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Entries with the tag: john stevens
John Steven Done In LA
The Kings have relieved coach John Stevens and assistant coach Don Nachbaur of their duties. More changes to come from Kings in an announcement in about 30 minutes.
— Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) November 4, 2018
Filed in: NHL Teams, Los Angeles Kings, |	KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: john+stevens
Afternoon Line- John Stevens
We're in this business to get the most out of your team to win hockey games, and we haven't performed very well. It's not something I'm going to get up and worry about. When you get into this business, you know that you're going to be held accountable for the success of the team, and I totally get that. I pour all my effort into trying to help these players play their best and the team perform their best, but that comes with the territory, and if that happens – and it happens a lot – I knew that getting into this business. We're going to continue trying to improve this hockey team and trying to get this team on the right track. That's always the threat in this business.
-John Stevens, head coach of the Los Angeles Kings. Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider has more from Stevens.
John Stevens Answers Questions After The Los Angeles Kings Lost 3-2 To The Vegas Golden Knights
by Paul on 04/16/18 at 05:57 AM ET
from Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider,
On the game turning in the third period:
I actually thought we played a really solid hockey game, but all three goals came from plays off the wall. The first goal came from a stalled puck on a forecheck where we got beat off the wall, the second goal came from a play we got beat off the wall, the third goal came from a play off a faceoff. So there are some critical errors at critical times that ended up costing us the hockey game. It's unfortunate. I thought we made a good push here tonight and created a lot more zone time and made Fleury work a little harder than he had to this point of this series, but some critical errors at critical times along the wall end up costing you.
On Erik Haula's hit on Anze Kopitar:
Yeah. We get a guy suspended for making a hockey play, and he butt ends one of the best players in the world in the face with the butt end of his stick. So, if I was confused before, I'm bewildered now. That's an intent-to-injure play. I don't like hard hockey – I love hard hockey. Good, honest, hard hockey, I love it, and Kopitar's about as tough of a guy as you can find. You guys make the judgement, because it's a bunch of B.S., to be honest with you.
more from Stevens...
Below, watch the talked about butt-end and the game highlights (VGK now up 3-0 in the series).
Tags: john+stevens, vegas+golden+knights
Is John Stevens Really The New Head Coach Of The Los Angeles Kings? Now Official
I found this link that goes to the story from LaKings.com but if you go to their home page, no mention of it.
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Kings and John Stevens have agreed to contract terms for Stevens to serve as the club's new Head Coach, it was announced today by Kings Vice President and General Manager Rob Blake.
Stevens has most recently served as the club's Associate Head Coach. He has been part of the Kings coaching staff the past seven seasons.
The Kings are scheduled to host a news conference on Monday beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the Chick Hearn Press Room at STAPLES Center to formally introduce Stevens. It will be streamed live at LAKings.com. Kings season credentials will allow access into STAPLES Center for tomorrow's press event. Lunch will be provided to the media beginning at 12:45 p.m.
"John and I had very productive dialogue this last week in relation to his head coaching philosophy and specifically how he would implement a strategy to activate our players offensively while maintaining the defensive philosophies we have come to be known for," said Blake.
And I have not received a press release which is usually the norm.
added 11:13am,
LA Kings will name John Stevens their new head coach, source confirms. Monday news conference.
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) April 23, 2017
added 11:16am, Headline updated and...
VP/GM Rob Blake has confirmed that the Kings plan on hiring John Stevens as their next head coach. Release to come later today.
— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) April 23, 2017
John Stevens Promoted To Associate Head Coach In Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings have promoted John Stevens to Associate Head Coach, and re-signed both Assistant Coach Davis Payne and Goaltending Coach Bill Ranford to new contracts, Kings Head Coach Darryl Sutter and Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced today.
The Kings, who set an NHL record by winning three Game 7s on the road, and tied an NHL record by playing 26 postseason games before winning their second Stanley Cup championship in three years, now have their championship-level coaching staff in place as they prepare to defend the Cup during the 2014-15 season.
"Our coaching staff has been an integral part of the success of our team the last three years," said Lombardi. "We are extremely pleased that they will remain part of our team and continue together as we strive for excellence."
If Your Team Is Looking For A Coach, Cross John Stevens' Name Off The List
John Stevens will be staying in LA, with a promotion. Well-deserved.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 18, 2014
Kings Pull The Plug On Terry Murray
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Kings head coach Terry Murray has been relieved of his duties and Kings assistant coach John Stevens will assume interim head coach duties, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced today.
Murray, 61, began his head coaching tenure with the Kings in 2008-09 and compiled a 139-106-30 regular season record during his time in Los Angeles. Among the franchise's all-time head coaches Murray ranks third in wins (139), fourth in games coached (275) and first in winning percentage (.560).
Tags: john+stevens, terry+murray
John Stevens Working The Defense In LA
from Helene Elliott of the LA Times,
Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi, a former Flyers scout, liked Stevens' work ethic. So did assistant GM Ron Hextall, who bled Flyers orange and black as a player. Coach Terry Murray was Stevens' assistant in Philadelphia and a friend since Stevens played for and later coached the Flyers' minor league team, the Phantoms.
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"They all know that John is a man of tremendous integrity and did not need much of a push to hire him," Holmgren said. "He's a great fit there."
Stevens, who played 53 NHL games for the Flyers and Hartford Whalers, is Murray's top assistant. He inherited Hardy's duties of working with the defense and overseeing the penalty killing, which ranked 20th in the NHL last season. Under his direction it will be more aggressive, more intent on pressuring the puck.
"He's changed things up a little bit," defenseman Jack Johnson said. "He seems like a great guy, easy to talk to."
Stevens Talks About His Firing
from Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer,
John Stevens, fired as the Flyers coach Friday after his underachieving team had fallen to 10th in the NHL's Eastern Conference, today exhibited the dignified manner that marked his three-plus year tenure.
In a conference call with reporters, Stevens said he felt "responsible" for letting people down - and getting assistant Jack McIlhargey fired - and that he was "extremely lucky to be part of the organization for so long."
Stevens, in his first interview since the dismissal, called his coaching stint a learning experience, praised the organization, and said he was disappointed he couldn't bring a championship to Philadelphia.
He said he will look back on his coaching experience and "reflect on it and use it as an opportunity to get better. My goal and dream was to win the Stanley Cup, and it's important for me to review [what happened] and be better prepared for the next time."
Filed in: NHL Teams, Philadelphia Flyers, |	KK Hockey | Permalink
John Stevens Fired
via Tim Panaccio of CSNPhilly,
The Flyers have fired John Stevens as head coach. A press conference is scheduled for tonight.
added 5:321pm, from TSN,
TSN has learned that the Carolina Hurricanes have granted the Flyers permission to speak to Peter Laviolette, who is believed to be Stevens' successor.
Laviolette will make his debut behind the Philadelphia bench on Saturday when the Flyers host the Washington Capitals.
added 6:03pm, TSN has removed this line from their previous post- Laviolette will make his debut behind the Philadelphia bench on Saturday when the Flyers host the Washington Capitals.
added 8:17pm, from the Philadelphia Flyers,
The Philadelphia Flyers announced that they have named Peter Laviolette head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers and relieved John Stevens of his duties, according to club General Manager Paul Holmgren.
"I know this was a very difficult decision for Paul to make. And, I really feel bad for John because he's been a terrific long-time member of our organization," said Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider. "I was hoping that the team would play better and that this could have been avoided, but after last night's game, I think Paul felt he had to make this change. I make it a policy never to overrule my general manager, because once I do, it means I've lost confidence in him. I really want to wish John the best."
Flyers Coach Talks About Recent Changes
from Jacob Robinson of the Expositor,
Any significant needs the team lacked in two straight playoff exits at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins were hopefully addressed this summer with the acquisitions of defenceman Chris Pronger and goaltender Ray Emery.
Both players have been controversial at times in their careers, but Stevens believes that the "City of Brotherly Love" will welcome the duo with open arms.
"Adding a veteran guy like Pronger, I think, is an ideal fit," Stevens said in a telephone interview. "He's great at both ends of the rink, he's got an attitude, he plays with a bit of an edge and (has) great leadership qualities, he's won a Stanley Cup before. If you had a checklist on a player, you'd check everything off where he's concerned. He brings so many things to your team."
With Emery, the Flyers are giving the much talked about goalie a second chance in the league. Emery was cut loose by the Ottawa Senators in 2008 and played in Russia's KHL last season.
"I feel good about Ray," Stevens said. "I think Ray is going to be great. I think he's a real fiery guy, I think he's anxious for this opportunity and I think we're a good fit for him and he's a good fit for us."
"We feel like we've made some good changes on our team, so this is a real important year for us."
more from Stevens…
Stevens Getting Contract Extension
from the Philadelphia Daily News,
John Stevens, who in his first full season as coach of the Flyers led them to the Eastern Conference finals, has agreed to a contract extension, a source told the Daily News.
Details are being finalized, but an announcement is expected today.
Stevens, Holland Honored By THN
from Jason Kay of the Hockey News,
Our NHL coach of the year is being recognized for what we believe is an underrated turnaround.
John Stevens' Flyers went from last overall in the NHL in 2006-07, to sixth in their conference, posting a points improvement of 39.
The only coach who came close to matching the feat in 2007-08 was Washington's Bruce Boudreau (plus-24). That the Flyers toppled the Capitals in the first round of the playoffs, then upset the No. 1-seeded Canadiens in Round 2, carried significant weight in our decision….
Our executive of the year, Red Wings GM Ken Holland, is quick to reference some of his best decisions have been about team-building…in the front office.
He is surrounded by an elite staff of advisors, including assistant GM Jim Nill, vice-presidents Jimmy Devellano and Steve Yzerman, consultant Scotty Bowman, Euro super-scout Hakan Andersson and an exceptional coach in Mike Babcock.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, |	KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: john+stevens, ken+holland
Flyers Coach John Stevens After Game 5 ECF
Q. Someone comes up to you two months from now and says "how do you remember this season?" what will you say to them?
COACH STEVENS: I just told the guys that I have been in the game a long time. Working with this group has been one of the more enjoyable experiences I've had in pro hockey. It really has been. We've made tremendous strides this year, and we've come an awful long way.
And if you look back, we played the one, two, three season in the East in the playoffs and I thought we did a remarkable job. You give Pittsburgh credit. To me they were the number one seed in the East in terms of what I've seen.
And they're very deserving of moving on.
Questions for John Stevens
by Alanah McGinley on 05/16/08 at 02:56 PM ET
Some questions for Philadelphia Flyers coach John Stevens today.
Q. Can you talk about what Kimmo will mean not just on the ice, but off the ice in the room if he does come back and play on Sunday?
COACH STEVENS: Well, he's a huge part of our team. I mean, through this year he's progressed and in the playoffs he's really taken his game to another level. I think just his presence around our team all year, he's got deep respect by all his teammates. He just has composure all the time. I think that's infectious on our team.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, |	KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: braydon+coburn, interview, john+stevens, kimmo+timonen, quotes
Game Day with Flyers' Coach John Stevens
Some questions this morning for Philadelphia coach John Stevens.
Q. What is the status of Braydon Coburn?
COACH STEVENS: Coby's out today. We were hopeful yesterday. He got on the ice a little bit, but still not ready to play. I think he's getting closer, but definitely not playing tonight.
Q. So are you going to keep Ryan Parent?
Questions for the ECF Coaches
Pittsburgh Penguins coach Michel Therrien and Philadelphia Flyers coach John Stevens were both available for some questions today.
Below are the transcripts from their respective Q&A sessions.
Tags: john+stevens, michel+therrien, playoffs
Interview with John Stevens
An interview with Philadelphia Flyers coach John Stevens.
Q. What can you do to get Prospal going? Have you thought even of changing the wingers on Danny's line?
COACH STEVENS: Well, I think as a coach, you look at all situations. But to me that line has had times this year where they've had a lot of success. The ingredients are there. To me, it's just in the hands of the player right now. We need Vinny to step up and be a good player for us.
Conference Calls with the Philadelphia Flyers
Today, the NHL set up a series of conference calls with the media, in part featuring:
R.J. Umberger—Philadelphia Flyers, Center
John Stevens—Philadelphia Flyers, Coach
The transcripts of their individual Q&A sessions are available below.
Tags: interviews, john+stevens, media, nhl+conference+call, rj+umberger
On Flyers' Coach John Stevens
From Elliotte Friedman at CBC,
"His brother owned the one gym in town," Roloson said. "And we would meet him there to work out. John took it very seriously, and eventually we did, too."
"I believe his nickname was Rambo, because of how hard he worked out," Blake said.
Stevens is still in excellent shape and expects nothing less from his players. During the off-day between Games 3 and 4 of this series, the Flyers didn't skate but did have a weight-training workout.
But his impact extended beyond the exercise room.
more from Dwayne Roloson and Rob Blake on how the Flyers' coach impacted their own early careers
Tags: coaching, dwayne+roloson, john+stevens, rob+blake, training
Escalating the War of Words
From CBC,
Kostopoulos earned a two-minute roughing minor on the play, but the war of words has escalated ever since.
"Kostopoulos, he's a tough kid and I've got a lot of respect for him and [Steve] Bégin," Philadelphia head coach John Stevens said. "But to go up and blindside sucker Kimmo Timonen on a play at the end there, that's cowardly, in my opinion."
Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau has been anything but quiet about the criticism of his player.
"That's one team that shouldn't talk," Carbonneau said of Stevens's comments. "They played 82 games and had the most suspensions in the league."
And over at the Philadelphia Daily News, Rich Hofmann also expects things to get nastier in this series, citing this quote from Carbonneau:
"I think [Timonen] deserved it. That's why they didn't call any (major) penalties on it."
Filed in: NHL Teams, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, |	KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: guy+carbonneau, john+stevens, tom+kostopoulos
Good For Stevens
from Rich Hofmann of the Philadelphia Daily News,
The leaping, joyous emotion Stevens showed on the bench after Joffrey Lupul won it, won Game 7 in overtime, was back wherever Stevens stores such things. If you could read the relief on his face, hear it in his voice, it wasn't obvious.
Stevens was just himself - the coach of a team that rose from the depths last season and learned something, learned how to win.
"I'm just happy," Stevens said. "You just love to see a group have some success . . .
"You keep talking about success, and getting to where you want to go. To win a series, it's great to see the excitement in the players and the whole organization, especially after last year."
Flyers Coach Stevens Has Done A Good Job
from the Courier-Post,
Speaking with a small group of reporters Thursday, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said he would be "very disappointed" if his team missed the playoffs. But when asked if the status of his coaching staff depended on the results of the Flyers' final two regular-season games, Holmgren responded, "Absolutely not."
"For a young coach who had a lot of new players at the start of the year, I think he's done a good job," Holmgren said of Stevens, who has a 40-29-11 record this season and a two-year career record of 60-71-21.
"I think John's still young (41) and there are areas he can get better, just like a young player. But overall, I think John has done a good job."
Flyers Coach Points To His Players
from Mike Sielski of Philly Burbs,
"Subconsciously or consciously, we didn't respect the game plan," Stevens said. "We came in here trying to outscore the other team instead of checking the other team."
Asked if there were anything he himself could do to shake his players out of this funk, Stevens didn't hesitate to put the onus on them.
"In my opinion, we've got to show up and play," he said. "Do what? Stop passing the puck to the guy in the other jersey? It's ridiculous. We've got to come out with the kind of urgency we finish games with. We're in a fight for our life."
Report- Flyers Coach Stevens Agrees To Extension
from TSN,
Another Philadelphia Flyer has agreed to a contract extension. This time, it's head coach John Stevens, who has agreed in principle to a one year extension.
Penalizing Philly
From Ed Moran at the Philadelphia Daily News,
As of yesterday, the Flyers were second in the league in penalty minutes with 605, topped only by Anaheim, which has 706. And watching games like the win in Minnesota, where the Flyers were flagged for nine penalties compared to the Wild's three, it would seem the Flyers are constantly on the wrong end of the whistle.
The fact is, a lot of those minutes have to do with the game misconducts and majors that came with those five big incidents. And in 31 games, the Flyers led in penalties only 17 times and won 10. Still, coach John Stevens would like to start trimming the time his team is shorthanded.
"I don't know what the final total was, but you've still got to play the game hard," he said after the Flyers' loss to the Devils Sunday night. "We're still trying to sort through what is and what isn't a penalty. The one guy gets his stick knocked out of his hands [slashing] and, I don't know, that's just a battle for the puck.
more including injury updates on Gagne and Timonen
Tags: john+stevens, penalties
Stevens Shoots Back
from Philly Burbs,
Coach John Stevens was still somewhat annoyed by Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien's post-game comments suggesting the Flyers ran up the score (by using their first power play unit) and resorted to rough-house tactics.
It should be noted the Penguins scored eight goals twice against the Flyers last season and finished 8-0-0 against them.
"When you [Pittsburgh] take running head shots at guys, breaking sticks [over bodies] away from the play and running your goalie ... I would be disrespectful if I didn't put those guys out there," Stevens said. "I have a lot of respect for the Penguins, but not for what he had his players do. If you're going to take those kinds of penalties against us, why wouldn't we try to score?"
more on the Flyers…
Flyers/Bruins Meet Tonight
Tonight at the Wachovia Center, Jones is likely to be the topic of conversation on the Bruins bench when they take the ice against the Flyers for the first time since the hit that jeopardized Bergeron's season.
"I knew the time was going to come," Jones said when asked about possible retribution. "I'm not worried about it."...
Flyers coach John Stevens said he is not sure what to expect when the Bruins and Flyers take the ice tonight, but he probably won't take any chances.
Enforcers Riley Cote and Ben Eager are expected to be in the lineup.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, |	KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: boston+bruins, fighting, john+stevens, philadelphia+flyers, randy+jones


This bug loves our guts — living silently in most folks, causing ulcers in others — but a new meta-analysis suggests that eliminating it entirely may help prevent stomach cancers.
The bacteria on the hit list is called Helicobacter pylori, or H. pylori — a strain that's coexisted with humans for tens of thousands of years, residing today in the bellies of roughly two-thirds of all people. It's also the primary cause of gastric cancers, the world's fifth most common malignancy, experts say.
Permanently wiping out H. pylori with a brief blitz of two common weapons — antibiotics plus an acid-suppressing medication like Prilosec or Prevacid — may cut the risk of stomach cancers, asserts a paper published Tuesday in the Cochrane Library. The authors analyzed six clinical trials spanning nearly 6,500 patients who were treated for H. pylori.
"The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis add to the increasing evidence that eradicating H. pylori in the general population has the potential to prevent gastric cancer," said co-author Dr. Paul Moayyedi, who researches H. pylori testing and treatment at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Among trial participants who were given one to two weeks of antibiotics and gastric-acid suppressing medicine, 1.6 percent later developed gastric cancer, the meta-analysis found. Among the participants who were given no treatment or a placebo, 2.4 percent later developed gastric cancer.
"International guidelines for the management of H. pylori infection may change as a result," Moayyedi said.
Four of the trials reviewed by Moayyedi and colleagues were conducted in China and one was done in Japan. Those nations have two of the highest stomach cancer rates in the world.
In the U.S., prevalence of stomach cancer has declined by an average of 1.5 percent per year for the past decade, making it the 16th most common cancer among Americans, reports the National Cancer Institute. In 2014, nearly 11,000 Americans were expected to die from the disease, while 22,000 people were expected to be diagnosed.
Risk factors for stomach cancer, the NCI says, include smoking, a family history, a diet high in salted or smoked foods, and a diet low in fruits and vegetables. But at the top of the NCI's risk list: H. pylori infection.
"This study supports previous analyses that have found that antibiotic treatment to remove this risk factor can reduce a person's gastric cancer risk, especially if treated early," said Sarah Talarico, a researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
In fact, noninvasive tests for detecting and genotyping H. pylori will make it easier for scientists and physicians to screen populations at high risk of gastric cancer, determining antibiotic resistance and checking whether treatment was successful, Talarico said.
Current exams used to hunt for H. pylori in people include breath tests that require patients to swallow the human waste product urea, biopsies of the stomach lining, and blood draws that only show if someone has H. pylori antibodies, not a current infection. A stool test can detect H. pylori in feces.
Talarico has a patent pending for a noninvasive stool test that will provide genetic information about any H. pylori strain it locates, revealing, for example, if the bug has certain genes that boost the risk of gastric cancer, or if the strain is resistant to an antibiotic.
A spiral-shaped bacterium that's long survived the gut's harsh, acidic habitat, H. pylori is believed to spread mouth to mouth or through contaminated food or water. Infection is more common among people who live in highly congested areas with poor sanitation.
"I think eradicating Helicobacter is an excellent preventative strategy for gastric cancer," said Dr. Nina Salama, a Fred Hutch microbiologist who studies H. pylori.
And, there may be consequences to annihilating an organism with which humans have co-evolved. For example, there seems to be an association between the belly bug and a lower rate of esophageal cancer.
Does bug thwart another cancer?
People who tested positive for H. pylori had a significantly decreased incidence of aneuploidy — a measure of genomic instability that predicts someone's progression to esophageal cancer —according to a study co-authored by Salama and fellow Fred Hutch researchers in June and published online in PLOS ONE.
Questions remain, the Hutch authors acknowledged, about whether the esophagus and the stomach are host to separate communities of microbes like H. pylori or if microbial communities in both locations are extensions of each other.
"So, without really knowing the mechanism, it's hard to know whether it's good or bad to eradicate H. pylori or not," Salama said. "But the other thing to consider is that while esophageal cancer (specifically, adenocarcinoma), is a rapidly increasing cancer, it's still a very rare cancer.


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This study aims to analyze the impact of financial development, foreign direct investment, economic growth, electricity consumption, and trade openness on environmental quality for a panel of 59 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, over the period of 1980–2016. The presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is investigated. The cross-sectional augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) and cross-sectional Im, Pesaran, and Shin panel unit root test; the Westerlund cointegration test, the dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR) approach; and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (Econ Model 29:1450–1460, 2012) panel causality approach are employed. It is found that the analyzed variables are stationary at first differences and are cointegrated. It is also found that an increase in financial development, foreign direct investment, and trade openness enhance environmental quality, while the increase in economic growth and electricity consumption degrade environmental quality. The presence of the EKC hypothesis for the selected panel countries is validated. Furthermore, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) panel causality test result confirmed the presence of bidirectional causality among economic growth, foreign direct investment, financial development, electricity consumption, and trade openness with environmental quality.
The debate on financial development, economic growth, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has received immense attention in the energy economic literature, worldwide. However, the role of financial development in the economic growth context and its impact on environmental quality is quite important, as it depends upon the availability and efficient use of financial resources, which is closely associated with economic growth (Khan et al. 2017). Currently, financial development is using an additional variable in the literature and, more interestingly, it can be use an important tool for determining the growth-environmental link (Omri et al. 2015). Both economic growth and financial development can impact on environmental functions, such as to control trade and energy consumption and to attenuate GHG emissions (Farhani and Ozturk 2015). A large number of empirical work indicate that trade openness and financial development can influence the levels of carbon emissions in different regions and countries worldwide (Javid and Sharif 2016). Therefore, the state-of-the-art agrees with two different schools of thoughts regarding the influence of financial development on environmental quality. According to the first view, financial development alleviates the credit constraints and enhances investments in high energy consumption projects (i.e. by purchasing of large ticket items), which resulting in boosting economic growth, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. However, the second school of thought upholds that financial development enhances investments in advance and energy-efficient technologies, which reduces energy consumptions and improve environmental quality (Abbasi and Riaz 2016; Saud et al. 2018). CO2 emissions and financial development trends are presented in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively.
Economic growth is considered one of the key determinants of causing CO2 emissions, which reduce environmental quality. There are three different views existing regarding environmental-growth nexus. The first view supports the view of Grossman and Krueger (1991), and they offer that in the initial phase, acceleration in economic growth causes high CO2 emissions, but later after reaching to a certain turning point, further increase in economic growth starts to mitigate emissions of CO2 and thus support the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Second, it is believed that a high consumption of energy leads to high carbon emissions. Finally, it is believed that there is a causal relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation (Wang et al. 2018). It implies that economic growth is one of the main culprits to CO2 emissions. The economic growth trend is provided in Fig. 3. Thus, it is useful for economies growth to boost its investment efficiency, business opportunities, advanced technologies, savings, and exchanges of goods and services (Shahbaz and Lean 2012).
In September 2013, the Chinese government called for jointly building the "Silk Road Economic Belt" to establish regional cooperation among different countries. A month later, the Indonesian government also called for the establishment of Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIDB) and the construction of the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" (Central Committee 2013; Huang 2016). In March 2015, this action plan was approved by the State Council (NDRC, FM and, MC 2015), and later in 2016, China officially termed these proposals as the "One Belt One Road Initiative" (OBORI) or the "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI). A Chinese report1 identified 65 countries, i.e., 24 from Europe, 26 Asian (8 East Asian, 2 Southeast Asia,11 Central Asian, and the remaining 5 from South Asia), and 15 the Middle East and North African countries, will actively participate in the BRI (Chin and He 2016). It covers 4.4 billion peoples, which is 62.3% of the global population and covers 30% global GDP. Through this initiative, the financial and economic development will be achieved through high policy management and by cultural and personnel exchanges among the participating countries. This is one of the vast projects with huge financial gauge ranging from 1.4 trillion USD to 6 trillion USD (NDRC, FM and, MC 2015). However, along with these 65 countries, other 48 countries also shows their interests to become active participants in the BRI. But, in 2017, the number of the participating countries hosted with the State Information Center reached to 71 countries, with a total investment of 6 trillion USD (which represents 34% of the global GDP) (Krane 2018). Further, The BRI carries the wide-range economic objectives along with financial integration, unimpeded trade, connectivity of facilities, infrastructure, economic openness and development, and efficient utilization of resources (NDRC, FM and, MC 2015). In March 2015, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission, with the Foreign Ministry and Commerce Ministry, issued the BRI plan, which specified that the Silk Road Economic Belt will embrace three routes: (I) China-Central Asia-West Asia-Persian Gulf-Mediterranean Sea, (II) China-Central Asia-Russia-Europe (the Baltic regions), and (III) China-Southeast Asia-South Asia-Indian Ocean. On the other hand, the Twenty-First Century Maritime Silk Road will be comprised of two routes: (I) Coastal China-South China Sea-South Pacific and (II) Coastal China-South China Sea-Indian Ocean-Europe (Chin and He 2016). This initiative will bring socioeconomic development in the BRI countries.
The Silk Road fund was initially launched by the Chinese government in December 2014, with an initial registered capital of 10 billion USD and total 40 billion USD. Late in 2016, this fund has signed 15 projects including infrastructure construction, industrial cooperation, financial assistance (i.e., through financing, equity stakes), and exploration of natural resources with an estimated investment worth 6 billion USD. In shaping the worldwide inclusive globalization, it provides fruitful results with 270 deliverables in different five important areas such as financing, policy coordination, infrastructure, trade, and people to people (P2P) exchange. The BRI is a unique platform for wide-ranging globalization and for mutually beneficial collaboration (Chin 2017). This initiative will promote trade and will enhance economic integrations across Asia, Europe, and Africa and possibly beyond. Additionally, investment activities are required to enhance economic growth and development among the Belt and Road Initiative-participating countries (Fung Business Intelligence 2017), and such activities can also have an impact on the environment.
Environmental quality has become a major concern for all countries around the globe, and it is a common perception that economic growth causes environmental degradation. An enormous body of economic-environmental literature has emphasized the growing importance on the relationship among economic growth, energy consumption, and environmental degradation. This will determine the adequate policies required to enhance the environmental degradation (Kahia et al. 2016). In recent years, environmental policies are not yet rigorous in most of the countries and there has been a growing interest in the study of the relationship between long-term economic growth, sociopolitical, and other factors which are hazardous to the environmental quality (Ibrahim and Law 2016). Since the adverse impacts of environmental degradation exceed its instantaneous and direct effects on human health, life, and future generation, it requires serious consideration along with proper control (Demirel et al. 2016). To avoid such losses, awareness regarding improving environmental quality started after the 1960s, among the economists, environmental experts, and policymakers (Shahbaz et al. 2013a). The Kyoto Protocol Agreement initially was launched during 1995 and 1997, by the appreciation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to curb the global warming and GHG emissions. The CO2 emissions are the fundamental cause to the global warming and environmental degradation compared to the other GHGs, such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides which usually come from transportation, energy-intensive industries, and power plants (Yang et al. 2015). Hence, a large number of the latest literature use CO2 emissions as an indicator to measure environmental quality (Katircioğlu and Taşpinar 2017; Hafeez et al. 2018). However, most of the environmental protection policies of different countries around the globe are not up to the mark with a reduction of GHG emissions, as high economic growth sources by high energy consumption, which results in high environmental degradations (Shahbaz et al. 2013b). On the other hand, the efficient use of energy resources enhances economic growth and maintains easy access to energy resources (Apergis and Danuletiu 2014). Similarly, it is a well-known fact that the inappropriate or extreme environmental laws and regulations can reduce economic growth, employment, and the competitiveness and also hurt economies (Jakob et al. 2014). Hence, the nexus between environmental quality and economic growth is still puzzling.
With respect to environmental adversity, this study carries out an in-depth investigation of the impact of financial development and economic growth on environmental quality for the selected BRI countries. This is potentially an important panel for such kind of investigation and a similar nature of study conducted by Hafeez et al. (2018) for a sample of 52 OBORI countries over the period of 1980–2016. The following shortcomings has been found in their study, which calls for further research. Their study did not validate the EKC hypothesis, while it claims its validation. Further, the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) approaches are used in their study, which did not provide more comprehensive and reliable results for appropriate policymaking and implication. Currently, many questions about the reliability of the result drawn from these approaches have been raised. Our study extends the number of countries to 59 BRI countries, and it confirmed the possible presence of the EKC hypothesis. Further, the second-generation novel panel estimation approach called the dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR) is employed. Certainly, the estimated results drawn from this approach are more accurate and reliable. Such results will allow the policymakers to measure the accurate impact of financial development and economic growth on environmental quality. Third, this study used different variables for financial development measure and robustness check to provide more reliable results. Furthermore, the empirical findings of this study will assist the policymaker to establish an efficient energy policy along with finance provisions that guarantee stable economic growth, development, and prosperity in the selected BRI countries. Hence, this study will fill this gap and will provide more reliable and accurate results.
The rest of the paper is structured in the following manner: the section "Literature review" is composed of the literature review; the section "Data collection, model, and variable description" provides the data collection, model, and variable descriptions of the study; the section "Results and discussion" provides the empirical results of the study; and the section "Conclusion and policy recommendations" presents the conclusion, discussion, and potential policy implication based on the finding drawn from the study.
The economic-environmental relationship first established by Kuznet (1955) and the pioneering study by Grossman and Krueger (1995) attract many researchers and economists (Charfeddine and Khediri 2015), whereas the term "environmental Kuznets curve" was first introduced by Panayotou (1993). The EKC hypothesis is tested by examining the nexus between the square of GDP per capita, GDP per capita, financial development, electricity power consumption, and other economic variables which can impact environmental quality. The prior studies have been tested by taking into account electricity consumption that can reflect changes in lifestyle (Ozturk and Al-Mulali 2015a), and a large number of latest studies have tested the validity of the EKC hypothesis (for instance, Ozturk and Al-Mulali 2015a; Bilgili et al. 2016; Wang et al. 2016; Hafeez et al. 2018).
Economic growth is closely associated with high energy demand, as higher economic growth requires higher energy consumption, though it is more probable that the use of efficient energy resources can lead to high economic growth. Through economic growth and financial development, numerous economic variables tend to accelerate. Therefore, the economists and researchers are showing their interest to the in-depth dynamic links between the increasing macroeconomic variables. The essential variables are trade openness, energy demand, and economic growth. Moreover, the emissions of carbon dioxides incorporate one hypothesis called the environmental Kuznets curve. Concerning the EKC hypothesis, at the initial stage, an increase in economic growth leads to increase CO2 emissions and after reaching the threshold level further increase in economic growth reduces CO2 emissions (Mahdi Ziaei 2015).
Recently, numerous financial development indicators were added to the environment-growth-energy model by the analyses of researchers (for example, Farhani and Ozturk 2015; Dogan and Seker 2016a). Supporting the views of the above researchers, the efforts of incorporating the financial development indicator into the debate on the link between environmental variables, economic growth per capita, and energy consumption are not far-fetched. This is due to financial development indicators that may invite foreign direct investment (FDI), knowledge, and research and development, which can reduce energy consumptions and increase economic growth (Frankel and Romer 1999). It will consequently enhance environmental performance. Second, high financial development provides opportunities and motivation to developing countries to use advance environment-friendly production technologies. This may boost regional development and sustainability and enhance environmental quality (Frankel and Rose 2002). Third, the environmental degradation through high industrial pollutions may also be mitigated by high financial development. It offers that financial development can play an important role in environmental improvement by facilitating financing at lower costs of investment in environment-friendly projects (Jansen 1996).
The energy-environmental-income literature comprises numerous numbers of country-specific studies, which validate the EKC hypothesis and impact economic growth and energy consumption on environmental degradation (for instance, Farhani et al. 2014; Heidari et al. 2015; Kasman et al. 2015; Seker et al. 2015; Li et al. 2016; Zambrano-Monserrate et al. 2016; Balaguer and Cantavella 2016; Gokmenoglu and Taspinar 2016; Awad and Abugamos 2017). Similarly, the EKC was validated for panel countries (Al-Mulali et al. 2015a, b; Apergis and Ozturk 2015; Heidari et al. 2015; Kasman et al. 2015; Zaman et al. 2016; Ouyang and Lin 2017; Keho 2017; Le and Quah 2018), whereas with respect to the above literature, the EKC hypothesis was investigated but not confirmed by a numerous number of studies such as Farhani and Ozturk (2015), Ozturk et al. (2016), Hao et al. (2016), Le (2016), Ali et al. (2017), and Hafeez et al. (2018).
In the existing literature, a large number of studies have also investigated the EKC hypothesis along with financial development in country-specific studies (Farhani and Ozturk 2015; Seker et al. 2015) and for panel studies (Gokmenoglu and Taspinar 2016; Ozturk et al. 2016). Hence, the state-of-the-art related to the above-discussed areas examined different countries and regions worldwide and provided inconclusive and mixed results.
This study aims to investigate the impact of financial development and economic growth on environmental quality. Currently, 71 BRI countries are hosted by the State Information Center (Krane 2018); however, the selection of countries and the starting time period were constrained by the availability of data. Therefore, it reduced our sample size from 71 countries to 59 countries. The data is retrieved from the World Development Indicators, at the World Bank website (http://data.worldbank.org), from 1990 to 2016. The analyzed variables, i.e. CO2 emissions in metric tons per capita is used as a proxy to measure environmental quality and economic growth, and the square of economic growth is measured by real gross domestic product per capita in constant 2010 USD. The proxies used to measure financial development are the domestic credit to private sector % of GDP (FDPS), domestic credit provided by the financial sector % of GDP (FDFS), and domestic credit provided to the private sector by banks % of GDP (FDB) (Shahbaz et al. 2017). This study used the domestic credit to private sector percent of GDP as a measure of financial development, and other measures, i.e. the domestic credit provided by the financial sector (% of GDP) and the domestic credit provided to the private sector by banks (% of GDP), are used as proxies for robustness check. Foreign direct investment is measured as the net inflows percentage of GDP. Trade openness is measured by the sum of imports and exports of goods and services percentage of GDP. The electricity consumption is measured by electric power consumption (kWh) per capita. The variables and their descriptions are presented in Table 1. It is worth to mention here that in this study, we use the software Stata/MP 13.0 version, EViews 9.5 version, and Origin-Pro 2016.
where i denotes the number of countries; t indicates the number of periods; β0 indicates the slope intercept; β1, β2,…, β6 are the coefficient estimates of electricity consumption, economic growth, square of GDP, financial development, foreign direct investment, and trade; and λ denotes the error term.
The summary statistics of the 59 BRI countries over the period 1990–2016 is provided in Table 2. The statistics indicate that there is a high variation in the level of economic growth, i.e. the highest value 18,858.88976 USD in Qatar, while the lowest value 103.5972509 USD in Nepal. According to the World Development Indicators, the mean value of the economic growth fluctuates from 53,018.82278 to 267.5014013. The foreign direct investment net inflows indicate a great variation in ranges from 540.9635554 USD in Georgia to 0.174559078 USD in Nepal, with mean values that varies from 1941.295885 to 0.22494149. The electricity consumption ranges from 3556.343579 total energy consumed in Kuwait to 0.883996129 total energy consumed in Georgia. The variation in energy use differs from region to region due to technology variations and different policy frameworks. The mean values for electricity consumption vary from 18,915.6159 to 1.65129982. The CO2 emissions varies from 5.54662255 metric tons per capita in United Arab Emirates to 0.06922162 metric tons per capita in Myanmar, and its mean values vary from 52.22123351 to 0.136296933.
The selected 59 BRI countries can be cross-sectionally dependent. The first-generation panel unit root tests may not be reliable to apply due to the low power of the test (O'Connell 1998). However, to overcome this problem, this study preferred to use the cross-sectional Im, Pesaran, and Shin (CIPS) and cross-sectional augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) techniques established by Pesaran (2004, 2007). The CIPS and CADF account for the problem of cross-sectional dependence from country to country and produce consistent and reliable results in the presence of both cross-sectional dependence (CD) and HTR. Therefore, this study prefers to use the second-generation unit root test over the first-generation unit root tests like IPS, LLC, and ADF.
The reported results of the second-generation unit root tests (i.e. CADF and CIPS) are provided in Table 3. The reported results from both tests indicate that all the variables are stationary at first differences at 1% and 10% levels of significance. Hence, the reported variables are integrated at first differences [I(1)].
After, confirmation that the data is stationary through CIPS and CADF unit root tests performed. Next, this study prefers to apply the Westerlund panel cointegration test developed by Westerlund (2007) to capture cross-sectional dependency in the data. It is significant to check the cointegration among the variables of interest. The Westerlund (2007) cointegration test provides more robust and consistent results for cointegration. The results are divided into two: group statistics (Gt, Ga) and panel statistics (Pt, Pa). Group statistics do not imply information from the error correlation term, while the panel statistics are basically based on amalgamating the information from the error correction mechanism along with cross-sectional units (Latif et al. 2018). The results are reported in Table 4, which reveals that the null hypothesis of no cointegration is rejected. Hence, the cointegration exists among CO2 emissions, financial development, foreign direct investment, economic growth, electricity consumption, and trade openness for 59 BRI countries.
The estimation of long-run coefficients of the analyzed variables (such as economic growth, square of economic growth, foreign direct investment, financial development, electricity consumption, and trade openness) is one of the important inferences of an empirical work. The issues of heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence arise in panel data, keeping such issues in mind this study prefers to use the second-generation estimator, namely "dynamic seemingly unrelated cointegrating regressions (DSUR)" documented by Mark et al. (2005), rather than first-generation estimators such as FMOLS and DOLS. In case the value of T is greater than the value of N, still this estimator can provide good prediction and consistent normal distribution. The results of the dynamic seemingly unrelated regression estimator are presented in Table 5.
The coefficient estimates are statistically significant at 1% and 10% levels, as reported in Table 5. The reported data are first converted into their natural logarithm, and the estimated coefficients transported are similar to the elasticity levels of emissions of carbon dioxide with respect to the analyzed variables, i.e. economic growth, square of economic growth, foreign direct investment, trade openness, financial development, and electricity consumption. However, the magnitude of coefficients (for all variables) in model-1, model-2, and model-3 varies across the estimators used and their sign remains the same along with significance levels across all the models (except for trade openness in model-1 and model-3). The emissions of CO2 have used a proxy for environmental quality. The finding shows that the coefficient of economic growth is positive, and the square of economic growth is negative, while their magnitude varies across the models. Therefore, regarding the effects of economic growth, the squares of economic growth are positive (1.3370240, 1.3292260, and 1.3403820) and negative (− 0.1278405, − 0.1276813, and − 0.1282594) on CO2 emissions across model-1, model-2, and model-3, respectively. In other words, an increase in economic growth can lead to boost environmental quality after reaching the economic growth to the threshold level in the selected BRI countries. More precisely, the influence of growth on CO2 emissions shows that the marginal effect of economic growth at the initial stage is positive, and starts to decline gradually and finally becomes negative. This finding validates the possible presence of the EKC hypothesis for the 59 BRI panel countries. This finding is in line with Bekhet and Othman (2017) for Malaysia, Zhang et al. (2017) for newly industrialized countries, and Zaman and Moemen (2017) for low-, middle-, and high-income countries and for the aggregated panel. On contrary, our finding is not in line with Ozturk and Al-Mulali (2015b) for Cambodia, Inglesi-Lotz and Dogan (2018) for Sub-Saharan African countries, and Hafeez et al. (2018) for OBORI countries. One of the possible reasons for the presence of the EKC hypothesis can be that these economies enhances environmental quality by reducing the volume of polluted goods in electricity consumption activities.
The reported results indicate that FDI has a negative and highly significant (at the 1% level of significance) long-run impact on environmental quality. A 1% increase in FDI can reduce CO2 emissions by − 0.0308394%, − 0.0321419%, and − 0.0306342% (in model-1, model-2, and model-3), respectively. In other words, an increase in FDI leads to reduced energy consumption, which results in mitigation of CO2 emissions. More precisely, an increase in FDI and a reduction in energy consumption improve environmental quality levels, which contrast the pollution haven hypothesis for BRI countries. This finding is in line with Linh and Lin (2012) for Vietnam, Abbasi and Riaz (2016) for Pakistan, and Shao (2018) for 188 panel countries. They found in their studies that an increase in FDI inflows brought technological improvement in the country which led to mitigation of CO2 emissions or enhancement of environmental quality. On the other hand, our finding is not in line with Seker et al. (2015) and Gokmenoglu and Taspinar (2016) for Turkey. Our result supports the view that higher FDI inflows can boost research and development (R&D), which might affect environmental quality (Jalil and Feridun 2011).
The magnitude of the coefficient of CO2 emissions with respect to electricity consumption is positive and significant. It implies that a 1% rise in electricity power consumptions can cause an increase in CO2 emissions by 0.5901918%, 0.5901644%, and 0.5898893% (in model-1, model-2, and model-3), respectively, on average all else same. This finding specifies that an escalation in electricity consumption can affect positively on emissions of CO2 in the long run. In another expression, a rise in electricity consumption drives down environmental quality or increases environmental degradation in the selected panel of BRI countries. The finding of the positive impact of electricity consumption towards CO2 emissions is in line with and supports the finding reached by Javid and Sharif (2016) for Pakistan, Kasman and Duman (2015) for EU member countries, and Zhang and Gao (2016) for China. On the other hand, our finding is not in line with the finding reached by Al-Mulali et al. (2015a, b) for 93 countries and by Dogan and Seker (2016b) for European Union countries. The finding reveals that electricity is currently a critical factor for CO2 emissions level, which is highly alarming in the BRI countries. The high energy consumption level causes high environmental degradation, and thus, the policymaker needs to focus on the technological advancement, which can reduce the intensity of CO2 emissions by enhancing electricity consumption efficiency (Choi et al. 2012). The carbon-free energy source (e.g., nuclear and wind)–related advanced technology is also conducive to improve environmental quality (Chen et al. 2011).
The coefficient of trade openness with respect to CO2 emissions is − 0.0207214, − 0.0276872, and − 0.0214781, respectively. The estimated coefficient of trade openness in model-1, model-2, and model-3 varies with a same negative sign. The finding infers that the trade openness significantly and positively impacts environmental quality in model-2 only, and is insignificant across model-1 and model-3. The results indicate that trade openness in model-1 and in model-3 neither contributes to enhancing environmental quality. Hence, only the financial sector positively contributed to trade openness to improve environmental quality in the selected panel countries.
The reported result for financial development shows that financial development negatively and significantly impacts CO2 emissions, across all different measures used for financial development. The coefficients of financial development (i.e., FDPS, FDFS, and FDB) in model-1, model-2, and model-3 are − 0.0544436, − 0.0586865, and − 0.0520391, respectively, which infers that the magnitude of the coefficient estimates along with three different financial development measures used provides significant and similar results bearing the same negative sign. This finding determines that financial development has significant and negative impact on emissions of CO2. In other words, financial development positively contributes to enhancing environmental quality or environmental cleaning in selected BRI countries. Our result is similar to the finding reached by Al-Mulali et al. (2016) for Kenya and by Khan et al. (2017) for different regions of the world. In contrast, our result is not in line with Mahalik et al. (2017) for Saudi Arabia, Bekhet and Othman (2017) for Malaysia, Saud et al. (2018) for China, and Hafeez et al. (2018) for OBORI countries. The higher financial development attracts FDI, which may result in boost R&D in the regions. This situation might promote investment activities, enhancing economic growth, and can affect the dynamics of environmental quality (Jalil and Feridun 2011). The efficient management of research and development in the regions might enhance environmental quality with low CO2 emissions. In addition, higher financial development can enhance the mobilization of financial capitals for environmental safety-related projects and can also mitigate debt costs (Tamazian et al. 2009). Our finding also supports the view of Kumbaroǧlu et al. (2008), who offer that a well-functioning financial sector of an economy facilitates all tiers of government to take loans for environment-related projects, and bring superior technology innovations in the regions, which significantly contribute to environmental quality by reducing emissions (in the energy sector). Hence, it is crucial to focus on financial development which might have a significantly positive impact on environmental quality by reducing CO2 emissions in the BRI countries.
Along with panel estimation, it is imperative to present the long-run country-wise estimation for appropriate policymaking and implication. The country-wise results are presented in Table 6. The empirical finding shows that an increase in GDP positively and significantly enhances carbon emissions. Additionally, the square of real GDP negatively and significantly stimulates carbon emissions for the same countries like Brunei Darussalam, China, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam. These results validate the EKC hypothesis for the above 23-countries. Besides, an increase in GDP negatively and significantly stimulates CO2 emissions for countries like Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Korea Republic, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Turkey, and Yemen. On the other hand, the results show a positive and significant relationship between carbon emissions and square of economic growth for countries like Albania, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Korea Republic, Lebanon, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Turkey, and South Africa.
The reported coefficient of financial development is positively and significantly related to CO2 emissions in countries like Albania, Bangladesh, Belarus, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Vietnam, and Yemen, and negative relationships were found between financial development and CO2 emissions for countries like Brunei Darussalam, Czech Republic, Egypt, Korea, Macedonia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, and Ukraine.
The estimated coefficient of foreign direct investment to CO2 emissions is significant and positive for countries like Ethiopia, Hungary, India, Israel, Macedonia, Mongolia, Nepal, Qatar, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. Similarly, the negative and significant impact of foreign direct investment on CO2 is observed for countries like Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Turkey.
Regarding the coefficient of electricity consumption, the results infers that electricity consumptions positively and significantly impact CO2 emissions for countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech, Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirate, Vietnam, and Yemen Republic. On the other hand is negatively and significantly impact on CO2 emissions for countries like Russia and Tajikistan.
Finally, the trade openness positively and significantly impacts on CO2 emissions for countries like Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, and negatively and significantly impacts emissions of CO2 for countries like Albania, Cambodia, India, Israel, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, and Tajikistan.
Along with the short-run and the long-run relationship among the explanatory variables, it is imperative to know the causal links among them. This study relies on the recent pairwise Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) panel causality test established by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012). It is an advanced version of the Granger non-causality test for panel data. Additionally, this technique comprises two statistics, i.e., Wbar statistics and Zbar statistics. The Wbar statistics yields the test average statistics, while the standard normal distribution is represented by the Zbar statistics (Dumitrescu and Hurlin 2012). Finally, the direction of causality will assist the policymakers in order to regulate appropriate economic policies along with environmental strategies in the selected BRI countries.
The DH panel causality test results are provided in Table 7. The direction and sign of causality can be identified from the coefficients of significance levels of the desired variables. The results unveil that in the long-run bidirectional causality, feedback effect exists between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions. Similar results are also confirmed by prior scholars, such as Katircioglu (2017). The direction of causality shows that economic growth causes carbon emissions, and vice versa. The economic growth causes high CO2 emissions in the BRI countries, which implies that economic growth not only corrosively affects environmental quality, causing global warming, but also can affect human health. The high economic growth among the BRI countries can lead to long-term pollution. Such worsen situation can be controlled through the availability of pollution-fighting equipment and through the use of advanced technology. In case some BRI countries would not take any CO2 emissions prevention initiatives or pollution-fighting steps in the long run, the EKC will most likely to change from the inverted U-shaped curve to the N-shaped curve. Likewise, the results also support the bidirectional causality between the square of economic growth and CO2 emissions. This result is in line with the result reached by Katircioglu (2017). Similarly, a bidirectional causal relationship exists between financial development and CO2 emissions. The presence of two-way causality between CO2 emissions and financial development is also called the feedback hypothesis, which infers that both financial development and emissions of carbon are joint effects on each other (Al-Mulali et al. 2015a). The bidirectional relationship was also observed between foreign direct investment and CO2 emissions. Salahuddin et al. (2017) also find a similar causal link in their study. Two-way causal relationships exist between trade openness and economic growth, which is similar to the finding reached by Dogan and Turkekul (2015). Electricity consumption and CO2 emissions also have a two-way causal link, which supports the causal relationship reached by Farhani and Ozturk (2015). A bidirectional causal link exists between trade and financial development, which is similar to the finding of Dogan and Turkekul (2015). A two-way causality link was observed between trade openness and GDP, the same finding detected by Dogan and Turkekul (2015). Trade openness and CO2 emissions also have bidirectional causality. This result supports the finding reached by Farhani and Ozturk (2015). Similarly, bidirectional causal relationships were observed between; foreign direct investment and economic growth, trade openness and economic growth, electricity consumption and economic growth, trade openness and square of economic growth, financial development and square of economic growth, foreign direct investment and financial development, electricity consumption and foreign direct investment, trade openness and financial development, and trade openness and electricity power consumption. Besides, a unidirectional causal relationship was detected, running from trade openness towards foreign direct investment. Moreover, there is no causal link detected between foreign direct investment and trade openness, and foreign direct investment and CO2 emissions.
This study aims to investigate the impact of financial development and economic growth on environmental quality thoroughly and more deeply, to contribute theoretically as well as empirically to the well-known EKC model in the selected BRI countries for the period 1990–2016. The selected BRI countries are composed of a large part of the world and account for a large level of carbon emissions, foreign direct investment, financial development, economic growth, electricity consumption, and trade openness. The empirical finding of this study is of essential guidance and assistance for the governments and policymakers to initiate and sharpen the environmental regulation-related policies in the selected panel countries. Initially, to check the presence of cross-sectional dependence in panel data, Pesaran's CD test is used. The CIPS and CADF panel unit root tests are employed, which interpret cross-sectional dependence in panel data and provide more robust results. The finding shows the presence of stationarity at their first differences among the analyzed variables. Further, to solve the heterogeneity problems, the Westerlund (2007) cointegration test is used. The novel dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR) estimator is employed. Moreover, the country-wise results are also provided for better policy implication. Finally, the newly developed Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel causality approach is used to detect the causal relationships among the analyzed variables.
The long-run cointegration coefficients were estimated by the DSUR method developed by Mark et al. (2005), which provide more reliable and robust results. The empirical results from the DSUR estimate validate the EKC hypothesis for the selected panel countries. The foreign direct investment, financial development, and trade openness (i.e., trade openness only in model-2) enhances environmental quality. Finally, the electricity consumption in the BRI countries negatively contributes to environmental quality. The DH panel causality test results reveals the presence of bidirectional causality between FDI and financial development, FDI and environmental quality, economic growth and environmental quality, square of economic growth and environmental quality, financial development and environmental quality, economic growth and electricity consumption, foreign direct investment and economic growth, and electricity power consumption and financial development. Furthermore, the presence of one-way causal relationships was observed running from FDI towards both environmental quality and trade openness.
The country-wise analysis empirical results validate the EKC hypothesis in 23-countries, and the negative impact of economic growth on the environment is observed in 26-countries. Financial development negatively contributes to environmental quality in 12-countries and positively contributes to environmental quality in 9-BRI countries. Similarly, FDI negatively impacts environmental quality in 11-countries and positively impacts environmental quality in 9-countries. The electricity consumption negatively contributes to the environment in 44-countries and positively contributes to enhancing environmental quality in 2-BRI countries. Likewise, trade openness is positively contributing in enhancing environmental quality in 14-countries and, on the other hand, is negatively contributing in enhancing environmental quality in 10-BRI countries.
In regard to policy implications and recommendations, the governments and the energy-environmental policymakers need to take several initiative steps to identify and implement appropriate interventions to break and mitigate the boosting trends of CO2 emissions in high-CO2 emissions BRI countries. These countries should increase the real economic growth via boosting production of goods and services (as the panel results validate the EKC hypotheses) to mitigate emissions of carbon. Furthermore, taking into account the global pressure to increase economic growth, the stakeholders aims to reduce the financial costs involved and ensure the social benefits. Second, the energy consumption in these countries can also be mitigated via high financial supports of scientific intuitions and research-related projects. These steps can efficiently reduce energy intensity by embracing electricity consumption efficiency, as Wang et al. (2015) find that high energy consumption is a potential motive for enhancing the level of carbon emissions. Third, the governments and policymakers should increase shares in the financial development of the financial sector, to highly invest in the energy-efficient and environment-friendly related projects, which will also mitigate energy consumption from trade openness. Mukhopadhyay (2009) offers that trade openness is highly contributing to economic growth and environmental degradation in emerging countries including China, Thailand, and Indonesia. Further clean and environment-friendly technologies are required for trade goods productions, as an increase in intra-group trade among BRI countries can assist the adaptation of advance environment-friendly technologies, i.e., technology spillover.
Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and Twenty-First century Maritime Silk Road, the People's Republic of China, March 2015.
The authors wish to thank to the responsible editor: Dr. Muhammad Shahbaz and anonymous reviewers' referees for their constructive and valuable comments for enhancing the quality of the paper. This work is a research achievement of the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the project of (NSFC-71672009.71372016).


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Watch: Rae Morris' new video for 'Someone Out There' is a family affair
It features three generations of Rae's family and the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service.
Rae Morris released her latest album 'Someone Out There' back in February, and now she's headed to Blackpool in the video for the title track.
The clip features three generations of Rae's family (and a lot of very cute dogs), as well as a cast of colourful characters and the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service. There's a reason that there's firefighters in the clip though: Rae's dad was a firefighter for 30 years and the clip was shot alongside those whom Rae's known since she was a child.
Speaking of the video, Rae offered: "It was amazing finally getting to make a video in Blackpool. Noel and Gabe came over from New York (where I'd been for 'Do It') and I loved showing them around my hometown and helping them document the place that I spent most of my life so far."
She continued: "This video is full of special moments for me. Playing on the Blackpool Tower Ballroom Wurlitzer after dreaming of it since I was a kid and dancing around the room with my nana are things I'll never forget. Someone Out There is a reminder that no matter who you are or where you are, there is always someone who loves and cares for you."
Rae continues her extensive tour of the UK tomorrow in Nottingham, with a few dates left on the run. Tickets are on sale now.
We caught up with Rae last month to chat about 'Someone Out There'. Read the full interview here.
Watch the video for 'Someone Out There' and see her remaining UK tour dates below.
23 Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
24 Bristol, Marble Factory
25 Brighton, Concorde 2
28 London, Heaven
Rae Morris plays Live At Leeds (5th May) where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.
December 2019 / January 2020 ft the Class of 2020
With Dry Cleaning, Beabadoobee, Do Nothing, Squid, girl in red, Arlo Parks and many more.
Find out all the info here >>
Lazarus Kane, PVA and more bring the eclectic underbelly to Hello 2020
Sleep Eaters and Silverbacks also took to the Old Blue Last's stage for Night Two of the series.
Tracks: The 1975, Soccer Mommy, King Krule and more
The biggest and best tracks of the past week, rounded up and reviewed.
Relive the action from our Class of 2020 Launch Party at House of Vans London
Featuring Luna Bay, Walt Disco, Talk Show and Do Nothing!
Big Albums in 2020: The Magic Gang
With their self-titled debut, The Magic Gang smashed into the Top 20 and proved that indie wasn't dead. Now, they're broadening their horizons and getting ready to hit the sweet spot once again.
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Au147 nanoparticles : Ordered or amorphous ?
Structural aspects of the Au147 nanoparticles have been investigated through a density functional based tight binding global optimization involving a parallel tempering molecular dynamics scheme with quenching followed by geometries relaxation at the Density Functional Theory (DFT) level. The focus is put on the competition between relaxed ordered regular geometries and disordered (or amorphous) structures. The present work shows that Au147 amorphous geometries are relevant low energy candidates and are likely to contribute in finite temperature dynamics and thermodynamics. The structure of the amorphous-like isomers is discussed from the anisotropy parameters, the atomic coordinations, the radial and pair distribution functions, the IR spectra, and the vibrational DOS. With respect to the regular structures, the amorphous geometries are shown to be characterized by a larger number of surface atoms, a less dense volume with reduced coordination number per atom, a propensity to increase the dimension of flat facets at the surface, and a stronger anisotropy. Moreover, all amorphous clusters have similar IR spectra, almost continuous with active frequencies over the whole spectral range, while symmetric clusters are characterized by a few lines with large intensities.
Melting of the Au20 Gold Cluster : Does Charge Matter ?
We investigate the dependence upon the charge of the heat capacities of magic gold cluster Au20 obtained from density functional-based tight binding theory within parallel tempering molecular dynamics and the multiple histogram method. The melting temperatures, determined from the heat capacity curves, are found to be 1102 K for neutral Au20 and only 866 and 826 K for Au20+ and Au20–. Both the canonical and the microcanonical aspects of the transition are discussed. A convex intruder, associated with a negative heat capacity, is evidenced in the microcanonical entropy in the case of the neutral cluster but is absent in the melting processes of the ions. The present work shows that a single charge quantitatively affects the thermal properties of the gold 20mer.
The global optimization of metallic clusters is an important topic because nanoclusters exhibit structure-dependent properties. In this paper, we present a global optimization study of Ag20, Au20, Ag55 and Au55 in their neutral and charge states (-1, 0, +1) conducted using a Parallel-Tempering Molecular Dynamics algorithm at the DFTB level without pre-screening. For Au20, Ag20 and their ions, the present DFTB low energy structures are in good agreement with previously published calculations and experimental data. In the case of Ag55- and Au55-, the present study is consistent with photo-electron detachment experiments suggesting highly symmetric icosahedral structures for silver and more disordered morphologies for gold. The present results are also compatible with trapped ion electron diffraction experiments and calculations for Ag55+ and Ag55-. We report low-energy isomers of Au55 exhibiting cavities below their external shell. This work quantitatively confirms the relevance of DFTB for structure calculation of noble metal clusters. Furthermore, it also demonstrates the feasibility of global optimization using DFTB, without pre-screening through classical potential, for sizes up to a few tens of atoms and for different charge states.
We benchmark existing and improved self-consistent-charge density functional based tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) atomic parameters for silver and gold clusters as well as for bulk materials. In the former case, our benchmarks focus on both the structural and energetic properties of small-size AgN and AuN clusters (N from 2 to 13), medium-size clusters with N = 20 and 55, and finally larger nanoparticles with N = 147, 309 and 561. For bulk materials, structural, energetics and elastic properties are discussed. We show that SCC-DFTB is quite satisfactory in reproducing essential differences between silver and gold aggregates, in particular their 2D-3D structural transitions, and their depen- dency upon cluster charge. SCC-DFTB is also in agreement with DFT and experiments in the medium-size regime regarding the energetic ordering of the different low-energy isomers and allows for an overall satisfactory treatment of bulk properties. A consistent convergence between the cohesive energies of the largest investigated nanoparticles and the bulk's is obtained. Based on our results for nanoparticles of increasing size, a two- parameter analytical extrapolation of the cohesive energy is proposed. This formula takes into account the reduction of the cohesive energy for undercoordinated surface sites and converges properly to the bulk cohesive energy. Values for the surface sites cohesive energies are also proposed.
Cobalt nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized in liquid environments present anisotropic shaped nanocrystals such as disks, plates, rods, wires or cubes. Though the synthesis parameters (precursor, reducing agent, stabilizing ligands, concentration, temperature or rate of precursor injection) controlling the final morphologies are experimentally well controlled, little is known concerning the growth mechanisms at the atomic scale. In this work, we intend to predict the morphology variation of hcp cobalt NPs as a function of the ligand concentration. To this aim, we consider two well-established thermodynamic models and develop a new kinetic one. These models require the knowledge of the adsorption behaviors of stabilizing molecules as a function of surface coverage on preferential facets of NPs. To this end, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed on the adsorption of a model carboxylate ligand CH3COO on different Co crystalline surfaces. The shapes of the Co NPs obtained by these models are compared to experimental morphologies and other theoretical results from the literature. While thermodynamic models are in poor agreement with experimental observations, the variety of shapes predicted by the kinetic model is much more promising. Our study confirms that the morphological control of NPs is mostly driven by kinetic effects.
Core–shell nanoparticles made from iron embedded in gold have a strong potential interest in nanomedicine, the Au shell providing an efficient biocompatible coating for the magnetic Fe core. With the aim of determining theoretically the equilibrium morphologies of Fe–Au nanoparticles in a broad size range and with different compositions, a semiempirical many-body Fe–Au potential was designed combining well-established models for the pure metals and introducing dedicated contributions for the interactions involving mixed elements. The potential was parametrized against various energetic properties involving impurities, intermetallics, and finite clusters obtained using density functional calculations in the generalized gradient approximation. The potential was tested to investigate Fe–Au nanoparticles near equiconcentration containing about 1000–2000 atoms at finite temperature using parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations initiated from the core–shell structure. The core–shell nanoparticles are found to be thermally stable up to about 800 K, at which point the gold outer layer starts to melt, with the iron core remaining stable up to approximately 1200 K. In contrast, the alternative potential developed by Zhou and co-workers (Zhou, X. Z. ; Johnson, R. A. ; Wadley, H. N. G. Phys. Rev. B, 2004, 69, 144113) predicts a strong tendency for mixing, the core–shell structure appearing energetically metastable. The two models also predict significantly different vibrational spectra.
Whereas the bulk equiatomic FeRh alloy with B2 structure is antiferromagnetic (AFM) below 370K, we demonstrate that the surface configuration can stabilize the low temperature ferromagnetic (FM) state in FeRh nanoparticles in the 6–10 nm range. The most stable configuration for FM nanoparticles, predicted through first-principles calculations, is obtained in magnetron sputtering synthesized nanoparticles. The structure, morphology and Rh-(100) surface termination are confirmed by aberration-corrected (scanning) transmission electron microscopy. The FM magnetic state is verified by vibrating sample magnetometry experiments. This combined theoretical and experimental study emphasizes the strong interplay between surface configuration, morphology and magnetic state in magnetic nanoparticles. EPL, 116 27006 (2016).
Iron-Gold core-shell nanocrystals : A question of balance - The nature and the stress state of the exposed facets determine the capacity of nanocrystals to bind to or dissociate a target molecule. They can be mastered by transposing the island growth conditions on a crystalline substrate to core-shell nanocrystals. This has just been demonstrated by a CEMES team and collaborators in Gold-Iron (Fe @ Au) nanoparticles. This work is published in Nanoletters.


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Justia US Law US Regulations Patent and Trademark Office 2011 August
Patent and Trademark Office August 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents
Patent and Trademark Resource Centers Metrics
Document Number: 2011-22044
Type: Notice
Agency: Department of Commerce, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on this new information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).
https://regulations.justia.com/regulations/fedreg/2011/08/30/2011-22044.html
Establishing a One-Year Retention Period for Patent-Related Papers That Have Been Scanned Into the Image File Wrapper System or the Supplemental Complex Repository for Examiners
Agency: Department of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is considering establishing a retention period of one year for patent- related papers that have been scanned into the Image File Wrapper system (IFW) or the Supplemental Complex Repository for Examiners (SCORE). Specifically, the USPTO is considering establishing a one-year retention period that begins on September 1, 2011, for papers scanned into IFW or SCORE prior to September 1, 2011; or a paper's submission date, for papers scanned into IFW or SCORE on or after September 1, 2011. After the expiration of the one-year retention period (after September 1, 2012, or later), the USPTO would dispose of the paper unless, within sufficient time prior to disposal of the paper, the relevant patent applicant, patent owner, or reexamination party files a bona fide request to correct the electronic record of the paper in IFW or SCORE, and the request remains outstanding at the time disposal of the paper would have otherwise occurred. Establishing a one-year retention period for papers scanned into IFW or SCORE would replace the USPTO's past practice of indefinitely retaining the papers, which has been rendered unnecessary and cost-ineffective by improvements in scanning and indexing.
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Certificate Action Form
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).