The impacts of the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for developed and developing countries.

This paper examines whether the 1997 Asian financial crisis affected the renewable energy/carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions relationship differently when compared to the 2008 global financial crises. Using the Dynamic Panel Data Model, we examine separately the impact of the 1997 crisis and the 2008 crises on the stated relationship for annual data between the 1987-2018 period for a group of high, upper-middle, and lower middle-income countries. Our findings suggest that the results were crisis and country specific. For the overall sample, the relationship between the two variables was positive (and significant post-1997 and pre-2008 crises) but negative post-2008 crisis. In contrast, the positive relationship remained unchanged for the lower middle-income subsample through the two crises. We also find evidence that the 1997 Asian crisis altered the relationship differently than the 2008 financial crisis especially for the upper and middle-income groups. Clearly, reduction of CO2 emissions may not be guaranteed even if host countries adopt renewable energy sources since country income levels and the nature of the crisis may matter. Future research may consider how the degree of pollution controls and differential costs of renewable energy adoption in countries may alter this relationship.

Absence of association of a polymorphic GGC repeat at the 5' untranslated region of the reelin gene with schizophrenia.

Reelin is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein that plays an important role in guiding neuronal migration, lamination and connection during embryonic brain development. Several reports suggest that reduced reelin expression is associated with human mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, mood disorders and autism. Human reelin cDNA has been cloned and contains a polymorphic GGC repeat at the 5' untranslated region. In view of the possible regulation of reelin gene expression by this GGC polymorphism, we investigated the association of the polymorphic GGC repeat with schizophrenia in a Chinese Han population from Taiwan. We found no differences of allelic and genotypic distributions of the polymorphic GGC triplets between 162 schizophrenic patients and 176 controls in this study. Our findings do not support the involvement of the polymorphic GGC triplets of the reelin gene in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia in the population studied.

Elevated adrenomedullin mRNA in lymphoblastoid cells from schizophrenic patients.

Adrenomedullin (ADM) is a 52 amino acid peptide with multiple physiological functions and wide tissue distributions including brain. Recently, elevated plasma levels of ADM were found in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and autism, suggesting the involvement of ADM in the pathophysiology of mental diseases. Using real-time quantitative PCR, we compared the ADM mRNA levels in lymphoblastoid cell lines between schizophrenic patients and controls. Male but not female schizophrenia patients had 2- to 3-fold higher ADM mRNA levels than controls (p<0.01). Our data support that ADM may be associated with the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, although the cause of the association needs further study.