Now they’re taking direct action to be sure that the person running Ukraine is going to be friendly. They tried to do it indirectly through pro-Russian politicians, and that didn’t work. I think their objective is control over Ukraine. GAZETTE: Do you think Russia would settle for anything short of regime change? It’s always good to be talking, but I would be surprised if this could get resolved in a couple of days over the negotiating table, especially while the Russians are still attacking. This situation can be negotiated, but it can’t be negotiated in a way where Ukraine gives up sovereignty, which I think is ultimately what the Russians want. That is the way this conflict is going to end, sooner or later. My understanding is that now they’re going to meet on the border between Belarus and Ukraine.

VACROUX: Ukraine has said from the beginning that they’re willing to talk, but that they didn’t want to do it in Minsk - which is where Russia had proposed - given that Russia is sending troops through Belarus. What does that tell us about the Zelensky government’s assessment of the situation? GAZETTE: Ukraine has agreed to talks with Russia. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. Alexandra Vacroux, the executive director of Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, has been following the crisis moment to moment. A valid immune response required one of two things: A mucus sample flushed from a participant's nasal passage had to show signs of viral replication or blood work needed to show new levels of the rhinovirus-fighting antibody.The five-day-old war in Ukraine is shifting rapidly, with Ukrainian fighters slowing the Russian advance into major cities, international condemnation and sanctions mounting, and more than 300,000 Ukrainians leaving the country.

The researchers dripped a harmless dye into participants' noses and waited to see how long it took to reach the back of their throats longer than 35 minutes tallied as a sign of illness. Ten grams or more counted as a sign of illness. After viral exposure, scientists collected used tissues daily and, essentially, weighed the snot. Signs of illness revolved around mucus production. In order to officially register as 'sick,' participants had to exhibit one 'objective sign of illness' and one other immune response. If they found high, preexisting levels of the protective protein, they removed the participant from the study so that prior immunity would not bias the infection rates of the group. To ensure the most accurate results, researchers drew participants' blood before the viral exposure to test for levels of rhinovirus antibody, a defensive agent in the immune system that recognizes and attacks rhinovirus. They then closed off the hotel floor for 5 days, letting the hosts' immune system do the rest. Scientists quarantined participants in a hotel and gave them nose drops containing rhinovirus-the virus responsible for the common cold. Aric Prather, lead author of the study and a sleep researcher at UC San Francisco, says that he and his colleagues associate the wrist actigraphy data with being awake-if during a reported sleep period, the wrist band records movement, they take that as an indication of wakefulness, and subtract the time spent moving from the hours asleep. They also wore small watchlike devices that use a technique called wrist actigraphy to monitor movement (much like a Fitbit tracks activity) while they slept. Participants were asked to record the times at which they went to bed and woke up. In a carefully controlled two-part experiment, scientists began by collecting nightly sleep data on 164 healthy individuals for 1 week. 'In this particular case, there's a hard clinical outcome showing and susceptibility to the common cold.' 'It's very nice to see an experiment looking at sleep as an important regulator for specific antiviral immune responses,' says Michael Irwin, a psychoneuroimmunologist at University of California (UC), Los Angeles, who is not involved with the study. For the first time, a team of scientists reports that they have locked down the link experimentally, showing that sleep-deprived individuals are more than four times more likely to catch a cold than those who are well-rested. But the connection relied largely on self-reported, subjective surveys-until now. Their stance is a sensible one-skimping on sleep weakens the body's natural defense system, leaving it more vulnerable to viruses.

Moms and sleep researchers alike have stressed the importance of solid shuteye for years, especially when it comes to fighting off the common cold.

Russian sleep expert