Program-modular approach to the coordination of interests of participants of regional water markets (the case of southern regions of Russia)

Relevance. The efficiency of water management is determined by the quality of managerial decision-making. These decisions should ensure the balance of interests of all the actors in regional water markets. At present, in Russia, however, the balance of interests is considered only in macro-level strategies, which leads to the inefficiency of water distribution in regions. The study of the issues of rational distribution of water resources and their use in various industries and spheres of activity is, therefore, particularly relevant.Research objective. This article aims to propose methodology for maintaining the optimal balance between the interests of economic actors in regional water markets.Data and methods. This article proposes a program-modular approach to building a more efficient water management system. It is shown how the proposed methodology based on the incremental model of management can be used for balancing the interests of economic agents (suppliers and consumers of water resources). Results. It is proved that the plurality and divergence of interests of economic agents makes it difficult to manage them and thus precludes social and economic development of territories. The structural-functional analysis of the incremental model reveals various types of connections between the water-retaining capacity of gross regional product and indexes of industrial production for regions of the South Federal District.Conclusions. The prospects of development of water management in regions are associated with ensuring the balance of interests of the water market’s participants. The program-modular approach proposed by the authors combines the administrative and resource potential of regional water management and aligns the goals on the regional level with the more general goals of hydropower modernization. The novelty of our research is that it relies on the incremental model, which, unlike other models of management, leads to an incremental achievement of the desired through certain iterations

The effects of prolonged oral administration of gold nanoparticles on the morphology of hematopoietic and lymphoid organs

Currently, the usage of gold nanoparticles as photosensitizers and immunomodulators for plasmonic photothermal therapy has attracted a great attention of researches and end-users. In our work, the influence of prolonged peroral administration of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with different sizes on the morphological changes of hematopoietic and lymphoid organs was investigated. The 24 white outbred male rats weighing 180-220 g were randomly divided into groups and administered orally for 30 days the suspension of gold nanospheres with diameters of 2, 15 and 50 nm at a dosage of 190 μg/kg of animal body weight. To prevent GNPs aggregation in a tissue and enhance biocompatibility, they were functionalized with thiolated polyethylene glycol. The withdrawal of the animals from the experiment and sampling of spleen, lymph nodes and bone marrow tissues for morphological study were performed a day after the last administration. In the spleen the boundary between the red and white pulp was not clearly differ in all experimental groups, lymphoid follicles were significantly increased in size, containing bright germinative centers represented by large blast cells. The stimulation of lymphocyte and myelocytic series of hematopoiesis was recorded at morphological study of the bone marrow. The number of immunoblasts and large lymphocytes was increased in all structural zones of lymph nodes. The more pronounced changes were found in the group with administration of 15 nm nanoparticles. Thus, the morphological changes of cellular components of hematopoietic organs have size-dependent character and indicate the activation of the migration, proliferation and differentiation of immune cells after prolonged oral administration of GNPs

The Case of Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (Abt-Letterer-Siwe Disease) in Twin Girls

Abt-Letterer-Siwe disease is a form of Langerhans cell histiocytosis and occurs in 2–10 cases per 1 million of the child population per year. The Russian and foreign literature provide descriptions of this disease in children of different ages. Family cases of this pathology are described in a small number. The chapter presents a rare clinical observation of the Abt-Letterer-Siwe disease in twin girls

Identification of regions in multiple sequence alignments thermodynamically suitable for targeting by consensus oligonucleotides: application to HIV genome

BACKGROUND: Computer programs for the generation of multiple sequence alignments such as "Clustal W" allow detection of regions that are most conserved among many sequence variants. However, even for regions that are equally conserved, their potential utility as hybridization targets varies. Mismatches in sequence variants are more disruptive in some duplexes than in others. Additionally, the propensity for self-interactions amongst oligonucleotides targeting conserved regions differs and the structure of target regions themselves can also influence hybridization efficiency. There is a need to develop software that will employ thermodynamic selection criteria for finding optimal hybridization targets in related sequences. RESULTS: A new scheme and new software for optimal detection of oligonucleotide hybridization targets common to families of aligned sequences is suggested and applied to aligned sequence variants of the complete HIV-1 genome. The scheme employs sequential filtering procedures with experimentally determined thermodynamic cut off points: 1) creation of a consensus sequence of RNA or DNA from aligned sequence variants with specification of the lengths of fragments to be used as oligonucleotide targets in the analyses; 2) selection of DNA oligonucleotides that have pairing potential, greater than a defined threshold, with all variants of aligned RNA sequences; 3) elimination of DNA oligonucleotides that have self-pairing potentials for intra- and inter-molecular interactions greater than defined thresholds. This scheme has been applied to the HIV-1 genome with experimentally determined thermodynamic cut off points. Theoretically optimal RNA target regions for consensus oligonucleotides were found. They can be further used for improvement of oligo-probe based HIV detection techniques. CONCLUSIONS: A selection scheme with thermodynamic thresholds and software is presented in this study. The package can be used for any purpose where there is a need to design optimal consensus oligonucleotides capable of interacting efficiently with hybridization targets common to families of aligned RNA or DNA sequences. Our thermodynamic approach can be helpful in designing consensus oligonucleotides with consistently high affinity to target variants in evolutionary related genes or genomes

Exploring van der Waals materials with high anisotropy: geometrical and optical approaches

The emergence of van der Waals (vdW) materials resulted in the discovery of their giant optical, mechanical, and electronic anisotropic properties, immediately enabling countless novel phenomena and applications. Such success inspired an intensive search for the highest possible anisotropic properties among vdW materials. Furthermore, the identification of the most promising among the huge family of vdW materials is a challenging quest requiring innovative approaches. Here, we suggest an easy-to-use method for such a survey based on the crystallographic geometrical perspective of vdW materials followed by their optical characterization. Using our approach, we found As2S3 as a highly anisotropic vdW material. It demonstrates rare giant in-plane optical anisotropy, high refractive index and transparency in the visible range, overcoming the century-long record set by rutile. Given these benefits, As2S3 opens a pathway towards next-generation nanophotonics as demonstrated by an ultrathin true zero-order quarter-waveplate that combines classical and the Fabry-Perot optical phase accumulations. Hence, our approach provides an effective and easy-to-use method to find vdW materials with the utmost anisotropic properties.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Twist-tunable polaritonic nanoresonators in a van der Waals crystal

Optical nanoresonators are key building blocks in various nanotechnological applications (e.g., spectroscopy) due to their ability to effectively confine light at the nanoscale. Recently, nanoresonators based on phonon polaritons (PhPs)—light coupled to lattice vibrations—in polar crystals (e.g., SiC, or h-BN) have attracted much attention due to their strong field confinement, high quality factors, and their potential to enhance the photonic density of states at mid-infrared (mid-IR) frequencies, where numerous molecular vibrations reside. Here, we introduce a new class of mid-IR nanoresonators that not only exhibit the extraordinary properties previously reported, but also incorporate a new degree of freedom: twist tuning, i.e., the possibility of controlling their spectral response by simply rotating the constituent material. To achieve this result, we place a pristine slab of the van der Waals (vdW) α-MoO3 crystal, which supports in-plane hyperbolic PhPs, on an array of metallic ribbons. This sample design based on electromagnetic engineering, not only allows the definition of α-MoO3 nanoresonators with low losses (quality factors, Q, up to 200), but also enables a broad spectral tuning of the polaritonic resonances (up to 32 cm−1, i.e., up to ~6 times their full width at half maximum, FWHM ~5 cm−1) by a simple in-plane rotation of the same slab (from 0 to 45°). These results open the door to the development of tunable and low-loss IR nanotechnologies, fundamental requirements for their implementation in molecular sensing, emission or photodetection applications.A.I.F.T.-M. and J.T.-G. acknowledge support through the Severo Ochoa program from the Government of the Principality of Asturias (nos. PA-21-PF-BP20-117 and PA-18-PF-BP17-126, respectively). J.M.-S. acknowledges financial support from the Ramón y Cajal Program of the Government of Spain and FSE (RYC2018-026196-I), and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation grant number PID2019-110308GA-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). P.A.-G. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under starting grant no. 715496, 2DNANOPTICA and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation grant number PID2019-111156GB-I00). A.Y.N. acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grants MAT201788358-C3-3-R and PID2020-115221GB-C42) and the Basque Department of Education (grant PIBA-2020-1-0014). This project has been supported by Asturias FICYT under grant AYUD/2021/51185 with the support of FEDER funds. This work is produced with the support of a 2022 Leonardo Grant for Researchers in Physics, BBVA Foundation.Peer reviewe

Влияние степени окисления и распределения частиц рутения на гидрирование левулиновой кислоты в присутствии Ru-содержащих катализаторов на основе цеолитов

The paper presents data on the synthesis of ruthenium catalysts based on the zeolites HBeta, HΥ, HMordenite and HZSM‑5 and their testing in the hydrogenation reaction of levulinic acid to gamma- valerolactone in an aqueous medium at a temperature of 100 oC and partial hydrogen pressure of 1 MPa. For the initial zeolites and synthesized catalysts, physicochemical study was carried out using low- temperature nitrogen physisorption, XPS, DRIFT spectroscopy using CD3CN as a probe molecule, and electron microscopy. The dependence of the activity of Ru/zeolite composites on the surface content of RuO2 was establishedВ работе представлены данные по синтезу рутениевых катализаторов на основе цеолитов HBeta, HΥ, HMordenite и HZSM‑5 и их тестированию в реакции гидрирования левулиновой кислоты до гамма-валеролактона в водной среде при температуре 100 о С и парциальном давлении водорода 1 МПа. Для исходных цеолитов и катализаторов на их основе проведено физико-химическое исследование методами низкотемпературной адсорбции азота, РФЭС, ИК‑спектроскопии с адсорбцией CD3CN, а также электронной микроскопии. Установлена зависимость активности композитов Ru/цеолит от поверхностного содержания RuO

Optimized models for design of efficient miR30-based shRNAs

Small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) became an important research tool in cell biology. Reliable design of these molecules is essential for the needs of large functional genomics projects. To optimize the design of efficient shRNAs, we performed comparative, thermodynamic and correlation analyses of ~18,000 miR30-based shRNAs with known functional efficiencies, derived from the Sensor Assay project (Fellmann et al., 2011). We identified features of the shRNA guide strand that significantly correlate with the silencing efficiency and performed multiple regression analysis, using 4/5 of the data for training purposes and 1/5 for cross validation. A model that included the position-dependent nucleotide preferences was predictive in the cross-validation data subset (R = 0.39). However, a model, which in addition to the nucleotide preferences included thermodynamic shRNA features such as a thermodynamic duplex stability and position-dependent thermodynamic profile (dinucleotide free energy) was performing better (R = 0.53). Software miR_Scan was developed based upon the optimized models. Calculated mRNA target secondary structure stability showed correlation with shRNA silencing efficiency but failed to improve the model. Correlation analysis demonstrates that our algorithm for identification of efficient miR30 based shRNA molecules performs better than approaches that were developed for design of chemically synthesized siRNAs (Rmax = 0.36)

Prospects for Using Expression Patterns of Paramyxovirus Receptors as Biomarkers for Oncolytic Virotherapy

The effectiveness of oncolytic virotherapy in cancer treatment depends on several factors, including successful virus delivery to the tumor, ability of the virus to enter the target malignant cell, virus replication, and the release of progeny virions from infected cells. The multi-stage process is influenced by the efficiency with which the virus enters host cells via specific receptors. This review describes natural and artificial receptors for two oncolytic paramyxoviruses, nonpathogenic measles, and Sendai viruses. Cell entry receptors are proteins for measles virus (MV) and sialylated glycans (sialylated glycoproteins or glycolipids/gangliosides) for Sendai virus (SeV). Accumulated published data reviewed here show different levels of expression of cell surface receptors for both viruses in different malignancies. Patients whose tumor cells have low or no expression of receptors for a specific oncolytic virus cannot be successfully treated with the virus. Recent published studies have revealed that an expression signature for immune genes is another important factor that determines the vulnerability of tumor cells to viral infection. In the future, a combination of expression signatures of immune and receptor genes could be used to find a set of oncolytic viruses that are more effective for specific malignancies