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Relevance. Intoxication of acylate pulmonotoxicants causes disturbance of structure and function of air-blood barrier, the output of liquid in the interstitial and alveolar space and manifestation of lung edema. Aquaporins play an important role in the transportation of fluid through the alveolar-capillary membrane, including pathological conditions. Water permeability through aquaporins is blocked by mercury ions. Using mercury chloride may reduce severity of the acute lung edema after intoxication of the pulmonotoxicants. Intention. The goal is to evaluate the role of mercury dichloride in the development of toxic pulmonary edema in laboratory animals during intoxication with pulmonotoxicants with an acylating effect. Methodology. Laboratory animals (rats and rabbits) were exposed to inhalation intoxication of carbonic acid dichloride and perfluoroisobutylene at concentrations of 1,5LC50. In 30 minutes after exposure were administrated of 0,3LD50 mercury chloride to the animals subcutaneously. The oxygenation index, acid-base state, pulmonary coefficient, histological changes in lung was investigated in 6 hours after exposure. Results. It was found that intoxication with carbonic acid dichloride and perfluoroisobutylene at concentrations of 1,5LC50 led to the development of toxic pulmonary edema in rats and rabbits 6 hours following exposure. The administration mercury chloride to 30 minutes following exposure to the pulmonotoxicants under study, led to a decrease (p 0.05) in the pulmonary coefficient, an increase (p 0.05) in the oxygenation index and normalization of the acid-base state according to compared with animals receiving 0.9 % NaCl following intoxication. When conducting a histological examination, in animals treated with mercury chloride less pronounced changes in the histoarchitectonics of the lung tissue were noted. Conclusion. Considering the fact that the administration of mercury chloride to animals led to a decrease in the manifestations of pulmonary edema in animals, it was suggested that aquaporins play an important role in the pathogenesis of toxic pulmonary edema caused by intoxication with pulmonotoxicants with an acylating effect. The use of selective blockers of aquaporins (less toxic than mercury chloride) may be a new direction in the pathogenetic therapy of toxic pulmonary edema due to exposure to pulmonotoxicants.

The ability to regulate oxygen consumption evolved in ancestral animals and is intrinsically linked to iron metabolism. The iron pathways have been intensively studied in mammals, whereas data on distant invertebrates are limited. Sea sponges represent the oldest animal phylum and have unique structural plasticity and capacity to reaggregate after complete dissociation. We studied iron metabolic factors and their expression during reaggregation in the White Sea cold-water sponges Halichondria panicea and Halisarca dujardini. De novo transcriptomes were assembled using RNA-Seq data, and evolutionary trends were analyzed with bioinformatic tools. Differential expression during reaggregation was studied for H. dujardini. Enzymes of the heme biosynthesis pathway and transport globins, neuroglobin (NGB) and androglobin (ADGB), were identified in sponges. The globins mutate at higher evolutionary rates than the heme synthesis enzymes. Highly conserved iron-regulatory protein 1 (IRP1) presumably interacts with the iron-responsive elements (IREs) found in mRNAs of ferritin (FTH1) and a putative transferrin receptor NAALAD2. The reaggregation process is accompanied by increased expression of IRP1, the antiapoptotic factor BCL2, the inflammation factor NFκB (p65), FTH1 and NGB, as well as by an increase in mitochondrial density. Our data indicate a complex mechanism of iron regulation in sponge structural plasticity and help to better understand general mechanisms of morphogenetic processes in multicellular species.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228722.].

Influence of the chitosan concentration in the low-concentrated acidic hydrogels formed by (bio)polyelectrolyte chitosan–gelatin complexes (at a constant gelatin concentration of 1%) was studied by shearing in steady flow and linear oscillations. These complexes, including native gelatin, demonstrate clearly expressed viscoelastic properties. Viscoelastic properties correlated well with the non-Newtonian behavior of hydrogels (according to the Cox–Merz rule). Increasing the chitosan concentration (from 0.1% to 0.6%) results in exponential growth of the apparent viscosity, yield stress, and storage modulus. However, a further increase in chitosan concentration to 0.8% leads to a reduction in these rheological parameters due to the electrostatic repulsion of similarly charged polyelectrolyte complexes under the high concentration of these complexes. The macro-rheological properties of chitosan–gelatin gels are mainly determined by the colloidal structure of sol-precursors in solutions. The yield str...

The article is devoted to the little-studied question of the attitude of the Don miners in the post-reform peri-od to the problem of improvement of their homes and mining settlements in general. A number of issues related to the installations and requests of the Don miners in the post-reform period in the housing and household sphere, their typical models of domestic behavior and living standards in general are considered. The attitude of the majority of miners to the problem of improvement of their homes and mining settlements was manifested, first of all, in their regularly reproduced models of domestic behavior, as well as in their demands for im-provement of residential premises, which they put forward to entrepreneurs-mine owners during their protests. It was established that during the entire post-reform period, miners never put forward demands for improving living conditions and improvement of villages. It is noted that often in the considered period miners repro-duced such models of household behavior which promoted pollution of premises and did not show initiatives for maintenance of cleanliness in the dwelling that indicates their indifference to a problem of its improve-ment. It is also established that in the period under the review, most of the Don miners did not take the initia-tive to clean up garbage and arrange latrines in mining settlements. It is concluded that only a small part (about 4 % of their total number) of the Don miners had the desire to reconstruct and improve their homes on their own.

We studied the influence of addition of polysaccharide (exemplified by κ-carrageenan) to gelatin solution on the rheological properties, morphology, and stability of highly concentrated oil-in-water emulsions. Gelatin and κ-сarrageenan form polyelectrolyte complexes which stabilise emulsions. At some κ-carrageenan/gelatin w/w ratios less than 0.7 (gcar/ggel), these components form a stoichiometric complex which is in dynamic equilibrium when gelatin is in excess. At a κ-carrageenan/gelatin w/w ratio ≤0.1, the emulsions are stable against coalescence in the long-term but not against sedimentation. At ratios from 0.1 to 0.14, emulsions are stable against sedimentation. Highly concentrated emulsions at the dispersed phase content of 74–75% stabilised by gelatin–κ-carrageenan polyelectrolyte complexes are viscoplastic media (shear-unstable gels) and the clearly expressed yielding behaviour and the domain of the so-called “apparent” maximum Newtonian viscosity can be still detected. Solid-like behaviour of highly concentrated emulsions at low stresses is characterised by constant values of the storage modulus in a wide frequency range. The rheology of the emulsions under investigation depends on the ratio of components in the systems. An increase in the concentration of the gelatin–κ-carrageenan complexes (and consequently, the decrease in unbound gelatin) leads to a decrease in the emulsion viscosity, storage modulus, and yield stress with a tendency to disappear solid-like properties.

Low soil fertility has been recognized as one of the challenges contributing to low crop productivity in Zambia. In order to address this challenge, the government, the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have promoted the use of Soil Fertility Management (SFM) technologies such as agroforestry, animal manure, compost, intercropping of legumes, and minimum tillage. In recent years, Innovation Platforms (IPs) have been used as a means to promote farmer participation in appropriate technology identification and development. This is done to enhance technology adoption and rural development in general. In Zambia, there has been little or no documented experiences or lessons learnt in the use of IPs to address any agricultural problem. Therefore, this paper, attempts to fill this information gap by providing information on the experiences in the use of IPs to address low soil fertility challenges in Zambia’s Kasama and Chipata districts. An IP was established in each district with members drawn from different organizations. The objective of the IP was to provide a platform for discussing and disseminating information in order to enhance the awareness of low soil fertility issues and available appropriate SFM technologies. The experience with the use of IPs showed that IPs are a platform were farmers participated freely in identifying and prioritizing soil fertility challenges. Farmers also participated in proposing solutions and developing an action plan to address the challenges. The other experiences with IPs showed that they are effective information and technical knowledge sharing platforms which enhanced awareness of soil fertility challenges and the available SFM technologies. The IPs also contributed to improving working relations among public, private sector and NGOs. Also IPs were equally key in mobilizing locally available resources (skills, competences and finances) to train farmers in some of the SFM technologies; to raise and distribute agro forestry seedlings and planting materials to farmers; and to help access the local media.. Therefore, the use of IPs should be encouraged as an approach for extension service delivery in rural areas. In order to successfully implement IPs it’s recommended that a careful selection of stakeholders to participate in IPs is done. Working with local traditional leaders in IPs is also effective indissemination of information to address low soil fertility challenges.

In this research, a novel IMAC sorbent with high specificity for chlorine-containing compounds was developed. Ni-functionalized monodisperse spherical mesoporous silica particles of 500±25nm diameter were synthesized and their metal affinity properties were studied with the use of diclofenac as the model substance. The particles were aggregatively stable in the pH range of 3-12. The sorbent demonstrated a high adsorption capacity (0.60±0.06μg of DCF per 1mg of the sorbent) and high adsorption/desorption rate (20 and 5min was enough for the sorbent saturation and desorption of DCF, correspondingly). A mixture of eluents with addition of PFOS providing the almost complete recovery (98%) of diclofenac was first proposed. The monodispersity and the high sedimentation and aggregative stability of the particles provide the formation of a stable hydrosol even under ultrasound treatment which makes the mSiO2/Ni particles suitable for batch chromatography.

The

A series of model DCC-mediated couplings of Z-Pro-D-Leu-OH with 2,3-benzo-10-aza-1,4,7,13-tetraoxacyclopentadeca-2-ene were studied by high-performance liquid chromatography. It was found that racemization during preparation of N-(Z-Pro-Leu-)benzoaza-15-crown-5 is promoted by HOBT, an additive usually reducing this process.