Measuring ecological impact of water consumption by bioethanol using life cycle impact assessment

Purpose  

Though the development of biofuel has attracted numerous studies for quantifying potential water demand applying life cycle thinking, the impacts of biofuel water consumption still remain unknown. In this study, we aimed to quantify ecological impact associated with corn-based bioethanol water consumption in Minnesota in responding to different refinery expansion scenarios by applying a life cycle impact assessment method.     

Germinating fission yeast spores delay in G1 in response to UV irradiation

Background  

Checkpoint mechanisms prevent cell cycle transitions until previous events have been completed or damaged DNA has been repaired. In fission yeast, checkpoint mechanisms are known to regulate entry into mitosis, but so far no checkpoint inhibiting S phase entry has been identified.     

Robust discovery of periodically expressed genes using the laplace periodogram

Background  

Time-course gene expression analysis has become important in recent developments due to the increasingly available experimental data. The detection of genes that are periodically expressed is an important step which allows us to study the regulatory mechanisms associated with the cell cycle.     

Expanded progenitor populations, vitreo-retinal abnormalities, and Müller glial reactivity in the zebrafish leprechaun/patched2 retina

Background  

The roles of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway in controlling vertebrate retinal development have been studied extensively; however, species- and context-dependent findings have provided differing conclusions. Hh signaling has been shown to control both population size and cell cycle kinetics of proliferating retinal progenitors, and to modulate differentiation within the retina by regulating the timing of cell cycle exit. While cell cycle exit has in turn been shown to control cell fate decisions within the retina, a direct role for the Hh pathway in retinal cell fate decisions has yet to be established in vivo.     

Service life prediction of residential interior finishes for life cycle assessment

Purpose  

Service life of building products has an important influence on life cycle assessment (LCA) results of buildings. The goal of this study was to propose a systematic approach to estimate service life of building products by including both technical and social factors.     

Dynamic localisation of Ran GTPase during the cell cycle

Background  

Ran GTPase has multiple functions during the cell division cycle, including nucleocytoplasmic transport, mitotic spindle assembly and nuclear envelope formation. The activity of Ran is determined by both its guanine nucleotide-bound state and its subcellular localization.     

Evolution of glyoxylate cycle enzymes in Metazoa: evidence of multiple horizontal transfer events and pseudogene formation

Background  

The glyoxylate cycle is thought to be present in bacteria, protists, plants, fungi, and nematodes, but not in other Metazoa. However, activity of the glyoxylate cycle enzymes, malate synthase (MS) and isocitrate lyase (ICL), in animal tissues has been reported. In order to clarify the status of the MS and ICL genes in animals and get an insight into their evolution, we undertook a comparative-genomic study.     

Induction of temperate cyanophage AS-1 by heavy metal - copper

Background  

It has been reported that some marine cyanophage are temperate and can be induced from a lysogenic phase to a lytic phase by different agents such as heavy metals. However, to date no significant reports have focused on the temperate nature of freshwater cyanophage/cyanobacteria. Previous experiments with cyanophage AS-1 and cyanobacteria Anacystis nidulans have provided some evidence that AS-1 may have a lysogenic life cycle in addition to the characterized lytic cycle.     

Time scale and dimension analysis of a budding yeast cell cycle model

Background  

The progress through the eukaryotic cell division cycle is driven by an underlying molecular regulatory network. Cell cycle progression can be considered as a series of irreversible transitions from one steady state to another in the correct order. Although this view has been put forward some time ago, it has not been quantitatively proven yet. Bifurcation analysis of a model for the budding yeast cell cycle has identified only two different steady states (one for G1 and one for mitosis) using cell mass as a bifurcation parameter. By analyzing the same model, using different methods of dynamical systems theory, we provide evidence for transitions among several different steady states during the budding yeast cell cycle.     

Hepatic zonation of carbon and nitrogen fluxes derived from glutamine and ammonia transformations

Background  

Glutaminase predominates in periportal hepatocytes and it has been proposed that it determines the glutamine-derived nitrogen flow through the urea cycle. Glutamine-derived urea production should, thus, be considerably faster in periportal hepatocytes. This postulate, based on indirect observations, has not yet been unequivocally demonstrated, making a direct investigation of ureogenesis from glutamine highly desirable.     

Consequential life cycle assessment: a review

Purpose  

Over the past two decades, consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) has emerged as a modeling approach for capturing environmental impacts of product systems beyond physical relationships accounted for in attributional LCA (ALCA). Put simply, CLCA represents the convergence of LCA and economic modeling approaches.     

Comment on and reply to "Analysis of variation of amplitudes in cell cycle gene expression" by Liu,Gaido and Wolfinger: On the analysis of gene expression during the normal,eukaryotic, cell cycle

Background  

The paper of Liu, Gaido and Wolfinger on gene expression during the division cycle of HeLa cells using the data of Whitfield et al. are discussed in order to see whether their analysis is related to gene expression during the division cycle.     

Pavement Life Cycle Assessment Workshop,May 5–7, 2010 in Davis,California, USA

Purpose  

A workshop was convened on life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to pavement. The workshop’s primary goals were to establish common practices for conducting LCAs for pavements. In general, pavement LCA has been implemented without clear guidelines for modeling assumptions and reporting. This shortcoming has led to challenges in interpreting and comparing pavement LCA outcomes.     

Structure of the yeast histone H3-ASF1 interaction: implications for chaperone mechanism, species-specific interactions, and epigenetics

Background  

RBBP6 is a 250 kDa splicing-associated protein that has been identified as an E3 ligase due to the presence of a RING finger domain. In humans and mice it interacts with both p53 and Rb, and plays a role in the induction of apoptosis and regulation of the cell cycle. RBBP6 has recently been shown to be highly up-regulated in oesophageal cancer, and to be a promising target for immunotherapy against the disease.     

Endometrial thickness, Caucasian ethnicity, and age predict clinical pregnancy following fresh blastocyst embryo transfer: a retrospective cohort

Background  

In-vitro fertilization (IVF) with blastocyst as opposed to cleavage stage embryos has been advocated to improve success rates. Limited information exists on which to predict which patients undergoing blastocyst embryo transfer (BET) will achieve pregnancy. This study's objective was to evaluate the predictive value of patient and cycle characteristics for clinical pregnancy following fresh BET.     

Deterministic mathematical models of the cAMP pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Background  

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) has a key signaling role in all eukaryotic organisms. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, it is the second messenger in the Ras/PKA pathway which regulates nutrient sensing, stress responses, growth, cell cycle progression, morphogenesis, and cell wall biosynthesis. A stochastic model of the pathway has been reported.     

Life cycle assessment at nanoscale: review and recommendations

Purpose  

The need for a systematic evaluation of the human and environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) has been widely recognized, and a growing body of literature is available endorsing life cycle assessment (LCA) as a valid tool for the same. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how the nano-specific environmental assessments are being done within the existing framework of life cycle inventory and impact assessment and whether these frameworks are valid and/or whether they can be modified for nano-evaluations.