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BackgroundPollen allergies affect a significant proportion of the population globally. At present, Web-based tools such as pollen diaries and mobile apps allow for easy and fast documentation of allergic symptoms via the internet. ObjectiveThis study aimed to characterize the users of the Patient’s Hayfever Diary (PHD), a Web-based platform and mobile app, to apply different symptom score calculations for comparison, and to evaluate the contribution of organs and medications to the total score for the first time. MethodsThe PHD users were filtered with regard to their location in Austria and Germany, significant positive correlation to the respective pollen type (birch/grass), and at least 15 entries in the respective season. Furthermore, 4 different symptom score calculation methods were applied to the datasets from 2009 until 2018, of which 2 were raw symptom scores and 2 were symptom load index (normalized) calculations. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated pairwise for these 4 symptom score calculations. ResultsUsers were mostly male and belonged to the age groups of 21 to 40 years or >40 years. User numbers have increased in the last 5 years, especially when mobile apps were made available. The Pearson correlation coefficients showed a significant linear relationship above 0.9 among the 4 symptom score datasets and thus indicated no significant difference between the different methods of symptom score calculation. The nose contributed the most to the symptom score and determined about 40% of the score. ConclusionsThe exact method of calculation of the symptom score is not critical. All computation methods show the same behavior (increase/decrease during the season). Therefore, the symptom load index is a useful computation method in all fields exploring pollen allergy, and Web-based diaries are a globally applicable tool to monitor the effect of pollen on human health via electronically generated symptom data.

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]

The article informs about the book "Repair: Sustainable Design Futures," edited by Markus Berger and Kate Irvin, which explores repair as a contemporary form of empowerment and resistance to societal and environmental challenges. Topics include diverse perspectives on repair thinking and practices, encompassing concrete forms of repair and speculations on addressing large-scale issues, offering a holistic approach to rethinking and repairing broken social and physical worlds.

Capital assets such as machinery and infrastructure contribute substantially to CO2 emissions over their lifetime. Unique features of capital assets such as their long durability complicate the assignment of capital-associated CO2 emissions to final beneficiaries. Whereas conventional approaches allocate emissions required to produce capital assets to the year of formation, we propose an alternative perspective through allocating required emissions from the production of assets over their entire lifespans. We show that allocating CO2 emissions embodied in capital assets over time relieves emission responsibility for the year of formation, with 25‒46% reductions from conventional emission accounts. This temporal allocation, although virtual, is important for assessing the equity of CO2 emissions across generations due to the inertia of capital assets. To re-allocate emission responsibilities to the future, we design three capital investment scenarios with different investment purposes until 2030. Overall, the existing capital in 2017 will still carry approximately 10% responsibilities of China's CO2 emissions in 2030, and could reach more than 40% for capital-intensive service sectors. This study proposes an alternative approach for assessing CO2 responsibility of capital assets, through allocating required CO2 from the production of assets over their lifespans of use. It improves the assessment of emission equity across generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]