Search

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical features of internal fistula obliteration after trabeculectomy (TE) in children with congenital glaucoma and the possibility of laser treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 73 eyes of 56 children with congenital glaucoma who underwent TE between 3 months and 16 years. Yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser refistulization was performed postoperatively because gonioscopy results revealed a complete or partial block of the internal fistula. In addition, a patented technique was utilized that combines the use of defocused and focused YAG laser radiation. RESULTS: The internal fistula was more often blocked by the iris root. YAG laser refistulization eliminated the block in 97.3% of cases, and in two cases, planar splices that had existed for 6 months could not be dissected. Laser removal of the internal fistula block in 97.3% of cases led to a normalization of the intraocular pressure (IOP) immediately after surgery and in 80.7% of cases in the subsequent year. Early refistulization (up to 3 months after TE) reduced the risk of IOP decompensation by 2.6 times by the annual follow-up. CONCLUSION: In children with congenital glaucoma, internal fistula obliteration (both complete and partial) by the iris root, iridotrabecular or iridocorneal contact, fusion, or pigment may occur at the earliest stages after TE, which is an indication of laser refistulization. When the internal fistula is overgrown after TE in children with congenital glaucoma, YAG laser refistulization allows restoring the lumen of the internal fistula in 97.3% of cases. Therefore, for timely detection and elimination of the blockade, gonioscopic monitoring of the internal fistula is necessary both at the earliest possible time and in the long term after TE.

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of micropulse cyclophotocoagulation (MP-CPC) in the treatment of various types of glaucoma in children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 14 children (15 eyes) with uncompensated glaucoma of various etiologies, who underwent MP-CPC using the Cyclo G6 laser system (IRIDEX, USA). The intervention was considered absolutely effective when IOP reached 8 to 25 mm Hg without medications and without signs of progression of glaucoma, relatively effective, when the same criteria are achieved with hypotensive medications. RESULTS: The average age of children at the time of intervention was 8.51.5 yr (from 7 months to 17 yr). The average level of IOP before surgery was 28.51.1 mm Hg, 3 days after MP-CPC (18.871.04 mm Hg), while the absolute efficiency was 14.3%, relative 100%. By the end of the observation period (16 months; on average, 2.50.4 months), the average IOP was 24.41.31 mm Hg (average decrease, 14.3%), with absolute efficiency of 0% and relative of 66.7%. The average number of hypotensive medications received in instillations did not change significantly before and after MP-CPC and amounted to 3.450.22 and 2.910.39, respectively (p=0.167). Complications after MP-CPC were detected in six eyes (40%); in all cases, the appearance or increase of the inflammatory reaction in the anterior chamber was observed. In addition, in two eyes (13.3%). In addition, a slight mydriasis (45 mm) developed. CONCLUSION: MP-CPC is a safe and effective treatment for glaucoma in children with various etiologies. Further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention in the long term and the safety of repeated procedures to achieve normal IOP and to develop individual schemes of MP-CPC.

Ulcerative lesions of the cornea and graft in children are a serious problem in pediatric ophthalmology, leading to serious consequences, up to the anatomical death of the eye. The problem of effective treatment of this pathology and corneal tissue regeneration in children remains relevant, despite the large arsenal of drugs. Recently, ultraviolet (UVA) corneal collagen crosslinking has been proposed as an alternative treatment for corneal ulcers in adults. RASK-CXL is the official name used exclusively for crosslinking in cornea inflammatory diseases. In children, corneal collagen crosslinking is still used only for the treatment of keratoconus. We were the first to use this method to treat corneal ulcers and graft ulcers in children.Purpose: to analyze the results of treatment of ulcerative corneal lesions and graft in children using a new device for local UVA crosslinking.Material and methods. For dynamic observation of patients, biomicroscopy with a fluorescein test, photo registration and optical coherence tomography of the eye anterior part were used. The procedure of local UVA crosslinking for the treatment cornea ulcerative lesions was carried out using a new device on the basis of the permission of the Ethics Committee of the National Medical Reseach Center of eye deseases named after Helmholtz of the Ministry of Health of Russia (protocol No. 56 of 21.10.2021).Results. The use of 3–5 procedures of local UVA exposure (against the background of instillations of 0.1 % riboflavin solution) lasting 5–7 minutes with an interval of 1-3 days ensured epithelization of the cornea and the graft and increased visual acuity in children.Conclusion. The first treatment results of corneal ulcers and graft in children using a new portable device for local UVA crosslinking have shown its high therapeutic efficiency and prospects for further use in clinical practice.

Purpose: to analyze clinical and functional manifestations and the course of different stages of primary congenital glaucoma (CG) at different times of the disease onset, using the data of admissions to the Department of Eye Pathology in Children of the Helmholtz Research Center of Eye Diseases.Material and methods. 191 patients (320 eyes) with CG, of which 113 were children (191) eyes with primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) aged 1 month to 16 years, underwent standard ophthalmological examination (autorefractometry, visometry, biomicroscopy, ophthalmoscopy), electrophysiological examination (flash VEP, ganzfeld and flicker ERG) and echobiometry (axial eye length measurement).Results. A detailed clinical and functional characteristic of PCG, including structural and functional changes occurring at different stages. Most children with PСG showed advanced stages of the glaucomatous process: in cases where PСG was detected by 1 month of life, the advanced stages claimed 71.1 %, whilst the children diagnosed with PCG between 1 and 12 months of age, the advanced stages were found in 91.2 %. clinical manifestations were found to have variability, not always corresponding to the stages of the disease. In particular, we detected a correlation between disease progression and decreased VEP amplitude (p < 0.05), while no such correlation was found with respet to ERG parameters and VEP latency.Conclusion. Despite the fact that PCG is detected comparative early, the destructive glaucomatous eye damage leads to severe and often irreversible consequences. The timing of CG manifestation is determined by the degree of congenital abnormalities in the eye drainage system that, together with secondary structural changes of eyes (cornea, axial length, retina and ONH) entail a more severe prognosis of PCG in case of an early disease onset. New objective criteria are needed to assess the severity and prognosis of PCG, which is important for the preservation of visual functions, prevention of low vision and blindness.

AIM: On the basis of studying the causes of errors in finding the trabecular zone to be excised during trabeculectomy in children with congenital glaucoma, this study presents a proven and effective method for simple intraoperative localization of the trabecular area. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The analyses of many years of experience in the examination and treatment of children with congenital glaucoma at the Department of Eye Pathology in Children of Helmholtz National Medical Research Center (100200 children annually) revealed the anatomical and morphological features of the eyes of children with congenital glaucoma and the reasons for the insufficient effectiveness of trabeculectomy. RESULTS: A retrospective gonioscopic analysis of the condition of the operation area and internal fistula after trabeculectomy in children with congenital glaucoma showed that erroneous choice of the area of the trabecular region to be excised during surgery is one of the reasons for the inefficiency of trabeculectomy, and it results from the incorrect determination of the projection location of the apex of anterior chamber angle (ACA) onto the sclera caused by the significantly distorted anatomical parameters of the childs eye due to the softness and extensibility of the limbus and sclera. On the stretched eyes of children with congenital glaucoma, especially those with buphthalmos and cloudy cornea, accurate determination of the boundaries of the altered cornea, limbus, and projection of the ACAs apex onto the sclera is visually impossible. CONCLUSION: During trabeculectomy of the eyes of children with congenital glaucoma, for the accurate localized projection of the apex of the ACAs onto the sclera and the trabecular zone to be excised, a simple and accessible method of clarifying diaphanoscopy intraoperatively must be used to correctly select the trabeculectomy zone, especially on stretched eyes.

BACKGROUND: Recklinghausens generalized neurofibromatosis (NF) is a hereditary disease characterized by the formation of benign tumors from the nervous tissue that provokes skin and bone changes of various types. Often, involvement in the pathological process and the organ of vision. The variability of eye lesions in NF-I type is known according to the clinical course, severity, and clinical forms. Gliomas and atrophy of the optic nerves, neurofibromas in the iris, sclera, conjunctiva, eyelids, less often glaucoma, buphthalmos, orbital osteodystrophy are described. RESULTS: The article describes a rare case of type I neurofibromatosis, the first clinical manifestation of congenital glaucoma. Modern complex ophthalmological examination made it possible to identify the cause and clarify the nature of the development of glaucoma. CONCLUSION: The need for an interdisciplinary approach to the diagnosis, dispensary observation, and treatment of NF-I is emphasized.

Soviet images of French literature are often reduced to the Stalinist canon of the late 1930s that comprised classical literature, including “modern classics,” like Romaine Rolland or Anatole France; and Communist and leftist writers selected as ideologically and aesthetically suitable for the Soviet reading audience, such as Henri Barbusse, Paul Vaillant Couturier, and others. This stereotype being partially true suggests, however, a simplistic and flattened view of the Soviet reception of French literature. It should be noted that even in the late 1930s there existed a certain amount of diversity in the choice of French authors; for example, International Literature magazine from time to time published ideological opponents like Pierre Drieu la Rochelle or Henry de Montherlant. As for the 1920s, in the course of the New Economic Policy both state and private publishing companies offered a wide and varied range of writers and books that included classics, “proletarian” and “revolutionary” authors along with adventure fiction, love stories, and “colonial novels,” easy reading, “decadent,” conservative, and “reactionary” writers. The paper traces transformations of publishing policy during the pivotal years of late 1920s and early 1930s, the period of the “Great Turn” in Soviet society, marked by processes of centralization, total state control, and tightening of censorship. Archival documents allow us to analyze the role of Soviet intellectuals (literary critics, reviewers, editors, publishers) in the elaborating of new guidelines and implementing new practices in publishing policy and organizing readers feedback. A collection of readers’ letters of the mid-thirties, stored in the archival funds of GIKHL (State Publishing House of Fiction), documents the process of the making of the Soviet reader and shows a range of readers’ opinions and attitudes to French writers and their works at the early stage of Stalinist canon forming.

An approach for identification of objects without specified shape using multispectral satellite data is developed. The approach is based on the orthogonalization procedure in extended multidimensional spectral space in which filters that are orthogonal to the hypotheses of desired and similar objects are calculated and, then, scalarly multiplied by the spectra under study. It is shown that normalized rather than original spectra must be used, which leads to a significant decrease in variability of spectra that results in worse recognition of objects and specific calibration must be employed for suppression of atmospheric distortions. It is shown that such a method provides significantly higher recognizability in comparison with the least-squares method that is used in most recognition techniques.

Purpose: to determine the incidence and clinical course of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in modern developmental care conditions as based by the data of a level III perinatal center.Material and methods. A retrospective study of 920 premature infants of the ROP at-risk cohort managed by the Neonatology department of Moscow Regional Perinatal Center over the 2-year period of 2017–2018 was performed. Retinopathy was graded and treated following the respective Federal clinical guidelines.Results. Of the 920 infants who met the screening criteria, ROP was detected in 193 (28.5 %) infants; 49 infants (7.2 %) required treatment. Of all general somatic factors, the duration of artificial ventilation of lungs showed the strongest correlation with the frequency of development and severity of ROP. In infants with birth weight > 1000 g, the incidence of severe forms of ROP correlated with the presence of necrotizing enterocolitis and intraventricular hemorrhages, while in children with a lower body weight at birth no such correlation was detected. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia was not found to affect the development of ROP. In groups of infants with birth weight of 1000–1499 g and 500–999 g, the frequency of transfusions of washed red blood cells with depleted leukocyte and thrombocyte levels was generally higher in children with ROP, both with spontaneous and induced regression, but showed no difference between the two subgroups.Conclusion. Severe somatic pathology does not always accompany the progression of ROP to the threshold stage. So, in order to optimize ROP screening, it is necessary to search for new more accurate criteria for ROP development and progression risk.

It is shown that the a priori data on the atmospheric conditions, in addition to the climate’s characteristics, can enhance the efficiency of the algorithms for reconstructing the atmospheric profiles using satellite microwave radiometric observations. Such additional data are sought and their efficiency in remote sensing is estimated. The possibility of expanding the statistical approach by including new types of a priori data on the temperature and humidity of atmospheric conditions is discussed. It is demonstrated that the developed technique can be used to estimate the efficiency of using the following types of additional a priori data in the statistical regularization method: (i) the covariance matrix of the full vector of temperature and humidity variations within a vertical atmospheric column, (ii) the covariance matrix of the temperature and humidity variations within horizontal atmospheric strata, (iii) physical limits of the humidity variation amplitude, and (iv) statistically average model representations of the microwave radiation transfer parameters in the cloud layer.

The article covers pragmatism as the national philosophy of the Americans. The main concept of pragmatism is the Truth put in the shape of the thesis: «The Truth is that I believe into». The author states that this principle appears as the main vital one which the Americans are ruled by both at the international stage and in the interpersonal relations inside the country. The ethic of situationism occurs as the identical concept determining the Americans’ behavior according to the situation profitable at the given period of time. In the same way opportunism appears as the skill of using of any methods and possibilities for the aim achievement, i.e the Truth achievement. The author offers to consider the «the pragmatic faith» as the reflection of the Americans’ mentality occurring unconsciously and determining their actions in many ways.

The review gives a write-up of the edition, its structure, composition and its material. The guidelines for teaching British literary Modernism, methods and concepts offered in the book are subject to a detailed analysis. The critical appraisal of its innovations, its tendency to extend and revise the canonical topics and the reading list, offer new points of view and unordinary approaches (in contrast with typical university curricula) is followed by critical remarks targeted at its weak points – poor reasoning and certain groundless pronouncements one sometimes comes across, principles that underlie the selection of material in particular chapters and paragraphs, correctness of style and conformity with the conventions of academic discourse. It is also emphasized that the book in question is a fascinating and enriching reading that will be duly appreciated by the students as well as colleagues and all readers interested in the British literary Modernism.

Purpose: to assess the level of catecholamines norepinephrine and dopamine in rat retina with experimental retinopathy of prematurity (EROP) at a time corresponding to the peak of neovascularization.Material and methods. The study was performed on 41 infant Wistar rats (82 eyes). The rats were divided into 2 groups: the experimental group (with EROP, n = 21) and the control group (n = 20). In order to reproduce the EROP, the newborn rats were placed for 14 days in the incubator together with their mother. Every 12 hours, the oxygen concentration in the incubator ranged from 60 to 15 %. The control group consisted of pups who were held in conditions with a normal oxygen content (21 %) from the moment of birth. The pups were withdrawn from the experiment on the 10th, 14th, 23rd and 28th day, whereupon they were subjected to binocular enucleation followed by histological examination, in addition, the content of noradrenaline and one of the metabolites of dopamine (L-DOPA) was determined in retinal samples of the eyeballs obtained on the 23rd day by highly effective liquid chromatography technique with electrochemical detection.Results. Histological examination showed that in our EROP model the neovascularization peak occurs on the 23rd day of the experiment. At this time rat pups with EROP showed a significantly lower retinal L-DOPA level as compared to the control values (13.99 ng/g and 30.5 ng/g, respectively), and the norepinephrine level significantly exceeded such values (63.7 ng/g and 7.69 ng/g, respectively).Conclusion. A relative deficiency of dopamine and a relative excess of norepinephrine of the rat pups with EROP is noted at the time of the highest vascular activity of the retina. The obtained data confirm anti-angiogenic properties of dopamine and pro-angiogenic properties of noradrenaline in the second phase of EROP development.

The paper gives a survey of the main stages in African American interpretation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or Life Among the Lowly (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. After the publication of the novel, African American periodicals in the USA and Canada were publishing a wide range of reviews, essays, poems, and sketches reacting to Stowe’s book. Frederick Douglass was praising the book in his newspaper; there appeared, however, some aggressively critical responses, such as three letters by Martin Delany, a Black radial activist, written to the Frederick Douglass’ Newspaper in 1853. The argument of Delany and Douglass became a matrix for the further polemic based on the opposition of integrationist and afrocentrist approaches to the novel. This binary opposition remains practically unchanged until the Harlem renaissance, when African American writers and scholars (J. Weldon Johnson, W. S. Braithwaite, W. Thurman) become more critical, describing the novel as full of humiliating stereotypes, and its author as totally unable to properly understand and depict the Black race. The turning point in the assessment of the novel in the 20th century was Richard Wright’s collection of short stories Uncle Tom’s Children (1938) and James A. Baldwin’s essay Everybody’s Protest Novel (1949) – a criticism of “protest fiction” from Beecher Stowe to Richard Wright. Baldwin’s essay heralded the shift towards the Sixties hostile crusade against “uncle Tomism”, when Stowe’s protagonist was referred to as a symbol of servility and race betrayal, which was a complete inversion of the cultural myth of a Black Messiah that underlies the character. The final part of the paper analyzes the situation in current African American studies and in particular H. L. Gates’s subversive “double-voiced” interpretation of the novel which is in full agreement with the tendency to revise the role of white Abolitionists in the antislavery movement and in the African American history in the 1990–2000s.

Additional a priori and/or supplementary information on the state of the atmosphere potentially improves the efficiency of retrieval algorithms in comparison to the usage of mean climatic statistics of the atmosphere. Exploration and evaluation of the efficiency of the application of such additional information is the main point of this work. To achieve this goal, this work investigates the statistical approach expansion by including new types of a priori information about the temperaturehumidity state of the atmosphere. The developed methodology introduces an efficiency measure that allows the estimation of the efficiency of the following a priori information types for atmospheric profile retrieval from satellite MW data processing: 1) covariance matrices of the full vector temperature-humidity state of the atmosphere along a vertical profile, 2) covariance matrices of atmosphere variations along the atmospheres horizontal layer, and 3) physical limits of humidity profile variations. The results of atmospheric profile retrieval, based on the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, confirm the possibility of using this approach to restore atmospheric parameters in real time, i.e. for times shorter than the correlation intervals in the atmosphere.

A method for recognition of objects with undefined shapes is proposed for use in multispectral analysis. The method involves an orthogonalization procedure in an extended multidimensional spectral range along with separate utilization of information on object brightness. An optimization procedure is performed to reduce the numbers of two types of recognition errors. This method demonstrated a substantial advantage in terms of precision of recognition over the least square method, on which most recognition methods are based.

The paper presents the results of precision measurements of the total stopping range and energy deposition function of 238U ions with specific energies E = 500 and 950 MeV/u in stainless steel and copper targets. The experiment was performed at the SIS-18 facility (GSI Darmstadt) in the experimental area Cave A in September 2004–May 2005. The measured energy deposition profiles are compared with calculations using the codes ATIMA, PHITS, SHIELD and SRIM.

The reaction conditions and component ratios were established for the attachment of 4-(2-pyridylazo)resorcinol (PAR), 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) and 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) to the silica surface by means of a single-stage Mannich reaction. The modified sorbents that were synthesized were characterized by an adsorption method, and DRIFT and UV spectroscopies. The concentrations of PAR, PAN and 8-HQ grafted to the silica surface that were attained were 2.8×10−5, 8.5×10−5 and 2.7×10−4 mol g−1, respectively.

We simulate numerically the dynamics of the bubble-like solitons of the cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrodinger equation. In agreement with earlier predictions, slow moving bubbles have been observed to be unstable, in contrast to rapid bubbles which stabilize above a certain critical velocity. The empirical formula for the critical velocity has been confirmed to a high degree of accuracy. Based on the choice of some critical perturbation, we derive an integral criterion for stability of kinks and bubbles of the general nonlinear Schrodinger equation which provides an explanation of the appearance of the critical velocity. Finally, we follow numerically the nonlinear evolution of the unstable bubbles in one, two and three dimensions.

Review of the book M. A. Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita. Complete Collection of the Manuscript Drafts. The Basic Text: 2 vol. Moscow, Pashkov House Publ., 2014.

Sub-millimetre wall thickness is foreseen for the vacuum tubes in the magnets of the superconducting dipoles of the SIS100 and SIS300 of the FAIR Project. The Bragg peak of the energy deposition by the U ions in these walls may lie dangerously close to the superconducting cables. Thus the precise knowledge of the dE/dx profile is essential for estimating the heat load by the lost ions in the vicinity of the superconducting wires. Here we present the preliminary results of the measurement of the U ion beam energy deposition profile in Cu and stainless steel targets and compare the measured data with the dE/dx calculations using different codes.