Climate-economy feedbacks, temperature variability, and the social cost of carbon

A key statistic describing climate change impacts is the “social cost of carbon” (SCC), the total market and non-market costs to society incurred by releasing a ton of CO2. Estimates of the SCC have risen in recent years, with improved understanding of the risk of climate change to various sectors, including agriculture [1], mortality [2], and economic growth [3]. The total risks of climate impacts also depend on the representation of human-climate feedbacks such as the effect of climate impacts on GDP growth and extremes (rather than a focus only on means), but this relationship has not been extensively studied [4-7]. In this paper, we update the widely used PAGE IAM to investigate how SCC distributions change with the inclusion of climate-economy feedbacks and temperature variability. The PAGE model has recently been improved with representations of permafrost thawing and surface albedo feedback, CMIP6 scenarios, and empirical market damage estimates [8]. We study how changes from PAGE09 to PAGE-ICE affected the SCC, increasing it up to 75%, with a SCC distribution with a mean around $300 for the central SSP2-4.5 scenario. Then we model the effects of different levels of the persistence of damages, for which the persistence parameter is shown to have enormous effects. Adding stochastic interannual regional temperature variations based on an analysis of observational temperature data [9] can increase the hazard rate of economic catastrophes changes the form of the distribution of SCC values. Both the effects of temperature variability and climate-economy feedbacks are region-dependent. Our results highlight the importance of feedbacks and extremes for the understanding of the expected value, distribution, and heterogeneity of climate impacts

Methotrexate used in combination with aminolaevulinic acid for photodynamic killing of prostate cancer cells

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using 5-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) to drive production of an intracellular photosensitiser, protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), is a promising cancer treatment. However, ALA-PDT is still suboptimal for thick or refractory tumours. Searching for new approaches, we tested a known inducer of cellular differentiation, methotrexate (MTX), in combination with ALA-PDT in LNCaP cells. Methotrexate alone promoted growth arrest, differentiation, and apoptosis. Methotrexate pretreatment (1 mg l−1, 72 h) followed by ALA (0.3 mM, 4 h) resulted in a three-fold increase in intracellular PpIX, by biochemical and confocal analyses. After exposure to 512 nm light, killing was significantly enhanced in MTX-preconditioned cells. The reverse order of treatments, ALA-PDT followed by MTX, yielded no enhancement. Methotrexate caused a similar relative increase in PpIX, whether cells were incubated with ALA, methyl-ALA, or hexyl-ALA, arguing against a major effect upon ALA transport. Searching for an effect among porphyrin synthetic enzymes, we found that coproporphyrinogen oxidase (CPO) was increased three-fold by MTX at the mRNA and protein levels. Transfection of LNCaP cells with a CPO-expressing vector stimulated the accumulation of PpIX. Our data suggest that MTX, when used to modulate intracellular production of endogenous PpIX, may provide a new combination PDT approach for certain cancers

Peptidomics-based phylogeny and biogeography of Mantophasmatodea (Hexapoda).

The insect order Mantophasmatodea was described in 2002. Prior to that time, several generations of entomologists had assumed that all major insect taxa were known; thus, its description was a sensation for zoologists. Since then, a surprising abundance and species diversity of this taxon have been found, particularly in the winter rainfall region of South Africa. To learn more about the evolutionary lineages, speciation, and biogeography of Mantophasmatodea, we applied an unusual peptidomics approach. We collected specimens of almost all known and novel taxa of these insects, developed methods for immediate sample preparation in the field, introduced peptide mass fingerprints for the unambiguous identification of taxa, and subsequently analyzed the most extensive data set on peptide hormones ever compiled for insect taxa. To account for intraspecific variation, we analyzed several individuals per putative species. Increased taxon sampling was preferred over a further increase in the number of characters to optimize the accuracy of phylogenetic analyses. The large data set made it possible to test the validity of using neuropeptide sequences, which coevolve with their respective receptors, to analyze phylogenetic relationships among closely related taxa. Altogether, the data from 71 populations of Mantophasmatodea were sufficient to clearly separate the major clades of Mantophasmatodea, including previously undescribed taxa such as Pachyphasma, Striatophasma, and Austrophasmatidae gen. et sp. nov. "RV." The data confirm the monophyly of Austrophasmatidae and show a relatively recent and extensive radiation in the winter rainfall region of South Africa but also suggest that the species-level diversification of Namibian Mantophasma is less marked than previously thought. We discuss the biogeographical and ecological factors that may have resulted in different regional patterns of endemism and species diversity in Mantophasmatodea. The unique development of the neuroendocrine capa-neurons in the ventral nervous system is described as synapomorphy of Mantophasmatodea + Grylloblattodea and is a further argument for a close relationship between these insect taxa

A pulsed eddy current technique for measuring clad thickness /

"Operated by the University of Chicago under Contract W-31-109-eng-38."At head of title: Argonne National Laboratory."Metallurgy Program 12.1.2.""Work completed: May, 1955. Published: July 1958."Mode of access: Internet