Glacier Recession in Altay Mountains after the LIA Maximum

The recent glaciation of the southern part of the Altai is estimated (1256 glaciers with the total area of 559.15±31.13 km2), the area of the glaciers of the whole Altai mountains is evaluated by 1096.55 km2. In the southern part of Altai 2276 glaciers with the total area of 1348.43±56.16 km2 were reconstructed, the first estimate of the LIA glacial area for the whole Altai mountain system is given (2288.04 km2). Since the LIA the glaciers decrease by 59% in the southern part of Altai and by 47.9% for the whole Altai. The ELA in the southern part of Altai increased averagely by 106 m. The higher changes of ELA in relatively humid areas is probably caused by decrease of precipitation. Glaciers of Tavan Bogd glacial center degraded with higher rates after 1968 relative to the interval between 1850-1968. One of the intervals of the fastest shrinkage of the glaciers in 2000-2010 was caused by unfavorable for the glaciers dry and warm interval 1989-2004. However, the fast decrease of the glaciers in 2000-2010 was mainly caused by the shrinkage or disappearance of the smaller glaciers, large valley glaciers started fast retreat after 2010.

Sound disrupts sleep-associated brain oscillations in rodents according to its meaning

SummarySleep is essential but poses a risk to the animal. Filtering acoustic information according to its relevance, a process generally known as sensory gating, is crucial during sleep to ensure a balance between rest and danger detection. The mechanisms of this sensory gating and its specificity are not understood. Here, we tested the effect that sounds of different meaning had on sleep-associated ongoing oscillations. We recorded EEG and EMG from mice during rapid-eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep while presenting sounds with or without behavioural relevance. We found that sound presentation per se, in the form of an unfamiliar neutral sound, elicited a weak or no change in the sleep-dependent EEG power during NREM and REM sleep. In contrast, the presentation of a sound previously conditioned in an aversive task, elicited a clear and fast decrease in the sleep-dependent EEG power during both sleep phases, suggesting a transition to lighter sleep without awakening. The observed changes generally weakened over training days and were not present in animals that failed to learn. Interestingly, the effect could be generalized to unfamiliar neutral sounds if presented following conditioned training, an effect that depended on sleep phase and sound type. The data demonstrate that sounds are differentially gated during sleep depending on their meaning and that this process is reflected in disruption of sleep-associated brain oscillations without an effect on behavioural arousal.

Calculating Dynamic Strengths of Concrete Subjected to Impact Load

The objective of this paper is to calculate the influential properties of concrete. These are the dynamic properties of sustainable concrete in the situation in which metal waste can found within its components. Growing the rate of pollution in the world, a fast decrease of the original resource, the requirement for utilization more areas of natural land, and increase the price of the newly available area are the reasons that make the researchers give great attention to the new concrete (green concrete) and destruction of unwanted material in the green mix. The concept of reuse aimed at sustainable structures was implemented within the current paper through consuming metal waste of cans and bottle caps in concrete. The waste materials were consumed in two modes; at 1st mode, it was applied in the role of fibres and mixed using 15% by weight of cement. On the 2nd mode, it was applied as coarse aggregate with 25% replaced by volume. The procedure includes testing 4 concrete mixes. The estimated properties were the flexural and compressive strengths, besides modulus of elasticity. Adding bottle caps (waste materials fibres) in concrete led to enhancement in strengths. The use of walls of cans (waste materials fibres) in concrete reduced the strengths. While in the case of compacted bottle caps plus pull-tab of cans (waste materials aggregate), concrete mechanical properties a little below the reference mix. The dynamic properties of concrete contain these types of waste under impact load were determined. As known, the dynamic properties are so helpful in the strategy that deals with civil constructions put in danger of impact loads like runways, gas explosion, etc. CEB-FIP (2010) code provides wide-ranging formulas to predict the strain change of concrete. The dynamic properties are determined by this code with consideration strain level between (10-2-100). In this range, dynamic loads in the civil constructions at the level of quasi-static strain were predicted.

Release of infectious virus and cytokines in nasopharyngeal swabs from individuals infected with non-B.1.1.7 or B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The mechanisms that allowed for the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant to rapidly outcompete pre-existing variants in many countries remain poorly characterized. Here, we analyzed viral release, anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and cytokine production in a retrospective series of 427 RTqPCR+ nasopharyngeal swabs collected in COVID-19 patients harbouring either non-B.1.1.7 or B.1.17 variants. We utilized a novel rapid assay, based on S-Fuse-T reporter cells, to quantify infectious SARS-CoV-2. With both non-B.1.1.7 and B.1.1.7 variants, viral titers were highly variable, ranging from 0 to >106 infectious units, and correlated with viral RNA levels. Lateral flow antigenic rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) were positive in 96% of the samples harbouring infectious virus. About 67 % of individuals carried detectable infectious virus within the first two days after onset of symptoms. This proportion decreased overtime, and viable virus was detected up to 14 days. Samples containing anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG or IgA did not generally harbour infectious virus. The proportion of individuals displaying viable virus or being RDT-positive was not higher with B.1.1.7 than with non- B.1.1.7 variants. Ct values were slightly but not significantly lower with B.1.1.7. The variant was characterized by a fast decrease of infectivity overtime and a marked release of 17 cytokines (including IFN-b, IP-10, IL-10 and TRAIL). Our results highlight differences between non-B.1.1.7 and B.1.1.7 variants. B.1.1.7 is associated with modified viral decays and cytokine profiles at the nasopharyngeal mucosae during symptomatic infection.

Perspectives on Virtual Museum Tours

As a number of world museums have closed their doors for the public due to pandemic of the new Corona virus, curators are thinking of alternative ways of audience outreach: 3D virtual galleries are increasingly created, video guided tours shared, digitized collections put online. The new circumstances unquestionably bring potentials for growth, but carry numer­ous risks and inconsideration, as well. Many theoreticians argue that the cri­sis of this scale will undoubtedly fasten the digital transformation in muse­um and arts sector and consequently, in a much more wide sense influence the identity rethinking. However, the research of audience interest to virtual museum tours show there was a peak of just 3 days visiting these, massively followed by a fast decrease even the social isolation was globally still present and museum buildings still locked. Turning back to the genesis of the virtual museums, in the following paper, we will question why there is no interest to virtual museum content. Do tours answer the needs of the contemporary digital-born audience? Do these represent just a copy of settings from phys­ical galleries or use potentials and logic of the new spaces? Will museums finally transform and enter into so many times nowadays mentioned digital shift answering the need of the new, transmedia perception of audience?

BFKL equation in the next-to-leading order: solution at large impact parameters

In this paper, we show (1) that the NLO corrections do not change the power-like decrease of the scattering amplitude at large impact parameter ($$b^2 \,>\,r^2 \exp ( 2{\bar{\alpha }}_S\eta (1 + 4 {\bar{\alpha }}_S) )$$b2>r2exp(2α¯Sη(1+4α¯S)), where r denotes the size of scattering dipole and $$\eta = \ln (1/x_{Bj} )$$η=ln(1/xBj) for DIS), and, therefore, they do not resolve the inconsistency with unitarity; and (2) they lead to an oscillating behaviour of the scattering amplitude at large b, in direct contradiction with the unitarity constraints. However, from the more practical point of view, the NLO estimates give a faster decrease of the scattering amplitude as a function of b, and could be very useful for description of the experimental data. It turns out, that in a limited range of b, the NLO corrections generates the fast decrease of the scattering amplitude with b, which can be parameterized as $$N\, \propto \,\exp ( -\,\mu \,b )$$N∝exp(-μb) with $$\mu \, \propto \,1/r$$μ∝1/r in accord with the numerical estimates in Cepila et al. (Phys Rev D 99(5):051502, 10.1103/PhysRevD.99.051502, arXiv:1812.02548 [hep-ph], 2019).

Trajectories of future sickness absence and disability pension days among individuals with a new sickness absence spell due to osteoarthritis diagnosis ≥21 days: a prospective cohort study with 13-month follow-up

IntroductionOsteoarthritis is one of the most common types of musculoskeletal diagnoses also among working-age populations, and often leads to long-term sickness absence (SA) spells or even disability pension (DP).The aimwas to identify future trajectories of days of SA and/or DP among people with a new SA spell due to osteoarthritis that became ≥21 long, and to investigate sociodemographic and morbidity characteristics of individuals in identified trajectories.MethodsThis is a prospective population-based cohort study using data from several Swedish registers. We studied future SA/DP among all 4894 individuals aged 16–64 years who, during the first 6 months of 2010, had an incident SA spell due to osteoarthritis (ICD-10 codes M15-19) ≥21 days. Using group-based trajectory modelling, we identified trajectories of mean SA/DP net days/month and 95% CIs for the 13 months from the 21st day of the index SA spell. Sociodemographic and morbidity characteristics were compared by χ2tests and multinomial logistic regression.ResultsWe identified five trajectories of SA/DP days: ‘fast decrease’ (36% of the cohort), ‘medium fast decrease’ (29%), ‘slow decrease’ (15%), ‘fluctuating’ (12%) and ‘late decrease’ (8%). Individuals in the two trajectories who still had SA/DP days at end of follow-up (late decrease and fluctuating) were more likely to be older, born outside the EU and have indicators of more severe morbidity than those in the other trajectories.ConclusionFive trajectories of future SA/DP days were identified; 80% of the cohort belonged to trajectories with no SA/DP by the end of follow-up. Identifying trajectories of future SA/DP provides new insights regarding the developments of SA/DP over time among people on SA due to osteoarthritis; not only days in the initial SA spell but also in new spells during follow-up need to be included for a better understanding.

Critical ventilation velocity of two fire sources with different separating distances in road tunnel

Critical ventilation velocity is an important parameter for the design of road tunnel, while the situation of two fire sources should be considered due to the high probability of two crashed vehicles or fire propagation. The influences of separating distance between two fire sources on the critical ventilation velocity were investigated numerically after the experimental validation of numerical tool. The trend of the dimensionless critical velocity along the separating distance can be divided into three regions, including limited influence, fast decrease, and slight fluctuation. As the separating distance keeps increasing, the fire plumes transform from completely merged to completely separate. The different merging behaviors of fire plumes are the main reasons of showing various critical ventilation velocities with different separating distances. Finally, an empirical model was developed to predict the dimensionless critical ventilation velocity of double fire sources with different separating distances in the longitudinally ventilated road tunnel.

Seasonal and interannual changes of ice massifs in East Siberian sea

The paper considers the seasonal and interannual variability of the Novosibirsky and Ayonsky ice massifs of the East Siberian Sea, which represent the main difficulty for navigation during summer.Analysis of ice conditions showed the tendency towards the onset of a new climatic period - “relative warming”. This is consistent with the regional quasi-periodic 30-year alternations beetween the “relatively cold” and “relatively warm” climatic periods identified in the AARI.We have compared ice conditions of the “relatively cold” period of 1958–1987 and the “relatively warm” period of 1988–2017. Since the end of the 1980s the ice massifs began to decrease more intensively with the onset of break up some 10–20 days earlier.In general, the drift ice area during summer has decreased by 15–20 % in the western part of the sea and by 20–30 % in eastern one. The fast decrease of close floatingice in the East Siberian Sea observed in the last decades resulted in increase of the possibilities of autonomous navigation.The latest works containing the analysis of in conditions of the East Siberian Sea belong to the 90s of last century. In these works ice conditions of the period of the 40–80s of the 20th century were considered. During this period, the background of the ice cover extent was high. As a result, the usage of the average values of ice massifs areas calculated on all observations series (since 1946), is not informative for characterizing ice conditions during separately taken periods.

Cytokine profile indicators in rat blood serum in a model of esophagus burn induced by antioxidant chemical preparation

Background: According to modern concepts of burn disease development, one of the main burn complications is inflammation occurrence. Despite the large number of drugs used to treat the effects of chemical burns of the esophagus, we find conflicting information in the literature about their effectiveness. Moreover the problem of burn wound healing process quickening, as well as the prevention measures against possible post burn complications are really relevant if we aim to subjective portability of rehabilitation period facilitation. Methods: Study the immune system cytokine levels in immature rat blood serum under the simulation of 1 and 2 degree esophageal chemical burns in case of melanin administration as a drug. Was estimated ELISA using sets of reagents and instructions from Biotrack ELISA System company «Healthcare». Results: The significant increase of pro-inflammatory cytokines (PC) was shown mostly on day 7 of the experiment, which reflects the activity and severity of the disease process. In terms of further research the level of pro-inflammatory PC can be multidirectional. The significant decrease of anti-inflammatory cytokines amount was found under conditions of AEB at 15th and 21st days. At 1st and 2nd degree ABE the observed changes were multidirectional. Melanin administration resulted in the fast decrease of blood levels of all cytokines in our experiment to the values close to normal in conditions of esophagus chemical burn progress. Conclusion: Therefore, it was shown that some factors have the ability of changing the levels of pro inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the models 1st and 2nd degree ABE and AEB in immature rats. The obtained data showed, that 1st degree ABE progressed without septic complications. In the models of 2nd degree ABE and AEB, the risk of poly organic failure remains. Melanin administration resulted in the fast decrease of blood levels of all cytokines in our experiment to the values close to normal in conditions of esophagus chemical burn progress. Peer Review Details Peer review method: Single-Blind (Peer-reviewers: 02) Peer-review policy Plagiarism software screening?: Yes Date of Original Submission: 13 July 2017 Date accepted: 05 Sept 2017 Peer reviewers approved by: Dr. Lili Hami Editor who approved publication: Dr. Phuc Van Pham