Aberrant Ganglioside Functions to Underpin Dysregulated Myelination, Insulin Signalling, and Cytokine Expression: Is There a Link and a Room for Therapy?

Gangliosides are molecules widely present in the plasma membranes of mammalian cells, participating in a variety of processes, including protein organization, transmembrane signalling and cell adhesion. Gangliosides are abundant in the grey matter of the brain, where they are critically involved in postnatal neural development and function. The common precursor of the majority of brain gangliosides, GM3, is formed by the sialylation of lactosylceramide, and four derivatives of its a- and b-series, GM1, GD1a, GD1b and GT1b, constitute 95% of all the brain gangliosides. Impairments in ganglioside metabolism due to genetic abnormalities of GM-synthases are associated with severe neurological disorders. Apart from that, the latest genome-wide association and translational studies suggest a role of genes involved in brain ganglioside synthesis in less pervasive psychiatric disorders. Remarkably, the most recent animal studies showed that abnormal ganglioside functions result in dysregulated neuroinflammation, aberrant myelination and altered insulin receptor signalling. At the same time, these molecular features are well established as accompanying developmental psychiatric disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This led us to hypothesize a role of deficient ganglioside function in developmental neuropsychiatric disorders and warrants further gene association clinical studies addressing this question. Here, we critically review the literature to discuss this hypothesis and focus on the recent studies on ST3GAL5-deficient mice. In addition, we elaborate on the therapeutic potential of various anti-inflammatory remedies for treatment of developmental neuropsychiatric conditions related to aberrant ganglioside functions. Keywords: insulin receptor signalling; major brain gangliosides; mice; myelination; neurodevelopmental disorders; neuroinflammatio

Non-Euclidean Biosymmetries and Algebraic Harmony in Genomes of Higher and Lower Organisms

The article is devoted to the study of the relationship of non-Euclidean symmetries in inherited biostructures with algebraic features of information nucleotide sequences in DNA molecules in the genomes of eukaryotes and prokaryotes. These genomic sequences obey the universal hyperbolic rules of the oligomer cooperative organization, which are associated with the harmonic progression 1/1, 1/2, 1/3,.., 1/n. The progression has long been known and studied in various branches of mathematics and physics. Now it has manifested itself in genetic informatics. The performed analysis of the harmonic progression revealed its connection with the cross-ratio, which is the main invariant of projective geometry. This connection consists in the fact that the magnitude of the cross-ratio is the same and is equal to 4/3 for any four adjacent members of this progression. The long DNA nucleotide sequences have fractal-like structure with so called epi-chains, whose structures are also related to the harmonic progression and the projective-geometrical symmetries. The received results are related additionally to a consideration of DNA double helix as helical antenna. This fact of the connection of genetic informatics with the main invariant of projective geometry can be used to explain the implementation of some non-Euclidean symmetries in genetically inherited structures of living bodies

Non-Euclidean Biosymmetries and Algebraic Harmony in Genomes of Higher and Lower Organisms

The article is devoted to the study of the relationship of non-Euclidean symmetries in inherited biostructures with algebraic features of information nucleotide sequences in DNA molecules in the genomes of eukaryotes and prokaryotes. These genomic sequences obey the universal hyperbolic rules of the oligomer cooperative organization, which are associated with the harmonic progression 1/1, 1/2, 1/3,.., 1/n. The progression has long been known and studied in various branches of mathematics and physics. Now it has manifested itself in genetic informatics. The performed analysis of the harmonic progression revealed its connection with the cross-ratio, which is the main invariant of projective geometry. This connection consists in the fact that the magnitude of the cross-ratio is the same and is equal to 4/3 for any four adjacent members of this progression. The long DNA nucleotide sequences have fractal-like structure with so called epi-chains, whose structures are also related to the harmonic progression and the projective-geometrical symmetries. The received results are related additionally to a consideration of DNA double helix as helical antenna. This fact of the connection of genetic informatics with the main invariant of projective geometry can be used to explain the implementation of some non-Euclidean symmetries in genetically inherited structures of living bodies

Orobanche ingens (Orobanchaceae) – a poorly known species of the Greater Caucasus: taxonomic problems, distribution, hosts and habitats

Orobanche ingens is an endemic species from the Caucasus, especially the Greater Caucasus, parasitising on large Apiaceae (usually Heracleum). This species was misclassified over the years and little was known about its range and habitats. Here, we clarify the typification, as well as provide notes about the taxonomy of this species. Additionally, we presented distribution, habit and host range of O. ingens and morphological features that distinguish it from similar species

Orobanche ingens (Orobanchaceae) – a poorly known species of the Greater Caucasus: taxonomic problems, distribution, hosts and habitats

Orobanche ingens is an endemic species from the Caucasus, especially the Greater Caucasus, parasitising on large Apiaceae (usually Heracleum). This species was misclassified over the years and little was known about its range and habitats. Here, we clarify the typification, as well as provide notes about the taxonomy of this species. Additionally, we presented distribution, habit and host range of O. ingens and morphological features that distinguish it from similar species

BigPanDA: PanDA Workload Management System and its Applications beyond ATLAS

Modern experiments collect peta-scale volumes of data and utilize vast, geographically distributed computing infrastructure that serves thousands of scientists around the world. Requirements for rapid, near real-time data processing, fast analysis cycles and need to run massive detector simulations to support data analysis pose special premium on efficient use of available computational resources. A sophisticated Workload Management System (WMS) is needed to coordinate the distribution and processing of data and jobs in such environment. The ATLAS experiment at CERN uses PanDA (Production and Data Analysis) Workload Management System for managing the workflow for all data processing on over 150 data centers. While PanDAcurrently uses more than 250,000 cores with a peak performance of 0.3 petaFLOPS, it runs around 2 million jobs per day on hundreds of Grid sites and serving thousands of ATLAS users. In 2017 about 1.5 exabytes of data were processed with PanDA.In 2012 BigPanDA project project was started with aim to introduce new types of computing resources into ATLAS computing infrastructure, but also to offering PanDA features to different data-intensive applications for projects and experiments outside of ATLAS and High-Energy and Nuclear Physics. In this article we will present accomplishments and discuss possible directions for future work

BigPanDA: PanDA Workload Management System and its Applications beyond ATLAS

Modern experiments collect peta-scale volumes of data and utilize vast, geographically distributed computing infrastructure that serves thousands of scientists around the world. Requirements for rapid, near real-time data processing, fast analysis cycles and need to run massive detector simulations to support data analysis pose special premium on efficient use of available computational resources. A sophisticated Workload Management System (WMS) is needed to coordinate the distribution and processing of data and jobs in such environment. The ATLAS experiment at CERN uses PanDA (Production and Data Analysis) Workload Management System for managing the workflow for all data processing on over 150 data centers. While PanDAcurrently uses more than 250,000 cores with a peak performance of 0.3 petaFLOPS, it runs around 2 million jobs per day on hundreds of Grid sites and serving thousands of ATLAS users. In 2017 about 1.5 exabytes of data were processed with PanDA.In 2012 BigPanDA project project was started with aim to introduce new types of computing resources into ATLAS computing infrastructure, but also to offering PanDA features to different data-intensive applications for projects and experiments outside of ATLAS and High-Energy and Nuclear Physics. In this article we will present accomplishments and discuss possible directions for future work

"Flora of Russia" on iNaturalist: a dataset

The "Flora of Russia" project on iNaturalist brought together professional scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the country. Over 10,000 people are involved in the data collection.Within 20 months the participants accumulated over 750,000 photo observations of 6,853 species of the Russian flora. This constitutes the largest dataset of open spatial data on the country’s biodiversity and a leading source of data on the current state of the national flora. About 85% of all project data are available under free licenses (CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC) and can be freely used in scientific, educational and environmental activities

"Flora of Russia" on iNaturalist: a dataset

The "Flora of Russia" project on iNaturalist brought together professional scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the country. Over 10,000 people are involved in the data collection.Within 20 months the participants accumulated over 750,000 photo observations of 6,853 species of the Russian flora. This constitutes the largest dataset of open spatial data on the country’s biodiversity and a leading source of data on the current state of the national flora. About 85% of all project data are available under free licenses (CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC) and can be freely used in scientific, educational and environmental activities

"Flora of Russia" on iNaturalist: a dataset

The "Flora of Russia" project on iNaturalist brought together professional scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the country. Over 10,000 people are involved in the data collection.Within 20 months the participants accumulated over 750,000 photo observations of 6,853 species of the Russian flora. This constitutes the largest dataset of open spatial data on the country’s biodiversity and a leading source of data on the current state of the national flora. About 85% of all project data are available under free licenses (CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC) and can be freely used in scientific, educational and environmental activities