How effective was the Kyoto protocol? International Environmental Agreements (IEA) have been on the rise over the past four decades; however, thus far their effectiveness is controversial. In view of ...the conflicting results found in the related literature, this paper addresses its effectiveness by utilizing for the first time the generalized synthetic control method (GSCM) to compare the emissions of the industrialized countries with a “No- Kyoto” counterfactual scenario that represents the expected emissions in the absence of the protocol. This method facilitates a robust comparison between treated and control countries as done by Almer and Winkler (2017) and account for the multiple treated units as done by Grunewald and Martinez-Zarzoso (2016), so as to capture the collective nature of the protocol. Results show that the protocol was successful in reducing the emissions of the ratifying countries approximately by 7% below the emissions expected under a “No-Kyoto” scenario, confirming the importance of accounting for the collective nature of the agreement.
Bee venom in cancer therapy ORSOLIC, Nada
Cancer and metastasis reviews,
06/2012, Letnik:
31, Številka:
1-2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Bee venom (BV) (api-toxin) has been widely used in the treatment of some immune-related diseases, as well as in recent times in treatment of tumors. Several cancer cells, including renal, lung, ...liver, prostate, bladder, and mammary cancer cells as well as leukemia cells, can be targets of bee venom peptides such as melittin and phospholipase A2. The cell cytotoxic effects through the activation of PLA2 by melittin have been suggested to be the critical mechanism for the anti-cancer activity of BV. The induction of apoptotic cell death through several cancer cell death mechanisms, including the activation of caspase and matrix metalloproteinases, is important for the melittin-induced anti-cancer effects. The conjugation of cell lytic peptide (melittin) with hormone receptors and gene therapy carrying melittin can be useful as a novel targeted therapy for some types of cancer, such as prostate and breast cancer. This review summarizes the current knowledge regarding potential of bee venom and its compounds such as melittin to induce cytotoxic, antitumor, immunomodulatory, and apoptotic effects in different tumor cells
in vivo
or
in vitro
. The recent applications of melittin in various cancers and a molecular explanation for the antiproliferative properties of bee venom are discussed.
Abstract Strong age-related declines in conjunction with comparatively easy experimental manipulations of adult hippocampal neurogenesis have generated considerable public and scientific interest in ...the prospect of “new neurons for old brains”. Only few studies addressed the time course of the natural changes, which are the substrate for interventions that may realize this prospect. We provide a monthly or bimonthly account of cell proliferation, neurogenesis and cell death during the first 9 months of the life of C57Bl/6J mice. Ki67- and DCX-positive cell numbers declined exponentially without an intermittent plateau (∼40% per month). Cell death in relation to cell proliferation was lowest at 1 month, increased at 2 months to remain constant until 4 months, and decreased again at 5 months to remain stable until 9 months. Granule cell number did not change with age. Our results suggest that manipulations of proliferation and neurogenesis may, at any time, interact with strong natural changes of these processes. Mediators of their age-related decline may be studied over periods much shorter than those typically used.
Held together by apparatchiks and, later, Tito's charisma, Yugoslavia never really incorporated separate Balkan nationalisms into the Pan-Slavic ideal. Macedonia - frequently ignored by Belgrade - ...had survived centuries of Turkish domination, Bulgarian invasion and Serbian assimilation before it became part of the Yugoslav project in the aftermath of the First World War. Drawing on an extensive analysis of archival material, private correspondence, and newspaper articles, Nada Boskovska provides an arresting account of the Macedonian experience of the interwar years, charting the growth of political consciousness and the often violent state-driven attempts to curb autonomy.
Renal toxicity is a serious side effect that hinders the use of cisplatin, a commonly used and effective chemotherapeutic agent. Meanwhile, quinacrine is an FDA approved drug that has been stated for ...its anti-inflammatory effect. Thus, we investigated the ameliorative effect of quinacrine against cisplatin-induced renal toxicity. Single intraperitoneal (i.p.) 10 mg/kg cisplatin administration induced renal injury in rats. Our results showed that 10 mg/kg/day quinacrine decreased the mortality rate of rats from 46.15% (cisplatin group) to 12.5%, and significantly decreased renal tissue fibrosis, relative kidney to body weight ratio, serum creatinine and urea levels compared with the cisplatin group. Indeed, quinacrine significantly decreased renal malondialdehyde concentration and increased renal total antioxidant capacity, compared with the cisplatin group. Furthermore, quinacrine caused significant upregulation of renal sirtuin-1 (SIRT-1) with significant downregulation of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Moreover, quinacrine significantly blocked cisplatin-induced apoptosis, which was made evident by downregulating renal apoptotic proteins (BAX and p53) and upregulating the renal anti-apoptotic protein BCL2, compared with the cisplatin group. In conclusion, this study demonstrates, for the first time, that quinacrine alleviates cisplatin-induced renal toxicity via upregulating SIRT-1, downregulating inflammatory markers (ICAM-1 and TNF-α), reducing oxidative stress, and inhibiting apoptosis.
•Integrating PCM to the building integrate PV module improves its efficiency.•Adding Al2O3 nanoparticles to the PCM further improve the PV performance.•Integrating PV with PCM and PCM/nanoparticles ...increase its efficiency by 5.7 and 13.2%, respectively.
In integrated Photovoltaic (PV) systems, integrating the back side of the PV module with building wall insulate it from the surrounding air causing a dramatically increase of the PV temperature. The increase of the PV temperature causes a substantial decrease of its efficiency and output power. The idea of the present work is the investigation of the thermal regulation and efficiency enhancement of PV-building integrated system using phase change materials (PCM) and Al2O3 nanoparticles. The approach of the study is experimentally testing three separate PV modules integrated with building wall, pure PCM and PCM/Al2O3 nanoparticles compound at the same time and location. Temperatures distributions, open-circuit voltage, short- circuit current, output power and the modules efficiencies were recorded and analyzed. The results show that (i) integrating the PCM to the back side of the integrate PV modules regulates the module temperature and improves its efficiency, (ii) adding Al2O3 nanoparticles to the PCM further increase the possibility of the temperature regulation and the thermal efficiency of the integrated modules, and (iii) integrating the PV with pure PCM and enhanced PCM by nanoparticles can drop the temperature of the modules by 8.1 and 10.6 °C and increase its efficiency by 5.7 and 13.2%, respectively.
Abstract Aegerolysin proteins are involved in various interactions by recognising a molecular receptor in the target organism. The formation of pores in combination with larger, non‐aegerolysin‐like ...protein partners (such as membrane attack complex/perforin proteins MACPFs) is one of the possible responses in the presumed competitive exclusion of other organisms from the ecological niche. Bicomponent pairs are already observed at the gene level. Fungi growing under extreme conditions can be divided into ubiquitous and extremotolerant generalists which can compete with mesophilic species and rare, isolated extremophilic and extremotolerant specialists with narrow ecological amplitude that cannot compete. Under extreme conditions, there are fewer competitors, so fungal specialists generally produce less diverse and complicated profiles of specialised molecules. Since extremotolerant and extremophilic fungi have evolved in numerous branches of the fungal tree of life and aegerolysins are unevenly distributed across fungal genomes, we investigated whether aegerolysins, together with their partner proteins, contribute to the extreme survival ecology of generalists and specialists. We compiled a list of 109 thermo‐, psihro‐, acido‐, alkali‐, halo‐, metallo‐ and polyextremo‐tolerant/‐philic fungal species. Several challenges were identified that affected the outcome: renaming fungal species, defining extremotolerant/extremophilic traits, identifying extremotolerant/extremophilic traits as metadata in databases and linking fungal isolates to fungal genomes. The yield of genomes coding aegerolysins or MACPFs appears to be lower in extremotolerant/extremophilic fungi compared to all fungal genomes. No candidates for pore‐forming gene pairs were identified in the genomes of extremophilic fungi. Aegerolysin and MACPFs partner pairs were identified in only two of 69 species with sequenced genomes, namely in the ubiquitous metallotolerant generalists Aspergillus niger and A. foetidus . These results support the hypothesised role of these pore‐forming proteins in competitive exclusion.
We propose a new strategy for the determination of the step scaling function
σ
(
u
)
in finite size scaling studies using the gradient flow. In this approach the determination of
σ
(
u
)
is broken in ...two pieces: a change of the flow time at fixed physical size, and a change of the size of the system at fixed flow time. Using both perturbative arguments and a set of simulations in the pure gauge theory we show that this approach leads to a better control over the continuum extrapolations. Following this new proposal we determine the running coupling at high energies in the pure gauge theory and re-examine the determination of the
Λ
-parameter, with special care on the perturbative truncation uncertainties.
Development of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells throughout the years is established through its component optimization. This is especially true of its catalyst layer, where structuring ...of the layer has led to many breakthroughs. The catalyst layer acts as the heart of the cell, where it controls the half-cell reactions and their products. The complex nature of various transport phenomena simultaneously taking place in the layer requires the layer to be heterogeneous in structure. Hence, a delicate balance of the layer's ingredients, coupled with the understanding of the ingredients' interaction, is required. State-of-the-art catalyst layers are composed of a catalyst, its support, a solvent and a binder. Changes in the morphology, structure or material of any of these components ultimately affects the layer's activity and durability. In this review paper, we provide an overview of the various works tailored to understand how each component in the catalyst's ink affects the stability and life-time of the layer.
•A review of catalyst layer ink ingredients is given.•Ionomer as a binder and its effect are discussed.•Alternative supports to the traditional carbon are discussed.•Alloyed Pt catalysts and Pt-free catalysts are discussed.•Characterization techniques are listed.
PDF
