The role of macroelements in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma in children

Objective: to study the role of macroelements in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma in children. Materials and methods: A total of 131 patients with different degrees of bronchial asthma severity were examined instantaneously. The reference group consisted of 31 children of the respective gender and age groups 1 and 2A. The average age of children was 11.83 ± 3.38 years old. All children in the cohort were given a comprehensive clinical-laboratory examination, peakflowmetry, pulsoxymetry, and spirometry. The study of mineral homeostasis in blood serum was carried out by X-ray fluorescence analysis. Statistical processing of the results was performed using the Statistica 10 and Microsoft Office Excel 2010, calculations were carried out in the program R. Results: It was found that the levels of potassium, phosphorus, and sulfur in children with bronchial asthma were elevated, while the levels of calcium, magnesium, and chlorine were reduced compared to the control group patients. The content of these macronutrients in patients with varying degrees of disease severity did not have significant differences. Conclusions: The data obtained on the changes in macro-element homeostasis indicate the important role of diselementosis in the pathogenesis of BA. It is a significant factor that contributes to the progression of chronic inflammation in bronchial organs that requires correction of therapy in children

Morphological verification of the first missed abortion

Objective. The study aimed to compare the level of INF a2 immunoexpression in tissues obtained during medical abortion with the corresponding level of IFNa2 expression in a retained fetal egg tissues after the first missed abortion. The authors compared the anamnestic data on previous inflammatory diseases of the genital tract with the results of an extended morphological study of the material obtained during the evacuation of the contents of the uterine cavity during the first non-developing pregnancy in the first trimester.Materials and methods. The study included 15 patients with first-time missed abortions caused by a viral infection (6-8 weeks of pregnancy). All patients demonstrated either recurrent herpes simplex labialis/genitalis or PCR confirmed HSV, HPV, CMV. Exclusion criteria were recurrent miscarriage, blighted ovum, endocrinopathies, male factor infertility, and other causes of miscarriage. The comparison group included 20 women of the same age that chose to undergo a medical abortion.Results. In patients from the comparison group, the main producer of IFN a2 was syncytiotrophoblast as well as maternal decidual cells in the parietal endometrium and uteroplacental area. In the main group, manifested hematogenous infection (microabscesses, vasculitis, lymphocytic and macrophage infiltration) with dystrophy and necrosis of decidual maternal cells and secondary pathological changes in the placental villi were diagnosed, which led to a significant decrease in the IFN a2 immunoexpression in all the studied cells.Conclusion. The lack of anamnestic data on previous urogenital infections does not exclude the etiological role of the inflammatory component in the genesis of non-developing pregnancy. First-time occurred pregnancy loss requires adequate postoperative interferon therapy and a thorough examination of a couple

Single electron emission in two-phase xenon with application to the detection of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering

We present an experimental study of single electron emission in ZEPLIN-III, a two-phase xenon experiment built to search for dark matter WIMPs, and discuss applications enabled by the excellent signal-to-noise ratio achieved in detecting this signature. Firstly, we demonstrate a practical method for precise measurement of the free electron lifetime in liquid xenon during normal operation of these detectors. Then, using a realistic detector response model and backgrounds, we assess the feasibility of deploying such an instrument for measuring coherent neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering using the ionisation channel in the few-electron regime. We conclude that it should be possible to measure this elusive neutrino signature above an ionisation threshold of $\sim$3 electrons both at a stopped pion source and at a nuclear reactor. Detectable signal rates are larger in the reactor case, but the triggered measurement and harder recoil energy spectrum afforded by the accelerator source enable lower overall background and fiducialisation of the active volume

THORACO-CARDIAC PARAMETERS IN CHILDREN WITH DIFFERENT VARIANTS OF SOMATIC DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO ULTRASOUND DATA

Objective: to study the ultrasound characteristics of the structure and location of the heart and blood vessels in children of different age groups, taking into account the harmony of physical development.Materials and methods: 160 people aged 4 to 18 years were surveyed. All the children included in the study were divided into four groups, according to the WHO.  Anthropometric dimensions were evaluated using centile tables. There are 3 rates of physical development: age-appropriate; advancing age; lagging behind age norms, as well as harmonious, moderately disharmonious and high disharmonious development. Echocardiography was performed on a VIVID-3 scanner, General Electric, USA, using sector sensors with a frequency of 3-8 MHz. Statistical processing of the results were performed using the Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and Statistica 12.0 for Windows software package. Results: the morphometric parameters of cardial structures increase proportionally with age, having a significant range of deviation in the group. Disharmonious type of physical development is most often found in children of puberty. Among children of age I and II groups, harmonious physical development dominates and, in a small number, a moderately disharmonious type is formed-5 (14.3 %) and 11 (20.3 %) cases, respectively. Conclusion: the pronounced inter-group differences between the studied generally accepted and additional ultrasound dimensions of the heart testify to the expediency of using them as additional measurements in the experimental modeling of the chest cavity

A rare case of type i glutaric aciduria in an early child

Glutaric aciduria type I (deficiency of glutaryl-COA dehydrogenase, glutaric acidemia type I) is a rare autosomal recessive disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding the enzyme glutaryl – COA - dehydrogenase (GCDH). Cerebral organic aciduria, caused by a deficiency of glutaryl-COA - dehydrogenase, is generally considered a neurological disorder.The phenotypic spectrum of untreated GA-1 varies from a more common and pronounced form (a disease with infancy) to a low-symptom and less common form. In people with the same genotype, the clinical manifestations and depth of CNS damage can vary widely depending on the age of manifestation of acute encephalopathic crises. It is assumed that with early detection and treatment of “asymptomatic” newborns (in the context of screening for this disease), most people who would have developed manifestations of GA-1 with childhood or late onset will remain asymptomatic

The Tevatron at the Frontier of Dark Matter Direct Detection

Direct detection of dark matter (DM) requires an interaction of dark matter particles with nucleons. The same interaction can lead to dark matter pair production at a hadron collider, and with the addition of initial state radiation this may lead to mono-jet signals. Mono-jet searches at the Tevatron can thus place limits on DM direct detection rates. We study these bounds both in the case where there is a contact interaction between DM and the standard model and where there is a mediator kinematically accessible at the Tevatron. We find that in many cases the Tevatron provides the current best limit, particularly for light dark matter, below 5 GeV, and for spin dependent interactions. Non-standard dark matter candidates are also constrained. The introduction of a light mediator significantly weakens the collider bound. A direct detection discovery that is in apparent conflict with mono-jet limits will thus point to a new light state coupling the standard model to the dark sector. Mono-jet searches with more luminosity and including the spectrum shape in the analysis can improve the constraints on DM-nucleon scattering cross section.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, final version in JHE

Results from the First Science Run of the ZEPLIN-III Dark Matter Search Experiment

The ZEPLIN-III experiment in the Palmer Underground Laboratory at Boulby uses a 12kg two-phase xenon time projection chamber to search for the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that may account for the dark matter of our Galaxy. The detector measures both scintillation and ionisation produced by radiation interacting in the liquid to differentiate between the nuclear recoils expected from WIMPs and the electron recoil background signals down to ~10keV nuclear recoil energy. An analysis of 847kg.days of data acquired between February 27th 2008 and May 20th 2008 has excluded a WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering spin-independent cross-section above 8.1x10(-8)pb at 55GeV/c2 with a 90% confidence limit. It has also demonstrated that the two-phase xenon technique is capable of better discrimination between electron and nuclear recoils at low-energy than previously achieved by other xenon-based experiments.Comment: 12 pages, 17 figure

PAMELA, DAMA, INTEGRAL and Signatures of Metastable Excited WIMPs

Models of dark matter with ~ GeV scale force mediators provide attractive explanations of many high energy anomalies, including PAMELA, ATIC, and the WMAP haze. At the same time, by exploiting the ~ MeV scale excited states that are automatically present in such theories, these models naturally explain the DAMA/LIBRA and INTEGRAL signals through the inelastic dark matter (iDM) and exciting dark matter (XDM) scenarios, respectively. Interestingly, with only weak kinetic mixing to hypercharge to mediate decays, the lifetime of excited states with delta < 2 m_e is longer than the age of the universe. The fractional relic abundance of these excited states depends on the temperature of kinetic decoupling, but can be appreciable. There could easily be other mechanisms for rapid decay, but the consequences of such long-lived states are intriguing. We find that CDMS constrains the fractional relic population of ~100 keV states to be <~ 10^-2, for a 1 TeV WIMP with sigma_n = 10^-40 cm^2. Upcoming searches at CDMS, as well as xenon, silicon, and argon targets, can push this limit significantly lower. We also consider the possibility that the DAMA excitation occurs from a metastable state into the XDM state, which decays via e+e- emission, which allows lighter states to explain the INTEGRAL signal due to the small kinetic energies required. Such models yield dramatic signals from down-scattering, with spectra peaking at high energies, sometimes as high as ~1 MeV, well outside the usual search windows. Such signals would be visible at future Ar and Si experiments, and may be visible at Ge and Xe experiments. We also consider other XDM models involving ~ 500 keV metastable states, and find they can allow lighter WIMPs to explain INTEGRAL as well.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

WIMP-nucleon cross-section results from the second science run of ZEPLIN-III

We report experimental upper limits on WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering cross sections from the second science run of ZEPLIN-III at the Boulby Underground Laboratory. A raw fiducial exposure of 1,344 kg.days was accrued over 319 days of continuous operation between June 2010 and May 2011. A total of eight events was observed in the signal acceptance region in the nuclear recoil energy range 7-29 keV, which is compatible with background expectations. This allows the exclusion of the scalar cross-section above 4.8E-8 pb near 50 GeV/c^2 WIMP mass with 90% confidence. Combined with data from the first run, this result improves to 3.9E-8 pb. The corresponding WIMP-neutron spin-dependent cross-section limit is 8.0E-3 pb. The ZEPLIN programme reaches thus its conclusion at Boulby, having deployed and exploited successfully three liquid xenon experiments of increasing reach