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Liver regeneration is an orchestrated process that mainly comprises of the proliferation of the major liver cell types, that is, the hepatocytes and cholangiocytes, after liver injury (physical or chemical) in vivo. Although having a remarkable capacity to regenerate in vivo, hepatocytes are difficult to grow and maintain in culture as their viability and functions decline with time. The lack of a sufficient source of viable hepatocytes limits their clinical use for therapeutic applications. In the current review, we have summarized the role of bile acids and their subsequent signaling pathways in liver regeneration in terms of both hepatocyte and cholangiocyte proliferation. We have also reviewed bile acid–based therapies in liver diseases. The expression of two major bile acid receptors, the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and the Takeda G protein–coupled receptor (TGR5) in both the liver and the intestine immensely contribute to hepatocyte proliferation through varied mechanisms. Selective potent agonists of these two pathways are being synthesized for use as new therapies in several liver diseases. FXR/TGR5 agonists hold immense potential to facilitate liver regeneration and ameliorate hepatic insufficiency in chronic liver diseases.

The articles in this special section focus on resource-constrained innovation and frugal engineering. Models of innovation development usually do not incorporate scarcity of resources as a determinant of the innovation design. Instead, they assume that the necessary resources can be acquired so that a new product or service can be optimally fitted to market preferences

Background: Today's meat and dairy industry has a vast environmental footprint. To reach the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) of ending hunger globally (SDG #2) and achieving sustainable consumption and production (SDG #12), this food production system needs to change. Recent years have seen the rise in popularity of the vegan or plant-based diet among consumers, which can go some way to reducing the environmental burden. This trend has motivated pioneering food producers to develop innovative vegan food products for niche markets, thus driving the sustainability transition of the food sector. Scope and approach: This commentary tracks how three pioneering food companies have responded to the vegan trend in Europe. From the analysis of the sustainable innovation journeys of these innovative food producers, we propose a framework that presents a multi-level perspective on the socio-technical transition of the food production and consumption system. Key findings and conclusions: The findings show how food producers, incumbents, and new entrants progress through an early phase of planning a direction and establishing a goal, followed by pivoting and experimenting in response to changes in the business environment. This innovation journey concludes as the company moves from experimentation and learning activities onto innovation implementation. The paper postulates a model that describes how regime level changes arise from the microfoundations of the food production and consumption system, as the innovation journeys of companies drive institutional change towards sustainability. The paper identifies future research avenues to explore the sustainable development of vegan food production in more depth. acceptedVersion

There have been several fascinating applications of Number Theory in key cryptography. Key cryptography enables many technologies we take for granted, such as the ability to make secure online transactions. The purpose of this survey paper is to highlight certain important such applications. Prime numbers constitute an interesting and challenging area of research in number theory. Diophantine equations form the central part of number theory. An equation requiring integral solutions is called a Diophantine equation. In the first part of this paper, some major contribution in number theory using prime number theorem is discussed and some of the problems which still remains unsolved are covered. In the second part some of the theorems and functions are also discussed such as Diophantine Equation, Goldbach conjecture, Fermats Theorem, Riemann zeta function and his hypothesis that still remain unproved to this day . The Chinese hypothesis is a special case of Fermat’s little theorem. As proved later in the west, the Chinese hypothesis is only half right . From the data of this study we conclude that number theory is used in computer network and applications in cryptography. We came to know about the purpose of Diophantine equation , Square-free natural number, Zeta function, Fermat’s theorem and Chinese hypothesis which is a special case for Fermat’s theorem.

Aims: The aim of this study is to identify clinicopathological features associated with increased morbidity and mortality in cases of “ultra-high risk” gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) and to compare initial low-dose etoposide-cisplatin (EP) induction chemotherapy with respect to etoposide methotrexate adriamycin cyclophosphamide vincristine (EMACO) regimen. Settings and Design: This was a retrospective study of patients of high-risk GTN from January 2012 to December 2016 with criteria mentioned as “ultra-high-risk group;” pathological or suspected diagnosis of choriocarcinoma, multiple (>20) pulmonary metastases or associated with hemoptysis, brain metastases, large-volume liver metastases, profuse vaginal bleeding, human chorionic gonadotropin >1000,000 IU/L, interval since the last antecedent pregnancy of >2.8 years. Subjects and Methods: Comparison between the two groups of chemotherapy regimens and the median number of chemotherapy courses required to achieve complete remission was done Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 18 and Fisher's exact test with P value statistically significant at the level of 0.05. Results: Thirty-seven cases were high-risk GTN and 24 were “ultra-high risk.” The higher percentage of patients underwent remission of disease following low-dose induction chemotherapy as compared to primary EMACO therapy, 71.4% versus 58.8%. No resistance to second-line chemotherapy was noted, and no surgical intervention was required in the patients receiving low-dose induction chemotherapy before EMACO. Conclusions: We noted a decrease in the proportion of patients developing resistance to primary chemotherapy and lesser adverse effects in those receiving initial low-dose induction EP chemotherapy.

While the concept of frugal innovation originated in the previous decade with a focus on resource-constrained, under-served consumers living in the Global South, it is finding increasing acceptance and adoption in the economically developed nations of the Global North. Furthermore, frugal solutions are today neither exclusively targeted at (household) consumers nor at the “poor” per se, nor are they confined to a “low tech” context. We can increasingly observe frugal products and services that enable “affordable excellence” to users across customer segments, industrial boundaries, societal strata, institutional domains, and national geographies. A large, but still somewhat unnoticed role in this development is played by the technical advancement in the form of digital transformation. Cutting-edge, general purposes technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence, are enabling high-quality and context-sensitive products, processes and services that are affordable in terms of their financial and environmental costs. High affordability, high target-specificity and highly effective (not just efficient) resource utilization characterize a digitally frugal solution. This paper is contextualized in the global wind power sector. With the help of illustrative case studies and content analysis, the study generates preliminary evidence that frugal innovations in conjunction with digital transformation can enable “affordable green excellence.” Propositions are made for further research and a definitional update for frugal information is provided.

The technological revolution of the previous 20-25 years, especially the one brought about by the Internet and other telecommunication technologies, has led to the creation of general purpose technologies (GPTs) that facilitate high quality, easy-to-use and cost-effective solutions (Teece, 2018). The ensuing “democratization of innovation” has led millions of individuals across the world to turn into innovators (von Hippel, 2005). The availability of vastly affordable communication at high bandwidth – in conjunction with globalization – has set free innovational and entrepreneurial spirit that was never possible before in the memory of the humanity.

Increasing energy consumption is associated with major negative impacts on the climate. The Japanese government has sought to promote home energy management systems (HEMS) in private households as a measure to enhance energy security in the country. Reports suggest that while potential users appreciate the need for using HEMS, the actual adoption of HEMS in the country has remained low, suggesting a gap in consumer intention and its actual implementation. High upfront investment, high switching/operating costs and the perceived technological complexity are reported as inhibiting the adoption of HEMS in Japan. The objective of this chapter is to investigate whether and in what respects frugal innovations might help in overcoming barriers for the adoption of HEMS. Frugal innovations offer affordable excellence for significantly lowered prices, are focused on core functionalities, and enable optimized performance levels. Frugal solutions may enhance the consumer perception of benefits of HEMS, while reducing negative perceptions regarding high technological complexity or expensiveness. Although frugal innovation could help in solving the attitude-behaviour gap, to date, there is little research to argue the effect of frugal innovation on consumers’ decision making process. This research contributes to the innovation adoption or resistance literatures by applying frugal innovation, which allows innovation researchers and managers to understand the mechanism of the innovation diffusion more effectively.

Recent research suggests that emerging economies can act as lead markets for innovations aiming at achieving affordable excellence. On the other hand, the overall RD but also that they have accumulated significant product development capabilities. Leapfrogging to latest (manufacturing) technologies allows firms to engage in process innovations, lightweighting of components and significant reduction of waste. Very high efficiency levels are found to be central to balancing economic, environmental and technological considerations. The study discovers a remarkable set of frugal innovation pathways that make use of collaborative development, avoid over-engineering and are often driven by economies of scale.

Uterine sarcomas are rare, accounting for 7–8% of all uterine cancers and less than 1% of all female genital tract cancers. Surgery is a cornerstone in the treatment, and addition of radiotherapy, chemotherapy or hormonal therapy depends on the stage of the disease. Due to its rarity, heterogeneity and aggressiveness, there is no consensus and there is scarce evidence regarding the optimal therapeutic approaches. Our aim was to study the cases of uterine sarcoma in terms of clinical and histopathological characteristics, prognostic factors and outcome analysis. This is a retrospective study of all cases of histological proven uterine sarcoma identified between January 2001 and December 2013 at the Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute, Ahmedabad. The data regarding the patients’ characteristics, tumor characteristics, various treatment modalities, operative details, follow-up, recurrence and survival were reviewed and recorded. Total 57 were included in our study. Leiomyosarcoma was the most common histopathological type. Twenty-four cases were stage 1 and were kept on observation. Almost 50% of the patients in our study recurred during our study period. Overall 64% of the patients survived till 3 years and 53% till 5 years of follow-up. Twenty-six percent of the case died within first year of completion of treatment. The management of uterine sarcomas is challenging due to the rare occurrence, lack of consensus or guidelines and adequate literature. Adjuvant treatment should be individualized.

It has become clear over the past few decades that enterprises not only produce and sell abroad but increasingly also develop goods and services outside their home countries; a development now known as the internationalisation of business R&D. This book presents a comprehensive picture of the current state of internationalisation of R&D in the business sector.

Frugal products and services generally, though not exclusively, aim at satisfying the unsaturated demand of a large and growing middle class in emerging economies such as India. Although research has been conducted in regard to the strategic importance of frugal innovations, so far, there is a lack of in-depth research on the actual development process of such innovations. Some examples show that inventive analogies are used to develop frugal innovations. For instance, the development of a frugal artificial heart in India was based on the heart structure of cockroaches, which led to a reduction of costs by 20 times.

The present work “Lead Market India: Key Elements and Corporate Perspectives for Frugal Innovations” documents the evolution of the research on globalization of innovation not only at our institute but also at a macro level. In 2006, when we decided to set up a research project “global innovation” to investigate internationalization of research and development (R&D) and its transcendence towards globalization of innovation, the world still looked a little different. Even if India was registering impressive growth in gross domestic product (GDP) and attracting large amounts of foreign direct investments (FDI), a lot of skepticism remained with regard to India’s potential to create innovations to cater the rising demand of its people. The dominant logic then was still that “lead markets”—markets that provide key impetuses for globally successful innovations in an industry or industry segment over a sustained period of time—can only emerge and exist in the economically developed world. A country in the developing world, such as India, was therefore not seen as a lead market or even having the potential to become one in near future. However, much water has flowed down the Ganges and other rivers since then. In this work we present results of 10 selected studies that have been conducted at our institute in relation to India, its lead market-potential for certain innovations and its penchant for frugal innovations.

India is the seventh largest producer of commercial vehicles in the world. The commercial vehicle industry has grown significantly since the turn of the new millennium, which is evident from the fact that the industry could increase its sales by more than four-folds to 685,704 units in fiscal year 2015–2016 compared to 150,452 units in 2000–2001. In this study we analyze the innovation and business profile of Indian commercial vehicle industry. The study is based on indicators such as sales and revenues, R&D expenditure, types of innovations and their impact, open innovation activities, product portfolio and product selling points. These data were collected from annual reports, press releases and other publically available sources.

In recent years a phenomenon called “frugal innovation” has increasingly gained traction in the scholarly discourse; and as research reveals, it is often brought in connection with India. Apparently, India has quietly acquired the role of a pioneer for innovations that aim at combining affordability with excellence, cutting across sectoral boundaries. But what is it that makes India a forerunner for an innovation paradigm with increasing global relevance? In this paper, I propose that the “lead market” theory can explain to a quite good extent the attractiveness of India for frugal solutions. On one hand, there are concrete economic factors that give rise to resource-efficient and affordable solutions to problems faced in day-to-day life. On the other hand, frugality has been long regarded as a virtuous social value in India and the socio-cultural context of the country provides a fertile environment for the acceptance of frugal products and services on both demand and supply sides.

The topic of frugal innovation is increasingly gaining relevance in social as well as scholarly discourse. Frugal innovations have been perceived by many to be a phenomenon generally confined to emerging economies where there are large groups of unserved consumers with unmet needs. But there is increasing evidence that this phenomenon is getting relevant also in the industrialized nations potentially affecting the long-term competitiveness of domestic firms not only overseas but also at home. This paper has a twofold objective: (a) It seeks to establish the theoretical antecedents of frugal innovation by examining the scholarly discourse; and (b) It attempts to generate hypotheses about its long-term relevance by examining historical trends of frugality and their disappearance. Based upon an extensive literature review and some preliminary primary data we propose a new working definition for frugal innovation and hypothesize that frugality was a key social value with positive associations before the era of unprecedented prosperity in the industrialized world, which led to saturated markets and inter alia to feature-driven competition and over-consumption of resources. New ground realities, e.g., economic downturn in the industrialized world and the rapidly rising consumption in the economically developing world, are expected to turn frugality, once again, into an important societal value and frugal innovation into a critical success factor in mid-term future.

Adopting Renewable Energy (RE) has become a necessity for achieving different development goals, for a fast growing economy and a demographically young country like India. At the same time intense Research and Development (R&D) and business activity in the domestic RE sector has become necessary to ensure the spread, affordability and efficacy of RE according to local needs. In a rapidly connecting and increasingly inter-dependent world, collaborative activities on an international level are important to finance growth, gain technical knowledge and promote cost effective manufacturing in a relatively new sector such as RE. Studying different types of collaborations e.g. manufacturing and R&D etc. while keeping focus on the future of RE in India is therefore important to understand business opportunities. At the same time capturing a larger picture of the situation in RE sector while focusing on the influence of different aspects on foreign collaboration e.g. policy influence on investment or on collaborative R&D is certainly needed to understand the challenges.

After an initial introduction into the areas of innovations within emerging markets, the study develops a consistent innovation typology for categorizing large data samples from a variety of existing literature. It then describes and finally evaluates a sample of 178 innovations for the Indian market based on 38 different criteria. It uses internet-based news reports over a 2 year timeframe for the study sample.

Among all the innovation strategies that seek to impact developing economies, Grassroots Innovation remains the least explored. With critics of Bottom of the Pyramid literature articulating the need for considering the poor as producers, a better understanding of the grassroots phenomenon may help companies to understand and integrate the Grassroots Innovation strategy into their business models and thereby allowing the poor to become producers of products and solutions. This study examines the dimensions and trends, which make Grassroots Innovations unique, as well as factors which govern and influence them. The study is based on in-depth case studies which were gathered during field work with the National Innovation Foundation in India. The data illustrates how factors like education, age, occupation and sector influence the triggers and the outcomes of Grassroots Innovations. It also demonstrates how individuals, institutions and firms could collaborate to commercialize these products and solutions.

The quote above, taken from a paper co-authored by Alexander Gerybadze, highlights a difficult dilemma for western firms. For, growing strategic importance of emerging markets requires western multinational companies (MNCs) to reassess their product-portfolio strategy as well as the innovation strategy. Increasing purchasing power is creating demand for “sophisticated” solutions that simultaneously cater to specific local tastes and needs (Contractor, 2013).

Background Post-radiation sarcoma accounts for 0.5–5.5 % of all sarcomas. We present a rare case of post-radiation malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) of pelvic following radiotherapy for endometrium carcinoma.

Um einen moglichst reprasentativen Uberblick uber das heute verfugbare Angebot an mobilen Interaktionsmoglichkeiten mit Banken zu erhalten, wurden insgesamt 115 Banken und drei unabhangige Drittanbieter von Mobile-Banking-Apps untersucht. Darunter befinden sich die 100 grosten deutschen Banken und, auf Grund ihrer strategischen Bedeutung, die 20 grosten in Deutschland aktiven Direktbanken.

Zum Abschluss soll noch einmal auf offene Fragestellungen eingegangen werden. Einige von den Anbietern gewunschte Untersuchungen liesen sich im Rahmen dieser Studie nicht durchfuhren, da sie eine andere Erhebungsmethode erfordert hatten.

Die Rolle des Mobiltelefons hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren vollstandig verandert. Noch vor wenigen Jahren wurden Smartphones und das mobile Internet vorwiegend von Technologie-Interessierten und Geschaftsleuten genutzt. Dementsprechend klein war die erreichbare Zielgruppe. Heute gehort die Nutzung des mobilen Internets und des Smartphones fur grose Teile der Bevolkerung zum Alltag. Schritt fur Schritt hat das Smartphone andere elektronische Gerate ersetzt und an Bedeutung gewonnen.

Resultierend aus der Analyse der Rahmenbedingungen und des in Deutschland bestehenden Mobile-Banking-Angebots, ergibt sich zusammen mit den Leitfragen dieser Studie der Inhalt der empirischen Untersuchungen. Zusatzlich zu der eigenen Analyse wurden Interviews mit verschiedenen Mobile-Banking-Experten durchgefuhrt (eine Liste der befragten Experten und der Interviewleitfaden befinden sich im Anhang). Bei der Wahl der Experten wurde darauf geachtet, moglichst alle verschiedenen Ansichten zum Thema Mobile Banking zu berucksichtigen.

Theoretisch ist jedes elektronische Gerat, das ohne Kabelverbindungen zur Ubertragung von Daten geeignet und tragbar ist, zu ortsunabhangigen Bankgeschaften fahig. 2005 galt dies fur Mobiltelefon, Laptop und PDA. Seit der Durchfuhrung der Vorgangerstudie hat es zahlreiche Anderungen gegeben.

Die einzige zum Zeitpunkt der Studiendurchfuhrung bekannte Studie uber die Nutzung von Mobile Banking in Deutschland ist der „Kundenmonitor Banken 2012“ des Marktforschungsunternehmens YouGov. Untersucht wurden der Anteil der Mobile- Banking-Nutzer in Deutschland, Nutzungshaufigkeit und –ort sowie Grunde, die dazu fuhren, dass Smartphone-Besitzer bisher kein Mobile Banking verwenden. Ebenfalls Teil der Studie sind die Anwendungshaufigkeit einzelner Mobile-Banking-Funktionen, die wahrgenommenen Vorteile der Nutzung und die Folgen fur die anderen Kommunikationskanale wie etwa Onlinebanking.

Die Referenzstudie aus dem Jahr 2005 betrachtet Mobile Banking als einen Anwendungsbereich des Mobile Commerce. Die verwendete Definition lautet

Recent years have seen the emergence of a paradigm of low-cost innovations targeted at economically weaker sections of the society, seeking to align business with social welfare. In many instances, results on the ground have been, however, rather sobering as firms have generally worried that “good quality, low price” may cannibalize into their regular business. At the same time those very customers that were intended to benefit from the new approach have tended to shy away from them fearing low quality and social stigma of using cheap products. Using multiple case studies of successful affordability-driven innovations (“frugal innovations”) from India we investigate how firms can effectively reduce market and technology uncertainty of product innovations targeted at price-sensitive customers. The key criteria to success seem to lie in reducing the overall cost of ownership and enhancing customer perception of quality and image. The case studies reveal that affordability-driven innovations are especially successful when firms turn to open global innovation networks for collaborative development in all phases of the innovation value chain.

Innovations have acquired a key role in the growth and competition strategies of firms today. They are regarded as an essential tool for stimulating growth and enabling firms to master the competition brought about by the forces of globalization. However, in particular, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Western countries are facing insurmaintable barriers to innovation. To what extent might the concept of global innovation and, more specifically, the internationalization of research and development (R&D) be an answer to deal with these problems, is discussed in this paper. Based on empirical studies conducted by the authors in Germany, the paper presents results from research-in-progress and proposes a reference model for chances and challenges of global innovation activities.