[The role of hippocampus in long-term memory: dynamic system approach].

Several attempts have been made to reconcile a number of concurrent theories on the role of the hippocampus in long-term memory functions. Those attempts fail to explain the basic effects of the theories from the same standpoint. This work is a critical review of the four major theories demonstrating (with the use of mathematical models of attention and memory) that only one of them is capable of reconciling them all by explaining the fundamental effects of each theory in a unified fashion without sacrificing their individual contributions. The key issue here is whether or not a memory trace is ever stored in the hippocampus itself, and there is no reconciliation unless the answer is in the negative.

[Sensory integration: hierarchy and synchronization].

This is the first in the series of mini-reviews devoted to the basic problems and most important effects of attention in terms of neuronal modeling. We believe that the absence of the unified view on wealth of new date on attention is the main obstacle for further understanding of higher nervous activity. The present work deals with the main ground problem of reconciling two competing architectures designed to integrate the sensory information in the brain. The other mini-reviews will be concerned with the remaining five or six problems of attention, all of them to be ultimately resolved uniformly in the framework of small modification of dominant model of attention and memory.

[Attention and memory model based on the principle of dominant and comparative function of the hippocampus]. / Model' vnimaniia i pamiati, osnovannaia na printsipe dominanty i komparatornoi funktsii gippokampa.

Six basic problems of attention are described in terms of the dominant focus by Ukhtomsky, which is simulated as a system of phase transitions in the brain. Theoretical and experimental arguments in favor of the existence of metastable states in the brain with the life time of about a second or more are deduced. This forms an approach to resolution of all the problems of interaction between attention and memory, binding, and central control. A neurobiological model of attention and memory is advanced, which integrates the system properties of dominanta by A.A. Ukhtomsky and comparator function of the hippocampus by O.S. Vinogradova. New literature evidence is given for the existence of the brain system of information processing with the hippocampus as a central executive.

[Physico-chemical properties of borate derivatives of DOPA, dopamine, and their liposome forms]. / Fiziko-khimicheskie svoistva boratnykh proizvodnykh DOPA, dopamina i ikh liposomnykh form.

To increase the solubility of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) and dopamine (DA) incorporated in liposomes, it was suggested to convert them into ammonium and 1-adamantylammonium borate complexes. The structure of these complexes was studied by 11B and 1H NMR, IR, and mass spectrometry and conductometry. The liposomic form of the complexes is characterized by a high active compound/lipid molar ratio (0.5). Catechols in the form of complex salts are retained better within the inner volume of liposomes.

[Effects of chronic effects of lead nitrate and ionizing radiation on mutagenesis in Arabidopsis Thaliana (L.) Heynh]. / Vliianie khronicheskogo vozdeistviia azotno-kislogo svintsa i ioniziruiushchego izlucheniia na mutagenez u Arabidopsis Thaliana (L.) Heynh.

Plants of Arabidopsis thaliana were grown in a laboratory conditions on the soil (black earth, chemozem) which was polluted with a radioactive isotopes of caesium, 134 + 137 Cs. Increase in specific activity of samples from 217 to 1025 and 2529 Bq/kg resulted in increase of embryonic mutation rate in Arabidopsis from 8.2 to 20.2 and 51.6% respectively. Bringing Pb2+ in a dose of 16 mg into the soil resulted in statistically significant decrease in mutation rate. Further increase of lead concentration in radioactive soils to 32, 64, 96, 128, 160 and 320 mg/kg resulted in growth of the mutation rates in the plants which were grown on the soil with "low" and "'middle" specific activity of caesium, and in decrease of the mutation rates in the plants which were grown on the soil with "high" specific radioactivity. The last process apparently was connected with the intensive growth in the number of sterile seeds in the pods.

[An evaluation of the epidemiological and immunological efficacy of the vaccinal prophylaxis of diphtheria and tetanus]. / Otsenka épidemiologicheskoi i immunologicheskoi éffektivnosti vaktsinoprofilaktiki difterii i stolbniaka.

The extensive use of adsorbed diphtheria-tetanus toxoid with reduced antigen content was found to be ineffective in the prophylaxis of diphtheria: 86.3% of diphtheria patients among those who had been immunized with this preparation fell only a year after the first booster immunization, and the proportion of those who proved to be unprotected against diphtheria on years 3, 4 and 5 after immunization reached, respectively, 21.0%, 35.5% and 49.4%. The number of children immunized with this preparation at common preschool institutions may reach 50% and more, and with an increase in the coverage of children with immunization from 10% to 50% the proportion of unprotected children may rise from 7.4% to 17.8%. The proportion of preschool institutions, insufficiently protected from diphtheria and, as a consequence, running a considerable risk of becoming (in case of the penetration of this infection) the foci of diphtheria, was found to reach 32.9%.

[Improvement in the combat and special training of the medical service]. / O sovershenstvovanii boevoi i spetsial'noi podgotovki meditsinskoi sluzhby.

The analysis of the existing system of training shows that it has accumulated a certain number of organizational, practicoscientifical, methodical and program-informational problems that need to be solved. Alterations must be made first of all in the whole organizational and program-methodical plan, that will considerably change the elements of structure and the proper contents of combat and special training in medical service. The basic elements of these changes are the following: to assure the continuity between the training and practical work of medical officers in peaceful time and war period; to regard the basic (fundamental) training on clinical and other subjects as a key task of training in the higher military medical establishments; to provide the officers' skill training on the basis of complex qualification tasks; to create methodical cabinets (and more later simulator centers) in each unit or establishment; to form the training centers of medical staff on the basis of internship; to create a basic laboratory of new methods of training and medical education on the basis of Military Medical Division in the Russian Medical Academy of Post-Graduate Education.