• Energy Research
• 3. Good health close
• 1. No poverty close
• US close
• CN close
• DE close

Abstract Radiation damage in biological systems is initiated by free radicals and progresses with time through a variety of mechanisms. The time-scale and details of these mechanisms are briefly reviewed. Because of the variety of mechanisms of radio-biological damage, any single radio-protective or therapeutic agent can be only partially effective. The potential of and need for simultaneously using several radio-protective and therapeutic agents, including sulfhydryl compounds, superoxide dismutase, antioxidant proteins, and DNA repair enzymes, are examined, based on a priori considerations of the consequences of radiation exposure.

According to the United Nations population projections, the population of the elderly is expected to roughly triple in China from 2000 to 2050, particularly when the generations who were born between the 1950s and 1970s move through the age structure, and also because people are living longer and fertility rates have fallen, population aging is expected to put pressure on government's fiscal balance through higher old-age security benefits and health-care expenditures. This work draws together the broad range of elements involved within a consistent framework, based on a computable dynamic general equilibrium model with an overlapping generation structure. Further analysis using model simulation illustrates that the alternative schemes for the benefit rate, retirement age and technological progress are likely to be beneficial, and that an obvious slow-down in the growth of living standards is likely to be avoided.

A 45 year old man with metastatic colon cancer presented with uncontrollable abdominal wall pain. Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block with ropivacaine and methylprednisolone was performed with excellent pain relief, which allowed a significant weaning of the patient's opioid requirements. A second TAP block was performed with a 33% ethanol solution (ethanol and ropivacaine) with excellent pain relief. The neurolytic block appeared to offer better pain control for more than 5 days after placement until the patient finally succumbed to his illness.

Consumer interest in farmers’ markets (FMs) has dramatically increased during the past decade. The number of FMs in the United States has grown from 1755 in 1994 to 8140 in 2019 (USDA, 2019). To evaluate the economic impacts (EIs) of FMs in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, we collected FMs’ consumer data and used IMPLAN-based social accounting matrices to evaluate the direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts of FMs. The empirical results from IMPLAN provide the direct gross sales, income figures, and an estimate of the number of jobs in the study region. The results show the average total output of USD 36,181,059, total employment of 663 people, total value-added creation of USD 19,019,226, and total labor income created of USD 8,653,350 in the region. The FM average income multiplier is 1.51, which indicates that a USD 1 increase in personal income (PI) for an FM translates into USD 1.51 in PI across the economy of the region. We also highlight the impact of FMs as an important component of the circular economy (CE). To this end, we present a qualitative approach examining the potential of a CE as applied to the farmers’ markets in the Washington, DC metropolitan area using qualitative data from focus groups. The goal of the circular economy is to provide more sustainability in the local economy.

The role of peripherally and centrally acting acetaldehyde in ethanol‐induced conditioned taste aversion (CTA) was investigated using various enzyme manipulations. Cyanamide, an aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitor (ALDH) elevates blood acetaldehyde levels in the presence of ethanol. Concurrent administration with 4‐methylpyrazole (4MP), an alcohol dehydrogenase inhibitor, prevents peripheral accumulation of acetaldehyde by cyanamide. Under both treatment conditions brain and liver ALDH activity is inhibited. Water‐deprived rats were pretreated 4 hr prior to fluid presentation with intraperitoneal injections of saline (S+S), 4‐methylpyrazole (4MP+S), cyanamide (S+C), or 4‐methylpyrazole + cyanamide (4MP+C). Subsequently, animals were presented with a novel saccharin solution followed immediately by intraperitoneal injection of one of three doses of ethanol (0.4, 0.8, or 1.2 g/kg) or saline vehicle on four occasions. Results suggested that animals pretreated with cyanamide (groups S+C and 4MP+C) drank significantly less saccharin after conditioning with a subthreshold dose of ethanol (0.4 g/kg) in comparison to groups S+S and 4MP+S. Moreover, at the conditioning dose of 1.2 g/kg, cyanamide‐treated animals demonstrated an attenuation of CTA compared to the other two groups. These effects cannot be attributed to elevated blood acetaldehyde levels since pretreatment with 4MP+C prevented peripheral acetaldehyde accumulation. A characteristic common to both cyanamide‐treated groups was the inhibition of brain ALDH. It is therefore suggested that brain ALDH may play a role in the mediation of ethanol‐induced CTAs. It is conceivable that ALDH plays this role by regulating the levels of acetaldehyde in brain.

Abstract Eradicating poverty and mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are core issues of global sustainable development goals (SDGs), and China is struggling in realizing these targets. The poverty reduction that leads to popualtion structure and lifestyle changes would have an impact on GHG emission changes. However, few studies have assessed the historical and future impacts of the poverty allevation on China's emissions. Here by linking Chinese Multi-Regional Input Output (MRIO) database to the global MRIO database EXIOBASE, and using provincial household consumption data, we identified the distribution of Chinese household greenhouse gas footprints (HGFs) by income groups in 2015 at the national and provinical levels. Moreover, we focused on the historical impact of poverty alleviation on HGFs during 2010–2015, and developed four scenarios to project future HGFs changes due to poverty alleviation by 2030. We find that eradicating extreme poverty in the secanrio S2, i.e., bringing people to an income above $1.9 daily, does not cause a large emission impact with current technological level. However, lifting people from a higher poverty line of $5.5 per day in the sceanrio S4 results in a 1.6% increase in emissions compared with the scenario S1 without any poverty reduction goals. Furthermore, realizing a higher poverty reduction target will result in an increase of emissions contribution from internatioanl supply chains due to the differences in consumption patterns among different income groups. Our study highlights the conflict between the high poverty alleviaition goal and emission reduciton in China, and reminds us of the need to make more technological efforts for avoiding the large emissions embodied in international supply chains.

Background: Chronic alcohol consumption has been demonstrated to be deleterious to bone health. However, binge drinking is the prevalent form of drinking in young people, which was the impetus for the present study to determine the effect of week‐end and week‐long binge drinking on bone health in a young actively growing animal model. Methods: Four‐week‐old, female, Sprague‐Dawley rats were given the amount of 5% alcohol by gavage to be equivalent to a 63 kg woman drinking six beers a day for either 2 or 5 consecutive days per week. Results: There were no changes in the 5‐day binge animals, but the 2‐day binge animals were hypocalcemia Similarly, 2‐day binge animals had slightly increased bone chemistry and histomorphometric values for both tibia and femur, but only femur length, dry weight, and ash weight as well as femur density, presented either as g/ml or ash weight per unit volume, were increased by a statistically significant level. Cross‐section periosteal Mineral Apposition Rate (MAR) was significantly decreased in the 2‐day alcohol fed animals. Conclusions: Actively growing rats given 5% alcohol by gavage for 2 days per week have an increased bone length, bone weight, and bone density. The interpretation of these results must be viewed with great caution because studies of chronic alcohol consumption, and many studies of acute drinking, clearly indicate deleterious effects of alcohol on bone health. Those fed alcohol for 5 days per week showed no change.

Abstract In this study, a multi-phase, two-dimensional model that integrates the bipolar plate (BP) and gas diffusion layer (GDL) interfacial morphology was developed to understand the effects of this interface on mass, charge and heat transport and performance of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). Two different case studies were performed. The first case assumes a perfect contact interface between the BP and GDL, whereas in the second case, the BP|GDL interfacial layer was incorporated as a separate domain based on the measured BP|GDL morphology. In the BP|GDL interface case, the interfacial voids were assumed to be filled with liquid water to investigate the role of the interfacial voids. For both cases, the effects of different current densities on the in-plane temperature, saturation, and oxygen concentration distribution in the GDL were investigated. Simulations indicate that the Ohmic and concentration losses are increased due to the inclusion of the realistic BP|GDL interface. The electrical contact resistance contribution of the BP|GDL interface was predicted to be 3.8 mΩcm 2 . The saturation in the GDL was found to be higher for the BP|GDL interface case, which results in higher concentration losses. The temperature was predicted to be slightly higher for the BP|GDL interface case, which could be attributed to the higher thermal contact resistance due to the fewer contact regions at the interface.