The paper presents a methodological approach, called “BOttom-up Harmonized Energy-Environmental Models for Europe” (BOHEEME), that combines bottom-up modeling, energy dynamic simulation, and life ...cycle assessment for evaluating and comparing the energy and environmental effects of different renovation strategies of the residential EU building stocks, from micro to the macro level. The study defines 672 building models representative of the residential EU-28 building stocks built before 2010, called archetypes, and the improvement of their envelope, applying different insulation materials from a traditional one to bio-based materials and studying their environmental effects via LCA. The results show that the only improvement of the vertical envelope could reduce the environmental impacts on the residential sector operation of about 6–19% in all the environmental impact categories accounted. Moreover, it could reduce in 2050 about 20% of the CO2eq emission due to the heating and cooling demand and about 13% of the climate change impacts connected to the EU residential energy consumption. The approach and the models proposed could be used for future improvement strategies of all the European residential building stocks, allowing stakeholders, policy-makers, and agencies for identifying the best renovation action.
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•A novel design methodology for NZEBs design.•A coherent framework for the implementation of NZEBs into the existent power grids.•Use of batteries at building scale largely decreases ...the reliance on power grid.•SOFC fed by natural gas allows a good load match at high energy efficiency.
The concept of Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB), as a grid-connected building that generates as much energy as it uses over a given period, has been developing through policies and research agendas during the last decade as a contribution towards the decarbonization of the building sector. However, since the most applicable and widely used renewable energy supply options are non-programmable, the large-scale NZEBs diffusion into the existing power grids can seriously affect their stability having a relapse on operation costs and environmental impacts.
In this context, the study aims at performing the design of the energy systems to be used in the case-study through a wide numbers of point of views, including the grid interaction, global warming potential, and different design alternatives such as using fuel cells and renewable energy generation systems and drawing lessons learned to be saved for similar buildings.
A novel approach for developing for NZEBs, combining load match and grid interaction indicators with an environmental impact indicator, is proposed. The proposed design approach allows for the quantification of the power grid interaction and environmental impact (in terms of Global Warming Potential) aiming to find trade-offs between the opposing tendencies of building energy performances and the need to limit the embodied carbon within building envelope and systems.
The design approach has been used to investigate the performances of a NZEB prototype with the aim to explore the effectiveness of the solution sets used in the current design (only Photovoltaic system) and plan different solutions (batteries and fuel cells system) for the future ones.
For the base case, even though the overall PV energy generation (8069 kWhe) in a year surpasses the electricity consumption (5290 kWhe), on a yearly base only the 29% of the PV generation is used on-site. Hence, the assessed indicators show clearly how installing a PV system merely able to cover the energy uses on a yearly net base (or even slightly oversized) will have stress implications on the power grid.
On the other hand, the use of batteries at the building scale largely decreases the reliance on power grid when not programmable renewable sources are present. Moreover, if coupled to the right size of the on-site generation systems, the storage system could increases the environmental benefits arising from the renewable energy technologies (the GHG emission reaches its minimum value of 0.92·103 kg CO2eq/year, with a reduction of the 50.4% if compared to the base case) for a storage capacity of 20 kWh and a PV system nominal power of 4.56 kW).
Fuel cells guarantee a good load match at high energy efficiency, furthermore, a high installed power of fuel cells is not required to obtain high load cover factor values. On the other hand, since the specific CO2eq emission per unit of energy of the fuel cells are high, the CO2eq emissions are always greater than those of the base case if the system is equipped with a fuel cell system. Therefore, future research will have to focus on the eco-design of fuel cells with to reduce environmental impacts of these systems in a life cycle perspective.
In general, we know that gesture accompanying spoken instruction can help children learn. The present study was conducted to better understand
how
gesture can support children’s comprehension of ...spoken instruction and whether the benefit of teaching though speech and gesture over spoken instruction alone depends on differences in cognitive profile – prior knowledge children have that is related to a to-be-learned concept. To answer this question, we explored the impact of gesture instruction on children’s analogical reasoning ability. Children between the ages of 4 and 11 years solved scene analogy problems before and after speech alone or speech and gesture instruction while their visual attention was monitored. Our behavioral results suggest a marginal benefit of gesture instruction over speech alone, but only 5-year-old children showed a distinct advantage from speech + gesture instruction when solving the post-instruction trial, suggesting that at this age, children have the cognitive profile in place to utilize the added support of gesture. Furthermore, while speech + gesture instruction facilitated effective visual attention during instruction, directing attention away from featural matches and toward relational information was pivotal for younger children’s success post instruction. We consider how these results contribute to the gesture-for-learning literature and consider how the nuanced impact of gesture is informative for educators teaching tasks of analogy in the classroom.
Asparaginyl endopeptidases (AEPs) are a class of enzymes commonly associated with proteolysis in the maturation of seed storage proteins. However, a subset of AEPs work preferentially as peptide ...ligases, coupling release of a leaving group to formation of a new peptide bond. These "ligase-type" AEPs require only short recognition motifs to ligate a range of targets, making them useful tools in peptide and protein engineering for cyclisation of peptides or ligation of separate peptides into larger products. Here we report the recombinant expression, ligase activity and cyclisation kinetics of three new AEPs from the cyclotide producing plant Oldenlandia affinis with superior kinetics to the prototypical recombinant AEP ligase OaAEP1
. These AEPs work preferentially as ligases at both acidic and neutral pH and we term them "canonical AEP ligases" to distinguish them from other AEPs where activity preferences shift according to pH. We show that these ligases intrinsically favour ligation over hydrolysis, are highly efficient at cyclising two unrelated peptides and are compatible with organic co-solvents. Finally, we demonstrate the broad scope of recombinant AEPs in biotechnology by the backbone cyclisation of an intrinsically disordered protein, the 25 kDa malarial vaccine candidate Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein 2 (MSP2).
Given the importance of analogical reasoning to bootstrapping children's understanding of the world, why is this ability so challenging for children? Two common sources of error have been implicated: ...1) children's inability to prioritize relational information during initial problem solving; 2) children's inability to disengage from salient distractors. Here, we use eye tracking to examine children and adults' looking patterns when solving scene analogies, finding that children and adults attended differently to distractors, and that this attention predicted performance. These results provide the most direct evidence to date that feature based distraction is an important way children and adults differ during early analogical reasoning. In contrast to recent work using propositional analogies, we find no differences in children and adults' prioritization of relational information during problem solving, and while there are some differences in general attentional strategies across age groups, neither prioritization of relational information nor attentional strategy predict successful problem solving. Together, our results suggest that analogy problem format should be taken into account when considering developmental factors in children's analogical reasoning.
•Analogy format impacts children's visual attention patterns during problem-solving.•Analogy format does not impact adults' visual attention patterns during solving.•Contrary to previous work, attention to the source relation affected problem-solving.•Inability to disengage from featural distractors leads to poor performance.
A large number of methods for energy systems analysis were developed in the last decades, aimed at acquiring an in-depth understanding of plant performances and enabling analysts to identify optimal ...design and operating conditions. In this work an integrated approach based on Life Cycle Assessment and Thermoeconomics is proposed as a method for assessing the exergo-environmental profile of energy systems. The procedure combines the capabilities of these two techniques, to account simultaneously for aspects related to thermodynamics of energy conversion processes and to the overall impacts along the plant life cycle related to other phases, i.e. from raw material extraction to the disposal of facilities. The capabilities of the method are illustrated by applying it to a water-cooled vapor compression chiller. After developing an accurate analysis of plant design and bill of materials of the chiller, the exergo-environmental profile was obtained. Then, the method was used as a decision support tool by considering a number of scenarios concerning possible design alternatives, context conditions and levels of maintenance. Results showed that the exergo-environmental performance of the chiller is highly sensitive to the electricity generation mix, which influences the trade-offs between the energo-environmental impacts related with plant operation and construction.
•An approach combining Thermoeconomics and Life Cycle Assessment is proposed.•Sensitivity to design, context condition and maintenance is studied for a chiller.•The approach detects trade-off between opposing effects on environmental impacts.•An oversized condenser achieves lowest exergy consumption but highest impacts.•In renewables-based grid mix, the undersized evaporator achieves lowest impacts.
Abstract
The concept of Positive Energy District is one of the research ideas that embody the ambitions of decarbonization, renovation (both literal and in a wider perspective) and inclusivity for ...the urban environment portrayed in the EU activities. In this framework, the paper presents a modeling and simulation tool which allows for an early-design depth to be applied in the field of Positive Energy Districts renovation design and integrated performance assessment. The work aims at creating a tool for stakeholders and designers that would allow them to: a) Calculate carbon impacts along the life cycle for different technical systems and materials used for retrofitting; b) Compute use stage carbon emissions, including import-export of electricity; c) Computations of PED carbon emission balances, along the expected useful life of the district computing both embodied and the use stage carbon emissions. The tool has been created as a spreadsheet including typical profiles of energy use per building archetype, with the inclusion of available and free Life Cycle Assessment data within the life cycle carbon assessment and aims at jointly developing use stage and life cycle considerations. It was tested on a district case studies in the EU.
Despite the growing interest in the evolutionary cytogenetics of squamates, chromosomal data are lacking for most taxa. We performed a preliminary molecular taxonomic analysis and a comparative ...cytogenetic study on Hemorrhois hippocrepis and Malpolon monspessulanus. We used a combination of standard karyotyping, Chromomycin A
3
/Methyl green staining, C-banding, Ag-NOR staining and NOR-FISH to provide the first karyotype description of H. hippocrepis and a re-description of the karyotype of M. monspessulanus, including chromosome markers, heterochromatin patterns and sex chromosome systems. Our results show that H. hippocrepis has 2 n = 36 chromosomes, with 16 macro- and 20 microchromosomes and NORs on the 6
th
pair. The 4
th
pair represents homomorphic (metacentric) ZW sex chromosomes, but the W chromosome is completely heterochromatic. Malpolon monspessulanus has 2 n = 44 chromosomes, with 20 macro- and 24 microchromosomes, NORs on the 6
th
telocentric pair. The 4
th
pair represents the sex chromosomes (ZZ/ZW), with a W chromosome smaller than the Z and completely heterochromatic. Comparing our cytogenetic data to those available from the literature, we note the occurrence and distribution of primitive and derived chromosomal characteristics and discuss the chromosome diversification in two snake clades belonging to Colubridae and Psammophiidae, respectively. We highlight that these two families followed different chromosome diversification pathways, characterised by a highly conserved karyotype structure in Colubridae and a higher chromosome variability in Psammophiidae, mostly driven by a progressive reduction of the chromosome number by means of chromosome fusions. We also provide cytotaxonomic insights supporting the distinction between M. monspessulanus and M. insignitus.
Plant cyclotides are a large family of naturally occurring circular proteins that are produced from linear precursors containing one, two or three cyclotide domains. The mechanism of excision of the ...cyclotide domains and ligation of the free N- and C-termini to produce the circular peptides has not been elucidated. Here, we investigate production of the prototypic cyclotide kalata B1 from the precursor Oak1 from the African plant Oldenlandia affinis. Immunoprecipitation experiments and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis showed that O. affinis only produces mature kalata B1, whereas transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana benthamiana produced both linear and circular forms. Circular peptides were not produced when a highly conserved asparagine residue at the C-terminal processing site of the cyclotide domain was replaced with an alanine or an aspartate residue, or when the conserved C-terminal tripeptide motif was truncated. We propose that there are two processing pathways in planta: one to produce the mature cyclotide and the other to produce linear variants that ultimately cannot be cyclized.
Abstract
Crystal Eye idea comes from the analysis of two gravitational waves events: GW170817 and GW190425. Both events were referred to neutron star mergers. In the first case Fermi-GBM and INTEGRAL ...claimed the detection of a short Gamma Ray Burst (GRB 170817A) and in order to follow up and target the GW electromagnetic counterparts, a huge effort has been made by other satellites and ground-based experiments. In the second case, only INTEGRAL claimed the detection of a faint GRB (GRB 190425) while Fermi satellite was in Earth occultation. Crystal Eye is a space-based X and γ ray all-sky monitor sensitive in the 10 keV - 30 MeV energy range. In its baseline configuration, it consists of a hemisphere, made by 112 pixels, with a wide (about 6 sr) field of view (FOV), a full sky coverage and a very large effective area (6 times Fermi-GBM at 1 MeV) in the energy range of interest. Given the pixel structure – a two-layer crystal scintillator and a plastic scintillator veto layer – and the hemispherical design, Crystal Eye concentrate the pointing capability of a γ-ray telescope and the sky coverage of an all-sky monitor in a single detector. Moreover, the use of Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) at the place of traditional PMs, besides being a challenge for their qualification for space missions, allows a more compact and less power-consuming design. A Crystal Eye pathfinder has been designed and realized to be tested in view of the mission on the Space Rider by ESA. The prototype is made by 4 pixels. The mission is aimed at testing in the space environment the LYSO crystals, the MPPC-arrays and the DAQ board.
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