Geopolitical risk, financial development, and renewable energy consumption: empirical evidence from selected industrial economies.

The rapid rise in climate and ecological challenges have allowed policymakers to introduce stringent environmental policies. In addition, financial limitations may pose challenges for countries looking to green energy investments as energy transition is associated with geopolitical risks that could create uncertainty and dissuade green energy investments. The current study uses PTR and PSTR as econometric strategy to investigate how geopolitical risks and financial development indicators influence energy transition in selected industrial economies. Our findings indicate a non-linear DCPB-RE relationship with a threshold equal to 39.361 in PTR model and 35.605 and 122.35 in PSTR model. Additionally, when the threshold was estimated above, financial development indicators and geopolitical risk positively impacts renewable energy. This confirms that these economies operate within a geopolitical context, with the objective of investing more in clean energy. We report novel policy suggestion to encourage policymakers promoting energy transition and advance the sustainable financing development and ecological sustainability.

Intramuscular administration of recombinant Newcastle disease virus expressing SARS-CoV-2 spike protein protects hACE-2 TG mice against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) became a pandemic, causing significant burden on public health worldwide. Although the timely development and production of mRNA and adenoviral vector vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 have been successful, issues still exist in vaccine platforms for wide use and production. With the potential for proliferative capability and heat stability, the Newcastle disease virus (NDV)-vectored vaccine is a highly economical and conceivable candidate for treating emerging diseases. In this study, a recombinant NDV-vectored vaccine expressing the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2, rK148/beta-S, was developed and evaluated for its efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in K18-hACE-2 transgenic mice. Intramuscular vaccination with low dose (106.0 EID50) conferred a survival rate of 76 % after lethal challenge of a SARS-CoV-2 beta (B.1.351) variant. When administered with a high dose (107.0 EID50), vaccinated mice exhibited 100 % survival rate and reduced lung viral load against both beta and delta variants (B.1.617.2). Together with the protective immunity, rK148/beta-S is an accessible and cost-effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

Molecular and clinical description of a girl with a 46,X,t(Y;4)(q11.2;p16)/45,X,der(4)t(Y;4)(q11.2;p16) karyotype and a small cryptic 4p subtelomeric deletion.

We report on a 13-year-old female with short stature, minimal axillary and pubic hair, no breast development, absence of uterus and ovaries, with the following karyotype on lymphocyte cultures: 46,X,t(Y;4)(q11.2;p16)[40]/45,X,der(4)t(Y;4)(q11.2;p16)[10]. Loss of the small derivative Y chromosome in 20% of the cells was also confirmed in skin fibroblast cultures. FISH analyses using Y centromere, SRY, subtelomere XpYp/XqYq, Y and 4 painting probes, confirmed the cytogenetic findings. High-resolution STS analyses using 40 markers covering the Y chromosome did not identify any deletion on the Y. However, de novo absence of the 4p subtelomeric region was noted by FISH, although this deletion was not revealed by Array-CGH at 1 Mb resolution, the last array clone being 0.35 or 1 Mb distal to the 4p FISH probe. The female phenotype of this patient must be due to the loss of the derivative Y chromosomes in some of her cells, especially the gonads, while the 4p subtelomeric deletion does not seem to contribute to her phenotype.