Definition and Design of Zero Energy Buildings

The wide application of renewable energy system (RES) in buildings combined with numerous financial incentives on RES paves the way for future zero energy buildings (ZEB). Although the definition of ZEB still lacks a national building code and international standards, the number of ZEB projects is still increasing worldwide which seems to be the pioneer ZEB buildings. However, due to the intermittency of the renewable resources, various uncertain parameters, and dynamic electricity price from the grid, how to select the renewable energy system for buildings is one of the challenges and therefore becomes an extensive concern for both researchers and designers. In addition, questions like how to achieve the target of zero energy for different types of buildings, should the building be designed as an independent ZEB or a group of buildings to be a ZEB cluster, and how to make building owners actively involved in installing enough RES for the building are still on the air. This chapter will present a comprehensive view on several key issues related with ZEB, that is, definition, evaluation criteria, design method, and uncertainty analysis, and the penalty cost scheme is also proposed for consideration as one policy to assist the promotion of ZEB

Optimization of a continuous flow electrocoagulation as pretreatment for membrane distillation of the waste stream in vinyl ester resin production

Vinyl ester resin production wastewater (VERW) contains high concentrations of organics particularly, methacrylic acid and bisphenol A, which are hazardous chemicals and harmful to the aquatic environment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to properly treat the effluent before discharge into the aquatic system. In this work, direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was explored as an advanced treatment of the VERW pre-treated by a continuous flow electrocoagulation (EC) and peroxi-electrocoagulation (PEC) processes. Optimization of EC and PEC processes were investigated and the DCMD performance was evaluated. Results showed that the optimal value of current density and polyacrylamide (PAM) dosage was 15 mA/cm2 and 1 mg/L, respectively in the EC process. For the PEC process, the optimal addition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) dosage was four times of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of EC effluent. The COD of VERW was effectively removed via EC followed by PEC (EC-PEC), resulting in the significant alleviation of membrane fouling during DCMD filtration of VERW. The initial flux of DCMD filtration of VERW pre-treated via EC-PEC improved by 35%, compared that only pre-treated by EC. Moreover, the concentration factor (CF) of the DCMD system reached up to 8.1 and the conductivity of distillate was less than 33.2 μS/cm. Hence, the EC and membrane distillation hybrid process paves a new way for the effective treatment of waste steam from resin production.</p

Optimization of a continuous flow electrocoagulation as pretreatment for membrane distillation of the waste stream in vinyl ester resin production

Vinyl ester resin production wastewater (VERW) contains high concentrations of organics particularly, methacrylic acid and bisphenol A, which are hazardous chemicals and harmful to the aquatic environment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to properly treat the effluent before discharge into the aquatic system. In this work, direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was explored as an advanced treatment of the VERW pre-treated by a continuous flow electrocoagulation (EC) and peroxi-electrocoagulation (PEC) processes. Optimization of EC and PEC processes were investigated and the DCMD performance was evaluated. Results showed that the optimal value of current density and polyacrylamide (PAM) dosage was 15 mA/cm2 and 1 mg/L, respectively in the EC process. For the PEC process, the optimal addition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) dosage was four times of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of EC effluent. The COD of VERW was effectively removed via EC followed by PEC (EC-PEC), resulting in the significant alleviation of membrane fouling during DCMD filtration of VERW. The initial flux of DCMD filtration of VERW pre-treated via EC-PEC improved by 35%, compared that only pre-treated by EC. Moreover, the concentration factor (CF) of the DCMD system reached up to 8.1 and the conductivity of distillate was less than 33.2 μS/cm. Hence, the EC and membrane distillation hybrid process paves a new way for the effective treatment of waste steam from resin production.</p

Evaluation of anti-fatigue property of Porphyridium cruentum in mice

Purpose: To evaluate the potential effects of Porphyridium cruentum (PC) on fatigue induced by forced swimming test in mice. Methods: Mice were randomly divided into normal control group (NC, i.e., untreated non-swimming); model control group (MC, untreated swimming); Spirulina treated group (SP, 800 mg/kg); PC-treated groups (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg), respectively. After intragastric administration for 14 consecutive days, a weight-bearing swimming experiment was conducted for the mice, and the biochemical indicators related to fatigue were examined, including exhaustive swimming time, glucose levels (Glu), hepatic glycogen contents (HG), muscle glycogen contents (MG), glutathione peroxidase activities (GSH-Px), creatine kinase (CK), malondialdehyde (MDA), urea nitrogen levels (SUN), lactate dehydrogenase activities (LDH), lactic acid (LA) as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD). Results: PC significantly prolonged the swimming endurance time compared to MC. After PC treatment, Glu, HG and MG were effectively increased dose-dependently, SUN, LA, LDH and CK levels in serum were significantly reduced. Moreover, PC treatment elevated the bioactivities of two antioxidant enzymes, namely, GSH-Px and SOD, while MDA content decreased when compared to MC group. Conclusion: These results indicate that PC exhibits strong anti-fatigue effect. Thus, PC may be suitable for incorporation in functional food to counter fatigue

Knockdown of a novel lincRNA AATBC suppresses proliferation and induces apoptosis in bladder cancer

Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) play important roles in regulating various biological processes in cancer, including proliferation and apoptosis. However, the roles of lincRNAs in bladder cancer remain elusive. In this study, we identified a novel lincRNA, which we termed AATBC. We found that AATBC was overexpressed in bladder cancer patient tissues and positively correlated with tumor grade and pT stage. We also found that inhibition of AATBC resulted in cell proliferation arrest through G1 cell cycle mediated by cyclin D1, CDK4, p18 and phosphorylated Rb. In addition, inhibition of AATBC induced cell apoptosis through the intrinsic apoptosis signaling pathway, as evidenced by the activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3. The investigation for the signaling pathway revealed that the apoptosis following AATBC knockdown was mediated by activation of phosphorylated JNK and suppression of NRF2. Furthermore, JNK inhibitor SP600125 could attenuate the apoptotic effect achieved by AATBC knockdown, confirming the involvement of JNK signaling in the induced apoptosis. Moreover, mouse xenograft model revealed that knockdown of AATBC led to suppress tumorigenesis in vivo. Taken together, our study indicated that AATBC might play a critical role in pro-proliferation and anti-apoptosis in bladder cancer by regulating cell cycle, intrinsic apoptosis signaling, JNK signaling and NRF2. AATBC could be a potential therapeutic target and molecular biomarker for bladder cancer

Land classification and change intensity analysis in a coastal watershed of Southeast China

The aim of this study is to improve the understanding of land changes in the Jiulong River watershed, a coastal watershed of Southeast China. We developed a stratified classification methodology for land mapping, which combines linear stretching, an Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis (ISODATA) clustering algorithm, and spatial reclassification. The stratified classification for 2002 generated less overall error than an unstratified classification. The stratified classifications were then used to examine temporal differences at 1986, 1996, 2002, 2007 and 2010. Intensity Analysis was applied to analyze land changes at three levels: time interval, category, and transition. Results showed that land use transformation has been accelerating. Woodland's gains and losses were dormant while the gains and losses of Agriculture, Orchard, Built-up and Bare land were active during all time intervals. Water's losses were active and stationary. The transitions from Agriculture, Orchard, and Water to Built-up were systematically targeting and stationary, while the transition from Woodland to Built-up was systematically avoiding and stationary. ? 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Phenotypic and functional alteration of CD45+ immune cells in the decidua of preeclampsia patients analyzed by mass cytometry (CyTOF)

Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe placenta-related pregnancy disease that has been associated with maternal systemic inflammation and immune system disorders. However, the distribution and functional changes in immune cells of the maternal–placental interface have not been well characterized. Herein, cytometry by time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CyTOF) was used to investigate the immune atlas at the decidua, which was obtained from four PE patients and four healthy controls. Six superclusters were identified, namely, T cells, B cells, natural killer (NK) cells, monocytes, granulocytes, and others. B cells were significantly decreased in the PE group, among which the reduction in CD27+CD38+ regulatory B cell (Breg)-like cells may stimulate immune activation in PE. The significantly increased migration of B cells could be linked to the significantly overexpressed chemokine C-X-C receptor 5 (CXCR5) in the PE group, which may result in the production of excessive autoantibodies and the pathogenesis of PE. A subset of T cells, CD11c+CD8+ T cells, was significantly decreased in PE and might lead to sustained immune activation in PE patients. NK cells were ultimately separated into four subsets. The significant reduction in a novel subset of NK cells (CD56-CD49a-CD38+) in PE might have led to the failure to suppress inflammation at the maternal–fetal interface during PE progression. Moreover, the expression levels of functional markers were significantly altered in the PE group, which also inferred that shifts in the decidual immune state contributed to the development of PE and might serve as potential treatment targets. This is a worthy attempt to elaborate the differences in the phenotype and function of CD45+ immune cells in the decidua between PE and healthy pregnancies by CyTOF, which contributes to understand the pathogenesis of PE, and the altered cell subsets and markers may inspire the immune modulatory therapy for PE

Circulating Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells in a Large Cohort of Healthy Chinese Individuals From Newborn to Elderly

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, which are enriched in human blood and express a semi-invariant TCR chain, play important roles in conditions such as infectious diseases and cancer. The influence of age on levels and functional characteristics of circulating MAIT cells have not been fully addressed. Here we have collected blood samples from a large cohort of healthy Chinese individuals from newborn (cord blood) to the elderly and assessed the levels of circulating MAIT cells as well as their phenotype, activation and apoptosis status, and cytokine expression profiles after in vitro stimulation. We found that the frequencies of circulating MAIT cells gradually increased in blood from newborns as they progressed into adulthood (20–40 years old) but then decreased during further progression toward old age (&gt;60 years old). The lowered numbers of circulating MAIT cells in the elderly was correlated with a gradual increase of apoptosis. A majority of circulating MAIT cells expressed the chemokine receptors CCR5 and CCR6, and most also expressed CD8 and CD45RO. Few expressed CD69 in cord blood, but the frequency increased with age. Upon in vitro activation with PMA plus ionomycin or IL12 plus IL18, fewer MAIT cells isolated from the young adult group expressed IFN-γ, IL17A and Granzyme B then cells from other age groups while the proportion of cells that expressed TNF-α was similar. Taken together, our data provide information for guiding the assessment of normal levels and phenotypes of MAIT cells at different ages in healthy individuals and patients