Evidence on the German Car Fuel Tax

By using estimates from an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), we investigate how the German energy tax on car fuels changes the private households’ CO2 emissions, living standards, and post-tax income distribution. Our results show that the tax implies a trade-off between the aim to reduce emissions and vertical equity, which refers to the idea that people with a greater ability to pay taxes should pay more

Essays über Energiewirtschaft-Empirische Analysen nach deutschen Haushaltdaten

Three essays which deal with households’ energy demand and CO2 emissions are part of the dissertation. The first paper examines the environmental, distributive, and welfare effects of the car fuels tax. Higher car fuels taxes could potentially lead to lower car fuels’ consumption and lower CO2 emissions but can increase inequality in the post-tax income distribution and decrease consumer welfare. The second paper scrutinizes the effects of the EEG surcharge, which was introduced in Germany as means to finance renewable energy production, on energy poverty, income poverty, and CO2 emissions. Abolishing of the EEG surcharge is expected to lower the tax burdens of the low income households and hence decrease both income poverty and energy poverty. Both chapters can provide policy makers with empirical evidence about how to weight environmental and inequality/poverty concerns, and point out potential targets groups (of households) that can lead to largest energy consumption savings or largest energy poverty decreases. The third paper investigates the determinant of energy related emissions’ inequalities among three dimensions: income, area of residence, and birth cohort. Again, this kind of analyses will help to find the determinants of CO2 emissions, and to identify the groups of the population that should be targeted in order to decrease the inequalities and emissions altogether.Drei Aufsätze, die sich mit dem Energiebedarf der Haushalte und den CO2-Emissionen befassen, sind Teil der Dissertation. Das erste Papier untersucht die Umwelt-, Verteilungs- und Wohlergehenseffekte der Kfz-Steuer. Höhere Kraftstoffe-Steuer könnten zu einem niedrigeren Kraft- stoffverbrauch und zu niedrigeren CO2-Emissionen führen, können aber die Ungleichheit in der Einkommensverteilung nach Steuern steigern und das Wohlbefinden der Verbraucher verringern. Das zweite Papier prüft die Auswirkungen des EEG-Zuschlag, der in Deutschland als Mittel zur Finanzierung der erneuerbaren Energieerzeugung, zur Energiearmut, Einkommensarmut und CO2-Emissionen eingeführt wurde. Die Abschaffung des EEG-Zuschlags dürfte die Steuerbelastung der Haushalte mit niedrigem Einkommen senken und damit sowohl die Einkommensarmut als auch die Energiearmut verringern. Beide Kapitel können den politischen Entscheidungsträgern empirische Belege dafür geben, wie man Umwelt- und Ungleichheits- / Armutsbedenken gewichtet und potenzielle Zielgruppen (Haushalte) aufzeigen kann, die zu größeren Einsparungen beim Energieverbrauch führen oder die größte Energiearmut verringert. Das dritte Papier untersucht die Determinante der energiebezogenen Emissionen Ungleichheiten zwischen drei Dimensionen: Einkommen, Wohnsitz und Geburtskohorte. Auch hier wird diese Art von Analysen dazu beitragen, die Determinanten der CO2-Emissionen zu finden und die Bevölkerungsgruppen zu identifizieren, die zielgerichtet sein sollten, um die Ungleichheiten und Emissionen insgesamt zu verringern

Efficacy of six lactic acid bacteria strains as silage inoculants in forages with different dry matter and water-soluble carbohydrate content

The dry matter (DM), water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC) content, and epiphytic microbiota of forage during ensiling are critical for the production of high-quality preserved forage. This study tested the efficacy of six additive treatments (10(6) CFU/g FM Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus IMI 507023, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum [IMI 507026, IMI 507027, and IMI 507028] or Pediococcus pentosaceus [IMI 507024 and IMI 507025]) as ensiling agents for grass-clover preservation. Treated and untreated forages were ensiled in 1.75 L glass jars and stored for 90 days at 20 & PLUSMN; 2 & DEG;C. The effects of treatments on silage fermentation and aerobic stability were tested using grass-clover forage at low and high levels of DM (24.0%-40.1%) and WSC (1.78%-5.27%). Data analysis using a mixed-effects model and principal component analysis revealed improved silage fermentation in treated forages compared to that in the control. The fermentation-related analytes in the treated silages (low pH, ethanol, acetic acid, and high lactic acid) represented a typical homofermentative metabolic pathway. The silage inoculants significantly lowered DM losses and ammonia-N, % of total nitrogen content, ranging between 30.4%-52.5% and 30.5%-63.1% respectively, compared to the control. Additionally, forage type interacted with treatment, indicating that forage management is vital for ensiling and should be considered alongside inoculant use. The improvement in aerobic stability by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) was inconsistent. The principal component analysis of all analytes showed that aerobic stability was most closely correlated with acetic acid and butyric acid concentrations. In conclusion, all LAB strains successfully improved the preservation of forage materials

Protective cultures against foodborne pathogens in a nitrite reduced fermented meat product

In the present work, a combined hurdle approach for fermented meat preservation was investigated. Challenge tests were performed in Chorizo sausage model using the maximum allowed NaNO2 amount (150 mg/kg), a reduced amount (75 mg/kg) and no nitrite, with and without protective cultures inoculation. Cocktail strains of L. monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. were used as indicator strains. In a nitrite reduced sausage model, L. monocytogenes growing trend did not significantly change (p > 0.05) when compared with that containing higher nitrite concentration (150 mg/kg NaNO2). The addition of L. plantarum PSC20 significantly lowered L. monocytogenes growth when compared with control batches without PCS20 (p < 0.05), obtaining 3.84 log cfu/g and 2.62 log cfu/g lower counts in the batches with 150 mg/kg NaNO2 and 75 mg/kg NaNO2 respectively. None of the protective cultures demonstrated in situ antagonistic activity against Salmonella spp. This work pointed out that the reduction of nitrites with the combined use of a protective culture could be a feasible approach to control L. monocytogenes growth in fermented meat foods

Tourists' perceptions and willingness to pay for the control of Opuntia stricta invasion in protected areas: A case study from South Africa

Invasive alien plants have a long history of establishment in the national parks of South Africa.In particular, Opuntia stricta (sour prickly pear) has invaded several protected areas in thecountry, threatening the biodiversity conservation mandate of these conservation areas. Thisarticle focuses on the economic estimation of O. stricta's negative impacts in protected areas byusing Contingent Valuation surveys conducted amongst a sample of tourists in the PilanesbergNational Park (North West Parks and Tourism Board, South Africa). Tourists' familiarity andawareness of selected invasive alien plants and their willingness to pay for the implementationof a control programme for O. stricta were assessed. The results show that many tourists arefamiliar with invasive alien plants and their (positive and negative) impacts and, in particular,perceived the presence of O. stricta to be negative, due to the impacts on aesthetics and recreation.Socio-demographic characteristics, as well as individual attitudes and biocentric beliefs, have aninfluence on the willingness to contribute financially to a control programme for O. stricta. Theindividual willingness to pay assessment found that the majority of respondents (78%) werewilling to pay a higher entrance fee (an additional R57.30 or $7.00 per day) for a hypotheticalprogramme to control the invasion of O. stricta in the Pilanesberg National Park.Conservation implications: The willingness of tourists to pay for O. stricta managementprovides useful insights in the decision-making process of park management. The resultsare encouraging, since, in general, tourists are aware of the problem and are in support ofproviding additional economic input for preventing future alien plant invasions

Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street: (Collective) Memory Resonating from “the Barrio”

 “The people I wrote about were real, for the most part, from here and there, now and then, but sometimes three real people would be braided together into one made-up person… I cut apart and stitched together events to tailor the story, gave it shape so it had a beginning, middle, and end, because real life stories rarely come to us complete. Emotions, though, can’t be invented, can’t be borrowed. All the emotions my characters feel, good or bad are mine.” (xxiii) Although Sandra Cisneros draws on autobiographical elements in The House on Mango Street (1984), her novella does not stand for an autobiography, but it rather represents a collage of events, characters, and places that independently from one another constitute vignettes. These vignettes are not necessarily chronologically related, yet they make up a whole of voices, stories, colors, and movements that once reverberated along Mango Street. Through her (Cisneros’s) stories, Esperanza Cordero’s stories, and Esperanza’s neighbors’ stories, Cisneros conveys the Southwestern Latino experience of the big city and the streets, of the barrios that is. Taking my cue from Cisneros’s “The House on Mango Street,” I will try to examine how personal experiences become memories and those memories transcend into stories. Is what comes from experience and memory that makes writing strong, powerful, persuasive, and to a certain extent relatable? Have Cisneros’s memories, reflected in Esperanza’s living experience and language contributed to the Latino’s collective memory of the life in the barrios coupled with racism, poverty and shame? On that note, I shall see how Maurice Halbwachs’s concept of collective memory applies to Cisneros’ story and the Latino experience, where Latinos’ memory is dependent upon the life in the barrio within which the majority were/are situated.</p

Microbial ecology of fermented meat for the isolation of targeted strains as biopreservatives

The present work explores the biopreservation as a potential alternative approach in a view of nitrites elimination or reduction in fermented meats. In particular, on one hand, it focuses on finding performant lactic acid bacteria strains, for their antimicrobial and techno-functional traits. On the other hand, the present work describes to what extent is safe to reduce the nitrites in the fermented meat products, respect to the maximal amount of 150 mg/kg NaNO2. Therefore, the antimicrobial activity of selected strains was tested through challenge tests, in nitrite-free and nitrite-reduced fermented salami, against Clostridium spp., Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. The outcomes from this study showed that the biopreservation is a promising approach for the pathogens outgrowth control in a nitrite-reduced fermented salami. In particular, one of the major outcomes is that the combination of 30mg/kg NaNO2 and bioprotective/starter cultures is a safe approach for Clostridium spp. outgrowth control in fermented meat

Effects of different thinning systems on the economic value of ecosystem services: A case-study in a black pine peri-urban forest in Central Italy

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) should be able to produce an optimal level of bundle of Ecosystem Services (ES), thus ensuring more resilient forest ecosystems also creating benefits for local population and human well-being. Yet, choosing between alternative forest management practices is not straightforward as it necessarily involves ES trade-offs. Forest management decisions have to reconcile the socio-economic and ecological contributions of forest ecosystems by fostering a synergistic relation between multiple ES while lowering ES trade-offs. The aim of the study is to analyze different forest management practices (selective and traditional thinning) in black pine peri-urban forest in Central Italy, by investigating their contribution in terms of provisioning (wood production), cultural (recreational benefits), regulating (climate change mitigation) ES. For each management option was performed: (1) the biophysical assessment of selected ES by using primary data and calculating indicators for wood production with special regard to biomass for energy use (living trees and deadwood volume harvested), recreational benefits (tourists’ preferences for each forest management practice), climate change mitigation (carbon sequestration in above-ground and below-ground biomass), and (2) the economic valuation of wood production, recreational benefits and climate change mitigation ES using direct and indirect methods (environmental evaluation techniques). The results show that the effects of the selective thinning on ES is higher that the effects of the traditional thinning. The economic value of the three ES provided by traditional and selective thinning are respectively: bioenergy production 154.2 € ha-1 yr-1 and 223.3 € ha-1 yr-1; recreational benefits 193.2 € ha-1 yr-1 and 231.9 € ha-1 yr-1; carbon sequestration 29.0 € ha-1 yr-1and 36.2 € ha-1 yr-1. The integrated (biophysical and economic) assessment of ES in addition to the trade-off analysis can provide multi-perspective insights for forest policy makers and can be included as a part of the local forest management plans.</p

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Data for Six Lactic Acid Bacteria Tested against Fifteen Antimicrobials

Antimicrobial resistance is a rising threat in the agrifood sector. The misuse of antibiotics exerts selective pressure, driving resistance mechanisms in bacteria, which could ultimately spread through many routes and render treatments for infectious diseases inefficient in humans and animals. Herein, we report antimicrobial susceptibility data obtained for six lactic acid bacteria, the members of which are commonly used in the food and feed chain. Fifteen antimicrobials were considered for the phenotypic testing: ampicillin, gentamicin, kanamycin, tetracycline, erythromycin, clindamycin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, vancomycin, quinupristin-dalfopristin, bacitracin, sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, linezolid, and rifampicin. The reported dataset could be used for the comparison, generation, and reconsideration of new and/or existing cut-off values when considering lactic acid bacteria, particularly lactobacilli and pediococci