Thermal comfort and energy performance of public rental housing under typical and near-extreme weather conditions in Hong Kong

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Building performance evaluation is crucial for sustainable urban developments. In high-density cities, occupants suffer from poor living conditions due to building overheating, especially during increasingly frequent near-extreme summer conditions caused by climate change. To represent this situation, the summer reference year weather data was employed for building simulations using DesignBuilder. This study aims to evaluate the thermal comfort and energy consumption of four typical public rental housing (PRH) building types in Hong Kong. For free-running flats, results show generally higher air temperatures in the oldest PRH type (Slab) with a compact linear building form and the most sensitive response to outdoor temperature changes for another older PRH type (Trident) with a Y-shaped design, possibly owing to its high wall conductivity. Occupants in all building types experience a ???10% increase in the proportion of discomfort hours when compared to results for typical summer conditions, but overheating is the most severe in Slab type PRH. Following an initial assessment of the cooling energy usage, a simple sensitivity test was conducted to explore the potential energy savings by various passive design strategies, including shading and reducing the exposed cooled space. A cross-shaped building form also appears to be more energy efficient. These findings, complemented by further parametric analyses, may prove useful when designing buildings for climate change

A comparative study on the indoor thermal comfort and energy consumption of typical public rental housing types under near-extreme summer conditions in Hong Kong

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Residents of the dense urban environment in Hong Kong suffer from poor living conditions due to building overheating, especially during near-extreme summer conditions. In this study, the thermal comfort and energy performance of typical public rental housing (PRH) building types were simulated using DesignBuilder. Results show that the oldest Slab type PRH, which has a compact building form, has the highest indoor air temperature, yet the lowest cooling energy demand. On the other hand, the Trident type PRH, with the largest external wall U-value, performs the worst overall and is the most responsive to outdoor temperature changes

Reactivation of Epstein–Barr virus by a dual-responsive fluorescent EBNA1-targeting agent with Zn2+-chelating function

EBNA1 is the only Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) latent protein responsible for viral genome maintenance and is expressed in all EBV-infected cells. Zn2+ is essential for oligomerization of the functional EBNA1. We constructed an EBNA1 binding peptide with a Zn2+ chelator to create an EBNA1-specific inhibitor (ZRL5P4). ZRL5P4 by itself is sufficient to reactivate EBV from its latent infection. ZRL5P4 is able to emit unique responsive fluorescent signals once it binds with EBNA1 and a Zn2+ ion. ZRL5P4 can selectively disrupt the EBNA1 oligomerization and cause nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tumor shrinkage, possibly due to EBV lytic induction. Dicer1 seems essential for this lytic reactivation. As can been seen, EBNA1 is likely to maintain NPC cell survival by suppressing viral reactivation

Reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus by a dual-responsive fluorescent EBNA1-targeting agent with Zn2+-chelating function

Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) plays a vital role in the maintenance of the viral genome and is the only viral protein expressed in nearly all forms of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latency and EBV-associated diseases, including numerous cancer types. To our knowledge, no specific agent against EBV genes or proteins has been established to target EBV lytic reactivation. Here we report an EBNA1- and Zn2+-responsive probe (ZRL5P4) which alone could reactivate the EBV lytic cycle through specific disruption of EBNA1. We have utilized the Zn2+ chelator to further interfere with the higher order of EBNA1 self-association. The bioprobe ZRL5P4 can respond independently to its interactions with Zn2+ and EBNA1 with different fluorescence changes. It can selectively enter the nuclei of EBV-positive cells and disrupt the oligomerization and oriP-enhanced transactivation of EBNA1. ZRL5P4 can also specifically enhance Dicer1 and PML expression, molecular events which had been reported to occur after the depletion of EBNA1 expression. Importantly, we found that treatment with ZRL5P4 alone could reactivate EBV lytic induction by expressing the early and late EBV lytic genes/proteins. Lytic induction is likely mediated by disruption of EBNA1 oligomerization and the subsequent change of Dicer1 expression. Our probe ZRL5P4 is an EBV proteinspecific agent that potently reactivates EBV from latency, leading to the shrinkage of EBV-positive tumors, and our study also suggests the association of EBNA1 oligomerization with the maintenance of EBV latency

Erratum: Reactivation of Epstein–Barr virus by a dual-responsive fluorescent EBNA1-targeting agent with Zn2+-chelating function (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2019) 116 (26614-26624) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915372116)

Correction for “Reactivation of Epstein–Barr virus by a dualresponsive fluorescent EBNA1-targeting agent with Zn2+- chelating function,” by Lijun Jiang, Hong Lok Lung, Tao Huang, Rongfeng Lan, Shuai Zha, Lai Sheung Chan, Waygen Thor, Tik-Hung Tsoi, Ho-Fai Chau, Cecilia Boreström, Steven L. Cobb, Sai Wah Tsao, Zhao-Xiang Bian, Ga-Lai Law, Wing-Tak Wong, William Chi-Shing Tai, Wai Yin Chau, Yujun Du, Lucas Hao Xi Tang, Alan Kwok Shing Chiang, Jaap M. Middeldorp, Kwok-Wai Lo, Nai Ki Mak, Nicholas J. Long, and Ka-Leung Wong, which was first published December 10, 2019; 10.1073/pnas.1915372116 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116, 26614–26624). The authors note that Fig. 6 appeared incorrectly. Part of panel D of the published figure was inadvertently omitted. The corrected figure and its legend appear below. (Figure Presented)

Etablissement et caractérisation de nouvelles tumeurs xénogreffées et lignées tumorales dérivées de carcinomes nasopharyngés positifs pour EBV

International audienceThe lack of representative nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) models has seriously hampered research on EBV carcinogenesis and preclinical studies in NPC. Here we report the successful growth of five NPC patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) from fifty-eight attempts of trans-plantation of NPC specimens into NOD/SCID mice. The take rates for primary and recurrent NPC are 4.9% and 17.6%, respectively. Successful establishment of a new EBV-positive NPC cell line, NPC43, is achieved directly from patient NPC tissues by including Rho-associated coiled-coil containing kinases inhibitor (Y-27632) in culture medium. Spontaneous lytic reactivation of EBV can be observed in NPC43 upon withdrawal of Y-27632. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) reveals a close similarity in mutational profiles of these NPC PDXs with their corresponding patient NPC. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) further delineates the genomic landscape and sequences of EBV genomes in these newly established NPC models, which supports their potential use in future studies of NPC

Whole-exome sequencing identifies MST1R as a genetic susceptibility gene in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Multiple factors, including host genetics, environmental factors, and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, contribute to nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) development. To identify genetic susceptibility genes for NPC, a whole-exome sequencing (WES) study was performed in 161 NPC cases and 895 controls of Southern Chinese descent. The gene-based burden test discovered an association between macrophage- stimulating 1 receptor (MST1R) and NPC. We identified 13 independent cases carrying the MST1R pathogenic heterozygous germ-line variants, and 53.8% of these cases were diagnosed with NPC aged at or even younger than 20 y, indicating that MST1R germline variants are relevant to disease early-age onset (EAO) (age of ≤20 y). In total, five MST1R missense variants were found in EAO cases but were rare in controls (EAO vs. control, 17.9% vs. 1.2%, P = 7.94 × 10 -12 ). The validation study, including 2,160 cases and 2,433 controls, showed that the MST1R variant c.G917A:p.R306H is highly associated with NPC (odds ratio of 9.0). MST1R is predominantly expressed in the tissue-residentmacrophages and is critical for innate immunity that protects organs from tissue damage and inflammation. Importantly, MST1R expression is detected in the ciliated epithelial cells in normal nasopharyngeal mucosa and plays a role in the cilia motility important for host defense. Although no somatic mutation of MST1R was identified in the sporadic NPC tumors, copy number alterations and promoter hypermethylation at MST1R were often observed. Our findings provide new insights into the pathogenesis of NPC by highlighting the involvement of the MST1R-mediated signaling pathways.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex