Research on the impact of exchange rates and interest rates on carbon price changes in the context of sustainable development

Carbon emissions are closely linked to a company’s production activities. The amount of carbon allowances a company holds determines its carbon emissions. Changes in carbon prices interact with firms’ production activities, while changes in exchange rates and interest rates have a direct impact on firms’ production structure, willingness to produce and scale of production. Under the existing literature, most scholars have selected only one market to be used to study its influence on the carbon market. In this paper, the exchange rate market and the interest rate market are selected for the study of the impact of both on the carbon market, using the following empirical analysis methods: DCC-GARCH, TVP-VAR and GA-BP neural network. The empirical results show that interest rates are positively linked to carbon prices, while exchange rates are more negatively linked to carbon prices; exchange rates are less affected by macro factors and external shocks, while interest rates are the opposite and very sensitive to macro shocks; under the training and simulation of the neural network, carbon prices can fluctuate drastically under the combined influence of exchange rate and interest rate movements, which can provide appropriate early warning of future price fluctuations in carbon trading. This shows that adjustments to exchange rates and interest rates need to be treated with caution, and appropriate adjustments should be made to keep carbon prices stable; the government should build a mechanism to transform the green development of enterprises, pushing them to save energy and reduce emissions to achieve low-carbon transformational development; the government should not only introduce policies to support low-carbon enterprises, but also improve the national carbon market laws and regulations and price regulation mechanisms

PathMLP: Smooth Path Towards High-order Homophily

Real-world graphs exhibit increasing heterophily, where nodes no longer tend to be connected to nodes with the same label, challenging the homophily assumption of classical graph neural networks (GNNs) and impeding their performance. Intriguingly, we observe that certain high-order information on heterophilous data exhibits high homophily, which motivates us to involve high-order information in node representation learning. However, common practices in GNNs to acquire high-order information mainly through increasing model depth and altering message-passing mechanisms, which, albeit effective to a certain extent, suffer from three shortcomings: 1) over-smoothing due to excessive model depth and propagation times; 2) high-order information is not fully utilized; 3) low computational efficiency. In this regard, we design a similarity-based path sampling strategy to capture smooth paths containing high-order homophily. Then we propose a lightweight model based on multi-layer perceptrons (MLP), named PathMLP, which can encode messages carried by paths via simple transformation and concatenation operations, and effectively learn node representations in heterophilous graphs through adaptive path aggregation. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method outperforms baselines on 16 out of 20 datasets, underlining its effectiveness and superiority in alleviating the heterophily problem. In addition, our method is immune to over-smoothing and has high computational efficiency

A sustainable biochar catalyst synergized with copper heteroatoms and CO2 for singlet oxygenation and electron transfer routes

We have developed a wood waste-derived biochar as a sustainable graphitic carbon catalyst for environmental remediation through catalytic pyrolysis under the synergistic effects between Cu heteroatoms and CO2, which for the first time are found to significantly enhance the oxygen functionalities, defective sites, and highly ordered sp2-hybridized carbon matrix. The copper-doped graphitic biochars (Cu-GBCs) were further characterized by XRD, FTIR, Raman, XPS, etc., revealing that the modified specific surface area, pore structure, graphitization, and active sites (i.e., defective sites and ketonic group) on the Cu-GBCs corresponded to the synergistic Cu species loading and Cu-induced carbon-matrix reformation in CO2 environment during pyrolysis. The catalytic ability of Cu-GBCs was evaluated using the ubiquitous peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation system for the removal of various organic contaminants (i.e., rhodamine B, phenol, bisphenol A, and 4-chlorophenol), and gave the highest degradation rate of 0.0312 min-1 in comparison with those of pristine GBCs and N2-pyrolyzed Cu-GBCs ranging from 0.0056 to 0.0094 min-1. The synergistic effects were attributed to the encapsulated Cu heteroatoms, evolved ketonic groups, and abundant unconfined π electrons within the carbon lattice. According to scavenger experiments, ESR analysis, and two-chamber experiments, selective and sustainable non-radical pathways (i.e., singlet oxygenation and electron transfer) mediated by the Cu-induced metastable surface complex were achieved in the Cu-GBC/PDS system. This study offers the first insights into the efficacy, sustainability, and mechanistic roles of Cu-GBCs as an emerging carbon-based catalyst for green environmental remediation

Incidence and Etiology of Drug-Induced Liver Injury in Mainland China

Background & Aims: We performed a nationwide, retrospective study to determine the incidence and causes of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in mainland China.Methods: We collected data on a total of 25,927 confirmed DILI cases, hospitalized from 2012 through 2014 at 308 medical centers in mainland China. We collected demographic, medical history, treatment, laboratory, disease severity, and mortality data from all patients. Investigators at each site were asked to complete causality assessments for each case whose diagnosis at discharge was DILI (n=29,478) according to the Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method.Results: Most cases of DILI presented with hepatocellular injury (51.39%; 95% CI, 50.76–52.03), followed by mixed injury (28.30%; 95% CI, 27.73–28.87) and cholestatic injury (20.31%; 95% CI, 19.80–20.82). The leading single classes of implicated drugs were traditional Chinese medicines or herbal and dietary supplements (26.81%) and anti-tuberculosis medications (21.99%). Chronic DILI occurred in 13.00% of the cases and, although 44.40% of the hepatocellular DILI cases fulfilled Hy’s Law criteria, only 280 cases (1.08%) progressed to hepatic failure, 2 cases underwent liver transplantation (0.01%), and 102 patients died (0.39%). Among deaths, DILI was judged to have a primary role in 72 (70.59%), a contributory role in 21 (20.59%), and no role in 9 (8.82%). Assuming the proportion of DILI in the entire hospitalized population of China was represented by that observed in the 66 centers where DILI capture was complete, we estimated the annual incidence in the general population to be 23.80 per 100,000 persons (95% CI, 20.86–26.74). Only hospitalized patients were included in this analysis, so the true incidence is likely to be higher.Conclusions: In a retrospective study to determine the incidence and causes of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in mainland China, the annual incidence in the general population was estimated to be 23.80 per 100,000 persons—higher than that reported from western countries. Traditional Chinese medicines, herbal and dietary supplements, and anti-tuberculosis drugs were the leading causes of DILI in mainland Chin

Tailored design of graphitic biochar for high-efficiency and chemical-free microwave-assisted removal of refractory organic contaminants

Energy-saving, chemical-free, and high-efficiency microwave (MW)-assisted water treatment can be greatly facilitated via tailored design of an economical, sustainable, and ‘green’ carbonaceous catalyst. In this study, various biochars (BC) were pyrolyzed from two lignocellulosic waste biomasses, oak (O) and apple tree (A), at a high temperature (900 °C) and under different gases (N2 and CO2). The holistic characterization by advanced spectroscopic techniques demonstrated that CO2 pyrolysis of feedstock with more lignin (i.e., oak), produced biochar with increased aromaticity and degree of carbonization. CO2 modification created a hierarchical porous structure, improved surface hydrophilicity, polarity, and acidity, and provided higher densities of near-surface functionalities of the biochar. Without MW irradiation, ABC-900C (1 g L−1) provided the highest adsorption (52.6%, 1 min) of 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) ascribed to large specific surface area, high micropore content, appropriate pore size, and abundant active groups. OBC-900C (1 g L−1) enabled significantly increased 2,4-D removal (81.6%, 1 min) under MW irradiation (90 °C) in contrast with an oil bath (55.7%, 90 °C, 1 min) and room temperature (33.9%, 1 min) conditions, due to its highest graphitization degree and medium-developed microporous structure. The MW-induced thermal effect formed “hot spots” on the biochar surface as evidenced by elevated temperature of the bulk solution and lowered energy consumption of the MW reactor in the presence of OBC-900C, compared to those of the other biochars. The scavenging tests suggested that the generation of highly oxidative hydroxyl (•OH), anionic superoxide (O2 •−), and singlet oxygen (1O2) radicals contributed to the removal of 2,4-D. This study has demonstrated that biochar with customized structure and high organic adsorption capacity can act as an effective MW absorber suitable for rapid and improved removal of toxic organics

Modification effect of changes in cardiometabolic traits in association between kidney stones and cardiovascular events

BackgroundsWhether longitudinal changes in metabolic status influence the effect of kidney stones on cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclarified. We investigated the modification effect of status changes in metabolic syndrome (MetS) in the association of kidney stones with risk of incident CVD events.MethodsWe performed a prospective association and interaction study in a nationwide cohort including 129,172 participants aged ≥ 40 years without CVDs at baseline and followed up for an average of 3.8 years. Kidney stones information was collected by using a questionnaire and validated by medical records. The repeated biochemical measurements were performed to ascertain the metabolic status at both baseline and follow-up.Results4,017 incident total CVDs, 1,413 coronary heart diseases (CHDs) and 2,682 strokes were documented and ascertained during follow-up. Kidney stones presence was significantly associated with 44%, 70% and 31% higher risk of CVDs, CHDs and stroke, respectively. The stratified analysis showed significant associations were found in the incident and sustained MetS patients, while no significant associations were found in the non-MetS at both baseline and follow-up subjects or the MetS remission ones, especially in women. For the change status of each single component of the MetS, though the trends were not always the same, the associations with CVD were consistently significant in those with sustained metabolic disorders, except for the sustained high blood glucose group, while the associations were consistently significant in those with incident metabolic disorders except for the incident blood pressure group. We also found a significant association of kidney stone and CVD or CHD risk in the remain normal glucose or triglycerides groups; while the associations were consistently significant in those with incident metabolic disorders except for the incident blood pressure group. We also found a significant association of kidney stone and CVD or CHD risk in the remain normal glucose or triglycerides groups.ConclusionsA history of kidney stones in women with newly developed MetS or long-standing MetS associated with increased risk of CVD. The mechanisms link kidney stones and CVD risk in the metabolic and non-metabolic pathways were warranted for further studies

Atrasentan and renal events in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease (SONAR): a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Short-term treatment for people with type 2 diabetes using a low dose of the selective endothelin A receptor antagonist atrasentan reduces albuminuria without causing significant sodium retention. We report the long-term effects of treatment with atrasentan on major renal outcomes. Methods: We did this double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial at 689 sites in 41 countries. We enrolled adults aged 18–85 years with type 2 diabetes, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)25–75 mL/min per 1·73 m 2 of body surface area, and a urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR)of 300–5000 mg/g who had received maximum labelled or tolerated renin–angiotensin system inhibition for at least 4 weeks. Participants were given atrasentan 0·75 mg orally daily during an enrichment period before random group assignment. Those with a UACR decrease of at least 30% with no substantial fluid retention during the enrichment period (responders)were included in the double-blind treatment period. Responders were randomly assigned to receive either atrasentan 0·75 mg orally daily or placebo. All patients and investigators were masked to treatment assignment. The primary endpoint was a composite of doubling of serum creatinine (sustained for ≥30 days)or end-stage kidney disease (eGFR <15 mL/min per 1·73 m 2 sustained for ≥90 days, chronic dialysis for ≥90 days, kidney transplantation, or death from kidney failure)in the intention-to-treat population of all responders. Safety was assessed in all patients who received at least one dose of their assigned study treatment. The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01858532. Findings: Between May 17, 2013, and July 13, 2017, 11 087 patients were screened; 5117 entered the enrichment period, and 4711 completed the enrichment period. Of these, 2648 patients were responders and were randomly assigned to the atrasentan group (n=1325)or placebo group (n=1323). Median follow-up was 2·2 years (IQR 1·4–2·9). 79 (6·0%)of 1325 patients in the atrasentan group and 105 (7·9%)of 1323 in the placebo group had a primary composite renal endpoint event (hazard ratio [HR]0·65 [95% CI 0·49–0·88]; p=0·0047). Fluid retention and anaemia adverse events, which have been previously attributed to endothelin receptor antagonists, were more frequent in the atrasentan group than in the placebo group. Hospital admission for heart failure occurred in 47 (3·5%)of 1325 patients in the atrasentan group and 34 (2·6%)of 1323 patients in the placebo group (HR 1·33 [95% CI 0·85–2·07]; p=0·208). 58 (4·4%)patients in the atrasentan group and 52 (3·9%)in the placebo group died (HR 1·09 [95% CI 0·75–1·59]; p=0·65). Interpretation: Atrasentan reduced the risk of renal events in patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease who were selected to optimise efficacy and safety. These data support a potential role for selective endothelin receptor antagonists in protecting renal function in patients with type 2 diabetes at high risk of developing end-stage kidney disease. Funding: AbbVie

The Relative Body Weight Gain From Early to Middle Life Adulthood Associated With Later Life Risk of Diabetes: A Nationwide Cohort Study

AimTo determine the effect of decade-based body weight gain from 20 to 50 years of age on later life diabetes risk.Methods35,611 non-diabetic participants aged ≥ 50 years from a well-defined nationwide cohort were followed up for average of 3.6 years, with cardiovascular diseases and cancers at baseline were excluded. Body weight at 20, 30, 40, and 50 years was reported. The overall 30 years and each 10-year weight gain were calculated from the early and middle life. Cox regression models were used to estimate risks of incident diabetes.ResultsAfter 127,745.26 person-years of follow-up, 2,789 incident diabetes were identified (incidence rate, 2.18%) in 25,289 women (mean weight gain 20-50 years, 7.60 kg) and 10,322 men (7.93 kg). Each 10-kg weight gain over the 30 years was significantly associated with a 39.7% increased risk of incident diabetes (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.33-1.47); weight gain from 20-30 years showed a more prominent effect on the risk of developing diabetes before 60 years than that of after 60 years (Hazard ratio, HR = 1.084, 95% CI [1.049-1.121], P &lt;0.0001 vs. 1.015 [0.975-1.056], P = 0.4643; PInteraction=0.0293). It showed a stable effect of the three 10-year intervals weight gain on risk of diabetes after 60 years (HR=1.055, 1.038, 1.043, respectively, all P &lt; 0.0036).ConclusionsThe early life weight gain showed a more prominent effect on developing diabetes before 60 years than after 60 years; however, each-decade weight gain from 20 to 50 years showed a similar effect on risk developing diabetes after 60 years