Energy use in residential buildings for sustainable development: The fifth Solar Decathlon Europe revelations.

This research focuses on achieving sustainable development in residential buildings with energy use. Under the influence of the energy crisis and related problems, research on residential buildings for less energy use has great potential. The literature review, according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, and including VOSviewer analysis, shows the research is increasing and meaningful. Solar Decathlon buildings are used as the main objects in this research. The fifth Solar Decathlon Europe energy use technologies are examined through onsite investigation and online searching. The Analytic Hierarchy Process method for multi-criteria decision analysis is used for sustainability assessment. Moreover, the Ladybug and ClimateStudio plugins simulated respectively the annual solar radiation and the best angle for receiving it. The main findings show that 34 kinds of technologies used in these buildings can be classified into two categories in three directions. Passive technologies should be applied and prioritized, but generating renewable energy is also important. Some infrequently used technologies are not insignificant. The research shows that the combination of technologies decides sustainability performance, but the quantity used does not. Furthermore, energy use also needs to be balanced and coordinated in combination with architectural aesthetics. This research on energy use in residential buildings is beneficial for achieving sustainable development.

Physical environment research of the family ward for a healthy residential environment.

Climate change and population aging are two of the most important global health challenges in this century. A 2020 study by the Environmental Protection Agency showed that average people, particularly older adults, spent 90% of their time at home. This is even more evident during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Home-based care models have become a new trend. The health and comfort of the living environment profoundly impacts the wellbeing of older adults. Therefore, research on the physical environment of the family wards has become an inevitable part of promoting the health of older adults; however, current research is still lacking. Based on the study and analysis of continuous monitoring data related to elements of the physical environment (thermal comfort, acoustic quality, lighting quality, and indoor air quality) of family wards, this paper explores the living behaviors of the participants in this environmental research (open or closed windows, air conditioning, artificial lighting, and television) on the indoor physical environment. (1) While referring to the requirements of international standards for an indoor aging-friendly physical environment, we also discuss and analyze the physical environment parameter values according to Chinese standards. (2) People's life behaviors have different degrees of influence on the elements of indoor physical environments. For example, opening doors and windows can alleviate the adverse effects of indoor environmental quality on the human body better than simply turning on the air conditioner. (3) Owing to the decline in physical function, older adults need special care. Studying the status quo of physical environmental elements and proposing suitable environmental improvement measures for aging are of great significance. (4) This research aims to address global warming and severe aging and to contribute to sustainable environmental development.

Intercellular bridges in vertebrate gastrulation.

The developing zebrafish embryo has been the subject of many studies of regional patterning, stereotypical cell movements and changes in cell shape. To better study the morphological features of cells during gastrulation, we generated mosaic embryos expressing membrane attached Dendra2 to highlight cellular boundaries. We find that intercellular bridges join a significant fraction of epiblast cells in the zebrafish embryo, reaching several cell diameters in length and spanning across different regions of the developing embryos. These intercellular bridges are distinct from the cellular protrusions previously reported as extending from hypoblast cells (1-2 cellular diameters in length) or epiblast cells (which were shorter). Most of the intercellular bridges were formed at pre-gastrula stages by the daughters of a dividing cell maintaining a membrane tether as they move apart after mitosis. These intercellular bridges persist during gastrulation and can mediate the transfer of proteins between distant cells. These findings reveal a surprising feature of the cellular landscape in zebrafish embryos and open new possibilities for cell-cell communication during gastrulation, with implications for modeling, cellular mechanics, and morphogenetic signaling.

Stereotypical cell division orientation controls neural rod midline formation in zebrafish.

The development of multicellular organisms is dependent on the tight coordination between tissue growth and morphogenesis. The stereotypical orientation of cell divisions has been proposed to be a fundamental mechanism by which proliferating and growing tissues take shape. However, the actual contribution of stereotypical division orientation (SDO) to tissue morphogenesis is unclear. In zebrafish, cell divisions with stereotypical orientation have been implicated in both body-axis elongation and neural rod formation, although there is little direct evidence for a critical function of SDO in either of these processes. Here we show that SDO is required for formation of the neural rod midline during neurulation but dispensable for elongation of the body axis during gastrulation. Our data indicate that SDO during both gastrulation and neurulation is dependent on the noncanonical Wnt receptor Frizzled 7 (Fz7) and that interfering with cell division orientation leads to severe defects in neural rod midline formation but not body-axis elongation. These findings suggest a novel function for Fz7-controlled cell division orientation in neural rod midline formation during neurulation.

Dickkopf-1 regulates gastrulation movements by coordinated modulation of Wnt/beta catenin and Wnt/PCP activities, through interaction with the Dally-like homolog Knypek.

Dickkopf-1 (Dkk1) is a secreted protein that negatively modulates the Wnt/beta catenin pathway. Lack of Dkk1 function affects head formation in frog and mice, supporting the idea that Dkk1 acts as a "head inducer" during gastrulation. We show here that lack of Dkk1 function accelerates internalization and rostral progression of the mesendoderm and that gain of function slows down both internalization and convergence extension, indicating a novel role for Dkk1 in modulating these movements. The motility phenotype found in the morphants is not observed in embryos in which the Wnt/beta catenin pathway is overactivated, and that dominant-negative Wnt proteins are not able to rescue the gastrulation movement defect induced by absence of Dkk1. These data strongly suggest that Dkk1 is acting in a beta catenin independent fashion when modulating gastrulation movements. We demonstrate that the glypican 4/6 homolog Knypek (Kny) binds to Dkk1 and that they are able to functionally interact in vivo. Moreover, Dkk1 regulation of gastrulation movements is kny dependent. Kny is a component of the Wnt/planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway. We found that indeed Dkk1 is able to activate this pathway in both Xenopus and zebrafish. Furthermore, concomitant alteration of the beta catenin and PCP activities is able to mimic the morphant accelerated cell motility phenotype. Our data therefore indicate that Dkk1 regulates gastrulation movement through interaction with LRP5/6 and Kny and coordinated modulations of Wnt/beta catenin and Wnt/PCP pathways.

Inhibition of Wnt/Axin/beta-catenin pathway activity promotes ventral CNS midline tissue to adopt hypothalamic rather than floorplate identity.

Ventral midline cells in the neural tube form floorplate throughout most of the central nervous system (CNS) but in the anterior forebrain, they differentiate with hypothalamic identity. The signalling pathways responsible for subdivision of midline neural tissue into hypothalamic and floorplate domains are uncertain, and in this study, we have explored the role of the Wnt/Axin/beta-catenin pathway in this process. This pathway has been implicated in anteroposterior regionalisation of the dorsal neural tube but its role in patterning ventral midline tissue has not been rigorously assessed. We find that masterblind zebrafish embryos that carry a mutation in Axin1, an intracellular negative regulator of Wnt pathway activity, show an expansion of prospective floorplate coupled with a reduction of prospective hypothalamic tissue. Complementing this observation, transplantation of cells overexpressing axin1 into the prospective floorplate leads to induction of hypothalamic gene expression and suppression of floorplate marker gene expression. Axin1 is more efficient at inducing hypothalamic markers than several other Wnt pathway antagonists, and we present data suggesting that this may be due to an ability to promote Nodal signalling in addition to suppressing Wnt activity. Indeed, extracellular Wnt antagonists can promote hypothalamic gene expression when co-expressed with a modified form of Madh2 that activates Nodal signalling. These results suggest that Nodal signalling promotes the ability of cells to incorporate into ventral midline tissue, and within this tissue, antagonism of Wnt signalling promotes the acquisition of hypothalamic identity. Wnt signalling also affects patterning within the hypothalamus, suggesting that this pathway is involved in both the initial anteroposterior subdivision of ventral CNS midline fates and in the subsequent regionalisation of the hypothalamus. We suggest that by regulating the response of midline cells to signals that induce ventral fates, Axin1 and other modulators of Wnt pathway activity provide a mechanism by which cells can integrate dorsoventral and anteroposterior patterning information.

Establishment of the telencephalon during gastrulation by local antagonism of Wnt signaling.

Cells at the anterior boundary of the neural plate (ANB) can induce telencephalic gene expression when transplanted to more posterior regions. Here, we identify a secreted Frizzled-related Wnt antagonist, Tlc, that is expressed in ANB cells and can cell nonautonomously promote telencephalic gene expression in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, abrogation of Tlc function compromises telencephalic development. We also identify Wnt8b as a locally acting modulator of regional fate in the anterior neural plate and a likely target for antagonism by Tlc. Finally, we show that tlc expression is regulated by signals that establish early antero-posterior and dorso-ventral ectodermal pattern. From these studies, we propose that local antagonism of Wnt activity within the anterior ectoderm is required to establish the telencephalon.