[Occupational risk of cardiovascular diseases in workers engaged into underground mining].

The article presents results of evaluation of a priori and a posteriori occupational risks for workers engaged into underground mining. Evidence is that work conditions of major occupational groups of workers engaged into underground mining, according to workplace certification, correspond to 3 class 3 jeopardy degree. A priori risk of diseases development corresponds to high (unbearable). Evaluation of cause-effect relationship between health disorders and work conditions revealed a medium degree of occupational conditionality for vascular regulation disorders and metabolic disorders, that can be considered as cardiorisk indicators.

[Prevalence and risk of endometriosis in industrial territories].

The study covered prevalence of endometriosis under various levels of exposure to chemical environmental factors and chemical risk factors for immune and reproductive female systems, identified as exposure markers in sanitary epidemiologic studies. Findings are that a part of inhabited area neighbouring to industrial territory is characterized by unacceptable risk of immune disorders and reproductive system diseases due to chronic exposure to formaldehyde, nickel, lead, benzene, that can result in increased prevalence of endometriosis.

[Forming a community at risk for circulatory system diseases among workers engaged into underground mining].

Forming a community at risk for circulatory system diseases will increase efficiency of medical and prophylactic measures on managing risk of arterial hypertension. Epidemiologic analysis helped to reveal reliable connection between arterial hypertension predictors and work conditions of mining machine operators and supported actualization of high occupational risk suggested in a priori evaluation. Mathematic modelling helped to forecast increase in the disease probability: with noise level of 94 dB after 10 years of work, 17.9% of workers are expected to have arterial hypertension preventing from further occupational activity. Forecasting results of arterial hypertension probability help to form risk groups for medical and preventive technologies managing occupational risk, and predictors enable to specify necessity of individual medical preventive measures.

A large carbon sink in the woody biomass of Northern forests.

The terrestrial carbon sink, as of yet unidentified, represents 15-30% of annual global emissions of carbon from fossil fuels and industrial activities. Some of the missing carbon is sequestered in vegetation biomass and, under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, industrialized nations can use certain forest biomass sinks to meet their greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitments. Therefore, we analyzed 19 years of data from remote-sensing spacecraft and forest inventories to identify the size and location of such sinks. The results, which cover the years 1981-1999, reveal a picture of biomass carbon gains in Eurasian boreal and North American temperate forests and losses in some Canadian boreal forests. For the 1.42 billion hectares of Northern forests, roughly above the 30th parallel, we estimate the biomass sink to be 0.68 +/- 0.34 billion tons carbon per year, of which nearly 70% is in Eurasia, in proportion to its forest area and in disproportion to its biomass carbon pool. The relatively high spatial resolution of these estimates permits direct validation with ground data and contributes to a monitoring program of forest biomass sinks under the Kyoto protocol.

Intracellular distribution of phospholipase C gamma 1 in cell lines with different levels of transformation.

The intracellular localization of phospholipase C gamma 1 (PLC gamma 1) was studied in cell lines with different levels of cell transformation. Immunofluorescence analysis of cell lines with differently organized actin cytoskeletons (A431 cells, HeLa cells, mouse hepatoma MH 22A, Zajdela ascitic hepatoma, primary human embryo skin and lung fibroblasts) gave evidence that PLC gamma 1 is colocalized only with cortical actin and not with stress fibers. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments indicated that PLC gamma 1 was bound to actin in all cell lines investigated. Further, the nuclei of highly transformed cell lines (A431 cells, HeLa cells, mouse hepatoma MH 22A, rat Zajdela ascitic hepatoma) were labeled with the anti-PLC gamma 1 antibody. In contrast, PLC gamma 1 was not observed in the nuclei of primary human embryo skin or lung fibroblasts. Since PLC gamma 1 exists only in the nuclei of highly transformed cell lines, we propose that the distinctive intracellular localization of PLC gamma 1 in normal and highly transformed cell lines may reflect differences in cell signaling systems and mitogenic cell signal transduction.