Do circular economy, renewable energy, industrialization, and globalization influence environmental indicators in belt and road initiative countries?

This paper is the first comprehensive research to examine the effect of circular economy on environment employing two environmental degradation indicators (CO emissions, ecological footprint) and one environmental quality indicator (load capacity factor) for 57 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries during 2000-2019. The effect of other variables such as renewable energy, industrialization, and globalization was also controlled. The study applied the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag method (CS-ARDL), the augmented mean group (AMG), and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) methods as a robustness checks.

The role of renewable energy consumption on environmental degradation in EU countries: do institutional quality, technological innovation, and GDP matter?

In the face of climate change and environmental degradation, reducing emission of greenhouse gases has become a key factor for environmental sustainability. Therefore, the present research is intended to explore the roles of renewable energy consumption, institutional quality, technological innovation, and GDP on carbon dioxide emissions in the 14 EU countries. In doing so, this study employed novel method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) using annual data from 2000 to 2019.

Investigating the determinants of carbon emissions in the USA: a state-level analysis.

The present study investigates the significant determinants of carbon emissions, namely, GDP, energy consumption, energy price, and energy expenditure, utilizing data of 50 American states from 2005 to 2016. Results obtained from application of OLS with fixed effects and panel quantile regression revealed that the effect of GDP on carbon emissions is negative but significant at all quantiles, energy consumption and energy price have a positive and significant effect on carbon emissions, while the effect of energy expenditure is negative but significant at the upper and lower quantiles, implying that high energy expenditures do not reduce carbon dioxide emission at the US state level. Policymakers should introduce further initiatives, so all the states would implement the climate legislations.

Efficacy of smartphone-based Mobile learning versus lecture-based learning for instruction of Cephalometric landmark identification.

Background: Considering the increasing popularity of electronic learning, particularly smartphone-based mobile learning, and its reportedly optimal efficacy for instruction of complicated topics, this study aimed to compare the efficacy of smartphone-based mobile learning versus lecture-based learning for instruction of cephalometric landmark identification.

Methods: This quasi-experimental interventional study evaluated 53 dental students (4th year) in two groups of intervention (n = 27; smartphone instruction using an application) and control (n = 26, traditional lecture-based instruction). Two weeks after the instructions, dental students were asked to identify four landmarks namely the posterior nasal spine (PNS), orbitale (Or), articulare (Ar) and gonion (Go) on lateral cephalograms.