Breeding of medicinal and essential oil crops in VILAR: achievements and prospects

This review discusses the main methods of breeding material development, the current state, problems and prospects for medicinal and essential oil plants breeding. The relevance of this area has especially increased due to the sanctions, the resulting shortage of medicinal plants and their low quality, which does not meet the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. To produce a stable plant raw material base, it is necessary to actively develop a breeding process to create new highly productive varieties of medicinal plants resistant to biotic and abiotic environments. In breeding with the use of modern molecular biological methods, related species and generic complexes of the All-Russian Research Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (VILAR) collection can be involved, where there is extensive original genetic material of medicinal, essential oil, rare and endangered species. In the breeding of medicinal and essential oil crops, traditional methods of individual and individual-family selection, polyploidy, chemical mutagenesis and a combination of methods to obtain original breeding material are still promising. VILAR has created more than 90 varieties of medicinal and essential oil crops, most of which have been approved for use throughout the Russian Federation

Calcifediol versus vitamin D3 effects on gait speed and trunk sway in young postmenopausal women: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

UNLABELLED In this double-blind RCT, 4-month treatment with calcifediol compared with vitamin D3 improved gait speed by 18 % among young postmenopausal women. Consistently, change in 25(OH)D blood levels over time were significantly correlated with improvement in gait speed in these women. No effect could be demonstrated for trunk sway. INTRODUCTION The aim of this study is to test the effect of calcifediol compared with vitamin D3 on gait speed and trunk sway. METHODS Twenty healthy postmenopausal women with an average 25(OH)D level of 13.2 ng/ml (SD = ±3.9) and a mean age of 61.5 years (SD = ±7.2) were randomized to either 20 μg of calcifediol or 20 μg (800 IU) of vitamin D3 per day in a double-blind manner. At baseline and at 4 months of follow-up, the same physiotherapist blinded to treatment allocation tested 8-m gait speed and a body sway test battery (Sway star pitch and roll angle plus velocity while walking 8 m, and standing on both legs on a hard and soft surface). All analyses adjusted for baseline measurement, age, and body mass index. RESULTS Mean 25(OH)D levels increased to 69.3 ng/ml (SD = ±9.5) in the calcifediol group and to 30.5 ng/ml (SD = ±5.0) in the vitamin D3 group (p < 0.0001). Women receiving calcifediol compared with vitamin D3 had an 18 % greater improvement in gait speed at 4-month follow-up (p = 0.046) adjusting for baseline gait speed, age, and body mass index. Also, change in gait speed was significantly correlated with change in serum 25(OH)D concentrations (r = 0.5; p = 0.04). Across three tests of trunk sway, there were no consistent differences between groups and no significant correlation between change in 25(OH)D serum concentrations and change in trunk sway. CONCLUSIONS Calcifediol improved gait speed in early postmenopausal women compared with vitamin D3 and change in 25(OH)D level was moderately correlated with improvement in gait speed. A benefit on trunk sway could not be demonstrated

Разработка процесса непрерывного культивирования клеток CHO - продуцентов рекомбинантного фактора свертываемости крови VIII

Perfusion cultivation process for CHO cells producing recombinant B-domen deleted coagulation factor VIII was developed. Cell culture medium and feed supplement were optimized by screening of big panel of prototype media and supplements. Cultivation temperature was optimized for better expression of complex protein as well. Cultivation process was tested in a laboratory-scale perfusion bioreactor. Significant increase of productivity was shown as a result of the development.Проведена разработка процесса перфузионного культивирования продуцента рекомбинантного фактора свертываемости крови VIII, созданного на основе клеток яичников китайского хомячка (СНО). Оптимизирован состав питательной среды, а также температура культивирования продуцента. Осуществлена апробация процесса культивирования в лабораторном биореакторе волнового типа. Показано значительное увеличение выхода активного белка в результате проведенной разработки

Development of continuous cultivation of CHO cells producing recombinant blood coagulation factor VIII

Perfusion cultivation process for CHO cells producing recombinant B-domen deleted coagulation factor VIII was developed. Cell culture medium and feed supplement were optimized by screening of big panel of prototype media and supplements. Cultivation temperature was optimized for better expression of complex protein as well. Cultivation process was tested in a laboratory-scale perfusion bioreactor. Significant increase of productivity was shown as a result of the development

Pinch modes in the SPEED2 plasma focus

Deuterium discharges in the SPEED2 plasma focus (80 kJ, 200 kV, 2 MA, 400 ns) have been found unexpectedly stable within the operational regime as a neutron source. Only at higher filling pressures (above 6 mbar) sometimes m=0 instabilities appeared in the pinch column, especially in discharges of lower efficiency (moderate dynamics and neutron yield). Enhancing the electromagnetic radiation by doping these discharges with heavy gases (e.g. neon, argon) distinctly two pinch modes are produced, the micropinch mode (MPM) or the stable column mode (SCM), with a transition regime where the initial SCM is followed by the MPM. Micropinches are local radiative collapses initiated by m=0 instabilities of low-energy- density pinch plasmas. These instabilities and the successive micropinches can be suppressed by kinetic deuterons produced during dynamical compression of high-energy-density deuterium plasma sheaths. Depending on the relaxation of this fast deuteron component the pinch column can be stabilized for several tens of nanoseconds. While the short-lived (appr. 1 ns) micropinches erratically appear as point-like successive flashes along the pinch axis with temperatures about 1 keV and about solid density the reproducible SCM, optimized with respect to the compression ratio, forms a powerful linear radiation source of temperatures and densities similar to the MPM. The SCM needs powerful (fast) drivers in order to use the kinetic ion stabilization, but not necessarily MA currents as available from the SPEED2 driver. This opens the possibility to establish the SCM also in compact experiments like SPEED3 (8 kJ, 80 kV, 0.8 MA, 300 ns) or even SPEED4 (2 kJ, 40 kV, 250 kA, 300 ns)

Key exchange protocols over noncommutative rings. The case of End(Zp × Zp2)

In this paper we introduce some key exchange protocols over noncommutative rings. These protocols use some polynomials with coefficients in the center of the ring as part of the private keys. We give some examples over the ring End(Zp × Zp2), where p is a prime number. We also give a security analysis of the proposed protocols and conclude that the only possible attack is by brute force.Partially supported by Spanish grant MTM2011-24858 of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Gobierno de España