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The aim of this study was to compare emotional intelligence, motivation and risk-taking among adolescents with EEG patterns of suboptimal functioning of fronto-thalamic, fronto-limbic and fronto-basal brain regulatory systems (RS). 95 participants (age ~13.96 ± 1.13, girls 34%) completed questionnaires on achievement motivation (MATS, the Mehrabian Achieving Tendency Scale), emotional intelligence (MSCEIT – Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test 2.0), risk-taking (BART, Balloon Analog Risk Task) and resting electroencephalogram (EEG). The adolescents were divided into subgroups according to the presence of EEG patterns: frontal-thalamic (FT)—bilateral synchronous frontocentral θ waves (4–6 Hz); limbic (LM)—bilateral synchronous spindle-shaped frontotemporal oscillations in the low-frequency α range (6–10 Hz) and fronto-basal (BS)—spindle-shaped frontocentral β activity (20–30 Hz) and in the absence of signs—to the control group. In all groups with specific EEG patterns, there was a decrease in the ability to associate "sensations" with an emotional state. Furthermore, FT group showed decreased ability to understand mixed emotions; LM–decreased ability to facilitate cognitive activity by emotions; BS—reduced ability to manage emotions. In LM group the motivation was biased to achievement. For FT and LM, a positive correlation between risk-taking and "sensations" was found. For the LM, there was also a positive correlation between risk-taking and understanding the complex composition of emotions and the emotion management. In all cases, MSCEIT scales and risk-taking were lower in the adolescents with suboptimal RS compared to the control group. The results are discussed in terms of the suboptimal functioning of various brain RS in adolescents influence on the emotional and motivational regulation of behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of assessing the reliability indicators of spacecraft described by the "load–strength" model under conditions of incomplete data presented by the moments of distribution of quantities characterizing "strength" and "load," with the latter values being the radiation resistance of the spacecraft and the factors of space acting on the spacecraft. This problem is reduced to the problem of finding the extremum of a certain integral with equality constraints; its solution is obtained in a general form. For cases when one or two moments of distribution of "strength" and "load" values are known, reliability estimates are obtained in an analytical form. This paper is a further development and refinement of the results obtained in the work of the authors [16], in relation to such objects of research as spacecraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High levels of autophagy can increase the viability of tumor cells as well as their resistance to chemotherapy. Evaluation of the dynamics of autophagy processes at different stages of carcinogenesis can extend our understanding of melanoma pathogenesis to develop new therapeutic approaches. We performed a comparative study of tumor cell autophagy in stages II and III human skin melanoma. Tumor cells were characterized by high content of structures associated with autophagy (autophagosomes and autolysosomes). In stage III melanoma characterized by the presence of regional metastases in the lymph nodes, tumor cells showed higher expression of the autophagy marker protein LC3beta in comparison with stage II melanoma cells, which can indicate the involvement of autophagy processes in tumor progression and the formation of metastases in the lymph nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural organization of the extracellular matrix of rectal adenocarcinoma of different differentiation degrees without and after neoadjuvant radiation therapy was studied on postoperative material using immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. The differences in the expression of types I and III collagens, as well as in the ultrastructural organization of the extracellular matrix of rectal adenocarcinoma of different differentiation degrees without and after neoadjuvant radiation therapy were revealed. We observed high expression of collagen I and wide channels in the collagen matrix in the central areas of the well differentiated adenocarcinomas without neoadjuvant radiation therapy and in poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas after neoadjuvant radiation therapy, which can be associated with metastasis and poor prognosis for the patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a comparative interdisciplinary study of the brain regulatory functions in adolescents aged 13–16 years with (n = 82) and without (n = 125) signs of deviant behavior. The first group consisted of adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems at school and in interacting with their parents, as reported by school psychologists. We used standardized questionnaires to assess individual tendencies towards deviant behavior. The effectiveness of executive functions was assessed by neuropsychological examinations. The functioning of the brain regulatory systems was analyzed using the visual structural analysis of EEG traces. According to the results of EEG analysis, signs of deviant behavior correlated with suboptimal functioning of various parts of the brain regulatory systems (RS). In adolescents with signs of deviant behavior, the EEG patterns of limbic origin were most prominent and were observed significantly more often than in the control group. The same group differences were found for the EEG patterns of fronto-thalamic and fronto-basal origin as well as for EEG changes in the lateral frontal areas of the left hemisphere. Adolescents with the EEG signs of suboptimal functioning of different parts of RS demonstrated both common and specific tendencies towards deviant behavior and the deficiency of various components of voluntary control. At the same time, the same behavioral problems were accompanied by the EEG patterns of different origins. The obtained results suggest that suboptimal RS functioning is an important neurophysiological mechanism, which underlies behavioral deviations in adolescents. They also indicate the heterogeneous nature of deviant behavior and the need for individual assessment of the brain regulatory functions for the diagnostics and correction of behavioral deviations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age-related trends in the strength of functional and effective connectivity between key cortical structures that belong to the three most important resting-state neural networks: the default mode network (DMN), the key event detection network (salience network, SN) and the central executive network (CEN) were investigated in adolescents of both sexes. The study involved 34 adolescents of the younger age group: 11–13 years old (12.61 ± 0.75 years, 13 girls and 21 boys) and 54 adolescents of the older group: 14–16 years old (15.00 ± 0.75 years, 20 girls and 34 boys). Frequency-specific estimates of the strength of functional and effective connectivity between the nodes of DMN, SN and CEN were computed in six frequency bands θ (4–7 Hz), α1 (7.5–9.5 Hz), α2 (10–13 Hz), β1 (14–18 Hz), β2 (20–27 Hz) and γ (30–40 Hz) using the vector autoregressive modeling of cortical sources of EEG registered in the resting condition. The analysis of functional connectivity revealed age differences in the θ frequency range, in which the strength of connections between the nodes of all networks in the younger age group was higher than in the older group. Besides, sex-related differences were found in the beta-2 and gamma ranges: the connections between the nodes of DMN were stronger for girls than for boys. The analysis of effective connectivity (directed influences) revealed a significant effect of age in all frequency ranges for the CEN and DMN resting-state networks; for SN, this effect was significant in all but the beta-2 and gamma ranges. The most pronounced age-related changes were found for bottom-up connections directed from more caudal to more frontal areas in CEN and DMN, and in the younger age group, the strength of effective connections was greater than in the older one. The effect of sex on the strength of effective connections was limited mainly to the younger group and manifested itself in stronger DMN and CEN connectivity in girls (as compared with boys). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. Two approaches for simultaneous identification of both Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) and Swine vesicular disease virus (SVDV) are described: (1) a single-step reverse transcription-PCR with three primers and (2) a PCR-ELISA assay with two universal primers for genome amplification and two virus-specific probes for identification. These methods are based on the use of 3D gene universal PCR primers, the structure of which was optimized and refined due to the close relationship between the two viruses belonging to different genera of the Picornaviridae family. In procedure (1), a three-primer PCR containing one universal antisense primer and two virus-specific primers was shown to differentiate between FMDV and SVDV in one reaction, due to the different length of the amplified DNA fragments (600 and 340 base pairs, respectively). In procedure (2), the two viruses were identified by PCR-ELISA, i.e. PCR for the 3D gene followed by two parallel hybridizations with FMDV and SVDV-specific probes in microplate wells and ELISA detection. The application of universal primers could halve the number of PCR experiments in both cases, as compared to the usual virus-specific PCR procedures. Also, we investigated the 3D gene structure of several SVDV strains isolated at different times. No essential changes were detected in the regions coding for conserved motifs of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase recognized by our universal primers. The multi-primer PCR was successfully tested on 38 FMDV and 15 SVDV strains, and the PCR-ELISA on 32 FMDV and 16 SVDV strains including clinical material from disease cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]