A subgroup of light-driven sodium pumps with an additional Schiff base counterion.

Light-driven sodium pumps (NaRs) are unique ion-transporting microbial rhodopsins. The major group of NaRs is characterized by an NDQ motif and has two aspartic acid residues in the central region essential for sodium transport. Here we identify a subgroup of the NDQ rhodopsins bearing an additional glutamic acid residue in the close vicinity to the retinal Schiff base. We thoroughly characterize a member of this subgroup, namely the protein ErNaR from Erythrobacter sp. HL-111 and show that the additional glutamic acid results in almost complete loss of pH sensitivity for sodium-pumping activity, which is in contrast to previously studied NaRs. ErNaR is capable of transporting sodium efficiently even at acidic pH levels. X-ray crystallography and single particle cryo-electron microscopy reveal that the additional glutamic acid residue mediates the connection between the other two Schiff base counterions and strongly interacts with the aspartic acid of the characteristic NDQ motif. Hence, it reduces its pKa. Our findings shed light on a subgroup of NaRs and might serve as a basis for their rational optimization for optogenetics.

[AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE HISTOLOGICAL FIBRO GENESIS ABILITIES IN THE AREA OF IMPLANTATION OF ALOTRANSPLANTATES APPLYING INTRAABDOMINAL AND PREPERITONEAL PLASTIC SURGERY].

The histological fibro genesis abilities in the area of implantation of allotransplantates applying intraabdominal and preperitoneal plastic surgery were examined during experimental research. The experiment involved 12 Russian chinchilla rabbits. The animals were spitted into two groups: I group--operated using IPOM methodology (intraperitonealonlaymesh, n = 6) with the installation "Proceed" mesh made by "Ethicon", group II--modeling preperitoneal plastics with the installation of "Ethicon's Ultrapro" mesh (n = 6). After removing the animals from the experiment, the implants with adhering musculo-aponeurotic tissue layer were excised and sent for histological examination. At the same time the severity of the inflammatory process were rated, the composition of the inflammatory infiltrate, germination of the connective tissue through the pores of the prosthesis and neovascularization. Analyzing the research data of histological connective abilities complexes formed in the area of the allotransplants implantation using intra-abdominal and pre-peritoneal plastic during the experiment, we can conclude that intra-abdominal installation of mesh prostheses reduces the severity of inflammatory changes surrounding tissues and reduces the probability of seroma formation in comparison with the placement of the pre-peritoneal implant.

Modification of fullerene nanocolumn structure by accelerated C60 ions.

Crystalline C60 and amorphous graphite-like films of nanocolumn arrays fabricated by glancing angle deposition of C60 fullerene at substrate temperatures of -425 K were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic-force microscopy (AFM). Characteristic dimension of columns is 200-400 nm. We used co-deposition of C60 molecules and accelerated C60 ions to modify the structure and properties of nanocolumn arrays. Influence of incidence angle for C60 ions on formation of film morphology was revealed. Raman spectrum analysis showed that amorphous carbon nanocolumns consist of nanographite areas with average size of -1.5 nm. The films have high conductivity (close to graphite) and have no mechanical stresses. The carbon films were applied in all-solid-state rechargeable thin-film battery as an anode layer. The nanocolumn amorphous carbon film as anode electrode showed the discharge capacity of about 50 microAh cm(-2)microm(-1) and good cycling ability over 100 times in full cell system.

[Surgical treatment of duodenal fistulae].

The experience of surgical treatment of 10 patients with external intestinal fistulae was analyzed. The plot of the operation was to exlude the duodenum from the digestion by performing the retrocolic gastroenteroanastomosis after Roux or on the ultrashort loop. Early operation prevent septic complications and electrolyte disbalance. Duodenal fistulae, developed on the background of pancreonecrosis or after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography, necessitate the external choledochial drainage.

Nanocrystalline diamond thin films deposited from C60 monoenergetic fullerene ion beam.

Carbon films 250 division by 500 nm in thickness deposited on Si wafers from mass-selected flow of accelerated C60 ions with energies of 5.0 +/- 0.1 keV at temperatures of 300 K and 673 K are characterized by TEM and nanoindentation. On the TEM images of the films deposited at 673 K, nanocrystalline graphite with the typical grain size of -6 nm is observed. The films deposited at 300 K are transparent in visible light. TEM study of these films has revealed structural elements with lattice spacing close to that of diamond and the grain size of about 4 nm. Nanohardness and elastic modulus of the films prepared at a substrate temperature of 300 K were 23.1 +/- 0.2 GPa and 200 +/- 1 GPa, respectively. Possible mechanisms of the carbon films structure formation are suggested in the framework of a hydrodynamic shock wave model.

[Effect of lycopene on blood lipoproteids in women with type 2 diabetes mellitus in postmenopause]. / Deistvie likopina na lipoproteidy krovi u zhenshchin s sakharnym diabetom 2 tipa v postmenopauze.

Blind randomized placebo-control research included 39 women. The following criteria were: menopause period for more then 1 year long; diabetes mellitus; arterial hypertension; hypercholesterolemia. The patients were divided into two groups. Women from the first group (N = 24) were given 30 mg lycopene (composed with "Tomatol") per day during 24 weeks. The second group (N = 15) were given placebo. It was showed that during 12-week "Tomatol" intake we state that lycopene concentration in serum increased twice (337.0 +/- 133.0 nM), total cholesterol (CH) and CH LDL decreased by 12% and 16% respectively. The lipoproteins spectrum normalization correlated to serum antioxidative activity (r = 0.30, p < 0.05), and malonic dialdehyde concentration decrease by 44.8% correlated to lycopene increase (r = -0.51, p < 0.05). Our results give us a possibility to use "Tomatol" as an additional medicine for the prevention of atherosclerosis.

[First experience of laparoscopic esophagocardiomyotomy for achalasia of the cardia]. / Pervyi opyt laparoskopicheskoi ézofagokardiomiotomii pri akhalazii kardii.

The first experience of extramucosal laparoscopic esophagocardiomyotomy performance in 12 patients for achalasia of cardia was summarized. There were presented main technical stages of the operation, indications, early and immediate results of its application as well.

[Application of clexane for prophylaxis of thromboembolic complications in surgery of morbid obesity]. / Primenenie kleksana dlia profilaktiki tromboémbolicheskikh oslozhnenii v khirurgii patologicheskogo ozhireniia.

The results of comparative clinical application of low-molecular heparin Clexan vs heparin for the thromboembolic complications prophylaxis in surgical treatment of morbid obesity were summarized.

[Effects of cardiovascular therapy on risk of the development of ischemia and myocardial infarction in the postoperative period in cancer patients with ischemic heart diseases]. / Vliianie serdechno-sosudistoi terapii na risk razvitiia ishemii i infarkta miokarda v posleoperatsionnom periode u onkologicheskikh bol'nykh, stradaiushchikh ishemicheskoi bolezn'iu serdtsa.

Analysis of 636 surgical interventions for malignant tumors in 576 chronic coronary patients showed that beta-blockers decreased the relative risk of ischemia and myocardial infarction during the postoperative period. Calcium antagonists verapamil and dihydropyridines also essentially decreased the probability of myocardial infarction and less so of myocardial ischemia. Antiischemic effect of nitrates was insignificant, and they increased the risk of myocardial infarction. Antioxidants did not prevent ischemia but significantly decreased the risk of infarction. Therapy with non-fractionated heparin involved the risk of ischemia and myocardial infarction. The causes of low cardioprotective effects of nitrates and heparin can be explained by the discontinuation syndrome, which increases the risk of exacerbation of coronary disease during the postoperative period.

[Application of adjustable gastric bandage in surgical treatment of morbid obesity]. / Primenenie upravliaemogo bandazha zheludka dlia khirurgicheskogo lecheniia patologicheskogo ozhireniia.

Experience of surgical treatment of 8 patients with morbid obesity, using regulated cuff Lap Band, was adduced. Body mass of patients have constituted from 105 to 185, (14.5 +/- 2.5) kg at average, body mass index--from 38 to 60 kg/m2. In all patients good result of treatment was noted in term from 6 to 28 months. Immediate results of the method usage gives evidence of its efficacy.

Gender effects in children's beliefs about school performance: a cross-cultural study.

Do young boys and girls understand what leads to academic success (e.g., talent, effort, good teaching, luck) in the same way? Do young girls and boys have equivalent perceptions of their academic competence? Are these beliefs engendered in the same way across sociocultural contexts? In a cross-cultural study of over 3,000 children in grades 2 to 6, ages 7.2 to 13.6, we discovered that boys and girls around the world have very similar ideas about what generally leads to academic success. Moreover, in the few contexts where boys' and girls' academic performances were equal, their beliefs were also equal. However, when girls outperformed boys, their beliefs in their own talent were no greater than boys' beliefs, even though they did have stronger beliefs than boys in other facets of their achievement potential (e.g., putting forth effort, being lucky, getting their teacher's help). Our findings support the generally close correspondence between children's achievement and their competence-related beliefs, with the exception that young girls appear to specifically discount their talent. The effects held regardless of the children's achievement, intelligence, or age (approximately 8 to 13 years). Girls were more biased in some contexts than in others, however, suggesting that competence-related biases are rooted in culture-specific aspects of school settings.

[Reoperation in late terms after surgical treatment of morbid obesity]. / Vypolnenie povtornoi operatsii v otdalennom periode posle khirurgicheskogo lecheniia patologicheskogo ozhireniia.

Experience of the reoperations performance after jejunoileoshunting and gastric volume reducing operations for morbid obesity (MO) was demonstrated on. They may serve as a concluding phase of MO surgical treatment (various variants of dermatolipectomy) or as a reconstructive-restorational operations, directed on correction of various pathological syndromes.

[Several parameters of the state of the nervous, immune and endocrine systems in newborn rats exposed to irradiation during the preimplantation period of embryogenesis]. / Nekotorye pokazateli sostoianiia nervnoi, immunnoi i éndokrinnoi sistem u novorozhdennykh krys, podvergshikhsia oblucheniiu v doimplantasionnyi period émbriogeneza.

Protracted prenatal irradiation of animals at the preimplantation stage of embryogenesis is shown to produce disturbances in the development of regulation systems, with their consequences persisting up to sexually mature period of postnatal life. Unknown before, these effects of preimplantation irradiation give the experimental confirmation to the main statement of the previously proposed theoretical concept of the "systemic teratogenesis": the ultimate effect of prenatal irradiation is a distortion of the structure of postnatal neuroimmunoendocrine regulation in the direction of overdevelopment of its endocrine component with the following coadaptive underdevelopment of the nervous and immune components.

Children's action-control beliefs about school performance: how do American children compare with German and Russian children?

Using the revised Control, Agency, and Means-ends Interview (T. D. Little, G. Oettingen, & P. B. Baltes, 1995), we compared American children's (Grades 2-6) action-control beliefs about school performance with those of German and Russian children (Los Angeles, n = 657; East Berlin, n = 313; West Berlin, n = 517; Moscow, n = 541). Although we found pronounced cross-setting similarities in the children's everyday causality beliefs about what factors produce school performance, we obtained consistent cross-setting differences in (a) the mean levels of the children's personal agency and control expectancy and (b) the correlational magnitudes between these beliefs and actual school performance. Notably, the American children were at the extremes of the cross-national distributions: (a) they had the highest mean levels of personal agency and control expectancy but (b) the lowest beliefs-performance correlations. Such outcomes indicate that the low beliefs-performance correlations that are frequently obtained in American research appear to be specific to American settings.

[Dependence of biological activity of triamine type platinum (II) complexes on their composition and structure]. / Zavisimost' biologicheskoi aktivnosti kompleksov platiny(II) triaminovogo tipa ot ikh sostava i stroeniia.

The growth-inhibiting effect on the roots of maize and cucumber shoots was studied. We tested 53 triamine complexes of platinum (cis*- and trans*-[Pt(NH3)*2LCl]Cl, cis*- and trans*-[PtHx*2LCl]Cl and [PtenLCl]Cl, where Hx is hydroxylamine, en is ethylenediamine, and L are various heterocycles, which either have biological activity and occur in the cells or have no biological activity and are foreign to the cells). The cis*-[Pt(NH3)*2LCl]Cl and [PtenLCl]Cl complexes showed cytostatic properties, and the latter were effective at higher concentrations. Small changes in the composition of ligand L led to marked changes in the biological activity of the complexes. In order to characterize the effect of the complexes, we first determined the time of development of the lateral root from its initial appearance to its divergence from the main root (Tlat). The complexes with cytostatic properties markedly inhibited root branching and increased Tlat. The other complexes had virtually no effect on Tlat and reduced the zone of lateral roots only at the expense of inhibition of the main root growth. The complexes with cytostatic properties markedly inhibited the main root growth with time. Parallel studies conducted in the Oncological Research Center, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences have shown that the complexes with cytostatic properties display distinct antitumor activity.

[Intensive therapy of patients surgically treated in acute gastrointestinal hemorrhage of peptic ulcer etiology]. / Intensivnaia terapiia bol'nykh, operirovannykh po povodu ostrogo zheludochno-kishechnogo krovotecheniia iazvennoi étiologii.

The emergency operations were performed in 6,506 patients for acute hemorrhage in gastric and duodenal ulcer. A method for the complex corrigative intensive therapy is presented. The use of combined parenteral and enteral nutrition facilitates a care of the patients, favours the prophylaxis of complications. Because of incomplete rehabilitation by the moment of patient's discharge from the hospital, it is necessary to continue the corrigative therapy directed at liquidation of the globular volume deficiency, correction of disproteinemia, normalization of the indices of central hemodynamics and metabolic processes in the organs and tissues.