Integrating deep learning algorithms for the lung segmentation and body-part-specific anatomical classification with Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC)

Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC) has been built to support AI-based research in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the main goals of MIDRC is to make data collected in the repository ready for AI analysis. Due to data heterogeneity, there is a need to standardize data and make data-mining easier. Our study aims to stratify imaging data according to underlying anatomy using open-source image processing tools. The experiments were performed using Google Colaboratory on computed tomography (CT) imaging data available from the MIDRC. We adopted the existing open-source tools to process CT series (N=389) to define the image sub-volumes according to body part classification, and additionally identified series slices containing specific anatomic landmarks. Cases with automatically identified chest regions (N=369) were then processed to automatically segment the lungs. In order to assess the accuracy of segmentation, we performed outlier analysis using 3D shape radiomics features extracted from the left and right lungs. Standardized DICOM objects were created to store the resulting segmentations, regions, landmarks and radiomics features. We demonstrated that the MIDRC chest CT collections can be enriched using open-source analysis tools and that data available in MIDRC can be further used to evaluate the robustness of publicly available tools. © 2023 SPIE.

Synthesis Strategy of Tetrapyrrolic Photosensitizers for Their Practical Application in Photodynamic Therapy

This review presents a wide range of tetrapyrrole photosensitizers used for photodynamic therapy (PDT), antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, photoinactivation of pathogens. Methods of synthesis and design of new photosensitizers with greater selectivity of accumulation in tumor tissue and increased photoinduced antitumor activity are considered. The issues of studying the properties of new photosensitizers, their photoactivity, the ability to generate singlet oxygen, and the possibility of using targeted photodynamic therapy in clinical practice are discussed. The review examines the work on PDT by national and foreign researchers.

METABOLIC SUPPORT FOR PATIENTS WITH MILD COGNITIVE (DODECAMENTAL) IMPAIRMENT IN THE OUTCOME OF COVID-19.

An open comparative study was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of cytoflavin in the treatment of 50 patients who underwent SARS-CoV-2 infection, with subsequently developed mild cognitive impairment after leaving an infectious disease hospital. The survey was carried out using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA test) for the study of cognitive status, as well as the SF-36 questionnaire to determine parameters of the quality of life of patients and to assess the level of asthenia, anxiety and depression during follow-up (at the beginning of study and after 10 days of fluid therapy). Patients of the main group received intravenous infusion of cytoflavin for 10 days at a dose of 10 mL per 100 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride solution, while the comparison group received "active placebo" (100.0 mL of 0.9 sodium chloride solution) also for 10 days. During observation, the main test group patients showed significant discrepancies in the amount of complaints such as dizziness, headache, and decreased cognitive performance versus placebo group. According to the MoCA test results, patients of the main group showed higher total score on the background of improved cognitive functions: attention improved by 13.2%, p < 0.05 (subtest "repetition" of the number series in forward and reverse order and the "cotton" subtest with letter "A");regulatory skills improved by 9.8%, p < 0.05 (speaking "fluency" subtest);visual-constructive skills improved by 11.4%, p < 0.05 ("clock drawing" subtest);phrase repetition improved by 11.3%, p < 0.05, and literature associations improved by 11.3%, p < 0,05. Based on the results of the SF-36 questionnaire, the life quality was also significantly improved, by 19.5%, p < 0.05 on the average (including physical functioning and condition, pain intensity, general condition, vitality and mental health indicators). The tolerance of cytoflavin in all patients was good and there were no side effects related to the drug. Thus, the use of cytoflavin in the complex treatment of SARS-CoV-2 patients, who suffered from the infection with encephalopathy/mild cognitive impairment developed as part of the postvoid syndrome, reduces neurological deficit and helps to restore neurocognitive functions.Copyright © 2021 Eieeaeoea aaoiia

INCREASING THE EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT OF STUDENTS IN THE PROCESS OF DISTANCE LEARNING

The purpose of this article is to study effective tools that affect the emotional involvement of teachers in the process of distance learning. Hence specific tasks follow - to define the essence of the concept of "involvement in learning”;consider the problem at the level of the physiology of the human body;to determine the conditions for creating an environment conducive to the emotional involvement of students, to generalize the results of an experiment conducted in 2020 with three groups of students of Kazan Federal University in order to identify factors that contribute to the creation of an engaging learning environment. The study is based on a hypothesis: the effectiveness of the online learning process will largely depend on the high emotional involvement of students in the online learning environment, which is determined, among other things, by the physiological characteristics of a person, as well as other characteristics of modern students. Research methods: study and analysis of scientific and methodological literature on the research problem, pedagogical experiment, study, analysis, comparison, generalization of learning outcomes, questionnaire. The authors, drawing on a number of fundamental studies, including the advantages and disadvantages of online learning, share their own experience in organizing an emotionally engaging learning environment that has helped to increase motivation and achieve high results during the Covid-19 pandemic © 2022, Procedia Environmental Science, Engineering and Management.All Rights Reserved.

Synthesis of conjugates of (aR,7S)-colchicine with monoterpenoids and investigation of their biological activity.

Conjugates of the natural alkaloid (aR,7S)-colchicine with bicyclic monoterpenoids and their derivatives were synthesized for the first time. Molecular docking of the synthesized agents in the active site of the main viral protease of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was carried out. The cytotoxic properties of the agents against different cell lines and the ability to inhibit the main viral protease 3CLPro were studied.

From Career Guidance of Schoolchildren to Professional Training of Future Engineers at University of Engineering and Technology

The article discusses the features of career guidance of a future engineer. The project “Lectorium at VOENMEH” opened by the Enrolment Centre of Baltic State Technical University “VOENMEH” named after D. F. Ustinov in 2019 is considered. In the 2019–2020 academic year, 205 schoolchildren took part in the project, while in the 2020–2021 academic year, in the context of the CoViD-19 pandemic, the recruitment of participants to the project is still ongoing. The target audience of the project “Lectorium in VOENMEH” is adolescents aged 15 to 19 years. The expected results are related to the principles of the project such as, the use of modern distance learning technologies, a well-developed system of student motivation, well-developed content. These principles will make it possible to popularize engineering training areas and increase the number of applicants to engineering programs. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Our main objective and result is the reliable supply of fuel to the siberian energy system

The Krasnoyarsk Territory is a strategic region for the Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. developing one of the largest coal basins in the country, i.e. the Kansk-achinsk coal basin, the Krasnoyarsk operations are the second largest producers within the SUEK structure and supply fuel to almost half of Siberia's regions.andreyfedorov,generaldirectorof“SUEK-Krasnoyarsk”JSC,speaks about the specific features of coal mines operation in the Krasnoyarsk territory, modernization of equipment, environmental projects for the future economy and the social initiatives on the eve of the Miner's day. © 2021 Ugol' Journal Edition, LLC. All rights reserved.

Burst Detection in Social Media Communities

Detecting bursts of interest among user communities on social media towards the various publications during the era of remote work and interaction, which began with COVID-19, is more relevant than ever. The paper considers the problems of detecting activity bursts in various communities of an online social network. A survey of burst detection methods is presented, including real-time monitoring. The questions of terminology and classification of methods concerning the object of study are considered. Monitoring options are proposed and discussed. Particular attention is paid to the technical issues of developing a related information system, its modular architecture and software implementation tools. For the assessment of possible deviations (and further development of metrics) from the mean values, preliminary monitoring results are obtained using various partitioning methods for the interval of bursts (between a mean and maximum value). Conclusions are drawn about the applicability of the proposed method for detecting bursts and stability of a community audience interest burst characteristics while this audience doesn’t substantially change and the thematic direction of the community is not shifting. © 2020, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Genomic diversity analysis of SARS-CoV-2 and epidemiological features of adaptation of COVID-19 agent to human population (Communication 1)

Objective: to study the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the process of adapting to human organism during the current pandemic. Materials and methods. Database (GISAID) on nucleotide sequences of SARS-CoV-2 virus genome, obtained from clinical samples during the period of late December, 2019–July, 2020. Phylogenetic tree diagram construction was carried out applying BioNumerics v.7.6 software using Maximum parsimony algorithm. Results and discussion. The most substantial change in the genomes of SARS-CoV-2 virus are associated one-time mutations in ORF1b (P314L) and S (D614G) genes, as a result of which the overwhelming majority of identified isolates of this virus have the stated pair of substitutions to date. Many researches link the substitution in S (D614G) gene to the decreased pathogenicity in the strains that contain it, which may be also explained by enhanced methodology of patient treatment in the course of pandemic. The effect of the mutation in ORF1b (P314L) gene has not yet been investigated. P314L and D614G mutations are closely related and only their combined presence in the genome favored the dissemination of the genovariants of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Analysis of congregated epidemiological data testifies to the fact that the spread of new genovariants may be associated with biological properties facilitating human-to-human transmission. Thereat, associated decrease in lethality may reflect not only advancements in methods of treatment, but possible attenuation of virulent properties. Thus, observed growth in dissemination potential against the background of decrease in virulence is, probably, one of the forms of adaptation of new coronavirus to human population and, apparently, will remain in the future as the integration of SARS-CoV-2 virus into the structure of seasonal ARVI agents. © 2020 Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute. All rights reserved.

Epidemic potential of COVID-19 in Omsk Region during anti-epidemic measures

Aim. To study the spread of COVID-19 among the population of the Omsk Region during 24 weeks of the epidemic on the background of anti-epidemic measures. Materials and methods. A descriptive epidemiological study was carried out based on publically available data и data from the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Omsk Region on the official registration and epidemiological investigation of detected COVID-19 cases in the Omsk Region for the period from March 27 to September 10, 2020. To assess the potential of COVID-19 to spread, the following indicators were calculated: exponential growth rate (r), basic reproduction number (R0), effective reproduction number (Rt), expected natural epidemic size and herd immunity threshold. Data processing was performed using MS Excel 2010. The cartogram was built using the QGIS 3.12-Bukuresti application in the EPSG: 3576 coordinate system. Results and discussion. For the period from March 27 to September 10, 2020, a total of 9779 cases of COVID-19 were registered in the Omsk Region, the cumulative incidence was 507,6 per 100000 (95 % CI 497,5÷517,6), the case-fatality rate for completed cases was 2.9 %, for identified cases – 2.4 %. The most active spread of COVID-19 was noted in Omsk and 4 out of 32 districts of the region (Moskalensky, Azov German National, Mariyanovsky, Novovarshavsky). During the ongoing anti-epidemic measures, the exponential growth rate of the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases was 4.5 % per day, R0 – 1.4–1.5, Rt – 1.10, herd immunity threshold – 28.6 %. The expected size of the epidemic in case of sustained anti-epidemic measures can reach 58.0 % of the recovered population. A decrease in the number of detected virus carriers, incomplete detection of COVID-19 among patients with community-acquired pneumonia introduced additional risks for the latent spread of infection and complications of the epidemic situation. Maintaining restrictive measures and increasing the proportion of the immune population (over 28.6 %) may significantly reduce the risks of increasing the spread of COVID-19 in the Omsk Region. © 2020 Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute. All rights reserved.

[Surgical care during the new coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic]. / Khirurgicheskie operatsii v usloviyakh pandemii novoi koronavirusnoi infektsii (Covid-19).

Safe and reasonable surgical care in the context of COVID-19 pandemic is difficult task. The main current issues are selection of patients for surgical treatment, principles of surgical treatment in cancer patients, possibilities of endoscopic surgery, organization of surgical department and operating theatre, surgical strategy in infected patients. Own experience and rational implementation of the recommendations developed by international research and practical communities are extremely important for optimizing surgical treatment of patients in a pandemic, as well as for ensuring the safety of patients and medical staff.