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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Investigating the Mutagenicity of a Cold Argon-Plasma Jet in an HET-MN Model
    (San Francisco, California, US : PLOS, 2016) Kluge, Susanne; Bekeschus, Sander; Bender, Claudia; Benkhai, Hicham; Sckell, Axel; Below, Harald; Stope, Matthias B.; Kramer, Axel; Yousfi, Mohammed
    Objective: So-called cold physical plasmas for biomedical applications generate reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and the latter can trigger DNA damage at high concentrations. Therefore, the mutagenic risks of a certified atmospheric pressure argon plasma jet (kINPen MED) and its predecessor model (kINPen 09) were assessed. Methods: Inner egg membranes of fertilized chicken eggs received a single treatment with either the kINPen 09 (1.5, 2.0, or 2.5 min) or the kINPen MED (3, 4, 5, or 10 min). After three days of incubation, blood smears (panoptic May-Grünwald-Giemsa stain) were performed, and 1000 erythrocytes per egg were evaluated for the presence of polychromatic and normochromic nuclear staining as well as nuclear aberrations and binucleated cells (hen’s egg test for micronuclei induction, HET-MN). At the same time, the embryo mortality was documented. For each experiment, positive controls (cyclophosphamide and methotrexate) and negative controls (NaCl-solution, argon gas) were included. Additionally, the antioxidant potential of the blood plasma was assessed by ascorbic acid oxidation assay after treatment. Results: For both plasma sources, there was no evidence of genotoxicity, although at the longest plasma exposure time of 10 min the mortality of the embryos exceeded 40%. The antioxidant potential in the egg’s blood plasma was not significantly reduced immediately (p = 0.32) or 1 h (p = 0.19) post exposure to cold plasma. Conclusion: The longest plasma treatment time with the kINPen MED was 5–10 fold above the recommended limit for treatment of chronic wounds in clinics. We did not find mutagenic effects for any plasma treatment time using the either kINPen 09 or kINPen MED. The data provided with the current study seem to confirm the lack of a genotoxic potential suggesting that a veterinary or clinical application of these argon plasma jets does not pose mutagenic risks.
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    Key determinants of global land-use projections
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2019) Stehfest, Elke; van Zeist, Willem-Jan; Valin, Hugo; Havlik, Petr; Popp, Alexander; Kyle, Page; Tabeau, Andrzej; Mason-D’Croz, Daniel; Hasegawa, Tomoko; Bodirsky, Benjamin L.; Calvin, Katherine; Doelman, Jonathan C.; Fujimori, Shinichiro; Humpenöder, Florian; Lotze-Campen, Hermann; van Meijl, Hans; Wiebe, Keith
    Land use is at the core of various sustainable development goals. Long-term climate foresight studies have structured their recent analyses around five socio-economic pathways (SSPs), with consistent storylines of future macroeconomic and societal developments; however, model quantification of these scenarios shows substantial heterogeneity in land-use projections. Here we build on a recently developed sensitivity approach to identify how future land use depends on six distinct socio-economic drivers (population, wealth, consumption preferences, agricultural productivity, land-use regulation, and trade) and their interactions. Spread across models arises mostly from diverging sensitivities to long-term drivers and from various representations of land-use regulation and trade, calling for reconciliation efforts and more empirical research. Most influential determinants for future cropland and pasture extent are population and agricultural efficiency. Furthermore, land-use regulation and consumption changes can play a key role in reducing both land use and food-security risks, and need to be central elements in sustainable development strategies.
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    Reply to Burgess et al: Catastrophic climate risks are neglected, plausible, and safe to study
    (Washington, DC : National Acad. of Sciences, 2022) Kemp, Luke; Xu, Chi; Depledge, Joanna; Ebi, Kristie L.; Gibbins, Goodwin; Kohler, Timothy A.; Rockström, Johan; Scheffer, Marten; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim; Steffen, Will; Lenton, Timothy M.
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    Reply to Bhowmik et al.: Democratic climate action and studying extreme climate risks are not in tension
    (Washington, DC : National Acad. of Sciences, 2022) Kemp, Luke; Xu, Chi; Depledge, Joanna; Ebi, Kristie L.; Gibbins, Goodwin; Kohler, Timothy A.; Rockström, Johan; Scheffer, Marten; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim; Steffen, Will; Lenton, Timothy M.
    [no abstract available]
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    Reply to Kelman: The foundations for studying catastrophic climate risks
    (Washington, DC : National Acad. of Sciences, 2022) Kemp, Luke; Xu, Chi; Depledge, Joanna; Ebi, Kristie L.; Gibbins, Goodwin; Kohler, Timothy A.; Rockström, Johan; Scheffer, Marten; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim; Steffen, Will; Lenton, Timothy M.