Search

In the context of shifting the boundary of the Quaternary down to the level of 2.6 Ma and including the Gelasian Stage in the Quaternary System, the systematization of the original and published data on the geology and paleogeography of the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene of Eastern Europe has been carried out. It was established that, at the boundary of the Gauss and Matuyama paleomagnetic epochs, along with the general trend toward cooling and aridization, profound landscape and climate changes occurred and rhythmic fluctuations of the climate intensified. During the period from 2.6 to 1.8 Ma, corresponding to the Gelasian (pre-Tiglian and Tiglian of Western Europe or Paleopleistocene of Eastern Europe), there appeared subarctic landscapes. In the Eopleistocene (1.8–0.78 Ma) and the Early Neopleistocene (0.78–0.42 Ma), the climate became colder, and climatic zonality repeatedly underwent a complex restructuring, gradually approaching the modern one. Glacial deposits (layers of till) occurring in Eastern Europe date back to the Paleopleistocene. Evidence indicates that there were at least three independent glaciations in the Eopleistocene (1.8–0.78 Ma) and possibly four in the Early Neopleistocene. On the basis of studies of stratotypic sections, paragenetic links were established between sediments of different age within glacial and periglacial areas, and the paleogeographic events of the Early Pleistocene of Eastern Europe were correlated with those within the Western European region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circulating antituberculous antibodies in the sera from 89 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and 11 patients with tumors and nonspecific inflammation in the lungs were evaluated using indirect hemagglutination and enzyme immunoassay. Specific antibodies were detected in 81.6 and 30% of tuberculous and nontuberculous patients, respectively.

Clinical manifestations of tuberculosis in children and adolescents living in the Tumen region during 1984-1989 are analysed. Out of 432 of the patients, local forms of tuberculous infection were detected in 79.4% and pneumonia in 4.4% of the cases, while all the rest children proved to be just infected. The most prevailing among the pulmonary forms of the disease was intrathoracic lymphatic tuberculosis (52.3%) and among the non-pulmonary ones--tuberculous meningitis (3.5%). A complicated course of a tuberculous process was registered in 37.3% of the cases, especially in 2/3 of the patients with intrathoracic lymphatic tuberculosis (mainly of a bronchial type) as a consequence, in a number of cases, of the absence of BCG vaccination and the presence of tuberculous contact. Bronchoscopy undertaken in 244 children and adolescents made it possible to discover active changes in the bronchial mucosa in the first 1-2 months of therapy.