Comparisons of trace constituents from ground stations and the DC-8 aircraft during PEM-West B

Chemical data from ground stations in Asia and the North Pacific are compared with data from the DC-8 aircraft collected during the Pacific Exploratory Measurements in the Western Pacific Ocean (PEM-West B) mission. Ground station sampling took place on Hong Kong, Taiwan, Okinawa, and Cheju; and at three Pacific islands, Shemya, Midway, and Oahu. Aircraft samples were collected during 19 flights, most over the western North Pacific. Aluminum was used as an indicator of mineral aerosol, and even though the aircraft did sample Asian dust, strong dust storms were not encountered. The frequency distribution for non-sea-salt sulfate (nss SO4=) in the aircraft samples was bimodal: the higher concentration mode (∼1 μg m−3) evidently originated from pollution or, less likely, from volcanic sources, while the lower mode, with a peak at 0.040 μg m−3, probably was a product of biogenic emissions. In addition, the concentrations of aerosol sulfate varied strongly in the vertical: arithmetic mean SO4=concentrations above 5000 m ( = 0.21±0.69 μg m−3) were substantially lower than those below ( = 1.07±0.87 μg m−3), suggesting the predominance of the surface sources. Several samples collected in the stratosphere exhibited elevated SO4=, however, probably as a result of emissions from Mount Pinatubo. During some boundary layer legs on the DC-8, the concentrations of CO and O3 were comparable to those of clean marine air, but during other legs, several chemically distinct air masses were sampled, including polluted air in which O3was photochemically produced. In general, the continental outflow sampled from the aircraft was substantially diluted with respect to what was observed at the ground stations. Higher concentrations of aerosol species, O3, and CO at the Hong Kong ground station relative to the aircraft suggest that much of the continental outflow from southeastern Asia occurs in the lower troposphere, and extensive long-range transport out of this part of Asia is not expected. In comparison, materials emitted farther to the north apparently are more susceptible to long-range transport

Cortical AAV-CNTF gene therapy combined with intraspinal mesenchymal precursor cell transplantation promotes functional and morphological outcomes after spinal cord injury in adult rats

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) promotes survival and enhances long-distance regeneration of injured axons in parts of the adult CNS. Here we tested whether CNTF gene therapy targeting corticospinal neurons (CSN) in motor-related regions of the cerebral cortex promotes plasticity and regrowth of axons projecting into the female adult F344 rat spinal cord after moderate thoracic (T10) contusion injury (SCI). Cortical neurons were transduced with a bicistronic adeno-associated viral vector (AAV1) expressing a secretory form of CNTF coupled to mCHERRY (AAV-CNTFmCherry) or with control AAV only (AAV-GFP) two weeks prior to SCI. In some animals, viable or nonviable F344 rat mesenchymal precursor cells (rMPCs) were injected into the lesion site two weeks after SCI to modulate the inhibitory environment. Treatment with AAV-CNTFmCherry, as well as with AAV-CNTFmCherry combined with rMPCs, yielded functional improvements over AAV-GFP alone, as assessed by open-field and Ladderwalk analyses. Cyst size was significantly reduced in the AAV-CNTFmCherry plus viable rMPC treatment group. Cortical injections of biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) revealed more BDA-stained axons rostral and alongside cysts in the AAV-CNTFmCherry versus AAV-GFP groups. After AAV-CNTFmCherry treatments, many sprouting mCherry-immunopositive axons were seen rostral to the SCI, and axons were also occasionally found caudal to the injury site. These data suggest that CNTF has the potential to enhance corticospinal repair by transducing parent CNS populations

Past, present and future atmospheric nitrogen deposition

Reactive nitrogen emissions into the atmosphere are increasing due to human activities, affecting nitrogen deposition to the surface and impacting the productivity of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. An atmospheric chemistry-transport model (TM4-ECPL) is here used to calculate the global distribution of total nitrogen deposition, accounting for the first time for both its inorganic and organic fractions in gaseous and particulate phases, and past and projected changes due to anthropogenic activities. The anthropogenic and biomass burning ACCMIP historical and RCP6.0 and RCP8.5 emissions scenarios are used. Accounting for organic nitrogen (ON) primary emissions, the present-day global nitrogen atmospheric source is about 60% anthropogenic, while total N deposition increases by about 20% relative to simulations without ON primary emissions. About 20-25% of total deposited N is ON. About 10% of the emitted nitrogen oxides are deposited as ON instead of inorganic nitrogen (IN) as is considered in most global models. Almost a 3-fold increase over land (2-fold over the ocean) has been calculated for soluble N deposition due to human activities from 1850 to present. The investigated projections indicate significant changes in the regional distribution of N deposition and chemical composition, with reduced compounds gaining importance relative to oxidized ones, but very small changes in the global total flux. Sensitivity simulations quantify uncertainties due to the investigated model parameterizations of IN partitioning onto aerosols and of N chemically fixed on organics to be within 10% for the total soluble N deposition and between 25-35% for the dissolved ON deposition. Larger uncertainties are associated with N emissions

The anthelmintic efficacy of plant-derived cysteine proteinases against the rodent gastrointestinal nematode, Heligmosomoides polygyrus, in vivo

Gastrointestinal (GI) nematodes are important disease-causing organisms, controlled primarily through treatment with synthetic drugs, but the efficacy of these drugs has declined due to widespread resistance, and hence new drugs, with different modes of action, are required. Some medicinal plants, used traditionally for the treatment of worm infections, contain cysteine proteinases known to damage worms irreversibly in vitro. Here we (i) confirm that papaya latex has marked efficacy in vivo against the rodent gastrointestinal nematode, Heligmosomoides polygyrus, (ii) demonstrate the dosedependent nature of the activity (>90% reduction in egg output and 80% reduction in worm burden at the highest active enzyme concentration of 133 nmol), (iii) establish unequivocally that it is the cysteine proteinases that are the active principles in vivo (complete inhibition of enzyme activity when pre-incubated with the cysteine proteinase-specific inhibitor, E-64) and (iv) show that activity is confined to worms that are in the intestinal lumen. The mechanism of action was distinct from all current synthetic anthelmintics, and was the same as that in vitro, with the enzymes attacking and digesting the protective cuticle. Treatment had no detectable side-effects on immune cell numbers in the mucosa (there was no difference in the numbers of mast cells and goblet cells between the treated groups) and mucosal architecture (length of intestinal villi). Only the infected and untreated mice had much shorter villi than the other 3 groups, which was a consequence of infection and not treatment. Plant-derived cysteine proteinases are therefore prime candidates for development as novel drugs for the treatment of GI nematode infections

Automating the Semantic Mapping between Regulatory Guidelines and Organizational Processes

The mapping of regulatory guidelines with organizational processes is an important aspect of a regulatory compliance management system. Automating this mapping process can greatly improve the overall compliance process. Currently, there is research on mapping between different entities such as ontology mapping, sentence similarity, semantic similarity and regulation-requirement mapping. However, there has not been adequate research on the automation of the mapping process between regulatory guidelines and organizational processes. In this paper, we explain how Natural Language Processing and Semantic Web technologies can be applied in this area. In particular, we explain how we can take advantage of the structures of regulation-ontology and the process-ontology in order to compute the similarity between a regulatory guideline and a process. Our methodology is validated using a case study in the Pharmaceutical industry, which has shown promising results

Reviews and syntheses: the GESAMP atmospheric iron deposition model intercomparison study

This work reports on the current status of the global modeling of iron (Fe) deposition fluxes and atmospheric concentrations and the analyses of the differences between models, as well as between models and observations. A total of four global 3-D chemistry transport (CTMs) and general circulation (GCMs) models participated in this intercomparison, in the framework of the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) Working Group 38, The Atmospheric Input of Chemicals to the Ocean. The global total Fe (TFe) emission strength in the models is equal to  ∼ 72Tg Fe yr−1 (38–134Tg Fe yr−1) from mineral dust sources and around 2.1Tg Fe yr−1 (1.8–2.7Tg Fe yr−1) from combustion processes (the sum of anthropogenic combustion/biomass burning and wildfires). The mean global labile Fe (LFe) source strength in the models, considering both the primary emissions and the atmospheric processing, is calculated to be 0.7 (±0.3)Tg Fe yr−1, accounting for both mineral dust and combustion aerosols. The mean global deposition fluxes into the global ocean are estimated to be in the range of 10–30 and 0.2–0.4Tg Fe yr−1 for TFe and LFe, respectively, which roughly corresponds to a respective 15 and 0.3Tg Fe yr−1 for the multi-model ensemble model mean. The model intercomparison analysis indicates that the representation of the atmospheric Fe cycle varies among models, in terms of both the magnitude of natural and combustion Fe emissions as well as the complexity of atmospheric processing parameterizations of Fe-containing aerosols. The model comparison with aerosol Fe observations over oceanic regions indicates that most models overestimate surface level TFe mass concentrations near dust source regions and tend to underestimate the low concentrations observed in remote ocean regions. All models are able to simulate the tendency of higher Fe concentrations near and downwind from the dust source regions, with the mean normalized bias for the Northern Hemisphere ( ∼ 14), larger than that of the Southern Hemisphere ( ∼ 2.4) for the ensemble model mean. This model intercomparison and model–observation comparison study reveals two critical issues in LFe simulations that require further exploration: (1) the Fe-containing aerosol size distribution and (2) the relative contribution of dust and combustion sources of Fe to labile Fe in atmospheric aerosols over the remote oceanic regions

Oral dosing with papaya latex is an effective anthelmintic treatment for sheep infected with Haemonchus contortus

Background The cysteine proteinases in papaya latex have been shown to have potent anthelmintic properties in monogastric hosts such as rodents, pigs and humans, but this has not been demonstrated in ruminants. Methods In two experiments, sheep were infected concurrently with 5,000 infective larvae of Haemonchus contortus and 10,000 infective larvae of Trichostrongylus colubriformis and were then treated with the supernatant from a suspension of papaya latex from day 28 to day 32 post-infection. Faecal egg counts were monitored from a week before treatment until the end of the experiment and worm burdens were assessed on day 35 post-infection. Results We found that the soluble fraction of papaya latex had a potent in vivo effect on the abomasal nematode H. contortus, but not on the small intestinal nematode T. colubriformis. This effect was dose-dependent and at tolerated levels of gavage with papaya latex (117 μmol of active papaya latex supernatant for 4 days), the H. contortus worm burdens were reduced by 98%. Repeated treatment, daily for 4 days, was more effective than a single dose, but efficacy was not enhanced by concurrent treatment with the antacid cimetidine. Conclusions Our results provide support for the idea that cysteine proteinases derived from papaya latex may be developed into novel anthelmintics for the treatment of lumenal stages of gastro-intestinal nematode infections in sheep, particularly those parasitizing the abomasum