Intelligent Human Operator Mental Fatigue Assessment Method Based on Gaze Movement Monitoring.

Modern mental fatigue detection methods include many parameters for evaluation. For example, many researchers use human subjective evaluation or driving parameters to assess this human condition. Development of a method for detecting the functional state of mental fatigue is an extremely important task.

Hybrid Spider Silk with Inorganic Nanomaterials.

High-performance functional biomaterials are becoming increasingly requested. Numerous natural and artificial polymers have already demonstrated their ability to serve as a basis for bio-composites. Spider silk offers a unique combination of desirable aspects such as biocompatibility, extraordinary mechanical properties, and tunable biodegradability, which are superior to those of most natural and engineered materials.

Toxicity Patterns of Clinically Relevant Metal Oxide Nanoparticles.

Nanostructured drugs are being approved for clinical use, although there is a serious deficit of systematic studies of these materials. Data on toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs) can vary due to different methods of preparation, size, and shape. We investigated the toxicity against cultured human cells, the acute toxicity in mice, and the influence on conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes of clinically relevant NPs such as TiO, ZrO, HfO, TaO, FeO, and AlOOH.

Label-free sensitive detection of influenza virus using PZT discs with a synthetic sialylglycopolymer receptor layer.

We describe rapid, label-free detection of Influenza A viruses using the first radial mode of oscillations of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric discs with a 2 mm radius and 100 µm thickness fabricated from a piezoelectric membrane. The discs are modified with a synthetic sialylglycopolymer receptor layer, and the coated discs are inserted in a flowing virus suspension. Label-free detection of the virus is achieved by monitoring the disc radial mode resonance frequency shift.

Optically Active Hybrid Materials Based on Natural Spider Silk.

Spider silk is a natural material possessing unique properties such as biocompatibility, regenerative and antimicrobial activity, and biodegradability. It is broadly considered an attractive matrix for tissue regeneration applications. Optical monitoring and potential control over tissue regrowth are attractive tools for monitoring of this process.

Upconversion metal (Zr, Hf, and Ta) oxide aerogels.

A major obstacle in developing upconversion aerogels is the incompatibility of the highly-developed porosity and the crystal structure required for converting light to a shorter wavelength. We propose a novel method for creating a sol-gel procedure for synthesizing metal (Zr, Hf, and Ta) oxide upconverison aerogels uniformly doped with Er3+ and Yb3+ by precisely adjusting the calcination conditions.

Synthetic sialylglycopolymer receptor for virus detection using cantilever-based sensors.

We describe the rapid, label-free detection of Influenza A viruses using a cantilever transducer modified with a synthetic sialylglycopolymer receptor layer. Surface stresses induced by viruses binding to the receptor layer were used as the analytical signal. The synthetic sialylglycopolymer receptor layer can be used in nanoscale strain-gauge cantilever transducers for highly sensitive virus detection.

Prions and chaperones: friends or foes?

This review highlights the modern perception of anomalous folding of the prion protein and the role of chaperones therein. Special attention is paid to prion proteins from mammalian species, which are prone to amyloid-like prion diseases due to a unique aggregation pathway. Despite being a significantly popular current subject of investigations, the etiology, structure, and function of both normal and anomalous prion proteins still hold many mysteries.

[Study of the interaction between antigen-antibody complexes for label-free sensor application].

Nanomechanical cantilever systems have a great potential in design of the new type of label-free imunnosensors. They are based on the conversion of free energy change of the surface layer of the receptor by the reaction of molecular recognition between the antigen and antibody into mechanical deformation of microcantilever. But the mechanisms of molecular interactions in the layer are still not clear.

Chaperonins induce an amyloid-like transformation of ovine prion protein: the fundamental difference in action between eukaryotic TRiC and bacterial GroEL.

Molecular chaperones have been shown to be involved in the processes taking place during the pathogenesis of various amyloid neurodegenerative diseases. However, contradictory literature reports suggest that different molecular chaperones can either stimulate or prevent the formation of amyloid structures from distinct amyloidogenic proteins. In the present work, we concentrated on the effects caused by two molecular chaperonins, ovine TRiC and bacterial GroEL, on the aggregation and conformational state of ovine PrP.

[Choroidal angioarchitectonics and colorimetric scanning].

The procedure proposed by the authors for colorimetric layer scanning of the fundus of the eye is able not only to identify choroidal capillaries as a uniform system, but also to enhance the accuracy of diagnosis and to increase the volume of findings, by analyzing the digital images of the structures of the eye grounds. A follow-up monitoring of the choroid and retinal pigment epithelium in patients with high-grade myopathy makes it possible to establish a diagnosis of early abnormal changes, to prescribe an appropriate treatment, and to evaluate its efficiency.

[Standardization of color images of the fundus of the eye].

The development of the programs analyzing the image of the fundus of the eye has aroused considerable interest in computer-aided diagnostic tools. At present the majority of such programs is based mainly on the analysis of information of the brightness and color of an image. The paper proposes a procedure for correcting the color images of the fundus of the eye, by lowering the impact of color differences caused by external causes, such as the spectrum of a light source, the spectral characteristics of ocular optical medium transmission, and those of a photo receiver.

[Prevalence and prognosis of occupational morbidity in workers of the construction materials industry].

This study revealed a great number of patients facing occupational diseases in building materials production and suggested the random method to calculate their prevalence.

[Phosphoinositide metabolism in rat cerebral cortex sections in anoxia and after restoration of oxygen supply].

The work deals with the study of the content and intensity of metabolism of phosphate groups in phosphatidylinositol (monophosphoinositides--MPI), phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphates (diphosphoinositides--DPI), and phosphatidylinositol-4,5-diphosphates (triphosphoinositides--TPI) of sections of the rat cerebral hemisphere cortex in 50-second, 2.5- and 6-minute anoxia and 15 and 60 minutes after restoration of oxygen supply (after 5-minute anoxia). Mild phase fluctuations occur in the TPI and DPI content during anoxia, while the MPI content does not change.

[Phosphoinositide metabolism in sections of the cortex of the large hemisphere of the brain in anoxia].

Depolarization (an increased concentration of KCL in the medium) has been investigated for its effect on the content and turnover rate of phospholipid phosphorus from the rat brain cortex slice under normal oxygen supply and under anoxia. It is shown that anoxia results in a small increase of phosphatidyl-inositol-4.5-bisphosphate (PIP2) and phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PIP) content and in the depression of the turnover rate of all the phosphoinositides.

[Laser irradiation: study of general and local mechanisms of its action in irradiation of the eyeball. An experimental study. 3].

Rabbit ocular tissues, brain, and blood were examined before and after irradiation of the eyeball with He-Ne laser. Scanning electron microscopy, radioimmunoassay, and biochemical methods were employed in the study. The findings evidence that irradiation of the eyeball results in reduced lipid peroxidation activity and elevated antiradical defense enzymes activity not only in ocular tissues but in the corresponding brain hemisphere and blood, which fact appears to be due to direct effect of laser radiation on the blood and brain via the optic nerve that may be a light conductor for a certain wavelength.

[Work hygiene of miners engaged in mining and processing of sand and gravel mixtures].

The main hazardous occupational factors in sand and gravel mixture processing include siliceous dust contamination of the air, noise, vibration, intensive labour overload, and unfavourable microclimate conditions. The workers examined displayed exceeding general and occupational health disorders (silicosis, silicotuberculosis, dust bronchitis, cohlear neuritis).

Nicotinic stimulation of polyphosphoinositide turnover in rat adrenal medulla slices.

When rat adrenal medulla slices, treated with atropine (1 X 10(-6) mol X l-1], were stimulated with acetylcholine (1 X 10(-5) mol X l-1), an enhanced 32P incorporation into phosphatidylinositol-bis-phosphate (PIP2) and phosphatidylphosphate (PIP) was observed. On the ather hand, stimulation of myo-[3H] inositol prelabelled slices led to a decline in radioactivity of PIP2, indicating an increased turnover of this phospholipid. A possible affection of monoesterphosphate groups of PIP2 or of both PIP2 and PIP during cholinergic nicotinic stimulation is assumed.