Analysis of the Relationship between Frugal Innovation and Sustainable Development

The relation between Frugal Innovation and Sustainability is a widely discussed topic in current academic literature. To assess the correlation between these two concepts, a sample of the most frequently mentioned Frugal Innovations was selected. The criteria to evaluate the sustainability potential for each of these cases was built upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a global reference indicator. Frugal Innovations among the banking, transport, energy, ICT, water, appliances and healthcare sectors were evaluated. The results suggested a positive contribution and impact of Frugal Innovations towards economic, social and environmental development

Complex Relationships between HIV-1 Integrase and Its Cellular Partners

RNA viruses, in pursuit of genome miniaturization, tend to employ cellular proteins to facilitate their replication. HIV-1, one of the most well-studied retroviruses, is not an exception. There is numerous evidence that the exploitation of cellular machinery relies on nucleic acid-protein and protein-protein interactions. Apart from Vpr, Vif, and Nef proteins that are known to regulate cellular functioning via interaction with cell components, another viral protein, integrase, appears to be crucial for proper virus-cell dialog at different stages of the viral life cycle. The goal of this review is to summarize and systematize existing data on known cellular partners of HIV-1 integrase and their role in the HIV-1 life cycle

The dienogest-related cystitis in women with endometriosis: a prospective, controlled, comparative study

The aim of the study was to examine the severity of clinical symptoms of acute cystitis and the level bacteriuria in female patients who underwent to laparoscopic surgery followed by a postoperative administration of dienogest 2 mg and combined oral contraceptives pills (COCP). One hundred and forty five women who had a laparoscopic surgery prospectively were enrolled. Criteria inclusions were the age from 30 to 45 years old; body mass index (BMI) absence of previous hormonal therapy at least 6 month and recent performed a laparoscopy surgery for endometriosis. The women (n = 35) who had uterine myoma, abnormal coagulation profile; concomitant neoplastic diseases; chronic pelvic inflammatory disease and chronic recurrent cystitis were excluded from study. The female patients were assigned into both groups treatment: group I (n = 54) and group II (control, n = 56) who received dienogest 2 mg once daily and COCP, respectively. During follow-up three female patients of group I were withdrawn due to prolonged genital bleedings. The final analysis included 105 women. The patients of both groups had a low level of bacteriuria <103 CFU/ml without clinical symptoms of acute cystitis before treatment. The level of bacteriuria in-group I significantly increased from 102 to 106 CFU/ml whereas in-group II did not exceed 102 CFU/ml during 4 weeks of hormonal treatment. The differences of values of acute cystitis symptom score (ACSS) for differential, typical, quality of life domains were statistically significant after 4, 8 and 12 weeks of therapy in-group I compared with group II. During 3 months of hormonal treatment with dienogest 2 mg in group I, the acute cystitis developed in 10 (18.5%), in 19 (38%) and in 34 (68%) women at 4, 8 and 12 weeks of follow-up, respectively. All cases of acute cystitis in-group I were successfully treated with fosfomycin trometamol 3 g single dose or nitrofurantoin 50 mg four times a day during 5 days. We concluded that the dienogest might increase the level bacteriuria and severity of clinical symptoms of acute cystitis during a postoperative prophylaxis of endometriosis.Impact statement What is already known on this subject? Dienogest is a 19-nortestosterone derivative progestogen that is highly selective for progesterone receptors with high efficacy for reducing endometriosis-related pelvic pain syndrome. The administration of dienogest is a standard treatment option after laparoscopic excision of endometrial heterotopic tissue with prophylactic purpose. However, there are some adverse events, which are a cause for discontinuation. What do the results of this study add? Despite the low incidence of urinary tract infection (1–5.4%) reported in different studies this study has shown that there was a significant increase of level bacteriuria and severity of clinical symptoms of cystitis in the dienogest group. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? The implications of these findings are that the administration of dienogest may lead to enhancing of clinical symptoms of cystitis and increasing bacteriuria in some women after operative treatment of endometriosis

Giant Fluctuations Induced by Thermal Diffusion in Complex Liquids

The GRADFLEX experiment of ESA has shown that under microgravity conditions a stationary thermodiffusion process is accompanied by giant non-equilibrium fluctuations with size as large as the size of the sample. In the presence of small concentration gradients, the features of the non-equilibrium fluctuations can be described by means of linearized hydrodynamics. However, the linear models are not suitable to describe most cases of applicative interest, such as fluctuations induced by large gradients and under non-stationary conditions. Moreover, presently the investigation of non-equilibrium fluctuations has mainly involved single component fluids and binary mixtures, but recently transport processes in ternary mixtures have attracted increasing interest due to the experiments performed on the International Space Station in the framework of the DCMIX project of ESA. The Giant Fluctuations (NEUF-DIX) project of ESA will investigate non-equilibrium fluctuations during diffusive processes occurring in complex multi-component mixtures, where one of the components is a macromolecule, such as a polymer, a colloid or a protein. Important objectives will be the exploration of the features of the fluctuations under non-ideal conditions, such as large gradients, transient processes, and concentrated samples, and the understanding of how the fluctuations affect the interactions between macromolecules. The project involves the development of a dedicated facility, consisting of an array of shadowgraph optical instruments working in parallel, each one equipped with a thermal gradient cell. Here we outline the design concept of the facility and the results of performance tests performed on a breadboard to evaluate the suitability of the designed instrument to carry out scientific measurements of non-equilibrium concentration fluctuations in space