Modelling Strategies for Water Supply Companies to Deal with Nitrate Pollution

The computer based model presented in this paper regards strategies for water supply companies to deal with nitrate pollution of groundwater aquifers. In Germany, as well as in many other European regions, nitrate pollution is one of the most important problems for water protection and water supply. The simulation of an existing water supply company shows a high level of conformance between simulation results and economic data of the company. The simulation of scenarios with high nitrate pollution shows important differences between the strategies of using deeper aquifers, of technical treatment of raw water, and of co-operation with the agriculture regarding costs and environmental sustainability. Also these results reflect fairly well the situation in Germany.Nitrate, Water Supply, Object-Oriented Simulation, Environmental Sustainability

Chronic psychosocial stress compromises the immune response and endochondral ossification during bone fracture healing via β-AR signaling.

Chronic psychosocial stress/trauma represents an increasing burden in our modern society and a risk factor for the development of mental disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD, in turn, is highly comorbid with a plethora of inflammatory disorders and has been associated with increased bone fracture risk. Since a balanced inflammatory response after fracture is crucial for successful bone healing, we hypothesize that stress/trauma alters the inflammatory response after fracture and, consequently, compromises fracture healing. Here we show, employing the chronic subordinate colony housing (CSC) paradigm as a clinically relevant mouse model for PTSD, that mice subjected to CSC displayed increased numbers of neutrophils in the early fracture hematoma, whereas T lymphocytes and markers for cartilage-to-bone transition and angiogenesis were reduced. At late stages of fracture healing, CSC mice were characterized by decreased bending stiffness and bony bridging of the fracture callus. Strikingly, a single systemic administration of the β-adrenoreceptor (AR) blocker propranolol before femur osteotomy prevented bone marrow mobilization of neutrophils and invasion of neutrophils into the fracture hematoma, both seen in the early phase after fracture, as well as a compromised fracture healing in CSC mice. We conclude that chronic psychosocial stress leads to an imbalanced immune response after fracture via β-AR signaling, accompanied by disturbed fracture healing. These findings offer possibilities for clinical translation in patients suffering from PTSD and fracture