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The study aims to explore the asymmetric impact of financial globalisation on renewable CO2 emissions for selected Asian economies for a time span from 1990 to 2019. A sample of 35 economies is selected on the basis of the availability of data. To get the estimates of the variables, the analysis has applied FMOLS and DOLS estimation methods. The linear estimate of financial globalisation in the FMOLS model is negative and significant but positive and insignificant in the DOLS model. The estimates attached to positive financial globalisation are negatively significant in both FMOLS and DOLS models, implying that an increase in financial globalisation causes the environmental quality to improve. Similarly, the estimates attached to negative financial globalisation in both FMOLS and DOLS are negative and suggest that a fall in financial globalisation causes the environmental quality to deteriorate. The magnitudes of positive and negative changes are different; hence, they have a significantly different impact on environmental quality. The robust results clearly indicate that the effects of financial globalisation on CO2 emissions are asymmetric. Therefore, the policymakers should focus on positive as well as negative changes in financial globalisation while considering the impact of financial globalisation on CO2 emissions in Asian regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logistics performance is considered an important determinant of supply chain performance that results in carbon neutrality. The main aim of this study is to investigate the influence of logistics performance and green innovation on carbon emissions for selected Asian economies over the period 2007–2020. The 2SLS approach has been employed for empirical tasks, and the robustness of results has been confirmed through the GMM approach. The results indicate that logistics performance significantly reduces carbon emissions. Besides the logistics performance index, five other indicators of logistics performance have been used in the analysis. These indicators include quality of logistics services, tracking and tracing capability, logistics infrastructure quality, cargo transportation timelines, and customs clearance efficiency. All these indicators are negatively correlated with carbon emissions. The results further indicate that green innovation leads to a significant reduction in carbon emissions. Thus, our results emphasize the priorities of green innovation, logistics performance, and environmental sustainability in Asian economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moringa oleifera is gaining popularity as multi-cut quality fodder in Pakistan because of its great nutritional value and biomass production. For successful quality biomass production, proper crop nutrition is vital especially during dry season. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the objective to explore the impact of variable doses of "nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK)" fertilizer for maximum foliage production and improve the quality of moringa under field conditions. Three levels of NPK (No fertilizer, 25:25:50, and 50:50:100 kg ha−1) were applied in already established two years old moringa plants on 15 September 2016, at research area of University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan. Dimension of each experimental unit was 3.5 × 5.5 m. After thirty days of fertilizer treatments, two cuttings were taken with the interval of 30 days. The experimental design was RCBD with factorial arrangements having three replications. Significant differences were observed in growth, biomass production, and quality of produce. The moringa plants treated with application of 50:50:100 kg NPK ha−1 produced maximum dry biomass with good quality (crude protein, fiber, fat, and ash%) during both cuttings. Nonetheless, first cutting produced more growth and biomass as compared to second cutting. While NPK supplementation increased 50% more biomass production and better quality compared to control in second cutting. Increased biomass production of moringa was associated with high chlorophyll contents, better antioxidant, and quality (crude protein, fiber, fat, and ash%) status with NPK supplementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the aspects of renewable energy consumption is important because it contains low-carbon emissions, which could significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Little research is done on exploring the factors of renewable energy consumption. The primary objective of this study is to examine the impact of the green environmental policy on renewable energy consumption in the BRICST economies over data ranging from 1991 and 2019 by using panel quantile regression. The fixed-effects and quantile regressions confirm the positive effects of economic growth and non-renewable energy on renewable energy consumption. In contrast, the consumer price index and CO2 hurt the renewable energy consumption in the BRICST economies. The estimate of the environmental policy stringency appears to be negative and insignificant in the fixed-effects model. On the other side, the estimates of the environmental stringency index appear to be positively significant from the 10th–40th quantiles and negatively significant from 50th–90th quantiles. Robust policy implications of our outcomes are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel COVID-19 virus, and the pandemic that has followed its spread, has had a massive impact on the banking industry on a global level. Therefore, considering this context, this study examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the banking sector's performance in the Asian emerging economics, over a time span ranging from 2016Q1–2021Q2. For this purpose, this study makes use of the FE, RE, 2SLS, and PPML regression models. The empirical findings show that the GDP and banking size are positively related to bank performance in the pre-COVID era, and the COVID pandemics era thus far in the Asian emerging economies. In addition to this, the findings also reveal that the impact of GDP and bank size on banking performance is lower in the pandemic period, as compared to the pre-COVID period. Furthermore, the results show that the COVID pandemic has significantly affected the banking sector performance in the Asian emerging economies. Findings have also suggested that the central bank should shift their focus on the banking industry in the Asian emerging economies. Various other policy implications have also been suggested under the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypoxia and blue tide are the most significant environmental issues in Tokyo Bay as they have been damaging fisheries for a long time. Although studies on modeling these two associated phenomena have been conducted for decades, the scarcity of relevant observational datasets has greatly hindered the progress, and no study has successfully reproduced the entire processes of blue tide or predicted the time and place of its outbreak. To address the problems from limited data, this study proposed a relatively conventional benthic flux model and developed a novel method that converts the total organic carbon content into the fluxes of sediment oxygen consumption and sulfide release to represent the spatial differences in benthic fluxes. A pelagic sulfur model with only three key chemical reactions of blue tide that includes the disproportionation of elemental sulfur was proposed. The method significantly improved the results of dissolved oxygen in bottom water, as seen by the root mean square error decreasing by 15.9% and 18.9% in two simulations with largely different forcings. The sulfur model also accurately predicted the outbreaks of blue tides in each simulation, which is significant to the stakeholders as it facilitates the forecast of blue tides in Tokyo Bay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) is one of the most potent and extensively studied neurotoxins with clinical applications across several different medical specialties. This review article explores the latest evidence for therapeutic applications of BoNT in patients receiving critical management in an intensive care unit (ICU). The authors did a literature search in PubMed, Google Scholar, and Texas Medical Center Library database for studies describing the use of BoNT in a critical care setting. They extracted information on study design, patient selection, methodology, and results of relevant studies. Based on initial identification of 85 studies and after conducting screening, the authors identified 61 studies to be included in this review. In an ICU setting, BoNT has been used for several neurological and non-neurological indications. However, the supporting evidence is mostly limited to small observational studies. The use of BoNT in this setting is largely underutilized due to paucity of well-designed clinical trials and financial barriers. Further research is needed to provide evidence for the safety and efficacy of BoNT and to optimize the dosing and injection techniques for various conditions encountered in this setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to investigate the influences of trade and environmental issues on ISO 14001 certification in developing countries, focusing on how ISO 14001 certification is affected at macrolevel. Based on the panel data from 65 developing countries over the period 1999–2016, this study confirms the existence of long-run cointegrating relationships between ISO 14001 adoption, trade openness, and environmental pressures by using panel estimation techniques. The results from fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) reveal the positive impacts of trade openness and environmental pressures on ISO 14001 adoption. The results from causality analysis show no causal relationship between ISO 14001, trade openness, and environmental pressures in whole panel; instead the relationship varies for different regions of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agriculture sector has a 21 percent share in global CO2 emission. It is contributing the 40 percent share in the gross domestic product of OBORI (One Belt and One Road Initiative) economies. Therefore, the present work intends to evaluate the role of agriculture and forest on environmental degradation from 1980 to 2017 for OBORI economies. The cross-sectional dependence, and order of integration are checked by cross-sectional dependence and second-generation panel unit roots tests respectively. Afterwards, the Wester-Lund co-integration test infers the existence of co-integration between under-considered variables for OBORI region. The empirical results from Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) suggest that agriculture and energy demand cause to upsurge the environmental degradation. While, the forest is improving the environment quality. The authorities may consider the efficient energy utilizing, and eco-friendly techniques to overcome the deteriorating effects of energy usage and agriculture on environment respectively. The heterogeneous panel causality test infers a bidirectional causality between environmental degradation, finance, agriculture, and energy demand respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salinity stress can be mitigated by using the physiological seed enhancements. Kharchia 65 (salt tolerant) and PI.94341 (salt sensitive) genotypes were evaluated under salt stress (20 dS/m) by various priming treatments, that is hydropriming and halopriming (50 mmol, KCl and NaCl) in a pot study. Experiment was conducted in completely randomized design under factorial arrangements with three replications. Priming agents improved the final emergence percentage (FEP), emergence index (EI) and reduced the mean emergence time of both wheat genotypes under normal and saline conditions as compared to non-primed seed. Priming treatments elicited the efficiency of wheat seedlings by increasing both Fv/Fm and Ft under both normal and salt stress conditions which were strongly linked with low Na+ and high K+. In conclusion, all three priming agents effectively nullified the deleterious effects of salt stress by improving seed emergence and triggering the physiological attributes of wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2010, the landscape of hepatitis C therapeutics has been changed rapidly, and today we are standing at a cusp of a pharmacological revolution where highly effective and interferon (IFN)-free direct acting antivirals (DAAs) are already on the market. Such treatment paradigms attain 90-95% sustained virologic response (SVR; undetectable viral load at week 12 or 24 at the end of therapy) rates in treated individuals compared to 50-70% with treatment completion of dual-therapy--pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV). As the major goal now for the hepatologists, clinicians, physicians, and health care workers is likely to eradicate hepatitis C infection in parallel to treatment, the demand is for a one-size-fits-all pill that could be prescribed beyond the limitations of hepatitis C genotype, viral load, previous treatment history, advanced hepatic manifestations (fibrosis, cirrhosis) and antiviral drug resistance. Although the new treatment strategies have shown high cure rates in clinical trials, such treatment paradigms are posing dilemmas too in real-world clinical practice. Therapy cost, treatment access to low and middleincome countries, treatment-emergent adverse events, lack of effective viral screening and disease progression simulation models are potential challenges in this prospect. This review article deeply overviews the challenges encountered while surmounting the burden of hepatitis C around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection and associated liver diseases represent a major health care burden all over the world. The current standard of care, i.e. peginterferon-alfa (PEG-IFNα) plus ribavirin (RBV) are associated with frequent and sometimes serious adverse effects and contraindications, which further limit their therapeutic efficacy. The approval of first and second generation HCV protease inhibitors represents a major breakthrough in the development of novel direct acting antivirals (DAAs) against different HCV genotypes and establishes a new standard of care for chronically infected HCV genotypes 1 patients. Similarly, next generation protease inhibitors and HCV RNA polymerase inhibitors have shown better pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in terms of broader HCV genotypes coverage, better safety profile, fewer drug interactions and possible once daily administration than first generation direct acting antivirals. The testing of adenovirus-based vector vaccines, which escalates the innate and acquired immune responses against the most conserved regions of the HCV genome in chimpanzees and humans, may be a promising therapeutic approach against HCV infection in coming future. This review article presents up-to-date knowledge and recent developments in HCV therapeutics, insights the shortcomings of current HCV therapies and key lessons from the therapeutic potential of improved anti-HCV treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicidal ideation is an indicator of psychological distress and a proportion of people reporting suicidal ideation attempt or commits suicide. Mental illness of any type is strongly associated with suicidal ideation. Furthermore, the links between exposure to domestic violence and mental health problems are well established. Furthermore, a number of studies have reported an association between domestic violence and suicidal ideation. To study the link between domestic violence, mental health and suicidal ideation. Using data from a group of 650 Pakistani women, we explored the putative predictors of suicidal ideation using univariate and multiple logistic regression. Significant predictors were then entered into a path analysis in order to evaluate both the direct and indirect effects of domestic violence on the odds of a study participant reporting suicidal ideation. Mental disorders were observed to significantly predict suicidal ideation. Ability to negotiate conflict between couples appeared to both directly and indirectly, via mitigation against mental disorder, protect against suicidal ideation. The effect of verbal aggression on suicidal ideation appeared to be mostly mediated via its impact on mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a paucity of research on the experiences of students at Pakistani universities. A survey of over 900 students at two universities examined their approaches to studying and perceptions of their courses. Evidence was obtained for a deep approach, a surface approach and two aspects of a strategic approach. Their perceptions were based upon the instructional practices, the acquisition of generic skills, the appropriateness of the assessment and of their workload, and the available learning resources. A higher-order analysis revealed two broad dimensions of the student experience in Pakistan. Students who had positive perceptions tended to adopt a deep approach, to prefer courses, teaching and assessment that supported their understanding and to be engaged and reliable in their studies. However, students who had negative perceptions tended to adopt a surface approach and to prefer courses, teaching and assessment that reinforced this approach through the bare transmission of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Oxytetracycline impregnated XAD-4 resin was prepared and then used for the online preconcentration of zirconium (IV) from aqueous solution. HCl was used for the elution of zirconium from the complex retained on XAD-4 resin. Arsenazo-III solution was used as chromogenic reagent for the spectrophotometric determination of eluted zirconium (IV) ions. The developed system showed greater sensitivity and selectivity as compared to many reported methods. The current study achieved a detection limit of 0.47 and 0.10 µgL−1, preconcentration factor of 52 and 247 and sample throughput of 40 and 10 samples per hour for concentration range from 10 to 60 µg L−1 (60s preconcentration time) and from 2 to 12 µgL−1 (300s preconcentration time) respectively. The method was successfully applied for the determination of Zirconium (IV) from spiked water and IAEA-soil sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]