Hengzongshu/ArticleAgent huggingface dataset:
Corticosteroids are widely used in pediatric cardiac surgery to blunt systemic inflammatory response and to reduce complications; nevertheless, their clinical efficacy is uncertain.To determine whether intraoperative administration of dexamethasone is more effective than placebo for reducing major complications and mortality during pediatric cardiac surgery.The Intraoperative Dexamethasone in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery was an investigator-initiated, double-blind, multicenter randomized trial that involved 4 centers in China, Brazil, and Russia. A total of 394 infants younger than 12 months, undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass were enrolled from December 2015 to October 2018, with follow-up completed in November 2018.The dexamethasone group (n = 194) received 1 mg/kg of dexamethasone; the control group (n = 200) received an equivolume of 0.9% sodium chloride intravenously after anesthesia induction.The primary end point was a composite of death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, acute kidney injury, prolonged mechanical ventilation, or neurological complications within 30 days after surgery. There were 17 secondary end points, including the individual components of the primary end point, and duration of mechanical ventilation, inotropic index, intensive care unit stay, readmission to intensive care unit, and length of hospitalization.All of the 394 patients randomized (median age, 6 months; 47.2% boys) completed the trial. The primary end point occurred in 74 patients (38.1%) in the dexamethasone group vs 91 patients (45.5%) in the control group (absolute risk reduction, 7.4%; 95% CI, -0.8% to 15.3%; hazard ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.60 to 1.10; P = .20). Of the 17 prespecified secondary end points, none showed a statistically significant difference between groups. Infections occurred in 4 patients (2.0%) in the dexamethasone group vs 3 patients (1.5%) in the control group.Among infants younger than 12 months undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass, intraoperative administration of dexamethasone, compared with placebo, did not significantly reduce major complications and mortality at 30 days. However, the study may have been underpowered to detect a clinically important difference.ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02615262.
The Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in worldwide collaboration has developed a project of a 14 MeV neutron source for fusion material studies and other applications. The projected neutron source of the plasma type is based on the gas dynamic trap (GDT), which is a special magnetic mirror system for plasma confinement. Essential progress in plasma parameters has been achieved in recent experiments at the GDT facility in the Budker Institute, which is a hydrogen (deuterium) prototype of the source. Stable confinement of hot-ion plasmas with the relative pressure exceeding 0.5 was demonstrated. The electron temperature was increased up to 0.9 keV in the regime with additional electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) of a moderate power. These parameters are the record for axisymmetric open mirror traps. These achievements elevate the projects of a GDT-based neutron source on a higher level of competitive ability and make it possible to construct a source with parameters suitable for materials testing today. The paper presents the progress in experimental studies and numerical simulations of the mirror-based fusion neutron source and its possible applications including a fusion material test facility and a fusion-fission hybrid system.
The article analyses the state of public health in modern Russia, the dynamics of demographic indicators, healthy life expectancy, primary and general morbidity, disability, mortality in infancy and working age. We also present comparisons using international statistics from the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the OECD.

Further, we give the characteristic of the factors influencing public health in Russia. The article presents the results of Russian researchers of public health and their foreign colleagues, showing that most of the deaths and diseases of Russians are the result of an incorrect lifestyle.

The most significant contribution to mortality and health deterioration has such phenomena as high blood pressure (which itself is a consequence of an unhealthy lifestyle), alcohol abuse, smoking and overweight. The most detailed attention we paid to the underfunding of the health care industry and the negative consequences of the process of its reform.
Motivation: The translation start site plays an important role in the control of translation efficiency of eukaryotic mRNAs. However, mRNAs with a suboptimal context of start AUG codon are relatively abundant. It is likely that at least some mRNAs with suboptimal start codon context contain the other signals providing additional information for efficient AUG recognition. Results: Frequency of AUG codons at the beginning of the coding part of eukaryotic mRNAs was analyzed in relation to the context of translation start codon. It was found that the observed downstream AUG content in the mRNAs with optimal start codon context was close to the expected value, whereas it was significantly higher in the mRNAs with a suboptimal context. It is likely that downstream AUG codons can often be utilized as additional start sites to increase translation rate of mRNAs with a suboptimal context of the annotated start codon and many eukaryotic proteins can be characterized by some N-end heterogeneity. Contact: ak@bionet.nsc.ru
Back pain is the #1 cause of years lived with disability worldwide, yet surprisingly little is known regarding the biology underlying this symptom. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of chronic back pain (CBP). Adults of European ancestry were included from 15 cohorts in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, and from the UK Biobank interim data release. CBP cases were defined as those reporting back pain present for ≥3–6 months; non-cases were included as comparisons ("controls"). Each cohort conducted genotyping using commercially available arrays followed by imputation. GWAS used logistic regression models with additive genetic effects, adjusting for age, sex, study-specific covariates, and population substructure. The threshold for genome-wide significance in the fixed-effect inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis was p<5×10−8. Suggestive (p<5×10−7) and genome-wide significant (p<5×10−8) variants were carried forward for replication or further investigation in the remaining UK Biobank participants not included in the discovery sample. The discovery sample comprised 158,025 individuals, including 29,531 CBP cases. A genome-wide significant association was found for the intronic variant rs12310519 in SOX5 (OR 1.08, p = 7.2×10−10). This was subsequently replicated in 283,752 UK Biobank participants not included in the discovery sample, including 50,915 cases (OR 1.06, p = 5.3×10−11), and exceeded genome-wide significance in joint meta-analysis (OR 1.07, p = 4.5×10−19). We found suggestive associations at three other loci in the discovery sample, two of which exceeded genome-wide significance in joint meta-analysis: an intergenic variant, rs7833174, located between CCDC26 and GSDMC (OR 1.05, p = 4.4×10−13), and an intronic variant, rs4384683, in DCC (OR 0.97, p = 2.4×10−10). In this first reported meta-analysis of GWAS for CBP, we identified and replicated a genetic locus associated with CBP (SOX5). We also identified 2 other loci that reached genome-wide significance in a 2-stage joint meta-analysis (CCDC26/GSDMC and DCC).
Formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase (Fpg) excises 8-oxoguanine (oxoG) from DNA but ignores normal guanine. We combined molecular dynamics simulation and stopped-flow kinetics with fluorescence detection to track the events in the recognition of oxoG by Fpg and its mutants with a key phenylalanine residue, which intercalates next to the damaged base, changed to either alanine (F110A) or fluorescent reporter tryptophan (F110W). Guanine was sampled by Fpg, as evident from the F110W stopped-flow traces, but less extensively than oxoG. The wedgeless F110A enzyme could bend DNA but failed to proceed further in oxoG recognition. Modeling of the base eversion with energy decomposition suggested that the wedge destabilizes the intrahelical base primarily through buckling both surrounding base pairs. Replacement of oxoG with abasic (AP) site rescued the activity, and calculations suggested that wedge insertion is not required for AP site destabilization and eversion. Our results suggest that Fpg, and possibly other DNA glycosylases, convert part of the binding energy into active destabilization of their substrates, using the energy differences between normal and damaged bases for fast substrate discrimination.
U-Pb dating of the pyrochlore-group minerals from the Nb-rare metal ore deposits of ilmeny-vishnevogorsky carbonatite-miaskite complex of the Ural fold region was carried out. To date the individual pyrochlore crystals were used a new technique of local U-Pb SHRIMP-II dating which was developed at the CIR VSEGEI (St.Petersburg). In the case of high-U pyrochlore (with more than 2.5 wt % UO 2 ) a laser ablation and ICP-MS method was applied for U-Pb-dating. The studied isotope pyrochlore system indicates a multi-stage formation of rare metal niobium mineralization. The earliest age of ore formation (378 ± 4.9 Ma) is fixed by U-pychlore isotope systems of Potanino deposit. This stage of ore formation is probably associated with the final stages of the alkaline-carbonatite magmatic system crystallization. The next stages of ore formation (230 ± 1.5 Ma) are widely manifested in Vishnevogorsk and later on the Potanino deposit (217.2 ± 1.9 Ma) and were probably related to remobilization and redeposition of alkaline-carbonatite and rare metal substances.
Genetic regulation is known to contribute to the divergent expression of duplicate genes; however, little is known about how epigenetic modifications regulate the expression of duplicate genes in plants.The histone modification (HM) profile patterns of different modes of gene duplication, including the whole genome duplication, proximal duplication, tandem duplication and transposed duplication were characterized based on ChIP-chip or ChIP-seq datasets. In this study, 10 distinct HM marks including H2Bub, H3K4me1, H3K4me2, H3K4me3, H3K9ac, H3K9me2, H3K27me1, H3K27me3, H3K36me3 and H3K14ac were analyzed. Moreover, the features of gene duplication with different HM patterns were characterized based on 88 RNA-seq datasets of Arabidopsis thaliana.This study showed that duplicate genes in Arabidopsis have a more similar HM pattern than single-copy genes in both their promoters and protein-coding regions. The evolution of HM marks is found to be coupled with coding sequence divergence and expression divergence after gene duplication. We found that functionally selective constraints may impose on epigenetic evolution after gene duplication. Furthermore, duplicate genes with distinct functions have more divergence in histone modification compared with the ones with the same function, while higher expression divergence is found with mutations of chromatin modifiers. This study shows the role of epigenetic marks in regulating gene expression and functional divergence after gene duplication in plants based on sequencing data.
The mafic-ultramafic massifs with the PGE-Cu-Ni mineralization located in North-Central Mongolia: Oortsog, Dulaan, Mankhan, Yamat, and Nomgon were investigated. For the first time we consider these massifs as a single magmatic association and as fragments of Khangai batholith caused by the action of the plume responsible for the formation Permian Khangai LIP. The massifs fractionated from peridotite to gabbro have a similar typomorphic ore mineralogical and geochemical features, which change depending on the degrees of fractionation of magma and evolution of the sulfide melt. The least fractionated Oortsog massif originated from Ni-rich high-Mg basaltic magma. It is characterized by predominance of pyrrhotite mineralization due to exsolution of monosulfide solid solution (MSS). The most fractionated is the Nomgon massif originated from Cu-rich basaltic magma with bornite-chalcopyrite mineralization, formed as an exsolution of intermediate solid solution (ISS). The rest of the massifs have a medium characteristics between these two. The compositions of sulfides in the studied massifs change in accordance with the increase in sulfur fugacity from peridotite to gabbro: enrichment of pentlandite in Ni and pyrrhotite in S. The composition of PGM changes from Pt minerals in Oortsog massif to Pd minerals in Nomgon massif in the same direction. These massifs can be considered as potential for the PGE.
Non-Gaussian laser beams can open new opportunities for microfabrication, including ultrashort laser direct writing. Using a model based on Maxwell's equations, we have investigated the dynamics of doughnut-shaped laser beams focused inside fused silica glass, in comparison with Gaussian pulses of the same energy. The laser propagation dynamics reveals intriguing features of beam splitting and sudden collapse toward the beam axis, overcoming the intensity clamping effect. The resulting structure of light absorption represents a very hot, hollow nanocylinder, which can lead to an implosion process that brings matter to extreme thermodynamic states. Monitoring the simulations of the laser beam scattering has shown a considerable difference in both the blueshift and the angular distribution of scattered light for different laser energies, suggesting that investigations of the spectra of scattered radiation can be used as a diagnostic of laser-produced electron plasmas in transparent materials.
The dynamic sorption concentration of explosive vapours on concentrators made of a metal mesh, and the transportation of explosive vapours through the extended metal channels are considered. The efficiency of the concentration and transportation is determined by the breakthrough of the substance's molecules through the channels.

The research methods we used were breakthrough calculation theory and experiment. When calculating the breakthrough, a mesh was presented as a set of parallel identical channels. Wire mesh and extended channels were made of stainless steel. The breakthrough is determined through the specific frequency of the collisions between the molecules and the channel's surface. This is presented as a function of the ratio of the substance diffusion flow to the channel's surface to the airflow through the channel.

The conditions for high-speed concentration, complete capture of explosive vapours, and low vapour losses during their transportation through the extended channels were determined theoretically and experimentally. For a concentrator made of a mesh, the condition of a high concentration rate at a high breakthrough (up to 80%) was determined. The described sorption concentration is used in portable gas chromatographic detectors of explosive vapours of the EKHO series.
Genetic causes of the global decline in male fertility are among the hot spots of scientific research in reproductive genetics. The most common way to evaluate male fertility in clinical trials is to determine semen quality. Lower semen quality is very often accompanied by subfertility or infertility, occurs in many diseases and can be caused by many factors, including genetic ones. The following forms of lowered semen quality (pathozoospermia) are known: azoospermia, oligozoospermia, asthenozoospermia, teratozoospermia, and some combined forms. To systematize information about the genetic basis of impaired spermatogenesis, we created a catalog of human genes associated with lowered semen quality (HGAPat) and analyzed their functional characteristics. The catalog comprises data on 126 human genes. Each entry of the catalog describes an association between an allelic variant of the gene and a particular form of lowered semen quality, extracted from the experimental study. Most genes included into the catalog are located on autosomes and are associated with such pathologies as non-obstructive azoospermia, oligozoospermia or asthenozoospermia. Slightly less than half of the included genes (43%) are expressed in the testes in a tissue-specific manner. Functional annotation of genes from the catalog showed that spermatogenic failure can be associated with mutations in genes that control biological processes essential for spermiogenesis (regulating DNA metabolism, cell division, formation of cellular structures, which provide cell movement) as well as with mutations in genes that control cellular responses to unfavorable conditions (stress factors, including oxidative stress and exposure to toxins).
Separation of hydrocarbon molecules, such as benzene/cyclohexane and o-xylene/m-xylene/p-xylene, is relevant due to their widespread application as chemical feedstock but challenging because of their similar boiling points and close molecular sizes. Physisorption separation could offer an energy-efficient solution to this problem, but the design and synthesis of sorbents that exhibit high selectivity for one of the hydrocarbons remain a largely unmet challenge. Herein, we report a new heterometallic MOF with a unique tortuous shape of channels decorated with aromatic sorption sites [Li2Zn2(bpy)(ndc)3] (NIIC-30(Ph), bpy = 4,4′-bipyridine, ndc2– = naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxylate) and study of its benzene/cyclohexane and xylene vapor and liquid separation. For an equimolar benzene/cyclohexane mixture, it is possible to achieve a 10-fold excess of benzene in the adsorbed phase. In the case of xylenes, microporous framework NIIC-30(Ph) demonstrates outstanding selective sorption properties and becomes a new benchmark for m-/o-xylene separation. In addition, NIIC-30(Ph) is stable enough to carry out at least three separation cycles of benzene/cyclohexane mixtures or ternary o-xylene/m-xylene/p-xylene mixtures both in the liquid and in the vapor phase. Insights into the performance of NIIC-30(Ph) are gained from X-ray structural studies of each aromatic guest inclusion compound.
Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) maturation is a complex process that involves chemical modifications of the bases or sugar residues of specific nucleotides. One of the most abundant types of rRNA modifications, ribose 2-O-methylation, is guided by ribonucleoprotein complexes containing small nucleolar box C/D RNAs. Since the majority of 2-O-methylated nucleotides are located in the most conserved regions of rRNA that comprise functionally important centers of the ribosome, an alteration in a 2-O-methylation profile can affect ribosome assembly and function. One of the key approaches for localization of 2-O-methylated nucleotides in long RNAs is a method based on the termination of reverse transcription. The current study presents an adaptation of this method for the use of fluorescently labeled primers and analysis of termination products by capillary gel electrophoresis on an automated genetic analyzer. The developed approach allowed us to analyze the influence of the synthetic analogues of box C/D RNAs on post-transcriptional modifications of human 28S rRNA in MCF-7 cells. It has been established that the transfection of MCF-7 cells with a box C/D RNA analogue leads to an enhanced modification level of certain native sites of 2-O-methylation in the target rRNA. The observed effect of synthetic RNAs on the 2-O-methylation of rRNA in human cells demonstrates a path towards targeted regulation of rRNA post-transcriptional maturation. The described approach can be applied in the development of novel diagnostic methods for detecting diseases in humans.
Background: Recent studies have demonstrated that the assessment of postural performance may be a potentially reliable and objective marker of the psychomotor retardation (PMR) in the major depressive disorder (MDD). One of the important facets of MDD-related PMR is reflected in disrupted central mechanisms of psychomotor control, heavily influenced by compelling maladaptive depressive rumination. In view of this, we designed a research paradigm that included sequential execution of simple single posture task followed by more challenging divided attention posture tasks, involving concurring motor and ideomotor workloads. Another difficulty dimension assumed executing of all the tasks with eyes open (easy) and closed (difficult) conditions. We aimed at investigating the interplay between the severity of MDD, depressive rumination, and efficiency of postural performance. Method: Compared with 24 age- and body mass index-matched healthy controls (HC), 26 patients with MDD sequentially executed three experimental tasks: (1) single posture task of maintaining a quiet stance (ST), (2) actual posture-motor dual-task (AMT); (3) mental/ imaginary posture-motor dual-task (MMT). All the tasks were performed in the eyes open (EO) and the eyes closed (EC) conditions. The primary dependent variable was the amount of kinetic energy (E) expended for center of pressure deviations (CoPD), whereas the absolute divided attention cost index showed energy cost to the dual-tasking vs. the single posture task according to the formula: ΔE = (EDual-task - ESingle-task). Result: The signs of PMR in the MDD group were objectively indexed by deficient posture control in the eyes closed condition along with overall slowness of fine motor and ideomotor activity. Another important and probably more challenging feature of the findings was that the posture deficit manifested in the ST condition was substantially and significantly attenuated in the MMT and AMT performance dual-tasking activity. A multiple linear regression analysis evidenced further that the dual-tasking energy cost (i.e., ΔE) significantly predicted clinical scores of severity of MDD and depressive rumination. Conclusion: The findings allow to suggest that execution of concurrent actual or imaginary fine motor task with closed visual input deallocates attentional resources from compelling maladaptive depressive rumination thereby attenuating severity of absolute dual-tasking energy costs for
It is believed that the chirality amplification step followed the initial emergence of small enantiomeric imbalance and preceded (as a necessary condition) the occurrence of homochiral biopolymers, assembled from enantiomerically pure building blocks.

This work focuses on the chemical nature of possible mechanisms of primordial chirality enhancement, without going into detail of the preceding and subsequent phases of origination of biological homochirality and life on Earth. These mechanisms are discussed through the prism of integrity of biological natural selection and chemical kinetic selection.

This review article surveys the recent experimental findings that suggest alternative chemical models of directed chirality amplification at the early, prebiotic Earth.