A GIS-based Energy Balance Modeling System for Urban Solar Buildings

AbstractSolar buildings as one type of decentralized renewable energy systems have been widely adopted to reduce carbon emissions. Related policy making faces two questions: how much total solar energy can be produced in a city and what proportion of building energy use can be supplied by the solar power? These questions remain hard to answer because of the lack of appropriate modeling systems, due to the data inconsistency and the limitation of current building energy and solar potential modeling methods in accounting for the urban context influences. This study tries to fill this gap by developing a GIS-based energy balance modeling system for urban solar buildings. This modeling system extends the system boundary from a single building to the urban building system, uses urban-scale data instead of costly survey, adopts widely used GIS-platform, and makes reasonable trade-offs between speed and accuracy. It consists of four major models: the Data Integration model, Urban Building Energy model, Urban Roof Solar Energy model and Energy Balance model. This modeling system is applied to Manhattan as a case study. The results show the spatial and temporal variations of building energy uses, the solar power potentials in the usable roof areas, and the self-supply and surplus ratio of buildings in Manhattan in 2012

Modeling Algae Powered Neighborhood Through GIS and BIM Integration

This paper aims to propose a modeling method for algae powered neighborhoods through GIS-BIM integration. In the first part of the paper, the applicability of different types of algae systems in an urban neighborhood are studied. The various systems of algae provide different strengths and weakness that affect their performance and suitability for given urban scenarios. Through extensive literature review, the variables that affect the performance of the micro-algae in the built environment are identified, with a focus on flat-panel photo bio-reactors and tubular photobioreactors. A previous GIS model for data management, performance analysis and design of the algae systems is reviewed [1], which shows its limitations in managing fine-grained structures and functions of algae systems. A bottom-up BIM approach to deal with these limitations is further explored. The algae-embedded built environment can be modeled in the parametric 3D BIM and Rhinoceros with a set of building parameters for the roof, façade, window to wall ratio, etc. Subsequently, solar exposure on building surfaces, the use of the buildings and their respective façade types would be studied. Parametric 3D models of the buildings allows for faster design modification and the creation of multiple design options. These models can be used to perform energy analysis using the parametric energy analysis tool to check for building energy use intensity (EUI). The bottom-up approach explored in this research design aims to facilitate visualization and analysis of the built environment and gauge the productivity of microalgae. Finally, a platform for BIM –GIS integration and its possibility is explored in this paper. © 2017 The Authors

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Modeling Urban Design with Energy Performance

AbstractTraditional urban design methods focus on the form-making process and lack performance dimensions such as energy efficiency. There are inherent differences between Urban Design as a model of decision-making for choosing form alternatives and Energy System Modeling as a model of evaluating and assessing system functions. To design a high energy performance city, the gap between the two models must be bridged. We propose a research design that combines the Urban Design Computational Model (UDCM) and the Optimization Model of Energy Process (OMEP) to demonstrate how an urban design computation can be integrated with an energy performance process and system. An evidence-based case study of community-level near zero energy districts will be needed for future work

A Geodesign Method of Human-Energy-Water Interactive Systems for Urban Infrastructure Design: 10KM2 Near-Zero District Project in Shanghai

The grand challenges of climate change demand a new paradigm of urban design that takes the performance of urban systems into account, such as energy and water efficiency. Traditional urban design methods focus on the form-making process and lack performance dimensions. Geodesign is an emerging approach that emphasizes the links between systems thinking, digital technology, and geographic context. This paper presents the research results of the first phase of a larger research collaboration and proposes an extended geodesign method for a district-scale urban design to integrate systems of renewable energy production, energy consumption, and storm water management, as well as a measurement of human experiences in cities. The method incorporates geographic information system (GIS), parametric modeling techniques, and multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) tools that enable collaborative design decision-making. The method is tested and refined in a test case with the objective of designing a near-zero-energy urban district. Our final method has three characteristics. ① Integrated geodesign and parametric design: It uses a parametric design approach to generate focal-scale district prototypes by means of a custom procedural algorithm, and applies geodesign to evaluate the performances of design proposals. ② A focus on design flow: It elaborates how to define problems, what information is selected, and what criteria are used in making design decisions. ③ Multi-objective optimization: The test case produces indicators from performance modeling and derives principles through a multi-objective computational experiment to inform how the design can be improved. This paper concludes with issues and next steps in modeling urban design and infrastructure systems based on MDO tools. Keywords: Geodesign, Urban design, Urban infrastructure, Energy performance, Iterative process, Multi-objective optimizatio

GIS-based Planning Support System for Waste Stream and Algal Cultivation in Residential Construction

ABSTRACT Technologies of alternative energy generation for residential communities using algal material, involving the construction of bioreactors with solar cells, storage of raw materials, construction of central plants for conversion of bio-fuels, and delivery systems to users, will have different design impacts at different scales. This paper intends to define basic design and planning parameters for residential construction in accordance with the scientific knowledge and technical criteria available regarding the potential for algal biofuel production and sustainable urban living. This paper suggests a framework of GIS-based planning support system for informing processes of data representation, performance assessment and design for the coupled algae cultivation and urban systems. INTRODUCTION The paper explore how a GIS-based planning support system can be applied to an algae-powered housing environment in which the algae system is taken as a design intervention to promote energy performance and reduce waste stream and carbon emission of urban system at the level of neighborhood. The growing concerns of the resource depletion, the waste production and their impacts to environment have led to the question of efficiency in resource and waste management. While city functions as a system, the current practices look upon the management of the input of the resources and output of the waste management as separate and centralized, which reduces the efficiency and resiliency of the whole system (Napawan 2011). In the search for the alternative energy resources, algae technology was found to have the advantage of productivity and the potential of integrating resource and waste management. As a biofuel, algae has a lot of advantages over other biomass. It was contended to have less environmental impacts than conventional crops such as soybeans. It could be harvested continuously, and has a more efficient yield, e.g. about 60 to 100 times of potential biodiesel as soybeans for the same acreage. More importantly, the cultivation process of algae consumes the waste stream, waste water and carbon dioxide. The ability of alga