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Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a disease characterized by chronic hyperglycemia and a cascade of pathological vascular alterations leading to diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME). Purpose: To compare clinical characteristics in patients treated with aflibercept only and in those treated with aflibercept plus hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy for DME. Material and Methods: This open-label case-control study involved 91 type 2 diabetic (DM2) patients with non-proliferative DR and DME. Patients of the aflibercept-only group received a monthly intravitreous aflibercept at a dose of 2 mg for 5 months. Patients of the aflibercept-plus-HBO group received a monthly intravitreous aflibercept at a dose of 2 mg for 3 months. In addition, the latter patients received ten HBO sessions in the period between the first and the third injections. All patients underwent a routine general clinical and eye examination. Results: At 3 months and 6 months, patients in the aflibercept-plus-HBO group showed improvements in visual acuity by 28.81% and 7.14%, respectively (р < 0.05), and retinal sensitivity to light by 24.44% and 19.5%, respectively (р < 0.05), with a reduction in the number of patients with DME by 84.56% and 51.13%, respectively (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Intravitreal aflibercept with adjunctive HBO provides improved efficacy of treatment for DME in patients with DM2, with reductions in (a) the number and risk of intravitreal injections, (b) drug load on the patient, and (c) treatment duration.

Background: Diabetic macular edema (DME) can be seen in both types of diabetic retinopathy (DR), and is a major cause of vision loss. Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of the combination treatment for DME in type 2 diabetic patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR). Material and Methods: An open-label, controlled study included 45 type 2 diabetic patients with both NPDR and DME. Patients of the aflibercept-plus-hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) group and those of the aflibercept-only (control) group received a monthly intravitreous aflibercept at a dose of 2 mg (50 µL) for 3 months. In addition, the former patients received an adjunctive treatment with ten sessions of HBO in the period between the first and the third injections. Changes in clinical and biochemical characteristics were assessed at 3 months after initiation of treatment. Results: At 3 months, patients of the aflibercept-plus-HBO group showed a statistically significant improvement in visual acuity, improvement in retinal light sensitivity, reduction in manifestations of DME, and statistically significant reductions in blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin levels. At 3 months, the changes in the activities of antioxidant enzymes were more substantial in this group, and these improvements were statistically significant compared to baseline and compared to controls. Particularly, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, catalase (CAT) activity, and glutathione reductase (GSR) activity decreased by 33.9%, 22.4% and 17.7%, respectively, compared to baseline, and 34.78%, 28.9%, and 25.3%, respectively, compared to controls. Conclusion: Treatment for DME with the use of aflibercept and adjunctive HBO caused a substantial reduction in the frequency of DME and improvements in visual acuity and retinal light sensitivity in type 2 diabetic patients NPDR. Under these conditions, a decrease in the activity of CAT was larger than that of GSR but smaller than that of SOD, likely indicating an improvement in antioxidant protection.

The frequency of infective endocarditis (IE) has increased 3 times over the past 30 years. The incidence of IE morbidity is recorded in all countries of the world and in the Russian Federation more than 40 people per 1 million population get sick. One of the most frequent causative agents of infective endocarditis is Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis), which takes the third place in the structure of the frequency of IE pathogens. Enterococcal IE remains a disease with high mortality, despite the emergence of new groups of antibacterial drugs. This review includes the results of studies of the efficacy and safety of various antimicrobial regimens of IE caused by E. faecalis. The analysis of data from foreign and native studies of antimicrobial treatment in patients with infective endocarditis, accompanied by enterococcal bacteremia is presented in the review. The search for literature performed by using medical databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, eLIBRARY. The current review included studies of the efficacy and safety of antimicrobial treatment. The main antibiotic therapy regimens of IE caused by E. faecalis include 2 beta-lactam antibiotics or a combination of ampicillin and gentamicin, according to the results of 5 found studies. Found antimicrobial regimens significantly did not affect mortality. Data from international registries testify to the efficacy and safety of daptomycin monotherapy for enterococcal endocarditis. Linezolid and daptomycin are the main drugs of treating infective endocarditis caused by vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Native studies report of a high level of resistance of enterococcal strains to beta-lactam antibacterial drugs. The duration of fever, the frequency of surgical heart valves interventions, the duration of bacteremia are not fully represented in each of the studies, and it is difficult to evaluate these factors. Ampicillin+ceftriaxone and ampicillin+gentamicin are the main antimicrobial treatment regimens of enterococcal endocarditis. Efficacy of these regimens is not significantly different. Treatment of IE should be carried out taking into the epidemiological situation and the strain resistance.

Data about efficacy and safety of acetylsalicylic acid usage as antiplatelet drug and for cancer prevention are presented.

Subject of research. Control system of a four-mass object (twin telescope) with dual motor drive is considered. Method. The reducing ability of an object model to the third order is used for simplification of control system. The synthesis of a discrete controller algorithm is completed based on the reduced model of the object. Characteristics of the system which consists of four-mass object with dual motor drive and obtained regulator are investigated. Control synthesis based on the modified design method of an optimal control with guaranteed degree of stability is used. Reduced-order observer is used in the control system since only one parameter of the plant can be measured — angular velocity of one lumped inertia. System robustness is verified by changing the nominal parameters of the plant in 10% range. Main results. In case of using a single motor drive a regulator can be built only on the basis of the model of object slow motions. System performance (bandwidth) should be enough low not to excite elastic vibrations. Control rate then is limited by the lowest resonating frequency of the plant. Numerical simulation reveals that transition time of the system with single motor drive significantly exceeds transition time of the system with dual motor drive. Both systems maintain the properties of robustness with changing parameter Practical relevance. The results can be used in the control systems design of the complex electromechanical mechanisms with elastic couplings such as telescope main drive axis.

Improved design method of optimal control system for the linear object with elastic coupling is considered. Standard optimal control system design implies the selection of state and input penalty matrix for the quadratic functional. Moreover the system performance quality depends greatly on the specific penalty matrix. Instead of the state and input penalty matrix selection procedure the selection of desired stability degree is proposed. The proposed method of optimal control system design is based on the idea of new state matrix utilization. The new state matrix has its eigenvalues at the specified distance to the right from the eigenvalues of the original state matrix. Thereupon we can assign the closed loop state feedback system matrix eigenvalues at that specified distance to the left from imaginary axis of the complex plane, in the other words, we can achieve the desired stability degree of the system. The proposed method of control algorithm design is demonstrated for a control system of an electric drive with two-mass mechanism (object). Object characteristic was evaluated by amplitudefrequency response obtained during identification experiment. Unavailable or immeasurable variables of the control object state were estimated by reduced-order observer while optimal control system design.

For integrated modeling of equilibrium, stability and dynamics of the divertor tokamak plasma with scrape-off layer (SOL) high resolution equilibrium calculations are needed. A new version of the CAXE equilibrium code computes the tokamak equilibrium on a numerical grid adaptive to magnetic surfaces both in the plasma region with closed flux surfaces and in the SOL region with open magnetic lines. The plasma profiles can be prescribed independently in each region with nested flux surfaces, and realistic SOL profiles with very short pressure drop off length can be accurately treated. The influence of the finite current density in SOL on the connection length is studied. From the point of view of the MHD equilibrium and stability modeling, self-consistent calculations of diverted tokamak configurations with finite current density at the separatrix require taking into account plasma outside the separatrix. Calculated high resolution equilibria provide an input to new versions of the ideal MHD stability codes treating tokamak plasma with SOL. The study of the influence of the pressure gradient profile in the pedestal plasma inside and outside the separatrix on the pedestal height limit set by external kink-ballooning mode stability is presented. Another possible application of the high resolution pedestal and SOL equilibrium code is a coupling to the SOLPS code with a purpose to increase equilibrium accuracy and support self-consistent plasma flow/equilibrium modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of the assessment of levels of radionuclide contamination of fish during 2013 - 2019 in the reservoirs of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (lakes Azbuchyn, Vershyna, Hlyboke, Daleke, Yanivsky Backwater, Chornobyl NPP cooling pond) are presented. It was found that the concentration of 137Cs in representatives of ichthyofauna of water bodies during the study period continued to decrease, while the concentration of 90Sr, with some exceptions, remained unchanged or increased. The concentration of radionuclides in fish of the studied reservoirs was about 60 - 5000 times for 90Sr and in 3 - 200 times for 137Cs higher than the permissible levels for fish products accepted in Ukraine.