Experimental Performance of a Solar Air Collector with a Perforated Back Plate in New Zealand

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Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low-Energy Residential Buildings, International Energy Agency, EBC Annex 68, Subtask 5 Final Report: Field measurements and case studies

IEA-EBC Annex 68: Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings investigates how to ensure that future low energy buildings are able to improve their energy performance while still providing comfortable and healthy indoor environments. More specifically, Subtask 5 of Annex 68 has dealt with generation of data for the verification of the models and strategies developed in the other Annex 68 Subtasks through controlled field tests and case study presentations

Classroom Ventilation: The Effectiveness of Preheating and Refresh Breaks: An analysis of 169 spaces at 43 schools across New Zealand

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of ventilation as a transmission mitigation strategy. However, there was a widely held concern that a drop in outdoor temperatures during winter may impact thermal comfort in the context of naturally ventilated classrooms. This concern has not been widely investigated by peer-reviewed empirical studies (Sutherland et al., 2022b). The aim of the Ministry’s ventilation monitoring initiative was to assess ventilation performance and thermal comfort by continuously measuring indoor CO2 levels, air temperature, and relative humidity in classrooms during winter, without obstructing teaching activities. A total of 43 schools, which represent a broad mix of property attributes and located across the 6 Climate Zones in New Zealand, were selected for the monitoring initiative. The CO2 monitors were deployed in about 4-6 pre-selected and representative spaces in each school. Data was retrieved from 213 spaces; of these, 44 spaces were excluded, because the initiative concentrated on teaching environments (classrooms) and those spaces were categorised as non-teaching environments (e.g., staff rooms, meeting rooms, etc.). From the 213 spaces, the data from 169 teaching spaces retrieved for the period 23 May to 26 August 2022 were analysed to ascertain the impacts of inferred human behaviours considered to be able to improve natural ventilation and detected from features of CO2 and temperature data. This analysis does not (and did not intend to) corroborate independent observation of behaviours

Erforschung von Systemloesungen fuer transparente Verschleissschutzschichten auf Kunststoffen fuer die Optik. Teilvorhaben: Organische Schichten und organische Haftvermittlungsschichten mit kovalenter Anbindung Abschlussbericht

All of the scheduled investigations have been terminated. Only covalent linkages to protective coatings are promising. That fact came out from rather diverse experiments aimed to improve the adhesion. Particular problems were encountered with the chosen materials PC, CR29, PU 161, and PMMA due to their photolability during plasma CVD and due to corrosion by ubiquitous gases such as ammonia, methylamine, chlorine, nitrogen dioxide. AFM shows that gaseous amines even destroy the common hard coatings. Purposeful exposure to reactive gases under AFM control gives functionalization with recoiling of the polymer chains at the surface. Chain fissions are not tolerable. Highly cross-linked CR39 enables the direct PVD connection to SiO_2 coatings. Side-group hydrolysis without destruction of the optical surfaces is particularly attractive in the case of PMMA. Covalently attached Al_2O_3/SiO_2-coatings exhibit rather high long-term stability towards hydrolysis. The carboxylic groups that are generated should be prone to lasting covalent attachments of stress-relieving polyurethane coatings by reaction with diisocyanates. That branch was halted for reasons of capacity in favor of covalent attachment of CR39 via plasma induced grafting, even though numerous covalent attachments succeeded by simple chemical gas/solid reactions. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F98B80+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Experimental performance of a solar air collector with a perforated back plate in New Zealand

This study investigates the thermal efficiency of a solar air heater (SAH), when it was mounted on a custom-made support frame, and was operated under different air mass flow rate. This SAH is composed of a transparent polycarbonate cover plate, a felt absorber layer, a perforated aluminium back plate and an aluminium frame. The ambient inlet air of this SAH is heated as it passes through the perforated back plate and over the felt absorber layer. The heated air is blown out through the outlet. Studies of SAHs with a similar design to this SAH were not found in the literature. The experiment was carried out at Massey University, Auckland campus, NZ (36.7◦ S, 174.7◦ E). The global horizontal solar irradiance, the ambient temperature and the wind speed were recorded using an on-site weather station. Temperature and velocity of the air at the outlet were measured using a hot wire anemometer. During the experiment, the air mass flow rate was between 0.022 ± 0.001 kg/s and 0.056 ± 0.005 kg/s. Results showed that when the SAH was operated at the airflow between 0.0054 kg/s and 0.0058 kg/s, the inlet air temperature and the wind speed (between 0 and 6.0 m/s) did not impact the temperature difference between the outlet air and the inlet air. The thermal efficiency of the SAH increased from 34 ± 5% at the airflow between 0.021 kg/s and 0.023 kg/s, to 47 ± 6% at the airflow ranging from 0.032 kg/s to 0.038 kg/s, to 71 ± 4% at the airflow of 0.056 ± 0.005 kg/s. The maximum thermal efficiency of 75% was obtained at the airflow of 0.057 kg/s. The effective efficiency of the SAH was 32 ± 5% at the airflow between 0.021 kg/s and 0.023 kg/s, 42 ± 6% at the airflow ranging from 0.032 kg/s to 0.038 kg/s, and 46 ± 11% at the airflow of 0.056 ± 0.005 kg/s

Super-Resolution imaging of the Filtration Barrier Suggests a Role for podocin R229O in Genetic Predisposition to Glomerular disease

Significance Statement Podocin R229Q results from the most frequent missense variant in NPHS2, and its association with FSGS when podocin R229Q is transassociated with a second mutation in NPHS2 is well recognized. However, because results from observational studies are ambiguous and appropriate animal studies are lacking, its isolated pathogenic potency is not entirely clear. In this study, the authors introduced this genetic alteration in mice and assessed the phenotype using super-resolution microscopy and albuminuria measurements. They demonstrated a deleterious effect of the variant on podocyte morphology and on the integrity of the glomerular filtration barrier under basal conditions and after external glomerular injury. Because this finding suggests that this mutation confers a genetic predisposition to glomerular disease, it has implications for a large number of carriers worldwide. Background Diseases of the kidney?s glomerular filtration barrier are a leading cause of end stage renal failure. Despite a growing understanding of genes involved in glomerular disorders in children, the vast majority of adult patients lack a clear genetic diagnosis. The protein podocin p.R229Q, which results from the most common missense variant in NPHS2, is enriched in cohorts of patients with FSGS. However, p.R229Q has been proposed to cause disease only when transassociated with specific additional genetic alterations, and population-based epidemiologic studies on its association with albuminuria yielded ambiguous results. Methods To test whether podocin p.R229Q may also predispose to the complex disease pathogenesis in adults, we introduced the exact genetic alteration in mice using CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing (Pod(R231Q)). We assessed the phenotype using super-resolution microscopy and albuminuria measurements and evaluated the stability of the mutant protein in cell culture experiments. Results Heterozygous Pod(R231Q/wild-type) mice did not present any overt kidney disease or proteinuria. However, homozygous Pod(R231Q/R231Q) mice developed increased levels of albuminuria with age, and super-resolution microscopy revealed preceding ultrastructural morphologic alterations that were recently linked to disease predisposition. When injected with nephrotoxic serum to induce glomerular injury, heterozygous Pod(R231Q/wild-type) mice showed a more severe course of disease compared with Pod(wild-type/wild-type) mice. Podocin protein levels were decreased in Pod(R231Q/wild-type) and Pod(R231Q/R231Q) mice as well as in human cultured podocytes expressing the podocin(R231Q) variant. Our in vitro experiments indicate an underlying increased proteasomal degradation. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that podocin R231Q exerts a pathogenic effect on its own, supporting the concept of podocin R229Q contributing to genetic predisposition in adult patients