Natural and medical sciences

This article is devoted to the western border regions of Russia, which play an important role in terms of history, geopolitics, geoeconomy, culture, and mind­set. Relying on the interpretations of ‘border’, ‘frontier’, and ‘border­lands’, which are traditional for Russian limnology, I outline the geo-concept of ‘wes­tern border regions of Russia’ and provide a rationale for its under­standing as a continuous-discrete, dynamic, multi-scale, transboundary socio-geogra­phi­cal phenomenon. I pay particular attention to the principles of, and approach­es to, the delimitation of western border regions. As a result, I classi­fy seventeen constituent entities of Russia as western border regions. Another focus is the structuring of border regions based on environmental, climatic, positional, polit­ical-territorial, resource and economic, settlement-related, and other factors. I provide a multi-criteria typology in view of the actual and po­tential effect of ge­opolitical and geoeconomic turbulence on regional socioeco­nomic systems.

The article focuses on the approaches that explain the essence of scien­to­metrics as a set of methods for studying science. The paper also discusses the use of scientometric instruments in the spatial analysis of the geography of knowledge. The countries of the Baltic region were taken as an example. The empirical base of the research was the international database Scopus and an analytical tool for monitoring and analyzing scientific research — SciVal. On the basis of three methods of spatial scientometrics, the main aspects of the pub­lication activity of selected countries were analyzed. The results of the stu­dy showed that scientometrics is an important basis for analyzing the degree of countries and regions scientific potential development, and its methods ma­ke it possible to study the dependence of scientific productivity on a specific spa­tial level, to identify the most relevant and popular research topics and as­sess international relations between organizations and individual authors.

In this article, we present an analysis of the taxonomic diversity of plant macro-remnants retrieved from the peat deposits of Svinoye Bog in the south­ern part of the Curonian Spit, Russia. The initial mire formation stage is probably associated with the alder carrs and stretches of Phragmites, which were successively replaced by fen, transition mire, and raised bog communi­ties. Based on a diagram of the botanical composition of peat, we identified eight stages of the formation of the Svinoye Bog ecosystem.

In this article, I examine climate change facts relating to study objects of different scales, particularly, the Arctic, which serves as an indicator of global processes taking place across the planet. I track long-term fluctuations in the climatic parameters of the Kaliningrad region. Further, I estimate the rate of temperature change in Kaliningrad and other locations that have weather sta­tions and establish the cause-and-effect relationship in the behavior of various indicators.

The waters of the Curonian Lagoon and the contiguous coastal area are linked together by both the environment and economic activities. Regional planning considers water and coastal areas as separate phenomena that lack a common management system. However, this approach is poorly applicable to the Curonian Lagoon, the delta of the River Neman, and the adjacent coastal area. Only when these elements are analysed as a single whole, one can see the problems of the region in their entirety. This article is the very first attempt to provide an overview of possible ways to use the Russian part of this region as a single water and land system in view of the close interdependence between land, waters, and environmental conditions.

In this article, we describe the process of obtaining nitrogen-containing heterocycles based on benzotriazole and bromo-substituted and condensed quinones. As known, nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds containing amide function are used in the synthesis of biologically active substances. One can expect products synthesized with quinones and heterocyclic amines of the benzotriazole series to have a wide spectrum of biological activity and other useful properties.

In this review, we approach Russian terminology in elastography by discussing elastography technique classifications using terms that take into account the essence of physical patterns underlying various elastography techniques. Elastography techniques used in clinical practice are divided into four groups: strain elastography, transient elastography, point shear wave elastography, and 2D shear wave elastography. Based on physical principles, two types are identified: strain elastography and shear wave elastography. Since the techniques are founded on different physical principles, we recommend combining these techniques to improve to improve diagnostic accuracy. We propose a Russian glossary of term used in elastography. An ef­fective use of the glossary requires Russian terminology in elastogrgraphy to be included in the guidelines of the Russian Association of Experts of Ultra­sonic Diagnostics in Medicine, similar to those provided by the EFSUMB.

In this article, we present a clinical case of a patient with T-cell lympho­ma (delta-gamma variant) complicated by neuroleukemia. We performed a dif­ferential diagnosis from other lymphoproliferative diseases. Our diagnosis was based on trepanobiopsy and immunophenotyping data: delta-gamma-T/NK-cell lymphoma, hepatolienal form. The first NHL-BFM 90 protocol block was obtained. We performed a whole body PET/CT scan and a myelogram to con­firm the diagnosis. Since therapy was ineffective, we conducted two courses of second-line therapy (R-ICE) and received a partial response. Further, alloge­neic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was recommended. After two R-ICE courses, the patient received supportive polychemotherapy (Rituximab + + Gem­zar), without progression. Six months later, the patient's condition wors­ened. We performed spinal puncture and diagnosed neuroleukemia. It was recom­mended that the patient received a specific course of polychemother­apy. There­fore, patients diagnosed with hepatolienal T-cell lymphoma, in view of the highly aggressive disease course, are recommended to undergo allogene­ic trans­plantation of hematopoietic stem cells as early as possible.