• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.322-345
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• 2018

Climate change has become a major challenge for sustainable development of human society. This study is an attempt to analyze existing literature to identify economic indicators that hamper the process of global warming. This paper includes case studies based on various countries to examine the nexus for environment and its relationship with Foreign Direct Investment, transportation, economic growth and energy consumption. Furthermore, the observations are analyzed from the perspective of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and probable impact on carbon emission of Pakistan. A major portion of CPEC investment is allocated for transportation. However, it is evident that transportation sector is substantial emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. Unfortunately, there is no empirical work on the subject of CPEC and carbon emission for vehicular transportation. This paper infers that empirical results from various other countries are ambiguous and inconclusive. Moreover, the evidence for the pollution haven hypothesis and the halo effect hypothesis is limited in general and inapplicable for CPEC in particular. The major contribution of this study is the proposal of an energy efficient transportation model for reducing CO2 emission. In the end, the paper suggests strategies to climate researchers and policymakers for adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.974-981
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• 2020

Sequence type 410 (ST410) of Escherichia coli is an extraintestinal pathogen associated with multi drug resistance. In this study, we aimed to investigate the horizontal propagation pathway of a high-risk clone of E. coli ST410 that produces Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC). blaKPC-encoding E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates were evaluated, and complete sequencing and comparative analysis of blaKPC-encoding plasmids from E. coli and K. pneumoniae, antimicrobial susceptibility tests, polymerase chain reaction, multilocus sequence typing, and conjugal transfer of plasmids were performed. Whole-genome sequencing was performed for plasmids mediating KPC-2 production in E. coli and K. pneumoniae clinical isolates. Strains E. coli CPEc171209 and K. pneumoniae CPKp171210 were identified as ST410 and ST307, respectively. CPEc171209 harbored five plasmids belonging to serotype O8:H21, which is in the antimicrobial-resistant clade C4/H24. The CPKp171210 isolate harbored three plasmids. Both strains harbored various additional antimicrobial resistance genes. The IncX3 plasmid pECBHS_9_5 harbored blaKPC-2 within a truncated Tn4401a transposon, which also contains blaSHV-182 with duplicated conjugative elements. This plasmid displayed 100% identity with the IncX3 plasmid pKPBHS_10_3 from the K. pneumoniae CPKp171210 ST307 strain. The genes responsible for the conjugal transfer of the IncX3 plasmid included tra/trb clusters and pil genes coding the type IV pilus. ST410 can be transmitted between patients, posing an elevated risk in clinical settings. The emergence of a KPC-producing E. coli strain (ST410) is concerning because the blaKPC-2-bearing plasmids may carry treatment resistance across species barriers. Transgenic translocation occurs among carbapenem-resistant bacteria, which may spread rapidly via horizontal migration.