**Author details**

**6. Conclusions**

**Acknowledgements**

analysis.

**54**

**Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

a. The subterranean diversity in fish and crustaceans species is high in relation

c. The energy to support this diversity had a main source from outside through

d. These ecosystems are strong relationship with outside tropical environments.

This manuscript is an outcome of the Biospeleology and Carcinology Lab that has been award for several research funding PRODEP-SEP: Subterranean Biodiversity of Cozumel Island; CONACYT-258494: Molecular systematics of freshwater prawns of genus *Macrobrachium* with abbreviated larval development and their relationship with Guatemala & Belize, UQRoo: Los langostinos del género

*Macrobrachium* en México. Also the authors give thanks to those authorities to give permissions to explored and collected animals in the three countries: SEMARNAT, CONANP (Mexico); CONAP (Guatemala); Fisheries and Aquaculture Department (Belize). Special thanks are given to Friends for Conservation, and Belize Audubon Society ONG's from Belize to facilities given to explore Chiquibul and Karstic areas. The authors give thanks to those speleological groups and people that contribute to located the caves in the region as Valerio Sbordoni, Círculo Espeleológico del Mayab, and for their help in the field trip B. Flores, J. Pérez Brückweh, L.

Rodriguez, Y. Chable, E. Espadas, X. Rosales, M. Mejia, M. Mejia, J. Cupul, E. Sosa, M. Vazquez, A. Chale, S. Leal, J. M. Tejeda, and to J. Cupul for their help in the data

b. The cave decapods is the taxa with major diversity in subterranean

the carry of organic matter by bats or hydrological r egimens.

with the tropical surrounded environments.

*Natural History and Ecology of Mexico and Central America*

Mesoamerican ecosystems

Luis M. Mejía-Ortíz1,6\*, Peter Sprouse2,5, Juan C. Tejeda-Mazariegos1 , Jair Valladarez3 , Oscar Frausto-Martínez4 , Alejandro L. Collantes-Chavez-Costa5 , Guillermo Ruíz-Cancino1 and German Yáñez6

1 Biospeleology and Carcinology Lab, Sustainability Development Division, University of Quintana Roo, Cozumel, Mexico

2 Zara Environmental LLC, Manchaca, TX, USA

3 Belmopan, University of Belize, Belmopan Belize

4 Spatial Observation Lab, Sustainability Development Division, University of Quintana Roo, Cozumel, Mexico

5 Sustainability Development Division, University of Quintana Roo, Cozumel, Mexico

6 Speleological Circle of Mayab, Cozumel, Mexico

\*Address all correspondence to<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Colombia Scientific Program within the framework called "Ecosistema Científico" (Contract No. FP44842-218-2018).


**2. Legislative framework**

There is an extensive number of good legislative frameworks designed to address issues of corruption, ethics, maladministration, etc.

#### **2.1 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996**

Chapter 10, Section 195 of the constitution advocates for the following:

*Promoting Ethics in the South African Public Sector: One Block of a Puzzle towards Curbing… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108425*

#### **2.2 Prevention and combating of corruption activities act 12 of 2004**

This is the main legislative prescript developed to deal with corruption matters in South Africa. The Act makes provisions for the following:

#### **2.3 The protected disclosures act 26 (2000)**

This covers employees in both the public and private sectors. Employees are supposed to disclose unlawful and irregular misconduct involving their employer and fellow employees. This act also makes provision for the protection of employees, provides information and makes known the unlawful and irregular as indicated in the Act.

#### **2.4 Whistleblower protection act (2014)**

This act aims at the establishment of mechanisms with regards to receipt of complaints that relate to disclosure of allegations of corruption and wilful misuse of power or wilful misuse of discretion against any public servant. It also aims to enquire about such disclosure and guard against victimisation of whistleblowers and related matters and other incidents.

#### **2.5 Public service code of conduct**

The code of conduct was developed in order to support and bring practicality to the provisions of the constitution relating to the public services. All public service employees are expected to adhere to the code of conduct. The code provides guidelines for what is expected of the employees with regard to ethical conduct. This applies to employees' individual conduct and their relationship with others. In an attempt to enhance professionalism and ensure confidence, compliance with the code is important.

#### **2.6 Public sector integrity management framework**

The framework was introduced to strengthen measures and standards for managing integrity and promoting ethical conduct in the public sector. It entails measures for managing unethical conduct that may arise because of financial interests, gifts,

hospitality and other benefits, post-public employment and remunerative work outside the public sector. Further proposals have been made in respect of deployment of ethics officers in the public sector and minimum conduct requirements.

#### **2.7 Public service regulations, 2016**

Public Service Regulations, 13 (c) prohibits employees from conducting business with state institutions or directing a public or private company to do business with state institutions. As in the prevention and combating of corruption act, employees are obliged to make known with immediate effect to the relevant persons and any act of unethical conduct that comes to his or her knowledge while serving in public office.

#### **2.8 Public administration management act 2014**

Among others, the aim of this Act is to market the essential values and principles governing the general public administration brought up in Section 195(1) of the constitution; to determine the general public administration ethics, integrity and disciplinary technical assistance unit; to assist the Minister to determine minimum norms and standards for public administration and to institute the office of standards and compliance to confirm compliance with minimum norms and standards.


**1. Introduction**

In nature, plants are usually under biotic stress caused by different pathogens, making their survival difficult [1]. To combat attackers, plants have developed a sophisticated immune system, whose activation usually produces a decrease in yield and fitness [2], and therefore it must be tightly regulated. In this immune system, the plant cell wall (CW) is the first physical barrier to prevent the pathogen from progressing into the cell, having the capacity for remodeling the architecture of its components and their physicochemical properties [3–5].

Plant CW is a dynamic structure which surrounds every plant cell, determining their shape and providing mechanical support to the protoplasts to counteract the turgor pressure. Elongating cells are walled by the primary CW, a thin layer in continuous change, mainly composed of a complex matrix of cellulose, pectins, and hemicelluloses, and structural glycoproteins [6,7]. Cellulose is the main CW scaffold, which is composed of numerous β-(1-4)-glucans tightly packed to form microfibrils, very resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis. The hemicelluloses and pectins, commonly named as matrix polysaccharides, are a group of several distinct polysaccharides [7]. Pectins are a group of complex acid polysaccharides that are divided in three main domains by their occurrence: homogalacturonan (HG), rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I), and rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II). The proportion of these pectin domains depends on species, tissue, and even cell type, with the presence of minor pectic domains such as apiogalacturonan or xylogalacturonan. The binding among these pectins results in complex macromolecular structures which form a

**Citation:** De la Rubia, A.G.; Mélida, H.; Centeno, M.L.; Encina, A.; García-Angulo, P. Immune Priming Triggers Cell Wall Remodeling and Increased Resistance to Halo Blight Disease in Common Bean. *Plants* **2021**, *10*, 1514. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/plants10081514

Academic Editor: William Underwood

Received: 30 June 2021 Accepted: 19 July 2021 Published: 23 July 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

hydrated gel phase where cellulose and hemicelluloses are embedded [8]. They are mostly extracted from the CW by means of calcium chelators or hot water treatments. Hemicelluloses usually bind to the surface of the cellulose microfibrils, often bearing short side branches, and are typically extracted under alkali incubation. Dominant hemicelluloses in primary CW are xyloglucan (XG), xylan, or arabinoxylan (AX) depending on plant species [9]. Accompanying polysaccharides, structural proteins such as hydroxyprolinerich glycoproteins (HRGP) or arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) are widespread in the CW matrix [10,11]. When the cell stops growing, a strengthened secondary CW, mainly composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, is deposited between preexisting primary CW and the plasma membrane [12,13].

As plant morphogenesis ultimately depends on CW properties, this structure needs to adapt to any cellular change at any developmental stage along the entire life of a plant [10]. These CW processes are tightly regulated to control the metabolism responsible of CW remodeling. Firstly, the synthesis loci differ depending on the CW polymers. Cellulose is synthesized at the plasma membrane [14], while matrix polysaccharides are deposited throughout the secretory apparatus [15,16]. Secondly, the properties that these polymers initially could confer to the matrix can be changed once they are deposited, by homo and/or hetero-crosslinking and by modifying the pattern and/or degree of backbone substitution. For instance, HG is synthesized in Golgi apparatus with most of its acidic carboxyl groups methyl-esterified, however later on, by removing the methyl groups, ionic bridges can be formed by calcium ions, establishing a network among HG chains [8]. RG-I and RG-II, which are pectins decorated with neutral sugars chains, are complex polysaccharides whose abundance, cross-linking and substitutions are also regulated in muro, depending on the development stage [8,17]. To gain resistance, RG-I backbone can be enlarged, rendering a higher molecular weight of the polysaccharides. This can be also achieved by cross-linking throughout borate diesters between the RG-II domains [17]. On the other hand, typical modifications of dicotyledonous hemicellulosic glycans are the presence of fucose or galactose residues attached to the XG backbone, which is important during the cell elongation [18]. In the same way, extensins, which are HRGP, play a crucial role in the structural and compositional CW plasticity, by forming intra- and intermolecular cross-links [19].

CW remodeling serves to strengthen the CW, maintaining the plasticity to react to environmental changes, being especially important under a pathogen attack. The role of the CW components in defense has been attested in different works carried out with several mutants mainly of the model species *Arabidopsis thaliana* (Arabidopsis), in which a specific CW alteration translated into resistance or vulnerability against different diseases [20]. For example, the impairment of cellulose synthesis in an isoxaben-resistant mutant (*ixr1*, also known as *cev1*) resulted in an enhanced resistance to fungal pathogens by means of constitutive activation of some defensive pathways [21]. Similarly, Arabidopsis mutants unable to synthesize cellulose in the secondary CW, as *irx1-6*, showed resistance against the fungus *Plectosphaerella cucumerina* and the bacterium *Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum* [22]. The impairment in the callose deposition, observed in constitutively activated cell-death (*cad1-3*) Arabidopsis mutants, produced an increment to *Pseudomonas syringae* susceptibility [23]. In the case of lignin, the overexpression of *WRKY1* gene in rice, which increased lignification and resulted in major resistance against *Verticillium dahlia* [24]. By contrast, downregulation of the genes involved in lignin biosynthesis (hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA shikimate quinate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase -HCT- or cinnamoyl-CoA reductase 1 -CCR1-), with alteration in lignin content and composition, triggered defense responses in Arabidopsis [25]. Interestingly, the role of polysaccharide feruloylation in monocot *Brachypodium* and dicot Arabidopsis was also demonstrated by the transgenic expression of a fungal feruloyl esterase in both species, which reduced mono and/or dimeric ferulic acids, resulting in major susceptibility to *Bipolaris sorokiniana* and *Botrytis cinerea*, respectively [26].

Similar effects were found when matrix polysaccharides were altered. Arabidopsis mutants repressed in glucuronate 4-epimerases genes (*gae1* and *gae6*) had an impairment in galacturonic acid and showed less resistance to *P. syringae* pv. *maculicola* and *Botrytis cinerea* [27]. In addition, Arabidopsis response regulator 6 mutant (*arr6*) was enriched in pectins and showed more resistance to *P. cucumerina* but more susceptibility to *R. pseudosolanacearum* [28]. Reductions in the content of galactomannans and in the decoration of xyloglucan, observed in immutans (*im*) variegation of Arabidopsis, involved susceptibility to *P. syringae* [29]. Finally, with respect to CW proteins, the reduced residual arabinose-2 (*rra2*) mutant, defective in extensin arabinosylation, could limit oomycete colonization in Arabidopsis roots [19]. Other CW enzymes known to participate in pathogenesis are pectin modified enzymes, such as pectin methylesterases (PME), which take part in the demethylesterification of HG. An example is the infection of *P. syringae pv. macuolicola* in Arabidopsis, which leads to an increment of PME activity [27]. Thus, *pme17* Arabidopsis mutants showed an increase in susceptibility to *B. cinerea* [30]. In the same way, PME inhibitor (PMEI) mutants such as *pmei10*, *pmei11*, and *pmei12* lead to immunity against *B. cinerea* [31].

Apart from mutants, another strategy consists in comparing resistant and susceptible wheat breeding lines to *Fusarium graminearum*. It was revealed that resistance could be due to CW changes such as a higher content of lignin, a higher degree of arabinosylation on xylans, and a higher degree and different pattern of methylesterification on pectins [32].

All these works were based on CW modified mutants or breeding lines that showed susceptibility or resistance against pathogens, but their CW was already modified on these genotypes, so the level of susceptibility was determined by a preformed structure that in some mutants involved defensive pathways constitutively activated [20]. However, much less is known about CW remodeling at a physiological stage after pathogen infection. In this sense, most studies have focused on interactions with necrotrophic fungi or insects, which produces mechanical damage in the CW by the release of CW degrading enzymes (CWDEs) [26,32]. The main documented responses so far are the local deposition of CW materials, known as papillae or the cross-linking among components of the matrix, in order to hinder the access of the pathogens to the protoplast [22,31,32]. Recently, several transcriptomic and proteomic analysis would indicate that CW remodeling is a widely extended process in nature [33–36], however the detailed characterization of the changes that take place in muro after bacteria attack remain poorly characterized.

Among other defense layers, it has been proposed that cellular defense responses can be activated, but stronger, faster, and more efficiently, by means of the application of different treatments, a phenomenon known as immune priming [37]. However, it is not known whether, somehow, this immune priming conducts to the strengthening of the CW, or the immunity triggers a remodeled CW capable to cope with a second attack from pathogens. Over the past decades, several stimuli, compounds, or abiotic stresses have been studied in order to produce priming [37–41]. This new state is reached by changes at physiological, transcriptional, metabolic, and epigenetic levels, which can hold priming throughout the entire life of a plant and can even be inherited by further generations [42,43]. Among other compounds proposed to produce this long-term effect, it is the functional salycilic acid (SA) analogue 2,6-dichloroisonicotinic acid (INA), the first synthetic compound to induce defense responses in laboratory [39]. Recent studies have proposed that INA enhances basal disease resistance in common bean (*Phaseolus vulgaris* L.) by epigenetic changes that can even be inherited [41,43]. However, although it has been described that the priming activator (R)-β-homoserine increased Arabidopsis CW defense against *H. arabidopsidis* by enhanced callose deposition [41], there are no studies that focus on CW remodeling after INA priming.

In this study, *Riñón* common bean was used. It is a widely cultivated variety in León (Spain), under the protected geographic identification (PGI) "Alubia de la Bañeza-León". This variety is attacked by the biotrophic gamma-proteobacteria *Pseudomonas syringae* pv. *phaseolicola* (Pph), causing halo blight disease [44–46], which causes yield losses of up to 45%, with its main symptoms being general chlorosis, stunting and distortion of growth [45]. Until now, disease control has mainly consisted in growing healthy seeds

every season or replacing the susceptible varieties with others more resistant. This latter alternative is not suitable when the susceptible variety cultivated has gastronomical and economic interest, such as *Riñón* [45]. *Riñón* common bean has been previously described as a Pph-susceptible variety [44], although the reasons behind this susceptibility are unknown. A recent work from our group revealed that this bean variety is able to perceive the presence of Pph but it is unable to produce an effective and fast defense response, at least in part because of the lack of a quick SA peak production [47]. This is the reason why the use of SA analogue, such INA, could help in the defense process against Pph. On the other hand, there is no knowledge about CW remodeling after the Pph infection and it becomes relevant because Pph is a CWDEs producer [48].

Taking all of this into account, the aims of the present work were to know: (1), if a susceptible bean variety can remodel its CW after Pph inoculation, (2) if the application of a priming compound, such as INA, has effects in CW remodeling, and finally, (3) if these CW changes increased bean resistance against Pph. For these purposes, 15-day-old bean plants were pretreated or not with INA, and 1 week after they were inoculated or not with Pph. One-week post infection, the plants were collected and their CWs were extracted for the subsequent analyses.

#### **2. Results**

#### *2.1. INA Reduced Bean Susceptibility to Pph and Increased Flg22-Triggered Response*

To determine whether the INA application was able to prime bean plants defense as it was described before [42,49], the phenotypical symptoms after Pph inoculation were recorded. Plants were grown in vitro, a system in which infection can be forced through high pathogen concentration and humidity and without other environmental stresses [50,51]. When plants were 2 weeks old, the experimental conditions were established as follows: bean plants pre-treated with INA (INA) or not (Mock) were inoculated with Pph (INA + Pph, and Mock + Pph, respectively) (Supplementary Figure S1A). The observed disease symptoms were similar to those previously described [45]. Mock plants grew without symptoms (Figure 1A), as their foliar color and development corresponded with the normal growth of non-stressed plants. By contrast, Mock + Pph-inoculation triggered general chlorosis, greasy appearance on leaves, and the development of necrotic tissue areas, as shown in Figure 1B, indicating the susceptibility of these plants against the pathogen. INA did not cause visible stress symptoms compared to Mock (Figure 1C). Interestingly, foliar damage produced by the Pph inoculation was reduced considerably in INA + Pph plants (Figure 1D). In this case, chlorosis was restricted to foliar margins, and no greasy leaves appeared. Therefore, compared to Mock + Pph, INA + Pph plants were more resistant to Pph, and showed a statistically smaller lesion area (Figure 1E), and interestingly showed small necrotic spots in interveinal areas, which could be the result of a hypersensitive response (highlighted area in Figure 1D), as has been observed in other bean varieties resistant to Pph [52].

**Figure 1.** Phenotypic damage caused by the virulent bacteria *P. syringae* pv. *phaseolicola* (Pph) in common bean plants. Entire plants and extended leaves are shown to compare symptoms in Mock (**A**,**C**) and INA-pre-treated plants (**B**,**D**), non- (**A**,**B**) or Pph-inoculated (**C**,**D**). In panel D, a detail of the observed necrotic spots indicative of hypersensitive response (pointed by an arrow) is shown. (**E**) Quantification of the lesion area. Data represent mean ± SE (*n* = 6) and statistically differences, indicated by letters, were achieved according to *t*-Student test (*p* < 0.05). Pictures correspond to one experiment representative of three independent ones with similar results.

In view of the results obtained, whether INA priming was able to modify the ability of Riñón variety to trigger a general defense response was investigated. For this purpose, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in bean leaf disks was monitored by a peroxidase/luminol-based assay (See Supplementary Figure S1B). This method is commonly used to reveal whether pathogen- or host-derived ligands are able to trigger early immune hallmarks [53]. In our experimental system, the INA application did not trigger a ROS production compared to mock (Figure 2). However, INA pre-treatment produced the highest ROS peak after the addition of the bacterial-derived peptide flg22 (which may mimic Pph inoculation). This suggested that INA did not induce a typical immuneassociated fast response such as ROS production but primed the bean cells for more intense defense responses.

**Figure 2.** Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in bean leaf-disks subjected to different treatments: water (Mock, green line), 100 μM INA (INA, blue line), 1 μM flg22 (flg22, red line), or 1 μM flg22 after pre-treatment with 100 μM of INA (preINA + flg22, yellow line), and measured as relative light units (RLU) produced by Luminol reaction over the time. Total areas under the curves were integrated, and resultant values are represented at the right side of the panel. Data represent mean ± SE (*n* = 8) from one experiment representative of three independent ones with similar results. Statistically significant differences, indicated by letters, were achieved according to one-way ANOVA (*p* < 0.05), by post hoc Tukey test.


**1. Introduction**

Climate change caused by the increase in carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) is one of the biggest concerns in the European region (Bianco et al. 2019). CO2 emissions are the most significant contributor to increased greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), contributing 77% of GHGs. In contrast, other gases such as methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and ozone (O3) contribute with 14%, 8%, and 1%, respectively (e.g., Koengkan and Fuinhas 2021a, 2021b; Khan et al. 2014).

Several initiatives have emerged to mitigate climate change (e.g., the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Earth Summit (1992), the Kyoto Protocol (1997), the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) (2015), and the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP 26) (2021)). These initiatives aim to substantially limit the increase in temperature levels during this century to lower than 2 ◦C and limit that increase to 1.5 ◦C. These initiatives will take temperatures to pre-industrial levels. In addition, all countries that align with this agreement will move towards a low-carbon economy. Indeed, as has

**Citation:** Koengkan, Matheus, and José Alberto Fuinhas. 2022. Does the Obesity Problem Increase Environmental Degradation? Macroeconomic and Social Evidence from the European Countries. *Economies* 10: 131. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/economies10060131

Academic Editors: Ralf Fendel, Robert Czudaj and Sajid Anwar

Received: 28 March 2022 Accepted: 30 May 2022 Published: 6 June 2022

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

long been known, global GHGs, mainly CO2 emissions, have been increasing since the 1970s (e.g., World Bank Open Data 2022; Koengkan and Alberto Fuinhas 2021b).

However, from 1990 to 2016, these emissions grew dramatically, and in 1990, CO2 emissions were 3.0991 (metric tons per capita) and reached 4.6807 (metric tons per capita) in 2016. During this period, these emissions grew from 33 megatons of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2eq) in 1990 to 47 MtCO2eq in 2016, an annual increase of 1.5% during this period (Bárcena et al. 2019). The energy, industry, transport, and building sector have increased emissions since the 2000s. In 2010 the energy sector contributed 25%, AFOLU (agriculture, forestry and other land use) 24%, industry 21%, transport 14%, other energy sources 10%, and the building sector contributed 6% to this growth (Koengkan et al. 2020).

Most of these emissions are caused by the production of electricity and heat, which emanate from the industrial and residential sectors. GHGs come about through direct emissions from fossil fuel combustion for providing power, cooling, heating, and cooking (Khan et al. 2014). As stated above, in 2010, energy consumption was responsible for 25% of global GHGs. The growth in global energy use is accountable for increasing CO2 emissions. Energy use has been rising since the 1970s when energy use was 1337.00 (kg of oil equivalent per capita) in 1971 and reached 1897.25 in 2016 (e.g., World Bank Open Data 2022; Koengkan and Fuinhas 2021a).

Indeed, 94% of this energy use in 1970 came from fossil fuels worldwide, and only 6.45% came from renewable energy. However, in 2016, the contribution of fossil fuels decreased slightly, reaching 85% of the total energy use. Indeed, this reduction is related to the increase in the share of renewable energy sources, which reached 14.35% in 2016 (Our World in Data 2022).

In the European region, CO2 emissions in 1971 were 8.0244 (metric tons per capita) and reached a value of 6.4684 (metric tons per capita) in 2016 (World Bank Open Data 2022). Therefore, between 1990 and 2004, these emissions in the European region remained relatively unchanged. However, due to the 10.8% decrease in primary energy consumption, CO2 emissions dropped sharply between 2005 and 2016 (IEA 2020). For example, in 1990 the energy consumption was 1641 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe), while in 2004 it had already reached 1789 Mtoe. However, between 2005 and 2016, this consumption decreased and fell to 1598 Mtoe in the year 2016. The energy efficiency improvements that increased the share of renewable energy sources in the energy matrix and the changes in climate conditions were the causes for this decrease in the primary energy consumption between 2005 to 2016 for most European region countries (e.g., the European Environment Agency 2019; Eurostat 2020).

In the European region, 93% of this energy use in 1970 came from fossil fuels, and only 6.90% came from renewable energy. However, in 2016 this value decreased slightly, reaching 75% of total energy use. Indeed, this reduction is related to the increase in the share of renewable energy sources in energy use, where 25% was reached in 2016 (e.g., Our World in Data 2022; Koengkan and Alberto Fuinhas 2021b).

As has long been known, various drivers have been influencing the increase of CO2 emissions. Economic growth, globalisation, trade, financial liberalisation, urbanisation, population growth and energy prices have gained notoriety. However, the literature has given little consideration to a possible relationship between the obesity epidemic problem and the increase in environmental degradation. To the best of our knowledge, the first study to address the link between obesity and climate change was made by Edwards and Roberts (2009). However, this link is very complex and is not exempt from criticism (e.g., Gallar 2010).

Nevertheless, the literature remains scarce and primarily focused on the effect of obesity on climate change via CO2 emissions. Their connections are associated with oxidative metabolic demands, food production, and fossil fuels. The links between obesity and climate change also include processed foods from fast-food and multinational supermarket chains, multinational food corporations, food production on farms, transportation of goods, retail processing and storage of processed food. These approaches also emphasise that the

intensive use of motor vehicles and modern household appliances reduces physical effort in the context of a sedentary lifestyle (e.g., Magkos et al. 2019; Furlow 2013; Viscecchia et al. 2012; Breda et al. 2011; Edwards and Roberts 2009).

Obesity is defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health, that is, individuals that have a mean body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30.0, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). The organisation also defines 'overweight' as BMI ≥ 25.0 (Our World in Data 2022). In 2016, about 39% (2.0 billion) of adults aged 18 years and older, 38% of men and 40% of women worldwide, were overweight or obese (Our World in Data 2022). Indeed, this chronic disease is a significant risk factor for people with many other diseases.

The obesity epidemic has increased significantly over the past three decades. In 2014, over 600 million adults, or 13% of the total adult population, were classified as obese worldwide. Of these 600 million obese adults, 11% are men, and 15% are women (Pineda et al. 2018). It is estimated that 25.6% of the total adult population (18 and over) can be classified as obese in the European region. This disease has almost doubled since the late 1980s. In 1985, the percentage of obese adults that are obese was 12.60%, and this value reached 23.30% in 2016 (Our World in Data 2022). Indeed, it has hit the world's richest countries, regardless of individuals' income levels.

Indeed, the obesity epidemic is caused by several factors: genetic, social, economic, environmental, political, and physiological, which have interacted to varying degrees over time (Wright and Aronne 2012). Moreover, other factors, such as the globalisation process, urbanisation and technological progress, have caused an increase in the obesity epidemic (e.g., Fox et al. 2019; Toiba et al. 2015; Popkin 1998). The weight increase caused by the factors mentioned earlier contributes to making people physically less active (less physical activity also contributes to increasing obesity). Consequently, it leads to using more motorised vehicles and modern household appliances that reduce physical effort. In addition, it contributes to weight gain due to the lower caloric expenditure of individuals, as well as to increased consumption of processed foods, mainly produced by (i) multinational food companies, (ii) multinational supermarkets, and (iii) fast-food chains. All of these factors contribute to the increase in energy consumption from non-renewable energy sources and negatively impact the environment.

In the literature, the impact of the obesity problem on environmental degradation using a macroeconomic approach is not advanced in the literature. For this reason, this investigation opted to use similar studies related to this topic (e.g., Koengkan and Alberto Fuinhas 2021b; Cuschieri and Agius 2020; Magkos et al. 2019; Swinburn 2019; Webb and Egger 2013; Viscecchia et al. 2012; Breda et al. 2011; Davis et al. 2007; Higgins 2005). These investigations pointed out that the obesity problem increases environmental degradation. However, none of these studies realised an analysis using a macroeconomic approach. They used the percentage of adults that are overweight or obese as a proxy for obesity and CO2 emissions as a proxy for environmental degradation as well as the quantile via moments (QvM) method. Furthermore, these studies do not use the urban population and globalisation as independent variables. Moreover, none of these studies investigated the European countries. That is, there are gaps in the literature that need to be filled.

In order to fill the gaps that were mentioned above, this investigation will identify the macroeconomic effect of the obesity epidemic on environmental degradation. Indeed, to identify this effect, this empirical investigation will study a group of thirty-one countries from the European region between 1991 to 2016 that have experienced a rapid increase in the obesity epidemic and social, economic, and environmental transformations. Certainly, to carry out this empirical investigation, the quantile via moments (QvM) approach, which Machado and Silva (2019) developed, will be used.

This investigation will introduce a new analysis regarding the macroeconomic impact of the obesity problem on environmental degradation in European countries. This topic of research has never been approached before in the literature. Therefore, this study can open new opportunities for studying the correlation between obesity and environmental degradation through a macroeconomic aspect. Furthermore, this investigation is innovative in that it uses econometric and macroeconomic approaches to identify the possible effect of the obesity problem on ecological degradation. It is the first time this methodology approach has been employed in this kind of investigation.

Moreover, this investigation will contribute to the literature for several reasons: (i) it introduces a new analysis regarding the effect of the obesity epidemic on environmental degradation in European countries. This topic of investigation is new and can open new issues of inquiry regarding the relationship between health and the environment using a macroeconomic approach; (ii) this investigation will contribute to introducing the QvM model; and (iii) the results of this study will help governments and policymakers develop more initiatives to reduce the obesity problem in the European countries, in addition to policies to reduce the consumption of non-renewable energy sources and environmental degradation.

This study is ordered as follows. Section 2 presents the literature review regarding the effect of the obesity epidemic on environmental degradation. Section 3 provides the data and the methodology approach. Section 4 presents the results and a brief discussion. Finally, Section 5 presents the conclusions and limitations of the study.

#### **2. Literature Review**

As mentioned before in the introduction, the literature has given little attention to a possible connection between the obesity epidemic problem and the increase in environmental degradation. Due to this, our investigation opted to use the few existing pieces of literature that approached this topic of investigation and which are similar (e.g., Koengkan and Alberto Fuinhas 2021b; Cuschieri and Agius 2020; Magkos et al. 2019; Swinburn 2019; Webb and Egger 2013; Viscecchia et al. 2012; Breda et al. 2011; Davis et al. 2007; Higgins 2005).

Koengkan and Alberto Fuinhas (2021b) investigated the impact of the overweight epidemic on energy consumption in thirty-one countries in the European region from 1990 to 2016. The authors find that being overweight increases the consumption of energy from fossil fuels and consequently increases the emissions of CO2. Moreover, according to the authors, the increase in energy consumption and CO2 emissions by the overweight epidemic is related to the increased consumption of processed foods from fast-food and multinational supermarket chains and multinational food corporations. Indeed, this process positively affects farm production, fast-food and multinational supermarket chains, and multinational food corporations to attend to the demand for processed foods. This increase affects the consumption of energy from non-renewable energy sources.

Magkos et al. (2019) explored the effect of obesity on climate change. The authors point out that this health problem can aggravate climate change with increased CO2 emissions in three ways: (i) oxidative metabolic demands; (ii) food production; and (iii) fossil fuels use. The increase of oxidative metabolic demands caused by the higher body mass associated with obesity is responsible for 7% of total GHGs. Indeed, the rise in production driven by the need to provide higher energy caloric intake is responsible for 52% of total GHGs. In contrast, the increase in fossil fuel consumption caused by transport and food production is responsible for 41% of these emissions. Thus, the authors estimated that the obesity epidemic adds the equivalent of 700 megatons of extra carbon dioxide to emissions per year or about 1.6% of the total global emissions. This idea is also shared by Swinburn (2019), who investigated the same topic.

Other authors also share similar ideas, such as Breda et al. (2011), who studied the relationship between climate change and obesity in four regions of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. According to the authors, there is strong evidence that being overweight contributes more to climate change, where overweight influences food consumption and production. Those categories contribute more to climate change by consuming processed foods from fast-food and multinational supermarket chains, multinational food corporations, and farms. The authors add that the food sector accounts for 7% of CO2 emissions, 43% of CH4 emissions, and 50% of N2O emissions produced across the entire economy. Viscecchia et al. (2012) investigated the relationship between obesity and climate change in Italy. The authors opted to use the ordinary least squares method to undertake this investigation. The authors found that the increase in food consumption with low energy content has a twofold effect on reducing obesity and climate change mitigation. Moreover, the increase in food consumption with low energy caloric content reduces the obesity rate from 9.68 to 7.04% and avoids 5,406,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Cuschieri and Agius (2020) investigated the link between diabetes caused by obesity and climate change. The increase in the demand for processed food caused by obesity also has an adverse effect on the climate. The authors highlight that this effect is caused by the increased transportation of goods, retail processing, and processed food storage. Webb and Egger (2013) also studied the link between obesity and climate change and point out that some behaviours connected with obesity also affect emissions of GHGs associated with climate change. The authors show that consuming processed food and non-renewable energy sources results from intensive motor vehicles and modern household appliances that reduce physical effort.

Davis et al. (2007) investigated the interactions between cars, obesity, and climate change in the United Kingdom from 1974 to 2004. Their results precede the idea developed later by Webb and Egger (2013). According to the authors, the intensive use of motor vehicles in the United Kingdom has reduced physical activity and increased obesity and CO2 emissions by increasing non-renewable energy sources. Higgins (2005), in an investigation that investigated whether "exercise-based transportation reduces oil dependence, carbon emissions and obesity", points out that the use of the automobile as a means of transport also contributes to a sedentary lifestyle and the obesity epidemic and poor health. The author adds that these problems consume 27% of global oil production and produce 25% of global carbon emissions.

The summary of the literature presented in this section has discussed some of the most consequential investigations that directly approached the impact of obesity on environmental degradation and similar investigations. However, none of these studies realised an analysis using a macroeconomic approach. Instead, they used the percentage of adults that are overweight or obese as a proxy for obesity and CO2 emissions as a proxy for environmental degradation, as well as the quantile via moments (QvM) method. Furthermore, these studies do not use the urban population and globalisation as independent variables. Moreover, none of these studies investigated the European countries. Therefore, there are gaps in the literature that need to be filled. The following section will show the data and methods used in this investigation.

#### **3. Data and Methodology**

This section is organised into two parts. The data, including the variables, is presented first, and the second part describes the methodology used in this study.


Meet the editor

Dr. Saddam Hussain is an Assistant Professor in Plant Stress Physiology in the Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. He completed his Ph.D degree at the Huazhong Agricultural University, China. He has been recognized with several international distinctions/awards in recent years. He has published over 100 refereed journal papers (IF:>370, h-index: 29, citations:>3000), many of which have sought to understand the basis

of crop responses (rice in particular) to individual and concurrent abiotic stresses. He has devised promising strategies for improving the crop performance under sub-optimum conditions in the context of changing climatic optima, and he has suggested various novel indicators for augmenting stress tolerance in plants. He is also on the editorial board of several international journals.

Contents

**Preface III**

**Chapter 1 1**

**Chapter 2 19**

**Chapter 3 35** Beitbridge Minority Farmer Communities and Climate Change: Prospects for

**Chapter 4 55**

**Chapter 5 69**

**Chapter 6 83**

**Chapter 7 117**

**Chapter 8 137**

Sugarcane Production under Changing Climate: Effects of Environmental

Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies for Agronomic Crops *by Ishfaq Ahmed, Asmat Ullah, M. Habib ur Rahman, Burhan Ahmad,*

Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Agricultural Sector: The Case

*by Muhammad Mumtaz, Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira and Saleem H. Ali*

*by Asmat Ullah, Ishfaq Ahmad, Habib-ur-Rehman, Umer Saeed, Ashfaq Ahmad,*

Climate Stability and the Origin of Agriculture *by Joan Feynman and Alexander Ruzmaikin*

*Abid Mahmood and Gerrit Hoogenboom*

*by Mark Matsa and Beauty Dzawanda*

of Local Responses in Punjab, Pakistan

*by Surendra Kulshreshtha*

*Syed Aftab Wajid, Ashfaq Ahmad and Shakeel Ahmed*

Environment, Agriculture, and Land Use Pattern *by Saifullah Khan, Mehmood Ul Hassan and Aslam Khan*

Resiliency of Prairie Agriculture to Climate Change

Vulnerabilities on Sugarcane Diseases, Insects and Weeds *by Sadam Hussain, Abdul Khaliq, Umer Mehmood, Tauqeer Qadir, Muhammad Saqib, Muhammad Amjed Iqbal and Saddam Hussain*

Sustainability

Climate Smart Interventions of Small-Holder Farming Systems


**6. Factors influence the efficiency of local anesthesia**

#### **6.1 Anesthetic agent**

Contrary to popular belief, most moderate-duration anesthetics are equally efficient in inducing deep pulpal anesthetic for root canal treatment. Understanding the anatomical, local, and psychological aspects of each patient against the type of anesthetic utilized is critical to success. Most dentists prefer to employ a combination of anesthetics and a vasoconstrictor. When some types of anesthetic drugs are used, it is possible that the patients would experience more pain. Because of the acidic nature of local anesthetics, lower pH values are considered to produce a burning sensation during injection [23].

#### **6.2 Site of injection**

The injection location might influence injection discomfort. According to one study, maxillary buccal injections with plain 2% lidocaine Was found to be considerably less discomfort than 2% lidocaine with 1:80000 epinephrine. However, using the same anesthetic drugs, no difference in injection discomfort was recorded at the palatal location [12]. The type of anesthetic solution has little effect on injection discomfort when a location with less connective tissue (such as the palatal site in the maxilla) is injected. Faster injection speed leads to increased drug distribution. It has been proposed that a speed of injection exposes a larger portion of a nerve to the anesthetic solution, resulting in a higher rate of local anesthesia success. The rapid injections, on the other hand, produced more pain and discomfort during the procedure [23–25].

#### **6.3 Preoperative pain**

In individuals with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis, the degree of preoperative pain might impact anesthetic success. The activation of nociceptors during inflammation might be one reason for the lower success rate of inflamed pulp. The peripheral and central pain pathways are altered and modulated by the barrage of painful stimuli, as well as tissue destruction. Another reason for failure is that nerves from inflamed tissue have reduced excitability thresholds and altered resting potentials [26].

#### **6.4 Pre emptive medication**

Inflamed pulps may have more tetrodotoxin-resistant sodium channels, which are resistant to local anesthetics. Prostaglandins, which can influence tetrodotoxinresistant receptors and reduce nerve responses to anesthetic drugs, have also risen considerably in inflamed pulps [27]. As a result, premedication with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines (NSAIDs) and corticosteroids to increase anesthetic success appear to be a viable option. However, the findings of such research do not agree on the effectiveness of premedication on anesthetic success [28, 29]. However, if the patient does not have spontaneous pain, pre-treatment with

#### *Topics in Regional Anesthesia*

particular types of NSAIDs may improve the effectiveness of anesthesia when treating irreversible pulpitis [30]. Premedication with corticosteroids before anesthesia with an inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) injection resulted in a considerably better success rate.

#### **6.5 Gender and genetic factor**

Genetics may play a role in predisposing specific individuals to problems such as discomfort, delayed healing, and abscess development. A range of genetic variations influences pain perception and behavior. Pain becomes significantly more common in women, and various explanations have been proposed, including hormonal and genetically driven sex variations in brain neurochemistry [27].


*Edited by Clark C. Chen*

This book is intended for physicians and scientists with interest in glioblastoma biology, imaging and therapy. Select topics in DNA repair are presented here to demonstrate novel paradigms as they relate to therapeutic strategies. The book should serve as a supplementary text in courses and seminars as well as a general reference.

Advances in the Biology, Imaging and Therapies for Glioblastoma

Advances in the Biology,

Imaging and Therapies for

Glioblastoma

*Edited by Clark C. Chen*

Photo by Nicola Ferrari / iStock


*3.1. Phylogenetic Tree*

Phylogenetic analyses of human ABCA genes were performed by several previous studies. Some of them are based on the alignment of the nucleotide sequences or amino acid sequences of nucleotide-binding domains [3,20], the others on the alignment of the full length amino acid sequences [6,13]. Pairwise comparison of the amino acid sequences of all human ABCA members revealed homologies ranging from 28% (ABCA8/ABCA12) to 72% (ABCA8/ABCA9) [20]. The previous studies suggested that all ABCA genes have evolved from a primordial ancestor gene. Furthermore, they demonstrated that the human ABCA1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 12 transporters cluster in a subgroup, distinct from ABCA5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. The ABCA5-related transporters share strikingly high overall amino acid sequence homologies but differ significantly from other members [3,6,13,20]. In contrast, our phylogenetic analysis, based on the comparison of nucleotide sequences of ABCA 5′UTRs, shows that the 5′UTRs of ABCA2 and ABCA3 cluster distinctly from the rest of the 5′UTRs. These discrepancies suggest that the evolution of 5′UTRs is shaped by different pressures independently from the other gene regions.


**3. Second vertical derivative**

Many researchers [4, 8, 9] have given a thorough picture of the second derivative method of interpretation of gravity and have shown how this method is in effect for the detection of small irregularities in gravity anomalies and thus useful for supposing minute underground mass distribution that cannot be overlooked by the ordinary method. It is fascinating to note that the method is justified only on data of high accuracy [10].

The SVD of the vertical component of gravity, gz, can be calculated in the spatial domain from the horizontal gradients by using Laplace's equation [9].

$$\frac{\partial^2 \mathbf{g}\_z}{\partial \mathbf{z}^2} = -\left(\frac{\partial^2 \mathbf{g}\_z}{\partial \mathbf{x}^2} + \frac{\partial^2 \mathbf{g}\_z}{\partial \mathbf{y}^2}\right) \tag{11}$$

For an anomaly extended along the y-axis, the SVD can be approximated by the second horizontal derivative of the gravity data along the x-axis in Eq. (13).

$$\frac{\partial^2 \mathbf{g}\_z}{\partial \mathbf{z}^2} \approx -\frac{\partial^2 \mathbf{g}\_z}{\partial \mathbf{x}^2} \tag{12}$$

In the wave number domain or Fourier domain, the SVD is usually calculated by using the following Eq. (14) [11].

$$\frac{\partial^2 \mathbf{g}\_z}{\partial \mathbf{z}^2} = \mathbf{F}^{-1} \left( |\mathbf{k}|^2 \mathbf{G}\_z \right) \text{ with } |\mathbf{k}|^2 = \mathbf{k}\_\mathbf{x}^2 + \mathbf{k}\_\mathbf{y}^2 \tag{13}$$

The second vertical derivatives are the measure of curvature where large curvature is connected to shallow anomalies. It is frequently used to enhance localized subsurface features, that is, weak anomalies due to the sources that are shallow and limited in-depth and lateral extent [10].