Emory University

About: Emory University is a education organization based out in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 51959 authors who have published 122469 publications receiving 6010698 citations.

Catalysis Research of Relevance to Carbon Management: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract: There is increased recognition by the world’s scientific, industrial, and political communities that the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere, particularly CO_2, are increasing. For example, recent studies of Antarctic ice cores to depths of over 3600 m, spanning over 420 000 years, indicate an 80 ppm increase in atmospheric CO_2 in the past 200 years (with most of this increase occurring in the past 50 years) compared to the previous 80 ppm increase that required 10 000 years.2 The 160 nation Framework Convention for Climate Change (FCCC) in Kyoto focused world attention on possible links between CO2 and future climate change and active discussion of these issues continues.3 In the United States, the PCAST report4 “Federal Energy Research and Development for the Challenges of the Twenty First Century” focused attention on the growing worldwide demand for energy and the need to move away from current fossil fuel utilization. According to the U.S. DOE Energy Information Administration,5 carbon emission from the transportation (air, ground, sea), industrial (heavy manufacturing, agriculture, construction, mining, chemicals, petroleum), buildings (internal heating, cooling, lighting), and electrical (power generation) sectors of the World economy amounted to ca. 1823 million metric tons (MMT) in 1990, with an estimated increase to 2466 MMT in 2008-2012 (Table 1).

The use of leukocyte profiles to measure stress in vertebrates: a review for ecologists

Abstract: Summary 1. A growing number of ecologists are turning to the enumeration of white blood cells from blood smears (leukocyte profiles) to assess stress in animals. There has been some inconsistency and controversy in the ecological literature, however, regarding their interpretation. The inconsistencies may stem partly from a lack of information regarding how stress affects leukocytes in different taxa, and partly from a failure on the part of researchers in one discipline to consult potentially informative literature from another. 2. Here, we seek to address both issues by reviewing the literature on the leukocyte response to stress, spanning the taxa of mammals (including humans), birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish. 3. We show that much of the early literature points to a close link between leukocyte profiles and glucocorticoid levels. Specifically, these hormones act to increase the number and percentage of neutrophils (heterophils in birds and reptiles), while decreasing the number and percentage of lymphocytes. This phenomenon is seen in all five vertebrate taxa in response to either natural stressors or exogenous administration of stress hormones. For the ecologist, therefore, high ratios of heterophils or neutrophils to lymphocytes (‘H : L’ or ‘N : L’ ratios) in blood samples reliably indicate high glucocorticoid levels. Furthermore, this close relationship between stress hormones and N : L or H : L ratios needs to be highlighted more prominently in haematological assessments of stress, as it aids the interpretation of results. 4. As with hormone assays, there are challenges to overcome in the use of leukocytes profiles to assess levels of stress; however, there are also advantages to this approach, and we outline each. Given the universal and consistent nature of the haematological response to stress, plus the overwhelming evidence from the veterinary, biomedical and ecological literature reviewed here, we conclude that this method can provide a reliable assessment of stress in all vertebrate taxa.

Tolvaptan in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease

Abstract: In this phase 3, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 3-year trial, we randomly assigned 1445 patients, 18 to 50 years of age, who had ADPKD with a total kidney volume of 750 ml or more and an estimated creatinine clearance of 60 ml per minute or more, in a 2:1 ratio to receive tolvaptan, a V 2 -receptor antagonist, at the highest of three twice-daily dose regimens that the patient found tolerable, or placebo. The primary outcome was the annual rate of change in the total kidney volume. Sequential secondary end points included a composite of time to clinical progression (defined as worsening kidney function, kidney pain, hypertension, and albuminuria) and rate of kidney-function decline. RESULTS Over a 3-year period, the increase in total kidney volume in the tolvaptan group was 2.8% per year (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.5 to 3.1), versus 5.5% per year in the placebo group (95% CI, 5.1 to 6.0; P<0.001). The composite end point favored tolvaptan over placebo (44 vs. 50 events per 100 follow-up-years, P = 0.01), with lower rates of worsening kidney function (2 vs. 5 events per 100 person-years of followup, P<0.001) and kidney pain (5 vs. 7 events per 100 person-years of follow-up, P = 0.007). Tolvaptan was associated with a slower decline in kidney function (reciprocal of the serum creatinine level, −2.61 [mg per milliliter] −1 per year vs. −3.81 [mg per milliliter] −1 per year; P<0.001). There were fewer ADPKD-related adverse events in the tolvaptan group but more events related to aquaresis (excretion of electrolyte-free water) and hepatic adverse events unrelated to ADPKD, contributing to a higher discontinuation rate (23%, vs. 14% in the placebo group). CONCLUSIONS Tolvaptan, as compared with placebo, slowed the increase in total kidney volume and the decline in kidney function over a 3-year period in patients with ADPKD but was associated with a higher discontinuation rate, owing to adverse events. (Funded by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization; TEMPO 3:4 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00428948.)

Isolation of a cDNA encoding the vascular type-1 angiotensin II receptor

Abstract: Angiotensin II is an important effector molecule controlling blood pressure and volume in the cardiovascular system. Its importance is manifested by the efficacy of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure. Angiotensin II interacts with two pharmacologically distinct subtypes of cell-surface receptors, AT1 and AT2. AT1 receptors seem to mediate the major cardiovascular effects of angiotensin II. Here we report the isolation by expression cloning of a complementary DNA encoding a unique protein with the pharmacological specificity of a vascular AT1 receptor. Hydropathic modelling of the deduced protein suggests that it shares the seven-transmembrane-region motif with the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily. Knowledge of the AT1 receptor primary sequence should now permit structural analysis, definition of the angiotensin II receptor gene family and delineation of the contribution of AT receptors to the genetic component of hypertension.