Energy Cost of Living and Associated Pollution for Beijing Residents

China's remarkable economic growth in the last 3 decades has brought about big improvements in quality of life while simultaneously contributing to serious environmental problems. The aim of all economic activities is, ultimately, to provide the population with products and services. Analyzing environmental impacts of consumption can be valuable for illuminating underlying drivers for energy use and emissions in society. This study applies an environmentally extended input‐output analysis to estimate household environmental impact (HEI) of urban Beijing households at different levels of development. The analysis covers direct and indirect energy use and emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and nitrogen oxide (NO_x). On the basis of observations of how HEI varies across income groups, prospects for near‐future changes in HEI are discussed. Results indicate that in 2007, an urban resident in Beijing used, on average, 52 gigajoules of total primary energy supply. The corresponding annual emissions were 4.2 tonnes CO₂, 27 kilograms SO₂, and 17 kilograms NO_x. Of this, only 18% to 34% was used or emitted by the households directly. While the overall expenditure elasticity of energy use is around 0.9, there is a higher elasticity of energy use associated with transport. The results suggest that significant growth in HEI can be expected in the near future, even with substantial energy efficiency improvements.     

PHYLOGENY OF AULACOSEIRA (BACILLARIOPHYTA) BASED ON MOLECULES AND MORPHOLOGY1

The phylogeny of 67 populations representing 45 species of Aulacoseira Thwaites was estimated by maximum parsimony methods using a combination of nucleotide sequence data and qualitative and quantitative morphological characteristics of the silica cell wall gathered primarily from original observation by LM and SEM. A new type of character using continuous quantitative variables that describe the ontogenetic‐allometric trajectories of cell wall characteristics over the life cycle (size range) of diatoms is introduced. In addition to the 45 Aulacoseira species, the phylogeny also incorporated one Miosira Krammer, Lange‐Bertalot, and Schiller species and two outgroup species (Melosira varians Agardh and Stephanopyxis nipponica Gran & Yendo). Fifteen species, represented by 24 populations, also contained molecular data from the nuclear genome (18S rDNA), and 11 of these species (18 populations) contained data from the chloroplast genome (rbcL) as well, which were sequenced or downloaded from GenBank. The phylogeny of Aulacoseira is composed of five major clades: 1) an A. crenulata (Ehrenburg) Thwaites and A. italica (Ehrenburg) Simonsen clade, which is the most basal; 2) an A. granulata (Ehrenburg) Simonsen complex clade; 3) an A. ambigua (Grunow) Simonsen clade; 4) an A. subarctica (O. Müller) Haworth and A. distans (Ehrenburg) Simonsen clade; and 5) an A. islandica (O. Müller) Simonsen clade that also contained endemic species from Lake Baikal, Siberia and many extinct Aulacoseira taxa. Monophyly of Aulacoseira can only be achieved if Miosira is no longer given separate generic status.     

Phenolic synthesis in Perilla cell suspension cultures

Suspension cultures of Perilla ocymoides accumulate caffeic acid, both in free and ester forms, as the only phenylpropanoid end metabolite. Increased levels of growth substances influenced the levels of PAL activity and phenolic accumulation so that cytokinin stimulated, while auxin repressed both parameters. The regulatory role of caffeyl compounds is discussed in relation to their accumulation during the early exponential phase of culture growth.     

Caenorhabditis elegans EVL-14/PDS-5 and SCC-3 are essential for sister chromatid cohesion in meiosis and mitosis

Sister chromatid cohesion is fundamental for the faithful transmission of chromosomes during both meiosis and mitosis. Proteins involved in this process are highly conserved from yeasts to humans. In screenings for sterile animals with abnormal vulval morphology, mutations in the Caenorhabditis elegans evl-14 and scc-3 genes were isolated. Defects in cell divisions were observed in germ line as well as in vulval and somatic gonad lineages. Through positional cloning of these genes, we have shown that EVL-14 and SCC-3 are likely the only C. elegans homologs of the yeast sister chromatid cohesion proteins Pds5 and Scc3, respectively. Both evl-14 and scc-3 mutants displayed defects in the meiotic germ line. In evl-14 mutants, synaptonemal complexes (SCs) were detectable but more than the usual six DAPI (4',6'-diamidino-2-phenylindole)-positive structures were seen at diakinesis, suggesting that EVL-14/PDS-5 is important for the maintenance of sister chromatid cohesion in late prophase. In scc-3 mutant animals, normal SCs were not visible and approximately 24 DAPI-positive structures were seen at diakinesis, indicating that SCC-3 is necessary for sister chromatid cohesion. Immunostaining revealed that localization of REC-8, a homolog of the yeast meiotic cohesin subunit Rec8, to the chromosomes depends on the presence of SCC-3 but not that of EVL-14/PDS-5. scc-3 RNA interference (RNAi)-treated embryos were 100% lethal and displayed defects in cell divisions. evl-14 RNAi caused a range of phenotypes. These results indicate that EVL-14/PDS-5 and SCC-3 have functions in both mitosis and meiosis.     

Purification and characterization of an aminopeptidase from the chloroplast stroma of barley leaves by chromatographic and electrophoretic methods

Aminopeptidases catalyze the cleavage of amino acids from the amino terminus of protein or peptide substrates. Although some aminopeptidase activities have been found in plant chloroplasts, the identity of these proteins remains unclear. In this work, we report the purification to apparent homogeneity of a soluble aminopeptidase from isolated barley chloroplasts which preferentially degraded alanyl-p-nitroanilide (Ala-pNA). After organelle isolation in a density gradient and precipitation of soluble proteins with ammonium sulfate, the proteins were purified in three consecutive steps including hydrophobic interaction, gel permeation and ion-exchange chromatographies. The purified enzyme appeared as a single band with a M_r of 84 000 in sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis. The M_r of the native enzyme was estimated to be 93 000 by gel permeation chromatography, suggesting that the protein is a monomer. Mass spectrometry analysis of tryptic digests indicates that the primary structure of the protein has not been reported previously. The enzyme was characterized as a metalloprotease as it could be totally inhibited by 1,10-phenanthroline. Strong inhibition could also be observed using the specific aminopeptidase inhibitors amastatin and bestatin. Besides Ala-pNA, the purified protein could also cleave with decreasing activity glycyl-pNA, leucyl-pNA, lysyl-pNA, methionyl-pNA and arginyl-pNA. The possible physiological role of this enzyme in the chloroplast stroma is discussed.     

In vitro and in vivo regulation of chloroplast glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase isozymes from Chenopodium rubrum. I. Purification and properties of isozymes

Chloroplast glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD, EC 1.2.1.13) was purified from leaves of Chenopodium rubrum L. Aggregated (≥ 10⁶) and disaggregated (165 × 10³) molecular weight forms were obtained by gel filtration in the presence of NAD⁺ and NADP⁺, respectively. The disaggregated enzyme was separated into two isozymes by inverse ammonium sulphate gradient solubilization: "NADP-GPD I" was homotetrameric (subunit molecular weight 39 × 10³); "NADP-GPD II" was heterotetrameric (subunit molecular weights 39 × 10³ and 43 × 10³). Isoelectric focusing of the isozymes, both aggregated and disaggregated, revealed two isoelectric forms in each case, at 4.3 and 7.7. Chloroplast GPD was "NADP-suppressed" in crude extracts due to partial oxidation, incubation with dithioerythritol restored full activity.     

IFN-γ Production to Leishmania Antigen Supplements the Leishmania Skin Test in Identifying Exposure to L. braziliensis Infection

Background

Cutaneous leishmaniasis due to L. braziliensis (CL) is characterized by a positive delayed type hypersensitivity test (DTH) leishmania skin test (LST) and high IFN-γ production to soluble leishmania antigen (SLA). The LST is used for diagnosis of CL and for identification of individuals exposed to leishmania infection but without disease. The main aim of the present study was to identify markers of exposure to L. braziliensis infection.

Methodolgy/Principal Findings

This cohort study enrolled 308 household contacts (HC) of 76 CL index cases. HC had no active or past history of leishmaniasis. For the present cross-sectional study cytokines and chemokines were determined in supernatants of whole blood culture stimulated with SLA. Of the 308 HC, 36 (11.7%) had a positive LST but in these IFN-γ was only detected in 22 (61.1%). Moreover of the 40 HC with evidence of IFN-γ production only 22 (55%) had a positive LST. A total of 54 (17.5%) of 308 HC had specific immune response to SLA. Only a moderate agreement (Kappa = 0.52; 95% CI: 0.36–0.66) was found between LST and IFN-γ production. Moreover while enhancement of CXCL10 in cultures stimulated with SLA was observed in HC with DTH+ and IFN-γ+ and in patients with IFN-γ⁺ and DTH⁻, no enhancement of this chemokine was observed in supernatants of cells of HC with DTH⁺ and IFN-γ⁻.

Conclusions/Significance

This study shows that in addition of LST, the evaluation of antigen specific IFN-γ production should be performed to determine evidence of exposure to leishmania infection. Moreover it suggests that in some HC production of IFN-γ and CXCL10 are performed by cells not involved with DTH reaction.     

Efficient two-sample designs for microarray experiments with biological replications

In the last years, biostatistical research has begun to apply linear models and design theory to develop efficient experimental designs and analysis tools for gene expression microarray data. With two-colour microarrays, direct comparisons of RNA-targets are possible and lead to incomplete block designs. In this setting, efficient designs for simple and factorial microarray experiments have mainly been proposed for technical replicates. But for biological replicates, which are crucial to obtain inference that can be generalised to a biological population, this question has only been discussed recently and is not fully solved yet. In this paper, we propose efficient designs for independent two-sample experiments using two-colour microarrays enabling biologists to measure their biological random samples in an efficient manner to draw generalisable conclusions. We give advice for experimental situations with differing group sizes and show the impact of different designs on the variance and degrees of freedom of the test statistics. The designs proposed in this paper can be evaluated using SAS PROC MIXED or S+/R lme.