The health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe

Секция 3. Генетика человека и медицинская генетик

The opposite association of HRAS and KRAS mutations with clinical variables of bladder cancer

HRAS, KRAS and NRAS gene products belong to the superfamily of small GTPases. These proteins regulate cellular response to extracellular stimuli by means of activation of different signaling pathways. Although the role of RAS gene mutations in the pathogenesis of various human cancers has been established, the clinical significance of these molecular alterations in bladder cancer remains unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and spectrum of HRAS, KRAS and NRAS mutations, to analyze their relationships with clinicopathological variables and to determine the prognostic value of these alterations in terms of recurrence, progression and mortality, in a prospective cohort of 249 bladder cancer patients. The frequency of RAS mutations detected by the SNaPshot method, was found to be 11.2 %, of which HRAS mutations accounted for 64.3 %, KRAS, for 28.6 % and NRAS, for 7.1 %. We failed to find any correlation between all RAS mutations and pathomorphological characteristics. However, when analyzed separately, HRAS and KRAS mutations were for the first time shown to be associated with the opposite clinical parameters of bladder cancer: HRAS mutations were significantly associated with low-stage low-grade papillary tumors of a small size (р < 0.05), whereas KRAS mutations were associated with non-papillary urothelial carcinomas and the presence of metastasis (р < 0.05). Analysis of the prognostic value of molecular alterations revealed an association of KRAS mutations with decreased cancer-specific survival in both the whole group of patients and the subgroup with non-muscle invasive disease. The data obtained suggest that HRAS and KRAS gene mutations may characterize alternative pathways of bladder cancer pathogenesis: HRAS mutations indicating benign and KRAS mutations, aggressive disease course

The Impact of Intellectual Capital on the Performance and Investment Attractiveness of Russian Companies

Recent studies show that intellectual resources, such as highly qualified workforce, well-functioning business processes within the organization and strategic relationships with all stakeholders together give a synergistic effect and are key factors in creating a sustainable competitive advantage. This notion is true for both high-tech companies that are focused on knowledge management and mainly work in the service sector, as well as for traditional industrial-type firms that are focused on creating products using value chain models. The historical growth of intellectual capital is traditionally associated with the trend of increasing market capitalization of firms, which is most clearly observed for companies that use knowledge resources as core competitive advantage. However, in practice the consequences of investing in intellectual capital intensive firms are often not always clear, in particular, there is unambiguous relationship between intellectual capital and the ability of companies to perform sustainably. In this study proposes models to investigate the impact of the components of intellectual capital on investment attractiveness and therefore potential positive investment decisions for companies using financial indicators such as revenue and market share. The results show a moderate positive relationship between revenue, market share, reflecting the investment attractiveness of the company and qualitative indicators of static and dynamic intellectual capital. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Electromagnetic dissociation of relativistic 8^8B nuclei in nuclear track emulsion

Experimental data on fragmentation channels in peripheral interactions of $^8$B nuclei in nuclear track emulsions are presented. A detailed analysis made it possible to justify selections of events of the electromagnetic-dissociation process $^8$B $\to^7$Be + \emph{p} and to estimate its cross section. Events of $^{10}$C peripheral dissociation that were observed in the same exposure are described.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, Published in Phys.Atom.Nucl.72:690-701,200

Clustering in light nuclei in fragmentation above 1 A GeV

The relativistic invariant approach is applied to analyzing the 3.3 A GeV $^{22}$Ne fragmentation in a nuclear track emulsion. New results on few-body dissociations have been obtained from the emulsion exposures to 2.1 A GeV $^{14}$N and 1.2 A GeV $^{9}$Be nuclei. It can be asserted that the use of the invariant approach is an effective means of obtaining conclusions about the behavior of systems involving a few He nuclei at a relative energy close to 1 MeV per nucleon. The first observations of fragmentation of 1.2 A GeV $^{8}$B and $^{9}$C nuclei in emulsion are described. The presented results allow one to justify the development of few-body aspects of nuclear astrophysics.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics-2, 16-20 May, 2005 (ATOMKI), Debrecen, Hungar

Fragmentation of relativistic nuclei in peripheral interactions in nuclear track emulsion

The technique of nuclear track emulsions is used to explore the fragmentation of light relativistic nuclei down to the most peripheral interactions - nuclear "white" stars. A complete pattern of therelativistic dissociation of a $^8$B nucleus with target fragment accompaniment is presented. Relativistic dissociation $^{9}$Be$\to2\alpha$ is explored using significant statistics and a relative contribution of $^{8}$Be decays from 0$^+$ and 2$^+$ states is established. Target fragment accompaniments are shown for relativistic fragmentation $^{14}$N$\to$3He+H and $^{22}$Ne$\to$5He. The leading role of the electromagnetic dissociation on heavy nuclei with respect to break-ups on target protons is demonstrated in all these cases. It is possible to conclude that the peripheral dissociation of relativistic nuclei in nuclear track emulsion is a unique tool to study many-body systems composed of lightest nuclei and nucleons in the energy scale relevant for nuclear astrophysics.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, conference: Relativistic nuclear physics: from Nuclotron to LHC energies, Kiev, June 18-22, 200

Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as a mask of acute coronary syndrome: a case series

Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or Yamaguchi syndrome is a relatively rare subtype of HCM characterized by a left ventricular apex localization of the hypertrophy. In this case, chest pain can be erroneously interpreted as a manifestation of coronary artery disease. This article presents two cases of apical HCM in patients admitted with a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome. Electrocardiogram revealed repolarization disorder and giant T wave inversion (up to 10 mm) in the precordial leads. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed local symmetric hypertrophy of the left ventricular apex, which made it possible to diagnose apical HCM. The coronary arteries in both patients were intact. The presented cases demonstrate a variant of apical HCM with chest pain as the leading clinical syndrome, which can often be the cause of overdiagnosis of acute coronary syndrome

Topology of "white" stars in relativistic fragmentation of light nuclei

In the present paper, experimental observations of the multifragmentation processes of light relativistic nuclei carried out by means of emulsions are reviewed. Events of the type of "white" stars in which the dissociation of relativistic nuclei is not accompanied by the production of mesons and the target-nucleus fragments are considered. A distinctive feature of the charge topology in the dissociation of the Ne, Mg, Si, and S nuclei is an almost total suppression of the binary splitting of nuclei to fragments with charges higher than 2. The growth of the nuclear fragmentation degree is revealed in an increase in the multiplicity of singly and doubly charged fragments with decreasing charge of the non-excited part of the fragmenting nucleus. The processes of dissociation of stable Li, Be, B, C, N, and O isotopes to charged fragments were used to study special features of the formation of systems consisting of the lightest $\alpha$, d, and t nuclei. Clustering in form of the $^3$He nucleus can be detected in "white" stars via the dissociation of neutron-deficient Be, B, C, and N isotopes.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, 9 tables, conference: Conference on Physics of Fundamental Interactions, Moscow, Russia, 1-5 Mar 2004.(Author's translation

Overview of the Epidemiological Situation on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus in Russia in 2018

Analyzed was modern epidemiological situation on highly pathogenic avian flu in 2018. Prognosis for possible further distribution of viruses in the territory of Russia was made. In 2018, the situation on highly pathogenic avian flu in Russia was challenging. This was due to the spread of the viruses clade 2.3.4.4, which caused multiple outbreaks among wild birds and poultry in European part of Russia. In addition, A/H5N6 avian influenza virus circulation was for the first time detected in the Saratov Region during routine avian influenza virus surveillance. In May, 2018 two different lineages of avian influenza A/H9N2 were isolated during the outbreaks that occurred at several poultry plants in Primorsk Territory and Amur Region of Russia. Subsequently, that virus subtype continued spreading in Russia, which was recorded by detection of the A/H9N2 influenza virus in wild birds in the Khabarovsk and Tomsk Regions of Russia. Thus, it is shown yet again that the territory of Russia plays an  important geographical role in the spread of avian influenza viruses

Роль мутационного статуса гена FGFR3 в предсказании прогрессирования рака мочевого пузыря без мышечной инвазии

A prospective study was conducted to assess the prognostic value of FGFR3 gene mutation status in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. A total of 265 patients were included in the study. FGFR3 gene mutations were found in 168 (63.4 %) cases. FGFR3 mutation rate was significantly higher in low-grade tumors (p = 0.00 004). With a median follow-up of 34 months hazard ratio of progression in FGFR3 mutant cases compared to FGFR3 wild type was 0.50 (95 % CI 0.17–1.49; p = 0.21). In the subgroup analysis, it was found that FGFR3 mutations in patients with T1 high grade tumors (n = 41) were associated with a significantly better prognosis: 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) in FGFR3 mutant cases (n = 17) was 100 % compared to 71.2 % (95 % CI 42.8–99.6 %) in the absence of mutations (n = 24). For other subgroups (Ta, T1 low grade) no statistically significant difference in PFS by FGFR3 mutation status was noted.Проведено проспективное исследование по оценке прогностического значения мутационного статуса гена FGFR3 у пациентов с раком мочевого пузыря без мышечной инвазии. В исследование включено 265 пациентов, у 168 (63,4 %) обнаружены мутации гена FGFR3. Установлено, что частота мутаций гена FGFR3 была статистически значимо выше в высокодифференцированных опухолях (р = 0,00004). При медиане наблюдения 34 мес не выявлено статистически значимого показателя относительного риска прогрессирования рака мочевого пузыря без мышечной инвазии при наличии мутации гена FGFR3 по сравнению с ее отсутствием (0,50; 95 % доверительный интервал (ДИ) 0,17–1,49; p = 0,21). При анализе прогностического значения мутационной изменчивости гена FGFR3 в различных подгруппах было обнаружено, что у пациентов с опухолями T1 high grade (n = 41) мутации гена FGFR3 были связаны со статистически значимо лучшим прогнозом: 3-летняя выживаемость до прогрессирования при наличии мутации (n = 17) составила 100 % по сравнению с 71,2 % (95 % ДИ 42,8–99,6 %) при отсутствии мутации (n = 24). При остальных категориях опухолей (Ta, T1 low grade) статистически значимых различий в выживаемости до прогрессирования в зависимости от мутационного статуса FGFR3 не выявлено