Stakeholder Perceptions of Sustainable Infrastructure Project Delivery: A Comparative Analysis between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao

China is experiencing the rapid development of infrastructure projects throughout the country, especially in the Guangdong-Hong Kong SAR-Macao SAR Greater Bay Area. This is placing the Chinese construction industry under tremendous pressure to transition to a sustainability orientation due to the various economic, social, and environmental challenges involved. The transition to more sustainable infrastructure projects requires the involvement of more stakeholders, while the multistakeholder context is of less importance when making project decisions, and this may create an adverse effect on the sustainability level of infrastructure projects. Based on the questionnaire data collected, this study addresses this issue by comparatively analysing stakeholder perceptions of sustainable infrastructure delivery between Guangdong province, Hong Kong SAR, and Macao SAR. Through independent sample t-tests, the disparity in perceptions between paired stakeholder groups in the Greater Bay Area (as a whole) is revealed. Three pairs, i.e., government department and supervising engineers, owners and designers, and supervising engineers and operators, are found to be the most conflicting, while contractors and supervising engineers are the least. Of the 18 sustainability items analysed, shaped local identity and international reputation (SOC, social factor 8) is the most controversial, while value-for-money of the proposed project during its lifecycle (EOC, economic factor 5) and green design and construction (ENV, environmental factor 2) have the greatest consensus towards their roles in achieving project sustainability. Significantly, different stakeholder perceptions between the three are also identified, and the contractor group is found to share the least consensus geographically, while the operators have the least conflict rating of the relevant importance of various sustainability factors. The thorough analysis of sustainability-related items of economy, society, and environment contributes to understanding the attitudes of the various stakeholder groups involved, which then helps reduce their conflicts during sustainable infrastructure delivery

Microyielding of Core-Shell Crystal Dendrites in a Bulk-metallic-glass Matrix Composite

In-situ synchrotron x-ray experiments have been used to follow the evolution of the diffraction peaks for crystalline dendrites embedded in a bulk metallic glass matrix subjected to a compressive loading-unloading cycle. We observe irreversible diffraction-peak splitting even though the load does not go beyond half of the bulk yield strength. The chemical analysis coupled with the transmission electron microscopy mapping suggests that the observed peak splitting originates from the chemical heterogeneity between the core (major peak) and the stiffer shell (minor peak) of the dendrites. A molecular dynamics model has been developed to compare the hkl-dependent microyielding of the bulk metallic-glass matrix composite. The complementary diffraction measurements and the simulation results suggest that the interface, as Maxwell damper, between the amorphous matrix and the (211) crystalline planes relax under prolonged load that causes a delay in the reload curve which ultimately catches up with the original path

Lactobacillus brevis 23017 Relieves Mercury Toxicity in the Colon by Modulation of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Through the Interplay of MAPK and NF-κB Signaling Cascades

Aims:Lactobacillus strains have protective effects against heavy metals while relieving oxidative stress and modulating the immune response. Mechanisms that ameliorate heavy metal toxicity and the relationship between probiotics and gut barrier protection in the process of heavy metal pathogenesis was poorly understood.Methods and Results: In this study, Lactobacillus brevis 23017 (LAB, L. brevis 23017), a selected probiotics strain with strong mercury binding capacities, was applied to evaluate the efficiency against mercury toxicity in a mouse model. Histopathological results along with HE stains show that L. brevis 23017 protects the integrity of the small intestinal villus, which slows weight loss in response to Hg exposure. The qRT-PCR results demonstrate that L. brevis 23017 maintains a normal mucosal barrier via modulation of tight junction proteins. Importantly, the present study demonstrates that L. brevis 23017 effectively ameliorates injury of the small intestine by reducing intestinal inflammation and alleviating oxidative stress in animal models. Moreover, L. brevis 23017 blocks oxidative stress and inflammation through MAPK and NF-κB pathways, as shown by western blot.Conclusions: Together, these results reveal that L. brevis 23017 may have applications in the prevention and treatment of oral Hg exposure with fermented functional foods by protecting gut health in daily life

Uric Acid Induces Renal Inflammation via Activating Tubular NF-κB Signaling Pathway

Inflammation is a pathologic feature of hyperuricemia in clinical settings. However, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here, infiltration of T cells and macrophages were significantly increased in hyperuricemia mice kidneys. This infiltration of inflammatory cells was accompanied by an up-regulation of TNF-α, MCP-1 and RANTES expression. Further, infiltration was largely located in tubular interstitial spaces, suggesting a role for tubular cells in hyperuricemia-induced inflammation. In cultured tubular epithelial cells (NRK-52E), uric acid, probably transported via urate transporter, induced TNF-α, MCP-1 and RANTES mRNA as well as RANTES protein expression. Culture media of NRK-52E cells incubated with uric acid showed a chemo-attractive ability to recruit macrophage. Moreover uric acid activated NF-κB signaling. The uric acid-induced up-regulation of RANTES was blocked by SN 50, a specific NF-κB inhibitor. Activation of NF-κB signaling was also observed in tubule of hyperuricemia mice. These results suggest that uric acid induces renal inflammation via activation of NF-κB signaling

Joint Optimization of Energy Storage Sharing and Demand Response in Microgrid Considering Multiple Uncertainties

Energy storage (ES) is playing an increasingly important role in reducing the spatial and temporal power imbalance of supply and demand caused by the uncertainty and periodicity of renewable energy in the microgrid. The utilization efficiency of distributed ES belonging to different entities can be improved through sharing, and considerable flexibility resources can be provided to the microgrid through the coordination of ES sharing and demand response, but its reliability is affected by multiple uncertainties from different sources. In this study, a two-stage ES sharing mechanism is proposed, in which the idle ES capacity is aggregated on the previous day to provide reliable resources for real-time optimization. Then, a two-layer semi-coupled optimization strategy based on a deep deterministic policy gradient is proposed to solve the asynchronous decision problems of day-ahead sharing and intra-day optimization. To deal with the impact of multiple uncertainties, Monte Carlo sampling is applied to ensure that the shared ES capacity is sufficient in any circumstances. Simulation verifies that the local consumption rate of renewable energy is effectively increased by 12.9%, and both microgrid operator and prosumers can improve their revenue through the joint optimization of ES sharing and demand response

Joint Optimization of Energy Storage Sharing and Demand Response in Microgrid Considering Multiple Uncertainties

Energy storage (ES) is playing an increasingly important role in reducing the spatial and temporal power imbalance of supply and demand caused by the uncertainty and periodicity of renewable energy in the microgrid. The utilization efficiency of distributed ES belonging to different entities can be improved through sharing, and considerable flexibility resources can be provided to the microgrid through the coordination of ES sharing and demand response, but its reliability is affected by multiple uncertainties from different sources. In this study, a two-stage ES sharing mechanism is proposed, in which the idle ES capacity is aggregated on the previous day to provide reliable resources for real-time optimization. Then, a two-layer semi-coupled optimization strategy based on a deep deterministic policy gradient is proposed to solve the asynchronous decision problems of day-ahead sharing and intra-day optimization. To deal with the impact of multiple uncertainties, Monte Carlo sampling is applied to ensure that the shared ES capacity is sufficient in any circumstances. Simulation verifies that the local consumption rate of renewable energy is effectively increased by 12.9%, and both microgrid operator and prosumers can improve their revenue through the joint optimization of ES sharing and demand response

Formation of substrate-based gold nanocage chains through dealloying with nitric acid

Metal nanocages have raised great interest because of their new properties and wide applications. Here, we report on the use of galvanic replacement reactions to synthesize substrate-supported Ag–Au nanocages from silver templates electrodeposited on transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) film coated glass. The residual Ag in the composition was dealloyed with 10% nitric acid. It was found that chains of Au nanocages were formed on the substrate surface during dealloying. When the concentration of HNO3 increased to 20%, the structures of nanocages were damaged and formed crescent or semi-circular shapes. The transfer process on the substrate surface was discussed

Deposition of gold nanoparticles upon bare and indium tin oxide film coated glass based on annealing process

We presented a simple and efficient strategy for deposition of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) upon transparent bare and indium tin oxide (ITO) film coated glass substrate using gold colloids as Au sources. The method involved two steps: embedding in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film and annealing at high temperature. The AuNPs deposited on solid substrate because of migration and coalescence of gold at high temperature. The optical and structural properties of the AuNPs were characterised by UV-vis absorption spectra and scanning electron microscopy. The results indicate that the surface of AuNPs upon substrate was clean as annealing at 600 °C for 0.5 h. The size of AuNPs deposited on ITO glass increased with annealing time and volume of PVA-AuNPs. Meanwhile, the localised surface plasmon resonance peak of AuNPs deposited on substrate was also gradual red-shift. In addition, the size of AuNPs deposited on ITO substrate was larger than that on bare glass. This work provides a simple, low-cost and large-scale method for fabrication of substrate-based AuNPs, which is benefit for exploiting biosensors, photonic devices and optoelectronic devices