[Function of the fingers in weavers and spinners]. / Funktsiia pal'tsev kisti u tkachikh i priadil'shchits.

The article presents the results of examination of 69 female weavers, spinners and office staff workers, which included studies of strength of the hand, pinching with the 1st-5th fingers, and endurance of the 1st and 2nd fingers under static load before and after work. Comparison was made of the different data received in the female workers depending on their labour productivity. It was established that professionalism specifically influenced the strength and endurance of fingers. In the workers with the labour productivity increasing the average level by 16-21%, individual functional characteristics were higher both at the beginning and at the end of the working shift.

Determination of Venus Winds by Ground-Based Radio Tracking of the VEGA Balloons.

A global array of 20 radio observatories was used to measure the three-dimensional position and velocity of the two meteorological balloons that were injected into the equatorial region of the Venus atmosphere near Venus midnight by the VEGA spacecraft on 11 and 15 June 1985. Initial analysis of only radial velocities indicates that each balloon was blown westward about 11,500 kilometers (8,000 kilometers on the night side) by zonal winds with a mean speed of about 70 meters per second. Excursions of the data from a model of constant zonal velocity were generally less than 3 meters per second; however, a much larger variation was evident near the end of the flight of the second balloon. Consistent systematic trends in the residuals for both balloons indicate the possibility of a solar-fixed atmospheric feature. Rapid variations in balloon velocity were often detected within a single transmission (330 seconds); however, they may represent not only atmospheric motions but also self-induced aerodynamic motions of the balloon.

[Mechanism of the decrease in basal metabolism during adaptation to hypoxia]. / O mekhanizme snizheniia osnovnogo obmena pri adaptatsii k gipoksii.

Oxygen uptake fell by 40% in rat adaptation to the periodic action of hypoxia under conditions of pressure chamber. This phenomenon did not disappear in animals in the state of profound anesthesia, and, consequently, was independent of adaptation changes of the cortical regulation of the animal motor activity. A cut of oxygen uptake by half persisted with the action of cold, noradrenaline, and 2,4-dinitrophenol, uncoupling oxidation and phosphorylation, on the organism. Thus, economic expenditure of oxygen in hypoxia adaptation could not be fully explained by increase of oxydation and phosphorylation conjugation.

[Contractile function and the effectiveness of oxygen utilization by the heart during adaptation to hypoxia]. / Sokratitel'naia funktsiia i effektivnost' ispol'zovaniia serdtsem kisloroda pri adaptatsii k gipoksii

Experiments on isolated functioning hearts of rats established that under equal filling pressure the hearts of the animals who are adapted to the periodic effect of hypoxy develop a higher force and rate of contractions; ultimately, the contractile function of such hearts, as calculated per unit of myocardial mass and unit of time, appears to be increased by 1/3. Oxygen consumption by the hearts of adapted animals does not much differ from the control values, and consequently, the efficiency of oxygen utilization increases approximately by 1/3. A considerable increase of adrenoreactivity of the hearts of adapted animals is also noted. The obtained data are discussed proceeding from the assumption that an increased power of the potassium pump in the sarcoplasmatic reticulum of the myocardium of adapted animals may influence the coupling of oxydation with phosphorillation in the mytochondria.

[Dynamics of nucleic acid and protein concentration and synthesis during adaptation to hypoxia]. / Dinamika soderzhaniia i sinteza nukleinovykh kislot i belkov v legkikh pri adaptatsii k gipoksii

Adaptation of female Wistar rats to hypoxia was carried out in the altitude chamber (barochamber) for 40 days, 6 hours per day at the altitude of 7,000 meters. By the end of the adaptation the relative weight of the lungs increased by 37 per cent (this seeming to indicate hypertrophy of the lungs), and the concentration of RNA in the lung tissue increased by 30 per cent; at the same time the RNA concentration in the lungs as a whole increased by 85 per cent DNA concentration in the lung tissue showed no essential change, and its content in the lungs increased at the same rate as the lungs' weight. An increase in protein synthesis in the lungs determined by the S-35-methionine incorporation constituted 133% in the adapted rats in comparison with control.