Scientists’ warning on affluence

For over half a century, worldwide growth in affluence has continuously increased resource use and pollutant emissions far more rapidly than these have been reduced through better technology. The affluent citizens of the world are responsible for most environmental impacts and are central to any future prospect of retreating to safer environmental conditions. We summarise the evidence and present possible solution approaches. Any transition towards sustainability can only be effective if far-reaching lifestyle changes complement technological advancements. However, existing societies, economies and cultures incite consumption expansion and the structural imperative for growth in competitive market economies inhibits necessary societal change

Privacy-Preserving Self-Localization Techniques in Next Generation Manufacturing. An Interdisciplinary View on the Vision and Implementation of Smart Factories

Abstract—Future manufacturing processes have to be highly adaptive and transformable in order to support short product life cycles and highly customized products. For an implementation of such a flexible, so-called Smart Factory, which is driven by a massive proliferation and usage of tiny embedded, context-aware information and communication technologies, many challenges – technical and social ones – have to be addressed. We identify major problems and focus on the location of objects and persons within manufacturing environments as an enabling key technology. Existing methods and possible solutions are evaluated and discussed. Thereby, we focus on the crucial aspect of privacy for workers when location systems are utilized. We also present a semi-automatic positioning approach that solves the discrepancy of guaranteeing the privacy of persons and highly accurate location tracking

Isolation and characterization of human monoclonal antibodies against hepatitis C virus envelope glycoproteins

The isolation and characterization of human monoclonal antibodies (humAbs) against the hepatitis C Virus (HCV) glycoproteins E1 and E2 are described. B-cells from blood donors with anti-HCV were transformed with Epstein-Barr virus. The supernatants of the resulting lymphoblastoid clones were screened by ELISA with an extract of cells infected with a recombinant vaccinia virus RMPA95 expressing the envelope proteins E1 and E2 of an HCV genotype 1a virus (H strain). Positive clones were fused to the heteromyeloma cell line K6H6/B5. Fifteen heterohybridoma cell lines have been established. The specificity of the isolated humAbs was determined both by ELISA and Western blot assays. Several recombinant extracts expressing either the E1 or E2 protein or truncated forms were used in an attempt to map the epitopes on the viral glycoproteins. Some of the humAbs were used successfully for immunofluorescence investigation of transfected cells. Seven specific anti-E2 humAbs, which react with the envelope protein 2 of genotype 1a and 1b isolates, were characterized

Inhibition of microsomal prostaglandin E2 synthase-1 as a molecular basis for the anti-inflammatory actions of boswellic acids from frankincense

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Frankincense, the gum resin derived from Boswellia species, showed anti-inflammatory efficacy in animal models and in pilot clinical studies. Boswellic acids (BAs) are assumed to be responsible for these effects but their anti-inflammatory efficacy in vivo and their molecular modes of action are incompletely understood. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: A protein fishing approach using immobilized BA and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy were used to reveal microsomal prostaglandin E(2) synthase-1 (mPGES1) as a BA-interacting protein. Cell-free and cell-based assays were applied to confirm the functional interference of BAs with mPGES1. Carrageenan-induced mouse paw oedema and rat pleurisy models were utilized to demonstrate the efficacy of defined BAs in vivo. KEY RESULTS: Human mPGES1 from A549 cells or in vitro-translated human enzyme selectively bound to BA affinity matrices and SPR spectroscopy confirmed these interactions. BAs reversibly suppressed the transformation of prostaglandin (PG)H(2) to PGE(2) mediated by mPGES1 (IC(50) = 3-10 µM). Also, in intact A549 cells, BAs selectively inhibited PGE(2) generation and, in human whole blood, β-BA reduced lipopolysaccharide-induced PGE(2) biosynthesis without affecting formation of the COX-derived metabolites 6-keto PGF(1α) and thromboxane B(2) . Intraperitoneal or oral administration of β-BA (1 mg·kg(-1) ) suppressed rat pleurisy, accompanied by impaired levels of PGE(2) and β-BA (1 mg·kg(-1) , given i.p.) also reduced mouse paw oedema, both induced by carrageenan. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Suppression of PGE(2) formation by BAs via interference with mPGES1 contribute to the anti-inflammatory effectiveness of BAs and of frankincense, and may constitute a biochemical basis for their anti-inflammatory properties