Working too much in a polluted world: A North-South evolutionary model

This paper examines a simple North-South growth model where negative externalities may contribute to reinforce economic growth. Agents' welfare depends on three goods in the model: leisure, a common access renewable natural resource (one in each hemisphere) and a non-storable consumption good. Production and consumption of the latter good deplete the renewable natural resource. To protect against such environmental deterioration, agents may increase their labor supply in order to produce an additional amount of the consumption good to be used as a substitute for the depleted natural resource. The consequent growth in production and consumption may generate a further depletion of the natural resource. This may lead to a self-enforcing growth process in a polluted world where individuals work and produce "too much" (i.e. more than socially optimal). We examine the choices of the two hemispheres using a two-population evolutionary game with transboundary pollution across hemispheres. Each agent chooses whether to work low or high. If an agent works low, she can consume the good only to satisfy basic needs (subsistence consumption). If the agent works high, she can consume an additional amount of the good as a substitute for the natural resource (substitution consumption). We assume that people who work high in the North can also have access to the Southern natural resource (e.g. they can afford a holiday in some developing country where natural resources are still relatively unpolluted), whereas the opposite is not true. We show that economic growth in the North and/or in the South may lead to stationary states that are Pareto dominated by states of the world with a lower level of production and consumption. Moreover, negative environmental externalities from the North to the South may foster growth in the South, which may have in turn feedback effects on growth in the North. Finally, we discuss possible welfare effects of transferring the environmental impact of Northern production to the South and show that such a policy may decrease welfare in both hemispheres

A Review of Agent-Based Modeling of Climate-Energy Policy

Agent-based models (ABMs) have recently seen much application to the field of climate mitigation policies. They offer a more realistic description of micro behavior than traditional climate policy models by allowing for agent heterogeneity, bounded rationality and nonmarket interactions over social networks. This enables the analysis of a broader spectrum of policies. Here, we review 61 ABM studies addressing climate-energy policy aimed at emissions reduction, product and technology diffusion, and energy conservation. This covers a broad set of instruments of climate policy, ranging from carbon taxation, and emissions trading through adoption subsidies to information provision tools such as smart meters and eco-labels. Our treatment pays specific attention to behavioral assumptions and the structure of social networks. We offer suggestions for future research with ABMs to answer neglected policy questions. This article is categorized under: Climate Economics > Economics of Mitigation. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.This study has received funding through an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 741087). I.S. acknowledges financial support from the Russian Science Foundation [RSF grant number 19-18-00262]

How Low Can You Go?: Widespread Challenges in Measuring Low Stream Discharge and a Path Forward

Low flows pose unique challenges for accurately quantifying streamflow. Current field methods are not optimized to measure these conditions, which in turn, limits research and management. In this essay, we argue that the lack of methods for measuring low streamflow is a fundamental challenge that must be addressed to ensure sustainable water management now and into the future, particularly as climate change shifts more streams to increasingly frequent low flows. We demonstrate the pervasive challenge of measuring low flows, present a decision support tool (DST) for navigating best practices in measuring low flows, and highlight important method developmental needs

The Role of Histone H4 Biotinylation in the Structure of Nucleosomes

Background: Post-translational modifications of histones play important roles in regulating nucleosome structure and gene transcription. It has been shown that biotinylation of histone H4 at lysine-12 in histone H4 (K12Bio-H4) is associated with repression of a number of genes. We hypothesized that biotinylation modifies the physical structure of nucleosomes, and that biotin-induced conformational changes contribute to gene silencing associated with histone biotinylation. Methodology/Principal Findings: To test this hypothesis we used atomic force microscopy to directly analyze structures of nucleosomes formed with biotin-modified and non-modified H4. The analysis of the AFM images revealed a 13% increase in the length of DNA wrapped around the histone core in nucleosomes with biotinylated H4. This statistically significant (p,0.001) difference between native and biotinylated nucleosomes corresponds to adding approximately 20 bp to the classical 147 bp length of nucleosomal DNA. Conclusions/Significance: The increase in nucleosomal DNA length is predicted to stabilize the association of DNA with histones and therefore to prevent nucleosomes from unwrapping. This provides a mechanistic explanation for the gene silencing associated with K12Bio-H4. The proposed single-molecule AFM approach will be instrumental for studying the effects of various epigenetic modifications of nucleosomes, in addition to biotinylation

An Evaluation of the Beyond High School Model on the Self- Determination of Students With Intellectual Disability

Students with intellectual disability are often served in community-based services to promote effective adult outcomes in employment, community inclusion, and independent living (Gaumer, Morningstar & Clark (2004). Beyond High School (Wehmeyer, Garner, Lawrence, Yeager, & Davis, 2006), a multi-stage model to promote student involvement in educational planning, was effectively used by 109 students with mild and moderate levels of intellectual disability between 17.8 and 21 years of age to increase student abilities. Results are discussed in regard to improved transition opportunities for individuals with intellectual disability such as those afforded through post-secondary education.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Prospect theory, mitigation and adaptation to climate change

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges in current environmental policy. Appropriate policies intended to stimulate efficient adaptation and mitigation should not exclusively rely on the assumption of the homo oeconomicus, but take advantage of well-researched alternative behavioural patterns. Prospect theory provides a number of climate-relevant insights, such as the notion that evaluations of outcomes are reference dependent, and the relevance of perceived certainty of outcomes. This paper systematically reviews what prospect theory can offer to analyse mitigation and adaptation. It is shown that accounting for reference dependence and certainty effects contributes to a better understanding of some well-known puzzles in the climate debate, including (but not limited to) the different uptake of mitigation and adaptation amongst individuals and nations, the role of technical vs. financial adaptation, and the apparent preference for hard protection measures in coastal adaptation. Finally, concrete possibilities for empirical research on these effects are proposed

A Histone Map of Human Chromosome 20q13.12

We present a systematic search for regulatory elements in a 3.5 Mb region on human chromosome 20q13.12, a region associated with a number of medical conditions such as type II diabetes and obesity.We profiled six histone modifications alongside RNA polymerase II (PolII) and CTCF in two cell lines, HeLa S3 and NTERA-2 clone D1 (NT2/D1), by chromatin immunoprecipitation using an in-house spotted DNA array, constructed with 1.8 kb overlapping plasmid clones. In both cells, more than 90% of transcription start sites (TSSs) of expressed genes showed enrichments with PolII, di-methylated lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3K4me2), tri-methylated lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3K4me3) or acetylated H3 (H3Ac), whereas mono-methylated lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3K4me1) signals did not correlate with expression. No TSSs were enriched with tri-methylated lysine 27 of histone H3 (H3K27me3) in HeLa S3, while eight TSSs (4 expressed) showed enrichments in NT2/D1. We have also located several CTCF binding sites that are potential insulator elements.In summary, we annotated a number of putative regulatory elements in 20q13.12 and went on to verify experimentally a subset of them using dual luciferase reporter assays. Correlating this data to sequence variation can aid identification of disease causing variants

The C-Terminus of Histone H2B Is Involved in Chromatin Compaction Specifically at Telomeres, Independently of Its Monoubiquitylation at Lysine 123

Telomeric heterochromatin assembly in budding yeast propagates through the association of Silent Information Regulator (SIR) proteins with nucleosomes, and the nucleosome array has been assumed to fold into a compacted structure. It is believed that the level of compaction and gene repression within heterochromatic regions can be modulated by histone modifications, such as acetylation of H3 lysine 56 and H4 lysine 16, and monoubiquitylation of H2B lysine 123. However, it remains unclear as to whether or not gene silencing is a direct consequence of the compaction of chromatin. Here, by investigating the role of the carboxy-terminus of histone H2B in heterochromatin formation, we identify that the disorderly compaction of chromatin induced by a mutation at H2B T122 specifically hinders telomeric heterochromatin formation. H2B T122 is positioned within the highly conserved AVTKY motif of the αC helix of H2B. Heterochromatin containing the T122E substitution in H2B remains inaccessible to ectopic dam methylase with dramatically increased mobility in sucrose gradients, indicating a compacted chromatin structure. Genetic studies indicate that this unique phenotype is independent of H2B K123 ubiquitylation and Sir4. In addition, using ChIP analysis, we demonstrate that telomere structure in the mutant is further disrupted by a defect in Sir2/Sir3 binding and the resulting invasion of euchromatic histone marks. Thus, we have revealed that the compaction of chromatin per se is not sufficient for heterochromatin formation. Instead, these results suggest that an appropriately arrayed chromatin mediated by H2B C-terminus is required for SIR binding and the subsequent formation of telomeric chromatin in yeast, thereby identifying an intrinsic property of the nucleosome that is required for the establishment of telomeric heterochromatin. This requirement is also likely to exist in higher eukaryotes, as the AVTKY motif of H2B is evolutionarily conserved