What Do We Know About Metal Recycling Rates?

The recycling of metals is widely viewed as a fruitful sustainability strategy, but little information is available on the degree to which recycling is actually taking place. This article provides an overview on the current knowledge of recycling rates for 60 metals. We propose various recycling metrics, discuss relevant aspects of recycling processes, and present current estimates on global end‐of‐life recycling rates (EOL‐RR; i.e., the percentage of a metal in discards that is actually recycled), recycled content (RC), and old scrap ratios (OSRs; i.e., the share of old scrap in the total scrap flow). Because of increases in metal use over time and long metal in‐use lifetimes, many RC values are low and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Because of relatively low efficiencies in the collection and processing of most discarded products, inherent limitations in recycling processes, and the fact that primary material is often relatively abundant and low‐cost (which thereby keeps down the price of scrap), many EOL‐RRs are very low: Only for 18 metals (silver, aluminum, gold, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, niobium, nickel, lead, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, tin, titanium, and zinc) is the EOL‐RR above 50% at present. Only for niobium, lead, and ruthenium is the RC above 50%, although 16 metals are in the 25% to 50% range. Thirteen metals have an OSR greater than 50%. These estimates may be used in considerations of whether recycling efficiencies can be improved; which metric could best encourage improved effectiveness in recycling; and an improved understanding of the dependence of recycling on economics, technology, and other factors.     

Multiomic Metabolic Enrichment Network Analysis Reveals Metabolite–Protein Physical Interaction Subnetworks Altered in Cancer

Metabolism is recognized as an important driver of cancer progression and other complex diseases, but global metabolite profiling remains a challenge. Protein expression profiling is often a poor proxy since existing pathway enrichment models provide an incomplete mapping between the proteome and metabolism. To overcome these gaps, we introduce multiomic metabolic enrichment network analysis (MOMENTA), an integrative multiomic data analysis framework for more accurately deducing metabolic pathway changes from proteomics data alone in a gene set analysis context by leveraging protein interaction networks to extend annotated metabolic models. We apply MOMENTA to proteomic data from diverse cancer cell lines and human tumors to demonstrate its utility at revealing variation in metabolic pathway activity across cancer types, which we verify using independent metabolomics measurements. The novel metabolic networks we uncover in breast cancer and other tumors are linked to clinical outcomes, underscoring the pathophysiological relevance of the findings.     

K+(Rb+) and Ca2+ fluxes in young winter wheat plants exposed to sub-zero temperatures

Ice crystal formation temperature was determined in the region of the crown in one group of 7-day-old intact unhardened high-salt plants of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Weibulls Starke II) with TA (Thermal Analysis) and DTA (Differential Thermal Analysis) methods. After exposure of another group of plants, grown for the first 7 days in the same way as the first group, to various sub-zero temperatures (-1 to 5°C), influx in roots of Rb⁺(⁸⁶Rb⁺) and Ca²⁺(⁴⁵Ca²⁺) and contents of K⁺ and Ca²⁺ were determined at intervals during 7 days of recovery. Ice crystal formation in the crown tissue was probably extracellular and took place at about -4°C. There was a large loss of K⁺ from the roots after treatment at sub-zero temperatures. This loss increased as the temperature of the sub-zero treatment decreased. During recovery, roots of plants exposed to -1, -2 and -3°C gradually reabsorbed K⁺. Reabsorption of K⁺ in roots of plants exposed to -4°C was greatly impaired. Rb⁺ influx decreased and Ca²⁺ influx increased after sub-zero temperature treatments of the plants. Active Rb⁺ influx mechanisms and active extrusion of Ca²⁺ were impaired or irreversibly damaged by the exposure. While Rb⁺ influx mechanisms were apparently repaired during recovery in plants exposed to temperatures down to -3°C, Ca²⁺ extrusion mechanisms were not. The temperature for ice crystal formation in the region of the crown tissue coincides with the temperature at which the plants lost the ability to reabsorb K⁺ and to repair Rb⁺ influx mechanisms during the recovery period. Plants were lethally damaged at temperatures below ?4°C.     

The Thatcher illusion in humans and monkeys

Primates possess the remarkable ability to differentiate faces of group members and to extract relevant information about the individual directly from the face. Recognition of conspecific faces is achieved by means of holistic processing, i.e. the processing of the face as an unparsed, perceptual whole, rather than as the collection of independent features (part-based processing). The most striking example of holistic processing is the Thatcher illusion. Local changes in facial features are hardly noticeable when the whole face is inverted (rotated 180°), but strikingly grotesque when the face is upright. This effect can be explained by a lack of processing capabilities for locally rotated facial features when the face is turned upside down. Recently, a Thatcher illusion was described in the macaque monkey analogous to that known from human investigations. Using a habituation paradigm combined with eye tracking, we address the critical follow-up questions raised in the aforementioned study to show the Thatcher illusion as a function of the observer''s species (humans and macaques), the stimulus'' species (humans and macaques) and the level of perceptual expertise (novice, expert).     

Startling Sweet Temptations: Hedonic Chocolate Deprivation Modulates Experience,Eating Behavior,and Eyeblink Startle

Many individuals restrict their food intake to prevent weight gain. This restriction has both homeostatic and hedonic effects but their relative contribution is currently unclear. To isolate hedonic effects of food restriction, we exposed regular chocolate eaters to one week of chocolate deprivation but otherwise regular eating. Before and after this hedonic deprivation, participants viewed images of chocolate and images of high-calorie but non-chocolate containing foods, while experiential, behavioral and eyeblink startle responses were measured. Compared to satiety, hedonic deprivation triggered increased chocolate wanting, liking, and chocolate consumption but also feelings of frustration and startle potentiation during the intertrial intervals. Deprivation was further characterized by startle inhibition during both chocolate and food images relative to the intertrial intervals. Individuals who responded with frustration to the manipulation and those who scored high on a questionnaire of impulsivity showed more relative startle inhibition. The results reveal the profound effects of hedonic deprivation on experiential, behavioral and attentional/appetitive response systems and underscore the role of individual differences and state variables for startle modulation. Implications for dieting research and practice as well as for eating and weight disorders are discussed.     

Aminergic neuron systems of lobsters: morphology and electrophysiology of octopamine-containing neurosecretory cells

In the American lobster (Homarus americanus) the biogenic amines serotonin and octopamine appear to play important and opposite roles in the regulation of aggressive behavior, in the establishment and/or maintenance of dominant and subordinate behavioral states and in the modulation of the associated postural stances and escape responses. The octopamine-containing neurosecretory neurons in the thoracic regions of the lobster ventral nerve cord fall into two morphological subgroups, the root octopamine cells, a classical neurohemal group with release regions along second thoracic roots, and the claw octopamine cells, a group that selectively innervates the claws. Cells of both subgroups have additional sets of endings within neuropil regions of ganglia of the ventral nerve cord. Octopamine neurosecretory neurons generally are silent, but when spontaneously active or when activated, they show large overshooting action potentials with prominent after-hyperpolarizations. Autoinhibition after high-frequency firing, which is also seen in other crustacean neurosecretory cells, is readily apparent in these cells. The cells show no spontaneous synaptic activity, but appear to be excited by a unitary source. Stimulation of lateral or medial giant axons, which excite serotonergic cells yielded no response in octopaminergic neurosecretory cells and no evidence for direct interactions between pairs of octopamine neurons, or between the octopaminergic and the serotonergic sets of neurosecretory neurons was found.     

Intraspinal Tumors in Children

Thirty cases of intraspinal neoplasms occurring during the first two decades of life are reviewed. Histologic examination showed 13 of these to be astrocytomas, 6 neuroblastomas, 5 sarcomas, 3 ependymomas, 2 neurofibromas and 1 a schwannoma. Orthopedic deformities developed or worsened in 60 percent of patients surviving longer than a year after diagnosis. In five patients some form of endocrine deficiency developed after irradiation. For treatment of radiosensitive extradural malignant lesions, biopsy followed by irradiation is advocated.