The possibility of the calibration/validation of the GOCE data with the balloon-borne gradiometer

International audienceA new calibration/validation experiment for GOCE mission is proposed. Simultaneously with the satellite mission another gradiometer will be flown on the board of the stratospheric balloon on the altitude 20?40 km. The measurements can be compared with satellite data. The advantage of this method is that the same functionals are compared ? gravity gradients. The post-mission external calibration/ validation is possible more directly than through the comparison with the ground truth gravity anomalies or geoid undulation. The calibrating gradiometer is less sensitive, but thanks to the altitude difference, compatible in precision with the orbiting GOCE gradiometer. Analytical procedure of the downward continuation is presented which permits comparison of these observables, supported by numerical examples. The threshold for the precision of the calibrating gradiometer is indicated. Similar comparison can be done between GOCE and GRACE missions

Study of thermal effects of silicate-containing hydroxyapatites

The possibility of modifications of hydroxyapatite silicate ions, from the extracellular fluid prototype solution under near-physiological conditions has been studied. Formation of silicon-structured hydroxyapatite with different extent of substitution of phosphate groups in the silicate group has been established through chemical and X-ray diffraction analyses, FTIR spectroscopy and optical microscopy. The results obtained are in agreement and suggest the possibility of substitution of phosphate groups for silicate groups in the hydroxyapatite structure when introducing different sources of silica, tetraethoxysilane and sodium silicate, in the reaction mixture. Growth in the amount of silicon in Si-HA results in the increase in the thermal stability of the samples. The greatest mass loss occurs at temperatures in the range of 25-400 °С that is caused by the removal of the crystallization and adsorption water and volatile impurities. It is shown that the modified apatites are of imperfect structure and crystallize in a nanocrystalline state

Towards a multisensor station for automated biodiversity monitoring

Rapid changes of the biosphere observed in recent years are caused by both small and large scale drivers, like shifts in temperature, transformations in land-use, or changes in the energy budget of systems. While the latter processes are easily quantifiable, documentation of the loss of biodiversity and community structure is more difficult. Changes in organismal abundance and diversity are barely documented. Censuses of species are usually fragmentary and inferred by often spatially, temporally and ecologically unsatisfactory simple species lists for individual study sites. Thus, detrimental global processes and their drivers often remain unrevealed. A major impediment to monitoring species diversity is the lack of human taxonomic expertise that is implicitly required for large-scale and fine-grained assessments. Another is the large amount of personnel and associated costs needed to cover large scales, or the inaccessibility of remote but nonetheless affected areas. To overcome these limitations we propose a network of Automated Multisensor stations for Monitoring of species Diversity (AMMODs) to pave the way for a new generation of biodiversity assessment centers. This network combines cutting-edge technologies with biodiversity informatics and expert systems that conserve expert knowledge. Each AMMOD station combines autonomous samplers for insects, pollen and spores, audio recorders for vocalizing animals, sensors for volatile organic compounds emitted by plants (pVOCs) and camera traps for mammals and small invertebrates. AMMODs are largely self-containing and have the ability to pre-process data (e.g. for noise filtering) prior to transmission to receiver stations for storage, integration and analyses. Installation on sites that are difficult to access require a sophisticated and challenging system design with optimum balance between power requirements, bandwidth for data transmission, required service, and operation under all environmental conditions for years. An important prerequisite for automated species identification are databases of DNA barcodes, animal sounds, for pVOCs, and images used as training data for automated species identification. AMMOD stations thus become a key component to advance the field of biodiversity monitoring for research and policy by delivering biodiversity data at an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. (C) 2022 Published by Elsevier GmbH on behalf of Gesellschaft fur Okologie

Robust grasping under object pose uncertainty

This paper presents a decision-theoretic approach to problems that require accurate placement of a robot relative to an object of known shape, such as grasping for assembly or tool use. The decision process is applied to a robot hand with tactile sensors, to localize the object on a table and ultimately achieve a target placement by selecting among a parameterized set of grasping and information-gathering trajectories. The process is demonstrated in simulation and on a real robot. This work has been previously presented in Hsiao et al. (Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR), 2008; Robotics Science and Systems (RSS), 2010) and Hsiao (Relatively robust grasping, Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009).National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0712012

Лингвистическая ратификация и оценка психометрических свойств русскоязычной версии специализированного вопросника FLIP для оценки качества жизни членов семьи ребенка с пищевой аллергией: первые результаты

Background: Assessment of quality of life of a food-allergic child’s family members requires developing special instruments or adapting the existing ones. Objective: The study was aimed at developing a specialized questionnaire “The Food hypersensitivity family ImPact“ (FLIP) in Russian for assessing quality of life a food-allergic child’s family members and evaluating its psychometric properties. Methods: Linguistic and cultural adaptation of the FLIP questionnaire in Russia involving parents/legal representatives of children with food allergies was performed prospectively. We confirmed reliability and constructive validity of the questionnaire in Russian. Results: Polling involved parents/legal representatives of 131 children with food allergies aged 1–18 months. Results of evaluation of the questionnaire’s psychometric properties demonstrated an average level of internal consistency of the questionnaire (Cronbach’s > 0.72 in different age groups). The questionnaire evaluation results depend on the degree of manifestation of disease symptoms (p = 0.033), pharmacotherapy duration (p = 0.033), breastfeeding for 6 months or more (p = 0.033), time or diet broadening and strictness of elimination diet observation (p = 0.033), number of foods eliminated from the diet (p = 0.010) and number of diagnostic events (p = 0.033). Conclusion: The FLIP questionnaire in Russian was developed; it underwent assessment of psychometric properties. We demonstrated dependence of quality of life of food-allergic children’s family members on disease characteristics and therapy effectiveness. Оценка качества жизни членов семьи ребенка с пищевой аллергией требует разработки специальных инструментов или адаптации уже существующих. Цель исследования: разработать русскоязычную версию специализированного вопросника The Food hypersensitivity famiLy ImPact (FLIP) для оценки качества жизни членов семей ребенка с пищевой аллергией и оценить его психометрические свойства. Методы: в проспективном исследовании проведена языковая и культуральная адаптация русскоязычной версии вопросника FLIP с участием родителей/законных представителей детей с пищевой аллергией. Определены надежность и конструктивная валидность русскоязычной версии вопросника. Результаты: в анкетировании приняли участие родители/законные представители 131 ребенка с пищевой аллергией в возрасте 1–18 мес. По результатам исследования психометрических свойств вопросника продемонстрирован средний уровень внутреннего постоянства вопросника (ά-коэффициент Кронбаха > 0,72 в разных возрастных группах). Значения вопросника оказались зависимыми от степени выраженности проявлений болезни (p = 0,033), длительности фармакотерапии (p = 0,033), наличия грудного вскармливания не менее 6 мес (p = 0,033), сроков расширения рациона и строгости соблюдения элиминационной диеты (p = 0,033), числа продуктов, исключаемых из питания (p = 0,010), числа диагностических мероприятий (p = 0,033). Заключение: разработана русскоязычная версия вопросника FLIP, и оценены его психометрические свойства. Показана зависимость качества жизни членов семьи детей с пищевой аллергией от характеристик болезни и эффективности терапии.

Graft Polymerization of Stearyl Methacrylate on PET Track-Etched Membranes for Oil–Water Separation

In this article, results of PET track-etched membranes (PET TeMs) hydrophobized by photo-induced graft polymerization of stearyl methacrylate (SM) inside the pores were presented. The effects of monomer concentration, time of irradiation and the nature of the solvent on the degree of grafting and membrane morphology were investigated. The PET TeMs with pore diameters ranging from 350 nm (pore density of 1 × 108 pore/cm2) to 3.05 µm (pore density of 1 × 106 pore/cm2) were hydrophobized and tested for oil–water separation by using hexadecane–water and chloroform–water emulsions. Studies have shown high separation performance for membranes (up to 1100 mL/m2·s) with large pore diameters while achieving a high degree of purification. © 2022 by the authors.Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research, BRFFR: F20MS-025; Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan: AP09057934This research was funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AP09057934) and the grant of the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research (BRFFR) No. F20MS-025 of 04.06.2020

The Meissl scheme for the geodetic ellipsoid

We present a variant of the Meissl scheme to relate surface spherical harmonic coefficients of the disturbing potential of the Earth's gravity field on the surface of the geodetic ellipsoid to surface spherical harmonic coefficients of its first- and second-order normal derivatives on the same or any other ellipsoid. It extends the original (spherical) Meissl scheme, which only holds for harmonic coefficients computed from geodetic data on a sphere. In our scheme, a vector of solid spherical harmonic coefficients of one quantity is transformed into spherical harmonic coefficients of another quantity by pre-multiplication with a transformation matrix. This matrix is diagonal for transformations between spheres, but block-diagonal for transformations involving the ellipsoid. The computation of the transformation matrix involves an inversion if the original coefficients are defined on the ellipsoid. This inversion can be performed accurately and efficiently (i.e., without regularisation) for transformation among different gravity field quantities on the same ellipsoid, due to diagonal dominance of the matrices. However, transformations from the ellipsoid to another surface can only be performed accurately and efficiently for coefficients up to degree and order 520 due to numerical instabilities in the inversion

Сложная астма

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Генетические маркеры бронхиальной астмы у детей, больных атопическим дерматитом

The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of the -703С/Т polymorphism in IL-5 gene, Q551R polymorphism in IL-4RA gene, and GSTM1 and GSTТ1 gene polymorphism as biological markers of bronchial asthma (BA) in children with atopic dermatitis (AD). We genotyped children with AD (n = 72; mean age, 9.4 ± 0.28 years), children with AD in combination with BA (n = 68; mean age, 7.5 ± 0.7 years) and control subjects (n = 147; mean age, 9.9 ± 0.42 years). We found the associations between BA and the -703С allele of the interleukin-5 (IL-5) gene (OR = 1.73, p = 0.013) and -703СС / 551RR genotype combination (OR = 3.15; p = 0.015) in children with AD; between the 551RR genotype of the IL-4RA gene and atopy (p < 0.05). -703CT / GSТТ1 0/0 genotype combination was found rarer in children with BA than in controls (OR = 0.15; p = 0.049). Thus, -703С/Т allele of the IL-5 gene and -703СС / 551RR genotype combination were associated with BA and could be used as valuable markers of the disease in children with AD, whereas the Q551R polymorphism in the IL-4RA gene was associated with predisposition to atopic disease and could be used for administration of preventive therapy of allergic disorder in early childhood. The -703CT / GSТТ1 0/0 genotype combination can prevent BA occurrence in children with AD.Цель работы — установить значение полиморфизмов -703С/Т гена IL-5, 551Q/R гена IL4RA, генов биотрансформации ксенобиотиков (GSTM1, GSTТ1), а также комбинации изучаемых генотипов в формировании подверженности к бронхиальной астме (БА) у детей, страдающих атопическим дерматитом (АД). В исследовании использовалось генотипирование по полиморфизмам -703С/Т гена интерлейкина-5 (IL-5), 551Q/R гена IL4RA, глутатион S-трансфераз Мl (GSTM1) и GSTТ1 в группах пациентов с АД (n = 72; средний возраст 9,4 ± 0,28 года), больных БА в сочетании с АД (n = 68; средний возраст 7,5 ± 0,7 года) и в контрольной выборке (n =147; средний возраст 9,9 ± 0,42 года). Установлена рисковая значимость аллеля -703С гена IL-5 и комбинации генотипов -703СС / 551RR в отношении БА у детей с АД (OR = 1,73 при p = 0,013 и OR = 3,15 при p = 0,015 соответственно). Генотип 551RR гена IL4RA связан с подверженностью развитию аллергических заболеваний у детей (p < 0,05). Комбинация генотипов -703CT / GSТТ1 0/0 реже встречалась у больных БА в сравнении с контролем (OR = 0,15; p = 0,049). Аллель -703С гена IL-5 и комбинации генотипов -703СС / 551RR генов IL-5 и IL4RA ассоциированы с развитием БА у больных АД, а генотип 551RR гена IL4RA — с подверженностью аллергической патологии в детском возрасте, что может иметь значение для обоснованного назначения мероприятий первичной профилактики. Сочетание генотипов -703CT / GSТТ1 0/0 имеет протективное значение в развитии БА