Human development index, maternal mortality rate and under 5 years mortality rate in West and South Asian countries, 1980-2010: an ecological study.

Background: Human Development Index (HDI), maternal mortality rate (MMR) and children aged under 5 years mortality rate (U5MR) are fundamental issues, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in HDI, MMR and U5MR from 1980 to 2010 in certain West Asian countries as well as the relationship between these indexes.

Methods: In this ecological study, HDI, MMR and U5MR information from studied countries during 1980 to 2010 was extracted from the gap minder site and then analysed using descriptive and analytical methods, including Spearman correlation.

Synergistic effect on co-pyrolysis of rice husk and sewage sludge by thermal behavior, kinetics, thermodynamic parameters and artificial neural network.

This study investigates the thermal decomposition, thermodynamic and kinetic behavior of rice-husk (R), sewage sludge (S) and their blends during co-pyrolysis using thermogravimetric analysis at a constant heating rate of 20 °C/min. Coats-Redfern integral method is applied to mass loss data by employing seventeen models of five major reaction mechanisms to calculate the kinetics and thermodynamic parameters. Two temperature regions: I (200-400 °C) and II (400-600 °C) are identified and best fitted with different models.

Impact of long-term N fertilisation on CO evolution from old and young SOM pools measured during the maize cropping season.

The relationship between carbon (C) inputs and nitrogen (N) fertilisation is a key element of soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics, which remains poorly resolved. In temperate climates, it is critical to investigate the interactive effect of C and N inputs on SOM stabilisation under low or high substrate availability. We measured SOM content and in situ soil respiration in a long-term field experiment in Sweden, which started in 1956.

Improving the environmental impact of palm kernel shell through maximizing its production of hydrogen and syngas using advanced artificial intelligence.

Fossil fuel depletion and the environmental concerns have been under discussion for energy production for many years and finding new and renewable energy sources became a must. Biomass is considered as a net zero CO energy source. Gasification of biomass for H and syngas production is an attractive process.

To shake or not to shake: Silicone tube approach for incubation studies on CH oxidation in submerged soils.

Incubation experiments are the most common approach to measure methane (CH) oxidation potential in soils from various ecosystems and land-use practices. However, the commonly used headspace CH injection into microcosms and the shaking of the soil slurry during incubation fully removes CH (soil-born) and O (air-born) gradients common in situ, and may also induce various errors and disturbances. As an alternative, we propose CH input into microcosm soils via a silicone tube located within the slurry.

Inequality in carbon intensity in EU-28: analysis based on club convergence.

This study examines the convergence properties of CO intensity in EU-28 countries, using panel data for the period 1990 to 2016. We use Phillips and Sul's (2007) approach to test for CO intensity convergence and identify convergence clubs. In addition to the EU-28 members, we analyze the EU-15, and the new EU members (EU-new) that joined after 2004, as distinct groups for the periods 1990-2016, 1990-2004, and 2005-2016.

Virtual and Augmented Reality in Oncologic Liver Surgery.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in complex surgery are evolving technologies enabling improved preoperative planning and intraoperative navigation. The basis of these technologies is a computer-based generation of a patient-specific 3-dimensional model from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data. This article provides a state-of-the- art overview on the clinical use of this technology with a specific focus on hepatic surgery.

Do Semilocal Density-Functional Approximations Recover Dispersion Energies at Small Intermonomer Separations?

The methods that add dispersion energies to interaction energies computed using density-functional theory (DFT), known as DFT+D methods, taper off the dispersion energies at distances near van der Waals minima and smaller based on an assumption that DFT starts to reproduce the dispersion energies there. We show that this assumption is not correct as the alleged contribution behaves unphysically and originates to a large extent from nonexchange-correlation terms. Thus, dispersion functions correct DFT in this region for deficiencies unrelated to dispersion interactions.

Seroprevalence of Bluetongue virus in small and large ruminants in Punjab province, Pakistan.

Bluetongue (BT) is a vector-borne disease of immense economic importance for small and large ruminants. Despite frequent disease reports from neighboring countries, a little is known about current disease status and prevalent serotypes in Pakistan. We screened a total of 1312 healthy animals for group-specific antibodies and serotype-specific genome for BT virus through competitive ELISA and real-time PCR, respectively.

A revisit of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for Turkey: new evidence from bootstrap rolling window causality.

This study aims at analyzing the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for Turkey, spanning the period of 1961-2013. Unlike previous studies, instead of carbon emissions, the ecological footprint is used as a proxy for environmental degradation. Moreover, a bootstrap time-varying causality approach is used to detect the possible changes in causal relations and to obtain the parameters across subsample periods.

An Insight into the Anaerobic Co-digestion of Municipal Solid Waste and Food Waste: Influence of Co-substrate Mixture Ratio and Substrate to Inoculum Ratio on Biogas Production.

The unbalanced nutrients of municipal solid waste (MSW), particularly high carbon contents, were regarded as a major limiting factor to anaerobic digestion process. In this study, the addition of MSW in food waste (FW) feedstock to have a balanced C/N ratio was studied. Different co-substrate mixtures with C/N ratio of 20 to 40 were subjected to anaerobic batch experiment at lab scale, under mesophilic conditions.

Knock-Down of Arabidopsis PLC5 Reduces Primary Root Growth and Secondary Root Formation While Overexpression Improves Drought Tolerance and Causes Stunted Root Hair Growth.

Phospholipase C (PLC) is a well-known signaling enzyme in metazoans that hydrolyzes phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) to produce inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate and diacylglycerol as second messengers involved in mutiple processes. Plants contain PLC too, but relatively little is known about its function there. The model system Arabidopsis thaliana contains nine PLC genes.

Thymoquinone: A novel strategy to combat cancer: A review.

The higher consumption of fruit, herbs, spices, and vegetables is well known and practical strategy to cure human cancers owing to their presence of bioactive compounds. Among these, Nigella sativa is a promising source of bioactive compounds including thymoquinone, monoterpenes, p-cymene and α-piene etc. Thymoquinone has been found effective to inhibit the different cancer stages such as proliferation, migration and invasion.

The impact of biomass energy consumption on pollution: evidence from 80 developed and developing countries.

The aim of this research is to explore the effect of biomass energy consumption on CO emissions in 80 developed and developing countries. To achieve robustness, the system generalised method of moment was used and several control variables were incorporated into the model including real GDP, fossil fuel consumption, hydroelectricity production, urbanisation, population, foreign direct investment, financial development, institutional quality and the Kyoto protocol. Relying on the classification of the World Bank, the countries were categorised to developed and developing countries.

'Too-much-of-a-good-thing'? The role of advanced eco-learning and contingency factors on the relationship between corporate environmental and financial performance.

Inspired by the natural-resource-based view (NRBV) theory, we attempt to shed light on a controversy which has been persistent over the last decade, concerning the relationship between corporate environmental performance (CEP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Using the 'too-much-of-a-good-thing' (TMGT) concept, which suggests that "too much can be worse than too little," we link mixed results and consider the roles of advanced eco-learning and contingency factors in influencing the CEP-CFP relationship. Based on a sample composed of ISO 14001 certified companies in Indonesia, and analyzing the data using consistent Partial Least Squares (PLSc), we found that: the CEP-CFP relationship follows an inverted U-shape; advanced eco-learning is a significant predictor of the CEP-CFP relationship, meaning that organizations able to develop higher eco-learning capability will be better able to identify the ideal boundaries of investment in environmental performance without reducing their financial performance; and that contingency factors such as environmental strategy and firm size have a significant role in influencing the CEP-CFP relationship.

Thermogravimetric kinetic modelling of in-situ catalytic pyrolytic conversion of rice husk to bioenergy using rice hull ash catalyst.

The thermal degradation behaviour and kinetic parameter of non-catalytic and catalytic pyrolysis of rice husk (RH) using rice hull ash (RHA) as catalyst were investigated using thermogravimetric analysis at four different heating rates of 10, 20, 50 and 100 K/min. Four different iso conversional kinetic models such as Kissinger, Friedman, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Ozawa-Flynn-Wall (OFW) were applied in this study to calculate the activation energy (E) and pre-exponential value (A) of the system. The E of non-catalytic and catalytic pyrolysis was found to be in the range of 152-190 kJ/mol and 146-153 kJ/mol, respectively.

Impact of vitamin E and selenium on antioxidant capacity and lipid oxidation of cheddar cheese in accelerated ripening.

Background: Ripening of cheddar cheese is a time taking process, duration of the ripening may be as long as one year. Long ripening time is a big hindrance in the popularity of cheese in developing countries. Further, energy resources in these countries are either insufficient or very expensive.

Ameliorative effects of taurine against diabetes: a review.

Diets in rats and humans have shown promising results. Taurine improved glucagon activity, promoted glycemic stability, modified glucose levels, successfully addressed hyperglycemia via advanced glycation end-product control, improved insulin secretion and had a beneficial effect on insulin resistance. Taurine treatment performed well against oxidative stress in brain, increased the secretion of required hormones and protected against neuropathy, retinopathy and nephropathy in diabetes compared with the control.

A Systematic Machine Learning Based Approach for the Diagnosis of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Risk and Progression.

Prevention and diagnosis of NAFLD is an ongoing area of interest in the healthcare community. Screening is complicated by the fact that the accuracy of noninvasive testing lacks specificity and sensitivity to make and stage the diagnosis. Currently no non-invasive ATP III criteria based prediction method is available to diagnose NAFLD risk.

Arabidopsis Phospholipase C3 is Involved in Lateral Root Initiation and ABA Responses in Seed Germination and Stomatal Closure.

Phospholipase C (PLC) is well known for its role in animal signaling, where it generates the second messengers, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol (DAG), by hydrolyzing the minor phospholipid, phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2), upon receptor stimulation. In plants, PLC's role is still unclear, especially because the primary targets of both second messengers are lacking, i.e.

The Role of Grb2 in Cancer and Peptides as Grb2 Antagonists.

Background: Growth factor receptor-bound protein 2 (Grb2) is a 25 kDa adaptor protein, which was originally discovered to accomplish basic cellular events such as cell growth, cell proliferation, and metabolism. However, recent studies evidenced that Grb2 was largely involved in multiple tumor malignancies. The mature Grb2 is a 217 amino acid sequence, which consists of one Src homology 2 (SH2) domain flanked by two Src homology 3 (SH3) domains.

Optimization of hydrogen and syngas production from PKS gasification by using coal bottom ash.

Catalytic steam gasification of palm kernel shell is investigated to optimize operating parameters for hydrogen and syngas production using TGA-MS setup. RSM is used for experimental design and evaluating the effect of temperature, particle size, CaO/biomass ratio, and coal bottom ash wt% on hydrogen and syngas. Hydrogen production appears highly sensitive to all factors, especially temperature and coal bottom ash wt%.

A Bizarre Ring Artifact on SPECT/CT Images.

We encountered a round artifact on images obtained with our SPECT/CT system: a small dark spot surrounded by a broad light ring. The artifact was due to a problem with the SPECT portion of the hybrid system and was successfully removed through servicing of the system. This case report describes this scanner-based artifact, which, to our knowledge, has not previously been reported in the literature.

An Algorithm of Association Rule Mining for Microbial Energy Prospection.

The presence of hydrocarbons beneath earth's surface produces some microbiological anomalies in soils and sediments. The detection of such microbial populations involves pure bio chemical processes which are specialized, expensive and time consuming. This paper proposes a new algorithm of context based association rule mining on non spatial data.

Economic growth, CO emissions, renewable waste and FDI relation in Pakistan: New evidences from 3SLS.

First attempt has been made to find the effects of foreign direct investment on environmental pollution and economic growth, in addition to finding the determinants of foreign direct investment inflows in Pakistan using the annual data set for the period of 1980-2014. Simultaneous equation model has been used to find relation between the variables of concern. Results from technique and composition effects show that increase in economic growth leads towards more pollution emissions.