The role of personalized medicine in evaluating the effectiveness of leprosy treatment

Objective. To develop the method for determining the viability of M. leprae using polymerase chain reaction to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Materials and Methods. 54 scarifications and 10 biopsies of the skin of patients with leprosy were studied. Ribosomal 16S rRNA genes were used as a target. Results. The high sensitivity and specificity of the developed real-time reverse transcription PCR method was established. M. leprae were detected on average 2 times more often by RT-PCR compared with the bacterioscopy method both before treatment and after its six-month course (p < 0.05). Conclusions. The developed method for determining the viability of M.leprae using reverse transcription PCR allows using a personalized approach to evaluating the effectiveness of antimycobacterial treatment in patients with leprosy

NEW BIOTESTING METHOD WITH THE APPLICATION OF MODERN IMPEDANCE TECHNOLOGIES

The paper deals with new concepts of biotesting method updating. Modern conductometric technologies and the analysis of microbial «growth curves» are used. The registration occurs in a real time mode for the set of parallel samples. Results are shown for comparison of the proposed impedance biotesting technique with standard cultural determination method for total amount of microorganismes in the tested samples. Results are presented for practical application of the proposed impedance biotesting technique to the analysis as inhibitory action of clorhexidine disinfectant on the vital activity of Escherichia coli, as milk ripening process at the presence of various microorganisms species and protein preparations. The impedance biotesting method, proposed in the present work, provides high level of its own data convergence with the data, being received as a result of application of standard cultural biotesting techniques. Thus, the proposed method has such advantages, as: an opportunity of the detailed information reception about dynamics change of magnitude of population and intensity of test microorganisms metabolism, significant reduction of the culture media amount used, as well as researcher's temporary and labor efforts while the analyses realization, and the growth of analysis objectivity

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the parameters of reagent-free electrolysis wastewater treatment from nitrogen-containing compounds

The relevance of wastewater treatment from nitrogen-containing compounds, including using stationary and non-stationary electrolysis processes, is analyzed. A design has been developed, a reagentless electrochemical water treatment module has been manufactured and tested in the conditions of real production of hydrobionts. The results of the study of the influence of the power supply modes of the electrolysis unit on the reduction of ammonium nitrogen, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates from the recycled solution of the industrial aquaculture plant are presented. The results of the study showed that when using stationary and non-stationary electrolysis modes, the conversion processes of nitrogen-containing compounds are generally performed according to the classical algorithm: increasing the concentration of compounds along the chain "ammonium nitrogen → nitrites → nitrates", and the use of non-stationary electrolysis to remove nitrogen-containing compounds from the solution for growing hydrobionts is more effective. The analysis of the results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach and the possibility of scaling the results to municipal and industrial facilities. The advantages of the proposed method are: non-reactivity, mobility, the possibility of automating the process.Проанализирована актуальность очистки сточных вод от азотсодержащих соединений, в том числе с использованием процессов стационарного и нестационарного электролиза. Разработана конструкция, изготовлен и испытан в условиях реального производства гидробионтов безреагентный электрохимический модуль водообработки. Приведены результаты исследования влияния режимов электропитания электролизного блока на редукцию азота аммонийного, аммиака, нитритов и нитратов из обо-ротного раствора установки индустриальной аквакультуры. Результаты исследования показали, что при использовании стационарного и нестационарного режима электролиза процессы преобразования азотсодержащих соединений в целом выполняются согласно классическому алгоритму: повышение концентрации соединений по цепочке «азот аммонийный → нитриты → нитраты», а применение нестационарного электролиза для удаления азотсодержащих соединений из раствора для выращивания гидробионтов более эффективно. Анализ полученных результатов продемонстрировал эффективность предлагаемого подхода и возможность масштабирования результатов на коммунально-промышленные объекты. Преимуществами предлагаемого метода являются: безреагентность, мобильность, возможность автоматизации процесса

The energy spectrum of tau leptons induced by the high energy Earth-skimming neutrinos

We present a semi-analytic calculation of the tau-lepton flux emerging from the Earth, induced by the incident high energy neutrinos interacting inside the Earth for $10^{5} \leq E_{\nu}/{\rm GeV} \leq 10^{10}$. We obtain results for the energy dependence of the tau-lepton flux coming from the Earth-skimming neutrinos, because of the neutrino-nucleon charged-current scattering as well as the resonant $\bar{\nu}_e e^-$ scattering. We illustrate our results for several anticipated high energy astrophysical neutrino sources such as the AGNs, the GRBs, and the GZK neutrino fluxes. The tau lepton fluxes resulting from rock-skimming and ocean-skimming neutrinos are compared. Such comparisons can render useful information for the spectral indices of incident neutrino fluxes.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure

Composition of Fluids Responsible for Gold Mineralization in the Pechenga Structure-Imandra-Varzuga Greenstone Belt, Kola Peninsula, Russia.

This study presents the first fluid inclusion data from quartz of albite–carbonate–quartz altered rocks and metasomatic quartzite hosting gold mineralization in the Pechenga structure of the Pechenga– Imandra–Varzuga greenstone belt. A temperature of 275–370°C, pressure of 1.2–4.5 kbar, and the fluid composition of gold-bearing fluid are estimated by microthermometry, Raman spectroscopy, and LA-ICP-MS of individual fluid inclusions, as well as by bulk chemical analyses of fluid inclusions. In particular, the Au and Ag concentrations have been determined in fluid inclusions. It is shown that albite–carbonate–quartz altered rocks and metasomatic quartzite interacted with fluids of similar chemical composition but under different physicochemical conditions. It is concluded that the gold-bearing fluid in the Pechenga structure is similar to that of orogenic gold deposits

Modal liquid crystal wavefront corrector

Results are presented of the properties of a liquid crystal wavefront corrector for adaptive optics. The device is controlled using modal addressing in which case the device behaves more like a continuous facesheet deformable mirror than a segmented one. Furthermore, the width and shape of the influence functions are electrically controllable. We describe the construction of the device, the optical properties, and we show experimental results of low order aberration generation