We evaluate the response to regional and latitudinal changes in aircraft NOx emissions using several climate metrics (radiative forcing (RF), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Global Temperature change ...Potential (GTP)). Global chemistry transport model integrations were performed with sustained perturbations in regional aircraft and aircraft-like NOx emissions. The RF due to the resulting ozone and methane changes is then calculated. We investigate the impact of emission changes for specific geographical regions (approximating to USA, Europe, India and China) and cruise altitude emission changes in discrete latitude bands covering both hemispheres. We find that lower latitude emission changes (per Tg N) cause ozone and methane RFs that are about a factor of 6 larger than those from higher latitude emission changes. The net RF is positive for all experiments. The meridional extent of the RF is larger for low latitude emissions. GWPs for all emission changes are positive, with tropical emissions having the largest values; the sign of the GTP depends on the choice of time horizon.
► Global model study on climate response to regional/latitudinal aircraft NOx changes. ► RF impacts from O3 and CH4 are larger for changes at lower than at higher latitudes. ► GWPs for all latitudes are positive whereas the GTP can exhibit a change in sign.
Itch is an unpleasant, bodily sensation, which – similar to pain – evokes behavioral reactions. As a response to itch, people start scratching. There are different ways to provoke itch and subsequent ...scratching in experimental settings. A non‐invasive method to induce itch and scratching is the presentation of itch‐related (audio‐) visual stimulus material, like slide‐supported lectures on skin diseases or crawling insects. Also, watching videos showing other people scratching provokes itch and the desire to scratch. In this review, we focus on psychological factors, which were shown to be associated with itch and scratching provoked by (audio‐) visual itch stimuli. First, we summarize the findings on the relationship between personality characteristics and (audio‐) visually induced itch. Agreeableness and self‐consciousness were shown to be associated with induced itch and scratching in patients with chronic skin diseases, while neuroticism was linked to induced itch in healthy subjects. Second, we present results of a recent study, in which we altered the expectations towards audio‐visually induced itch and scratching by changing the information given on upcoming itch stimuli. It was shown that subjects being informed about itch stimuli in a neutral way displayed a shorter scratch duration in itch inducing situations than subjects having catastrophizing expectations. Also, the increase in scratch duration and in the number of scratch movements induced by audiovisual itch stimuli was higher when the patients were not informed about itch induction. Thus, in itch patients neither catastrophizing nor trivializing symptoms seems to be helpful.
The atmospheric response to perturbations in NOx emissions from global air traffic is investigated by performing a coherent set of sensitivity experiments. The importance of cruise altitude, size of ...the emission perturbation and geographical distribution of emissions is systematically analyzed using two global chemistry transport models and an off‐line radiative transfer model. NOx emissions from a contemporary aircraft inventory have been used to assess the impact of global air traffic on ozone and methane. In further experiments the NOx emissions are perturbed, in turn, in 16 cruise altitude bands between 5 and 15 km altitude. In the p‐TOMCAT model we diagnose an annual mean ozone increase of up to 6 ppbv and a decrease in the methane lifetime of 3% due to global air traffic in 2002. Associated radiative forcings of 30 mWm−2 for ozone and −19 mWm−2 for methane are diagnosed; a simple method is used to estimate the forcing due to the methane‐induced ozone change and this yields an additional −11 mWm−2. Results show that up to the tropopause, ozone production efficiency and resulting impacts increase per emitted mass of NOx with the altitude of the perturbation. Between 11 and 15 km we find that the geographical location of the NOx emissions plays a crucial role in the potential O3 impact and lifetime change of CH4. We show that changes in flight routing in this altitude range can have significant consequences for O3 and CH4 concentrations. Overall, we demonstrate a linear relationship in the atmospheric response to small emission changes which can be used to predict the importance of perturbations about the reference aircraft emissions profile, provided the geographical distribution of the emissions is not altered significantly.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD), characterized by sustained inflammation and progressive fibrosis, is highly prevalent and can eventually progress to end-stage kidney disease. However, current ...treatments to slow CKD progression are limited. Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), a product of sphingolipid catabolism, is a pleiotropic mediator involved in many cellular functions, and drugs targeting S1P signaling have previously been studied particularly for autoimmune diseases. The primary mechanism of most of these drugs is functional antagonism of S1P receptor-1 (S1P1) expressed on lymphocytes and the resultant immunosuppressive effect. Here, we documented the role of local S1P signaling in perivascular cells in the progression of kidney fibrosis using primary kidney perivascular cells and several conditional mouse models. S1P was predominantly produced by sphingosine kinase 2 in kidney perivascular cells and exported via spinster homolog 2 (Spns2). It bound to S1P1 expressed in perivascular cells to enhance production of proinflammatory cytokines/chemokines upon injury, leading to immune cell infiltration and subsequent fibrosis. A small-molecule Spns2 inhibitor blocked S1P transport, resulting in suppression of inflammatory signaling in human and mouse kidney perivascular cells in vitro and amelioration of kidney fibrosis in mice. Our study provides insight into the regulation of inflammation and fibrosis by S1P and demonstrates the potential of Spns2 inhibition as a treatment for CKD and potentially other inflammatory and fibrotic diseases that avoids the adverse events associated with systemic modulation of S1P receptors.
In a time of physical inactivity pandemic, attempts to better understand the factors underlying the regulation of exercise behavior are important. The dominant neurobiological approach to exercise ...behavior considers physical activity to be a reward; however, negative affective responses during exercise challenge this idea.
Our objective was to systematically review studies testing the automatic reactions triggered by stimuli associated with different types of exercise behavior (e.g. physical activity, sedentary behaviors) and energetic cost variations (e.g. decreased energetic cost, irrespective of the level of physical activity). We also examined evidence supporting the hypothesis that behaviors minimizing energetic cost (BMEC) are rewarding.
Two authors systematically searched, screened, extracted, and analyzed data from articles in the MEDLINE database.
We included 26 studies. Three outcomes of automatic processes were tested: affective reactions, attentional capture, and approach tendencies. Behavioral results show that physical activity can become attention-grabbing, automatically trigger positive affect, and elicit approach behaviors. These automatic reactions explain and predict exercise behaviors; however, the use of a wide variety of measures prevents drawing solid conclusions about the specific effects of automatic processes. Brain imaging results are scarce but show that stimuli associated with physical activity and, to a lesser extent, sedentary behaviors activate regions involved in reward processes. Studies investigating the rewarding value of behaviors driving energetic cost variations such as BMEC are lacking.
Reward is an important factor in exercise behavior. The literature based on the investigation of automatic behaviors seems in line with the suggestion that physical activity is rewarding, at least for physically active individuals. Results suggest that sedentary behaviors could also be rewarding, although this evidence remains weak due to a lack of investigations. Finally, from an evolutionary perspective, BMEC are likely to be rewarding; however, no study has investigated this hypothesis. In sum, additional studies are required to establish a strong and complete framework of the reward processes underlying automatic exercise behavior.
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•This work shows that TiN and DLC coating can be used in combination with LIPSS to reduce wear compared to untextured reference sample.•The properties of different texture-coating ...variants are examined and discussed.•Sessile drop tests and pin-on-disk tests were performed to investigate wetting and wear behaviour.•Consequently, texture-coating variants can simultaneously preserve the hydrophilic properties of the LIPSS and reduce the friction in pin-on-disk tests.
LIPSS and their hydrophilic attributes are subject to severe wear as soon as they are in direct tribological contact. A possible protection is offered due to the combination of LIPSS and hard coatings. However, the influence of the process sequence (direct and indirect texturing) on tribological properties of the resulting texture-coating variants are not well studied. Therefore, this work presents results of water lubricated pin-on-disk tests of LIPSS-DLC and LIPSS-TiNx variants. The pins were made of X5CrNi18-10 while the substrates consisted of X153CrMoV12 with a hardness of 250HV. The results demonstrate that a firstly textured and then with DLC coated substrate halves the coefficient of friction in comparison to other texture-coating variants to 0.1. Otherwise, a firstly textured and then with TiNx coated substrate shows the lowest wear track depth of 2 µm. Consequently, texture-coating variants can simultaneously preserve LIPSS’ hydrophilicity and enhance the tribological behavior of pre-treated substrates under water lubrication.
Suicides are a leading cause of death in psychiatric patients, and in society at large. Developing more quantitative and objective ways (biomarkers) for predicting and tracking suicidal states would ...have immediate practical applications and positive societal implications. We undertook such an endeavor. First, building on our previous blood biomarker work in mood disorders and psychosis, we decided to identify blood gene expression biomarkers for suicidality, looking at differential expression of genes in the blood of subjects with a major mood disorder (bipolar disorder), a high-risk population prone to suicidality. We compared no suicidal ideation (SI) states and high SI states using a powerful intrasubject design, as well as an intersubject case-case design, to generate a list of differentially expressed genes. Second, we used a comprehensive Convergent Functional Genomics (CFG) approach to identify and prioritize from the list of differentially expressed gene biomarkers of relevance to suicidality. CFG integrates multiple independent lines of evidence-genetic and functional genomic data-as a Bayesian strategy for identifying and prioritizing findings, reducing the false-positives and false-negatives inherent in each individual approach. Third, we examined whether expression levels of the blood biomarkers identified by us in the live bipolar subject cohort are actually altered in the blood in an age-matched cohort of suicide completers collected from the coroner's office, and report that 13 out of the 41 top CFG scoring biomarkers (32%) show step-wise significant change from no SI to high SI states, and then to the suicide completers group. Six out of them (15%) remained significant after strict Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Fourth, we show that the blood levels of SAT1 (spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase 1), the top biomarker identified by us, at the time of testing for this study, differentiated future as well as past hospitalizations with suicidality, in a live cohort of bipolar disorder subjects, and exhibited a similar but weaker pattern in a live cohort of psychosis (schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder) subjects. Three other (phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), myristoylated alanine-rich protein kinase C substrate (MARCKS), and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 3 (MAP3K3)) of the six biomarkers that survived Bonferroni correction showed similar but weaker effects. Taken together, the prospective and retrospective hospitalization data suggests SAT1, PTEN, MARCKS and MAP3K3 might be not only state biomarkers but trait biomarkers as well. Fifth, we show how a multi-dimensional approach using SAT1 blood expression levels and two simple visual-analog scales for anxiety and mood enhances predictions of future hospitalizations for suicidality in the bipolar cohort (receiver-operating characteristic curve with area under the curve of 0.813). Of note, this simple approach does not directly ask about SI, which some individuals may deny or choose not to share with clinicians. Lastly, we conducted bioinformatic analyses to identify biological pathways, mechanisms and medication targets. Overall, suicidality may be underlined, at least in part, by biological mechanisms related to stress, inflammation and apoptosis.
Micro-sized particles of Fe
x
Rh
100−
x
(
x
= 50, 48, 45, 40, and 35) binary alloys were synthesized by a solid-phase reduction method and their structural properties, magnetic properties and ...cytotoxicity have been characterized. From X-ray diffraction results, the Fe
50
Rh
50
alloy is in a single chemically ordered
α
′ phase while the face-centered cubic disordered
γ
phase arises and increases with Rh content when
x
is smaller than 50. The magnetization behavior of the alloys demonstrates that the
α
′ phase consists of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic components due to the nonuniformity of elements in the particulate alloys. The maximal magnetic entropy change and the relative refrigeration capacity of the Fe
50
Rh
50
particles reach 9.7 J/kg K and 230 J/kg, respectively, with a 0–3 T magnetic field change. Despite its moderate magnetic entropy among the first-order transition materials, Fe
50
Rh
50
microparticles are promising for biomedical applications due to its large relative cooling power and low cytotoxicity.
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