The study examines the nexus between financial globalization (FG), environmental policy stringency (EPS), financial development (FD), and technological innovation (INV) on CO2 emission with ...moderating effect of technological innovation on financial development and environmental degradation in 36 OECD countries with an updated dataset from the period of 1990 to 2020 using PMG (Pooled mean group) panel ARDL method. The results of stationarity tests; (Levin, Lin, and Chu test; ADF Fisher test) demonstrate that selected variables are stationary at level I(0) and first difference I(I); this confirms that PMG estimator can be employed. Cointegration tests indicate that cointegration exist among the variables. The empirical findings of the PMG estimator indicate that financial globalization and CO2 are negatively associated with each other. While financial development, environmental policy stringency, and technological innovation have positive impact on environmental degradation in OECD countries. Furthermore, technological innovation strengthens the association between financial development (FD) and environmental degradation (CO2 emission). In order to accelerate economic growth, the study recommends that policymakers should implement environmental policies to achieve low-carbon mechanisms, such as green infrastructure and renewable energy systems, which reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is crucial that the selected OECD countries should develop programs that increase awareness of the risks of carbon emissions.
Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) exhibit concurrent deficits in both sensory and higher-order cognitive processing. Connectome studies have suggested a principal primary-to-transmodal ...gradient in functional brain networks, supporting the spectrum from sensation to cognition. However, whether this gradient structure is disrupted in patients with MDD and how this disruption associates with gene expression profiles and treatment outcome remain unknown. Using a large cohort of resting-state fMRI data from 2227 participants (1148 MDD patients and 1079 healthy controls) recruited at nine sites, we investigated MDD-related alterations in the principal connectome gradient. We further used Neurosynth, postmortem gene expression, and an 8-week antidepressant treatment (20 MDD patients) data to assess the meta-analytic cognitive functions, transcriptional profiles, and treatment outcomes related to MDD gradient alterations, respectively. Relative to the controls, MDD patients exhibited global topographic alterations in the principal primary-to-transmodal gradient, including reduced explanation ratio, gradient range, and gradient variation (Cohen's d = 0.16-0.21), and focal alterations mainly in the primary and transmodal systems (d = 0.18-0.25). These gradient alterations were significantly correlated with meta-analytic terms involving sensory processing and higher-order cognition. The transcriptional profiles explained 53.9% variance of the altered gradient pattern, with the most correlated genes enriched in transsynaptic signaling and calcium ion binding. The baseline gradient maps of patients significantly predicted symptomatic improvement after treatment. These results highlight the connectome gradient dysfunction in MDD and its linkage with gene expression profiles and clinical management, providing insight into the neurobiological underpinnings and potential biomarkers for treatment evaluation in this disorder.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious mental illness characterized by dysfunctional connectivity among distributed brain regions. Previous connectome studies based on functional magnetic ...resonance imaging (fMRI) have focused primarily on undirected functional connectivity and existing directed effective connectivity (EC) studies concerned mostly task‐based fMRI and incorporated only a few brain regions. To overcome these limitations and understand whether MDD is mediated by within‐network or between‐network connectivities, we applied spectral dynamic causal modeling to estimate EC of a large‐scale network with 27 regions of interests from four distributed functional brain networks (default mode, executive control, salience, and limbic networks), based on large sample‐size resting‐state fMRI consisting of 100 healthy subjects and 100 individuals with first‐episode drug‐naive MDD. We applied a newly developed parametric empirical Bayes (PEB) framework to test specific hypotheses. We showed that MDD altered EC both within and between high‐order functional networks. Specifically, MDD is associated with reduced excitatory connectivity mainly within the default mode network (DMN), and between the default mode and salience networks. In addition, the network‐averaged inhibitory EC within the DMN was found to be significantly elevated in the MDD. The coexistence of the reduced excitatory but increased inhibitory causal connections within the DMNs may underlie disrupted self‐recognition and emotional control in MDD. Overall, this study emphasizes that MDD could be associated with altered causal interactions among high‐order brain functional networks.
Based on measuring the green transformation of heavily polluting enterprises based on the sub-dimensions of green strategy and green action, we empirically analyze whether and how bank digitization ...affects the green transformation of enterprises by using the data of China’s A-share heavily polluting enterprises from 2010 to 2021. The findings show that 1) bank digitization has a significant positive effect on firms’ green transformation; 2) bank digitization promotes firms’ green transformation by alleviating firms’ financing constraints and improving firms’ ESG performance; 3) governmental environmental regulations and media attention positively moderates the relationship between bank digitization and firms’ green transformation; and 4) bank digitization is more likely to promote the green transformation of firms that are highly digitized, non-state-owned firms, and enterprises in the eastern region; 5) the sub-dimension test shows that bank digitization has significant differences on different dimensions of green transformation. The above analysis shows that bank digitization should be deeply integrated with the green transformation of enterprises, and the former should be deeply embedded in supervising, forcing and empowering enterprises to upgrade environmental protection technology and sewage treatment, and the regulator should formulate a more detailed environmental protection disclosure program to realize the consistency “words” and “deeds” of the green transformation of enterprises.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most common and costly psychiatric disorders. In addition to significant changes in mood, MDD patients face an increased risk of developing cognitive ...dysfunction. It is important to gain an improved understanding of cognitive impairments and find a biomarker for cognitive impairment diagnosis in MDD.
One hundred MDD patients and 100 normal controls (NCs) completed resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) scan, in which 34 MDD patients and 34 NCs had scores in multiple cognitive domains (executive function, verbal fluency, and processing speed). Twenty-seven regions of interest from the default mode network (DMN), central executive network (CEN), salience network (SN), and limbic system (LS) were selected as seeds for functional connectivity (FC) analyses with the voxels in the whole brain. Finally, partial correlations were conducted for cognitive domain scores and FCs with significant differences between the MDD and NC groups.
Significant FC differences between groups were identified among the seeds and clusters in the DMN, CEN, LS, visual network, somatomotor network, ventral attention network, and dorsal attention network. In the MDD patients, the magnitude of the Stroop interference effect was positively correlated with the illness duration, and the illness duration was negatively correlated with the FC between the right ventral hippocampal gyrus and the left inferior frontal gyrus. However, the correlation between the Stroop interference effect and the FC of the right anterior prefrontal cortex with the left cerebellum_4_5 was disrupted in these patients.
The MDD patients have altered FCs among multiple brain networks and a disrupted correlation between the FC of prefrontal cortex and executive function. The disrupted correlation could present before the symptoms develop and may be the core process in the development of executive function impairment.
This research used the dynamic panel model and QR (Quantile Regression) to examine the effect of globalization (GB), Institutional Quality (IQ), Economic Growth (EG), Electricity Consumption (EC), ...and Renewable Energy (RE) consumption on Carbon dioxide (CO
2
) emission from 1991 to 2018 in thirty-six (OCED) countries. Panel unit root tests have been employed to examine the stationarity of the study variables; the results, which included the Harris and Tzavalis (Journal of econometrics, 1999, 91 (2), 201–226) and Levin et al. (Journal of Econometrics, 2002, 108 (1), 1–24) tests, indicate that all of the variables used are a combination of I (0) and I(I). Cointegration in the study variables has been examined using the cointegration tests devised by Westerlund, Kao, and Pedroni; the results suggest that cointegration exists in the research variables. Findings of the one-step difference GMM, One-step system GMM and two-step system GMM reveal that RE consumption, GB, and IQ negatively affect the CO
2
emission in (selected OECD) countries that help to reduce CO
2
excretion. In contrast, EC consumption and EG become responsible for the climatic and environmental loss. Further, this study checked the robustness by using SQR (Simultaneous quantile regression) and PQR (Panel Quantile Regression). The evaluated study findings of QR (Quantile Regression) reveal that RE consumption, GB, and IQ help to reduce the CO
2
emission while EG and EC consumption becomes responsible for the climatic and environmental loss. Further recommendations are suggested based on the findings.
Introduction
Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have usually been found cognitive impairment associated with brain white matter (WM) abnormalities. However, findings have varied across ...studies, and any potential relationship with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the whole-brain WM integrity of T2DM patients and to compare our findings with those of published AD cases.
Methods
In this study, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) combined with tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to investigate whole-brain WM abnormalities in 48 T2DM patients and 48 healthy controls. The effects of age and gender were also evaluated.
Results
In our study, significantly decreasing FA and increasing MD and DA values (
P
<0.05) were found in some WM regions closely related to the default mode network (DMN), including cingulum, the right frontal lobe involving the right uncinate fasciculus (UF), bilateral parietal lobes involving the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) involving the UF and the ILF. We also found abnormalities in the thalamus involving the fornix (FX), anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), and posterior thalamic radiation (PTR). The damaged regions above are similar to those found in patients with AD, as reported in previous studies.
Conclusion
The present study not only provides useful information about the WM regions and tracts affected by T2DM but also offers insight into the underlying neuropathological process in T2DM patients and the relationship between T2DM and AD.
To investigate the effects of wilting and lactic acid bacterial inoculants on the fermentation quality and bacterial community of
leaf silage, fresh and wilted
leaves were ensiled with or without
LF ...or
LL for 1, 7, 14, 30, and 60 days. The results showed that wilting, inoculants, and their interaction exerted significant (
0.05) effects on the fermentation characteristics covering dry matter loss, pH value, lactic acid bacterial number, the ratio of lactic acid to acetic acid, and the relative abundances of bacteria, like for species of
,
,
,
,
, and
Both LF and LL improved the fermentation quality of wilted and unwilted
leaf silage by accelerating lactic acid production and pH decline, decreasing dry matter loss, and inhibiting yeast and coliform bacterial growth through the whole fermentation process. During ensiling, the abundances of
,
and
spp. increased from day 1 to day 7 and then declined sharply from day 7 to day 14. Members of these genera and
were inhibited, whereas
spp. were enhanced by these two lactic acid bacterial inoculants. The relative abundances of
,
and
spp. in inoculated silages were relatively low during the whole ensiling process. A lower abundance of
spp. was observed in wilted silages than in unwilted silages. In summary, wilting and lactic acid bacterial inoculants had an influence on bacterial community and the fermentation process; LF and LL improved the fermentation quality of wilted and unwilted
leaf silage.
leaf is a high-quality feed source for livestock and is increasingly used all over the world. Ensiling might be an effective method for preservation of the leaves. In the practice of silage making, lactic acid bacterial inoculants and wilting are commonly used to improve nutrition preservation. Monitoring the changes in a bacterial community during fermentation gives an insight into understanding and improving the ensiling process. Our results suggest that wilting and lactic acid bacterial inoculants had an influence on the bacterial community and fermentation process of
leaf silage. Wilting showed positive effects on silage fermentation by decreasing the abundance of
spp., while LF and LL improved the fermentation quality by inhibiting
spp. and enhancing
spp. Both LF and LL accelerated the ensiling process from cocci (like
,
and
spp.) to lactobacilli.
This paper analyzes the influence on the diversion capacity of the Yellow River diversion sluices of factors such as the diversion water level change of the Yellow River diversion sluices in the ...irrigation areas of the lower Yellow River, the scouring of river channels and the siltation change in the diversion channels. It is suggested that the main reason for the decrease in diversion capacity of the Yellow River diversion sluices in different inflow levels is the obvious decrease in the water level of the same discharge due to the continuous scouring of river channels. At the end of this paper, targeted countermeasures and suggestions are put forward to solve the problem of the water diversion capacity decline of Yellow River diversion sluices.
Abstract
Combinational immunotherapy of dendritic cell (DC) vaccines and anti‐programmed cell death protein 1 antibodies (aPD1) has been regarded as a promising strategy for cancer treatment because ...it not only induces tumor‐specific T cell immune responses, but also prevents failure of T cell functions by the immune suppressive milieu of tumors. Microneedles have emerged as an innovative platform for efficient transdermal immunotherapies. However, co‐delivery of DC vaccines and aPD1 via microneedles has not been studied since conventional microneedle platforms are unsuitable for fragile therapeutics like living cells and antibodies. This study employs our newly invented cryomicroneedles (cryoMNs) to co‐deliver DC vaccines and aPD1 for the combinational immunotherapy. CryoMNs are fabricated by stepwise cryogenic micromoulding of cryogenic medium with pre‐suspended DCs and aPD1, which are further integrated with a homemade handle for convenient application. The viability of DCs in cryoMNs remains above 85%. CryoMNs are mechanically strong enough to insert into porcine and mouse skin, successfully releasing DCs and aPD1 inside skin tissue after melting. Co‐delivery of ovalbumin (OVA)‐pulsed DCs (OVA‐DCs) and aPD1 via cryoMNs induced higher antigen‐specific cellular immune responses compared with the mono‐delivery of OVA‐DCs or aPD1. Finally, administration with cryoMNs co‐encapsulated with OVA‐DCs and aPD1 increases the infiltration of effector T cells in the tumor, resulting in stronger anti‐tumor therapeutic efficacy in both prophylactic and therapeutic melanoma models compared with administration with cryoMNs loaded with OVA‐DCs or aPD1. This study demonstrates the great potential of cryoMNs as a co‐delivery system of therapeutic cells and biomacromolecules for combinational therapies.
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