4,328 research outputs found
Economic Effects of Environmental Taxation on Chemical Fertilizers
This paper analyzes the economic effects of environmental taxes on chemical fertilizer in producing rice. A charge of 10 percent tax on nitrogen fertilizer leads to a reduction in fertilizer use of 1.5 percent without changing rice yield, but the farm income is reduced by 0.6 percent. The tax rate of 100 percent leads to a reduction of 14.6 percent in fertilizer use, a 0.4 percent reduction in rice yield, and a 3.6 percent reduction in farm income. A significant feature of eco-taxes imposed on chemical fertilizers is their revenue potential, which could contribute to increasing government budgets for finance pollution control programs, such as education and R&D. This study provides an insight into the application of market-based instrument to achieve sustainable agricultural development.polluter-pays-principle, nonpoint pollution, environmental tax, nitrogen fertilizer, negative externalities, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q28, Q52,
World Agriculture Organization (WAO): New Global Governance for Agricultural Trade
It is increasingly questionable whether the WTO regime is the most appropriate form of governance for addressing global problems related to agriculture. In particular, climate change, sustainability, hunger/poverty in developing countries, and expected imbalance in food demand-supply by 2050 are emerging as grave challenges to humanity and the WTO is still struggling to resolve issues (related to the multifunctional roles of agriculture) of the 20th century while completely lacking the capacity to tackle such new global issues of the 21st century. Given this outmoded institution, the primary objective of this article is to propose that a new system of governance is needed so as to exclusively and effectively deal with problems arising from the interactions among climate change, agricultural sustainability, food security, and trade.Global public goods, climate change, sustainable agriculture, food security, WTO, agricultural trade, International Relations/Trade,
Quasielastic Charged-Current Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering with Nonrelativistic Nuclear Energy Density Functionals
Charged-current neutrino-nucleus scattering is studied in the quasielastic
region with the KIDS (Korea-IBS-Daegu-SKKU) nuclear energy density functional.
We focus on the uncertainties stemming from the axial mass and the in-medium
effective mass of the nucleon. Comparing the result of theory to the
state-of-the-art data from MiniBooNE, T2K, and MINERA, we constrain the
axial mass and the effective mass that are compatible with the data. We find
that the total cross section is insensitive to the effective mass, so the axial
mass could be determined independently of the uncertainty in the effective
mass. Differential cross sections at different kinematics are, on the other
hand, sensitive to the effective mass as well as the axial mass. Within the
uncertainty of the axial mass constrained from the total cross section,
dependence on the effective mass is examined. As a result we obtain the axial
mass and the effective mass that are consistent with the experimental data.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Integrated Decision Model for Evaluating Alternative Swine Waste Management Systems under Environmental Constraints in Oklahoma
Agricultural Economic
Neutron skin of Al with Skyrme and Korea-IBS-Daegu-SKKU density functionals
Recent measurement of the parity-violating (PV) asymmetry in the elastic
electron scattering on Al target evokes the interest in the distribution
of the neutron in the nucleus. In this work, we calculate the neutron skin
thickness () of Al with nonrelativistic nuclear structure
models. We focus on the role of the effective mass, symmetry energy and pairing
force. Models are selected to have effective masses in the range
where is the nucleon mass in free space, and stiffness of the symmetry
energy is varied by choosing the slope of the symmetry energy in the range 9.4
-- 100.5 MeV. Effect of pairing force is investigated by calculating
with and without pairing, and using two different forms of the pairing force.
With nine models, we obtain fm. The result is
independent of the effective mass, symmetry energy, and the form of pairing
force. However, is negative when the pairing force is switched off, so
the pairing force plays an essential role to make positive and
constrained in a narrow range. We also calculate the PV asymmetry () in the elastic electron-Al scattering in the Born approximation at
the kinematics of the Qweak experiment. We obtain a very narrow-ranged result
(2.07 -- 2.09) . The result is consistent with
the experiment and insensitive to the effective mass, symmetry energy and
pairing force.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress and Endogenous Antioxidants for Patients with Chronic Subjective Dizziness
As a neurotologic disorder of persistent non-vertiginous dizziness, chronic subjective dizziness (CSD) arises unsteadily by psychological and physiological imbalance. The CSD is hypersensitivity reaction due to exposure to complex motions visual stimuli. However, the pathophysiological features and mechanism of the CSD still remains unclearly. The present study was purposed to establish possible endogenous contributors of the CSD using serum samples from patients with the CSD. A total 199 participants were gathered and divided into two groups; healthy (n = 152, male for 61, and female for 91) and CSD (n = 47, male for 5, female for 42), respectively. Oxidative stress parameters such as, hydrogen peroxide and reactive substances were significantly elevated (p < 0.01 or p < 0.001), whereas endogenous antioxidant components including total glutathione contents, and activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase were significantly deteriorated in the CSD group (p < 0.01 or p < 0.001) as comparing to the healthy group, respectively. Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor -α and interferon-γ were significantly increased in the CSD participants (p < 0.001). Additionally, emotional stress related hormones including cortisol, adrenaline, and serotonin were abnormally observed in the serum levels of the CSD group (p < 0.01 or p < 0.001). Our results confirmed that oxidative stress and antioxidants are a critical contributor of pathophysiology of the CSD, and that is first explored to establish features of redox system in the CSD subjects compared to a healthy population
Polymorphous Low-Grade Adenocarcinoma of the Tongue Base Treated by Transoral Robotic Surgery
Polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma is a rare malignancy arising from the minor salivary glands in the aerodigestive system, most frequently the hard palate. The treatment of choice is wide surgical resection, and the efficacy of radiotherapy has not been confirmed. A 54-year-old male presenting with a mass at the base of the tongue performed transoral laser microsurgery. The pathologic diagnosis was polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma. Complete surgical excision was performed via transoral robotic surgery without a flap reconstruction of the surgical defect. Without complications of bleeding or injury to the hypoglossal nerve, proper surgical margins were obtained, and no recurrence was found after 6 months after surgery. The patient did not complain of dysphagia or aspiration. We conclude that, in surgery for tongue base tumors with unknown malignant potential, transoral robotic surgery can be considered for achieving a definite resection avoiding a mandibulotomy without complications of dysphagia or aspiration after confirmation of malignancy with a frozen biopsy
Direct observation of CD4 T cell morphologies and their cross-sectional traction force derivation on quartz nanopillar substrates using focused ion beam technique
Direct observations of the primary mouse CD4 T cell morphologies, e.g., cell adhesion and cell spreading by culturing CD4 T cells in a short period of incubation (e.g., 20 min) on streptavidin-functionalized quartz nanopillar arrays (QNPA) using a high-content scanning electron microscopy method were reported. Furthermore, we first demonstrated cross-sectional cell traction force distribution of surface-bound CD4 T cells on QNPA substrates by culturing the cells on top of the QNPA and further analysis in deflection of underlying QNPA via focused ion beam-assisted technique
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