Amyloid-Lowering Monoclonal Antibodies for the Treatment of Early Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia worldwide. Numerous biomarker studies have clearly demonstrated that AD has a long asymptomatic phase, with the development of pathology occurring at least 2 decades prior to the development of any symptoms. These pathological changes include a stepwise development of amyloid-ß (Aß) plaques, followed by tau neurofibrillary tangles and subsequently extensive neurodegeneration in the brain. In this review, we discuss the first class of drugs intended to be disease modifying to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for AD-anti-Aß monoclonal antibodies-and the scientific rationale with which they were developed.

Algae biodiesel life cycle assessment using current commercial data.

Autotrophic microalgae represent a potential feedstock for transportation fuels, but life cycle assessment (LCA) studies based on laboratory-scale or theoretical data have shown mixed results. We attempt to bridge the gap between laboratory-scale and larger scale biodiesel production by using cultivation and harvesting data from a commercial algae producer with ∼1000 m(2) production area (the base case), and compare that with a hypothetical scaled up facility of 101,000 m(2) (the future case). Extraction and separation data are from Solution Recovery Services, Inc. Conversion and combustion data are from the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation Model (GREET). The LCA boundaries are defined as "pond-to-wheels". Environmental impacts are quantified as NER (energy in/energy out), global warming potential, photochemical oxidation potential, water depletion, particulate matter, and total NOx and SOx. The functional unit is 1 MJ of energy produced in a passenger car. Results for the base case and the future case show an NER of 33.4 and 1.37, respectively and GWP of 2.9 and 0.18 kg CO2-equivalent, respectively. In comparison, petroleum diesel and soy diesel show an NER of 0.18 and 0.80, respectively and GWP of 0.12 and 0.025, respectively. A critical feature in this work is the low algal productivity (3 g/m(2)/day) reported by the commercial producer, relative to the much higher productivities (20-30 g/m(2)/day) reported by other sources. Notable results include a sensitivity analysis showing that algae with an oil yield of 0.75 kg oil/kg dry biomass in the future case can bring the NER down to 0.64, more comparable with petroleum diesel and soy biodiesel. An important assumption in this work is that all processes are fully co-located and that no transport of intermediate or final products from processing stage to stage is required.

Relationships between soil organic matter, nutrients, bacterial community structure, and the performance of microbial fuel cells.

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) offer the potential for generating electricity, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and bioremediating pollutants through utilization of a plentiful renewable resource: soil organic carbon. We analyzed bacterial community structure, MFC performance, and soil characteristics in different microhabitats within MFCs constructed from agricultural or forest soils in order to determine how soil type and bacterial dynamics influence MFC performance. Our results indicated that MFCs constructed from agricultural soil had power output about 17 times that of forest soil-based MFCs and respiration rates about 10 times higher than forest soil MFCs. Agricultural soil MFCs had lower C:N ratios, polyphenol content, and acetate concentrations than forest soil MFCs. Bacterial community profile data indicate that the bacterial communities at the anode of the high power MFCs were less diverse than in low power MFCs and were dominated by Deltaproteobacteria, Geobacter, and to a lesser extent, Clostridia, while low-power MFC anode communities were dominated by Clostridia. These results suggest that the presence of organic carbon substrate (acetate) was not the major limiting factor in selecting for highly electrogenic bacterial communities, while the quality of available organic matter may have played a significant role in supporting high performing bacterial communities.