Minsk City Research Articles

The characteristic of minor cell populations in multiple sclerosis patients after cell therapy

Event Abstract Back to Event The characteristic of minor cell populations in multiple sclerosis patients after cell therapy Darya Nizheharodava1*, Alexay Borisov2, Ekatherina Nazarova3, Ekatherina Rudakovskaya1 and Maryna Zafranskaya1 1 Belarussian Medical Academy of Post-Graduated Education, Immunology Department, Belarus 2 Belarusian State Medical University, Neurology Department, Belarus 3 Minsk City Hospital N9, Transplantology Department, Belarus Introduction. Minor cell populations demonstrate functional diversity, from effector action to immunoregulation, depending on pathological conditions. Our previous results showed significant differences in numbers and functions of minor cell populations including γδT-cells, СD8lowT-cells, NK-cells and TNK-cells in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients compared with donors. Objective. To estimate the influence of cell therapy upon minor cell populations’ quantity in peripheral blood of MS patients. Materials and methods. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were obtained from relapse-remitting MS patients (n=15) with expanded disability status scale (EDSS) score median of 2,5 before and after intravenous infusion of autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells. PBMC were harvested at baseline and during 1 year after cell therapy and monitored with flow cytometer FC500 using appropriate antibodies. Results. γδT-cells, which are able to regulate myelin-specific T-cell response, increased in peripheral blood of MS patients on day 10 after cell therapy (p<0,01) and continued elevation during 1 year of treatment (p<0,05) without any significant changes in СD8+γδT-cells population with potential cytotoxic activity. The percent of СD8lowT-cells reduced after 1 month of cell infusion (p<0,01) and the decrease of СD8lowCD45RO+T-cells and СD8lowCD119+T-cells populations was observed during 9 months after treatment (p<0,01). The last one correlated with activated СD3+CD25+T-cells’ percent (R=0,59, p<0,05). The number of NK-cells correlated with EDSS before treatment (R=0,54, p<0,01) and decreased after 1 month of cell therapy (p<0,05) without significant differences in TNK-cells percentage. Conclusion. Cell therapy established immunoregulatory profile of minor cell populations in peripheral blood of MS patients following 1 year after treatment. Acknowledgements This work was supported by Ministry of Health Care of Republic of Belarus grants N20081618 and N20112544. Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis, cell therapy, minor cell populations, myelin-specific response, Mesenchymal Stem Cells Conference: 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI), Milan, Italy, 22 Aug - 27 Aug, 2013. Presentation Type: Abstract Topic: Immune-mediated disease pathogenesis Citation: Nizheharodava D, Borisov A, Nazarova E, Rudakovskaya E and Zafranskaya M (2013). The characteristic of minor cell populations in multiple sclerosis patients after cell therapy. Front. Immunol. Conference Abstract: 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fimmu.2013.02.00590 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 29 May 2013; Published Online: 22 Aug 2013. * Correspondence: Dr. Darya Nizheharodava, Belarussian Medical Academy of Post-Graduated Education, Immunology Department, Minsk, Belarus, nzh@tut.by Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Darya Nizheharodava Alexay Borisov Ekatherina Nazarova Ekatherina Rudakovskaya Maryna Zafranskaya Google Darya Nizheharodava Alexay Borisov Ekatherina Nazarova Ekatherina Rudakovskaya Maryna Zafranskaya Google Scholar Darya Nizheharodava Alexay Borisov Ekatherina Nazarova Ekatherina Rudakovskaya Maryna Zafranskaya PubMed Darya Nizheharodava Alexay Borisov Ekatherina Nazarova Ekatherina Rudakovskaya Maryna Zafranskaya Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Human parvovirus B19 surveillance in patients with rash and fever from Belarus

Human parvovirus B19 (B19V) infection in immunocompetent patients usually has a mild clinical course, but during pregnancy it can cause serious and even fatal complications in the fetus. The most common clinical presentation of B19V infection is erythema infectiosum and in this case laboratory confirmation is required for differentiation from other exanthematous diseases. Measles and rubella negative sera collected in Belarus between 2005 and 2008 from 906 patients with a rash and fever were screened for B19V infection by ELISA. More than 35% of the samples (322/906) were positive for B19V. The proportion ranged from 10.1% in 2008 to 53.2% in 2006 when an outbreak took place in Minsk city. All B19V outbreaks and cluster cases occurred during the winter-spring period, but sporadic cases were recorded basically throughout the year. The majority of the cases (56.5%) occurred among the 2 till 10 year old children, and 27.3% of the cases were observed in adults between 19 and 53 years. All 104 B19V strains sequenced in the NS1/VP1u region belonged to genotype 1 with a maximal genetic distance of 1.75%. The two phylogenetic clusters reflected the geographic origins of the viruses within the country. Forty-two unique nucleotide mutations as compared to sequences downloaded from GenBank were found in the VP1u and NS1 regions; most of these changes were nonsynonymous. This report highlights the importance of B19V infection in patients with a rash and fever in Belarus.

Mass Appraisal Modelling in Minsk: Testing different Models Location sensitive

Mass Appraisal is the valuation of large quantity of properties. This automatic valuation procedure gave the opportunity to reach a single point estimate (The Appraisal of Real Estate, 13th Edition). The work test different location sensitive methodologies on a sample of 600 residential properties in the city of Minsk in Belarus. This is the first application of mass appraisal modelling in Belarus. Empirical application compares a location blind model with two Location Value Response Surface models (O Connor, 1982), the former based on the detection of value influence centers the latter based on error surface modelling.

P-569 - Psychotherapeutic help in emergency situations

During the last 8 years in the city of Minsk is a series of disasters and terrorist attacks, which were accompanied by lesions of large groups of people. This Nemiga (2002), (Krasnopole 2005), 2008 Independence Avenue), Subway Oktyabrskaya 2011). Emerging from the victim psycho-emotional disorders met criteria for post-stress disorder. The existing psychiatric symptoms among patients proceeded differently. In some cases, there was no awareness of stress factors and awareness of the danger came later, as well as a manifestation of severe psychopathology (2008 Independence Avenue, Metro Oktyabrskaya 2011). In other cases, a sense of threat to the life of the injured was happening at once and this was manifested against the background of an acute stress reaction (Nemiga 2002, Krasnopole 2005). Therefore, the provision of psychological tactics were different. In the first case study was carried out painful memories causing fear in the second psychotherapeutic work the first two days focused on the reduction of tension, reduce anxiety, and only then the perceived risk. Patients with psychiatric disorders expressed admissions to hospital. In hospitals with working psychotherapists and psychologists. Patients who do not need treatment in hospital, received medical care as outpatients. In the lesion focus and the city spread information about where victims can receive psychotherapy and psychological help. After discharge from hospital for patients to monitor throughout the year.

P-1422 - Socio-psychological mechanisms of suicidal behavior of adolescents and young people in big cities (on the example of minsk city)

Objectives The research objects are people aged 15–24, Minsk citizens who committed parasuicides and suicides. Aims To study socio-psychological mechanisms of suicidal behavior of adolescents and young people in modern big cities and to develop an anti-suicide aid program for this contingent of people. Results To conduct retrospective suicidological analysis we included in the research 1051 parasuicide and 99 suicides altogether, and to conduct prospective suicidological and clinic-therapeutical examination we included 106 parasuicides. Conclusions There is evidence given on the basis of which for the first time in Belarus the modern and typical for adolescents and young people in big cities socio-psychological and motivational-typological factors of emerging of conditions predisposing to suicide are studied and systemized, which allowed to develop the suicidal actions prevention program with the set of basic preventive strategies in the spheres of social and medical prevention and legislative measures among this contingent of population of big cities, as well as to develop and approve the program of rendering specialized medico-psychological aid to people aged 15–24 in post-suicidal period.

Alarming levels of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Belarus: results of a survey in Minsk

Resistance to anti-tuberculosis (TB) medicines is a major public health threat in most countries of the former Soviet Union. As no representative and quality-assured information on the magnitude of this problem existed in Belarus, a survey was conducted in the capital city of Minsk.Between November 2009 and December 2010, 156 consecutively diagnosed new and 68 previously treated culture-positive TB patients residing in Minsk were enrolled in the survey. Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were obtained from each patient and tested for susceptibility to first- and second-line anti-TB drugs.Multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB was found in 35.3% (95% CI 27.7–42.8) of new patients and 76.5% (95% CI 66.1–86.8) of those previously treated. Overall, nearly one in two patients enrolled had MDR-TB. Extensively drug-resistant TB was reported in 15 of the 107 MDR-TB patients (14.0%, 95% CI 7.3–20.7). Patients <35 yrs of age have shown a two times higher odds ratio of multidrug-resistant TB than those aged >35 yrs.The findings of this survey in Minsk city are alarming and represent the highest proportions of MDR-TB ever recorded in the world. This study greatly contributes to the understanding of the burden of drug-resistant TB in urban areas of Belarus.

Comparison of different reference tables and threshold values of body mass indices for the estimation of the prevalence of overweight, underweight, and obesity in schoolchildren

The objective of the present work was to compare the prevalence of overweight, underweight, and obesity in 725 children and adolescents residing in the city of Minsk based on a variety of reference tables and criteria for body mass index ( BMI ). It was shown that the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) in the total group varied from 17.3% (Centre for disease Control and Prevention, CDC) to 25.6% (France) and that of obesity from 3.9% (International Obesity Task Force, IOTF) to 13.8% (France). The prevalence of underweight was estimated at 2.6% to 8.4% (WHO SD and IOFT respectively). There was an excellent agreement between the data of the BMI percentile tables constructed at Grodno, Republic of Belarus (2000) and WHO (2007). The study has demonstrated the high prevalence of overweight in Belorussian schoolchildren whatever type of reference BMI tables is used whereas the prevalence of obesity and underweight varies considerably depending on the BMI criteria employed for its estimation.

Influence of the Atlantic Ocean on the magnitude of air temperature trends under current warming

An analysis is made of the magnitudes of the linear trends of daily mean temperature in the city of Minsk for the period from 1966 to 2008. It is found that the largest magnitudes of trends in the annual variation correspond to mid-January as well as to the end of July–August, whereas in May and in November they are poorly pronounced (positive or even negative). The maximum magnitudes of the air temperature trends are in good agreement with maximum warm advection by currents of the Gulf Stream system, while modest warm advection by currents corresponds to weak positive and even negative magnitudes of the temperature trends. Consequently, the magnitude of the temperature trends in the annual variation is modulated by warm advection by currents of the Gulf Stream system which contains a half-yearly component and is determined by natural factors. Therefore, the driving forces of current climate warming cannot be attributed solely to the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

P03-286 - Characteristic of suicidal behavior peoples in Minsk city

Minsk city is the capital of the Republic of Belarus, in which 1 770 000 people live. Minsk had a heavy figures of suicidal activity (2003 -19,7 cases per 100 000, 2004 - 15,7 cases per 100 000 population).To prevent suicide in Minsk a suicidal activity monitoring is conducted since 2005; it includes registration of all cases of suicide and suicide attempts. The monitoring aimed to identify main forms of suicidal behavior, gender and age-specific characteristics of suicide. It was revealed that among suicides prevailed men, aged 40-59 year. Most common type of suicide are hanging, 85% of all cases. Among suicides 62.3% have one or another concentration of alcohol in the blood, often a concentration of from 1.5 to 2.5%.Only 16.6% of the total committed suicides get to medical help as a result of addiction problems. About 30% of the total committed suicides seek medical help to a general practitioner, but no signs of suicidal behavior did not. 65% of the total committed suicides never worked and has not studied. This group do not seek psychological help (request it mostly women - 85%, aged 35-45 years).As shown by 3-year observation, only 0.5% persons who commit suicide attempts committed suicide later.As a result of this work a strategy for prevention of suicidal behavior has been elaborated, including: implemented control of psychoactive drugs use; organized collaboration with mass media; educational seminars for general practitioners and social workers.

Trasjanka: A code of rural migrants in Minsk

The article deals with an oral speech phenomenon widespread in the Republic of Belarus, where it is known as trasjanka. This code originated through constant contact between Russian and Belarusian, two closely related East Slavonic languages. Discussed are the main features of this code (as used in the city of Minsk), the sources of its origin, different linguistic definitions and the attitude towards this code from those who dwell in the city of Minsk. Special attention is paid to the problem of distinction between trasjanka and different forms of codeswitching, also widely used in the Minsk language community.

The Minsk Ghetto 1941–1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism (review)

Reviewed by: The Minsk Ghetto 1941–1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism Jennifer L. Foray The Minsk Ghetto 1941–1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism, by Barbara Epstein. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. 351 pp. $39.95. Contrary to its title, The Minsk Ghetto 1941–1943 does not focus solely upon the clandestine activities undertaken within the borders of the Jewish ghetto established by Byelorussia's German occupiers in 1941. Rather, Epstein uses the testimonies of former resisters, both Jewish and Byelorussian, to examine the inner workings of the extensive underground network in wartime Minsk. In the process, Epstein presents a detailed portrait of a nation whose pre-war history and wartime trajectory were both comparable to and sharply divergent from those of its more well-studied neighbors. Largely isolated from developments occurring elsewhere on the continent, these self-declared "Soviet citizens" in the Byelorussian capital forged their own path through the difficult terrain of German occupation. For the Jews of Minsk, and, indeed, for countless Byelorussians, this path led from the city to the partisan units in the nearby forests. The first few chapters of this work explore the unique history of Minsk in comparison to that of other Eastern European cities with large Jewish populations. Of critical significance was the fact that, for two decades before the war, Minsk was under Soviet rule. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Byelorussian political parties had elected to join the new Russian federation, thus creating the Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia. Largely underdeveloped and lacking a wealthy peasantry, Byelorussia was not subjected to the same violent collectivization program as was most notably implemented in nearby Ukraine. On the contrary, the interwar period saw modernization, industrialization, and the expansion of education, which helped to promote a fairly positive impression of Soviet rule. Most importantly for the nation's Jewish citizens, these developments were accompanied by the rise of a new Byelorussian-Soviet identity, which, according to Epstein, "provided an indigenous basis for an ethnically inclusive understanding of patriotism" (p. 75). Especially in the capital city of Minsk, Soviet rule had fostered "Jewish integration and had promoted an ideology of internationalism that had a particular influence on young people, leading many to regard interethnic relationships with pride" [End Page 168] (p. 31). These relationships forged under the mantle of Soviet internationalism constituted the backbone of wartime resistance in this occupied city. On June 22, 1941, German forces commenced the invasion of the Soviet Union. Within a week, Byelorussia found itself under German rule, and, for the next three years, Minsk would serve as the capital of Reichskommissariat Ostland, which included Byelorussia, the Baltic nations, and parts of Poland. In early August 1941, the city's approximately 71,000 Jewish residents were forced into the old Jewish area in the northwestern sector of the city. The population of the ghetto soon swelled to more than 100,000, as Jews from surrounding areas were brought to Minsk following the destruction of their towns and villages. Here, they would be subjected to one deadly attack after another. In November 1941, for example, at least 12,000 Jews—mostly children, the elderly, and others exempted from labor details—were removed from the ghetto and brought to an execution site outside of the city, where they were all killed. With each successive action, the Germans constricted the borders of the ghetto and tightened the noose around its remaining inhabitants until finally "liquidating" the ghetto in October 1943. As in other occupied countries, the Germans mandated the creation of a Jewish Council, or Judenrat, shortly after their arrival in Minsk. However, Ilya Mushkin, the first head of this Jewish Council, was hardly the compliant, malleable leader the Germans had expected him to be: from the time of his appointment in July 1941 until his disappearance and presumed death in February 1942, Mushkin doubled as one of the leaders of the Jewish underground. In fact, the three leading institutions of the ghetto, namely, the Jewish Council, the Jewish Labor Exchange, and the Jewish Hospital, all served as important centers of ghetto resistance. Mushkin and his colleagues at these institutions fostered active cooperation between the ghetto resistance and the Minsk...

Effectiveness of universal hepatitis A immunization of children in Minsk City, Belarus: four‐year follow‐up

Hepatitis A is a reportable disease in Belarus. Universal hepatitis A vaccination of children aged 6 years in Minsk City began in 2003. This analysis was conducted to evaluate the short-term impact of the program. Hepatitis A incidence data from 1954 to 2006 was compiled. Vaccination effectiveness was estimated by comparing the incidence of reported hepatitis A cases after 4 years of immunization (2006) with the incidence when the vaccination program started (2003). The vaccines used were Avaxim 160 or Avaxim 80 (95%) and Havrix 720 (5%). From 2003 through 2006, hepatitis A incidence in vaccinated children under 14 years was 20-fold lower than the incidence in unvaccinated children (0.3 cases/10000 vs 5.98/10000; odds ratio = 0.05, 95% CI: 0.012-0.202), for a vaccination effectiveness of 95%. The decreased incidence of hepatitis A in all age groups in 2006 (by 12 times in preschool children aged 1-5 years, 13 times in children aged 10-14 years and 4-6 times among adults), including those without high coverage by vaccination, suggest a herd effect. Routine vaccination also resulted in a shift of the age pattern of hepatitis A morbidity. The proportion of cases in children under 14 years decreased from 33% to 41% in 2000-2002 to 7% in 2005-2006. We conclude that introduction of universal hepatitis A vaccination in Minsk resulted in sharply reduced incidence in both vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Hepatitis A virus circulation might decrease further by beginning vaccination at a younger age.

The National Library of Belarus: a new stage of development

The National Library of Belarus (NLB) is a major universal research library with the status of information, social and cultural centre of the Republic. For more than 85 years the National Library of Belarus has been keeping the national heritage of the Belarusian people and providing information services to the society. Construction work on the new building for the NLB started in 2002 and was finished in 2006. The new Library building in high-tech style is a visiting card for the city of Minsk. The upper part looks like a diamond placed in the centre of a stylobate (the lower part of the building). In the `diamond' the collection of about 8.4 million items is kept. The Library collections are of historical and cultural value and are the most complete containing materials published in or about Belarus. There are 19 reading halls (2,060 seats), staff offices, administrative and technical rooms in the stylobate. More than 20 modern engineering networks combined into a technical complex provide for the functioning and security of the library building. The local network consists of more than 100 servers and 1,400 personal computers (mainly `client terminals'). Electronic resources comprise 80 databases representing history, culture, the arts of Belarus, Chernobyl, national periodicals, dissertations, etc. The NLB is working on the retrospective conversion of its resources with a view to creating a digital library. The government of Belarus made great investments in the library building. A charitable account for the building was also opened and numerous companies, organizations and private people donated money. Almost every citizen of the country contributed to the creation of the new building which can thus be said to be truly a national project.

Thyroid cancer among Ukrainians and Belarusians who were children or adolescents at thetime of the Chernobyl accident

Our objective is to assess the regional and temporal dependences of the baseline casescontributing to thyroid cancer incidence among those exposed in childhood orduring adolescence in Belarus and Ukraine after the Chernobyl accident. Data areanalysed for Kyiv and Sevastopol City and the 25 oblasts (regions) in Ukraine, andfor Minsk and Gomel City and the 6 oblasts in Belarus. Average thyroid dosesdue to the Chernobyl accident were assessed for every birth year in the periodfrom 1968 to 1985. Case data pertain to people who underwent surgical removalof thyroid cancers during the period 1986 to 2001 and who were allocated totheir place of residence at the time of the accident. The 35 oblasts/cities weresubdivided into an upper, middle and lower group of baseline thyroid cancer incidence.Poisson regressions were performed to estimate age, time and gender dependences ofthe baseline incidence rates in the three groups. The majority of oblasts/citieswith high average doses and the majority of Belarusian oblasts/cities belong tothe upper group of baseline thyroid cancer incidence. The baseline in the uppergroup is estimated to be larger than in the middle group by a factor of 2.3, andby a factor of 4.0 when compared to the lower group. The baseline incidenceincreases with age and with time since exposure. Estimated baseline incidencerates were found to increase from 1988 to 1999 by factors of three and two forthe upper and the two lower groups respectively. The estimated thyroid cancerincidence rates in Belarus and Ukraine, and their dependences on gender and age,are consistent with observed rates found in the larger cancer registries of othercountries. In conclusion, the baseline cases are found to contribute about 70%to the thyroid cancer incidence in Ukraine, and about 40% to the incidence inBelarus.

Enhancing the quality of thermographic diagnosis in medicine

This paper discusses the possibilities of enhancing the quality of thermographic diagnosis in medicine by increasing the objectivity of the processes of recording, visualization, and interpretation of IR images (thermograms) of patients. A test program is proposed for the diagnosis of oncopathology of the mammary glands, involving standard conditions for recording thermograms, visualization of the IR image in several versions of the color palette and shades of grey, its interpretation in accordance with a rigorously specified algorithm that takes into account the temperature regime in the Zakharin-Head zone of the heart, and the drawing of a conclusion based on a statistical analysis of literature data and the results of a survey of more than 3000 patients of the Minsk City Clinical Oncological Dispensary.

A populist island in an ocean of clan politics: the Lukashenka regime as an exception among CIS countries

THE COLLAPSE OF SOCIALIST REGIMES in Eastern Europe and Eurasia resulted in the polarisation of politics.' In East Central European and Baltic countries (henceforth, Western post-communist countries2) political parties began to play an important role already in the early stage of transition. In these countries unitary constitutional regimes and free market economies are predominant. In contrast, in the politics of CIS countries informal clan relations are prevalent. It is true that since the end of the 1990s we have seen several examples of successful party building even in the CIS. However, these successful parties, such as Unified Russia and the United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine, have been merely an official facade of clan relations.3 In contrast to the unitary state building in the Western post-communist countries, in CIS countries national-subnational political relations have been extremely deconcentrated, although the constitutions of most of these countries, except for Russia, declare that they have chosen a unitary path of state building. In these countries a patrimonial capitalism, advantageous not only to domestic enterprises but also to the population in general, took shape. The purpose of this article is to examine the Belarusian political regime under President Aleksandr Lukashenka as a populist one, which is uncommon for a CIS country. In order to understand this peculiarity, it is insufficient to compare Belarusian politics with the politics of other CIS countries. It can only be understood in the context of polarisation of post-communist political and economic regimes. Table 1 lists nine criteria distinguishing the two types of post-communist regime. Criterion 1: constitutional definition. While Western post-communist countries adopted either parliamentary or, at best, weak presidential systems, superpresidentialism has become the norm for CIS countries, with the exception of Moldova. These superpresidencies are the successors of the former central committees of communist parties and are functioning as a guarantee for personalised distribution of resources and assets. It is true that most CIS countries adopted semi-presidential, not pure presidential, systems. Under semi-presidential systems the president appoints the

S43.02 Epidemiological study of parasuicides in the city of Minsk in Belarus

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Porous powder dispersers for dispersing ozone and air in water

A description is presented of a manufacturing process for large-diameter (180–300 mm) disks of sintered titanium, corrosion-resistant steel, and bronze. The properties of the initial powders and sintered disks are presented, and the dimensions of the bubbles which are formed are examined in relation to the parameters of the pore structure. Photographs of the microstructure of a disk are shown along with a scan of the disk surface. A description is given of porous disperser PA-2, which is designed for dispersing ozone and air in water. Its porous disk is made from titanium powder, while its housing and nozzle are made of corrosion-resistant steel. It is shown that replacing 1000 ceramic tube dispersers made by the German firm “Schumacher” by 2000 PA-2 dispersers in the city of Minsk's treatment system for drinking water, which has a daily capacity of 200000 m3, made it possible to reduce the amount of ozone and gas that has to be injected for the treatment while keeping the purification level constant. None of the PA-2 dispersers had to be replaced over a 10-year period of operation.

Chernobyl Accident

The Chernobyl accident in April 1986 resulted in widespread contamination of the environment with radioactive materials, including (131)I and other radioiodines. This environmental contamination led to substantial radiation doses in the thyroids of many inhabitants of the Republic of Belarus. The reconstruction of thyroid doses received by Belarussians is based primarily on exposure rates measured against the neck of more than 200,000 people in the more contaminated territories; these measurements were carried out within a few weeks after the accident and before the decay of (131)I to negligible levels. Preliminary estimates of thyroid dose have been divided into 3 classes: Class 1 ("measured" doses), Class 2 (doses "derived by affinity"), and Class 3 ("empirically-derived" doses). Class 1 doses are estimated directly from the measured thyroidal (131)I content of the person considered, plus information on lifestyle and dietary habits. Such estimates are available for about 130,000 individuals from the contaminated areas of the Gomel and Mogilev Oblasts and from the city of Minsk. Maximum individual doses are estimated to range up to about 60 Gy. For every village with a sufficient number of residents with Class 1 doses, individual thyroid dose distributions are determined for several age groups and levels of milk consumption. These data are used to derive Class 2 thyroid dose estimates for unmeasured inhabitants of these villages. For any village where the number of residents with Class 1 thyroid doses is small or equal to zero, individual thyroid doses of Class 3 are derived from the relationship obtained between the mean adult thyroid dose and the deposition density of (131)I or 137Cs in villages with Class 2 thyroid doses presenting characteristics similar to those of the village considered. In order to improve the reliability of the Class 3 thyroid doses, an extensive program of measurement of (129)I in soils is envisaged.

Post independence in eastern Europe: Managing the built heritage; the Belarus example

The Republic of Belarus is one the newly independent countries of eastern Europe which aspires to gain membership of the Council of Europe. This places an obligation on such aspirant countries to fulfil the requirements of certain conventions. The Granada and Malta Conventions set out obligations in the field of heritage protection and identify that parties should seek to exchange information on their conservation policies and afford mutual technical assistance by sharing experiences. In this context a programme of support initiated by the Council of Europe to provide technical assistance regarding the development of heritage legislation and policy is reviewed. This paper briefly examines the context of the built heritage in Belarus during the period of Soviet control and, in more detail, the development of machinery for its protection since independence by particular reference to the capital city of Minsk. It seeks to identify current issues concerned with the development of management approaches for the conservation process which are pertinent to many other eastern and central European countries and the progress made in fulfilling the articles of the Granada and Malta Conventions. Moreover, it examines the action presently being taken by the Council of Europe to assist this process by way of an example of the current policy to support countries undergoing transition to a market economy.