ahmedabdelwahed/Medical_papers_title_and_abstract_NLP_dataset huggingface dataset:
Testing the EKC hypothesis for the top six hydropower energy-consuming countries: Evidence from Fourier Bootstrap ARDL procedure

Environmental degradation is an important threat to sustainable development. Economic growth and fossil fuel-based energy consumption are main factors causing environmental pollution. The use of renewable energy as an alternative for fossil fuels can help to reduce environmental pollution, and thus, sustainable development can be achieved. From this point of view, hydropower is the most widely used renewable energy source in several countries. However, the effects of hydropower energy on the environment are controversial. To add a new dimension to the discussion, this study investigates the relationship between hydropower energy consumption, ecological footprint and economic growth for the top six hydropower-consuming countries within the framework of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The study employs newly developed cointegration and causality tests with smooth structural changes over the period 1965-2016. The findings of the Fourier bootstrap ARDL procedure demonstrate that no cointegration exist between the variables. Therefore, the EKC hypothesis is not valid for Brazil, China, Canada, India, Norway and the US. Furthermore, the findings of the Fourier Toda-Yamamoto causality test suggest unidirectional causality running from hydropower energy consumption to economic growth in Brazil, and bidirectional causality between these variables in China. In the case of the top six hydropower-consuming countries, no evidence was found for a causal relationship between hydropower energy and ecological footprint. Overall, these results are important for policy makers. Hydropower energy plays a crucial role in China and Brazil's economic growth policies. On the other hand, hydropower energy consumption and economic growth do not have a role in mitigating the ecological footprint in six countries. For this reason, different types of renewable energy consumption should be taken into consideration by countries for the solution of environmental problems. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Coal-to-gas heating compensation standard and willingness to make clean energy choices in typical rural areas of northern China

The implementation of the coal-to-gas (C2G) project is the key to achieving the transition to clean energy and improving air quality in rural areas in the north of China. Based on the survey data of 374 households in the town of Mishan, which is in the city of Jincheng in Shanxi Province, the C2G heating compensation standard was calculated using the minimum data method, and the key factors affecting farmers' choice of clean energy were analyzed using logistic regression models. The results were as follows. (i) The C2G project almost doubled the heating expenditure of farmers. (ii) When the compensation standard increased, the ratio of newly added C2G heating area and newly reduced pollutant emissions increased non-linearly. To achieve an environmental goal of reducing particulate matter by 40%, the government will need to compensate each household by 3.56 CNY/m(2) per month, which is 1.35 times the current compensation standard. When the monthly compensation is 9 CNY/m(2), the comprehensive best economic and environmental benefits can be achieved. (iii) The per capita annual income of households and the permanent population of households are the most significant variables affecting farmers' choice of clean energy. Introducing environmental perception variables, such as adaptive efficacy perception and self-efficacy perception, can help to identify the willingness of farmers to choose clean energy.
Challenges for Connecting Citizens and Smart Cities: ICT, E-Governance and Blockchain

The way citizens interact with cities affects overall life quality. Their participation in social decisions is of paramount importance for helping on public decisions that affect governance, regulation and education. This interaction has the potential of being boosted within the scope of smart and digital cities, especially by recent advances in blockchain technology. This work introduces insights about how smart cities' concepts and innovative technologies can help society to face daily challenges for improving citizens' awareness. Digital technologies are able to drive social and economic development by employing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote innovation. In this context, e-governance, in conjunction with disruptive concepts such as blockchain, is showing up as a fundamental tool for a decentralized democracy. This study reviews, discusses, raises open points and presents suggestions towards an efficient, transparent and sustainable use of technology, applied to future cities.
Imaging Markers of Vascular Brain Health: Quantification, Clinical Implications, and Future Directions

Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) manifests through a broad spectrum of mechanisms that negatively impact brain and cognitive health. Oftentimes, CVD changes (excluding acute stroke) are insufficiently considered in aging and dementia studies which can lead to an incomplete picture of the etiologies contributing to the burden of cognitive impairment. Our goal with this focused review is 3-fold. First, we provide a research update on the current magnetic resonance imaging methods that can measure CVD lesions as well as early CVD-related brain injury specifically related to small vessel disease. Second, we discuss the clinical implications and relevance of these CVD imaging markers for cognitive decline, incident dementia, and disease progression in Alzheimer disease, and Alzheimer-related dementias. Finally, we present our perspective on the outlook and challenges that remain in the field. With the increased research interest in this area, we believe that reliable CVD imaging biomarkers for aging and dementia studies are on the horizon.
Urban drought vulnerability assessment ? A framework to integrate socio- economic, physical, and policy index in a vulnerability contribution analysis

The frequent occurrence of drought seriously hinders urban sustainable development. Decreasing urban drought and reducing drought risk entails a good understanding of urban drought vulnerability (UDV). Based on physical, socio-economic, and political indicators, this study evaluated and analyzed the urban drought vulnerability in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region from the following aspects: spatio-temporal analysis and contribution analysis. Results indicated that (1) the UDV of 13 cities kept increasing from 1990 to 2016. By 2016, 13 cities were highly vulnerable; (2) social and economic factors were considered as the main factors contributing to high drought vulnerability; and (3) public budget expenditure, GDP, and indicators related to education significantly contributed to UDV. This study provides a theoretical basis for the government to manage drought.
Feasibility of coronary blood flow simulations using mid-fidelity numeric and geometric models

The fractional flow reserve index (FFR) is currently used as a gold standard to quantify coronary stenosis's functional relevance. Due to its highly invasive nature, the development of noninvasive surrogates based on simulations has drawn much attention in recent years, emphasizing efficient strategies that enable translational research. The focus of this work is twofold. First, to assess the feasibility of using a mid-fidelity numerical strategy (transversally enriched pipe element method, TEPEM), placed between low- and high-fidelity models, for the estimation of flow-related quantities, such as FFR and wall shear stress (WSS). Low-fidelity models, as zero- or one-dimensional models, are computationally inexpensive but in detriment of poorer spatially detailed predictions. On the other hand, high-fidelity models, such as classical three-dimensional numerical approximations, can provide detailed predictions but their transition to clinical application is prohibitive due to high computational costs. As a second goal, we quantify the impact of the length of lateral branches in the blood flow through the interrogated vessel of interest to further reduce the computational burden. Both studies are addressed considering a cohort of 17 coronary geometries. A total of 20 locations were selected to estimate the FFR index for a wide range of Coronary Flow Reserve (CFR) scenarios. Numerical results suggest that the mid-fidelity TEPEM model is a reliable approach for the efficient estimation of the FFR index and WSS, with an error in the order of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively, when compared to the high-fidelity prediction. Moreover, such mid-fidelity models require much less computational resources, in compliance with infrastructure frequently available in the clinic, by achieving a speedup between 30 and 60 times compared to a conventional finite element approach. Also, we show that shortening peripheral branches does not introduce considerable perturbations either in the flow patterns, in the wall shear stress, or the pressure drop. Comparing the different geometric models, the error in the estimation of FFR index and WSS is reduced to less than [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively.
Will land transport infrastructure affect the energy and carbon dioxide emissions performance of China's manufacturing industry?

The energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of China's manufacturing industry accounted for 12.8% and 15.5% of the world in 2016, respectively. On the other hand, the construction of land transport infrastructure has become the focal point of the Chinese government recently. However, there is very little literature investigating the influencing mechanism of land transport infrastructure on the energy and environmental efficiency of the sector. Therefore, it is crucial and meaningful to study how the latter is affected by the land transport infrastructure to alleviate global energy and environmental issues. Non-radial directional distance function was used to calculate two indicators measuring energy and carbon dioxide emissions performance in this paper. The panel Tobit model was then applied to focus on factors affecting the performance. The results indicate that land transport infrastructure, economic growth, technological progress, energy prices, industrial structure have significant impacts on the energy and environmental efficiency of China's manufacturing industry. Different from the results at the national level, from a regional perspective, the development of land transport infrastructure in the eastern region plays a negative role in the performance of the manufacturing industry. Finally, some targeted policy recommendations are proposed to improve the policy design of the government.
Land use transitions and the associated impacts on ecosystem services in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China based on the geo-informatic Tupu method

Rapid urbanization in China has greatly exacerbated land use transitions (LUTs), which seriously threaten the ecosystem. The existing literature lacks information on the spatio-temporal analysis of LUTs, and assessments of ecosystem services remain incomplete. This lack of information may limit the formation and implementation of landscape plans and ecologically oriented policies. This study attempts to fill this gap by analysing the geographic features of LUTs with the geo-informatic Tupu method and exploring the responses of ecosystem services to LUTs. A newly revised benefit transfer method that utilizes the land use/land cover change data derived from the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (MRYREB) is implemented. The results indicate that the area of construction land continued to increase markedly, while the area of cultivated land declined continuously from 1995 to 2015. This increase in construction land was mainly derived from the occupation of cultivated land. The Tupu units of "forestland > cultivated land," "cultivated land > forestland," "cultivated land -> water area," and "water area -> cultivated land" were the dominant driving forces of the changes in ecosystem services value (ESV) in the MRYREB. Hotspots of ESV changes were mainly located in the surrounding mountainous areas during 1995-2005 and 2005-2010, while the coldspots during 2010-2015 were mainly located in the plains. The findings in this study have important implications for ecosystem conservation, ecological function zoning, ecological compensation decision-making, and related land development in the MRYREB. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
COVID-19 Outbreak Perception in Italian Dentists

The aim of this study is an evaluation of the Italian dentists' knowledge regarding COVID-19 and their perception of the risks associated with COVID-19, their attitude in resuming their activities, and how they judge the institutional intervention on a health and economic basis. Methods: This research evaluated Italian dentists from 11 to 18 April 2020, using a questionnaire submitted via Google Forms (Alphabet, Mountain View, CA, USA). It consisted of different investigations about sociodemographic aspects, profession-related characteristics, knowledge about COVID-19 infection transmission modalities, symptoms, and attitude in treating potentially infected patients. Statistical analysis was performed using the Pearson chi(2) test and Student t-test. The alpha-level was fixed at p = 0.05. All data were analyzed with STATA 16 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA). Results: 1500 dentists (664 men and 836 women) completed the questionnaire. The majority of respondents declared having been trained in infection prevention procedures (64.3%) but not specifically to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (48.7%). A total of 57.2% declared that they were not trained sufficiently to restart working after lockdown, with a significantly higher prevalence (Pearson chi(2) test, p < 0.001) among women (62.3%) than men (50.9%). Conclusion: Italian dentists were informed correctly on the mode of transmission but partially missed COVID-19 symptoms. Dentists considered the virus infection highly dangerous, and they were not confident in being able to work safely. The lack of precise operating guidelines creates uncertainties on infection control measures and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) use. The participants revealed apprehension for their health and the current and future economic situation of their practices.
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles by Conocarpus Lancifolius plant extract and their antimicrobial and anticancer activities

Due to drug addiction and the emergence of antibiotic resistance in pathogens, the disease load and medication intake have risen worldwide. The alternative treatment for drug-resistant infections is Nano formulation-based antimicrobial agents. The plant extract of Conocarpus Lancifolius fruits was used to synthesize silver nanoparticles in the current study, and it was further employed as an antimicrobial and anticancer agent. Nanoparticles have been characterized by UV-visible spectrometer revealed the notable peak of λmax = 410-442 nm, which confirms the reduction of silver ion to elemental silver nanoparticles, and the biological moieties in the synthesis were further confirmed by FTIR analysis. The stability and crystalline nature of materials were approved by XRD analysis and expected the size of the nanomaterials of 21 to 173 nm analyzed by a nanophox particle-size analyzer. In vitro, synthesized materials act as an antibacterial agent against Streptococcus pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus. The inhibition zones of 18 and 24 mm have been estimated to be antibacterial activity against both bacteria. The potency of up to 100% of AgNPs for bacterial strains was incubated overnight at 60 μg/ml. Based on our results, biogenic AgNPs reveal significant activity against fungal pathogen Rhizopusus stolonifera and Aspergillus flavus that cause leading infectious diseases. Additionally, nanomaterials were biocompatible and demonstrated the potential anticancer activities against MDA MB-231 cells after 24-hour exposure.
The role of electricity in decarbonizing European road transport - Development and assessment of an integrated multi-sectoral model

Despite regulation efforts, CO2 emissions from European road transport have continued to rise. Increased use of electricity offers a promising decarbonization option, both to fuel electric vehicles and run power-to-x systems producing synthetic fuels. To understand the economic implications of increased coupling of the road transport and electricity sectors, an integrated multi-sectoral partial-equilibrium investment and dispatch model is developed for the European electricity and road transport sectors, linked by an energy transformation module to endogenously account for, e.g., increasing electricity consumption and flexibility provision from electric vehicles and power-to-x systems. The model is applied to analyze the effects of sector-specific CO2 reduction targets on the vehicle, electricity and power-to-x technology mix as well as trade flows of power-to-x fuels in European countries from 2020 to 2050. The results show that, by 2050, the fuel shares of electricity and power-to-x fuels in the European road transport sector reach 37% and 27%, respectively, creating an additional electricity demand of 1200 TWh in Europe. To assess the added value of the integrated modeling approach, an additional analysis is performed in which all endogenous ties between sectors are removed. The results show that by decoupling the two sectors, the total system costs may be significantly overestimated and the production costs of power-to-x fuels may be inaccurately approximated, which may affect the merit order of decarbonization options.
From hot rock to useful energy: A global estimate of enhanced geothermal systems potential

This study demonstrates the theoretical, technical, optimal economic and sustainable potential of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) globally. A global estimate of EGS is presented in a 1 degrees x1 degrees spatial resolution. Constructed temperature at depth maps are computed for every 1 km thick layer, from 1 to 10 km. Multiple factors such as surface heat flow, thermal conductivity, radioactive heat production, and surface temperature are involved, and obtained from various sources and assumptions. The global EGS theoretical potential is assessed. Available heat content is then estimated using technical constraints for the temperature equal to or higher than 150 degrees C for any 1 km depth, and presented as thermal energy and electrical power capacity. The EGS optimal economic potential is derived from the optimum depth and the corresponding minimum levelised cost of electricity. The global optimal economic potential in terms of power capacity is found to be about 6 and 108 TWe for the cost years of 2030 and 2050, respectively. If economic and water stress constraints are excluded, the global EGS potential can be as much as 200 TWe. Further, an industrial cost curve is developed for the levelised cost of electricity as a function of EGS technical power capacity. The findings indicate that around 4600 GW(e) of EGS capacity can be built at a cost of 50 (sic)/MWh or lower. A method is applied to measure the sustainable geothermal resource base. The obtained sustainable potential is found to be 256 GWe in 2050. Results are presented on a country basis and globally.
Perceptions of ecosystem services, disservices and willingness-to-pay for urban green space conservation

While planning and management of urban green space (UGS) remain primarily driven by policymakers and expert knowledge, increasing attention has been paid to the general public's perception of and demand for UGS. This study was conducted to provide price-related outcomes to support UGS-related decision making and achieve an improved understanding of the causal relationships underpinning the residents' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for UGS conservation. An extensive survey with 3000 urban residents from three provincial capital cities In central China (i.e., Wuhan, Changsha and Nanchang) was conducted. We applied structural equation modelling to examine a range of hypothetical causal relationships among residents' perceptions about ecosystem services/disservices provided by UGS, frequency of UGS visits, socioeconomic status (SES) and WTP for the conservation of five different types of UGS. We found that residents had an average WTP of 202.4 CNY or 30.6 USD per year cross UGS types, with the attached green space having the greatest WTP (223.0 CNY or 33.7 USD per year), followed by park (215.4 CNY or 32.6 USD year), square (201.7 CNY or 30.5 USD year), suburban ecological (190.1 CNY or 28.7 USD year) and protective (182.0 CNY or 27.5 USD year) green spaces. Perceptions of UGS's ecosystem services had a positive causal impact on WTP, while perceptions of ecosystem disservices would have a negative impact. The frequency of UGS visits was found to amplify WTP at a limited level. It could further heighten and diminish the perceptions of ecosystem services and disservices. Participants with higher SES typically had greater perceptions of UGS's ecosystem services and WTP. Finally, we found that the structure of the causal relationships on WTP varied between cities, highlighting the importance of considering the fine-level impacts of biophysical environment jointly. Our results could help urban planners to understand better the ways urban green space was perceived and anticipate the likely effects of changing spatial patterns of UGS on the benefits and nuisances experienced by the general public.
Government R&D Subsidies, Environmental Regulations, and Their Effect on Green Innovation Efficiency of Manufacturing Industry: Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is the most important manufacturing economic belt in China. The level of manufacturing green innovation efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt directly affects the overall competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry. With panel data from 11 provinces and cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China for the period of 2008 to 2017, this paper applies the slacks-based measure (SBM)-data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and panel Tobit model to conduct an empirical study of the effects of government research and development subsidies and environmental regulations on the green innovation efficiency of the manufacturing industry of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The results show that, firstly, government R&D subsidies and environmental regulations are both conducive to improving the green innovation efficiency of the manufacturing industry of the Yangtze River Economic Belt; secondly, because of the fact that the interaction terms between government R&D subsidies and environmental regulations failed to pass the significance test, the positive moderating effects of R&D subsidies on environmental regulations and green innovation efficiency of the manufacturing industry are not obvious; thirdly, in terms of control variables, strengthening agglomeration is the only factor that is positively correlated with green innovation efficiency improvement of the manufacturing industry. Enterprise scale and industrial structure have negative effects on green innovation efficiency improvement, and the openness of economy has no correlation with green innovation efficiency.