•We modelled five scenarios of plastic waste management.•Scenarios P1–P4 include a certain amount of plastic sent to recycling.•The evaluation was performed using the life cycle assessment ...methodology.•We made a sensitivity analysis about the marginal energy.•None of the examined scenarios emerged as the best option for all impact categories.
The management of the plastic fraction is one of the most debated issues in the discussion on integrated municipal solid waste systems. Both material and energy recovery can be performed on such a waste stream, and different separate collection schemes can be implemented. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the debate, based on the analysis of different plastic waste recovery routes. Five scenarios were defined and modelled with a life cycle assessment approach using the EASEWASTE model. In the baseline scenario (P0) the plastic is treated as residual waste and routed partly to incineration with energy recovery and partly to mechanical biological treatment. A range of potential improvements in plastic management is introduced in the other four scenarios (P1–P4). P1 includes a source separation of clean plastic fractions for material recycling, whereas P2 a source separation of mixed plastic fraction for mechanical upgrading and separation into specific polymer types, with the residual plastic fraction being down-cycled and used for “wood items”. In P3 a mixed plastic fraction is source separated together with metals in a “dry bin”. In P4 plastic is mechanically separated from residual waste prior to incineration.
A sensitivity analysis on the marginal energy was carried out. Scenarios were modelled as a first step assuming that marginal electricity and heat were based on coal and on a mix of fuels and then, in the sensitivity analysis, the marginal energy was based on natural gas.
The study confirmed the difficulty to clearly identify an optimal strategy for plastic waste management. In fact none of the examined scenarios emerged univocally as the best option for all impact categories. When moving from the P0 treatment strategy to the other scenarios, substantial improvements can be obtained for “Global Warming”. For the other impact categories, results are affected by the assumption about the substituted marginal energy. Nevertheless, irrespective of the assumptions on marginal energy, scenario P4, which implies the highest quantities of specific polymer types sent to recycling, resulted the best option in most impact categories.
Allostatic load (AL) relates to the neural and bodily "wear and tear" that emerge in the context of chronic stress. This paper aims to provide clinicians with a comprehensive overview of the role of ...AL in patophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD) and its practical implications.
PubMed searches were conducted on English-language articles published from 1970 to June 2011 using the search terms allostatic load, oxidative stress, staging, and bipolar disorder cross-referenced with cognitive impairment, comorbidity, mediators, prevention.
Progressive neural and physical dysfunction consequent to mood episodes in BD can be construed as a cumulative state of AL. The concept of AL can help to reconcile cognitive impairment and increased rates of clinical comorbidities that occur over the course of cumulative BD episodes.
Data on transduction of psychosocial stress into the neurobiology of mood episodes converges to the concept of AL. Mood episodes prevention would not only alleviate emotional suffering, but also arrest the cycle of AL, cognitive decline, physical morbidities and, eventually, related mortality. These objectives can be achieved by focusing on effective prophylaxis from the first stages of the disorder, providing mood-stabilizing agents and standardized psychoeducation and, potentially, addressing cognitive deficits by the means of specific medication and neuropsychological interventions.
We aimed to (a) examine the validity and reliability of the International FItness Scale (IFIS) in Spanish young adults and (b) compare the capacity of self‐reported vs measured fitness to predict ...cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The study comprised 276 participants (18–30 years). Fitness level (overall and specific components) was both self‐reported (IFIS) and measured using standard fitness tests. Total and trunk fat was assessed by dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry. We computed a previously validated metabolic syndrome score. A separate sample of 181 of same age and characteristics fulfilled IFIS twice for reliability purposes. The results of the present study support the validity and reliability of self‐reported fitness, as measured by IFIS, in Spanish young adults. Our data also suggest that not only measured cardiorespiratory fitness but also self‐reported cardiorespiratory fitness predicts CVD risk, as assessed by adiposity and metabolic syndrome indicators. The associations for muscular fitness (both reported and measured) differed depending on how it was expressed (i.e., absolute vs relative terms). Self‐reported fitness, as assessed by IFIS, can be a good alternative when physical fitness cannot be measured in large surveys.
For the first time the combination of keratin fibers (KF), obtained from poultry feathers, with deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) are employed in low-density polyethylene-ethylene vinyl acetate ...(LDPE/EVA) blends in order to reduce the conventional hydroxide content and enhance the blend flame retardant properties. The combined effect of each filler and the use of maleated polyethylene (PEgMA) as compatibilizer on PE/EVA flame retardant properties was analyzed. DNA by its chemical structure can be considered as an intumescing agent and when it is combined with keratin the char formation is promoted and the flame retardant properties are enhanced. DNA was distributed in specific layers forming a segregated film which resulted in better PE/EVA blend flame retardant properties compared with either DNA deposited simply by compression molding on the material surface or with melt compounding in the bulk. The flame retardant behavior was compared with a reference PE/EVA sample with 55 wt% of Magnesium Hydroxide currently used for wire coatings in the wire and cable industry. The additives combination with DNA deposited as a segregated structure significantly increases the LOI up to 24.5% and reduces the heat release rate by 82% during cone calorimetry tests with very similar flame behavior as the reference sample with 55 wt% magnesium hydroxide loadings. The mechanical properties indicated that DNA has a marked increase in elongation as well as a marked reduction in torque and viscosity indicating that the combination of these additives can improve the mechanical performance, as well as facilitate the melt processing. Most important, the results indicated that the combination of these additives makes it possible to reduce the total Magnesium hydroxide filler content from 55 to 20 wt% to achieve the flame retardant requirements and with enhanced mechanical performance. Thus, this additives combination and this coating methodology provides a promising way to meet the growing demand and stringent requirements for high performance materials with high flame retardant standards using high efficient and green fire retardant coatings.
•Combination of keratin fibers (KF) with deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) enhance the PE/EVA blend flame retardant properties.•DNA increases the fire retardance properties with similar flame behavior than a reference sample with higher Mg(OH)2 loading.•Combination of KF with DNA facilitates the reduction of Mg(OH)2 achieving the FR requirements with good mechanical properties.•Lower MH content with DNA and KF, exhibits better extrusion processability, which is beneficial for industrial production.•This additive combination and the segregated coating provide a promising way to obtain high performance materials.
Following exposure to salinity, the root/shoot ratio is increased (an important adaptive response) due to the rapid inhibition of shoot growth (which limits plant productivity) while root growth is ...maintained. Both processes may be regulated by changes in plant hormone concentrations. Tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv Moneymaker) were cultivated hydroponically for 3 weeks under high salinity (100 mM NaCl) and five major plant hormones (abscisic acid, ABA; the cytokinins zeatin, Z, and zeatin-riboside, ZR; the auxin indole-3-acetic acid, IAA; and the ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, ACC) were determined weekly in roots, xylem sap, and leaves. Salinity reduced shoot biomass by 50-60% and photosynthetic area by 20-25% both by decreasing leaf expansion and delaying leaf appearance, while root growth was less affected, thus increasing the root/shoot ratio. ABA and ACC concentrations strongly increased in roots, xylem sap, and leaves after 1 d (ABA) and 15 d (ACC) of salinization. By contrast, cytokinins and IAA were differentially affected in roots and shoots. Salinity dramatically decreased the Z+ZR content of the plant, and induced the conversion of ZR into Z, especially in the roots, which accounted for the relative increase of cytokinins in the roots compared to the leaf. IAA concentration was also strongly decreased in the leaves while it accumulated in the roots. Decreased cytokinin content and its transport from the root to the shoot were probably induced by the basipetal transport of auxin from the shoot to the root. The auxin/cytokinin ratio in the leaves and roots may explain both the salinity-induced decrease in shoot vigour (leaf growth and leaf number) and the shift in biomass allocation to the roots, in agreement with changes in the activity of the sink-related enzyme cell wall invertase.
Objective
The current investigation aimed at studying the sociodemographic, clinical, and neuropsychological variables related to functional outcome in a sample of euthymic patients with bipolar ...disorder(BD) presenting moderate‐severe levels of functional impairment.
Methods
Two‐hundred and thirty‐nine participants with BD disorders and with Functioning Assessment Short Test(FAST) scores equal or above 18 were administered a clinical and diagnostic interview, and the administration of mood measure scales and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Analyses involved preliminary Pearson bivariate correlations to identify sociodemographic and clinical variables associated with the FAST total score. Regarding neuropsychological variables, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to group the variables in orthogonal factors. Finally, a hierarchical multiple regression was run.
Results
The best fitting model for the variables associated with functioning was a linear combination of gender, age, estimated IQ, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM‐D), number of previous manic episodes, Factor 1 and Factor 2 extracted from the PCA. The model, including all these previous variables, explained up to 29.4% of the observed variance.
Conclusions
Male gender, older age, lower premorbid IQ, subdepressive symptoms, higher number of manic episodes, and lower performance in verbal memory, working memory, verbal fluency, and processing speed were associated with lower functioning in patients with BD.
Neuroprotective actions of flavonoids Gutierrez-Merino, C; Lopez-Sanchez, C; Lagoa, R ...
Current medicinal chemistry,
03/2011, Letnik:
18, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The experimental evidences accumulated during last years point out a relevant role of oxidative stress in neurodegeneration. As anti-cellular oxidative stress agents flavonoids can act either as ...direct chemical antioxidants, the classic view of flavonoids as antioxidants, or as modulators of enzymes and metabolic and signaling pathways leading to an overshot of reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, a more recently emerging concept. Flavonoids, a large family of natural antioxidants, undergo a significant hepatic metabolism leading to flavonoid-derived metabolites that are also bioactive as antioxidant agents. The development of more efficient flavonoid's based anti-oxidative stress therapies should also take into account their bioavailability in the brain using alternate administration protocols, and also that the major ROS triggering the cellular oxidative stress are not the same for all neurodegenerative insults and diseases. On these grounds, we have reviewed the reports on neuroprotection by different classes of flavonoids on cellular cultures and model animals. In addition, as they are now becoming valuable pharmacological drugs, due to their low toxicity, the reported adverse effects of flavonoids in model experimental animals and humans are briefly discussed.
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) provide a 'standard ruler' of known physical length, making it one of the most promising probes of the nature of dark energy (DE). The detection of BAOs as an ...excess of power in the galaxy distribution at a certain scale requires measuring galaxy positions and redshifts. 'Transversal' (or 'angular') BAOs measure the angular size of this scale projected in the sky and provide information about the angular distance. 'Line-of-sight' (or 'radial') BAOs require very precise redshifts, but provide a direct measurement of the Hubble parameter at different redshifts, a more sensitive probe of DE. The main goal of this paper is to show that it is possible to obtain photometric redshifts with enough precision ( sigma z ) to measure BAOs along the line of sight. There is a fundamental limitation as to how much one can improve the BAO measurement by reducing sigma z . We show that sigma z ~ 0.003(1 + z) is sufficient: a much better precision will produce an oversampling of the BAO peak without a significant improvement on its detection, while a much worse precision will result in the effective loss of the radial information. This precision in redshift can be achieved for bright, red galaxies, featuring a prominent 4000 A break, by using a filter system comprising about 40 filters, each with a width close to 100 A, covering the wavelength range from ~4000 to ~8000 A, supplemented by two broad-band filters similar to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey u and z bands. We describe the practical implementation of this idea, a new galaxy survey project, PAU16Physics of the Accelerating Universe (PAU): http://www.ice.cat/pau., to be carried out with a telescope/camera combination with an etendue about 20 m2 deg2, equivalent to a 2 m telescope equipped with a 6 deg2 field of view camera, and covering 8000 deg2 in the sky in four years. We expect to measure positions and redshifts for over 14 million red, early-type galaxies with L > L and iAB 22.5 in the redshift interval 0.1 < z < 0.9, with a precision sigma z < 0.003(1 + z). This population has a number density n 10 -3 Mpc -3 h 3 galaxies within the 9 Gpc3 h -3 volume to be sampled by our survey, ensuring that the error in the determination of the BAO scale is not limited by shot noise. By itself, such a survey will deliver precisions of order 5% in the dark-energy equation of state parameter w, if assumed constant, and can determine its time derivative when combined with future cosmic microwave background measurements. In addition, PAU will yield high-quality redshift and low-resolution spectroscopy for hundreds of millions of other galaxies, including a very significant high-redshift population. The data set produced by this survey will have a unique legacy value, allowing a wide range of astrophysical studies.
► Jatropha curcas plants can be considered as a drought-resistant shrub species. ► J. curcas under drought condition show a water conservation strategy. ► J. Curcas avoids water loss by decreasing ...leaf growth and stomatal conductance. ► This crop in arid and/or semiarid ambient should be focused on avoiding soil degradation.
Jatropha curcas L. has recently drawn the attention of the international research community due to its potential as a biodiesel crop. In addition, it is very well adapted to arid and semiarid climate conditions. In this research, the effects of drought on growth, leaf water relation and organic solutes, leaf and root mineral concentration, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, leaf gas exchange and carbohydrate concentration were studied in seedlings of J. curcas to elucidate the physiological and morphological mechanisms related to their drought tolerance. Four-week-old seedlings were grown in growth chambers with five different water regimes corresponding to 100, 75, 50, 25, and 0% field capacity (FC) for four weeks. Seedlings, maintained a good water status regardless of the drought stress treatment because all water regimes affected the leaf relative water content, whereas the leaf water potential was only reduced in the water-stressed plants from the 0% and 25% FC treatments. Drought treatments reduced leaf, stem and root growth. However, the decrease in growth was higher in the aerial part of the plant than in the root, so that the root-to-shoot ratio in drought-stressed plants increased compared to that in the well-watered plants. Net assimilation of CO2(ACO2) and stomatal conductance (gs) decreased in all treatments, although ACO2 gradually declined as the water supply was decreased, while the reduction in stomatal conductance was similar in all drought stress treatments. Hence, we conclude that the strong control of transpirational water loss by reducing both stomatal conductance and biomass from aerial parts could be involved in the ability of this plant to resist drought conditions.
Abstract Background Cognitive reserve (CR) reflects the capacity of the brain to endure neuropathology, minimize clinical manifestations and successfully complete cognitive tasks. The present study ...aims to determine whether high CR may constitute a moderator of cognitive functioning in bipolar disorder (BD). Methods 102 patients with BD and 32 healthy controls were enrolled. All patients met DSM-IV criteria for I or II BD and were euthymic (YMRS≤6 and HDRS≤8) during a 6-month period. All participants were tested with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, and a Cerebral Reserve Score (CRS) was estimated. Subjects with a CRS below the group median were classified as having low CR, whereas participants with a CRS above the median value were considered to have high CR. Results Participants with BD with high CR displayed a better performance in measures of attention (digits forward: F=4.554, p=0.039); phonemic and semantic verbal fluency (FAS: F=9.328, p=0.004; and Animal Naming: F=8.532, p=0.006); and verbal memory (short cued recall of California Verbal Learning Test: F=4.236, p=0.046), after multivariable adjustment for potential confounders, including number of admissions and prior psychotic symptoms. Limitations The cross-sectional design of the study does not allow the establishment of causal inferences. Additionally, the small size of the sample may have limited some results. Conclusions High cognitive reserve may therefore be a valuable construct to explore for predicting neurocognitive performance in patients with BD regarding premorbid status.
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