Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Currency Exchanges of Selected Countries

The paper aims to analyse the impact of the COVID outbreak on the currency market. The study considers spot rates of seven major currencies (i.e., EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, and CHF/JPY). To capture the impact of the outbreak on returns and the volatility of returns of seven currencies during pandemic, the study has segregated in two window periods (i.e., pre- [1st Jan 2019 to 31st Dec, 2019] and post-outbreak of COVID-19 [1st Jan, 2020 to 22nd Dec, 2020]). The study has applied various methods and models (i.e., econometric-based compounded annual growth rate [CAGR], dummy variable regression, and generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity [GARCH]). The result of the study captures the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on three currencies—USD/JPY, AUD/USD, and USD/CHF—and positive significant impact on EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD, and CHF/JPY. Investors can take short position in these while having long position in other currencies. The inferences drawn from the analysis are providing insight to investors and hedgers.

India’s emerging fuel mix for 2050: actions and strategies to decarbonize the transport sector

Purpose This paper aims to review the role of government initiatives for developing clean fuels in India, decarbonize the transport sector and maximize the use of renewable sources of energy. India’s socio-economic prosperity is dependent on modern energy. The authors examine the role of biofuel in India’s emerging fuel mix. Design/methodology/approach A 20-year timeframe between 2000 and 2021 was set to learn about the subject and find the existing gaps. Of the 40 research papers, the authors found using keywords and delimiting criteria in the database, the authors have shortlisted 21 papers, which provided the theoretical framework for the study. Additionally, the authors used the government database to develop future projections using compound annual growth rate and trend analysis. Findings The study findings suggest that India should strictly implement the Biofuel Policy to promote indigenous production of biofuel to enhance affordability and accessibility. With blending options available with biofuels and biogas, the country can replace the right proportion of fossil fuel use by 2050. It will not only decrease India’s import dependence but also will create new job opportunities, specifically in tribal and remote locations and promote green energy mix. With emerging options like electric vehicle and hydrogen, the transport sector could be decarbonized to a greater extent. Social implications Indigenous cleaner fuel adoption and transport sector will generate additional employment and cut down fossil fuel import. Financial savings through reduced fossil fuel import will be directed toward social development. Originality/value The paper carries out critical analysis for the active use of modern green fuels in the present and coming days. Such unique analysis must help India to balance its energy basket.

Solid Acid Catalysts for the Hock Cleavage of Hydroperoxides

The oxidation of cumene and following cleavage of cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) with sulfuric acid (Hock rearrangement) is still, by far, the dominant synthetic route to produce phenol. In 2020, the global phenol market reached a value of 23.3 billion US$ with a projected compound annual growth rate of 3.4% for 2020–2025. From ecological and economical viewpoints, the key step of this process is the cleavage of CHP. One sought-after way to likewise reduce energy consumption and waste production of the process is to substitute sulfuric acid with heterogeneous catalysts. Different types of zeolites, silicon-based clays, heteropoly acids, and ion exchange resins have been investigated and tested in various studies. For every type of these solid acid catalysts, several materials were found that show high yield and selectivity to phenol. In this mini-review, first a brief introduction and overview on the Hock process is given. Next, the mechanism, kinetics, and safety aspects are summarized and discussed. Following, the different types of heterogeneous catalysts and their performance as catalyst in the Hock process are illustrated. Finally, the different approaches to substitute sulfuric acid in the synthetic route to produce phenol are briefly concluded and a short outlook is given.

Global Research Trends on the Use of Nanotechnology to Boost Meat Production: A Scientometric Analysis

Meat production plays a vital socioeconomic role for sustainable development and for promoting food security in most countries. However, not much is known about research agendas done globally and the advancement of knowledge-generating networks in this area of study. The present study aims to reveal and analyze scientific research outputs on meat production linked with recent nanotechnology research work done till date. A compilation of research advancement and development within the sphere was realized through a scientometric study to comprehend the trend of research outputs, scientific impacts, authors' involvement, collaboration networks, and the advancement of knowledge gaps for future research endeavors on the current subject matter. Scholarly published articles were retrieved from the web of science (WOS) and Scopus databases from 1985 to 2020 and they were merged together using bibliometric package in R studio. All duplicated articles (438) from both data bases were excluded. A combination of terms (nano* AND (livestock* OR meat* OR beef* OR mutton* OR pork* OR chevon* OR chicken* OR turkey*)), and conversely analyzed for scientometric indices. A collection of 656 peer-reviewed, research articles were retrieved for the study period and authored by 2,133 researchers with a collaboration index of 3.31. The research outputs were highest in the year 2020 with total research outputs of 140 articles. The topmost three authors' keywords commonly used by authors were nanoparticles, meat, and chitosan with a respective frequency of 75, 62, and 57. China, Iran, and India ranked top in terms of meat production research outputs linked to nanotechnology and total citation with respective article productivity (total citations) of 160 (3,193), 111 (1,765), and 37 (552). Our findings revealed an increasing trend in research (with an annual growth rate of 25.18%) tending toward advancing meat production with the use of nanotechnology. Likewise, there is an increasing pointer to the fact that research work on nanotechnology and meat production has the prospect to influence positively, decision-making on research direction, and collaborations, hereby increasing the production of meat and its products in the future.

Future ethical implications and potential health consequences of nanotechnology research in Jordan: A scientometric analysis

Purpose: To evaluate the implanted legislation and regulations in Jordan, in order to minimize nanotechnology research-related health concerns. Methods: In the first part, all nanotechnology published research in Scopus database and the Jordanian National Database for Researchers were mined. The growth in nanotechnology research was analyzed by calculating the relative growth rate (RGR), doubling time (DT), and compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Thereafter, the results were compared to global preferences. Furthermore, this research explored all possible factors that may influence decision-makers and health policies in Jordan. Results: Data analysis showed that the quantity of nanotechnology research in Jordan is exponentially increasing with RGR (1.96), DT (0.37), and CAGR (33 %) very close to the figures obtained worldwide. The trend line analysis (R2 = 0.9638) expected that more than 65 % of nanotechnology research will be produced within the next 5 years. Moreover, no legislation has been adapted in Jordan to regulate nanotechnology research and industry. Conclusions: Adopting nanotechnology without having any corresponding legislation constitutes a violation of the ethical codes of research, and ignorance of public safety. Moreover, the research suggests a set of steps to organize the crafting of nanotechnology and research in Jordan, and other similar contexts in developing countries.

Report on Webinar Series Cell and Gene Therapy: From Concept to Clinical Use

With the launch of the UK Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products Focus Group in late 2020, a webinar series reviewing the current and emerging trends in cell and gene therapy was held virtually in May 2021. This webinar series was timely given the recent withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the global COVID-19 pandemic impacting all sectors of the pharmaceutical sciences research landscape globally and in the UK. Delegates from the academic, industry, regulatory and NHS sectors attended the session where challenges and opportunities in the development and clinical implementation of cell and gene therapies were discussed. Globally, the cell and gene therapy market has reached a value of 4.3 billion dollars in 2020, having increased at a compound annual growth rate of 25.5% since 2015. This webinar series captured all the major developments in this rapidly evolving area and highlighted emerging concepts warranting cross-sector efforts from across the community in the future.

Determining Research Priorities for Astronomy Using Machine Learning

We summarize the first exploratory investigation into whether Machine Learning techniques can augment science strategic planning. We find that an approach based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation using abstracts drawn from high-impact astronomy journals may provide a leading indicator of future interest in a research topic. We show two topic metrics that correlate well with the high-priority research areas identified by the 2010 National Academies’ Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. One metric is based on a sum of the fractional contribution to each topic by all scientific papers (“counts”) while the other is the Compound Annual Growth Rate of counts. These same metrics also show the same degree of correlation with the whitepapers submitted to the same Decadal Survey. Our results suggest that the Decadal Survey may under-emphasize fast growing research. A preliminary version of our work was presented by Thronson et al.

Factors Influencing the Interannual Variation in Biomass of Bottom-Cultured Yesso Scallop (Patinopecten yessoensis) in the Changhai Sea Area, China

Understanding how environmental factors impact the interannual variation in scallop growth and subsequently developing an easily obtained parameter to indicate this variation could provide a scientific basis for optimizing their aquaculture. In this study, we have set a growth scenario of uniformly sowed scallops of the same initial size in the Changhai sea area. The Yesso scallop culture ecosystem model was used to simulate the growth of bottom-cultured Yesso scallop each year from December 1, 2006 to November 30, 2017. The results show that the annual growth rate was higher in the northwest than in the southeast, and there were obvious high-value areas near the islands. The scallop biomass was significantly lower in 2009–2010 and reached its highest point in 2013–2014. Based on the match-mismatch conditions of bottom-water temperature, food availability, and the Yesso scallop growth process, three factors were determined: suitable growth days (SGD), restricted growth days (RGD), and food accumulation (FA). Subsequently, a multiple regression relationship was proposed with scallop biomass to explore the reasons affecting the interannual variations in scallop growth. We found that the anomaly of the contribution of SGD and FA for the scallop growth was small, and the interannual variation in scallop biomass was mainly regulated by RGD in winter. Our results indicated that the interannual variation in RGD in winter was closely related to the regional averaged air temperature in early winter. The air temperature in early winter is easily obtained in practice. Consequently, it could be used to predict the interannual growth of bottom-cultured scallops to improve aquaculture planning and management.

A striking growth of CO2 emissions from global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries

Global industrialization and urbanization processes enabled a diverse cement production boom over the past three decades, as cement is the most important building construction material. Consequently, the cement industry is the second-largest industrial CO2 emitter (~25% of global industrial CO2 emissions) globally. In this study, the Global Cement Emission Database, which encompasses anthropogenic CO2 emissions of individual production units worldwide for 1990-2019, was developed. A recently developed unit-level China Cement Emission Database is then applied to override China’s data and the combination of two database is used to reveal the unit characteristics of CO2 emissions and ages for global cement plants, assess large disparities in national and regional CO2 emissions, growth rates and developmental stages from 1990-2019, and identify key emerging countries of carbon emissions and commitment. This study finds that globally, CO2 emissions from the cement industry have increased from 0.86 Gt in 1990 to 2.46 Gt in 2019 (increasing by 186%). More importantly, the large CO2 emissions and the striking growth rates from those emerging countries, including most of developing countries in Asia and the Middle East and Africa, are clearly identified. For example, the Middle East and Africa, including mostly developing or underdeveloped countries, only represented 0.07 Gt CO2 in 1990 (8.4% of the total), in contrast to 0.26 Gt (10.4% of the total) CO2 in 2019, which is a 4.5% average growth rate during 1990-2019. Further, the intensive expansion of large and new facilities since 2005 in Asia and the Middle East and Africa has resulted in heavy commitment (90.1% of global commitment in 2019), and mitigation threats in the future considering their increasing emissions (national annual growth rate can be up to >80%) and growing infrastructure construction (~50% of clinker capacity operating ≤10 years). Our results highlight the cement industry’s development and young infrastructure in emerging economies; thus, future increasing cement demand and corresponding carbon commitment would pose great challenges to future decarbonization and climate change mitigation.

Ten-year trends of utilizing palliative care and palliative procedures in patients with gastric Cancer in the United States from 2009 to 2018 - a nationwide database study

Objectives Little is known about the current status and the changing trends of hospitalization and palliative care consultation of patients with gastric cancer in the United States. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changing trend in the number of hospitalization, palliative care consultation, and palliative procedures in the US during a recent 10-year period using a nationwide database. Methods This was a retrospective study that analyzed the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database of 2009–2018. Patients aged more than 18 years who were diagnosed with a gastric cancer using International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 and 10 codes were included. Palliative care consultation included palliative care (ICD-9, V66.7; ICD-10, Z51.5) and advanced care planning (ICD-9, V69.89; ICD-10, Z71.89). Palliative procedures included percutaneous or endoscopic bypass, gastrostomy or enterostomy, dilation, drainage, nutrition, and irrigation for palliative purpose. Results and discussion A total of 86,430 patients were selected and analyzed in this study. Using a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) approach, the annual number of hospitalizations of gastric cancer patients was found to be decreased during 2009–2018 (CAGR: -0.8%, P = 0.0084), while utilization rates of palliative care and palliative procedures increased (CAGR: 9.3 and 1.6%, respectively; P < 0.0001). Multivariable regression analysis revealed that palliative care consultation was associated with reduced total hospital charges (−$34,188, P < 0.0001). Conclusion Utilization of palliative care consultation to patients with gastric cancer may reduce use of medical resources and hospital costs.