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.     

Evolutionary rescue by beneficial mutations in environments that change in space and time

A factor that may limit the ability of many populations to adapt to changing conditions is the rate at which beneficial mutations can become established. We study the probability that mutations become established in changing environments by extending the classic theory for branching processes. When environments change in time, under quite general conditions, the establishment probability is approximately twice the ‘effective selection coefficient’, whose value is an average that gives most weight to a mutant''s fitness in the generations immediately after it appears. When fitness varies along a gradient in a continuous habitat, increased dispersal generally decreases the chance a mutation establishes because mutations move out of areas where they are most adapted. When there is a patch of favourable habitat that moves in time, there is a maximum speed of movement above which mutations cannot become established, regardless of when and where they first appear. This critical speed limit, which is proportional to the mutation''s maximum selective advantage, represents an absolute constraint on the potential of locally adapted mutations to contribute to evolutionary rescue.     

A new, transportable ergometer for the measurement of musculotendinous stiffness during wrist flexion.

We present here a new, dedicated mechanical device for monitoring quick-release movements of the wrist. The ergometer was designed to easily assess musculotendinous properties during wrist flexion. Maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) and quick-release (QR) movements during wrist flexion were performed on 14 subjects. A validation of the ergometer, using a test-retest methodology, was performed to assess its reliability and sensitivity. The device has been technically and biomechanically validated in a range of situations, including inertia measurement (mean inertia was found 0.0119+/-0.0012 N m s(2) rad(-1)) and appearance of the unloading reflex. Our results indicate that the device provides highly reliable, sensitive evaluation of wrist muscle stiffness (intraclass correlation coefficient for inertia, maximal voluntary contraction and stiffness index were 0.873, 0.994 and 0.930, respectively). Its portability facilitates measurement of the influence of repetitive, occupational activity on the musculotendinous complex of the wrist flexors.     

Digestion in the cattle-tick Boophilus microplus: light microscope study of the gut cells in nymphs and females

The gut caeca of B. microplus were studied by light microscopy using paraffin and methacrylate embedded material. It has been shown that during feeding of nymphs and adults, the midgut consists of five cell types, stem cell, digest cell, secretory cells (s₁) and (s₂) and basophilic cell. The stem cell differentiates into any of the other cell types. The digest cell matures through a series of stages and has up to three generations during feeding on the host. The final generation has two distinct cell types, the first type is thought to be capable of both phagocytosis and pinocytosis. Cells of the second type are predominant at the end of feeding, and may be specialized to ingest and digest haemoglobin. The final stage of the digest series is the spent digest cell which discharges its content into the gut lumen or is excreted whole. The basophilic cell has structures which suggest that one of its functions is to transport digested materials, water and ions across the gut. Secretory cell (s₁) secretes a glycoprotein which may be a haemolysin and secretory cell (s₂) secretes the gut “colloid” mass, an acid mucopolysaccharide, which may function as an anticoagulant. Intracellular digestion leads to the breakdown of host blood and storage of lipid and glycogen in the digest cells.     

Mayday - integrative analytics for expression data

Background  

DNA Microarrays have become the standard method for large scale analyses of gene expression and epigenomics. The increasing complexity and inherent noisiness of the generated data makes visual data exploration ever more important. Fast deployment of new methods as well as a combination of predefined, easy to apply methods with programmer's access to the data are important requirements for any analysis framework. Mayday is an open source platform with emphasis on visual data exploration and analysis. Many built-in methods for clustering, machine learning and classification are provided for dissecting complex datasets. Plugins can easily be written to extend Mayday's functionality in a large number of ways. As Java program, Mayday is platform-independent and can be used as Java WebStart application without any installation. Mayday can import data from several file formats, database connectivity is included for efficient data organization. Numerous interactive visualization tools, including box plots, profile plots, principal component plots and a heatmap are available, can be enhanced with metadata and exported as publication quality vector files.     

Development of Four Populations of Meloidogyne hapla on Two Cultivars,of Cucumber at Different Temperatures

The infectivity and development of four populations of Meloidogyne hapla were compared, at three temperatures, on tomato and two varieties of cucumber. A population from Canada produced few root-galls on cucumber and, except at 24 C, no larvae developed into adult females and produced egg masses. In contrast, a population with 45 chromosomes from America produced many galls on cucumber and small proportions of larvae became females and produced egg masses at 20 and 24 C. At 18 C this population produced no egg masses on cucumber, but a population from Britain and one from America with 17 chromosomes produced more egg masses at this temperature than at 20 or 24 C. Dissection of the galls showed that on cucumber many larvae died or their growth and development was slowed.     

Selection on innate immunity and body condition in Florida scrub-jays throughout an epidemic

Opportunities to investigate selection in free-living species during a naturally occurring epidemic are rare; however, we assessed innate immunocompetence in Florida scrub-jays before the population suffered the greatest over-winter mortality in 20 years of study. Propitiously, three months prior to the epidemic, we had sampled a number of male breeders to evaluate a suite of physiological measures that are commonly used to estimate the overall health-state of an individual. There was a significant, positive selection gradient for both Escherichia coli bacterial killing capability and body condition, suggesting that directional selection had occurred upon each of these traits during the disease epidemic.     

Boophilus microplus (ixodid tick): Fine structure of the gut basophilic cell in relation to water and ion transport

Basophilic cells in the guts of female ticks are derived from the basal remnants of type 2 secretory cells. As viewed by electron microscopy, these cells have microvilli uniformly distributed on the luminal surface, but they lack the abundant pinocytotic vesicles and lysosomes characteristic of digest cells. The cytoplasm is filled with well organized rough endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi complexes and secretory granules. Infoldings of a basal labyrinth extend the contact of the cell with the underlying haemolymph, and there are many mitochondria in the cell processes between folds. This morphology appears to fit the cell for functioning in active water transport across the gut wall. Subsequent to a final rapid phase of engorgement, the basophilic cell reorganizes its cisternae of rough endoplasmic reticulum into whorls and parallel arrays and resumes a secretory role.     

Calcitonin receptors of human osteoclastoma

Osteoclast-rich cultures were prepared by disaggregation of osteoclastomas (giant cell tumour of bone) and settlement onto glass or plastic surfaces. Autoradiography using [125I]-salmon calcitonin ([125I]-sCT) revealed specific binding only to multinucleate giant cells (osteoclasts) and a minor population of mononuclear cells. [125I]-sCT competitive binding studies indicated a Kd of 5 x 10(-10) M and receptor number of approximately 1 million sites/osteoclast. sCT treatment resulted in a dose-dependent rise in cAMP (EC50 10(-10) M). Homogenates of an osteoclastoma also demonstrated specific binding of [125I]-sCT. Chemical cross-linking of a labelled synthetic sCT derivative. [125I]-[Arg11,18,Lys14]-sCT, using disuccinimidyl suberate, resulted in labelling of a receptor component of approximate Mr 85-90,000. The multinucleate giant cells (osteoclasts) of human osteoclastomas possess large number of CT receptors which exhibit the same binding kinetics and apparent Mr as those of other CT target cells.     

Identification of highly reactive cysteinyl and methionyl residues of rabbit muscle phosphofructokinase

The reactivity of the 16 thiol groups of rabbit skeletal muscle phosphofructokinase has been studied extensively over the past 20 years. Several of these thiols show high reactivity with a variety of reagents, display differential reactivity in the presence of allosteric ligands and substrates, and appear to be important to function because their modification changes activity and regulatory properties. In the present study, the location in the primary structure of several highly reactive thiol groups has been established by reaction with [14C]iodoacetate. In the course of these studies, 2 methionyl residues that are located at or near proposed ligand-binding sites are readily carboxymethylated by iodoacetate. In addition to confirming the presence of the most reactive thiol group at sequence position 88, a thiol protected from reaction by the presence of fructose-6-P and cyclic AMP has been found at position 169. Cysteine 169 is close to a residue important to the binding of fructose-6-P in the homologous structure from Bacillus stearothermophilis phosphofructokinase. The modification of Cys-169 brings about extensive, but not total, loss of activity. Another cysteine, at position 232, was found to be highly reactive also. Substrate provided partial protection against carboxymethylation at this position. Carboxymethylation of enzyme restricted to methionines 74 and 173 brought about no changes in the total activity or in the ATP inhibition profile of the enzyme. This is significant since position 74 was projected on the basis of the homologous procaryotic structure to be important in the binding of nucleotide to the allosteric site.