Impact of interstitial impurities on the trapping of dislocation loops in tungsten.

Ab initio simulations are employed to assess the interaction of typical interstitial impurities with self-interstitial atoms, dislocation loops and edge dislocation lines in tungsten. These impurities are present in commercial tungsten grades and are also created as a result of neutron transmutation or the plasma in-take process. The relevance of the study is determined by the application of tungsten as first wall material in fusion reactors.

Functional brain abnormalities localized in 55 chronic tinnitus patients: fusion of SPECT coincidence imaging and MRI.

Tinnitus is often defined as the perception of sounds or noise in the absence of any external auditory stimuli. The pathophysiology of subjective idiopathic tinnitus remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the functional brain activities and possible involved cerebral areas in subjective idiopathic tinnitus patients by means of single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) coincidence imaging, which was fused with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Ascorbic acid in blood serum of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and pneumonia.

Ascorbic acid plays a major role in pulmonary antioxidant defense. Sufficient amounts of ascorbic acid are necessary to maintain normal metabolic processes in the lung. We measured the levels of ascorbic, dehydroascorbic and diketogulonic acids in blood serum of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and pneumonia.

Surface heterogeneity and surface area from linear inverse gas chromatography. Application to glass fibers.

A new method of measuring surface heterogeneity of non-porous adsorbents by inverse gas chromatography (IGC) is developed. In contrast with the methods described in the literature which are based on nonlinear chromatography (thermodynamics of adsorption) this method is based on linear chromatography (kinetics of adsorption). The mass balance equation of linear chromatography with axial diffusion term and the Langmuir kinetic equation on an open (non-porous) heterogeneous surface are solved by the method of Laplace transforms.

[Indices of mycobacterium tuberculosis growth in culture media and levels of active-phase proteins in different forms of pulmonary tuberculosis].

The relationship was examined between the bacteriological (growth time, the count of M. tuberculosis colonies) and biochemical (serum haptoglobin and ceruloplasmin levels) indices that characterize the magnitude of inflammation in 653 patients with different forms of pulmonary tuberculosis. Diagnostically, there was a dissimilarity in the biochemical indices studied and there was a stronger relationship between the bacteriological indices and haptoglobin levels.

[The excretion of ascorbic acid and its metabolites in uremia and hemodialysis].

Renal excretion of ascorbic, dehydroascorbic and diketogulonic acids in uremia and relevant loss in hemodialysis are measured in comparison with those in patients with uremic syndrome (prior to hemodialysis) and in healthy subjects (control). Renal elimination of ascorbic acid was higher while of dehydroascorbic acid lower vs control. Elimination of diketogulonic acid was similar to control.

[Mechanisms of endotoxicosis in pulmonary tuberculosis].

The intensity of a specific inflammatory process in pulmonary tuberculosis causes an increase the body's tissue proteolytic activity, which is followed by an elevation the blood levels of the toxic products of incomplete proteolysis (medium molecular-weight peptides) and induces the endogenous intoxication syndrome. The severity of endotoxicosis is also characterized by less life of paramecia and higher leukocytic intoxication index.

Low levels of dehydroascorbic acid in uraemic serum and the partial correction of dehydroascorbic acid deficiency by haemodialysis.

Background: Vitamin C is currently considered a potent water-soluble antioxidant and it appeared reasonable to study the metabolic changes of vitamin C in uraemia and during haemodialysis.

Methods: We measured the levels of ascorbic, dehydroascorbic and diketogulonic acids in sera of uraemic patients before and during haemodialysis, using the 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine method.

Results: The results indicate that the levels of ascorbic and dehydroascorbic acids in uraemic sera are low in comparison with controls, but the levels of diketogulonic acid are higher than in healthy persons.

[The use of nested polymerase chain reaction method for rapid detection of cytomegalovirus in peripheral blood leukocytes of patients after bone marrow transplantation].

Nested polymerase chain reaction was used for rapid detection of human cytomegalovirus in blood samples of patients subjected to bone marrow transplantation. Use of the four-primer system appreciably improved the sensitivity and specificity of the method and helped eliminate the difficulties arising in the detection of various viral strains with the minor nucleotide substitutes in the DNA template. The proposed method is a reliable tool for the early diagnosis of cytomegaloviral viremia and for monitoring the efficacy of antiviral therapy.

[Selection of primers and their use in the polymerase chain reaction for diagnosing infections caused by herpes simplex virus and cytomegalovirus].

The authors present the results of studies on the construction of highly sensitive primers for rapid diagnosis of infections caused by Herpes simplex virus (HSV) and cytomegalovirus. An oligonucleotide primer to HSV-1 is described, which permits detection of HSV-1 DNA in infected cultures and in clinical material in dilution 10(-7), whereas the "universal" primer constructed on the basis of published data detects both HSV-1 and HSV-2 only in dilution 10(-4). Study of the clinical material in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) vs.

[Vitamin K1 and C metabolism in uremia during hemodialysis].

Plasma concentrations of vitamin K1, ascorbic acid and its derivatives were investigated in uremic patients during a session of systemic hemodialysis at the dialyzers input, output and in dialyzing solution. The data showed practically unchanged clearances of vitamin C and diketogulonic acid during the session of hemodialysis. In the course of its passage through the dialyzer, plasma ascorbic acid was partially oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid, partially it converted to a dialysate, partially it returned to the human body.

[Topoisomerase I is connected with the regulatory zone of transcripted active mini-chromosomes of the SV40 virus].

Proteins bound to SV40 DNA in sarkosyl-treated nuclei have been studied. The major component is topoisomerase I, a 60-70 kDa protein, which possesses a strong DNA-nicking activity in the presence of detergents. An SV40 fraction containing tightly bound proteins constitutes 2-3% of the total nuclear SV40 DNA and is enriched in transcriptionally active DNA as monitored by distribution of RNase-resistant in vivo pulse labelled RNA.

[Coprecipitation of proteins and DNA-protein complexes with magnesium sarcolysate: research on an association of topoisomerase I and RNA polymerase with DNA].

A specific cosedimentation of proteins and their complexes with DNA at low temperature (M-band technique) has been demonstrated. Model experiments with reconstituted SV40 DNA-topoisomerase I and SV40 DNA-E. coli RNA polymerase complexes demonstrated the potential and capacities of the method.

[Binding of cardiac glycosides by the erythrocytes of patients].

Digoxin and strophanthin K uptake by patients' red cells was investigated by the Rb-86 assay. It was found that digoxin and strophanthin K levels in red cells increased with augmentation of the drugs concentrations in plasma, the ratio of cardiac glycoside levels in red cells to their concentrations in plasma decreased. The degree of binding to red cells is more pronounced for strophanthin K than for digoxin.

[Various novel properties of transcriptionally active mini-chromosomes of the SV40 virus].

The treatment of isolated SV40 mini-chromosomes by DNA-topoisomerase I leads to relaxation of DNA within a small fraction (2-5%) of mini-chromosomes strongly enriched in endogenous RNA-polymerase. The DNA supercoiling in the bulk of mini-chromosomes remained unchanged. The relaxable fraction proved to be specifically hypersensitive to DNAase I, but lost hypersensitivity after prior topoisomerase treatment.

[Splitting of mononucleosomes into histone-containing subnucleosomes].

Histone-containing subnucleosomal particles SN7 and SN4 revealed initially in micrococcal nuclease digest of mouse chromatin were studied. It was found that production of SN7 and SN4 did not depend on the preservation of supranucleosomal levels of chromatin organization and was the result of intranucleosomal splitting. Micrococcal nuclease that preferentially attacks internucleosomal linker DNA can cut mononucleosomes with the formation of 40 b.

[Structure of chromosomal deoxyribonucleoproteins. XI. Organization of deoxyribonucleoprotein complex in bacterial cells].

Isolation of bacterial chromosomes under "mild" conditions enable us to purify a bacterial deoxyribonucleoprotein (DNP). This DNP is enriched in small basic proteins which are complexed with DNA throughout all the purification steps. The basic proteins are shown to be similar to some heat-resistant proteins of cellular extract and can interact with DNA in vitro.