Enterosorption as a method to decrease the systemic toxicity of cisplatin

A perspective adsorptive method to minimize systemic toxic effects of chemotherapy is enterosorption (ES). However, the capabilities of this method are far from being completely studied. The question remains opened — should ES be initiated in the first hours on completing cytostatic infusion without the risk of their anticancer activity to be decreased. Aim: to analyze ES influence on anticancer activity and toxic reactions of cisplatin (CP) upon the use of carbon enterosorbent in 1 h after intravenous administration of cytostatic. Methods: CP at the dose of 1 mg/kg body weigh (BW) was administered to Guerin carcinoma-bearing rats each second day for two weeks. Enterosorbents on the basis of highly activated carbon fibers were administered by per os daily 1 h after CP injection. 3 days after the last CP administration the rats were weighted and blood under ether narcosis has been taken for biochemical examination. Tumors and innate organs were isolated, weighted, and fixed in 4% buffered formalin for morphologic examination. Results: In rats administered with CP at the background of ES, BW loss was in 1.6 times lower than in animals after CP session. Relative kidney weight in CP-treated rats was 33.9% higher than in normal ones (p ≤ 0.05). No significant differences were detected between relative kidney weights in the CP + ES-treated and intact animals. Introduction of ES allowed prevent an 30% increase of creatinin content observed in blood plasma after CP treatment (р ≤ 0.05). Urea content was 1.7 times lower in blood plasma of CP + ES-treated rats than after CP treatment. CP caused significant toxic injuries in kidneys, liver, and spleen tissues. Morphologic structure of organs in rats treated with CP at the background of ES was affected at much lower degree. In tumors, large areas of newly formed connective tissue and blood vessels have been fixed after the CP+ES action instead of large necrotic area observed after CP treatment. ES caused insignificant suppression of Guerin carcinoma growth and had additional impact to inhibitory action of CP. Conclusion: Active carbon enterosorbents which are administrated just 1 h after CP administration possesses detoxicating potential sufficient for significant elimination of toxic effect of the cytostatic at the background of complete preservation of its antitumor activity

Surface albedo retrieval based on high spatial resolution data

The paper aims to compare the accuracy of three methods of solving the atmospheric correction problem for a Lambertian surface using high spatial resolution remotely sensed data. Three couples of formulas are presented. Each couple contains a formula for expressing the reflectance in a target pixel at the upper boundary of the atmosphere via albedo in target and adjacent pixels of the surface and a formula for the surface albedo in a target pixel via reflectances. The derivation of each couple of formulas is given. Derivation conditions are presented. Formulas of only one couple are found by solving the radiation transport equation in 1D geometry. Formulas of two other couples include values obtained by solving the transport equation in 3D geometry. Results of testing the accuracy of all formulas when solving an atmospheric correction problem on data of high (30 m) spatial resolution are given. Problems with aerosol optical depths from 0.2 to 2 for a wavelength of (lambda)=0.55(mu)m for all possible albedo values (from 0.1 to 0.9) in target and adjacent pixels are considered. It is shown that only one couple of formulas out of the three gives high accuracy under any condition. Formulas of the two other couples give sufficient accuracy (with less than 10 % error) only for a small value of the aerosol optical depth and a small difference of the albedo of the target and adjacent pixels

The Influence of Neighbouring Clouds on the Clear Sky Reflectance Studied with the 3-D Transport Code RADUGA

Operational remote sensing of terrestrial atmosphere is heavily based on the 1-D radiative transfer equation. However, cloudy scenes are influenced by 3-D effects (e.g., illumination from cloud sides, etc.). This leads to biases in aerosol/cloud/land/ocean retrieval schemes for scenes with clouds. These biases can be understood and quantified only with the use of the 3-D radiative transfer theory, which allows to account for arbitrary spatial variation of atmospheric parameters. The task of this paper is twofold. First of all we introduce a novel technique for the solution of the 3-D radiative transfer equation based on the grid approximations and the straightforward iteration procedure realised on supercomputers with parallel architecture. We study the performance of our technique comparing with the solutions obtained by the Monte-Carlo code. A close correspondence is found. Secondly, we quantify the influence of neighbouring clouds on the clear sky reflection function at the nadir observation depending on the solar illumination conditions. We find that the influence of cloud on the clear sky reflectance function is not negligible (even outside the cloud geometrical shadow). Thus, the peculiar inner boundary layer arises in the sky reflectance function with shadowing and brightening effects

Immunodetection of Two Curtoviruses Infecting Sugar Beet

Beet leafhopper-transmitted curly top virus is a serious problem in many different crops in the semiarid western U.S., including sugar beet, tomatoes and beans. Curly top is caused by a genetically diverse complex of phloem-limited curtoviruses. Due to the phloem restriction of curtoviruses and the lack of a convenient laboratory host-vector system for curly top virus propagation and purification, no commercial immunodetection tests are available for curtoviruses. Routine diagnostics for curly top relies either on visual symptoms or PCR tests. Lack of an ELISA test system is one of the factors hampering development and screening of the curly top resistant germplasm in, for instance, sugar beet and bean breeding programs. To fill in this gap, we developed an ELISA based detection system for curtoviruses which utilizes virus-specific antibodies generated against bacterially-expressed CP of Beet mild curly top virus. Bacterially-expressed CP was affinity purified and used as an antigen for antibody production in two animal species. Specificity of the resulting antisera was tested in Western blots and various triple-antibody sandwich (TAS)-ELISA formats with sugar beet, bean and Nicotiana benthamiana leaf tissue. We demonstrate reliable detection of two curtoviruses in different crops in TAS-ELISA format, suitable for large-scale screening of germplasm in breeding programs

Immunodetection of Two Curtoviruses Infecting Sugar Beet

Beet leafhopper-transmitted curly top virus is a serious problem in many different crops in the semiarid western U.S., including sugar beet, tomatoes and beans. Curly top is caused by a genetically diverse complex of phloem-limited curtoviruses. Due to the phloem restriction of curtoviruses and the lack of a convenient laboratory host-vector system for curly top virus propagation and purification, no commercial immunodetection tests are available for curtoviruses. Routine diagnostics for curly top relies either on visual symptoms or PCR tests. Lack of an ELISA test system is one of the factors hampering development and screening of the curly top resistant germplasm in, for instance, sugar beet and bean breeding programs. To fill in this gap, we developed an ELISA based detection system for curtoviruses which utilizes virus-specific antibodies generated against bacterially-expressed CP of Beet mild curly top virus. Bacterially-expressed CP was affinity purified and used as an antigen for antibody production in two animal species. Specificity of the resulting antisera was tested in Western blots and various triple-antibody sandwich (TAS)-ELISA formats with sugar beet, bean and Nicotiana benthamiana leaf tissue. We demonstrate reliable detection of two curtoviruses in different crops in TAS-ELISA format, suitable for large-scale screening of germplasm in breeding programs

Consistent P1Synthetic Acceleration of Inner Transport Iterations in 3D Geometry

Abstract: For the KP1iterative transport method the production procedure of its “P1” step consistent with an arbitrary spatial approximation of the SN transport equation in 3D Cartesian geometry is presented. The procedure is applied to the nodal schemes approximating the within-group SNtransport equation on the unstructured tetrahedral mesh. Produced P1synthetic accelerations are experimentally shown to be numerically effective on several model problems.Note: Research direction:Mathematical modelling in actual problems of science and technic

Counterpoints of modern phraseology. To the anniversary of Prof. V.M. Mokienko

The paper is timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the birth of Valery M. Mokienko, Doctor of Letters, Professor of Slavic Philology, Philology Department, St Petersburg State University, Honorary Chairman of the Phraseological Commission of the International Committee of Slavists. The paper reviews focal areas of the scholar’s research, lists his academic interests, the main of those being phraseology and phraseography. V.M. Mokienko proposed to detect dynamic interactions of contradictory properties of the phraseological system, to reveal the mechanism of phrase formation involving broad genetic and typological parallels to determine the nature of a phraseological unit. The method of structural and semantic modeling based on a detailed comparison of dialectal, Slavic and non-Slavic European idiomacy is the basis of modern theoretical and practical studies of the scientist’s followers. The trilogy of dictionaries edited by V.M. Mokienko distinguishes precise certification of units, references to synonymous turns, which makes it easier for the reader to navigate in the huge source material, outlines the parameters of the phraseological space close to the certified expression, and makes it possible to show the wealth of images of folk speech conveying the same semantics. © 2020 Bierich A., Lomakina O.V., Nikolaeva E.K., Seliverstova E.I., Stepanova L.I

Code RADUGA T for Simulating Neutrons Fluxes in Nuclear Power Stations

Николаева Ольга Васильевна, к.ф.-м.н., с.н.с., Институт прикладной математики им. М.В. Келдыша РАН (Москва, Российская Федерация). Гайфулин Сергей Андреевич, н.с., Институт прикладной математики им. М.В. Келдыша РАН (Москва, Российская Федерация). Басс Леонид Петрович, к.ф.-м.н., с.н.с., Институт прикладной математики им. М.В. Келдыша РАН (Москва, Российская Федерация). O.V. Nikolaeva, S.A. Gaifulin, L.P. Bass Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathamatics (Miusskaya Sq. 4, Moscow, 125047 Russia) E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]При проектировании и сопровождении эксплуатации ядерно-энергетических установок (ЯЭУ) необходимо выполнять моделирование в этих установках потоков нейтронов. При задании геометрии ЯЭУ необходимо учитывать границы разномасштабных конструктивных элементов, состоящих из материалов с существенно различными свойствами. Из-за больших размеров ЯЭУ для расчетов желательно использовать параллельные компьютеры. Для выполнения такого моделирования развиваются алгоритмы и программы численного решения краевой задачи для интегро-дифференциального уравнения переноса нейтронов на неструктурированных сетках. В статье приводится описание реализованных в программном комплексе РАДУГА-Т алгоритмов решения такой задачи. Представлены сетки, сеточные схемы, итерационные методы решения систем сеточных уравнений. Рассмотрены методы распараллеливания вычислений на гибридных компьютерах (используются технологии MPI и OpenMP). Представлены методы работы с пространственными сетками (построение, улучшение качества, декомпозиция, визуализация). Описаны особенности программной реализации. Проведено сравнение используемых в программном комплексе РАДУГА-Т алгоритмов с алгоритмами в других аналогичных программных комплексах. Приведены результаты исследования эффективности распараллеливания вычислений в задаче расчета коэффициента размножения нейтронов в модели легководного реактора. Исследования выполнены на многопроцессорном компьютере МВС-10П (МСЦ РАН). Приведены значения ускорения вычислений каждого из используемых в расчете алгоритмов и суммарного ускорения всего расчета. Design and operation of nuclear power stations (NPS) are followed by simulation of neutron propagation in these stations. It is necessary to consider borders of multi-scale structural elements consisting of different materials. It is desirable to use parallel computer because of big size of NPSs. To keep such conditions, algorithms and codes for solving the integro-differential transport equation on unstructured grids are being developed. In the paper such algorithms included into the code RADUGA T are outlined. Grids, grid schemes, iterative methods to solve grid equations are presented. Calculation parallelization methods for hybrid computers are considered, MPI and OpenMP techniques are used. Methods of building, improvement, decomposition and visuzlisation of spatial grids are considered. Software implementation is described. The algorithms of the code RADUGA T are compared with methods of other codes. Computation parallelization efficiency study results are presented. The problem of neutron multiplication factor calculation in a light-water reactor model is solved. The multi-processor computer MVS-10P of the Joint SuperComputernal Center is used. Acceleration of each algorithm being used and summary acceleration are given

Serological properties of ordinary and necrotic isolates of Potato virus Y: a case study of PVYN misidentification

In the course of a multi-year survey of Potato virus Y (PVY) incidence and diversity in the U.S. seed potato crop, an unusual PVY variant was identified in low but significant levels in multiple states. This variant, PVYO-O5, was initially detected by a commercially available PVYN-specific monoclonal antibody, 1F5. This antibody is widely used by U.S. Seed Certification programs to test for PVYN and is one of two antibodies designated by the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO) for pre-shipment testing of tuber lots that are to be transported between countries. Consequently, PVYN positives identified by the 1F5 antibody have triggered quarantine actions, prevented cross-border shipments and impacted trade. Here, we demonstrate by a variety of methods that the PVYO-O5 is a variant within the ordinary PVY strain (PVYO). Specifically, the PVYO-O5 variant likely arose due to a single amino acid substitution within the capsid protein. This variant does not induce vein necrosis in tobacco or tuber necrosis in susceptible varieties of potato. Furthermore, it is identified by RT-PCR based diagnostics as PVYO and it has a typical PVYO genome sequence. We demonstrate that another PVYN specific monoclonal antibody, SASA-N, recognizes an epitope distinct from that recognized by 1F5, and correctly identifies the PVYO-O5 variants as belonging to the PVYO serotype. Since the PVYO-O5 variant is present in many seed producing states and misidentification of PVYO-O5 as PVYN/NTN has clear quarantine implications for export shipments of potato, the limitations of the commercially available monoclonal antibodies should be considered in any certification or phytosanitary testing progra