The Modified Procedure of Totally Tubeless PNL

Mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mPNL) is a standard treatment for kidney stones larger than 1.5 cm, with the placement of a nephrostomy drainage at the end of it, which is considered the standard procedure, but tubeless/ totally tubeless mPNL techniques reduce postoperative discomfort in patients and shorten hospital stays. The aim of article was to compare the efficacy and safety of our proposed modified method of totally tubeless mPNL with control of the parenchymal canal, with existing methods of tubeless/totally tubeless mPNL. Novelty of the study presented by modified method of totally tubeless mPNL. During the period from 2018 to 2020 we performed 486 mPNL were performed in our clinic in total, among which 63 (12.9%) patients underwent tubeless PNL. Patients whose surgeries ended with using tubeless techniques were divided into three groups: Group I – 22 patients who had tubeless mPNL (with ureteral stent), Group II (20 patients) – totally tubeless mPNL with a safety thread (the proposed procedure), Group III (21 patients) – totally tubeless mPNL. In all three groups, the access point was most often made through the lower group of renal calyces: Group I – 12 (54.5%), Group II – 14 (70.0%), Group III – 13 (61.9%); then through the middle calyx: Group I – 8 (36.4%), Group II – 6 (30.0%), Group III – 7 (33.3%); and the upper calyx: Group І – 2 (9.1%), Group ІІ – 0%, Group ІІІ – 1 (4.8%), no differences in the distribution of access points between groups were found (p=0.67). There were no differences in the distribution of tract sizes between the groups (p=0.95) with tract dilatation to 16.5/17.5 Fr was performed most often: Group I – 12 (54.5%), in Group II – 11 (55.0%) and Group III – 11 (52.4%). The mean duration of surgery in Group I was 83.0±22.9 min, in Group II – 74.9±13.6 min, in Group III – 72.6±12.0 min (p=0.47). This study confirms the high effectiveness of totally tubeless mPNL. The proposed modification to perform totally tubeless mPNL allows you to have permanent postoperative control over the parenchymal channel and in case of postoperative bleeding it enables you to immediately insert nephrostomy drainage through the safety thread. Study contributes to practical methods as an intermediate step for surgeons who are considering transition to a totally tubeless PCNL technique.

Non-linear and Interaction Analyses of Biomarkers for Organ Dysfunctions as Predictive Markers for Sepsis: A Nationwide Retrospective Study

The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score is predominantly used to assess the severity of organ dysfunction in sepsis. However, differences in prognostic value between SOFA subscores have not been sufficiently evaluated. This retrospective observational study used a large-scale database containing about 30 million patients. Among them, we included 38,869 adult patients with sepsis from 2006 to 2019. The cardiovascular and neurological subscores were calculated by a modified method. Associations between the biomarkers of the SOFA components and mortality were examined using restricted cubic spline analyses, which showed that an increase in the total modified SOFA score was linearly associated with increased mortality. However, the prognostic association of subscores varied widely: platelet count showed a J-shaped association, creatinine showed an inverted J-shaped association, and bilirubin showed only a weak association. We also evaluated interaction effects on mortality between an increase of one subscore and another. The joint odds ratios on mortality of two modified SOFA subscores were synergistically increased compared to the sum of the single odds ratios, especially in cardiovascular-neurological, coagulation-hepatic, and renal-hepatic combinations. In conclusion, total modified SOFA score was associated with increased mortality despite the varied prognostic associations of the subscores, possibly because interactions between subscores synergistically enhanced prognostic accuracy.

Application of photometry for diagnostics of nitrogen nutrition in spring barley

The article discusses a method for diagnosing nitrogen nutrition of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in different phases of the growing season using a photometric device (N-tester) Yara. The studies were carried out in the conditions of the Moscow region (Russia) on the Mikhailovsky spring barley variety on sod-podzolic medium loamy soils with a high and medium content of phosphorus and potassium and a low content of humus (1.9). The agrometeorological conditions of the growing season of spring barley were characterized by sharp fluctuations in air temperature and the amount of precipitation over decades of the month and in comparison with average long-term observations. Abundant and prolonged precipitation during the grain ripening phase led to lodging in most of the experiments, which affected the yield. To diagnose crops, a model experiment was laid with the introduction of increasing doses of nitrogen fertilizers into pre-sowing cultivation with a step of 30, at which the dose of nitrogen ranged from 30 to 150 kg/ha. Diagnostics was carried out in three phases of vegetation: tube emergence ((Z42), earing (Z55), milk ripeness of grain (Z73) with the Yara N-tester and with the help of stem diagnostics according to the modified method of V. Zerling. The results of photometric diagnostics in the stemming phase (Z42) have a strong correlation with the yield of spring barley grain and with the results of stem diagnostics (R = 0.85). Wherein, the N-tester readings in the earing phase (Z55) and milk ripeness of grain (Z73) with yield R = 0.23 and R = 0.17, respectively, have a weak correlation. This is possibly due to lodging of crops and a change in yield, not as a result of poor plant nutrition, but with difficult mechanized harvesting.

A New Purification Process of Solanesol Based on Chemically Modified Diatomite

Diatomite is a kind of natural material with adsorption capacity and it’s widely used in industry. The main purpose of this paper is to study the influence of hydrochloric acid concentration and modification time on the modification effect of diatomite. This article describes a modified method of diatomite, which can not only reduce the purification cost, but also improve the separation efficiency of solanesol. The results show that when the concentration of hydrochloric acid is 3mol/L and the treatment time is 50 minutes, the modification effect of diatomite is the best. The determination of the optimum technological conditions is conducive to the separation and purification of Solanesol by diatomite, and lays a foundation for the further development and utilization of diatomite.

Production of proline and protease with different organic wastes in bacteria (Production proline and protease with organic wastes)

In this study, we investigated the proline and protease production of different bacteria in several organic waste materials. Our aim was to produce proline and protease economically in waste that is abundantly available while reducing its environmental impact. 5 ml of different organic waste materials (OWW: Olive waste water; N.B: Nutrient Broth; EW: Eggshell; PBS: PBS buffer; PLW: Peach leaf wastes; TCW: Turkish coffee wastes; TWW: Tea waste water; WCW: Waste cheese whey; WFO: Waste frying oil) were placed in 10 ml grow tubes, inoculated and incubated for 24 h. Phosphate-buffered saline and 10% solutions of different organic wastes were added. These cultures were subsequently incubated at 37°C for 24 h. Cells were harvested at 24 h for L-proline assay. 1 ml of culture was transferred by pipette into an Eppendorf tube and centrifuged at 14,000 rpm for 20 min at room temperature. Cellular debris was removed by centrifuge and the supernatant was used for proline activity assays. Protease activity was determined using a modified method with casein as the substrate. We found that proline and protease can easily be produced economically using Turkish coffee wastes (TCW), Waste cheese whey (WCW) and Olive waste water (OWW) organic waste. We believe that this study will result in similar research leading to the economical use of these waste materials thus reducing their impact on the environment.

Test Results of the Long Baseline Navigation Solutions under a Large a Priori Position Uncertainty

A method is proposed for long baseline navigation of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) to be used in the case of a large a priori position uncertainty. The new modified method is based on the iterated Kalman filter (IKF) working with different initial linearization points. The final solution is calculated by clustering and weighting the IKF results. This approach allows position estimates to be determined in accordance with the global maximum of posteriori probability density of coordinates. The test results obtained with the use of three beacons and an underwater vehicle are presented.

Assessment of airside aerodrome infrastructure by SAW method with weights from Shannon's interval entropy

Multi-criteria decision support (MCDM) methods are widely used in many areas of science. This applies to economic, social and technical sciences. Implementing activities at the strategic, tactical or operational level requires appropriate tools to support decision-makers. The use of these tools requires the preparation of a decision model along with the formalization of the goal and the acquisition and preparation of data to make the decision accurate. Due to the wide application of MCDM in engineering practice, the article presents their application in air transport. It is an area that is constantly evolving, and all decisions at the strategic level have long-term effects and must be adequately justified. In the paper a compartmental extension of the classical SAW method with weights obtained using the compartmental Shannon entropy was proposed. This paper presents issues concerning the choice of airport layout and describes the problems that occur in determining the cost and capacity of airports. This paper reviews the literature on airport capacity and operations and airside air transport processes and the application of various multi-criteria decision support methods to airport problems. The main part of the article contains an optimization mathematical model aimed at determining the parameters of the elements comprising the airport, on the basis of which a simulation model was developed and a modified method of multi-criteria evaluation of SAW taking into account the interval numbers was presented, in which the set of weights was estimated by the Shannon entropy method. In the application part for 3 variants of the airport arrangement, the parameters were determined in the form of interval numbers and then evaluated using the presented method. The presented numerical example shows that the proposed method is an excellent tool to assist in solving complex decision problems where the data are imprecise and represented by interval numbers.

Preparation of Amine-Modified Cu-Mg-Al LDH Composite Photocatalyst

Cu-Mg-Al layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with amine modification were prepared by an organic combination of an anionic surfactant-mediated method and an ultrasonic spalling method using N-aminoethyl-γ-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane as a grafting agent. The materials were characterized by elemental analysis, XRD, SEM, FTIR, TGA, and XPS. The effects of the Cu2+ content on the surface morphology and the CO2 adsorption of Cu-Mg-Al LDHs were investigated, and the kinetics of the CO2 adsorption and the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 were further analyzed. The results indicated that the amine-modified method and appropriate Cu2+ contents can improve the surface morphology, the increase amine loading and the free-amino functional groups of the materials, which were beneficial to CO2 capture and adsorption. The CO2 adsorption capacity of Cu-Mg-Al N was 1.82 mmol·g−1 at 30 °C and a 0.1 MPa pure CO2 atmosphere. The kinetic model confirmed that CO2 adsorption was governed by both the physical and chemical adsorption, which could be enhanced with the increase of the Cu2+ content. The chemical adsorption was suppressed, when the Cu2+ content was too high. Cu-Mg-Al N can photocatalytically reduce CO2 to methanol with Cu2+ as an active site, which can significantly improve the CO2 adsorption and photocatalytic conversion.

METHOD OF DYNAMIC IMPLEMENTATION OF A ROBUST DIGITAL WATERMARK IN VIDEO DATA

В статье рассматривается модифицированный метод внедрения цифровых водяных знаков в видеоданные, заключающийся в дополнении уже известных методов новыми функциями, базирующихся на принципиальных отличиях видеопотока от статичной фотографии. The article discusses a modified method of introducing digital watermarks into video data, which consists in supplementing the already known methods with new functions based on the fundamental differences between the video stream and static photography.