Ultrafine particles around a major airport – attempt to model total ultrafine particle number concentration around Frankfurt Airport

The German Environment Agency (UBA) funded the project “Influence of a major airport on temporal and spatial distributions of outdoor air concentrations of ultrafine dust <100 nm to describe the potential exposure in the vicinity - including other air pollutants (soot, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10))”, UFOPLAN 3716 52 200 0. Total UFP number concentration for the year 2015 at and around Frankfurt Airport (FRA) was estimated using a combination of established small-scale (LASAT/LASPORT) and large-scale modelling (EURAD, MADE). Emissions were determined for aircraft traffic, road traffic, airport ground services and regional/mesoscale background using standard national and international inventories (HBEFA, ICAO, GRETA) and specific data obtained from the airport. Model outputs were series of successive 3-dimensional hourly mean concentrations apportioned to aircraft, airport, motor traffic and background. The model results suggest that aircraft main engines are the dominant source of UFP at the airport. Aircraft up to 3’000 ft (about 230’000 LTOs) plus airport-bound sources yield an annual nvPM emission of 1e+24 particles, about 90% of which are due to aircraft main engines. According to the model results, long-time averages of UFP number concentration are dominated by background contributions at locations further away from the airport, while the airport contribution to hourly mean concentrations can be significant even in some distance from the airport. An important aim of the project was to identify shortcomings of current state-of-the-art emission and concentration modelling of UFP in the context of airports. Here, inconsistent UFP diameter ranges in the databases, models and measurements are of relevance, likewise differences in the considered UFP characterisation and measuring method, in particular volatile versus non-volatile fractions. On a more advanced level, current limitations in knowledge and capabilities of local models to address UFP transformation processes play a role

Increased MACC1 levels in tissues and blood identify colon adenoma patients at high risk

Background Colorectal cancer is a preventable disease if caught at early stages. This disease is highly aggressive and has a higher incidence in African Americans. Several biomarkers and mutations of aggressive tumor behavior have been defined such as metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) that was associated with metastasis in colorectal cancer patients. Here, we aim to assess colon tissue MACC1 protein and circulating MACC1 transcripts in colon preneoplastic and neoplastic African American patients. Methods Patients’ tissue samples (n = 143) have been arranged on three tissue microarrays for normal (n = 26), adenoma (n = 68) and cancer (n = 49) samples. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect MACC1 expression. Blood samples (n = 93) from normal (n = 45), hyperplastic (n = 15) and tubular adenoma (n = 33) patients were used to assess MACC1 transcripts using qRT-PCR. Distribution of continuous variables was tested between different diagnoses with Kruskal–Wallis test. Categorical variables were tested by Chi square test. We assessed the prognostic ability of IHC staining by calculating area under receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) for adenoma and cancer separately. Differences between groups in terms of MACC1 transcript levels in plasma were calculated by using non-parametric (exact) Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney tests. We performed all calculations with SPSS, version 21. Results In patient tissues, there was a statistically significant difference in MACC1 expression in normal vs. adenoma samples (p = 0.004) and normal vs. cancer samples (p < 0.001). There was however no major difference in MACC1 expression between adenoma vs. cancer cases or tubular adenomas vs tubulovillous adenomas. The area under the curve for both normal vs. adenoma and normal vs. cancer cases were 70 and 67 %, respectively. MACC1 expression was not correlated to age, gender or anatomical sample location. In patient plasma, MACC1 transcripts in adenoma patients were significantly higher than in plasma from normal patients (p = 0.014). However, the difference between normal and hyperplastic plasma MACC1 transcripts was not statistically significant. Conclusion Metastasis- associated in colon cancer 1 is expressed at early stages of colorectal oncogenesis within the affected colonic tissue in this patient cohort. The plasma transcripts can be used to stratify African American patients at risk for potential malignant colonic lesions

Adaptivity as a Property to Achieve Resilience of Load-Carrying Systems

Load-carrying systems often suffer from unexpected disruptions which can cause damages or system breakdowns if they were neglected during product development. In this context, unexpected disruptions summarize unpredictable load conditions, external disturbances or failures of system components and can be comprehended as uncertainties caused by nescience. While robust systems can cope with stochastic uncertainties, uncertainties caused by nescience can be controlled only by resilient load-carrying systems. This paper gives an overview of the characteristics of resilience as well as the time-dependent resilient behaviour of subsystems. Based on this, the adaptivity of subsystems is classified and can be distinguished between autonomous and externally induced adaption and the temporal horizon of adaption. The classification of adaptivity is explained using a simple example of a joint brake application

Cowpox Virus Transmission from Pet Rats to Humans, Germany

We describe a cluster of cowpox virus (CPXV) infections in humans that occurred near Munich, Germany, around the beginning of 2009. Previously, only sporadic reports of CPXV infections in humans after direct contact with various animals had been published. This outbreak involved pet rats from the same litter

Current Multiple Myeloma Treatment Strategies with Novel Agents: A European Perspective

This review presents an overview of the most recent data using the novel agents thalidomide, bortezomib, and lenalidomide in the treatment of multiple myeloma and summarizes European treatment practices incorporating these novel agents

International Bottom Trawl Survey Working Group (IBTSWG). ICES Scientific Reports, 04:65

The International Bottom Trawl Survey Working Group (IBTSWG) coordinates fishery-independent bottom trawl surveys in the ICES area in the Northeast Atlantic and the North Sea. These long-term monitoring surveys provide data for stock assessments and facilitate examina-tion of changes in fish distribution and relative abundance. The group also promotes the stand-ardization of fishing gears and methods as well as survey coordination. This report summarizes the national contributions in 2021–2022 and plans for the 2022–2023 surveys coordinated by IBTSWG

Re-evaluating how charge transfer modifies the conformation of adsorbed molecules

The archetypal electron acceptor molecule, TCNQ, is generally believed to become bent into an inverted bowl shape upon adsorption on the coinage metal surfaces on which it becomes negatively charged. New quantitative experimental structural measurements show that this is not the case for TCNQ on Ag(111). DFT calculations show that the inclusion of dispersion force corrections reduces not only the molecule-substrate layer spacing but also the degree of predicted molecular bonding. However, complete agreement between experimentally-determined and theoretically-predicted structural parameters is only achieved with the inclusion of Ag adatoms into the molecular layer, which is also the energetically favoured configuration. The results highlight the need for both experimental and theoretical quantitative structural methods to reliably understand similar metal-organic interfaces and highlight the need to re-evaluate some previously-investigated systems

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries(1,2). However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world(3) and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health(4,5). However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol-which is a marker of cardiovascular riskchanged from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million-4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.Peer reviewe

Anti-Heparanase Aptamers as Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Agents for Oral Cancer

Peer reviewe