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- Sheng, Weili, et al.
(author)
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Design matters: New insights on optimizing energy consumption for residential buildings
- 2021
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In: Energy and Buildings. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-7788. ; 242
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, we construct a unique database for 1228 residential buildings in Hong Kong to investigate how the spatial features of these residential buildings affect the electricity consumption in the communal area. We choose Hong Kong for this analysis as the city owns a large number of standard-type residential buildings managed by the public institution, which could be affected strongly by environmental policies. Both the machine learning method, based on the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), and econometric regressions are adopted to analyse the data. We first utilize the machine learning LASSO technique to identify the most relevant factors for the subsequent econometric analysis. Our results show that the electricity demand for relatively low consumption building types, such as Twin Tower, is 6% lower than that of the high consumption building types. Newly constructed buildings usually belong to the medium consumption types, with the estimated monthly electricity consumption per apartment in communal areas to be around 50.2 kWh on average in 2020. These findings shed light on the nexus between spatial features and energy use for complex buildings, potentially contributing to the better crafting of energy-saving policy and the improvement of residential building programmes.
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- Yang, Zhen, et al.
(author)
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Genetic variation in the GCKR gene is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Chinese people
- 2011
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In: Molecular Biology Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0301-4851 .- 1573-4978. ; 38:2, s. 1145-1150
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent genome-wide association studies reported that GCKR rs780094 polymorphism is associated with elevated fasting serum triglyceride levels and elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). There are a ample of data on the association between circulating triglyceride, CRP concentrations and risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD). To determine whether the GCKR rs780094 polymorphism contributes to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver, a case-control study was performed in 903 Chinese subjects. Among study population, 436 patients with B-mode ultrasound-proven NAFLD (318 with steatosis hepatis IA degrees, 90 with steatosis hepatis IIA degrees and 28 with steatosis hepatis IIIA degrees) and 467 controls were genotyped by using TaqMan allelic discrimination assays. We confirmed the association of GCKR rs780094 with NAFLD in Chinese people (OR = 1.607, 95% CI 1.139-2.271, P ([dom]) = 7.2 x 10(-3)). In this study, polymorphism in GCKR rs780094 was not significantly associated with the degree of fatty infiltration of the liver. In addition, the T-allele of GCKR rs780094 was significantly associated with increasing fasting triglyceride (P ([add]) = 3.8 x 10(-4)) and CRP (P ([add]) = 2.9 x 10(-4)) concentrations after adjusting for age, gender, and BMI. The association with NAFLD remained significant after adjustment for triglyceride, while adjustment for CRP abolished the association. Genetic variation in GCKR gene rs780094 polymorphism contributes to the risk of NAFLD in Chinese people. The effect of genotype on NAFLD is probably mediated through chronic low-grade systemic inflammation rather than through dislipidemia.
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- Yang, Zhen, et al.
(author)
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PPARG gene Pro12Ala variant contributes to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver in middle-aged and older Chinese population
- 2012
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In: Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-8057 .- 0303-7207. ; 348:1, s. 255-259
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Oxidative stress has been suggested to contribute to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma) heterozygous mice and Pro12Ala (C/G) polymorphism in PPARG exhibited increased resistance to oxidative stress. Smoking increases the production of reactive oxygen species, which could accelerates oxidative stress under overnutrition. To explore whether the C/G polymorphism, alone or in combination with smoking, may promote the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver, a case-control study was performed in 903 Chinese subjects. Among the study population, 436 patients with B-mode ultrasound-proven NAFLD (318 with steatosis hepatis I degrees, 90 with steatosis hepatis II degrees and 28 with steatosis hepatis III degrees) and 467 controls were genotyped by using TaqMan allelic discrimination assays. After adjusting for confounders, the C/C genotype significantly associated with NAFLD (OR = 1.87, 95%CI 1.13-2.85, p = 0.009); smoking was also an independent risk factor for NAFLD (OR = 1.69, 95%CI 1.18-2.43, p = 0.025). In addition, we found possible synergistic effects, the higher risk group (smokers with the C/C genotype) showed 3.75 times higher risk of NAFLD than the low-risk group (non-smokers with C/G genotype) in a multiple logistic analysis after adjusting for the confounders (p < 0.001), but no departure from additivity was found. Our results indicated that the C/C genotype and smoking were significant independent risk factors for NAFLD. The possible synergistic effects of genotype and smoking may promote the development of NAFLD by aggravating oxidative stress, which supports the hypothesis that oxidative stress contributes to the development of NAFLD. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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- Zhang, Jinbao, et al.
(author)
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Chemical Dopant Engineering in Hole Transport Layers for Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells : Insight into the Interfacial Recombination
- 2018
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In: ACS Nano. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1936-0851 .- 1936-086X. ; 12:10, s. 10452-10462
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Chemical doping of organic semiconductors has been recognized as an effective way to enhance the electrical conductivity. In perovskite solar cells (PSCs), various types of dopants have been developed for organic hole transport materials (HTMs); however, the knowledge of the basic requirements for being efficient dopants as well as the comprehensive roles of the dopants in PSCs has not been clearly revealed. Here, three copper-based complexes with controlled redox activities are applied as dopants in PSCs, and it is found that the oxidative reactivity of dopants presents substantial impacts on conductivity, charge dynamics, and solar cell performance. A significant improvement of open- circuit voltage (V-oc) by more than 100 mV and an increase of power conversion efficiency from 13.2 to 19.3% have been achieved by tuning the doping level of the HTM. The observed large variation of V-oc for three dopants reveals their different recombination kinetics at the perovskite/HTM interfaces and suggests a model of an interfacial recombination mechanism. We also suggest that the dopants in HTMs can also affect the charge recombination kinetics as well as the solar cell performance. Based on these findings, a strategy is proposed to physically passivate the electron- hole recombination by inserting an ultrathin Al2O3 insulating layer between the perovskite and the HTM. This strategy contributes a significant enhancement of the power conversion efficiency and environmental stability, indicating that dopant engineering is one crucial way to further improve the performance of PSCs.
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