Changes in the characteristics of human granulo- and monocytopoiesis and the activity of stromal precursor cells in acute hypobaric hypoxia

10 healthy men underwent a 48 hour acute hypobaric hypoxia in the "Taba?" climate chamber imitating conditions of an altitude of 4.00 m. above s.l. The "ascent" and "descent" took 30 minutes each. Blood and bone marrow samples were taken before entering the chamber and immediately after leaving it. A decrease in colony-forming capacity of granulo- and monocyte and fibroblast precursors was shown, along with an increase in functional activity of circulating monocytes and monocyte precursors in bone marrow. A possible role of changes in granulo- and monocytopoiesis and in stromal cells is discussed in relation to the increased morbidity and decreased cicatricial and bone tissue reparation in the mountains.     

Large scale production of recombinant mouse and rat growth hormone by fed-batch GS-NSO cell cultures

Investigations of biological effects of prolonged elevation of growth hormone in animals such as mice and rats require large amounts of mouse and rat growth hormone (GH) materials. As an alternative to scarce and expensive pituitary derived materials, both mouse and rat GH were expressed in NSO murine myeloma cells transfected with a vector containing the glutamine synthetase (GS) gene and two copies of mouse or rat GH cDNA. For optimal expression, the mouse GH vector also contained sequences for targeting integration by homologous recombination. Fed-batch culture processes for such clones were developed using a serum-free, glutamine-free medium and scaled up to 250 L production scale reactors. Concentrated solutions of proteins, amino acids and glucose were fed periodically to extend cell growth and culture lifetime, which led to an increase in the maximum viable cell concentration to 3.5×10⁹ cells/L and an up to 10 fold increase in final mouse and rat rGH titers in comparison with batch cultures. For successful scale up, similar culture environmental conditions were maintained at different scales, and specific issues in large scale reactors such as balancing oxygen supply and carbon dioxide removal, were addressed. Very similar cell growth and protein productivity were obtained in the fed-batch cultures at different scales and in different production runs. The final mouse and rat rGH titers were approximately 580 and 240 mg/L, respectively. During fed-batch cultures, the cell growth stage transition was accompanied by a change in cellular metabolism. The specific glucose consumption rate decreased significantly after the transition from the growth to stationary stage, while lactate was produced in the exponential growth stage and became consumed in the stationary stage. This was roughly coincident with the beginning of ammonia and glutamate accumulation at the entry of cells into the stationary stage as the result of a reduced glutamine consumption and periodic nutrient additions.     

Enlarged Similarity of Nucleic Acid Sequences

The concept of nucleic acid sequence base alternations is presented.The number of base alterations for the sequences of differentlength is established. The definition of "enlarged similarity"of nucleic acids sequences on the basis of sequence base alterationsis introduced. Mutual information between sequences is usedas a quantitative measure of enlarged similarity for two comparedsequences. The method of mutual information calculation is developedconsidering the correlation of bases in compared sequences.The definitions of correlated similarity and evolution similaritybetween compared sequences are given. Results of the use ofenlarged similarity approach for DNA sequences analysis arediscussed.     

Effect of pH and butyrate concentration on the production of acetone and butanol by Clostridium acetobutylicum grown in continuous culture

Summary When Clostridium acetobutylicum was grown in continuous culture under glucose limitation at neutral pH and varying dilution rates the only fermentation products formed were acetate, butyrate, carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen. The Y _glucose ^max and (Y _ATP ^max ) _gluc ^exp values were 48.3 and 23.8 dry weight/mol, respectively. Acetone and butanol were produced when the pH was decreased below 5.0 (optimum at pH 4.3). The addition of butyric acid (20 to 80 mM) to the medium with a pH of 4.3 resulted in a shift of the fermentation from acid, to solvent formation.A preliminary report of part of this work was presented at a symposium Trends in the Biology of Fermentations for Fuels and Chemicals held December 7–11, 1980, at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; Gottschalk and Bahl 1981     

Über die rationelle Milchpasteurisierung

Ohne ZusammenfassungDie Arbeit wurde dem R. Istituto Lombardo Scienze e Lettere am 5. Juni 1934 vorgelegt (Rend. 67, 671, 1934).     

The impact of interventions in the global land and agri‐food sectors on Nature’s Contributions to People and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Interlocked challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation require transformative interventions in the land management and food production sectors to reduce carbon emissions, strengthen adaptive capacity, and increase food security. However, deciding which interventions to pursue and understanding their relative co‐benefits with and trade‐offs against different social and environmental goals have been difficult without comparisons across a range of possible actions. This study examined 40 different options, implemented through land management, value chains, or risk management, for their relative impacts across 18 Nature's Contributions to People (NCPs) and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We find that a relatively small number of interventions show positive synergies with both SDGs and NCPs with no significant adverse trade‐offs; these include improved cropland management, improved grazing land management, improved livestock management, agroforestry, integrated water management, increased soil organic carbon content, reduced soil erosion, salinization, and compaction, fire management, reduced landslides and hazards, reduced pollution, reduced post‐harvest losses, improved energy use in food systems, and disaster risk management. Several interventions show potentially significant negative impacts on both SDGs and NCPs; these include bioenergy and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, afforestation, and some risk sharing measures, like commercial crop insurance. Our results demonstrate that a better understanding of co‐benefits and trade‐offs of different policy approaches can help decision‐makers choose the more effective, or at the very minimum, more benign interventions for implementation.