To reduce the energy consumed by building part, a new method of producing foam glass at low temperature was proposed in this study. Mineral wool waste and waste glass recycled from building construction and demolition (C&D) process were used as major raw materials. In the meanwhile, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), borax (Na2B4O7•10H2O) and sodium phosphate (Na3PO4•12H2O) were added as extra additives, which played the part of foamer, fluxing agent and foam stabilizer, respectively. The effects of different content of each additives and different sintering temperature on the properties of foam glass were investigated. Bulk density, cross-section view and microstructure of the specimens were showed. The experiment results showed that the optimal content of raw materials and additives was 40 wt.% mineral wool waste, 60 wt.% waste glass, 20 wt.% borax, 1-2 wt.% calcium carbonate and 2 wt.% sodium phosphate, and its optimal sintering temperature was 800℃. The specimen sintered at this optimal condition had the most uniform foam structure and low bulk density of 0.7 g/cm 3. Finally, 2 EnergyPlus TM was used to evaluate the benefit of applying this new foam glass on the reduction on space conditioning loads, especially in relatively colder zones.

Summary In hot climate, phase change material (PCM) can be incorporated into building envelopes to reduce heat gain through the building envelopes and therefore reduce its cooling demand. In this study, the energy performance of building envelopes integrated with PCM has been explored using a popular dynamic building performance simulation package, EnergyPlus, and the energy saving mechanism of PCM was investigated. The simulation results reflected that PCM could effectively help to reduce the building's annual energy consumption by 20.9% for Guangzhou, China. In addition, for the Guangzhou city, 27°C transition temperature, smaller thermal conductivity of roof, and higher amount of PCM can all help to improve the building's energy performance. Additionally, it is suggested that in real building development/retrofit projects, the selection of PCM needs to be based on both their thermal properties and the local climatic conditions of the building.

Summary Phase change materials (PCMs) contributed to building energy‐saving and thermal comfort through increasing the thermal capacity of building envelopes. In this study, a phase change material composite was developed by using the PCMs mixture of capric acid (CA) and lauric acid (LA) as the primary phase change energy storage agent and using the solid waste fly ash as a carrier material. The results showed that for Guangdong, the ideal PCMs mixture should have a transition temperature of 25.5oC, which could be obtained by using a mass ratio of CA/LA of 4:6. Then, experiment results also indicate that the optimum adsorption ratio of 2:1 (FA/PCMs) was detected for the synthesis of this FA/PCMs composite, which has the latent heat of 45.38 J/g and exists excellent thermal reliability. Moreover, simulation results by using EnergyPlus show that the proposed composite has a good building energy‐saving effect.

Summary Building envelopes incorporating phase change materials (PCMs) can contribute to reducing the energy consumption of buildings and enhance indoor thermal environment comfort. In this study, two building models were developed in EnergyPlus to explore the applicability of using PCMs in different climate zones. Six significantly different cities from five climate zones in China have been investigated. The simulation results reflected that for climates with small fluctuation weather conditions, PCMs with appreciate transition temperature TR can contribute to positive influences on energy saving. For example, in Guangzhou, PCMs with TR of near 26oC and 22oC contribute to the highest energy‐saving rates of 12.0% and 12.4%, for external and internal PCMs addition. And the ideal transition temperature for each climates is subjected to its own outdoor comprehensive temperatures and its indoor set temperature, for external and internal PCMs addition, respectively. For other climates with the big fluctuation weather condition, PCMs' latent heat function to the energy savings is not significant.

BackgroundBone is one of the most common metastatic sites of advanced lung cancer, and the median survival time is significantly shorter than that of patients without metastasis. This study aimed to identify prognostic factors associated with survival and construct a practical nomogram to predict overall survival (OS) in lung cancer patients with bone metastasis (BM).MethodsWe extracted the patients with BM from lung cancer between 2011 and 2015 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result (SEER) database. Univariate and multivariate Cox regressions were performed to identify independent prognostic factors for OS. The variables screened by multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to construct the prognostic nomogram. The performance of the nomogram was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, concordance index (C-index), and calibration curves, and decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to assess its clinical applicability.ResultsA total of 7861 patients were included in this study and were randomly divided into training (n=5505) and validation (n=2356) cohorts using R software in a ratio of 7:3. Cox regression analysis showed that age, sex, race, grade, tumor size, histological type, T stage, N stage, surgery, brain metastasis, liver metastasis, chemotherapy and radiotherapy were independent prognostic factors for OS. The C-index was 0.723 (95% CI: 0.697-0.749) in the training cohorts and 0.738 (95% CI: 0.698-0.778) in the validation cohorts. The AUC of both the training cohorts and the validation cohorts at 3-month (0.842 vs 0.859), 6-month (0.793 vs 0.814), and 1-year (0.776 vs 0.788) showed good predictive performance, and the calibration curves also demonstrated the reliability and stability of the model.ConclusionsThe nomogram associated with the prognosis of BM from lung cancer was a reliable and practical tool, which could provide risk assessment and clinical decision-making for individualized treatment of patients.