Analyzing sensitivity of the energy metabolism in the tissues of the heart, liver, kidney, and blood lymphocytes in rats to the effect of local vibration and pharmacological protection by a succinate-containing antihypoxanth

Introduction. Modern technological processes that generate ultra- and infrasound, electromagnetic, vibration-noise radiation significantly exceed the background effects and inevitably create an unfavorable technogenic load on the human body. A special place is occupied by vibration, primarily associated with such professional groups as mining enterprises, gold and diamond processing plants, aircraft plants, thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants, and aluminum industry enterprises. Vibration exposure leads to a number of biochemical disorders in the homeostasis system. Mitochondrial dysfunctions are among the leading elements in the hierarchy of pathogenesis of many pathological syndromes and diseases. The aim of the study was an experimental analysis of tissue-specific features of the myocardium, kidneys, liver energy production system activity as well as the enzyme status of rat lymphocytes in relation to the activity of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) on the background of 7 episodes of local vibration with a frequency of 27-30 Hz for 90 minutes daily before and after protection with succinate-containing antihypoxant "Yantar-cardio" at a dose of 100 mg/kg/day. Materials and methods. The study of the energy-dependent reactions of the native mitochondria of the organs was carried out by the polarographic method using a closed Clark-type membrane electrode. The activity of SDH of rat blood lymphocytes was studied by a modified method of quantitative cytochemical analysis. Results. Functional rearrangement in the respiratory chain (RC) of the mitochondria confirmed the NAD-dependent site's inhibition and activation of the oxidation system of endogenous succinic acid, most pronounced in the myocardial tissue. On the vibration background, the specific SDH activity of lymphocytes (Q) significantly increased by 52%, and the variability (V) - by three times. The use of "Yantar-cardio" limited the growth rate of endogenous respiration of the most significant in the heart (70%, p<0.05), restored oxidative and conjugating activity NAD-dependent link of RC, improve the structure and condition of the cell population of lymphocytes based on their energy status and warned the mismatch of the leading parameters of the population variability of the cellular pool of blood lymphocytes in experimental animals. Conclusions. The intensity of vibration-mediated bioenergetic hypoxia in the form of inhibition of the NAD-dependent link of the respiratory chain and activation of the endogenous succinic acid oxidation system is tissue-specific and is most pronounced in the myocardial tissue. The succinic acid oxidation system is highly sensitive to vibration effects and a pharmacological drug that supports the function of RC under conditions of the stress of the homeostatic functions of tissues involved in the pathological process.

Dopaminergic signalling modulates reward-driven music memory consolidation

Previously, we provided causal evidence for a dopamine-dependent effect of intrinsic reward on memory during self-regulated learning (Ripollés et al., 2016; Ripollés et al., 2018). Here, we further investigated the dopamine-dependent link between reward and memory by focusing on one of the most iconic abstract rewards in humans: music. Twenty-nine healthy participants listened to unfamiliar excerpts—which had to be remembered following a consolidation period—after the intake of a dopaminergic antagonist, a dopaminergic precursor, and a placebo across three separated sessions. The intervention modulated the pleasantness experienced during music-listening and memory recognition of the presented songs (i.e., lower with the antagonist, higher with the precursor) in individuals with higher sensitivity to musical reward. Our work highlights the flexibility of the human dopaminergic system, which is able to enhance memory formation not only through explicit and/or primary reinforcers but also via intrinsic, abstract, or aesthetic rewards of different natures.

Multiclass, Multicriteria Dynamic Traffic Assignment with Path-Dependent Link Cost and Entropy-Based Risk Preference

Challenges arise in dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) when heterogeneous users evaluate choices on the basis of multiple interrelated criteria such as travel time and travel time uncertainty. This paper proposes a density-based formulation along with a stochastic quasigradient projection (SQGP) solution scheme with the aid of a traffic simulator. Path-dependent link cost is proposed to allow for the objective function formulation and more tractable analysis. The criteria in the discussion and the case study are travel time (link-additive), monetary cost (non additive), and travel time uncertainty (path-dependent link-additive). An information entropy-based uncertainty measure is proposed because of concerns about using conventional measures such as variability and reliability. The case study shows stochastic and efficient convergence, demonstrates the ability of SQGP to bypass local optima, and exemplifies the significant effect of using path-independent and path-dependent link costs to forecast traffic pattern and toll revenue. The results also suggest that a pricing strategy aimed at optimizing travel time and reliability for different user classes should consider travel time correlations between toll segments and the adjacent no-toll segments if enumerating paths is practically infeasible.