The Biological Active Substances of Taraxacum officinale and Arctium lappa from the Siberian Federal District.

Currently, scientists are increasingly focusing on utilizing the natural flora of the planet to search for and isolate individual bioactive substances that prevent various diseases, contribute to increased life expectancy, and affect all major life-supporting systems in the human body. This study describes the examination of the composition of plant raw materials from the Siberian Federal District. The research focuses on plant specimens from the root parts of Taraxacum officinale and Arctium lappa, collected in the Kemerovo region. The study determines the contents of the water-soluble vitamins B and C in the research subjects. The investigation includes assessing antioxidant properties, antimicrobial activity, and flavonoid content in extracts based on plant raw materials. All samples show a high percentage of antioxidant activity, with the highest antioxidant activity for T. officinale at 85.51 and that for A. lappa at 88.97. The results indicate low antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli (growth inhibition zone up to 15.5 mm). Plant extracts contain significant amounts of B-group vitamins, with pyridoxine in T. officinale (156.40 µg/mL) and thiamine (46.20 µg/mL) and pyridoxine (357.10 µg/mL) in Arctium lappa. Flavonoids (rutin and quercetin) are identified in T. officinale and A. lappa extracts based on the study results.

Microorganisms for Bioremediation of Soils Contaminated with Heavy Metals.

Heavy-metal contaminants are one of the most relevant problems of contemporary agriculture. High toxicity and the ability to accumulate in soils and crops pose a serious threat to food security. To solve this problem, it is necessary to accelerate the pace of restoration of disturbed agricultural lands. Bioremediation is an effective treatment for agricultural soil pollution. It relies on the ability of microorganisms to remove pollutants. The purpose of this study is to create a consortium based on microorganisms isolated from technogenic sites for further development in the field of soil restoration in agriculture. In the study, promising strains that can remove heavy metals from experimental media were selected: Pantoea sp., Achromobacter denitrificans, Klebsiella oxytoca, Rhizobium radiobacter, and Pseudomonas fluorescens. On their basis, consortiums were compiled, which were investigated for the ability to remove heavy metals from nutrient media, as well as to produce phytohormones. The most effective was Consortium D, which included Achromobacter denitrificans, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Rhizobium radiobacter in a ratio of 1:1:2, respectively. The ability of this consortium to produce indole-3-acetic acid and indole-3-butyric acid was 18.03 µg/L and 2.02 µg/L, respectively; the absorption capacity for heavy metals from the experimental media was Cd (56.39 mg/L), Hg (58.03 mg/L), As (61.17 mg/L), Pb (91.13 mg/L), and Ni (98.22 mg/L). Consortium D has also been found to be effective in conditions of mixed heavy-metal contamination. Due to the fact that the further use of the consortium will be focused on the soil of agricultural land cleanup, its ability to intensify the process of phytoremediation has been studied. The combined use of Trifolium pratense L. and the developed consortium ensured the removal of about 32% Pb, 15% As, 13% Hg, 31% Ni, and 25% Cd from the soil. Further research will be aimed at developing a biological product to improve the efficiency of remediation of lands withdrawn from agricultural use.

Care Coordination for Breast Cancer Survivors in Urban Underserved Communities: Will Treatment Summaries and Survivorship Care Plans Be Enough?

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined cancer care coordination at federally qualified health centers (FHQCs). The Commission on Cancer's (CoC) standard 3.3, i.e., treatment summaries and survivorship care plans (TS-SCPs), is aimed at improving communication between cancer specialists and primary care providers (PCPs) across all healthcare systems. Whether this will improve care at FQHCs is unclear. We sought to understand breast cancer care coordination at FQHCs before the stepwise implementation of standard 3.3. METHODS: In 2014, we conducted a retrospective chart review at five Chicago FQHCs. We used ICD-9 codes to identify 109 breast cancer cases diagnosed within 5 years of the chart review. We examined charts for (1) external cancer records, (2) PCP documentation of breast cancer histories, and (3) documentation of PCP engagement in cancer-relevant follow-up care. RESULTS: Less than 50% of the charts had PCP documentation of more than one area of cancer-relevant follow-up care. Availability of external records did not increase PCP engagement in cancer-relevant follow-up care. Instead, PCPs who documented information about their patient's breast cancer treatments also documented more cancer-relevant follow-up care. CONCLUSION: Before the stepwise implementation of TS-SCPs, less than 50% of the charts had PCP documentation of more than one area of cancer-related follow-up care. The TS-SCP is designed to facilitate care coordination between specialists and PCPs through increased communication. Our results suggest the availability of external cancer information did not necessarily translate into care delivery. This suggests communication of information alone is insufficient.

Malignant mucosal melanoma in the olfactory cleft of a 10-year-old child.

Mucosal malignant melanoma is a rare but aggressive neoplasm with high rates of recurrence and death. It is known that two-thirds of mucosal melanoma cases arise in the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses in adults. However, there have been few studies until now on children with mucosal malignant melanoma and the related treatment. We report on a 10-year-old girl with mucosal malignant melanoma presented as a nasal polyp, which was removed via endoscopic sinus surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy without recurrence.

Kinetic solvers with adaptive mesh in phase space.

An adaptive mesh in phase space (AMPS) methodology has been developed for solving multidimensional kinetic equations by the discrete velocity method. A Cartesian mesh for both configuration (r) and velocity (v) spaces is produced using a "tree of trees" (ToT) data structure. The r mesh is automatically generated around embedded boundaries, and is dynamically adapted to local solution properties. The v mesh is created on-the-fly in each r cell. Mappings between neighboring v-space trees is implemented for the advection operator in r space. We have developed algorithms for solving the full Boltzmann and linear Boltzmann equations with AMPS. Several recent innovations were used to calculate the discrete Boltzmann collision integral with dynamically adaptive v mesh: the importance sampling, multipoint projection, and variance reduction methods. We have developed an efficient algorithm for calculating the linear Boltzmann collision integral for elastic and inelastic collisions of hot light particles in a Lorentz gas. Our AMPS technique has been demonstrated for simulations of hypersonic rarefied gas flows, ion and electron kinetics in weakly ionized plasma, radiation and light-particle transport through thin films, and electron streaming in semiconductors. We have shown that AMPS allows minimizing the number of cells in phase space to reduce the computational cost and memory usage for solving challenging kinetic problems.