Relationship between biomass energy and economic growth in transition countries: panel ARDL approach

In this study, we have investigated the co‐integration and causality relationship between the biomass energy consumption and economic growth in the transition countries by the Panel Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method and Pedroni co‐integration analysis for 1990–2011. Analysed countries are gathered under two groups. For Groups 1 and 2, Pedroni panel co‐integration test and ARDL bound test results show that biomass energy consumption and economic growth are co‐integrated. Fully modified ordinary least squares results suggested that biomass energy consumption has positive effect on the economic growth.     

Effect of reduction of culture medium sodium, using different sodium chloride substitutes, on the proliferation of normal and Rous sarcoma virus-infected chicken fibroblasts

We have substituted choline chloride, tetramethylammonium chloride, sucrose, or glucose for culture medium sodium chloride. When culture medium sodium is reduced below physiological levels (143 mM) by replacement of graded concentrations of sodium chloride with equivalent concentrations of choline chloride, normal fibroblasts approach proliferative inactivity in the presence of 90 mM Na, while their Rous sarcoma virus (RSV)-infected counterparts proliferate actively; both normal and neoplastic cells die with further sodium reduction. When culture medium NaC; is replaced with tetramethylammonium chloride, however, both normal and RSV-infected fibroblasts alike approach proliferative inactivity in the presence of 110 mM Na and both die off in the presence of 90 mM Na. When culture medium NaCl is replaced with sucrose or glucose yet another set of results is obtained: both normal and RSV-infected fibroblasts proliferate at reduced, although significant, rates in the presence of 42 mM Na. It is clear from our experimental results that the effects of reduction of culture medium sodium on cell proliferation differ markedly with the use of different sodium chloride substitutes. Caution must be exercised, therefore, in drawing inferences concerning the role of sodium in mitogenesis from experimental studies based on the tactic of reduction of external sodium.     

Spontaneous corneal opacities in laboratory mice

Corneal opacities were observed in numerous strains and stocks of laboratory mice (Mus musculus) from different microbiological environments. The opacities were characterized as acute and chronic inflammatory lesions of the corneal epithelium and anterior corneal stroma, including corneal ulcers and erosions, acute keratitis, stromal neovascularization and mineralization of the basement membrane zone. Some strains and stocks of mice from barrier-reared colonies had a high incidence of corneal opacities [DBA/2 (29.1%), C3H (16.2%), CF1 (16.2%) and BALB/c (10.0%)] while others had a lower incidence [CD-1 (4.3%) and C57BL/6 (4.1%)]. Axenic and gnotobiotic mice had a very low incidence of corneal opacities (1.6%). An experimental study demonstrated that twice weekly cage cleaning would reduce the incidence of corneal opacities to a very low level. A bacterial product, such as ammonia, is proposed as a significant factor in the pathogenesis of spontaneous corneal opacities in laboratory mice.     

A Highlights from MBoC Selection: Cega: a single particle segmentation algorithm to identify moving particles in a noisy system

Improvements to particle tracking algorithms are required to effectively analyze the motility of biological molecules in complex or noisy systems. A typical single particle tracking (SPT) algorithm detects particle coordinates for trajectory assembly. However, particle detection filters fail for data sets with low signal-to-noise levels. When tracking molecular motors in complex systems, standard techniques often fail to separate the fluorescent signatures of moving particles from background signal. We developed an approach to analyze the motility of kinesin motor proteins moving along the microtubule cytoskeleton of extracted neurons using the Kullback-Leibler divergence to identify regions where there are significant differences between models of moving particles and background signal. We tested our software on both simulated and experimental data and found a noticeable improvement in SPT capability and a higher identification rate of motors as compared with current methods. This algorithm, called Cega, for “find the object,” produces data amenable to conventional blob detection techniques that can then be used to obtain coordinates for downstream SPT processing. We anticipate that this algorithm will be useful for those interested in tracking moving particles in complex in vitro or in vivo environments.     

N-acetylcysteine counteracts oxidative stress and protects alveolar epithelial cells from lung contusion-induced apoptosis in rats with blunt chest trauma

The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on peroxidative and apoptotic changes in the contused lungs of rats following blunt chest trauma. The rats were randomly divided into three groups: control, contusion, and contusion + NAC. All the rats, apart from those in the control group, performed moderate lung contusion. A daily intramuscular NAC injection (150 mg/kg) was given immediately following the blunt chest trauma and was continued for two additional days following cessation of the trauma. Samples of lung tissue were taken in order to evaluate the tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) level, histopathology, and epithelial cell apoptosis using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay and active caspase-3 immunostaining. In addition, we immunohistochemically evaluated the expression of surfactant protein D (SP-D) in the lung tissue. The blunt chest trauma-induced lung contusion resulted in severe histopathological injury, as well as an increase in the MDA level and in the number of cells identified on TUNEL assay together with active caspase-3 positive epithelial cells, but a decrease in the number of SP-D positive alveolar type 2 (AT-2) cells. NAC treatment effectively attenuated histopathologic, peroxidative, and apoptotic changes, as well as reducing alterations in SP-D expression in the lung tissue. These findings indicate that the beneficial effects of NAC administrated following blunt chest trauma is related to the regulation of oxidative stress and apoptosis.