No abstract

The study explores the impacts of renewable energy, environmental patents, economic growth 14 and other variables on the CO2 emission per capita from 2000 to 2013 for the BRIICS countries. Using 15 both the panel OLS methods and panel quantile regression method, we find that the effects of the 16 determinant variables are heterogeneous across quantiles. Specifically, renewable energy supply reduces 17 CO2 emissions per capita, with the strongest effect at the 95th quantile. Development of environmental 18 patents accelerates carbon emissions per capita, but only significantly affects the CO2 emissions per capita 19 at the upper tail of the conditional distribution. GDP per capita enhances CO2 emissions per capita, with 20 the most substantial effect in the 5th quantile. Exports increase carbon emissions per capita with an 21 asymmetric inverted U-sharped impact. Foreign direct investment reduces carbon emissions per capita, 22 but only significantly influences the carbon emissions per capita at the medium and upper of the 23 conditional distribution. Domestic credit to private sectors raises carbon emissions per capita with 24 gradually decreasing impacts along all quantiles. We propose several policy recommendations based on 25 the results. 26 27

Due to the inherent limitations of DXA, assessment of the biomechanical properties of vertebral bodies relies increasingly on CT-based finite element (FE) models, but these often use simplistic material behaviour and/or single loading cases. In this study, we applied a novel constitutive law for bone elasticity, plasticity and damage to FE models created from coarsened pQCT images of human vertebrae, and compared vertebral stiffness, strength and damage accumulation for axial compression, anterior flexion and a combination of these two cases. FE axial stiffness and strength correlated with experiments and were linearly related to flexion properties. In all loading modes, damage localised preferentially in the trabecular compartment. Damage for the combined loading was higher than cumulated damage produced by individual compression and flexion. In conclusion, this FE method predicts stiffness and strength of vertebral bodies from CT images with clinical resolution and provides insight into damage accumulation in various loading modes.

Monitoring of osteoporosis therapy based solely on DXA is insufficient to assess antifracture efficacy. Estimating bone strength as a variable closely linked to fracture risk is therefore of importance. Finite element (FE) analysis-based strength measures were used to monitor a teriparatide therapy and the associated effects on whole bone and local fracture risk. In 44 postmenopausal women with established osteoporosis participating in the EUROFORS study, FE models based on high-resolution CT (HRCT) of T 12 were evaluated after 0, 6, 12, and 24 mo of teriparatide treatment (20 mg/d). FE-based strength and stiffness calculations for three different load cases (compression, bending, and combined compression and bending) were compared with volumetric BMD (vBMD) and apparent bone volume fraction (app. BV/TV), as well as DXA-based areal BMD of the lumbar spine. Local damage of the bone tissue was also modeled. Highly significant improvements in all analyzed variables as early as 6 mo after starting teriparatide were found. After 24 mo, bone strength in compression was increased by 28.1 ± 4.7% (SE), in bending by 28.3 ± 4.9%, whereas app. BV/TV was increased by 54.7 ± 8.8%, vBMD by 19.1 ± 4.0%, and areal BMD of L 1 -L 4 by 10.2 ± 1.2%. When comparing standardized increases, FE changes were significantly larger than those of densitometry and not significantly different from app. BV/TV. The size of regions at high risk for local failure was significantly reduced under teriparatide treatment. Treatment with teriparatide leads to bone strength increases for different loading conditions of close to 30%. FE is a suitable tool for monitoring bone anabolic treatment in groups or individual patients and offers additional information about local failure modes. FE variables showed a higher standardized response to changes than BMD measurements, but further studies are needed to show that the higher response represents a more accurate estimate of treatment-induced fracture risk reduction.

SummaryTudor-SN protein accumulates in stress granules in response to salt stress in Arabidopsis. It binds GA20ox3 mRNA in vivo and up-regulates GA20ox3 levels to maintain plant growth under salt stress.