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We work with policymakers in eight cities worldwide to identify technology pathways toward their near- and long-term carbon emissions reduction targets for existing buildings. Based on policymakers' interests, we define city-specific shallow and deep retrofitting packages along with onsite photovoltaic generation potential. Without further grid decarbonization measures, stock-wide implementation of these retrofits in the investigated neighborhoods reduces energy use and carbon emissions by up to 66% and 84%, respectively, helping Braga, Dublin, Florianopolis, Middlebury, and Singapore to meet their 2030 goals. With projected grid decarbonization, Florianopolis and Singapore will reach their 2050 goals. The remaining emissions stem from municipalities not planning to electrify heating and/or domestic hot water use. Different climates and construction practices lead to varying retrofit packages, suggesting that comparable technology pathway analyses should be conducted for municipalities worldwide. Twenty months after the project ended, seven cities have implemented policy measures or expanded the analysis across their building stock. Here, the authors perform analysis of technology pathways for existing buildings using urban building energy models developed with cities, showing that shallow and deep retrofits along with onsite photovoltaic and grid decarbonization can help achieve carbon reduction targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2000 and 2015, annual electric peak demand in Kuwait has doubled to 15000 MW and the Ministry of Energy and Water expects this number to double once more by 2030 attributing 70% of this growth to new housing projects. Within this context, this manuscript evaluates the effect of incorporating PCM-wallboards in low-rise air-conditioned residential heavyweight buildings in Kuwait. Using an EnergyPlus single-zone model, a parametric study is performed considering several window-to-wall ratios (WWRs), different solar orientations and some PCM-wallboards configurations. The main study goals are to: (i) explore the validity of a single PCM-wallboard solution that can be universally applied throughout residential buildings in Kuwait; (ii) evaluate the impact of PCMwallboard on the reduction of both cooling demand and peak-loads; (iii) provide some guidelines for incorporating PCM-wallboards in Kuwait. Following an extensive parametric study, a 4 cm thick PCM-wallboard with a melting-peak temperature of 24 °C yielded the lowest annual cooling demand across a variety of room orientations and WWRs assuming cooling setpoint of 24 °C. Its implementation led to annual cooling energy savings of 4%-5% across all the case-studies. Regarding the impact throughout the year, cooling demand and peak-loads can be reduced by 5%-7% during summer months. The average daily cooling loads can be reduced by 5%-8%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production of recombinant receptors has been one of the major bottlenecks in structural biology on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The MePNet (Membrane Protein Network) was established to overexpress a large number of GPCRs in three major expression systems, based on Escherichia coli, Pichia pastoris and Semliki Forest virus (SFV) vectors. Evaluation by immunodetection demonstrated that 50% of a total of 103 GPCRs were expressed in bacterial inclusion bodies, 94% in yeast cell membranes and 95% in SFV-infected mammalian cells. The expression levels varied from low to high and the various GPCR families and subtypes were analyzed for their expressability in each expression system. More than 60% of the GPCRs were expressed at milligram levels or higher in one or several systems, compatible to structural biology applications. Functional activity was determined by binding assays in yeast and mammalian cells and the correlation between immunodetection and binding activity was analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate occupancy is crucial for planning for sustainable buildings. Using massive, passively-collected mobile phone data, we introduce a novel framework to estimate building occupancy at unprecedented scale. We show that, at urban-scale, occupancy differs widely from current estimates based on building types. For commercial buildings, we find typical occupancy rates are 5 times lower than current assumptions imply, while for residential buildings occupancy rates vary widely by neighborhood. Our mobile phone based occupancy estimates are integrated with a state-of-the-art urban building energy model to understand their impact on energy use predictions. Depending on the assumed relationship between occupancy and internal building loads, we find energy consumption which differs by +1% to −15% for residential buildings and by −4% to −21% for commercial buildings, compared to standard methods. This highlights a need for new occupancy-to-load models which can be applied at urban-scale to the diverse set of city building types. Building retrofits offer enormous potential for energy reduction and must be designed with occupancy in mind. Here, the authors developed a method for estimating building occupancy at urban scale using mobile phone traces and they find that energy saving estimates differ by +1 to −15% for residential buildings and by −4 to −21% for commercial buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]