Calculation of the lidar signal by the DDA method applied to the data of satellite remote sensing of cirrus clouds for climate change detection

The purpose of this work is to solve an important issue: the light scattering problem for ice crystals of cirrus clouds less than 10 μm and matching the obtained solution with the existing solution obtained within the physical optics approximation. The article presents a solution to the problem of light scattering by hexagonal ice particles of cirrus clouds with sizes from 0.05 to 5.17 μm for a wavelength 0.532 μm, obtained within the discrete dipole approximation. It is found that the obtained solution is in good agreement with the physical optics approximation in the vicinity of scattering angles of 0–10є (the vicinity of forward direction scattering). However, to solve the problem of light scattering in the vicinity of the backward scattering direction, which is important for the interpretation of lidar data, it is necessary to continue the calculations to sizes of the order of 20 μm. The results obtained are necessary for constructing algorithms for the interpretation of lidar data obtained by sounding cirrus clouds

ISOLATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND ASSESSMENT OF CYTOTOXICITY OF ISOFLAVONES DERIVED FROM KUDZU ROOT AND SOY MOLASSES

We acknowledge the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, Grant No.20-66-47017

Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities of Kudzu Roots and Soy Molasses Against Pediatric Tumors and Phytochemical Analysis of Isoflavones Using HPLC-DAD-ESI-HRMS

Pediatric solid tumors (PSTs) are life-threatening and can lead to high morbidity and mortality rates in children. Developing novel remedies to treat these tumors, such as glioblastoma multiforme and sarcomas, such as osteosarcoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma, is challenging, despite immense attempts with chemotherapeutic or radiotherapeutic interventions. Soy (Glycine max) and kudzu roots (KR) (Pueraria spp.) are well-known phytoestrogenic botanical sources that contain high amounts of naturally occurring isoflavones. In the present study, we investigated the antioxidant and cytotoxic effects of the extracts of KR and soy molasses (SM) against PSTs. The green extraction of isoflavones from KR and SM was performed using natural deep eutectic solvents. The extracts were subsequently analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-diode array detector (DAD) coupled with high-resolution (HR) mass spectrometry (MS), which identified 10 isoflavones in KR extracts and 3 isoflavones in the SM extracts. Antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of KR and SM extracts were assessed against glioblastoma multiforme (A-172), osteosarcoma (HOS), and rhabdomyosarcoma (Rd) cancer cell lines. The KR and SM extracts showed satisfactory cytotoxic effects (IC50) against the cancer cell lines tested, particularly against Rd cancer cell lines, in a dose-dependent manner. Antioxidant activity was found to be significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher in KR than in SM, which was consistent with the results of the cytotoxic activity observed with KR and SM extracts against glioblastoma and osteosarcoma cells. The total flavonoid content and antioxidant activities of the extracts were remarkably attributed to the isoflavone content in the KR and SM extracts. This study provides experimental evidence that HPLC-ESI-HRMS is a suitable analytical approach to identify isoflavones that exhibit potent antioxidant and anticancer potential against tumor cells, and that KR and SM, containing many isoflavones, can be a potential alternative for health care in the food and pharmaceutical industries. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant No. 20-66-47017

An eco-friendly approach to enhance the extraction and recovery efficiency of isoflavones from kudzu roots and soy molasses wastes using ultrasound-assisted extraction with natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES)

The extraction efficiency, recovery, quantification, and stability of isoflavones (daidzein, genistein and puerarin) from the wastes /by-products of kudzu roots and soy molasses were evaluated by using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) coupled with ultrasound-assisted extraction. The NADES extraction was compared with the conventional Soxhlet extraction technique, and the extracted isoflavones were quantified using HPLC-UV/Vis. Results showed extractability of puerarin to be significantly increased (p < 0.0001) in proportion to the increased water concentration of NADES (9.7 ± 0.2, 12.6 ± 0.2, and 14.8 ± 0.3 mg/g in NADESs containing 10%, 20%, and 30% water, respectively). Despite having less isoflavone content, kudzu roots and soy molasses extracts obtained using NADES exhibited higher antioxidant activity when compared with methanolic extracts. Further, NADES extracts also markedly reduced the degradation degree of isoflavones. The results of this investigation support the use of green extraction techniques to obtain value-added components like isoflavones from wastes/by-products like that of kudzu roots and soy molasses, which are envisaged to find future potential applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.Russian Science Foundation, RSF: 20–66-47017This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation RSF (Grant agreement number 20–66-47017 ).The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Elena G. Kovaleva reports financial support was provided by Russian Science Foundation RSF (Grant agreement number 20–66–47017)

ОСОБЕННОСТИ АЗОТНОГО ПИТАНИЯ ЯРОВОЙ ПШЕНИЦЫ ПРИ МИНИМИЗАЦИИ ОСНОВНОЙ ОБРАБОТКИ ЧЕРНОЗЕМА ВЫЩЕЛОЧЕННОГО НОВОСИБИРСКОГО ПРИОБЬЯ

The paper aims to study the characteristics of spring wheat nitrogen nutrition in crop rotation in the field under minimum primary soil tillage. The research was carried out in the multifactor stationary field experiment in 2002–2013. The work examined the seasonal dynamics of soil nitrate nitrogen and its withdrawal incorporated in agrophytocenose in 4 variants of soil tillage systems in the fields of grain fallow rotation in the extensive background, it also studied spring wheat productivity in extensive and intensive backgrounds. It was established that under the conditions of West Siberia forest-steppe and in its black soils leached by bare black fallow with tillage, the amount of mineral nitrogen went up 2.5 and 2 times as much as the initial value over the fallow period and bare early minimum fallow period, respectively. In the spring prior to wheat sowing in the fallow, nitrogen content in a 1-meter soil layer constituted 159 kg/ha when sown in the tillage, which is 1.2 and 1.3 times as much as sown in the minimum fallow and “zero” tillage, respectively. Wheat yielding when grown in the fallow in extensive and intensive backgrounds made up 2.66–2.83 and 3.53–3.61 t/ha, respectively, and in fact, did not depend upon the techniques of the fallow preparation. In the repeated sowings, wheat productivity was 1.1–1.3 times higher in the extensive background in the tillage (1.29–1.66 t/ha) than that in the minimum tillage. With optimized mineral nutrition in plants and phytosanitary situation in seedings the productivity of wheat in field crop rotations went up 2.1–2.8 times as much without any considerable differences in soil tillage variants. Agrophytocenose fallowed was characterized by the highest indexes (125.0–130.3 kg/ha) for nitrate nitrogen withdrawn from the soil somewhat lowering from tillage to minimum cultivations. Herewith, the withdrawal of the element concerned from the soil with weeds in the extensive background built up from 8.6 kg/ha in the black fallow to 14.0 kg/ha for the early minimal fallow, for grain predecessors it went up from 15.7 in the tillage to 26.9 kg/ha in “zero’ tillage.Цель настоящей работы – изучение особенностей азотного питания яровой пшеницы в  полевом севообороте при минимизации основной обработки почвы. Исследования проводили в многофакторном стационарном полевом опыте в 2002–2013 гг. Изучали сезонную динамику со- держания нитратного азота в почве и вынос его с агрофитоценозом в четырех вариантах систем обработки почвы в  полях зернопарового севооборота на экстенсивном фоне, а  продуктивность яровой пшеницы  – на экстенсивном и  интенсивном фонах. Установлено, что в  условиях лесостепи Западной Сибири на чернозёмах выщелоченных в чистом черном пару со вспашкой общее количество минерального азота за период парования возросло в 2,5 раза, в чистом раннем минимальном пару – в 2 раза в сравнении с исходным значением. Весной перед посевом пшеницы по пару содержание азота в метровом слое почвы составило 159 кг/га по вспашке, что в 1,2 раза больше, чем по минимальной, и в 1,3 раза в сравнении с «нулевой» обработкой. Урожайность пшеницы по пару на экстенсивном и интенсивном фонах составила 2,66–2,83 и 3,53–3,61 т/га соответственно и практически не зависела от способов его подготовки. На повторных посевах урожайность пшеницы на экстенсивном фоне по вспашке (1,29–1,66 т/га) была в  1,1–1,3 раза больше, чем по минимальным обработкам. При оптимизации минерального питания растений и фитосанитарной ситуации посевов продуктивность пшеницы в полях севооборота увеличивалась в 2,1–2,8 раза без существенных различий по вариантам обработки почвы. Агрофитоценоз, идущий по пару, характеризовался наибольшими показателями (125,0–130,3  кг/га) по выносу нитратного азота из почвы, несколько снижаясь от вспашки к минимальным обработкам. При этом вынос данного элемента из почвы с сорняками на экстенсивном фоне нарастал от 8,6 кг/га по черному пару со вспашкой до 14,0 кг/га по раннему минимальному пару, по зерновым предшественникам – от 15,7 по вспашке до 26,9 кг/га по «нулевой» обработке

Terbium photo-, cathodo- and X-ray luminescence in sol-gel derived films in porous anodic alumina

Photo-, cathodo-, and X-ray luminescence of terbium in sol-gel derived films, fabricated in porous anodic alumina is studied. The cell size of the fabricated film convertor of irradiation is about 250 nm. The methods of increase Tb luminescence under diverse excitation conditions are discussed. © 2012 CriMiCo

DEPENDENCE OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RADIATION-INDUCED EPR SIGNAL OF ARTIFICIAL HYDROXYAPATITE ON THE SYNTHESIS CONDITIONS

In this work, we studied the effect of synthesis conditions (pH) and annealing of artificial HA samples on the sensitivity to IR irradiation. It is shown that the most promising synthesis conditions for dosimetric studies of artificial HA are solution pH 8.6 and subsequent annealing at Т = 700°С.The work was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (through the basic part of the government mandate, project No. FEUZ-2023-0013).Работа выполнена при частичной финансовой поддержке Министерства науки и высшего образования РФ (базовая часть государственного задания, проект № FEUZ-2023-0013)

Methanosarcina acetivorans C2A Topoisomerase IIIα, an Archaeal Enzyme with Promiscuity in Divalent Cation Dependence

Topoisomerases play a fundamental role in genome stability, DNA replication and repair. As a result, topoisomerases have served as therapeutic targets of interest in Eukarya and Bacteria, two of the three domains of life. Since members of Archaea, the third domain of life, have not been implicated in any diseased state to-date, there is a paucity of data on archaeal topoisomerases. Here we report Methanosarcina acetivorans TopoIIIα (MacTopoIIIα) as the first biochemically characterized mesophilic archaeal topoisomerase. Maximal activity for MacTopoIIIα was elicited at 30–35°C and 100 mM NaCl. As little as 10 fmol of the enzyme initiated DNA relaxation, and NaCl concentrations above 250 mM inhibited this activity. The present study also provides the first evidence that a type IA Topoisomerase has activity in the presence of all divalent cations tested (Mg2+, Ca2+, Sr2+, Ba2+, Mn2+, Fe2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+). Activity profiles were, however, specific to each metal. Known type I (ssDNA and camptothecin) and type II (etoposide, novobiocin and nalidixic acid) inhibitors with different mechanisms of action were used to demonstrate that MacTopoIIIα is a type IA topoisomerase. Alignment of MacTopoIIIα with characterized topoisomerases identified Y317 as the putative catalytic residue, and a Y317F mutation ablated DNA relaxation activity, demonstrating that Y317 is essential for catalysis. As the role of Domain V (C-terminal domain) is unclear, MacTopoIIIα was aligned with the canonical E. coli TopoI 67 kDa fragment in order to construct an N-terminal (1–586) and a C-terminal (587–752) fragment for analysis. Activity could neither be elicited from the fragments individually nor reconstituted from a mixture of the fragments, suggesting that native folding is impaired when the two fragments are expressed separately. Evidence that each of the split domains plays a role in Zn2+ binding of the enzyme is also provided