[The forensic chemical investigation of acetylsalicylic acid].

The objective of the present study was to develop the universal approach to the quantitative determination of acetylsalicylic acid in biological tissues and fluids to be applied in the practice of forensic chemical expertise with the use of thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, low-pressure column chromatography, and spectrophotometry. A system of solvents consisting of acetone and ethyl acetate (7:3) was proposed as a universal agent for extracting acetylsalicylic acid from the cadaveric tissues and blood. It was shown that acetylsalicylic acid and its principal metabolite, salicylic acid, can be purified from the endogenous admixtures present in the biological materials by column chromatography on silica gel L 40/100 mcm. Salicylic acid in extracts from biological materials was identified and quantified with the use of thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and electronic spectrophotometry. The method for forensic chemical investigation of acetylsalicylic acid has been developed and applied in the analysis of the material provided for expertise.

Joint scaling laws in functional and evolutionary categories in prokaryotic genomes.

We propose and study a class-expansion/innovation/loss model of genome evolution taking into account biological roles of genes and their constituent domains. In our model, numbers of genes in different functional categories are coupled to each other. For example, an increase in the number of metabolic enzymes in a genome is usually accompanied by addition of new transcription factors regulating these enzymes. Such coupling can be thought of as a proportional 'recipe' for genome composition of the type 'a spoonful of sugar for each egg yolk'. The model jointly reproduces two known empirical laws: the distribution of family sizes and the non-linear scaling of the number of genes in certain functional categories (e.g. transcription factors) with genome size. In addition, it allows us to derive a novel relation between the exponents characterizing these two scaling laws, establishing a direct quantitative connection between evolutionary and functional categories. It predicts that functional categories that grow faster-than-linearly with genome size to be characterized by flatter-than-average family size distributions. This relation is confirmed by our bioinformatics analysis of prokaryotic genomes. This proves that the joint quantitative trends of functional and evolutionary classes can be understood in terms of evolutionary growth with proportional recipes.

[Determination of carbofuran in the biological material for the purpose of forensic medical examination].

It is proposed to use the mixture of acetone and ethylacetate (1:1) as an universal solvent for the extraction of carbofuran from cadaveric tissues and fluids. Extracted carbufuran can be purified from endogenous admixtures on KSS No 3 Silica Gel columns (80/120 mcm) and identified using TLC, electron spectrophotometrty, HPLC, and GC-MS. The proposed method of forensic chemical analysis of carbofuran was applied for the purpose of forensic medical expertise.

[The detection of beta-cypermethrin during forensic chemical expertise of biological materials].

The optimal conditions for the isolation of beta-cypermethrin from biological materials by means of dioxane extraction have been developed. The possibility to purify beta-cypermethrin from endogenous impurities is demonstrated by combination of liquid-liquid extraction and chromatography through a silica gel column (L 40/100 mcm). It is shown that identification and quantitative determination of beta-cypermethrin extracted from the cadaveric liver tissues are possible using such techniques as thin-layer chromatography, electron spectrometry, and chromato-mass spectrometry. A method for forensic chemical expertise of the presence of beta-cypermethrin in biological materials is described.

[Detection of bancol for the purpose of forensic chemical expertise].

Optimal conditions for the extraction of bancol from the biological material with toluene are described. The possibility of its purification and separation from co-extracted compounds on a silicagel L column, 40/100 mcm is illustrated. Identification and quantitative determination of bancol isolated from the cadaverous liver were performed by the electron spectrophotometry technique, thin-layer chromatography, and high performance liquid chromatography using normal-phase sorbents. A method of bancol detection was adapted for the purpose of forensic medical expertise and applied for the postmortem examination of the cadaverous tissues.

[Choice of a method of temporary drainage of the upper urinary tract in plastic reconstruction surgery on the vesicoureteral segment in children].

Among prevalent causes of abnormal urine outflow from the kidneys and urinary tract in children are neuromuscular ureteral dysplasia (NMUD) and vesicoureteral reflux (VUR). Many complications and unsatisfactory results of the treatment of the above conditions depend on the drain method. NMUD and VUR were surgically treated in 85 children (age from 6 months to 17 years, 39 boys and 46 girls). Treatment results were analysed with reference to the drainage method--catheter stent or intubation by findings of excretory urography, cystography, ultrasonography and morphological examination with evaluation of a morphological picture of ureteral muscular wall, stage of the disease and extention of the upper urinary tract. Criteria of drainage method choice were determined depending on age of the children, morphological data, NMUD stage and degree of VUR. In NMUD stage II and III and VUR degree 4 characterized by manifest changes of upper urinary tract contractility intubating drainage is more effective. In insignificant changes of ureteral contractility (NMUD stage I and VUR degree 1-3) internal stent is a method of choice. Thus, treatment outcomes in NMUD and VUR depend not only on surgical method but also on the method of drainage.

[Transurethral ureteropyeloscopy with lithotripsy and lithoextraction in children].

High efficacy of endoscopic treatment of urolithiasis in adults stimulated its introduction in the strategy of urolithiasis management in children. 133 ureteropyeloscopies with ureterolithotripsy and ureterolithoextraction was performed in 121 children (boys and girls, age 11 months to 16 years). Concrements (0.5-2.0 cm and larger) located in the caliceal-pelvic segment, ureter, 12 patients had bilateral urolithiasis. Ineffective extracorporeal lithotripsy (ELT) was followed by ureteropyeloscopy in 86 (71%) cases. Rigid and fibroureteropyeloscopes were used. Due to ureterolithotripsy and lithoextraction, concrements were removed completely in 98 (80.9%) patients including 5 children with ligature concrements and 11 children with ureteral strictures which required additional endoureterotomy and removal of ligature. In 23 (18%) cases when migration of concrements and their fragments did not allow complete elimination of the concrements, the kidney in ureteropyeloscopy was drained by catheters or stents with further ELT. Postoperative exacerbation of pyelonephritis treated conservatively was registered in 20 (16.5%) children. Long-term complications were not seen. Thus, transurethral uretheropyeloscopy with lithotripsy and lithoextraction is highly effective, low invasive, safe treatment of urolithiasis in children in failure of ELT.

[Endoscopic treatment of bilateral vesicoureteral reflux in children].

Endoscopic treatment of bilateral vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) was made in 8 boys and 28 girls (a total of 58 collagenizations in various modifications). Secretory function of the kidney was studied before surgery and obstruction of the vesicoureteral segment was excluded. Cystoscopic picture was analysed. The analysis of correlations between efficacy of antireflux collagenisation of the ureteral ostium and ureteral ostium position and shape, renal function leads to the conclusion that submucosal endoscopic collagen implantation in the abnormal ostium in its lateroposition is not effective. This was confirmed by pathomorphological investigations of VUR which discovered dramatic impairment by smooth muscle atrophy type with fiber dyscomplectation, perimuscular sclerosis. Thus, endoscopic treatment of bilateral VUR in children is safe, but its efficacy depends on valid choice of indications. In congenital VUR caused by dysplasia of vesicoureteral segment a preferable treatment is ureterocystoanastomosis.

[Roentgenoendoscopic therapy of ureteral injuries after obstetric-gynecological surgery].

Ureteral injuries as a complication of obstetric-gynecological operations occur in 0.37% of cases and are accompanied by formation of stricture or ureteral obliteration, development of uretero-vaginal fistula. Roentgenoendoscopic technologies offer a new solution of the problem of restoration of ureteral passability and elimination of urogenital fistulas. Roentgenoendoscopic treatment of ureteral injuries was made in 14 patients: for obliteration of the lower third of the ureter in 5 cases, stricture of the lower third of the ureter in 9 cases, stricture in combination with uretero-vaginal fistula. The length of the injury varied from 0.2 to 1.5 cm (mean--0.6 cm). Two patients have undergone optic buerginage of ureteral stricture followed by balloon dilation, 7 patients--optic endoureterotomy, 5--ureteral recanalization. Three patients with ureterovaginal fistulas had one-stage fistula fulguration. The operations finished with internal stenting for 6-18 weeks. Normal urine passage recovered in 12 of 14 (85.7%) patients. The fistula disappeared in 3 patients. Thus, roentgenoendoscopic treatment of ureteral injuries after obstetric-gynecological surgery produce positive results in most cases and raises quality of the patients' life.

[Forensic chemical detection of furadan].

Isolation of furadan from biological material by ethyl acetate is considered. Column chromatography with silicone gel L 100/160micro was used to purify extractions from biological objects. A technique was elaborated for identification and quantitation of furadan in cadavers. It is possible to use this technique in forensic expert examination.

Energy separation of single-particle and continuum states in an S = 1/2 weakly coupled chains antiferromagnet

Inelastic neutron scattering is used to study transverse-polarized magnetic excitations in the quasi-one-dimensional S = 1/2 antiferromagnet BaCu2Si2O7, where the saturation value for the Neel order parameter is m(0) = 0.12&mgr;(B) per spin. At low energies the spectrum is totally dominated by resolution-limited spin-wave-like excitations. An excitation continuum sets in above a well-defined threshold frequency. Experimental results are discussed in the context of current theories for weakly interacting quantum half-integer-spin chains.

Exact solution of a stochastic directed sandpile model.

We introduce and analytically solve a directed sandpile model with stochastic toppling rules. The model clearly belongs to a different universality class from its counterpart with deterministic toppling rules, previously solved by Dhar and Ramaswamy. The critical exponents are D(//)=7/4, tau=10/7 in two dimensions and D(//)=3/2, tau=4/3 in one dimension. The upper critical dimension of the model is three, at which the exponents apart from logarithmic corrections reach their mean-field values D(//)=2, tau=3/2.

[The rehabilitation of patients with neurological manifestations of lumbar osteochondrosis under outpatient conditions]. / Reabilitatsiia bol'nykh s nevrologicheskimi proiavleniiami poiasnichnogo osteokhondroza v ambulatornykh usloviiakh.

Computer was used to analyze the data on 226 patients with neurological manifestations of lumbar osteochondrosis, who completed the course of rehabilitation treatment at the outpatient center of industrial rehabilitation in Nizhni Novgorod. The authors provide the mean times, cost and outcomes of rehabilitation in groups of patients with different clinical syndromes. Specify indications for the rehabilitation course in a specialized institution for rehabilitation treatment. Analyze errors made in the referral of outpatients to the rehabilitation center.

[The stress mechanisms of mammalian adaptation to an elevated content of radionuclides in the environment]. / Stressovye mekhanizmy adaptatsii mlekopitaiushchikh k povyshennomu soderzhaniiu radionuklidov v srede.

Analysis of populations of rodents and their stability in radioactively contaminated territories (East Ural radioactive track and regions contaminated after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident) suggests that non-specific stability due to the stress mechanisms plays an important role in adaptation of the animals to the life in these regions. According to the published data, the elevated radioresistance of animals in these regions appeared to be due to increased non-specific stability formed by the stress mechanisms.

[Echocardiography--prognosis of the course of infectious endocarditis and long-term survival in this disease]. / Ekhokardiografia - vozmozhnosti prognozirovaniia techeniia infektsionnogo éndokardita i dolgovremennoi vyzhivaemosti pri nem.

AIM: To determine prognostic opportunities of echocardiography (ECG) in infectious endocarditis (IE) basing on the assessment of microbial vegetations size and degree of valvular failure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Of 114 patients with definite IE (72 male, 42 female), 90 ones had primary and 24 secondary endocarditis. The prospective study included all the survivors in the IE active stage--78 patients. RESULTS: Vegetations > 1 cm in size were detected in 50.8% patients, < 1 cm--in 49.2%. Hospital lethality in vegetations > 1 cm and < 1 cm was 25.8 and 16.1%, respectively. Thromboembolism rate was 81 and 64.2%, respectively. One-year survival was 78.7 and 71.4%, two-year survival 66.5 and 61.7%, three-year survival 66.5 and 49.4%, five-year survival--51.7 and 32.9% in vegetations < 1 cm and > 1 cm, respectively. Valvular regurgitation of the first degree was in 17.5%, of the second degree--in 41.9%, third-fourth degree--in 36.6% patients. Hospital lethality in mitral valve failure was 32.1%, in aortic and tricuspid failure--17.8 and 11.4%, respectively. CONCLUSION: EchoCG was most effective for predicting thromboembolism and cardiac failure. Valvular regurgitation of the third-fourth degree significantly correlates with severe cardiac failure. ECG is less informative for predicting hospital lethality.

[Infectious endocarditis of the left heart atrium in injection drug addicts]. / Infektsionnyi éndokardit klapanov levykh kamer serdtsa u in"ektsionnykh narkomanov.

AIM: To study etiology, clinical picture, course and prognosis of left heart infection endocarditis (LHIE) in drug addicts. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 61 drug addicts entered the study. 14 of them had lesions of the left heart valves (group 1), 11--of the right and left heart valves (group 2), 36--of the tricuspid valve (group 3), 39 control patients with LHIE had no addiction. Mean age in group 1 was 25.9 +/- 8.8 years, in group 4--48.3 +/- 12.6 years, p < 0.001. RESULTS: Females prevailed in group 3, males--in group 4. Splenomegaly was more frequent in the addicts. Lung lesions (abscesses and infarction) prevailed in groups 2 and 3. Cardiac failure was found more frequently in groups 1 and 4, edema--in group 3, brain affections--in groups 1 and 4. Renal damage was encountered with equal frequency in the addicts and non-addicts. The addicts had, largely, infarctions, non-addicts--glomerulonephritis. Viral hepatitis C was associated with drug addiction. Blood seedings were on the whole positive in 54%, in drug addicts--in 69%. St. aureus predominated (44%). In group 3 it was detected in 72%. It was higher than in groups 4 and 1 (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, respectively). Lethality in group 1 (57%) was higher than in group 3 (22%, p < 0.05) and group 2 (18%, p < 0.01). The leading cause of death in group 1 was cerebral thromboembolism with development of meningoencephalitis. Other causes--progressive cardiac and renal failure.

[Right ventricular myocardial infarction in a patient with infectious endocarditis]. / Infarkt miokarda pravogo i levogo zheludochka serdtsa u bol'nogo infektsionnym éndokarditom.

A case of right and left ventricular myocardial infarction in infectious endocarditis of the aortic valve in an injected drug abuser is reported. The infarction was diagnosed only in autopsy. Diagnostic difficulties are discussed. The literature on the problem is listed.

[Survival of patients with infectious endocarditis in various treatment methods]. / Vyzhivaemost' bol'nykh infektsionnym éndokarditom pri razlichnykh metodakh lecheniia.

The aim of the study was to compare survival of patients with infectious endocarditis (IE) by abuse of intravenous narcotic substances in conservative and combined treatment in acute IE phase. A total of 195 IE patients were examined. 121 of them was treated conservatively, 74 patients received a combined treatment including surgical one. A long-term prognosis was studied by the Kaplan-Meier method. Among drug addicts with IE, the number of survivors in the observation period in early operation in the active IE phase was significantly higher than in the conservative therapy. Long-term survival of drug addicts with IE in combined treatment was also higher: 1-2- and 3-year survival was 85.8, 76.3 and 61.0% against 64.8, 49.0 and 34.2% in conservative treatment, respectively. In non-addicts the differences were weaker: long-term survival in combined treatment was higher than in conservative one only in 5-year survival (74.1 and 41.6%, respectively).

[A combined approach to the treatment of paranasal and nasopharyngeal inflammation in childhood]. / Kompleksnyi podkhod k lecheniiu vospalitel'nykh zabolevanii okolonosovykh pazukh i nosoglotki v detskom vozraste.

105 patients with chronic purulent sinusitis and chronic adenoiditis were divided into two groups. 85 patients of the study group before adenotomy were subjected to non-puncture cleansing of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses using [symbol: see text] sinus catheter. 20 patients of the control group underwent adenotomy without prior cleansing. Adenotomy in patients of the study group was not associated with any complications, 25 of them required no surgery. 5 controls developed abnormal intraoperative bleeding, 10 controls had high temperature for 3 days. Complications of adenotomy were registered in 3 controls.

[The choice of surgical strategy for patients with obstructive jaundice and high risk of multi-organ insufficiency syndrome]. / Vybor khirurgicheskoi taktiki u bol'nykh s obturatsionnoi zheltukhoi i vysokim riskov vozniknoveniia poliorgannoi nedostatochnosti.

We examined 128 patients with obstructive jaundice of non-tumoral genesis that were surgically treated. We studied the immune status and plasma concentration of interleukine-8 in pre-operation period in order to predict the polyorganic insufficiency (PI) risk. Depending on the results obtained, patients were divided into groups defined as those of low or high risk of PI. This permitted to apply differentiated treatment with the use of multi-grade surgical intervention and extracorporal detoxication. This contributed to decrease of post-operative complications rate and mortality.