Geotechnical properties of gullying in Tomsk Oblast

The article deals with causes, conditions and factors of gullying in Tomsk Oblast, the case of site Grodnenskaya. A nuclear-power station was planned to be constructed in Closed Administrative Territorial Unit Seversk, which led to geotechnical investigation of the area to study the geological processes developing there. The investigation included reconnaissance traverse of the area, geological and geomorphic descriptions, and sampling. The area and percentage of the territory affected by the geological processes were estimated. As a result, it was proved that the geological processes of the area are conditioned by surface water activity leading to gullying and river erosion, and by both ground water and surface water activity resulting in bog formation. It appears that gullying is caused not only by natural factors but also by technogenic ones

On the minima and convexity of Epstein Zeta function

Let $Z_n(s; a_1,..., a_n)$ be the Epstein zeta function defined as the meromorphic continuation of the function \sum_{k\in\Z^n\setminus\{0\}}(\sum_{i=1}^n [a_i k_i]^2)^{-s}, \text{Re} s>\frac{n}{2} to the complex plane. We show that for fixed $s\neq n/2$, the function $Z_n(s; a_1,..., a_n)$, as a function of $(a_1,..., a_n)\in (\R^+)^n$ with fixed $\prod_{i=1}^n a_i$, has a unique minimum at the point $a_1=...=a_n$. When $\sum_{i=1}^n c_i$ is fixed, the function $$(c_1,..., c_n)\mapsto Z_n(s; e^{c_1},..., e^{c_n})$$ can be shown to be a convex function of any $(n-1)$ of the variables $\{c_1,...,c_n\}$. These results are then applied to the study of the sign of $Z_n(s; a_1,..., a_n)$ when $s$ is in the critical range $(0, n/2)$. It is shown that when $1\leq n\leq 9$, $Z_n(s; a_1,..., a_n)$ as a function of $(a_1,..., a_n)\in (\R^+)^n$, can be both positive and negative for every $s\in (0,n/2)$. When $n\geq 10$, there are some open subsets $I_{n,+}$ of $s\in(0,n/2)$, where $Z_{n}(s; a_1,..., a_n)$ is positive for all $(a_1,..., a_n)\in(\R^+)^n$. By regarding $Z_n(s; a_1,..., a_n)$ as a function of $s$, we find that when $n\geq 10$, the generalized Riemann hypothesis is false for all $(a_1,...,a_n)$.Comment: 27 page

Composition and distribution of the peracarid crustacean fauna along a latitudinal transect off Victoria Land (Ross Sea, Antarctica) with special emphasis on the Cumacea

The following study was the first to describe composition and structure of the peracarid fauna systematically along a latitudinal transect off Victoria Land (Ross Sea, Antarctica). During the 19th Antarctic expedition of the Italian research vessel “Italica” in February 2004, macrobenthic samples were collected by means of a Rauschert dredge with a mesh size of 500 m at depths between 85 and 515 m. The composition of peracarid crustaceans, especially Cumacea was investigated. Peracarida contributed 63% to the total abundance of the fauna. The peracarid samples were dominated by amphipods (66%), whereas cumaceans were represented with 7%. Previously, only 13 cumacean species were known, now the number of species recorded from the Ross Sea increased to 34. Thus, the cumacean fauna of the Ross Sea, which was regarded as the poorest in terms of species richness, has to be considered as equivalent to that of other high Antarctic areas. Most important cumacean families concerning abundance and species richness were Leuconidae, Nannastacidae, and Diastylidae. Cumacean diversity was lowest at the northernmost area (Cape Adare). At the area off Coulman Island, which is characterized by muddy sediment, diversity was highest. Diversity and species number were higher at the deeper stations and abundance increased with latitude. A review of the bathymetric distribution of the Cumacea from the Ross Sea reveals that most species distribute across the Antarctic continental shelf and slope. So far, only few deep-sea records justify the assumption of a shallow-water–deep-sea relationship in some species of Ross Sea Cumacea, which is discussed from an evolutionary point of view

Experience of the successful treatment with canakinumab of a patient with NLPC4-associated autoinflammatory syndrome with enterocolitis

The article shows the observation of rare NLPC4-associated autoinflammatory syndrome with enterocolitis and familial cold urticaria. Diagnosis is confirmed molecularly-genetically: previously not described mutation c.928C>T in the heterozygous state in NLRC4 gene is discovered by a method of the new generation sequencing. The use of a monoclonal antibody to the interleukin 1 canakinumab provided complete relief of fever and skin and intestinal symptoms in just 1 week of treatment. Later the signs of inflammation have disappeared completely; the patient’s quality of life improved and life-threatening complications were prevented. The above example demonstrates the high clinical efficacy of canakinumab in the patient with NLRC4-associated autoinflammatory syndrome and suggests promising therapeutic use of interleukin 1 blockers in such patients. There were no adverse events during canakinumab therapy

High Efficiency of Kanakinumabum for a Patient with a Late Diagnosed Chronic Infantile Neurological Cutaneous Articular Syndrome (CINCA)

The article presents the monitoring of a severe course of CINCA/NOMID syndrome diagnosed at late stages. The use of monoclonal antibodies to IL 1 — kanakinumabum — in a patient with chronic neurological cutaneous and articular syndrome was successful: fever, cutaneous and pain syndromes were completely stopped, joint contractures decreased after one week of therapy. Laboratory parameters of the child’s disease activity (ESR and CRP) became normal after 8 weeks of treatment. Movements in the affected joints recovered completely after 24 weeks; the audiologist noted an improvement in hearing. The above clinical example demonstrates the high efficiency of kanakinumabum for a patient with chronic neurological cutaneous and articular syndrome, and shows the perspective of therapeutic application of IL 1 blocker for patients with CINCA syndrome including advanced stages of the disease. No adverse effects were noted during kanakinumabum therapy

Conformational Stability Analyses of Alpha Subunit I Domain of LFA-1 and Mac-1

β2 integrin of lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) or macrophage-1 antigen (Mac-1) binds to their common ligand of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and mediates leukocyte-endothelial cell (EC) adhesions in inflammation cascade. Although the two integrins are known to have distinct functions, the corresponding micro-structural bases remain unclear. Here (steered-)molecular dynamics simulations were employed to elucidate the conformational stability of α subunit I domains of LFA-1 and Mac-1 in different affinity states and relevant I domain-ICAM-1 interaction features. Compared with low affinity (LA) Mac-1, the LA LFA-1 I domain was unstable in the presence or absence of ICAM-1 ligand, stemming from diverse orientations of its α7-helix with different motifs of zipper-like hydrophobic junction between α1- and α7-helices. Meanwhile, spontaneous transition of LFA-1 I domain from LA state to intermediate affinity (IA) state was first visualized. All the LA, IA, and high affinity (HA) states of LFA-1 I domain and HA Mac-1 I domain were able to bind to ICAM-1 ligand effectively, while LA Mac-1 I domain was unfavorable for binding ligand presumably due to the specific orientation of S144 side-chain that capped the MIDAS ion. These results furthered our understanding in correlating the structural bases with their functions of LFA-1 and Mac-1 integrins from the viewpoint of I domain conformational stability and of the characteristics of I domain-ICAM-1 interactions

The adaptive potential of North American subtype H7N2 avian influenza viruses to mammals

Introduction. H7 subtype avian influenza viruses causing severe epizootics among birds are phylogenetically different in the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Numerous human infections caused by these viruses in the Eastern hemisphere indicate that H7 viruses can overcome the interspecies barrier and pose a potential threat of a new pandemic.The H7N2 viruses with deletion of amino acids 221–228 (H3 numbering) in hemagglutinin (HA) had been circulating among poultry in the Western Hemisphere during 1996–2006, and had once again been detected in 2016 in an animal shelter, where they caused cat diseases. The objective of this study is to elucidate the mechanism of adaptation to mammals of North American H7N2 influenza viruses with deletion in HA. Materials and methods. The A/chicken/New Jersey/294598-12/2004 (H7N2) virus was adapted to mice by the lung passages. Complete genomes of original and mouse-adapted viruses were analyzed. The receptor specificity and thermostability of viruses, HA activation pH and virulence for mice were determined. Results. The non-pathogenic H7N2 avian influenza virus became pathogenic after 10 passages in mice. Amino acid substitutions occurred in five viral proteins: one in PB2 (E627K), NA (K127N), NEP (E14Q), four in HA and six in NS1. Mutations in HA slightly changed receptor specificity but increased the pH of HA activation by 0.4 units. The NS1 protein undergone the greatest changes in the positions (N73T, S114G, K118R, G171A, F214L and G224R), where amino acid polymorphisms were observed in the original virus, but only minor amino acid variants have been preserved in the mouse adapted variant. Conclusion. The results show that H7N2 viruses have the potential to adapt to mammals. The increase in virulence is most likely due to the adaptive E627K mutation in PB2 and possibly in HA

Generative Embedding for Model-Based Classification of fMRI Data

Decoding models, such as those underlying multivariate classification algorithms, have been increasingly used to infer cognitive or clinical brain states from measures of brain activity obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The practicality of current classifiers, however, is restricted by two major challenges. First, due to the high data dimensionality and low sample size, algorithms struggle to separate informative from uninformative features, resulting in poor generalization performance. Second, popular discriminative methods such as support vector machines (SVMs) rarely afford mechanistic interpretability. In this paper, we address these issues by proposing a novel generative-embedding approach that incorporates neurobiologically interpretable generative models into discriminative classifiers. Our approach extends previous work on trial-by-trial classification for electrophysiological recordings to subject-by-subject classification for fMRI and offers two key advantages over conventional methods: it may provide more accurate predictions by exploiting discriminative information encoded in ‘hidden’ physiological quantities such as synaptic connection strengths; and it affords mechanistic interpretability of clinical classifications. Here, we introduce generative embedding for fMRI using a combination of dynamic causal models (DCMs) and SVMs. We propose a general procedure of DCM-based generative embedding for subject-wise classification, provide a concrete implementation, and suggest good-practice guidelines for unbiased application of generative embedding in the context of fMRI. We illustrate the utility of our approach by a clinical example in which we classify moderately aphasic patients and healthy controls using a DCM of thalamo-temporal regions during speech processing. Generative embedding achieves a near-perfect balanced classification accuracy of 98% and significantly outperforms conventional activation-based and correlation-based methods. This example demonstrates how disease states can be detected with very high accuracy and, at the same time, be interpreted mechanistically in terms of abnormalities in connectivity. We envisage that future applications of generative embedding may provide crucial advances in dissecting spectrum disorders into physiologically more well-defined subgroups