Vol 23, No 1 (2016)

The review is devoted to the analysis of the latest data on research of hygienic aspects of influence of firm and gaseous components of car exhausts on human and environmental health in modern cities. The history of studying of impact of motor transport exhausts components on human health and environment from 1930 to 2014 has been considered. According to literature data, the most dangerous components of exhausts have been separated: gases (SO3, NOx), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (pyrene, phenantrene, acenaptilene and fluorantene), firm particles of PM1 and PM25 (soot, ashes, oxides and salts of metals). It has been shown that motor transport conversion to new types of fuel (biodiesel, hybrid electric installations, bioethanol) didn't reduce harmful effects of exhausts on ecology. The mechanism of negative effects of engine exhausts, according to literature, consists of induction of a local inflammatory reaction in airways, and then - in a system inflammatory response. The materials of the articles in the Scopus database (www.scopus. com), Web of Science (http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com), Biological Abstracts were used (http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jloptions.cgi? PC=BA), PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/). The review of literature has shown that despite numerous foreign and domestic studies, solutions of the problem of a decrease in negative impact of motor transport exhausts on city ecology and human health was not developed.

In the car assembly conveyor workplaces in summertime, high air temperature up to 30-31°С is observed. The purpose of the present research was establishment of parameters of a regime of work - physiological intensity of the working process (an integrated estimation of density and rate of labor actions), time and conditions of rest protecting workers from sharp exhaustion and overheat. There has been described the method of definition of a level of physiological intensity of physical work in which the risk of thermal overheat and sharp exhaustion of workers in conditions of a heating up microclimate was prevented. Use of the method is shown in terms of development of physiologically safe regimes of work in the car assembly conveyor by air temperature in workplaces 26-31°С. There have been determined variants of admissible combinations of parameters of operating modes (physiological intensity of work; conveyor productivity; total time of regulated breaks in work) and conditions of rest (decreased air temperature in rest points; speed of air movement at rest; a share of time of rest in a sitting position). Admissible physiological intensity of work and productivity in the car assembly conveyor workplaces has been established by air temperature 26-31°С and relative humidity 40-50%.

Preschool age is a period of improvement, personal development, which is characterized by individual features. The importance of the study of age-related characteristics of the emotional sphere of children is determined by the fact that there is a close relationship between emotional and intellectual development. It has been noted that violations in emotional development of preschool children lead to inability of use of other abilities, in particular intelligence, for further development. As a working hypothesis of the study we have taken a provision that boys and girls at senior preschool age had differences in intellectual, emotional and volitional development. The study included 300 preschool children aged 6-7 years in the city of Moscow and the Moscow region. A mandatory condition for inclusion in the survey was a voluntary written informed consent of the child's legal representatives. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage with the help of the psycho-diagnostic techniques, there were assessed the levels of verbal and social intelligence. In the second phase, there were studied the emotional and volitional spheres of the boys and girls. Statistical processing of the data included a comparative analysis of the average group indices, for statistical significance assessment, there was used the t-student test for unrelated samples. It has been found that verbal intelligence of the senior preschool girls in the sphere of associative thinking was higher than in the boys (p = 0.027), and the amount of vocabulary at the beginning of the girls schooling was much bigger. The boys were more aggressive than the girls (p < 0.001), but the girls were more anxious (p = 0.027). In addition, the senior preschool boys had higher arbitrariness of verbal communication than the girls (p < 0.001), they were more intellectually productive in situations of positive emotional reinforcement (p < 0.001). This factor must be considered in the process of training of preschool children, especially in evaluation of their intellectual activity.

Long term consequences of the activities at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (SNTS) twenty years after the test site was closed in relation to inborn abnormalities remain largely unknown. This study aims at assessment of the incidence of inborn abnormalities in general and cardiovascular abnormalities in particular in the Republic of Kazakhstan and in administrative regions of the East Kazakhstan region among children aged 0-14 years using the national official statistical data. All anomalies classified in ICD-10 as Q00-Q99 and inborn anomalies of the cardiovascular system classified as Q20-Q28 registered in 2007-2012 in Kazakhstan were included in the study. The regions were ranked by the mean 6-years incidence rates of inborn abnormalities. Linear regression analysis was applied to assess the trends in the incidence of birth defects in each of the regions in the country and each of the administrative units in the East Kazakhstan region. The results of this ecological study demonstrate that in spite of long-term nuclear testing at SNTS, twenty years after the test site was closed the incidence of inborn abnormalities in general and of the cardiovascular system in particular are among the lowest in the country suggesting that the present impact of the consequences of the SNTS on the incidence inborn abnormalities at the national level is minor compared to other factors. However, regional data clearly indicate that the highest incidence of inborn abnormalities in the region is still registered in the administrative units which were affected the most by the activities at the SNTS.

This is an introductory article about the main methodological principles of research design in health sciences, characteristics of basic types of study designs using practical examples with the description of the methods of sample size calculation and statistical analysis of data. Detailed classification of research designs and basic principles of evidence-based medicine are presented in the article.