—An analysis of changes in the role of mammals in the infection of humans with hydrophobia in Russia for the period 1534–2017 is presented. Human deaths when dealing with dogs have continually been ...recorded since the 16th century. The share of dogs in human hydrophobia infection reached 85% from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. In the 1960s and 1970s, it decreased to 30–35%, but in the early 21st century, it increased again to 43%. The role of cats in infecting humans has been reliably traced since the late 19th century, and it has increased from 2 to 18% over the last 130 years. The epidemic value of foxes is cyclical. In the late 18th century, fox rabies in Russia was not known. People died from hydrophobia after fox bites in the early 19th century, but since 1825 cases of human hydrophobia due to contacts with foxes were no more recorded. Foxes again started infecting people only from the 1940s. In some years from the 1970s to the 1990s, foxes were the source of hydrophobia in 50–52% cases. In the 21st century, the role of foxes in human infection has decreased to 16%, but the value of that predator in animal infection increased to almost 50%. The wolf has infected people throughout the historical record. Before World War II, the epidemic value of the wolf reached 19%, but since the second half of the 20th century and in the 21st century, the death of people caused by wolf bites has varied within 2–7% cases. The raccoon dog started infecting people after World War II (0.4%). Its epidemic role has slowly increased and reached 11% in the 21st century. The corsak, the badger, the marten, the ferret, and the Arctic Fox rarely infect people, but they have participated in the epidemic process for at least 50 years, while the Arctic Fox has for 100 years. Over the territory of Russia, only two cases of human death have been recorded from hydrophobia after a bat bite, one in 1985 and the other in 2008. Cattle have infected humans throughout the observable past five centuries, but not too often, 0.3–2% cases. Small livestock, horses, and pigs have been extremely rare as an epidemic danger for at least the last 130 years. In Russia, people have never been infected with rabies received from insectivores, while that obtained from rodents has been recorded only three times: two from gophers and one from a squirrel.
The existing methods for determining the species identity of shelter hosts and taking censuses of the natural hosts of the rabies virus (foxes, corsacs, two badger species, raccoon dogs, and wolves) ...have been improved during a spring–summer inspection of burrows of these predators. The field work was carried out in the years 1976–2011 at 42 census sites with a total area of 3582 km
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in natural foci of rabies within 14 administrative territories of the Russian Federation: Amur, Astrakhan, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Saratov, and Tula oblasts, Altai krai, Transbaikal region, and Khabarovsk krai, and the republics of Tyva and Altai. In total, 111 censuses were conducted and 3920 burrows of these animals were inspected. Burrows built by individuals of the same species could later be used or reconstructed and used by other species. Therefore, it was impossible to compile a dichotomous key to differences in the characters of the actual use of a specific shelter by a certain species in a given year during the research. The exception is the size of side holes of the fox and corsac that were dug by these predators in the first year of their settlement. Clear differences were observed only between the burrows of foxes, corsacs, and wolves in the presence of excrement and food debris near their shelters, in contrast to the unpolluted burrows of badgers and raccoon dogs. Burrows of foxes, corsacs, and wolves could alternately be occupied by different host species in subsequent years. It was possible to identify reliably the carnivorous species that occupied the shelter only in May to early June by the size of excrement of young and adult individuals. Shelters of badgers and raccoon dogs significantly differed only in paw prints and the color of fallen hair during the replacement of one species by the other in a burrow. It is necessary to use a set of key characters for the species identification of shelter hosts in each particular case. During primary censuses, it is extremely laborious to identify and map the territorial distribution of burrows. However, a high-quality registration of burrow hosts in the first year of the study made it possible to reproduce registrations in many subsequent years with low material and time costs. It is recommended to use this corrected methodology both for the real-time counting of the relative and absolute numbers of the main natural distributors of the rabies virus and for analysis of their intra- and interspecific biotic relationships. In the natural foci of rabies, this technique makes it possible to record not only the abundance of predators but also their territorial distribution and concentrations near burrow shelters, which is important during oral vaccinations of predators against rabies.
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The results of the analysis of seasonal and interannual variability of the aerosol optical depth of the atmosphere (AOD), the aerosol volume concentration, and the mass concentration of black ...carbon in the surface layer obtained at observations in Barentsburg (Spitzbergen archipelago) in 2011–2021 are presented. The annual behavior of all parameters is characterized by two maxima: spring (or winter-spring) and summer, apparently due to the transport of pollutants from the middle latitudes in the winter-spring period and smoke aerosol in summer. In the interannual variability, there are significant negative trends in the fine AOD component (−0.012 over 11 years) and the mass concentration of the absorbing substance (by 46.7 ng/m
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over 10 years).
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Metal–carbon nanocomposites are synthesized on the basis of bimetallic Cu–Zn nanoparticles and polyacrylonitrile, pyrolyzed under the action of IR radiation. The effect of the ligand environment of ...the metal in the precursor on the phase composition, structural characteristics, and size of the bimetallic nanoparticles is studied. Changes are observed in both the structures of the nanocomposite systems and the size of coherent scattering domains, depending on temperature.
The Valunistoe Au–Ag deposit is the third largest among epithermal deposits in Chukotka after the Kupol and Dvoinoe. It is located at the western closing of the East Chukotka flank zone of the ...Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt. Volcanic domes (Pravogornenskaya, Zhil’ninskaya, Shakhskaya, Valunistaya, Shalaya, and Oranzhevaya, each is 3–6 km in diameter) have the main ore-controlling significance in the area; they form a chain elongated to the northeast, along the Kanchalan fault zone. Near the deposit, Upper Cretaceous volcanics are widespread: ignimbrites, lavas and tuffs ranging from rhyolite to basaltic composition, and lenses and interbeds of sedimentary rocks, subvolcanic bodies and dikes of andesites, basalts, and dacites. The structure of the deposit is caused by its localization within the limits of the eponymous (Valunistaya) volcanic dome. Twelve ore-bearing vein zones with thicknesses ranging from several to several tens of meters have been revealed at the deposit. The Glavnaya (Main) and Novaya (New) vein zones have been studied in detail; they are traced along their strikes to a distance of more than 1500 m and consist of en echelon veins 1.0 m thick on average, with lengths varying from 100 to 400 m. Based on the sampling data, Au and Ag contents in ores are 0–474.3 and 0–3794.23 g/t, respectively. Colloform-banded structures are frequently encountered, often combined with breccia structures. The main vein minerals are quartz and adularia; calcite, chlorite, fluorite, sericite, pyrophyllite, kaolinite, montmorillonite, gypsum, and epidote are less frequent. The main ore minerals are pyrite, acanthite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite; secondary ore minerals are native Au and Ag and polybasite; rare ore minerals are pearceite, magnetite, hematite, marcasite, freibergite, tetrahedrite, bournonite, hessite, matildite, and others. Ores are characterized by an Au/Ag ratio from 1 : 5 to 1 : 10 and sulfidity (0.5–5%). Ores are enriched in many elements (Au, Ag, Sb, Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Mo, Te, and Cr), with enrichment factors ranging from several times (Se, Mo, Te, and Cr), to tenfold (Cd, Pb, Cu, and Zn) and hundredfold (Sb) levels, reaching an excess of tens and hundreds thousand times for Au and Ag (Fig. 7). Ores are characterized by a low total REE and demonstrate positive Eu anomalies. Geochemical features are consistent with the mineral composition of ores. Full homogenization of fluid inclusions in quartz occurs at temperatures of 203–284°C and 174–237°C in calcite, while the salt concentration in both cases is from 0.2 to 0.7 wt % NaCl equiv. Fluid density changes from 0.87 to 0.56 g/cm
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. The results give grounds to attribute the Valunistoe deposit to the low-sulfidized epithermal class. The data provided in the article are of practical value for regional forecast–metallogenic maps and can be used in searching for and appraising epithermal Au–Ag deposits.
Patients with post-stress pathologies display the signs of inflammation in the peripheral blood as well as in the brain. The mechanisms of such post-stress neuroimmune changes, their contribution to ...the behavior, the relationship of the intensity of inflammation with genetically determined features have not been clarified. The goal of this work was to evaluate the dynamics of post-stress inflammation in the blood and hippocampus of rats which differ in level of excitability of the nervous system. Rats of two strains (high/low excitability threshold) were subjected to stress according to the K. Hecht protocol and their behavior, neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio and the number of Iba+ cells in the hippocampus were analysed 24 hours, 7 and 24 days after stress exposure. Highly excitable animals show an increase in anxiety-like behavior, in the number of neutrophils compared to lymphocytes as well as in the number of Iba1+ cells in CA1, CA3 and DG areas of the hippocampus in response to stress. Thus, hereditary high excitability of the nervous system is a possible risk factor for the development of post-stress pathologies.
Air tuyeres account for 30% of all heat losses in a blast furnace. One of the methods for lining a tuyere from the air passage side is to use a thermal insulation insert. However, certain defects of ...the insert on the working surface of the air passage along with thermal stresses generated therein may lead to its premature failure during operation. This paper discusses applying a slurry coating to the inner surface of the insert to prevent its premature cracking and improve performance. The effect of a slurry-coated thermal insulation insert on gas dynamics and heat transfer inside a blast furnace air tuyere was studied, and simulation of the above processes was performed. It was shown that applying a slurry coating to the lower portion of the thermal insulation insert is most beneficial for increasing the heat flux and raising the air-blast temperature at the tuyere outlet, while applying the coating to the entire inner surface of the insert helps improving its resistance, which has been confirmed experimentally.
Analysis of the incidence of animal rabies in Russia (1960-2006) and assessment of the abundance of wild canids and rabies infection prevalence among them (1981-2006) have been made. The results ...provide evidence for the dominant role of red foxes in the spread of rabies among wild animals (91.67%), which is confirmed by a strong correlation between the abundance of this predator and the numbers of infected animals (r = 0.73). In 2004 to 2006, the prevailing incidence of animal rabies in one or another territory was determined mainly (74.7%) by the pooled population density of red and corsac foxes and wolves. Natural and economic features of the landscape determined the incidence of rabies indirectly, via changes in the numbers of wild animals (by 68.9%). A comparative analysis of the recorded and potentially possible rabies incidence rates among wolves, red and corsac foxes, and raccoon dogs over the period from 1996 and 2006 is presented.
The restoration of B-cell immunity is a key component of the success of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In most cases,
the restoration of B-lymphopoiesis is a slow and often ...incomplete process, which is accompanied by a decrease in the tolerance of the recipient
to bacterial, viral, fungal pathogens. This process is influenced by a number of factors that determine its effectiveness and pace. It is
important to restore not only the size of the B-cell population, but also their functional usefulness. The article provides an analysis of modern literature data on the significance of the restoration of B-cell immunity after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation,
a review of the main factors affecting the process of B-lymphopoiesis, and their prognostic component.
Here we developed a model of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) using repeated intravenous administration of microencapsulated thrombi with a controlled rate of biodegradation. ...Autologous thrombi encapsulated in alginate microspheres with a diameter of 190±48 μm were intravenously injected to rats 8 times every 4 days. In the comparison group, nonmodified thrombi were injected. After 6 weeks, a significant increase in systolic pressure in the right ventricle, a decrease in exercise tolerance, and an increase in the index of vascular wall hypertrophy were revealed in the group receiving injections of microencapsulated thrombi in comparison with the group receiving nonmodified thrombi and healthy animals. Thus, the developed representative CTEPH model can be used to test promising pharmacological substances.
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