Comparative study of commercial building energy-efficiency retrofit policies in four pilot cities in China

The energy efficiency of existing commercial buildings is more challenging to regulate and improve than the energy efficiency of new constructions. In 2011 and 2012, the Chinese Government selected four cities- Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Chongqing- to implement pilot commercial building energy efficiency retrofit program. Based on site surveys and expert interviews in these pilot cities, this research conducted a comparative analysis on incentive policies of local city level. The analysis results show that policy designs of existing commercial buildings should be further improved. The aspects that influence the implementation effect in the future, such as subsidy level, installments, and business model promotion, should be specified in the policy clauses. Referring to the technical solution and cost-benefit in Chongqing, we found that lighting system is the most common retrofit objects while envelope system is the least common one. And the subsidy incentive is greatest for educational buildings, followed by office buildings. In the end, we further discussed the problems and obstacles in commercial building retrofit market, and provided a series of recommendations

On the algebra A_{\hbar,\eta}(osp(2|2)^{(2)}) and free boson representations

A two-parameter quantum deformation of the affine Lie super algebra $osp(2|2)^{(2)}$ is introduced and studied in some detail. This algebra is the first example associated with nonsimply-laced and twisted root systems of a quantum current algebra with the structure of a so-called infinite Hopf family of (super)algebras. A representation of this algebra at $c=1$ is realized in the product Fock space of two commuting sets of Heisenberg algebras.Comment: 14 pages, LaTe

FHL2 regulates hematopoietic stem cell functions under stress conditions.

FHL2, a member of the four and one half LIM domain protein family, is a critical transcriptional modulator. Here, we identify FHL2 as a critical regulator of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that is essential for maintaining HSC self-renewal under regenerative stress. We find that Fhl2 loss has limited effects on hematopoiesis under homeostatic conditions. In contrast, Fhl2-null chimeric mice reconstituted with Fhl2-null bone marrow cells developed abnormal hematopoiesis with significantly reduced numbers of HSCs, hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs), red blood cells and platelets as well as hemoglobin levels. In addition, HSCs displayed a significantly reduced self-renewal capacity and were skewed toward myeloid lineage differentiation. We find that Fhl2 loss reduces both HSC quiescence and survival in response to regenerative stress, probably as a consequence of Fhl2-loss-mediated downregulation of cyclin-dependent kinase-inhibitors, including p21(Cip) and p27(Kip1). Interestingly, FHL2 is regulated under the control of a tissue-specific promoter in hematopoietic cells and it is downregulated by DNA hypermethylation in the leukemia cell line and primary leukemia cells. Furthermore, we find that downregulation of FHL2 frequently occurs in myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia patients, raising a possibility that FHL2 downregulation has a role in the pathogenesis of myeloid malignancies

A semismooth newton method for the nearest Euclidean distance matrix problem

The Nearest Euclidean distance matrix problem (NEDM) is a fundamentalcomputational problem in applications such asmultidimensional scaling and molecularconformation from nuclear magnetic resonance data in computational chemistry.Especially in the latter application, the problem is often large scale with the number ofatoms ranging from a few hundreds to a few thousands.In this paper, we introduce asemismooth Newton method that solves the dual problem of (NEDM). We prove that themethod is quadratically convergent.We then present an application of the Newton method to NEDM with $H$-weights.We demonstrate the superior performance of the Newton method over existing methodsincluding the latest quadratic semi-definite programming solver.This research also opens a new avenue towards efficient solution methods for the molecularembedding problem

Note on the Algebra of Screening Currents for the Quantum Deformed W-Algebra

With slight modifications in the zero modes contributions, the positive and negative screening currents for the quantum deformed W-algebra W_{q,p}(g) can be put together to form a single algebra which can be regarded as an elliptic deformation of the universal enveloping algebra of \hat{g}, where g is any classical simply-laced Lie algebra.Comment: LaTeX file, 9 pages. Errors in Serre relation corrected. Two references to Awata,H. et al adde

Nuclear factor-kappaB sensitizes to benzyl isothiocyanate-induced antiproliferation in p53-deficient colorectal cancer cells

Benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC), a dietary isothiocyanate derived from cruciferous vegetables, inhibits the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells, most of which overexpress β-catenin as a result of mutations in the genes for adenomatous polyposis coli or mutations in β-catenin itself. Because nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is a plausible target of BITC signaling in inflammatory cell models, we hypothesized that it is also involved in BITC-inhibited proliferation of colorectal cancer cells. siRNA-mediated knockdown of the NF-κB p65 subunit significantly decreased the BITC sensitivity of human colorectal cancer HT-29 cells with mutated p53 tumor suppressor protein. Treating HT-29 cells with BITC induced the phosphorylation of IκB kinase, IκB-α and p65, the degradation of IκB-α, the translocation of p65 to the nucleus and the upregulation of NF-κB transcriptional activity. BITC also decreased β-catenin binding to a positive cis element of the cyclin D1 promoter and thus inhibited β-catenin-dependent cyclin D1 transcription, possibly through a direct interaction between p65 and β-catenin. siRNA-mediated knockdown of p65 confirmed that p65 negatively affects cyclin D1 expression. On the other hand, when human colorectal cancer HCT-116 cells with wild-type p53 were treated with BITC, translocation of p65 to the nucleus was inhibited rather than enhanced. p53 knockout increased the BITC sensitivity of HCT-116 cells in a p65-dependent manner, suggesting that p53 negatively regulates p65-dependent effects. Together, these results identify BITC as a novel type of antiproliferative agent that regulates the NF-κB pathway in p53-deficient colorectal cancer cells

An independent test of the photometric selection of white dwarf candidates using LAMOST DR3

In Gentile Fusillo et al. (2015) we developed a selection method for white dwarf candidates which makes use of photometry, colours and proper motions to calculate a probability of being a white dwarf (Pwd). The application of our method to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 10 resulted in nearly 66,000 photometrically selected objects with a derived Pwd, approximately 21000 of which are high confidence white dwarf candidates. Here we present an independent test of our selection method based on a sample of spectroscopically confirmed white dwarfs from the LAMOST (Large Sky Area Multi-Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) survey. We do this by cross matching all our $\sim$66,000 SDSS photometric white dwarf candidates with the over 4 million spectra available in the third data release of LAMOST. This results in 1673 white dwarf candidates with no previous SDSS spectroscopy, but with available LAMOST spectra. Among these objects we identify 309 genuine white dwarfs. We find that our Pwd can efficiently discriminate between confirmed LAMOST white dwarfs and contaminants. Our white dwarf candidate selection method can be applied to any multi-band photometric survey and in this work we conclusively confirm its reliability in selecting white dwarfs without recourse to spectroscopy. We also discuss the spectroscopic completeness of white dwarfs in LAMOST, as well as deriving effective temperatures, surface gravities and masses for the hydrogen-rich atmosphere white dwarfs in the newly identified LAMOST sample.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The full catalogue presented in table 4 is available at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/catalogues/SDSS_WD_candidates_with_LAMOST_spectra.cs