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Coexistence with related species poses evolutionary challenges to which populations may react in diverse ways. When exposed to similar environments, sympatric populations of two species may adopt similar phenotypic trait values. However, selection may also favour trait divergence as a way to reduce competition for resources or mates. The characteristics of external body parts, such as coloration and external morphology, are involved to varying degrees in intraspecific signalling as well as in the adaptation to the environment and consequently may be diversely affected by interspecific interactions in sympatry. Here, we studied the effect of sympatry on various colour and morphological traits in males and females of two related newt species Lissotriton helveticus and L. vulgaris. Importantly, we did not only estimate how raw trait differences between species respond to sympatry, but also the marginal responses after controlling for environmental variation. We found that dorsal and caudal coloration converged in sympatry, likely reflecting their role in adaptation to local environments, especially concealment from predators. In contrast, aspects of male and female ventral coloration, which harbours sexual signals in both species, diverged in sympatry. This divergence may reduce opportunities for interspecific sexual interactions and the associated loss of energy, suggesting reproductive character displacement (RCD). Our study emphasizes the contrasting patterns of traits involved in different functions and calls for the need to consider this diversity in evolutionary studies.

International audience; Recent agricultural intensification threatens global biodiversity with amphibians being one of the most impacted groups. Because of their biphasic life cycle, amphibians are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation that often result in small, isolated populations and loss of genetic diversity. Here, we studied how landscape heterogeneity affects genetic diversity, gene flow and demographic parameters in the marbled newt, Triturus marmoratus, over a hedgerow network landscape in Western France. While the northern part of the study area consists of preserved hedged farm-land, the southern part was more profoundly converted for intensive arable crops production after WWII. Based on 67 sampled ponds and 10 microsatellite loci, we characterized regional population genetic structure and evaluated the correlation between landscape variables and (i) local genetic diversity using mixed models and (ii) genetic distance using multiple regression methods and commonality analysis. We identified a single genetic population characterized by a spatially heterogeneous isolation- by- distance pattern. Pond density in the surrounding landscape positively affected local genetic diversity while arable crop land cover negatively affected gene flow and connectivity. We used demographic inferences to quantitatively assess dif-ferences in effective population density and dispersal between the contrasted land-scapes characterizing the northern and southern parts of the study area. Altogether, results suggest recent land conversion affected T. marmoratus through reduction in both effective population density and dispersal due to habitat loss and reduced connectivity.

Grey-box and black-box MPC approaches for building HVAC applications often use lumped, low-order models with a low level of detail. While such models require smaller computation times, their accuracy is limited and there are practical constraints related to data collection, how to deal with multi-zone buildings and they often do not explicitly model the building HVAC equipment. In this paper we present an alternative approach based on detailed white-box models. TACO, a custom toolchain that builds upon physics-based Modelica models and JModelica, is used to efficiently solve the resulting optimisation problems. This paper presents a case study model of 79 zones and OCP results for this case study are discussed, demonstrating the high potential of detailed white-box MPC.

In this report, the performance of the hybridGEOTABS concept is assessed by quantifying the savings obtained by using hybridGEOTABS combined with Rule Based Controls and Model Predictive Controls, as compared to traditional heating/cooling and control strategies. This quantification is done using dynamic building energy simulations of case‑study buildings in a virtual test‑bed. The energy, cost and environmental performance are assessed. The deliverable documents the methodology, analysis and resulting conclusions of this assessment., This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 723649

International audience; Linear transport infrastructure can impact wildlife directly or indirectly, and amphibians are particularly affected. In some cases, mitigation measures e such as tunnels below the linear transport infrastructure e are implemented, but an evaluation of their effectiveness is often lacking, especially for small animals such as amphibians. Few studies have focused on crossing behaviour in underpasses, yet this information may be crucial to improve mitigation measures. In this study, we conducted experiments in three tunnels below a high-speed railway with individually marked amphibians (great crested newt Triturus cristatus, marbled newt Triturus marmoratus, alpine newt Ichthyosaura alpestris, fire sala- mander Salamandra salamandra, spined toad Bufo spinosus, agile frog Rana dalmatina and edible/pool frog Pelophylax kl. esculentus/lessonae) which were released at the entrance of tunnels varying in length. Behaviours (e.g. completed crossing, U-turn, not moving, and stay) and crossing speed were recorded. R. dalmatina, S. salamandra and T. cristatus (but not B. spinosus) exhibited crossing rate differences between tunnels 21 m and 40 m in length. More individuals performed “complete crossing” through the shorter tunnel. The crossing speed of the S. salamandra and T. cristatus did not differ between the tunnels of different lengths. In a second experiment, we evaluated the effect of acoustic enrichment on the crossing behaviour of one frog and three newt species by broadcasting a soundtrack of mating calls of syntopic anuran species in the tunnels. Pelophylax kl exhibited a large in- crease in complete crossings and in speed. T. cristatus showed an increase in tunnel complete crossings (but not speed) in one of the acoustically enhanced tunnels. These results indicate that acoustic enrichment can improve the crossing of underpasses. This low cost and easily implementable method could help to inform the design of wildlife passages as mitigation measures for impacted amphibian populations, though more ex- periments on the effect of tunnel characteristics on amphibian behaviour would be valuable.

This paper presents the development and validation of a full-time-scale semi-analytical bore field simulation model. The model allows for the simulation of bore fields comprised of arbitrarily positioned boreholes while accounting for both short-term transient thermal effects within the boreholes and long-term thermal interactions in the bore field. The g-function of the bore field, obtained from the finite line source solution, is corrected to account for the cylindrical geometry of the boreholes and coupled to a thermal resistances and capacitances model of the borehole interior, thereby extending the scope of g-functions to short time scales. Additionally, an improved load aggregation scheme for ground thermal response calculations allows the model to be used with variable simulation time steps. The complete model is validated using a combination of analytical, experimental and field monitored data to verify both its short-term and long-term behaviour. The model is implemented using the Modelica language as part of an implementation in the open-source buildings simulation library IBPSA. ispartof: Geothermics vol:86 pages:101788-101788 status: Published online

Model predictive control (MPC) has been proven in simulations and pilot case studies to be a superior control strategy for large buildings. MPC can utilize the weather and occupancy schedule forecasts, together with the system model, to predict the future thermal behavior of the building and minimize the overall energy use and maximize thermal comfort. However, these advantages come with the cost of increased modeling effort, computational demands, communication infrastructure, and commissioning efforts. Thus a typical approach is to, often rapidly, simplify the building modeling and MPC optimization problem while paying a price of not reaching the full performance potential. It has been shown that by employing accurate physics-based models, MPC performance can be notably increased closer to its theoretical performance bound. However, implementation of such high-fidelity MPC in real buildings remains a challenge, resulting in a lack of successful field test studies. This work presents the methodology and field test demonstration of a computationally efficient implementation of the white-box MPC in an office building in Belgium. The detailed model of the building is based on first-principle physical equations. The deployment and supervision of MPC operation in a practical setting are supported by an automated cloud-based communication infrastructure. The motivating factor behind the cloud-based architecture is its compatibility with a commercially appealing control as a service concept. The building is equipped with a ground source heat pump (GSHP) and thermally activated building structures (TABS), where the combination of both is also known as GEOTABS. From a control perspective, GEOTABS buildings are particularly challenging systems due to large scale, complex heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, and slow dynamics with time delays. On the other hand, there is an increased potential for energy savings due to the high thermal mass, which acts as thermal storage. The MPC operation is demonstrated during the challenging transient seasons (switching between heating and cooling), and its performance is compared to a traditional rule-based controller (RBC). We provide a proof of concept of real MPC operation for the most difficult seasons with notable GSHP energy use savings equal to 53:5% and thermal comfort improvement by 36:9%. Other MPC applications found in the literature describe tests for only cooling or only heating, and up to now only for a black-box or a grey-box approach. ispartof: Journal of Process Control vol:88 pages:63-77 status: published

© 2018 International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA). Building and district energy systems become increasingly complex, requiring accurate simulation and optimization of systems that combine building envelope, heating ventilation and air conditioning, electrical distribution grids and advanced controllers. Hence, it becomes more challenging for existing simulation tools to provide integrated solutions for these multi-physics problems. Moreover, common building simulation frameworks tightly integrate model equations and their solvers in the program code, which affects model transparency and hampers tool extensions. This is contrasted by equation-based tools such as Modelica, for which different solvers can be used. In this context, the Integrated District Energy Assessment by Simulation (IDEAS) library is developed. After a recent development shift towards more detailed, multi-zone models, this paper presents a comprehensive, well-documented, overview of the buildings part of IDEAS. This includes new computational aspects of the library, improved usability aspects, an updated intercomparison with BESTEST and a verification based on IEA EBC Annex 58. ispartof: Journal of Building Performance Simulation vol:11 issue:6 pages:669-688 status: published

The maintenance of gene flow and colonization of new areas are influenced by an organism's movements in the landscape. Movement favors genetic mixing and limits inbreeding risk, hence decreasing the risk of extinction. Movement is a multifactorial process, however, and might be influenced by both individual traits and environmental factors. Studying the influence of individual characteristics and landscape features on movement is becoming an important challenge in evolutionary ecology and conservation biology, especially among threatened species such as amphibians. In a low-disperser species (Triturus marmoratus), we expected differences in movement ability to vary with individual traits, such as body length, as well as features of the landscape. On the basis of radiotracking surveys in both forests and agricultural lands, we revealed that landscape features and climatic conditions influenced the distances traveled by newts. Moreover, the individual traits, and particularly the body length and t...

International audience; The Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus) is a semi-colonial raptor species widely but patchily distributed across the Palearctic region with recorded cases of philopatry and presence of extra-pair copulation. In order to assess Montagu’s harrier spatial genetic structure and contemporary gene flow, we developed 16 new microsatellite markers using 454 pyrosequencing. Genotypes of 117 chicks sampled in a 200 × 300 km farmland area in Central Western France were analyzed to characterize genetic polymorphism at each locus and regional and fine-scale genetic structure. Fourteen markers were found polymorphic, with a number of alleles ranging from 3 to 11. The expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.36 to 0.856 and from 0.35 to 0.868, respectively. A single genetic unit was found at the regional scale with higher genetic similarity observed at a small spatial scale (up to 10 km). Our results are consistent with overall large-scale juvenile and adult dispersal together with small-scale male philopatry. Cross-species amplification of this set of microsatellites makers has been successful in two closely related harrier species: the marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) and the Hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) for which 14 and 12 markers were polymorphic, respectively. These new microsatellite markers could be used to study the population genetic structure, contemporary gene flow and parentage analyses in these three species and to conduct microsatellite-based demographic inferences on the Montagu’s harrier.

Model Predictive Control (MPC) has shown significant energy savings potential in the operation of building energy systems, yet it needs accurate and simple models for optimization. In hybrid geothermal systems the source-side temperatures affect the system efficiency and its operational feasibility. Since the ground dynamics are rather slow, simplifications such as considering a constant coefficient of performance (COP) are made. We evaluate the added value of including a short-term dynamic borefield model to the controller. Simulations are performed in a heating-dominated building equipped with a hybrid geothermal system for two winter weeks. We consider 4 different modeling strategies where the formulation of the COP and the return fluid temperature from the borefield is varied in complexity. Results show that using a constant COP results in a bang-bang behavior of the heat pump, while with an accurate prediction of the COP the operation is smoother, saving 0.46%, 1.86% and 2.71% for low, average and high electricity-to-gas price ratios respectively. Including a short-term borefield model avoids shutting down the heat pump due to safety constraints which saves up to 8.12% more money while the use of the ground-source is quintupled. Despite reducing the optimization iteration number by almost 18%, simulation time is increased. ispartof: Energy And Buildings vol:215 status: Published online

Many studies have proven that the building sector can significantly benefit from replacing the current practice rule-based controllers (RBC) by more advanced control strategies like model predictive control (MPC). However, the optimization-based control algorithms, like MPC, impose increasing hardware and software requirements, together with more complicated error handling capabilities required from the commissioning staff. In recent years, several studies introduced promising remedy for these problems by using machine learning algorithms. The idea is based on devising simplified control laws learned from MPC. The main advantage of the proposed methods stems from their easy implementation even on low-level hardware. However, most of the reported studies were dealing only with problems with a limited complexity of the parametric space, and devising laws only for a single control variable, which inevitably limits their applicability to more complex building control problems. In this paper, we introduce a versatile framework for synthesis of simple, yet well-performing control strategies that mimic the behavior of optimization-based controllers, also for large scale multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) control problems which are common in the building sector. The approach employs multivariate regression and dimensionality reduction algorithms. Particularly, deep time delay neural networks (TDNN) and regression trees (RT) are used to derive the dependency of multiple real-valued control inputs on parameters. The complexity of the problem, as well as implementation cost, are further reduced by selecting the most significant features from the set of parameters. This reduction is based on straightforward manual selection, principal component analysis (PCA) and dynamic analysis of the building model. The approach is demonstrated on a case study employing temperature control in a six-zone building, described by a linear model with 286 states and 42 disturbances, resulting in an MPC problem with more than thousand of parameters. The results show that simplified control laws retain most of the performance of the complex MPC, while significantly decreasing the complexity and implementation cost.

Improvements in system cost, size, performance, power dissipation, and design turnaround time are the key benefits offered by System-on-Chip designs. However they come at the cost of an increased complexity and long development cycles. Integrating reconfigurable cores offers a way to increase their flexibility and lifespan. However the integration of embedded reconfigurable units poses a number of unique challenges in terms of design-space exploration and system exploitation. Over the last few years, model-driven engineering has become one of the most promising methodologies for tackling such challenging software problems.This paper presents Biniou, a model-driven toolset for embedded reconfigurable core modeling. Biniou is a major step ahead of the Madeo framework that was one of the rare non-commercial environments targeting reconfigurable design automation. In Biniou, the design space is broadened with (re-)configuration modeling aspects, and the exploitation tools are enhanced through the use of multi-level simulation and high-level debugging.These advancements are illustrated through a case-study focused on the design-space exploration of a coarse-grained reconfigurable architecture and through an examination of the integration of the debug-specific features into the framework. The main benefits of the presented toolset are: efficient domain-space exploration (validation), software design-kit generation (usability), software-like debug facilities (verification). We model embedded reconfigurable cores.We consider modeling the configuration plane.We generate a fully-featured prototype.We offer an object-oriented view of the prototype.We support high-level debugging through observability, traceability and controllability.

Model predictive control (MPC) for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) in buildings requires accurate controller models of the building envelope and its HVAC systems. Controller models are typically obtained by means of black- or grey-box system identification or using a white-box modelling approach. However, the necessary level of model complexity used by each method in order to obtain good MPC performance remains a priori unknown and no systematic method or examples showing the optimal complexity is available. This paper systematically investigates the required controller model complexity necessary to obtain optimal control performance for a given building. First, a 6-room house is modeled in detail using building energy simulation software. The building model is then linearized to obtain a linear time invariant (LTI) state-space model (SSM) and the upper bound of the control performance is computed using an MPC with the SSM both as controller and as plant model. The accuracy of the SSM (containing more than 250 states) is then artificially decreased by reducing its number of states to different orders ranging from 4 to 100 using balanced truncation model order reduction technique. The performances of MPCs using these controller models are then compared with the upper bound for both a standard MPC formulation (S-MPC) and an offset-free formulation (OSF-MPC) and with the performance of a rule-based-controller (RBC). The procedure is repeated for the same house model with a higher level of insulation and for a lighter weight construction. This paper shows that the controller model should contain a minimum of states to model each zone separately, and that the walls and floors separating the zones should also have enough states to act as a low pass filter with correct cut-off frequency. The minimum number of states further increases with the building mass content. In the case of the investigated 6-room house, the thermal comfort achieved by MPC using a controller model with a minimum of 30 states instead of 20 states was improved with a factor 2–6 without significant increase of the energy use, showing that good MPC performances require controller models with a significantly higher number of states than the order used by most of the black- and grey-box system identification techniques. The minimum required number of states might be chosen lower when OSF-MPC is used instead of conventional MPC. However, OSF-MPC might significantly increase the energy use when poor controller models (high model mismatch) are used. Furthermore, if the controller model is an LTI model, this paper shows that the CPU time necessary to solve the MPC optimization problem becomes independent of the number of states of the controller model when a dense approach is used. The controller model can thus be as complex as necessary to produce accurate predictions without increasing the computation time of the optimization. ispartof: Energy and Buildings vol:152 pages:739-751 status: published

Preserving amphibian genetic diversity through ecological restoration and conservation actions is a major challenge since their populations are declining worldwide. We studied the genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of the palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus) 2 years after the restoration of a pond network in northwestern France with the aim of reconstructing fine-scale genetic structure and patterns of colonization. We sampled newts from 29 forest ponds including both restored and non-degraded reference ponds, and genotyped 391 individuals at 12 microsatellite loci. We used two Bayesian clustering methods to spatially delineate genetic clusters, and we also detected potential recent migrants within the network. All ponds showed low levels of observed heterozygosity (Ho = 0.534) and a mean F IS of 0.251, possibly indicating a Wahlund or bottleneck effect. Pairwise F ST suggested limited evidence of genetic differentiation among ponds. Within the pond network, we identified 3 to 4 genetic clusters. Combined with the detection of migrants, the results suggest an increase in gene flow within the restored pond network and that a high number of migrants came from the reference ponds. Our findings indicate an unexpected high dispersal ability for this small-bodied species. Overall, the absence of population structure represents a positive beginning for the restoration project. It also emphasizes the importance of spatial design in restoring a pond network and that such genetic data and methods should be used to monitor amphibians in restored habitats.

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems extract heat or cold from the ground by circulating a heat carrier fluid (HCF) in a ground heat exchanger and inject this energy in buildings. This paper shows that there exists an optimal HCF flow rate which minimizes the energy use of such systems. The paper proposes an analytical solution for the optimal flow rate as a function of measurable variables, system parameters and data that can easily be derived from manufacturer data sheets. The analytical solution is validated using a detailed simulation model representing an existing GSHP system of 99 boreholes with a depth of 30m. ispartof: pages:36-43 ispartof: IGSHPA Conference & Expo 2017 pages:36-43 ispartof: International Ground Source Heat Pump Association date:13 Mar - 16 Mar 2017 status: published

The physiological mechanisms underlying the 'cost of reproduction' remain under debate, though oxidative stress has emerged as a potential candidate. The 'oxidative cost of reproduction' has received considerable attention with regards to food and antioxidant availability; however, the limitation of water availability has thus far been neglected. In this study, we experimentally examined the combined effect of pregnancy and water deprivation on oxidative status in a viviparous snake (

The physiological mechanisms underlying the ‘cost of reproduction’ remain under debate, though oxidative stress has emerged as a potential candidate. The ‘oxidative cost of reproduction’ has received considerable attention with regards to food and antioxidant availability, however the limitation of water availability has thus far been neglected. In this study we experimentally examined the combined effect of pregnancy and water-deprivation on oxidative status in a viviparous snake (Vipera aspis), a species naturally exposed to periods of water and food deprivation. We predicted a cumulative effect of pregnancy and dehydration on oxidative stress levels. Our results support the occurrence of an oxidative cost of reproduction since we found higher oxidative damage levels in pregnant females than in non-reproductive individuals, despite an up-regulation of antioxidant defences. Surprisingly, water-deprivation was associated with an up-regulation of antioxidant defences, and did not increase oxidative damage, either alone or in combination with reproduction.

Background Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) may relapse following introduction of drugs structurally unrelated to the initial culprit drug. Objective To assess the frequency and characteristics of recurrent drug eruptions in patients with history of DRESS. Methods Patients who had developed adverse cutaneous reaction after DRESS occurrence were recruited from the regional database of Upper Normandy in France. Rate of recurrences were compared with patients with Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) and Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS) patients during the same time frame. Results Of the 60 cases of DRESS collected, 15 (25%) with recurrences were retained for analysis. Seven patients had a single recurrence, whereas eight patients had several relapses. In the patients with pre-existing DRESS, recurrences were incomplete, corresponding to cutaneous rash in 13 cases and associated with eosinophilia in seven cases. Internal organ involvement was observed in two cases. In contrast, a single recurrence was found out of 61 patients with TEN/SJS. Conclusion Incomplete recurrences with structurally unrelated culprit drugs are a frequent phenomenon in DRESS patients.

Amphibians are particularly sensitive to landscape fragmentation. Potential barriers between breeding sites can negatively influence the dispersal of individuals and increase genetic structure between populations. In this study, we genotyped 10 microsatellites for 334 marbled newts (Triturus marmoratus) at 11 different locations in Western France. Samples were collected in different regions with contrasting agricultural landscapes (low and high proportion of arable land in the north and south, respectively). We found a strong genetic structure between the northern and southern sampling sites. Isolation by distance was recorded after 62 km, but within the northern region, little or no genetic structure was detected over large distances (up to 114 km). Genetic structure at shorter distance (43 km) was found between sites situated in landscapes with larger amounts of arable lands. A significant positive relationship was found between the pairwise genetic distance (F

αβ T-cell lines specific for sulfatide, an abundant myelin glycosphingolipid presented by various CD1 molecules, have been previously derived from PBMCs of patients with demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) but also from healthy subjects. Using an unbiased tetramer-based MACS enrichment method to enrich for rare antigen-specific cells, we confirmed the presence of CD1d-sulfatide-specific T cells in all healthy individuals examined. Surprisingly, the great majority of fresh sulfatide-specific T cells belonged to the γδ lineage. Furthermore, these cells used the Vδ1 TCR variable segment, which is uncommon in the blood but predominates in tissues such as the gut and specifically accumulates in MS lesions. Recombinant Vδ1 TCRs from different individuals were shown to bind recombinant CD1d-sulfatide complexes in a sulfatide-specific manner. These results provide the first direct demonstration of MHC-like-restricted, antigen-specific recognition by γδ TCRs. Together with previous reports, they support the notion that human Vδ1 T cells are enriched in CD1-specific T cells and suggest that the Vδ1 T-cell population that accumulates in MS lesions might be enriched in CD1-sulfatide-specific cells.

Rare CD1d-α-galactosylceramide–specific T cells that do not express the invariant Vα24 chain of human NKT cells were recently identified after expansion in vitro with the lipid Ag, but their phenotype and frequency in vivo and lineage relationship with NKT cells could not be elucidated. By using a CD1d tetramer-based method to enrich these cells from fresh peripheral blood, we demonstrated their naive-like CD62LhighCD45RO−CD4+ phenotype and relatively high frequency of ∼10−5 in several healthy individuals. Notably, these cells expressed the NKT lineage-specific transcription promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger (PLZF), indicating a developmental relationship with NKT cells and ruling out the possibility that they were conventional MHC-restricted T cells cross-reacting against CD1d-α-galactosylceramide. Although PLZF is known to direct the effector program of NKT cells, we show in this study that the naive-like cells expressed it at a significantly lower amount than NKT cells. Further, we present mouse studies demonstrating a sharp PLZF expression threshold requirement for induction of the effector phenotype. These findings directly demonstrate in vivo the existence of naive-like CD1d-restricted human T cells marked by intermediate levels of PLZF.

Contrasting with the extensive research focusing on nano-devices properties and fabrication, not enough attention is probably given to computing architectures for these devices. This paper describes a method for mapping an FPGA architecture to a nano-device called NASIC (for Nano-ASIC). This mapping is an illustration of the interest of nano- and micro-architecture models stacked to quickly obtain CAD environments for the investigated technologies.

Invasive species represent a major threat to biodiversity, and the understanding of their population genetics is one of the most important goals in conservation biology. Recently, it has been proposed that methods using molecular tools could help define efficient eradication strategies and should be a preliminary step in the management process. The American mink was introduced in Europe for fur farming purposes in the 1920s, and, due to escapees, several feral populations have been mentioned in the last decades. In France, feral mink have been observed since the 1970s, and the largest population, located in Brittany, is considered to be still expanding. We investigated the genetic variability and population structure of 149 feral mink and 21 farmed mink from this area using six microsatellite loci. Our results showed three genetically distinct population units at the regional scale. A pattern of isolation by distance was observed for the whole sample. In our case we explain this pattern by recent admixture of the three genetic units. Our findings suggest that populations have recently met and started to homogenise.

Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment for building systems consumes around 18 % of the total end energy in Europe 1. One way of reducing energy use in buildings is to use optimal control techniques such as Model Predictive Control (MPC). MPC is facilitated by linear, low-order models of the building structure and of its HVAC systems. However, obtaining these models in a practical form is often difficult, which greatly hampers the commercial implementation of optimal controllers. This work describes a methodology for obtaining a linear state space model of building energy simulation (BES) models,consisting of walls, windows, floors and the zone air. The methodology uses the Modelica library IDEAS to develop a BES model including its non-linearities and automates its linearisation in Dymola. All non-linear equations were identified and either linearised or moved outside of the model by replacing them by input signals, as shown in Figure 1. Dymola function Linearize2 is used to generate the state space model (SSM) of the now linear model, facilitating further mathematical manipulations, or simulation in different environments. The methodology is illustrated for an office building. The obtained 50 state SSM shows a maximum zone temperature error of 1 K and a mean deviation of 0.21 K compared to the non-linear BES model. We further show that applying model order reduction to the original SSM still generates excellent predictions for model orders up to 15 states. The low order but high accuracy of the reduced model makes it very suitable for applications such as MPC. ispartof: pages:51-58 ispartof: 11th International Modelica Conference pages:51-58 ispartof: International Modelica Conference location:Paris date:21 Sep - 23 Sep 2015 status: published

SummaryBackground The incidence of myocardial events has been reported to be increased in patients with psoriasis. Objectives To investigate whether psoriasis is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods We compared the prevalence of psoriasis between case patients with a diagnosis of CAD based on coronary angiography findings and control patients with no CAD referred to the emergency surgery department for an acute noncardiovascular condition. Case and control patients were examined for the presence of psoriasis by two dermatologists. The prevalence of psoriasis was compared among patients with CAD according to CAD severity. Five-hundred cases and 500 age- and sex-matched controls were included. Results Using matched univariate analysis, the prevalence of psoriasis was about twofold higher in CAD case patients than in control patients [8·0% vs. 3·4%, odds ratio (OR) 2·64; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·42–4·88]. Using unconditional multivariate analysis, the association of psoriasis with CAD appeared to be borderline significant (OR 1·84; 95% CI 0·99–3·40). Psoriasis in patients with CAD was significantly associated with three-vessel involvement relative to one-or two-vessel involvement (13·1% vs. 6·1%; OR 3·07; 95% CI 1·50–6·25). Conclusions The prevalence of psoriasis is twofold higher in patients with CAD than in control patients without CAD. It is associated with a more severe coronary artery involvement.

Accurate and computationally efficient borefield models are important components in building energy simulation programs. They have not been implemented in Modelica so far. This paper describes the implementation of an innovative approach to model borefields with arbitrary configuration having both short-term (minutes) and long-term accuracy (decades) into Modelica. A step response is calculated using a combination of a short-term response model which takes into account the transient heat transfer in the heat carrier fluid, the grout and the immediately surrounding ground, and a long-term response model which calculates the boreholes interactions. Moreover, an aggregation method is implemented to speed up the calculations. Validation shows good results and very high computational efficiency. ispartof: pages:857-866 ispartof: Proceedings of the 10th International Modelica Conference pages:857-866 ispartof: 10th International Modelica Conference location:Lund date:10 Mar - 12 Mar 2014 status: published

Triturus marmoratus is distributed throughout central, western and southern France as well as in a large portion of northern Iberia. Despite being categorized as of least concern by the IUCN, it is protected by the Annex IV of the EU Habitats Directive and the Annex III of the Bern Convention (Arntzen et al. 2009). As most amphibians, T. marmoratus is particularly sensitive to habitat loss and landscape fragmentation (Cushman 2006). Maintaining connectivity is therefore critical to ensure genetic diversity and sustainable populations. A good knowledge of the population genetic structure is necessary. Microsatellites are among the most commonly used genetic markers in numerous field of research (DeFaveri et al. 2013) and can be used in landscape genetics to assess population structure and quantify gene flow. Thus it can provide useful information for applied conservation ecology (Emel and Storfer 2015). Total genomic DNA from epithelial cells obtained from buccal swab and from tissue muscle of 15 marbled newts was isolated using the DNeasy Blood and Tissue kit (Qiagen, Valencia, USA) pooled in equal quantities, and 1 μg of the pooled DNA was used for the development of microsatellites libraries through 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing of enriched DNA libraries as described in Malausa et al. (2011). Briefly, total DNAwas mechanically fragmented, ligated to standard adapters, enriched for AG, AC, AAC, AAG, AGG, ACG, ACAT and ATCT repeated motifs, and amplified by PCR. The purified products were then sequenced on a GsFLX PTP (Roche, Basel, Switzerland) following the manufacturer’s instructions. One hundred and seventythree microsatellite sequences were identified. From these, all sequences with an important number of repeats (as they have better chances to be polymorphic) and a size greater than 100 bp were selected. These resulted in the selection of

Pemphigus is a severe blistering condition of the skin and mucosa caused by autoantibodies directed against desmogleins, which are a type of keratinocyte adhesion protein. B cell depletion by rituximab has short-term efficacy against pemphigus. We aimed to assess the long-term course of pemphigus patients after B cell depletion and to understand the immunological mechanisms that mediate long-lasting remissions. We evaluated the clinical course of 22 pemphigus patients treated with rituximab after a 79-month median follow-up and compared the anti-desmoglein B cell response and B and T lymphocyte subpopulations and repertoire between patients who achieved complete remission (CR) and those who had incomplete remission (IR). Thirteen patients (59%) experienced CR during the study, including 10 patients off treatment and 3 patients with prednisone doses