ahmedabdelwahed/Medical_papers_title_and_abstract_NLP_dataset huggingface dataset:
The Dimming of Lights in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic

A satellite survey of the cumulative radiant emissions from electric lighting across China reveals a large radiance decline in lighting from December 2019 to February 2020-the peak of the lockdown established to suppress the spread of COVID-19 infections. To illustrate the changes, an analysis was also conducted on a reference set from a year prior to the pandemic. In the reference period, the majority (62%) of China's population lived in administrative units that became brighter in March 2019 relative to December 2018. The situation reversed in February 2020, when 82% of the population lived in administrative units where lighting dimmed as a result of the pandemic. The dimming has also been demonstrated with difference images for the reference and pandemic image pairs, scattergrams, and a nightly temporal profile. The results indicate that it should be feasible to monitor declines and recovery in economic activity levels using nighttime lighting as a proxy.
NiCo2O4/biomass-derived carbon composites as anode for high-performance lithium ion batteries

Low electronic conductivity and drastic volume change during cycling of transition metal oxides, as anodes for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), lead to rapid capacity decay and poor structural stability. Herein, nanostructured NiCo2O4 anchored on carbon sheets was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method with following thermal treatment. The wrinkled carbon substrate in the composite derives from the carbonization of pomelo peels, which can be mass-produced for the large-scale application. This composite shows mesoporous structures with high specific surface areas and intimate NiCo2O4/carbon interfaces, which favors the alleviation of the volume expansion/shrink during charging/discharging process and improves the electron/mass transport, enhancing the capability and stability for LIBs. This composite delivers a high reversible capacity of 473.7 mA h g(-1) after 210 cycles at a current density of 500 mA g(-1). A long cycle life of up to 1100 cycles at 2000 mA g(-1) is achieved with the retention capacity of 363 mA h g(-1). The electrode also exhibits excellent rate capability and can regain its original capacities as reversing to the low current densities. This work highlights the biomass-derived carbon-supported metal oxides as an environmentally friendly and economic strategy for advanced LIBs.
Tracing the Transboundary Transport of Mercury to the Tibetan Plateau Using Atmospheric Mercury Isotopes

Deposition of atmospheric mercury (Hg) is the most important Hg source on the high-altitude Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau. Herein, total gaseous Hg (TGM) at an urban and a forest site on the Tibetan Plateau was collected respectively from May 2017 to October 2018, and isotopic compositions were measured to clarify the influences of landforms and monsoons on the transboundary transport of atmospheric Hg to the Tibetan Plateau. The transboundary transported anthropogenic emissions mainly originated over Indo-Gangetic Plain and carried over the Himalayas by convective storms and mid-tropospheric circulation, contributing over 50% to the TGM at the Lhasa urban site, based on the binary mixing model of isotopes. In contrast, during the transport of TGM from South Asia with low altitude, the uptake by evergreen forest in Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon largely decreased the TGM level and shifted isotopic compositions in TGM at the Nyingchi forest site, which are located at the high-altitude end of the canyon. Our results provided direct evidence from Hg isotopes to reveal the distinct patterns of transboundary transport to the Tibetan Plateau shaped by landforms and climates, which is critical to fully understand the biogeochemical cycling of Hg in the high-altitude regions.
Synthesis, characterization and in vitro, in vivo, in silico biological evaluations of substituted benzimidazole derivatives

A series of substituted benzimidazole derivatives were synthesized by reacting O-phenylenediamine with various aromatic aldehydes or glycolic acid using various inexpensive reagents in aqueous media. Synthesized compounds were characterized and elucidated by IR, 1H NMR, ESI-MS spectra. Resultant compounds were screened for in vitro antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antioxidant, lipid peroxidation and cholinesterase inhibitory activities, in vivo analgesic and anti-inflammatory, and in silico anti-acetylcholinesterase and anti-butyrylcholinesterase activities. Among the synthesized compounds, compound 3b showed most promising central analgesic effect (46.15%) compared to morphine (48.08%), whereas compounds 6, 3c and 3a showed significant peripheral analgesic activity at two different dose levels (25 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg). Compounds 3b and 3a at the dose of 100 mg/kg showed significant anti-inflammatory effects from the first hour and onward, whereas compounds 6 and 3b showed moderate cytotoxic activities. In addition, compound 3a showed significant antioxidant activity having IC50 value of 16.73 µg/ml compared to 14.44 µg/ml for the standard BHT. Compound 6, 3a and 3b exhibited mild to moderate cholinesterase inhibitory activity. In silico studies revealed that compound 3a and 3b might be suitable for cholinesterase inhibitory activity. A comprehensive computational and experimental data suggested compounds 3b and 3a as the best possible candidates for pharmacological activity. All the experimental data were statistically significant (p < 0.01 level).
Cost-optimal economic potential of shared rooftop PV in energy communities: Evidence from Austria

In this study, a model is developed to estimate the cost-optimal large-scale economic potential of shared rooftop PV systems based on neighbourhood energy communities (ECs). In a first step, an optimisation model determines the cost-optimal rooftop PV capacities for representative neighbourhood ECs in characteristic settlement patterns (SPs). Next, the number of ECs in the large-scale area of investigation is determined by allocating buildings to SPs and ECs. Finally, the optimal large-scale, EC-based rooftop PV potential is determined by upscaling. A case study is provided for Austria, identifying a cost-optimal economic rooftop PV potential of approximately 10GW(p). This PV capacity would already be sufficient (in terms of expected PV deployment) to meet the Austrian 2030 policy goal of a 100% renewable electricity generation. However, results also indicate that accommodating the cost-optimal rooftop PV capacity is difficult in cities/towns in contrast to rural areas. Thus, future ECs should be implemented not only on neighbourhood level, but across the boundaries of different SPs. Different sensitivity analyses are conducted, notably in terms of varying retail electricity prices, including a variation of distribution grid tariff structures, and PV system cost. The trade-off between these sensitivity parameters is critically discussed and provides recommendations for future work. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Biomass ash stabilized MgO adsorbents for CO2 capture application

Supported MgO adsorbents were prepared from the calcination of MgCl2 center dot 6H(2)O preloaded on several biomass wastes including sugarcane bagasse, coffee grounds, rice husk, and saw dust. CO2 adsorption behaviors of the adsorbents with different supports and MgO loadings were investigated using a fixed-bed reactor. The modified Avrami fractional kinetic model was adopted to correlate their CO2 uptakes to evaluate the CO2 adsorption kinetic performance. Amongst the prepared MgO adsorbents, the rice husk ash supported sample (MgO-RHA) featured high CO2 adsorption capacity, due to the good textural properties, nano-crystallization of MgO particles, the uniform dispersion of active components and the enriched surface basicity. CO2 uptakes of MgO-RHA increased first and then decreased with the increasing MgO loading. CO2 adsorption kinetic would be hampered by higher MgO contents because of the increased diffusion resistance and decreased MgO utilization. The adsorbent with 20 wt% MgO loading exhibited the highest CO2 uptake of 4.56 mmol CO2/g. Besides, the desired adsorbent presented good working stability with 7.68% loss-in-capacity in 10 repeated cycles. Recycling waste MgCl2 center dot 6H(2)O and biomass residues to synthesize CO2 adsorbents provides remarkable economic and environmental implications, from the prospective of CO2 emission mitigation and waste management.
Do beliefs in the malleability of well-being affect the efficacy of positive psychology interventions? Results of a randomized placebo-controlled trial

The present study examines the role of beliefs about the malleability of well-being in a randomized, placebo-controlled, online positive psychology intervention targeting 267 German-speaking adults (83% women, mean age = 43.16 years). The participants of the experimental group ("three good things" intervention) and placebo control group ("early memories") reported their levels of happiness before and immediately after the 1-week intervention, as well as 2, 4, and 12 weeks after the intervention. Furthermore, the researchers recorded how participants completed the exercises and to what extent they liked the exercises. This study also assesses the participants' beliefs surrounding two different aspects of malleability (well-being is modifiable in general, and one knows how to change their well-being). Although both aspects of malleability were strongly intercorrelated, beliefs about how to change one's well-being seemed particularly relevant in the context of positive psychology interventions: Those who reported a stronger belief about how to change their well-being liked the intervention better and more often completed the activity as instructed. Further, they reported greater increases in well-being as compared with the control group. We conclude that beliefs about the malleability of well-being might represent an important moderating variable in the effectiveness of positive psychology interventions.
Understanding access to healthcare for gender diverse young people: a critical review of the literature

Gender diverse young people face well-documented physical, mental and sexual health disparities compared to the general population. Differential access to healthcare is a key driver of these inequities and literature highlights high unmet healthcare need among members of this group. Healthcare access has been described through a model that defines five dimensions of health services: approachability; acceptability; availability and accommodation; affordability; and appropriateness; and five abilities of health service consumers that interact with these dimensions: the abilities to perceive, seek, reach, pay and engage. This comprehensive literature review examined barriers to and facilitators of healthcare access among gender diverse young people using the lens provided by this model as it relates to dimensions of access at the health service level and/or the abilities of health service users. We advocate expansion of this model to incorporate demand- and supply-side barriers and facilitators of access, and important structural factors including the gender binary health system framework, intersectionality and stigma. Findings highlight the need for improvements to healthcare provider education and the participatory redesign of health services with a focus on intersectionality, individually-tailored service provision and healthcare that is responsive to the unique needs of gender diverse young people.
Using Protection Motivation Theory to Predict Adherence to COVID-19 Behavioral Guidelines

COVID-19 has become a global pandemic. Throughout most of the pandemic, mitigating its spread has relied on human behavior, namely on adherence to protective behaviors (e.g., wearing a face mask). This research proposes that Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) can contribute to understanding differences in individual adherence to COVID-19 behavioral guidelines. PMT identifies four fundamental cognitive components that drive responses to fear appeals: perceptions of susceptibility (to the disease), severity (of the disease), self-efficacy (to protect oneself), and response efficacy (i.e., recommended behaviors' effectiveness). Two online self-report studies assessed PMT components' capacity to predict adherence to protective behaviors concurrently and across culturally different countries (Israel, Germany, India; Study 1), and again at six-week follow-up (Israeli participants; Study 2). Study 1's findings indicate excellent fit of the PMT model, with about half of the variance in adherence explained. No significant differences were found between participants from Israel (n = 917), Germany (n = 222) and India (n = 160). Study 2 (n = 711) confirmed that PMT components continue to predict adherence after six weeks. In both studies, response efficacy was the PMT component most strongly associated with adherence levels. This study demonstrates that PMT can serve as a theoretical framework to better understand differences in adherence to COVID-19 protective behaviors. The findings may further inform the design of adherence-promoting communications, suggesting that it may be beneficial to highlight response efficacy in such messages.
Improving vaccination rates in older adults and at-risk groups: focus on pertussis

Despite the implementation of effective paediatric vaccination programmes, pertussis remains a global health problem. Disease epidemiology has changed over time, shifting towards the adolescent and adult populations. In adults, the true burden of pertussis is greatly underestimated and pertussis vaccine coverage rates are suboptimal, including individuals with chronic conditions. Here, we report the outcomes of a virtual international scientific workshop to assess the evidence on the burden of pertussis in older adults and identify potential solutions to improve uptake of pertussis vaccines. In adults, pertussis is underdiagnosed in part due to atypical or milder clinical presentation and the lack of testing and case confirmation. However, contemporary epidemiological data denoted an increase in the burden of pertussis among adolescents and adults. This might be related to a variety of reasons including the waning of immunity over time, the lack of booster vaccination, and the improved diagnostic methods that led to increased recognition of the disease in adults. Pertussis sequelae can be severe in older adults, particularly those with existing chronic medical conditions, and the vulnerability of these groups is further enhanced by low pertussis vaccine coverage. Possible measures to increase vaccine uptake include strengthening and harmonisation of immunisation guidelines, healthcare professionals taking a more active role in recommending pertussis vaccination, involvement of vaccination centres and pharmacies in the vaccination process, and improving knowledge of pertussis burden and vaccine efficacy among the general population.
Mental Health and its Influencing Factors Among Immigrants with Chronic Diseases in China

Immigrants are a special group in society, and their health is of great concern. Few studies have targeted this population in China. A cross-sectional descriptive correlational study was conducted from July to August 2018 in Hubei Province, China. Chi-square tests, Z-tests and multivariable linear regression analysis were performed to analyze the data using SPSS 24.0. A total of 1068 questionnaires were distributed. The results showed that the variables that affected the mental health of the immigrants with chronic diseases included gender, annual income, life events (L), negative emotion (NE), negative coping styles (NC) and objective support (OS) (p ≤ 0.05). Future research should focus on the physical and mental health of different immigrant groups and design effective, individualized interventions to improve the health status of immigrants, especially those with chronic diseases.
Combined biomass gasification, SOFC, IC engine, and waste heat recovery system for power and heat generation: Energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, environmental (4E) evaluations

A novel hybrid system using biomass as fuel for both power and heat generation, which consists of biomass gasification unit, solid oxide fuel cell, homogeneous charge compression ignition engine and waste heat recovery unit, is proposed in this work. Based on the modeling, the system is comprehensively evaluated by multiple approaches including energy, exergy, exergoeconomic and environmental analyses. It is found that the overall energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of the hybrid system could reach up to 68% and 51%, both of which are comparable to those of other reported hybrid fuel cell systems. The exergy destruction of the gasifier is the largest whose relative exergy destruction is up to 21.5%. The component of fuel cell contributes to 71% of the total power but with small relative exergy destruction. On the contrary, the HCCI engine contributes to less power but has larger exergy destruction compared to SOFC. The exergoeconomic analysis showed that the fuel cell component has a high exergoeconomic factor of 98.09% due to the large capital investment cost. By comparison, the component engine has much lower exergoeconomic factors of 5.41%. The cost of exergetic product of the hybrid system is 9.7 $/GJ. Besides, the proposed hybrid system presents a low carbon dioxide emission of about 0.119 to 0.139 t/GJ, which indicates few environmental impacts for the system. These results reveal that the proposed biomass-fueled hybrid system is high-efficiency, low-cost and clean for both power and heat generation, which could be promising candidate as advanced energy conversion technology in practical applications.
Flexural behavior of glass fiber-reinforced recycled aggregate concrete and its impact on the cost and carbon footprint of concrete pavement

In this study, an effort is presented, towards the appraisal of the economic and environmental performance of concrete pavement with the glass fiber (GF) reinforced concrete with and without concrete waste aggregates (CWA). The performance of pavement with plain and fiber-reinforced concretes was compared based on the results of economic and environmental analysis. Firstly, this study evaluated the important mechanical properties (flexural strength, elastic modulus, and residual strength) of the concrete mixes incorporating different quantities of CWA (as 0%, 30%, 50% and 100% replacement of natural coarse aggregate) and GF (as 0%, 0.25%, 0.5% and 1% volume fraction). Then, the mechanical properties were used to design the thickness of jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) for different concrete mixes under similar design loading conditions. Finally, using the cost and carbon emissions of each mix per cubic meter; the cost of pavement (CP) and carbon emissions of pavement (EP) per square meter were evaluated. The results of flexural testing revealed that CWA concretes with a small percentage of GF (i.e. 0.25%) can yield better flexural strength, toughness, and residual strength than conventional plain concrete. CP and EP analysis showed the remarkable economic and environmental benefits of fiberreinforced concrete application in JPCP. At any level of CWA, 0.25%GF addition into concrete yielded concrete pavement with a 20% lower cost and carbon-footprint than that produced with the conventional plain concrete. The CWA level can be maximized into concrete pavement with the GF addition, otherwise plain CWA concrete yields cost and carbon footprint similar to that of the conventional concrete. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Globalization and carbon emissions: Is there any role of agriculture value-added, financial development, and natural resource rent in the aftermath of COP21?

Keeping in view the catastrophic effects of environmental degradation, G7 countries agree to implement the policy recommendations of the famous Paris Climate Agreement (COP21) in 2015; carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are increasing in G7 countries, which is a severe threat for the environment of the world. This study examines the effects of economic globalization on environmental degradation (CO2 emissions) for G7 countries for the period of 1996-2017. We further examine the role of financial development, agriculture value-added, and natural resources in the relationship between economic globalization and CO2 emissions. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing new empirical evidence on how economic globalization, along with financial development, agriculture value-added, and natural resources affect CO2 emissions in G7 economies. This study utilizes novel econometric techniques such as CS-ARDL for short-run and long-run results of the empirical analysis. The empirical findings show that economic globalization, financial development, and natural resources increase carbon emissions. In contrast, agriculture value-added decreases carbon emissions. This study suggests that policies designed for controlling carbon emissions should be absorbed in approximately more than one year.
Techno-economic analysis of coke oven gas and blast furnace gas to methanol process with carbon dioxide capture and utilization

This paper documents a process for converting coke oven gas (COG) and blast furnace gas (BFG) from steel refineries into methanol. Specifically, we propose the use of blast furnace gas (BFG) as an additional carbon source. The high CO(2 )and CO content of BFG make it a good carbon resource. In the proposed process, CO2 is recovered from the BFG and blended with H2O, H-2, and CH4-rich COG to reform methane. Optimized amounts of H2O and CO2 are used to adjust the (H-2 - CO2)/(CO + CO2) molar ratio in order to maximize the amount of methanol that is produced. In addition, the desulphurization process was modified to enable the removal of sulfur compounds, especially thiophene, from the COG. The process design and simulation results reported herein were then used to determine any potential environmental and economic benefits. This research is based on off-gas conditions provided by ArcelorMittal Dofasco (AMD), Hamilton, Ontario. In order to determine which conditions are most desirable for this retrofit strategy, potential greenhouse gas reduction and economic benefits were analyzed. In particular, this analysis focused on the heating utility chosen for methane reformation prior to methanol synthesis. To this end, COG, BFG, and natural gas (NG) were compared. The results showed that using BFG/NG as a heating utility can produce greater economic gains, and that synthesizing COG + BFG to methanol results in greater economic and environmental gains than solely producing electricity (the status quo). Compared to current operating procedures, the proposed process could potentially increase net present values by up to $54 million. The carbon efficiency achieved was up to 72%. An additional 0.73 kg of CO2 from BFG is needed for every 1 kg of MeOH produced. About 52% of feedstock energy is converted to MeOH, with another 33% recovered in the form of utilities. The exergy efficiency of the recommended version of the system is about 61%. The business case for converting CO2 into methanol highly depends on the local electricity grid carbon intensity. For Ontario, it can reduce direct CO2 emissions by 228 ktonne per year, and fix up to 246 ktonne CO2 into methanol per year. In addition, analyses of location effects, CO2 taxes, electricity prices, electricity carbon intensity, methanol prices, and income taxes indicated that MeOH production is highly recommended for Ontario, Mexico, the USA, and China applications. For USA, build MeOH plant is recommended for Finland, whether to do this retrofit or not is inconclusive. For Finland, the results are inconclusive, other strategies may be equally suitable. Aspen Plus Simulation files and other source code have been open-sourced and are available to the reader.