National inventories of land occupation and transformation flows in the world for land use impact assessment

Purpose

Land use can cause significant impacts on ecosystems and natural resources. To assess these impacts using life cycle assessment (LCA) and ensure adequate decision-making, comprehensive national inventories of land occupation and transformation flows are required. Here, we aim at developing globally differentiated inventories of land use flows that can be used for primary use in life cycle impact assessment or national land planning.

Methods

Using publicly available data and inventory techniques, national inventories for several land use classes were developed. All land use classes were covered with the highest retrievable level of disaggregation within urban, forestry, agriculture and other land use classes, thus differentiating 21 land use classes. For illustrating the application of this newly developed inventory, two different application settings relevant to life cycle impact assessment were considered: the calculation of global normalisation references for 11 land use impact indicators related to soil quality assessment (adopting the methods recommended by the EU Commission) and the determination of generic globally applicable characterisation factors (CFs) resulting from aggregation of country-level CFs for situations for use when land use location is unknown.

Results and discussion

We built national inventories of 21 land occupation and 17 land transformation flows for 225 countries in the world for the reference year 2010. Cross-comparisons with existing inventories of narrower scopes attested its consistency. Detailed analyses of the calculated global normalisation references for the 11 land use impact categories showed different patterns across the land use impact indicators for each country, thus raising attention on key land use impacts specific to each country. Furthermore, the upscaling of country-level CFs to global generic CFs using the land use inventory revealed discrepancies with other alternative approaches using land use data at different resolutions.

Conclusions

In this study, we made a first attempt at developing national inventories of land use flows with sufficient disaggregation level to enable the calculation of normalisation references and differentiated impacts. However, the findings also demonstrated the need to refine the consistency of the inventory, particularly in the combination of land cover and land use data, which should be harmonised in future studies, and to expand it with differentiated coverage of more land use flows relevant to impact assessment.

     

New sensible method to quantize the intestinal absorption of receptor ligands

In recent years, special attention has been paid to the A₃ adenosine receptor (A₃AR) as a possible pharmacological target to treat intestinal inflammation. In this work, it was set up a novel method to quantify the concentration of a promising anti-inflammatory agent inside and outside of intestinal barrier using the everted gut sac technique. The compound chosen for the present study is one of the most potent and selective A₃AR agonist reported so far, named AR 170 (N⁶-methyl-2-phenylethynyl-5′-N-methylcarboxamidoadenosine). In order to evaluate the intestinal absorption of AR 170 the radioligand binding assay in comparison with HPLC-DAD was used. Results showed that the compound is absorbed via passive diffusion by paracellular pathway. The concentrations determined in the serosal (inside the sac) fluid by radioligand binding assay are in good agreement with those obtained through the widely used HPLC/MS protocol, demonstrating the reliability of the method. It is worthwhile to note that the radioligand binding assay allows detecting very low concentrations of analyte, thus offering an excellent tool to measure the intestinal absorption of receptor ligands. Moreover, the AR 170 quantity outside the gut sac and the interaction with A₃AR could presuppose good topical anti-inflammatory effects of this compound.     

A dense single-nucleotide polymorphism-based genetic linkage map of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) anchoring Pinot Noir bacterial artificial chromosome contigs

The construction of a dense genetic map for Vitis vinifera and its anchoring to a BAC-based physical map is described: it includes 994 loci mapped onto 19 linkage groups, corresponding to the basic chromosome number of Vitis. Spanning 1245 cM with an average distance of 1.3 cM between adjacent markers, the map was generated from the segregation of 483 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genetic markers, 132 simple sequence repeats (SSRs), and 379 AFLP markers in a mapping population of 94 F(1) individuals derived from a V. vinifera cross of the cultivars Syrah and Pinot Noir. Of these markers, 623 were anchored to 367 contigs that are included in a physical map produced from the same clone of Pinot Noir and covering 352 Mbp. On the basis of contigs containing two or more genetically mapped markers, region-dependent estimations of physical and recombinational distances are presented. The markers used in this study include 118 SSRs common to an integrated map derived from five segregating populations of V. vinifera. The positions of these SSR markers in the two maps are conserved across all Vitis linkage groups. The addition of SNP-based markers introduces polymorphisms that are easy to database, are useful for evolutionary studies, and significantly increase the density of the map. The map provides the most comprehensive view of the Vitis genome reported to date and will be relevant for future studies on structural and functional genomics and genetic improvement.     

Overexpression of sialidase NEU3 increases the cellular radioresistance potential of U87MG glioblastoma cells

The plasma membrane-associated sialidase NEU3 is known to play important roles in different physiological and pathophysiological processes such as proliferation, cellular differentiation and tumorigenesis. Up-regulation of NEU3 has been associated to several tumors and recently it was demonstrated that its down-modulation in glioblastoma cells promotes cell invasiveness. To date, no information concerning the possible role played by NEU3 in relation to tumor radioresistance is available. Here we show that overexpression of NEU3 in glioblastoma U87MG cells activates PI3K/Akt signaling pathway resulting in an increased radioresistance capacity and in an improved efficiency of double strand DNA-repair mechanisms after irradiation. Our results demonstrate for the first time that NEU3 contributes to the radioresistance features of U87MG cells, bringing to evidence a novel rand peculiar role of the enzyme in cancer biology.     

Stereotactic radiotherapy for brain oligometastases

Brain metastases, the most common metastases in adults, will develop in up to 40% of cancer patients, accounting for more than one-half of all intracranial tumors. They are most associated with breast and lung cancer, melanoma and, less frequently, colorectal and kidney carcinoma.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the gold standard for diagnosis. For the treatment plan, computed tomography (CT ) images are co-registered and fused with a gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted MRI where tumor volume and organs at risk are contoured. Alternatively, plain and contrast-enhanced CT scans are co-registered. Single-fraction stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT ) is used to treat patients with good performance status and up to 4 lesions with a diameter of 30 mm or less that are distant from crucial brain function areas. Fractionated SRT (2–5 fractions) is used for larger lesions, in eloquent areas or in proximity to crucial or surgically inaccessible areas and to reduce treatment-related neurotoxicity. The single-fraction SRT dose, which depends on tumor diameter, impacts local control. Fractionated SRT may encompass different schedules. No randomized trial data compared the safety and efficacy of single and multiple fractions. Both single-fraction and fractionated SRT provide satisfactory local control rates, tolerance, a low risk of transient acute adverse events and of radiation necrosis the incidence of which correlated with the irradiated brain volume.     

Stereospecific synthesis of "para-hydroxymexiletine" and sodium channel blocking activity evaluation

Both enantiomers of "para-hydroxymexiletine" (PHM), one of the main metabolites of mexiletine, were synthesized and fully characterized. Properties of (R)- and (S)-PHM, in terms of blocking potency and stereoselectivity on frog skeletal muscle Na(+) channels, were evaluated. The presence of a hydroxy group on the aryloxy moiety in the 4-position, as in PHM, reduced potency with respect to mexiletine in reducing I(Na max). However, PHM showed clear use-dependent behavior similar to that of mexiletine and, in contrast with what is observed with the parent compound, maintained its stereoselectivity during the use-dependent block. Chirality 16:72-78, 2004.     

Structural study of four-stranded quadruplex structures containing 2'-deoxy-8-(propyn-1-yl)adenosine

In this paper, we report the NMR structural study of two quadruplex structures formed by truncations of the human telomeric sequence and containing a modified base, namely d(AprGGGT) and d(TAprGGGT), where Apr indicates 2'-deoxy-8-(propyn-1-yl)adenosines. Both oligonucleotides have been found to form 4-fold symmetric G-quadruplex structures with all strands parallel and equivalent to each other and characterized by higher thermal stabilities than the natural counterparts. The presence of the propynyl groups affects the conformations of the 5' edge of both quadruplexes in such a way to prevent the formation of one of the two possible H-bond patterns observed for a canonical A-tetrad. The increased thermal stabilities of the modified quadruplexes seem to be mostly due to a prevalent syn glycosidic conformation assumed by the Apr residues.     

Reaction of peroxynitrite with hyaluronan and related saccharides

The effects of peroxynitrite on hyaluronan has been studied by using an integrated spectroscopical approach, namely electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and mass spectrometry (MS). The reaction has been performed with the polymer, the tetrasaccharide oligomer as well as with the monosaccharides N-acetylglucosamine and glucuronic acid. The outcome of the presence of molecular oxygen and carbon dioxide has been also evaluated. Although ₁H-NMR and ESI-MS experiments did not revealed peroxynitrite-mediated modification of hyaluronan as well as of related saccharides, from spin-trapping EPR experiments it was concluded that peroxynitrite induce the formation of C-centered carbon radicals, most probably by the way of its hydroxyl radical-like reactivity. These EPR data support the oxidative pathway involved in the degradation of hyaluronan, a probable event in the development and progression of rheumatoid arthritis.     

Modulation of endothelin-A receptor, Galpha subunit, and RGS2 expression during H9c2 cardiomyoblast differentiation

In cardiac myocytes, growth responses depend on activation of G protein-coupled receptors interacting with Gq/11 protein subfamily members. Endothelin receptors of the ETA subtype belong to this receptor group inducing hypertrophic responses. To understand the role of ETA receptors and signal transduction proteins in modulating cell growth, we analyzed the pharmacological profile of this receptor, its level of expression together with those of Galpha subunits and the RGS2 protein in cardiomyoblasts differentiating into the cardiac phenotype. H9c2 rat cardiomyoblasts were grown in the presence of 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) or 1% FBS plus all-trans-retinoic acid to induce the cardiac phenotype. The pharmacological properties of ETA receptors were investigated by competition-binding experiments, whereas the protein expression profile was analyzed by immunoblot and immunocytochemistry. The pharmacological profile of ETA receptors changed during differentiation of cardiomyoblasts into cardiomyocytes, and the amount of expressed receptor appeared to increase. Immunocytochemistry also showed a marked increase of receptor expression on cell membranes of differentiated cardiomyocytes. Among the other signaling proteins examined, both Galphaq/11 and RGS2 expression decreased in cells with the cardiac phenotype. Our results demonstrate that the expression of key proteins (ETA receptor, Galphaq/11, and RGS2) involved in signal transduction of hypertrophic stimuli is modulated during cell differentiation and correlates with the cardiac phenotype.