Long-term development of acid deposition (1880-2030) in sensitive freshwater regions in Europe

Time series of the deposition of acidifying substances are a pre-requisite for the study of the acidification and recovery of ecosystems such as surface waters. This paper reports the derivation and calculation of deposition trends of the potentially acidifying compounds SO2, NOx and NH3 in sensitive freshwater regions in Europe studied in the EU-funded RECOVER: 2010 project. The time interval covered is 151 years: from 1880, which can be considered as the pre-industrial era in most countries, to 2030, taking into account the consequences of current emission reduction agreements in Europe. The historic and predicted emissions for European countries are used to calculate the deposition development in the study areas, using meteorologically averaged atmospheric source-receptor transfer coefficients derived from the EMEP Lagrangian acid deposition model. These time series were used as driving forces for the application of the dynamic acidification model MAGIC to study the acidification and recovery of sensitive freshwater ecosystems in Europe

Unsupervised level set parameterization using multi-scale filtering

This paper presents a novel framework for unsupervised level set parameterization using multi-scale filtering. A standard multi-scale, directional filtering algorithm is used in order to capture the orientation coherence in edge regions. The latter is encoded in entropy-based image `heatmaps', which are able to weight forces guiding level set evolution. Experiments are conducted on two large benchmark databases as well as on real proteomics images. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework is capable of accelerating contour convergence, whereas it obtains a segmentation quality comparable to the one obtained with empirically optimized parameterization

Coupling night ventilative and active cooling to reduce energy use in supermarkets with high refrigeration loads

Night ventilation is used extensively as a low energy strategy to cool buildings in climates where night temperatures are suitable. It can be used for spaces utilising natural or mechanical ventilation systems as well as active refrigerant cooling. Most published work focuses on domestic and relatively simple in operation commercial buildings such as offices. This paper presents a study of the cooling benefits of night ventilation for frozen food supermarkets with high cooling demand. Supermarkets present a unique space conditioning challenge because of the interaction between the HVAC system and the refrigerated display cabinets. HVAC systems are the largest consumer of energy after refrigeration in supermarkets depending on system design, geographical location and controls. The most common HVAC system used in supermarkets is the constant air volume (CAV) system integrating heating, cooling and ventilation in one system although different types of systems to decouple cooling and ventilation such as a combination of variable refrigerant flow (VRF) for heating and cooling and mechanical balanced or extract ventilation have been tried out to improve thermal comfort and reduce energy use. This paper presents two case-studies (CS) which differ from typical supermarkets as they belong in a frozen food supermarket chain. CS1 is served by a typical CAV system for heating, cooling and ventilation (coupled HVAC), while CS2 provides conditioned air through a VRF system and ducted extract ventilation (decoupled HVAC). First, an analysis of their measured energy use and indoor environmental conditions is presented to highlight similarities and differences of the two systems. Then, a coupling approach for dynamic simulation of the air-conditioning with the refrigeration system by EnergyPlus is presented and the resulting models are validated against the monitored data from the two case-study supermarkets. Using the validated models, a parametric study of the coupled operation of night ventilation and active cooling for the climatic conditions of south east England is carried out and optimisation strategies are modelled. The parametric analysis indicates that the air flow rate of night ventilation and climatic conditions are significantly correlated with the impact of night ventilation on the total energy consumption of the supermarket. Simulations have revealed that night ventilation results to lower cooling energy use for both HVAC systems. Night ventilation is in use in CS1 but optimised control strategy with lower air flow rate reduced the total annual energy use of the store by 3% due to reduction in fan energy use and active cooling, although refrigeration energy use was remain stable. In CS2 active cooling during the night is replaced with night ventilative cooling which leads to a reduction of energy use by 3.3%. Such a percentage reduction equates to 35 kWh/m2/annum. The paper discusses the differences of the two systems (all air or decoupling of ventilation from heating/cooling) in terms of HVAC energy use, total energy use, impact on the refrigeration system and the importance of controls for the night ventilative cooling

Assessing the trends of energy use of public non-domestic buildings in England and Wales

Accessing sufficient data for understanding how energy is used in non-domestic buildings is deemed to be a challenge in many countries. In the UK, such a challenge has led to limited understanding of long-term changes in energy use of buildings. This study aims to develop a deeper understanding of the trends in energy use across the public sector non-domestic buildings in England. Display energy certificate (DEC) data which relate to 59,740 public sector non-domestic buildings in England and Wales were analysed. Statistical analyses were carried out to understand both the latest patterns of energy use and how they have changed between 2010 and 2016. The patterns of energy use of various public-sector buildings were found to have gradually changed over the seven-year period. An imminent release of a revised dataset was deemed necessary for understanding the performance of buildings to support the aspirations set out in the clean growth strategy. The study pointed to a need for regularly gathering and sharing data for understanding the changes in the patterns of energy use of the stock. Developing a framework that can facilitate this would enable various stakeholders make informed decisions for improving energy efficiency of the UK’s non-domestic buildings. Practical application: Statistics on electrical and fossil-thermal energy use intensity provide up-to-date reference points for assessing operational energy efficiency of public sector buildings. Principles for developing a framework are provided to support various stakeholders make informed decisions on for example setting design targets or making capital investments

A novel approach to data collection for difficult structures: data management for large numbers of crystals with the BLEND software

The present article describes how to use the computer program BLEND to help assemble complete datasets for the solution of macromolecular structures, starting from partial or complete datasets, derived from data collection from multiple crystals. The program is demonstrated on more than two hundred X-ray diffraction datasets obtained from 50 crystals of a complex formed between the SRF transcription factor, its cognate DNA, and a peptide from the SRF cofactor MRTF-A. This structure is currently in the process of being fully solved. While full details of the structure are not yet available, the repeated application of BLEND on data from this structure, as they have become available, has made it possible to produce electron density maps clear enough to visualise the potential location of MRTF sequences

Reference Correlation of the Viscosity of Squalane from 273 to 373 K at 0.1 MPa

International audienceThe paper presents a new reference correlation for the viscosity of squalane at 0.1 MPa. The correlation should be valuable as it is the first to cover a moderately high viscosity range, from 3 to 118 mPa s. It is based on new viscosity measurements carried out for this work, as well as other critically evaluated experimental viscosity data from the literature. The correlation is valid from 273 to 373 K at 0.1 MPa. The average absolute percentage deviation of the fit is 0.67, and the expanded uncertainty, with a coverage factor k = 2, is 1.5%

Very long O-antigen chains of Salmonella Paratyphi A inhibit inflammasome activation and pyroptotic cell death

Salmonella Paratyphi A (SPtA) remains one of the leading causes of enteric (typhoid) fever. Yet, despite the recent increased rate of isolation from patients in Asia, our understanding of its pathogenesis is incomplete. Here we investigated inflammasome activation in human macrophages infected with SPtA. We found that SPtA induces GSDMD‐mediated pyroptosis via activation of caspase‐1, caspase‐4 and caspase‐8. Although we observed no cell death in the absence of a functional Salmonella pathogenicity island‐1 (SPI‐1) injectisome, HilA‐mediated overexpression of the SPI‐1 regulon enhances pyroptosis. SPtA expresses FepE, an LPS O‐antigen length regulator, which induces the production of very long O‐antigen chains. Using a ΔfepE mutant we established that the very long O‐antigen chains interfere with bacterial interactions with epithelial cells and impair inflammasome‐mediated macrophage cell death. Salmonella Typhimurium (STm) serovar has a lower FepE expression than SPtA, and triggers higher pyroptosis, conversely, increasing FepE expression in STm reduced pyroptosis. These results suggest that differential expression of FepE results in serovar‐specific inflammasome modulation, which mirrors the pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory strategies employed by STm and SPtA, respectively. Our studies point towards distinct mechanisms of virulence of SPtA, whereby it attenuates inflammasome‐mediated detection through the elaboration of very long LPS O‐polysaccharides