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The objective: to assess the safety and compliance with new regimens for preventive treatment of drug susceptible and drug resistant tuberculosis.Subjects and Methods. The study was carried out in Almaty, the Republic of Kazakhstan; 182 patients from the groups facing the high risk of developing active tuberculosis received preventive tuberculosis treatment with new regimens: 71 patients were treated with isoniazid and rifampicin for 3 months (3 HR), 55 - with isoniazid and rifapentine for 1 month (1 HR), 56 - with levofloxacin for 6 months (6 Lfx).Results. During treatment with regimens 3 HR, 1 HP, 6 Lfx, no adverse events of severity degree 3-4 developed , while adverse events of severity degree 1-2 were rare and relieved. The patient-oriented approach to the organization of preventive chemotherapy made it possible to achieve high treatment completion rates: in the group receiving 3 HR, it was 97.2% of cases, in the group receiving 1 HP - 96.4%, and in the group receiving 6 Lfx - 82.2%.

The objective: to justify the optimal duration of chemotherapy with Lzd and Bdq by evaluating the long-term treatment outcomes in patients with multiple/pre-extensive drug resistant (MDR/preXDR) tuberculosis who interrupted treatment at different time points.Subjects and Methods. 800 patients with MDR/preXDR tuberculosis were enrolled in the study, they were from all regions of the Russian Federation and they started a course of chemotherapy with regimens containing Lzd and Bdq in 2017-2018. All patients who interrupted their chemotherapy (124) were divided at 4 groups. Group 1-43 patients who received less than 90 doses, Group 2-37 patients who received from 91 to 180 doses, Group 3-39 patients who received from 181 to 270 doses, and Group 4-5 patients who received from 271 to 360 doses of anti-tuberculosis drugs.Results. In Group 3, the effectiveness of reaching a favorable outcome during observation for 3-4 years made 53.8% in 21/39, which was comparable to the effectiveness of treatment with a 24-month course of chemotherapy (2017 – 58.0 and 2018 – 52.1%). The treatment duration of patients from Group 3 was additionally analyzed, the arithmetic mean of the number of administered doses makes 262 ± 15, which allowed recommending 9-month courses of chemotherapy.

The objective: to compare treatment efficacy and relapse rates in patients with isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis treated with 9- and 6-month courses of chemotherapy.Subjects and Methods. A retrospective cohort study was conducted. The period from 2010 to 2015 was evaluated. The cases of tuberculosis registered on the territory of Arkhangelsk Region were studied. In 2010-2013, all patients with isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis (n = 130) in the region received a 9-month course of treatment. From 2014 to 2015, the duration of treatment for isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis in the region was reduced from 9 to 6 months. The patients (n = 54) received short-course treatment: aminoglycoside or polypeptide (2 months), rifampicin, pyrazinamide, fluoroquinolone, and ethambutol.There was no statistically significant difference in treatment outcomes of isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis between two regimens: The outcome of effective treatment made 76.2% for the 9-month regimen and 74.1% for the 6-month regimen. The relapse rate per 100 person-years was 0.7 (95% CI 0.1-1.9) for the 9-month regimen and 1.9 (95% CI 0.2-6.7) for the 6-month regimen. This study confirmed the need to decrease the duration of treatment for isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis to 6 months.

IntroductionThe tuberculin skin test has significant limitations for use in individuals vaccinated with BCG. The presence in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis of the RDI region, which is absent in the genome of Mycobacterium bovis BCG and most non-tuberculous mycobacteria, made it possible to develop new skin tests, which include a skin test with a recombinant tuberculosis allergen [RTA (Diaskintest®, JSC Generium, Russia)]. Diaskintest has shown high diagnostic performance in clinical trials and in conditions of high prevalence of tuberculosis infection. In 2021, the Russia was excluded from the WHO list of high TB burden countries, which makes relevant an assessment of the specificity of the RTA test under conditions of low epidemiologic risk for tuberculosis to confirm the high specificity of the test.Study objectiveTo assess the specificity of Diaskintest in the regions of the Russian Federation with low epidemiologic risk for tuberculosis.MethodsA multicenter, open-label, prospective study was conducted, which included 150 healthy volunteers aged 18–30 years old, vaccinated with BCG, who were not at risk of tuberculosis, from regions with low epidemiologic risk (Oryol region, Ryazan region, and Arkhangelsk region). During the study, 4 visits were scheduled for each participant: [Visit 0 (screening), Visit 1, Visit 2 (in 72 h) and Visit 3 (in 28 days)]. All participants, who excluded active and latent tuberculosis infection, underwent a test with RTA. To assess the safety of RTA tests, all systemic and local adverse events that occurred during 28 days were recorded. The trial was filed in the NIH clinical trials database ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05203068).ResultsIn individuals with a negative T-SPOT.TB test, the specificity of the RTA test was 97% (95% CI: 92–99%) with a cut-off of >0 mm. The study findings confirm data 2009: 100.00 (95% CI: 94–100). When evaluating the safety of the RTA test during 28 days of follow-up, the participants did not report local and systemic adverse reactions that had a causal relationship with the RTA test.ConclusionDiaskintest is highly specific and safe, therefore it is a valuable tool as a screening test for early detection of tuberculosis.

This paper presents a study of the impact of icing on the performance of a pitch-regulated large wind turbine. Numerical simulations of six blade sections of the NREL 5 MW wind turbine at various free stream velocities are performed. Blade Element Momentum (BEM) method along Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) bases multiphase numerical simulations are used for this study. Analysis shows that the simulated parameters are in good agreement with the real conditions for each blade element during operation, except for the three-dimensional effects. The analysis of accreted ice shapes and air/droplet flow fields around the blade profile sections was carried out, and the calculation of aerodynamic performance, and energy production degradation was also performed. The tip of the blade is most affected by icing, it is characterized by the greatest changes in the aerodynamic performance. Maximum reduction in the wind turbine performance is estimated to be around 24%.

Sputum-based tuberculosis diagnosis does not address the needs of certain categories of patients. Active development of a noninvasive urine-based diagnosis could provide an alternative approach. We reviewed publications covering more than 30 urine biomarkers proposed as significant for TB diagnosis. Analytical approaches were heterogeneous in design and methods; few studies on diagnostic outcome prediction described a formal specificity and sensitivity analysis.This review describes studies of non-sputum diagnostic approaches of pulmonary TB based on urine using specific TB biomarkers. The search was performed until December 2021, using terms [Tuberculosis] + [urine] + [biomarkers] in PubMed and Cochrane databases. Publications concerning LAM urine diagnostics were excluded as they have been described elsewhere.Microbiological culture of sputum is considered to be the 'gold standard' diagnostic for pulmonary TB but the methodology is slow due to the slow growth of the TB bacteria. Urine provides a large volume of sample. Investigators have evaluated urine for either TB pathogen biomarkers or host biomarkers with some success as the review demonstrates. Detection sensitivity remains a significant problem. In future, combination of host and pathogen biomarkers could increase the sensitivity and specificity of TB diagnosis.

20.01.23: AAM etterspurt/IHTI Wind energy assessment of a territory where a wind park is planned to be built is important. This can be performed through an appropriate evaluation of the wind characteristics in this territory. To simulate the wind speeds, a Weibull function is recommended whose parameters are classically determined either applying logarithms or using one of the formulas proposed in the literature. In the present study, direct optimization procedures are applied, which consist to minimize the squared difference between the experimental and simulated densities or probabilities. These procedures are applied on the wind characteristics collected from the ERA5 website during 41 years at three Russian sites close to Arkhangelsk. These direct optimization procedures are proved to give lower errors than the classical one or the formulas of the literature. They also lead to lower values of the estimated Annual Energy Production for a Vestas V90-2.0 wind turbine. Direct optimization procedures are also applied to determine the optimal parameters associated with a unique or a superposition of two von Mises distribution functions to simulate the wind directions in these three Russian sites.

Academic presentation submitted to the 2nd International Scientific and Practical Conference: Improving Energy Efficiency, Environmental Safety and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, 23.01.22 - 27.01.22. The paper investigates the flow behavior near the NACA 64-618 airfoil profile of the blade tip section of a wind turbine for electric power production after a short icing event. The flow simulation considering the rotation speed of the wind turbine blade is performed to assess the effect of icing on the aerodynamic characteristics. Degradation of aerodynamic characteristics affects the electrical energy production of the wind turbine. The aerodynamic lift and drag coefficients are calculated for different angles of attack. The flow velocity fields near the airfoil are analyzed. The pressure coefficient distributions along the profile surface are obtained. The points of flow stall and changes of aerodynamic characteristics at different angles of attack are determined.

The paper considers the details of design and construction of a small-sized wind tunnel with an open circuit and a closed test section for investigating the blades of horizontal-axis wind turbines. The effect of different types of jet straighteners on the turbulence of the flow in the test section has been studied. Turbulence flow distributions Tu at Reynolds numbers Re from 5·103 to 2·104 are obtained using Laser Doppler Anemometry methods. As a result, the wind tunnel design with average flow turbulence of 1.6 % is obtained. The flow visualization of NACA 64-618 airfoil at Re = 5·103 is obtained.

The paper investigates the flow behavior near the NACA 64-618 airfoil profile of the blade tip section of a wind turbine for electric power production after a short icing event. The flow simulation considering the rotation speed of the wind turbine blade is performed to assess the effect of icing on the aerodynamic characteristics. Degradation of aerodynamic characteristics affects the electrical energy production of the wind turbine. The aerodynamic lift and drag coefficients are calculated for different angles of attack. The flow velocity fields near the airfoil are analyzed. The pressure coefficient distributions along the profile surface are obtained. The points of flow stall and changes of aerodynamic characteristics at different angles of attack are determined.

Hydrolysis lignin (HL) samples were torrefied in a fixed bed reactor under nitrogen, during 30 or 60 min, and under four isothermal temperatures (225, 250, 275, or 300 degrees C). The impact of these torrefaction conditions on the material was analyzed through chemical, thermal, and biochemical analyses and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) investigations. The H/C and O/C ratios were observed to decrease from 1.33 to 1.09 or 1.05 and from 0.43 to 0.27 or 0.24, with the isothermal temperature or residence time, because the carbon contents of the torrefied samples were significantly increased, leading to materials close to chars. The lower heating values were increased to 23.5 or 25.3 MJ kg(-1) with the torrefaction process when compared with that (21.6 MJ kg(-1)) of raw HL. The highest energy yield was reached for the lowest temperature and residence time. The potassium percentage was highly increased in the torrefied samples. SEM investigations revealed that the sheeted structure of the raw material led to fragments whose assembly became chaotic when increasing the isothermal temperature and residence time. ANOVA computations proved that the residence time had no significant impact on the characterizations of the torrefied samples.