Search

This brief review provides up-to-date information on the management of malignant pleural effusions (MPE). In general, selection of the most appropriate treatment approach should be individualized. Management of MPE relies on tumor type, pulmonary re-expansion, performance status, symptoms, and life expectancy. Pleurodesis and IPC placement are two effective treatments recommended for recurrent MPE, both of which can effectively improve dyspnea and quality of life of patients. Other options such as intrapleural therapies, radiation therapy, and pleuroperitoneal shunting are alternative treatments. However, most of these treatments are temporary, and MPE would recur soon. Hence, further palliative treatments to effectively control pleural effusions and relieve symptoms are necessary.

Morphological, molecular-genetic, and phytogeographic analyses of the type section of the genus Scapania resulted in the description of a new species for science Scapania pseudouliginosa, the resurrection of S. gigantea, and segregation of a new subsection Giganteae, including mainly East Asian taxa with thick- to thin-walled median leaf cells with distinct trigones and a few large oil bodies. The key to species of the section and color photomicrographs of S. gigantea, S. pseudouliginosa and S. sichuanica are provided. Scapania rufidula, S. serrulata, S. sichuanica and S. pseudouliginosa demonstrate morphological parallelism with some species of the sections Compactae, Nemorosae, Stephania, and Curtae, respectively. The distinctions of these species are discussed. The parallelism may have resulted from the similarity of their habitats in different phytogeographic areas.

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Background and Aims Previous studies have shown that age of acquisition affects language production in persons with aphasia (PWA), specifically, earlier-acquired words are better preserved compared to later-learned ones (for review, see Brysbaert & Ellis, 2016). Also, it has been argued that naming objects with lower name agreement requires inhibition of alternative names (Alario et al., 2004), and therefore puts higher demands on cognitive control. Bose and Schafer (2017) showed that although both PWA and healthy controls performed better at naming words with high naming agreement, the difference between the naming conditions was significantly greater for PWA. This could be due to reduced ability to inhibit irrelevant information in PWA. The current study aims to investigate whether cognitive control mediates the effects of psycholinguistic variables on object naming accuracy in aphasia. Methods and Procedures Participants (N = 31, 32% female) were right-handed, native Russian speakers with preserved visual and hearing abilities diagnosed with mild to moderate post-stroke aphasia. They were aged 40–70 (mean = 59.5, SD = 8.6). The participants were tested on a picture-naming task including 247 items and 2 subtests from the Russian Birmingham Cognitive Screen, namely Auditory attention, and Rule Finding tasks. Outcomes and Results To define whether cognitive control mediates the effect of psycholinguistic variables on naming response accuracy, multiple linear regression was used. Significant main effects of log-transformed word frequency, AoA, and cognitive control were found, as well as a significant interaction between log-transformed word frequency and cognitive control. Conclusions Our findings suggest that cognitive control mediated the effect of word frequency in naming in aphasia. PWA with weaker cognitive control name pictures depicting less-frequent words less accurately than more frequent words. This points to the fact that PWA have difficulty in lexical access when producing language. The implications of the study are that the focus of aphasia rehabilitation should be on very frequent structures and words as these are usually more preserved in PWA with weaker cognitive control.

Modern data on cicatricial pathology of the skin is presented. Scar classifications, features of clinical manifestations of their pathomorphological aspects are analyzed in detail. The problem of correctly assessing the outcome of cicatricial deformities of the skin at an early stage of its formation is relevant, since in most cases patients with cicatricial deformities need surgical or conservative treatment at the early stages of its formation. A new version of the classification with a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the scar tissue should be developed using the study of its microcirculation and endogenous fluorescence at different periods of scar tissue formation to select clear indications and scar correction time.

Statements and analysis are presented of nonselfadjoint eigenvalue problems for elliptic equations and systems, including singular Sturm–Liouville problems on the line, that arise in mathematical models of the wave propagation in open metal-dielectric waveguides. Existence of real and complex spectra are proved and their distribution is investigated for canonical structures possessing circular symmetry of boundary contours.

Existence of symmetric complex waves in a metamaterial dielectric rod and a perfectly conducting cylinder of circular cross section covered by a concentric layer of metamaterial, a metamaterial Goubau line, is proved. Analytical investigation and numerical solution of dispersion equations reveal several important properties of running waves inherent to open metal-metamaterial waveguides which have not been reported for waveguides filled with standard media.

Existence of symmetric complex waves in a dielectric rod (DR) - a dielectric waveguide of circular cross section - is proved by analyzing functional properties of the dispersion equations (DEs) usi ...

The Birmingham Cognitive Screen (BCoS) is designed for use with individuals who have acquired language impairment following stroke. Our goal was to develop a Russian version of the BCoS (Rus-BCoS) by translating the battery following cultural and linguistic adaptations and establishing preliminary data on its psychometric properties.Fifty patients with left-hemisphere stroke were recruited, of whom 98% were diagnosed with mild to moderate aphasia. To check whether the Rus-BCoS provides stable and consistent scores, internal consistency, test-retest, and interrater types of reliability were determined. Eight participants with stroke and 20 neurologically intact participants were assessed twice. To inspect the discriminative power of the battery, 63 participants without brain impairment were tested with the Rus-BCoS. Additionally, the Russian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Quantitative Assessment of Speech in Aphasia, and Luria's Neuropsychological Assessment Battery were used to examine convergent validity, sensitivity, and specificity of the Rus-BCoS.The internal consistency as well as test-retest and interrater reliability of the Rus-BCoS satisfied criteria for the research use. Performance on a majority of tasks in the battery correlated significantly with independently validated tests that putatively measure similar cognitive processes. Critically, all patients with aphasia returned nonzero scores in at least one task in all the Rus-BCoS sections, with the exception of the Controlled Attention section where two patients with severe executive control deficits could not perform.The Rus-BCoS shows promise as a comprehensive cognitive screening tool that can be used by clinicians working with Russian-speaking persons experiencing poststroke aphasia after much further validation and development of reliable normative standards. Given a lack of quantitative neuropsychological assessment tools in Russia, however, we contend the Rus-BCoS offers potential benefits to clinicians and patients. However, data from research studies with a broader sample of Russian speakers are needed.

OBJECTIVE:The Oxford Cognitive Screen (OCS) is a screening tool for the assessment of poststroke deficits in attention, memory, praxis, language, and number processing. The goal of the present study was to develop a Russian version of the OCS (Rus-OCS) via translation of the original battery, its cultural and linguistic adaptations, and reporting preliminary findings on its psychometric properties. METHOD: All parts of OCS were translated by native Russian-speaking neuropsychologists. Russian-speaking stroke patients (N = 205) were assessed with the Rus-OCS. Their performance was compared with performance of 60 healthy Russian-speaking adults aged between the ages of 18 and 91 years. The performance of 15 stroke patients and 42 healthy adults were assessed with a parallel version within 7 days of first testing. Convergent validity of the Rus-OCS was established via correlations with comparable tasks. Performance of three stroke groups with different lesion lateralization (right, left, and bilateral) was compared on language and visual attention subtasks. Preliminary normative data based on 5th to 95th percentile were also reported. RESULTS: Measures of internal consistency and test-retest reliability ranged from acceptable to very good and estimates of convergent validity ranged from moderate to high. Sensitivity and specificity was found to range from .56 to 1 and from .73 to 1, respectively. Significant differences in performance between stroke and healthy groups on all subtasks confirmed the discriminative power of the Rus-OCS was good. CONCLUSIONS: Rus-OCS is a promising cognitive screening instrument for Russian-speaking patients. However, further validation is needed. Constraints of socioeconomic differences between Russian speakers in the wider population should be considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Although studies show that different facets of cognitive control are impaired in persons with aphasia (PWA), the question how they impact language abilities in different types of aphasia remains open.Aims: Following the hypothesis that diminished attention contributes to language impairments in aphasia, we predicted that both fluent and non-fluent PWA would perform worse than neurologically intact individuals on verbal and non-verbal cognitive control tasks. Also, testing the view that linguistic disturbances in fluent and non-fluent PWA dissociate, we predicted differential relationships in performance on cognitive control tasks and language impairment.Methods & Procedures: Fluent PWA (N = 17) and non-fluent PWA (N = 14) were compared to unimpaired speakers (N = 21) on the non-verbal Flanker task tapping domain-general cognitive control, and Stroop task measuring verbal cognitive control, as well as subtests from the Russian version of the Birmingham Cognitive Screen, namely the Audit...

Stone-birch (Betula ermanii) forests were studied at the northern limit of their range in the north of the Koryaksky District. The species composition, community structure, and habitats of stone-birch groves are described. Their altitudinal position and geographical distribution are discussed. A classification of stone-birch communities on Olyutorsky Gulf coast was developed using the dominant-determinant approach. Within the study area, the community diversity of stone-birch forests was represented by 5 associationsforming 3 groups of associations: Betuleta pteridosa (fern-rich stone-birch forests), Betuleta calamagrostidosa (grass-rich stone-birch forests), and Betuleta fruticosa (shrub-rich stone-birch forests). All the syntaxa have been previously described from the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Koryak communities differed from their Kamchatka analogues in the floristic composition, lower species diversity, and high density of the shrub layer. The most important characteristics of shrub-rich stone-birch communities were the high abundance of Sorbus sambucifolia and Alnus fruticosa, while for fern-rich communities it was the predominance of Dryopteris expansa in the herb layer. The intrazonal stone-birch groves are considered to be the remnants of widespread birch forests of the Holocene climate optimum, which ended ca. 5 Ka B. P. They have survived on the southern maritime slopes of the Koryak Upland ridges and turned into fragmentary and floristically impoverished communities. The relic stone-birch groves of the Koryak Upland are regarded as rare and endangered communities in need of special protection.

Objectives Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is a well known prognostic tool in chronic heart failure (CHF). Ventilatory power (VP) defined as the product of peak exercise systolic blood pressure (SBP) divided by the VE/VCO2 slope was originally introduced in 2012 by Forman et al and evaluated as a prognostic index in systolic CHF. The aim of this study was to confirm prognostic significance of VP in HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Methods We retrospectively analyzed the subgroup of 47 patients with HFpEF, NYHA classes II-III (33 male, mean age 64,2±11,7 years) previously enrolled in the prospective observational study. All patients were on optimal medical treatment. At baseline the patients underwent comprehensive investigation including CPET. VP was assessed as a ratio of peak exercise SBP divided by minute ventilation/CO2 production (VE/VCO2) slope. Average follow-up period amounted 37 months. Cardiovascular mortality was considered the primary end-point. Results Cardiovascular mortality amounted 34% (n=16). ROC-analysis demonstrated significant independent predictive value of VF for cardiovascular death (AUC=0,756; 95%CI= 0,609 to 0,869; p=0,0029). According to Youden index (J = sensitivity + specificity - 1) the patients were subsequently dichotomized by VF of 3,7 as a cut-off point which closely corresponds with the cut-off value of 3,5 proposed in Forman et al study. Cox regression analysis confirmed unfavorable prognosis in patients with VF ≤ 3,7 (HR = 4,6; 95%CI = 1,7-12,5, p = 0,003). Conclusion Ventilatory power (VP) combining peak exercise systolic blood pressure (SBP) and VE/VCO2 slope demonstrates significant prognostic value in HFpEF. VP values ≤ 3,7 reflecting lower SBP and higher VE/VCO2 slope indicate unfavorable prognosis in terms of cardiovascular mortality and may be used as an independent non-invasive marker for risk stratification in HFpEF patients.

This article discusses the degree of offshorization of the Russian economy, which causes enormous damage to the development of the country's economy. The most well-known schemes of the offshore business are presented. The attractiveness of financial activities in offshore zones contributes to the outflow of capital from Russia. In order to avoid further export of capital and the laundering of criminal proceeds, it is necessary to take certain measures presented in this article.

We consider normal waves in multi-layered dielectric rod and Goubau line that are basic types of open metal-dielectric waveguides. The dispersion equations are analyzed using the notion of generalized cylindrical polynomials and methods of calculating determinants of block-diagonal matrices. Sufficient conditions of the existence of symmetric waves are established.

Theory of complex waves (see e.g. [1] and references therein) accumulated a big volume of results. However, its biggest drawback remains which brakes significantly the development of the theory: absence of rigorous proofs of the existence of complex waves. In this respect, studies of complex waves in open metal-dielectric waveguides has been essentially enhanced when two new families of symmetric (angle-independent) complex waves have been identified [2], [3] in a dielectric rod (DR) and Goubau line (GL) with homogeneous dielectric cover: surface complex waves occurring as perturbations of real surface waves caused by the presence of lossy dielectric, and pure complex waves which have no counterpart in the set of real waves. Existence of the latter family of complex waves has been shown using a special technique and the proof [3] of the existence of an infinite set of complex roots of the dispersion equation (DE) describing waves in DR and GL.

Existence of symmetric surface complex waves in a Goubau line—a perfectly conducting cylinder of circular cross-section covered by a concentric dielectric layer—is proved by constructing perturbation of the spectrum of symmetric real waves with respect to the imaginary part of the permittivity of the dielectric cover. Closed-form iteration procedures for calculating the roots of the dispersion equation (DE) in the complex domain supplied with efficient choice of initial approximation are developed. Numerical modeling is performed with the help of a parameter-differentiation method applied to the analytical and numerical solution of DEs.

Existence of complex TM and TE waves in a dielectric waveguide of circular cross section and a Goubau line is proved by analyzing functional properties of the dispersion equations (DEs) using the theory of functions of several complex variables and validating the existence of complex roots of DE. The method proceeds from the analysis of general setting involving hybrid nonsymmetric azimuthally dependent real and complex waves.

Background: Language comprehension is incremental and dynamic and a listener extracts meanings of linguistic elements and relationships between them at least as fast as she/he encounters them. Howe...

We consider a homogeneous Goubau line (GL) with a lossy cover. We analyze the dispersion equation for symmetric waves with respect to the problem parameters, find radially symmetric complex waves, and examine their behavior. We show that longitudinal wavenumbers of complex waves are regular perturbations of the propagation constants of eigenwaves of lossless GL, weakly depend om the imaginary part of permittivity of the cover, and that attenuation in GL is low at higher losses.

The paper presents a framework based on autonomous, cooperative agents for the management of production networks. The framework proposed supports the functioning of several companies, product or service providers, considered as agents, working together for fulfilling a job-order (request) from an external customer. Key issues such as communication of the participants in the network, availability check, scheduling, time and cost efficiency are considered.

We consider fundamental issues of the mathematical theory of the wave propagation in waveguides with inclusions. Analysis is performed in terms of a boundary eigenvalue problem for the Maxwell equations which is reduced to an eigenvalue problem for an operator pencil. We prove that the spectrum of normal waves forms a nonempty set of isolated points localized in a strip with at most finitely many real points. We show the importance of these results for the theory of wave propagation in open guiding structures and consider in more detail the surface wave spectrum of the Goubau line.