Event-related potentials and presaccadic activity in response to affective stimuli in participants with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have difficulty with regulating their emotions and show reduced functioning of inhibitory control. It was reported previously that OCD patients had delayed antisaccade response and increased error rate only when affective pictures with negative valence served as fixation stimuli in "the antisaccade emotional fixation task". Complementary to the previous research, eye movements and late positive potential (LPP) for fixation stimuli and the presaccadic positivity (PSP) and spike potential (SP) before saccade onset, were compared in two groups of OCD and healthy volunteers.

Analysis of Eye and Head Tracking Movements During a Puck-Hitting Task in Ice Hockey Players, Compared to Wrestlers and Controls.

Background: The study of eye-movement strategies of athletes of various disciplines and skill levels is highly significant for sports psychology, since the results can be used in training to improve performance. Such studies are extremely scarce for ice hockey.

Objective: To determine successful eye-movement strategies for ice hockey players compared to wrestlers and controls (non-athletes) during puck-hitting tasks of various degrees of difficulty, using virtual reality.

Increased error rate and delayed response to negative emotional stimuli in antisaccade task in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Ample evidence links impaired inhibitory control, attentional distortions, emotional dysregulation, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, it remains unclear what underlies the deficit that triggers the OCD cycle. The present study used an antisaccade paradigm with emotional valences to compare eye movement patterns reflecting inhibitory control and attention switching in OCD and healthy control groups.

A Qualitative Analysis of the Culture of Antibiotic Use for Upper Respiratory Tract Infections Among Patients in Northwest Russia.

Due to the globally persistent threat of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), the purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the antibiotic (AB) practices, knowledge and attitudes among patients residing in five regions in the northwest part of Russia. Given the high prevalence, this study focused on ABs for Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (URTI). The qualitative, semi-structured interviews followed a guide organized by major themes such as common symptoms, consultations with doctors and external influences in decision-making.

COVID-19 crisis impact on the stability between parties in crowdfunding and crowdsourcing.

This research reviews challenges in building sustainable relationships between the parties involved in the crowdfunding and crowdsourcing projects, which are running in extreme situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to solve problems that generate the crowdsourcing concerns and to find better alternatives to increase trust for crowdfunding among donors, as this impacts their strategic sustainability in the conditions of turbulence and COVID-induced financial crisis. It was found that factors influence donor decisions in different ways, yet the common tendency for donor activity is non-monotonicity.

Development of a Prototype Lateral Flow Immunoassay of Cortisol in Saliva for Daily Monitoring of Stress.

Emotional stress negatively affects the quality of a person's daily life. From a physiological point of view, stress is expressed in the excitation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis, which leads to the release of the hormone cortisol into the blood. We developed a lateral flow immunoassay to detect cortisol in human salivary fluid and tested it on 10 healthy volunteers daily for about one month ( = 293 saliva samples).

[Clinical practice guidelines for acute and chronic thyroiditis (excluding autoimmune thyroiditis)].

Acute and chronic thyroid diseases are the most frequently detected disorders being second only to diabetes mellitus.The World Health Organization points out that thyroid diseases' incidence tends to grow every year. The present paper consists of clinical practice guidelines that consider etiology, clinical course, diagnostics and treatment of acute and chronic inflammatory thyroid diseases (except those of autoimmune type).

[Dynamics of epidemiological indicators of thyroid pathology in the population of the Russian Federation: analytical report for the period 2009-2018].

Background: The level of iodine consumption by the population largery determines the spectrum of thyroid pathology. To date, in the Russian Federation, iodine-deficiency disorders (IDD) occupy a leading position in the structure of all thyroid diseases. Chronic ID leads to adverse health consequences and significant economic costs for their elimination on a national scale.

[The development of Graves' disease after long-term hypothyroidism due to Hashimoto's disease].

The main autoimmune thyroid diseases are Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves' disease (GD). Despite the significant differences in a pathogenesis and a clinical picture between HT and GD, the literature describes the cases of the conversion of one autoimmune disease to another, which, according to one version, is associated with a change in the balance between the levels of a stimulating and blocking antibodies to the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor. At the same time, there are more frequent observations of the transition of GD to HT, and much less often describe, on the contrary, the development of GD against the background of HT.

[Autoimmune polyglandular disorders in myotonic dystrophy].

Myotonic dystrophy (MD) is the most common muscle disorder in adults. MD is a hereditary disease with an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance, almost 100% penetrance and pronounced clinical polymorphism. The mechanism for the development of the disease is that a mutation of the DMPK (dystrophia myotonica protein kinase) gene disrupts the normal metabolism of RNA, which leads to a defect in the maturation and translation of mRNA.

Site-Selective Surface-Enhanced Raman Detection of Proteins.

Strategies for protein detection via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) currently exploit the formation of randomly generated hot spots at the interfaces of metal colloidal nanoparticles, which are clustered together by intrusive chemical or physical processes in the presence of the target biomolecule. We propose a different approach based on selective and quantitative gathering of protein molecules at regular hot spots generated on the corners of individual silver nanocubes in aqueous medium at physiological pH. Here, the protein, while keeping its native configuration, experiences an intense local E-field, which boosts SERS efficiency and detection sensitivity.

Gold nanoisland films as reproducible SERS substrates for highly sensitive detection of fungicides.

A wet-chemical approach is used to fabricate centimeter-scale gold nanoisland films (NIFs) with tunable morphology of islands and with strong electromagnetic coupling between them. The approach consists in a uniform seeding of small gold nanoparticles on a glass or silicon substrate, followed by controllable growth of the seeds into small nanoislands. A special technique for TEM sampling was developed to follow the gradual formation of larger-sized isolated nanoparticles, nanoislands of sintered overgrown seeds, and a complete gold layer with nanoscale cracks.

Enhanced photoinactivation of Staphylococcus aureus with nanocomposites containing plasmonic particles and hematoporphyrin.

We fabricated composite nanoparticles consisting of a plasmonic core (gold nanorods or gold-silver nanocages) and a hematoporphyrin-doped silica shell. The dual photodynamic and photothermal activities of such nanoparticles against Staphylococcus aureus 209 P were studied and compared with the activities of reference solutions (hematoporphyrin or silica-coated plasmonic nanoparticles). Bacteria were incubated with nanocomposites or with the reference solutions for 15 min, which was followed by CW light irradiation with a few exposures of 5 to 30 min.

Plasmonic nanopowders for photothermal therapy of tumors.

We describe a novel strategy for the fabrication of plasmonic nanopowders (dried gold nanoparticles) by using wet chemical nanoparticle synthesis, PEG-SH functionalization, and a standard freeze-drying technique. Our strategy is illustrated by successful fabrication of different plasmonic nanopowders, including gold nanorods, gold-silver nanocages, and gold nanospheres. Importantly, the dried nanoparticles can be stored for a long time under usual conditions and then can easily be dissolved in water at a desired concentration without such hard manipulations as sonication or heating.

Nanocomposites containing silica-coated gold-silver nanocages and Yb-2,4-dimethoxyhematoporphyrin: multifunctional capability of IR-luminescence detection, photosensitization, and photothermolysis.

We describe novel composite nanoparticles consisting of a gold-silver nanocage core and a mesoporous silica shell functionalized with the photodynamic sensitizer Yb-2,4-dimethoxyhematoporphyrin (Yb-HP). In addition to the long-wavelength plasmon resonance near 750-800 nm, the composite particles exhibited a 400-nm absorbance peak and two fluorescence peaks, near 580 and 630 nm, corresponding to bound Yb-HP. The fabricated nanocomposites generated singlet oxygen under 630-nm excitation and produced heat under laser irradiation at the plasmon resonance wavelength (750-800 nm).

[Prognostic value of levels of brain natriuretic peptide and genetic factors in patients after acute coronary syndrome].

Prognostication of the course of disease in patients with high risk of unfavorable outcome of ischemic heart disease (IHD) is of great importance for creation of individualized strategy of treatment. We have investigated contribution of levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and genetic factors in the risk of development of complications of atherosclerosis in patients who have had acute coronary syndrome. We started to follow 324 patients on day 10 of stable state after acute coronary syndrome (55.

[Aspirin vs ticlid and their combination in patients with acute myocardial infarction].

ADP-induced platelet aggregation was studied in 28 patients with myocardial infarction randomized, at admission, into three groups. Conventional therapy with heparin and antianginal drugs was combined with aspirin (250 mg/day, n = 9), tiklid (500 mg/day, n = 9), tiklid (500 mg/day) + aspirin (250 mg/day, n = 10) in group 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Tiklid diminished platelet aggregation more effectively than aspirin on the disease day 7 and 21.

[An intensive regimen of supersonic-frequency-current therapy in chronic inflammation of the adnexa uteri].

As shown by clinical, electrophysiological and hormonal examinations of 34 patients with chronic inflammation of the uterine appendages and control subjects, the disease treatment with intensive low-frequency current has no negative effects on cardiovascular and endocrine systems, improves function of the reproductive system. Intensive low-frequency currents are believed to be a useful modality in management of chronic genital inflammation.