[THE CONTENT OF MERCURY IN SEDIMENTS AND THE CLAMS UNIO PICTORUM FROM THE URAL RIVER].

There was investigated the mercury total content in bottom sediments and some bodies of clams from the area of the middle reach of the Ural river near the Orenburg city. In bottom sediments there was revealed an excess of the ecological standard for mercury. There was noted the uneven distribution of toxicant in bodies of clams: the maximal contents was detected in hepatopancreas, minimal--in "foot", that apparently is determined by the unequal metabolitic activity of these tissues.

[A possible association of fatal pneumonia with mutations of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 sw1 virus in the receptor-binding site of the HA1 subunit].

The paper gives the results of sequence analysis of 150 positive samples in real-time RT-PCR, including 47 autopsy materials from patients (including 10 pregnant women), who died from fatal pneumonia mainly in November-December 2009, in whom the lifetime etiological diagnosis had not been made and hence no early etiotropic therapy performed. 70% of the primary materials from the deceased patients were found to have pandemic influenza A(H1N1) v mutants in the lung tissue with D222G (15%), D222N (15%), D222E (2%) substitutions, as well as a mixture of mutants (38%). Nasopharyngeal lavages from 3 Chukotka deceased patients exhibited only consensus (nonmutant) D222 virus variants; there was a mixture of consensus and mutant virus variants in the trachea and a mixture of mutant ones in the lung.

[Detection of amino acid substitutions of asparaginic acid for glycine and asparagine at the receptor-binding site of hemagglutinin in the variants of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus from patients with fatal outcome and moderate form of the disease].

The paper analyzes the amino acid sequence of the receptor-binding site of hemagglutinin (HA) in the variants of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 swl from 18 patients with moderate (n=1) and fatal (n=17) forms of the disease in 2009. Nine samples contained asparaginic acid at position 222 of HA1 (D). This site exhibited mutations in 9 samples: D222G (n=3), D222N (n=3), and D222G/D222N (n=3).

[Assessment of the contribution of environmental factors to the formation of the demographic situation at the regional level].

The most informative priority environmental, social, and economic factors reflecting with the highest significance demographic processes in the urbanized and rural areas have been substantiated from the results of analyzing the data of the Regional Information Fund of sociohygienic monitoring by multivariate (correlation, factor, and regression) analysis methods. Models were obtained, which were used to define quantitative correlations between the demographic indices and the environmental-socioeconomic ones and to identify priority criteria for urbanized and rural areas while predicting their development and taking a managerial decision.

[The specific features of the prevalence of thyroid malignancies in an iodine-deficiency area].

The trends in iodine-deficiency morbidity and thyroid malignancy morbidity and mortality in the Orenburg Region have been analyzed over many years. The analysis revealed a significant rise in the incidence of thyroid malignancies with high death rates among the subjects, first registered and died within a year after their diagnosis, in the central geographical zone as compared with the western and eastern ones. There was evidence for rather high morbidity rates among the region's women, with their tendency being noted for an increase.