Morphology of the spinal cord of human fetuses 35-36 weeks of intrauterine development

Department of Human Anatomy, N. I. Pirogov National Medical University of Vinnitsa, UkraineBackground: The fetal viability till the birth moment and subsequent development of a child depend on the features of the processes of human prenatal development. The embryogenesis and formation of structures of the central nervous system are of the crucial importance in the chain of processes of prenatal period. Material and methods: The spinal cord of human fetuses aged 35-36 weeks of fetal development was studied with the help of anatomical, common histological, morphometric and statistical methods. Causes of stillbirths as a result of diseases of CNS structures were excluded. Results: As a result of this work morphometric parameters of the structures of the spinal cord segments were established. The topography of gray and white matter was studied. The groups of neurons in the cervical thoracic, lumbar and sacral parts of the spinal cord, as well as the nature of their differentiation were investigated. Specific properties of the histological structure of the ependymal (matrix) layer and its share in the gray matter were established. Conclusions: Segments that make up the cervical and lumbosacral thickenings have the greatest morphometric parameters. Lower sacral segments have the lowest parameters. The area of white matter prevails over the area of the gray matter, with the exception of the sacral segments. Motor neurons are the largest and most differentiated, after them associative neurons, autonomic neurons being the smallest and less differentiated. Tht thickness of ependymal (matrix) layer of all segments decreases in the dorsal direction, the thickness of the basal membrane varies depending on the part of spinal cord

Avoiding symmetry roadblocks and minimizing the measurement overhead of adaptive variational quantum eigensolvers

Quantum simulation of strongly correlated systems is potentially the most feasible useful application of near-term quantum computers. Minimizing quantum computational resources is crucial to achieving this goal. A promising class of algorithms for this purpose consists of variational quantum eigensolvers (VQEs). Among these, problem-tailored versions such as ADAPT-VQE that build variational ans\"atze step by step from a predefined operator pool perform particularly well in terms of circuit depths and variational parameter counts. However, this improved performance comes at the expense of an additional measurement overhead compared to standard VQEs. Here, we show that this overhead can be reduced to an amount that grows only linearly with the number $n$ of qubits, instead of quartically as in the original ADAPT-VQE. We do this by proving that operator pools of size $2n-2$ can represent any state in Hilbert space if chosen appropriately. We prove that this is the minimal size of such "complete" pools, discuss their algebraic properties, and present necessary and sufficient conditions for their completeness that allow us to find such pools efficiently. We further show that, if the simulated problem possesses symmetries, then complete pools can fail to yield convergent results, unless the pool is chosen to obey certain symmetry rules. We demonstrate the performance of such symmetry-adapted complete pools by using them in classical simulations of ADAPT-VQE for several strongly correlated molecules. Our findings are relevant for any VQE that uses an ansatz based on Pauli strings.Comment: 15+10 pages, 7 figure

Lectin binding patterns in normal, dysplastic and helicobacter pylori infected gastric mucosa

Aim: To analyze the glycoprotein binding sites of the gastric mucosa and its secreted mucus using lectin histochemistry in patients with chronic non-atrophic gastritis (CNAG) associated or not-associated with Helicobacter pylori infection with or without dysplasia. Materials and Methods: In order to identify the areas with glycoconjugates expression in gastric mucosa, 6 lectins (Canavalia ensiformis agglutinin — Con A, Sambucus nigra agglutinin — SNA, wheat germ agglutinin — WGA, soybean agglutinin — SBA, Helix pomatia agglutinin — HPA, peanut agglutinin — PNA) were used. Carbohydrate determinants were visualized according to the lectin-peroxidase-diaminobenzidine staining protocol. Biopsy material was obtained and processed by conventional histological methods. The samples from 84 patients (54 with CNAG) with low (n = 34) and high grade (n = 20) dysplasia, 38 patients were H. pylori-infected and 26 patients — H. pylori-noninfected) were used. The comparison group included 30 persons with CNAG without dysplasia (16 patients H. pylori-infected and 14 — noninfected). Results: In comparison to normal gastric mucosa, a low affinity of Con A was shown in 80% of patients with non-infected CNAG and 90% of H. pylori associated CNAG. In 70% of H. pylori-infected patients with CNAG and low grade dysplasia there was an increase of SNA expression compared with noninfected patients (p < 0.05). Regarding SBA labeling no differences were detected in the studied groups (p < 0.05). In H. pylori infected patients with CNAG and low grade dysplasia, WGA, HPA and PNA showed a strong reactivity with the gastric mucosa cells in 80; 75%, and 60% of patients, respectively. Conclusion: We suggest that a set of lectins in reaction with gastric epithelial and glandular cells can be used as a tool to obtain information about the dysplastic changes of the gastric mucosa and may offer new insight into gastric carcinogenesis and precancerous lesions treatment

Monoenergetic proton beams accelerated by a radiation pressure driven shock

High energy ion beams (> MeV) generated by intense laser pulses promise to be viable alternatives to conventional ion beam sources due to their unique properties such as high charge, low emittance, compactness and ease of beam delivery. Typically the acceleration is due to the rapid expansion of a laser heated solid foil, but this usually leads to ion beams with large energy spread. Until now, control of the energy spread has only been achieved at the expense of reduced charge and increased complexity. Radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) provides an alternative route to producing laser-driven monoenergetic ion beams. In this paper, we show the interaction of an intense infrared laser with a gaseous hydrogen target can produce proton spectra of small energy spread (~ 4%), and low background. The scaling of proton energy with the ratio of intensity over density (I/n) indicates that the acceleration is due to the shock generated by radiation-pressure driven hole-boring of the critical surface. These are the first high contrast mononenergetic beams that have been theorised from RPA, and makes them highly desirable for numerous ion beam applications

Alcohol increases circulatory disease mortality in Russia: acute and chronic effects or misattribution of cause?

Background There is a consensus that the large fluctuations in mortality seen in Russia in the past two decades can be attributed to trends in alcohol consumption. However, the precise mechanisms linking alcohol to mortality from circulatory disease remain unclear. It has recently been argued that a substantial number of such deaths currently ascribed to cardiovascular disorders are misclassified cases of acute alcohol poisoning