Planning urban energy systems adapting to extreme weather

In the context of increasing urbanization and climate change globally, urban energy systems (UES) planning needs adequate consideration of climate change, particularly to ensure energy supply during extreme weather events (EWE) such as heatwaves, floods, and typhoons. Here we propose a two-layer modeling framework for UES planning considering the impact of EWE. An application of the framework to a typical coastal city of Xiamen, China reveals that deploying energy storage (i.e., pumped hydro and battery) offers significant flexibility to ensure the critical demand is met during typhoon as a typical EWE and avoids over investment in supply technologies. This requires an extra 2.8% total cost on investment and operation of UES for 20 years. Planning energy systems with proper consideration of EWE can ensure robust urban energy services even with increasing penetration of fluctuating renewables, and we offer a flexible and computationally efficient paradigm for UES planning considering the impact of EWE

Cost-efficient decarbonization of local energy systems by whole-system based design optimization

On the way toward Net Zero 2050, the UK government set the 2035 target by slashing 78 % emissions compared to the 1990-level. To help understand how an electrified local energy system could contribute to this target and the associated cost, we develop a whole-system based local energy optimization (LEO) model. The model captures a series of state-of-the-art technologies including building fabric retrofit, battery storage, electro-mobility, electro-heating, demand response, distributed renewable, and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) energy trading. And the model enables trade-off assessment between cost and emissions minimization, compares two system operating modes, i.e., cost-oriented and grid-impact-oriented, and evaluates the impacts from weather risks and capital cost assumptions. A case study in Wales reveals (1) capital cost assumptions can lead up to 30.8 % overall cost difference of the local energy system; (2) operating the system in cost-oriented mode can save up to 5 % cost than in the grid-impact-oriented mode; (3) electro-heating by heat pumps has the highest priority among all investigated technologies. Overall, this study demonstrates how to design and operate a cost-efficient and electrified UK local energy system by the whole-system incorporation of near-term technical and business model advances towards a decarbonized future

Short-term delayed recall of auditory verbal learning test is equivalent to long-term delayed recall for identifying amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Delayed recall of words in a verbal learning test is a sensitive measure for the diagnosis of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and early Alzheimer's disease (AD). The relative validity of different retention intervals of delayed recall has not been well characterized. Using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test-Huashan version, we compared the differentiating value of short-term delayed recall (AVL-SR, that is, a 3- to 5-minute delay time) and long-term delayed recall (AVL-LR, that is, a 20-minute delay time) in distinguishing patients with aMCI (n = 897) and mild AD (n = 530) from the healthy elderly (n = 1215). In patients with aMCI, the correlation between AVL-SR and AVL-LR was very high (r = 0.94), and the difference between the two indicators was less than 0.5 points. There was no difference between AVL-SR and AVL-LR in the frequency of zero scores. In the receiver operating characteristic curves analysis, although the area under the curve (AUC) of AVL-SR and AVL-LR for diagnosing aMCI was significantly different, the cut-off scores of the two indicators were identical. In the subgroup of ages 80 to 89, the AUC of the two indicators showed no significant difference. Therefore, we concluded that AVL-SR could substitute for AVL-LR in identifying aMCI, especially for the oldest patients

Muscle Quality of Sword Prawn (Parapenaeopsis hardwickii) during Cold Storage Based on Changes of Endogenous Enzyme Activity

Objective: To investigate the changes of endogenous enzyme activity and muscle quality characteristics of Sword prawn (Parapenaeopsis hardwickii) under cold storage. Methods: Sword prawn (Parapenaeopsis hardwickii) was taken as the research object. The muscle texture, TCA-soluble peptide, myofibril protein content and myofibril fragmentation index, as well as the activities of endogenous enzymes in the head and muscle of intact and headless shrimp were compared and analyzed at 0°C for 0, 2, 4 and 6 d. Results: With the extension of cold storage time, the content of TCA-soluble peptide and myofibril fragmentation index in muscle of both groups showed an increasing trend. The myofibril protein content gradually decreased, their content in muscle of whole shrimp group and headless shrimp group reduced by 56.65% and 44.63%, respectively, after 6 d of cold storage. While the hardness and elasticity of shrimp in both groups always decreased. During cold storage, the trypsin activity in the head of whole shrimp group decreased gradually, while the activity in the muscle of whole shrimp group increased continuously. The trypsin activity in the muscle of decapitated shrimp group reduced slowly, and the trypsin activity in the head and muscle of whole shrimp group and the muscle of decapitated shrimp group changed by 16.9%, 68.8%, and 15.2%, respectively. In shrimp muscle, the calpain activity decreased with the extension of cold storage time, and the decrease rate was higher in whole shrimp group. The changes of the activities of cathepsin B, D, H and L were different during cold storage. The cathepsin activities in decapitated shrimp were higher than those in whole shrimp. The activities of cathepsins in each muscle subcellular structure of the two groups decreased gradually during cold storage. And the activities in whole shrimp group were higher than those in decapitated shrimp group. Conclusion: The muscle quality characteristics of the headless shrimp group were better than those of the whole shrimp group, and the endogenous enzyme activities in whole shrimp group were relatively higher than those in decapitated shrimp group during cold storage. Therefore, decapitated shrimp storage is more conducive to protect shrimp meat quality

A Novel Aurora-A Inhibitor (MLN8237) Synergistically Enhances the Antitumor Activity of Sorafenib in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Currently, sorafenib-based therapy is the standard treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and there is a strong rationale for investigating its use in combination with other agents to achieve better therapeutic effects. Aurora-A, a member of a family of mitotic serine/threonine kinases, is frequently overexpressed in human cancers and therefore represents a target for therapy. Here, we investigated a novel Aurora-A inhibitor, MLN8237, together with sorafenib in HCC cells in vitro and in vivo, and elucidated the possible molecular mechanism. Here, it was found that MLN8237 was strongly synergistic with sorafenib in inhibition of HCC progression by altering cell growth, cell-cycle regulation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis. Mechanism dissection suggests that the combination of MLN8237 and sorafenib led to significant inhibition of the activation of phospho-Akt (p-Akt) and phospho-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p-p38 MAPK) and their downstream genes including CDK4, cyclinD1, and VEGFA. The activators of p-Akt and p-p38 MAPK signaling partially reversed the synergistic inhibitory effects of sorafenib and MLN8237 on HCC progression. Subsequent in vivo studies further confirmed the synergistic effects of sorafenib and MLN8237. Collectively, the newly developed sorafenib-MLN8237 combination may be a novel therapy to better inhibit HCC progression. Keywords: Aurora-A inhibitor, MLN8237, sorafenib, hepatocellular carcinoma, Ak

AVL scores in three diagnostic groups in each trial.

<p>AVL scores in three diagnostic groups in each trial.</p

Percentage of zero scores of the AVL-SR and AVL-LR in different age groups in patients with aMCI.

<p>Percentage of zero scores of the AVL-SR and AVL-LR in different age groups in patients with aMCI.</p