Analysis of the Modern Methods and Means for Rapid Toxin Indication

The risk of occurrence of emergency situations different in their character is still a pressing issue for all the states of the world's community, including the Russian Federation. Nowadays, development of the modern methods and tools for rapid toxin detection and identification holds a high position in biological safety system. Specified means for biological toxin detection do not comply with the requirements of rapidness. One of the prospective means for rapid toxin indication is immune-chromatographic, immunochip, and immunosensor test-systems with high sensitivity, differentiation capacity and expression. In this review described are some up-to-date foreign and home-grown technologies for rapid toxin indication

Організація життєвого циклу радіоелектронних засобів з урахуванням системи діагностування

It is shown, that at organization of life cycle of the radioelectronic device it is expedient to consider it as a subsystem, which is included into structure of the integrated system along-side with a subsystem carrying out function of diagnosticsПоказано, что при организации жизненного цикла радиоэлектронного устройства целесообразно рассматривать его как подсистему, которая входит в состав интегрированной системы наряду с подсистемой, выполняющей функции диагностикиПоказано, що при організації життєвого циклу радіоелектронного засобу доцільно розглядати його як підсистему, яка входить до складу інтегрованої системи поруч з підсистемою, що виконує функції діагностування  

Nonlinear theory and tests of earthquake recurrence times

We develop an efficient numerical scheme to solve accurately the set of nonlinear integral equations derived previously in (Saichev and Sornette, 2007), which describes the distribution of inter-event times in the framework of a general model of earthquake clustering with long memory. Detailed comparisons between the linear and nonlinear versions of the theory and direct synthetic catalogs show that the nonlinear theory provides an excellent fit to the synthetic catalogs, while there are significant biases resulting from the use of the linear approximation. We then address the suggestions proposed by some authors to use the empirical distribution of inter-event times to obtain a better determination of the so-called clustering parameter. Our theory and tests against synthetic and empirical catalogs find a rather dramatic lack of power for the distribution of inter-event times to distinguish between quite different sets of parameters, casting doubt on the usefulness of this statistics for the specific purpose of identifying the clustering parameter.Comment: 31 pages including 11 figure

Sliding mode control of quantum systems

This paper proposes a new robust control method for quantum systems with uncertainties involving sliding mode control (SMC). Sliding mode control is a widely used approach in classical control theory and industrial applications. We show that SMC is also a useful method for robust control of quantum systems. In this paper, we define two specific classes of sliding modes (i.e., eigenstates and state subspaces) and propose two novel methods combining unitary control and periodic projective measurements for the design of quantum sliding mode control systems. Two examples including a two-level system and a three-level system are presented to demonstrate the proposed SMC method. One of main features of the proposed method is that the designed control laws can guarantee desired control performance in the presence of uncertainties in the system Hamiltonian. This sliding mode control approach provides a useful control theoretic tool for robust quantum information processing with uncertainties.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Организация жизненного цикла радиоэлектронных средств с учетом системы диагностики

Показано, що при організації життєвого циклу радіоелектронного засобу доцільно розглядати його як підсистему, яка входить до складу інтегрованої системи поруч з підсистемою, що виконує функції діагностуванняIt is shown, that at organization of life cycle of the radioelectronic device it is expedient to consider it as a subsystem, which is included into structure of the integrated system along-side with a subsystem carrying out function of diagnosticsПоказано, что при организации жизненного цикла радиоэлектронного устройства целесообразно рассматривать его как подсистему, которая входит в состав интегрированной системы наряду с подсистемой, выполняющей функции диагностик

Application of MALDI Mass-Spectrometry for Diagnostics of Particularly Dangerous Infectious Diseases: Current State of Affairs and Prospects

Mass spectrometry is a modern physical-chemical analytical method that provides for qualitative and quantitative assessment of the substance composition. It is based on pre-ionization of the atoms and molecules included into it. One of the advanced methods of ionization, due to which mass-spectrometry investigation of macromolecules has become a frequent practice, is matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). The essence of it is the pulsed laser irradiation of the matter under study, mixed with the matrix. The review discusses current data on MALDI mass-spectrometry application for the performance of species-specific and genus-specific identification of microorganisms at the premises of diagnostic laboratories. Considered are the basic advantages of MALDI-TOF identification as compared to bacteriologic, immunologic, and molecular-genetic methods of assessment. Allocated is the mass-spectrometry position in the system of laboratory diagnostics of infectious diseases, including particularly dangerous ones, in the territory of the Russian Federation

The new COST Action European Venom Network (EUVEN)—synergy and future perspectives of modern venomics

Venom research is a highly multidisciplinary field that involves multiple subfields of biology, informatics, pharmacology, medicine, and other areas. These different research facets are often technologically challenging and pursued by different teams lacking connection with each other. This lack of coordination hampers the full development of venom investigation and applications. The COST Action CA19144–European Venom Network was recently launched to promote synergistic interactions among different stakeholders and foster venom research at the European level

Snake venom phospholipase A2s exhibit strong virucidal activity against SARS-CoV-2 and inhibit the viral spike glycoprotein interaction with ACE2.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 requires new treatments both to alleviate the symptoms and to prevent the spread of this disease. Previous studies demonstrated good antiviral and virucidal activity of phospholipase A2s (PLA2s) from snake venoms against viruses from different families but there was no data for coronaviruses. Here we show that PLA2s from snake venoms protect Vero E6 cells against SARS-CoV-2 cytopathic effects. PLA2s showed low cytotoxicity to Vero E6 cells with some activity at micromolar concentrations, but strong antiviral activity at nanomolar concentrations. Dimeric PLA2 from the viper Vipera nikolskii and its subunits manifested especially potent virucidal effects, which were related to their phospholipolytic activity, and inhibited cell-cell fusion mediated by the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. Moreover, PLA2s interfered with binding both of an antibody against ACE2 and of the receptor-binding domain of the glycoprotein S to 293T/ACE2 cells. This is the first demonstration of a detrimental effect of PLA2s on β-coronaviruses. Thus, snake PLA2s are promising for the development of antiviral drugs that target the viral envelope, and could also prove to be useful tools to study the interaction of viruses with host cells

MALDI-TOF Mass-Spectrometry Analysis of Plague Agent Strains

Objective of the study was to demonstrate practicability of data base creation, containing reference mass-spectra of agents of particularly dangerous infections, using MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry, by the example of plague agent strains. Materials and methods. MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry was deployed for the obtainment of mass-spectra of ribosomal proteins from the microorganisms under investigation with the help of mass-spectrometers - Microflex LT. Results and conclusions. Carried out was comparative analysis of the obtained mass-spectra of 10 Y. pestis strains and reference spectra of Y. tuberculosis , contained in commercial data base of MALDI Biotyper 3.1 (Bruker Daltonics, Germany). Developed data base was validated in the process of identification of plague microbe strains, isolated in the territory of natural plague foci of the Russian Federation. That data base provided for correct identification of Y. pestis strains up to a species