The District Energy-Efficient Retrofitting of Torrelago (Laguna de Duero – Spain)

The urban growth is estimated to reach up the 66 % by 2050 and consequently the need of resources within the cities will increase significantly. This, combined with the 40 % of energy consumption and 36 % of CO2 emissions of the building sector, makes necessary to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable cities. The CITyFiED project contributes to this transition, aiming to develop an innovative and holistic methodological approach for energy-efficient district renovation and deliver three large scale demonstration cases in the cities of Lund (Sweden), Laguna de Duero (Spain) and Soma (Turkey). CITyFiED methodology consists of several phases that ease the decision-making tasks towards the district renovation, considering the energy efficiency as the main pillar and local authorities as clients. For the case of Torrelago district (Spain) the intervention consists of a set of energy conservative measures including the facąde retrofitting of 143.025 m2 of living space in 31 twelve-storey buildings; the renovation of the district heating network with a new biomass thermal plant; the integration of renewable energy sources, including a micro-cogeneration system, and the installation of individual smart meters. After the renovation action, one-year monitoring campaign is ongoing. The CITyFiED monitoring platform will collect information from the energy systems and deliver environmental, technical, economic and social key performance indicators by March 2019. At the end of the project the achievement of the predefined goals will be verified: Up to 36 % of energy saving and 3,429 tons-CO2/yr emissions saving covering the 59,4 % of the energy consumption with renewable sources.The research and results presented in this paper evolve from activities related to the CITyFiED project, which has received funding from the European Commission under the Grant Agreement no. 609129. This article is the result of cooperative research work of many experts from various countries and we would like to gratefully acknowledge the rest of the CITyFiED partners

Expression and activity profiles of DPP IV/CD26 and NEP/CD10 glycoproteins in the human renal cancer are tumor-type dependent

[Background] Cell-surface glycoproteins play critical roles in cell-to-cell recognition, signal transduction and regulation, thus being crucial in cell proliferation and cancer etiogenesis and development. DPP IV and NEP are ubiquitous glycopeptidases closely linked to tumor pathogenesis and development, and they are used as markers in some cancers. In the present study, the activity and protein and mRNA expression of these glycoproteins were analysed in a subset of clear-cell (CCRCC) and chromophobe (ChRCC) renal cell carcinomas, and in renal oncocytomas (RO).[Methods] Peptidase activities were measured by conventional enzymatic assays with fluorogen-derived substrates. Gene expression was quantitatively determined by qRT-PCR and membrane-bound protein expression and distribution analysis was performed by specific immunostaining.Peer reviewe

Effect of Sulindac Sulfide on Metallohydrolases in the Human Colon Cancer Cell Line HT-29

Matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP7), a metallohydrolase involved in the development of several cancers, is downregulated in the ApcMin/+ colon cancer mouse model following sulindac treatment. To determine whether this effect is relevant to the human condition, HT-29 human colon cancer cells were treated with sulindac and its metabolites, and compared to results obtained from in vivo mouse studies. The expression of MMP7 was monitored. The results demonstrated that sulindac sulfide effectively downregulated both MMP7 expression and activity. Furthermore, activity-based proteomics demonstrated that sulindac sulfide dramatically decreased the activity of leukotriene A4 hydrolase in HT-29 cells as reflected by a decrease in the level of its product, leukotriene B4. This study demonstrates that the effect of sulindac treatment in a mouse model of colon cancer may be relevant to the human counterpart and highlights the effect of sulindac treatment on metallohydrolases

Mortar-based systems for externally bonded strengthening of masonry

Mortar-based composite materials appear particularly promising for use as externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) systems for masonry structures. Nevertheless, their mechanical performance, which may significantly differ from that of Fibre Reinforced Polymers, is still far from being fully investigated. Furthermore, standardized and reliable testing procedures have not been defined yet. The present paper provides an insight on experimental-related issues arising from campaigns on mortar-based EBRs carried out by laboratories in Italy, Portugal and Spain. The performance of three reinforcement systems made out of steel, carbon and basalt textiles embedded in inorganic matrices has been investigated by means of uniaxial tensile coupon testing and bond tests on brick and stone substrates. The experimental results contribute to the existing knowledge regarding the structural behaviour of mortar-based EBRs against tension and shear bond stress, and to the development of reliable test procedures aiming at their homogenization/standardization

Improvement of Aroma in Transgenic Potato As a Consequence of Impairing Tuber Browning

Sensory analysis studies are critical in the development of quality enhanced crops, and may be an important component in the public acceptance of genetically modified foods. It has recently been established that odor preferences are shared between humans and mice, suggesting that odor exploration behavior in mice may be used to predict the effect of odors in humans. We have previously found that mice fed diets supplemented with engineered nonbrowning potatoes (-PPO) consumed more potato than mice fed diets supplemented with wild-type potatoes (WT). This prompted us to explore a possible role of potato odor in mice preference for nonbrowning potatoes. Taking advantage of two well established neuroscience paradigms, the “open field test” and the “nose-poking preference test”, we performed experiments where mice exploration behavior was monitored in preference assays on the basis of olfaction alone. No obvious preference was observed towards -PPO or WT lines when fresh potato samples were tested. However, when oxidized samples were tested, mice consistently investigated -PPO potatoes more times and for longer periods than WT potatoes. Congruently, humans discriminated WT from -PPO samples with a considerably better performance when oxidized samples were tested than when fresh samples were tested in blind olfactory experiments. Notably, even though participants ranked all samples with an intermediate level of pleasantness, there was a general consensus that the -PPO samples had a more intense odor and also evoked the sense-impression of a familiar vegetable more often than the WT samples. Taken together, these findings suggest that our previous observations might be influenced, at least in part, by differential odors that are accentuated among the lines once oxidative deterioration takes place. Additionally, our results suggest that nonbrowning potatoes, in addition to their extended shelf life, maintain their odor quality for longer periods of time than WT potatoes. To our knowledge this is the first report on the use of an animal model applied to the sensory analysis of a transgenic crop

Are Nested Networks More Robust to Disturbance? A Test Using Epiphyte-Tree, Comensalistic Networks

Recent research on ecological networks suggests that mutualistic networks are more nested than antagonistic ones and, as a result, they are more robust against chains of extinctions caused by disturbances. We evaluate whether mutualistic networks are more nested than comensalistic and antagonistic networks, and whether highly nested, host-epiphyte comensalistic networks fit the prediction of high robustness against disturbance. A review of 59 networks including mutualistic, antagonistic and comensalistic relationships showed that comensalistic networks are significantly more nested than antagonistic and mutualistic networks, which did not differ between themselves. Epiphyte-host networks from old-growth forests differed from those from disturbed forest in several topological parameters based on both qualitative and quantitative matrices. Network robustness increased with network size, but the slope of this relationship varied with nestedness and connectance. Our results indicate that interaction networks show complex responses to disturbances, which influence their topology and indirectly affect their robustness against species extinctions

Predicting Spatial Patterns of Plant Recruitment Using Animal-Displacement Kernels

For plants dispersed by frugivores, spatial patterns of recruitment are primarily influenced by the spatial arrangement and characteristics of parent plants, the digestive characteristics, feeding behaviour and movement patterns of animal dispersers, and the structure of the habitat matrix. We used an individual-based, spatially-explicit framework to characterize seed dispersal and seedling fate in an endangered, insular plant-disperser system: the endemic shrub Daphne rodriguezii and its exclusive disperser, the endemic lizard Podarcis lilfordi. Plant recruitment kernels were chiefly determined by the disperser's patterns of space utilization (i.e. the lizard's displacement kernels), the position of the various plant individuals in relation to them, and habitat structure (vegetation cover vs. bare soil). In contrast to our expectations, seed gut-passage rate and its effects on germination, and lizard speed-of-movement, habitat choice and activity rhythm were of minor importance. Predicted plant recruitment kernels were strongly anisotropic and fine-grained, preventing their description using one-dimensional, frequency-distance curves. We found a general trade-off between recruitment probability and dispersal distance; however, optimal recruitment sites were not necessarily associated to sites of maximal adult-plant density. Conservation efforts aimed at enhancing the regeneration of endangered plant-disperser systems may gain in efficacy by manipulating the spatial distribution of dispersers (e.g. through the creation of refuges and feeding sites) to create areas favourable to plant recruitment

The limits of corporate social responsibility : Techniques of neutralization, stakeholder management and political CSR

Since scholarly interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily focused on the synergies between social and economic performance, our understanding of how (and the conditions under which) companies use CSR to produce policy outcomes that work against public welfare has remained comparatively underdeveloped. In particular, little is known about how corporate decision-makers privately reconcile the conflicts between public and private interests, even though this is likely to be relevant to understanding the limitations of CSR as a means of aligning business activity with the broader public interest. This study addresses this issue using internal tobacco industry documents to explore British-American Tobacco’s (BAT) thinking on CSR and its effects on the company’s CSR Programme. The article presents a three-stage model of CSR development, based on Sykes and Matza’s theory of techniques of neutralization, which links together: how BAT managers made sense of the company’s declining political authority in the mid-1990s; how they subsequently justified the use of CSR as a tool of stakeholder management aimed at diffusing the political impact of public health advocates by breaking up political constituencies working towards evidence-based tobacco regulation; and how CSR works ideologically to shape stakeholders’ perceptions of the relative merits of competing approaches to tobacco control. Our analysis has three implications for research and practice. First, it underlines the importance of approaching corporate managers’ public comments on CSR critically and situating them in their economic, political and historical contexts. Second, it illustrates the importance of focusing on the political aims and effects of CSR. Third, by showing how CSR practices are used to stymie evidence-based government regulation, the article underlines the importance of highlighting and developing matrices to assess the negative social impacts of CSR