Декабрь 2005 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Russian scientists part of team awarded Descartes prize
• Russian scientists stretch meat shelf-life
• Russian Scientist Suggests Burning Sulfur in Stratosphere to Fight Global Warming
• Diamonds Are Sought By Smell Like Truffles
• Fuite des cerveaux: 25.000 chercheurs ont quitté la Russie en 15 ans
• Dusty Story
• Physicists at Kiel University Discover an Unusual State of Matter
• Russian city of Kharbarovsk building dam against chemical slick
• Cancerous Cells Should Be Urged Commit Suicide
• Ceramic with Plastic Properties Developed by Russian Scientists
• Russian researchers making flu vaccine pill
• South African Geraniums Effective in Treatment of Adults with Acute Bronchitis
• Wild And Homebody Species
• Chemists And Mathematicians Will Withstand Pressure Together
• The world through the eyes of a model

Вблизи Хабаровска, на протоке Пемзенская, построена 400-метровая дамба, которая позволит "разбавить" бензольное пятно в Амуре. До 60 процентов водостока Амура уходило через протоку, минуя главное русло реки у Хабаровска и расположенные там водозаборы. Дамба почти вдвое увеличит водосток в русле и позволит существенно разбавить концентрации загрязнений.

Russia is building a 400-metre-long dam near its far-eastern city of Kharbarovsk to defend against pollution resulting from an industrial accident in China, the Interfax news agency said, citing a spokesman from Russia's Academy of Scientists.
The dam, to be built on the upper half of the city, is to prevent polluted water from flowing into a tributary of the Amur River, the spokesman said.
The project would result in a doubling of the quantity of water in the main river and thus reducing the concentration of contaminants.
According to the report, construction of the project has been going round the clock for the past several days.
The pollution occurred four weeks ago after an explosion at the Chinese petrochemical plant. The resulting slick of carcinogenic benzene extended over a length of 100 kilometres travelling China's Songhua River.
According to the latest estimates the slick is to reach the Russian border on December 19 and the city of Kharbarovsk on December 25. Around 600,000 people live in city.

Одним из внутренних механизмов клеток является их способность к "самоубийству". Срабатывает этот механизм в случае непоправимых клеточных нарушений - клетка должна самоуничтожиться, чтобы не нанести вреда всему организму. Способ "довести до самоубийства" раковые клетки разрабатывает совместная группа российских и американских ученых. Финансируют проект фонд CRDF и Федеральное агентство по науке и инновациям (Роснаука).

When fighting cancerous growths, it is very important to use internal cellular mechanisms on top of various external impacts on the tumor. Among internal mechanisms is cells' ability for "suicide" - programmed cell death, which is called apoptosis. The cells resort to apoptosis when something is irreparably broken in them and the cells need to perform self-destruction to avoid causing damage to the entire organism. Apoptosis is executed by intracellular protease enzymes (they are called caspases). Caspases destroy target proteins located in the cytoplasm and the cell's nucleus. Cellular genome is also the target of caspases' action. Caspases' activation occurs as a result of a complicated chain of biochemical reactions which are launched specifically by special receptors on the cellular membrane. Specialists call them dreadly - "receptors of death".
Unfortunately, cancerous cells, on top of their ability for uncontrolled reproduction, also possess a striking capability for survival. As the contents of caspases' predecessors - procaspases - and accordingly that of caspases may be reduced in the cancerous cells, induction of apoptosis in these cells is difficult. If the content could be increased, physicians would get an efficient instrument to fight this fatal disease. Solution of this problem is addressed by the joint project of Russian and American researchers from the Center for Theoretical Problems of Physicochemical Pharmacology (project manager - Mikhail Khanin, Doctor of Science (Engineering), Professor, the Lenin prize laureate) and Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA (project manager - Scott Harold Kaufmann, prominent researcher of apoptosis, Professor, Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine).
The project has been sponsored by the international foundation CRDF and the Federal Agency for Science and Innovations (Rosnauka). The researchers are planning to solve the task by a combination of mathematical modelling and biochemical methods. "Mathematical models are increasingly recognized in recent years as an efficient method for investigation of execution behaviour of complicated biochemical systems, points out Mikhail Khanin. These systems are nonlinear, and their behavior has typical properties; for example, threshold effects. All these dynamic properties can be predicted and described with the help of mathematical modelling and subsequent computer simulation."
Apoptosis - is a cellular suicide, but the decision about it is made not only by the cell itself but also the immune system, which "gives an order" having discovered fatal injuries in a certain cell. And the cell is at constant alert to fulfill the order. This can be compared to a person who, leaving home, takes a rope and a bar of soap just in case. Thus, any cell carries the mechanism of death inside. The "receptors of death" on the cellular membrane stick out by one end, a molecule released by the immune system cells comes up to this end and forms a complex with the receptor. After that, the receptor transmits a signal inside the cell to activate caspases. This is how apoptosis is launched.
To build the mathematical model for caspases' activation, researchers should know numerical values of all kinetic constants of apoptosis biochenical reactions. Kinetic constants determine the enzymatic reactions' rate. The point is that only a small part of necessary kinetic constants is determined by biochemical methods. The rest can be calculated with the help of optimization mathematical models. In this case, the basic principle of physiological (and biochemical) systems' organization - principle of optimality - helps the researchers. This means, for example, that the system spends minimal energy to perform its functions in the organism. The same is applicable to apoptosis - it is necessary to destroy proteins and the genome quickly enough and at minimal expense.
So, at first phase, the researchers need to calculate kinetic constants of reactions and then to build mathematical model of caspases' activation dynamics, i.e., in fact, the apoptosis induction model. The model's accuracy will be appreciated by coincidence of modelling and biochemical research results.
Having the mathematical model of apoptosis dynamics available, the researchers will be able to apply it to find the ways of apoptosis induction reinforcement in various types of malignant cells.

Разработанная учеными из Обнинска керамика обладает уникальными свойствами. Её теплопроводность и термопластичность в несколько раз выше, чем у керамики, полученной традиционными методами. Это означает, что изделия из нее будут служить дольше и надежнее обычных.

Scientists from Obninsk in the Kaluga reg. (Russia) have developed a ceramic with unique properties, with heat conductivity and thermoplasticity several times higher than normal ceramics. This means that items made of it, from coffee mugs to fuel pellets for atomic power stations, will serve longer and more reliably than standard ceramics.
During a competition of innovative developments under the 5th International Innovation and Investment Salon that was held 15-18 February 2005, researchers demonstrated some amazing samples.
"A distinguishing feature of our ceramic is its structure," explains project manager and chief scientist of the Leipunsky Physics-Energy Institute Irina Kurina. "And, as a consequence, the properties are indeed unique. Heat conductivity that exceeds reference data, enhanced plasticity and thermal stability: we have succeeded in obtaining a ceramic in which all these properties are combined."
Generally speaking, plasticity and high thermal conductivity for massive ceramic products are properties that are almost unrealistic. For example, rubber: if you strike it, individual molecules will as if to move, changing their form a little and the thing remains intact. Or, if metal is heated, surplus heat quickly spreads from the surface to the center and an ingot, say, remains completely intact, only warm. But ceramic is a brittle material: if struck it will break; if heated rapidly it will crack or even fall to pieces.
It is precisely for this reason that a special concept of stability in thermal cycling regimes is introduced for products made from it. Put simply, it is defined in advance how many times a ceramic item can be heated and cooled until it begins to crack by itself, under load or under an impact.
"Generally speaking, there are three types of component in the structure of the ceramic made under our technology: large grains of oxide material (from 50 to 100μm), fine grains (from 1 to 10μm) and a little emptiness. In other words there are pores, located in a special way, predominantly around the boundaries of the grains," continues Kurina. "Such pores create ideal conditions for plastic deformation. And fine grains additionally soften a mechanical or thermal impact. In the mass of fine grains, the large grains become as if stuck, like cobblestones in sand. The crystalline lattice of such a ceramic is very mobile; it has many defects. In the unusual structure of such a ceramic electron tunneling is possible. This is where the high heat conductivity comes from."
The principal basis of the technology is both simple and universal in nature. At first it is necessary obtain a powder, whereby the grains have to be of a varied, pre-set size. And there have to be an awful lot of defects in the obtained powder particles! All begins from sedimentation (precipitation): solutions of initial substances are taken, necessary reagents are added, and out comes the sediment - those very particles of the required size.
Then these oxide particles (of aluminum, magnesium and zirconium, thorium or uranium in the case of fuel components) are annealed, pressed and sintered. It is understood that the authors are not disclosing the technological parameters of these parameters and the subject of the know-how. However, all this work is extra confirmation of the fact that chemistry is not only strictly a matter of calculation, although the parameters of the new materials can be optimized with computer modeling, which is what the authors are doing. It is also an art form, the talent and intuition of the scientists who enable the achievement of what would seem to be the impossible; such as making a heat-conducting oxide ceramic, and of any kind.

Сотрудники крупнейшего в России НИИ гриппа РАМН изобрели вакцину против гриппа в виде таблетки. Основа - три инактивированных вируса - в новой вакцине будут те же, что и раньше. А вот введенные в состав вспомогательные вещества, предложенные исследователями, позволят сделать вакцину более эффективной.

Hot on the heels of support for a nasal flu vaccine, Russian researchers say they are working on a pill version.
The country's largest influenza research institute, RAMS, is creating the vaccine with inactivated viruses in the composition recommended by the World Health Organisation.
They're proposing additional substances to make the vaccine available in tablet form, and suggest that it could be more efficient than all others because it will include an adjuvant that acts as an enhancer.
A Russian news release reports:
So, the most important component of this vaccine is Korauban, an original immunostimulant, or a substance that intensifies immunity. Its correct name is a stimulant of immunogenesis, a gamma-interferon inductor. This is a close relative of regular cellulose; the same polysaccharide, only of a slightly different structure. It is produced by 'specially trained' microorganisms and it serves to enhance the action of the vaccine.
Korauban, if we are to greatly simplify the matter, calls special cells, which are to eliminate alien elements, to where the decontaminated virus has struck, and it presents the enemy to them. As a result the organism strenuously produces protection - special proteins (antibodies) and cells, both directed to the form of the enemy. What is of especial importance is that, as a result, humans produce so-called local cell immunity, of a long-term and wide-ranging action; not only against the used vaccine and existing epidemic viruses, but also against the pathogens of future epidemics. And in the region of the nose and throat. It is with damage to the latter, incidentally, that the illness begins. In the first days flu usually passes without a cold.
"The combination of Korauban and vaccine viruses in one preparation leads to a synergy of their action," states Project manager Oleg Kuznetsov. "This is displayed in an increase in early synthesis of common interferon, a factor of the synthesis of intensified non-specific resistance of the organism to bacterial and viral infections. Obviously the preparation could be applied for emergency protection not only from flu but also from other acute respiratory viral infections. Such a protection would suffice for a week; further, a specific protection against flu will begin to act".
Finally, there is another substance in the composition of the tablet, which ensures the tablet-vaccine remains stable for a 12-month period. The scientists will obtain the first clinical test results no earlier than next Spring. For now it will be in the form of drops in aerosol form and not tablets. However, the authors are confident of its success. The vaccine demonstrated high efficiency on laboratory animals and proved to be completely non-toxic. The researchers believe that this "jab" will need to be taken once every few years. The sooner the better.

Недавние клинические исследования, проведенные международной группой исследователей, показали, что лекарственные препараты на основе пеларгонии очитковой (Pelargonium sidoides) очень эффективны при остром бронхите.

PHILADELPHIA, PA, November 30, 2005. A recent clinical trial in Europe showed that EPs(TM) 7630, a remedy made from the roots of Pelargonium sidoides - a species of geranium unique to South Africa, is an effective alternative treatment of acute bronchitis. The results were published in the November 2005 issue of EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing.
Upper respiratory tract infections such as acute bronchitis are one of the most frequent infections encountered by primary care healthcare providers. In approximately 70% of cases, acute bronchitis, which is almost always caused by viruses, is treated with antibiotics. The duration of the disease is not substantially shortened by this practice and there are numerous risks, including gastrointestinal side effects, allergic reactions, and development of resistant bacteria leading to a longer duration of treatment and relapse. Despite their frequent use, antibiotics are no longer recommended as first line treatment for acute bronchitis.
In the clinical trial, 124 adults with acute bronchitis in six different outpatient clinics were given either EPs(TM) 7630 or a placebo for seven days. Improvement in health within four days was recognized in more than two thirds of patients in the EPs(TM) 7630 group as compared to one third of patients in the placebo group. In addition, significantly more of the patients in the EPs(TM) 7630 group reported complete recovery.
The trial was conducted by A.G. Chuchalin, MD, of the Russian Research Institute of Pulmonology in Moscow, Russia, in accordance with international clinical research guidelines. W. Lehmacher from the prestigious Institute for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Epidemiology at the University of Cologne, Germany conducted the independent statistical evaluation and data analysis.

Две разновидности мышей-полевок, внешне совершенно одинаковые, различаются поведением, особенно по отношению к человеку. Это выяснилось в результате совместных экспериментов, проведенных исследователям из Института проблем экологии и развития и Московского государственного университета.

Two field-vole species, which are outwardly indistinguishable, behave differently towards human beings. Results of experiments carried out by the specialists of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Lomonosov Moscow State University connect these differences with the exploratory behavior of field-voles. Timorous and incurious common voles (Microtus arvalis) prefers country life, and inquisitive European ground voles (Arvicola terrestris) readily move into human lodgings.
To investigate field-voles' behavior, the researchers constructed a case (its side being equal to 4 meters) imitating a living room. There was a can, a bottle, small boxes, shoes, a shelter, feeding-racks and a drinking bowl, a tray with a flower, chairs, suitcase, a camp-bed with a pillow and a bedside-table in it. The field-voles involed in the experiment were born in captivity. Their belonging to a certain species was confirmed with the help of haemoglobin analysis. The small animals were carried into the room in the shelter, which previously used to stand in its dwelling cage, and were observed for two hours after the animal had left the shelter.
This observational study found that the common voles dislike and are afraid of new things. The level of investigation activity of the European ground voles is higher than that of their twin-species and is more intelligent. Such a strategy, of investigating unfamiliar space, allowed them to accomodate themselves to life near to human beings and to settle in town and in the country. They willingly feel at home in unknown closed premises, including human houses where they wait through winter cold weather. Therefore, the researchers consider the European ground vole to be a synanthropic species, and the common vole - rather wild species.

Повысить безопасность химического и нефтехимического производства можно благодаря разработке ученых из Санкт-Петербурга. Методика и соответствующее программное обеспечение, которые создают химики вместе с коллегами-математиками, позволяют не только оценить опасность взрыва в ходе того или иного технологического процесса, но и предотвратить его. Новое поколение систем защиты химического производства разрабатывают ученые из РНЦ "Прикладная химия" в сотрудничестве с ООО "Химинформ" и компанией "Berwanger". Финансовую помощь исследователям оказывает фонд CRDF и Федеральное агентство по науке и инновациям (Роснаука).

Unfortunately, reactions going with extensive calorification and/or participation of unstable components and reaction products are not infrequent in chemistry. Here lies potential hazard of chemical manufacturing. Even minor deviations from technology and simply changes in reagents' storage or transportation conditions, to say nothing about hazard situations, for instance, sudden power outages, may result in unexpected consequences. Therefore, emergency events evolution in the most inconceivable situation of chemical manufacturing should be considered in advance and an appropriate protection system should be elaborated. The saying that "forewarned is forearmed" is true in chemistry like nowhere else.
The new generation of chemical manufacturing protection systems is being developed by researchers from the Russian Research Center "Applied Chemistry" in cooperation with the Open Joint Stock Company "Khiminform" and foreign colleagues from the "Berwanger" company. In the course of the project which is sponsored by the CRDF international foundation and Rosnauka, the authors plan to design the software that would not only allow to discover trouble spots in manufacturing processes at the chemical and petrochemical industry enterprises, but also to ensure safety of these processes. This deals with equipment protection from abnormal high pressures in case of emergency, in other words - i.e., this deals with explosions and the ways to fight with them.
Naturally, chemical plants use double and triple security circuits now, as professionals put it, particularly in the most potentially hazardous sections of manufacturing process. However, what these trouble spots requiring additional protection are gets sometimes apparent only when the process is already beyond control. However, explosion is not the price to be paid in order to learn how the equipment would behave in emergency event. This is certainly obvious. As well as the fact that chemical and physical processes proceeding in the damaged reactor are so complicated that the researchers have failed so far to forecast them and particularly to develop really efficient equipment to protect reactors from explosion.
Apparently, the problem can not be solved without mathematical modelling. Only electronic brain (with its memory, speed of operation, ability to consider a multitude of parameters influencing the development of processes in the chemical reactor) is capable of solving such a complicated and multidimensional problem. However, the computer's enormous capabilities are not enough. Software is also required which has not been in place so far due to the task complexity.
More precisely, some rather efficient software packages have been developed recently. On the other hand, this software package called "Pressure Protection Manager" (developed by the US "Berwanger" company) is intended particularly to design pressure release systems for oil, gas and petrochemical manufacturing. Alas, this program does not allow to analyze chemical processes. But there is another program - developed in Russia by the specialists of the Russian Research Center "Applied Chemistry" (St. Petersburg) and their colleagues from "Khiminform".
It is called "Batch Stirred Tank" and is designed to simulate thermal explosion in chemical reactors. "The majority of researchers and engineers of our Institute involved in this project have already participated in researches of hazards of thermal explosion in manufacturing, storage and application of explosives, says Arkady Kossoy, deputy project manager. When developing the BST systems we used the experience in simulating various emergency scenarios based on thorough investigation of kinetics of proceeding reactions jointly with the heat-mass exchange processes. Having combined capabilities of these two approaches - ours and the one developed by the US specialists - I am sure we shall be able to develop the software, which in the future would allow to protect the equipment from explosion in the chemical and petroleum-refining and pharmaceutical industries - everywhere, where explosions in reactors are possible and protection from them is required."

Посмотреть на мир чужими глазами, точнее - одним глазом, позволяет экспериментальная модель, которую разработали которую ученые из ВНИИ экспериментальной физики (Саров) и офтальмологи из МНТК "Микрохирургия глаза". Финансовую поддержку оказал Международный научно-технический центр.
При лечении катаракты помутневший хрусталик заменяется на искусственный - так называемую интраокулярную линзу. После операции линза в глазу может сместиться, и как это отражается на зрении человека, врачи сами узнать не могут - приходится полагаться в основном на ощущения пациента, а это довольно ненадежный способ. Модель воспроизводит оптическую систему глаза человека и позволяет врачам увидеть своими глазами объект так, как видит его пациент.

An experimental model, developed by scientists from VNIIEF in Sarov and their colleagues, ophthalmologists from "Mikrokhirugiya Glaza" [Optical Microsurgery] means that it is possible, quite literally, to see the world with someone else's eyes. Financial support was given to the researchers for the creation of a model of the human eye by the International Science and Technology Center.
"The actual initiators of the project were the Moscow-based developers of new artificial crystalline lens models and microsurgeons," explains project manager and lead scientist of the VNIIEF Institute of Laser Physics Research Leonid Zykov. "The fact is that when treating cataracts they, just as all world specialists, use such an approach widely. A patient's clouded lens now hinders rather than facilitates sight, is replaced by an artificial crystalline lens, a so-called intraocular lens made of plastic."
"In addition to the fact that the most suitable crystalline lens has to be selected precisely for the given patient, and they come in all forms and materials and optical parameters, a further problem then arises. After the operation the crystalline lens can shift slightly in the patient's eye, simply from the reaction of the organism to the implanted body. The doctors themselves have no way of learning how this is reflected on the patient's sight, on the picture a person sees; they have to rely on the feelings and statements of the patients themselves, a most subjective material to have to work with."
"And so the surgeons came to us with what at first seemed to be a task from the realms of the fantastic; make a model, meaning an installation, that would allow the crystalline lens developers and doctors to see with their own eyes an object as it would be seen by their patient. This was to make it possible to change artificial crystalline lenses, shift them in a way that they could be shifted in the human eye and determine how the image that falls on the retina changes, all for further analysis. Only in this instance the job would be done by computer and not the human mind. And this is the model of the eye, at least its experimental sample, that we have succeeded in creating. Initially, of course, once we had developed a mathematical model."
The experimental model almost completely reproduces the optical system of the human eye: the cornea, front chamber, lens, hyaline body and retina. The experiments and calculations have shown that such a device is completely effective in reproducing the optics of the eye. The lens being tested, the artificial crystalline lens, is placed in a special holder into a bath filled with distilled water. The holder can be moved- shifted from side to side, turned and moved forwards and backwards.
The front wall of the bath is a convex retina, just as in the real eye, made of polymethylmetacrylate, generally better known to us as Plexiglas, only of very good quality. In terms of its optical properties it is very similar to a real cornea. In the opposite wall is a wall of the same polymer as the cornea. All components of the model correspond with the average statistical human eye in size and distance between them. With one exception. The thickness of the bath is less than the distance from the cornea to the image, formed by the model. In other words, in a real eye the image appears on the retina, while in the model it is as if suspended in the air "behind the back" of the bath. But at the "correct" distance, 24mm as in the average physiological human eye.
Using a special optical objective it is increased by almost six times and it then hits the CCD-matrix of a video camera. Owing to the limited size of this matrix, the size of the image is not great - just 1.1mm x 0.83mm. As a result the digitized image of the object, as seen by the model, can be viewed on a computer screen and further, which is especially important, it can be characterized qualitatively.
The scientists propose that the quality of the image, obtained with one or other crystalline lens, however it may be located, be verified using the same tables that are usually used by ophthalmologists. Just like before a patient in the optician's room, letters of varying size and thickness, grids and groups of vertical lines such as on a barcode, all drawn on paper, are held before the model. And one can discern in qualitative terms on the computer screen how the model 'sees' them.
"As well as the experimental model, we have also developed a rated model of the eye, more precise than its first version," continues Zykov. "This model also reproduces the optical system of the eye and makes it possible to see a rated picture of the image displayed on its retina. We rate the picture using a special program. It enables the setting of optical and geometric parameters of elements of the eye in wide limits and facilitates the obtaining of a picture of the image on the screen of a personal computer. In particular, the program foresees the possibility of shifts of the crystalline lens along and across the optical axis and possible incidence. This program has a convenient and clear user interface with depiction of the optical system of the eye and dialog boxes."

Начало дайджеста за ДЕКАБРЬ 2005 года (часть 1)

предыдущий месяц

1998-2005

следующий месяц