In Vivo Motility Patterns Displayed by Immune Cells Under Inflammatory Conditions

The migration of immune cells plays a key role in inflammation. This is evident in the fact that inflammatory stimuli elicit a broad range of migration patterns in immune cells. Since these patterns are pivotal for initiating the immune response, their dysregulation is associated with life-threatening conditions including organ failure, chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer, amongst others. Over the last two decades, thanks to advancements in the intravital microscopy technology, it has become possible to visualize cell migration in living organisms with unprecedented resolution, helping to deconstruct hitherto unexplored aspects of the immune response associated with the dynamism of cells. However, a comprehensive classification of the main motility patterns of immune cells observed in vivo, along with their relevance to the inflammatory process, is still lacking. In this review we defined cell actions as motility patterns displayed by immune cells, which are associated with a specific role during the immune response. In this regard, we summarize the main actions performed by immune cells during intravital microscopy studies. For each of these actions, we provide a consensus name, a definition based on morphodynamic properties, and the biological contexts in which it was reported. Moreover, we provide an overview of the computational methods that were employed for the quantification, fostering an interdisciplinary approach to study the immune system from imaging data.

Strategies to Form Homogeneous Mixture and Methods to Control Auto-Ignition of HCCI Engine

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine has emerged as a promising combustion technology. Theoretically, an HCCI engine can reduce both NOx and soot emissions significantly down to almost zero levels. This is possible as a result of two fundamental processes that occur in the HCCI engine, i.e. the homogeneous mixture and its autoignition characteristics. Neither spark plug nor injector is used in the HCCI engine. The autoignition of the homogeneous mixture is solely influenced by its chemical reactions inside the combustion chamber. However, this is where the problems start to occur. At low loads or too lean mixtures, misfire may occur, thus increasing the HC and CO emissions. At high loads or too rich mixtures, soot emissions and knocking tendency may increase. Moreover, an undesirable pressure rise due to knocking will increase the combustion temperature and potentially increase the probability of NOx formation. Therefore, the operating range of HCCI engine is very limited only to part loads. Controlling its combustion phasing play an important role to extend the narrow operating range of the HCCI engine. Despite numerous review articles have been published, classification of the approaches to achieve HCCI combustion in diesel engines were rarely presented clearly. Therefore, this review article aims to provide a concise and comprehensive classification of HCCI combustion so that the role and position of each strategy found in the literature could be understood distinctively. In short, two important questions must be solved to have successful HCCI combustion; (1) how to form a homogeneous mixture? and (2) how to control its auto-ignition?

Criminal law tools of combatting transnational corruptive criminality

One of the most serious problems in the field of combating crime is the fight against transnational corruption crime. This type of crime already (de facto and de jure) exists as international crime and has a specific subject composition, geography of commission and complex objective reasons. The core of transnational corruption crime is bribery widely used by transnational corporations for achieving their corporate purposes. Combatting such crimes by means of criminal law is carried out at various levels: international, interregional, regional, subregional, bilateral, and domestic. The purpose of this article is to characterize transnational corruption, which is one of the forms of self-determination of crime. The article provides a comprehensive classification of corruption crimes based on various criminal law and criminological criteria. The author pays special attention to the fact that all transnational corruption crimes can be divided into main and auxiliary. At the same time, these two types of offences are often inseparable. The author proposes the main directions of criminal law impact on transnational corruption crime, which could be used in both the General part and Special part of criminal law. The methodology of the article is based on the laws of materialist dialectics. The article rests on a wide range of Russian and foreign sources of scientific, legal, statistical, sociological, and other nature. The author applied the following research methods: analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, systemic-structural method, logicallegal, and comparativelegal.

Proposed Diagnostic Criteria and Classification of Canine Mast Cell Neoplasms: A Consensus Proposal

Mast cell neoplasms are one of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies in dogs. The clinical picture, course, and prognosis vary substantially among patients, depending on the anatomic site, grade and stage of the disease. The most frequently involved organ is the skin, followed by hematopoietic organs (lymph nodes, spleen, liver, and bone marrow) and mucosal sites of the oral cavity and the gastrointestinal tract. In cutaneous mast cell tumors, several grading and staging systems have been introduced. However, no comprehensive classification and no widely accepted diagnostic criteria have been proposed to date. To address these open issues and points we organized a Working Conference on canine mast cell neoplasms in Vienna in 2019. The outcomes of this meeting are summarized in this article. The proposed classification includes cutaneous mast cell tumors and their sub-variants defined by grading- and staging results, mucosal mast cell tumors, extracutaneous/extramucosal mast cell tumors without skin involvement, and mast cell leukemia (MCL). For each of these entities, diagnostic criteria are proposed. Moreover, we have refined grading and staging criteria for mast cell neoplasms in dogs based on consensus discussion. The criteria and classification proposed in this article should greatly facilitate diagnostic evaluation and prognostication in dogs with mast cell neoplasms and should thereby support management of these patients in daily practice and the conduct of clinical trials.

Strategic responses to crisis: a review and synthesis of promising research directions

Purpose A strategic response to crisis research is a critical and growing area of study in management and business literature. Consequently, the sudden rise of COVID-19, that has a substantial adverse impact on the global economy in a relatively short period of time, brings into sharp focus on the possible and most effective types of strategic responses adopted by firms. In this context, this study aims to shed light on the types of strategic responses adopted by firms and the possible outcomes. Design/methodology/approach To contribute to the advancement of knowledge around strategic responses in general for business, this study conducted a keyword bibliometric analysis reviewing 66 articles from highly ranked journals according to ABS list of journals published between the period 2006–2020 and synthesize the existing research on strategic responses. Findings This research enabled the identification of the novel typology of strategic responses to the crisis, such as revived stakeholders’ relationships, revived pricing mechanisms and revived organizational compliance, and their outcomes. Additionally, the analysis established many research areas for scholars who will deal with this topic in the future. Originality/value The literature review contributes to the management and business literature by providing a novel and comprehensive classification of crisis responses and synthesizing all new knowledge gained within a new conceptual framework.

Classification and evaluation of tight sandstone reservoirs based on diagenetic facies: a case study on Chang 6 reservoir in the center-west Ordos Basin

Tight sandstone reservoirs dominated by are developed in the Chang 6 oil layer group of the Yanchang Formation in the central-western part of the Ordos Basin. Featuring the lacustrine delta facies, Chang 6 formation in the center-west area of Ordos Basin shows an increasing petroleum reserve expectation. Its exploitation practice, however, has many problems caused by tight sandstone reservoir features. According to diagenetic and pore analysis, the diagenetic facies in the study area are grouped into four types: chlorite-film-intergranular-pore, feldspar-dissolution, clay-cemented-micropore, carbonate-cemented-tightness for their obvious differences in mineral feature and pore evolution. By introducing the comprehensive classification parameter synthesized from 9 other parameters, the reservoir quality is divided up into four levels: I(Feci > 1), II(3 ≤ Feci ≤ 7), III(-2 ≤ Feci ≤ 3), IV(Feci ≤ -2). The reservoir quality division matches well with the diagenetic facies group. To decide the diagenetic type and reservoir quality division in all wells, the logging data are utilized with the Fisher discriminant method, which has obtained a good performance. The method enables the reservoir quality analysis expanding to all wells from samples, which is helpful for exploitation of the study area.

ICD-11 extension codes support detailed clinical abstraction and comprehensive classification

Background The new International Classification of Diseases—11th revision (ICD-11) succeeds ICD-10. In the three decades since ICD-10 was released, demands for detailed information on the clinical history of a morbid patient have increased. Methods ICD-11 has now implemented an addendum chapter X called “Extension Codes”. This chapter contains numerous codes containing information on concepts including disease stage, severity, histopathology, medicaments, and anatomical details. When linked to a stem code representing a clinical state, the extension codes add significant detail and allow for multidimensional coding. Results This paper discusses the purposes and uses of extension codes and presents three examples of how extension codes can be used in coding clinical detail. Conclusion ICD-11 with its extension codes implemented has the potential to improve precision and evidence based health care worldwide.

Universality of the phenomenon of «neurotoxicity» (literature review)

Introduction. The neurotoxic effect is considered as one of the variants of the toxicity of many xenobiotics. Neurotoxic effects develop not only in poisoning, but also when exposed to biological (for example, pathogens of infectious diseases) and physical (for example, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation) factors. Materials and methods. The subject of the analysis was the phenomenon of neurotoxicity. The information was obtained by studying the databases Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, RSCI. Results. The absence of a single definition of the concept of «neurotoxicant» is noted. In addition to chemicals, other factors have neurotoxicity: biological, physical. The mechanisms of neurodegeneration under the influence of neurotoxicants with different mechanisms of action are similar and include excitotoxicity, neuroinflammation, suppression of mitochondrial function, inhibition of neurogenesis and gliogenesis, oxidative stress, increased BBB permeability and apoptosis. The presented features allow us to speak about the universality of the phenomenon of «neurotoxicity». Conclusion. When considering the phenomenon of «neurotoxicity», certain difficulties arise. A clear idea of the etiological factors of this phenomenon is not fully formulated. A comprehensive classification of neurotoxicants has not been created. At the same time, the processes of neurodegeneration are very similar in cases of poisoning with neurotoxicants with different mechanisms of action, which proves the universality of the phenomenon of «neurotoxicity».

Engineering of Fe-pnictide heterointerfaces by electrostatic principles

Interface-related phenomena have great potential to control the superconducting state in Fe-based superconductors. We propose a comprehensive classification of Fe-pnictide heterointerfaces based on electrostatic principles that allow the prediction of the interface microstructure, in particular, distinguishing between clean heterointerfaces and the formation of interfacial layers. The concept was successfully tested on a novel LnOFeAs/BaFe2As2 (Ln = La, Sm) Fe-pnictide heterostructure. With the addition of different cations/anions, it is possible to produce clean interfaces or interfacial layers. The impact of the microstructure on superconductivity in the Fe-pnictide heterostructures is discussed.