Old wine in a new bottle: Applying the novel dynamic ARDL simulations approach to explore the impact of energy efficiency, financial development, economic growth, foreign direct investment, and urbanization on CO2 emissions.

Achieving carbon neutrality targets is crucial while considering the adverse impacts of carbon dioxide emissions (CE) on human life and the ecosystem. Therefore, its socioeconomic drivers have frequently been probed in the existing body of literature. Therefore, we investigate the impact of energy efficiency, FDI, financial development, urbanization, and economic growth on CE in Pakistan from 1975 to 2020. For this purpose, we apply the novel dynamic ARDL simulation approach to retrieve the short- and long-run estimates. The empirical results confirm that cointegration exists among the considered variables. Further, both the short- and long-run results reveal that energy efficiency impedes emissions, whereas urbanization, financial development, and FDI increase emissions. Considering the outcomes, there is a need to enhance energy efficiency in Pakistan. For this purpose, investment in technological advancements and innovations is required. Moreover, R&D in the energy sector should be promoted.

Unveiling the nexus between marine energy consumption, seaborne trade, and greenhouse gases emissions from international shipping.

As a result of the globalization of production processes and the expansion of international trade, both water-based trade and the use of marine energy are expanding quickly. Marine energy consumption is rapidly increasing as a result of globalization. Despite being ignored for many decades, reducing marine emissions is today a top priority among European nations. Thus, the present study contributes to the existing literature by investigating the nexus between marine energy consumption, seaborne trade, and GHG emissions by employing time series data for eight Northern European nations from 2005 to 2017. The extended EKC model and three proxy variables for seaborne trade (i.e., container throughput, liner shipping connectivity index, and trade openness) are used to investigate the nexus between these variables. FMOLS and DOLS methods have been employed to control the problems of endogeneity and serial correlation. Only in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden did the data corroborate an inverted U-shaped relationship (the EKC curve) between maritime GHG emissions and economic development. The increase in energy utilization across all nations directly increased marine GHG emissions; however, the adverse effect of energy consumption on the environment is severe in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Container throughput, linear shipping connectivity index, and trade openness exhibit a positive impact on marine GHG emissions. The impact of seaborne proxy variables is severe in Denmark and Sweden. In order to have a robust assessment and to confirm the validity and uniformity of the results, Driscoll-Kraay standard errors (DKSE) and robust standard error (RSE) regression techniques are being employed.

An empirical analysis of the nexus between digital financial inclusion, industrial structure distortion, and China's energy intensity.

Stimulating the shift to low-carbon energy and decreasing energy intensity are crucial strategies for green growth. Reducing energy intensity is an important measure to achieve the goal of "double carbon" and building a beautiful new China. Based on the provincial panel data of China from 2011 to 2020, this paper empirically tests the relationship among digital financial inclusion, industrial structure distortion, and energy intensity by using the spatial Durbin model and the intermediary effect method. The results show that the development of digital financial inclusion can promote the decline of energy intensity, and industrial structure distortion has a partial intermediary effect in the relationship between digital financial inclusion and energy intensity. Because of this, it is important to speed up the development of digital financial inclusion, increase the innovation of digital financial inclusion products and services, strengthen the supervision of digital financial inclusion, and reduce the distortion of the industrial structure so that digital finance can play its full role in reducing energy intensity.

The spatial impact of digital economy on energy intensity in China in the context of double carbon to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Using the provincial panel data of China during 2012-2019, the present study employed spatial Durbin error model to explore the spatial effect of the digital economy on energy intensity. The results show that both digital economy and energy intensity have spatial autocorrelation, showing the distribution characteristics of spatial aggregation. The digital economy has a significant negative influence on energy intensity. The result shows a significant spatial spillover effect of digital economy on energy intensity, and the development of the digital economy in neighboring regions reduces energy intensity in the central region. Additionally, industrial structure, urbanization, energy price, and foreign direct investment have a heterogenous impact on energy intensity. Thus, it is crucial to give importance to the development of the energy intensity, plan the spatial layout of the digital industry as a whole, drive the coordinated growth of the regional digital economy, quicken the upgrading of industrial structure, promote urbanization, perfect the energy price formation mechanism, raise the entry threshold for foreign direct investment, to effectively reduce the energy intensity, and facilitate the smooth realization of the "double carbon" goal.

Assessment of quantitative dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in distinguishing different histologic grades of breast phyllode tumor.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether quantitative DCE-MRI (qDCE-MRI) could help distinguish breast phyllodes tumor (PT) grades. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 67 breast PTs (26 benign lesions, 25 borderline lesions, and 16 malignant lesions) from April 2016 to July 2020. MRI was performed with a 1.5-T MR system. Perfusion parameters (Ktrans, kep, ve, iAUC60) derived from qDCE-MRI, tumor size, and the mean ADC value were correlated with histologic grades using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Ktrans, kep, ve, and iAUC60 of three histologic grades were also calculated and compared. RESULTS: The Spearman correlation coefficient with histologic grade of the tumor size was 0.578 (p < 0.001); the ADC value was not correlated with histologic grades of breast PT (p = 0.059). The Ktrans, kep, ve, and iAUC60 of benign breast PTs were significantly lower than those of borderline breast PTs (p < 0.001) and lower than those of malignant breast PTs (p < 0.001). In comparison, the Ktrans, ve, and iAUC60 of borderline breast PTs were significantly lower than those of malignant breast PTs (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.007, respectively). For ROC analysis, AUCs of Ktrans, ve, and iAUC60 were higher than tumor size and ADC value for differentiating three PT grades. CONCLUSION: Quantitative and semi-quantitative perfusion parameters (Ktrans, ve, and iAUC60, especially Ktrans) derived from qDCE-MRI showed better diagnosis efficiency than tumor size and ADC for grading breast PTs. Therefore, qDCE-MRI may be helpful for preoperative differentiating breast PT grades. KEY POINTS: • Quantitative dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI can be used as a complementary noninvasive method to improve the differential diagnosis of breast PT. • Ktrans, ve, and iAUC60 derived from qDCE-MRI showed better diagnosis efficiency than tumor size and ADC for grading breast PTs.

Assessment of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Rats Using Quantitative Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the usefulness of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in the assessment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) severity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Liver DCE-MRI at 3.0T was performed in 36 adult Sprague-Dawley rats with methionine choline-deficient diet-induced NAFLD and 10 untreated control rats. Pharmacokinetic parameters of DCE-MRI including Ktrans , Kep , Ve , Vp , and hepatic portal index (HPoI) were measured using the dual-input extended Tofts model. Animals were categorized as normal (n = 10), simple steatosis (SS, n = 11), borderline nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (bNASH, n = 20), and NASH (n = 5) subgroups according to the NAFLD activity score system, and classified into F0 (n = 24), F1 (n = 11), F2 (n = 7), and F3 (n = 4) subgroups according to an established scoring system. DCE-MRI parameters were compared. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were performed to assess the diagnostic performance of various DCE-MRI parameters in grading NAFLD activity and staging liver fibrosis. RESULTS: Ktrans and HPoI were elevated with increasing severity of NAFLD activity and increased fibrosis stage. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROCs) of HPoI ranged from 0.895-0.951 for discriminating between different grades of NAFLD activity, and the AUROC was 0.852 for discriminating F0 stage from overall F1-F3 stages. The AUROC of Ktrans for discriminating non-NASH from bNASH and NASH groups was 0.968, and 0.898 for discriminating between normal and overall fibrosis groups. CONCLUSION: DCE-MRI may play a role in assessing NAFLD severity. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 1 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2017;45:1485-1493.

[Assessment on the validity and reliability of Family Environment Scale on Motor Development for Urban Pre-school Children].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity and reliability of Family Environment Scale on Motor Development for Urban Pre-school Children (FESMDUPC) so as to provide valid and reliable tools for measuring the influencing factors from home environment on motor development of the children. METHODS: One thousand eight hundreds and twenty four preschool children from 15 kindergartens in Suzhou city were included in this study which related to reliability and validity of FESMDUPC. Data on test-retest reliability, internal consistent reliability, content validity and construct validity were assessed using the Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC), Cronbach α coefficient, Item-level content validity index (I-CVI) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). When the Observation for Measurement of the Environment Revisited was used as criteria, the criteria-related validity of MABC was assessed, using the Spearman correlation analysis. RESULTS: This study showed that the ICC of all items was above or close to 0.9. The total Cronbach α coefficient was 0.875 and the Cronbach α coefficient was 0.868-0.873 when each item was deleted. Formal validity and reliability study showed that I-CVI of the 23 items was 0.79-1.00. The average I-CVI was 0.92. Results from the CFA model showed that χ2=1077.5, df=224 and χ2/df=4.810. Fit of Goodness on the other indices of the model were as follows: GFI (0.949), AGF (0.937), NFI (0.889), CFI (0.896), with each of them above or close to 0.9. The RMSEA was 0.046 which showed that the model's Fit of Goodness could be accepted. The factor loadings were all above 0.3 with statistical significance. However, according to this model, the strengths of relationship between Outside Space, Inside Space and Toy were high, so the high-step CFA of FESMDUPC was further analyzed. The model's Fit of Goodness was good. The factor loadings were all above 0.3 with statistical significance. Results showed that the Spearman Coefficient of the total score of FESMDUPC and HOME scale was 0.476 (each P<0.001). Among them only the learning staff and movement variety were comparatively and highly correlated with Toy, Parental Rearing Patterns. Spearman coefficients were all above 0.3 (each P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The above results showed that the reliability of test-retest, the internal consistent reliability, the content validity and the construct validity of FESMDUPC were fair and had met the basic psychometric demands. FESMDUPC could be used as a quantitative tool to assess the motor development among children.

[Assessment on the application of 'Movement Assessment Battery' for Children].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the application of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2), to provide valid tools for developmental coordination disorder (DCD) screening. METHODS: A total number of 1823 preschool children from 15 kindergartens in Suzhou city were included in this study regarding the reliability and validity on MABC-2. Data on test-retest reliability internal consistent reliability, content validity and construct validity were assessed, using methodologies as Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC), Cronbach α coefficient, Item-level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). When the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) was considered as the criteria, the criteria-related validity of MABC was assessed, using the area under the ROC curve. RESULTS: from the study showed that the ICCs of most items were above 0.9 except for 'Drawing and Walking Heels Raised' and 'Jumping on Mats'. The total Cronbach α coefficient was 0.502, with the total Cronbach α coefficient as 0.549 when the two items of 'Drawing and Walking Heels Raised' were deleted. I-CVIs of the eight items were 1.0, 1.0, 0.96, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.96, 0.96, respectively. The average I-CVI was 0.985. RESULTS: from the final CFA model showed that the factor loading of the items was above 0.4 except for the 'Jumping on Mats', while the 'Modification Index' was below 3.84. The areas under ROC curve of the total score on revised-MABC-2 (when the items of 'Drawing and Walking Heels Raised' was deleted) were significantly different from the DCDQ (χ(2) = 110.145, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In addition to the internal consistent reliability, the validity and reliability of MABC-2 were fair which could be applied well in China. However, some items of MABC-2 should be revised. MABC-2 could be used to screen the children with motor coordination dysfunction at the health care clinics for children, as well as applied in the large-scale epidemiologic studies.