BRICS carbon neutrality target: Measuring the impact of electricity production from renewable energy sources and globalization.

Globally, the issues of climate change and global warming rapidly rises due to extensive CO2 emission. In this regard, countries across the globe initiate policies to combat CO2 emissions and attain a carbon neutrality target. As an emerging research area, the current study investigated carbon neutrality targets for BRICS economies (excluding Russia) covering the period from 1980 to 2018. This study covers important variables that influence both the economy and energy. Considering the role of electricity production from renewable energy and globalization, this study also checked for the role of income and renewable energy consumption. Various second-generation unit root and cointegration tests are used for the panel data to observe the stationarity and long-run relationship among these variables. Also, the DOLS and FMOLS are employed for the long-run estimation. Additionally, the article utilizes fixed effect and random effect models. This study also utilizes the augmented mean group (AMG) to confirm the prior findings. The empirical findings present evidence of the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the region. Moreover, the findings suggest that income and globalization play a positive role in carbon dioxide emission, which negatively influences the carbon neutrality target. However, electricity production from renewable energy and renewable energy consumption is efficient for achieving carbon neutrality targets. Specifically, the AMG estimates reveal that a percent increase in GDP and globalization increases 1.087 and 0.0342 % CO2 emissions while a unit increase in renewable electricity production and renewable energy consumption declines CO2 emissions by 0.0205 and 0.0143 %, respectively. The results are found robust and significant. Based on the empirical findings, policy implications are provided that would lead the BRICS region to attain the carbon neutrality target by revising the policies concerning globalization and economic growth. Also, proper attention should be paid to renewable energy electricity adaptation.

Does green investment, financial development and natural resources rent limit carbon emissions? A provincial panel analysis of China.

This study investigates the role of natural resources rent, green investment, financial development and energy consumption in mitigation of carbon emissions to achieve sustainable development goal of a clean environment by using the panel data of 30 provinces of China from 1995 to 2017. This study employs novel cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) methodology to find the long and short-run impact of the variables of the study on carbon emission, where CS-ARDL estimates confirm the positive impact of energy consumption and financial development on carbon emissions (CO2). Moreover, green investment is negatively linked to CO2, whereas national natural resources rent is positively associated with carbon emissions. Similarly, augmented mean group and common correlated effect mean group methods provide supportive results for CS-ARDL estimates. This study recommends strengthening of national natural tax law, promotion of green investment and environmental-friendly policies to control carbon emissions.

Haemophilus parasuis infection in 3D4/21 cells induces autophagy through the AMPK pathway.

Haemophilus parasuis (H. parasuis) is a common commensal in the upper respiratory tract of pigs, but causes Glässer's disease in stress conditions. To date, many studies focused on the immune evasion and virulence of H. parasuis; very few have focused on the role autophagy played in H. parasuis infection, particularly in porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs). In this study, a PAM cell line, 3D4/21 cells were used to study the role of autophagy in H. parasuis infection. 3D4/21 cells tandemly expressing GFP, mCherry, and LC3 were infected with H. parasuis serovar 5 (Hps5). Western blot analysis and confocal and transmission electron microscopy showed that H. parasuis infection effectively induces autophagy. Using Hps strains of varying virulence (Hps4, Hps5, and Hps7) and UV-inactivated Hps5, we demonstrated that autophagy is associated with the internalisation of living virulent strains into cells. In 3D4/21 cells pretreated with rapamycin and 3-MA then infected by Hps4, Hps5, and Hps7, we demonstrated that autophagy affects invasion of H. parasuis in cells. AMPK signal results showed that Hps5 infection can upregulate the phosphorylation level of AMPK, which is consistent with the autophagy development. 3D4/21 cells pretreated with AICAR or Compound C then infected by Hps5 revealed that the autophagy induced by Hps5 infection is associated with the AMPK pathway. Our study contributes to the theoretical basis for the study of H. parasuis pathogenesis and development of novel drugs target for prevention Glässer's disease.

Evaluation of carbopol as an adjuvant on the effectiveness of progressive atrophic rhinitis vaccine.

The Gram-negative pathogen toxigenic P. multocida causes progressive atrophic rhinitis (PAR) in swine throughout the world. Although some vaccines are being developed against PAR, their efficacy has not been evaluated using carbopol. In our study, a mixture of killed B. bronchiseptica and P. multocida bacteria, combined with recombinant proteins containing the C- and N-termini of PMT, was emulsified using two different adjuvants (ISA-15A and carbopol 971). The efficacy of these two vaccines was evaluated in a mouse model. Balb/C mice were immunized twice at a 14-day interval. Two weeks after the secondary immunization, blood samples were collected and the mice were challenged with toxigenic P. multocida. Thirty-five days later, the mice were euthanized, blood and tissue samples were collected. Compared with mice inoculated with vaccine emulsified with ISA-15A, higher titers of SN (1:64) and significantly increased levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-17A were observed in mice inoculated with vaccine emulsified with the carbopol 971P. Especially, mice immunized with vaccine emulsified with the carbopol 971P had no detectable pathological changes in snouts or organs after challenge. The results demonstrated that carbopol adjuvanted vaccine provides good protection against PAR and P. multocida infection which can induce robust humoral and cell-mediated responses. We conclude that the carbopol adjuvanted vaccine is a good candidate for PAR prevention.

Haemophilus parasuis modulates cellular invasion via TGF-ß1 signaling.

TGF-ß1 plays an important role during the invasion of some bacteria into cells by regulating the expression of integrins, fibronectin, and other extracellular matrix proteins. We postulated that TGF-ß1 levels could affect the invasion of Haemophilus parasuis into PK-15 cells. After infection by H. parasuis, PK-15 cells had elevated levels of TGF-ß1 expression. Treatment of PK-15 cells with TGF-ß1 prior to infection significantly decreased invasion by H. parasuis. Both TGF-ß1 treatment and H. parasuis infection resulted in significant induction of fibronectin (Fn) and α5 integrin. Although pretreatment of PK-15 cells with siRNA fragments targeting Fn and α5 integrin resulted in enhanced H. parasuis invasion, H. parasuis attachment was elevated only on cells treated with the α5 integrin siRNA, there was no corresponding increase in attachment to cells treated with Fn siRNA. Our results firstly demonstrated that expression of TGF-ß1, Fn and α5 integrin inhibited invasion of H. parasuis in PK-15 cells.

Autophagy Is Associated with Pathogenesis of Haemophilus parasuis.

Haemophilus parasuis (H. parasuis) is a common commensal Gram-negative extracellular bacterium in the upper respiratory tract of swine, which can cause Glässer's disease in stress conditions. Research on the pathogenicity of H. parasuis has mainly focused on immune evasion and bacterial virulence factors, while few studies have examined the interactions of H. parasuis and its host. Autophagy is associated with the replication and proliferation of many pathogenic bacteria, but whether it plays a role during infection by H. parasuis is unknown. In this study, an adenovirus construct expressing GFP, RFP, and LC3 was used to infect H. parasuis. Western blotting, laser confocal microscopy, and electron microscopy showed that Hps5 infection induced obvious autophagy in PK-15 cells. In cells infected with strains of H. parasuis differing in invasiveness, the levels of autophagy were positively correlated with the presence of alive bacteria in PK-15 cells. In addition, autophagy inhibited the invasion of Hps5 in PK-15 cells. Autophagy related genes Beclin, Atg5 and Atg7 were silenced with RNA interference, the results showed that autophagy induced by H. parasuis infection is a classical pathway. Our observations demonstrate that H. parasuis can induce autophagy and that the levels of autophagy are associated with the presence of alive bacteria in cells, which opened novel avenues to further our understanding of H. parasuis-host interplay and pathogenesis.