DEGENERATE DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEMS WITH FRACTIONAL TIME DERIVATIVE

The existence of a unique strong solution for the Cauchy problem to semilinear nondegenerate fractional differential equation and for the generalized Showalter–Sidorov problem to semilinear fractional differential equation with degenerate operator at the Caputo derivative in Banach spaces is proved. These results are used for search of solution existence conditions for a class of optimal control problems to a system described by the degenerate semilinear fractional evolution equation. Abstract results are applied to the research of an optimal control problem solvability for the equations system of Kelvin–Voigt fractional viscoelastic fluids

Instructional design of foreign language blended courses

The article deals with different models of virtual environment integration in the educational process, including those in the National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University. The paper focuses on the motivational reflective model of electronic course design for foreign language teaching purposes. The authors describe the specifics of the five stages / structural elements of the model, evaluate evidence from experimental research, and offer a time-plan for foreign language five-stages-courses in blended learning

АКТУАЛЬНІ ПИТАННЯ СІМЕЙНО ОРІЄНТОВАНОГО ВИХОДЖУВАННЯ НЕДОНОШЕНИХ ДІТЕЙ.

Improved survival of children with low and very low birth weight forms the population of children who need special conditions of nursing to prevent the negative effects of immaturity, intensive care, prolonged hospital stay. Family-oriented medical care to reduce risks "uncomfortable" conditions of the intensive nursing determines the importance of the family in the treatment of the child, provides the necessary skills for future care of them, forms of partnership between parents and health care worker. Actual survey mothers, who provided care for premature infants in the department of nursing preterm babies, allowed us to estimate willingness to care for a premature baby, the ability to master the skills, readiness for discharge from the hospital, and self-care at home. Than before the mother / family have the opportunity to be near the child take part in the care, feeding, discuss diagnostic and therapeutic procedures with the doctor, than higher their level of psychological comfort, higher degree of confidence to health workers, a lot of confidence in a positive outcome.Улучшение выживаемости детей с низкой и очень низкой массой тела формирует популяцию детей, которым необходимы особые условия выхаживания для предупреждения негативных последствий незрелости, интенсивного лечения, длительного пребывания в больнице. Семейно ориентированная медицинская помощь позволяет снизить риски «некомфортных» условий отделений интенсивного выхаживания, определяет важную роль семьи в лечении ребенка, позволяет овладеть необходимыми навыками для дальнейшего ухода за ним, сформировать партнерские взаимоотношения между родителями и медицинскими работниками. Анкетирование матерей, которые осуществляли уход за недоношенными младенцами в отделении выхаживания недоношенных, позволило оценить их желание ухаживать за своим недоношенным ребенком, возможность овладения навиками, готовность к выписке и самостоятельному уходу в домашних условиях. Чем раньше мать/семья имеют возможность находиться возле ребенка, принимать участие в уходе, кормлении, обсуждать диагностические и лечебные процедуры с врачом, тем выше уровень их психологического комфорта, степень доверия к медицинским работникам, большая уверенность в позитивных результатах. Поліпшення виживання дітей з малою та дуже малою масою тіла формує популяцію немовлят, яким необхідні особливі умови виходжування з метою запобігання негативним наслідкам незрілості, інтенсивного лікування, тривалого перебування в лікарні. Сімейно орієнтована медична допомога дозволяє знизити ризики «некомфортних» умов відділень інтенсивного виходжування, надає можливість сім'ї відчути її важливу роль у лікуванні немовляти, дозволяє оволодіти необхідними навичками для подальшого догляду за ним, сформувати партнерські взаємовідносини між членами родини та медичними працівниками. Анкетування матерів, які здійснювали догляд за недоношеними немовлятами у відділенні виходжування недоношених, дозволило оцінити їх бажання доглядати за своєю недоношеною дитиною, можливість оволодіння навичками, готовність до виписування та самостійного догляду в домашніх умовах. Чим раніше мати/ родина мають можливість бути біля дитини, брати участь у виходжуванні, вигодовуванні, обговорювати діагностичні та лікувальні процедури з лікарем, тим вищі рівень їх психологічного комфорту, ступінь довіри до медичних працівників, більша впевненість у позитивних результатах

Genomic and phenotypic analysis of Vavilov's historic landraces reveals the impact of environment and genomic islands of agronomic traits.

The Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR), in St. Petersburg, Russia, houses a unique genebank, with historical collections of landraces. When they were collected, the geographical distribution and genetic diversity of most crops closely reflected their historical patterns of cultivation established over the preceding millennia. We employed a combination of genomics, computational biology and phenotyping to characterize VIR's 147 chickpea accessions from Turkey and Ethiopia, representing chickpea's center of origin and a major location of secondary diversity. Genotyping by sequencing identified 14,059 segregating polymorphisms and genome-wide association studies revealed 28 GWAS hits in potential candidate genes likely to affect traits of agricultural importance. The proportion of polymorphisms shared among accessions is a strong predictor of phenotypic resemblance, and of environmental similarity between historical sampling sites. We found that 20 out of 28 polymorphisms, associated with multiple traits, including days to maturity, plant phenology, and yield-related traits such as pod number, localized to chromosome 4. We hypothesize that selection and introgression via inadvertent hybridization between more and less advanced morphotypes might have resulted in agricultural improvement genes being aggregated to genomic 'agro islands', and in genotype-to-phenotype relationships resembling widespread pleiotropy

Increasing the performance of a Mobile Ad-hoc Network using a game-theoretic approach to drone positioning

We describe a novel game-theoretic formulation of the optimal mobile agents’ placement problem which arises in the context of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). This problem is modelled as a sequential multistage game. The definitions of both the Nash equilibrium and cooperative solution are given. A modification was proposed to ensure the existence of a Nash equilibrium. A modelling environment for the analysis of different strategies of the players was developed in MATLAB. The programme generates various game situations and determines each player move by solving respective optimisation problems. Using the developed environment, two specific game scenarios were considered in detail. The proposed novel algorithm was implemented and tested using Network Simulator 3 (NS-3). The results show that the proposed novel algorithm increases network performance by using game theory principles and techniques.The investigations of S. Blakeway and A. S. Kirpichnikova have been partially supported by LMS (grant N SC7-1415-12). The work of E. V. Gromova on the construction of optimal strategies in the framework of MANET has been supported by Russian Scientific Foundation (grant N 17-11-01079)

Summer drought weakens land surface cooling of tundra vegetation

Siberia experienced a prolonged heatwave in the spring of 2020, resulting in extreme summer drought and major wildfires in the North-Eastern Siberian lowland tundra. In the Arctic tundra, plants play a key role in regulating the summer land surface energy budget by contributing to land surface cooling through evapotranspiration. Yet we know little about how drought conditions impact land surface cooling by tundra plant communities, potentially contributing to high air temperatures through a positive plant-mediated feedback. Here we used high-resolution land surface temperature and vegetation maps based on drone imagery to determine the impact of an extreme summer drought on land surface cooling in the lowland tundra of North-Eastern Siberia. We found that land surface cooling differed strongly among plant communities between the drought year 2020 and the reference year 2021. Further, we observed a decrease in the normalized land surface cooling (measured as water deficit index) in the drought year 2020 across all plant communities. This indicates a shift towards an energy budget dominated by sensible heat fluxes, contributing to land surface warming. Overall, our findings suggest significant variation in land surface cooling among common Arctic plant communities in the North-Eastern Siberian lowland tundra and a pronounced effect of drought on all community types. Based on our results, we suggest discriminating between functional tundra plant communities when predicting the drought impacts on energy flux related processes such as land surface cooling, permafrost thaw and wildfires

SURVIVAL OF BURKHOLDERIA PSEUDOMALLEI IN CELLS OF TETRAHYMENA PYRIFORMIS CILIATE INFUZORIAN: EFFECT ON TETRAHYMENA ENCYSTMENT ACTIVITY

Objective of the study was to model the interaction of Burkholderia pseudomallei with Tetrahymena pyriformis in vitro and investigate the changes in the population composition of the protozoa when co-cultured with a microorganism.Materials and methods. B. pseudomallei 110, C141, 57576, 107 strains differing in virulence for BALB/c mice were used. The axenic culture of T. pyriformis was incubated with microorganisms in 100 to 1 ratio, at 28 °C, in LB. Samples of co-cultures were examined using light microscopy, by counting the number of trophozoites and cysts in the population. Dynamics of multiplication of B. pseudomallei cultures associated with T. pyriformis was determined through seeding bacteria on a dense nutrient medium to count the grown colonies.Results and conclusions. B. pseudomallei in association with T. pyriformis is ingested by protozoan cells; it multiplies in them and stimulates protozoa encystment. Hereby virulent strain B. pseudomallei 110 induces encystment of T. pyriformis on days 2–4 and complete cell destruction within 7–8 days. Avirulent strain, B. pseudomallei 107, induces full encystment on day 7; significant part of the cysts remains intact on day10. Dynamics of B. pseudomallei growth, co-cultured with T. pyriformis is characterized on day 1 by distinct decrease in the number of viable bacterial cells and increase in it within following 24 hours. Bacteria concentration curves depend on the virulence of the strain: maximum level of B. pseudomallei 110 replication is observed after 48 hours, while that of B. pseudomallei 107 – not less than after 7–8 days

Positive and negative properties of four endodontic sealant groups: a systematic review

Background. The choice of sealant is an important dentist’s decision with a long-term influence on treatment. Knowledge of the properties and characters of each material is key to the optimal endosealer selection on individual basis.Objectives. A comparison of endodontic sealants based on epoxy resins, calcium hydroxide, zinc oxide eugenol and bioceramics.Methods. Publications were mined in the PubMed and Google Scholar electronic databases to cover the four sealer groups (epoxy, calcium hydroxide, zinc oxide eugenol and bioceramics) over years 2014-2021, including selected relevant sources within 2002-2013; 73 articles were considered for review, regardless of the study design or language. Content and descriptive analyses were used as research tools. Meta-analysis was not used due to a high evidence heterogeneity.Results. The dental market currently offers a variety of sealant groups. Endodontic sealants based on epoxy resins, zinc oxide eugenol, calcium hydroxide and bioceramics are the most common. The review identifies no ideal material for the root canal filling.Conclusion. Manifold studies demonstrate the pros and cons in each endodontic sealant group with respect to variant criteria. Depending on clinical situation, the practitioner can opt for the material property to identify the endosealer

Phenotypic diversity of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) landraces accumulated in the Vavilov collection from the centers of the crop origin

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second grain legume for the area of cultivation in the world, and the third for the production. However, modern cultivars of chickpea are typically susceptible to a variety of diseases, and have modest drought tolerance. The improvement of the crop for adaptability сould be carried out via introgression of valuable traits genes from old landraces collected in the centers of chickpea origin and diversity: the primary – Turkey and secondary – Ethiopia. The N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (thereafter VIR) preserves 3380 chickpea accessions, with landraces representing over a half of them. Here, the results of analysis of variability of 11 biological, morphological and economic-valuable traits in 1082 chickpea landraces descended from 60 countries are briefly driven. More in detail the sample of 75 landraces from Turkey and 24 landraces from Ethiopia (centres of chickpea origin) which had been sampled there 90 years ago have been studied. We analyzed the phenotypic variability with a treatment of 15 traits. The traits were studied using component analyses. Geographic regularities of certain traits in the studied accessions have been revealed. Ethiopian landraces are relatively homogeneous, belonging mostly to desi-type, and having fewer small, dark, and angular seeds, a short maturation period. They belong to the Abyssinian eco-geographical group, absolutely unique and endemic to Ethiopia. Turkish landraces are characterized by much higher diversity for the majority of phenotypes, covering almost the entire range of traits specified in chickpea descriptors. In this region, together with landraces typical for Turkey, there are those from the western Mediterranean and from the areas bordering with Turkey to the east. Landraces from primary and secondary centers of origin differed on the range of variability of the traits studied. The smaller degree of variation and primitiveness of the most traits and lower seed productivity in Ethiopian landraces in comparison with Turkish ones indicates a greater breeding advancement of the latter. Useful traits for breeding are present in the landraces from both centers of origin and diversity

Burkholderia pseudomallei Morphotypes that Form in vitro under Stress Conditions

Objective of the study was to determine diversity of the morphotypes formed in vitro from the initial morphological variant of B. pseudomallei 110 under stressful conditions and to study some phenotypic characteristics of them. Materials and methods. Virulent strain Burkholderia pseudomallei 110 of Australian serotype was used. Burkholderia cultures were added to the axenic culture of Tetrahymena pyriformis in LB broth and sterile river water in the ratio of 100: 1 and incubated at 28 °C; the passage of monocultures and cultures in protozoa cells was repeated at intervals of 3–4 days. Morphotypes were identified on Ashdown’s medium after cultivation for 3–4 days at 32 °C, photographs were analyzed based on classification of Chantratita et al. In all morphotypes the activity of extracellular enzymes and virulence were determined on the model of golden hamsters. Results and conclusions. Seven B. pseudomallei 110 colony morphotypes were identified. Four of them with characteristics of I, III, IV and VII morphotypes, described by Chantratita et al., were named Chl (Chantratita like variant). The study of morphotypes in different samples revealed a variation in them, depending on the culture medium (LB broth or water), and their different ratios in individual samples. The greatest number of morphological variants (4 out of 7) was formed during the passage of the monocultures of B. pseudomallei 110 in LB broth; in water the initial culture was almost entirely (95 %) transformed into morphotype I Chl. Under other conditions of cultivation the dominant V morphotype was formed, and in the presence of protozoa it was combined predominantly with I Chl. Morphotypes differed in the production of extracellular enzymes, motility and reduced virulence