Material and Carbon Footprints of Machinery Capital

Machinery and equipment, integral as technology-specific capital goods, play a dual role in climate change: it acts as both a mitigator and an exacerbator due to its carbon-intensive life cycle. Despite their importance, current climate mitigation analyses often overlook these items, leaving a gap in comprehensive analyses of their material stock and environmental impacts. To address this, our research integrates input-output analysis (IOA) with dynamic material flow analysis (d-MFA) to assess the carbon and material footprints of machinery. It finds that in 2019, machinery production required 30% of global metal production and 8% of global carbon emissions. Between 2000 and 2019, the metal footprint of the stock of machinery grew twice as fast as the economy. To illustrate the global implications and scale, we spotlight key countries. China's rise in machinery material stock is noteworthy, surpassing the United States in 2008 in total amount and achieving half of the US per capita level by 2019. Our study also contrasts economic depreciation─a value-centric metric─with the tangible lifespan of machinery, revealing how much the physical size of the capital stock exceeds its book values. As physical machinery stocks saturate, new machinery can increasingly be built from metals recycled from retired machinery.

Decomposition Analysis of the Carbon Footprint of Primary Metals

This study investigates how different technological and socioeconomic drivers have impacted the carbon footprint of primary metals. It analyzes the historical evidence from 1995 to 2018 using new metal production, energy use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission extensions made for the multiregional input-output model EXIOBASE. A combination of established input-output methods (index decomposition analysis, hypothetical extraction method, and footprint analysis) is used to dissect the drivers of the change in the upstream emissions occurring due to the production of metals demanded by other (downstream) economic activities. On a global level, GHG emissions from metal production have increased at a similar pace as the GDP but have decreased in high-income countries in the most recent 6 year period studied. This absolute decoupling in industrialized countries is mainly driven by reduced metal consumption intensity and improved energy efficiency. However, in emerging economies increasing metal consumption intensity and affluency have driven up emissions, more than offsetting any reductions due to improved energy efficiency.

Can we use Sorafenib for advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) Child Pugh B?

HCC is the third cause of cancer-related death worldwide and the fifth most common cancer in the world with an increasing incidence in some areas like Europe, USA and the Gulf region. In this study patients with advanced HCC in both group child pugh A and B were treated with sorafenib.

METHODS

This is a retrospective observational study to assess the safety and effectiveness of sorafenib in patients with advanced HCC child pugh A and B who failed local palliative ablation therapy or were not eligible for such therapy. Forty six patients included.

RESULTS

In both child pugh A and B group the sorafenib was well tolerated and survival was improved but it was more pronounced in the child pugh A group.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study that includes high percentage (47%) of child B group to be treated with sorafenib. Compared with international data there was improved overall survival in both groups.

Classic Kaposi's Sarcoma: A Case Report and Literature Review

Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) is a rare multifocal spindle cell tumor with four epidemiologic variants: classic KS, African endemic KS, AIDS related KS, and immunosuppressant therapy related KS. Classic KS remains a rare but challenging disease because of its protracted, indolent course. The authors describe a case recently observed in our clinic, emphasizing the clinical management of the disease.

Does prolonged breastfeeding reduce the risk for childhood leukemia and lymphomas?

AIM

Prolonged breastfeeding was shown to reduce the risk of childhood acute leukemia. The aim of the study was to investigate the protective effect of longer breastfeeding on the risk of lymphoid malignancies in children and its dependent socio-economic factors.

METHODS

The study group comprised of 169 patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), Hodgkin's (HL) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), age =or<15 years, and 169 healthy controls, matched to patients by age and sex. Mothers of all study subjects provided information via telephone about the history of breastfeeding and parameters seen as proxies for viral infection.

RESULTS

The mean age+/-SD of cases was 5.44+/- 3.29 years and of control subjects 5.51+/-3.62 years. The male/female ratio was 1.73. Overall, the mean number of months of breastfeeding in the male patients and controls was 9.1 (95% confidence interval [CI] 7.9-10.4) and 12.1 (95% CI 11.0-13.4), respectively (P<0.001), and in the female patients and controls 8.4 (95% CI 6.9-10.1) and 11.5 (95% CI 10.0-13.0), respectively (P<0.01). In 103 ALL patients, a shorter period of breastfeeding (0-6 months duration), was associated with increased odds ratio (OR) for males (OR=3.1, 95% CI 1.4-6.8) and females (OR=2.2, 95% CI 0.8-6.32) as compared to breastfeeding longer than 6 months. In 103 ALL patients, 32 HL and 34 NHL patients, there were no statistically significant differences in the duration of breastfeeding between the male and female patients and their respective controls. In multivariate analysis, statistically significant risk factors for the development of childhood lymphoid malignancy were: a shorter duration of breastfeeding, lower age and level of education of mother and higher income, larger size of accommodation and birth order in the family.

CONCLUSION

The current study confirmed that a longer duration of breastfeeding has protective effect against ALL and HL. Additional factors found to be associated with an elevated risk of lymphoid malignancy were low age and low education of mother. All these factors can be related to an increased risk of early childhood infections.

Intrathoracic extramedullary hematopoietic tumor in hemoglobin C disease

A case of intrathoracic extramedullary hematopoietic tumor associated with hemoglobin C disease is reported in a 27-year-old Bangladeshi man. The patient's initial complaints were generalized weakness, weight loss, and left upper abdominal pain. Hospital workup revealed a solitary intrathoracic mass in the posterior mediastinum, which was suspected to be a lymphoma based on fine-needle aspiration. The mass was excised and proved to be an extramedullary hematopoietic tumor. The problem of differential diagnosis is discussed.