The war in Ukraine in 2022 significantly shook not only the Ukrainian economy, but also left a negative impression on the whole world. An increase in the level of hunger, a jump in prices, the ...introduction of restrictions on supplies, a change in approaches to foreign economic activity – similar headlines can be found more and more often, which indicates an increased interest and the need to analyze the impact of Ukraine on the dynamics of consumer goods prices in the world. Moreover, this war is the largest full-scale war in Europe since the Second World War. The work analyzed Ukraine's position on consumer goods markets, divided into 3 periods, for each of which the structure of export and import, their dynamics, and key features of Ukraine's foreign economic activity at that time were characterized. To visualize data on the dynamics of prices for consumer goods in the world, the Global Food Prices Database dataset was processed, followed by the creation of consolidated tables and construction of histograms with grouping, which revealed the main trends in price changes for the main categories of products. A dataset of 105 countries was also created and processed, with their distribution into the main world regions: Asia-Pacific and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America. Self-organizing maps and clustering models made it possible to identify 5 clusters, each of which corresponds to a set of countries with similar characteristics regarding the impact of the war in Ukraine on these countries. Four quantitative variables were used for clustering: average salary, GDP per capita, price index, % of imports from Ukraine.
The sorption process of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions using chitosan flakes and chitosan beads was studied. Chitosan gel beads were prepared using covalent crosslinking of chitosan chains ...by epichlorohydrin with ionic gelation by sodium tripolyphosphate. The capability of chitosan beads to absorb the heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions was studied, and the physicochemical characteristics of the sorbent were evaluated using SEM and FTIR on the model solution treatment. It was found that competitive proton sorption takes place in acidic media, which results in a transformation of amino groups into inactive ammonium-salt form and decreases in heavy metal sorption onto chitosan from aqueous acidic media. Batch adsorption experiments were performed to examine the influence of various factors such as the initial concentration of metal salts, pH, and agitation duration on the process. It was established that metal ion sorption is pH dependent and has an optimum effect at a pH of 6.0. Following the Langmuir equation, the maximum sorption of Cu
2+
ions is estimated to be 1,6 mol/kg of modified chitosan. The kinetic study revealed that the adsorption kinetics are well-fitted to the kinetic equation of pseudo second order. Thus, sorption of heavy metal ions by chitosan is considered to be a competitive process that occurs on amino groups of the sorbent with equivalent coordinated participation of metal cations, protons, and anions.
In this paper, the problem on the transition from one almost contact metric structure to another in examined. We obtain conditions for the quadruple of tensor fields of an almost contact metric ...structure.
The aim of this study was to compare the effects of azoximer bromide and surgery on the quality of life of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) without polyps. We also wanted to examine changes ...in the patient's emotional state and the nature of their complaints.
The results of using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-22 (SNOT-22) questionnaire in patients with CRS without severe or moderate-severe polyps, before treatment and 3 months after treatment, are presented. Patients, depending on their choice, were treated with functional endoscopic intervention or a course of 6 mg/ml azoximer bromide (1 ml per day, a course of at least 10 days).
The median interquartile range score for VAS in patients before azoximer bromide treatment was 6.7 6.3; 7.05 points, after treatment 4.2 3.50; 4.70 points. The median interquartile range of VAS scores in patients before surgical treatment was 6.4 6.1; 6.9 points, and after 4.8 4.50; 5.30 points. The median interquartile range of the SNOT-22 score before azoximer bromide treatment was 33 32; 36 points, after treatment - 24 22; 25 points. The median interquartile range of the SNOT-22 score before surgery was 34 32; 36 points, after treatment - 19 18; 21.25 points.
Azoximer bromide treatment and surgery improve the quality of life of patients with CRS (according to the visual analog scale and all SNOT-22 domains) during a control survey after 3 months (
<0.001). Surgical treatment has a stronger impact on the quality of life, which is more noticeable in the influence on the domains "Rhinological symptoms", "Extranasal symptoms", "Ear/facial symptoms" (
<0.05). According to the domains "Psychological dysfunction", "Sleep dysfunction", surgical intervention had no advantages in affecting the quality of life, compared with taking azoximer bromide (
<0.05).
Thyroid papillary cancers (PTCs) are associated with activating mutations of genes coding for RET or TRK tyrosine kinase receptors, as well as of RAS genes. Activating mutations of BRAF were reported ...recently in most melanomas and a small proportion of colorectal tumors. Here we show that a somatic mutation of BRAF, V599E, is the most common genetic change in PTCs (28 of 78; 35.8%). BRAF(V599E) mutations were unique to PTCs, and not found in any of the other types of differentiated follicular neoplasms arising from the same cell type (0 of 46). Moreover, there was no overlap between PTC with RET/PTC, BRAF, or RAS mutations, which altogether were present in 66% of cases. The lack of concordance for these mutations was highly unlikely to be a chance occurrence. Because these signaling proteins function along the same pathway in thyroid cells, this represents a unique paradigm of human tumorigenesis through mutation of three signaling effectors lying in tandem.
Context: Thyroid nodules are common in adults, but only a small fraction of them are malignant. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) with cytological evaluation is the most reliable tool for cancer diagnosis ...in thyroid nodules. However, 10–40% of nodules are diagnosed as indeterminate by cytology, making it difficult to optimally manage these patients.
Objective: The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility and role of testing for tumor-specific mutations in improving the FNA diagnosis of thyroid nodules.
Design: The prospective study included 470 FNA samples of thyroid nodules from 328 patients. At the time of aspiration, a small portion of the material was collected and tested for BRAF, RAS, RET/PTC, and PAX8/PPARγ mutations. The mutational status was correlated with cytology and either surgical pathology diagnosis or follow-up (mean, 34 months).
Results: A sufficient amount of nucleic acids were isolated in 98% of samples. Thirty-two mutations were found, including 18 BRAF, eight RAS, five RET/PTC, and one PAX8/PPARγ. The presence of any mutation was a strong indicator of cancer because 31 (97%) of mutation-positive nodules had a malignant diagnosis after surgery. A combination of cytology and molecular testing showed significant improvement in the diagnostic accuracy and allowed better prediction of malignancy in the nodules with indeterminate cytology.
Conclusions: These results indicate that molecular testing of thyroid nodules for a panel of mutations can be effectively performed in a clinical setting. It enhances the accuracy of FNA cytology and is of particular value for thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology.
Testing for a panel of mutations in thyroid fine needle aspiration samples improves cancer detection, particularly in thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology.
Abstract
The permafrost zone is one of the main natural systems in the Russian Federation that are exposed to global warming. The temperature of permafrost soils changes, the seasonal thaw zone ...increases, the process of permafrost degradation is started, influencing the strength properties of the soils. The study sought to assess climate change in terms of the impact on the bearing capacity of the soil under buildings and structures built in the 1960s and 1980s on the principle of maintaining the permafrost condition of soils. On the basis of published archival and forecast data on the increase rate in the active layer thickness and the rising trends in the temperature of permafrost soils for four geographical regions of Russia (North of the European part, North of Western Siberia, Middle Siberia, Yakutia) a reduction in the bearing capacity of the standard reinforced concrete pile was determined (35x35 cm section, 10 m long). The study showed that, for most regions, the reduction in the bearing capacity of the pile is currently on average level (10-20 %). However a high (>30%) decrease is expected by 2050.
Gadolinium orthoniobate ceramics, GdNbO4, were prepared by a conventional solid state reaction method. The synthesized sample was characterized by means of X-ray diffraction and μ-X-ray fluorescence ...spectrometry methods. The temperature dependence of the heat capacity of GdNbO4 was first measured by relaxation, adiabatic and differential scanning calorimetry in the temperature range of 4–1308 K. The high-temperature enthalpy increments of GdNbO4 were measured by drop calorimetry between 434 and 1745 K. A small step-like change in the Cp,m(T) associated with a fergusonite-to-scheelite phase transition was detected. The temperature of a second order phase transition was determined to be 1078 K. Based on the fitted values of the Cp,m(T), the thermodynamic functions (entropy, enthalpy change and Gibbs energy) were calculated in the range from T→0–1750 K.
•The heat capacity of GdNbO4 was first measured over a temperature range of 4–1308 K.•High-temperature enthalpy increments (434–1745 K) were obtained by drop calorimetry.•The second order phase transition was detected by DSC.•Thermodynamic properties of GdNbO4 were calculated from 0 K to 1750 K.
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