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Conceptual provisions on the directions of cost optimization of energy industry enterprises on the basis of system, information and project approaches are proposed, which provide for the implementation of procedures for diagnosis and optimization of suboptimal costs and control of the implementation of relevant projects. Diagnosis of suboptimal costs of energy companies is proposed to be carried out using a comprehensive approach to the diagnosis of suboptimal costs based on a combination of information-logical, descriptive-analytical and economic-mathematical models of enterprise analysis, as well as full analysis (vertical and horizontal) of financial statements including P&L, analysis of Cash Flow and financial balance of the enterprise. Applying the appropriate approach allows you to identify the costs that the company can optimize without affecting the quality of electricity and without violating other aspects of the company, which frees up the company to upgrade equipment, additional logistics, reduce electricity costs and implement other projects in within the portfolio. To optimize the costs of energy companies, an appropriate project-oriented approach is proposed, which is based on the use of the method of forming a portfolio of optimization projects using a combination of WSJF model and 6 sigma matrix. The uniqueness of the approach lies in the synergy of the proposed tools and methods and their implementation for energy companies. The proposed approach allows to form a portfolio of interconnected projects, which allows to achieve better financial results through synergies between projects and saves energy companies through more efficient use of its financial resources. Implementation of conceptual provisions on the areas of cost optimization of energy companies allows to reduce the cost of electricity, losses of enterprises and increase their profitability by reinvesting savings in cost optimization projects. Optimization is achieved by diagnosing those costs that can be reduced without affecting quality and in which it makes sense to invest from an economic point of view.

The paper presents the results of the comparative characteristics of the use of various bone-plastic materials for mastoidoplasty. The study included 30 patients who underwent an open-type sanitizing operation with mastoidoplasty with osteoplastic materials. When comparing drugs, the following criteria were used: 1) convenience of modeling the material; 2) the course of the wound process; 3) osseointegration - the process of formation of "new bone tissue (CT of the temporal bones 6 and 12 months). As a result, it was confirmed that the samples of the main groups of bone replacements studied by us. preparations (biositalls, composite materials and β- tricalcium phosphates) can be successfully used in mastoidoplasty after open types of sanitizing operations on the middle ear.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is being investigated for a number of psychiatric indications, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Preclinical studies continue to be a cornerstone for the development of new DBS applications. We investigate whether DBS delivered to the infralimbic cortex (IL), a region involved in mechanisms of stress resiliency, may counter behavioral abnormalities in rats that present persistent extinction deficits and long-term anxiety after exposure to fear conditioning. Rats undergoing fear conditioning/extinction were segregated into weak and strong extinction groups (WE >70% or SE

Objectives Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) has been either approved or is currently under investigation for a number of psychiatric disorders. Materials and Methods We review clinical and preclinical concepts as well as the neurocircuitry that may be of relevance for the implementation of DBS in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Results PTSD is a chronic and debilitating illness associated with dysfunction in well-established neural circuits, including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Although most patients often improve with medications and/or psychotherapy, approximately 20–30% are considered to be refractory to conventional treatments. In other psychiatric disorders, DBS has been investigated in treatment-refractory patients. To date, preclinical work suggests that stimulation at high frequency delivered at particular timeframes to different targets, including the amygdala, ventral striatum, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex may improve fear extinction and anxiety-like behavior in rodents. In the only clinical report published so far, a patient implanted with electrodes in the amygdala has shown striking improvements in PTSD symptoms. Conclusions Neuroimaging, preclinical, and preliminary clinical data suggest that the use of DBS for the treatment of PTSD may be practical but the field requires further investigation.

Although medications and psychotherapy are often effective for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 20–30% of patients do not respond to these conventional therapies. In psychiatry, DBS has been either approved or is currently under investigation for different disorders. At present, whether DBS may be used to treat PTSD remains unknown. Preclinical research may provide the scientific rationale for helping conceive and further improve such trials. Some of the animal models commonly used to date are more suitable for investigating mechanisms of anxiety and fear than the long-lasting behavior that characterized PTSD. That said, mechanisms and neurocircuits involved in paradigms such as fear conditioning and extinction share several common features with those of PTSD. In this article, we review preclinical studies in which electrical stimulation has been delivered to animal models of PTSD-like behavior. In those studies, commonly targeted regions were the basolateral amygdala, ventral striatum, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Overall, stimulation delivered at high frequencies to most of these targets improved fear extinction and anxiety-like behavior. Though further research is certainly needed, promising findings from DBS studies in animals are encouraging and suggest a positive future perspective for the field.

Most of the available preclinical models of PTSD have focused on isolated behavioural aspects and have not considered individual variations in response to stress. We employed behavioural criteria to identify and characterize a subpopulation of rats that present several features analogous to PTSD-like states after exposure to classical fear conditioning. Outbred Sprague-Dawley rats were segregated into weak- and strong-extinction groups on the basis of behavioural scores during extinction of conditioned fear responses. Animals were subsequently tested for anxiety-like behaviour in the open-field test (OFT), novelty suppressed feeding (NSF) and elevated plus maze (EPM). Baseline plasma corticosterone was measured prior to any behavioural manipulation. In a second experiment, rats underwent OFT, NSF and EPM prior to being subjected to fear conditioning to ascertain whether or not pre-stress levels of anxiety-like behaviours could predict extinction scores. We found that 25% of rats exhibit low extinction rates of conditioned fear, a feature that was associated with increased anxiety-like behaviour across multiple tests in comparison to rats showing strong extinction. In addition, weak-extinction animals showed low levels of corticosterone prior to fear conditioning, a variable that seemed to predict extinction recall scores. In a separate experiment, anxiety measures taken prior to fear conditioning were not predictive of a weak-extinction phenotype, suggesting that weak-extinction animals do not show detectable traits of anxiety in the absence of a stressful experience. These findings suggest that extinction impairment may be used to identify stress-vulnerable rats, thus providing a useful model for elucidating mechanisms and investigating potential treatments for PTSD.

Background Medial forebrain bundle (MFB) deep brain stimulation (DBS) is currently being investigated in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Striking features of this therapy are the large number of patients who respond to treatment and the rapid nature of the antidepressant response. Objective To study antidepressant-like behavioral responses, changes in regional brain activity, and monoamine release in rats receiving MFB DBS. Methods Antidepressant-like effects of MFB stimulation at 100 μA, 90 μs and either 130 Hz or 20 Hz were characterized in the forced swim test (FST). Changes in the expression of the immediate early gene (IEG) zif268 were measured with in situ hybridization and used as an index of regional brain activity. Microdialysis was used to measure DBS-induced dopamine and serotonin release in the nucleus accumbens. Results Stimulation at parameters that approximated those used in clinical practice, but not at lower frequencies, induced a significant antidepressant-like response in the FST. In animals receiving MFB DBS at high frequency, increases in zif268 expression were observed in the piriform cortex, prelimbic cortex, nucleus accumbens shell, anterior regions of the caudate/putamen and the ventral tegmental area. These structures are involved in the neurocircuitry of reward and are also connected to other brain areas via the MFB. At settings used during behavioral tests, stimulation did not induce either dopamine or serotonin release in the nucleus accumbens. Conclusions These results suggest that MFB DBS induces an antidepressant-like effect in rats and recruits structures involved in the neurocircuitry of reward without affecting dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens.

The default mode network (DMN) describes a distributed network of brain regions that are predominantly activated and engaged during periods of spontaneous, stimulus independent thought (i.e., at rest) and remain quiescent during attention-demanding, goal-directed tasks. Replicated evidence in functional neuroimaging studies suggests that midline cortical and subcortical brain regions responsible for memory, self-relevant emotional and mental processes, as well as information integration comprise the DMN. The DMN is posited to represent self-referential mental activity via a dynamic interplay of cognitive and emotional processes by integrating information from the external environment with introspective thoughts to generate an autobiographical concept of the self. It has been amply documented that irregularities in the DMN and its functional connectivity are associated with various neuropsychiatric disorders. Moreover, accumulating evidence also suggests that individuals with select medical disorders (i.e., metabolic disorders) demonstrate alterations in DMN activity and functional connectivity. However, there is a paucity of data evaluating whether individuals with metabolically-based medical conditions, exhibiting altered DMN activity and functional connectivity, are at increased risk for developing neuropsychiatric disorders. Likewise, potential mechanisms (e.g., altered brain metabolism, insulin resistance) mediating these changes and their implications for novel treatment approaches have yet to be elucidated. Taken together, the overarching aim of this review is to provide a synthetic overview that suggests that this neural circuit may represent a common (or convergent) substrate affected in individuals with select neuropsychiatric and metabolic disorders.