•Assessment of residential demand in a changing climate.•Results show potential increase of 5 to 60% of the residential demand.•Space heating and cooling needs may decrease 33% and increase 20-fold, ...respectively.•Electrification of appliances is the main driver for change in demand.
The future residential energy demand is expected to be significantly affected by increasing electrification rates and climate change. This study uses a Monte Carlo-based approach and an ensemble of climate models to address potential changes in electricity demand in this sector. The whole Portuguese residential building stock in 2050 is used as a case study. It is performed a sensitivity analysis for the retrofitting and new construction, floor area of new buildings, electrification of domestic hot water and cooking and, finally, adoption of heat pumps for space heating and cooling. Results show a potential increase of 5 to 60% of the total electricity consumption in the sector. Space heating is expected to decrease by 33% while space cooling shows a possible 20-fold increase. The electrification of domestic hot water and the development of housing stock characteristics are the factors with the largest impact on the overall electricity consumption changes.
This work addresses the potential impact of large-scale deployment of photovoltaics in the urban environment on the local micro-climate. A one- and two-dimensional steady-state irradiance balance ...model was developed to estimate the impact of changing the effective albedo of rooftops and facades fully covered with photovoltaic modules. Results show that, albeit small, with current PV conversion efficiencies, photovoltaics on rooftops are expected to have a heating effect on the urban environment. The effect of facades depends strongly on the reflective properties of the surroundings (e.g., road albedo) but it is always small (below 4%), and, therefore, photovoltaics ought not to be considered a mitigation strategy for urban heat island.
This paper presents a building stock energy model for the estimation of hourly electricity consumption for a large group of residential buildings. A Monte Carlo model stochastically generates a large ...sample of dwellings representative of the building stock and the correspondent number of user profiles, statistically supported by a web survey about the use of energy in dwellings for space heating and cooling. The model uses hourly energy balance equations to estimate energy needs and calculates the mean annual electricity consumption for regularly occupied dwellings with an error below 3%. Model is also validated against independent smart-metered data of about 250 dwellings. Hourly electricity consumption results feature an overall normalised mean absolute error of 11% and normalised root mean square error of 16%. The maximum relative difference is ± 72% and the maximum absolute error is ≃217 Wh/h. The model is considered to be able to predict hourly electricity consumption accurately.
Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases and one of the most frequent causes of hospital care.
To describe the clinical characteristics of asthma and factors associated with its ...control.
A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Military Hospital in Luanda, from April 2018 to March 2019. Data collection was performed using questionnaires on asthma symptoms and treatment, socio-demographic and environmental questions, and a Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) questionnaire to assess the level of asthma control. Ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed. We estimated odds ratios, for higher categories of asthma control. P<0.05 was considered significant.
The sample consisted of 305 asthmatics ≥18-years-old, 56% women, with a mean age of 41.3 years. About 28% of patients had controlled asthma, 36% partially controlled and 35% uncontrolled. Poor asthma control was associated with frequent use of short-acting beta-2 agonists OR 5.70 (95%CI 2.37;13.7), oral corticosteroids OR 3.68 (95%CI 2.24;6.04), and incorrect inhaler technique OR 4.08 (95%CI 1.25;13.3).
A significant number of adults living in Luanda have uncontrolled asthma due to the under-use of inhaled corticosteroid therapy. It is necessary to develop strategic management and prevention plans to improve Angolan asthmatics' medical care.
Admixture occurs between different ethnic human populations. The global colonization in recent centuries by Europeans led to the most significant admixture in human history. While admixture may ...enhance genetic diversity for better fitness, it may also impact on human health by transmitting genetic variants for disease susceptibility in the admixture population. The admixture by Portuguese global exploration initiated in the 15
century has reached over 20 million of Portuguese-heritage population worldwide. It provides a valuable model to study the impact of admixture on human health. BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA) are two of the important tumor suppressor genes. The pathogenic variation (PV) in BRCA is well determined to cause high risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Tracing the distribution of Portuguese BRCA PV in Portuguese-heritage population will help to understand the impact of admixture on cancer susceptibility in modern humans. In this study, we analyzed the distribution of the Portuguese-originated BRCA variation in Brazilian population, which has high degree Portuguese-heritage.
By comprehensive data mining, standardization and annotation, we generated a Portuguese-derived BRCA variation dataset and a Brazilian-derived BRCA variation dataset. We compared the two BRCA variation datasets to identify the BRCA variants shared between the two populations.
The Portuguese-derived BRCA variation dataset consists of 220 BRCA variants including 78 PVs from 11,482 Portuguese cancer patients, 93 (42.2%) in BRCA1 and 127 (57.7%) in BRCA2. Of the 556 Portuguese BRCA PV carriers carrying the 78 PVs, 331 (59.5%) carried the three Portuguese-BRCA founder PVs of BRCA1 c.2037delinsCC, BRCA1 c.3331_3334del and BRCA2 c.156_157insAlu. The Brazilian-derived BRCA variation dataset consists of 255 BRCA PVs from 7,711 cancer patients, 136 (53.3%) in BRCA1 and 119 (46.6%) in BRCA2. We developed an open database named dbBRCA-Portuguese ( https://genemutation.fhs.um.edu.mo/dbbrca-portuguese/ ) and an open database named dbBRCA-Brazilian ( https://genemutation.fhs.um.edu.mo/dbbrca-brazilian ) to host the BRCA variation data from Portuguese and Brazilian populations. We compared the BRCA PV datasets between Portuguese and Brazilian populations, and identified 29 Portuguese-specific BRCA PVs shared between Portuguese and Brazilian populations, 14 in BRCA1 including the Portuguese founder BRCA1 c.3331_3334del and BRCA1 c.2037delinsCC, and 15 in BRCA2 including the Portuguese founder BRCA2 c.156_157insAlu. Searching the 78 Portuguese BRCA PVs in over 5,000 ancient human genomes identified evolution origin for only 8 PVs in Europeans dated between 37,470 and 3,818 years before present, confirming the Portuguese-specificity of Portuguese BRCA PVs; comparing the 78 Portuguese BRCA PVs Portuguese, 255 Brazilian BRCA PVs, and 134 African BRCA PVs showed little overlapping, ruling out the possibility that the BRCA PVs shared between Portuguese and Brazilian may also be contributed by African.
Our study provides evidence that the admixture in recent human history contributed to cancer susceptibility in modern humans.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The African continent faces several challenges and threats: high vulnerability to climate change, the fastest population increase, the lowest degree of electrification and the need for an energy ...transition towards renewable energies. Solar energy constitutes a viable option for addressing these issues. In a changing climate the efficient implementation of solar capacity should rely on comprehensive information about the solar resource. Here, the newest and highest resolution regional climate simulation results are used to project the future photovoltaic and concentrated solar power potentials for Africa. We show that the high potentials for solar energy will not be reduced much throughout Africa with climate change. However, the PV solar potential is projected to decrease up to about −10% in limited areas of eastern central Africa; increases are also projected to the northwest and southern Africa (up to about +5%). These changes are mostly determined by changes in solar irradiance but in certain areas the warming is a critical factor limiting PV potential.
Inducible loss of gene function experiments are necessary to uncover mechanisms underlying development, physiology and disease. However, current methods are complex, lack robustness and do not work ...in multiple cell types. Here we address these limitations by developing single-step optimized inducible gene knockdown or knockout (sOPTiKD or sOPTiKO) platforms. These are based on genetic engineering of human genomic safe harbors combined with an improved tetracycline-inducible system and CRISPR/Cas9 technology. We exemplify the efficacy of these methods in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), and show that generation of sOPTiKD/KO hPSCs is simple, rapid and allows tightly controlled individual or multiplexed gene knockdown or knockout in hPSCs and in a wide variety of differentiated cells. Finally, we illustrate the general applicability of this approach by investigating the function of transcription factors (OCT4 and T), cell cycle regulators (cyclin D family members) and epigenetic modifiers (DPY30). Overall, sOPTiKD and sOPTiKO provide a unique opportunity for functional analyses in multiple cell types relevant for the study of human development.
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy and the second cause of cancer-specific death in women from high-income countries. Recently, gut microbiota dysbiosis emerged as a key player that may ...directly and/or indirectly influence development, treatment, and prognosis of BC through diverse biological processes: host cell proliferation and death, immune system function, chronic inflammation, oncogenic signalling, hormonal and detoxification pathways. Gut colonisation occurs during the prenatal period and is later diversified over distinct phases throughout life. In newly diagnosed postmenopausal BC patients, an altered faecal microbiota composition has been observed compared with healthy controls. Particularly, β-glucuronidase bacteria seem to modulate the enterohepatic circulation of oestrogens and their resorption, increasing the risk of hormone-dependent BC. Moreover, active phytoestrogens, short-chain fatty acids, lithocholic acid, and cadaverine have been identified as bacterial metabolites influencing the risk and prognosis of BC. As in gut, links are also being made with local microbiota of tumoural and healthy breast tissues. In breast microbiota, different microbial signatures have been reported, with distinct patterns per stage and biological subtype. Total bacterial DNA load was lower in tumour tissue and advanced-stage BC when compared with healthy tissue and early stage BC, respectively. Hypothetically, these findings reflect local dysbiosis, potentially creating an environment that favours breast tumour carcinogenesis (oncogenic trigger), or the natural selection of microorganisms adapted to a specific microenvironment. In this review, we discuss the origin, composition, and dynamic evolution of human microbiota, the links between gut/breast microbiota and BC, and explore the potential implications of metabolomics and pharmacomicrobiomics that might impact BC development and treatment choices toward a more personalised medicine. Finally, we put in perspective the potential limitations and biases regarding the current microbiota research and provide new horizons for stronger accurate translational and clinical studies that are needed to better elucidate the complex network of interactions between host, microorganisms, and drugs in the field of BC.
The large‐scale deployment of photovoltaics (PVs) along highways has the potential for the generation of clean electricity without competing for land use or burdening the power grid since energy for ...electric vehicles (EVs) can be generated locally on wastelands along highways near service stations. An analysis was carried out to evaluate the feasibility of integrating vertical bifacial solar modules into noise barriers. The approach involved integrating geospatial data with PV potential data using geographic information systems (GIS) technology. The results show a potential of around 200 GWh/year if all current noise barriers along highways in the Netherlands are considered suitable for PV module integration. Three case studies have been analysed regarding specific service stations for specific road orientations. It is shown that solar energy can charge more than 300 vehicles per day by combining bifacial PV noise barriers and standard mono‐facial PV modules on publicly available land along the highway in all three case studies, which is sufficient to meet 80% of the expected EV charging demand along highways in 2030.
This study explores the potential of integrating PV into highways noise barriers in the Netherlands. With a geospatial approach, it identifies a capacity of 200 GWh/year if all suitable barriers are utilized. Three case studies demonstrate that this could charge 10% of the current Dutch car fleet if all vehicles were converted to electric, meeting 80% of the expected EV charging demand on highways by 2030, while offering clean energy generation without competing for land or overloading the power grid. Illustration of highway with PV systems: courtesy of Studio Marco Vermeulen.
Highlights
The PV potential of noise barriers in Dutch highways is 200 GWh/year.
Three case studies including bifacial vertical PV noise barriers and standard tilted PV systems.
PV‐powered service stations can charge about 300 EVs per day.
Solar fraction of EV charging is higher than 80% for all case studies.
Parasitic infections are a common problem in developing countries and can intensify morbidity in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), increasing the severity of anemia and the need for ...transfusions. It has been demonstrated that both helminths and protozoa can affect gut microbiome composition. On the other hand, the presence of specific bacterial communities can also influence parasite establishment. Considering this, our aim was to associate the presence of intestinal parasites with the results of hematological analyses and microbiome composition evaluations in a population of Angolan children with and without SCD. A total of 113 stool samples were collected, and gut microbiome analysis was performed using 16S sequencing and real-time PCR to detect eight different intestinal parasites. In our population, more than half of children (55%) had at least one parasitic infection, and of these, 43% were co-infected. Giardia intestinalis and Ascaris lumbricoides were more frequently found in children from the rural area of Bengo. Moreover, SCD children with ascariasis exhibited higher values of leukocytes and neutrophils, whereas the total hemoglobin levels were lower. In regards to the gut microbiome, the presence of intestinal parasites lowered the prevalence of some beneficial bacteria, namely: Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Cuneatibacter, Bacteroides uniformis, Roseburia, and Shuttleworthia. This study presents the prevalence of several intestinal parasites in a high-risk transmission area with scarce information and opens new perspectives for understanding the interaction between parasites, the microbiome, and SCD.
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