The new critical metals database “HTMET”: High tech trace element characteristics of sulphides from base metal provinces in the variscan basement and adjacent sedimentary rocks in Germany

High tech (HT) trace elements such as germanium, gallium and indium gain rising importance in the development of innovative technologies. The database “HTMET” forms the first nationwide metal-ore database for Germany, created to visualise HT metal characteristics of base metal ores from important mining districts. Mineralogical and geochemical investigations on 478 samples and ore concentrates from 109 Pb-Zn-Cu occurrences were carried out using analytical methods with high spatial resolution and bulk sample methods. The database provides aggregated data based on 17,000 geochemical data sets, compiled information on regional infrastructure and environmental risks as well as data on innovative raw material-efficient processing techniques. Evaluation of combined data provides interactive maps revealing new potentials for specific HT metals in Germany. Differences in regional distribution of these trace elements and dependency of their concentration levels in the ore on the genetic deposit type became apparent. Sphalerite from the sediment-hosted massive sulphide (SHMS) deposit “Rammelsberg” and skarn deposits in the Erzgebirge contain elevated indium contents (median 14–119 ppm), whereas the SHMS deposit “Meggen” is poor in HT metals. Germanium forms the predominant HT trace element in colloform sphalerite of Mississippi-Valley-Type (MVT) deposits (median 29–147 ppm); in contrast, crystalline sphalerite is low in germanium in this deposit type. Sphalerite in all hydrothermal vein deposits shares a distinct enrichment in gallium (median 6–81 ppm); however, germanium and indium concentrations vary significantly depending on the metal source and fluid conditions. The Ruhrgebiet and the Schwarzwald ore veins show an enrichment in germanium (median 55–73 ppm), whilst vein sphalerite from the Erzgebirge is specialised in indium (median 33 ppm). The data demonstrate that the HT trace element inventory of the studied base metal sulphides is not only a function of the genetic ore deposit type, but is also triggered by locally variable geology such as source rock and fluid composition and organic content of the rock. Gallium seems to derive from adjacent lithologies, whereas indium and germanium may have more distant sources

Food Security Crop Price Transmission and Formation in Nigeria

The three studies in this dissertation explore the current conditions and operations of markets for seven key food security crops (cassava, cowpeas, maize, millet, rice, sorghum, and yams) in Nigeria. Chapter 2 is an empirical analysis of the current agricultural statistics system in Nigeria. A number of sources gather and report agricultural statistics for the country. Since there has not been an agricultural census implemented there for multiple decades, however, there is no objective source for data verification. Therefore, this study uses two additional types of “on the ground information” to assess if agricultural production estimates reflect growing conditions: prices and remote sensing data in the form of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The results show that existing production estimates are poorly correlated with both prices and the NDVI. Prices and the NDVI data are highly correlated, however. These findings imply that existing production estimates do not reflect growing conditions, and, therefore, are of poor quality. Chapter 3 is a comprehensive analysis of crop price transmission from global and neighbor country prices to Nigerian commercial hub and urban markets, and from commercial hubs to other urban and rural markets within the country. The results show that tradability matters for price transmission, but that tradability varies across crops and scopes of markets. Nigerian urban rice prices are highly correlated with prices on global markets and those in neighboring countries. Coarse grain prices appear disconnected from global markets, however, but move closely with those in neighboring countries. Large margins were estimated for prices of rice imported from global markets (in all regions), and for coarse grains to Southern Nigerian markets only. The existence of large margins implies that there are transactions costs and/or quality premiums that vary systematically with the world price, and/or mark-ups by traders with market power in these markets. While domestic market prices are almost always cointegrated, perfect price transmission is generally found only between commercial hubs and other urban markets. Moreover, long lags were found for price transmission across all scopes of markets, but especially between urban and rural prices in some regions. These results imply that local conditions (e.g., weather) are relatively more important than external market prices for explaining price variation in rural markets, especially in the short-run. Chapter 4 incorporates NDVI data into price formation models to estimate whether observable growing conditions explain price variation in Nigerian food security crop markets. Four issues related to use of NDVI data that exist within the literature are investigated: whether NDVI is a valid proxy for expected production, how NDVI is a proxy for seasonality, the relationship between market size and the area scope used to average NDVI values across space, and if anomalous harvest expectations can change long-run price variation and price relationships between markets. The results show that information on growing conditions is more informative for isolated than interconnected markets. Even for those local prices, however, other non-weather and non-external market price factors are relatively more important for explanation of price variation. An implication of these results is that Nigeria cannot plausibly rely solely on direct imports from global markets to meet short-run demand during future weather shock periods. Thus, storage is required to ensure stability of food security, either for imports or domestically produced surpluses acquired in non-crisis periods. Given the isolation of rural markets, local and on-farm stocks are at least as important as large facilities in commercial hubs. Improvement of village level and on-farm storage systems and elimination of other market distortions that inhibit trade between urban and rural markets would make public storage less needed. The findings on poor quality of agricultural statistics indicate a clear priority to improve agricultural data, to facilitate better planning of any food security strategies. A combination of surveys with remote sensed and crowd sourced data may improve feasibility in the funding constrained environment

The Myth of Clean Sport and its Unintended Consequences

Anti-doping has long been premised on the myth of clean sport, a consistent vision that has survived changes in the social and cultural environment. This article starts with a discussion of the meaning of clean sport focusing on the gap between this idealisation and practice. It then traces the historical emergence of this myth, briefly explaining its cultural foundations, and its influence on in-competition drug testing development in the 1960s. It will be argued that clean sport only made sense when the focus was on in-competition use of stimulants. The emergence of drugs such as steroids, used out of competitions, created a conflict between the reality of doping practices and the mythical past and future idealisation of sport as clean. Nonetheless anti-doping leaders maintained their public position that testing systems could defeat doping practices. Due to the continuity of ethical ideas, the construction of health fears, and public scandals, the World Anti-Doping Agency pressed on with, and was empowered by, the absolutist clean sport vision leading to the conceptually flawed, contradictory, draconian and problematic policy environment we face today

Signal transduction events induced by extracellular guanosine 5′triphosphate in excitable cells

A better understanding of the physiological effects of guanosine-based purines should help clarify the complex subject of purinergic signalling. We studied the effect of extracellular guanosine 5′triphosphate (GTP) on the differentiation of two excitable cell lines that both have specific binding sites for GTP: PC12 rat pheochromocytoma cells and C2C12 mouse skeletal muscle cells. PC12 cells can be differentiated into fully functional sympathetic-like neurons with 50′00 ng ml−1 of nerve growth factor, whereas serum starvation causes C2C12 cells to differentiate into myotubes showing functional excitation–contraction coupling, with the expression of myosin heavy chain proteins. Our results show that GTP enhances the differentiation of both of these excitable cell lines. The early events in guanosine-based purine signal transduction appear to involve an increase in intracellular Ca2+ levels and membrane hyperpolarization. We further investigated the early activation of extracellular-regulated kinases and phosphoinositide 3-kinase in GTP-stimulated PC12 and C2C12 cells, respectively. We found that GTP promotes the activation of both kinases. Together, our results suggest that, even if there are some differences in the signalling pathways, GTP-induced differentiation in both cell lines is dependent on an increase in intracellular Ca2+

A proposal for a study on treatment selection and lifestyle recommendations in chronic inflammatory diseases:A danish multidisciplinary collaboration on prognostic factors and personalised medicine

Chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (inflammatory bowel diseases, IBD), rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, spondyloarthritides, hidradenitis suppurativa, and immune-mediated uveitis, are treated with biologics targeting the pro-inflammatory molecule tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF) (i.e., TNF inhibitors). Approximately one-third of the patients do not respond to the treatment. Genetics and lifestyle may affect the treatment results. The aims of this multidisciplinary collaboration are to identify (1) molecular signatures of prognostic value to help tailor treatment decisions to an individual likely to initiate TNF inhibitor therapy, followed by (2) lifestyle factors that support achievement of optimised treatment outcome. This report describes the establishment of a cohort that aims to obtain this information. Clinical data including lifestyle and treatment response and biological specimens (blood, faeces, urine, and, in IBD patients, intestinal biopsies) are sampled prior to and while on TNF inhibitor therapy. Both hypothesis-driven and data-driven analyses will be performed according to pre-specified protocols including pathway analyses resulting from candidate gene expression analyses and global approaches (e.g., metabolomics, metagenomics, proteomics). The final purpose is to improve the lives of patients suffering from CIDs, by providing tools facilitating treatment selection and dietary recommendations likely to improve the clinical outcome

Improved Survival, Vascular Differentiation and Wound Healing Potential of Stem Cells Co-Cultured with Endothelial Cells

In this study, we developed a methodology to improve the survival, vascular differentiation and regenerative potential of umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived hematopoietic stem cells (CD34+ cells), by co-culturing the stem cells in a 3D fibrin gel with CD34+-derived endothelial cells (ECs). ECs differentiated from CD34+ cells appear to have superior angiogenic properties to fully differentiated ECs, such as human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Our results indicate that the pro-survival effect of CD34+-derived ECs on CD34+ cells is mediated, at least in part, by bioactive factors released from ECs. This effect likely involves the secretion of novel cytokines, including interleukin-17 (IL-17) and interleukin-10 (IL-10), and the activation of the ERK 1/2 pathway in CD34+ cells. We also show that the endothelial differentiation of CD34+ cells in co-culture with CD34+-derived ECs is mediated by a combination of soluble and insoluble factors. The regenerative potential of this co-culture system was demonstrated in a chronic wound diabetic animal model. The co-transplantation of CD34+ cells with CD34+-derived ECs improved the wound healing relatively to controls, by decreasing the inflammatory reaction and increasing the neovascularization of the wound