The x-ray morphometric characteristics of the spine in persons 50 and older

To specify shape of the vertebra in relation to age and sex, the authors studied roentgenomorphometric evidence upon examination of the thoracic and lumbar spine in 600 patients over 50. Vertebral deformities were found in 45.1 and 44.5% of the examined males and females, respectively. Changes corresponding to vertebral body fracture were recorded in 12.3% of the males and 15.3% of the females. Age-related trends in the frequency of various defects have been analyzed. The frequency differed in males and females.     

Nanostructural states in solids

On the basis of the joint approaches of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and physical mesomechanics, there is proposed a thermodynamic criterion of existence of a special class of pretransition two-phase nanostructural states in solids near the zero of their thermodynamic Gibbs potential. Such states determine the high structural instability of nanostructures in the external fields and are the basis of different nanotechnologies based on a “bottom-up” assemblying approach. It is suggested to call the materials characterized by nanostructural states as nanostructured. The shear-resistant materials with a grain size d < 100 nm, but being far from the zero of their thermodynamic Gibbs potential, may conveniently be classified as nanosized.     

"Milk makes me sick but my body needs it": conflict and contradiction in the establishment of authoritative knowledge

This article takes lactose intolerance as a topic for exploring clashes of power, authority, and knowledge in clinical interactions and interpretations of laywomen. In clinics providing maternal and child care, staff and clients jointly produced authoritative knowledge, most often a version of biomedicine. The Euroamerican staff tended to give advice that was biologically appropriate for them but not for many of their patients, a process reflecting what we refer to as biocentrism. Resulting information given to pregnant and lactating women and diagnoses of children's growth patterns were inappropriate in some cases, with potentially serious legal and health implications. Clinic staff often unwittingly ignored the efforts of their clients to begin a discussion of discrepancies between their bodily knowledge and clinic advice. Some women created their own syntheses, which supported the ascendancy of biomedical knowledge but were not in the interests of their own health.     

The physiological diagnosis of neurocirculatory dystonia

The authors of the present article were the first to work out theoretical foundations and methods of physiological diagnosis of neurocirculatory dystonia. Criteria of tension of myocardial functional structures and central regulatory mechanisms have been identified both in healthy subjects and cardiological patients. It has been ascertained that degree and systematic character of tension cause the physiological risk factors for cardio-pathology to develop, 6 types were identified of loading adaptation of the heart caused by extent of its tension, in individuals with neurocirculatory dystonia. Each of the types disclosed is characterized by a dynamics of the functional volumes proportions as well as by peculiarities of the adaptation mechanisms. Physiological diagnosis of functioning of the heart is one of major methods of the primary prophylaxis of neurocirculatory dystonias as well as prevention of aggravation of their course.     

Design of constructions for the expression of proteolytic antibody light chain

A new system for the expression of a catalytic light chain antibody to the vasoactive intestinal peptide is described. The system made possible the isolation the large amounts of a homogeneous protein without any additional peptide domains. The preparation obtained can be used in further experiments on light chain crystallization and in X-ray-structural analysis of its catalytic center.