Passive design strategies such as orientation, shading, sealing, glazing, and insulation can significantly reduce the necessity of an artificial heating-cooling system, accounting for 40% of total ...energy usage in the residential building. However, none of the previous studies have quantified the energy reduction and their environmental impacts simultaneously for these passive design parameters to achieve the national standard requirements for house rating. Hence, this study focuses on the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM-Autodesk Revit), energy rating tool (FirstRate5), and BIM-enabled life cycle assessment (LCA-Tally) to quantify, compare, and improve the building design options to reduce carbon footprint and energy consumptions in residential dwellings.
Sensitivity analysis has been performed with the @Risk Palisade decision tool for optimizing operational energy efficiency. The sensitivity indices show the ceiling (0.84–0.96) and the wall (0.22–0.37) are the most influential predictors for passive design strategies to reduce energy consumption. A moderate correlation exists with windows, floors, and orientations (0.13–0.29), where the relationship with eave projection, air infiltrations is relatively weak. BIM has been used as a platform of interconnectivity between optimized operational energy of @Risk optimizer and consequent embodied phases. A comparative study of insulation performance identifies that 95% of the ceiling’s total operational energy consumption can be minimized using R3 rather than R6 of the national thermal code. For the wall, 90% of energy minimization can occur using R2 rather than R4 of the national thermal code. The study reveals that while insulation is only 1% of the total building mass, and the corresponding carbon footprint and primary energy demand are 4% and 7%, respectively, LCA explains a significant amount of energy, about 76% reduction at its operational stage. In this paper, an evidence-based analytical framework provides a BIM-based optimization platform to validate and justify the impact categories of environment-friendly, energy-efficient design of houses.
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•Energy rating tool (FirstRate5) is used to incorporate passive design strategies to estimate operational energies.•A BIM-based framework is proposed to integrate FirstRate5 and LCA (Tally) to optimize design scenarios.•Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to obtain the sensitivity indices for design optimization.•In the BIM platform, energy and emissions from the operation and embodied phases are linked to select the best design.
Combination of natural ventilation approaches is a new trend for free space cooling/heating in buildings. A critical review was then undertaken to provide an overview of the combined technologies ...that hope to initialize new ideas and promote future endeavors. The advantages of the integrated natural ventilation systems can be summarized into several principles, including achieving beyond the existing performance by single system, maintaining indoor temperature stability, realizing heat energy recovery, overcoming the inadequacy of a single system, and providing a more comprehensive and useful energy-saving scheme. Most of the existing studies on combined systems are found based on thermal buoyancy, while only a small amount dealt with the combination of wind-driven and buoyancy-induce due to the complexity. Parametric studies in most previous studies focused on several major ones, so a systematic analysis is critically needed to address the performance of the overall combination to achieve stable and durable performance. A thoughtful investigation is also required to avert unpredictable delivery of air flow, such as through the manipulation of external wind forces. The related research focuses should also be shifted following the trend of multi-storey buildings under the rapidly growing population. No guideline was found that arranges these natural ventilation systems in terms of performance and applicability for their practical selections and usages. Also, the thermal bridge breaking in cold winter and condensation in summer may compromise the natural ventilation performance and durability, and longevity of buildings. The studies on the coupling between different natural ventilation systems are still insufficient, requiring quite a bit of effort in future works.
•Combined natural ventilation systems in single building were reviewed.•Advantages of combined natural ventilation systems were summarized.•Existing systems much reply on thermal buoyancy but not combined buoyancy and wind.•Research focuses should be shifted following the trend of multi-storey buildings.•Studies on coupling different natural ventilation systems are still insufficient.
•Reaction processes and factors of accelerated carbonation are summarized.•The quality of carbonated recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) is evaluated.•The performance of concrete incorporating ...carbonated RCAs are discussed.•Environmental impacts and economic feasibility are analyzed.
The accelerated carbonation technology has been utilized in order to enhance the properties of the recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) and efficient sequestration of carbon dioxide. Numerous studies have been conducted on this developing technology, while there are few systematic reviews on this method. In the present paper, the reaction processes, influencing factors and mechanisms of the accelerated carbonation to treat RCAs are summarized. The quality of carbonated RCAs and the properties of concrete incorporating carbonated RCAs are evaluated. Moreover, the environmental impacts and economic feasibility of this technique are analyzed. Results showed that carbon dioxide could react with calcium hydroxide, calcium silicate hydrates and other calcium substances in RCAs leading to the precipitation of calcium carbonate. The carbonation processes were mainly determined by carbonation conditions and RCAs characteristics. Carbonated RCAs exhibited lower water absorption, lower crush value and higher apparent density than the non-carbonated ones. The mechanical properties and durability of the concrete containing carbonated RCAs were also improved significantly. This technology has been also confirmed an environmentally friendly and economically feasible method. Finally, some research perspectives on this technology are presented.
China's hepatitis B virus (HBV) prevention policy has been evaluated through nationally representative serologic surveys conducted in 1992 and 2006. We report results of a 2014 serologic survey and ...reanalysis of the 1992 and 2006 surveys in the context of program policy. The 2014 survey used a 2-stage sample strategy in which townships were selected from 160 longstanding, nationally representative, county-level disease surveillance points, and persons 1-29 years of age were invited to participate. The 2014 sample size was 31,713; the response rate was 83.3%. Compared with the 1992 pre-recombinant vaccine survey, HBV surface antigen prevalence declined 46% by 2006 and by 52% by 2014. Among children <5 years of age, the decline was 97%. China's HBV prevention program, targeted toward interrupting perinatal transmission, has been highly successful and increasingly effective. However, this progress must be sustained for decades to come, and elimination of HBV transmission will require augmented strategies.
DNA methylation is an epigenetic regulatory form that plays an important role in regulating the gene expression and the tissues development.. However, DNA methylation regulators involved in sheep ...muscle development remain unclear. To explore the functional importance of genome-scale DNA methylation during sheep muscle growth, this study systematically investigated the genome-wide DNA methylation profiles at key stages of Hu sheep developmental (fetus and adult) using deep whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS).
Our study found that the expression levels of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT)-related genes were lower in fetal muscle than in the muscle of adults. The methylation levels in the CG context were higher than those in the CHG and CHH contexts, and methylation levels were highest in introns, followed by exons and downstream regions. Subsequently, we identified 48,491, 17, and 135 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in the CG, CHG, and CHH sequence contexts and 11,522 differentially methylated genes (DMGs). The results of bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP) correlated well with the WGBS-Seq data. Moreover, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional annotation analysis revealed that some DMGs were involved in regulating skeletal muscle development and fatty acid metabolism. By combining the WGBS-Seq and previous RNA-Seq data, a total of 159 overlap genes were obtained between differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and DMGs (FPKM > 10 and fold change > 4). Finally, we found that 9 DMGs were likely to be involved in muscle growth and metabolism of Hu sheep.
We systemically studied the global DNA methylation patterns of fetal and adult muscle development in Hu sheep, which provided new insights into a better understanding of the epigenetic regulation of sheep muscle development.
The Chinese mainland features widespread active faults and intensive seismic activity; both can be described in terms of slip rates on these faults. Previous studies of fault slip rates in mainland ...China have focused on individual faults or fault segments, and large discrepancies exist among results derived from different methods. Here we derive a self‐consistent estimate of the slip rates on all major faults in mainland China using the recently updated GPS data and an elastic block model. The predicted slip rates are high in western and low in eastern China, ranging from 25.1 ± 2.0 mm/yr in the Himalayan Thrust System to less than 1.0 mm/yr in north China. Using these slip rates, we estimated the rates of moment accumulation on the major fault zones and compared them with the seismic moment released on each fault zone using the Chinese historical earthquake catalog that extends for more than 2000 years in many regions. The results show nine seismic zones with large moment deficits (unreleased moment). Future refinement of GPS measurements and earthquake history will allow better estimates of slip rates on individual faults and better assessment of earthquake hazard on these faults in mainland China.
Safety is an essential topic to the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. However, traditional methods for structural health monitoring (SHM) and jobsite safety management (JSM) ...are not only inefficient, but also costly. In the past decade, scholars have developed a wide range of deep learning (DL) applications to address automated structure inspection and on-site safety monitoring, such as the identification of structural defects, deterioration patterns, unsafe workforce behaviors and latent risk factors. Although numerous studies have examined the effectiveness of the DL methodology, there has not been one comprehensive, systematic, evidence-based review of all individual articles that investigate the effectiveness of using DL in the SHM and JSM industry to date, nor has there been an examination of this body of evidence in regard to these methodological problems. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to disclose the state of the art of current research progress and determine the relevant gaps, challenges and future work. Methodically, CiteSpace was employed to summarize the research trends, advancements and frontiers of DL applications from 2010 to 2020. Next, an application-focused literature review was conducted, which led to a summary of research gaps, recommendations and future research directions. Overall, this review gains insight into SHM and JSM and aims to help researchers formulate more types of effective DL applications which have not been addressed sufficiently for the time being.
Aim. To explore the pharmacological mechanism of Xiaoyao powder (XYP) on anovulatory infertility by a network pharmacology approach. Method. Collect XYP’s active compounds by traditional Chinese ...medicine (TCM) databases, and input them into PharmMapper to get their targets. Then note these targets by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and filter out targets that can be noted by human signal pathway. Get the information of modern pharmacology of active compounds and recipe’s traditional effects through databases. Acquire infertility targets by Therapeutic Target Database (TTD). Collect the interactions of all the targets and other human proteins via String and INACT. Put all the targets into the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) to do GO enrichment analysis. Finally, draw the network by Cytoscape by the information above. Result. Six network pictures and two GO enrichment analysis pictures are visualized. Conclusion. According to this network pharmacology approach some signal pathways of XYP acting on infertility are found for the first time. Some biological processes can also be identified as XYP’s effects on anovulatory infertility. We believe that evaluating the efficacy of TCM recipes and uncovering the pharmacological mechanism on a systematic level will be a significant method for future studies.
In 2002, China integrated hepatitis B vaccine (HepB) into its Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) using HepB vaccine containing 5 µg of antigen. Although not recommended nationally, there was a ...common clinical practice in China of screening children for anti-HBs antibody level and giving a booster dose to HBV surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative children with non-protective anti-HBs antibody levels. We report an evaluation of the protective effectiveness of the 5 µg HepB vaccine and the serological response to the booster dose. We used data from a 2014 hepatitis B serological survey to determine HBsAg positivity and anti-HBs antibody levels among children who received and did not receive a booster dose. We determined HepB coverage from the Children Immunization Information Management System (CIIMS). We obtained and analyzed reports of acute Hepatitis B (AHB) during 2008-2014 obtained from the National Notifiable Disease Reporting System (NNDRS). The HBsAg-positive rate among children who had not received a booster dose was 0.41%, and did not increase with age (i.e., time since infant immunization). The anti-HBs positivity rate among the 6% of children who received a booster dose (88.41%) was higher than among those who had not received a booster (60.85%); anti-HBs antibody levels declined with age regardless of booster dose status. There was no statistically significant difference in HBsAg positivity between children who received a booster dose and those who did not. The AHB incidence among children born between 2002 and 2007 did not increase with age. Use of routine 5 µg HepB vaccine was not associated with an increase in AHB or of HBsAg positivity by time since vaccination, providing supportive evidence that individuals vaccinated with the 5 µg HepB vaccine do not need a booster dose. Although a booster dose was associated with increases in anti-HBs antibody levels, our study provided no evidence to support the need for this clinical practice. We should continue to strengthen serological monitoring of children, especially for those born to HBsAg positive mothers.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the accessibility, social gathering, lifestyle, and working environment to be changed to reduce the infection. Coronavirus spreads between people in several different ...ways. Small liquid particles (aerosols, respiratory droplets) from an infected person are transmitted through air and surfaces that are in contact with humans. Reducing transmission through modified heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and building design are potential solutions. A comprehensive review of the engineering control preventive measures to mitigate COVID-19 spread, healthy building design, and material was carried out. The current state-of-the-art engineering control preventive measures presented include ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), bipolar ionization, vertical gardening, and indoor plants. They have potential to improve the indoor air quality. In addition, this article presents building design with materials (e.g., copper alloys, anti-microbial paintings) and smart technologies (e.g., automation, voice control, and artificial intelligence-based facial recognition) to mitigate the infections of communicable diseases.
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