Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of chronic exposure of ethanol ingestion on GABA benzodiazepine receptor complex in four rat brain regions. Methods: Male adult rats from a colony were house with food and drinking water / ethanol (85%+15% v/v). After 13 months of chronic ethanol consumption, the rats were killed by decapitation and the brain regions dissected and t...

The yeast Scheffersomyces stipitis naturally produces ethanol from xylose, however reaching high ethanol yields is strongly dependent on aeration conditions. It has been reported that changes in the availability of NAD(H/+) cofactors can improve fermentation in some microorganisms. In this work genome-scale metabolic modeling and phenotypic phase plane analysis were used to characterize metabol...

Chronic ethanol ingestion leads to an enhanced risk of upper gastrointestinal tract cancer. Although many hypotheses for the tumor promoting effect of alcohol exist, the pathogenetic mechanisms remain unclear since alcohol in itself is not carcinogenic. Acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of ethanol, has been shown to have multiple mutagenic effects and to be carcinogenic to animals. Previous re...

Processes for the biotechnological production of kerosene and diesel blendstocks are often economically unattractive due to low yields and product titers. Recently, Clostridium acetobutylicum fermentation products acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE) were shown to serve as precursors for catalytic upgrading to higher chain-length molecules that can be used as fuel substitutes. To produce suitabl...

The cost of cellulase enzymes has limited the feasibility of producing ethanol from fibrous biomass. Traditional submerged fermentation (SmF) was compared to an alternative method of producing cellulase, solid state cultivation (SSC). Results from an economic analysis indicated that the unit costs for cellulase enzyme production were $15.67 (The prices are all 2004 prices in this article, excep...

BACKGROUND The production of fuel-grade ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass resources has the potential to increase biofuel production capacity whilst minimising the negative environmental impacts. These benefits will only be realised if lignocellulosic ethanol production can compete on price with conventional fossil fuels and if it can be produced commercially at scale. This paper focuses on ...

Adaptation or resistance of fish Mauthner cells (M-cells) to long duration (2 h) vestibular stimulation (LDS) was produced by daily brief and gradually increasing vestibular stimulation (training). The LDS resistance was accompanied by an increase in the number of desmosome-like junctions in the afferent axosomatic synapses. F-actin, the main component of desmosome-like contacts, has been sugge...

The approximately 100 million tonne per year increase in the use of corn to produce ethanol in the U.S. over the past 10 years, and projections of greater future use, have raised concerns that reduced exports of corn (and other agricultural products) and higher commodity prices would lead to land-use changes and, consequently, negative environmental impacts in other countries. The concerns have...