Research progress and perspectives on carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies in China and the USA: a bibliometric analysis

Carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology is an emerging technology with large-scale emission reduction potential and an essential component of the global response to climate change to achieve net-zero goals. As the two most important countries in global climate governance, it is necessary to review and examine the current status and trends of research in the field of CCUS in China and the USA. This paper uses bibliometric tools to review and analyze peer-reviewed articles in the Web of Science from both countries during 2000-2022. The results show a significant increase in research interest among scholars from both countries. The number of publications in the CCUS field in China and the USA was 1196 and 1302, respectively, showing an increasing trend. China and the USA have become the most influential countries in CCUS. And the USA has a more significant academic influence on a global scale. Furthermore, the research hotspots in the field of CCUS are diverse and differentiated. That is, China and the USA pay attention to different research hotspots or have different focuses in different periods. This paper also finds that new capture materials and technology development, geological storage monitoring and early warning, CO₂ utilization and new energy development, sustainable business models, incentive policies and measures, and public awareness are critical directions for future research in the field of CCUS, to provide a comprehensive review and comparison of CCUS technology development in China and the USA. It helps to gain insight into the research differences and linkages between the two countries in the field of CCUS and identify the research gaps between them. And place some consensus that policymakers can use.

The Landscape of Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibodies (nAbs) for Treatment and Prevention of COVID-19

Purpose

After nearly 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, even though a vast body of knowledge and products (including vaccines and treatments) have been developed and disseminated, the virus is still evolving and new variants arising. Consequently, thousands of lives continue to be lost. Neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (nAbs) are promising drugs that emerged to treat SARS-CoV-2. In the uncertainty of the current situation, there is the question of whether organizations should continue to invest in this technology. To help decision-making in scientifical and pharmaceutical organizations, it is of major importance to monitor the development of products and technologies. Therefore, the aim of this study is analyze the landscape of nAbs for COVID-19.

Methods

The scenario of 473 biotherapeutics focusing on nAbs was evaluated using foresight techniques and a review of literature. Data were obtained from structured and semi-structured databases and processed for treatment, cleaning, consistency, validation, and enrichment.

Results

We identified 227 nAbs and performed an extensive literature review of 16 nAbs in late clinical development, including development technologies, responses to variants of concern (VOCs), manufacturing, and clinical aspects.

Conclusions

Even though the emergence of new VOCs is a threat to the effectiveness of this treatment, demanding constant genomic surveillance, the use of nAbs to treat and prevent COVID-19 will probably continue to be relevant due to excellent safety profiles and the possibility of immediate immunity transfer, especially in patients showing inadequate immunological response to vaccination. Therefore, we suggest that organizations should keep investing in improvements in this technology.

Guidelines for Conducting Ethical Artificial Intelligence Research in Neurology: A Systematic Approach for Clinicians and Researchers

Pre-emptive recognition of the ethical implications of study design and algorithm choices in artificial intelligence (AI) research is an important but challenging process. AI applications have begun to transition from a promising future to clinical reality in neurology. As the clinical management of neurology is often concerned with discrete, often unpredictable, and highly consequential events linked to multimodal data streams over long timescales, forthcoming advances in AI have great potential to transform care for patients. However, critical ethical questions have been raised with implementation of the first AI applications in clinical practice. Clearly, AI will have far-reaching potential to promote, but also to endanger, ethical clinical practice. This article employs an anticipatory ethics approach to scrutinize how researchers in neurology can methodically identify ethical ramifications of design choices early in the research and development process, with a goal of pre-empting unintended consequences that may violate principles of ethical clinical care. First, we discuss the use of a systematic framework for researchers to identify ethical ramifications of various study design and algorithm choices. Second, using epilepsy as a paradigmatic example, anticipatory clinical scenarios that illustrate unintended ethical consequences are discussed, and failure points in each scenario evaluated. Third, we provide practical recommendations for understanding and addressing ethical ramifications early in methods development stages. Awareness of the ethical implications of study design and algorithm choices that may unintentionally enter AI is crucial to ensuring that incorporation of AI into neurology care leads to patient benefit rather than harm.

A nanotechnology-foresight perspective of South Africa

This paper presents a foresight perspective of nanotechnology in South Africa based on a 20-year period scientometric analysis of the country's nanotechnology publications on the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. Firstly, publication trends are reported; then, possible socio-economic relevant sectors arising from this information are determined. Lastly, indicators that can be used in foresight exercises to evaluate the potential nanotechnology research areas in South Africa are examined. The 20-year review is also compared with the recent past year, 2019, to identify any changing trends. South Africa's nanotechnology publications per year grew exponentially from 68 papers in 2000 to 1672 in 2019, an increase of 2459%. The total share of nanotech publications increased from 1.4% in 2000 to 6.6% in 2019, thus a 0.52% increase per year. Compared with Brazil, Russia, India and China, the BRICS countries, South Africa has the lowest nanotechnology productivity with an activity index of 0.68. Over the last 5 years, South Africa nanotech publications had a Hirsch-index of 94 and an average citations rate of 12.76 per paper. Universities are the most prominent publishers, and there are very few publications from the private sector, which can negatively impact the commercialisation of nanotechnology research. The top 10 most prolific researchers, author or co-author over 20% of the nanotechnology papers are reported. A mixture of old and new top researchers' names suggests succession planning in the system as the years progress. The emergence of computer science as one of the top 20 subjects publishing in nanotech in 2019 and a high level of researcher collaboration suggests possible convergence of nanotech, information technology and artificial intelligence in South Africa. The strategic socio-economic-focused nanotechnology research areas identified for South Africa include material science, photoluminance and optics, medicine, catalysis, electronics, energy, biotech, magnetism, sensors, water and communicable diseases. The top collaborating countries, top researchers, top institutions and nanotechnology economic hubs are reported for each strategic research area. The level of innovation was evaluated using the nanotechnology value chain, and there is a meagre 3.5% of papers reporting on nano-enabled products.

[#CienciaenelParlamento: the need for a parliamentary office of science and technology advice]

One of the aims of the citizen's initiative #CienciaenelParlamento is helping to establishing a parliamentary office of scientific and technological advice in the Spanish parliament. Said office would be in charge of fostering networking spaces between scientific knowledge and public policies and of triggering public debate between policy-makers, experts and the general public. In this article, we first review the main parliamentary mechanisms of scientific advice, with special attention to one in particular: parliamentary offices of scientific and technological advice. These offices exist in 22 parliaments worldwide, but there are none in Spain. Second, we describe the activity undertaken by #CienciaenelParlamento in its collaboration with the Congress of Deputies during the 12th Spanish Legislature. This collaboration reached its peak with a two-day networking event in November 2018 with over 200 scientists and almost 100 deputies, who all debated twelve topics of social interest and the most up-to-date scientific knowledge. Thanks to this collaboration, the Congress has taken the first steps towards officially establishing a parliamentary science advice office. Lastly, we enumerate some examples about how these parliamentary offices in other countries have contributed with other stakeholders to better public debate and processing of public policies in public health and other areas. To conclude, we at #CienciaenelParlamento believe that a parliamentary science advice office would help to enhance the science-policy ecosystem in Spain.