Thermal simulation software outputs: a conceptual data model of information presentation for building design decision-making

Building simulation outputs are inherently complex and numerous. Extracting meaningful information from them requires knowledge which mainly resides only in the hands of experts. Initiatives to address this problem tend either to provide very constrained output data interfaces or leave it to the user to customize data organisation and query. This work proposes a conceptual data model from which meaningful dynamic thermal simulation information for building design decision-making may be constructed and presented to the user. It describes how the model was generated and can become operational, with examples of its applications to practical problems. The paper therefore contains useful information for software developers to help in specifying and designing simulation outputs which better respond to building designers’ needs

A cold and fresh ocean surface in the Nordic Seas during MIS 11: Significance for the future ocean

Paleoceanographical studies of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 have revealed higher-than-present sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the North Atlantic and in parts of the Arctic but lower-than-present SSTs in the Nordic Seas, the main throughflow area of warm water into the Arctic Ocean. We resolve this contradiction by complementing SST data based on planktic foraminiferal abundances with surface salinity changes using hydrogen isotopic compositions of alkenones in a core from the central Nordic Seas. The data indicate the prevalence of a relatively cold, low-salinity, surface water layer in the Nordic Seas during most of MIS 11. In spite of the low-density surface layer, which was kept buoyant by continuous melting of surrounding glaciers, warmer Atlantic water was still propagating northward at the subsurface thus maintaining meridional overturning circulation. This study can help to better constrain the impact of continuous melting of Greenland and Arctic ice on high-latitude ocean circulation and climate

"Plantar pro gasto": a importância do autoconsumo entre famílias de agricultores do Rio Grande do Sul.

O artigo discute a valoração e importância da produção para o autoconsumo na reprodução social das unidades familiares e caracteriza os alimentos autoconsumidos. Vale-se da pesquisa "Agricultura Familiar, Desenvolvimento Local e Pluriatividade" (UFRGS/UFPel/ CNPq-2003) que propiciou a formação de um banco de dados com informações sobre a dinâmica da agricultura familiar em quatro regiões distintas da geografia gaúcha, suas fontes e tipos de renda, entre estas o autoconsumo. Trazer este debate significa retomar um tema pouco discutido até então, e que, embora marginalizado ou considerado sem importância, desenvolve importante papel como renda não monetária, fortalece a segurança alimentar e adentra esferas da sociabilidade e identidade social. Além da introdução, apresenta-se o papel do autoconsumo na agricultura familiar, o cálculo da produção para o autoconsumo, discussão dos objetivos e resultados, e considerações finais. Os resultados demonstram que a produção para o autoconsumo é uma estratégia recorrente pelas unidades familiares e se diferencia de acordo com a dinâmica da agricultura familiar. Diferença esta expressa em valores relativos (%) e no número de estabelecimentos pertencentes a estratos diferenciados de autoconsumo, e pouco nos tipos de alimentos produzidos para este fim, observando-se uma homogeneidade dos hábitos alimentares

Occupants in the building design decision-making process

Building occupants affect building performance in many ways, depending on how the building design responds to what occupants need, the amount of control that building designers have afforded them, and how well the design team has anticipated the way they will want to interact with the building and its systems in the future. This chapter discusses the challenge of integrating considerations related to building occupancy and occupant behavior into the decision-making process of building designers. It outlines the role of information management in coordinating information needed by designers at different design stages and contexts, and the range of occupancy-related factors to be considered in design practice, to facilitate performance and risk assessment in relation to legislation, regulations, and the interests of the client. This practice-based context forms the background for a discussion on how information and decisions about occupants could flow throughout the design process in a coherent and coordinated way. It concludes by proposing a knowledge management template for recording and supporting information transfer regarding occupancy throughout the design decision-making process, which can fit within and support current industry tools such as building information modeling and building performance simulation

Multi-Step Ordering in Kagome and Square Artificial Spin Ice

We show that in colloidal models of artificial kagome and modified square ice systems, a variety of ordering and disordering regimes occur as a function of biasing field, temperature, and colloid-colloid interaction strength, including ordered monopole crystals, biased ice rule states, thermally induced ice rule ground states, biased triple states, and disordered states. We describe the lattice geometries and biasing field protocols that create the different states and explain the formation of the states in terms of sublattice switching thresholds. For a system prepared in a monopole lattice state, we show that a sequence of different orderings occurs for increasing temperature. Our results also explain several features observed in nanomagnetic artificial ice systems under an applied field.Comment: 16 pages, 11 postscript figure

High doses of medroxyprogesterone as the cause of disappearance of adherence of the zona pellucida to an oocyte

The zona pellucida (ZP) is an external glycoprotein membrane of oocytes of mammals and embryos in the early stage of their development. ZP first appears in growing ovarian follicles as an extracellular substance between the oocyte and granular cells. The zona pellucid markedly affects the development and maturation of the oocyte. The morphology of the ZP-oocyte complex allows a more precise determination of the oocyte maturity. According to numerous experimental studies, ZP is essential for preimplantation embryonic development of humans and other mammals. It prevents dispersion of blastomeres and enhances their mutual interactions. ZP is a dynamic structure responsible for the provision of nutrients to early forms of oocytes in mammals. The aim of the present study was untrastructural evaluation of the ZP-oocyte contact during inhibited ovulation. Female white rats (Wistar strain) received a suspension of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) in incremental intramuscular bolus doses of 3.7 mg (therapeutic dose), 7.4 mg and 11.1 mg. The animals were decapitated 5 days after the administration of MPA. Ovarian sections were evaluated under a transmission electron microscope (TEM) Zeiss EM 900. Morphometric analysis of ZP was conducted using the cell imaging system by Olympus. In females exposed to therapeutic doses of MPA, ZP showed the structure of granular-fibrous reticulum of a medium electron density with single cytoplasmic processes originating from the surrounding structures. The oocyte cell membrane generated single, delicate processes directed toward ZP. Microvilli of the oocyte were short and thin. In the group receiving 7.4 mg of MPA, ZP had the structure of a delicate, loose granular-fibrous reticulum, and the oocyte cell membrane generated single microvilli directed toward ZP. In both those groups, the close ZP-oocyte contact was observed. Otherwise, in the group exposed to the highest MPA doses (11.1 mg), thicker and more numerous oocyte microvilli were found, which did not penetrate ZP matrix. They were dense, irregularly separated contour, forming a barrier between ZP and oocyte. The present findings are likely to suggest that MPA has inhibiting effects on the synthesis of binding proteins and causes the loss of the oocyte contact with ZP

Evolutionary patterns of two major reproduction candidate genes (Zp2 and Zp3) reveal no contribution to reproductive isolation between bovine species

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It has been established that mammalian egg zona pellucida (ZP) glycoproteins are responsible for species-restricted binding of sperm to unfertilized eggs, inducing the sperm acrosome reaction, and preventing polyspermy. In mammals, ZP apparently represents a barrier to heterospecific fertilization and thus probably contributes to reproductive isolation between species. The evolutionary relationships between some members of the tribe Bovini are complex and highly debatable, particularly, those involving <it>Bos </it>and <it>Bison </it>species for which interspecific hybridization is extensively documented. Because reproductive isolation is known to be a major precursor of species divergence, testing evolutionary patterns of ZP glycoproteins may shed some light into the speciation process of these species. To this end, we have examined intraspecific and interspecific genetic variation of two ZP genes (<it>Zp2 </it>and <it>Zp3</it>) for seven representative species (111 individuals) from the Bovini tribe, including five species from <it>Bos </it>and <it>Bison</it>, and two species each from genera <it>Bubalus </it>and <it>Syncerus</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A pattern of low levels of intraspecific polymorphism and interspecific divergence was detected for the two sequenced fragments each for <it>Zp2 </it>and <it>Zp3</it>. At intraspecific level, none of neutrality tests detected deviations from neutral equilibrium expectations for the two genes. Several haplotypes in both genes were shared by multiple species from <it>Bos </it>and <it>Bison</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Here we argue that neither ancestral polymorphism nor introgressive hybridization alone can fully account for haplotype sharing among species from <it>Bos </it>and <it>Bison</it>, and that both scenarios have contributed to such a pattern of haplotype sharing observed here. Additionally, codon-based tests revealed strong evidence for purifying selection in the <it>Zp3 </it>coding haplotype sequences and weak evidence for purifying selection in the <it>Zp2 </it>coding haplotype sequences. Contrary to a general genetic pattern that genes or genomic regions contributing to reproductive isolation between species often evolve rapidly and show little or no gene flow between species, these results demonstrate that, particularly, those sequenced exons of the <it>Zp2 </it>and the <it>Zp3 </it>did not show any contribution to reproductive isolation between the bovine species studied here.</p

Links between cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women: serum lipids or atherosclerosis per se?

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Epidemiological observations suggest links between osteoporosis and risk of acute cardiovascular events and vice versa. Whether the two clinical conditions are linked by common pathogenic factors or atherosclerosis per se remains incompletely understood. We investigated whether serum lipids and polymorphism in the ApoE gene modifying serum lipids could be a biological linkage. METHODS: This was an observational study including 1176 elderly women 60–85 years old. Women were genotyped for epsilon (ɛ) allelic variants of the ApoE gene, and data concerning serum lipids (total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-C, LDL-C, apoA1, ApoB, Lp(a)), hip and spine BMD, aorta calcification (AC), radiographic vertebral fracture and self-reported wrist and hip fractures, cardiovascular events together with a wide array of demographic and lifestyle characteristics were collected. RESULTS: Presence of the ApoE ɛ4 allele had a significant impact on serum lipid profile, yet no association with spine/hip BMD or AC could be established. In multiple regression models, apoA1 was a significant independent contributor to the variation in AC. However, none of the lipid components were independent contributors to the variation in spine or hip BMD. When comparing the women with or without vertebral fractures, serum triglycerides showed significant differences. This finding was however not applicable to hip or wrist fractures. After adjustment for age, severe AC score (≥6) and/or manifest cardiovascular disease increased the risk of hip but not vertebral or wrist fractures. CONCLUSION: The contribution of serum lipids to the modulators of BMD does not seem to be direct but rather indirect via promotion of atherosclerosis, which in turn can affect bone metabolism locally, especially when skeletal sites supplied by end-arteries are concerned. Further studies are needed to explore the genetic or environmental risk factors underlying the association of low triglyceride levels to vertebral fractures

The Spectrum of IDH- and H3-Wildtype High-Grade Glioma Subgroups Occurring across Teenage and Young Adult Patient Populations

Purpose: High-grade gliomas (HGG) occur in any central nervous system location and at any age. HGGs in teenagers/young adults (TYA) are understudied. This project aimed to characterize these tumors to support accurate stratification of patients. / / Experimental Design: 207 histone/IDH wild-type tumors from patients aged 13 to 30 years were collected. DNA methylation profiling [Illumina EPIC BeadArrays, brain tumor classifier (MNPv12.8 R package)] classified cases against reference cohorts of HGG. Calibrated scores guided characterization workflows [RNA-based ArcherDx fusion panel (n = 92), whole-exome sequencing (n = 107), and histology review). / / Results: 53.4% (n = 86) matched as pediatric-type subgroups [pedHGG_RTK1A/B/C (31.7%, n = 51, PDGFRA, CDKN2A/B, SETD2, and NF1 alterations), pedHGG_MYCN (8.1%, n = 13, MYCN/ID2 amplifications), and pedHGG_RTK2A/B (7.5%, n = 12, TP53, BCOR, ATRX, and EGFR alterations)]. Eighteen percent (n = 29) classified as adult-type subgroups [GBM_MES (15.5%, n = 25, enriched for RB1, PTEN, and NF1 alterations) and GBM_RTK1/2 (2.5%, n = 4, CDK4 amplifications)]. Twenty-three cases (14.7%) classified as novel, poorly characterized subgroups with distinct methylation profiles and molecular features [pedHGG_A/B (n = 10 6.2%), HGG_E (n = 6 3.7%), HGG_B (n = 2 1.0%), and GBM_CBM (n = 5 3.1%)] with variable histologic morphology. Eight cases (5.1%) showed hypermutator phenotypes, enriched in HGG_E, one of which was associated with constitutional mismatch repair deficiency, and their sibling, who was diagnosed with the same syndrome, was diagnosed with a tumor that classified as a pedHGG_RTK1B. HGGs that have developed on a background of previous treatment for a childhood cancer are detected in the TYA population, classifying most frequently as pedHGG_RTK1 and contributing to the poor prognosis of this subgroup. Age distribution/molecular profile comparisons using publicly available methylation/sequencing data (and from local diagnostic cohorts) for HGG_B (n = 19), GBM_CBM (n = 35), and GBM_MES_ATYP (n = 102), irrespective of age, show that HGG_B is a TYA-specific subgroup (median age 29 years) and that GBM_CBM and GBM_MES_ATYP show a peak of distribution in the TYA population but also have a wider age distribution (median age 35.7 and 50.5 years, respectively), with the latter showing distinct differences in copy-number profiles compared with older adults in the same subgroup and containing fewer chr7 gains, chr10 losses, more CDKN2A/B deletions and MET amplifications, and a worse survival compared with adult-specific GBM_MES_TYP. / / Conclusions: TYA HGGs comprise novel methylation subgroups with distinct methylation and molecular profiles. Accurate stratification of these patients will open opportunities to more effective treatments, including immune checkpoint, MAPK pathway, and PDGFRA inhibitors