Energy saving potential of fragmented green spaces due to their temperature regulating ecosystem services in the summer

Urban green spaces help to moderate the urban heat island (UHI) effects, and can provide important temperature regulating ecosystem services and opportunities for savings in cooling energy. However, because explicit market values for these benefits are still lacking, they are rarely incorporated into urban planning actions. Green spaces can generate a three-dimensional (3D) cool island that may reduce the cooling energy requirements within and around urban areas, but such 3D cooling effect has not been considered in previous studies quantifying energy savings from green spaces. This study presents a new and simple approach to quantify potential energy savings due to the temperature regulating ecosystem services of small-scale fragmented green spaces using the 3D simulation of the summer-day outdoor thermal environment in Nanjing, China. Field survey data and the microclimate model ENVI-met were applied to examine the outdoor 3D thermal environmental patterns at Gulou Campus of Nanjing University under two different scenarios: “with” and “without” green spaces. Modeling results were applied to quantify potential cooling energy savings based on the effect of green spaces on the outdoor urban environment and to calculate the cumulative temperature reduction due to green spaces using a regression model. The results show that, in the horizontal direction, the simulated distribution of wind speed and mean air temperature at 1.5 m height were closely related to the spatial distribution of the underlying surface types. Removal of green spaces increased mean air temperature by 0.5 °C (33.1 °C vs. 33.6 °C). In the vertical direction, removal of green spaces had little effect on the near-surface wind field; however, above the surface, the turbulence perpendicular to the main wind direction significantly increased. Quantification of the cooling benefits of green spaces in relation to the mean height of buildings on Gulou Campus yielded 5.2 W/m2 cooling energy, saving totally 1.3 × 104 kW h during a single daytime hot summer period. This case study corroborates the importance of green space for cooling and informs city planners and decision-makers on how microclimate is impacted by the loss of green spaces. These findings will facilitate preservation, planning, and design of green spaces to increase urban environmental benefits and to improve the microclimate of urban areas at neighborhood, city, and regional scales

A community effort in SARS-CoV-2 drug discovery.

peer reviewedThe COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a substantial threat to human lives and is likely to do so for years to come. Despite the availability of vaccines, searching for efficient small-molecule drugs that are widely available, including in low- and middle-income countries, is an ongoing challenge. In this work, we report the results of an open science community effort, the "Billion molecules against Covid-19 challenge", to identify small-molecule inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 or relevant human receptors. Participating teams used a wide variety of computational methods to screen a minimum of 1 billion virtual molecules against 6 protein targets. Overall, 31 teams participated, and they suggested a total of 639,024 molecules, which were subsequently ranked to find 'consensus compounds'. The organizing team coordinated with various contract research organizations (CROs) and collaborating institutions to synthesize and test 878 compounds for biological activity against proteases (Nsp5, Nsp3, TMPRSS2), nucleocapsid N, RdRP (only the Nsp12 domain), and (alpha) spike protein S. Overall, 27 compounds with weak inhibition/binding were experimentally identified by binding-, cleavage-, and/or viral suppression assays and are presented here. Open science approaches such as the one presented here contribute to the knowledge base of future drug discovery efforts in finding better SARS-CoV-2 treatments.R-AGR-3826 - COVID19-14715687-CovScreen (01/06/2020 - 31/01/2021) - GLAAB Enric

Etiopathogénie du vitiligo et thérapeutiques actuelles

POITIERS-BU Médecine pharmacie (861942103) / SudocSudocFranceF

Encoding (inter)textual insertions in Latin "grammatical commentary"

International audienceThe ancient commentaries provide a large sample of quotations from classical or biblical texts for which Latin gramamrians developed a complex system of insertion of quoted texts. The paper examines how to encode these places using XML Tei, and focuses on difficult cases, such as inaccurate quotations, or quotations of partly or wholly lost texts

Hyperdonat, digital edition project

International audienceHyperdonat is a digital project created to deal with complex textual tradition. Born in Lyon, in the HiSoMA laboratory, from the collabora- tion of B. Bureau and C. Nicolas, Latin professors, Hyperdonat project was rst a digital edition of Donat’s commentaries, which have a com- plex philological history that led editors to dedicate most of their “paper” edition to the apparatus making the Latin text mostly unreadable. The project had as rst aims to o er the rst complete critical edition and a way to visualize those texts easily with its apparatus through the uses of new technologies.These last years, the project has taken on a new path and tried to nd the basement of an editing method for complex TEI digital editions. So, Hyperdonat project proposes to create from the di erent witnesses of a textual tradition a scienti c edition with multiple views, an interface to create your own virtual witnesses and another to compare di erent versions of the text. The method is thinking to be applied in a team for a collaborative work where each manuscript is encoded separately to avoid the in uence of the other versions. This method allows multiple levels apparatus (semantic, structure, layout, graphic) to take account of the in uence of the di erent layout in manuscript. So this method shows all the philological approach to the reader, but can also be used as a help for editors

Encoding (inter)textual insertions in Latin "grammatical commentary"

The ancient commentaries provide a large sample of quotations from classical or biblical texts for which Latin gramamrians developed a complex system of insertion of quoted texts. The paper examines how to encode these places using XML Tei, and focuses on difficult cases, such as inaccurate quotations, or quotations of partly or wholly lost texts

Gradual development of ammonia-induced syntrophic acetate-oxidizing activities under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions quantitatively tracked using multiple isotopic approaches

International audienceInsights into microbiota adaptation to increased ammonia stress, and identification of indicator microorganisms can help to optimize the operation of anaerobic digesters. To identify microbial indicators and investigate their metabolic contribution to acetoclastic methanogenesis (AM), syntrophic acetate oxidation (SAO) or hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis (HM), 40 anaerobic batch reactors fed with acetate of 110 mmol/L were set up at NH 4 +-N concentrations of 0.14 g/L, 5.00 g/L or 7.00 g/L, inoculated with thermophilic or mesophilic microbiota with or without pre-exposure to ammonia stress. Four stable carbon isotope probing approaches were applied in parallel, with [1,2-13 C]-CH 3 COOH, [2-13 C]-CH 3 COOH, [ 13 C]NaHCO 3 or non-labeled CH 3 COOH used individually. The last three approaches were used to quantify the methanogenic pathways by tracking labeled 13 C or natural 13 C signatures in the resulting CH 4 and CO 2 , and consistently detected the dynamic transition of dominant pathways from AM to SAO-HM under ammonia stress. Results of quantitative PCR and fluorescence insitu hybridization illustrated the procedure, acetotrophic methanogens being outcompeted by acetate-oxidizing syntrophs. The first and last isotope-labeling approaches were designed to probe the active acetate-mineralizing microbes with DNA-SIP. Known acetate-oxidizing bacteria like Syntrophaceticus and Tepidanaerobacter, as well as novel members of Pseudomonas, Bacillus and Symbiobacteraceae were detected, with Methanoculleus as the predominant H 2 /CO 2-utilizing partner. Using NanoSIMS, some bacterial cells were observed to be fixing CO 2 from [ 13 C]NaHCO 3. In this study, Methanosaeta was only active with ammonia 500 mg-N/L. Under ammonia stress, diverse known and novel microbial taxa were involved in acetate mineralization, comparable with those identified in previous studies

Shotgun metaproteomic profiling of biomimetic anaerobic digestion processes treating sewage sludge

Two parallel anaerobic digestion lines were designed to match a "bovid-like" digestive structure. Each of the lines consisted of two continuous stirred tank reactors placed in series and separated by an acidic treatment step. The first line was inoculated with industrial inocula whereas the second was seeded with cow digestive tract contents. After 3 months of continuous sewage sludge feeding, samples were recovered for shotgun metaproteomic and DNA-based analysis. Strikingly, protein-inferred and 16S ribosomal DNA tags based taxonomic community profiles were not consistent. PCA however revealed a similar clustering pattern of the samples, suggesting that reproducible methodological and/or biological factors underlie this observation. The performances of the two digestion lines did not differ significantly and the cow-derived inocula did not establish in the reactors. A low throughput metagenomic dataset (3.4 × 10(6) reads, 1.1 Gb) was also generated for one of the samples. It allowed a substantial increase of the analysis depth (11 vs. 4% of spectral identification rate for the combined samples). Surprisingly, a high proportion of proteins from members of the "Candidatus Competibacter" group, a key microbial player usually found in activated sludge plants, was retrieved in our anaerobic digester samples. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD00242

Microbial community dynamics during the co-digestion of manure and the organic fraction of household waste

International audienceIntroduction: Organic waste co-digestion is an attractive option for territories to valorize different types of locally produced waste and optimize biogas production in digestion plants. We studied the dry batch co-digestion of reconstituted racehorse manure (MA) and the organic fraction of residual household waste (HW), in pilot reactors. We identified optimal proportions of co-substrates and evaluated the effects of their initial proportions on microbial community dynamics.Methodology: Batch pilots for dry anaerobic digestion (60 L each) were filled with HW:MA in various proportions (w:w), ranging from 0:100 to 92:8, for a total of 14 incubations. The co-substrates were fully immersed in digested mixed urban wastewater sludge serving both as inoculum and liquid input. The pilots were operated at ~36°C during up to 5 weeks. The conversion dynamics was characterized by monitoring relevant physico-chemical parameters: biogas production and composition, pH, volatile fatty acids (VFA) and total alkalinity content. The composition of archaeal and bacterial communities was determined by 16S rDNA metabarcoding targeting the V4-V5 region of archaea and bacteria, using an Ion Torrent PGM sequencer. Principal component analysis was performed with R packages such as FactoMineR.Results: When co-digesting HW, a transient accumulation of VFA was observed. Maximal VFA concentrations were all the higher as the initial proportion of HW was high and reached up to ~17 g/L. Moreover, a partial inhibition of methane production occurred in the presence of HW, mostly during the 8-15 first days of incubation, especially for proportions 79:21 and 92:8. The total cumulated productions of methane were similar for HW proportions up to 79%, suggesting the adaptation of microbial communities to high VFA conditions. Consistently, clear changes in the microbial composition occurred according to the HW proportion. In the absence of HW, bacteria were dominated by classes Bacteroidia and Spirochaetia; for high HW proportions, Spirochaetia proportion decreased at the benefit of Clostridia and Bacilli. For archaea, Bathyarchaeia members were the most abundant in the absence of HW, while Methanobrevibacter and Methanosarcina genera were selected at the highest HW proportions. Moreover, the proportions of archaea were significantly lower as soon as HW was employed.Conclusions: The adaptation of microbial communities over time to high VFA concentrations suggests the possibility to employ a pre-adapted inoculum, to avoid the transient inhibition phase while digesting significant proportions of HW. Moreover, it opens the perspective of identifying inhibition biomarkers