On the Tasks of Forensic Ecology

The article analyses the concept of “a forensic examination’s task” as one of the fundamental terms of forensic expertology. The author demonstrates that it is a part of a broader concept of “the subject of forensic examination”. She also reviews the classification of tasks of forensic examination.Next, the article addresses the tasks of forensic ecological examination, which by their nature, as a rule, are diagnostic. The author presents their definition as a set of actions common to this kind of forensic analysis, formed by an expert based on the questions posed to him. These actions are implemented by converting potential evidentiary information about the negative anthropogenic impact on environmental objects contained in the case materials submitted for examination into up-to-date evidentiary information.

Determination of the content of rare metals in spent anion-exchange resin SIM202 by methods of neutron-activation and mass-spectrometric analysis

The work is devoted to the development of methods for determining the elemental and isotopic composition of spent ion-exchange resin, industrial waste and environmental objects using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and analyzing specific samples to determine the content of noble and rare metals in technological materials, industrial waste and natural objects with application of the developed techniques. This article determines the elemental composition of the spent ion-exchange resin SIM202 with the Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method and also shows the comparison of the results with neutron activation analysis (NAA). The distribution coefficient of elements in a chromatographic column in ion-exchange resins TAO and SIM202 is given.

Antigenic properties of serration bacteriophages

The genus Serratia is one of the poorly studied among enterobacteria, which explains the interest in these microorganisms and bacteriophages active towards these microorganisms. The aim of this work was to study the antigenic properties of bacteriophages isolated by us from lysogenic cultures of serrations and from environmental objects. The work investigated 16 phages active against bacteria Serratia marcescens, isolated from various sources.

Disinfection of environmental objects against coccidia oocysts in broiler chickens

The purpose of the research is developing a method for disinfection of environmental objects against coccidia oocysts in broiler chickens.Materials and methods. At the VNIIP – FSC VIEV vivarium, a bioassay test was performed to experimentally infect 60 chickens aged 14 days which were divided into six equivalent groups of 10 birds each and kept isolated in cages. Chickens from the first, second and third groups were administered orally, using a micropipette, 1 ml of an Eimeria oocyst suspension treated with 4, 5 and 6% solutions of the combined eimeriocide agent. Chickens from the fourth group were administered 1 ml of Eimeria oocyst suspension treated with 4% phenol solution (base drug). Chickens from the fifth group received 1 ml of a buffered solution and were used as a noninfected control. Chickens from the sixth group received 1 ml of suspension containing 2000 oocysts/mL and were used as an infected control. The efficacy of disinfection with eimeriocide and the basic drug was determined based on the percentage of decrease in the recovery of Eimeria oocysts after being exposed to drugs as compared to chickens of the infected control. The efficacy of 5% eimeriocide against poultry coccidia oocysts in a production test was determined empirically with the set of oocysts on control sites as compared with the basic drug on a poultry farm in the Moscow Region.Results and discussion. The intense-effectiveness of 4% eimeriocide against coccidia oocysts was 99.31%, and the 5 and 6% combined agent showed 100% efficacy. The basic drug, 4% phenol showed 74.65% intense-effectiveness. The results obtained in the production test of 5% eimeriocide at a dose of 0.5 l per 1 m2 with a 2 hour-exposure indicate its high efficacy for disinfection against coccidia oocysts in broiler chickens. The intense-effectiveness was 97.25% versus 59.03% efficacy of the base drug, phenol.

Selective determination of rhodium and iridium in the urban environment using the catalytic method

The problem of studying the level of technogenic pollution of the environment with platinum group metals is attributed first to the release of platinum metals into the environment together with the exhaust gases of cars using afterburning catalysts containing Pt, Pd, Rh. The pharmaceutical, electronics and jewelry industries the waste of which contains PGMs also contribute to the pollution of the environment. A number of studies have shown the toxic effects of PGM on humans. The goal of the study is to obtain new information about the level of technogenic pollution of the environment with platinum group metals (such as water-washings from roads, bio-collector plants, roadside dust), which necessitates developing of the method for sample preparation and determination of rhodium and iridium. A technique of sample opening and determination of rhodium and iridium in environmental objects, water-washings from roads, bio-collector plants, roadside dust is proposed. To increase the selectivity of rhodium determination, the samples were treated with a mixture of concentrated perchloric acid and sodium periodate when heated to boiling, which provided more than 5-fold increase the rhodium signal. Moreover, the permissible excess of iridium and ruthenium was increased by 5 and 20 times, respectively, due to the conversion of other PGMs into catalytically inactive forms. The indicator reaction of sulfarsazen oxidation by periodate was used in the kinetic determination of rhodium and iridium. The correctness of the results obtained by the developed method was confirmed by the ETAAS method. The determined content of Rh and Ir: in roadside waters (μg/liter) up to 0.015 and 0.005; in collector plants (g/ton) up to 0.030 Rh and 0.022; in street dust (g/ton) up to 0.05 and 0.025, respectively. The standard deviation of the repeatability of the determination results does not exceed 0.07 (Rh) and 0.12 (Ir). The developed method of opening samples and determining rhodium and iridium in environmental objects provided a great bulk of information about the content of rhodium and iridium in water-flushes from Moscow roads, bio-collector plants, roadside dust, which correlate fairly well with the scarce data from other geographic regions available in the literature and our earlier results on rhodium content in dust. The developed technique made it possible to obtain data on the level of technical pollution of the environment with PGMs in places with different traffic density in Moscow.

Destructive effect of RNаse a on the SARS-CoV-2 virus (in vitro research)

BACKGROUND: For today, the most important and discussed issue in the professional medical community is the problem of prevention and treatment of a new coronaviral infection (COVID-19). The main reason for the non-decreasing increase in morbidity and mortality is the absence of an etiotropic drug. In our study, it is proposed to use a previously available drug for the treatment of tick-borne encephalitis, ribonuclease A, obtained from the pancreas of cattle. AIM: The aim of investigation was to study the antiviral activity of RNаse A against SARS-CoV-2 in in vitro experiments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The experiment used samples of 50 patients with a confirmed (by PCR) primary diagnosis of a new coronoviral infection COVID-19. The preparation for the study was served by ribonuclease A (neoFroxx GmbH, Germany) at a concentration of 0.5; 1; 5 and 10 mg/ml, incubated at 4 and 37C, the exposure was 20 minutes, 20 hours. A set of reagents OTT-PCR-RV-SARS-CoV-2 (Syntol, Russia) was used as test systems. RESULTS: of the current study is the revealed antiviral activity of ribonuclease A at a minmal concentration of 0.5 mg/ml during incubation from 20 minutes to 20 hours, in the temperature range of 437C. CONCLUSIONS: The data obtained in the in vitro study confirmed the ability of ribonuclease A to destroy viral RNA, which suggests the possible use of the drug both for the treatment of patients and for the treatment of environmental objects.

IDENTIFICATION OF NON-TUBERCULOSIS MYCOBACTERIA ISOLATED FROM ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN

The purpose of this work was to identify mycobacteria of non-tuberculosis type isolated from environmental objects in the Republic of Tatarstan. The article presents the result of identification of mycobacteria of non-tuberculous type in samples of washout from environmental objects obtained from farms with an identified species list of circulating mycobacteria of non-tuberculous type from reacting to tuberculin cattle by polymerase chain reaction in real time. In the course of our research, we found that nonspecific allergic reactions to bovine tuberculin in these farms are caused by contamination with mycobacteria of a non-tuberculosis type of livestock premises and soils near farms.

Statistical texture analysis of forest areas from very high spatial resolution satellite images

Aerospace images with a spatial resolution of less than 1 m are actively used by regional services to obtain and update information about various environmental objects. Considerable efforts are being devoted to the development of remote sensing methods for forest areas. The structure of the forest canopy depends on various parameters, most of which are determined by ground-based methods during forest management works. Remote sensing methods for assessing the structural parameters of forest stands are based on texture analysis of panchromatic and multispectral images. A statistical approach is often used to extract texture features. The basis of this approach is the description of the distributions characterizing the mutual arrangement of image pixels in grayscale. This paper compares the effectiveness of matrix based statistical methods for extracting textural features for solving the problem of classifying various natural and manmade objects, as well as structures of the forest canopy. We consider statistics of various orders based on estimates of the distributions of gray levels, as well as the mutual occurrence, frequency, difference and structuring of gray levels. The results of assessing the informativeness of statistical textural characteristics in determining various structures of the forest canopy are presented. Dependences of the classification results on the choice of distribution parameters are determined. For the quantitative validation of the results obtained, data from ground surveys and expert visual classification of very high resolution WorldView-2 images of the territories of Savvatyevkoe and Bronnitskoe forestries are used.

Sanitary parasitological and sanitary–bacteriological condition of the soil in the astrakhan region

This article analyzes the sanitaryparasitological and sanitarybacteriological state of the soil of the Astrakhan region for 2015 to 2019. In total, 7587 soil samples taken from various environmental objects were studied, and 18.197 studies have been performed. Of the samples, 333 (4.4%) samples did not meet the hygiene standards. For parasitic purity, 4566 (60.2%) soil samples were examined, and 9132 (50.2%) studies have been performed. The largest number of soil samples were collected and examined in 2015 and 2016, which amounted to 943 (20.7%) in 2015 and 1046 (22.9%) in 2016. The number of samples that do not meet hygienic standards was 62 (6.6%) in 2015 and 91 (8.7%) in 2016. In 2015, the positive findings were helminthiasis caused by unfertilized eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides (4 [0.5%]), eggs of Toxocara canis (37 [3.9%]), and larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis (21 [2.2%]). For microbiological indicators, the largest number of soil samples were collected and examined in 2019 and amounted to 694 (23.0%), of which positive findings in the form of common coliform bacteria of Escherichia coli amounted to six (0.9%). Studies for bacteriological indicators in 2016 have used 662 (21.9%) samples, which is 0.9 times less than the samples taken in 2019. The sanitary condition of the soil of the Astrakhan region remains stably tense, as evidenced by positive findings in the form of eggs and larvae of helminths, as well as pathogenic bacteria of Escherichia coli. The presence of ascarid eggs, toxocars, and strongylid larvae in the soil indicates contamination of these objects with the feces of infected people and animals. The presence of coliform bacteria of Escherichia coli in the soil also indicates contamination with the feces of sick people.