ahmedabdelwahed/Medical_papers_title_and_abstract_NLP_dataset huggingface dataset:
An effective three-stage hybrid optimization method for source-network-load power generation of cascade hydropower reservoirs serving multiple interconnected power grids

In China, many cascade hydropower reservoirs are asked to simultaneously respond the peak loads of several interconnected power grids based on the signed agreements. However, by far, there are few reports addressing the brand-new engineering problem with huge optimization difficulty caused by multilateral generation contracts, strong hydraulic-electric relationships, load feature differences and spatial-temporal coupled constraints. Here, a three-stage hybrid method is developed to satisfy this practical requirement, where the domain knowledge is firstly used to build a virtual load curve balancing the load features and electricity contracts of multiple power grids; secondly, the dynamic programming is used to determine the scheduling process of the optimized hydroplant, while the linear programming is chosen to allocate the hydropower generation among multiple power grids; finally, the quality of solution is gradually improved via iterative search. The results in two real-world cascade hydropower systems indicate that the hybrid method can achieve satisfactory scheduling results in different cases. Thus, an effective way to reduce the optimization difficulty of the large and complex problem is to break up into a series of simple and independent subproblems to be addressed by existing mature methods. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Supramolecular systems chemistry through advanced analytical techniques

Supramolecular chemistry is the quintessential backbone of all biological processes. It encompasses a wide range from the metabolic network to the self-assembled cytoskeletal network. Combining the chemical diversity with the plethora of functional depth that biological systems possess is a daunting task for synthetic chemists to emulate. The only route for approaching such a challenge lies in understanding the complex and dynamic systems through advanced analytical techniques. The supramolecular complexity that can be successfully generated and analyzed is directly dependent on the analytical treatment of the system parameters. In this review, we illustrate advanced analytical techniques that have been used to investigate various supramolecular systems including complex mixtures, dynamic self-assembly, and functional nanomaterials. The underlying theme of such an overview is not only the exceeding detail with which traditional experiments can be probed but also the fact that complex experiments can now be attempted owing to the analytical techniques that can resolve an ensemble in astounding detail. Furthermore, the review critically analyzes the current state of the art analytical techniques and suggests the direction of future development. Finally, we envision that integrating multiple analytical methods into a common platform will open completely new possibilities for developing functional chemical systems.
CO2 adsorption capacity of zeolites synthesized from coal fly ashes

Given the increase in CO2 emissions, the adsorption process using zeolites are proposed to remove this compound from combustion gases in pulverized coal power plants. Besides it, these materials can also be synthesized using coal fly ash to reconcile environmental and economic concerns. The aim of this study was to measure the adsorption capacity of zeolites synthesized from coal fly ash compared with commercial zeolites and assess their performance in temperature swing adsorption processes. Two pelletized synthetic zeolites were selected, one NaX type (SZX) and one NaA type (SZA), and two commercial zeolites, one NaX (CZX) and one NaA (CZA). Zeolites were characterized by XRF, XRD and textural analysis (BET). Adsorption capacity tests were performed by thermogravimetric analysis using similar CO2 concentrations to those found in pulverized carbon combustion gases, without moisture. Isotherms were also obtained for synthetic and commercial zeolites type X. The XRD results showed substantial similarity between the commercial and synthesized zeolites, indicating a good degree of crystallinity. The CO2 adsorption capacity at 303 K for both samples showed values similar to those reported in the literature (1.97 mmol/g for SZX and 1.37 mmol/g for SZA), demonstrating their potential in commercial applications. After five cycles, the adsorption capacity of all samples remained practically unchanged, indicating the possibility of application in TSA processes. In the adsorption tests at different temperatures and in the isotherms, adsorption capacity declined as temperature increased for both samples, being similar to benchmark commercial 13X and 4A zeolite adsorbents.
Improving the energy efficiency of room air conditioners in China: Costs and benefits

China is the world's largest consumer of room air conditioners, and it contributes about a quarter of global space cooling CO2 emissions. We model the costs and benefits of recently proposed new room air conditioner minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) in China. Our results suggest that newly proposed MEPS brings accumulative CO2 emissions reductions of 12.8% between 2019 and 2050, and accumulative bill saving of 2620 billion RMB to China's consumers. The benefits of the proposed MEPS decrease with longer MEPS revision intervals and increase with shorter intervals-indicating that the intervals should be balanced to maximize benefits while accommodating constraints due to air conditioner manufacturer design cycles. We also model potential nationwide benefits from higher MEPS. Across two increasingly aggressive MEPS scenarios, China's room air conditioner electricity consumption and CO2 emissions in 2050 are both reduced by 15-53% compared to the proposed MEPS. The highest-efficiency scenario (reaching MEPS of annual performance factor 5.4 in 2025) provides the largest long-term national benefits. These results could inform development of a Chinese regulatory regime that effectively updates room air conditioner MEPS. Because China is the world's largest manufacturer of room air conditioners, the economic, energy, and emissions benefits resulting from higher Chinese MEPS could also have a global reach.
How green is the "Belt and Road Initiative"? - Evidence from Chinese OFDI in the energy sector

From an analysis of 729 completed energy sector outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) deals by Chinese firms from 2005 to 2016, this paper evaluated the Chinese OFDI greening tendencies and the links to host country energy structures and energy efficiency, for which PSM-DID analysis was used to control the influence of endogeneity resulting from that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) had a strong policy effect on the greening of Chinese OFDI in the related countries and areas and especially in developing countries. Because the Chinese firms chose to invest in clean energy projects as a result of the new BRI policy framework, this research shed light on the Chinese OFDI policy responses.
Towards a circular and low-carbon economy: Insights from the transitioning to electric vehicles and net zero economy

Road transportation being a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, is now resulting a move away from the traditional internal combustion engine to electric vehicles (EVs), currently powered by battery technology. This paper examines end-of-first-life applications of EVs batteries in a low-carbon circular economy following global transition to EVs and net zero economy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key actors within the EV industry in the UK. Drawing on Stahel closed-loop solutions, a qualitative analysis of the transcripts of these interviews revealed the need for business models towards coherent low-carbon circular economy of the value chains. This paper reveals a whole range of issues relating to: extraction of battery critical raw minerals (e.g. ethical concerns); manufacturing (e.g. lack of policy frameworks addressing value chain emissions); distribution and sale (e.g. gaps in circular built economy strategy and transition plan); use (e.g. lack of a functioning market for end-of-first-life batteries) as well as research and innovation (e.g. lack of infrastructure to deal with end-of- first-life cells). The views on policy weaknesses testifies to the need for close-loop business model to not only focus on recycling battery raw minerals or repurposing battery for energy storage applications. But, should consider many aspects of an innovative policy strategy and product's global value chain, accounting for: equitable jobs, critical raw minerals dependency, circularity governance and industry standards, protecting the natural environment, tackling emissions and ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. The study highlights establishing key trade-offs within policy goals considering the global value chains, as well as, harnessing synergies between social, economic and environmental goals. The paper concludes that a low-carbon close-loop business model should integrate the triple objectives of making positive impact on people, planet and profit, and developed on the basis of legislation, collaboration, research, investment, and incentives guiding to achieve the Global Goals. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sectoral-based CO2 emissions of Pakistan: a novel Grey Relation Analysis (GRA) approach

Global warming regarded as the major global issue over the past few decades, whereas carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been cited as one of the main causes of this problem. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of energy consumption, economic development, and population growth on high CO2 emitting sectors of Pakistan such as transportation, industrial, and household. The data used in this study was taken from multiple databases from 2000 to 2018. We employed novel grey relational analysis (GRA) models to assess the connection between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, population, energy consumption, and CO2 emission. Furthermore, the Hurwicz method was used to analyze which factor contributing more to CO2 emission. Result reveals that CO2 emission, gross domestic product per capita, population, and energy consumption showed a strong association among all sectors. Whereas, population contributes more to intensifying CO2 emissions in the transportation sector of Pakistan. This study provides useful insights for policymakers to take preventive and corrective measures to overcome CO2 emissions as well as sustainable development.
The Colonial State, African Dog-Owners, and the Political Economy of Rabies Vaccination Campaigns in Southern Rhodesia in the 1950s and 1960s

This paper examines histories of postvaccinal breaks in immunity to rabies in domestic dogs between 1950 and the 1960s. It utilizes Veterinary and Native Commissioner's reports and newspapers in arguing that there is a gap in current southern African rabies historiography as it is yet to grapple with narratives about vaccine technologies. Current southern African rabies histories overly focus on white South African urban case studies. Focusing on the histories of postvaccinal breaks in immunity to rabies in Southern Rhodesia helps to explain why rabies became an ineradicable canine disease in southern Africa during this period. The paper focuses on the political economy of the mass vaccination of dogs, the costs attached to the Veterinary Department's decision to ignore other canine diseases in African areas, and how this, combined with other policy measures such as dog taxation, in undermining rabies vaccination campaigns. Overall, it shows that African dog-owners resorted to a myriad of responses to coercive rabies regulations. This complexity ultimately resulted in canine rabies becoming a difficult disease to eradicate.
Signifying the imperative nexus between climate change and information and communication technology development: a case from Pakistan

The globe has faced technological affluence that enormously revolutionized the lives of humankind. Today, the manufacturing process of the energy sector, production sector, agriculture sector, and service sector is exclusively or partially based on ICT tools. The key intention of this investigation is to find out the impacts of the utilization of ICT on CO(2)emission. However, this investigation also evaluates the influence of investment in ICT and the trade of ICT tools on CO(2)emission. Further, the estimation examined the subsistence of environment Kuznets curve (EKC) theory, for the nation of Pakistan. The investigation employed an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and found that the utilization of ICT has a negative impact on CO(2)emission. Moreover, the long-run results revealed that the import of ICT equipment is more beneficial for the environment quality of Pakistan. However, ICT apparatus manufactured in Pakistan might produce electronic waste due to non-utilization of green technology. The study reported bidirectional causality between ICT and CO(2)emission. These results point towards that the emergence of ICT in industries and daily life possesses a significant and positive role in climate change in Pakistan. Also, this study corroborates the veracity of EKC in Pakistan.
Association between the Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265/G196A) of the BDNF gene and cognitive performance with SSRI use in Arab Alzheimer's disease patients

Brain derived neutrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein and a member of the neurotrophin family of growth factors, supports the survival of existing neurons and encourages the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses. The BDNF gene Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265/G196A) is responsible for BDNF synthesis that impact BDNF function that includes memory and cognition. This study investigated whether the BDNF gene Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265/G196A) is associated with cognitive function changes in both Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and elderly participants. In addition the impact of SSRI use on cognition improvement will be assessed. Healthy young, middle ages (25-59 years old) and elderly (more than 60 years old) participants (140) as well as 40 AD patients of whom are both of Saudi Arabian origin were recruited. The genotyping for the association study was performed by real-time PCR using Taqman chemistry in the ABI Prism 7900HT Sequence Detection System. Both Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) were used to assess cognitive function of healthy and AD participants, respectively. The findings showed that the BDNF Val66Met genotype distributions and allele frequencies have significant association with cognitive performance in both elderly control group and AD patients. The main findings showed that carriers of GG homozygotes (Val/Val) have superior cognitive performance among AD patients and elderly control subjects. In addition the use of SSRIs in 13 AD patients and 17 elderly participants positively improved cognitive function in elderly (p > 0.001) but not in AD patients (p = 0.1).
Oil rents and greenhouse gas emissions: spatial analysis of Gulf Cooperation Council countries

The dependence of oil production in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region may have environmental consequences. This research explores the nonlinear effects of oil rents and the economic growth of six GCC countries on their per capita CO2, CH4, N2O, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, considering spatial linkages through 1980-2014. We apply fixed effects (FE) and corroborate the spatial dependency in all estimated pollution models. Spatial Durbin model (SDM) is utilized to estimate the direct and spillover effects. We find the inverted U-shaped relationship of economic growth with CO2, CH4, N2O and GHG emissions, and of oil rents with CH(4)and GHG emissions. Monotonic positive effects of oil rents on CO(2)emissions and U-shaped relationship between oil rents and N2O emissions are also found. Urbanization has positive effect on the CO2, CH(4)and GHG emissions and has negative effect on N2O emissions. Financial market development (FMD) has negative effects on all types of investigated emissions. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has negative effects on CO(2)and N2O emissions. Energy use has positive effects on CO(2)and N2O emissions. Further, the neighboring spillover effects of economic growth, oil rents, urbanization, FDI, energy use and FMD are found statistically significant for some investigated emissions. Hence, oil rents, energy use, urbanization and economic growth are responsible for environmental degradation of home and neighboring countries in the GCC region, and we recommend implementing tighter laws to protect the environment.
Partial nephrogenic diabetes insipidus with a novel arginine vasopressin receptor 2 gene variant

X-linked nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) is caused by variations in arginine vasopressin receptor 2 (AVPR2). Some patients show partial resistance to arginine vasopressin (AVP). A 19-month-old Japanese boy presented with polydipsia since infancy. His mother had a history of polydipsia during pregnancy, and his maternal granduncle also had polydipsia. Intermediate urine osmolality and markedly high plasma AVP levels were observed in the water deprivation test. Subsequent pitressin administration caused no further elevation in urine osmolality. We diagnosed the patient with partial NDI, initiated therapy with hydrochlorothiazide, and placed him on a low-sodium diet. Although his urine volume decreased by 20-30% after the initiation of therapy, progressive hydronephrosis and growth retardation developed 2 years later. We investigated his genetic background by multiplex targeted sequencing of genes associated with inherited renal diseases, including AVPR2 and aquaporin-2 (AQP2). We identified a hemizygous missense variant in AVPR2 NM_000054:c.371A>G,p.(Tyr124Cys) in the boy and a heterozygous variant in the mother at the same locus. Distinguishing partial NDI from primary polydipsia is difficult because of its mild symptoms. Markedly elevated plasma AVP levels with intermediate urine osmolality may suggest partial NDI, and genetic analysis can be useful for such patients.
Production of synthetic natural gas from industrial carbon dioxide

The Power-to-Gas strategy has become a mainstream topic for decarbonization and development of renewables and flexibility in energy systems. One of the key arguments for decarbonizing the gas network is to take advantage of existing network infrastructure, gradually transitioning to lower fossil carbon sources of methane from Power-to-Gas. This work proposes the techno-economic investigation of an integrated system considering an advanced CO2 capture process, in terms of solvent and process configuration, to treat about 10% of a cement plant's flue gas and convert the captured CO2 into synthetic natural gas using renewable hydrogen generated from a large-scale wind powered electrolyzer. An optimized heat recovery system is proposed, drastically decreasing the external hot utility demand of the CO2 capture unit. In addition, it leads to the production of complementary electricity (about 1.06 MW), reducing thus also the electrical demand of the integrated process. The synthetic natural gas produced has a composition (CH4 92.9 mol.%, CO2 3.7 mol.%, and H-2 3.4 mol.%) and a Wobbe index (46.72 MJ/m(3)), corresponding to specification for gas grid injection at 50 bar in Germany. With an overall system efficiency of 72.6%, the process produces 0.40 ton synthetic natural gas per ton of captured CO2. The cost of the synthetic natural gas produced is higher when compared to the present natural gas market price, but cost reductions and possible commercial use of coproducts like oxygen, represent a likely alternative. Costs are mainly driven by high capital investments (the electrolyzer), and the price of renewable electricity, which is expected to decrease in the coming years.
Effects of Home-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation on Dyspnea, Exercise Capacity, Quality of Life and Impact of the Disease in COPD Patients: A Systematic Review

Conventional pulmonary rehabilitation programs are used as therapies for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, this modality presents barriers that make rehabilitation difficult. For this reason, home-based pulmonary rehabilitation (HBPR) has been used to overcome these barriers. The objective was to systematically compare a structured program with HBPR or a control group for participants with COPD. The primary outcome was an improvement in symptoms in the level of dyspnea and secondary outcomes were parameters in lung function, exercise capacity, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and the impact of the disease on the individual. The Medline (via PubMed), Virtual Health Library and Cochrane Library databases were searched until May 10, 2021. Randomized controlled trials were included without restrictions on the year of publication or language. The risk of bias was evaluated using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (RoB). Our results showed that there was a significant decrease in the level of dyspnea, (MD: 5.46; 95% CI: 1.97 to 8.96), increased distance covered (MD: 61.75; 95% CI: 42, 94 to 80.56, significant improvement in HRQoL (MD: -11.30; 95% CI: -19.81 to -2.79) and reduction in the impact of the disease (DM: -4.71; 95% CI: -7.95 to -1.47). All results found were comparing the intervention group versus the control group. To conclude we found a reduction in the levels of dyspnea, an increase in the distance covered on the six-minute walk test, improving HRQoL and decreasing the impact of the disease in COPD patients in home-based pulmonary rehabilitation.
Multi-objective optimization and selection of hybrid combined cooling, heating and power systems considering operational flexibility

This paper proposes a multi-objective optimization model integrated with operational flexibility to optimize a hybrid combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system. The operational flexibility of the hybrid CCHP system is proposed and expressed by the combined indicators to show the capacity to resist performance degradation because of externally variable conditions to increase energy saving and cost saving, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and to enhance renewability, the ability to adjust heat and electricity, and the grid integration level. A Pareto frontier of solutions considering a larger operational flexibility with less performance degradation is obtained in genetic algorithm. The use of a multi-criteria decision making method combined with an entropy weighting method is employed to quantitatively evaluate the composite sustainability index of the Pareto schemes and choose the optimal hybrid CCHP option with the best integrated performance. The results of a case study that considers operational flexibility and optimization indicated that the potential adjustable ability was increased by 438.9%, and the grid integration level and net interaction with the grid were decreased by 3.6%. However, the increase in flexibility reduces the energetic, economic and environmental benefits achieved by the CCHP system by 5.1%, 56.4% and 3.0%, respectively. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.