War in Ukraine heralds a more personalised and politicised science diplomacy

Discussing recent trends in European science diplomacy, Kapil Patil and Maria Rentetzi argue that the post-Cold War consensus of high-level co-operation is giving way to more fractured and politicised model grounded in geo-political competition

‘Zero-error’ versus ‘good-enough’: towards a ‘frugality’ narrative for defence procurement policy

The procurement decision-making process for complex military product systems (CoPS) has significant implications for military end-users, suppliers, and exchequers. This study examines the usefulness of adopting a fast and frugal decision-making approach for the acquisition of military CoPS. Defence procurement environment is complex. On the one hand, there are uncertainties and severe resource constraints due to regularly changing threat perceptions, limited flow of information about new technologies, and the growing demand to reduce defence related expenses. On the other hand, several stakeholders remain pre-occupied with the demand for ‘zero-error’ technologies. In such a setting, recurrent cost overruns and delays in supply are common in defence procurement programmes, across countries. Taking the illustrative examples of the missile system, fighter jet, and radar system acquisitions in India, we elucidate on ‘optimising’ versus ‘satisficing’ dynamics in the procurement decisions. The paper argues that a fast and frugal decision-making process by relying on judgement, experiential knowledge, and intuitive learning might make procurement processes, adaptively, more efficient. Such an approach would enable a ‘good enough’ technology to be inducted, and improved upon, through regular feedback from the actual environment. The study has implications for policy scholarships on innovation policy instruments under uncertainty

Effect of sugars on production of β-sitosterol from in vitro callus culture of Boerhaavia diffusa L.

The establishment of friable callus was achieved on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium fortified with 18 μM of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid in combination with 2 μM of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). The effect of different sugars such as 3% sucrose, 3% glucose and 3% galactose on the growth of callus tissue and β-sitosterol accumulation was tested. Quantification of β-sitosterol was carried out with the help of high performance liquid chromatography. High growth of callus tissue was observed on MS medium, containing sucrose and glucose as carbon sources and maximum β-sitosterol content was observed in 60 days old callus tissue with 3% glucose as carbon source

Modified Surgical Treatment for Achilles Tendon Rupture Secondary to Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy Using Midline Dorsal Approach

Objective: To assess the pain relief and functional outcomes of patients who undergo surgical management of Achilles tendon rupture secondary to insertional Achilles tendinopathy and associated conditions using a midline dorsal approach. Methods: This prospective observational study included 30 patients diagnosed with Achilles tendon rupture secondary to insertional Achilles tendinopathy. This study recorded risk factors, predisposing factors, and co-morbidities for all cases. Pain relief and functional improvement were assessed by comparing Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores and American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Score (AOFAS) at the time of presentation and at the final follow-up. This study conducted statistical analysis using SPSS 21.0 software, with a significance level of p<0.05. Results: Of the participants, 17 (56.67%) were male and 13 (43.13%) were female, resulting in a male-to-female ratio of 1:0.76. The mean age of male and female patients was comparable (p=0.7515). The majority of patients (60%) were overweight, while 9 (30%) were obese, and 3 (10%) had a normal body mass index. This study observed a significant reduction in pain and functional improvement in the studied cases, as evidenced by a statistically significant reduction in VAS scores and improvements in AOFAS. Eight (26.66%) patients experienced minor complications that could be managed conservatively, but no major complications were observed. Conclusion: Modified surgical treatment of Achilles tendon rupture secondary to insertional Achilles tendinopathy using a midline dorsal approach leads to significant improvements in pain and functional outcomes, with an acceptable complication rate

Challenges in path planning of high energy density beams for additive manufacturing

As there are no cutting forces in High Energy Density (HED) beams like lasers and Electron Beam (EB), their speeds are limited only by their positioning systems. On the other hand, as the entire matrix of the 3D printed part has to be addressed by the thin beam in multiple passes in multiple layers, they have to travel several kilometers in tiny motions. Therefore, the acceleration of the motion system becomes the limiting factor than velocity or precision. The authors have proposed an area-filling strategy for EB to fill the layer with optimal squares to exploit analog and hardware computing. 3D printing requires uniform intensity slanged as flat hat shape whereas the default is Gaussian. The authors have proposed an optimal algorithm that takes into account the maximum velocity and acceleration for achieving a flat hat without any compromise on productivity

Pharmacological Properties, Molecular Mechanisms, and Pharmaceutical Development of Asiatic Acid: A Pentacyclic Triterpenoid of Therapeutic Promise

Asiatic acid (AA) is a naturally occurring aglycone of ursane type pentacyclic triterpenoids. It is abundantly present in many edible and medicinal plants including Centella asiatica that is a reputed herb in many traditional medicine formulations for wound healing and neuropsychiatric diseases. AA possesses numerous pharmacological activities such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory and regulates apoptosis that attributes its therapeutic effects in numerous diseases. AA showed potent antihypertensive, nootropic, neuroprotective, cardioprotective, antimicrobial, and antitumor activities in preclinical studies. In various in vitro and in vivo studies, AA found to affect many enzymes, receptors, growth factors, transcription factors, apoptotic proteins, and cell signaling cascades. This review aims to represent the available reports on therapeutic potential and the underlying pharmacological and molecular mechanisms of AA. The review also also discusses the challenges and prospects on the pharmaceutical development of AA such as pharmacokinetics, physicochemical properties, analysis and structural modifications, and drug delivery. AA showed favorable pharmacokinetics and found bioavailable following oral or interaperitoneal administration. The studies demonstrate the polypharmacological properties, therapeutic potential and molecular mechanisms of AA in numerous diseases. Taken together the evidences from available studies, AA appears one of the important multitargeted polypharmacological agents of natural origin for further pharmaceutical development and clinical application. Provided the favorable pharmacokinetics, safety, and efficacy, AA can be a promising agent or adjuvant along with currently used modern medicines with a pharmacological basis of its use in therapeutics

Lifestyle Management of Hypertension: International Society of Hypertension Position Paper Endorsed by the World Hypertension League and European Society of Hypertension

Hypertension, defined as persistently elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP) \u3e140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at least 90 mmHg (International Society of Hypertension guidelines), affects over 1.5 billion people worldwide. Hypertension is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events (e.g. coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke) and death. An international panel of experts convened by the International Society of Hypertension College of Experts compiled lifestyle management recommendations as first-line strategy to prevent and control hypertension in adulthood. We also recommend that lifestyle changes be continued even when blood pressure-lowering medications are prescribed. Specific recommendations based on literature evidence are summarized with advice to start these measures early in life, including maintaining a healthy body weight, increased levels of different types of physical activity, healthy eating and drinking, avoidance and cessation of smoking and alcohol use, management of stress and sleep levels. We also discuss the relevance of specific approaches including consumption of sodium, potassium, sugar, fibre, coffee, tea, intermittent fasting as well as integrated strategies to implement these recommendations using, for example, behaviour change-related technologies and digital tools

Lifestyle management of hypertension: International Society of Hypertension position paper endorsed by the World Hypertension League and European Society of Hypertension

Hypertension, defined as persistently elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP) >140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at least 90 mmHg (International Society of Hypertension guidelines), affects over 1.5 billion people worldwide. Hypertension is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events (e.g. coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke) and death. An international panel of experts convened by the International Society of Hypertension College of Experts compiled lifestyle management recommendations as first-line strategy to prevent and control hypertension in adulthood. We also recommend that lifestyle changes be continued even when blood pressure-lowering medications are prescribed. Specific recommendations based on literature evidence are summarized with advice to start these measures early in life, including maintaining a healthy body weight, increased levels of different types of physical activity, healthy eating and drinking, avoidance and cessation of smoking and alcohol use, management of stress and sleep levels. We also discuss the relevance of specific approaches including consumption of sodium, potassium, sugar, fibre, coffee, tea, intermittent fasting as well as integrated strategies to implement these recommendations using, for example, behaviour change-related technologies and digital tools

Lifestyle management of hypertension: International Society of Hypertension position paper endorsed by the World Hypertension League and European Society of Hypertension

Hypertension, defined as persistently elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP) &gt;140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at least 90 mmHg (International Society of Hypertension guidelines), affects over 1.5 billion people worldwide. Hypertension is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events (e.g. coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke) and death. An international panel of experts convened by the International Society of Hypertension College of Experts compiled lifestyle management recommendations as first-line strategy to prevent and control hypertension in adulthood. We also recommend that lifestyle changes be continued even when blood pressure-lowering medications are prescribed. Specific recommendations based on literature evidence are summarized with advice to start these measures early in life, including maintaining a healthy body weight, increased levels of different types of physical activity, healthy eating and drinking, avoidance and cessation of smoking and alcohol use, management of stress and sleep levels. We also discuss the relevance of specific approaches including consumption of sodium, potassium, sugar, fibre, coffee, tea, intermittent fasting as well as integrated strategies to implement these recommendations using, for example, behaviour change-related technologies and digital tools