Markovian city-scale modelling and mitigation of micro-particles from tires

The recent uptake in popularity in vehicles with zero tailpipe emissions is a welcome development in the fight against traffic induced airborne pollutants. As vehicle fleets become electrified, and tailpipe emissions become less prevalent, non-tailpipe emissions (from tires and brake disks) will become the dominant source of traffic related emissions, and will in all likelihood become a major concern for human health. This trend is likely to be exacerbated by the heavier weight of electric vehicles, their increased power, and their increased torque capabilities, when compared with traditional vehicles. While the problem of emissions from tire wear is well-known, issues around the process of tire abrasion, its impact on the environment, and modelling and mitigation measures, remain relatively unexplored. Work on this topic has proceeded in several discrete directions including: On-vehicle collection methods; vehicle tire-wear abatement algorithms and controlling the ride characteristics of a vehicle, all with a view to abating tire emissions. Additional approaches include access control mechanisms to manage aggregate tire emissions in a geofenced area with other notable work focussing on understanding the particle size distribution of tire generated PM, the degree to which particles become airborne, and the health impacts of tire emissions. While such efforts are already underway, the problem of developing models to predict the aggregate picture of a network of vehicles at the scale of a city, has yet to be considered. Our objective in this paper is to present one such model, built using ideas from Markov chains. Applications of our modelling approach are given toward the end of this note, both to illustrate the utility of the proposed method, and to illustrate its application as part of a method to collect tire dust particles

The value of vitamin D for the health of perimenopausal women

In recent years, there have been reports of the effect of vitamin D on the intensity of early manifestations of menopausal syndrome (hot flushes, mood instability and symptoms of depression, sleep disorders) in perimenopausal women. This review of Russian and foreign literature presents the latest data on the role of vitamin D in maintaining the physical and emotional health of women during this period of life. According to the results of the study, it was found that vitamin D significantly reduces the intensity of early manifestations of climacteric syndrome in perimenopausal women. Prevention of vitamin D deficiency has a positive effect on the health of women in perimenopause, reducing the severity of manifestations of menopausal syndrome.On the basis of the studied literature data it is shown that the effect of calciferol on serotonin metabolism is similar to the effect of serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which are used in therapy of fever episodes.Inclusion of vitamin D (if there is a deficiency of it) in the complex therapy helps to cope with depression and insomnia. A normal supply of vitamin D provides maintenance of an optimal concentration of intracellular calcium in nerve cells, which reduces the likelihood of depression. During the perimenopause, in addition to the normalization of physical health, it is necessary to maintain its mental component. It has been proven that taking vitamin D in addition to menopausal hormonal therapy can quickly improve the emotional background, sexual function and quality of life. But still, there are cases when taking vitamin D does not cause positive changes. Most often, this is due to polymorphism of vitamin D receptors. The problem needs further study, as there is no clearly formulated treatment tactics in such situations

Spatial positioning token (SPToken) for smart mobility

We introduce a permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) design for crowdsourced smart mobility applications. This architecture is based on a directed acyclic graph architecture (similar to the IOTA tangle) and uses both Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Position mechanisms to provide protection against spam attacks and malevolent actors. In addition to enabling individuals to retain ownership of their data and to monetize it, the architecture is also suitable for distributed privacy-preserving machine learning algorithms, is lightweight, and can be implemented in simple internet-of-things (IoT) devices. To demonstrate its efficacy, we apply this framework to reinforcement learning settings where a third party is interested in acquiring information from agents. In particular, one may be interested in sampling an unknown vehicular traffic flow in a city, using a DLT-type architecture and without perturbing the density, with the idea of realizing a set of virtual tokens as surrogates of real vehicles to explore geographical areas of interest. These tokens, whose authenticated position determines write access to the ledger, are thus used to emulate the probing actions of commanded (real) vehicles on a given planned route by ``jumping'' from a passing-by vehicle to another to complete the planned trajectory. Consequently, the environment stays unaffected (i.e., the autonomy of participating vehicles is not influenced by the algorithm), regardless of the number of emitted tokens. The design of such a DLT architecture is presented, and numerical results from large-scale simulations are provided to validate the proposed approach

Disorders of sexual function in postmenopausal patients

Introduction. Research in recent years has shown that sexual dysfunction is now common in post-menopausal women and that it has a significant impact on their quality of life.Aim: to identify the major causes of sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women and their treatment options, by analysing different literature sources.Materials and methods. During the study of this problem, 25 sources of literature, both Russian and foreign, dating from 2007 to 2020 were analysed.Results and discussion. The main etiological aspects of sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women, such as disorders of sexual desire, sexual pain disorders, orgasmic disorders are considered in this article. The role of physiological processes occurring in a woman’s organism during this age period in the formation of sexual dysfunction is presented, namely, the influence of insufficiency of sex hormones (In particular, estrogens) and genitourinary syndrome on disorders of the sexual sphere.The main methods of treatment are described, including hormone replacement therapy, the use of non-invasive laser technology, and surgical correction of the dysfunction and atrophy of the pelvic floor muscles. Particular attention is paid to the use of the synthetic steroid tibolone and flibanserin, a drug used to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder, and the data concerning their high efficacy are presented.Conclusions. The predominant manifestation of sexual dysfunction are disorders of sexual desire and sexual pain disorders. Thus it is important to pay attention to this problem and to treat sexual dysfunction by treating its causes.Conclusion. The treatment of sexual dysfunction must address the causes. In many cases, psychotherapy is necessary. MHT has a positive effect on the sexual function of patients. Testosterone therapy is justified in this case, but is rarely used, as it has a number of side effects and contraindications. Synthetic steroids (Tibolone) have shown good results in the treatment of sexual dysfunction

Therapeutic approaches in the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis

According to world statistics, vulvovaginal candidiasis is a very common disease with a serious tendency to recurrence and chronic-ity, which makes it a fundamentally significant medical and social problem, the solution of which is becoming a priority task facing obstetricians and gynecologists. The attention of doctors should be focused on the search for optimal treatment regimens that meet all the requirements for therapeutic approaches, the introduction of which into clinical practice should lead to a significant decrease in the incidence of the disease and its chronicity in the population, and also on increase in the relapse interval, which will certainly be reflected in improving the quality of life of women. Analysis and comparison of the effectiveness of antifungal drugs on the modern pharmaceutical market, and the choice of the most effective and safe drug can be the key to success in combating the widespread prevalence of vulvovaginal candidiasis.The article presents the etiological aspects of vulvovaginal candidiasis, demonstrating an increase in the importance of Candida non-albicans in the pathogenesis of the disease, which is confirmed by high rates of disease prevalence, including chronic and recurrent forms. The mechanisms of vulvovaginal candidiasis development and diagnostic methods that allow to assess the state of vaginal microcenosis most adequately are considered. The negative impact of vulvovaginal candidiasis on the course of pregnancy and possible outcomes for both the mother and the fetus are also described. Special attention is paid to the ability of fungi of the genus Candida to form associations of microorganisms - biofilms, which create an obstacle to many antifungal drugs. The problem of resistance of Candida fungi to a number of antifungal drugs is highlighted. Data on the uniqueness of the composition and action of sertaconazole and the effectiveness of its use, which is confirmed by studies, including in a group of pregnant patients, are presented. The article analyses indicators of safety of sertaconazole and criteria of continuity