Background
The long‐term sequalae of COVID‐19 remain poorly characterized. We assessed persistent symptoms in previously hospitalized patients with COVID‐19 and assessed potential risk factors.
...Methods
Data were collected from patients discharged from 4 hospitals in Moscow, Russia between 8 April and 10 July 2020. Participants were interviewed via telephone using an ISARIC Long‐term Follow‐up Study questionnaire.
Results
2,649 of 4755 (56%) discharged patients were successfully evaluated, at median 218 (IQR 200, 236) days post‐discharge. COVID‐19 diagnosis was clinical in 1291 and molecular in 1358. Most cases were mild, but 902 (34%) required supplemental oxygen and 68 (2.6%) needed ventilatory support. Median age was 56 years (IQR 46, 66) and 1,353 (51.1%) were women. Persistent symptoms were reported by 1247 (47.1%) participants, with fatigue (21.2%), shortness of breath (14.5%) and forgetfulness (9.1%) the most common symptoms and chronic fatigue (25%) and respiratory (17.2%) the most common symptom categories. Female sex was associated with any persistent symptom category OR 1.83 (95% CI 1.55 to 2.17) with association being strongest for dermatological (3.26, 2.36 to 4.57) symptoms. Asthma and chronic pulmonary disease were not associated with persistent symptoms overall, but asthma was associated with neurological (1.95, 1.25 to 2.98) and mood and behavioural changes (2.02, 1.24 to 3.18), and chronic pulmonary disease was associated with chronic fatigue (1.68, 1.21 to 2.32).
Conclusions
Almost half of adults admitted to hospital due to COVID‐19 reported persistent symptoms 6 to 8 months after discharge. Fatigue and respiratory symptoms were most common, and female sex was associated with persistent symptoms.
Word cloud showing persistent symptoms 6–8 months since hospital discharge in people previously hospitalised with COVID‐19.
Road transport is one of the main consumers of fossil fuels in the world. At the same time, ICE vehicle emissions form about a quarter of all greenhouse gases in the world. In this regard, the ...transition to electric vehicles is extremely important. Their operation is more economical and environmentally friendly. The massive shift away from liquid-fuel vehicles will have a significant positive effect on a global scale. At the moment, more than 20 countries of the world have planned the transition to electric vehicles by 2030-2040. They are beginning to be introduced into various areas: personal and public transport, special-purpose vehicles, cargo transportation, etc. At the same time, there are barriers that need to be overcome for the widespread mass transition to electric cars. In particular, the choice of models is limited and their price is high. The technologies for the production and disposal of individual components, such as batteries, remain insufficiently developed. Electric networks are not always ready for additional load. The network of electric filling stations is not sufficiently developed. Russia also supports this global trend and faces restrictions. Various scenarios for the development of electric vehicles have been predicted. Measures of state support for both consumers and manufacturers of electric vehicles are indicated, which are aimed at achieving the indicators of a balanced or accelerated scenario for this market.
Main conclusion
The comparison of the changes of the lipid content in plant cell boundary membranes demonstrates a substantial role of the vacuolar membrane in response to hyperosmotic stress.
...Comparison of variations in the lipid content of plant cell boundary membranes (vacuolar and plasma membranes) isolated from beet root tissues (
Beta vulgaris
L.) was conducted after the effect of hyperosmotic stress. Both types of membranes participate in the formation of protective mechanisms, but the role of the vacuolar membrane was considered as more essential. This conclusion was connected with more significant adaptive variations in the content and composition of sterols and fatty acids in the vacuolar membrane (although some of the adaptive variations, especially, in the composition of phospholipids and glycoglycerolipids were similar for both types of membranes). In the plasma membrane under hyperosmotic stress, the increase in the content of sphingolipids was noted that was not observed in the tonoplast.
Oxidative stress is the cause of various pathologies and disorders of cellular functions. Substances that reduce the pathological effect of oxidative stress on homeostasis include organoselenium ...compounds of natural and synthetic origin. Depending on the structure, organoselenium compounds can exhibit different biological activities, for example, reducing oxidative stress, participating in the regulation of signaling systems, influencing the synthesis of cytokines, etc. This makes them promising products for the development of new means of metabolic correction and drugs with enzyme-like activity. This study is aimed at developing an effective method for the synthesis of functional organoselenium compounds and studying their antioxidant effect in vivo under stress conditions. A one-pot catalyst-free method of transannular addition-functionalization of cis,cis-1,5-cyclooctadiene with selenium dihalides in the presence of nucleophiles was developed. For the first time, the antioxidant activity of functionalized 9-selenabicyclo3.3.1nonanes was studied in vivo. Quantitative characteristics of the effect on the level of lipid peroxidation and the activity of glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase under stress conditions were obtained. The effect of substituents in the selenium-containing scaffold on the biological activity of the compounds was studied. The water-soluble 9-selenabicyclo3.3.1nonane derivatives, containing hydroxyl and 2-hydroxyethoxy groups, which increased the activity of both glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase, were discovered.
The article examines the characteristics of consumer behavior of Generation Z representatives. An analysis of available literary sources has shown that the existing idea of A. Maslow’s hierarchy of ...needs is also undergoing a process of transformation. A number of identified changes are described. Influenced by primary production factors, proposed by K. Marx, and other specific factors of production – entrepreneurial talent and information, the features of rational consumer behavior are consider ed. It was found that all considered factors of production have a positive impact on consumption, with the exception of information. To confirm the findings empirically, a study was conducted including the opinions of more than a thousand respondents belonging to Generation Z. All conclusions were confirmed. However, one of the issues made it possible to obtain an unexpected result, there must be a special focus on it.
Lean production methods and tools are becoming more popular in many sectors of the economy around the world. Simple and easy-to-understand Lean tools allow you to identify and reduce waste, optimize ...processes and increase labor productivity. Higher education institutions are also beginning to implement Lean practices to improve their processes. Lean methods is often complemented by the information and communication technologies of Industry 4.0, together they provide a synergistic effect. Corporate culture of higher education institution is a constraining factor in Lean production implementation.
Educational organizations require a fundamentally new organization of business processes. The transition to blended and distance learning (remote work) is the first reason. The second reason is the ...problems of Russian higher education that have accumulated earlier. Universities need to improve the efficiency of personnel, eliminate losses, maintain and improve the quality of the educational product. Lean production tools and techniques are suitable for these tasks. Lean production approaches have been used in large industrial plants around the world for many years. The expansion of lean practices to the service and public sector is a current trend. The ideology of lean production is also permeating higher education institutions. The Lean Universities Association contributes to this process. The National Project “Labor Productivity” is also a driver of development. Universities are training personnel for the implementation of this project. The students’ lean-club can be a successful form of interaction with students. Lean-club members will participate in the analysis of processes and generation of ideas for continuous improvement of the university. The activities of the lean-club will improve the work of the university and form a lean thinking among its members. The Kaizen quality philosophy can form the basis of the lean-club’s concept. It involves the gradual but constant implementation of improvements. The main tool will be quality control circles. Their participants will analyze business processes and make proposals for their improvement. Both Kaizen philosophy and lean production are customer focused. Students are customers and consumers of most of the key processes of the university. Building a system of continuous improvement of the university with the participation of students is considered appropriate. Student lean-club members need certain personal and professional competencies to implement projects. The most important competencies are soft skills and basic knowledge of lean production. They do not prevent you from joining the lean-club. Lean-club members can acquire these competencies as they work. Learning in practice, in the process of project activities from simple to complex, seems to be important and valuable.
The purpose of this study is to find and justify reserves for increasing the productivity of teachers on the example of the Novosibirsk State Technical University. Some of the methods presented in ...the paper are well-known and are of interest from a practical point of view. These include a survey, observation, experiment, and in-depth interview. Some methods are specific and are more often used by experts in the field of lean manufacturing. The key set of lean tools was the kaizen umbrella, which includes the philosophy of continuous improvement, the method of mapping the value stream, the “five why” method. Diagrams of various purposes are widely used in the article: Ishikawa, Pareto, spaghetti. The main problem solved in this paper is a large number of errors in syllabuses, a long time of their creation and excessive control. The hypothesis about the simultaneous elimination of these shortcomings by automating the process itself was tested. The experiment proved the validity of the hypothesis. The duration of the value creation process during the development of syllabuses was reduced by 15%, and the overall satisfaction of the participants in the process increased by 27.5%. The total savings of the working time fund amounted to 0.5 million man-hours across the entire university, accounting for almost 100 thousand syllabuses.
Abstract
Objective
The membranes of plant and animal cells contain lipid-protein microdomains (LPMs) in their structure. We aimed to compare biochemical and biophysical characteristics of LPMs ...isolated by the two techniques from beet root tonoplast.
Methods
For the purposes of comparison the biochemical characteristics of LPMs the content of protein (Bradford’s method), the content of lipids (gravimetric method) were assessed. For the purpose of separating different kinds of lipids, one-dimensional thin layer chromatography (TLC), two-dimensional TLC and different specific systems of solvents were used. The content of fatty acids and sterols was determined by chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry correspondingly. In order to determine the orderings of the lipids in LPMs the laser scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy was used.
Results
Significant differences were revealed as a result of investigation of biochemical and biophysical characteristics of LPMs. The total content of proteins was substantially higher (4 times as large) in LPMs identified by the detergent-free technique than in LPMs identified by the detergent technique. The orderings of lipids in LPMs isolated by detergent-free technique was substantially lower than that of LPMs isolated by detergent technique.
Conclusion
These results may suggest an existence of several types of LPMs in tonoplast.
The investigation of the lipid-protein microdomains of the plasmalemma isolated with the aid of the non-detergent technique in the zones of the sucrose density gradient after high-speed ...centrifugation from the tissue pieces of beet roots, which underwent oxidative stress, was conducted. The microdomains, whose lipid composition — according to the definition — allowed us to classify them as rafts, were studied. After the exposure to oxidative stress (100 mM hydrogen peroxide), the variations in the composition of membrane lipids bound up mainly with the elevations of the content of raft-forming lipids (sterols, sterol esters). Oxidative stress provoked redistribution in the composition of sterols, which led to an elevation in the content of campesterol and in the ratio of stigmasterol/sitosterol. Furthermore, the variations were registered in the content of phospholipids and phosphoglycerolipids, which are capable of stabilizing the lamellar structure of membranes. The results obtained allow one to assume that under the oxidative stress, variations in the composition of lipids in microdomains of the plasma membrane can take place. These variations may influence the functioning of the membranes, and the membranes may participate in the protection of the plant cell.
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