Integrated energy design: education and training in cross-disciplinary teams implementing energy performance of buildings directive (EPBD)

In Europe, energy and climate policies started to take shape from the 1990s onwards culminating with the ambitious 20-20-20 climate goals and the Low-Carbon Europe roadmap 2050. The European Commission empower the importance of achieving the objective of the recast Directive on energy performance of buildings (EPBD) that new buildings built from 2021 onwards will have to be nearly zero-energy buildings. The general belief is that the energy performance optimization of buildings requires an integrated design approach and cross-disciplinary teamwork to optimize the building's energy use and quality of indoor environment while satisfying the occupants' needs.In this context, there is a substantial need for professionals such as architects and engineers specifically trained and educated in integrated design approach and trained to work in cross-disciplinary teams. To be able to push forward the development, it is essential that educational institutions foster professionals with such knowledge, skills and competences. An initiative toward this direction is the EU-project of IDES-EDU: "Master and Post-Graduate education and training in multi-disciplinary teams".The paper describes the necessity of more integrated and cross-disciplinary approaches to building design through state-of-the-art of the building sector and educational initiatives in the participating countries in the project, and through theory of design processes. The paper also communicates the results of newly developed cross-disciplinary education established by fifteen different educational institutions in Europe. Finally, the paper explains and discusses the challenges encountered during development and implementation of the education across different professions and countries. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Global Analysis of Proline-Rich Tandem Repeat Proteins Reveals Broad Phylogenetic Diversity in Plant Secretomes

Cell walls, constructed by precisely choreographed changes in the plant secretome, play critical roles in plant cell physiology and development. Along with structural polysaccharides, secreted proline-rich Tandem Repeat Proteins (TRPs) are important for cell wall function, yet the evolutionary diversity of these structural TRPs remains virtually unexplored. Using a systems-level computational approach to analyze taxonomically diverse plant sequence data, we identified 31 distinct Pro-rich TRP classes targeted for secretion. This analysis expands upon the known phylogenetic diversity of extensins, the most widely studied class of wall structural proteins, and demonstrates that extensins evolved before plant vascularization. Our results also show that most Pro-rich TRP classes have unexpectedly restricted evolutionary distributions, revealing considerable differences in plant secretome signatures that define unexplored diversity

Ultramafic vegetation and soils in the circumboreal region of the Northern Hemisphere

The paper summarizes literature on climate, soil chemistry, vegetation and metal accumulation by plants found on ultramafic substrata in the circumboreal zone (sensu Takhtajan, Floristic regions of the world, 1986) of the Northern Hemisphere. We present a list of 50 endemic species and 18 ecotypes obligate to ultramafic soils from the circumboreal region of Holarctic, as well as 30 and 2 species of Ni and Zn hyperaccumulators, respectively. The number of both endemics and hyperaccumulators are markedly lower compared to that of the Mediterranean and tropical regions. The diversity of plant communities on ultramafics soils of the circumboral region is also described. The underlying causes for the differences of ultramafic flora between arctic, cold, cool temperate and Mediterranean and tropical regions are also discussed. © 2018, The Ecological Society of Japan

IDES-EDU-new educational program for sustainable buildings

Energie-Umweltmanagemen

Combined proteomics and transcriptomics identifies carboxypeptidase B1 and nuclear factor KB (NF-KB) associated proteins as putative biomarkers of metastasis in low grade breast cancer

Current prognostic factors are insufficient for precise risk-discrimination in breast cancer patients with low grade breast tumors, which, in disagreement with theoretical prognosis, occasionally form early lymph node metastasis. To identify markers for this group of patients, we employed iTRAQ-2DLC-MS/MS proteomics to 24 lymph node positive and 24 lymph node negative grade 1 luminal A primary breast tumors. Another group of 48 high-grade tumors (luminal B, triple negative, Her-2 subtypes) was also analyzed to investigate marker specificity for grade 1 luminal A tumors. From the total of 4405 proteins identified (FDR < 5%), the top 65 differentially expressed together with 30 previously identified and control markers were analyzed also at transcript level. Increased levels of carboxypeptidase B1 (CPB1), PDZ and LIM domain protein 2 (PDLIM2), and ring finger protein 25 (RNF25) were associated specifically with lymph node positive grade 1 tumors, whereas stathmin 1 (STMN1) and thymosin beta 10 (TMSB10) associated with aggressive tumor phenotype also in high grade tumors at both protein and transcript level. For CPB1, these differences were also observed by immunohistochemical analysis on tissue microarrays. Up-regulation of putative biomarkers in lymph node positive (versus negative) luminal A tumors was validated by gene expression analysis of an independent published data set (n = 343) for CPB1 (p = 0.00155), PDLIM2 (p = 0.02027) and RELA (p = 0.00015). Moreover, statistically significant connections with patient survival were identified in another public data set (n = 1678). Our findings indicate unique pro-metastatic mechanisms in grade 1 tumors that can include up-regulation of CPB1, activation of NF-?B pathway and changes in cell survival and cytoskeleton. These putative biomarkers have potential to identify the specific minor subpopulation of breast cancer patients with low grade tumors who are at higher than expected risk of recurrence and who would benefit from more intensive follow-up and may require more personalized therapy