Pollution Control Instruments in the Presence of an Informal Sector

We examines the challenges faced by the regulator in managing pollution when there is a linkage between a formal and an informal industrial sector across the stages of production. The formal sector is more productive than the informal sector and the latter saves cost by evading pollution regulation due to incomplete monitoring. This creates a natural tendency for the more polluting processes to be concentrated in the informal sector. We show the unintended effects of the standard Pigouvian tax (emission fee), which might lead to further deterioration by encouraging the shift of stages in favour of the informal sector. Instead, we propose a second-best hybrid instrument, comprised of a tax on polluting input and a subsidy on proper disposal of residual waste.Emissions tax, informal sector, pollution control, vertical production.

Organization and dynamics of N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)-labeled lipids: a fluorescence approach

Lipids that are labeled with the NBD (7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl) group are widely used as fluorescent analogues of native lipids in biological and model membranes to monitor a variety of processes. NBD-labeled lipids have previously been used to monitor the organization and dynamics of molecular assemblies such as membranes, micelles and reverse micelles utilizing the wavelength-selective fluorescence approach. In this paper, we have characterized the organization and dynamics of various NBD-labeled lipids using red edge excitation shift (REES) and other fluorescence approaches which include analysis of membrane penetration depths of the NBD group using the parallax method. We show here that the environment and location experienced by the NBD group of the NBD-labeled lipids could depend on the ionization state of the lipid. This could have potentially important implications in future studies involving NBD-labeled lipids as tracers in a cellular context

AQUEOUS BARK EXTRACT OF TERMINALIA ARJUNA PROTECTS AGAINST PHENYLHYDRAZINE INDUCED OXIDATIVE DAMAGE IN GOAT RED BLOOD CELL MEMBRANE BOUND AND METABOLIC ENZYMES

Objective: The objective of the present study is to determine the phenylhydrazine (PHZ) induced oxidative stress mediated alteration in the metabolic status and morphology of the red blood cells (RBC) and amelioration of the same by aqueous bark extract of Terminalia arjuna (TA).Methods: Fresh goat blood collected from local Kolkata Corporation approved slaughter house, was used for the present study. Packed cells were prepared from the freshly collected goat blood and were divided into four groups as follows for further studies i. e Group I: Control (CON), Group II: TA bark extract treated, named T5C (5 mg/ml, incubation mixture; positive control), Group III: PHZ treated (1 mM), Group IV: PHZ treated+TA bark extract at a dose of 5 mg/ml, named as P+T5. ROS, superoxide anion radical, and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity were determined. Intracellular iron and intracellular nitrate concentration were estimated. Activities of various membrane-bound enzymes like Na+/K+-ATPase, Mg2+-ATPase and Ca2+-ATPase and Ach-E were determined. Moreover, the activities of some metabolic enzymes like glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), hexokinase, aldolase, lactase dehydrogenase were also studied. In addition, the morphological structure of RBCs was also determined.Results: PHZ treatment caused significant alterations in RBC morphology as well as altered the activities of membrane-bound as well as metabolic enzymes. All these changes following oxidative stress were found to be ameliorated when the RBCs were co-treated with PHZ and aqueous bark extract of TA. However, aqueous bark extract of TA alone did not exhibit any such changes in RBC.Conclusion: The aqueous bark extract of TA ameliorates PHZ-induced oxidative damages in goat RBC possibly by an antioxidant mechanism(s). The aqueous bark extract of TA may have future therapeutic relevance in oxidative stress-induced damages in RBCs.Keywords: Antioxidant enzymes, Aqueous bark extract, Oxidative stress, Phenylhydrazine, Red blood cells, Terminalia arjun

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.Comment: 139 pages, Physics White Paper of the ICAL (INO) Collaboration, Contents identical with the version published in Pramana - J. Physic

Relationship Between Trade, Investment and Environment: A Review of Issues

The inter-linkage between economic openness and environmental repercussions is a widely researched area. The current study contributes in the existing pool of research by conducting a cross-country empirical analysis for the year 2008 by exploring the interrelationship between openness indicators (trade and investment) and environmental performance of a country. For this purpose, the analysis separately considers export orientation, import orientation, FDI inwardness and FDI outwardness of the countries in different variations of the proposed empirical model. The regression results do not provide strong support to the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH). The findings also confirm a relationship between socio-economic and socio-political factors in a country and its environmental performance

Pollution Control Instruments in the Presence of an Informal Sector

URL des Documents de travail : http://ces.univ-paris1.fr/cesdp/cesdp2010.htmlDocuments de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2010.103 - ISSN : 1955-611XWe examines the challenges faced by the regulator in managing pollution when there is a linkage between a formal and an informal industrial sector across the stages of production. The formal sector is more productive than the informal sector and the latter saves cost by evading pollution regulation due to incomplete monitoring. This creates a natural tendency for the more polluting processes to be concentrated in the informal sector. We show the unintended effects of the standard Pigouvian tax (emission fee), which might lead to further deterioration by encouraging the shift of stages in favour of the informal sector. Instead, we propose a second-best hybrid instrument, comprised of a tax on polluting input and a subsidy on proper disposal of residual waste.Nous proposons un modèle pour analyser la politique environnementale en présence des liens entre un secteur formel et un secteur informel dans une structure de production industrielle verticale. Le secteur formel est caractérisé par une productivité plus élevée ; le secteur informel jouit d'un avantage comparatif car il est difficile de mesurer ses émissions et mettre en oeuvre la réglementation environnentale. Cette situation est typique dans des pays en développement. Nous démontrons les effets pervers d'une taxe pigouvienne (une taxe sur les émissions) dans ce cas, qui peut amener à un transfert de la production du secteur formel vers le secteur informel. Ensuite, nous proposons une politique alternative, fondée sur une combinaison entre une taxe sur les intrants polluants et une subvention à la remise des résidus polluants (selon la forme d'une consigne). Cette politique serait plus adaptée à des problèmes de déchets toxiques et de pollution de l'eau et éviterait les conséquences de concentration d'activité polluante dans le secteur informel