Combined TLR2 and TLR4 ligation in the context of bacterial or helminth extracts in human monocyte derived dendritic cells: molecular correlates for Th1/Th2 polarization

Background: Recognition of pathogens by dendritic cells (DCs) through interaction with pattern recognition receptors, including Toll like receptors (TLR), is crucial for the initiation of appropriate polarized T helper (Th) cell responses. Yet, the characteristics and differences in molecular profiles of DCs with different T cell polarizing capacities are still poorly defined. To address this issue, the molecular profile of human monocyte derived DCs was characterized after exposure to TLR4 ligand LPS in combination with the Th1 promoting bacterial extracts from Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli or the Th2 promoting helminth derived phospholipids from Schistosoma mansoni and Ascaris lumbricoides, all with TLR2 activating capacity. Results: With regard to the signalling pathways activated upon exposure to LPS and the TLR2 activating compounds, we find that the ratio of activated Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases (MAPK) p-ERK/p-p38 is lower in DCs stimulated with the bacterial products compared to DCs stimulated with the helminth products, which correlates with the Th1 and Th2 polarizing capacity of these compounds. Furthermore, analysis of the mRNA expression levels of a set of 25 carefully selected genes potentially involved in modulation of T cell polarization revealed that the mRNA expression of notch ligand delta-4 and transcription factor c-fos are differentially regulated and show a strong correlation with Th1 and Th2 polarization, respectively. Conclusion: This study shows that combined TLR2 and TLR4 activation in the context of different antigen sources can induce very distinct molecular profiles in DCs and suggests that the Th1/Th2 polarizing capacity of compounds can be predicted with the molecular signature they induce in DCs

Metal casting energy efficient metrics for material selection of automotive parts

The automotive sector is one of the main end-use markets for metal casting worldwide. The strong competitive pressure typical of this industry have been influenced in the recent years by sustainability as a new factor promoted by legislation, increased societal awareness of relevant instances and resource scarcity. Energy efficiency, although only a part of sustainability, is important for the metal casting practice because of its nature of large consumer of energy per unit product. Therefore, the effective use of appropriate energy efficient metrics in foundries is of great interest. In this work, a set of indicators developed by the authors (and derived by traditional metrics) to analyse the energy performance of foundries will be used to compare high pressure die casting processes producing car transfer cases with different suitable materials. On the basis of this analysis, it will be shown that the most energy efficient material can be identified whereas the traditional metrics cannot detect such opportunity

Measuring Residential Energy Efficiency Improvements with DEA

This paper measures energy efficiency improvements of US single-family homes between 1997 and 2001 using a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, an indicator of energy efficiency is derived by means of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and the analogy between the DEA estimator and traditional measures of energy efficiency is demonstrated. The second stage employs a bootstrapped truncated regression technique to decompose the variation in the obtained efficiency estimates into a climatic component and factors attributed to efficiency improvements. Results indicate a small but significant improvement of energy efficiency over the studied time interval, mainly accounted for by fuel oil and natural gas users

Understanding China’s past and future energy demand: an exergy efficiency and decomposition analysis

There are very few useful work and exergy analysis studies for China, and fewer still that consider how the results inform drivers of past and future energy consumption. This is surprising: China is the world’s largest energy consumer, whilst exergy analysis provides a robust thermodynamic framework for analysing the technical efficiency of energy use. In response, we develop three novel sub-analyses. First we perform a long-term whole economy time-series exergy analysis for China (1971–2010). We find a 10-fold growth in China’s useful work since 1971, which is supplied by a 4-fold increase in primary energy coupled to a 2.5-fold gain in aggregate exergy conversion efficiency to useful work: from 5% to 12.5%. Second, using index decomposition we expose the key driver of efficiency growth as not ‘technological leapfrogging’ but structural change: i.e. increasing reliance on thermodynamically efficient (but very energy intensive) heavy industrial activities. Third, we extend our useful work analysis to estimate China’s future primary energy demand, and find values for 2030 that are significantly above mainstream projections

Access and allocation in earth system governance: Water and climate change compared

A significant percentage of the global population does not yet have access to safe drinking water, sufficient food or energy to live in dignity. There is a continuous struggle to allocate the earth's resources among users and uses. This article argues that distributional problems have two faces: access to basic resources or ecospace; and, the allocation of environmental resources, risks, burdens, and responsibilities for causing problems. Furthermore, addressing problems of access and allocation often requires access to social processes (science, movements and law). Analysts, however, have tended to take a narrow, disciplinary approach although an integrated conceptual approach may yield better answers. This article proposes a multi-disciplinary perspective to the problem of access and allocation and illustrates its application to water management and climate change. © The Author(s) 2010