Generation and properties of dissipative Kerr solitons and platicons in optical microresonators with backscattering.

Generation and properties of dissipative Kerr solitons and platicons in optical microresonators are studied in the presence of the backscattering using the original analytical model considering a linear forward-backward waves coupling and nonlinear cross-action. We reveal that the backscattering may suppress the generation of the solitonic pulses or destabilize them for both anomalous and normal group velocity dispersion. We also demonstrate the possibility of switching between different soliton states. The influence of the linear and nonlinear coupling is analysed. It is shown that while the impact of the nonlinear coupling on the generation of the bright solitons is rather weak, it is significantly more pronounced for the platicon excitation process.

[Evaluation of the effect of remaxol on hepatocytes in non-alcoholic fatty liver dystrophy modeling in laboratory C57BL/6 mice]. / Otsenka vliianiia remaksola na gepatotsity pri modelirovanii nealkogol'noi zhirovoi distrofii u laboratornykh myshei linii C57BL/6.

OBJECTIVE: To provide a morphological evaluation of the effectiveness of incorporating remaxol into a treatment regimen for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The investigation was conducted using 32 male C57BL/6 mice weighing 35-44 g, which were divided into 4 groups. In Group 1, eight mice were fed with a standard diet for 75 days; the animals from Groups 2 and 3 received a hypercaloric diet for the same period of time. The mice from Group 2 were euthanized immediately after the diet was stopped; and Group 3 was switched to the standard diet after 20 days of the recovery period. Group 4 included the mice that were, after a 75-day hypercaloric diet, were injected with remaxol at a dose of 25 ml/kg once daily every other day; the cycle consisted of 10 injections. Liver tissues were morphologically evaluated using Oil Red O-stained tissue specimens additionally stained with Mayer's hematoxylin on the cryostat sections applying a Zeiss Axio Imager. A2 microscope equipped with an Axiocam 506 color camera. The photographed images were processed using the ZEN 2.3 program ('Carl Zeiss', Germany). RESULTS: The morphological equivalent of liver improvement in mice that were injected and were not injected with remaxol was found to be normalization of the lobular structure, preservation of the structure and intralobular orientation of the hepatic tubules, and restoration of the width of the sinusoidal lumen. The degree of infiltration was much lesser than that in the group of experimental animals that did not additionally receive the drug. CONCLUSION: These histological signs may suggest that remaxol is effective in treating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

[Local drugs in treating and decreasing the incidence of adverse reactions after sclerotherapy of telangiectasia]. / Mestnye preparaty v lechenii i snizhenii chastoty razvitiia nezhelatel'nykh reaktsii posle skleroterapii teleangiéktazov.

AIM: The purpose of the study was to assess efficacy and safety of heparin sodium gel 1000 IU/g and Detragel® in decreasing the incidence and treatment of the most common local adverse reactions in patients after endured sclerotherapy of reticular veins and telangiectasias. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Our open prospective observational study included a total of sixty 18-to-35-year-old female patients who after undergoing standardized sclerotherapy of reticular veins and telangiectasias on symmetrical portions of lower limbs were given a tube of heparin sodium gel 1000 IU/g or Detragel® to be applied onto the skin of one (left) lower limb in the projection of the sclerotherapy-exposed vessels 2-3 times daily for 10 days followed by putting on a compression class 2 (RAL standard) stocking. The women were allowed to use only the paired stocking on the contralateral extremity. Efficacy and safety of heparin sodium gel 1000 IU/g and Detragel® were evaluated based on the incidence of typical adverse reactions (ecchymoses, phlebitides, hyperpigmentation and neovasculogenesis), as well as on the patient's subjective perceptions. RESULTS: The use of heparin sodium gel 1000 IU/g and Detragel® in addition to compression after sclerotherapy of reticular veins and telangiectasias significantly and comparably decreased the incidence and accelerated the resolution of ecchymoses and phlebitides associated with phlebosclerosing treatment. The Detragel® group patients were found to develop hyperpigmentation or neovasculogenesis significantly less often as compared with the heparin sodium gel 1000 IU/g group women. What is more, using Detragel® was not accompanied by hyperkeratosis, pruritus or formation of a sticky film, the events, however, observed while applying heparin sodium gel 1000 IU/g. CONCLUSION: The use of Detragel® or heparin sodium gel 1000 IU/g for 10 days additionally to compression significantly decreased the incidence of typical undesirable reactions associated with sclerotherapy of reticular veins and telangiectasias. The Detragel® group women turned out to have lower incidence of hyperpigmentation and neovasculogenesis. Besides, Detragel® demonstrated better organoleptic properties.

Spectrum collapse, narrow linewidth, and Bogatov effect in diode lasers locked to high-Q optical microresonators.

We present a novel method allowing high-power single-frequency emission with sub-kHz linewidth from a compact multi-frequency diode laser locked to high-Q optical microresonator. Using high-Q MgF2microresonator and multi-frequency diode laser operating at 1535 nm with the output power of 100 mW and an emission spectrum consisting of approximately 50 lines with MHz linewidth, we observed a spectrum collapse to a single line or several lines with a sub-kHz linewidth and output power power of 50 mW. The Bogatov effect predicted more than 30 years ago was observed and studied in the spectrum of the locked laser. For analysis of the considered effect, original theoretical model taking into account self-injection locking effect, mode competition and Bogatov asymmetric mode interaction was developed and numerical modeling was performed. All numerical results are in a good agreement with our experimental data. Accurate analytical estimations for the parameters critical for the considered effect were obtained. The proposed method may be applied for different types of diode lasers operating in different spectral ranges.

[Cryocompression sclerotherapy of reticular veins and teleangiectasias]. / Kriokompressionnaia skleroterapiia retikuliarnykh ven i teleangioéktazov.

Compression serves as an important component for carrying out successful and safe phlebosclerosing treatment. At the same time, the necessity of wearing compression hosiery or bandages is associated with known limitations and objections of patients, especially in a hot season. We comparatively assessed efficacy of usual compression stockings and a short-term pneumatic bandage with cryoelements while carrying out sclerosing treatment of dilated intradermal veins. Our open prospective observational study included a total of fifty 18-to-35-year-old women. After performing standardized sclerotherapy of reticular veins and telangiectasias on the symmetrical portions of the lower limbs, a pneumatic cryocompression bandage with a pressure of 50 mmHg was applied onto one of the limbs for 15 minutes, with a class 2 compression (RAL standard) medical stocking put on the other limb to be worn by the patients at daytime for 10 days. We assessed completeness of obliteration of the target veins, frequency of the development of typical undesirable events (ecchymoses, phlebitides, hyperpigmentation and neovasculogenesis), as well as the composite discomfort score according to an 11-point visual analogue scale. It was determined that using the pneumatic bandage with cryoelements as compared with the traditional compression stockings significantly decreased the frequency of the development of typical undesirable events after phlebosclerosing treatment, such as formation of ecchymoses, phlebitides, hyperpigmentation and neovasculogenesis. Significance of differences was revealed as early as 7 days after sclerotherapy, to be increasing during further dynamic follow up. By convenience for the patients, the use of the short-term pneumatic cryobandage was four times better than wearing the compression stockings. A conclusion was drawn that while carrying out sclerotherapy of reticular veins and telangiectasias short-term pneumatic cryocompression by efficacy and safety was not inferior to the traditional medical stockings (RAL standard) and made it possible to significantly decrease the incidence of the known undesirable events after phlebosclerosing treatment.

Raman-Kerr frequency combs in microresonators with normal dispersion.

We generalize the coupled mode formalism to study the generation of frequency combs in microresonators with simultaneous Raman and Kerr nonlinearities and investigate an impact of the former on the formation of frequency combs and dynamics of platicons in the regime of the normal group velocity dispersion. We demonstrate that the Raman effect initiates generation of sidebands, which cascade further in four-wave mixing and reshape into the Raman-Kerr frequency combs. We reveal that the Raman scattering induces a strong instability of the platicon pulses associated with the Kerr effect and normal dispersion. This instability results in branching of platicons and complex spatiotemporal dynamics.

[EVALUATION OF NUTRIENT MEDIA TO GROW SOME INFECTION DISEASES CAUSATIVE AGENTS].

The detection methods for microbial agents that have eidemiological significance are diversity but cultivation on nutritional media remains the gold standard in microbiological diagnostics. Choice of medium depends on the conditions in which bacteria were early and is present. The nature life determines its physiological peculiarity then a metabolic plasticity promote to survive and to save the virulence. In this review on the example of Yersihia pestis and Vibrio cholerae performed evaluations of the efficient decisions for the bacterial media development. It is declared advantage of baker's yeast hydrolisate as the nutrition media base.

Harmonization of chaos into a soliton in Kerr frequency combs.

Dissipative Kerr solitons have paved the way to broadband and fully coherent optical frequency combs in microresonators. Here, we demonstrate numerically that slow frequency tuning of the pump laser in conjunction with phase or amplitude modulation corresponding to the free spectral range of the microresonator, provides reliable convergence of an initially excited chaotic comb state to a single dissipative Kerr soliton (DKS) state. The efficiency of this approach depends on both frequency tuning speed and modulation depth. The relevance of the proposed method is confirmed experimentally in a MgF2 microresonator.

[Adjuvant phlebotrophic therapy and its effect on anti-inflammatory response after sclerotherapy]. / Ad'yuvantnaya flebotropnaya terapiya i ee vliyanie na provospalitel'nyi otvet posle skleroterapii.

The study was aimed at evaluating the degree of the systemic and local inflammatory reaction after sclerotherapy, as well as the effect of micronized purified flavonoid fraction (Detralex) thereupon. The study comprised a total of 60 female patients presenting with reticular veins and telangiectasias (clinical class C1 according to the CEAP classification). The patients were subdivided into two groups, each comprising 30 women. The Study Group patients two weeks prior to the forthcoming sclerotherapy had been taking Detralex prescribed at a daily dose of 1,000 mg whose administration was prolonged by not less than 2 months after the procedure. The Control Group patients received no drug. We determined the systemic and local levels of inflammatory markers, anti-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors: C-reactive protein in a highly sensitive range, histamine, interleukin-1, tumour necrosis factor alpha and vascular endothelial growth factor. Patients in the Study and Control Groups on day 10 after sclerotherapy demonstrated a considerable increase in the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory markers. At the same time, excess of the baseline levels of the parameters in patients taking Detralex was statistically significantly lower as compared with the Control Group patients: C-reactive protein - 6.0±0.9 mg/l vs 8.3±1.0 mg/l; histamine - 87.0±9.8 µg/l vs 156.9±33.9 µg/l; interleukin-1 - 5.9±0.4 pg/ml vs7.6±0.6 pg/ml; tumour necrosis factor alpha - 5.9±0.9 pg/ml vs 7.5±0.4 pg/ml; vascular endothelial growth factor - 252.3±26.0 pg/ml vs 325.1±47.7 pg/ml. A conclusion was made that microsclerotherapy with the use of low-concentration detergent drugs was accompanied by a local vein-specific inflammatory reaction whose degree may be diminished by means of prescribing micronized purified flavonoid fraction (Detralex) two weeks prior to and during the whole subsequent period of phlebosclerosing treatment in a standard daily dose of 1,000 mg.

Frequency combs and platicons in optical microresonators with normal GVD.

We predict the existence of a novel type of the flat-top dissipative solitonic pulses, "platicons", in microresonators with normal group velocity dispersion (GVD). We propose methods to generate these platicons from cw pump. Their duration may be altered significantly by tuning the pump frequency. The transformation of a discrete energy spectrum of dark solitons of the Lugiato-Lefever equation into a quasicontinuous spectrum of platicons is demonstrated. Generation of similar structures is also possible with bi-harmonic, phase/amplitude modulated pump or via laser injection locking.

[Efficacy of compression knee-high socks ULCER X in treatment of venous-genesis trophic ulcers].

UNLABELLED: The study was aimed at comparatively assessing the efficacy of treatment for venous trophic ulcers at stages II-III of the wound process using special compression knee-length socks of the ULCER X kit (Sigvaris AG, St. Gallen, Switzerland) and long-stretch bandages Lauma. Compression therapy was included into the programme of outpatient treatment of forty 31-to-74-year-old patients presenting with trophic ulcers (stage II-III of the wound process) with an average area of 5,36±1,1 cm2. The Study Group consisting of 20 patients used compression knitted fabrics in the form of knee-length socks ULCER X and the comparison group (n=20) used long-stretch bandages Lauma. RESULTS: The obtained findings (6 months) demonstrated that using compression therapy exerted a positive effect on the process of healing of venous trophic ulcers, also proving advantages of compression therapy with the knee-length socks ULCER X that create an adequate level of pressure on the crus and maintain it in long-term daily use, reliably accelerating the healing of venous trophic ulcers as compared with elastic long-stretch bandages. The use of long-stretch elastic bandages in treatment of venous trophic ulcers turned out to be not only ineffective but fraught with a possibility of the development of various complications. During 6 months of follow up the patients using the special knee-length socks ULCER X were found to have 80 % of ulcers healed (16 patients), mainly within the first 2 months, whereas using elastic bandages resulted in only 30 % of healing (6 patients) by the end of the study. Along with it, we documented a considerable decrease in the malleolar circumference in the study group patients (from 30,05±0,78 to 28,35±0,86 cm) and in the control group from 31,2±30,35 to 30,25±0,75 cm), accompanied and followed by more than a two-fold increase in quality of life of the patients along all the parameters in the study group and a 1.4-fold increase in the control group patients.

Vortex twins and anti-twins supported by multiring gain landscapes.

We address the properties of multivortex soliton complexes supported by multiring gain landscapes in focusing Kerr nonlinear media with strong two-photon absorption. Stable complexes incorporating two, three, or four vortices featuring opposite or identical topological charges are shown to exist. In the simplest geometries with two amplifying rings vortex twins with equal topological charges exhibit asymmetric intensity distributions, while vortex anti-twins may be symmetric or asymmetric, depending on the gain level and separation between rings.

[Methods of intraductal pancreatic hypertension elimination].

The study is devoted to the surgical treatment of benign pancreatic cysts. Results of the internal drainage of pancreatic duct ul system in 76 patients were analyzed. Pancreaticoenterostomy combined with partial pancreatic resection in 21 cases, was performed in 53 patients. The rest 23 patients required no enterostomy of the main pancreatic duct. The lateral pancreaticojejunostomy was performed in 48 patients, of whom 32 patients had an original reconstructive circulation of the intestinal loop applied. By the width of the pancreatic duct less then 5 mm, the original method of resection of the front surface of the pancreas was applied (n=5). The bilateral pancreaticojejunostomy was performed in 3 patients with the pancreatic duct width less then 5 mm and diastasis of the latter. There was no postoperative lethality; complicated postoperative period required reoperation in 5,3%. Long-term results were considered good in 74,6%, satisfactory in 16,4% and unsatisfactory in 9% of patients.

Colon Microbiocenosis and Its Correction in Patients Receiving Programmed Hemodialysis.

The aim of the investigation was to study the species composition of colon microbiocenosis in patients with chronic kidney disease receiving programmed hemodialysis treatment and to evaluate the efficacy of its correction using a new immobilized synbiotic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Samples of colon microbiota from 62 patients undergoing programmed hemodialysis were studied before and after a course of diet therapy that included probiotic components, in particular, the immobilized synbiotic LB-complex L. Isolation of microorganisms was carried out according to our original method; for bacteria identification, a MALDI-TOF Autoflex speed mass spectrometer (Bruker Daltonik, Germany) was used in the Biotyper program mode. The results were assessed using the criteria proposed by the authors and based on the OST 91500.11.0004-2003. The efficacy of the immobilized synbiotic was determined based on the clinical data, questionnaires, and bacteriological tests. RESULTS: In patients receiving programmed hemodialysis (before the start of the diet therapy), chronic moderate inflammation and azotemia were found. Dysbiotic changes in microbiocenosis were revealed in all the examined patients; in the absence or suppression of lacto- and bifidoflora, the number and diversity of Bacteroides spp., Clostridium spp., Collinsella spp., Eggerthella spp. and other bacteria increased, which was consistent with the theory of functional redundancy of gut microbiota. From the answers to the questionnaires, a decrease in the quality of life was found (up to 70 points out of 100) according to six of the eight scales used. After the combined therapy using the synbiotic LB-complex L in the study group, 56% of the examined patients showed their microbiocenosis restored to normal; no grade III dysbiosis was detected in any patient. There was a significant decrease in CRP and ESR in these patients and an improvement in the quality of life by criteria reflecting physical health. CONCLUSION: In patients receiving programmed hemodialysis, the addition of a probiotic component in the diet therapy restores the evolutionarily determined structure of the microbiocenosis, normalizes its functions, and leads to an overall improvement in health and quality of life.

Electrical muscle stimulation with Veinoplus® device in the treatment of venous ulcers.

AIM: The aim of the study was to analyze the results of the electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) usage in patients with venous ulcers developed on top of a post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS). METHODS: Sixty patients (60 legs) with active venous ulcer (C6EsAsdpPr according to CEAP classification) were divided into two groups. In addition to the background therapy consisting of a standardized compression with ULCER X and intake of micronized purified flavonoid fraction (MPFF 1000 mg daily), all the patients in the main group underwent EMS with Veinoplus® V.I. for at least 3 times a day. Follow-up examinations were performed on days 30, 60 and 90. These included pain severity assessment with 100-mm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), disease severity measurement with VCSS (Venous Clinical Severity Score) and ankle circumference above malleolus, as well as recording number of healed venous ulcers. RESULTS: At day 90 pain severity was reduced in both main and control groups. However, according to VAS pain reduction rates were significantly higher in patients of the main group (from 8.7 ± 0.6 to 1.9 ± 0.3 in the main group and 8.4 ± 0.6 to 3.9 ± 0.5 in the control group). At the end of the study, ankle circumference decreased from 270.9 ± 4.6 mm to 257.1 ± 4.2 mm in the main and from 269.7 ± 5.3 mm to 263.4 ± 5.2 in the control group. VCSS before treatment was 7.3 ± 0.6 in the main group and 6.8 ± 0.5 in the control group. By day 90 VCSS significantly decreased to 2.3 ± 0.4 and 4.6 ± 0.5 in the main and control groups respectively. Healing rates were significantly higher in the main group. On day 90, the number of open venous ulcers in the main group was 3 times lower than in the control group (4 vs. 12). CONCLUSION: EMS demonstrated high efficacy and good tolerability and provided significant reduction in pain severity, VCSS score and ankle edema, as well as a 3-fold increase in the number of healed venous ulcers.

High-density miniaturized thermal shift assays as a general strategy for drug discovery.

More general and universally applicable drug discovery assay technologies are needed in order to keep pace with the recent advances in combinatorial chemistry and genomics-based target generation. Ligand-induced conformational stabilization of proteins is a well-understood phenomenon in which substrates, inhibitors, cofactors, and even other proteins provide enhanced stability to proteins on binding. This phenomenon is based on the energetic coupling of the ligand-binding and protein-melting reactions. In an attempt to harness these biophysical properties for drug discovery, fully automated instrumentation was designed and implemented to perform miniaturized fluorescence-based thermal shift assays in a microplate format for the high throughput screening of compound libraries. Validation of this process and instrumentation was achieved by investigating ligand binding to more than 100 protein targets. The general applicability of the thermal shift screening strategy was found to be an important advantage because it circumvents the need to design and retool new assays with each new therapeutic target. Moreover, the miniaturized thermal shift assay methodology does not require any prior knowledge of a therapeutic target's function, making it ideally suited for the quantitative high throughput drug screening and evaluation of targets derived from genomics.

Combinatorial networks.

A novel approach for the analysis and virtual screening of large combinatorial libraries is presented. The method attempts to relieve the computational burden by computing the properties of the products in a way that does not require their explicit enumeration. In particular, a small subset of compounds from the virtual library is identified and their descriptors are calculated in a conventional manner. The resulting data is used as input to a multilayer perceptron, which is trained to predict the descriptors of the products from the descriptors of their respective building blocks. Once trained, the neural network is able to estimate the descriptors of the remaining members of the virtual library with remarkable accuracy, without ever, generating their connection tables. This method eliminates the two most time-consuming steps in virtual screening and allows the processing of very large combinatorial libraries that are intractable with conventional techniques.

[Sequence analysis of hexon gene from adenovirus KR95 inducing hydropericardium syndrome in chickens]. / Analiz posledovatel'nosti gena geksona adenovirusa KR95, vyzyvaiushchego sindrom gidroksiperikardita u kur.

The nucleotide sequence of a part of the HindIII-D fragment (3300 b.p.) of adenovirus KR95 DNA has been determined. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence disclosed a continuous ORF for hexon gene (2814 b.p.) coding the 937 residue protein, part of ORF for the C-terminal region of pVI polypeptide, including 114 residues and the beginning of ORF coding 25 N-terminal residues for viral endoproteinase. Comparison of predicted KR95 hexon sequence and 8 mammalian and avian adenovirus hexon sequences revealed the highest homology between KR95 strain and avian adenoviruses FAV10 and FAV1 (91.1 and 80.1%, respectively). The results were used for creating a test system on the basis of the polymerase chain reaction. The system was used in analysis of fowl samples obtained from 12 poultry farms in Russia. The sequences of hexon gene amplified fragments in the isolated strains and similar fragments of other mammalian and avian adenoviruses have been compared.

[Analysis of ordinary microbial relationships in human colonic dysbacteriosis]. / Analiz prostykh mezhmikrobnykh vzaimootnoshenii v mikrobiotsenoze tolstoi kishki cheloveka.

A relationship between the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of representatives of the normal microflora in biocenosis of the colonic lumen (CL) was studied in 18 patients with subacute bacterial endocarditis, 18 patients with rheumatic heart disease, 13 with chronic renal failure and 50 healthy individuals without clinical signs of dysbacteriosis. The number of intermicrobial relationships was found to be rather small both in health and in disease. However, a disease shows a considerably greater number of different relations, synergic ones in particular. Analysis indicated that in the conditions under study 72 to 93% of relations that were realized in the healthy human CL biotope disappeared and the established intermicrobial relationships were found 86-97% quite new. Summing up, the authors have concluded that, first, the CL microflora exists under the conditions of excess nutrient substrate and is not a factor of self-regulation, second, changes in the body's metabolic systems are primary in the diseases examined, which the normal lumenal microflora is responsive to.

[Adenovirus KR95, isolated from chickens during an outbreak of hydropericarditis, is the pathogen of this disease]. / Adenovirus KR95, vydelennyi ot tsypliat vo vremia vspyshki gidroperikardita, iavliaetsiia vozbuditelem étogo zabolevaniia.

Virus agent KR95 was isolated from the liver of dieoff chickens during an outbreak of hydropericarditis syndrome at a poultry farm in Russia. Electron microscopic examination of the virus morphology, comparative restriction cleavage map construction, DNA-DNA hybridization, and analysis of structural proteins from purified and disrupted virions showed that the agent is to be classified as type 1 avian adenovirus.