Search Results (7)

The effects of environmental pollution and Industry 4.0 on a sustainable environment are the main topic of this study, which may be regarded as a complement to the literature on energy and the environment. The paper aims to investigate the relation between Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and environmental sustainability, which is very important for policymakers, practitioners, and company executives in the period of Industry 4.0 in Turkey. To this end, natural gas consumption and technology patents as control variables of Industry 4.0, in addition to the variables of environmental pollution and economic growth, were selected during the period of 1988 to 2022 using Markov switching VAR (MS-VAR), Markov switching Granger causality (MS-GC), Fourier VAR (FVAR), and Granger causality (FGC) techniques. The reason for covering the period starting in 1988 is its recognition as the beginning of the Industry 4.0 era with AutoIDLab in 1988. According to the causality results, there was unidirectional causality running from technology patents to environmental pollution in the results of both MS-GC and FGC. However, the directions of causality between natural gas consumption and environmental pollution, and between economic growth and environmental pollution differed between regimes in the MS-GC model. Bidirectional causality was determined between economic growth and environmental pollution in the first MS-GC regime. However, in the second regime, unidirectional causality from economic growth to environmental pollution was determined. The causality direction determined by Fourier causality gave the same result with the second regime. A similar finding was observed in the direction of causality between natural gas consumption and CO₂ emissions. While MS-GC determined unidirectional causality from natural gas consumption to environmental pollution in the first regime, a bidirectional causality result between GC and environmental pollution was determined in the second regime. The FGC result was similar to the second regime result. And lastly, the MS-GC and FGC methods determined unidirectional causality from Industry 4.0 to environmental pollution. Full article

Governments use fiscal and monetary policies to direct the economy toward economic expansion. However, both policies could have impacts on the environment. The study investigates the effects of fiscal and monetary policy, energy consumption and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions for the Turkish economy from 1978 to 2021 with novel nonlinear bootstrapping NBARDL and nonlinear NBVARDL for nonlinear causality testing. The methods are robust to degenerate cointegration. By differentiating between expansionary and contractionary fiscal and monetary policies, the results determined the presence of long-run cointegrated relationships between the analyzed variables and emissions. The positive effects of both economic policies on emissions cannot be rejected, which become particularly pronounced for expansionary policies in addition to emission enhancing effects of energy consumption and growth. The effects of contractionary monetary policy are also positive in contrast to a set from the literature. Nonlinear causality tests favor one-way causality from energy consumption and from growth to emissions. The one-way causality from energy consumption and economic growth to emissions suggest non-existent feedback effects, leading to concerns for the environment. Expansionary and recessionary fiscal policies have one-way causal impacts on energy, leading to further environmental degradation. The findings highlight the severity of environmental problems caused by economic policies. Important policy recommendations are generated. Full article

This paper tests the cointegration and causality between mortality rate, terrorism, economic growth, and environmental pollution in China, India, Russia, and Türkiye in the period from 1990 to 2021 by using the Fourier bootstrapping auto-regressive distributed lag (FBARDL) test and Granger causality with Fourier (FGC) test. The FBARDL test determined cointegration between the selected variables. The FGC test found the evidence of causality among the selected variables. For Russia, Türkiye, India, and China, we found evidence of unidirectional causality running from terrorism to environmental pollution. The evidence of one-way causality from economic growth to environmental pollution was determined for Türkiye and China, but, for India and Russia, we found one-way causality from environmental pollution to economic growth. We found unidirectional causality from terrorism to mortality rate for Türkiye and China. For Russia, we found evidence of none causality. In addition, we determined there was evidence of unidirectional causality from environmental pollution to morality rate. Full article

Nowadays, the world is facing many important problems, including terrorism, drinkingwater supply problems, and environmental pollution, which have strong impacts on the sustainable development. In this paper, the cointegration between drinking water, terrorism, economic growth, energy consumption, and environmental pollution was explored in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Iraq, Arab Republic of Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Syrian Arab Republic, and Pakistan in the period of 2000–2020 by using the panel Fourier bootstrapping auto regressive distributed lag (PFBARDL) test, and then the direction of causality between the selected variables was determined. The PFBARDL test determined evidence of cointegration among the selected variables. The causality test found evidence of unidirectional causality from terrorism to drinking water and environmental pollution. Full article

Avastin^® is a humanized recombinant monoclonal antibody used to treat cancer by targeting VEGF-A to inhibit angiogenesis. SIMAB054, an Avastin^® biosimilar candidate developed in this study, showed a different charge variant profile than its innovator. Thus, it is fractionated into acidic, main, and basic isoforms and collected physically by Cation Exchange Chromatography (CEX) for a comprehensive structural and functional analysis. The innovator product, fractionated into the same species and collected by the same method, is used as a reference for comparative analysis. Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) ESI-QToF was used to analyze the modifications leading to charge heterogeneities at intact protein and peptide levels. The C-terminal lysine clipping and glycosylation profiles of the samples were monitored by intact mAb analysis. The post-translational modifications, including oxidation, deamidation, and N-terminal pyroglutamic acid formation, were determined by peptide mapping analysis in the selected signal peptides. The relative binding affinities of the fractionated charge isoforms against the antigen, VEGF-A, and the neonatal receptor, FcRn, were revealed by Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) studies. The results show that all CEX fractions from the innovator product and the SIMAB054 shared the same structural variants, albeit in different ratios. Common glycoforms and post-translational modifications were the same, but at different percentages for some samples. The dissimilarities were mostly originating from the presence of extra C-term Lysin residues, which are prone to enzymatic degradation in the body, and thus they were previously assessed as clinically irrelevant. Another critical finding was the presence of different glyco proteoforms in different charge species, such as increased galactosylation in the acidic and afucosylation in the basic species. SPR characterization of the isolated charge variants further confirmed that basic species found in the CEX analyses of the biosimilar candidate were also present in the innovator product, although at lower amounts. The charge variants’ in vitro antigen- and neonatal receptor-binding activities varied amongst the samples, which could be further investigated in vivo with a larger sample set to reveal the impact on the pharmacokinetics of drug candidates. Minor structural differences may explain antigen-binding differences in the isolated charge variants, which is a key parameter in a comparability exercise. Consequently, such a biosimilar candidate may not comply with high regulatory standards unless the binding differences observed are justified and demonstrated not to have any clinical impact. Full article

The relationship between information and communication technology investment (ICT), environmental impacts, and economic growth has received increasing attention in the last 20 years. However, the relationship between ICT, energy intensity, environmental impacts, and economic growth was relatively neglected. In this paper, we aimed to contribute to the environmental literature by simultaneously analyzing the relationship between ICT, energy intensity, economic growth, Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and energy consumption for the period of 1990–2020 in G7 countries. We employed the Panel Quantile Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (PQARDL) method and Panel Quantile Granger Causality (PQGC) methods. According to the results of PQARDL method, energy consumption, ICT, CO₂ emission, and energy intensity have effects on economic growth in the long and short run. According to the of PQGC methods allowing causality results for different quantiles, there is evidence of a bidirectional causality between ICT investment and economic growth for all quantiles and evidence of a unidirectional causality from ICT to energy consumption and from CO₂ emissions to ICT investment and energy efficiency. Our results indicate that the governments of the G7 countries have placed energy efficiency and ICT investment at the center of their policies while determining their environmental and energy policies, since energy consumption is a continuous process. Full article

Saccharomyces boulardii is a probiotic yeast often used for the treatment of GI tract disorders such as diarrhea symptoms. It is genetically close to the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its classification as a distinct species or a S. cerevisiae variant has long been discussed. Here, we review the main genetic divergencies between S. boulardii and S. cerevisiae as a strategy to uncover the ability to adapt to the host physiological conditions by the probiotic. S. boulardii does possess discernible phenotypic traits and physiological properties that underlie its success as probiotic, such as optimal growth temperature, resistance to the gastric environment and viability at low pH. Its probiotic activity has been elucidated as a conjunction of multiple pathways, ranging from improvement of gut barrier function, pathogen competitive exclusion, production of antimicrobial peptides, immune modulation, and trophic effects. This review summarizes the participation of S. boulardii in these mechanisms and the multifactorial nature by which this yeast modulates the host microbiome and intestinal function. Full article