Targets for LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) that should be aimed at have been defined by international societies. In high-risk patients they are set at 1.8 (70 mg/dL) and 1.4 mmol/L (55 mg/dL). We report our experience with respect to the use of statin and PCSK9 inhibitors in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). It was observed that in 37.5% of FH patients the target LDL-C level, corresponding to the risk category, was not achieved.

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is the most common, but poorly diagnosed autosomal‐dominant genetic disease which increases the cardio‐vascular risk.

The quality of the natural water incoming on water intakes of water supply in certain European countries since the beginning of the 1970s at the drinking water supply Early Warning Systems (EWS). The use of high level of chemical in drinking water is danger and economic losses in such cases depend on speed of acceptance of the management decisions directed to their prevention and elimination. The aim of EWSs is to support of the management decisions directed to minimization of environmental risks in the case of dangerous water quality changes at water supply. The BioArgus-W is a science-based, multi-parameter, multi-level biomonitoring system comprising several building blocks. Even a failure in one of them can reduce partly or entirely a whole system efficiency. The main distinctive features of the BioArgus-W system are test-organisms (crayfish and fish) used as the sensors. The measuring system allows carrying out a long-term continuous biomonitoring of a surface water quality and quality of biologically treated wastewaters on the basis of the analysis of heart rate variability in the freshwater crayfish.

Embedded control system by complex multi-component object, which operate in the real physical time, is considered. It is shown, that during solving the aim task it is necessary to synchronize controllable components operation by means of soft optimization. The model of embedded soft synchronization, based on discrete Petri-Markov net conception, is worked out. In the proposed conception time intervals are described with discrete distribution. Analytical simulation of the system soft operation is divided onto two parts: estimation of time interval discrete distribution of parallel soft operation inside synchronized block, and estimation of pre-determined plan realization effectiveness. Effectiveness criterion estimation is based on modified relay-race distributed forfeit method, due to which relay-race analysis with random time intervals is substituted by analysis of the randomly emerged rigid schedules systems, that essentially simplifies analysis procedure.

The use of Information Technologies presents new challenges to foreign language teaching. Torespond to these challenges teachers should consider the impact of IT on consciousness and styleof thinking of their users, primarily of the so-called Generation Y, or Internet generation. The paperexamines some of the changes brought about by computer technologies, in particular, what is usuallydescribed as “clip thinking” and “digital amnesia”. Taking as an example the use of printed andcomputerized dictionaries, the authors come to the conclusion that the main task of the teacher is tohelp students find the right strategy and make informed choices about which dictionary to use in aparticular situation.

The software of an embedded system is considered. Semi-Markov model of program operation is represented as number of branches with calculable runtime distribution density and branching probability. Applied approach permits to formulate runtime optimization problem as the linear programming task. A simplex-method of solving the runtime optimization problem is proposed. Effectiveness of proposed method is corroborated by the example of embedded dispatching program system operation optimization.

For La2Zr2O7/LaAlO3 composite prepared by aging (100 degrees C/10 h) of the mixture of precipitated precursors of La-Zr-O and La-Al-O, evolution of its structural features after sintering in air in the range of 100-1300 degrees C was investigated by applying XRD, HRTEM, FTIR, Raman and UV-Vis spectroscopies, Al-27 MAS NMR and La-139 NMR. The initial composite forms a highly dispersed and disordered structure retaining considerable concentrations of residual anions (anions from the initial salts, water molecules and hydrogen bound hydroxyls) due to basic properties of La cations. Stepwise removal of these anions by calcinations results in the crystallization of La-2(Al)O2CO3 at 500 degrees C with complete disordering of the system after heating at 700 degrees C. These transitions are accompanied by appearance of AlO4 polyhedra. The La-Zr-O- containing phase appeared for the first time at 900 degrees C as fluorite-like ZrO2 stabilized by La (Al) cations, and LaAlO3 (P2) phase is also observed along with admixtures of La2O3 and La10Al4O21. At 1100 degrees C fluorite-like ZrO2 converts into the La2Zr2O7 (P1) phase, and in the range of 1100-1300 degrees C mixed P1 and P2 oxides are the main phases. For P1 phase, structure becomes more ordered at higher sintering temperatures, while for P2 phase in composite the nanodomain structure is still observed in comparison with individual mixed oxide at 1300 degrees C. The molecular -scale features of domain boundaries in nanostructured La-Zr-O/La-Al-O composite as well as applied inexpensive method of its fabrication provide required bases for a broad practical application of this material for Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs).

Background and Aims: With this study, we aim to advance our understanding of the regulation of macrophages in DIO and T2D which will provide new insights into the etiology of these diseases. This study focusses on the reversibility of the DIO and T2D induced effects in macrophages.

We calculate the amplitudes of surface plasmon-polaritons (SPP) excited at a photonic-crystal–metal interface. Using a three-wave approximation, we evaluate optical fields in the crystal medium. The generation of plasmons at the boundary between the photonic crystal (PhC) and gold substrate is numerically analyzed in the wavelength range of a plane incident wave 400–1,900 nm. The optimum wavelength corresponding to the maximum plasmon amplitude is determined.

Background and Aims: Atherosclerosis is a lipid-driven chronic inflammatory disease. Monocytes and macrophages play an important role in the plaque development. Here, we assessed the impact of myeloid cell-specific Kdm3a deletion on atherogenesis and applied RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis on macrophages to identify the regulated pathways.

The aim of this study was to compare environmental pollution and ecological states of two different areas of the Songhua River areas: near Harbin City and Tongjiang City, located at a distance of about 500 km downstream. The anthropogenic pollution concentrations of heavy metals (HM) were determined. The results showed that concentrations of eight metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in the water were in the range of 0.001–0.588 mg/L for Tongjiang and 0.001–0.508 mg/L for Harbin, while that in sediments were in the range of 0.67–1575.37 mg/kg for Tongjiang and 0.07–5617.13 mg/kg for Harbin, respectively. Bivalves from tested sites exposed to environmental pollution exhibited significantly different physiological states. The latter was assessed using the method of physiological loading, based on measuring the recovery time (Trec) of heart rate (HR) after removal of the load. Trec in mussels from Harbin was recorded in the range of 151 to 234 min, while that from Tongjiang was only 115 min. Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in mollusk soft tissues were also determined for Harbin and Tongjiang, respectively. The metal pollution index (MPI) and bioconcentration factor (BCF) in the mollusks were calculated for each metal. BCF in the mussels from the Tongjiang area was lower than that from the Harbin area. Physiological testing, as well as the concentration of HM in water, and sediment, and also the bioaccumulation of HM in tissue showed that the ecological state of the Tongjiang area was better than that of Harbin. Apparently, after more extensive studies, a methodological approach of assessing the ecological state of water areas, based on physiological state testing of aboriginal mollusks, could be used in the monitoring of pollution effects in water bodies and streams.

Impelling the ambulatory hypertensive patients to stick to the prescribed treatment throughout a long term is a challenging problem. To address the problem, the personal monitoring system can be used providing the possibility both to gather various health state parameters and life style-related data and to intervene in case the patient does not stick to the appointed instructions. The subsystem related to health state monitoring have been presented in our previous work. In this paper, we introduce the recommender system intended to patient's behavior correction.

The plethora of graphs and relational data give rise to many interesting graph-relational queries in various domains, e.g., finding related proteins retrieved by a relational subquery in a biological network. The maturity of RDBMSs motivated academia and industry to invest efforts in leveraging RDBMSs for graph processing, where efficiency is proven for vital graph queries. However, none of these efforts process graphs natively inside the RDBMS, which is particularly challenging due to the impedance mismatch between the relational and the graph models. In this paper, we propose to manage graphs as first-class citizens inside the relational engine. We realize our approach inside VoltDB [6], an opensource in-memory relational database, and name this realization GRFusion. The SQL and query engine of GRFusion are empowered to declaratively define graphs and execute cross-data-model query plans acting on graphs and relations, resulting in up to four orders-of-magnitude in query-time speedup w.r.t. state-of-the-art approaches.

We evaluated the utility of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (Bb) peptide C6 for serologic confirmation of Ixodid Tick-Borne Borrelioses (ITBB) in Russia. Serum samples (N = 1089) were from erythema migrans (EM) (N = 327) and the EM-free (EMF) patients (N = 115); in some patients, the disease was accompanied by human granulocytic anaplasmosis or tick-borne encephalitis. The sera were investigated by multiplex phosphorescence analysis (PHOSPHAN) for IgM to Bb C6, recombinant OspC and VlsE proteins, and IgG to C6 from Bb, B. garinii (Bg), and B. afzelii (Ba). Detection of Bb C6 IgM/IgG provided effective serologic confirmation of ITBB in both EM and EMF patients early after disease onset. In the EM-free patients, however, this test needed to be supplemented with detection of VlsE IgM in convalescent-phase sera due to delay in development of the antibody responses for C6 IgG. In general, positive PHOSPHAN reactions were observed in 81.9% and 86.7% of the EM and EMF patients, respectively, as well as in 59 of 65 (90.8%) patients, whose blood contained B. burgdorferi sensu lato DNA. Additional detection of IgG to Bg C6 or Ba C6 had no significant contribution to serologic diagnosis of ITBB in both patient groups.

New methodological approach to express assessment of a physiological state of aquatic organisms and ecological quality of the environment of their dwelling, using non-invasive cardiac activity monitoring is considered. It is offered to carry out evaluation of organism’s state by means of testing adaptive capacities under experimental variations of salinity with the subsequent analysis of the recovery period in cardiorhythm of Mollusca and Crustacea. Examples of application of this approach for assessment of an ecological status of several marine areas in Baltic and Black Seas and fresh water bodies of the Gulf of Finland are observed.

The plethora of location-aware devices has led to countless location-based services in which huge amounts of spatiotemporal data get created every day. Several applications require efficient processing of queries on the locations of moving objects over time, i.e., the moving object trajectories. This calls for efficient trajectory-based indexing methods that capture both the spatial and temporal dimensions of the data in a way that minimizes the number of disk I/Os required for both updating and querying. Most existing spatiotemporal index structures capture either the current locations of the moving objects or the entire history of the moving objects. Historical spatiotemporal indexing methods require multiple disk I/Os to process new updates and use a discrete trajectory representation that may result in incomplete query results. In this article, we introduce the trails-tree, a disk-based data structure for indexing recent trajectories. The trails-tree requires half the number of disk I/Os needed by other historical spatiotemporal indexing methods for the insertion and querying operations. We give a detailed description of the trails-tree, and we mathematically analyze its performance. Moreover, we present a novel query processing algorithm that ensures the completeness of the query result set. We experimentally verify the performance of the trails-tree using various real and synthetic datasets.