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The impact of corruption on carbon emissions is one of the main objectives of empirical studies on environmental economics. Recently, a theoretical discussion was conducted on the significant impact of reducing the level of corruption on environmental quality in developing rather than in developed countries. In this study, an empirical investigation of this claim was conducted using panel data which included 61 countries, between 2003 and 2016. The effects of corruption on carbon emission were considered using a panel threshold model. The threshold variable included human development index (HDI) which divided countries into developing and developed ones endogenously. According to the results, the value of threshold (γ = 0.753) was consistent with the categorization of UNDP countries by HDI. In developing countries, for each unit of increase in the corruption index –which means a decrease in corruption levels– we observe a 0.08 unit decrease in carbon emission while carbon emission is no longer affected by the corruption levels in developed countries and decrease in corruption does not have a significant effect on carbon emission levels.

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Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by hypogammaglobulinemia and increased susceptibility to recurrent pyogenic infections. This study was performed to subclassify CVID on the basis of the bactericidal antibody responses of patients to polysaccharide meningococcal vaccine. Twenty-five patients with CVID (18 male and 7 female) and 25 healthy volunteers received meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine A ؉ C. Serum bactericidal antibody (SBA) titers were measured at baseline and after 3 weeks. Response was correlated with clinical and immunological manifestations of CVID. Twenty-four (96%) of the 25 normal controls had a protective SBA titer of >8 postvaccination, whereas only 16 (64%) of the 25 CVID patients had a protective titer (P value ‫؍‬ 0.013). Among the patients with CVID who were nonresponders, there were significantly increased rates of bronchiectasis (P ‫؍‬ 0.008), splenomegaly (P ‫؍‬ 0.016), and autoimmunity (P ‫؍‬ 0.034) in comparison with patients who had protective SBA titers. A reversed CD4/CD8 ratio was more common in the nonresponder group of patients (P ‫؍‬ 0.053). We conclude that individuals with CVID who cannot produce protective postvaccination titers after receiving meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine are more likely to exhibit bronchiectasis, splenomegaly, and autoimmune diseases. Vaccination response may define subgroups of patients with CVID, enabling more effective monitoring and therapeutic strategies.Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is the most common symptomatic antibody deficiency and is characterized by hypogammaglobulinemia in the absence of any recognized genetic abnormality (8,13,21). CVID patients are susceptible to recurrent pyogenic infections (1, 8), as well as autoimmune and neoplastic diseases (6,17). Although infections of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts are common, some patients may present with meningitis (1, 8). Encapsulated organisms such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Neisseria meningitidis are the most prominent pathogens in CVID patients (13,26).Despite attempts during recent decades to identify the underlying immune system defects in CVID, the pathogenesis of CVID remains unknown (26). Thus, the diagnosis of CVID is based on the genetic exclusion of other hypogammaglobulinemias that are well defined at the molecular level (11). Although the underlying pathophysiology of CVID is not clearly understood, a few general defects that lead to alteration of serum immunoglobulin concentrations have been described. Patients with CVID have a defect in B-cell differentiation that leads to impaired secretion of immunoglobulins. Additionally, several abnormalities of T cells have been reported in some patients (26).It has recently been shown that patients with CVID with loss of immunoglobulin M (IgM) memory B cells are susceptible to earlier onset of recurrent infections and more severe complications (5) than those with mild to moderate clinical manifestations. A number of other i...