DNA nanomachines reveal an adaptive energy mode in confinement-induced amoeboid migration powered by polarized mitochondrial distribution.

Energy metabolism is highly interdependent with adaptive cell migration in vivo. Mechanical confinement is a critical physical cue that induces switchable migration modes of the mesenchymal-to-amoeboid transition (MAT). However, the energy states in distinct migration modes, especially amoeboid-like stable bleb (A2) movement, remain unclear. In this report, we developed multivalent DNA framework-based nanomachines to explore strategical mitochondrial trafficking and differential ATP levels during cell migration in mechanically heterogeneous microenvironments. Through single-particle tracking and metabolomic analysis, we revealed that fast A2-moving cells driven by biomimetic confinement recruited back-end positioning of mitochondria for powering highly polarized cytoskeletal networks, preferentially adopting an energy-saving mode compared with a mesenchymal mode of cell migration. We present a versatile DNA nanotool for cellular energy exploration and highlight that adaptive energy strategies coordinately support switchable migration modes for facilitating efficient metastatic escape, offering a unique perspective for therapeutic interventions in cancer metastasis.

Colorful low-emissivity paints for space heating and cooling energy savings.

Space heating and cooling consume ~13% of global energy every year. The development of advanced materials that promote energy savings in heating and cooling is gaining increasing attention. To thermally isolate the space of concern and minimize the heat exchange with the outside environment has been recognized as one effective solution. To this end, here, we develop a universal category of colorful low-emissivity paints to form bilayer coatings consisting of an infrared (IR)-reflective bottom layer and an IR-transparent top layer in colors. The colorful visual appearance ensures the aesthetical effect comparable to conventional paints. High mid-infrared reflectance (up to ~80%) is achieved, which is more than 10 times as conventional paints in the same colors, efficiently reducing both heat gain and loss from/to the outside environment. The high near-IR reflectance also benefits reducing solar heat gain in hot days. The advantageous features of these paints strike a balance between energy savings and penalties for heating and cooling throughout the year, providing a comprehensive year-round energy-saving solution adaptable to a wide variety of climatic zones. Taking a typical midrise apartment building as an example, the application of our colorful low-emissivity paints can realize positive heating, ventilation, and air conditioning energy saving, up to 27.24 MJ/m2/y (corresponding to the 7.4% saving ratio). Moreover, the versatility of the paint, along with its applicability to diverse surfaces of various shapes and materials, makes the paints extensively useful in a range of scenarios, including building envelopes, transportation, and storage.

Porous NiMoO4 Nanosheet Films and a Device with Ultralarge Optical Modulation for Electrochromic Energy-Storage Applications.

Reducing building energy consumption, improving aesthetics, and improving occupant privacy as well as comfort by dynamically adjusting solar radiation are important application areas for electrochromic (EC) smart windows. However, the current transition metal oxides still cannot meet the requirements of neutral coloration and large optical modulation. We report NiMoO4 nanosheet films directly grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide glasses. The as-grown NiMoO4 film not only achieves neutral coloration from transparent to dark brown but also shows an ultralarge optical modulation (86.8% at 480 nm) and excellent cycling stability (99.4% retention of maximum optical modulation after 1500 cycles). Meanwhile, an EC device demonstrating good EC performance was constructed. These results will greatly promote the research and development of binary transition metal oxides for both EC and energy-storage applications, and NiMoO4 films may be an excellent candidate to replace NiO films as ion-storage layers in complementary EC devices with WO3 films as EC layers.

Facile and Widely Applicable Route to Self-Adaptive Emissivity Modulation: Energy-Saving Demonstration with Transparent Wood.

The cooling power provided by radiative cooling is unwanted during cold hours. Therefore, self-adaptive regulation is desired for radiative cooling, especially in all-weather applications. However, current routes for radiative cooling regulation are constrained by substrates and complicated processing. Here, self-adaptive radiative cooling regulation on various potential substrates (transparent wood, PET, normal glass, and cement) was achieved by a Fabry-Perot structure consisting of a silver nanowires (AgNWs) bottom layer, PMMA spacer, and W-VO2 top layer. The emissivity-modulated transparent wood (EMTW) exhibits an emissivity contrast of 0.44 (ε8-13-L = ∼0.19 and ε8-13-H = ∼0.63), which thereby yields considerable energy savings across different climate zones. The emissivity contrast can be adjusted by varying the spinning parameters during the deposition process. Positive emissivity contrast was also achieved on three other industrially relevant substrates via this facile and widely applicable route. This proves the great significance of the approach to the promotion and wide adoption of radiative cooling regulation concept in the built environment.

A Versatile Strategy for Concurrent Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling and Sustainable Energy Harvesting.

Developing versatile systems that can concurrently achieve energy saving and energy generation is critical to accelerate carbon neutrality. However, challenges on designing highly effective, large scale, and multifunctional photonic film hinder the concurrent combination of passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) and utilization of sustainable clean energies. Herein, a versatile scalable photonic film (Ecoflex@h-BN) with washable property and excellent mechanical stability is developed by combining the excellent scattering efficiency of the hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanoplates with the high infrared emissivity and ideal triboelectric negative property of the Ecoflex matrix. Strikingly, sufficiently high solar reflectance (0.92) and ideal emissivity (0.97) endow the Ecoflex@h-BN film with subambient cooling effect of ≈9.5 °C at midday during the continuous outdoor measurements. In addition, the PDRC Ecoflex@h-BN film-based triboelectric nanogenerator (PDRC-TENG) exhibits a maximum peak power density of 0.5 W m-2 . By reasonable structure design, the PDRC-TENG accomplishes effective wind energy harvesting and can successfully drive the electronic device. Meanwhile, an on-skin PDRC-TENG is fabricated to harvest human motion energy and monitor moving states. This research provides a novel design of a multifunctional PDRC photonic film, and offers a versatile strategy to realize concurrent PDRC and sustainable energies harvesting.

Large-Scale Engineerable Films Tailored with Cellulose Nanofibrils for Lighting Management and Thermal Insulation.

Fibrillated cellulose-based nanocomposites can improve energy efficiency of building envelopes, especially windows, but efficiently engineering them with a flexible ability of lighting and thermal management remains highly challenging. Herein, a scalable interfacial engineering strategy is developed to fabricate haze-tunable thermal barrier films tailored with phosphorylated cellulose nanofibrils (PCNFs). Clear films with an extremely low haze of 1.6% (glass-scale) are obtained by heat-assisted surface void packing without hydrophobization of nanocellulose. PCNF gel cakes serve here as templates for surface roughening, thereby resulting in a high haze (73.8%), and the roughened films can block heat transfer by increasing solar reflection in addition to a reduced thermal conduction. Additionally, obtained films can tune distribution of light from visible to near-infrared spectral range, enabling uniform colored lighting and inhibiting localized heating. Furthermore, an integrated simulation of lighting and cooling energy consumption in the case of office buildings shows that the film can reduce the total energy use by 19.2-38.1% under reduced lighting levels. Such a scalable and versatile engineering strategy provides an opportunity to endow nanocellulose-reinforced materials with tunable optical and thermal functionalities, moving their practical applications in green buildings forward.

Metasurface Glass for Wireless Communication and Energy Saving.

With the growing global energy demand and environmental issues, energy saving technologies are becoming increasingly important in the building sector. Conventional windows lack energy saving and thermal insulation capabilities, while Low emissivity glass (Low-e glass) attenuates mobile communication signals while reflecting infrared. Therefore, this paper aims to design a type of windows for the "Sub 6GHz" frequency band of 5G. These windows combine the inherent transparency of traditional glass windows with the energy saving properties of Low-e glass, while also ensuring optimal communication performance within the 5G (Sub 6G) band. The metasurface glass is fabricated and subjected to simulation-guided experiments to evaluate their reliability and practicality. The metasurface glass is rigorously assessed in terms of microwave transmission performance, infrared low emissivity performance, and energy saving and thermal insulation capabilities.

Highly Tunable Cellulosic Hydrogels with Dynamic Solar Modulation for Energy-Efficient Windows.

Smart windows that can passively regulate incident solar radiation by dynamically modulating optical transmittance have attracted increasing scientific interest due to their potential economic and environmental savings. However, challenges remain in the global adoption of such systems, given the extreme variability in climatic and economic conditions across different geographical locations. Aiming these issues, a methylcellulose (MC) salt system is synthesized with high tunability for intrinsic optical transmittance (89.3%), which can be applied globally to various locations. Specifically, the MC window exhibits superior heat shielding potential below transition temperatures, becoming opaque at temperatures above the Lower Critical Solution Temperature and reducing the solar heat gain by 55%. This optical tunability is attributable to the particle size change triggered by the temperature-induced reversible coil-to-globular transition. This leads to effective refractive index and scattering modulation, making them prospective solutions for light management systems, an application ahead of intelligent fenestration systems. During the field tests, MC-based windows demonstrated a 9 °C temperature decrease compared to double-pane windows on sunny days and a 5 °C increase during winters, with simulations predicting an 11% energy savings. The ubiquitous availability of materials, low cost, and ease-of-manufacturing will provide technological equity and foster the ambition toward net-zero buildings.

Small energy benefits of in-wake flying in long-duration migratory flights.

During long-distance migrations, some bird species make use of in-wake flying, which should allow them to profit from the upwash produced by another bird. While indirect evidence supports energy saving as the primary benefit of in-wake flying, measurements are still missing. We equipped migrating northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) with high-precision global navigation satellite system data loggers to track their position in the flock. We estimated birds' energy expenditure through different proxies, namely dynamic body acceleration (DBA), heart rate and effective wingbeat frequency. During active flapping flight, DBA estimates dropped off when in-wake compared with when not-in-wake. In addition, effective wingbeat frequency decreased, suggesting an increased use of intermittent gliding flight during in-wake periods. Heart rate varied greatly among individuals, with a clear decrease during gliding-corroborating its energy-saving function. Furthermore, we found consistent proof for decreased heart rate during in-wake flying, by up to 4.2%. Hence, we have shown that flying in the wake of another individual reduces birds' DBA, heart rate and effective wingbeat frequency, which could reflect reduced energy requirement.

Wind gradient exploitation during foraging flights by black skimmers (Rynchops niger).

Birds commonly exploit environmental features such as columns of rising air and vertical windspeed gradients to lower the cost of flight. These environmental subsidies may be especially important for birds that forage via continuous flight, as seen in black skimmers. These birds forage through a unique behavior, called skimming, where they fly above the water surface with their mandible lowered into the water, catching fish on contact. Thus, their foraging flight incurs costs of moving through both air and water. Prior studies of black skimmer flight behavior have focused on reductions in flight cost due to ground effect, but ignored potential beneficial interactions with the surrounding air. We hypothesized a halfpipe skimming strategy for skimmers to reduce the foraging cost by taking advantage of the wind gradient, where the skimmers perform a wind gradient energy extraction maneuver at the end of a skimming bout through a foraging patch. Using video recordings, wind speed and wind direction measurements, we recorded 70 bird tracks over 4 days at two field sites on the North Carolina coast. We found that while ascending, the skimmers flew more upwind and then flew more downwind when descending, a pattern consistent with harvesting energy from the wind gradient. The strength of the wind gradient and flight behavior of the skimmers indicate that the halfpipe skimming strategy could reduce foraging cost by up to 2.5%.

Torpor energetics are related to the interaction between body mass and climate in bats of the family Vespertilionidae.

Torpor is an adaptive strategy allowing heterothermic animals to cope with energy limitations. In birds and mammals, intrinsic and extrinsic factors, such as body mass and ambient temperature, are the main variables influencing torpor use. A theoretical model of the relationship between metabolic rate during torpor and ambient temperature has been proposed. Nevertheless, no empirical attempts have been made to assess the model predictions under different climates. Using open-flow respirometry, we evaluated the ambient temperature at which bats entered torpor and when torpid metabolic rate reached its minimum, the reduction in metabolic rate below basal values, and minimum torpid metabolic rate in 11 bat species of the family Vespertilionidae with different body mass from warm and cold climates. We included data on the minimum torpid metabolic rate of five species we retrieved from the literature. We tested the effects using mixed-effect phylogenetic models. All models showed a significant interaction between body mass and climate. Smaller bats went into torpor and reached minimum torpid metabolic rates at warmer temperatures, showed a higher reduction in the metabolic rate below basal values, and presented lower torpid metabolic rates than larger ones. The slopes of the models were different for bats from different climates. These results are likely explained by differences in body mass and the metabolic rate of bats, which may favor larger bats expressing torpor in colder sites and smaller bats in the warmer ones. Further studies to assess torpor use in bats from different climates are proposed.

New Perspective to Evaluate the Carbon Offsetting by Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure: Direct Carbon Sequestration and Indirect Carbon Reduction.

Urban blue-green infrastructure (BGI) offers a multitude of ecological advantages to residents, thereby playing a pivotal role in fortifying urban resilience and fostering the development of climate-resilient cities. Nonetheless, current research falls short of a comprehensive analysis of BGI's overall potential for carbon reduction and its indirect carbon reduction impact. To fill this research gap, we utilized the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs model and remote sensing estimation algorithm to quantify the direct carbon sequestration and resultant indirect carbon reduction facilitated by the BGI within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) (China). To identify the regions that made noteworthy contributions to carbon offsets and outliers, spatial autocorrelation analysis was also employed. The findings of this study reveal that in 2019, the BGI within the study area contributed an overall carbon offset of 1.5 × 108 t·C/yr, of which 3.5 × 107 and 11.0 × 107 t·C/yr were the result of direct carbon sequestration and indirect carbon reduction, respectively. The GBA's total CO2 emissions were 1.1 × 108 t in 2019. While the direct carbon sequestration offset 32.0% of carbon emissions, the indirect carbon reduction mitigated 49.9% of potential carbon emissions. These results highlight the critical importance of evaluating BGI's indirect contribution to carbon reduction. The findings of this study provide a valuable reference for shaping management policies that prioritize the protection and restoration of specific areas, thereby facilitating the harmonized development of carbon offset capabilities within urban agglomerations.

Energy-Saving Mechanism of Wastewater Treatment Process Adaptation on Natural Temperature Variation: The Case from Coking Wastewater.

The cyclical variations in environmental temperature generated by natural rhythms constantly impact the wastewater treatment process through the aeration system. Engineering data show that fluctuations in environmental temperature cause the reactor temperature to drop at night, resulting in increased dissolved oxygen concentration and improved effluent wastewater quality. However, the impact of natural temperature variation on wastewater treatment systems and the energy-saving potential has yet to be fully recognized. Here, we conducted a comprehensive study, using a full-scale oxic-hydrolytic and denitrification-oxic (OHO) coking wastewater treatment process as a case and developed a dynamic aeration model integrating thermodynamics and kinetics to elucidate the energy-saving mechanisms of wastewater treatment systems in response to diurnal temperature variations. Our case study results indicate that natural diurnal temperature variations can cut the energy consumption of 660,980 kWh annually (up to 30%) for the aeration unit in the OHO system. Wastewater treatment facilities located in regions with significant environmental temperature variation stand to benefit more from this energy-saving mechanism. Methods such as flow dynamic control, load shifting, and process unit editing can be fitted into the new or retrofitted wastewater treatment engineering.

Study on the coordinated development of urban competitiveness and energy-carbon emission reduction in China.

The urban competitiveness (UC) evaluation system is multidimensional and complex. This paper takes the simulated annealing (SA) model as the projection pursuit (PP) optimization to achieve a comprehensive assessment of competitiveness of 277 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2019, accompanied by energy saving and carbon-emission reduction (ESCER) as environmental measurements, to explore whether the two can meet the Porter hypothesis through coupling coordination degree (CCD). Further using spatiotemporal autocorrelation and obstacle degree model to uncover spatiotemporal features and interfering factors of coordinated development. Key findings include: (1) UC and ESCER show a slightly fluctuating upward trend during the research period, with apparent spatial variations. The eastern coastal region has a robust UC, while the less competitive central and western regions benefit from natural conditions, excelling in ESCER. (2) 87% of cities have achieved coordinated development between competitiveness and ESCER. Some coastal areas, often with a high CCD, are improving resource use efficiency and environmental benefits through economic agglomeration. From the perspective of the CCD collaboration network, the positive correlation accounts for about 85%, which reveals that most adjacent regions can cooperate on the road of coordinated development. (3) While differences exist in the coordinated development of UC-ESCER across various regions, social factors predominantly influence the obstacles affecting coordinated development. Specifically, a substantial barrier to the concordant progression of most cities is the number of patent applications, underscoring the pivotal role of innovation in aligning UC with ESCER.

Reduce energy consumption in your laboratory - switch ultra-low temperature freezers from - 80 °C to -70 °C. A pilot study on short term storage of plasma samples for coagulation testing.

It is common practice in laboratories to store biological samples in ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers. There is growing interest in raising the temperature of ULT freezers in order to save energy and reduce expenses, as energy conservation becomes increasingly important and sustainable laboratory practices gain popularity. In our laboratory, plasma samples are stored for three months for diagnostic purposes. We therefore took the opportunity to investigate the effect of two different storage temperatures (-70 °C vs -80 °C), on activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), factor VIII (FVIII), international normalized ratio (INR) and factor VII (FVII) measurements on paired plasma samples collected from 26 individuals after three months of storage. Automated coagulation analysers CS-5100 and ACL TOP were used to perform the tests. We found no consistent difference between the two storage temperatures for any of the four coagulation parameters (all p-values > 0.05). We conclude that the temperature of ULT freezers used to store plasma samples for APTT, FVIII, INR, and FVII measurements can be safely increased from -80 to -70 °C without affecting the stability of the samples.

Artificial-intelligence-model to optimize biocide dosing in seawater-cooled industrial process applications considering environmental, technical, energetic, and economic aspects.

This research introduces an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based model designed to concurrently optimize energy supply management, biocide dosing, and maintenance scheduling for heat exchangers. This optimization considers energetic, technical, economic, and environmental considerations. The impact of biofilm on heat exchangers is assessed, revealing a 41% reduction in thermal efficiency and a 113% increase in flow frictional resistance of the fluid compared to the initial state. Consequently, the pump's power consumption, required to maintain hydraulic conditions, rises by 9%. The newly developed AI model detects the point at which the heat exchanger's performance begins to decline due to accumulating dirt, marking day 44 of experimentation as the threshold to commence the antifouling biocide dosing. Leveraging this AI model to monitor heat exchanger efficiency represents an innovative approach to optimizing antifouling biocide dosing and reduce the environmental impact stemming from industrial plants.

Research on Residual-Current Measurement System of Substation Considering Magnetic Shielding Effect.

Residual current is an important monitoring quantity of a power system, and a current sensor plays an important role in detecting current. The substation environment is complex. In addition to the power frequency signal, residual current also has AC and DC components. But it is also affected by the stray magnetic field of the substation. Therefore, the accuracy of the current sensor demands higher requirements. The tunnel magnetoresistive sensor has the advantages of a stable operation, high efficiency, and energy saving, but it is easily affected by the external stray magnetic field during measurements, resulting in a large error. Therefore, this paper proposes a residual-current sensing monitoring system considering the magnetic shielding effect. The root mean square error of the magnetic shielding structure is only 0.572 mA, which can effectively reduce the influence of the external magnetic field and improve the detection accuracy. At the same time, the DC measurement error is less than 1%, the AC measurement error is less than 5%, and the hybrid AC/DC error is less than 8%. It has good response ability and can accurately detect residual current.

A TRIZ Approach for Designing a Smart Lighting and Control System for Classrooms Based on Counter Application with Dual PIR Sensors.

Electrical energy is often wasted through human negligence when people do not switch off electrical appliances such as lighting after leaving a place. Such a scenario often happens in a classroom when the last person leaves the class and forgets to switch off the electrical appliances. Such wastage may not be able to be afforded by schools that are limited financially. Therefore, this research proposed a simple and cost-effective system that can analyze whether there is or is not a human presence in the classroom by applying a counter to count the total number of people entering and leaving the classroom based on the sensing signals of a set of dual PIR sensors only and then correlating this to automatically turn on or off the electrical appliances mentioned. The total number of people identified in the classroom is also displayed on an LCD screen. A TRIZ approach is used to support the ideation of the system. The system can switch on several electrical output loads simultaneously when the presence of people is detected and switch them off when there are no people in the classroom. The proposed system can be expanded to be used in homes, offices, and buildings to prevent the high cost of electricity consumption caused by the negligence of people. This enables smarter control of electricity consumption.

Thermal-Adaptation-Behavior-Based Thermal Sensation Evaluation Model with Surveillance Cameras.

The construction sector is responsible for almost 30% of the world's total energy consumption, with a significant portion of this energy being used by heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to ensure people's thermal comfort. In practical applications, the conventional approach to HVAC management in buildings typically involves the manual control of temperature setpoints by facility operators. Nevertheless, the implementation of real-time alterations that are based on the thermal comfort levels of humans inside a building has the potential to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of the structure. Therefore, we propose a model for non-intrusive, dynamic inference of occupant thermal comfort based on building indoor surveillance camera data. It is based on a two-stream transformer-augmented adaptive graph convolutional network to identify people's heat-related adaptive behaviors. The transformer specifically strengthens the original adaptive graph convolution network module, resulting in further improvement to the accuracy of the detection of thermal adaptation behavior. The experiment is conducted on a dataset including 16 distinct temperature adaption behaviors. The findings indicate that the suggested strategy significantly improves the behavior recognition accuracy of the proposed model to 96.56%. The proposed model provides the possibility to realize energy savings and emission reductions in intelligent buildings and dynamic decision making in energy management systems.

Energy-saving targets and carbon neutrality: A perspective on carbon emissions and carbon substitution in 288 Chinese cities.

Environmental protection is a shared task among nations. In pursuit of its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, China has implemented more robust energy-saving targets. This study utilizes panel data from 288 Chinese cities spanning from 2006 to 2020 to examine the policy effects of energy-saving targets on carbon neutrality. The findings reveal that (1) energy-saving targets positively impact carbon substitution, resulting in reduced carbon emissions and facilitating the progress towards carbon neutrality through three primary channels: energy governance, energy production, and energy consumption. (2) The influence of energy-saving targets on carbon neutrality exhibits a significant spatial spillover effect, driven primarily by the reduction in carbon emissions, although the spatial spillover effect of carbon substitution is relatively limited. The collaboration between the government and enterprises plays a crucial role in achieving carbon neutrality, while the engagement of the general public is yet to be fully realized. (3) However, the inadequacy of enhancing carbon neutrality through energy-saving targets lies in the compulsory emissions reduction behavior at the expense of sacrificing some economic benefits in cities that overachieve energy-saving targets. This undermines the coordinated development of ecology and economy. Therefore, it is recommended to establish a policy implementation monitoring system to ensure the scientific basis of policy objectives, enhance the level of green technology innovation, accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises, and establish a synergistic mechanism that involves multiple stakeholders.