Publications by authors named "Kozlov M"

Mean age at death during 1981-1999 was recorded in four small industrial towns located in the Kola Peninsula, north-western Russia. Two of these towns (Nikel and Monchegorsk) are heavily contaminated by sulphur dioxide and toxic metals (primarily Ni, Cu, Cd) emitted by large nickel-copper smelters; two other towns (Apatity and Polyarnye Zori) are nearly unpolluted. The results did not support the hypothesis that human life span is significantly shorter in the contaminated communities; moreover, mean age at death was lowest in Polyarnye Zori, the town not polluted by either sulfur dioxide or heavy metals but located close to the nuclear power plant.

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Under an artificial light:dark cycle, females of Lampronia capitella were observed calling, with extended terminal abdominal segments, during the first 2 hr of the photoperiod. Extracts of terminal abdominal segments from females elicited large electroantennographic responses from male antennae. Gas chromatography with electroantennographic detection revealed three active peaks.

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We investigated root versus canopy uptake of nickel and copper by mountain birch, Betula pubescens subsp. czerepanovi, close to a nickel-copper smelter on the Kola Peninsula, northwest Russia. To distinguish between aerial contamination of leaf surfaces by dust particles and root-derived contamination of leaves by soluble metals, we transplanted seedlings from a control site to clean and metal-contaminated soils and exposed these seedlings both in clean and polluted sites.

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Current models for membrane fusion in diverse biological processes are focused on the local action of fusion proteins present in the contact zone where the proteins anchored in one membrane might interact directly with the other membrane. Are the fusion proteins outside of the contact zone just bystanders? Here we assess the role of these "outsider" proteins in influenza virus hemagglutinin-mediated fusion between red blood cells and either hemagglutinin-expressing cells or viral particles. To selectively inhibit or enhance the actions of hemagglutinin outsiders, the antibodies that bind to hemagglutinin and proteases that cleave it were conjugated to polystyrene microspheres too large to enter the contact zone.

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During transcription elongation, RNA polymerase (RNAP) occasionally loses its grip on the growing RNA end and backtracks on the DNA template. Prokaryotic Gre factors rescue the backtracked ternary elongating complex through stimulation of an intrinsic endonuclease activity, which removes the disengaged 3' RNA segment. By using RNA-protein crosslinking in defined ternary elongating complexes, site-directed mutagenesis, discriminative biochemical assays, and docking of the two protein structures, we show that Gre acts by providing two carboxylate residues for coordination of catalytic Mg2+ ion in the RNAP active center.

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Membrane transport within mammalian cells is mediated by small vesicular as well as large pleiomorphic transport carriers (TCs). A major step in the formation of TCs is the creation and subsequent narrowing of a membrane neck connecting the emerging carrier with the initial membrane. In the case of small vesicular TCs, neck formation may be directly induced by the coat proteins that cover the emerging vesicle.

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Most of the studies on the solubilization of model membranes conducted thus far involved model membranes made of liquid-crystalline phospholipids. Relatively little is known on the influence of temperature and of the phase of the lipid bilayers on their solubilization by detergents. The aim of the present study was to gain knowledge about the temperature and phase dependence of the solubilization of phospholipid bilayers by the non-ionic detergent Triton X-100 (TR).

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The state of selective attention formed during operant food-related behavior was studied using the coherence-phase characteristics between potentials in several areas of the neocortex at frequencies of 1-220 Hz. Functional groups were identified among the areas compared, which appear to have priority for this state. The temporal relationships between potentials in these groups were established from values for coherence functions at a particular optimum level (0.

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Disparate biological processes involve fusion of two membranes into one and fission of one membrane into two. To formulate the possible job description for the proteins that mediate remodeling of biological membranes, we analyze the energy price of disruption and bending of membrane lipid bilayers at the different stages of bilayer fusion. The phenomenology and the pathways of the well-characterized reactions of biological remodeling, such as fusion mediated by influenza hemagglutinin, are compared with those studied for protein-free bilayers.

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The use of differential statistics to test for treatment effect with data from experiments where either treatments were not replicated (though samples may be) or replicates are not statistically independent leads to serious methodological problem. This problem, discovered by Hurbert (1984), is called pseudoreplication. Due to unknown reasons, pseudoreplication issue was completely overlooked by the Russian ecologists, in spite of the fact that the international scientific community is aware of pseudoreplication for almost twenty years.

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Membrane budding-fission is a fundamental process generating intracellular carriers of proteins. Earlier works were focused only on formation of coated buds connected to the initial membrane by narrow membrane necks. We present the theoretical analysis of the whole pathway of budding-fission, including the crucial stage where the membrane neck undergoes fission and the carrier separates from the donor membrane.

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Vanadium oxides, such as V2O5, are promising for lithium-ion batteries, catalysis, electrochromic devices and sensors. Vanadium oxides were proposed more than a decade ago for another redox-dependent application: the direct conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy in actuators (artificial muscles). Although related conducting polymer and carbon nanotube actuators have been demonstrated, electromechanical actuators based on vanadium oxides have not be realized.

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The structural organization and functioning of parasitic systems are considered in the context of the general theory of systems. By using the parasitic system of an epizootic process of plague as an example, the essence of the concepts of the structural organization and functioning of the systems is determined, and a scheme of a relationship of elements in the trinomial parasitic systems is presented. The mechanism of parasite-host interaction at the molecular, cellular, body's, and populational levels is considered on the basis of the theory of immune-specific wave information in an living organism.

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Populations of a tiny moth Phyllonorycter strigulatella, whose larvae develop in leaves of Alnus incana, were monitored around a coal fired power plant (annually emitting 11-29 Kt of SO2) near Apatity, northwestern Russia, during 1991-2001. The periodicity in density fluctuation was not affected by pollution; the peak densities of the leafminer in both polluted and clean localities were observed in 1993 and 1999. Densities of P.

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Experiments were performed in dogs to study the state of selective attention formed during operant food-related training and apparent during interstimulus intervals as a state of tense expectation of the conditioned signal. Electrical activity in various parts of the neocortex, in both hemispheres, was analyzed in the frequency range 1-220 Hz (epidural electrodes) using Fourier transforms. The electrical activity of the motor area of the right hemisphere showed a predominance of high-frequency (40-200 Hz) components, as did the visual and parietal areas of the left hemisphere.

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Lipid bilayer fusion is thought to involve formation of a local hemifusion connection, referred to as a fusion stalk. The subsequent fusion stages leading to the opening of a fusion pore remain unknown. The earliest fusion pore could represent a bilayer connection between the membranes and could be formed directly from the stalk.

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Coherent-phase characteristics of cortical potentials (1-220 Hz) derived from different cortical point of both brain hemispheres of dogs were analyzed in the state of selective attention developed in the course of instrumental food conditioning. Among the compared cortical points, functional groups were found that were probably of priority for the state of selective attention. Values of coherence function between these derivations (an assessment of temporal relations) were at a certain optimal level (about 0.

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The a(1) state of PbO can be used to measure the electric dipole moment of the electron d(e). We discuss a semiempirical model for this state, which yields an estimate of the effective electric field on the valence electrons in PbO. Our final result is a lower limit on the measurable energy shift, which is significantly larger than was anticipated earlier: 2/W(d)/d(e)>or=2.

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Wind stress may significantly change plant damage by aerial pollutants. However, almost no information exists on pollution-induced changes in wind regime around the strong emission sources. Wind speed, measured in industrial barrens adjacent to the nickel-copper smelter at Monchegorsk (Kola Peninsula, NW Russia), was two to three times as high as in the slightly polluted and nearly unpolluted forests.

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Multiple cell biological processes involve two opposite rearrangements of membrane configuration, referred to as fusion and fission. While membrane intermediates in protein-mediated fusion have been studied in some detail, the global force which drives sequential stages of the fusion reaction from early local intermediates to an expanding fusion pore remains unknown. Fusion proceeds via stages, which are analogous but in the opposite direction to that of membrane budding-off and fission driven by protein coats.

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We performed a physiological and morphological characterization of sensilla auricillica in male Eriocrania semipurpurella moths. Each auricillic sensillum contained three olfactory receptor neurons. Responding neurons (87 of 139) could be grouped into five physiological types.

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The state of selective attention was studied in dogs in the course of instrumental conditioning. During interstimuli intervals, this state was manifested in the state of strained waiting for conditioned stimuli. Electrical activity of different areas in both hemispheres was analyzed using the Fast Fourier Transformation.

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Membrane fusion proceeds via formation of intermediate nonbilayer structures. The stalk model of fusion intermediate is commonly recognized to account for the major phenomenology of the fusion process. However, in its current form, the stalk model poses a challenge.

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The contents of individual low-molecular weight phenolic compounds (LMWPs) in mountain birch, Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii, leaves collected during 1996-1998 in six plots 7-65 km south of the nickel-copper smelter at Monchegorsk, Kola Peninsula, NW Russia, were reported. A high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS) was used for the rapid identification of low-molecular weight phenolics.

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