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Food processing with high hydrostatic pressure has been considered by the authors as a way to increase the preservation ability in the context of ensuring the quality and safety of meat products. Various authors have conducted research and collected evidential basis on the suitability of this processing method to increase shelf life. The research confirms this statement, and the algorithm formed by the authors for assessing the properties of meat products allows to conduct comprehensive studies and determine the degree of impact on functional properties.

Vitamin sufficiency in children can be estimated by the different values of their consumption in autumn-winter and spring-summer seasons. The paper presents the results of a study assessing the prevalence of vitamin deficiency among children of various ages depending on the season. The study included children and adolescents aged from 3 to 14 years (n = 2587, 51% boys) in various regions of Russia. As a result, significant seasonal differences were found in vitamin sufficiency in children aged 3–14 years. Analysis of clusters of parameter interactions demonstrated a relationship between seasonal differences in sufficiency of vitamins B6, E, A, B2 and the risk of various pathologies in all age groups of children. Finally, the presence of seasonal variations in vitamin sufficiency in children was confirmed. This should be taken into account when prescribing vitamin and mineral complexes to children.

The questionnaire method was used to study the awareness on osteoporosis in 95 patients of the therapeutic hospital, residents of the industrial center (the city of Dnipro). It was established presence of risk factors for osteoporosis, especially in women. Prevalence: age over 65 years, smoking, fractures in anamnesis, associated pathology, early menopause. Low awareness of patients on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, as well as lack of motivation for undergoing examination and possible treatment has been established. A third of them did not know the term. Living in the industrial region was not regarded as a risk factor for osteoporosis.

Locomotion is a characteristic of many cell types, including malignant cells. It is driven by a combination of interacting factors, one of which is recognized to be the surface microtopography. In this study, an in vitro analysis of cell migration was carried out to observe and quantify the differences in locomotion of two types of lymphoid cell on both flat and grooved surfaces. The cells studied were peripheral blood T lymphocytes (PBTL) and a malignant T lymphoma cell line (HUT78). It was found that, on the grooved pattern, the lymphoma HUT78 cells were more diffusive in their migration than the T lymphocyte PBTL cells whereas, on the flat surface, the T lymphocyte PBTL cells had a more diffusive response than the T lymphoma HUT78 cells. It was also found that malignant T lymphoma cells are significantly slower and less diffusive when exposed to a plane substrate than when subjected to a grooved substrate. On the contrary, PBTL cells showed only a moderate drop in cell speed and diffusion on the grooved compared to the flat substrate. PBTL cells did, however, show a general alignment to the direction of the grooves whereas HUT78 did not. Therefore, we have found that the surface topography can influence the motile response of the two different T cell types in different ways, and this can be quantified in terms of motility parameters. This difference may have exploitable applications for cell sorting. © 2003 Biomedical Engineering Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Principles of Hilbert-transform spectral analysis (HTSA) are presented and advantages of the technique in the terahertz (THz) frequency range are discussed. THz HTSA requires Josephson junctions with high values of characteristic voltages IcRn and dynamics described by a simple resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model. To meet these requirements, [001]- and [100]-tilt YBa2Cu3O7−x bicrystal junctions with deviations from the RSJ model less than 1% have been developed. Demonstrators of Hilbert-transform spectrum analyzers with various cryogenic environments, including integration into Stirling coolers, are described. Spectrum analyzers have been characterized in the spectral range from 50 GHz to 3 THz. Inside a power dynamic range of five orders, an instrumental function of the analyzers has been found to have a Lorentz form around a single frequency of 1.48 THz with a spectral resolution as low as 0.9 GHz. Spectra of THz radiation from optically pumped gas lasers and semiconductor frequency multipliers have been studied with these spectrum analyzers and the regimes of these radiation sources were optimized for a single-frequency operation. Future applications of HTSA will be related with quick and precise spectral characterization of new radiation sources and identification of substances in the THz frequency range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. There is a need to assess the diagnostic significance of the symptoms of nail damage, as well as available effective methods for diagnosing psoriatic arthritis in the early stages. Aims. To study of the occurrence of symptoms of psoriatic onychodystrophy in patients with psoriatic arthritis and assessment of the diagnostic significance of the ultrasound method for diagnosing enthesitis as an early symptom of psoriatic arthritis among patients with onychodystrophy and without psoriatic arthritis in case history. Methods. It was a prospective clinical study based on the Clinic of Skin and Venereal Diseases of the Military Medical Academy. We made the clinical assessment of symptoms of onychodystrophy among patients with and without psoriatic arthritis and the evaluation of the diagnostic significance of the ultrasound method for diagnosing psoriatic arthritis under the control of magnetic resonance imaging of the joints. Results. 45 patients with psoriatic arthritis and 134 patients with psoriasis without arthritis were examined. Psoriatic onychodystrophy was significantly more common in the group of patients with psoriatic arthritis (p = 0.028). The most characteristic symptoms of onychodystrophy in patients with psoriatic arthritis are oil spots and symptom combinations: oil spots and subungual hyperkeratosis, onycholysis and subungual hyperkeratosis, pits and longitudinal ridges, oil spots and longitudinal ridges. The ultrasound method for the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis has shown its high diagnostic significance (Se = 81.8%, Sp = 88.0%). The most characteristic symptoms of arthritis on ultrasound examination are hypoechoic structures of the Achilles tendons and the presence of fluid in the peri- and retro-Achilles bursa. Conclusions. The symptom of oil spots and combinations of oil spots with subungual hyperkeratosis, onycholysis with subungual hyperkeratosis, pits with longitudinal ridges and oil spots with longitudinal ridges can be considered diagnostically significant in the examination of early psoriatic arthritis, and the ultrasound method is highly effective in diagnosing early manifestations of arthritis.

У статті обґрунтований підхід до формування інформаційної системи класифікації умов експлуатації транспортних засобів. Запропонований підхід в умовах експлуатації дозволяє визначити вплив основних етапів обробки отриманої інформації про технічний стан транспортного засобу за допомогою інформаційного програмного комплексу, а саме: проводить ідентифікацію транспортного засобу в оточуючому просторі, забезпечує моніторинг нестаціонарних умов експлуатації; збирає вихідні дані про параметри технічного стану і положення у просторі транспортного засобу в умовах експлуатації; прогнозує параметри стану транспортного засобу; виконує ідентифікацію умов експлуатації; діагностує технічний стан, збирає повідомлення і дані діагностування транспортного засобу; перевіряє відповідність дійсного стану транспортного засобу отриманим параметрам і умовам експлуатації та в процесі виконання моніторингу. Запропонована в статті система загального інформаційного забезпечення процесів моніторингу параметрів технічного стану транспортних засобів забезпечує повноцінний збір і обробку інформації в реальному часі від бортової інформаційної системи моніторингу, розміщеної на транспортному засобі, а також від системи збору інформації, що працює у взаємодії із водієм та інфраструктурою транспорту і автомобільних доріг на основі поточного стану дорожніх, транспортних, кліма- тичних умов експлуатації й технічних споруд, в процесах порівняння з нормативними даними та даними попереднього контролю; відображає обстановку на ділянці руху автомобіля і результати аналізу в реальному часі і за відповідними запитами; ідентифікує передаварійний і аварійний стан шляху; архівує результати моніторингу; розробляє рекомендації щодо швидкісного режиму на ділянках руху транспортних засобів за результатами проведеного аналізу.

Juvenile ankylosing spondylitis (UAC) is a chronic progressive disease characterized by nonspecific clinical picture at the onset and late spine involvement. The article presents a clinical case of UAC progressed with migratory pain syndrome after an upper respiratory tract infection, early-onset spine lesions and ineffective therapy by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in patient of 11 years old. The criteria approach to the diagnosis of UAC is discussed.

Detection and localization problem of extended small-scale objects with different shapes appears in radio observation systems which use SAR, infra-red, lidar and television camera. Intensive non-stationary background is the main difficulty for processing. Other challenge is low quality of images, blobs, blurred boundaries; in addition SAR images suffer from a serious intrinsic speckle noise. Statistics of background is not normal, it has evident skewness and heavy tails in probability density, so it is hard to identify it. The problem of extraction small-scale objects is solved here on the basis of directional filtering, adaptive thresholding and morthological analysis. New kind of masks is used which are open-ended at one side so it is possible to extract ends of line segments with unknown length. An advanced method of dynamical adaptive threshold setting is investigated which is based on isolated fragments extraction after thresholding. Hierarchy of isolated fragments on binary image is proposed for the analysis of segmentation results. It includes small-scale objects with different shape, size and orientation. The method uses extraction of isolated fragments in binary image and counting points in these fragments. Number of points in extracted fragments is normalized to the total number of points for given threshold and is used as effectiveness of extraction for these fragments. New method for adaptive threshold setting and control maximises effectiveness of extraction. It has optimality properties for objects extraction in normal noise field and shows effective results for real SAR images.