Does energy productivity and public-private investment in energy achieve carbon neutrality target of China?

Carbon neutrality target is of great importance to all countries around the globe recently. Innovative methods are being evaluated to achieve the environmental sustainability. In this study, we aim to inspect the influence of public-private partnership in energy and energy efficiency on CO2 emissions in China from 1991Q1 to 2017Q4. In doing so, we include other important determinants of CO2 emissions also, such as environmental innovation, renewable energy, energy productivity and economic growth in our model. We employ the advanced cointegration methods that are developed recently. Moreover, spectral Breitung and Candelon (BC) causality test is used to find the causal effects of technological innovation, energy productivity, public-private partnership in energy, renewable energy consumption and GDP on CO2 emissions. The results suggest that increase in income and public-private partnership enhance carbon emission in China. Conversely, an improvement in energy productivity, renewable energy and technological innovation exert negative influence over CO2 emissions. There is a need to improve the efficiency of public-private partnership in energy projects in terms of carbon emission. Policymakers in China need to ensure an effective and timely transition towards renewable energy sources through environment related innovations and improved efficiency in all sources of energy.

Potential role for EZH2 in promotion of asthma through suppression of miR-34b transcription by inhibition of FOXO3.

Highly expressed enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) has been associated with many kinds of cancers and other diseases, while its functional role in asthma is largely unknown. In our study, we investigated the molecular mechanism of EZH2 in the development of asthma. An ovalbumin-induced mouse asthma model was established, followed by injection of short hairpin RNA (sh)-EZH2, overexpression-B-cell translocation gene 2 (oe-BTG2), microRNA (miR)-34b agomir as well as their corresponding controls. Next, primary bronchial epithelial cells were isolated and cultured, followed by treatment of oe-FOXO3, miR-34b inhibitor, sh-EZH2, oe-BTG2, and corresponding controls. The effects of EZH2 on inflammation were evaluated by determining levels of inflammatory factors interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-13, IL-17, and protein levels of transforming growth factor ß, matrix metalloproteinase-9, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1. The interactions between EZH2 and forkhead box O3 (FOXO3), between FOXO3 and miR-34b promoter, and between miR-34b and BTG2 were analyzed by conducting dual-luciferase reporter and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Notably, EZH2 and BTG2 were significantly overexpressed, while FOXO3 and miR-34b were obviously underexpressed in asthma. EZH2 silencing led to inhibited inflammation though upregulation of FOXO3, which could bind to the miR-34b promoter and facilitate its expression. In turn, miR-34b reduced BTG2 expression by targeting its 3'untranslated region. Our study provides evidence that EZH2 promotes asthma progression by regulating the FOXO3-miR-34b-BTG2 axis.