Beyond sustainable buildings: eco-efficiency to eco-effectiveness through cradle-to-cradle design

Sustainable building development focuses on achieving buildings that meet performance and functionality requirements with minimum adverse impact on the environment. Such eco-efficiency strategies are however not feasible for achieving long-term economic and environmental objectives as they only result in damage reduction without addressing design flaws of contemporary industry. The cradle-to-cradle (C2C) design philosophy which has been described as a paradigm changing innovative platform for achieving ecologically intelligent and environmentally restorative buildings appears to offer an alternative vision which, if embraced, could lead to eco-effectiveness and the achievement of long-term environmental objectives. Adoption of C2C principles in the built environment has however been hindered by several factors especially in a sector where change has always been a very slow process. From a review of extant literature, it is argued that the promotion of current sustainable and/or gree n building strategies - which in themselves are not coherent enough due to their pluralistic meanings and sometimes differing solutions - are a major barrier to the promotion of C2C principles in the built environment. To overcome this barrier to C2C implementation, it is recommended that research should focus on developing clearly defined and measurable C2C targets that can be incorporated into project briefs from the inception of development projects. These targets could enable control, monitoring and comparison of C2C design outcomes with eco-efficient measures as well as serve as a guide for project stakeholders to achieve eco-effective “nutrient” management from the project conceptualization phase to the end of life of the building

The valuation tool user guide: monetizing Cradle to Cradle®

This User Guide outlines the object, scope and expected deliverables from the Valuation Tool component of the Cradle to Cradle ® C2C BIZZ project. It describes the compendium of subtools that have been developed comprising: i) overview of funding tools; ii) C2C investment appraisal tool; and iii) C2C value indexing tool. The underpinning methodologies, as well as their inherent strengths and limitations are also described. The C2C BIZZ project as a whole aims specifically to promote and enhance the implementation of C2C methods in business site development within North Western Europe (NWE) (PAD, p.14). It is intended to infuse C2C notions into conventional site development, restructuring and management. The primary focus of the project is on planning, building and managing of business sites with C2C credentials (PAD, p.18) using sites in Lille Metropole (La Lainiere), London (London Sustainable Industries Park) and Luxemburg (Ecoparc Windhof) as experimental fields. C2C BIZZ is not concerned with the internal operations and activities of occupiers or users of the developed site. Accordingly, the scope of the valuation tool is confined to the planning, building and management of C2C sites. The deliverable from this component is a compendium of subtools (see Figure 1 below) that may be used to analyse the financial performance of C2C credentials in business sites to aid the making of a business case for such developments and evaluating the financial incentives for particular C2C site development projects. This entire work is premised on the argument that the wider adoption of C2C principles within the built environment depends on the rate of uptake by the private sector. The private sector, being profit driven, are likely to engage in C2C site development if they are convinced of its capacity to contribute to their business goals which ultimately is a return on their investment. The tool development described in this document attempts to provide a framework for collating an evidence base that can assist in articulating the business case for C2C in business site developments

Characterisation of the Fusarium graminearum-Wheat Floral Interaction.

PublishedJournal ArticleFusarium Ear Blight is a destructive fungal disease of cereals including wheat and can contaminate the crop with various trichothecene mycotoxins. This investigation has produced a new β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter strain that facilitates the quick and easy assessment of plant infection. The constitutively expressed gpdA:GUS strain of Fusarium graminearum was used to quantify the overall colonisation pattern. Histochemical and biochemical approaches confirmed, in susceptible wheat ear infections, the presence of a substantial phase of symptomless fungal growth. Separate analyses demonstrated that there was a reduction in the quantity of physiologically active hyphae as the wheat ear infection proceeded. A simplified linear system of rachis infection was then utilised to evaluate the expression of several TRI genes by RT-qPCR. Fungal gene expression at the advancing front of symptomless infection was compared with the origin of infection in the rachis. This revealed that TRI gene expression was maximal at the advancing front and supports the hypothesis that the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol plays a role in inhibiting plant defences in advance of the invading intercellular hyphae. This study has also demonstrated that there are transcriptional differences between the various phases of fungal infection and that these differences are maintained as the infection proceeds.Chinese governmentBritish Society for Plant Pathology (BSPP)BBSRCEU FP 6 Integrated Project BioexploitSyngent

Farms, pipes, streams and reforestation : reasoning about structured parallel processes using types and hylomorphisms

The increasing importance of parallelism has motivated the creation of better abstractions for writing parallel software, including structured parallelism using nested algorithmic skeletons. Such approaches provide high-level abstractions that avoid common problems, such as race conditions, and often allow strong cost models to be defined. However, choosing a combination of algorithmic skeletons that yields good parallel speedups for a program on some specific parallel architecture remains a difficult task. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to simultaneously reason both about the costs of different parallel structures and about the semantic equivalences between them. This paper presents a new type-based mechanism that enables strong static reasoning about these properties. We exploit well-known properties of a very general recursion pattern, hylomorphisms, and give a denotational semantics for structured parallel processes in terms of these hylomorphisms. Using our approach, it is possible to determine formally whether it is possible to introduce a desired parallel structure into a program without altering its functional behaviour, and also to choose a version of that parallel structure that minimises some given cost model.Postprin

Cavity-enhanced high harmonic generation for XUV time-resolved ARPES

With its direct correspondence to electronic structure, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is a ubiquitous tool for the study of solids. When extended to the temporal domain, time-resolved (TR)-ARPES offers the potential to move beyond equilibrium properties, exploring both the unoccupied electronic structure as well as its dynamical response under ultrafast perturbation. Historically, ultrafast extreme ultraviolet (XUV) sources employing high-order harmonic generation (HHG) have required compromises that make it challenging to achieve a high energy resolution - which is highly desirable for many TR-ARPES studies - while producing high photon energies and a high photon flux. We address this challenge by performing HHG inside a femtosecond enhancement cavity (fsEC), realizing a practical source for TR-ARPES that achieves a flux of over 10$^{11}$ photons/s delivered to the sample, operates over a range of 8-40 eV with a repetition rate of 60 MHz. This source enables TR-ARPES studies with a temporal and energy resolution of 190 fs and 22 meV, respectively. To characterize the system, we perform ARPES measurements of polycrystalline Au and MoTe$_2$, as well as TR-ARPES studies on graphite.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Intelligent upper-limb exoskeleton using deep learning to predict human intention for sensory-feedback augmentation

The age and stroke-associated decline in musculoskeletal strength degrades the ability to perform daily human tasks using the upper extremities. Although there are a few examples of exoskeletons, they need manual operations due to the absence of sensor feedback and no intention prediction of movements. Here, we introduce an intelligent upper-limb exoskeleton system that uses cloud-based deep learning to predict human intention for strength augmentation. The embedded soft wearable sensors provide sensory feedback by collecting real-time muscle signals, which are simultaneously computed to determine the user's intended movement. The cloud-based deep-learning predicts four upper-limb joint motions with an average accuracy of 96.2% at a 200-250 millisecond response rate, suggesting that the exoskeleton operates just by human intention. In addition, an array of soft pneumatics assists the intended movements by providing 897 newton of force and 78.7 millimeter of displacement at maximum. Collectively, the intent-driven exoskeleton can augment human strength by 5.15 times on average compared to the unassisted exoskeleton. This report demonstrates an exoskeleton robot that augments the upper-limb joint movements by human intention based on a machine-learning cloud computing and sensory feedback.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, Submitted for possible publicatio

The Inhibitory Effect of siRNAs on The High Glucose-Induced Overexpression of TGF-β1 in Mesangial Cells

Diabetic nephropathy is characterized by an expansion of the glomerular mesangium, caused by mesangial cell proliferation and an excessive accumulation of extracellar matrix (ECM) proteins, which eventually leading to glomerulosclerosis. TGF-β1 was found to play an important role in the accumulation of ECM in the kidney. In this study, TGF-β1 RNA interference was used as an effective therapeutic strategy. The inhibitory effect of TGF-β1 small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) on the high glucose-induced overexpression of TGF-β1 in rat mesangial ceys (RMCs). A high levels of glucose induces TGF-β1 mRNA and protein, and TGF-β1 siRNAs reduce the ability of high glucose to stimulate their expression. We also examined the inhibitory effect of TGF-β1 siRNAs on the expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 and Collagen Type I which are down-regulators of TGF-β1. The expression of TGF-β1, PAI-1 and Collagen Type I was increased in RMCs that were stimulated by 30 mM glucose. TGF-β1 siRNAs reduces high glucose-induced TGF-β1, PAI-1, and Collagen Type I mRNA and protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that TGF-β1 siRNAs effectively inhibits TGF-β1 mRNA and protein expression in RMCs. These suggest that TGF-β1 siRNAs through RNAi may be a useful tool for developing new therapeutic applications for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy

Phocid Seal Leptin: Tertiary Structure and Hydrophobic Receptor Binding Site Preservation during Distinct Leptin Gene Evolution

The cytokine hormone leptin is a key signalling molecule in many pathways that control physiological functions. Although leptin demonstrates structural conservation in mammals, there is evidence of positive selection in primates, lagomorphs and chiropterans. We previously reported that the leptin genes of the grey and harbour seals (phocids) have significantly diverged from other mammals. Therefore we further investigated the diversification of leptin in phocids, other marine mammals and terrestrial taxa by sequencing the leptin genes of representative species. Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed that leptin diversification was pronounced within the phocid seals with a high dN/dS ratio of 2.8, indicating positive selection. We found significant evidence of positive selection along the branch leading to the phocids, within the phocid clade, but not over the dataset as a whole. Structural predictions indicate that the individual residues under selection are away from the leptin receptor (LEPR) binding site. Predictions of the surface electrostatic potential indicate that phocid seal leptin is notably different to other mammalian leptins, including the otariids. Cloning the grey seal leptin binding domain of LEPR confirmed that this was structurally conserved. These data, viewed in toto, support a hypothesis that phocid leptin divergence is unlikely to have arisen by random mutation. Based upon these phylogenetic and structural assessments, and considering the comparative physiology and varying life histories among species, we postulate that the unique phocid diving behaviour has produced this selection pressure. The Phocidae includes some of the deepest diving species, yet have the least modified lung structure to cope with pressure and volume changes experienced at depth. Therefore, greater surfactant production is required to facilitate rapid lung re-inflation upon surfacing, while maintaining patent airways. We suggest that this additional surfactant requirement is met by the leptin pulmonary surfactant production pathway which normally appears only to function in the mammalian foetus