Importance of the loading factor in transport CO2 emissions

This paper is focusing on the influence of the loading factor on CO2 emissions, from freight and passengers. A common approach in economics to relate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to economic activity is the ASIF model (Unander & Schipper 2000). However, this model has been elaborated for all economic sectors, and it doesn’t take into account the vehicle load factor for the calculation of transport emissions. The objective of this paper is to include the loading factor into the ASIF approach. First, we will include this loading factor into the ASIF equation, aggregating step by step from trip level to macro level; loading will appear as a result of empty running, vehicle capacity and occupancy rate (section 2). Then section 3 will analyse the relationship between loading factor and energy consumption, per type of vehicle. Section 4 will focus on issues concerning freight, as well as section 5 for passengers. The examples will be mainly taken from road transport, which causes most of transport CO2 emissions. Then our conclusion will draw attention on data needs and policy implications

Adapting wine grape production to climate change through canopy architecture manipulation and irrigation in warm climates

Grape growing regions are facing constant warming of the growing season temperature as well as limitations on ground water pumping used for irrigating to overcome water deficits. Trellis systems are utilized to optimize grapevine production, physiology, and berry chemistry. This study aimed to compare 6 trellis systems with 3 levels of applied water amounts based on different replacements of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) in two consecutive seasons. The treatments included a vertical shoot position (VSP), two modified VSPs (VSP60 and VSP80), a single high wire (SH), a high quadrilateral (HQ), and a Guyot pruned VSP (GY) combined with 25%, 50%, and 100% ETc water replacement. The SH had greater yields, whereas HQ was slower to reach full production potential. At harvest in both years, the accumulation of anthocyanin derivatives was enhanced in SH, whereas VSPs decreased them. As crown porosity increased (mostly VSPs), berry flavonol concentration and likewise molar % of quercetin in berries increased. Conversely, as leaf area increased, total flavonol concentration and molar % of quercetin decreased, indicating a preferential arrangement of leaf area along the canopy for overexposure of grape berry with VSP types. The irrigation treatments revealed linear trends for components of yield, where greater applied water resulted in larger berry size and likewise greater yield. 25% ETc was able to increase berry anthocyanin and flavonol concentrations. Overall, this study evidenced the efficiency of trellis systems for optimizing production and berry composition in Californian climate, also, the feasibility of using flavonols as the indicator of canopy architecture

Targeting insulin-like growth factor pathways

Some cancer cells depend on the function of specific molecules for their growth, survival, and metastatic potential. Targeting of these critical molecules has arguably been the best therapy for cancer as demonstrated by the success of tamoxifen and trastuzumab in breast cancer. This review will evaluate the type I IGF receptor (IGF-IR) as a potential target for cancer therapy. As new drugs come forward targeting this receptor system, several issues will need to be addressed in the early clinical trials using these agents

Integrative Genomic Data Mining for Discovery of Potential Blood-Borne Biomarkers for Early Diagnosis of Cancer

Background: With the arrival of the postgenomic era, there is increasing interest in the discovery of biomarkers for the accurate diagnosis, prognosis, and early detection of cancer. Blood-borne cancer markers are favored by clinicians, because blood samples can be obtained and analyzed with relative ease. We have used a combined mining strategy based on an integrated cancer microarray platform, Oncomine, and the biomarker module of the Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) program to identify potential blood-based markers for six common human cancer types. Methodology/Principal Findings: In the Oncomine platform, the genes overexpressed in cancer tissues relative to their corresponding normal tissues were filtered by Gene Ontology keywords, with the extracellular environment stipulated and a corrected Q value (false discovery rate) cut-off implemented. The identified genes were imported to the IPA biomarker module to separate out those genes encoding putative secreted or cell-surface proteins as blood-borne (blood/serum/plasma) cancer markers. The filtered potential indicators were ranked and prioritized according to normalized absolute Student t values. The retrieval of numerous marker genes that are already clinically useful or under active investigation confirmed the effectiveness of our mining strategy. To identify the biomarkers that are unique for each cancer type, the upregulated marker genes that are in common between each two tumor types across the six human tumors were also analyzed by the IPA biomarker comparison function. Conclusion/Significance: The upregulated marker genes shared among the six cancer types may serve as a molecular tool to complement histopathologic examination, and the combination of the commonly upregulated and unique biomarkers may serve as differentiating markers for a specific cancer. This approach will be increasingly useful to discover diagnostic signatures as the mass of microarray data continues to grow in the ‘omics’ era

A High Throughput Screen Identifies Chemical Modulators of the Laminin-Induced Clustering of Dystroglycan and Aquaporin-4 in Primary Astrocytes

Background: Aquaporin-4 (AQP4) constitutes the principal water channel in the brain and is clusteredat the perivascular astrocyte endfeet. This specific distribution of AQP4 plays a major role in maintaining water homeostasis in the brain. A growing body of evidence points to a role ofthe dystroglycan complex and its interaction with perivascular laminin in the clusteringof AQP4 atperivascular astrocyte endfeet. Indeed, mice lacking components of this complex or in which laminindystroglycan interaction is disrupted show a delayed onset of brain edema due to a redistribution of AQP4 away from astrocyte endfeet. It is therefore important to identify inhibitory drugs of laminin-dependent AQP4 clustering which may prevent or reduce brain edema. Methodolgy/Principal Findings: In the present study we used primary rat astrocyte cultures toscreen a library of.3,500 chemicals and identified 6 drugs that inhibit the laminin-induced clustering of dystroglycan and AQP4. Detailed analysis of the inhibitory drug, chloranil, revealed that its inhibition of the clustering is due to the metalloproteinase-2-mediated ß-dystroglycan shedding and subsequent loss of laminin interaction with dystroglycan. Furthermore, chemical variants of chloranil induced a similar effect on ß-dystroglycan and this was prevented by the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine. Conclusion/Significance: These findings reveal the mechanism of action of chloranil in preventing the laminin-induced clustering of dystroglycan and AQP4 and validate the use of high-throughput screening as a tool to identify drugs tha