Search

Alternaria alternata is a common fungus strongly related with severe allergic asthma, with 80% of affected individuals being sensitized solely to its major allergen Alt a 1. Here, we assessed the function of Alt a 1 as an innate defense protein binding to micronutrients, such as iron–quercetin complexes (FeQ2), and its impact on antigen presentation in vitro. Binding of Alt a 1 to FeQ2 was determined in docking calculations. Recombinant Alt a 1 was generated, and binding ability, as well as secondary and quaternary structure, assessed by UV-VIS, CD, and DLS spectroscopy. Proteolytic functions were determined by casein and gelatine zymography. Uptake of empty apo– or ligand-filled holoAlt a 1 were assessed in human monocytic THP1 cells under the presence of dynamin and clathrin-inhibitors, activation of the Arylhydrocarbon receptor (AhR) using the human reporter cellline AZ-AHR. Human PBMCs were stimulated and assessed for phenotypic changes in monocytes by flow cytometry. Alt a 1 bound strongly to FeQ2 as a tetramer with calculated Kd values reaching pico-molar levels and surpassing affinities to quercetin alone by a factor of 5000 for the tetramer. apoAlt a 1 but not holoAlta 1 showed low enzymatic activity against casein as a hexamer and gelatin as a trimer. Uptake of apo– and holo–Alt a 1 occurred partly clathrin-dependent, with apoAlt a 1 decreasing labile iron in THP1 cells and holoAlt a 1 facilitating quercetin-dependent AhR activation. In human PBMCs uptake of holoAlt a 1 but not apoAlt a 1 significantly decreased the surface expression of the costimulatory CD86, but also of HLADR, thereby reducing effective antigen presentation. We show here for the first time that the presence of nutritional iron complexes, such as FeQ2, significantly alters the function of Alt a 1 and dampens the human immune response, thereby supporting the notion that Alt a 1 only becomes immunogenic under nutritional deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban traffic noise situations are usually visualized as conventional 2D maps or 3D scenes. These representations are indispensable tools to inform decision makers and citizens about issues of health, safety, and quality of life but require expert knowledge in order to be properly understood and put into context. The subjectivity of how we perceive noise as well as the inaccuracies in common noise calculation standards are rarely represented. We present a virtual reality application that seeks to offer an audiovisual glimpse into the background workings of one of these standards, by employing a multisensory, immersive analytics approach that allows users to interactively explore and listen to an approximate rendering of the data in the same environment that the noise simulation occurs in. In order for this approach to be useful, it should manage complicated noise level calculations in a real time environment and run on commodity low-cost VR hardware. In a prototypical implementation, we utilized simple VR interactions common to current mobile VR headsets and combined them with techniques from data visualization and sonification to allow users to explore road traffic noise in an immersive real-time urban environment. The noise levels were calculated over CityGML LoD2 building geometries, in accordance with Common Noise Assessment Methods in Europe (CNOSSOS-EU) sound propagation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Envenomation caused by human contact with the caterpillar Lonomia is characterized by deleterious effects on coagulation and patency of blood vessels. The cellular effects induced by Lonomia obliqua venom highlights its capacity to activate endothelial cells, leading to a proinflammatory phenotype. Having more knowledge about the mechanisms involved in envenomation may contribute to better treatment. We aimed to evaluate the effects of Lonomia obliqua caterpillar bristle extract (LOCBE) on vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC).We observed that LOCBE induced VSMC migration, which was preceded by alterations in actin cytoskeleton dynamics and Focal Adhesion Kinase activation. LOCBE also induced Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase (ERK) phosphorylation in VSMC, and the inhibition of this pathway impaired cell proliferation. Stimulation of VSMC with LOCBE triggered reactive oxygen species (ROS) production through the activation of NADPH oxidase. The rapid increase in these ROS further induced mitochondrial ROS production, however only NADPH oxidase-derived ROS were involved in ERK activation in VSMC. We that demonstrated the chemotactic and proliferative effects of LOCBE on VSMC were dependent on ROS production, mainly through NADPH oxidase. Together, the data show that Lonomia obliqua venom can interact with and activate VSMC. These effects rely on ROS production, suggesting new potential targets for treatment against vascular damage during envenomation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anthropogenic impacts on the environment often result in loss of biodiversity. However, the effects of different parameters (such as soil pH) on biodiversity, which can be influenced by human activities, are poorly investigated on a global scale. The paper at hand proposes an approach to examine the relationship between biodiversity and several parameters, which can be anthropogenically influenced, on a major habitat scale. The goal is to describe the relationship of a single parameter and biodiversity by means of a mathematical model within one major habitat. Methods: Geographic information system (GIS) data for the parameters "mean soil pH", "mean share of cultivated land" and "mean temperature in June" for the whole world were overlaid with GIS data for the ecoregions proposed by theWorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF). By means of the software ArcGIS 10.4 (Esri Deutschland GmbH, Kranzberg, Germany), an average parameter value per ecoregion for all considered parameters was determined. Moreover, the index "biodiversity status" was introduced and determined for every ecoregion by means of the indicators "number of species", "number of endemic species", and "mean share of grassland and forest" for each ecoregion. As all ecoregions can be assigned to one of the 14 major habitats (as defined by the WWF), a Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted to analyse whether the parameters and the biodiversity status' differentiate between the 14 major habitats. A mathematical model, which depicts the impact of the parameters on biodiversity, was established by means of curve fitting. Results: The Kruskal-Wallis test reveals that a significant difference (p-value of 0.000) regarding the considered parameter and the biodiversity status exists between the different major habitats. By means of a regression analysis and curve fitting, mathematical models were developed which describe the relation of the biodiversity status and the parameters for 14 major habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Availability of abiotic resources has been a topic of concern in recent years, resulting in several approaches being published to determine their availability on country and product level. However, the availability of biotic materials has not been analyzed to this extent yet. Therefore, an approach to determine possible limitations to availability of terrestrial biotic materials over the entire supply chain is introduced. The approach considers 24 categories overall as well as associated category indicators for the five dimensions: physical, socio-economic, abiotic, social and environmental constraints. This ensures a comprehensive availability assessment of bio-based product systems. The approach is applied to a case study comparing biodiesel produced from rapeseed and soy beans. The study shows that the determination of indicator values is feasible for most categories and their interpretation leads to meaningful conclusions. Thus, the approach leads to a more comprehensive assessment of availability aspects and supports better informed decision making in industry and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little information regarding the global water footprint of biofuels consumed in Europe is available. Therefore, the ultimate origin of feedstock underlying European biodiesel and bioethanol consumption was investigated and combined with the irrigation requirements of different crops in different countries. A (blue) water consumption of 1.9 m³ in 12 countries per GJ of European biodiesel and 3.3 m3 in 23 countries per GJ of bioethanol was determined. Even though this represents an increase by a factor of 60 and 40 compared to fossil diesel and gasoline, these figures are low compared to global average data. The assessment of local consequences has shown that the irrigation of sunflower seed in Spain causes 50% of the impacts resulting from biodiesel—even though it constitutes only 0.9% of the feedstock. In case of bioethanol production, the irrigation of sugar cane in Egypt, which constitutes only 0.7% of the underlying feedstock, causes 20% of the impacts. In a case study on passenger cars, it was shown that biofuels can reduce the global warming potential by circa 50% along the product life cycle. However, the price of this improvement is an approximate 19 times increased water consumption, and resulting local impacts are even more severe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significant incidence of deforestation in South America culminates in the contact of humans with typical forests species. Among these species, one may highlight Lonomia obliqua caterpillar, which, when touched by humans, can poison them through their bristles. Therefore, better acknowledging the mechanisms involved in envenomation caused by Lonomia obliqua caterpillar bristle extract (LOCBE) may contribute to further treatments. Recently, we demonstrated that LOCBE induces a pro-inflammatory profile in endothelial cells; thus, we decided to investigate the effects of LOCBE on human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN), which are the first leukocytes that migrate to the inflammatory focus. Our results showed that treatment with LOCBE induced PMN chemotaxis together with alterations in actin cytoskeleton and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) activation, favoring migration. Concurrently, LOCBE induced PMN adhesion to matrix proteins, such as collagen IV, fibronectin, and fibrinogen. Moreover, we observed that LOCBE attenuated PMN apoptosis and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production together with nuclear factor kB (NF-κB) activation—a redox-sensitive transcription factor—as well as interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-8 release. We call attention to the ROS-dependent effect of LOCBE on increased cell migration once an antioxidant treatment reverted it. In summary, we report that LOCBE activates PMN, inducing pro-inflammatory responses modulated by ROS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of nanomaterials incorporated into plastic products is increasing steadily. By using nano-scaled filling materials, thermoplastics, such as polyethylene (PE), take advantage of the unique properties of nanomaterials (NM). The life cycle of these so-called nanocomposites (NC) usually ends with energetic recovery. However, the toxicity of these aerosols, which may consist of released NM as well as combustion-generated volatile compounds, is not fully understood. Within this study, model nanocomposites consisting of a PE matrix and nano-scaled filling material (TiO2, CuO, carbon nano tubes (CNT)) were produced and subsequently incinerated using a lab-scale model burner. The combustion-generated aerosols were characterized with regard to particle release as well as compound composition. Subsequently, A549 cells and a reconstituted 3D lung cell culture model (MucilAir™, Epithelix) were exposed for 4 h to the respective aerosols. This approach enabled the parallel application of a complete aerosol, an aerosol under conditions of enhanced particle deposition using high voltage, and a filtered aerosol resulting in the sole gaseous phase. After 20 h post-incubation, cytotoxicity, inflammatory response (IL-8), transcriptional toxicity profiling, and genotoxicity were determined. Only the exposure toward combustion aerosols originated from PE-based materials induced cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and transcriptional alterations in both cell models. In contrast, an inflammatory response in A549 cells was more evident after exposure toward aerosols of nano-scaled filler combustion, whereas the thermal decomposition of PE-based materials revealed an impaired IL-8 secretion. MucilAir™ tissue showed a pronounced inflammatory response after exposure to either combustion aerosols, except for nanocomposite combustion. In conclusion, this study supports the present knowledge on the release of nanomaterials after incineration of nano-enabled thermoplastics. Since in the case of PE-based combustion aerosols no major differences were evident between exposure to the complete aerosol and to the gaseous phase, adverse cellular effects could be deduced to the volatile organic compounds that are generated during incomplete combustion of NC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For instance, Tony criticized the LCA community for the isolated focus on blue water: "By the end of the noughties, I was unhappy when I discovered that the LCA modelers judged that green water was irrelevant. History of Virtual Water In our video discussion, Tony explained to us how the virtual water concept had come about: "An important question being asked in the late 1980s in the water resources sector, when resource footprinting and LCA approaches were emerging, was 'Why no water wars? It is with great sadness that we received the news that Tony Allan has passed away on the 15 April 2021. [Extracted from the article]

Cities are recognized as a major contributor to environmental pressures. Recently, organizational LCA (OLCA) has been found to align well with requirements for city-scale environmental decision support and a novel city-OLCA framework was introduced. City-OLCA combines two relevant aspects: It covers activities beyond public service provision (multi-stakeholder) and emissions beyond greenhouse gases (multi-impact). Its unique approach of acknowledging responsibility levels should help both city-managers and academia in performance tracking and to prioritize mitigation measures. The goal of this work is to test city-OLCA's feasibility in a first case study with real city data from Vienna. The feasibility was confirmed, and results for 12 impact categories were obtained. As an example, Vienna's global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, and marine eutrophication potential for 2016 were 14,686 kt CO2 eq., 6796 kg CFC-11 eq., and 310 t N eq., respectively. Our results indicate that current accounting practices may underestimate greenhouse gas emissions of the entire city by up to a factor of 3. This is mainly due to additional activities not covered by conventional standards (food and goods consumption). While the city itself only accounts for 25% of greenhouse gases, 75% are caused by activities beyond public service provision or beyond governmental responsibilities. Based on our results, we encourage city managers to include an organizational based LCA approach in defining reduction strategies. This will reveal environmental blind spots and avoids underestimating environmental burdens, which might lead to setting the wrong focus for mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methods developed in the "water footprint sustainability assessment" step (WF) can be used in the impact assessment phase of LCA and vice versa. The Scientific Dispute between Two Research Communities As mentioned above, there has been a persistent debate on methodology between the WF and the LCA communities - mainly on the question whether the water footprint should be a volumetric or an impact-based indicator. Considering that 4 billion people are living in water-stressed regions and that global water consumption is predicted to increase continuously [[1]], the analysis of water consumption and pollution along supply chains and resulting water scarcity issues is of great relevance. [Extracted from the article]

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be met without the private sector. In order to contribute to the fulfillment of the SDGs, companies have to identify their influence and select relevant SDGs. However, so far no research has been conducted on the influence of companies or industries at the most concrete level in the SDG framework—the 247 SDG indicators. In this paper, a criteria-based approach to select relevant environmental SDG indicators for the automobile industry is developed. The three criteria—environmental impact, direct impact, and automobile impact—are defined. By means of a qualitative analysis, 31 influenceable indicators are selected and substantiated by an empirical analysis of the automobile industry's impact. These indicators belong to 12 SDGs and demonstrate the broad influence of the automobile industry. The outcome of this study is a structured procedure for selecting relevant environmental SDG indicators. This procedure can be applied by companies and can also be adapted to other economic sectors. Finally, it is possible to quantify the level of influence of the selected indicators and thus measure the contributions of companies or economic sectors to the fulfillment of the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With water scarcity representing an increasing threat to humans, the environment and the economy, companies are interested in exploring how their operations and supply chains affect water resources globally. To allow for systematically compiling the water footprint at the company level, the organizational water footprint method based on ISO 14046 and ISO/TS 14072 was developed. This paper presents the first complete organizational water scarcity footprint case study carried out for Neoperl GmbH, a German company that offers innovative solutions regarding drinking water for the plumbing industry. The cradle-to-gate assessment for one year includes, besides facility-based production activities, purchased materials, electricity and fuels, and supporting activities, such as company vehicles and infrastructure. Neoperl's total freshwater consumption amounts to approximately 110,000 m3, 96% thereof being attributable to the supply chain, with freshwater consumption through purchased metals playing the predominant role. Metals (mainly stainless steel and brass) are major hotspots, also when considering the water scarcity-related local impacts resulting from freshwater consumption, which mainly affect China and Chile. These results can be used to improve the company's supply chain water use in cooperation with internal and external stakeholders by means of, e.g., sustainable purchase strategies or eco-design options to substitute water intensive materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the Water Footprint (WF) resulting from the agricultural imports of the European Union (EU-28). Import trade statistics were compiled and linked with crop- and country-specific water consumption data and water scarcity factors. Within the study, the virtual water imports of 104 agricultural commodities for the baseline year 2015 were assessed and product and country hotspots were evaluated. It was shown that (a) Europe imported 100 million tons of agricultural goods and 11 km3 of associated virtual irrigation water; (b) the highest impacts of water consumption do not necessarily result from high import amounts, but from water-intensive goods produced in water scarce countries; (c) the largest external EU-28 water footprint occurred due to the product categories cotton, nuts and rice; and (d) the highest share of the EU external water footprint took place in the United States (US), Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, several methods were developed to determine potential supply risks due to short term socio-economic aspects. One of them is the ESSENZ method (comprehensive method to measure and assess resource efficiency of products in the context of sustainable development) developed by the authors. Due to newly available data (e.g., production statistics) the characterization factors (CFs) of the ESSENZ method were updated (based on data from the years 2011 to 2015, with focus on 2014 and 2015) and compared with the original CFs (based on data from the years 2009 to 2013, with focus on 2012 and 2013) for six of the overall eleven categories. The goal of the paper is to analyze if changes in the underlying data are adequately reflected in the CFs of ESSENZ for the considered categories. Further, the updated CFs are provided. The six categories are analyzed by comparing original and updated CFs and clustering them into four groups: declining, emerging, persistent, and non-occurring potential supply risks. Significant differences in the CFs are evaluated by analyzing changes in the underlying data as well as the steps to determine the CFs. It could be shown, that for most of the considered categories and resources changes in the underlying data are reflected adequately in the CFs. However, some methodological challenges of ESSENZ, which limit the reflection of potential supply risks changes, could also be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]