Financial development, oil resources, and environmental degradation in pandemic recession: to go down in flames.

The novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a deadly disease that increases global healthcare sufferings. Further, it affects the financial and natural resource market simultaneously, as both are considered complementary goods. The volatility in the oil prices deteriorates the global financial market to substantiate the "financial resource (oil) curse" hypothesis primarily filled with earlier studies. In contrast, this study moved forward and extended the given relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic in a panel of 81 different countries. The study's main objective is to examine the volatility in the domestic credit provided to the private sector due to oil shocks and the COVID-19 pandemic across countries. The study is essential to assess the healthcare vulnerability in the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the damage of financial stability, causing deterioration in the oil rents to affect the global sustainability agenda. The study employed statistical techniques to get sound inferences of the parameter estimates, including robust least squares regression, seemingly unrelated regression, and innovation accounting matrix to get a variable estimate at the level and inter-temporal framework. The results confirmed the U-shaped relationship between oil rents and financial development during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it verifies the "financial resource (oil) curse" hypothesis at the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later down, it supports the capital market when economies are resuming their economic activities and maintaining the SOPs to restrain coronavirus at a global scale. The qualitative assessment confirmed the negative effect of financial development and oil shocks on environmental quality during the pandemic crisis. The innovation accounting matrix shows that the COVID-19 pandemic will primarily be the main factor that intervenes in the relationship between oil rents and financial development, which proceed towards the "resource curse" hypothesis during the following years' time period. Therefore, the need for long-term economic policies is highly desirable to support the financial and resource market under the suggested guidelines of restraining coronavirus worldwide.

Does COVID-19 pandemic disrupt sustainable supply chain process? Covering some new global facts.

The adverse effects of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are widely visible in the economic structure, while the principal causal factor is the disruption of the supply chain process that leads to the economies into a global depression. The purpose of the study is to identify the critical factors that affect the global sustainable supply chain process in the cross-sectional panel of 38 European countries, 14 North American countries, 40 Asian countries, and a heterogeneous panel of 111 countries. The results show that an increase in susceptible coronavirus cases and death tolls limits the supply chain process because of nationwide closures of industries and business activities. In contrast, an increase in the number of recovered cases supports economic activities and improved logistic performance index across countries. The innovation accounting matrix shows that since August 2020, the global coronavirus cases will decline and start resuming economic activities to increase the supply chain process. The result is further supported by the estimates of reduction in the proportion of death to recovered cases (case fatality ratio 1) to increase sustainable logistics activities. However, the supply chain process could affect an increasing death toll and case fatality ratio 2 (i.e., the proportion of death to registered cases) over time. The global economies should ensure a free flow of sustainable logistics supply, especially the supply of healthcare medical equipment that would help control the coronavirus pandemic, which escapes from the nations from a global depression.

Progress in nuclear energy with carbon pricing to achieve environmental sustainability agenda: on the edge of one's seat.

The Paris agreement (COP21) emphasized the need to progress toward using low-carbon energy technologies, including nuclear power, that is favorably looked for to meet the challenges to reduce an enormous increase in global temperature to below 2 °C. The cost of carbon pollution is highly induced by the energy sector that damages the global environmental sustainability plan. The alternative and nuclear energy demand is an optimized solution to decrease carbon damages, which can be better work under the imposition of carbon taxes on polluting industries. This study works in a given direction to analyze the role of alternative and nuclear energy, carbon pricing, FDI inflows, fossil fuel combustion, economic growth, and population density on the cost of carbon pollution in a panel of 90 selected countries for a period of 1995-2018. The results confirmed a "nuclear energy-augmented environmental Kuznets curve" with a turning point of 39.974% of total energy demand across countries. The result implies that alternative and nuclear energy initially increases carbon damages. Simultaneously, it decreases at the later stages of atomic energy expansion; thus, nuclear power growth is imperative for long-term sustainable development. A positive relationship is found between carbon pricing and carbon damage, while a negative relationship is between fossil fuel combustion and carbon damage across countries. The results conclude that expansion in nuclear energy would help reduce the cost of carbon pollution to achieve environmental sustainability agenda across countries.

Demographic, psychological, and environmental factors affecting student's health during the COVID-19 pandemic: on the rocks.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is spreading exponentially, increasing fear, depression, and other mental health disorders in the general public. Pakistan's economy is suffered mainly by the novel coronavirus. The massive healthcare expenditures bring inadequacy to manage COVID-19. The study explored the effects of coronavirus fear among the students who remain in their homes due to educational institutions' closure. The study results show that female students mostly fear the coronavirus pandemic compared to their male counterparts that negatively impact their health. The "age" of the students and "household size" positively impact students' health, while the student's existing "healthcare profile" is not competitive enough to escape from the deadly coronavirus. The "knowledge" for the coronavirus pandemic and its prevention guidelines is the only solution to contain coronavirus. Simultaneously, "ignorance" is the foremost factor that could be more dangerous to spread coronavirus among the students; besides the COVID-19 pandemic, students and general public health mainly suffered from environmental pollution. The current epidemic also exacerbated environmental concerns among students isolated in their homes, and their outdoor activities are primarily limited. Hence, the student's quality of life is exposed mainly to environmental pollution over time. The "healthcare expenditures" and "government support" both are not competitive enough to control novel coronavirus. Thus, it required more sustainable strategic policies and national unity to controlled coronavirus with firm conviction and provincial synchronization.

The role of information and communication technologies in mitigating carbon emissions: evidence from panel quantile regression.

The objective of the study is to analyze the dynamic linkages between technology factors and carbon emission in a panel of 26 selected European countries from 2000 to 2017. The results of the panel fixed-effect regression model show the monotonic increasing function between agriculture technology and carbon emissions. In contrast, panel quantile regression confirmed the inverted U-shaped 'Agriculture Technology Kuznets curve (ATKC)' of carbon emissions at 30th quantile distribution to 80th quantile distribution with the turning points of 12,60,000 tractors to 9,68,000 tractors, respectively. The results further exhibit the negative relationship between high-technology exports and carbon emissions, as high-technology exports have a positive impact on environmental quality in order to reduce carbon emissions across countries. The relationship between ICT goods exports and carbon emissions is complimentary, while R&D expenditures have a negative relationship with carbon emissions in a given period. The study substantiates the 'pollution haven hypothesis (PHH)' that is controlled by trade liberalization policies. The telephone and mobile penetrations have a differential impact on carbon emissions in both of the prescribed statistical techniques, which needs fair economic policies in order to delimit carbon emissions through green ICT infrastructure. The results further exhibit the 'material footprint' that is visible at the earlier stages of economic development while it is substantially decreasing at the later stages to verify 'environmental Kuznets curve (EKC)' hypothesis with a turning point of US$45,700. Finally, the study shows the positive relationship between industry value-added and carbon emissions that sabotaged the process of green development across countries. The study concludes that green ICT infrastructure is imperative for sustainable production and consumption, and climate change protection with cleaner production techniques and environmental regulations that reshape the international policies towards sustained growth.

Financial development during COVID-19 pandemic: the role of coronavirus testing and functional labs.

The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in early 2020, known as COVID-19, spread to more than 200 countries and negatively affected the global economic output. Financial activities were primarily depressed, and investors were reluctant to start new financial investments while ongoing projects further declined due to the global lockdown to curb the disease. This study analyzes the money supply reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic using a cross-sectional panel of 115 countries. The study used robust least square regression and innovation accounting techniques to get sound parameter estimates. The results show that COVID-19 infected cases are the main contributing factor that obstructs financial activities and decrease money supply. In contrast, an increasing number of recovered cases and COVID-19 testing capabilities gave investors confidence to increase stock trade across countries. The overall forecast trend shows that COVID-19 infected cases and recovered cases followed the U-shaped trend, while COVID-19 critical cases and reported deaths showed a decreasing trend. Finally, the money supply and testing capacity show a positive trend over a period. The study concludes that financial development can be expanded by increasing the testing capacity and functional labs to identify suspected coronavirus cases globally.

The mediating role of ICTs in the relationship between international tourism and environmental degradation: fit as a fiddle.

The United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) proposed 17 effective plans linked with three principal aims, i.e., eradicating poverty, conserving the natural environment, and ensuring prosperity for all. Travel and tourism are the leading stream sector through which all the three stated United Nations themes could be achieved efficiently. The future project of Saudi Arabia's vision is also in line with the United Nation SDGs that much emphasized on tourism expansion, innovation, and sustainable development, which directly supports the SDG-8 (i.e., decent work and economic growth), SDG-9 (i.e., industries, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG-12 (i.e., responsible consumption and production), and SDG-13 (i.e., climate change). The study's objective is to evaluate the country's e-tourism initiatives and green development agenda in the long-run by using the quarterly data from 1995Q1 to 2018Q4. The study employed the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for estimating the short- and long-run relationship between the variables. Further, the study developed an "e-tourism index" that combines ICT's share in tourism income and expenditures items by principle component matrix (PCM). The results show that oil rents, ores and metal exports, and railways goods transportation depleted natural resources, while ICT's share in energy demand, inbound tourism, and trade openness conserve natural resources via the adoption of advanced technologies, eco-tourism knowledge, and green technology imports in a country. The results confirmed the U-shaped relationship between the country's per capita income and natural resource depletion in a given period. The positive relationship (negative impact) of air transportation freight and trade openness with carbon emissions is evident in the short-run; however, the result is insignificantly determined in the long-run. The industry value-added and ICT's share in energy demand substantially delimit carbon emissions through cleaner production techniques and green innovation. The U-shaped relationship in the short- and flat relationship in the long-run is found for carbon-growth nexus. In the long-run, inbound tourism has a positive (negative impact) relationship with carbon emissions that need sustainable tourism policies to delimit carbon emissions. The air-railways passengers carried and trade openness is the main antecedents that influenced fossil fuel energy consumption in the short- and long-run, while in the long-run, tourism income, ICT's share in energy demand, and industry value-added delimit fossil fuel combustion. The study confirmed the inverted U-shaped relationship between carbon emissions and per capita income in a country. The e-tourism index positively influences the country's economic growth, mobile share in the energy demand, industry value-added, and railways goods transportation. In the long-run, the mobile share in energy demand and railways goods transported increase while air transport freight decreases economic growth. Finally, the e-tourism index is positively influenced by industrial value-added and ICT's share in fossil fuel energy demand. Simultaneously, air transportation passengers carried and ICT's share in carbon emissions negatively affected the e-tourism index in a country. The study concludes that Saudi Arabia's vision 2030 of e-tourism and green sustainable development could be achieved by promoting green ICTs, cleaner production technologies, sustainable consumption and production, tight environmental regulations, and green travel and tourism infrastructure, which ultimately will support the Saudi's vision realization programs towards the country's prosperity.

Identifying the Potential Causes, Consequences, and Prevention of Communicable Diseases (Including COVID-19).

Communicable and noncommunicable diseases cause millions of deaths every year, increased billions of healthcare expenditures, and consequently increase trillions of economic losses at a global scale. This study more focused on the prevalence of communicable diseases, including COVID-19 that is an emerging pandemic, which affects the global economy. The objective of the study is to examine the impact of population density, lack of sanitation facilities, chemical concentration, fossil fuel combustions, poverty incidence, and healthcare expenditures on communicable diseases including COVID-19. The study covered a large panel of heterogenous countries to assess the relationships between the stated factors by using the robust least square regression, Granger causality test, and innovation accounting matrix. The study used a time series data from 2010 to 2019 for assessing the determinants of communicable diseases, while it is further extended with the current data of 2019-2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study show that high population density, lack of primary handwashing facilities, chemicals used in manufacturing value-added fossil fuel combustion, and poverty headcount substantially increase communicable diseases. In contrast, population diffusion, low carbon concentration in air, renewable fuels, and healthcare expenditures decrease infectious diseases in a panel of 78 countries. The causal inferences found the bidirectional relationship between communicable diseases and primary handwashing facility, and carbon emissions and poverty headcount, whereas the unidirectional relationship is running from lack of sanitation to infectious diseases, economic growth to carbon emissions, and communicable diseases to fossil fuel combustion across countries. Communicable diseases increase healthcare expenditures and decrease the country's economic growth which is a vital concern of the global economy to confront the outbreak of novel coronavirus through increasing the healthcare budget in national bills and stabilize financial activities at a worldwide scale.

Canagliflozin-induced pancreatitis: a rare side effect of a new drug.

Acute pancreatitis is most commonly attributed to gallstones, alcohol abuse, and metabolic disorders such as hyperlipidemia and hypercalcemia. Medications are an infrequent yet commonly overlooked etiology of pancreatitis. Although several drugs have been implicated, antidiabetic agents are a rare cause for drug-induced pancreatitis. Canagliflozin is a new drug in the class of SGLT-2 inhibitors used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Serious reported side effects include renal impairment, hyperkalemia, and hypotension. Pancreatitis as a result of canagliflozin, however, is exceedingly rare. Here we describe a case of a 33-year old female who presented with severe acute pancreatitis in the setting of recent initiation of canagliflozin. Given the timing of her presentation and after excluding all other possible etiologies, it was determined that canagliflozin was the likely source of her illness. This case highlights the importance of identifying drug-induced pancreatitis, especially in novel drugs, as it is commonly neglected in patients with multiple medical comorbidities and those taking numerous medications. Prompt identification of drug-induced pancreatitis can improve management as well as decrease morbidity and mortality in these individuals.

Rapidly progressive stage IVB mycosis fungoides treated with low-dose total skin electron beam therapy.

Mycosis fungoides (MF) is the most common subtype of primary cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Normally, MF has an indolent course although patients can progress to an advanced disease state (stages IIB-IVB). Advanced-stage disease is typically aggressive, leaving patients with debilitating symptoms and a decreased quality of life. Moreover, advanced-stage MF often proves refractory to therapy and carries a very poor prognosis. Total skin electron beam (TSEB) therapy is a well-established and successful treatment for early stage MF; however, its efficacy dramatically decreases with advanced-stage disease. In fact, TSEB in advanced-stage MF is generally considered to be palliative. Current consensus guidelines recommend a dose of 30-36 Gy to be delivered in 8-10 weeks; however, limited studies exist to determine the ideal treatment in Stage IV MF. Herein, we describe a case of a 50-year-old male who developed rapidly progressive stage IVB (T3N3M1B0) MF and was treated with low-dose (24 Gy) TSEB over 8 weeks. The patient was not treated with any systemic therapy before starting TSEB due to the widespread nature and the speed of disease progression. Remarkably, our patient showed nearly complete (95%) response of his MF with no apparent side effects from radiation. Furthermore, he has remained in remission over 4 years, requiring only a small boost to a few "shadowed" areas. Our case illustrates the benefit of using TSEB in stage IV MF. Additionally, our experience shows that low-dose TSEB can occasionally be efficacious in stage IV disease.

Ambient solid-state mechano-chemical reactions between functionalized carbon nanotubes.

Carbon nanotubes can be chemically modified by attaching various functionalities to their surfaces, although harsh chemical treatments can lead to their break-up into graphene nanostructures. On the other hand, direct coupling between functionalities bound on individual nanotubes could lead to, as yet unexplored, spontaneous chemical reactions. Here we report an ambient mechano-chemical reaction between two varieties of nanotubes, carrying predominantly carboxyl and hydroxyl functionalities, respectively, facilitated by simple mechanical grinding of the reactants. The purely solid-state reaction between the chemically differentiated nanotube species produces condensation products and unzipping of nanotubes due to local energy release, as confirmed by spectroscopic measurements, thermal analysis and molecular dynamic simulations.

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in a woman with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a rare syndrome characterized by reversible vasogenic edema in the posterior hemispheres. PRES is most often attributed to primary hypertension, pre-eclampsia, and neurotoxicity secondary to immunosuppressants such as cyclosporine. Renal disease is an infrequent cause of PRES with a majority of cases occurring in adults with complete renal failure or in pediatric cases with underlying renal parenchymal disease and concurrent immunosuppressive therapy. Typical symptoms include seizure, headache, altered mental status, and visual disturbances. PRES is rarely associated with cerebral hemorrhage, and even less so with subarachnoid bleeds. Herein we report on a 25-year-old female with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis who developed PRES. The patient's presentation was more severe as she presented with seizure, nephrotic syndrome, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging with concurrent symptoms led us to the final diagnosis. The patient was treated with antihypertensives, diuretics, and corticosteroids and follow-up imaging revealed resolution of PRES. Our case illustrates that underlying kidney disease even without immunosuppressive agents should be added to the list of possible causes for PRES. Symptoms are reversible with treatment of underlying cause or offending agent.

Synthesis of iron nanoparticles from hemoglobin and myoglobin.

Stable iron nanoparticles have been synthesized from naturally occurring and abundant Fe-containing bio-precursors, namely hemoglobin and myoglobin. The formation of stable iron nanoparticles was achieved through a one-pot, single-phase chemical reduction approach. The reduction of iron ions present in the bio-precursors was carried out at room temperature and avoids the use of harsh chemical reagents. The size distribution of the product falls into the narrow 2-5 nm range and the particles were found to be crystalline. This method can be a valuable synthetic approach for producing bio-conjugated nanoparticle systems for biological applications.

Preparation and antibacterial activity of copper and cobalt complexes of 4-chloro-3-nitrobenzoate with a nitrogen donor ligand.

Copper and cobalt complexes with 4-chloro-3-nitrobenzoate (ClNBz) and the nitrogen ligands 1,3-diaminopropane (1,3-DAP) or o-phenylenediamine (o-PDA), were prepared and characterized. The complexes [Cu(ClNBz)2(1,3-DAP)] (1), [Cu(ClNBz)(o-PDA)]Cl (2), [Co(ClNBz)2(1,3-DAP)] (3) and [Co(ClNBz)2(o-PDA)2] (4) were characterized by FTIR, UV-Visible absorption, elemental analysis and thermal analysis. Complex [Cu(ClNBz)(o-PDA)]Cl (2) shows high antibacterial activity as indicated by its ability to inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis.