Reliable sex and strain discrimination in the mouse vomeronasal organ and accessory olfactory bulb

Animals modulate their courtship and territorial behaviors in response to olfactory cues produced by other animals. In rodents, detecting these cues is the primary role of the accessory olfactory system (AOS). We sought to systematically investigate the natural stimulus coding logic and robustness in neurons of the first two stages of accessory olfactory processing, the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and accessory olfactory bulb (AOB). We show that firing rate responses of just a few well-chosen mouse VNO or AOB neurons can be used to reliably encode both sex and strain of other mice from cues contained in urine. Additionally, we show that this population code can generalize to new concentrations of stimuli and appears to represent stimulus identity in terms of diverging paths in coding space. Together, the results indicate that firing rate code on the temporal order of seconds is sufficient for accurate classification of pheromonal patterns at different concentrations and may be used by AOS neural circuitry to discriminate among naturally occurring urine stimuli

Сервис для проверки сертификатов электронных документов

The legislation of the Republic of Belarus currently establishes the same legal force for identical documents on paper and in electronic form, which have a mandatory requisite - an electronic digital signature. The article considers the system for managing public keys of electronic digital signature in the Republic of Belarus, as well as the concepts and definitions associated with this system. The technical normative legal acts in the field of cryptographic protection of electronic documents are analyzed. The necessity of verification of certificates of public keys of electronic digital signature is substantiated. Possible variants of the procedure for verifying public key certificates are described, their advantages and disadvantages are shown. An online service for checking public key certificates has been developed using open cryptographic libraries and public tools.В законодательстве Республики Беларусь в настоящее время установлена одинаковая юридическая сила для идентичных документов на бумажном носителе и в электронном виде, имеющих обязательный реквизит – электронную цифровую подпись. В статье рассмотрена система управления открытыми ключами электронной цифровой подписи в Республике Беларусь, приведены понятия и определения, связанные с этой системой. Проанализированы технические нормативные правовые акты в области криптографической защиты электронных документов. Обоснована необходимость проверки сертификатов открытых ключей электронной цифровой подписи. Описаны возможные варианты процедуры проверки сертификатов открытых ключей, показаны их преимущества и недостатки. С использованием открытых криптографических библиотек и общедоступных инструментов разработан онлайн-сервис для проверки сертификатов открытых ключей

Tablet‐based electroencephalography diagnostics for patients with epilepsy in the West African Republic of Guinea

Background and purposeEpilepsy is most common in lower-income settings where access to electroencephalography (EEG) is generally poor. A low-cost tablet-based EEG device may be valuable, but the quality and reproducibility of the EEG output are not established.MethodsTablet-based EEG was deployed in a heterogeneous epilepsy cohort in the Republic of Guinea (2018-2019), consisting of a tablet wirelessly connected to a 14-electrode cap. Participants underwent EEG twice (EEG1 and EEG2), separated by a variable time interval. Recordings were scored remotely by experts in clinical neurophysiology as to data quality and clinical utility.ResultsThere were 149 participants (41% female; median age 17.9 years; 66.6% ≤21 years of age; mean seizures per month 5.7 ± SD 15.5). The mean duration of EEG1 was 53 ± 12.3 min and that of EEG2 was 29.6 ± 12.8 min. The mean quality scores of EEG1 and EEG2 were 6.4 [range, 1 (low) to 10 (high); both medians 7.0]. A total of 44 (29.5%) participants had epileptiform discharges (EDs) at EEG1 and 25 (16.8%) had EDs at EEG2. EDs were focal/multifocal (rather than generalized) in 70.1% of EEG1 and 72.5% of EEG2 interpretations. A total of 39 (26.2%) were recommended for neuroimaging after EEG1 and 22 (14.8%) after EEG2. Of participants without EDs at EEG1 (n = 53, 55.8%), seven (13.2%) had EDs at EEG2. Of participants with detectable EDs on EEG1 (n = 23, 24.2%), 12 (52.1%) did not have EDs at EEG2.ConclusionsTablet-based EEG had a reproducible quality level on repeat testing and was useful for the detection of EDs. The incremental yield of a second EEG in this setting was ~13%. The need for neuroimaging access was evident