Method for endogenizing capital in the United States Environmentally‐Extended Input‐Output model

Each year businesses, governments, and homeowners in the United States invest around one fifth of gross domestic product into the creation of capital assets such as buildings, machinery, and software to enable production and consumption. Use of capital is typically included to some extent in environmental life cycle assessments of goods and services but is not incorporated into most environmentally extended input‐output (EEIO) models, including the US Environmental Protection Agency's USEEIO. Capital assets are typically created in years prior to their use, so a challenge lies in distributing the impacts of their creation over time. In this work, a highly detailed capital flow matrix approach is followed to distribute the use of fixed capital assets to consuming industries. Data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis's Fixed Asset Accounts is merged with its Industry Accounts data by the creation of concordance tables. Public highways and streets are partially reallocated to industries operating vehicles. The resulting capital use matrix is later combined into a modified USEEIO. “Housing” is found to be the largest consumer of fixed assets, followed by general government, fossil fuel extraction, and financial industries involved in leasing. Construction, vehicles, and machinery are mostly used by industries in the form of fixed assets. The types of fixed assets used by industries are consistent with expectations: housing is dominated by structures, transport by equipment, and information industries by intellectual property products.     

Axon myelin transfer of a non-enveloped virus

We showed previously that Theiler's virus, a neurotropic non-enveloped picornavirus of mouse, traffics from the axon of infected neurons into the surrounding myelin. When this traffic is interrupted, as in the shiverer mouse which bears a mutation in the myelin basic protein gene, the virus is unable to persist in the central nervous system. In the present work, we used the Wld(s) mutant mouse, a strain in which axonal degeneration is considerably slowed down, to show that axon to myelin traffic takes place in the absence of axon degeneration. Our results suggest the existence of a mechanism of transfer of axonal cytoplasm into the myelin which Theiler's virus might exploit to ensure its persistence.     

Novel alpha-conotoxins from Conus spurius and the alpha-conotoxin EI share high-affinity potentiation and low-affinity inhibition of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

alpha-Conotoxins from marine snails are known to be selective and potent competitive antagonists of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Here we describe the purification, structural features and activity of two novel toxins, SrIA and SrIB, isolated from Conus spurius collected in the Yucatan Channel, Mexico. As determined by direct amino acid and cDNA nucleotide sequencing, the toxins are peptides containing 18 amino acid residues with the typical 4/7-type framework but with completely novel sequences. Therefore, their actions (and that of a synthetic analog, [gamma15E]SrIB) were compared to those exerted by the alpha4/7-conotoxin EI from Conus ermineus, used as a control. Their target specificity was evaluated by the patch-clamp technique in mammalian cells expressing alpha(1)beta(1)gammadelta, alpha(4)beta(2) and alpha(3)beta(4) nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. At high concentrations (10 microm), the peptides SrIA, SrIB and [gamma15E]SrIB showed weak blocking effects only on alpha(4)beta(2) and alpha(1)beta(1)gammadelta subtypes, but EI also strongly blocked alpha(3)beta(4) receptors. In contrast to this blocking effect, the new peptides and EI showed a remarkable potentiation of alpha(1)beta(1)gammadelta and alpha(4)beta(2) nicotinic acetylcholine receptors if briefly (2-15 s) applied at concentrations several orders of magnitude lower (EC(50), 1.78 and 0.37 nm, respectively). These results suggest not only that the novel alpha-conotoxins and EI can operate as nicotinic acetylcholine receptor inhibitors, but also that they bind both alpha(1)beta(1)gammadelta and alpha(4)beta(2) nicotinic acetylcholine receptors with very high affinity and increase their intrinsic cholinergic response. Their unique properties make them excellent tools for studying the toxin-receptor interaction, as well as models with which to design highly specific therapeutic drugs.     

Enhanced expression of the Epithelial Sodium Channel in neutrophils from hypertensive patients

Hypertension (HTN), i.e. abnormally high blood pressure, is a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure. The Epithelial Sodium Channel (ENaC), one of the main transporters regulates blood pressure by tightly controlling the sodium reabsorption along the nephron. Recently, we have shown an α-ENaC overexpression in platelets from hypertensive patients compared to platelets from normotensive subjects, suggesting it makes a contribution to the activation state of platelets and the physiopathology of hypertension. However, the involvement of the α-ENaC localized in neutrophils to this disease remains unknown. Neutrophils are the first leukocytes to be recruited to an inflammatory site and are equipped with a strong ability to eliminate intra- or extracellular pathogens using reactive oxygen species or antibacterial proteins contained in their granules.Using the Western blotting (Wb), flow cytometry, and qRT-PCR approaches; we determined α-ENaC neutrophil overexpression at the protein and messenger RNA (mRNA) levels. By confocal and cytometry analysis, we determined the α-ENaC distribution and the heterogeneity of HTN neutrophils population, respectively. Immunoprecipitation and Wb assays demonstrated the presence of both α-ENaC and caveolin-1 phosphorylated forms, compared with neutrophils from healthy individuals. Although neutrophils from hypertensive subjects circulating in an activated state were exhibiting important oxidative stress and modifications registered by confocal, atomic force, and scanning electron microscope, they conserved their defense capabilities. The features described above for neutrophils from hypertensive patients could be attributed to α-ENaC overexpression, as its drug inhibition diminished their activation state modulating the actin cytoskeleton reorganization triggered during the activation process.     

The status and conservation of the Cape Gannet Morus capensis

The Cape Gannet Morus capensis is one of several seabird species endemic to the Benguela upwelling ecosystem (BUS) but whose population has recently decreased, leading to an unfavourable IUCN Red List assessment. Application of ‘JARA’ (‘Just Another Red-List Assessment,’ a Bayesian state-space tool used for IUCN Red List assessments) to updated information on the areas occupied by Cape Gannets and the nest densities of breeding birds at their six colonies, suggested that the species should be classified as Vulnerable. However, the rate of decrease of Cape Gannets in their most-recent generation exceeded that of the previous generation, primarily as a result of large decreases at Bird Island, Lambert’s Bay, and Malgas Island, off South Africa’s west coast (the western part of their range). Since the 1960s, there has been an ongoing redistribution of the species from northwest to southeast around southern Africa, and ～70% of the population now occurs on the south coast of South Africa, at Bird Island in Algoa Bay, on the eastern border of the BUS. Recruitment rather than adult survival may be limiting the present population; however, information on the seabird’s demographic parameters and mortality in fisheries is lacking for colonies in the northern part of the BUS. Presently, major threats to Cape Gannet include: substantially decreased availability of their preferred prey in the west; heavy mortalities of eggs, chicks and fledglings at and around colonies, inflicted by Cape Fur Seals Arctocephalus pusillus and other seabirds; substantial disturbance at colonies caused by Cape Fur Seals attacking adult gannets ashore; oiling; and disease.     

4-Deoxyraputindole C induces cell death and cell cycle arrest in tumor cell lines

Several molecules extracted from natural products exhibit different biological activities, such as ion channel modulation, activation of signaling pathways, and anti-inflammatory or antitumor activity. In this study, we tested the antitumor ability of natural compounds extracted from the Raputia praetermissa plant. Among the compounds tested, an alkaloid, here called compound S4 (4-Deoxyraputindole C), showed antitumor effects against human tumor lineages. Compound S4 was the most active against Raji, a lymphoma lineage, promoting cell death with characteristics that including membrane permeabilization, dissipation of the mitochondrial potential, increased superoxide production, and lysosomal membrane permeabilization. The use of cell death inhibitors such as Z-VAD-FMK (caspase inhibitor), necrostatin-1 (receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 inhibitor), E-64 (cysteine peptidases inhibitor), and N-acetyl- L -cysteine (antioxidant) did not decrease compound S4-dependent cell death. Additionally, we tested the effect of cellular activity on adherent human tumor cells. The highest reduction of cellular activity was observed in A549 cells, a lung carcinoma lineage. In this lineage, the effect on the reduction of the cellular activity was due to cell cycle arrest, without plasma membrane permeabilization, loss of the mitochondrial potential or lysosomal membrane permeabilization. Compound S4 was able to inhibit cathepsin B and L by a nonlinear competitive (negative co-operativity) and simple-linear competitive inhibitions, respectively. The potency of inhibition was higher against cathepsin L. Compound S4 promoted cell cycle arrest at G ₀ and G ₂ phase, and increase the expression of p16 and p21 proteins. In conclusion, compound S4 is an interesting molecule against cancer, promoting cell death in the human lymphoma lineage Raji and cell cycle arrest in the human lung carcinoma lineage A549.