MEDICAL INFORMATION CENTRE, BULGARIAN CITATION INDEX, AND MODERN BULGARIAN SCIENCE. I. BULGARIAN MEDICAL JOURNALS (1993-1998)

The Medical Information Centre of Sofia is an established prestigeous institution of rising national and international importance for the medical sciences and public health. The present communication initiates a series of scientometric investigations using the Bulgarian Citation Index (BCI) data-base of the communication patterns in different branches of modern Bulgarian science. The analysis of Bulgarian medical journals published in 1993-1998 shows several essential features of the citation behaviour of the authors arguing of the still insufficient awareness of the national achievements. A total of 322 issues from 47 journal titles have been already processed. They contain 2028 citing articles with a total of 26092 references. The citations to Bulgarian publications amount to 2484 or 9,5 per cent of all the citations. The following journals are most-cited in this sample: "Revmatologiya" (107 citations), Savremenna meditsina (78), "Stomatologiya" (51), "Pediatriya" and "Farmatsiya" (40 citations each)

Is current incremental safety assurance sound ?

International audienceIncremental design is an essential part of engineering. Without it, engineering would not likely be an economic, nor an effective, aid to economic progress. Further, engineering relies on this view of incrementality to retain the reliability attributes of the engineering method. When considering the assurance of safety for such artifacts, it is not surprising that the same economic and reliability arguments are deployed to justify an incremental approach to safety assurance. In a sense, it is possible to argue that, with engineering artifacts becoming more and more complex, it would be economically disastrous to not “do” safety incrementally. Indeed, many enterprises use such an incremental approach, reusing safety artifacts when assuring incremental design changes. In this work, we make some observations about the inadequacy of this trend and suggest that safety practices must be rethought if incremental safety approaches are ever going to be fit for purpose. We present some examples to justify our position and comment on what a more adequate approach to incremental safety assurance may look like

χ (2) -Lens Mode-Locking of a High Average Power Nd:YVO 4 Laser

Abstract: We report over 20 W, 6 ps, 170 MHz, passive mode-locking of a Nd:YVO 4 laser using χ Among laser materials, neodymium-doped vanadate Nd:YVO 4 has been the most extensively studied and widely used in diode-pumped high average power continuous-wave (CW) and mode-locked lasers for the past two decades. Nd:YVO 4 has large emission cross-section and polarized emission attributed to its natural birefringence as well as capacity for being pumped efficiently by laser diodes. The major drawback which limits the output power of Nd:YVO 4 lasers is the poorer thermo-mechanical properties of the crystal in comparison with that of Nd:YAG. Typically, multi-Watt operation of picosecond Nd:YVO 4 lasers has been demonstrated mainly using a modelocking technique based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) In this work we report χ (2) -lens mode-locking of a Nd:YVO 4 laser using a LBO SHG crystal. The laser generates 6 ps transform-limited pulses at 170 MHz with output power of 20.1 W. To our knowledge, it is the maximum output power achieved by a χ (2) -lens mode-locked laser. The design of the mode-locked laser is based on a 810 mm long linear cavity

Spectrum of conditionally pathogenic microflora isolated from the prostate secret in chronic bacterial prostatitis patients

The article represents a description for microbiocenosis of isolated prostate secret. The initial samples were taken on the territory of the Irkutsk region from men diagnosed with chronic bacterial prostatitis in the acute stage. 90 % of samples of isolated prostate secret were tested by cultural method revealed 4l representatives of opportunistic pathogenic microflora. Gram-positive microorganisms were found in most samples (86.7 %). Staphylococcus genus representatives formed the majority in isolated samples of conditionally pathogenic microflora (66.7 %). As for gram-negative representatives (which role in chronic bacterial prostatitis is proven by multiple research), E. coli and K. pneumoniae were isolated. In the half of samples, we revealed bacterial associations consisting mostly of two kinds of microorganisms. Staphylococcus epidermidis was isolated in 70 % of such associations

Motivational and semantic component of internal picture of disease in patients with ischemic heart disease

Motivational and semantic component of subjective (internal) picture of disease (SPD) in patients with ischemic heart disease is seen from psychosomatic approach that adopted in the Russian clinical psychology and psychology of corporeality. The results of clinical psychological diagnostic survey of participants of studied group (patients with ischemic heart disease) and control group (employees of airport ground services), Have shown the central mechanism of disturbances within SPD and the main targets of psychotherapeutic assistance were identified.Мотивационно-смысловой компонент внутренней картины болезни (ВКБ) у пациентов с ишемической болезнью сердца (ИБС) рассматривается в ракурсах психосоматического подхода, принятого в отечественной клинической психологии и психологии телесности. В результате клинико-психодиагностического обследования участников основной (пациенты с ИБС) и контрольной (служащие наземных служб аэропорта) группы выявлен центральный механизм нарушения ВКБ, определены основные мишени психотерапевтической работы

Distribution of dirofilariasis in Omsk region

Background. Recently, in the Russian Federation, there has been a tendency to an increase in the number of registered cases of dirofilariasis among residents living in a temperate climate zone, including in Western Siberia. The species Dirofilaria repens and Dirofilaria immitis are of clinical importance for humans. Dirofilariae are characterized by migration into the subcutaneous tissue, mucous membranes, organs of vision, internal organs. In the Omsk region, there is an increase in cases of dirofilariasis, including among children.The aim. To assess endemicity of the territory of the Omsk region in relation to pathogens of dirofilariasis.Materials and methods. The maps of the epidemiological survey of persons infected with dirofilariae for the period 2013–2020 were analyzed, parasitological and molecular biological methods examined 1155 blood samples of dogs, 2488 samples female blood-sucking mosquitoes, 26 samples of dirofilaria helminths removed from residents of the Omsk region.Results. In 18 people, the infection was regarded as local, since the infected persons had not left the Omsk region for the previous three years. Local infections are reported annually. Infection of the final owners – dogs – with dirofilaria ranges from 0.6 to 4.8 % in different years. On average, the extensiveness of the invasion was 3.0 ± 0.6 %; and the intensity of microfilaremia was 1277.68 ± 395.87 specimens/ml of blood. On the territory of Omsk and the Omsk region, 11 species of mosquitoes belonging to the genus Aedes, Ochlerotatus, Culex, Anopheles, Coquillettidia were identified. The estimated individual infection of mosquitoes of different species ranged from 0.6 % (O. flavescens) to 9.8 % (An. messeae). The total infection of vectors was 3.4 %. All positive samples were found to contain DNA of D. repens.Conclusion. The territory of the Omsk region is endemic for pathogens of dirofilariasis, in particular, D. repens. Further studies are needed to study the prevalence and species diversity of pathogens of dirofilariasis in Western Siberia, to identify the most dangerous from an epidemiological point of view, species of vectors

Response sensitivity to bacteriophages of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from the microbiota of the oropharynx in children of Irkutsk

Dysbiotic disorders of the oropharynx takes one of the first places in the structure of morbidity worldwide. The aim of the study was to determine the peculiarities of microbiocenosis of the oropharynx in children at different ages and to assess the level of sensitivity of S. aureus strains to specific bacteriophages. Material for the study consisted of 84 smears from the oropharynx of children with inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tract (nasopharyngitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, laryngitis (J00, J02, J03, J04 according to 1CD-10). The biological material was distributed depending on the age of the surveyed: the first group - children 3-6 years (n = 61) and the second age group - children 7-12 years (n = 23). Studies of the microflora of the oropharynx were performed according to standard methods. Isolated microorganisms were identified by morphological, tinctorial, cultural and biochemical properties. The results were evaluated in accordance with the Order of USSR Ministry of Health N 535 as of April 22,1985. Specific lytic activity of bacteriophages against S. aureus was determined using preparations of staphylococcal bacteriophage and polyvalent pyobacteriophage Sexta. The sensitivity of strains of S. aureus to specific bacteriophages was assessed by the method of «crosses», according to the guidelines. Statistical analysis was performed with the use of licensed applications Offiœ Ms Excel 2007for Windows 7 BioStat v. 5.0.1.2008. Correlation analysis (Pearson method) was used. 1t has been shown that with increasing age children in the oropharynx microbial density is increasing for indicators of both normoflora (S. oralis), and of opportunistic microflora (S. β-hemolytic, S. pyogenes, S. pneumoniae, bacteria Enterobacteriaceae), especially of S. aureus (up to 74 %). Registration of sensitive strains of S. aureus in more than 70 % of cases in preschool and school-aged children is evidence of the correctness of correction of the dysbiotic disorders of the oropharynx with the use of bacteriophages of staphylococcus and Sexta

Discovering study-specific gene regulatory networks

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Microarrays are commonly used in biology because of their ability to simultaneously measure thousands of genes under different conditions. Due to their structure, typically containing a high amount of variables but far fewer samples, scalable network analysis techniques are often employed. In particular, consensus approaches have been recently used that combine multiple microarray studies in order to find networks that are more robust. The purpose of this paper, however, is to combine multiple microarray studies to automatically identify subnetworks that are distinctive to specific experimental conditions rather than common to them all. To better understand key regulatory mechanisms and how they change under different conditions, we derive unique networks from multiple independent networks built using glasso which goes beyond standard correlations. This involves calculating cluster prediction accuracies to detect the most predictive genes for a specific set of conditions. We differentiate between accuracies calculated using cross-validation within a selected cluster of studies (the intra prediction accuracy) and those calculated on a set of independent studies belonging to different study clusters (inter prediction accuracy). Finally, we compare our method's results to related state-of-the art techniques. We explore how the proposed pipeline performs on both synthetic data and real data (wheat and Fusarium). Our results show that subnetworks can be identified reliably that are specific to subsets of studies and that these networks reflect key mechanisms that are fundamental to the experimental conditions in each of those subsets

Studying the Salt Dependence of the Binding of σ70 and σ32 to Core RNA Polymerase Using Luminescence Resonance Energy Transfer

The study of protein-protein interactions is becoming increasingly important for understanding the regulation of many cellular processes. The ability to quantify the strength with which two binding partners interact is desirable but the accurate determination of equilibrium binding constants is a difficult process. The use of Luminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (LRET) provides a homogeneous binding assay that can be used for the detection of protein-protein interactions. Previously, we developed an LRET assay to screen for small molecule inhibitors of the interaction of σ70 with theβ' coiled-coil fragment (amino acids 100–309). Here we describe an LRET binding assay used to monitor the interaction of E. coli σ70 and σ32 with core RNA polymerase along with the controls to verify the system. This approach generates fluorescently labeled proteins through the random labeling of lysine residues which enables the use of the LRET assay for proteins for which the creation of single cysteine mutants is not feasible. With the LRET binding assay, we are able to show that the interaction of σ70 with core RNAP is much more sensitive to NaCl than to potassium glutamate (KGlu), whereas the σ32 interaction with core RNAP is insensitive to both salts even at concentrations >500 mM. We also find that the interaction of σ32 with core RNAP is stronger than σ70 with core RNAP, under all conditions tested. This work establishes a consistent set of conditions for the comparison of the binding affinities of the E.coli sigma factors with core RNA polymerase. The examination of the importance of salt conditions in the binding of these proteins could have implications in both in vitro assay conditions and in vivo function

Characteristics of Nasopharyngeal Microbiocenosis and Evaluation of the Interaction of its Associates in Women with Chronic Endometritis

The upper respiratory tract is one of the most important biotopes in the human body. Therefore, in order to understand the cause-effect relationships between the microbial world and the pathological state of a person, it is crucial to clarify the relationship of the microbes-associates.The study involved 74 women with reproductive disorders. The main group – women with chronic endometritis (n = 47). The diagnosis of chronic endometritis was revealed on the basis of morphological signs of histological examination of aspirates from the uterine cavity. The comparison group consisted of 27 women, in whom the chronic endometritis was not confirmed. When applying, women complained more often of infertility and (or) miscarriage. Of the accompanying extragenital diseases, chronic tonsillitis in women of the studied groups was most often diagnosed. Therefore, it was important to give a microbiological description of the nasopharyngeal biotope of these women, as one of the factors that influences the reserves of confrontation of the reproductive function of the body to infections. Nasopharyngeal microbiocenosis of women with chronic endometritis was characterized by deficiency of the indigenous microbiota and a permanent presence in the microbiocenosis of the absolute pathogen (S. aureus) and transient species (enterococci, CNS). Between the representatives of normoflora antagonistic relations were established. The obtained results indicate violations in the nasopharyngeal biotope of these women, which can cause immunodeficiency and, as a consequence, the development and flow of chronic endometritis