3,689 research outputs found
Biofuel scenarios in a water perspective: the global blue and green water footprint of road transport in 2030
The trend towards substitution of conventional transport fuels by biofuels requires additional water. The EU aims In the last two centuries, fossil fuels have been our major source of energy. However, issues concerning energy security and the quality of the environment have given an impulse to the development of alternative, renewable fuels. Particularly the transport sector is expected to steadily switch from fossil fuels to a larger fraction of biofuels - liquid transport fuels derived from biomass. Many governments believe that biofuels can replace substantial volumes of crude oil and that they will play a key role in diversifying the sources of energy supply in the coming decades. The growth of biomass requires water, a scarce resource. The link between water resources and (future) biofuel consumption, however, has not been analyzed in great detail yet. Existing scenarios on the use of water resources usually only consider the changes in food and livestock production, industry and domestic activity. The aim of this research is to assess the change in water use related to the expected increase in the use of biofuels for road transport in 2030, and subsequently evaluate the contribution to potential water scarcity. The study builds on earlier research on the relation between energy and water and uses the water footprint (WF) methodology to investigate the change in water demand related to a transition to biofuels in road transport. Information about this transition in each country is based on a compilation of different energy scenarios. The study distinguishes between two different bio-energy carriers, bio-ethanol and biodiesel, and assesses the ratio of fuel produced from selected first-generation energy crops per country. For ethanol these crops are sugar cane, sugar beet, sweet sorghum, wheat and maize. For biodiesel they are soybean, rapeseed, jatropha, and oil palm
Cardiac foetal reprogramming:a tool to exploit novel treatment targets for the failing heart
As the heart matures during embryogenesis from its foetal stages, several structural and functional modifications take place to form the adult heart. This process of maturation is in large part due to an increased volume and work load of the heart to maintain proper circulation throughout the growing body. In recent years, it has been observed that these changes are reversed to some extent as a result of cardiac disease. The process by which this occurs has been characterized as cardiac foetal reprogramming and is defined as the suppression of adult and re-activation of a foetal genes profile in the diseased myocardium. The reasons as to why this process occurs in the diseased myocardium are unknown; however, it has been suggested to be an adaptive process to counteract deleterious events taking place during cardiac remodelling. Although still in its infancy, several studies have demonstrated that targeting foetal reprogramming in heart failure can lead to substantial improvement in cardiac functionality. This is highlighted by a recent study which found that by modulating the expression of 5-oxoprolinase (OPLAH, a novel cardiac foetal gene), cardiac function can be significantly improved in mice exposed to cardiac injury. Additionally, the utilization of angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors (ARNI) has demonstrated clear benefits, providing important clinical proof that drugs that increase natriuretic peptide levels (part of the foetal gene programme) indeed improve heart failure outcomes. In this review, we will highlight the most important aspects of cardiac foetal reprogramming and will discuss whether this process is a cause or consequence of heart failure. Based on this, we will also explain how a deeper understanding of this process may result in the development of novel therapeutic strategies in heart failure
The effect of glucocorticosteroids on bone marrow mononuclear phagocytes in culture
Contains fulltext :
4456.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access
Poincar\'{e} cycle of a multibox Ehrenfest urn model with directed transport
We propose a generalized Ehrenfest urn model of many urns arranged
periodically along a circle. The evolution of the urn model system is governed
by a directed stochastic operation. Method for solving an -ball, -urn
problem of this model is presented. The evolution of the system is studied in
detail. We find that the average number of balls in a certain urn oscillates
several times before it reaches a stationary value. This behavior seems to be a
peculiar feature of this directed urn model. We also calculate the Poincar\'{e}
cycle, i.e., the average time interval required for the system to return to its
initial configuration. The result can be easily understood by counting the
total number of all possible microstates of the system.Comment: 10 pages revtex file with 7 eps figure
A Study of the Coronal Plasma in RS CVn binary systems
XMM-Newton has been performing comprehensive studies of X-ray bright RS CVn
binaries in its Calibration and Guaranteed Time programs. We present results
from ongoing investigations in the context of a systematic study of coronal
emission from RS CVns. We concentrate in this paper on coronal abundances and
investigate the abundance pattern in RS CVn binaries as a function of activity
and average temperature. A transition from an Inverse First Ionization
Potential (FIP) effect towards an absence of a clear trend is found in
intermediately active RS CVn systems. This scheme corresponds well into the
long-term evolution from an IFIP to a FIP effect found in solar analogs. We
further study variations in the elemental abundances during a large flare.Comment: to appear in The Twelfth Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and the Sun,
eds. A. Brown, T.R. Ayres, G.M. Harper, (Boulder: Univ. of Colorado), in
pres
Bifurcation Diagram for Compartmentalized Granular Gases
The bifurcation diagram for a vibro-fluidized granular gas in N connected
compartments is constructed and discussed. At vigorous driving, the uniform
distribution (in which the gas is equi-partitioned over the compartments) is
stable. But when the driving intensity is decreased this uniform distribution
becomes unstable and gives way to a clustered state. For the simplest case,
N=2, this transition takes place via a pitchfork bifurcation but for all N>2
the transition involves saddle-node bifurcations. The associated hysteresis
becomes more and more pronounced for growing N. In the bifurcation diagram,
apart from the uniform and the one-peaked distributions, also a number of
multi-peaked solutions occur. These are transient states. Their physical
relevance is discussed in the context of a stability analysis.Comment: Phys. Rev. E, in press. Figure quality has been reduced in order to
decrease file-siz
Ileal Mucosal and Fecal Pancreatitis Associated Protein Levels Reflect Severity of Salmonella Inflection in Rats
Background Microbial infections induce ileal pancreatitis-associated protein/regenerating gene III (PAP/RegIII) mRNA expression. Despite increasing interest, little is known about the PAP/RegIII protein. Therefore, ileal mucosal PAP/RegIII protein expression, localization, and fecal excretion were studied in rats upon Salmonella infection. Results Salmonella infection increased ileal mucosal PAP/RegIII protein levels in enterocytes located at the crypt-villus junction. Increased colonization and translocation of Salmonella was associated with higher ileal mucosal PAP/RegIII levels and secretion of this protein in feces. Conclusions PAP/RegIII protein is increased in enterocytes of the ileal mucosa during Salmonella infection and is associated with infection severity. PAP/RegIII is excreted in feces and might be used as a new and non-invasive infection marke
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