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900 | Analysis of the Frequency of 10 Polymorphic Markers of CDKN2A and RB1 Genes in Russian Populations | The study of population frequencies of rare clinically significant alleles is a prerequisite of the development of personalized medicine. We performed genotyping of 1785 DNA samples from representatives of Russian populations according to 10 benign polymorphic markers of two genes involved in oncogenesis: 3 variants of the CDKN2A gene (rs3731249, rs116150891, and rs6413464) and 7 markers of the RB1 gene (rs149800437, rs147754935, rs183898408, rs146897002, rs4151539, rs187912365, and rs144668210). Genotyping was performed using the Illumina biochip test system. The sample covered 28 populations of the Russian Federation and neighboring countries, which were later combined into 3 groups (Asian, European, and Caucasian). The information from the ALFA (NCBI) project was used as reference for the frequencies of these polymorphisms in the Asian and European populations. It was shown that rare alleles in 8 of 10 studied polymorphic markers are presented in Russian populations of European and Caucasian origin with frequencies that are tens and hundreds of times higher than the available data for Western European populations, and in Russian Asian populations, alternative alleles of 5 markers absent in the Asian population of the ALFA project were found. In the subpopulation of Astrakhan Tatars, exceptionally high frequencies of rare alleles were identified; this requires further study. |
901 | Prospective techno-economic and environmental assessment of a national hydrogen production mix for road transport | Fuel cell electric vehicles arise as an alternative to conventional vehicles in the road transport sector. They could contribute to decarbonising the transport system because they have no direct CO2 emissions during the use phase. In fact, the life-cycle environmental performance of hydrogen as a transportation fuel focuses on its production. In this sense, through the case study of Spain, this article prospectively assesses the techno-economic and environmental performance of a national hydrogen production mix by following a methodological framework based on energy systems modelling enriched with endogenous carbon footprint indicators. Taking into account the need for a hydrogen economy based on clean options, alternative scenarios characterised by carbon footprint restrictions with respect to a fossil-based scenario dominated by steam methane reforming are evaluated. In these scenarios, the steam reforming of natural gas still arises as the key hydrogen production technology in the short term, whereas water electrolysis is the main technology in the medium and long term. Furthermore, in scenarios with very restrictive carbon footprint limits, biomass gasification also appears as a key hydrogen production technology in the long term. In the alternative scenarios assessed, the functional substitution of hydrogen for conventional fossil fuels in the road transport sector could lead to high greenhouse gas emission savings, ranging from 36 to 58 Mt CO2 eq in 2050. Overall, these findings and the model structure and characterisation developed for the assessment of hydrogen energy scenarios are expected to be relevant not only to the specific case study of Spain but also to analysts and decision-makers in a large number of countries facing similar concerns. |
902 | Waste paper recycling decision system based on material flow analysis and life cycle assessment: A case study of waste paper recycling from China | China's paper industry development is rapid, but the recycling rate of China's waste paper has been low all the time. Meanwhile, material flow analysis can help determine the flow of waste paper, and life cycle assessment (LCA) is the methodological framework for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, present study integrates these two methods into the model construction of China's waste paper recycling decision system. Present study constructs a benchmark model of China's waste paper recycling decision system in 2017, focusing on the impact of nonstandard waste paper recycling on the economic and environmental benefits of China's domestic waste paper recycling system. This model construction is followed by sensitivity analysis of the relevant parameters affecting the efficiency of the waste paper recycling system. Finally, present study forecasts the system's economic benefits and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the context of integrating and regulating nonstandard recycling vendors. The results show that the economic benefit of China's waste paper recycling in 2017 is approximately 458.3 yuan/t and that the GHG emissions are 901.1 kgCO(2)eq. The standard recovery rate and nonstandard recovery acceptance rate will both have a significant impact on the system's economic benefits and improve the GHG emissions structure. In the context of integrating nonstandard recycling enterprises and individual recycling vendors, the economic benefits will rise to 3312.5 yuan/t in 2030, while GHG emissions will rise to 942.9 kgCO(2)eq. Present study can play a certain guiding role for policy makers in formulating waste paper recycling industry specifications and formulating relevant policies. |
903 | Combined overexpression of four transcription factors promotes effector T cell dedifferentiation toward early phenotypes | Effector T cells, which are abundant but are short-lived after reinfusion into the body, are generally used for T-cell therapy, and antitumor immunity is typically not maintained over the long term. Genetic modification by early differentiated T cells and reinfusion has been shown to enhance antitumor immunity in vivo. This study overexpressed the characteristic transcription factors of differentiated early T cells by transfecting effector T cells with transcription factor recombinant lentivirus (S6 group: BCL6, EOMES, FOXP1, LEF1, TCF7, KLF7; S1 group: BCL6, EOMES, FOXP1, KLF7; S3 group: BCL6, EOMES, FOXP1, LEF1) to induce a sufficient number of effector T cells to dedifferentiate and optimize the transcription factor system. The results revealed that overexpression of early characteristic transcription factors in effector T cells upregulated the expression of early T cell differentiation markers (CCR7 and CD62L), with the S1 group having the highest expression level, while the rising trend of late differentiation marker (CD45RO) expression was suppressed. Moreover, the expression of early differentiation-related genes (ACTN1, CERS6, BCL2) was significantly increased, while the expression of late differentiation-related genes (KLRG-1) and effector function-related genes (GNLY, GZMB, PRF1) was significantly decreased; this difference in expression was more significant in the S1 group than in the other two experimental groups. The antiapoptotic ability of each experimental group was significantly enhanced, while the secretion ability of TNF-α and IFN-γ was weakened, with the effector cytokine secretion ability of the S1 group being the weakest. Transcriptomic analysis showed that the gene expression profile of each experimental group was significantly different from that of the control group, with differences in the gene expression pattern and number of differentially expressed genes in the S1 group compared with the other two experimental groups. The differentially expressed gene enrichment pathways were basically related to the cell cycle, cell division, and immune function. In conclusion, overexpression of early characteristic transcription factors in effector T cells induces their dedifferentiation, and induction of dedifferentiation by the S1 group may be more effective. |
904 | The role of fibroblast growth factor 8 in cartilage development and disease | Fibroblast growth factor 8 (FGF-8), also known as androgen-induced growth factor (AIGF), is presumed to be a potent mitogenic cytokine that plays important roles in early embryonic development, brain formation and limb development. In the bone environment, FGF-8 produced or received by chondrocyte precursor cells binds to fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR), causing different levels of activation of downstream signalling pathways, such as phospholipase C gamma (PLCγ)/Ca2+ , RAS/mitogen-activated protein kinase-extracellular regulated protein kinases (RAS/MAPK-MEK-ERK), and Wnt-β-catenin-Axin2 signalling, and ultimately controlling chondrocyte proliferation, differentiation, cell survival and migration. However, the molecular mechanism of FGF-8 in normal or pathological cartilage remains unclear, and thus, FGF-8 represents a novel exploratory target for studies of chondrocyte development and cartilage disease progression. In this review, studies assessing the relationship between FGF-8 and chondrocytes that have been published in the past 5 years are systematically summarized to determine the probable mechanism and physiological effect of FGF-8 on chondrocytes. Based on the existing research results, a therapeutic regimen targeting FGF-8 is proposed to explore the possibility of treating chondrocyte-related diseases. |
905 | Optimal Whole-Life-Cycle Planning of Battery Energy Storage for Multi-Functional Services in Power Systems | One battery energy storage system (BESS) can provide multiple services to support electrical grid. However, the investment return, technical performance and lifetime degradation differ widely among different services. This paper proposes a novel method for the whole-life-cycle planning of BESS for providing multiple functional services in power systems. The proposed model aims to balance between extending BESS life duration and maximizing its overall revenue by strategically allocates battery capacity for each application over its whole life cycle. Specifically, BESS are initially used in ancillary service market for frequency regulation service; after certain lifetime degradation, the used batteries are transferred in energy arbitrage market for load shifting service. BESS depreciation along with the services is considered to accurately model the battery degradation effect under different marketing rules. The proposed method is tested on a modified IEEE 33-bus radial distribution system. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve higher economic benefits and longer life span than a single application service. |
906 | An environment Kuznets curve for ecological footprint: Evidence from GCC countries | Using country's ecological footprint, the present empirical study aims to analyze the influence of the economic growth, energy consumption, and globalization on ecological footprint in the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries; namely Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE covering the period 1991-2017. By employing panel econometric approaches that considered issues of heterogeneity and cross sectional dependence, we find that all variables are first-difference stationary by using the cross-sectional augmented IPS (CIPS) and the cross-sectional augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) unit root tests. There exists a long-run relationship among examined variables tested by using the Westerlund cointegration tests statistics. By employing the dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS), and the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), we also find that increase in the consumption of energy and globalization increases the ecological footprint, and the EKC hypothesis is not supported for the GCC countries. From the outcome of this empirical work a number of policy implications have been discussed in the study. |
907 | Factors affecting eco-efficiency of municipal waste services in Tuscan municipalities: An empirical investigation of different management models | The efficient provision of municipal solid waste (MSW) services is essential from an economic and environmental perspective. This paper investigates the effect of ownership type on the eco-efficiency of MSW management in Tuscan municipalities. In the first stage of the analysis, the authors use a data envelopment analysis metafrontier approach with the integration of unsorted waste as an undesirable output. Three different clusters of municipalities are created based on the ownership type of the municipal waste operators: public, private, and mixed. In the second stage of analysis, the paper investigates factors affecting eco-efficiency in order to provide new knowledge that can be used by policy and decision makers to improve eco-efficiency. The results show that eco-efficiency is higher for municipalities that entrust the delivery of waste services to publicly owned firms compared to municipalities with delivery by mixed and private firms. Moreover, eco-efficiency in MSW management is higher for municipalities with younger residents, a larger population, and an overall higher population density. Smaller municipalities and those with less tourism manage their waste services more eco-efficiently than do bigger municipalities and those with more tourism. The results indicate that policy-makers should improve communication and engagement activities with older residents in smaller, less densely populated areas. In municipalities featuring heavy tourism, eco-taxes could be used to support these activities, avoiding any impact on residents. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
908 | Linkages between Psychedelics and Meditation in a Population-Based Sample in the United States | There are neurophysiological and phenomenological overlaps between psychedelic and meditative states, but there is little evidence on how exposure to psychedelics might be associated with meditation-related variables. We assessed lifetime classic psychedelic use, ego dissolution during one's most intense experience using a classic psychedelic, and exposure to meditation in a representative sample (n = 953) of American adults. Those who reported experience with meditation were invited to complete a follow-up survey (n = 536, 92.1% response rate) measuring meditation-related variables. Models controlled for a range of potential confounds. Exposure to meditation was associated with lifetime classic psychedelic use and ego dissolution in covariate-adjusted models. In addition, among meditators, greater ego dissolution was associated with more frequent meditation practice. Both lifetime classic psychedelic use and ego dissolution were associated with enlightenment as motivation to practice meditation as well as lower likelihood of overall perceived barriers to meditation practice. Ego dissolution was positively associated with finding meditation more effective. Neither lifetime classic psychedelic use nor ego dissolution was associated with greater likelihood of meditation-related adverse effects. Taken together, results support potential synergy between psychedelics and meditation, but randomized controlled trials are necessary to establish safety and evaluate potential causal relationships. |
909 | Adaptive robust energy and reserve co-optimization of integrated electricity and heating system considering wind uncertainty | The uncertainty and variability of wind power pose significant challenges to secure and reliable operation of power systems. Coordinated operation of the electric power system and district heating system, which can provide sufficient reserve capacity and flexibility, is an effective way to cope with the uncertainty. This paper proposes an adaptive robust energy and reserve co-optimization for the integrated electricity and heat system to minimize the total system cost under the worst-case realization of wind uncertainty considering spatial correlations of wind uncertainties. The available reserve capacity and flexibility provided by the district heating system is fully used by exploiting the regulation capabilities of combined heat and power units and electrical boilers, as well as utilizing the building thermal inertia. To reduce the conservatism of the robust solution, the spatial correlation of wind uncertainties is considered in the uncertainty set. The column-and-constraint generation algorithm is adopted to solve the adaptive robust model iteratively by reformulating the second stage with its Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that the economic efficiency is improved by utilizing the reserve flexibility from the district heating system and considering wind farm spatial correlations. Compared with the conventional single-stage optimized model, the feasibility of the two-stage robust solution is always guaranteed by considering the real-time operation constraints of the electric power system and district heating system. |
910 | Network analysis of host-pathogen protein interactions in microbe induced cardiovascular diseases | Large-scale visualization and analysis of HPIs involved in microbial CVDs can provide crucial insights into the mechanisms of pathogenicity. The comparison of CVD associated HPIs with the entire set of HPIs can identify the pathways specific to CVDs. Therefore, topological properties of HPI networks in CVDs and all pathogens was studied using Cytoscape3.5.1. Ontology and pathway analysis were done using KOBAS 3.0. HPIs of Papilloma, Herpes, Influenza A virus as well as Yersinia pestis and Bacillus anthracis among bacteria were predominant in the whole (wHPI) and the CVD specific (cHPI) network. The central viral and secretory bacterial proteins were predicted virulent. The central viral proteins had higher number of interactions with host proteins in comparison with bacteria. Major fraction of central and essential host proteins interacts with central viral proteins. Alpha-synuclein, Ubiquitin ribosomal proteins, TATA-box-binding protein, and Polyubiquitin-C &B proteins were the top interacting proteins specific to CVDs. Signaling by NGF, Fc epsilon receptor, EGFR and ubiquitin mediated proteolysis were among the top enriched CVD specific pathways. DEXDc and HELICc were enriched host mimicry domains that may help in hijacking of cellular machinery by pathogens. This study provides a system level understanding of cardiac damage in microbe induced CVDs. |
911 | Synthesis and DFT-NMR-guided structure revision of cremenolide | The structure of an anti-plant pathogenic and plant growth-promoting nonenolide, namely cremenolide, was revised by an efficient combination of DFT-based theoretical NMR calculations and synthesis of a target diastereomer. Initially, the planar structure of cremenolide was reconsidered by an individual analysis of the reported NMR spectra. Subsequently, the relative configuration was predicted using NMR calculations of all possible diastereomers based on the ωB97X-D functional. Finally, the relative configuration of cremenolide was unambiguously confirmed by preparation of the proposed structure. |
912 | Energy poverty in energy rich Ghana: A SWOT analytical approach for the development of Ghana's renewable energy | Ghana has been facing cyclical erratic power supply in recent years due to increasing population, urbanization and industrialization. The country's electricity generation is hugely dependent on fossil fuels which makes the cost of electricity generation susceptible to cost of fuel on the international market and other economic factors such as exchange rate, despite the country's huge renewable energy potentials. This research used the SWOT analytical approach to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the country's renewable energy sector. Results from the analysis shows that, geographical location, political stability and availability of Renewable Energy Act (Act 832) are the main strengths. However, issues such as complex and bureaucratic procedures in securing licenses and the high initial cost of renewable energy projects are some of the key weaknesses in the sector. The study also identified the existence of a regional integration network in the sub-region and increasing electricity demand as the major opportunities. Insufficient research and development were identified as the greatest threat to the sustainable development of the sector followed by unequal playing field and changing climatic conditions. The research therefore proposed some recommendations to the government to help in the development of the country's renewable energy sector. |
913 | COVID-19 outbreak: Migration, effects on society, global environment and prevention | The COVID-19 pandemic is considered as the most crucial global health calamity of the century and the greatest challenge that the humankind faced since the 2nd World War. In December 2019, a new infectious respiratory disease emerged in Wuhan, Hubei province, China and was named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). A new class of corona virus, known as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) has been found to be responsible for occurrence of this disease. As far as the history of human civilization is concerned there are instances of severe outbreaks of diseases caused by a number of viruses. According to the report of the World Health Organization (WHO as of April 18 2020), the current outbreak of COVID-19, has affected over 2164111 people and killed more than 146,198 people in more than 200 countries throughout the world. Till now there is no report of any clinically approved antiviral drugs or vaccines that are effective against COVID-19. It has rapidly spread around the world, posing enormous health, economic, environmental and social challenges to the entire human population. The coronavirus outbreak is severely disrupting the global economy. Almost all the nations are struggling to slow down the transmission of the disease by testing & treating patients, quarantining suspected persons through contact tracing, restricting large gatherings, maintaining complete or partial lock down etc. This paper describes the impact of COVID-19 on society and global environment, and the possible ways in which the disease can be controlled has also been discussed therein. |
914 | Splenocyte transfer from hypertensive donors eliminates premenopausal female protection from ANG II-induced hypertension | Premenopausal females are protected from angiotensin II (ANG II)-induced hypertension following the adoptive transfer of T cells from normotensive donors. For the present study, we hypothesized that the transfer of hypertensive T cells (HT) or splenocytes (HS) from hypertensive donors would eliminate premenopausal protection from hypertension. Premenopausal recombination-activating gene-1 (Rag-1)-/- females received either normotensive (NT) or hypertensive cells 3 wk before ANG II infusion (14 days, 490 ng/kg/min). Contrary to our hypothesis, no increase in ANG II-induced blood pressure was observed in the NT/ANG or HT/ANG groups. Flow cytometry demonstrated that renal FoxP3+ T regulatory cells were significantly decreased, and immunohistochemistry showed an increase in renal F4/80+ macrophages in the HT/ANG group, suggesting a shift in the renal inflammatory environment despite no change in blood pressure. Renal mRNA expression of macrophage chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and G protein-coupled estrogen receptor-1 (GPER-1) was significantly decreased in the HT/ANG group. The adoptive transfer of hypertensive splenocytes before ANG II infusion (HS/ANG) eliminated premenopausal protection from hypertension and significantly decreased splenic FoxP3+ T regulatory cells compared with females that received normotensive splenocytes (NS/ANG). Expression of macrophage inflammatory protein 1α/chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 3 (MCP-1/CCL3), a potent macrophage chemokine, was elevated in the HS/ANG group; however, no increase in renal macrophage infiltration occurred. Together, these data show that in premenopausal females, T cells from hypertensive donors are not sufficient to induce robust ANG II-mediated hypertension; in contrast, transfer of hypertensive splenocytes (consisting of T/B lymphocytes, dendritic cells, and macrophages) is sufficient. Further work is needed to understand how innate and adaptive immune cells and estrogen signaling coordinate to cause differential hypertensive outcomes in premenopausal females.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our study is the first to explore the role of hypertensive T cells versus hypertensive splenocytes in premenopausal protection from ANG II-induced hypertension. We show that the hypertensive status of T cell donors does not impact blood pressure in the recipient female. However, splenocytes, when transferred from hypertensive donors, significantly increased premenopausal recipient blood pressure following ANG II infusion, highlighting the importance of further investigation into estrogen signaling and immune cell activation in females. |
915 | Characterization of isolated UV-C-irradiated mutants of microalga Chlorella vulgaris for future biofuel application | Microalgae-based biofuel is considered as one of the most promising sources of alternative energy because it is sustainable and does not pose threats to the environment and food security. However, attempts in improving microalgal strains to attain the ideal characteristics for biofuel application are yet to unravel. In this study, random UV-C mutagenesis was employed to generate starch-deficient mutants of indigenous Chlorella vulgaris to enhance its productivity. Out of 872 colonies, two isolated mutants (cvm5 and cvm6) were isolated and showed significant increase in cell concentrations by > 1.47-fold and > 1.04-fold, respectively. However, mutant cells exhibited smaller in size which might contributed to the significant decrease in their biomass. Moreover, gathered data revealed that the total lipid content of cvm5 was enhanced significantly (75%, > 1.3-fold increase). Additionally, triacylglycerol (TAG) content of the said mutant constitutes 48% of the dry cell weight (DCW) while cvm6 consist of 41% of the DCW. These promising and novel findings suggest that the two generated and isolated mutants are good candidates for future commercial biofuel production, especially in the Philippines. In addition, these findings may contribute on the prior knowledge of the usage of UV-C for microalgal strain development. |
916 | Geochemistry of street dust in Tyumen, Russia: influence of traffic load | This study investigates the elemental composition, organic carbon content, pH values, and particle size characteristics in 50 road dust samples collected from Tyumen, a large city in Western Siberia (Russia). The content of 62 major and trace elements was studied using atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) и inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP-MS). It was revealed that the dust has an alkaline reaction pH = 7.4-10.2 and low organic carbon content (0.07-2.9%). The grain size distribution of the road dust samples revealed that the predominant grain size fraction was of 100-250 μm. The content of small particles (PM2 and PM10) representing the greatest environmental hazard is minimal on roads with an average traffic intensity. Studies have shown that the main road dust pollutants in Tyumen are Ni, Sb, Cr, Zn, and Co. The average geoaccumulation index (Igeo) values are ranked as Ni (2.2) > Sb (1.5) > Cr (1.3) > Zn (0.4) > Co (0.4) > Cu (0.2). The contamination evaluation through enrichment factor (EF) calculation showed that road dust is highly enriched in Ni and significantly in Cr and Sb. More than 80% of Zn, Co, and Cu and more than 90% of Ni, Sb, and Cr come from anthropogenic sources. The average concentration of Ni and Cr in the road dust of Tyumen is one order of magnitude higher than in other cities of the Earth where similar studies were carried out. The high Ni content is associated with the composition of local soils and roadways, increased content in vehicle exhaust gasses, and abrasion of metal parts. Calculations of the total enrichment index Ze showed that the level of road dust pollution in most of Tyumen's territory is hazardous. |
917 | Hypusinated EIF5A as a feasible drug target for Advanced Medicinal Therapies in the treatment of pathogenic parasites and therapy-resistant tumors | Cancer drug resistance, in particular in advanced stages such as metastasis and invasion is an emerging problem. Moreover, drug resistance of parasites causing poverty-related diseases is an enormous, global challenge for drug development in the future. To circumvent this problem of increasing resistance, the development of either novel small compounds or Advanced Medicinal Therapies have to be fostered. Polyamines have many fundamental cellular functions like DNA stabilization, protein translation, ion channel regulation, autophagy, apoptosis and mostly important, cell proliferation. Consequently, many antiproliferative drugs can be commonly administered either in cancer therapy or for the treatment of pathogenic parasites. Most important for cell proliferation is the triamine spermidine, since it is an important substrate in the biosynthesis of the posttranslational modification hypusine in eukaryotic initiation factor 5A (EIF5A). To date, no small compound has been identified that directly inhibits the precursor protein EIF5A. Moreover, only a few small molecule inhibitors of the two biosynthetic enzymes, i.e. deoxyhypusine synthase (DHS) and deoxyhypusine hydroxylase (DOHH) have been functionally characterized. However, it is evident that only some of the compounds have been applied in translational approaches, i.e. in murine models to analyze the function of this modified protein in cell proliferation. In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry shifted from small molecules beyond traditional pharmacology to new tools and methods to treat disorders involving signaling deregulation. In this review, we evaluate translational approaches on inhibition of EIF5A hypusination in pathogenic parasites and therapy-resistant tumors and discuss its feasibility for an application in Advanced Medicinal Therapies. |
918 | Optimal timing of labour induction in contemporary clinical practice | Induction of labour (IoL) is generally conducted when maternal and foetal risks of remaining pregnant outweigh the risks of delivery. With emerging literature around non-medically indicated IoL, contemporary clinical practice has seen an increase in IoL at 39 weeks' gestation. This review highlights recent evidence on the most common indications for IoL including gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, and post-term pregnancies. It also summarizes the evidence related to the timing of IoL for other common conditions based on recent literature reviews. |
919 | Revisiting the role of forestry, agriculture, and renewable energy in testing environment Kuznets curve in Pakistan: evidence from Quantile ARDL approach | This paper assesses the Environmental Kuznets curve based on quantile behavior of the relationship between economic growth, forest area, agriculture production, renewable energy, and environmental degradation. The current literature generally used a single indicator to address environmental issues; however single indicator neither measures overall environmental conditions nor does specify that the environment issue is generally diminishing. Our study is the first one that used ecological footprint (EF) as an indicator to test environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for Pakistan by employing recent approach of quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) initiated by Cho et al. (J Econ 188(1):281-300, 2015). The result of this study validates the EKC hypothesis for Pakistan and shows quantile-dependent relationship, and in that case, using the conventional methods may somewhat lead to biased results. Moreover, the rejection of the null hypothesis of parameter constancy is also confirmed by Wald test. In the long run, the findings of renewable energy consumption and forest area show significant negative effects on ecological footprints, which indicates that by increasing renewable energy usage and forest area, ecological footprints can be minimized. Interestingly, the short-term effects of agricultural production findings on EF show statistically negative results. This illustrates that EF can also be reduced in the agriculture sector by adopting environment-friendly technologies. In order to create efficient policies for environment deterioration, the empirical findings of the current analysis can be used as a guideline for policy implications. |
920 | RNA N6-methyladenosine modulates endothelial atherogenic responses to disturbed flow in mice | Atherosclerosis preferentially occurs in atheroprone vasculature where human umbilical vein endothelial cells are exposed to disturbed flow. Disturbed flow is associated with vascular inflammation and focal distribution. Recent studies have revealed the involvement of epigenetic regulation in atherosclerosis progression. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent internal modification of eukaryotic mRNA, but its function in endothelial atherogenic progression remains unclear. Here, we show that m6A mediates the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway during EC activation to regulate the atherosclerotic process. Oscillatory stress (OS) reduced the expression of methyltransferase like 3 (METTL3), the primary m6A methyltransferase. Through m6A sequencing and functional studies, we determined that m6A mediates the mRNA decay of the vascular pathophysiology gene EGFR which leads to EC dysfunction. m6A modification of the EGFR 3' untranslated regions (3'UTR) accelerated its mRNA degradation. Double mutation of the EGFR 3'UTR abolished METTL3-induced luciferase activity. Adenovirus-mediated METTL3 overexpression significantly reduced EGFR activation and endothelial dysfunction in the presence of OS. Furthermore, thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), an EGFR ligand, was specifically expressed in atheroprone regions without being affected by METTL3. Inhibition of the TSP-1/EGFR axis by using shRNA and AG1478 significantly ameliorated atherogenesis. Overall, our study revealed that METTL3 alleviates endothelial atherogenic progression through m6A-dependent stabilization of EGFR mRNA, highlighting the important role of RNA transcriptomics in atherosclerosis regulation. |
921 | Structure Analysis and Anti-Inflammatory Effect of a Polysaccharide from Hippocampus mohnikei | The purpose of this study was to analyze the structure of a polysaccharide (HMP-1) from Hippocampus mohnikei, and to explore its anti-inflammatory effect. HMP-1 was obtained from Hippocampus mohnikei by ethanol sedimentation and secondary column chromatography purification. Its structural characteristics were analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and scanning electron micrograph (SEM). Results showed its molecular weight (Mw) was 7296 Da, and it mainly consisted of six residues: 1,3-β-Glcp, 1,4-α-Manp, 1,4-α-GalpA, 1,4-β-GlcpA2S, 1,4-α-Galp3S, and 1,4-β-GlcNAc. HMP-1 could protect RAW246.7 cells from the cytotoxic effect induced by LPS. HMP-1 also could reduce the levels of nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species produced by LPS stimulation, suggesting that HMP-1 has anti-inflammatory activities within a certain concentration range. |
922 | Non-anaemic iron deficiency | Iron deficiency without anaemia is common. Patients may present with unexplained, non-specific symptoms. Iron studies will usually show a low ferritin and low transferrin saturation with a normal haemoglobin concentration. The cause of the iron deficiency should be identified and managed. There is limited evidence about the benefits of giving iron to people who do not have anaemia. If there is iron deficiency, most people can be given oral iron supplements. Iron studies are repeated after 60-90 days of oral iron supplements. Further investigations are needed if the iron deficiency has not been corrected. Some patients, including those who have not responsed to oral supplements may benefit from intravenous iron. There is no role for intramuscular injections of iron. |
923 | Identification of the novel HLA-A*01:348 allele in a Chinese individual | HLA-A*01:348 differs from HLA-A*01:01:01:01 by a single nucleotide substitution at position 140 T > C. |
924 | The reduced-charge melittin analogue MelP5 improves the transfection of non-viral DNA nanoparticles | Melittin is a 26-amino acid amphiphilic alpha-helical peptide derived from honeybee venom. Prior studies have incorporated melittin into non-viral delivery systems to effect endosomal escape of DNA nanoparticles and improve transfection efficiency. Recent advances have led to the development of two newer melittin analogues, MelP5 and Macrolittin 70, with improved pore formation in lipid bilayers while possessing fewer positive charges relative to natural melittin. Consequently, MelP5 and Macrolittin 70 were conjugated through a disulfide bond to a DNA binding polyacridine peptide. The resulting peptide conjugates were used to prepare DNA nanoparticles to compare their relative endosomolytic potency by transfection of HepG2 cells. Melittin and MelP5 conjugates were equally potent at mediating in vitro gene transfer, whereas PEGylation of DNA nanoparticles revealed improved transfection with MelP5 relative to melittin. The results demonstrate the ability to substitute a potent, reduced-charge analogue of melittin to improve overall DNA nanoparticle biocompatibility needed for in vivo testing. |
925 | Phosphate solubilizing bacteria enhanced growth, oil yield, antioxidant properties and biodiesel quality of Kasumbha | Biodiesel is considered as a potential alternative energy source, but problem exists with the quantity and quality of feedstock used for it. To improve the feedstock quality of biodiesel, a field experiment was conducted under natural conditions. Cultivar Thori of kasumbha was used in the experiment. Commercialized biofertilizers were applied at the rate of 20 kg per acre and chemical fertilizer (diammonium phosphate) was applied as half dose (15 kg/ha). Results indicated that number of leaf plant-1, leaf area, number of seeds capitulum-1 was significantly increased by biofertilizer treatment alone (BF) and combine treatment of biofertilizer and chemical fertilizer (BFCF). Agronomic traits such as plant height, no. of branches of a plant, no. of capitulum/plant was improved significantly by BF treatment over the control. Maximum 1000 seed weight (41%) and seed yield (23%) were recorded in half dose of chemical fertilizers treatment (CFH). Seed oil content and seed phenolics were significantly improved by BF and CF treatments while maximum biodiesel yield was recorded by BF treatment. Maximum oleic acid was recorded by BF treatment while other fatty acids being maximum in control except linoleic acid in BFCF treatment. Results for specific gravity were non-significant while acid value and free fatty acid contents were substantially reduced by BF treatment as compared to other treatments. Maximum value of iodine number was recorded in BFCF treatment while tocopherol contents were improved by BF treatment. It is inferred that biofertilizer treatment alone perform better as compared to other treatments and 50% chemical fertilizer can be replaced using biofertilizer which is a good approach for sustainable environmental-friendly agriculture. |
926 | Current status of microplastics pollution in the aquatic environment, interaction with other pollutants, and effects on aquatic organisms | Microplastics, as emerging pollutants, have received great attention in the past few decades due to its adverse effects on the environment. Microplastics are ubiquitous in the atmosphere, soil, and water bodies, and mostly reported in aqueous environment. This paper summarizes the abundance and types of microplastics in different aqueous environments and discusses the interactions of microplastics with other contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), antibiotics, and heavy metals. The toxicity of microplastics to aquatic organisms and microorganisms is addressed. Particularly, the combined toxic effects of microplastics and other pollutants are discussed, demonstrating either synergetic or antagonistic effects. Future prospectives should be focused on the characterization of different types and shapes of microplastics, the standardization of microplastic units, exploring the interaction and toxicity of microplastics with other pollutants, and the degradation of microplastics, for a better understanding of the ecological risks of microplastics. |
927 | A circular economy approach to green energy: Wind turbine, waste, and material recovery | Wind energy has been considered as one of the greenest renewable energy sources over the last two decades. However, attention is turning to reducing the possible environmental impacts from this sector. We argue that wind energy would not be effectively "green" if anthropogenic materials are not given attention in a responsible manner. Using the concept of the circular economy, this paper considers how anthropogenic materials in the form of carbon fibers can reenter the circular economy system at the highest possible quality. This paper first investigates the viability of a carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer extraction process using thermal pyrolysis to recalibrate the maximum carbon fiber value by examining the effect of (a) heating rate, (b) temperature, and (c) inert gas flow rate on char yield. With cleaner and higher quality recovered carbon fibers, this paper discusses the economic preconditions for the takeoff and growth of the industry and recommends the reuse of extracted carbon fibers to close the circular economy loop. Crown Copyright (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
928 | Development of CaO-based adsorbents loaded on charcoal for CO2 capture at high temperature | CaO-based adsorbents have the potential to be used for CO2 capture at high temperature. However, CaO-based adsorbents exhibit a sharp decay in CO2 uptake capacity over multiple cycles, owing to the sintering of CaO particles. In this paper, a series of charcoal supported CaO-based adsorbents were developed to improve the CO2 capture performance of CaO using three different methods: physical mixing, wet impregnation and sol-gel method. The influences on CO2 capture of CaO loading and carbonation temperature are also included. The morphology and structural properties of the adsorbent were investigated by means of electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption and XRD. It is found that the novel sorbent with an optimal mass ratio of CaO to charcoal of 4:1 prepared by the sol-gel method exhibits an initial capture capacity of 15.1 mmol g(-1) and maintains a capacity of 8.0 mmol g -1 after 15 cycles of carbonation (600 degrees C) and calcination (650 degrees C), around 60% higher than that of sol-gel CaO. The CaC-4 possesses a porous stucture with a high surface area of 63.6 m(2).g(-1) and a pore volume of 0.166 cm(3).g(-1), making CO2 diffusion easier. The XRD analysis displays that crystalline size (26 nm) of the CaO phase in CaC-4 is much smaller than that of the reference bulk CaO (96 nm), reflecting that charcoal can effectively inhibit the growth of CaO crystalline. Furthermore, the introduction of charcoal derived from biomass pyrolysis will improve the economic viability of the CO2 capture process. |
929 | Identifying the spatiotemporal changes of annual harvesting areas for three staple crops in China by integrating multi-data sources | Reliable and continuous information on major crop harvesting areas is fundamental to investigate land surface dynamics and make policies affecting agricultural production, land use, and sustainable development. However, there is currently no spatially explicit and time-continuous crop harvesting area information with a high resolution for China. The spatiotemporal patterns of major crop harvesting areas at a national scale have rarely been investigated. In this study, we proposed a new crop phenology-based crop mapping approach to generate a 1 km harvesting area dataset for three staple crops (i.e. rice, wheat, and maize) in China from 2000 to 2015 based on GLASS leaf area index (LAI) products. First, we retrieved key phenological dates of the three staple crops by combining the inflexion- and threshold-based methods. Then, we determined the grids cultivated for a certain crop if its three key phenological dates could be simultaneously identified. Finally, we developed crop classification maps and a dataset of annual harvesting areas (ChinaCropArea1 km), comprehensively considering the characteristics of crop phenology and the references of drylands and paddy fields. Compared with the county-level agricultural statistical data, the crop classification had a high accuracy, with R-2 values consistently greater than 0.8. The spatiotemporal patterns of major crop harvesting areas during the period were further analyzed. The results showed that paddy rice harvesting areas had expanded aggressively in northeastern China but decreased in southern China. Maize harvesting areas expanded substantially in major maize cultivation areas across China. Wheat harvesting areas declined overall, although they increased notably in their major production areas. The spatiotemporal patterns could be ascribed to various anthropogenic, biophysical, and social-economic drivers, including urbanization, reduced cropping intensity in southern China, frequent disasters from climate change, and large areas of abandoned farmland in northern and southwestern China. The resultant dataset can be applied for many purposes, including land surface modeling, agro-ecosystem modeling, agricultural production and land use policy-making. |
930 | RABEP1/Rabaptin5: a link between autophagy and early endosome homeostasis | Selective autophagy of damaged organelles assures maintenance of cellular homeostasis in eukaryotes. While the mechanisms by which cells selectively remove dysfunctional mitochondria, lysosomes, endoplasmic reticulum and other organelles has been well characterized, little is known about specific autophagy of damaged early endosomes. In our recent study, we uncovered a new role for RABEP1/Rabaptin5, a long-established regulator of early endosome function, in targeting the autophagy machinery to early endosomes damaged by chloroquine or by internalized Salmonella via interaction with RB1CC1/FIP200 and ATG16L1. |
931 | Techno-economic analysis of off-grid solar/wind/biogas/biomass/fuel cell/battery system for electrification in a cluster of villages by HOMER software | Electrification of villages is a vital step for improving the techno-economic conditions of rural areas and crucial for the country's overall development. The villages' welfare is one of the main aims of the rural electrification programs. Rural electrification is relatively costly compared to electrification of urban areas. Now, the research question is to find the best combinations of HRES from the available resources in a given village location that can meet the electricity demand in a sustainable manner and to see whether this is a cost-effective solution or not. This study is an attempt to structure a model of electricity generation based on multiple combinations of HRES with the application of HOMER energy software at an identified off-grid village location in India. The main objectives of this study are to analyze the best-suited configuration of a hybrid RE system out of various combinations to meet the village load requirement reliably, continuously and sustainably. The study also reduces the total system net present cost and least cost of energy (COE) using multi-objective HOMER Pro software. In this study, a resource assessment and demand calculation have been carried out and the COE per unit has been ascertained for different systems and configurations. A combination of PV-Wind-Biomass-Biogas-FC along with battery has been identified as the cheapest and most dependable solution with a COE of $0.214/kWh. |
932 | Jordan toward a 100% renewable electricity system | Jordan has faced two major energy crises during the past two decades; the disruption of Iraqi's oil in 2003 and Egyptian's natural gas in 2011. Restructuring Jordan's electricity supply system became a national necessity to secure sustainable electricity at affordable prices. In this work, a 100% renewable electricity supply scenario is constructed and compared with three other scenarios, which contain a mix of natural gas, nuclear, oil shale and renewable energy, in terms of techno-economic feasibility, security of supply, and carbon dioxide emissions. All the proposed scenarios were found to be economically feasible. The cumulative discount production costs, over the coming thirty five years under different fuel prices assumption, is less than 80 billion dollars (2010 dollar) for all proposed scenario. In the 100% renewable electricity scenario, the country needs around 10.6 GW of concentrated solar power, 4.5 GW of wind, and 25 GW of photovoltaic to meet the demand in the year 2050 which are achievable in terms of energy resources. The dispatchability problem of the renewable scenario was solved by proposing a 90 GWh storage system (43 CSP plants, 250 MW each, 8 h storage). Furthermore, import dependency and CO2 emission will entirely disappear by 2050 in the renewable scenario. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
933 | Effects of agriculture, renewable energy, and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions: Evidence of the environmental Kuznets curve | This study contributes to (1) discovering that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are not directly influenced by modernisation; (2) attaining sustainable agriculture by incorporating renewable energy into the agriculture sector as an effective CO2 emissions mitigation measure; and (3) applying the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) to test the relationships among attributes in Malaysia. Prior studies have not addressed the associations between the release of CO2 and economic development, renewable energy, urbanisation, and agriculture in Malaysia. Hence, the objective of the study is to investigate the relationships of the emissions of CO2 and economic development, renewable energy, urbanisation, and agricultural subsectors, such as crops, livestock, and fisheries, in Malaysia for the period 1978 to 2016. By the utilisation of the autoregressive distributed lag test for cointegration, CO2 emissions significantly increased due to economic growth and urbanisation but insignificantly increased due to livestock in the long term. Crops, fisheries, and renewable energy significantly reduced emissions in this period. Moreover, this study reveals that the association between emissions of CO2 and economic development is an inverted U. This finding indicates that CO2 emissions eventually decrease despite the increase in CO2 emissions and economic development in the long term upon reaching a specific level of growth. These findings are consistent for Malaysia in terms of the EKC hypothesis. |
934 | Spatiotemporal characteristics and influential factors of eco-efficiency in Chinese prefecture-level cities: A spatial panel econometric analysis | Eco-efficiency, which emphasizes the significance of balancing the relationship between resource input, environmental pollution, and economic growth, has aroused extensive attention worldwide. China has seen profound economic growth in the past several decades, however, this has led to challenges for energy consumption growth and environmental issues (e.g., PM2.5 concentration). Improving eco-efficiency plays an important role in achieving sustainable development in China. Here, a novel evaluation framework of eco-efficiency is established by collecting satellite-derived data. Then, a hybrid distance model, named S-EBM with undesirable outputs, is applied to measure the eco-efficiency of Chinese 283 prefecture-level cities during the period 2003-2013. Finally, the spatial externality of eco-efficiency and its driving factors are examined by using a spatial Durbin model. Given that our results show the robustness in different spatial matrix settings, the research framework is applicable to the similar areas out of China (e.g., India). The empirical results show that: (1) eco-efficiency exhibits, by and large, a geographical gradual decrease trend from relatively developed areas to developing areas, however, a few exceptions indicate that a higher economic development level does not necessarily lead to a greater eco-efficiency, and vice versa; (2) estimation results of Moran's I index and hotspot analysis suggest that positive spatial autocorrelation of eco-efficiency is gradually increasing and the spatial distribution of statistically significant high and low agglomerations is changing over time; (3) The estimation results of the spatial Durbin model show that an increase in eco-efficiency in surrounding cities will improve the value of eco-efficiency in local cities; (4) The spatial externality of explanatory variables is also found, in which financial development, foreign direct investment, environmental regulation, and spatial urbanization level in neighboring cities impact the eco-efficiency in local cities. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
935 | [Respiratory telerehabilitation in cases of COPD] | Telerehabilitation brings together a set of rehabilitation practices applied remotely by means of information and communication technologies. Even though it has been taking on increasing importance in many health fields over 10 years, telerehabilitation had yet to find its place in pulmonary rehabilitation before 2020, when the pandemic situation impelled numerous teams to put it to work. Pilot studies on respiratory diseases, primarily COPD, along with recent data from randomized or non-randomized studies, have enhanced our understanding of "remote" practice. In this review of the literature, we will show that pulmonary telerehabilitation is feasible, safe and likely to yield short-term (and possibly longer term) effects generally similar to those achieved in the pulmonary rehabilitation programs of specialized centers, especially as regards some indicators of exercise tolerance, dyspnea or patient quality of life. However, the number of studies and patients included in these programs remains too limited in terms of modalities, duration, long-term effects, or adaptations in case of exacerbation to be the subject of recommendations. The potential of respiratory telerehabilitation justifies continuing clinical trials and experiments, which need to be coordinated with the interventions characterizing a conventional program. |
936 | Exploring the role of cathepsin in rheumatoid arthritis | Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease which is marked by leukocytes infiltration inside synovial tissue, joints and also inside synovial fluid which causes progressive destruction of joint cartilage. There are numerous genetical and lifestyle factors, responsible for rheumatoid arthritis. One such factor can be cysteine cathepsins, which act as proteolytic enzymes. These proteolytic enzyme gets activated at acidic pH and are found in lysosomes and are also termed as cysteine proteases. These proteases belong to papain family and have their elucidated role in musculoskeletal disorders. Numerous cathepsins have their targeted role in rheumatoid arthritis. These proteases are secreted through various cell types which includes matrix metalloproteases and papain like cysteine proteases. These proteases can potentially lead to bone and cartilage destruction which causes an immune response in case of inflammatory arthritis. |
937 | Socio-environmental conflicts: An underestimated threat to biodiversity conservation in Chile | Biodiversity is vital in the functioning of ecosystems, but it's permanently being threatened by anthropic impacts derived from productive activities. Thus, conservation has become a global challenge. In Chile, the dissociation between economic activities and conservation has triggered numerous socio-environmental conflicts in recent decades. This work explores how different projects that give rise to these conflicts can represent an underestimated threat to biodiversity. We identified socio-environmental conflicts in Chile and their associated projects by carrying out an online review of 1035 news articles published between 2004 and 2018 using the key words "environmental conflict". We selected articles describing a socio-environmental conflict between parties caused by a project or productive sector. Conflict-generating projects were classified by productive sector and capital origin. In addition, their geographical distribution with respect to High Conservation Value Areas (HCVAs, protected areas and priority sites for conservation) was determined. A total of 283 projects were identified from 14 different productive sectors, most of them related to energy and mining, which threaten biodiversity and human well-being mainly due to pollution and habitat destruction. Chilean companies finance most of the projects, but international companies finance over half of the energy and mining projects. Moreover, 37 % of the projects were located within HCVAs either for the establishment of future protected areas or where protected areas are currently established. As countries make new efforts to maintain and recover biodiversity, it is contradictory not to consider the threats posed by conflict-generating projects to key areas for conservation, both in public policies and in spatial planning instruments. |
938 | Analyzing the linkage between military spending, economic growth, and ecological footprint in Pakistan: evidence from cointegration and bootstrap causality | The ecological consequences of military spending is a hugely neglected area, and a veil of mystery surrounds this topic. The environmental threats posed by militaries remain insufficiently investigated in the name of national security. Prompted by the internal and external conflicts and prolonged military dictatorships, the Pakistani military assumes a role that goes beyond that of a traditional army. The current study addresses this significant gap in the literature by investigating the impacts of military spending on economic growth and the ecological footprint in Pakistan from 1971 to 2016 using the combined cointegration test and the bootstrap causality test. The findings of the study unveil a positive impact of military spending on the ecological footprint, while a negative impact on economic growth. The outcomes of the bootstrap causality test of Hacker and Hatemi-J (2012) highlight that economic growth Granger causes military spending, while causality runs from military spending to the ecological footprint. Energy consumption contributes to the ecological footprint and economic growth, whereas education expenditures do not influence economic growth and the environment in the long run. Further, the findings suggest a U-shaped link between GDP and footprint in Pakistan. The authorities should focus on resolving external and internal conflicts, on a priority basis, and reduce military spending to improve economic growth and the environment. |
939 | Dynamic common correlated effects of trade openness, FDI, and institutional performance on environmental quality: evidence from OIC countries | The study aims to address the dynamic common correlated effects of trade openness, FDI, and institutional performance on environmental quality in OIC countries. Mostly, pollutants like CO2 and SO2 emissions are considered as the environmental indicators. However, for this study, we have selected ecological footprint as the indicator of environmental quality. The new econometric approach Dynamic Common Correlated Effects (DCCE) by Chudik and Pesaran (2015) has been used to measure the cross-sectional dependence among cross-sectional units. Results confirm that previous techniques for long panel data, like MG and PMG, give ambiguous outcomes in the presence of cross-sectional dependence. According to DCCE estimation, trade openness, FDI, and urbanization have a positive and significant relationship with ecological footprint while a significant and negative association is found between institutional performance and ecological footprint. The OIC countries must encourage green technology, clean production, and improved institutions for sustainable development and better environmental quality. |
940 | The heterogeneity of renewable energy consumption, carbon emission and financial development in the globe: A panel quantile regression approach | The present study examines the heterogeneity of renewable energy consumption, Carbon dioxide emission and financial development in the global panel of 192 countries. Panel quantile regression has been used for tickling distributional and unobserved individual heterogeneity. The findings indicate that our variables in the model on each others are heterogeneous across quantiles. More specifically, the effect of renewable energy consumption on carbon emission is negative while financial development has increasing influence on carbon emission. Carbon emission decreases the use of renewable energy while financial development positively affects renewable energy consumption. The increasing effect of carbon emission and renewable energy consumption on financial development has also been found. Finally, the current study findings give important recommendations to policy makers. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
941 | Dominance in a socially dynamic setting: hierarchical structure and conflict dynamics in ravens' foraging groups | Dominance hierarchies typically emerge in systems where group members regularly encounter and compete for resources. In birds, the 'open' and dynamic structure of foraging groups may prevent the emergence of structured hierarchies, although this assumption have hardly been tested. We report on agonistic data for ravens Corvus corax, collected over two 18-month periods for 183 marked individuals of a wild (fluid) population and 51 birds from six captive (stable) groups. We show that the dominance structure (steep and transitive) in wild foraging groups is strikingly similar to that found in captivity. In the wild, we found that higher ranks are mainly occupied by males, older and more aggressive individuals that also tend to receive fewer aggressions. Exploring the mechanisms sustaining the wild dominance structure, we confirmed that males are more aggressive than females and, with age, tend to receive fewer aggressions than females. Males that are about to leave the foraging groups for some months are less aggressive than newcomers or locals, while newcomers are specifically targeted by aggressions in their first year (as juveniles). Taken together, our results indicate that the socially dynamic conditions ravens face during foraging do not hinder, but provide opportunities for, using (advanced) social cognition. This article is part of the theme issue 'The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies'. |
942 | Review on molnupiravir as a promising oral drug for the treatment of COVID-19 | During the COVID-19 pandemic, various drug candidates have been developed, molnupiravir (MK-4482 and EIDD-2801), which is a new orally anti-viral agent under development for the treatment of COVID-19, is under study in the final stage of the clinical trial. Molnupiravir enhances the replication of viral RNA mutations in animals and humans. Due to the high demand for the synthesis of this drug, it was essential to develop an efficient and suitable synthetic pathway from raw material. In this study, molecular docking analysis on molnupiravir is examined also, the mechanism of action (MOA) and the recent synthetic pathway is reported. This review will be helpful to different disciplines such as medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology. |
943 | Robust bidding strategy for demand response aggregators in electricity market based on game theory | One of the ways to manage and provide flexibility in power systems is demand response (DR). A large number of end-users as DR sources must be aggregated by an intermediate entity called DR aggregator. This paper proposes an approach based on game theory to obtain the best bidding strategy of DR aggregators in electricity market. In the presented scheme, an economic responsive load model is employed for DR approach which is based on customer benefit function and price elasticity. In this paper, the network operator receives DR services from the DR aggregator. It is considered that all bids from aggregators are assembled by a network operator which calculates the share of each aggregator in DR programs by revenue function optimization. Furthermore, the network operator offers rewards to DR aggregators to achieve this purpose. The robust optimization (RO) method is used handling price uncertainty. It is used to optimize the robustness of the decision-making strategies. A non-cooperative game is used to model the competition among DR aggregators. The Nash equilibrium idea is employed to solve this game. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
944 | Measuring regional transport sustainability using super-efficiency SBM-DEA with weighting preference | The development of transportation sector promotes China's rapid economic growth, but also brings a negative impact to China's society and environment such as pollution and energy waste. However, limited attention has been paid to China's transportation system, especially in terms of transport sustainability evaluation at a regional level. In this study, we first propose a new indicator system that involves systematic, economic, social and environmental indicators for measuring regional transport sustainability. Then, we propose an improved super-efficiency slacks-based measure DEA (SBM-DEA) model with weighting preference to evaluate the regional transport sustainability efficiency. An empirical application to measuring transport sustainability in Shaanxi province, China, during the period of 2000-2015 is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed model. The empirical results show that Shaanxi's transport sustainability over half of the years is inefficient and its main reason is that the efficiency of environmental and social dimensions is low. Compared the result with that obtained by the SBM-DEA model without weighting preference, the number of effective decision-making units is reduced by the proposed DEA model. Computational results show that the evaluation result is generally in line with the reality. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
945 | Acquisition of microvascular suturing techniques is feasible using objective measures of performance outside of the operating room | The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a microsurgical simulation course on a group of novice surgeons. The study also aimed to see whether a device to measure manual dexterity (Imperial College Surgical Assessment Device, ICSAD), a global rating scale and an end product assessment tool could be used to objectively measure performance. Thirty surgeons were recruited to take part and were evenly split into novice, intermediate, and expert groups. The novice group took part in a one-week microsurgical course. The assessment of performance was done with the surgeon anastomosing a harvested rat aorta. They were assessed using ICSAD, which records number of hand movements, distance moved by hands and time. The assessment was also video recorded and later watched by two assessors. The procedure performance was scored using a global rating scale and the final anastomosis was scored using an end product assessment tool. The novice surgeons took the assessment at the beginning and at the end of the course. The intermediate and expert group performed the assessment once to use as a comparison to the novice group. By the end of the course the novices performed significantly better in all parameters in comparison to their pre course assessment. The novice group performed similarly to the expert group in their end of course assessment in four out of the five assessment parameters. Simulation using objective measures of performance can be used to effectively to train a group of novice microsurgeons. |
946 | Long-term (1870-2018) drought reconstruction in context of surface water security in India | Droughts in India affect food production, gross domestic product (GDP), livelihood, and socio-economic condition of a large population associated with agriculture. Recent drought (2015-2018) caused groundwater depletion and affected about one-fourth of the Indian population. However, it remains unclear if the drought of 2015-2018 was among the most severe droughts that occurred in India. Here we use a long-term (1870-2018) data to identify the top five ("deadly") meteorological/hydrological droughts based on overall severity score in the last century and half period. Out of a total of 18 meteorological droughts, the deadly droughts occurred in 1899, 1876, 2000, 1918, and 1965. Similarly, the deadly hydrological droughts occurred in 1899, 2000, 1876, 1965, and 1918 during 1870-2018. All the five deadly droughts were associated with the positive phase of El Nino Southern Oscillations (ENSO). Results show that the relationship between ENSO and monsoon (June to September) precipitation in India has weakened while the role of Indian and Atlantic Oceans have strengthened during the recent decades. Notwithstanding the longest (41 months) duration, the 2015-2018 drought did not feature among the deadly droughts. The 2015-2018 drought affected surface (reservoir storage) and groundwater availability in both southern and northern parts of India and was linked to El-Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole. Droughts and rapidly declining groundwater together can pose serious challenges to water security in India. |
947 | Computational analysis of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 surveillance by wastewater-based epidemiology locally and globally: Feasibility, economy, opportunities and challenges | With the economic and practical limits of medical screening for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 coming sharply into focus worldwide, scientists are turning now to wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a potential tool for assessing and managing the pandemic. We employed computational analysis and modeling to examine the feasibility, economy, opportunities and challenges of enumerating active coronavirus infections locally and globally using WBE. Depending on local conditions, detection in community wastewater of one symptomatic/asymptomatic infected case per 100 to 2,000,000 non-infected people is theoretically feasible, with some practical successes now being reported from around the world. Computer simulations for past, present and emerging epidemic hotspots (e.g., Wuhan, Milan, Madrid, New York City, Teheran, Seattle, Detroit and New Orleans) identified temperature, average in-sewer travel time and per-capita water use as key variables. WBE surveillance of populations is shown to be orders of magnitude cheaper and faster than clinical screening, yet cannot fully replace it. Cost savings worldwide for one-time national surveillance campaigns are estimated to be in the million to billion US dollar range (US$), depending on a nation's population size and number of testing rounds conducted. For resource poor regions and nations, WBE may represent the only viable means of effective surveillance. Important limitations of WBE rest with its inability to identify individuals and to pinpoint their specific locations. Not compensating for temperature effects renders WBE data vulnerable to severe under-/over-estimation of infected cases. Effective surveillance may be envisioned as a two-step process in which WBE serves to identify and enumerate infected cases, where after clinical testing then serves to identify infected individuals in WBE-revealed hotspots. Data provided here demonstrate this approach to save money, be broadly applicable worldwide, and potentially aid in precision management of the pandemic, thereby helping to accelerate the global economic recovery that billions of people rely upon for their livelihoods. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. |
948 | Assessment and sources of heavy metals in suspended particulate matter in a tropical catchment, northeast Thailand | Since the suspended particulate matter (SPM) is a vital heavy metal transporter of the river systems, assessment of heavy metals contamination in SPM is significant as the first step of the high-efficiency surface water environment management and further foundation of water resources sustainability. However, this assessment is rare in developing countries (e.g., Thailand, agriculture is the main economic pillar). Fluvial heavy metal pollution prevention strategy is urgently required in these areas for reducing human exposure to metal contamination. For this purpose, the assessment of eight selected heavy metals of 52 SPM samples in a Thailand tropical river (Mun River) was conducted. The findings suggest that the contents of heavy metals in SPM are Mn (4616.7 mg kg(-1)) > Zn (223.9 mg kg(-1)) > V (109.1 mg kg(-1)) > Cr (100.1 mg kg(-1)) > Ni (51.0 mg kg(-1)) > Cu (27.6 mg kg(-1)) > Pb (14.3 mg kg(-1)) > Cd (10.7 mg kg(-1)). A relatively large proportion of heavy metals (e.g., Mn, 89.5%; Zn, 54.2%) are transported in suspended loads in Mun River. Heavy metals accumulation assessment suggests that Cd (EF = 17.5, I-geo = 3.7) and Mn (EF = 14.3, I-geo = 2.1) are extremely enriched in SPM, while the other metals are slightly enriched or not enriched. Principal component (PC) analysis extracted three PCs. PC 1 with a high loading of Mn, Zn, Cd, Pb reflecting these metals mainly from anthropogenic emissions, PC 2 (V and Cu) is primarily characterized by the natural sources (e.g., rock weathering), while PC 3 (Cr and Ni) can be defined as the result of combined action of natural and anthropogenic inputs. Risk assessment denotes that Cd is the major toxicity of SPM with a high toxic risk index (TRICd = 9.4, 54% of the total TRI) and the V, Cr, Mn, and Cd in SPM are the major exposure health risk, particularly for children (hazard index, HI > 0.1), more focus is required for these metals. In total, this study provides powerful support for the prevention of heavy metal pollution and the sustainability of water resources in the Mun River in such a developing country (Thailand). |
949 | The response and simulation of ecosystem services value to land use/land cover in an oasis, Northwest China | The oasis ecosystem is integral to the socio-economic stability and development in arid areas. This study illuminates the relationship between land use/land cover (LULC) and ecosystem services value (ESV) in Zhangye oasis from 1980 to 2015 and predicts changes in ESV in 2030. The coefficients for assessing ESV and the future land use simulation (FLUS) model for LULC simulation were modified by introducing natural geography and socio-economic data. The study found that the patterns of LULC and ESV in Zhangye oasis changed dramatically in 2000. Forest, grassland, and wetland were severely damaged due to the weak awareness of environmental protection, resulting in a significant decline in the ESV before 2000. Thanks to a number of ecological projects that have been put into practice and the improvement in climate conditions since 2000, the ESV has started to recover. The FLUS model reasonably predicted the LULC in 2015, and the kappa coefficient was 0.8991 after comparing with the actual LULC in 2015. On this basis, the land use scenario in 2030 is predicted, and the value of ecosystem services is estimated. The results show that the value of ecosystem services will continue to increase. This study can guide future land-use planning and raise public awareness of the need for ecosystem protection. |
950 | Application of simultaneous thermoelectric cooling and heating to improve the performance of a solar still: An experimental study and exergy analysis | The performance of solar stills is affected by various parameters (e.g. solar radiation, water depth, thermal insulation, and the temperature difference between glass and water). There are two alternatives to increase the temperature difference between glass and water: increasing the water or reducing the glass temperatures. The present study aims to investigate the effect of simultaneous thermoelectric cooling and heating on the performance of a solar still. The experiments were conducted during 8 days in Tehran, Iran (35 degrees 41'N, 51 degrees 19'E). The setup consisted of a double-slope solar still and a thermoelectric enhancing system that was used to cool the glass cover and heat the water, simultaneously. The cold side of the thermoelectric modules cools a water stream which passes on the glass cover. On the other side (hot side) of the thermoelectric modules, there flows another water stream passing through a helical coil heat exchanger which is located inside the solar still in the water. The obtained results, compared to the passive solar still, indicated that this modification improves the productivity by 2.32 times and generates 76.4% of the efficiency. Moreover, it is observed that the maximum exergy efficiency in the conventional and modified solar stills is about 1.48% and 0.8%, respectively. Also, the economic analysis showed that the price of the produced water for active and passive solar stills were about 0.105 and 0.176 $/L/m(2) respectively. |
951 | A semi-standardized music therapy intervention for girls with Rett syndrome: A descriptive essay | Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder resulting in a wide range of functional impairments and therefore greatly impacts the lives of both patients and their families. While genetic and medical aspects have been studied for several decades, rehabilitation intervention research is still in its infancy. In this study, the investigating researchers have presented a rehabilitative framework by using music therapy for girls with RTT. This model is founded upon the use of music therapy in light of Stern's proposal of subjective experience and affect attunement; it also refers to Rosenbaum's family-centered rehabilitation medicine perspective. This study both describes the theory behind this intervention and presents a newly developed outcome measure. This novel tool may have future clinical and research applications. Music therapy for patients with RTT has not been well researched yet, and, as a result, is not universally recommended. However this study's findings suggest that music therapy is an important component of multidisciplinary therapy. Further collaborative research should be encouraged in order to study and implement the use of music therapy in the treatment of severe disabilities. Projects such as the Enablin+ program with the support from the European Commission constitute fundamental tools in promoting integrative medical research and international networks. |
952 | Hacking macrophages to combat cancer and inflammatory diseases - Current advances and challenges | Recently, immunotherapy has been served as the treatment of choice for various human pathophysiologies, including inflammatory diseases and cancer. Though most of the current approaches target the lymphoid compartment, macrophages intimately implicated in the induction or resolution of inflammation have rationally gained their place into the therapeutics arena. In this review, I discuss the past and novel ground-breaking strategies focusing on macrophages in different human diseases and highlight the current challenges and considerations underlying their translational potentials. |
953 | Does the development of renewable energy promote carbon reduction? Evidence from Chinese provinces | Developing renewable energy is a crucial measure in addressing climate change and achieving carbon reduction. However, research evidence on its impact is mixed. To fill this gap, we construct a panel quantile regression model in this study to examine whether China's renewable energy development has effectively promoted a reduction in carbon emissions using panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2016. The results show that: (1) Improving China's renewable energy development level is conducive to carbon emission reductions. Specifically, carbon intensity could drop by 0.084%-0.149% for every 1% increase in renewable energy generation. However, the inhibitory effect is limited due to trapped electricity as well as the fact that substituting renewable energy for fossil energy has not yet sufficiently transformed the energy consumption structure. (2) Renewable energy development has a greater impact on carbon intensity reduction in regions with high or low carbon intensity than in areas with intermediate carbon intensity. (3) The main factor in the decline in carbon intensity in China is a decrease in energy intensity. Nonetheless, the role of renewable energy in carbon reduction has increased over time. |
954 | Microgrids: Overview and guidelines for practical implementations and operation | A microgrid is a small portion of a power distribution system with distributed generators along with energy storage devices and controllable loads which can give rise to a self-sufficient energy system. From the utility grid side, a microgrid is seen as an equivalent generator that is able to seamlessly disconnect and operate autonomously once a fault affects the main grid. The design, installation and operation of such systems lead to dealing with a number of technical and operational challenges including control, protection and infrastructure requirements. To help designers and researchers address these challenges and draw potential recommendations for practical microgrid implementations, in this paper a review of the main design features of existing microgrids is undertaken, also in light of the experience gained during the realization of the Prince Lab microgrid at Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy. The main control functions required to guarantee an economic, reliable and secure operation of a microgrid are also reviewed. Finally, key practical guidelines for monitoring, operation and implementation of microgrids are provided. |
955 | Immunoenhancing Effects of Euglena gracilis on a Cyclophosphamide-Induced Immunosuppressive Mouse Model | In this study, the effects of the immune stimulator Euglena gracilis (Euglena) in cyclophosphamide (CCP)-induced immunocompromised mice were assessed. The key component β-1,3-glucan (paramylon) constitutes 50% of E. gracilis. Mice were orally administered Euglena powder (250 and 500 mg/kg body weight (B.W.)) or β-glucan powder (250 mg/kg B.W.) for 19 days. In a preliminary immunology experiment, ICR mice were intraperitoneally injected with 80 mg of CCP/kg B.W. during the final 3 consecutive days. In the main experiment, BALB/c mice were treated with CCP for the final 5 days. To evaluate the enhancing effects of Euglena on the immune system, mouse B.W., the spleen index, natural killer (NK) cell activity and mRNA expression in splenocytes lungs and livers were determined. To detect cytokine and receptor expression, splenocytes were treated with 5 μg/ml concanavalin A or 1 μg/ml lipopolysaccharide. The B.W. and spleen index were significantly increased and NK cell activity was slightly enhanced in all the experimental groups compared to the CCP group. In splenocytes, the gene expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ, interleukin (IL)-10, IL-6, and IL-12 receptor were increased in the E. gracilis and β-glucan groups compared to the CCP group, but there was no significant difference. Treatment with 500mg of Euglena/kg B.W. significantly upregulated dectin-1 mRNA expression in the lung and liver compared to the CCP group. These results suggest that Euglena may enhance the immune system by strengthening innate immunity through immunosuppression. |
956 | Does the interaction between growth determinants a drive for global environmental sustainability? Evidence from world top 10 pollutant emissions countries | Economic interdependence through foreign direct investment and trade of energy resources in a globalized world filled with mixed heritage sites stimulates economic activities thereby serving as a great catalyst for economic growth. However, the importance of these economies' interdependence transcends economic and sodo-cultural-political benefits to coastal protection, carbon sequestration, flood prevention and soil stabilization among others. To this end, this study seeks to examine whether the interdependence and interaction among foreign direct investment, energy consumption, real income is a drive for global environmental sustainability targets or not. In order to achieve our research objective, we make use of a panel-based study of world's top 10 pollutant emissions that comprises 37 developed countries of the world, using the Dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag techniques of Pooled Mean Group, Mean Group and Dynamic Fixed Effects estimators over the periods of 1995-2014 that incorporate tourism as an additional variable. Panel cointegration result shows that increase in the explanatory variables contributes to environmental degradation in the long-run. A 1% increase in kg oil equivalent of energy consumed led to 0.918% increase in environmental degradation, while a 1% increase real income and foreign direct investment decrease environmental degradation by 0.635% and 0.064%, with tourism insignificant impact in the long-run. Consequently, economic and environmental sustainability measures that would help to promote a cleaner and healthy environment globally for both the immediate and future generation were suggested. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. |
957 | Stability of nanofluid: A review | Nanofluid is a suspension of nanoparticles (at least one dimension less than 100 nm) in a basefluid having superior thermal, rheological and wettability properties, which improves the performance of several applications i.e. heat transfer, lubrication, drug delivery and enhanced oil recovery etc. However, the critical bottleneck for widespread use of nanofluid is its stability. The instability of nanofluid leads to reduction in system performance with passage of time. Addressing the long term stability of nanofluid and its reusability are essential requirements for successful industrial use. This article focuses on different aspects of nanofluid stability starting from the preparation stage till implementation in practical applications. Specific attention has been given on nanofluid stability as a function of operating conditions i.e. high temperature, pressure, confinement, composition, salinity, external magnetic field and shear rate etc. in several applications i.e. heat transfer, microfluidics, lubrication, enhanced oil recovery and drag reduction etc. It is expected that the present review will provide guidance and contribute towards wider adoption of nanofluid in practical applications. Future research on stability issues related to techno-economic performance, hybrid nanofluid, quantum dot, hybrid stabilization technique, wall effect in microfluidics and porous media will further enhance the usability of nanofluid in widespread practical systems. |
958 | Analysis of the robustness of energy supply in Japan: Role of renewable energy | Today, the security of energy has become one of the primary concerns of all the countries around the world due to the limited energy sources, increasing population, energy prices fluctuations and limitations in energy supply. Japan is considered as one of the largest energy consumers and energy importers throughout the world which almost 96% of its primary energy supply in national level relies on the imports from other countries. After experiencing several harsh energy supply conditions over the last 40 years, Japan realized the sensitivity of its energy supply and decided to fundamentally restructure its energy supply and rely more on energy mix diversification, renewable energies, energy efficiency improvement, and carbon emissions reduction. In this article the energy security improvement and the government actions to boost diversification of energy by focusing more on renewable energies and reducing energy intensity, increasing energy efficiency and decreasing energy import dependency in Japan is studied. In addition, various renewable energy technologies as a substitute source of energy and promising ways of domestic energy supply as well as the factors to improve the security of energy supply are studied thoroughly. Moreover, it was realized that the most primary energy sources in Japan are biofuel and waste energy followed by hydropower and geothermal energy respectively. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
959 | Associations Between Blood Pressure and Accelerated DNA Methylation Aging | Background Individuals of the same chronological age may exhibit diverse susceptibilities to death. However, few studies have investigated the associations between blood pressure and the accelerated aging. Methods and Results A cross-sectional study was conducted in 288 adults aged ≥50 years. We assessed the DNA methylation-based measures of biological age using CpG sites on the Illumina HumanMethylationEPIC BeadChip. Epigenetic age acceleration metrics were derived by regressing residuals (ΔAge) and ratios (aging rate) of DNA methylation age on chronological age. Dose-response relationships between blood pressure and epigenetic age acceleration were quantified using multiple linear regression and restricted cubic regression models. We found that each 10-mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure was associated with 0.608 (95% CI, 0.231-0.984) years increase in ΔAge and 0.007 (95% CI, 0.002-0.012) increase in aging rate; meanwhile, for pulse pressure, the increase was 1.12 (95% CI, 0.625-1.61) years for ΔAge and 0.013 (95% CI, 0.007-0.020) for aging rate. Subgroup analysis showed that the significant associations of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure with epigenetic age acceleration appeared to be limited to women, although interactions between blood pressure and sex were not significant (P values for interaction >0.05). The combination of women and hypertension was associated with a much higher increase in ΔAge (β [95% CI], 4.05 [1.07-7.02]) and aging rate (β [95% CI], 0.047 [0.008-0.087]), compared with male participants without hypertension. Conclusions Our findings suggested that high systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure were associated with the epigenetic age acceleration, providing important clues for relationships between blood pressure and epigenetic aging. |
960 | Optimal operation of microgrid with multi-energy complementary based on moth flame optimization algorithm | Recently, hybrid distributed generation system has become a popular energy supply mode. It is obvious that the integrated system could improve energy efficiency and reduce costs. However, the system scheduling is a problem that would determine the operation cost. In this paper, a hybrid energy system including wind power, photovoltaics, gas turbines, and energy storage was introduced. In order to obtain the minimum operation cost, an operation optimization model was built. The schedule plan of each unit was optimized by moth flame optimization algorithm. Finally, through empirical research on a microgrid project, the optimization results in three configuration case of wind power, photovoltaics, and storage indicated that the operation optimization model in this paper could effectively reduce system operation cost, and the optimal output plan of each unit was obtained. And it is proved that the model proposed in this paper has a certain guiding role on economically dispatch of hybrid energy system. |
961 | The effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth: Evidence from the renewable energy country attractive index | The use of non-renewable resources emits a high quantity of CO2 into environment, leading to a greenhouse effect, to reduce CO2 emissions all countries have shifted to use renewable energy sources. Therefore, this study re-examines the effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth across 38 renewable-energy-consuming countries from 1990 to 2018. The dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and heterogeneous non-causality approaches are applied. The empirical analysis confirms the presence of a long-run relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Further, we noted that renewable energy, non-renewable energy, capital and labor have positive impact on economic growth, particularly, renewable energy consumption has a positive impact on economic growth for 58% of the sample countries. The empirical results suggest that international cooperation agencies, energy organizers, governments, and associated bodies must act together in increasing renewable energy investment for low carbon growth in most of these economies. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
962 | Optimized sizing of a standalone PV-wind-hydropower station with pumped-storage installation hybrid energy system | The development and utilization of renewable energy sources can not only effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but also provide access to electricity to more parts of the world. A standalone hybrid system based on renewable sources is a promising way to supply reliable and continuous power in remote areas to which the grid has not extended. This paper designs and investigates a photovoltaics (PV)-wind-hydropower station with pumped-storage installation (HSPSI) hybrid energy system in Xiaojin, Sichuan, China as case of study. HSPSI can use the available flow of the river and store surplus energy generated from wind and PV by pumping water from the lower reservoir to the upper one. From the perspective of the investors, the techno-economic index is usually used to design the PV-wind-HSPSI hybrid energy system which aims to find the optimal configure with maximum power supply reliability and minimum investment cost. The trade-off analysis between the two objectives is based on Pareto optimality theory by means of Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO). Besides, this paper takes the curtailment rate (CR) of the wind and PV power into consideration due to policy requirements. The relationship between the two objectives under various CR are analyzed and compared. Several results can be obtained as follows: 1) Comparing with the PV-HSPSI and wind-HSPSI hybrid energy system, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of the PV-wind-HSPSI hybrid energy system can reduce by 32.8% and 45.0% respectively. 2) For the PV-wind-HSPSI hybrid energy system, the LCOE can be as low as 0.091 $/kWh when 5% LPSP can be acceptable. 3) The policy of CR is unfavorable for the investors which leads to a higher investment cost. 4) Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) performs better than genetic algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing method (SA) with a least LCOE. 5) both MOPSO and weighted sum approach (WSA) have a good performance to find the Pareto fronts and its hypervolume indicator (HV) is calculated. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
963 | Fiscal policy and CO2 emissions from heterogeneous fuel sources in Thailand: Evidence from multiple structural breaks cointegration test | This study investigated the dynamic linkage between fiscal policy, energy and CO2 emissions from heterogeneous fossil fuel sources in the context of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework for Thailand. With annual data from 1972 to 2014 while incorporating structural breaks, the study employed a Maki cointegration test and the dynamic ordinary least squares estimation approach. The results found that a 1% increase in fiscal policy brought about a 6.5% (p < 0.05) increase in the low CO2 emitting gaseous fuel sources (natural gas), a 0.2% (p < 0.01) reduction in the intermediate CO2 emitting liquid fuel sources (crude oil derivatives), and an insignificant increase 0.2% (p > 0.05) in the high CO2 emitting solid fuel sources (coal derivatives). While a 1% increase in fiscal policy abates aggregated CO2 emissions by 0.2% (p < 0.05), the existence of the EKC hypothesis was validated in all models. The causality test revealed a bi-directional causal relationship between fiscal policy and CO2 emissions and unidirectional flow from fiscal policy to energy consumption. This confirms that fiscal policy initiatives towards energy consumption have long-run implications for environmental quality. Our findings support the energy-led growth hypothesis for the Thai economy. The implication of the finding is that increasing the share of clean and renewable energy sources should be encouraged-rather than energy conservation policies, which obstruct energy supply and utilization. This highlights a more efficient way of harnessing energy sources through the instrumentality of fiscal policy. (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. |
964 | Health insurance, medical debt, and financial well-being | We study the financial protection provided by health insurance through two natural experiments-the Affordable Care Act's under 26 provision and Medicare eligibility. In both cases, the coverage expansion sharply reduces medical debt in collections for consumers within the affected ages but does not systematically improve credit outcomes not directly related to medical care. This is consistent with the infrequent repayment rate and lack of persistence on credit reports that we document for medical collections, which mute a key channel through which reductions in medical collections could directly affect the other financial outcomes studied here. These results help clarify the role of health insurance in broader financial health and suggest that, at least among the populations studied here, medical debts in collection may often be a symptom rather than a cause of wider financial distress as measured on credit reports. |
965 | Exploring blockchain for the energy transition: Opportunities and challenges based on a case study in Japan | Under pressures to reach net zero emissions by 2050, there is an ongoing transition of energy decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization. Physical and information flows in energy systems are increasingly complex and distributed, leaving centralized structures inefficient. Blockchain technology is suggested as part of the next step in this transition. Blockchain has potential to facilitate distributed, peer-to-peer trading with reduced transaction costs, increased security via cryptography, and prosumer choice. However, there are as of yet multiple challenges to the expansion of blockchain in the energy sector. This paper argues that analysis of these challenges requires a multi-angled approach incorporating technological, economic, social, environmental, and institutional dimensions. First, each dimension is explored, substantiated based on a blockchain-based energy system case in Japan. Concrete challenges of scaling this case toward 2050 and potential opportunities in overcoming these challenges are discussed, leveraging extensive literature review. Finally, an overview of strategic indications is suggested. The findings of this paper present initial indications on challenges and opportunities to overcome them based on a multi-dimensional overview. It is suggested that the factors identified across the dimensions are interrelated. This would in turn call for coherent innovation management and multi-stakeholder innovation ecosystems. Living Labs and regulatory sandboxes are prospective foundations to support such ecosystems, and enable informed decision-making among both private and public sector actors. At large, it is suggested that a holistic and pragmatic approach can benefit the application and scalability of blockchain in the energy transition. |
966 | Emergency preparedness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Modelling the roles of social media with fuzzy DEMATEL and analytic network process | While the utility of social media has been widely recognized in the current literature, minimal effort has been made to further the analysis of their roles on disruptive events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this gap, this work comprehensively identifies the 16 prevalent social media roles in disaster preparedness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, an integrated fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (FDEMATEL) and analytic network process (ANP), hereby termed the FDANP methodology, is used to perform the causal analysis of social media roles and to systemically measure the priority of these roles in emergency preparedness. Among the identified roles, those considered top priority are social media roles concerned with the facilitation of public health policy development, prevention of misinformation, and management of public behavior and response. These results were found to be robust, as evidenced by the sensitivity analysis. The implications of these findings were also detailed in this work in the context of a developing country. |
967 | Repulsion-Based p-Dispersion with Distance Constraints in Non-Convex Polygons | Motivated by the question of optimal facility placement, the classical p-dispersion problem seeks to place a fixed number of equally sized non-overlapping circles of maximal possible radius into a subset of the plane. While exact solutions to this problem may be found for placement into particular sets, the problem is provably NP-complete for general sets, and existing work is largely restricted to geometrically simple sets. This paper makes two contributions to the theory of p-dispersion. First, we propose a computationally feasible suboptimal approach to the p-dispersion problem for all non-convex polygons. The proposed method, motivated by the mechanics of the p-body problem, considers circle centers as continuously moving objects in the plane and assigns repulsive forces between different circles, as well as circles and polygon boundaries, with magnitudes inversely proportional to the corresponding distances. Additionally, following the motivating application of optimal facility placement, we consider existence of additional hard upper or lower distance bounds on pairs of circle centers, and adapt the proposed method to provide a p-dispersion solution that provably respects such constraints. We validate our proposed method by comparing it with previous exact and approximate methods for p-dispersion. The method quickly produces near-optimal results for a number of containers. |
968 | An MCDM-based social network analysis of water governance to determine actors' power in water-food-energy nexus | A major water governance concern is how to coordinate the complex relationships of the water, food, and energy sectors and the resulting economic, social, and environmental consequences. Focusing on the challenges in one sector (e.g. water shortage in the water sector) and making decisions without considering other sectors will not solve these problems; rather, it will create a new problem (the decline of food production) in the food sectors. The nexus approach is a novel method to represent the interrelated challenges of the water, food, and energy sectors by considering the sectors' policies to achieve sustainable development. The present study analyzes the social network of nexus actors in the Yazd-Ardakan aquifer, Yazd province, Iran. For this purpose, 54 partners in the nexus network were first identified in various public, private, semi-private and non-governmental organizations. Three types of interactions (knowledge and information exchange, budget transfer, and collaboration) were analyzed among the actors. The actor-network was, then, assessed at the levels of the entire network and individual actors. Then, a coherence analysis was performed by the density index at the entire network level, and the power analysis was carried out using in-degree, out-degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector centrality indices at the individual actor level. Social network analysis criteria were, then, incorporated with the multi-criteria decision-making model ELECTRE I to select the key and powerful actors in the nexus network. Next, the powerful actors were identified and introduced with respect to 15 criteria employed in the social network analysis. According to the results, the power structure in the nexus network of the research area is not at equilibrium. Most of the power lies with the public sector. The water, food, and energy sectors act alone and they do not exploit their maximum organizational capacities to establish relationships with one another. |
969 | The Advantages of Industry 4.0 Applications for Sustainability: Results from a Sample of Manufacturing Companies | Far from being exclusively related to economic considerations, the advantages of Industry 4.0 applications also include environmental and social concerns. An increasing amount of scientific publications relate the implementation of the fourth industrial revolution paradigm to sustainability. Several studies reported opportunities of Industry 4.0 implementation particularly to the environmental dimension of sustainability, e.g., through improved logistics streams and lowered waste from production. The present research aims at providing evidence on whether manufacturing companies consider Industry 4.0 implementation as an advantage contributing to environmental and social sustainability in terms of lower environmental impact of production, as well as higher physical relief for workers and flexibility of work organisation. The results were an attempt to study such relations with company sizes, industry sectors, turnover and self-assessed levels of digitalization varying. The sample encompasses 65 companies located in the Marche region (Italy). The results show that overall the perception of economic opportunities prevail, while the association of a beneficial impact of Industry 4.0 on environmental sustainability is rather low across companies, regardless of their size, turnover and digital level. As for the statistically significant variables, the results suggest a strong association of the size and the digital level to specific Industry 4.0 related advantages, referring to the social and economic dimension of sustainability, respectively. |
970 | Does the popularization of agricultural mechanization improve energy-environment performance in China's agricultural sector? | Environmental problems caused by the rapid popularization of agricultural mechanization and the increase of energy input in China's agricultural production have caused increasing concern. Based on the study sample of China's 30 provinces from 2000 to 2017, this paper estimates the energy-environment performance of agricultural sector using the global DEA method. Furthermore, it applied a panel TOBIT model based on censored data to empirically analyze the impact of popularization of mechanization on energy-environment performance in China's agricultural sector. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, the mean value of energy-environment performance is 0.1842, and the values of national and regional performance showed a downward trend in the sample period, indicating that most regions in China's agricultural sector did not perform well in terms of energy saving and pollution control. Secondly, the development of agricultural mechanization has a significant negative effect on energy-environment performance. This result confirms the fact that the regions with high penetration rates of agricultural mechanization usually have a low energy-environment performance. Finally, in regard to the control variables, energy price, reservoir infrastructure construction and agricultural industrial structure negatively affect energy-environment performance, while the agricultural labor force and agricultural mechanization service organizations have a positive effect on China's energy-environment performance. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
971 | Trend in Extreme Precipitation Indices Based on Long Term In Situ Precipitation Records over Pakistan | Assessing the long-term precipitation changes is of utmost importance for understanding the impact of climate change. This study investigated the variability of extreme precipitation events over Pakistan on the basis of daily precipitation data from 51 weather stations from 1980-2016. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall, Sen's slope estimator, least squares method, and two-tailed simple t-test methods were used to assess the trend in eight precipitation extreme indices. These indices were wet days (R1 >= 1 mm), heavy precipitation days (R10 >= 10 mm), very heavy precipitation days (R20 >= 20 mm), severe precipitation (R50 >= 50 mm), very wet days (R95p) defining daily precipitation >= 95 percentile, extremely wet days (R99p) defining daily precipitation >= 99 percentile, annual total precipitation in wet days (PRCPTOT), and mean precipitation amount on wet days as simple daily intensity index (SDII). The study is unique in terms of using high stations' density, extended temporal coverage, advanced statistical techniques, and additional extreme indices. Furthermore, this study is the first of its kind to detect abrupt changes in the temporal trend of precipitation extremes over Pakistan. The results showed that the spatial distribution of trends in different precipitation extreme indices over the study region increased as a whole; however, the monsoon and westerlies humid regions experienced a decreasing trend of extreme precipitation indices during the study period. The results of the sequential Mann-Kendall (SqMK) test showed that all precipitation extremes exhibited abrupt dynamic changes in temporal trend during the study period; however, the most frequent mutation points with increasing tendency were observed during 2011 and onward. The results further illustrated that the linear trend of all extreme indices showed an increasing tendency from 1980- 2016. Similarly, for elevation, most of the precipitation extremes showed an inverse relationship, suggesting a decrease of precipitation along the latitudinal extent of the country. The spatiotemporal variations in precipitation extremes give a possible indication of the ongoing phenomena of climate change and variability that modified the precipitation regime of Pakistan. On the basis of the current findings, the study recommends that future studies focus on underlying physical and natural drivers of precipitation variability over the study region. |
972 | Stir bar sorptive-dispersive microextraction by a poly(methacrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate)-based magnetic sorbent for the determination of tricyclic antidepressants and their main active metabolites in human urine | A poly(methacrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate)-based magnetic sorbent was used for the rapid and sensitive determination of tricyclic antidepressants and their main active metabolites in human urine. This material was characterized by magnetism measurements, zeta potential, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, and thermogravimetric analysis. The proposed analytical method is based on stir bar sorptive-dispersive microextraction (SBSDME) followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The main parameters involved in the extraction step were optimized by using the response surface methodology as a multivariate optimization method, whereas a univariate approach was employed to study the desorption parameters. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed method was properly validated showing good linearity (at least up to 50 ng mL-1) and enrichment factors (13-22), limits of detection and quantification in the low ng L-1 range (1.4-7.0 ng L-1), and good intra- and inter-day repeatability (relative standard deviations below 15%). Matrix effects were observed for the direct analysis of urine samples, but they were negligible when a 1:1 v/v dilution with deionized water was performed. Finally, the method was successfully applied to human urine samples from three volunteers, one of them consuming a prescribed drug for depression that tested positive for clomipramine and its main active metabolite. Quantitative relative recoveries (80-113%) were obtained by external calibration. The present work expands the applicability of the SBSDME to new analytes and new types of magnetic sorbents. |
973 | Prediction short-term photovoltaic power using improved chicken swarm optimizer - Extreme learning machine model | Photovoltaic power generation is greatly affected by weather conditions while the photovoltaic power has a certain negative impact on the power grid. The power sector takes certain measures to abandon photovoltaic power generation, thus limiting the development of clean energy power generation. This study is to propose an accurate short-term photovoltaic power prediction method. A new short-term photovoltaic power output prediction model is proposed Based on extreme learning machine and intelligent optimizer. Firstly, the input of the model is determined by correlation coefficient method. Then the chicken swarm optimizer is improved to strengthen the convergence. Secondly, the improved chicken swarm optimizer is used to optimize the weights and the extreme learning machine thresholds to improve the prediction effect. Finally, the improved chicken swarm optimizer extreme learning machine model is used to predict the photovoltaic power under different weather conditions. The testing results show that the average mean absolute percentage error and root mean square error of improved chicken swarm optimizer - extreme learning machine model are 5.54% and 3.08%. The proposed method is of great significance for the economic dispatch of power systems and the development of clean energy. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
974 | Global assessment of environment, health and economic impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) | The institution of social distancing and punitive measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 through human-to-human transmission has environmental, health and economic impact. While the global pandemic has led to the enhancement of the health system and decline of emissions, economic development appears deteriorating. Here, we present the global environmental, health and economic dimension of the effect of COVID-19 using qualitative and empirical assessments. We report the health system policies, environmental sustainability issues, and fiscal, monetary and exchange rate measures introduced during lockdown across countries. While air pollution is reported to have declined, municipal and medical waste is increasing. The COVID-19 global pandemic uncertainty ranks the UK as the country with the highest uncertainty level among 143 countries. The USA has introduced 100% of pre-COVID-19 crisis level GDP, the highest policy cut-rate among 162 countries. Science, innovation, research and development underpin COVID-19 containment measures implemented across countries. Our study demonstrates the need for future research to focus on environment-health-economic nexus-a trilemma that has a potential trade-off. |
975 | Neuropathology of Vascular Brain Health: Insights From Ex Vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Histopathology Studies in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease | Sporadic cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is a major contributor to vascular cognitive impairment and dementia in the aging human brain. On neuropathology, sporadic SVD is characterized by abnormalities to the small vessels of the brain predominantly in the form of cerebral amyloid angiopathy and arteriolosclerosis. These pathologies frequently coexist with Alzheimer disease changes, such as plaques and tangles, in a single brain. Conversely, during life, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) only captures the larger manifestations of SVD in the form of parenchymal brain abnormalities. There appears to be a major knowledge gap regarding the underlying neuropathology of individual MRI-detectable SVD abnormalities. Ex vivo MRI in postmortem human brain tissue is a powerful tool to bridge this gap. This review summarizes current insights into the histopathologic correlations of MRI manifestations of SVD, their underlying cause, presumed pathophysiology, and associated secondary tissue injury. Moreover, we discuss the advantages and limitations of ex vivo MRI-guided histopathologic investigations and make recommendations for future studies. |
976 | Effect of aluminum balls on the productivity of solar distillate | Drinking water has become a real global problem, despite the abundance of unsaturated saltwater and colorless, which do not meet the requirements of the World Health Organization. The El Oued, in the southeastern part of Algeria, contains vast quantities of salt water and non-potable water. Solar distillation can be used as a solution to resolve this trouble. To provide drinking water, we use free sunlight to treat salt water. The traditional solar distillation device, which is one mile long (0.5 x 0.5 m), is designed to confirm the effectiveness of this solution. The traditional single slope solar distillation, its dimensions (0.5 x 0.5 m), is designed to confirm the effectiveness of this solution. Solar distillation is an environmental, economic and simple technique, but it needs some modifications to increase the distilled water production. In this work, we added aluminum balls inside the solar distillate box. In this work, we added 42 aluminum balls with a diameter of 2 cm inside a solar distillates box; positioned as follows (6 balls x 7 balls). The results showed that aluminum balls increased the distillation of distilled water by about 27.16 %. |
977 | Valuation of air pollution externalities: comparative assessment of economic damage and emission reduction under COVID-19 lockdown | Air pollution (AP) is one of the major causes of health risks as it leads to widespread morbidity and mortality each year. Its environmental impacts include acid rains, reduced visibility, but more importantly and significantly, it affects human health. The price tag of not managing AP is seen in the rise of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease, and respiratory ailments like asthma and chronic bronchitis. But as the world battles the corona pandemic, COVID-19 lockdown has abruptly halted human activity, leading to a significant reduction in AP levels. The effect of this reduction is captured by reduced cases of morbidity and mortality associated with air pollution. The current study aims to monetarily quantify the decline in health impacts due to reduced AP levels under lockdown scenario, as against business as usual, for four cities-Delhi, London, Paris, and Wuhan. The exposure assessment with respect to pollutants like particulate matter (PM(2.5)and PM10), NO2, and SO(2)are evaluated. Value of statistical life (VSL), cost of illness (CoI), and per capita income (PCI) for disability-adjusted life years (DALY) are used to monetize the health impacts for the year 2019 and 2020, considering the respective period of COVID-19 lockdown of four cities. The preventive benefits related to reduced AP due to lockdown is evaluated in comparison to economic damage sustained by these four cities. This helps in understanding the magnitude of actual damage and brings out a more holistic picture of the damages related to lockdown. |
978 | Diagnostic protocols and newer treatment modalities for cluster headache | Cluster Headaches are one of the most arguably severe forms of primary headache syndrome that affects humans. Although it is relatively uncommon, it has a significant impact on the quality of life. It is a multifactorial disease that has risk factors ranging from seasonal changes, lifestyle habits to genetics. It occurs in 2 forms- Episodic and Chronic, each having its well-defined Diagnostic Criteria. Moreover, Cluster Headache has an exhaustive list of options for both Preventive and Abortive treatment. This article focuses on Cluster Headache, its pathophysiology, risk factors, differentials, and its diverse treatment modalities. In this study, an all-language literature search was conducted on Medline, Cochrane, Embase, and Google Scholar till October 2021. The following search strings and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms were used: "Cluster Headache," "Triptans," "Neuromodulation," and "Migraine." We explored the literature on Cluster Headache for its epidemiology, pathophysiology, the role of various genes and how they bring about the disease as well as its episodic and chronic variants, and treatment options. Although we have a wide variety of options for Preventive and Abortive therapy, newer more effective pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions are being developed, and must be integrated into new treatment protocols. |
979 | Cerebellar Microstructural Abnormalities in Parkinson's Disease: a Systematic Review of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Studies | Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is now having a strong momentum in research to evaluate the neural fibers of the CNS. This technique can study white matter (WM) microstructure in neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease (PD). Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested cerebellar involvement in the pathogenesis of PD, and these cerebellum alterations can correlate with PD symptoms and stages. Using the PRISMA 2020 framework, PubMed and EMBASE were searched to retrieve relevant articles. Our search revealed 472 articles. After screening titles and abstracts, and full-text review, and implementing the inclusion criteria, 68 papers were selected for synthesis. Reviewing the selected studies revealed that the patterns of reduction in cerebellum WM integrity, assessed by fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and axial diffusivity measures can differ symptoms and stages of PD. Cerebellar diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) changes in PD patients with "postural instability and gait difficulty" are significantly different from "tremor dominant" PD patients. Freezing of the gate is strongly related to cerebellar involvement depicted by DTI. The "reduced cognition," "visual disturbances," "sleep disorders," "depression," and "olfactory dysfunction" are not related to cerebellum microstructural changes on DTI, while "impulsive-compulsive behavior" can be linked to cerebellar WM alteration. Finally, higher PD stages and longer disease duration are associated with cerebellum white matter alteration depicted by DTI. Depiction of cerebellar white matter involvement in PD is feasible by DTI. There is an association with disease duration and severity and several clinical presentations with DTI findings. This clinical-imaging association may eventually improve disease management. |
980 | Effect of magnetized water on blood indices and histomorphometric parameters of intestinal sections of Japanese quail | A two-way experimental design was used to demonstrate the physiological effects of magnetized water and sex on blood indices and histomorphometric parameters of Japanese quail intestine sections. Red blood cell count (RBCs), packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin concentration (Hb), thrombocytes, white blood cell count (WBCs), and WBC differentiation were investigated. A total of 450 unsexed Japanese quail were randomized into three groups (45/replicate; 3 replicates; 135/group). As a monitoring group, the first group was given untreated tap water to drink. The two others were consumed magnetized water that were subjected to an electrical magnetic field with a power of 1 Tesla (10,000 Gauss) and 2 Tesla (20,000 Gauss), respectively. The treatments had a significant (p ≤ 0.05) effect on thrombocytes and Hb. Sex showed significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences for RBCs and PCV at 42 days of age. At different ages, significant effects were observed on histomorphometric parameters of the Japanese quail intestinal tract. It may be inferred that the influence of magnetized water, up to 1 Tesla, was positive on the haematological and histomorphometric parameters of the Japanese quail intestinal tract by augmenting the haematological measurements, which were within a normal range and increasing the surface area of the villus. |
981 | Cry1Ac Protoxin Confers Antitumor Adjuvant Effect in a Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Mouse Model by Improving Tumor Immunity | The Cry1Ac protoxin from Bacillus thuringiensis is a systemic and mucosal adjuvant, able to confer protective immunity in different infection murine models and induce both Th1 and TCD8+ cytotoxic lymphocyte responses, which are required to induce antitumor immunity. The Cry1Ac toxin, despite having not being characterized as an adjuvant, has also proved to be immunogenic and able to activate macrophages. Here, we investigated the potential antitumor adjuvant effect conferred by the Cry1Ac protoxin and Cry1Ac toxin in a triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) murine model. First, we evaluated the ability of Cry1Ac proteins to improve dendritic cell (DC) activation and cellular response through intraperitoneal (i.p.) coadministration with the 4T1 cellular lysate. Mice coadministered with the Cry1Ac protoxin showed an increase in the number and activation of CD11c+MHCII- and CD11c+MHCII+low in the peritoneal cavity and an increase in DC activation (CD11c+MHCII+) in the spleen. Cry1Ac protoxin increased the proliferation of TCD4+ and TCD8+ lymphocytes in the spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), while the Cry1Ac toxin only increased the proliferation of TCD4+ and TCD8+ in the MLN. Remarkably, when tested in the in vivo TNBC mouse model, prophylactic immunizations with 4T1 lysates plus the Cry1Ac protoxin protected mice from developing tumors. The antitumor effect conferred by the Cry1Ac protoxin also increased specific cytotoxic T cell responses, and prevented the typical tumor-related decrease of T cells (TCD3+ and TCD4+) as well the increase of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) in spleen. Also in the tumor microenvironment of mice coadministered twice with Cry1Ac protoxin immunological improvements were found such as reductions in immunosupressive populations (T regulatory lymphocytes and MDSC) along with increases in macrophages upregulating CD86. These results show a differential antitumor adjuvant capability of Cry1Ac proteins, highlighting the ability of Cry1Ac protoxin to enhance local and systemic tumor immunity in TNBC. Finally, using a therapeutic approach, we evaluated the coadministration of Cry1Ac protoxin with doxorubicin. A significant reduction in tumor volume and lung metastasis was found, with increased intratumoral levels of tumor necrosis factor-α and IL-6 with respect to the vehicle group, further supporting its antitumor applicability. |
982 | Vector mosquito image classification using novel RIFS feature selection and machine learning models for disease epidemiology | Every year about one million people die due to diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. The infection is transmitted to a person when an infected mosquito stings, injecting the saliva into the human body. The best possible way to prevent a mosquito-borne infection till date is to save the humans from exposure to mosquito bites. This study proposes a Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning based system to detect the presence of two critical disease spreading classes of mosquitoes such as the Aedes and Culex. The proposed system will effectively aid in epidemiology to design evidence-based policies and decisions by analyzing the risks and transmission. The study proposes an effective methodology for the classification of mosquitoes using ML and CNN models. The novel RIFS has been introduced which integrates two types of feature selection techniques - the ROI-based image filtering and the wrappers-based FFS technique. Comparative analysis of various ML and deep learning models has been performed to determine the most appropriate model applicable based on their performance metrics as well as computational needs. Results prove that ETC outperformed among the all applied ML model by providing 0.992 accuracy while VVG16 has outperformed other CNN models by giving 0.986 of accuracy. |
983 | Energy, exergy and exergoenvironmental analyses of a sugarcane bagasse power cogeneration system | One of the strategies to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity is to employ renewable resources such as biomass or even waste. However, the evaluation of the sustainability of a power plant depends on the development of several analyses, which should encompass thermodynamic and environmental parameters. Energy, exergy, and exergoenvironmental assessments are carried out for a sugarcane bagasse cogeneration system, along with a Life Cycle Assessment for the Brazilian sugarcane bagasse, employing the Ecoindicator 99 method. The specific environmental impacts of electricity and steam are 6.023 mPt/MJ and 4.038 mPt/MJ, respectively, and the boiler feed pump and radiator presented the highest average environmental impact per exergy of fuel and product, respectively. The component with the highest exergoenvironmental factor was the furnace (60.32%), demonstrating margins for benefits in the formation of pollutants and destruction of exergy. Exergoenvironmental assessments can be utilized to support the adoption of more efficient (although more complex) cogeneration systems, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis. |
984 | Uneven energy transitions: Understanding continued energy peripheralization in rural communities | This paper problematizes the uneven nature of low carbon energy transitions in the context of uneven geographical development and core/periphery asymmetries. It explores the impacts of transition for peripheral communities lacking political power and agglomerative advantages. While decentralised developments that emerge with energy transition promise to bring new opportunities to remote areas, factors of economic and political inequalities render those opportunities socially and spatially segregated. Exploring experiences of rural and exurban communities in South Wales, the paper establishes links between low carbon transition and its actually existing implications on the ground. It demonstrates that even if having an abundance of natural resource and physical space to harness low carbon energy, many rural communities are trapped in the chronic positions of energy peripheralization. |
985 | Renewable energy and environmental quality: A second-generation panel evidence from the Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) countries | This study employs dynamic panel data for 34 Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) countries for the period 1984-2016 to estimate the effects of renewable energy on environmental quality measured by three indicators, namely, per capita CO2 emissions, energy intensity (EI) and Aggregate National Savings (ANS). The study leveraged a battery of second-generation econometric tests and estimation and causality methods to obtain the coefficients between the regressed and the regressors. Results reveal that use of renewable energy reduces CO2 emissions and energy intensity while it enhances ANS. Economic growth still seems to be expensive for the region as it stimulates CO2 emissions. However, it has a positive effect on ANS. As expected, fossil fuels exacerbate CO(2 )emissions and energy intensity. FDI is found to be detrimental for the environment of SSA region with its positive significant coefficient on CO2 emissions. Financial development is reported to reduce CO2 emissions. Some causal links between variables are also noted. |
986 | Landslide Characterization Applying Sentinel-1 Images and InSAR Technique: The Muyubao Landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China | Landslides are a common natural hazard that causes casualties and unprecedented economic losses every year, especially in vulnerable developing countries. Considering the high cost of in-situ monitoring equipment and the sparse coverage of monitoring points, the Sentinel-1 images and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique were used to conduct landslide monitoring and analysis. The Muyubao landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir area in China was taken as a case study. A total of 37 images from March 2016 to September 2017 were collected, and the displacement time series were extracted using the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterer (StaMPS) small baselines subset method. The comparison to global positioning system monitoring results indicated that the InSAR processing of the Muyubao landslide was accurate and reliable. Combined with the field investigation, the deformation evolution and its response to triggering factors were analyzed. During this monitoring period, the creeping process of the Muyubao landslide showed obvious spatiotemporal deformation differences. The changes in the reservoir water level were the trigger of the Muyubao landslide, and its deformation mainly occurred during the fluctuation period and high-water level period of the reservoir. |
987 | The relationship between innovation and sustainability: A meta-analytic study | The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of innovation on the performance of organizational sustainability, as well as on the environmental, economic and social dimensions. The search was done using various data collection sources, such as Scopus, WoS, Science Direct, Emerald, Sage, Wiley Online Library and Proquest. The research findings indicate that innovation positively impacts sustainability performance. The strongest and most favorable correlations occurred between economic innovation and sustainability performance and between environmental innovation and sustainability performance. Thus, the main contributions of the study are associated with: a) the existence of a positive and strong relationship between innovation and sustainability performance; b) evidence of innovation effect size on sustainability performance (combined effect size coefficient at r = 0.529 (p-value <0.000)); c) an identification of the gaps in the scientific literature evaluating the effect of innovation on the sustainability of organizations; and d) the fail-safe Rosenthal value is 37,800, which indicates that the number of unpublished documents required to make the observed effect size insignificant is too large. Future studies can advance with meta analyzes that adopt moderating and mediating constructions to assess the relationship between innovation and performance in sustainability. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
988 | Strength and durability performance of geopolymer binder of ambient cured alkali-activated MSW rejected waste and GGBFS mixes | Municipal solid waste (MSW) is being generated every day, and its safe disposal is one of the major environmental challenges nowadays. The main focus of this research is to examine the usability of the soil-like inorganic component of MSW, named MSW rejected waste, as a geopolymer binder. In this study, the effect of mutual replacement of MSW rejected waste with ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) at 10% interval on the synthesis of geopolymer binder with reference to density, alkali concentration, and curing period is studied by conducting compressive strength, permeability, and durability tests. The design of mixes follows, according to their pre-determined compaction parameters, optimum moisture content, and maximum dry density. The curing conditions were found to be significant in affecting the properties of the geopolymer. The effect of acid environment on strength properties of geopolymer mixes has also been studied. The unconfined compressive strength, pulse wave velocity, water absorption, and microstructural analysis have been performed on designed mixes to identify the optimized design of the mixtures. Results showed that the strength increased with the increment of GGBFS percentage and increment of concentration of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) up to 8 M. |
989 | Dual Role of Mo6 S8 in Polysulfide Conversion and Shuttle for Mg-S Batteries | Magnesium-Sulfur batteries are one of most appealing options among the post-lithium battery systems due to its potentially high energy density, safe and sustainable electrode materials. The major practical challenges are originated from the soluble magnesium polysulfide intermediates and their shuttling between the electrodes, which cause high overpotentials, low sulfur utilization, and poor Coulombic efficiency. Herein, a functional Mo6 S8 modified separator is designed to effectively address these issues. Both the experimental results and density functional theory calculations show that the electrochemically active Mo6 S8 layer has a superior adsorption capability of polysulfides and simultaneously acts as a mediator to accelerate the polysulfide conversion kinetics. Remarkably, the magnesium-sulfur cell assembled with the functional separator delivers a high specific energy density (942.9 mA h g-1 in the 1st cycle) and can be cycled at 0.2 C for 200 cycles with a Coulombic efficiency of 96%. This work demonstrates a new design concept toward high-performance metal-sulfur batteries. |
990 | Using a self-adaptive grey fractional weighted model to forecast Jiangsu's electricity consumption in China | The remarkable prediction performance of electricity consumption has always assumed particular importance for electric power utility planning and economic development. On account of the complexity and uncertainty of the electricity system, this paper establishes a self-adaptive grey fractional weighted model to predict Jiangsu's electricity consumption, which efficiently enhances the prediction quality of electricity consumption. This newly constructed grey model introduces the fractional weighted coefficients to design a novel initial condition. Compared with the old one in the conventional grey models, the newly optimized initial condition has a flexible structure, which has advantages in capturing the dynamic characteristics of the electricity consumption observations. In addition, to further promote the forecasting precision, the adjustable fractional weighted coefficients and corresponding time parameter of the initial condition are estimated by utilizing the Particle Swarm Algorithm (PSO). Furthermore, five competing models are employed to forecast Jiangsu's electricity consumption in China, which certifies the validity of the established model. Experimental results illustrate that the newly designed model has significant advantages over other five competing models. According to the forecasted results, electricity consumption in Jiangsu Province is expected to reach 6778 billion kilowatt-hours in 2020, while the growth rate will fall down by 1.11%. Therefore, several proposals are made for decision-makers. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
991 | Activity of Ligustrum vulgare L extracts against acute pancreatitis in murine models by regulation of p38 MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways | Pancreatitis is a fatal disease associated with significant mortality and morbidity. At present, no specific treatment is available for pancreatitis and the patients are mainly treated with supportive medication. The need for specific antipancreatitic chemotherapy is an urgent medical obligation. In the current study, protective effects of the methanolic extract of the Ligustrum vulgare berries were investigated in the rat model of acute pancreatitis. Acute pancreatitis (AP) was induced in the male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats by cerulein injection. Fruit extract of L. vulgare L extract was prepared using the methanol. Treatment effects of L. vulgare were evaluated in AP rats. Serum levels of lipase, amylase, proinflamatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, TL-1β), lipid peroxidase (LPO), myeloperoxidase (MPO) were determined. Histological changes in the pancreas were assessed. L. vulgare treatment prevented the increase in serum amylase and lipase levels, reduced the disease progression in pancreas, and reduced the serum levels of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-1β in AP rats. Moreover, L. vulgare significantly suppressed pancreatic edema, inhibited oxidative damage (MPO activity and SOD activity), and inhibited the expression of NF-κB/p65 and activation (phosphorylation) of the inhibitor of NF-κB (IκBα) and p38 MAPKs. Histological examinations showed that L. vulgare significantly reduced the inflammatory and fibrotic changes. The results indicated the potent pancreato-protective effects of L. vulgare in AP. |
992 | Moving beyond velocity derivatives; using global positioning system data to extract sequential movement patterns at different levels of rugby league match-play | This study aims to (a) quantify the movement patterns during rugby league match-play and (b) identify if differences exist by levels of competition within the movement patterns and units through the sequential movement pattern (SMP) algorithm. Global Positioning System data were analysed from three competition levels; four Super League regular (regular-SL), three Super League (semi-)Finals (final-SL) and four international rugby league (international) matches. The SMP framework extracted movement pattern data for each athlete within the dataset. Between competition levels, differences were analysed using linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Movement patterns were decomposed into their composite movement units; then Kruskal-Wallis rank-sum and Dunn post-hoc were used to show differences. The SMP algorithm found 121 movement patterns comprised mainly of "walk" and "jog" based movement units. The LDA had an accuracy score of 0.81, showing good separation between competition levels. Linear discriminant 1 and 2 explained 86% and 14% of the variance. The Kruskal-Wallis found differences between competition levels for 9 of 17 movement units. Differences were primarily present between regular-SL and international with other combinations showing less differences. Movement units which showed significant differences between competition levels were mainly composed of low velocities with mixed acceleration and turning angles. The SMP algorithm found 121 movement patterns across all levels of rugby league match-play, of which, 9 were found to show significant differences between competition levels. Of these nine, all showed significant differences present between international and domestic, whereas only four found differences present within the domestic levels. This study shows the SMP algorithm can be used to differentiate between levels of rugby league and that higher levels of competition may have greater velocity demands.Highlights This study shows that movement patterns and movement units can be used to investigate team sports through the application of the SMP frameworkOne hundred and twenty-one movement patterns were found to be present within rugby league match-play, with the walk- and jog-based movement units most prevalent. No movement pattern was unique to a single competition level.Further analysis revealed that the majority of movement units analysed had significant differences between international and domestic rugby league, whereas only four movement units (i.e. f,m,n,q) had significant differences within the two domestic rugby league levels.International rugby league had higher occurrences of the movement patterns consisting of higher velocity movement units (ie. T,S,y). This suggests that international rugby league players may need greater high velocity exposure in training. |
993 | Assessment of parabolic trough solar collector assisted solar still at various saline water mediums via energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, and enviroeconomic approaches | The performance of parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) coupled with single slope solar still at various water mediums is assessed based on productivity, energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, and enviroeconomic methodologies and also Energy payback time. Six solar still systems are considered; conventional solar still (CSS), CSS coupled with PTC (CSS + PTC), CSS contains steel wire mesh in the basin (CSS + WM), CSS contains wire mesh and coupled with PTC (CSS + WM + PTC), CSS contains sand in the basin (CSS + SD), and CSS contains sand and integrated with PTC (CSS + SD + PTC). Experiments are conducted under hot and cold climate conditions of Sohag city, Egypt. Findings show that the maximum freshwater yield in summer is achieved in case of CSS + SD + PTC with an increase of 1.21% compared to CSS and 102.1% compared to CSS + SD + PTC in winter. The maximum increase of the energy and exergy output per year compared to CSS is achieved in case of CSS + SD + PTC of 216.6% and 325%, respectively. Incorporation PTC with the still for all studied water mediums is found promising in terms of energy payback time, cost and freshwater yield compared to CSS without PTC. The exergoeconomic and environmental parameters of the active systems are found more effective related to those of passive systems. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
994 | Performance optimization through response surface methodology of an integrated biomass gasification based combined heat and power plant employing solid oxide fuel cell and externally fired gas turbine | Efficient energy utilization from renewable energy sources can resolve multidimensional problems of environ-mental pollution, energy security and reduction in conventional fossil fuel reserves. In this circumstance, bio-mass-based energy systems can play an important role. In this study, modeling and analysis of an advanced integrated co-generation system comprising of a biomass gasifier, a solid oxide fuel cell module and a heat recovery steam generator have been carried out for generating power and process heat. The proposed system has been evaluated through exergetic and economic methods. Furthermore, response surface methodology has been applied for the multi-objective optimization of the system. Current density, pressure ratio of the secondary air compressor and saturation pressure of steam at the heat recovery steam generator are considered as the inputs for predicting the optimum performance parameters i.e., exergy efficiency, levelized cost of energy and levelized cost of exergy. Regression models, generated from the analysis of variance tool, are found to have a very high degree of accuracy for the exergy efficiency, levelized cost of energy and levelized cost of exergy. The optimal levels of the current density, pressure ratio and saturation pressure of steam are found to be 5101.01 A/m(2), 4 and 12 bar, respectively. At this optimum condition, exergy efficiency, levelized cost of energy and levelized cost of exergy of the cogeneration system are 46.58%, 0.0454 $/kWh and 0.0657$/kWh, respectively. Composite de-sirability is found to be on the higher side (around 0.90), which indicate that the setting seems to attain fa-vorable results for all the responses as a whole. |
995 | A new measure of Italian hidden energy poverty | As highlighted by European policymakers and academic research, the global economic crisis of 2008 emphasized the energy poverty phenomenon. A number of households have had to considerably reduce their energy expenditure but the traditional criteria adopted to calculate energy poverty are not able to measure their number. Placed in this framework, the paper aims to define a new measure of hidden energy poverty suitable to identify which Italian households restrain their energy consumption due to their inability to afford energy services. A review of the available energy poverty metrics supports the definition of a new indicator that is able to include hidden energy-poor consumers considering some key peculiarities such as the poor energy efficiency of buildings, the poverty situation, low energy consumption and sensitivity to the climate. Using data from the Household Budget Survey provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics in 2018, the newly identified indicator supports the assessment of the percentage of Italian households in hidden energy poverty and supplies useful insight to policymakers in their effort to support vulnerable consumers. |
996 | Coupling of economic growth and reduction in carbon emissions at the efficiency level: Evidence from China | Our work provides a comprehensive investigation of the coupling between the efficiency of economic growth and the efficiency of carbon emissions reduction in China, and makes a distinction between the coupling over the long-run and the short-run. Our estimates suggested significant evidence of coupling between economic growth and efficiency in carbon emissions reduction in the long-run, but China's economic growth still increased carbon emissions at the aggregate level. In the short-run, coupling effects were different across provinces that were at different stages of economic development. Provinces with low- and high-stages of development saw positive short-run coupling, but provinces at the intermediate stage of development saw the contrary, which resulted in an obvious "U" shaped relationship between short-run coupling effects and real GDP per capita. Finally, our findings provide an economic rationale for differentiated low-carbon policies. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
997 | Chronic subdural haematoma: the role of peri-operative medicine in a common form of reversible brain injury | Epidemiological studies project a significant rise in cases of chronic subdural haematoma over the next 20 years. Patients with this condition are frequently older and medically complex, with baseline characteristics that may increase peri-operative risk. The intra-operative period is only a small portion of a patient's total hospital stay, with a majority of patients in the United Kingdom transferred between institutions for their surgical and rehabilitative care. Definitive management remains surgical, but peri-operative challenges exist which resonate with other surgical cohorts where multidisciplinary working has become the gold standard. These include shared decision-making, medical optimisation, the management of peri-operative anticoagulation and the identification of key points of equipoise for examination in the future trials. In this narrative review, we use a stereotyped patient journey to provide context to the recent literature, highlighting where multidisciplinary expertise may be required to optimise patient care and maximise the benefits of surgical management. We discuss the triage, pre-operative optimisation, intra-operative management and immediate postoperative care of patients undergoing surgery for a chronic subdural haematoma. We also discuss where adjunctive medical management may be indicated. In so doing, we present the current and emerging evidence base for the role of an integrated peri-operative medicine team in the care of patients with a chronic subdural haematoma. |
998 | Investigating the EKC hypothesis for China: the role of economic complexity on ecological footprint | This empirical study aims to test the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for China within the framework of (Narayan and Narayan Energy Policy 38(1):661-666, 2010) approach. To this end, the study employs a recently developed Fourier ARDL procedure and time-varying causality test over the period 1965-2016 to analyze the short- and long-term relationships between economic growth, economic complexity index, energy consumption, and ecological footprint. The findings of the Fourier ARDL procedure confirm the existence of cointegration among the series. Moreover, the results of this study demonstrate that energy consumption and ecological complexity increase ecological footprint in both the short- and long term. However, the short-term elasticity of economic growth is smaller than the long-term elasticity, implying that the EKC hypothesis is not valid for China. This finding is robust as it is confirmed by the time-varying causality test. The overall results illustrate that economic complexity has an increasing impact on ecological footprint, and economic growth is not effective to solve environmental problems in China. Therefore, the Chinese government should encourage a more environmentally friendly production process and cleaner technologies in exports to reduce environmental pollution. |
999 | Valuing wetland ecosystem services based on benefit transfer: A meta-analysis of China wetland studies | While wetlands contribute significantly to ecosystem services, their nature as a public good implies that the public sector, rather than the market, values their conservation, utilization, and trade-offs among various ecosystem services. Thus, the valuation of wetlands and their ecosystem services is important for policy makers. This study conducts a meta-analysis of valuation research on China's wetlands based on 133 independent studies involving 146 cases published during 2000-2017. The study evaluates the weight of different factors in the existing valuation results, discusses the errors of benefit transfer, and applies the benefit transfer method to evaluate the ecosystem services of Yancheng wetland in Jiangsu province. The primary results are as follows. Wetland size influences wetland service valuation results most significantly. The value of all ecosystem services increases as wetland area increases with an average elasticity of 0.83. Factors such as economic and social development level, wetland type, research time, literature source, and valuation methods have impacts only on several individual service types. It is feasible to apply the meta-analysis results to benefit transfer. Compared with the per unit area value model, which is more stable in transfer errors, the wetland service value has better goodness of fit. Therefore,in conducting benefit transfer, the wetland service value models are suggested. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
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