Underestimated risks of recurrent long-range ash dispersal from northern Pacific Arc volcanoes.

Widespread ash dispersal poses a significant natural hazard to society, particularly in relation to disruption to aviation. Assessing the extent of the threat of far-travelled ash clouds on flight paths is substantially hindered by an incomplete volcanic history and an underestimation of the potential reach of distant eruptive centres. The risk of extensive ash clouds to aviation is thus poorly quantified. New evidence is presented of explosive Late Pleistocene eruptions in the Pacific Arc, currently undocumented in the proximal geological record, which dispersed ash up to 8000 km from source. Twelve microscopic ash deposits or cryptotephra, invisible to the naked eye, discovered within Greenland ice-cores, and ranging in age between 11.1 and 83.7 ka b2k, are compositionally matched to northern Pacific Arc sources including Japan, Kamchatka, Cascades and Alaska. Only two cryptotephra deposits are correlated to known high-magnitude eruptions (Towada-H, Japan, ca 15 ka BP and Mount St Helens Set M, ca 28 ka BP). For the remaining 10 deposits, there is no evidence of age- and compositionally-equivalent eruptive events in regional volcanic stratigraphies. This highlights the inherent problem of under-reporting eruptions and the dangers of underestimating the long-term risk of widespread ash dispersal for trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic flight routes.

[Organization of beds nursing care as a form of implementation of a comprehensive strategy for health and social care elderly people].

The article tells about one of the actual problem of the provision of medical and social care for elderly and old aged people, through the organization of nursing care beds in the Voronezh region. Since the beginning of 2014 there were organized 320 such beds in 27 medical organizations of the region. Regular surveys of patients and their relatives, as well as personnel involved in the care service, made it possible to make the necessary adjustments and the further expansion of services in other hospitals. Thus the end of 2014 the number of nursing beds has been increased to 525, so more than a thousand patients have received the necessary nursing care.

[The species composition and epidemiological significance of mosquitoes (Diptera, Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) in the foci of visceral leishmaniasis in the Papsky District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan].

In 2008, mosquito observations were made in 4 populated areas of the Papsky District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan (Fergana Valley), where visceral leishmaniasis cases had been registered. The mosquitoes were caught in Oltinkan, Gulistan, Chodak, and Chorkesar in July and in Oltinkan in September. A total of 7245 mosquitoes were caught in the living and utility premises during the observation period. The mosquito fauna of this focus was found to represent 10 species: P. papatasi, P. sergenti, P. alexandri, P. caucasicus, P. nuri, P. keshishiani, P. angustus, P. longiductus, S. grecovi, and S. sumbarica. It also contained P. papatasi, a vehicle for transmission of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis, P. sergenti, an anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis vehicle, and P. longiductus, a visceral leishmaniasis one. The major site of hatching and habitat for mosquitoes were utility premises for large and small cattle. A polymerase chain reaction was used to determine mosquito infestation with L. infantum. A total of 38 female pools of 5 species: P. papatasi, P. sergenti, P. keshishiani, P. angustus, and P. longiductus were tested. Testing of female mosquitoes for L. infantum yielded a negative result.

[The epidemiological features of visceral leishmaniasis, revealed on examination of children by polymerase chain reaction, in the Papsky District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan].

Patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) have been registered in the Papsky District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan, over the past 23 years. A total of 95 patients were notified in 1987 to 2009. In 2007-2008, a mass survey using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) within the international INTAS project 05-100006-8043 was conducted in 5 population aggregates of the Papsky District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan, where VL cases had been regularly registered in the last years. Bone marrow and venous and peripheral blood smears were used as a test material. A total of 234 samples, including 3 bone marrow biopsy specimens, 9 venous blood samples and 222 peripheral blood ones, were tested. All the samples were on the glass slides. Three groups were identified among the examinees. Group 1 consisted of 13 subjects who had been ill at different times. Group 2 comprised 27 children treated at hospital for various diagnoses. Group 3 (the largest one, n=190) included apparently healthy children. All the children of this group felt well and had no symptoms of any illnesses at the examination. In this group, 85 (44.7%) subjects were PCR-positive. Twenty-four (55.8%) of 43 children in the age group of 0-3 years were PCR-positive; the 4-7-year age group comprised 66 subjects and 33 (50%) of them were PCR-positive. Group over 7 years of age included 81 subjects; 45 (55.5%) were PCR-positive. The results of the mass survey with PCR, which covered the 5 population aggregates in the Papsky District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan, suggest the epidemic activity of a synathropic focus of VL and make us look at many fixed notions of its epidemiology in new contexts.

[Human and canine visceral leishmaniasis in the Papsky District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan: seroepidemiological and seroepizootological surveys].

In 2007 - 2008, four (Chodak, Oltinkan, Gulistan, and Chorkesar) of 9 population aggregates in the Papsky District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan, where visceral leishmaniasis (VL) cases had been registered in the last years were selected to make seroepidemiological and seroepizootological surveys within the international project funded by INTAS grant 05-100006-8043. The surveys of the populations were conducted visiting their homesteads. These additionally included children's and health care facilities where all children aged less than 14 years were examined. On examining the children, their peripheral blood (approximately 0.1 ml) was taken on filter paper for serological assays. Canine blood was sampled from the vein. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was carried out to detect antibodies to VL pathogens. A total of 521 children were examined for two years, by applying ELISA. Five hundred and fourteen blood samples from children younger than 14 years, 162 dogs, 4 foxes, and 1 cat were tested. Testing 514 children's blood samples for VL pathogen antigen ascertained that in the 4 population aggregates there was an average of 10% VL-seropositive children, including those who were ill with VL at the moment of the examination and had been ill. The highest number of VL-seropositive samples (14.9%) was found in the settlement of Chodak. VL pathogen antibodies were detected in 26 (61.9%) of 42 dogs with the clinical signs of VL. VL-positive tests were found in 26 (21.6%) of 120 apparently healthy dogs. The samples from 4 foxes and 1 cat were negative. Immunological findings indicated that 0-3-year-old children were a group that is most susceptible to VL in the study focus of this disease. The high proportion of dogs with VL may account for the rise in infant morbidity and suggests the epizootic strain in the focus of VL in the Papsky District.

[Influence of carbon dioxide on the impregnation of the nervous tissue by silver].

It has been shown that 4% carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air above reaction mixture inhibits the initiation of the formation of silver nanoparticles from complexes with biogenic amines (noradrenaline and serotonin). At the same concentration of CO2 in the air above solution of AgNO3, which is used for staining nerve tissues by the method of Golgi, neurons are preferentially stained, whereas at a concentration of 0.06%, vessels and poor neurons are stained. It is suggested that the entry of free silver ions to neurons is due to the inhibition of sites of initiation of silver nanoparticles in vessels at high CO2 concentrations, while the lack of inhibition leads to silver precipitation in vessels at low CO2 concentrations. It can be assumed that, for stable silver impregnation, the concentration of CO2 must be controlled.

[The different effects of carbon dioxide on the toxicity of silver ions for prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms].

The effect of carbon dioxide on survivability of bacteria Escherichia coli and the germination ability ofconidia of the fungus Neurospora crassa in the presence of silver nitrate was studied. It was shown that carbon dioxide increased the toxic effect of silver ions on prokaryotic cells of E. coli but did not change the survivability of spores of the eukaryote N. crassa.

[Protective effect of melatonin on behavioral and morphological disturbances induced by cerebrocranial trauma in different daytime in rats].

Chronic administration of the pineal hormone melatonin improves the cognitive activity and stimulates locomotion in rats, the effect being more pronounced in evening hours. On the background of melatonin action, local cerebrocranial trauma produces less pronounced behavioral and morphological disturbances, which more rapidly disappear after brain injury in the evening. The protective effect of the hormone is less pronounced in the morning hours.

Identification of the agent causing visceral leishmaniasis in Uzbeki and Tajiki foci by analysing parasite DNA extracted from patients' Giemsa-stained tissue preparations.

Our present study is the first attempt to characterize Leishmania parasites from foci in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan endemic for visceral leishmaniasis (VL). PCR-sequencing of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 and multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT) were applied to DNA extracted from preparations of Giemsa-stained bone marrow aspirates from 13 cases of VL. L. infantum was shown to cause VL currently occurring in this area. MLMT applying 14 microsatellite markers, previously shown to be polymorphic for strains of the L. donovani complex, revealed that microsatellite profiles of parasites causing human VL in the Namangan and Jizzakh regions in Uzbekistan, and Penjikent region in Tajikistan, basically coincide with those of strains of L. infantum MON-1. Furthermore, these parasites were assigned to a distinct cluster genetically clearly separated from the populations of L. infantum MON-1 from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The existence of a genetically homogeneous but distinct group of L. infantum MON-1 indicates that the parasites circulating in the Uzbeki and Tajiki foci studied have been restricted there for a long time rather than having been recently introduced from elsewhere by human or animal reservoir migration.

[Carbon dioxide of air inhibits the formation of silver nanoparticles initiated by proteins in polyacrylamide gel and in solution].

It was shown that the detection of proteins in polyacrylamide gel by silver is inhibited by contact with air of the ammonia complex with silver ions used at the first stage of detection. It was proved by experiments on the reduction of silver by ethanolamine from a complex with ethanolamine and by formaldehyde from a complex with ammonia that the formation of silver nanoparticles initiated by proteins is inhibited by air carbon dioxide. The participation of carbon dioxide in this process is discussed. It was found that even the breathing of an experimenter can induce variations in carbon dioxide concentration sufficient to adversely affect the reproducibility of the silver staining techniques. It was concluded that, for stable staining of proteins by silver in polyacrylamide gel, it is necessary to maintain a low concentration of carbon dioxide in air over the detection solutions.

[The cytopathogenic activity of Campylobacter isolated from different sources]. / Tsitopatogennaia aktivnost' kampilobakterii, vydelennykh iz razlichnykh istochnikov.

The data on the cytopathogenic activity of campylobacteria isolated from different sources are presented. 84.7 % of the isolated campylobacteria have been shown to possess cytopathogenicity with respect to Hep-2 cell cultures. The greatest number of highly cytopathogenic strains (52.6 %) has been registered among clinical isolates of campylobacteria. At the same time 44.1 % of highly cytopathogenic strains have been isolated from chickens, which is indicative of the potential danger of poultry as the source of Campylobacter infection. In the course of the epidemiological surveillance of campylobacteriosis the determination of cytopathogenically active Campylobacter strains is necessary.

[The fatty acid composition of the total lipids in bacteria of the genus Campylobacter]. / Zhirnokislotnyi sostav summarnykh lipidov bakterii roda Campylobacter.

Composition of fatty acids of total lipids in home strains of campylobacteria has been studied. Lipids of all the strains of C. jejuni and C. coli mainly consist of saturated fatty acids (from 75.7 to 78.7%) with predominance of tetradecanoic and hexadecanoic fatty acids. The level of unsaturated fatty acids is considerably lower (from 21.0 to 22.5%); These acids are mainly presented by hexadecene acid. Qualitative composition of fatty acids of total lipids in C. jejuni and C. coli does not permit using it for differentiation within these species.

[The lymph and blood microcirculatory beds of the pancreas in the early period of experimental acute pancreatitis]. / Limfo- i gemomikrotsirkuliatornye rusla podzheludochnoi zhelezy v rannie sroki ostrogo éksperimental'nogo pankreatita.

Results of the study evidence that in the early period of acute experimental pancreatitis (AEP)--from 10 minutes to 2 hours--changes in acino-capillary complex consist in compensatory-adaptive reaction and are related to metabolic disorders. Abortive interstitial oedema disappears in 20-30-minutes, dilated lymphatic vessels being visible macroscopically. Further progress of oedema with consequent focal haemorrhagic pancreonecrosis is possible in case of insufficient lymphatic drainage. The latter may be due both to destruction of lymphatic endotheliocytes and barrage of lymphatic ways with agglutinates. This indicates primacy of enzymatic alteration of pancreatocytes and secondary nature of vascular changes as well as necessity of early intensive care aimed at correction of lympho- and haemocirculation.

[The insecticidal activity of the preparation K-othrin in relation to different species of arthropods]. / Insektitsidnaia aktivnost' preparata K-otrin po otnosheniiu k chlenistonogim raznykh vidov.

A high insecticidal activity of K-otrin (flow), a preparation containing 2.5% of deltametrin, towards various arthropods, was revealed in laboratory experiments and in field trials. The effective doses were determined: 0.01-0.1 g/m2. Residual effects of the insecticide on the treated surfaces persist for 3 months and longer. Toxicologic studies revealed the possibility of using K-otrin for medical disinfection. The preparation is permitted for use by the Ministry of Health.