LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Efficiency of direct and indirect shoot organogenesis, molecular profiling, secondary metabolite production and antioxidant activity of micropropagated Ceropegia santapaui

Ceropegias has acquired significant importance due to their medicinal properties, edible tubers, and its ornamental flowers. The aim of this study was to optimize direct shoot organogenesis (DSO), indirect shoot organogenesis (ISO) and plant regeneration of threatened medicinal plant Ceropegia santapaui, followed by analysis of genetic status and biochemical characterization of micropropagated plantlets. For optimization, cotyledonary nodes and cotyledons were used as source of explants in DSO and ISO respectively. The highest frequency of regeneration (88.0 %) for DSO with 8.1 ± 0.6 shoots per explant was obtained from cotyledonary nodes cultured on Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) medium containing 2.0 mg L−1 2iP. The best response for callus induction and proliferation was achieved with 1.5 mg L−1 PR (picloram) in which 97.5 % of cultures produced an average of 913 ± 10.9 mg (fresh weight) of callus. The highest frequency of shoot formation (92.5 %) with an average of 19.7 ± 0.3 shoots in ISO was obtained when calli were transferred to MS medium supplemented with 2.5 mg L−1 BAP and 0.4 mg L−1 IBA. Regenerated shoots were best rooted in half-strength MS medium with 2.0 mg L−1 NAA. Plantlets successfully acclimatized were morphologically indistinguishable from the source plant. Micropropagated plantlets subjected to random amplified polymorphic DNA and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) marker based profiling reveled uniform banding pattern in DSO-derived plantlets which was similar to mother plant. ISSR fingerprints of ISO-derived plants showed low variation. Method of regeneration, plant part and solvent system significantly affected the levels of total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity. Assay of antioxidant activity of different tissues revealed that significantly higher antioxidant activity was observed in ISO-derived tissues than DSO-derived and mother tissues. RP-HPLC analysis of micropropagated plantlets showed the presence of three major phenolic compounds which were similar to those detected in mother plant. Rapid multiplication rate, genetic stability and biochemical parameter ensures the efficacy of the protocol developed for the propagation of this threatened medicinal plant.
Three-dimensional evaluation of soft tissue change gradients after mandibular setback surgery in skeletal Class III malocclusion.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether mandibular setback surgery (MSS) for Class III patients would produce gradients of three-dimensional (3D) soft tissue changes in the vertical and transverse aspects.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
The samples consisted of 26 Class III patients treated with MSS using bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy. Lateral cephalograms and 3D facial scan images were taken before and 6 months after MSS, and changes in landmarks and variables were measured using a Rapidform 2006. Paired and independent t-tests were performed for statistical analysis.


RESULTS
Landmarks in the upper lip and mouth corner (cheilion, Ch) moved backward and downward (respectively, cupid bow point, 1.0 mm and 0.3 mm, P < .001 and P < .01; alar curvature-Ch midpoint, 0.6 mm and 0.3 mm, both P < .001; Ch, 3.4 mm and 0.8 mm, both P < .001). However, landmarks in stomion (Stm), lower lip, and chin moved backward (Stm, 1.6 mm; labrale inferius [Li], 6.9 mm; LLBP, 6.9 mm; B', 6.7 mm; Pog', 6.7 mm; Me', 6.6 mm; P < .001, respectively). Width and height of upper and lower lip were not altered significantly except for a decrease of lower vermilion height (Stm-Li, 1.7 mm, P < .001). Chin height (B'-Me') was decreased because of backward and upward movement of Me' (3.1 mm, P < .001). Although upper lip projection angle and Stm-transverse projection angle became acute (Ch(Rt)-Ls-Ch(Lt), 5.7 degrees; Ch(Rt)-Stm-Ch(Lt), 6.4 degrees, both P < .001) because of the greater backward movement of Ch than Stm, lower lip projection angle and Stm-vertical projection angle became obtuse (Ch(Rt)-Li-Ch(Lt), 10.8 degrees ; Ls-Stm-Li, 23.5 degrees , both P < .001) because of the larger backward movement of Li than labrale superius (Ls).


CONCLUSIONS
Three-dimensional soft tissue changes in Class III patients after MSS exhibited increased gradients from upper lip and lower lip to chin as well as from Stm to Ch.
Bitcoin: Benefit or Curse?

The new world of mobile devices offers reasonable likelihood that virtual currency will prevail on a global scale. Currently, the bitcoin crypto-currency model appears to be a forerunner. Bitcoin, a highly disruptive technology, has both supporters and detractors. Nonetheless, in concert with other trends, some form of virtual currency, even if a successor to bitcoin, appears to have a path forward. Virtual currencies will likely gain in stature as other novel, unspecified, and disruptive innovations take hold in a world of increasingly autonomous systems. This department is part of a special issue on mobile commerce.
Briquetting agricultural waste as an energy source in Ghana EBO TAWIAH QUARTEY Faculty of Economic and Administration University of Pardubice Studentska

This article aims at providing biomass as an alternative to wood charcoal using in Ghana. Using agricultural wastes converted into charcoal briquettes to provide much needed source of cheap fuel that is cleaner in burning. It is also intended to create awareness of agricultural wastes briquettes technology in Ghana and to make use of the technology by small scale entrepreneurs. This paper also seeks to explore benefits Ghana can achieve by using agricultural residue as a substitute for wood fuel burning. Agricultural residue includes all leaves, straw and husks left in the field after harvest, hulls and shells removed during processing of crop at the mills.
MRI-PET registration with automated algorithm.

OBJECTIVE
We have previously reported an automated method for within-modality (e.g., PET-to-PET) image alignment. We now describe modifications to this method that allow for cross-modality registration of MRI and PET brain images obtained from a single subject.


METHODS
This method does not require fiducial markers and the user is not required to identify common structures on the two image sets. To align the images, the algorithm seeks to minimize the standard deviation of the PET pixel values that correspond to each MRI pixel value. The MR images must be edited to exclude nonbrain regions prior to using the algorithm.


RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
The method has been validated quantitatively using data from patients with stereotaxic fiducial markers rigidly fixed in the skull. Maximal three-dimensional errors of < 3 mm and mean three-dimensional errors of < 2 mm were measured. Computation time on a SPARCstation IPX varies from 3 to 9 min to align MR image sets with [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose PET images. The MR alignment with noisy H2(15)O PET images typically requires 20-30 min.
The Inverse Mean Curvature Flow and the Riemannian Penrose Inequality

LetM be an asymptotically flat 3-manifold of nonnegative scalar curvature. The Riemannian Penrose Inequality states that the area of an outermost minimal surface N in M is bounded by the ADM mass m according to the formula |N | ≤ 16πm2. We develop a theory of weak solutions of the inverse mean curvature flow, and employ it to prove this inequality for each connected component of N using Geroch’s monotonicity formula for the ADM mass. Our method also proves positivity of Bartnik’s gravitational capacity by computing a positive lower bound for the mass purely in terms of local geometry. 0. Introduction In this paper we develop the theory of weak solutions for the inverse mean curvature flow of hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold, and apply it to prove the Riemannian Penrose Inequality for a connected horizon, to wit: the total mass of an asymptotically flat 3-manifold of nonnegative scalar curvature is bounded below in terms of the area of each smooth, compact, connected, “outermost” minimal surface in the 3-manifold. A minimal surface is called outermost if it is not separated from infinity by any other compact minimal surface. The result was announced in [51]. The first author acknowledges the support of Sonderforschungsbereich 382, Tübingen. The second author acknowledges the support of an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, NSF Grants DMS-9626405 and DMS-9708261, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and the Max-Planck-Institut for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig. Received May 15, 1998.
There's something about MRAI: Timing diversity can exponentially worsen BGP convergence

To better support interactive applications, individual network operators are decreasing the timers that affect BGP convergence, leading to greater diversity in the timer settings across the Internet. While decreasing timers is intended to improve routing convergence, we show that, ironically, the resulting timer heterogeneity can make routing convergence substantially worse. We examine the widely-used Min Route Advertisement Interval (MRAI) timer that rate-limits update messages to reduce router overhead. We show that, while routing systems with homogeneous MRAI timers have linear convergence time, diverse MRAIs can cause exponential increases in both the number of BGP messages and the convergence time (as measured in “activations”). We prove tight upper bounds on these metrics in terms of MRAI timer diversity in general dispute-wheel-free networks and economically sensible (Gao-Rexford) settings. We also demonstrate significant impacts on the data plane: blackholes sometimes last throughout the route-convergence process, and forwarding changes, at best, are only polynomially less frequent than routing changes. We show that these problems vanish in contiguous regions of the Internet with homogeneous MRAIs or with next-hop-based routing policies, suggesting practical strategies for mitigating the problem, especially when all routers are administered by one institution.
Electrophysiological and structural assessment of the central retina following intravitreal injection of bevacizumab for treatment of macular edema

Purpose To evaluate with electrophysiological responses and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), the short term functional and structural effects at the macula following intravitreal injection of bevacizumab for macular edema. Methods Prospective, non-randomized, interventional case study. In total, 17 eyes of 17 patients with macular edema due to vein occlusions and diabetic retinopathy received intravitreal bevacizumab. All Patients underwent complete ophthalmic examination including Snellen visual acuity testing, Multifocal Electroretinography (mfERG) and Full Field Electroretinography (FERG), OCT scanning at baseline at 1 week and 2 months after intravitreal bevacizumab. Results FERG did not show any change in waveform parameters following intravitreal injection of bevacizumab. Average mfERG macular responses within central 20° showed increased P1 amplitude (P < 0.05) at 2 months after treatment as compared to the baseline recordings in all subjects. No changes were seen in the implicit time. There was 22% improvement in central retinal thickness (CRT) at 2 months compared to the baseline (P < 001). Conclusion Intravitreal injection bevacizumab resulted in reduction in the central retinal thickness and mild to moderate improvement in the mfERG amplitudes in this short-term study. The visual acuity changes did not directly correlate with the reduced central retinal thickness or improvement in mfERG. The short-term results showed no serious ocular adverse effects. Therefore on short-term follow up the off label drug showed improvement of macular edema secondary to vein occlusion and diabetic retinopathy with no demonstrable toxic effects.
Cost-effectiveness analysis of aripiprazole vs standard-of-care in the management of community-treated patients with schizophrenia: STAR study.

UNLABELLED
Abstract Background: The Schizophrenia Trial of Aripiprazole (STAR) showed superior efficacy for aripiprazole compared with atypical antipsychotic standard-of-care (SOC) for the community treatment of schizophrenia 1 based on the Investigator Assessment Questionnaire total score.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the cost-effectiveness of aripiprazole compared with SOC medications from a health and social care system perspective.


METHODS
Information on health and social care service use was collected using the Client Socio-demographic and Service Receipt Inventory (CSSRI). Unit costs attached to each service were used to calculate patients' healthcare and other costs. The primary outcome measure was Investigator's Assessment Questionnaire (IAQ) score; secondary measures included the Clinical Global Impression (CGI)-Improvement response and Quality of Life Scale (QLS). Incremental cost-effectiveness was measured over 26 weeks as the ratio of the difference in mean costs between aripiprazole and SOC (olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone) to the difference in mean outcomes. Net benefit was used to plot the cost-effectiveness acceptability curve.


RESULTS
The analysis sample (all randomised subjects who met the study inclusion criteria) included 282 individuals randomised to aripiprazole and 266 to SOC (olanzapine, n = 75; quetiapine, n = 110 and risperidone, n = 81). The additional mean cost of achieving a clinically significant difference on the IAQ was £3896, where a clinically significant difference was taken to be an 8-point improvement. The cost-effectiveness acceptability curve for the IAQ indicated that aripiprazole has a relatively high probability of being viewed as cost-effective for a range of plausible values attached to the incremental outcome difference. Additional costs of a clinically significant improvement on the CGI-Improvement and QLS were £575 and £835, respectively. These measures therefore support the view that aripiprazole is more cost-effective than SOC from a health and social care perspective for people with schizophrenia treated in the community.


CONCLUSION
In the STAR study, use of aripiprazole in the management of patients with schizophrenia was cost-effective.
Rugby-Specific Small-Sided Games Training Is an Effective Alternative to Stationary Cycling at Reducing Clinical Risk Factors Associated with the Development of Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

INTRODUCTION
The present study investigated whether rugby small-sided games (SSG) could be an effective alternative to continuous stationary cycling (CYC) training at reducing clinical risk factors associated with the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).


METHODS
Thirty-three middle-aged (48.6±6.6y), inactive men were randomized into a CYC (n=11), SSG (n=11), or control (CON, n=11) group. Participants trained 3d·wk(-1) for 8 weeks, while control participants maintained normal activity and dietary patterns. Exercise duration was matched between groups, which involved CYC or SSG (four quarters, interspersed with 2-min passive recovery). Both training programs were designed to induce similar internal loads of maximal heart rate (~80-85%HRmax) and rating of perceived exertion. Pre- and post-intervention testing included dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scan, graded exercise test, fasting 2 h oral glucose tolerance test and resting muscle biopsy. Western blotting was used to assess the content of skeletal muscle proteins associated with mitochondrial biogenesis and glucose regulation.


RESULTS
Both CYC and SSG increased VO2 at 80%HRmax, and reduced glycated haemoglobin, glucose area under the curve (AUC; SSG, -2.3±2.4; CYC -2.2±1.6 mmol·L(1)(120 min)(1); p<0.05), and total body fat-mass (SSG -2.6±0.9%; CYC -2.9±1.1%), compared to no change in CON (p<0.05). SSG reduced insulin AUC (-30.4±40.7 µlU·mL(1)(120 min)(1); p<0.05) and increased total body fat-free mass (1.1±1.2 kg; p<0.05), with no change in CYC or CON (P>0.05). There were no differences within or between conditions for protein content of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α, sirtuin-1, p53, glucose transporter-4, protein kinase AKT/PKB, myocyte enhancer factor 2A, mitochondrial transcription factor, nuclear respiratory factor (NRF)-1, NRF-2 or mitochondrial complexes I-V (p>0.05).


CONCLUSION
Rugby small-sided games is an effective alternative to continuous cycling for improving metabolic risk-factors associated with the prevention of T2DM. Despite such positive adaptations in clinical risk factors, there were no changes in the content of skeletal muscle proteins associated with glucose regulation and mitochondrial biogenesis.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN12613000874718.
Energy-eficient packet transmission over a wireless link

The paper considers the problem of minimizing the energy used to transmit packets over a wireless link via lazy schedules that judiciously vary packet transmission times. The problem is motivated by the following observation. With many channel coding schemes, the energy required to transmit a packet can be significantly reduced by lowering transmission power and code rate, and therefore transmitting the packet over a longer period of time. However, information is often time-critical or delay-sensitive and transmission times cannot be made arbitrarily long. We therefore consider packet transmission schedules that minimize energy subject to a deadline or a delay constraint. Specifically, we obtain an optimal offline schedule for a node operating under a deadline constraint. An inspection of the form of this schedule naturally leads us to an online schedule which is shown, through simulations, to perform closely to the optimal offline schedule. Taking the deadline to infinity, we provide an exact probabilistic analysis of our offline scheduling algorithm. The results of this analysis enable us to devise a lazy online algorithm that varies transmission times according to backlog. We show that this lazy schedule is significantly more energy-efficient compared to a deterministic (fixed transmission time) schedule that guarantees queue stability for the same range of arrival rates.
Nonreciprocal Horn Antennas Using Angular Momentum-Biased Metamaterial Inclusions

In this work, we apply angular momentum-biased metamaterials to break the intrinsic reciprocity of antenna systems, with potential applications to satellite communications. We focus our attention on a conical horn antenna exhibiting nonreciprocal response for left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized fields. A metallic screen with an annular aperture is placed between the feeding waveguide and the horn. This inclusion is loaded with modulated capacitors to achieve a nonreciprocal transmittance for circularly polarized fields impinging from opposite sides. We present the analysis of the nonreciprocal annular inclusion and explain its nonreciprocal response, obtained through proper spatiotemporal modulation, with the help of an equivalent transmission-line representation. A possible practical implementation of the modulation circuit based on band-pass and band-stop filters is also discussed. The electrical and radiating performance of the conical horn is numerically evaluated, showing the ability of the proposed antenna to filter signals with same polarization in two separate bands, e.g., uplink and downlink bands of a satellite link, depending on the propagation direction of the signal. These results may pave the way to several interesting applications of nonreciprocal radiators in satellite and radar systems.
Development of a biomechanical energy harvester

Biomechanical energy harvesting–generating electricity from people during daily activities–is a promising alternative to batteries for powering increasingly sophisticated portable devices. We recently developed a wearable knee-mounted energy harvesting device that generated electricity during human walking. In this methods-focused paper, we explain the physiological principles that guided our design process and present a detailed description of our device design with an emphasis on new analyses. Effectively harvesting energy from walking requires a small lightweight device that efficiently converts intermittent, bi-directional, low speed and high torque mechanical power to electricity, and selectively engages power generation to assist muscles in performing negative mechanical work. To achieve this, our device used a one-way clutch to transmit only knee extension motions, a spur gear transmission to amplify the angular speed, a brushless DC rotary magnetic generator to convert the mechanical power into electrical power, a control system to determine when to open and close the power generation circuit based on measurements of knee angle, and a customized orthopaedic knee brace to distribute the device reaction torque over a large leg surface area. The device selectively engaged power generation towards the end of swing extension, assisting knee flexor muscles by producing substantial flexion torque (6.4 Nm), and efficiently converted the input mechanical power into electricity (54.6%). Consequently, six subjects walking at 1.5 m/s generated 4.8 ± 0.8 W of electrical power with only a 5.0 ± 21 W increase in metabolic cost. Biomechanical energy harvesting is capable of generating substantial amounts of electrical power from walking with little additional user effort making future versions of this technology particularly promising for charging portable medical devices.