Oil Crop Platforms for Industrial uses : Outputs from the EPOBIO project

EPOBIO is an international project to realise the economic potential of plant-derived raw materials by designing new generations of bio-based products that will reach the marketplace 10-15 years from now. This report addresses the establishment of industrial crop platforms for oil

Angiopoietin-2/-1 ratios and MMP-3 levels as an early warning sign for the presence of giant cell arteritis in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica

BACKGROUND: Diagnosing patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) remains difficult. Due to its non-specific symptoms, it is challenging to identify GCA in patients presenting with symptoms of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), which is a more common disease. Also, commonly used acute-phase markers CRP and ESR fail to discriminate GCA patients from PMR and (infectious) mimicry patients. Therefore, we investigated biomarkers reflecting vessel wall inflammation for their utility in the accurate diagnosis of GCA in two international cohorts. METHODS: Treatment-naïve GCA patients participated in the Aarhus AGP cohort (N = 52) and the Groningen GPS cohort (N = 48). The AGP and GPS biomarker levels and symptoms were compared to patients presenting phenotypically as isolated PMR, infectious mimicry controls and healthy controls (HCs). Serum/plasma levels of 12 biomarkers were measured by ELISA or Luminex. RESULTS: In both the AGP and the GPS cohort, we found that weight loss, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and higher angiopoietin-2/-1 ratios but lower matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 levels identify concomitant GCA in PMR patients. In addition, we confirmed that elevated platelet counts are characteristic of GCA but not of GCA mimicry controls and that low MMP-3 and proteinase 3 (PR3) levels may help to discriminate GCA from infections. CONCLUSION: This study, performed in two independent international cohorts, consistently shows the potential of angiopoietin-2/-1 ratios and MMP-3 levels to identify GCA in patients presenting with PMR. These biomarkers may be used to select which PMR patients require further diagnostic workup. Platelet counts may be used to discriminate GCA from GCA look-alike patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13075-022-02754-5

Assessment of technological options and economical feasibility for cyanophycin biopolymer and high-value amino acid production

Major transitions can be expected within the next few decades aiming at the reduction of pollution and global warming and at energy saving measures. For these purposes, new sustainable biorefinery concepts will be needed that will replace the traditional mineral oil-based synthesis of specialty and bulk chemicals. An important group of these chemicals are those that comprise N-functionalities. Many plant components contained in biomass rest or waste stream fractions contain these N-functionalities in proteins and free amino acids that can be used as starting materials for the synthesis of biopolymers and chemicals. This paper describes the economic and technological feasibility for cyanophycin production by fermentation of the potato waste stream Protamylasse™ or directly in plants and its subsequent conversion to a number of N-containing bulk chemicals

The Dynamics of New Governance Arrangements for Sustainable Value Chains

Traditional state-centred governance systems have failed to tackle effectively the transnational problem of the sustainability of global value chains (GVCs). To fill this institutional void, industry and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) established a series of global partnerships that designed standards and certification schemes for global commodities. This chapter uses various theoretical lenses to address the question of the extent to which these arrangements can be considered intelligent and for what and for whom they are beneficial. Despite their relative success, these partnerships face some serious challenges. All key players recognize these challenges and have developed abundant initiatives to learn and adapt, varying from landscape certification and public standards to advanced traceability systems and harmonizing programmes. These innovations, however, are constrained by the boundaries of the current system and its underlying assumptions

The Dynamics of New Governance Arrangements for Sustainable Value Chains

Traditional state-centred governance systems have failed to tackle effectively the transnational problem of the sustainability of global value chains (GVCs). To fill this institutional void, industry and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) established a series of global partnerships that designed standards and certification schemes for global commodities. This chapter uses various theoretical lenses to address the question of the extent to which these arrangements can be considered intelligent and for what and for whom they are beneficial. Despite their relative success, these partnerships face some serious challenges. All key players recognize these challenges and have developed abundant initiatives to learn and adapt, varying from landscape certification and public standards to advanced traceability systems and harmonizing programmes. These innovations, however, are constrained by the boundaries of the current system and its underlying assumptions

De dynamiek van slimme sturing voor de verduurzaming van handelsketens

Traditional state-centered governance systems have failed to effectively tackle the transnational problem of the sustainability of global value chains (GVCs). To fill this ‘institutional void’, industry and NGOs established a series of global partnerships that designed standards and certification schemes for global commodities. This paper uses different theoretical lenses to address the question as to what extent these arrangements can be evaluated as smart, and for what and for whom they are smart? Despite their relative success, these partnerships face some serious challenges. Consequently, smart governance also requires adaptiveness and the prevention of path dependencies

Flood-related variations in provenance of fine-grained palaeochannel sediments in the Rhine river basin

In this study, we examine flood-related variations in provenance of fine-grained palaeochannel sediments from the Bienener Altrhein (Germany), an abandoned river channel close to the apex of the Rhine river delta. Geochemical and grain size analyses were conducted on channel-fill sediments from multiple core sections, ranging from 1.15 m to 8.48 m depth, which represents pre-industrial sediment deposited from approximately 1550 AD to 1850 AD. In addition, four sediment cores of ~ 1 m length were retrieved from channel-fills or overbank deposits along the Upper Rhine and the three main tributaries of the Rhine in Germany (Neckar River, Main River and Moselle River). Sediment geochemistry was analysed using an Itrax X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) core scanner. Four elements (Ti, Co, Rb, W) were selected for further analysis based on the following a priori criteria: (1) The elements must be associated with minerals in the fine particle size fractions; 2) they must not be susceptible to precipitation-dissolution reactions during early diagenenis of the sediment; 3) the elements must be detected in the vast majority of the measurements; 4) the difference between the minimum and maximum number of the XRF counts for the upstream cores must be greater than 50% of the average number of counts. The XRF counts for these elements were standardised to z-scores and were subsequently corrected for the variation clay content ( 150 μm), which was primarily deposited during historical flood events. The results show the Mahalanobis distances are larger than 1 for most increments, which indicates that the four sampled upstream sites do not entirely cover all sources of sediment deposited in the Bienener Altrein channel. The logtransformed Mahalonibis distance correlates significantly (α = 0.05) with the >150 μm particle size fraction for the Upper Rhine River (negative) and the Moselle River (positive). This implies that the proportion of fine sediment that originates from the upper parts of the river basin and, hence, the sediment transport distance increases with flood magnitude. These results provide an excellent starting point to reconstruct the origin of historic flood events as documented in the sedimentary records of channel fills and dike breach ponds

Flood-related variations in provenance of fine-grained palaeochannel sediments in the Rhine river basin

In this study, we examine flood-related variations in provenance of fine-grained palaeochannel sediments from the Bienener Altrhein (Germany), an abandoned river channel close to the apex of the Rhine river delta. Geochemical and grain size analyses were conducted on channel-fill sediments from multiple core sections, ranging from 1.15 m to 8.48 m depth, which represents pre-industrial sediment deposited from approximately 1550 AD to 1850 AD. In addition, four sediment cores of ~ 1 m length were retrieved from channel-fills or overbank deposits along the Upper Rhine and the three main tributaries of the Rhine in Germany (Neckar River, Main River and Moselle River). Sediment geochemistry was analysed using an Itrax X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) core scanner. Four elements (Ti, Co, Rb, W) were selected for further analysis based on the following a priori criteria: (1) The elements must be associated with minerals in the fine particle size fractions; 2) they must not be susceptible to precipitation-dissolution reactions during early diagenenis of the sediment; 3) the elements must be detected in the vast majority of the measurements; 4) the difference between the minimum and maximum number of the XRF counts for the upstream cores must be greater than 50% of the average number of counts. The XRF counts for these elements were standardised to z-scores and were subsequently corrected for the variation clay content ( 150 μm), which was primarily deposited during historical flood events. The results show the Mahalanobis distances are larger than 1 for most increments, which indicates that the four sampled upstream sites do not entirely cover all sources of sediment deposited in the Bienener Altrein channel. The logtransformed Mahalonibis distance correlates significantly (α = 0.05) with the >150 μm particle size fraction for the Upper Rhine River (negative) and the Moselle River (positive). This implies that the proportion of fine sediment that originates from the upper parts of the river basin and, hence, the sediment transport distance increases with flood magnitude. These results provide an excellent starting point to reconstruct the origin of historic flood events as documented in the sedimentary records of channel fills and dike breach ponds