Selenomethionine Ameliorates Cognitive Impairment, Decreases Hippocampal Oxidative Stress and Attenuates Dysbiosis in D-Galactose-Treated Mice

The prevalence of age-related cognitive impairment is increasing as the proportion of older individuals in the population grows. It is therefore necessary and urgent to find agents to prevent or ameliorate age-related cognitive impairment. Selenomethionine (SeMet) is a natural amino acid occurring in yeast and Brazil nuts. It mitigates cognitive impairment in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model, however, whether it works on age-related cognitive impairment remains unknown. In this study, SeMet significantly improved the performance of D-galactose-treated mice in the novel object recognition test, passive avoidance task and Morris water maze test. SeMet reversed D-galactose-induced reduction of hippocampal acetylcholine levels, suppression of choline acetyltransferase activity and activation of acetyl cholinesterase. It decreased D-galactose-induced oxidative stress and increased the selenoprotein P levels in the hippocampus. Besides, it attenuated D-galactose-induced dysbiosis by increasing the α-diversity and modulating the taxonomic structure. Correlations between certain taxa and physiological parameters were observed. Our results provide evidence of the effectiveness of SeMet on ameliorating D-galactose-induced cognitive impairment and suggest SeMet has potential to be used in the prevention or adjuvant treatment of age-related cognitive impairment.

Anharmonicity and Spectra–Structure Correlations in MIR and NIR Spectra of Crystalline Menadione (Vitamin K3)

Mid-infrared (MIR) and near-infrared (NIR) spectra of crystalline menadione (vitamin K3) were measured and analyzed with aid of quantum chemical calculations. The calculations were carried out using the harmonic approach for the periodic model of crystal lattice and the anharmonic DVPT2 calculations applied for the single molecule model. The theoretical spectra accurately reconstructed the experimental ones permitting for reliable assignment of the MIR and NIR bands. For the first time, a detailed analysis of the NIR spectrum of a molecular system based on a naphthoquinone moiety was performed to elucidate the relationship between the chemical structure of menadione and the origin of the overtones and combination bands. In addition, the importance of these bands during interpretation of the MIR spectrum was demonstrated. The overtones and combination bands contribute to 46.4% of the total intensity of menadione in the range of 3600–2600 cm−1. Evidently, these bands play a key role in shaping of the C-H stretching region of MIR spectrum. We have shown also that the spectral regions without fundamentals may provide valuable structural information. For example, the theoretical calculations reliably reconstructed numerous overtones and combination bands in the 4000–3600 and 2800–1800 cm−1 ranges. These results, provide a comprehensive origin of the fundamentals, overtones and combination bands in the NIR and MIR spectra of menadione, and the relationship of these spectral features with the molecular structure.

Efficiency of Ukraine Agriculture: a Comparative Analysis by Countries

Introduction. Agriculture plays prominent role to supply people with food and industry with raw. The development of this branch depends on as economic conjuncture as nature conditions. Ukraine agriculture have developed in two directions during the period of 1991-2018. After several years of declining this branch has started reviving since 2009. The question is how successful this process is flowing. Various investigations cover analysis of dynamics, structure, correlations between indicators, forecasting and juxtaposing with other economic branches. Studying experience of other economies that had downs, but then accumulated their strengths and made economical leap, is the example for own start in development. What caused the growth and what made countries prosperous? This experience must be studied and implemented by scientists, government, and farmers. Most nowadays successful countries started from revision of existing styles of agricultural management and farm holding. They initiated reforms and adopted laws that had to support development of farms. Some of countries, that have been under influence of Soviet Union's style of management, being independent now are in the category of countries with middle or high world level of income. In contrary, Ukraine during almost thirty years of independence is fighting problems in economic development caused by negative factors including crises. To study features of countries’ growth and eliminate influence of inflation or incomparable indicators on results of analysis it is reasonable to investigate the same indicators for the similar period in determined currency. This article presents comparison results made for Ukraine Poland, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia despite their size and political preferences. Information for analysis used in this exploration is on the World Bank official site. Data cover the period of 1995-2019 years. Purpose. The main aim of this article is to compare indicators of agriculture development in Ukraine with other countries in order to find how successful and sufficient economic efforts of Ukraine are to raise agriculture sector on the higher level of development. Results. Conducted analysis revealed that other countries compared with Ukraine get bigger value added per worker or per unit of agriculture land. Moreover, they not only feed own country, but also sell their production abroad. Conclusions. Ukraine has the biggest soils squares to plant crops, vegetable, fruit, but it gets the least amount of profit from land usage. Ukraine has positive tendency in agriculture development, but as comparison with other countries proved the existing way of land using or cultivation, farm holding, and agriculture management is insufficient to become a prosperous country. Crop and livestock production need to be investigated deeper.

Universal Architectural Concepts Underlying Protein Folding Patterns

What is the architectural “basis set” of the observed universe of protein structures? Using information-theoretic inference, we answer this question with a dictionary of 1,493 substructures—called concepts—typically at a subdomain level, based on an unbiased subset of known protein structures. Each concept represents a topologically conserved assembly of helices and strands that make contact. Any protein structure can be dissected into instances of concepts from this dictionary. We dissected the Protein Data Bank and completely inventoried all the concept instances. This yields many insights, including correlations between concepts and catalytic activities or binding sites, useful for rational drug design; local amino-acid sequence–structure correlations, useful for ab initio structure prediction methods; and information supporting the recognition and exploration of evolutionary relationships, useful for structural studies. An interactive site, Proçodic, at http://lcb.infotech.monash.edu.au/prosodic (click), provides access to and navigation of the entire dictionary of concepts and their usages, and all associated information. This report is part of a continuing programme with the goal of elucidating fundamental principles of protein architecture, in the spirit of the work of Cyrus Chothia.

Short-range structure, the role of bismuth and property-structure correlations in bismuth borate glasses

Bismuth-containing borate glasses, xBi2O3-(1-x)B2O3, were synthesized in the broad composition range 0.20≤x≤0.80 by melting in Pt crucibles and splat-quenching between two metal blocks. Infrared reflectance spectra, measured in the range...

Two-Dimensional Correlation Spectroscopy: The Power of Power Spectra

Power spectra are a powerful tool provided by two-dimensional correlation analysis. However, this tool is seldom used in practice. This work shows selected examples of using of the power spectra for the study of various kinds of samples with the aim to promote more common use of this tool. By examination of the power spectrum of specific sample, one can estimate the sensitivity of different molecular fragments on a given perturbation. Determination of the power spectra for smaller data subsets provides information on the dynamics of perturbation-induced spectral changes. If the experimental spectra of different samples in the same perturbation window are recorded, the comparison of the power spectra yields information on differences in the sensitivity of various samples on common perturbation. This possibility is particularly useful for studies of the spectra-structure correlations, interactions, and molecular dynamics. A comparison of the power spectra obtained by using different reference spectra provides information on the nature of spectral changes at different wavenumbers.

Melting point–solubility–structure correlations in chiral and racemic model cocrystals

Comparison of chiral and racemic binary cocrystals showed that the chiral building block limits the formation of certain intermolecular interactions, decreases the packing efficiency, lowers the melting point and increases aqueous solubility.