Cortical circuits underlying flexible learning

Animals survive and compete in their environment by making adaptive memories of the situations they have encountered. Flexible learning then allows to adjust to the great variety of possible environmental changes. This requires comparison of past and present values of rewards and costs associated with behaviour in order to make a decision whether the default course of behaviour needs to be adjusted to the new circumstances. This complex behaviour involves a variety of brain functions, such as detection of the salience of stimuli and its changes, memory of the history of reinforcement, and cognitive control of behaviour. These functions have most consistently been associated with the subdivisions of medium prefrontal cortex and limbic areas of the brain. Within this context, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a prefrontal area, is of special interest due to its specific position within prefrontal and limbic brain systems. ACC has recently been a focus of extensive research in humans, primates and rodents. However, despite a wealth of descriptive data, and numerous theories about the role of ACC in sensory, motor and cognitive processes, it has not yet been possible to combine current views on the function of ACC in cognition into a coherent model. In my thesis, I explore the role of mouse ACC in flexible learning. I use chemogenetic silencing to locally interfere with the acquisition and consolidation of memory in order to investigate the role of ACC in Pavlovian and non-Pavlovian forms of learning. First, I address the role of ACC in attention set-shifting tasks, which represent a close analogue to the foraging paradigms that have mainly been explored in monkeys. Second, I compare the function of ACC in acquisition and consolidation of single-trial and multi-trial versions of contextual fear conditioning (cFC) learning. By utilising newly available genetic tools, which allow us to selectively silence the group of cells projecting to the area of interest and further manipulate it, I then proceed to a more in-depth study of ACC function within the wider brain network. To this end, I describe in detail the connectivity of ACC with other brain areas, and then address the role of those ACC-based networks in acquisition, consolidation and modification of learning. My results reveal how the function of ACC in supporting flexible learning is embedded dynamically within a specific network of systems, within which specific areas are associated with different forms of subsequent learning. This study provides a comprehensive view of how ACC and the structures monosynaptically connected to it are implicated in the formation of adjustable memories

ESTRATÉGIAS DE VIDA DE ESTUDANTES RUSSAS E EUROPEIAS:: ANÁLISE COMPARATIVA

Contemporary society provides people with various ways of personality development. Young people are most susceptible to changes that occur in economics, politics, and technology. Different types of life strategies are formed and realized by young women and men, and they eventually transform public consciousness in general. The article is devoted to the analysis of life strategies and scenarios of female students living in Russia and European countries. For this purpose, a series of in-depth interviews with girls was conducted, as well as a visual analysis of the accounts of young women on the social network Instagram. Today, the process of westernization is observable – the adoption of Western European structures, practices, and lifestyles by non-European societies and countries has become a significant cultural phenomenon. Thus, based on the data obtained, it is possible to define a life strategy as a system of ideas and guidelines of the individual, aimed at the conscious design of the future. It determines and directs the behavior of individuals, reflecting the idea of the future and life path. A life strategy includes not only orientations, but also ways to achieve and realize certain goals and expectations.A sociedade contemporânea oferece às pessoas várias formas de desenvolvimento da personalidade. Os jovens são os mais susceptíveis às mudanças que ocorrem na economia, na política e na tecnologia. As mulheres e os homens jovens formam e realizam diferentes tipos de estratégias de vida, que acabam por transformar a consciência pública em geral. O artigo é dedicado à análise das estratégias e cenários de vida de estudantes do sexo feminino que vivem na Rússia e em países europeus. Para o efeito, foi realizada uma série de entrevistas em profundidade com raparigas, bem como uma análise visual das contas de jovens mulheres na rede social Instagram. Hoje em dia, o processo de ocidentalização é observável - a adoção de estruturas, práticas e estilos de vida da Europa Ocidental por sociedades e países não europeus tornou-se um fenómeno cultural significativo. Assim, com base nos dados obtidos, é possível definir uma estratégia de vida como um sistema de ideias e directrizes do indivíduo, que visa a conceção consciente do futuro. Determina e orienta o comportamento dos indivíduos, reflectindo a ideia de futuro e de percurso de vida. Uma estratégia de vida inclui não só orientações, mas também formas de alcançar e realizar determinados objectivos e expectativas

Program-modular approach to the coordination of interests of participants of regional water markets (the case of southern regions of Russia)

Relevance. The efficiency of water management is determined by the quality of managerial decision-making. These decisions should ensure the balance of interests of all the actors in regional water markets. At present, in Russia, however, the balance of interests is considered only in macro-level strategies, which leads to the inefficiency of water distribution in regions. The study of the issues of rational distribution of water resources and their use in various industries and spheres of activity is, therefore, particularly relevant.Research objective. This article aims to propose methodology for maintaining the optimal balance between the interests of economic actors in regional water markets.Data and methods. This article proposes a program-modular approach to building a more efficient water management system. It is shown how the proposed methodology based on the incremental model of management can be used for balancing the interests of economic agents (suppliers and consumers of water resources). Results. It is proved that the plurality and divergence of interests of economic agents makes it difficult to manage them and thus precludes social and economic development of territories. The structural-functional analysis of the incremental model reveals various types of connections between the water-retaining capacity of gross regional product and indexes of industrial production for regions of the South Federal District.Conclusions. The prospects of development of water management in regions are associated with ensuring the balance of interests of the water market’s participants. The program-modular approach proposed by the authors combines the administrative and resource potential of regional water management and aligns the goals on the regional level with the more general goals of hydropower modernization. The novelty of our research is that it relies on the incremental model, which, unlike other models of management, leads to an incremental achievement of the desired through certain iterations

CONTENT OF PROTEIN AND GLYCOPROTEINS, THEIR COMPONENTS IN THE ORAL FLUID IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC GASTRITIS, DUODENITIS

In the oral fluid of children with chronic gastritis, duodenitis there is the increased protein content (up to 7.33±0.43 g/l) against the background of the decreasing level of glycoproteins (up to 0.03±0.01 mg/ml). Coefficient of ratio protein / glycoproteins in the oral fluid is increased by a factor of 9510, which has shown the intensive decay of protein-carbohydrate complexes and the increasing content of the protein fragments. In the composition of glycoproteins there is the reduced amount of hexosamines (up to 0.23±0.01 mmol/l), against the background of the increasing sialic acids (up to 0.16±0.01 mmol/l) and fucose (up to 0.87±0.02 mmol/l). Coefficient of ratio of terminal and corpus monosaccharides in the glycoproteins of the oral fluid in patients with chronic gastritis, duodenitis is increased by a factor of 2.41 and 3.34, as compared to the same values in the control group of children, which significantly modifies the functional properties of the protein-carbohydrate complexes

Comparison of vaccination and booster rates and their impact on excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries

AimTo evaluate the effect of vaccination/booster administration dynamics on the reduction of excess mortality during COVID-19 infection waves in European countries.MethodsWe selected twenty-nine countries from the OurWorldInData project database according to their population size of more than one million and the availability of information on dominant SARS-CoV-2 variants during COVID-19 infection waves. After selection, we categorized countries according to their “faster” or “slower” vaccination rates. The first category included countries that reached 60% of vaccinated residents by October 2021 and 70% by January 2022. The second or “slower” category included all other countries. In the first or “faster” category, two groups, “boosters faster’’ and “boosters slower” were created. Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression, and chi-square test for categorical data were used to identify the association between vaccination rate and excess mortality. We chose time intervals corresponding to the dominance of viral variants: Wuhan, Alpha, Delta, and Omicron BA.1/2.Results and discussionThe “faster” countries, as opposed to the “slower” ones, did better in protecting their residents from mortality during all periods of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and even before vaccination. Perhaps higher GDP per capita contributed to their better performance throughout the pandemic. During mass vaccination, when the Delta variant prevailed, the contrast in mortality rates between the “faster” and “slower” categories was strongest. The average excess mortality in the “slower” countries was nearly 5 times higher than in the “faster” countries, and the odds ratio (OR) was 4.9 (95% CI 4.4 to 5.4). Slower booster rates were associated with significantly higher mortality during periods dominated by Omicron BA.1 and BA.2, with an OR of 2.6 (CI 95%. 2.1 to 3.3). Among the European countries we analyzed, Denmark, Norway, and Ireland did best, with a pandemic mortality rate of 0.1% of the population or less. By comparison, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia had a much higher mortality rate of up to 1% of the population.ConclusionThus, slow vaccination and booster administration was a major factor contributing to an order of magnitude higher excess mortality in “slower” European countries compared to more rapidly immunized countries

Unusual Antonymy: Inter-Part-Of-Speech Interaction in English Fictional Discourse

The article focuses on the phenomenon of inter-part-of-speech antonymy and types of inter-part-of-speech antonymic oppositions typical of the English language and represented in authentic sources, in particular, fiction books of English-speaking writers. The paper analyzes cognitive foundation and linguistic sources of the oppositions in question, describes their range within each part of speech as well as contextual means of intensifying the oppositional contrast. The authors argue that the traditional point of view, according to which only words belonging to one and the same part of speech can form antonymic oppositions, is insufficient and claims that inter-part-of-speech antonymy has a semantical and grammatical nature as it is based on the ability of the language to give different categorial form to the same fragments of reality. The results of the research show that practically all works of fiction include inter-part-of-speech antonymic oppositions, which thus can be treated as a regular language phenomenon. The paper contributes to the theory of parts of speech, giving additional information about their interaction and its cognitive basis. It also enriches the theory of antonymy, proposing a wide approach to antonymic oppositions

Selection of optimal reheat temperature in heat recovery boiler at combined heat and power plant with GT-topping

Calculations to determine optimum value of steam reheat temperature in relation to the cycle arrangement of steam turbine power plant with gas turbine topping are conducted in this paper. Operation of T250-240 turbine unit in cogeneration mode has been considered during steam reheat displacement from steam boiler to heat recovery boiler

Twisted polaritonic crystals in thin van der Waals slabs

Polaritons - hybrid light-mater excitations - are very appealing for the confinement of light at the nanoscale. Recently, different kinds of polaritons have been observed in thin slabs of van der Waals (vdW) materials, with particular interest focused on phonon polaritons (PhPs) - lattice vibrations coupled to electromagnetic fields in the mid-infrared spectral range with - in biaxial crystals, such as e.g. MoO3. In particular, hyperbolic PhPs - having hyperbola-like shape of their isofrequency curves - in MoO3 can exhibit ultra-high momenta and strongly directional in-plane propagation, promising novel applications in imaging, sensing or thermal management at the nanoscale and in a planar geometry. However, the excitation and manipulation of in-plane hyperbolic PhPs have not yet been well studied and understood. Here we propose a technological platform for the effective excitation and control of in-plane hyperbolic PhPs based on polaritonic crystals (PCs) - lattices formed by elements separated by distances comparable to the PhPs wavelength -, twisted with respect to the natural vdW crystal axes. In particular, we develop a general analytical theory valid for an arbitrary PC made in a thin biaxial slab. As a practical example, we consider a twisted PC formed by rectangular hole arrays made in MoO3 slab and demonstrate the excitation of Bragg resonances tunable by the twisting angle. Our findings open novel avenues for both fundamental studies of PCs in vdW crystals and the development of mid-infrared sensing and photodetection application

Development of Meat Snack Production Technology Using Herbal Ingredients

The relevance of the topic is obvious: snacks are very common in Russia as a product which is used to satisfy hunger on the go. But their market can be filled with both high and low-grade quality products. To be sure in the type of product, you need to know about raw materials, manufacturing technology, and methods of product identification. Moreover, modern people try to monitor their nutrition. This is evidenced by the development of such areas as functional nutrition. Therefore, snacks should not just be properly prepared, they should meet the standards of healthy nutrition. The aim of the article was to study the composition and properties of pumpkin oil, mustard cake and starter cultures of microorganisms, their influence on the quality indicators of meat snacks, the development of recipes and technologies of meat snacks with vegetable components, and the assessment of their quality, taking into account consumer preferences. Literature sources were analysed and patents were searched. This work will allow us to create competitive meat snacks that combine high consumer and functional properties, and recommend their implementation on an industrial scale at meat processing enterprises. Keywords: meat snacks, meat and vegetable products, herbal ingredients, mustard cake, pumpkin seed oil, starter crop

Comparison of approaches for rational siRNA design leading to a new efficient and transparent method

Current literature describes several methods for the design of efficient siRNAs with 19 perfectly matched base pairs and 2 nt overhangs. Using four independent databases totaling 3336 experimentally verified siRNAs, we compared how well several of these methods predict siRNA cleavage efficiency. According to receiver operating characteristics (ROC) and correlation analyses, the best programs were BioPredsi, ThermoComposition and DSIR. We also studied individual parameters that significantly and consistently correlated with siRNA efficacy in different databases. As a result of this work we developed a new method which utilizes linear regression fitting with local duplex stability, nucleotide position-dependent preferences and total G/C content of siRNA duplexes as input parameters. The new method's discrimination ability of efficient and inefficient siRNAs is comparable with that of the best methods identified, but its parameters are more obviously related to the mechanisms of siRNA action in comparison with BioPredsi. This permits insight to the underlying physical features and relative importance of the parameters. The new method of predicting siRNA efficiency is faster than that of ThermoComposition because it does not employ time-consuming RNA secondary structure calculations and has much less parameters than DSIR. It is available as a web tool called ‘siRNA scales’