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Epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) is a dermatological condition marked by skin fragility and blister formation resulting from separation within the basal layer of the epidermis, which can be attributed to various genetic etiologies. This study presents three pathogenic de novo variants in young children, with clinical manifestations appearing as early as the neonatal period. The variants contribute to the EBS phenotype through two distinct mechanisms: direct keratin abnormalities due to pathogenic variants in the Krt14 gene, and indirect effects via pathogenic mutation in the KLHL24 gene, which interfere with the natural proteasome-mediated degradation pathway of KRT14. We report one severe case of EBS with mottled pigmentation arising from the Met119Thr pathogenic variant in KRT14, another case involving a pathogenic KLHL24 Met1Val variant, and a third case featuring the hot spot mutation Arg125His in KRT14, all manifesting within the first few weeks of life. This research underscores the complexity of genetic influences in EBS and highlights the importance of early genetic screening for accurate diagnosis and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present a novel approach for emotional speech lip-reading (EMOLIPS). This two-level approach to emotional speech to text recognition based on visual data processing is motivated by human perception and the recent developments in multimodal deep learning. The proposed approach uses visual speech data to determine the type of speech emotion. The speech data are then processed using one of the emotional lip-reading models trained from scratch. This essentially resolves the multi-emotional lip-reading issue associated with most real-life scenarios. We implemented these models as a combination of EMO-3DCNN-GRU architecture for emotion recognition and 3DCNN-BiLSTM architecture for automatic lip-reading. We evaluated the models on the CREMA-D and RAVDESS emotional speech corpora. In addition, this article provides a detailed review of recent advances in automated lip-reading and emotion recognition that have been developed over the last 5 years (2018–2023). In comparison to existing research, we mainly focus on the valuable progress brought with the introduction of deep learning to the field and skip the description of traditional approaches. The EMOLIPS approach significantly improves the state-of-the-art accuracy for phrase recognition due to considering emotional features of the pronounced audio-visual speech up to 91.9% and 90.9% for RAVDESS and CREMA-D, respectively. Moreover, we present an extensive experimental investigation that demonstrates how different emotions (happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and neutral), valence (positive, neutral, and negative) and binary (emotional and neutral) affect automatic lip-reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition of emotions and sentiment (affective states) from human audio–visual information is widely used in healthcare, education, entertainment, and other fields; therefore, it has become a highly active research area. The large variety of corpora with heterogeneous data available for the development of single-corpus approaches for recognition of affective states may lead to approaches trained on one corpus being less effective on another. In this article, we propose a multi-corpus learned audio–visual approach for emotion and sentiment recognition. It is based on the extraction of mid-level features at the segment level using two multi-corpus temporal models (a pretrained transformer with GRU layers for the audio modality and pre-trained 3D CNN with BiLSTM-Former for the video modality) and on predicting affective states using two single-corpus cross-modal gated self-attention fusion (CMGSAF) models. The proposed approach was tested on the RAMAS and CMU-MOSEI corpora. To date, our approach has outperformed state-of-the-art audio–visual approaches for emotion recognition by 18.2% (78.1% vs. 59.9%) for the CMU-MOSEI corpus in terms of the Weighted Accuracy and by 0.7% (82.8% vs. 82.1%) for the RAMAS corpus in terms of the Unweighted Average Recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A noticeable feature of labile heavy metals is that they are highly prone to be to bioaccumulated and bioassimilated in natural environments. When in high concentrations, these metals are toxic to living organisms, as is particularly evident in the coastal shallow marine zones, which are most strongly affected by anthropogenic processes. This paper presents data on the contents of heavy metals, concentrations of organic carbon, and the granulometric composition of bottom-sediment cores in three shallow bights of the Peter the Great Bay, in two of which (Voevoda and Novgorodskaya bights), large bottom areas are overgrown with seagrass Zostera marina L. (sea zostera, ZM). Data on the vertical distribution of heavy metals and organic carbon in the cores showed that the highest concentrations of Zn and Cu (up to 204 and 91 mg/kg, respectively) occur in samples from Voevoda bight, and the highest concentrations of Mn and Pb (up to 344 and 45 mg/kg, respectively) were found in Novgorodskaya bight, where meadows of the seagrass grow. The highest Cr, Ni, and Co contents (up to 69, 31, and 13 mg/kg, respectively) were identified in Uglovoy bight, where sea grass is practically absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many researchers have been seeking robust emotion recognition system for already last two decades. It would advance computer systems to a new level of interaction, providing much more natural feedback during human–computer interaction due to analysis of user affect state. However, one of the key problems in this domain is a lack of generalization ability: we observe dramatic degradation of model performance when it was trained on one corpus and evaluated on another one. Although some studies were done in this direction, visual modality still remains under-investigated. Therefore, we introduce the visual cross-corpus study conducted with the utilization of eight corpora, which differ in recording conditions, participants' appearance characteristics, and complexity of data processing. We propose a visual-based end-to-end emotion recognition framework, which consists of the robust pre-trained backbone model and temporal sub-system in order to model temporal dependencies across many video frames. In addition, a detailed analysis of mistakes and advantages of the backbone model is provided, demonstrating its high ability of generalization. Our results show that the backbone model has achieved the accuracy of 66.4% on the AffectNet dataset, outperforming all the state-of-the-art results. Moreover, the CNN-LSTM model has demonstrated a decent efficacy on dynamic visual datasets during cross-corpus experiments, achieving comparable with state-of-the-art results. In addition, we provide backbone and CNN-LSTM models for future researchers: they can be accessed via GitHub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological and neurological studies earlier suggested that a personality type can be determined by the whole face as well as by its sides. This article discusses novel research using deep neural networks that address the features of both sides of the face (hemifaces) to assess the human's Big Five personality traits (PT). For this, we have developed a real-time approach called EmoFormer with cross-hemiface attention. The novelty of the presented approach lies in the confirmation that each hemiface exhibits high predictive capabilities in terms of human's PT distinction. Our approach is based on a novel mid-level emotional feature extractor for each hemiface and a cross-hemiface attention fusion strategy for hemiface feature aggregation. The consequent fusion of both hemifaces has outperformed the use of the whole face by the relative value of 3.6% in terms of Concordance Correlation Coefficient (0.634 vs. 0.612) on the ChaLearn First Impressions V2 corpus. The proposed approach has also outperformed all the existing state-of-the-art approaches for PT assessment based on the face modality. We have also analyzed the "best hemiface", the one that predicts PT more accurately in terms of demographic characteristics (gender, ethnicity, and age). We have found that the best hemiface for two of the five PT (Openness to experience and Non-Neuroticism) is different depending on demographic characteristics. For the other three traits, the right hemiface is dominant for Extraversion, while the left one is more indicative of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness. These findings support previous psychological and neurological research. Besides, we provide an open-source framework referred to as OCEAN-AI that can be seamlessly integrated into expert systems with practical applications in various domains including healthcare, education, and human resources. • An efficient EmoFormer cross-hemiface attention approach for Big five assessment. • A novel emotional mid-level feature extractor for personality traits assessment. • A novel cross-hemiface attention fusion strategy for personality traits assessment. • An open-source framework called OCEAN-AI for personality traits assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epidermolysis bullosa is a severe hereditary disease caused by mutations in genes encoding cutaneous basement membrane proteins. These mutations lead to dermal-epidermal junction failure and, as a result, to disturbances in the morphological integrity of the skin. Clinically, it manifests in the formation of blisters on the skin or mucosa that in some cases can turn into non-healing chronic wounds, which not only impairs patient's quality of life, but also is a live-threatening condition. Now, the main approaches in the treatment of epidermolysis bullosa are symptomatic therapy and palliative care, though they are little effective and are aimed at reducing the pain, but not to complete recovery. In light of this, the development of new treatment approaches aimed at correction of genetic defects is in progress. Various methods based on genetic engineering technologies, transplantation of autologous skin cells, progenitor skin cells, as well as hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells are studied. This review analyzes the pathogenetic methods developed for epidermolysis bullosa treatment based on the latest achievements of molecular genetics and cellular technologies, and discusses the prospects for the use of these technologies for the therapy of epidermolysis bullosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KillerRed is a unique phototoxic red fluorescent protein that can be used to induce local oxidative stress by green-orange light illumination. Here we studied phototoxicity of KillerRed targeted to cytoplasmic surface of lysosomes via fusion with Rab7, a small GTPase that is known to be attached to membranes of late endosomes and lysosomes. It was found that lysosome-associated KillerRed ensures efficient light-induced cell death similar to previously reported mitochondria- and plasma membrane--localized KillerRed. Inhibitory analysis demonstrated that lysosomal cathepsins play an important role in the manifestation of KillerRed-Rab7 phototoxicity. Timelapse monitoring of cell morphology, membrane integrity, and nuclei shape allowed us to conclude that KillerRed-Rab7-mediated cell death occurs via necrosis at high light intensity or via apoptosis at lower light intensity. Potentially, KillerRed-Rab7 can be used as an optogenetic tool to direct target cell populations to either apoptosis or necrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Genetically encoded photosensitizers are a promising optogenetic instrument for light-induced production of reactive oxygen species in desired locations within cells in vitro or whole body in vivo. Only two such photosensitizers are currently known, GFP-like protein KillerRed and FMN-binding protein miniSOG. In this work we studied phototoxic effects of miniSOG in cancer cells. Methods: HeLa Kyoto cell lines stably expressing miniSOG in different localizations, namely, plasma membrane, mitochondria or chromatin (fused with histone H2B) were created. Phototoxicity of miniSOG was tested on the cells in vitro and tumor xenografts in vivo. Results: Blue light induced pronounced cell death in all three cell lines in a dose-dependent manner. Caspase 3 activation was characteristic of illuminated cells with mitochondria- and chromatin-localized miniSOG, but not with miniSOG in the plasma membrane. In addition, H2B-miniSOG-expressing cells demonstrated light-induced activation of DNA repair machinery, which indicates massive damage of genomic DNA. In contrast to these in vitro data, no detectable phototoxicity was observed on tumor xenografts with HeLa Kyoto cell lines expressing mitochondria- or chromatin-localized miniSOG. Conclusions: miniSOG is an excellent genetically encoded photosensitizer for mammalian cells in vitro, but it is inferior to KillerRed in the HeLa tumor. General significance: This is the first study to assess phototoxicity of miniSOG in cancer cells. The results suggest an effective ontogenetic tool and may be of interest for molecular and cell biology and biomedical applications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Guidelines for management of newborn hyperbilirubinemia have existed in Russia for many years. We sought to determine the degree to which management of hyperbilirubinemia in Russia meets three existing clinical protocols. We performed a cross-sectional chart review in a government-run, academic hospital in an urban setting in Moscow, Russia. Subjects were admitted to Level II nursery at Hospital No.13, were not transferred to a Level III nursery, did not die during hospitalization, and had at least one pairing of total serum bilirubin (TSB) and clinical evaluation of jaundice. We measured physician adherence to three available guidelines based upon TSB levels at which phototherapy and exchange transfusions were performed. We identified 594 infants and 1,924 pairings. Despite availability of TSB to inform decision-making, physicians did not follow the protocols. Under Russian and U.S. guidelines, physicians often failed to start phototherapy, started phototherapy unnecessarily, and missed recommended exchange transfusions. Despite a resource-poor setting, guideline adherence in Russia was remarkably similar to that of U.S. physicians. The data illustrate the challenge of overcoming physician behavior to standardize practice, and raise questions about the presumed higher quality of care in a more developed medical system. A new framework for guideline implementation is needed, and many of the necessary tools already exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of technological and biopharmaceutical investigations of the domestic local anesthetic anilocaine (possessing significant surface anesthetic, antiinflammatory, and moderate antimicrobial properties) were used to develop compositions of new promising multifunctional medicinal forms, including biodegradable films for the treatment of disorders in the maxillofacial area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Audio-visual speech recognition (AVSR) is one of the most promising solutions for reliable speech recognition, particularly when audio is corrupted by noise. Additional visual information can be used for both automatic lip-reading and gesture recognition. Hand gestures are a form of non-verbal communication and can be used as a very important part of modern human–computer interaction systems. Currently, audio and video modalities are easily accessible by sensors of mobile devices. However, there is no out-of-the-box solution for automatic audio-visual speech and gesture recognition. This study introduces two deep neural network-based model architectures: one for AVSR and one for gesture recognition. The main novelty regarding audio-visual speech recognition lies in fine-tuning strategies for both visual and acoustic features and in the proposed end-to-end model, which considers three modality fusion approaches: prediction-level, feature-level, and model-level. The main novelty in gesture recognition lies in a unique set of spatio-temporal features, including those that consider lip articulation information. As there are no available datasets for the combined task, we evaluated our methods on two different large-scale corpora—LRW and AUTSL—and outperformed existing methods on both audio-visual speech recognition and gesture recognition tasks. We achieved AVSR accuracy for the LRW dataset equal to 98.76% and gesture recognition rate for the AUTSL dataset equal to 98.56%. The results obtained demonstrate not only the high performance of the proposed methodology, but also the fundamental possibility of recognizing audio-visual speech and gestures by sensors of mobile devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a research methodology for audio–visual speech recognition (AVSR) in driver assistive systems. These systems necessitate ongoing interaction with drivers while driving through voice control for safety reasons. The article introduces a novel audio–visual speech command recognition transformer (AVCRFormer) specifically designed for robust AVSR. We propose (i) a multimodal fusion strategy based on spatio–temporal fusion of audio and video feature matrices, (ii) a regulated transformer based on iterative model refinement module with multiple encoders, (iii) a classifier ensemble strategy based on multiple decoders. The spatio–temporal fusion strategy preserves contextual information of both modalities and achieves their synchronization. An iterative model refinement module can bridge the gap between acoustic and visual data by leveraging their impact on speech recognition accuracy. The proposed multi-prediction strategy demonstrates superior performance compared to traditional single-prediction strategy, showcasing the model's adaptability across diverse audio–visual contexts. The transformer proposed has achieved the highest values of speech command recognition accuracy, reaching 98.87% and 98.81% on the RUSAVIC and LRW corpora, respectively. This research has significant implications for advancing human–computer interaction. The capabilities of AVCRFormer extend beyond AVSR, making it a valuable contribution to the intersection of audio–visual processing and artificial intelligence. • A novel transformer-based method for audio–visual speech command recognition. • Novel fusion strategies of audio–visual features and classifier ensemble. • An attention visualization approach for audio–visual feature impact assessment. • A software application of the transformer-based method for driver assistive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During cruise 65 of the R/V Akademik Oparin from November 26 to December 29, 2022, research was continued in the area of Avachinskiy Bay, Kamchatka, to study the possible factors that caused the mass mortality of marine organisms in fall 2020, and perform integrated hydrographic and hydrochemical surveys on the northeastern shelf of Sakhalin Island to monitor the environmental situation in areas of oil and gas production and in the southern Sea of Okhotsk. According to data from two autonomous moorings deployed in the coastal zone of Avachinskiy Bay with an exposure of 169 days, relatively calm water dynamics in the bay were noted throughout the entire summer–fall season of 2022, which contributed to enrichment of waters in nutrients necessary for plankton development. No noticeable decrease in oxygen content was recorded. A survey of the southern part of the East Kamchatka Current was carried out, the evolution and the structure of the anticyclonic eddy of Avachinskiy Bay at the time of its splitting was traced. Studies have been carried out on the hydrochemical characteristics of coastal bays and rivers during the freeze-up period. Samples of plankton and bottom sediments were taken for special analyses in the laboratories of the Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry and National Center for Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OX40 receptor-expressing regulatory T cells (Tregs) populate tumors and suppress a variety of immune cells, posing a major obstacle for cancer immunotherapy. Different ways to functionally inactivate Tregs by triggering OX40 receptor have been suggested, including anti-OX40 antibodies and Fc:OX40L fusion proteins. To investigate whether the soluble extracellular domain of OX40L (OX40Lexo) is sufficient to enhance antitumor immune response, we generated an OX40Lexo-expressing CT26 colon carcinoma cell line and studied its tumorigenicity in immunocompetent BALB/c and T cell deficient nu/nu mice. We found that soluble OX40L expressed in CT26 colon carcinoma favors the induction of an antitumor response which is not limited just to cells co-expressing EGFP as an antigenic determinant, but also eliminates CT26 cells expressing another fluorescent protein, KillerRed. Tumor rejection required the presence of T lymphocytes, as indicated by the unhampered tumor growth in nu/nu mice. Subsequent re-challenge of tumor-free BALB/c mice with CT26 EGFP cells resulted in no tumor growth, which is indicative of the formation of immunological memory. Adoptive transfer of splenocytes from mice that successfully rejected CT26 OX40Lexo EGFP tumors to naïve mice conferred 100% resistance to subsequent challenge with the CT26 EGFP tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The culture of osteoblasts (OB) of human origin is a useful experimental model in studying bone biology, osteogenic differentiation, functions of bone proteins, oncological processes in bone tissue, testing drugs against bone desires, and many other fields. The purpose of the present study is to share a workflow that has established the conditions to efficiently isolate and grow OB cells obtained from surgically removed bones from human donors. The protocol described here also shows how to determine cell phenotype. Here we provide characteristics of cells isolated by this protocol that might help researchers to decide if such OB are suitable for the purposes of their study. Osteoblasts isolated from collagenase-treated explants of adult bones are able to proliferate and keep their phenotype in culture. OB cells have high synthetic properties. They express osteomarkers, such as RUNX2, osteocalcin, BMP2, and osteopontin both in control conditions and in an osteogenic medium that could be estimated by qPCR and immunocytochemical staining and by Western blotting. Induction of osteogenic differentiation does not dramatically influence the synthetic properties of OB cells, while the cells gain the ability to extracellular mineralization only in an osteogenic medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content of accumulated carbon (Cdep, which is referred to as blue carbon, BC) was calculated for the uppermost 1-m thicknesses of sediments in bights of the Peter the Great Bay of the Sea of Japan in 2014–2020. In the absence of Zostera Marina (ZM) meadows in Voevoda, Novgorodskaya and Uglovoy bights, BC contents were 140, 99, and 55 tC/ha, respectively. The presence of sea grass significantly increases these values, which were 180 and 126 tC/ha for Voevoda and Novgorodskaya bights, respectively. Using the measured radioactivity of the 137Cs isotope, the rate of BC accumulation in the bights without meadows ZM was estimated at 17, 69, and 98 gC/(m2 year) in Uglovoj, Novgorodskaya, and Voevoda bights, respectively, and at 101 and 144 gC/(m2 year) at sites covered by ZM meadows in Novgorodskaya and Voevoda bights, respectively. Using data of chlorophyll a measurements in sediments of the basins in 2018 through 2020, the bioturbation coefficients (62.7–5.3 cm2/day) and the constants of apparent organic carbon degradation in sediments (0.003–0.068 day–1) were estimated. The maximum BC degradation rates were found in the upper horizons: 550, 39, 6, and 4 gC/(m2 year) at sites with ZM in Voevoda, and without ZM in Voevoda, Novgorodskaya, and Uglovoy bights, respectively. It was found out that ZM meadows cause the maximum concentration of refractory organic carbon ( in sediments of Voevoda bight). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrological and hydrochemical data of surface and bottom waters of Academy Bay were obtained on two POI FEB RAS cruises carried out from July 11 to 14, 2016 and from September 15 to 19, 2020. Observations in 2016 were carried out during the summer flood and after thawing sea ice in the bay which were confirmed by the hydrological characteristics of the waters. Supersaturation of bottom and surface waters with atmospheric oxygen and undersaturation with atmospheric carbon dioxide indicate that production processes dominate in the bay. However, low contents of nutrients and chlorophyll a in the bay and in the estuaries of the Syran and Ulban rivers characterize the bay as rather an oligotrophic basin. This is supported by the common procedure of eutrophication assessment. In September 2020, the majority of bottom waters were undersaturated with oxygen and supersaturated with carbon dioxide, meaning organic matter degradation processes dominated. In the fall 2020, the apex of Ulban Bay was characterized by very high concentrations of dissolved inorganic phosphorus, reaching 10–14 μmol/L, and by chlorophyl a concentrations of surface waters higher than 10 mg/m3. Values of obtained parameters suggest that waters of Academy Bay have high eutrophic status. The difference between observations implemented in 2016 and 2020 cannot be explained by the interannual variability of the hydrochemical parameters of the waters of Academy Bay, rather it can be explained by an additional episodic source of nutrients that occurs in the late summer–autumn season. Salmon that died after spawning can serve as such an source. These dead salmon provide eutrophication of Academy Bay waters. High eutrophic waters probably provide the feeding base for polar whales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of research carried out on cruise 62 of the R/V Akademik Oparin from December 14 to 29, 2020 continued monitoring of the interannual variability of the Japan Sea water parameters, confirmed the long-term warming trend of bottom waters, revealed its slowdown during the last decade, demonstrated the formation of a cyclonic gyre in the northern part of the sea and development of upwelling, contributing to more intensive cooling of the sea surface layer. A detailed survey of a mesoscale eddy was carried out in the area of the Primorye Current. The hydrochemical parameters, zooplankton, and methane and tritium in various water structures were assayed. The mercury content in the atmospheric water layer was measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no consensus regarding how the growth of preterm infants should be monitored or what constitutes their ideal pattern of growth, especially after term-corrected age. The concept that the growth of preterm infants should match that of healthy fetuses is not substantiated by data and, in practice, is seldom attained, particularly for very preterm infants. Hence, by hospital discharge, many preterm infants are classified as postnatal growth-restricted. In a recent systematic review, 61 longitudinal reference charts were identified, most with considerable limitations in the quality of gestational age estimation, anthropometric measures, feeding regimens, and how morbidities were described. We suggest that the correct comparator for assessing the growth of preterm infants, especially those who are moderately or late preterm, is a cohort of preterm newborns (not fetuses or term infants) with an uncomplicated intrauterine life and low neonatal and infant morbidity. Such growth monitoring should be comprehensive, as recommended for term infants, and should include assessments of postnatal length, head circumference, weight/length ratio, and, if possible, fat and fat-free mass. Preterm postnatal growth standards meeting these criteria are now available and may be used to assess preterm infants until 64 weeks' postmenstrual age (6 months' corrected age), the time at which they overlap, without the need for any adjustment, with the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards for term newborns. Despite remaining nutritional gaps, 90% of preterm newborns (ie, moderate to late preterm infants) can be monitored by using the International Fetal and Newborn Growth Consortium for the 21st Century Preterm Postnatal Growth Standards from birth until life at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background European roundtable meeting recommendations on bathing and cleansing of infants were published in 2009; a second meeting was held to update and expand these recommendations in light of new evidence and the continued need to address uncertainty surrounding this aspect of routine care. Methods The previous roundtable recommendations concerning infant cleansing, bathing, and use of liquid cleansers were critically reviewed and updated and the quality of evidence was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. New recommendations were developed to provide guidance on diaper care and the use of emollients. A series of recommendations was formulated to characterize the attributes of ideal liquid cleansers, wipes, and emollients. Results Newborn bathing can be performed without harming the infant, provided basic safety procedures are followed. Water alone or appropriately designed liquid cleansers can be used during bathing without impairing the skin maturation process. The diaper area should be kept clean and dry; from birth, the diaper area may be gently cleansed with cotton balls/squares and water or by using appropriately designed wipes. Appropriately formulated emollients can be used to maintain and enhance skin barrier function. Appropriately formulated baby oils can be applied for physiologic (transitory) skin dryness and in small quantities to the bath. Baby products that are left on should be formulated to buffer and maintain babies' skin surface at approximately pH 5.5, and the formulations and their constituent ingredients should have undergone an extensive program of safety testing. Formulations should be effectively preserved; products containing harsh surfactants, such as sodium lauryl sulfate, should be avoided. Conclusion Health care professionals can use these recommendations as the basis of their advice to parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new anesthetic gel that was called "Anilogel" was developed based on results of technical and biopharmaceutical investigations of the domestic local anesthetic anilocaine, which possesses significant surface anesthesizing, anti-inflammatory, and moderate antimicrobial activity. Anilogel was intended for instrumental manipulations in urology. The antimicrobial component chlorhexidine bigluconate was added to the gel composition in order to avoid infectious-inflammatory complications after endourological manipulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Major concerns about the quality of basic hospital care for children have been raised in developing countries, but no formal assessment applying international standards has been done in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Methods: We assessed 17 hospitals in Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova, and the Russian Federation with a generic WHO hospital assessment framework adapted for use in the WHO European region. WHO management guidelines for paediatric care in peripheral hospitals were used as standards. Findings: Hospital access for children was generally good. Good health networks existed, and skilled and committed doctors cared for children. Case-fatality rates were low. However, unnecessary and lengthy hospital stays were common, and most children received excessive and ineffective treatment (in one country median number of drugs prescribed concurrently was 5, IQR 2-6). Several conditions were systematically overdiagnosed, especially neurological disease, or overinvestigated, such as acute diarrhoea. Reasons for these practices included absence of clear evidence-based clinical guidelines, regulations tying duration of admission to financial reimbursement, generalisation of disease-control methods from rare problems to common illnesses, and regulations maintaining financial and professional status of some subspecialties. Many disincentives to efficient practice existed. Interpretation: To improve quality of hospital care for children in the Commonwealth of Independent States, several issues must be addressed, including: adoption of international guidelines for inpatient management; complementary guidelines for outpatient management; reforms to health regulations governing admission and discharge criteria; improvement of quality of training, availability of medical information, and systems to promote and certify quality of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two forms of complement-depleting cobra venom factor (CVFm1 and CVFm2), possessing molecular masses of 142.6kDa (CVFm1) and 143.1kDa (CVFm2), according to MALDI mass-spectrometry, were isolated from the Naja melanoleuca cobra venom. As shown by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of SDS, both forms similarly to factor from the Naja kaouthia cobra venom (CVFk) consist of three polypeptide chains with molecular masses of about 70, 50, and 30kDa, the two large subunits being glycosylated. As determined by MALDI mass-spectrometry, 30kDa subunits of CVFm1 and CVFm2 have considerably different finger-prints of tryptic digests that suggests differences in their amino acid sequences. A study of activity in vivo has shown no significant differences in C3 consumption by CVFm1, CVFm2 and CVFk in mouse blood. However, as shown by an immunoassay method, they differ in their ability to activate the complement system via C3 conversion, the ratio of these activities for CVFm1:CVFm2:CVFk being 2.5:1.6:1. Kinetic studies using a hemolytic test showed that complement depletion by CVFm1 is faster than that by CVFm2. Thus, for the first time the presence in a single venom of two forms of CVF differing by both amino acid sequence and biological activity has been shown. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Stearoyl-poly-N-vinylpyrrolidone (PVP-stear) of various molecular weights (Mn = 1500-5500) self-assemble in aqueous medium. Particles prepared from PVP-stear were characterized in terms of shape and size distribution, and the mechanical stability of the particles was studied. The interaction of PVP-stear and its aggregates with blood components was investigated. Aggregates formed by the polymers with Mn 1500-3500 in the presence of human serum are stable. The direct lytic action of PVP-stear preparations was studied using sheep and human erythrocytes. The influence of PVP-stear aggregates on the activation of complement system both on classical and alternative pathways was examined. The aggregates prepared from PVP-stear of various molecular weights had no effect on the activation of the complement system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]