Systemic changes in biochemical and electroencephalographic parameters under an information load

Two levels of an organism’s activity were identified depending on the conditions for making calculations. They differed in the power of gamma and alpha rhythms, the frequency spectrum of the cardiac rhythmogram, the level of antiradical superoxide scavenging activity, and several biochemical characteristics (the content of epinephrine, norepinephrine, nitric oxide metabolites, and free-radical-oxidation products reacting with thiobarbituric acid). These results suggest the involvement of components of the free radical oxidation system, nitrergic mechanisms, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in the generation of local activation reactions, which appeared in EEGs as an increase in the power of the gamma rhythm recorded by individual electrodes.     

Role of computerized tomography in the diagnosis of cirrhotic pulmonary tuberculosis

Computed tomography (CT) revealed cirrhotic tuberculosis in 52 patients. In most patients, cirrhosis resulted from infiltrative and fibrocavernous tuberculosis, less frequently from tuberculous bronchoadenitis, disseminated and focal tuberculosis, caseous pneumonia. Segmental cirrhosis was present in 15 patients, multisegmental and lobar cirrhosis in 19, and bilateral lung cirrhosis in 2. In 8 patients, pulmonary cirrhosis was accompanied by tuberculous empyema; in 8 more patients lobar cirrhosis was the metatuberculous syndrome of fibrocavernous tuberculosis. Evaluation of the diagnostic potentialities of CT in cirrhotic pulmonary tuberculosis revealed that the major CT semiotics of this clinical type was identical to the basic skialogic signs of routine X-ray study. However, unlike the latter that assesses mainly indirect X-ray signs of the cirrhotic transformation of lung tissue, such as reduced lung volumes, chest deformity, CT objectively detects morphological changes in cirrhosis, the presence and magnitude of specific and metatuberculous changes, interprets clinical and X-ray variants of this form of tuberculosis and its related pulmonary vascular alterations.     

Potential of optical coherence tomography for diagnosing mucositis in cancer of the nasal cavity and throat in the course of radio- and chemoradiotherapy

The monitoring data on mucosa of the nasal cavity and throat using optical coherence tomography imaging in 14 cases during radiochemotherapy are presented. Typical alterations such as reduction in contrast distinctions between tissue layers to an extent that it blurs down completely at the peak of radiation-related response are discussed. Due to use of the technique valuable information on individual response was obtained.     

Prototype Symbolization in Hooded Crows

Studies were undertaken to determine whether four crows previously trained to an image-based abstract selection rule could establish a relationship between the number of elements in a group and initially indifferent symbols (arabic numerals) and operate with these symbols, i.e., studies addressed the ability of these birds to symbolize. Unlike other similar studies, there was no use of special development of associative connections between the symbols and the corresponding arrays of elements, but conditions were created in which birds could observe these relationships on the basis of comparison with previously obtained information. Demonstration series were performed for this purpose, in which correct solutions by the crow resulted in receipt of a number of larvae corresponding to the number of elements in the array pictured or numeral imaged on the stimulus selected by the crow. Images belonged to the same category as the corresponding stimulus for selection (the second stimulus was another category): if the image was an array, then the corresponding picture for selection also bore an array, and vice versa. Crows could solve the task successfully by using an image-based selection rule. In test series, the image and both selection stimuli were initially from different categories: if the image was a numeral, then both selection stimuli were arrays, and vice versa. All four crows successfully coped with this task. Despite the absence of any similarity between the image and correct stimulus, they selected the array corresponding to the numeral and vice versa. It is suggested that the birds could achieve this result by comparing the information obtained during the presentation series – about the number of reinforcement units corresponding to each stimulus. Similar experiments showed that crows could use numbers to perform operations analogous to arithmetic addition.     

Changes in the reaction to drug preparations in diabetes mellitus

The article deals with information in the literature on the peculiarities of the response to drugs and the change of their pharmacokinetics in diabetes mellitus.     

Effect of dietary curcumin and dibenzoylmethane on formation of 7,12- dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced mammary tumors and lymphomas/leukemias in Sencar mice

Female Sencar mice (6 weeks old) were administered 1 mg of 7,12- dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) by oral gavage once a week for 5 weeks. At 20 weeks after the first dose of DMBA, 68% of mice developed mammary tumors (the average 1.08 tumors per mouse) and 45% had lymphomas/leukemias. Feeding 1% dibenzoylmethane (DBM) in AIN 76A diet, starting at 2 weeks before the first dose of DMBA and continuing until the end of the experiment, inhibited both the multiplicity and incidence of DMBA-induced mammary tumor by 97%. The incidence of lymphomas/leukemias was completely inhibited by 1% DBM diet. In contrast, feeding 2% curcumin diet had little or no effect on the incidence of mammary tumors, and the incidence of lymphomas/leukemias was reduced by 53%.      

Administration of Aggregated Beta-Amyloid Peptide (25–35) Induces Changes in Long-Term Potentiation in the Hippocampus in Vivo

Intracerebroventricular administration of aggregated -amyloid protein fragment (25–35) (7.5 nmol/ventricle) was followed one month later by significant changes in the dynamics of long-term potentiation in the hippocampus in vivo, expressed as powerful and stable increases in the amplitude of evoked potentials. This phenomenon may be associated with oxidative stress in the hippocampus, which has previously been demonstrated in this model, and, thus, with disturbances in ion homeostasis.