Lateralization of brain responses to auditory motion: A study using single-trial analysis.

The present study investigates hemispheric asymmetry of the ERPs and low-frequency oscillatory responses evoked in both hemispheres of the brain by the sound stimuli with delayed onset of motion. EEG was recorded for three patterns of sound motion produced by changes in interaural time differences. Event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) and inter-trial phase coherence (ITC) were computed from the time-frequency decomposition of EEG signals. The participants either read books of their choice (passive listening) or indicated the sound trajectories perceived using a graphic tablet (active listening). Our goal was to find out whether the lateralization of the motion-onset response (MOR) and oscillatory responses to sound motion were more consistent with the right-hemispheric dominance, contralateral or neglect model of interhemispheric asymmetry. Apparent dominance of the right hemisphere was found only in the ERSP responses. Stronger contralaterality of the left hemisphere corresponding to the "neglect model" of asymmetry was shown by the MOR components and by the phase coherence of the delta-alpha oscillations. Velocity and attention did not change consistently the interhemispheric asymmetry of both the MOR and the oscillatory responses. Our findings demonstrate how the lateralization pattern shown by the MOR potential was interrelated with that of the motion-related single-trial measures.

[Motion-Onset Responses During Active and Passive Listening to the Moving Sound Stimuli].

This study investigated the energy-onset and motion-onset responses (N1, P2, cN 1 and cP2 components of the auditory evoked potential) elicited by moving sound stimuli in the passive and active listening conditions. In the passive conditions the subjects were distracted from auditory information; in active conditions they lo- calized the starting and final points of the stimulus trajectory. The sound movement to the left/right from the head midline was produced by linear-changes of the interaural time delay (ITD). The onset of motion was preceded by stationary sound located near the head midline. In the active conditions, the NI component was higher and the P2 component was higher and peaked later as compared to the passive listening. The early and later parts of the motion-onset response (cN 1 and cP2) also were larger in magnitude and peaked later during active listening. Both in active and passive conditions, cNI and cP2 amplitude exhibited increase and latency showed decrease when the stimulus velocity increased. Contralateral asymmetry was found only in the mo- tion-onset responses recorded from the left hemisphere.

[Evaluation of the toxicity and hazard of waste resulting from municipal sewage purification and sediment incineration].

Municipal waste water, sand box sewage sludge, floating substances, raw tank sediments, biological solids, a mixture of compacted and dewatered sediments, flue gases, ashes, and smoke waste products (GOST 12.1.007-76) are referred to as hazard classes 3 and 4. The authors consider the conditions contributing to the occurrence of acute and chronic intoxications of the personnel, lung fibrous lesion, infectious diseases, helminthic invasions, environmental pollution at the basic stages of municipal waste treatment and sediment utilization,

[Evaluation of toxicity and hazard of waste resulting from the treatment of municipal waste].

Municipal waste, sand trap sediment, floatable substances, raw sedimentation sludge, biological solids, a mixture of compact and dehydrated sediments, ashes, combustion gases and waste by GOST 12.1.007-76 are shown to be classified as classes 3 and 4 hazard. The conditions contributing to the occurrence of acute and chronic intoxications, infectious diseases, and helminthic invasions in the personnel, to environmental pollution at the basic stages of municipal waste and combustion sediment utilization are considered.

[Hygienic assessment of the impact of environmental factors of the Primorye Territory on the incidence of thyroid diseases].

The paper gives the ecological and hygienic characteristics of the Primorye Territory. It describes bioclimatic zones and ecological tension areas. The results of studies of the prevalence of thyroid diseases (diffuse endemic goiter, multinodular endemic goiter, subclinical hypothyroidism) associated with iodine deficiency in relation to the bioclimatic zone and the ecological situation are shown. The findings permit the planning and implementation of therapeutic-and-prophylactic measures for prevention iodine deficiency among the population of the Primorye Territory.

[Training physicians in medical prevention specialty: problems and prospects]. / Problemy i perspektivy podgotovki vrachei po spetsial'nosti "mediko-profilakticheskoe delo".

Trained personnel makes effective activities of our country's state sanitary-and-epidemiological service and its promising development. Hygienists and epidemiologists have been trained at specialized faculties for more than 70 years. The state sanitary-and-epidemiological service has recently taken measures to preserve and train highly qualified specialists. In accordance with the continuous trade education concept, postgraduate training is an essential link in the moulding of a well-educated physician who can work under the present conditions. Analyzing how the current governmental educational standard in the medico-prevention specialty is met has revealed some substantial shortcomings and sets a task to correct it in the context of better training.

[Problems and prospects of physicians' training in "medical prophylaxis" specialty]. / Problemy i perspektivy podgotovki vrachei po spetsial'nosti "mediko-profilakticheskoe delo".

According to a Concept of continuous special education, postgraduate special training remains an essential link in creating a widely educated doctor with humanistic and natural-science ideology, high culture and knowledge of contemporary circumstances.

[Ecological and hygienic evaluation of the lignin by-products utilization]. / Ekologo-gigienicheskaia otsenka produktov utilizatsii ligninnykh otkhodov.

Main trends in utilization of lignin wastes formed in complex wood processing are discussed. Toxicological and hygienic characteristics of lignins and products of their biotransformation and chlorination are presented. Ecology and hygiene of fertilizers, preserving agents, and construction materials based on lignins are evaluated.

[Concentration of hormones in the blood of patients with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in the postoperative period and the effect of hemosorption]. / Kontsentratsiia gormonov v krovi liudei s zabolevaniiami zheludochno-kishechnogo trakta v posleoperationnom periode i vliianie na nee gemosorbtsii.

Concentrations of cortisol, renin, insulin, thyrocalcitonin were increased and those of triiodothyronine and testosterone were decreased within 1-2 days of a postoperative period. The degree of impairment of content of the hormones correlated with severity of the disease (the most distinct alterations were noted in fatal outcome). Normalization of the hormonal patterns within the first week indicated the favourable course of the disease. In generalized pyoperitoneum a number of hormones wer eliminated from blood after haemosorption: cortisol, aldosterone, triiodothyronine, dehydroepiandrosterone, insulin, thyrotropic hormone, testosterone. The content of adrenal gland hormones was rapidly restored. Other hormones (insulin, thyrotropic hormone, testosterone) apparently had to be administered in the course of therapy. Increases in renin activity, in content of blood somatotropin and thyrocalcitonin appear to be adaptive reactions in response to elimination during haemosorption of a number of biologically active substances.