Decrease of vanillin sucrose intake by victorious and defeated mice: development of anhedonia?

Hedonic reactions to various rewards play a key role in various forms of motivated behavior. The influence of repeated experience of social victories or defeats in daily agonistic interactions between male mice on voluntary consumption of vanillin sucrose solution used as hedonic reinforcer was studied. Intake of vanillin sucrose solution was shown to decrease in the winners and losers exposed to social confrontations as compared with the controls. Three days of deprivation failed to restore the intake of vanillin sucrose solution to the control level in the losers and did so in the winners. The results obtained imply that similar reaction of animals to a hedonic non-drug reinforcer may have different motivational origin depending on positive or negative social experience

Experimental rationale for the use of fluids with different redox potential as a basis for infusion therapy

Objectives: To study the parameters of redox potential (ORP or Red-Ox) and pH of infusion solutions. To identify the general biological properties of ionized liquids with different ORP when administered by different methods to experimental animals and when applied to the wound surface. To study the effects of infusion therapy with solutions based on ionized fluids with various ORP in anaphylactic shock, bacterial sepsis, alcoholic hepatitis, dehydration, and skin injurie

Estimation of synchronous generator participation in low-frequency oscillations damping based on synchronized phasor measurements

Large-scale centralized power systems interconnected by weak tie-lines is a typical feature of the state-of-the-industry power engineering. Another trend is distributed generation units integration with the resulting decrease of power system inertia constant and increasing sensitivity to small disturbances. In particular, in the case of significant power imbalance, periodic low-frequency oscillations of power system performance parameters may arise. Low frequency oscillations in power systems are inherently non-linear and non-stationary processes representing a superposition of numerous rotating masses movement components having mutual influence in a power region or power center. These situations imply the crucial role of monitoring each generator damping capability which is determined by the adjustment of the system regulators in use. To estimate the synchronous generator capability to maintain synchronous operation under deviating frequency and load angle conditions synchronizing torque and corresponding synchronizing power are proposed to be used. The possibility to determine the synchronous machine synchronizing power is subject to the presence of the load angle variation data with the techniques for defining load angle without direct measurement using a system of assumptions have been analyzed. Numerous simulations have shown that the effect of assumptions can be evaluated as acceptable. The main focus of the paper is the analysis of synchronizing power corresponding to the actual generator involved in the oscillations which had arisen after a disturbance in the Unified Energy System of Russia. The supposed cause of the oscillations is improper automatic excitation controller operation. © 2014 WIT Press.International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering;International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning;WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environmen

Основні аспекти результативного проведення внутрішніх аудитів системи енергетичного менеджменту в закладах охорони здоров’я

Aim. To analyze the main components of conducting and forming recommendations for the effective implementation of internal audits of the energy management system in healthcare institutions. Materials and methods. To achieve the goal, we applied such methods as informative, retrospective, analytical ones based on the study of scientific literature, materials of Internet-resources and our own conclusions regarding the results of the work carried out. Results and discussion. The article analyzes the main aspects of effective implementation of internal audits of the energy management system in healthcare institutions. It has been shown that internal audits are not conducted effectively and do not add the expected value. The causes for low performance have been analyzed and systematized. It has been proven that the problem of improving the effectiveness of internal audits of the energy management system should be solved systematically, using the methods and approaches developed by the authors and proposed in the article. Conclusions. Internal audits of the energy management system should be given closer attention in each healthcare institution since a properly organized audit process is an effective tool for analyzing the energy management system and provides important and relevant information for timely corrective and preventive actions.Метою роботи є аналіз основних складових проведення та формування рекомендацій щодо результативного здійснення внутрішніх аудитів системи енергетичного менеджменту в закладах охорони здоров’я. Матеріали та методи. Для досягнення визначеної мети нами було застосовано методи: інформаційний, ретроспективний, аналітичний, засновані на дослідженні наукової літератури, матеріалів Інтернет-ресурсів, а також на власних висновках щодо результатів проведеної роботи. Результати та їх обговорення. У статті проаналізовано основні аспекти результативного здійснення внутрішніх аудитів системи енергетичного менеджменту в закладах охорони здоров’я. З’ясовано, що внутрішні аудити наразі не є результативні й не додають очікуваної цінності. Причини низької результативності проаналізовано і систематизовано. Доведено, що проблему підвищення результативності внутрішніх аудитів системи енергетичного менеджменту треба розв’язувати системно, із застосуванням розроблених авторами і запропонованих у статті методів і підходів. Висновки. Внутрішнім аудитам системи енергетичного менеджменту треба приділяти більш пильну увагу в кожному закладі охорони здоров’я, адже правильно організований процес проведення аудитів є дієвим інструментом аналізування системи енергоменеджменту і надає важливу й актуальну інформацію для своєчасного вжиття коригувальних і запобіжних дій

Molecular implications of prolonged aggression experience: Th, Dat1, Snca and Bdnf gene expression in the ventral tegmental area of the victorious male mice

Th, Dat1, Snca and Bdnf were the genes whose mRNA levels in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain were measured in male mice that were victorious in 20 daily agonistic interactions and in a group of such victorious mice that had later not been allowed to fight for 14 days. This experiment demonstrated increased Th, Dat1 and Snca but not Bdnf mRNA levels in the former group as compared to the controls. In the latter group, the expression of the Th and Dat1 genes was still enhanced, while the level of Snca mRNA did not differ from that in the controls. These findings suggest that positive fighting experience enhances the expression of the genes concerned with dopaminergic systems and this enhanced expression is preserved for a long time afterwards. Significant positive correlations were found between the level of aggression and Th and Snca mRNA levels in the winners