events collected by the KEDR detector at VEPP-4M collider. The branching fraction is measured to be $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\rightarrow\rho\pi) = \big(2.072\pm 0.017 \pm 0.056 \big)\cdot 10^{-2}$ where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second one is systematic. This is the most precise single measurement of this quantity at the moment

Phage Display against Corneal Epithelial Cells Produced Bioactive Peptides That Inhibit Aspergillus Adhesion to the Corneas

Dissection of host-pathogen interactions is important for both understanding the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and developing therapeutics for the infectious diseases like various infectious keratitis. To enhance the knowledge about pathogenesis infectious keratitis, a random 12-mer peptide phage display library was screened against cultured human corneal epithelial cells (HCEC). Fourteen sequences were obtained and BLASTp analysis showed that most of their homologue counterparts in GenBank were for defined or putative proteins in various pathogens. Based on known or predicted functions of the homologue proteins, ten synthetic peptides (Pc-A to Pc-J) were measured for their affinity to bind cells and their potential efficacy to interfere with pathogen adhesion to the cells. Besides binding to HCEC, most of them also bound to human corneal stromal cells and umbilical endothelial cells to different extents. When added to HCEC culture, the peptides induced expression of MyD88 and IL-17 in HCEC, and the stimulated cell culture medium showed fungicidal potency to various extents. While peptides Pc-C and Pc-E inhibited Aspergillus fumigatus (A.f) adhesion to HCEC in a dose-dependent manner, the similar inhibition ability of peptides Pc-A and Pc-B required presence of their homologue ligand Alb1p on A.f. When utilized in an eyeball organ culture model and an in vivo A.f keratitis model established in mouse, Pc-C and Pc-E inhibited fungal adhesion to corneas, hence decreased corneal disruption caused by inflammatory infiltration. Affinity pull-down of HCEC membrane proteins with peptide Pc-C revealed several molecules as potential receptors for this peptide. In conclusion, besides proving that phage display-selected peptides could be utilized to interfere with adhesion of pathogens to host cells, hence could be exploited for managing infectious diseases including infectious keratitis, we also proposed that the phage display technique and the resultant peptides could be used to explore host-pathogen interactions at molecular levels