Environmental policy and time consistency - emissions taxes and emissions trading

The authors examine policy problems related to the use of emissions taxes, and emissions trading, two market-based instruments for controlling pollution by getting regulated firms to adopt cleaner technologies. By attaching an explicit price to emissions, these instruments give firms an incentive to continually reduce their volume of emissions. Command, and-control emissions standards create incentives to adopt cleaner technologies only up to the point where the standards are no longer binding (at which point the shadow price on emissions falls to zero). But the ongoing incentives created by the market-based instruments are not necessarily right, either. Time-consistency constraints on the setting of these instruments limit the regulator's ability toset policies that lead to efficiency in adopting technology options. After examining the time-consistency properties of a Pigouvian emissions tax, and of the emissions trading, the authors find that: 1) If damage is linear, efficiency in adopting technologies involves either universal adoption of the new technology, or universal retention of the old technology, depending on the cost of adoption. The first best tax policy, and the first-best permit-supply policy are both time-consistent under these conditions. 2) If damage is strictly convex, efficiency may require partial adoption of the new technology. In this case, the first-best tax policy is not time-consistent, and the tax rate must be adjusted after adoption has taken place (ratcheting). Ratcheting will induce an efficient equilibrium if there is a large number of firms. If there are relatively few firms, ratcheting creates too many incentives to adopt the new technology. 3) The first-best supply policy is time-consistent if there is a large number of firms. If there are relatively few firms, the first-best supply policy may not be time-consistent, and the regulator must ratchet the supply of permits. With this policy, there are not enough incentives for firms to adopt the new technology. The results do not strongly favor one policy instrument over the other, but if the point of an emissions trading program is to increase technological efficiency, it is necessary to continually adjust the supply of permits in response to technological change, even when the damage is linear. This continual adjustment is not needed for an emissions tax when damage is linear, which may give emissions taxes an advantage over emissions trading.General Technology,Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Technology Industry,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,General Technology,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Carbon Policy and Trading,Energy and Environment

Equilibrium incentives for adopting cleaner technology under emissions pricing

Policymakers sometimes presume that adopting a less polluting technology necessarily improves welfare. This view is generally mistaken. Adopting a cleaner technology is costly, and this cost must be weighed against the technology's benefits in reduced pollution and reduced abatement costs. The literature to date has not satisfactorily examined whether emissions pricing properly internalizes this tradeoff between costs and benefits. And if the trend toward greater use of economic instruments in environmental policy continues, as is likely, the properties of those instruments must be understood, especially for dynamic efficiency. The authors examine incentives for adopting cleaner technologies in response to Pigouvian emissions pricing in equilibrium (unlike earlier analyses, which they contend, have been generally incomplete and at times misleading). Their results indicate that emissions pricing under the standard Pigouvian rule leads to efficient equilibrium adoption of technology under certain circumstances. They show that the equilibrium level of adopting a public innovation is efficient under Pigouvian pricing only if there are enough firms that each firm has a negligible effect on aggregate emissions. When those circumstances are not satisfied, Pigouvian pricing does not induce an efficient (social welfare-maximizing) level of innovation. The potential for inefficiency stems from two problems with the Pigouvian rule. First, the Pigouvian price does not discriminate against each unit of emissions according to its marginal damage. Second, full ratcheting of the emissions price in response to declining marginal damage as firms adopt the cleaner technology is correct expost but distorts incentives for adopting technology ex ante. The next natural step for research is to examine second-best pricing policies or multiple instrument policies. The challenge is to design regulatory policies that go some way toward resolving problems yet are geared to implementation in real regulatory settings. Clearly, such policies must use more instruments than emissions pricing alone. Direct taxes or subsidies for technological change, together with emissions pricing, should give regulators more scope for creating appropriate dynamic incentives. Such instruments are already widely used: investment tax credits (for environmental research and development), accelerated depreciation (for pollution control equipment), and environmental funds (to subsidize the adoption of pollution control equipment). Such direct incentives could be excessive, however, if emissions pricing is already in place. All incentives should be coordinated.Public Health Promotion,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,General Technology,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Carbon Policy and Trading,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,General Technology

Bistable Gradient Networks II: Storage Capacity and Behaviour Near Saturation

We examine numerically the storage capacity and the behaviour near saturation of an attractor neural network consisting of bistable elements with an adjustable coupling strength, the Bistable Gradient Network (BGN). For strong coupling, we find evidence of a first-order "memory blackout" phase transition as in the Hopfield network. For weak coupling, on the other hand, there is no evidence of such a transition and memorized patterns can be stable even at high levels of loading. The enhanced storage capacity comes, however, at the cost of imperfect retrieval of the patterns from corrupted versions.Comment: 15 pages, 12 eps figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. E. Sequel to cond-mat/020356

A Lower Bound for Quantum Phase Estimation

We obtain a query lower bound for quantum algorithms solving the phase estimation problem. Our analysis generalizes existing lower bound approaches to the case where the oracle Q is given by controlled powers Q^p of Q, as it is for example in Shor's order finding algorithm. In this setting we will prove a log (1/epsilon) lower bound for the number of applications of Q^p1, Q^p2, ... This bound is tight due to a matching upper bound. We obtain the lower bound using a new technique based on frequency analysis.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Universal Scaling of Wave Propagation Failure in Arrays of Coupled Nonlinear Cells

We study the onset of the propagation failure of wave fronts in systems of coupled cells. We introduce a new method to analyze the scaling of the critical external field at which fronts cease to propagate, as a function of intercellular coupling. We find the universal scaling of the field throughout the range of couplings, and show that the field becomes exponentially small for large couplings. Our method is generic and applicable to a wide class of cellular dynamics in chemical, biological, and engineering systems. We confirm our results by direct numerical simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTe

Are non-allergic drug reactions commonly documented as medication “allergies”? A national cohort of Veterans\u27 admissions from 2000 to 2014

Purpose: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) including medication allergies are not well-described among large national cohorts. This study described the most common documented medication allergies and their reactions among a national cohort of Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatients. Methods: We evaluated inpatient admissions in any VA Medical Center from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2014. Each admission was linked with allergy history preceding or upon admission. Individual drugs were aggregated into drug class category including: penicillins, sulfonamides, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, opiates, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (“statins”) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory inhibitors (NSAID). Results were reported in aggregate and over time. Results: Approximately ~10.8 million inpatient admissions occurred from 2000 to 2014. We found the most commonly reported allergy drug classes were penicillins (13%, n = 1 410 080), opiates (9.1%, n = 984 978), ACE inhibitors (5.7%, n = 618 075) sulfonamides (5.1%, n = 558 653), NSAIDs (5.1%, n = 551 216) and statins (3.6%, n  = 391 983). Several allergy histories increased over time including opiates (6.2 to 11.2%), ACE inhibitors (1.3 to 10.2%), statins (0.3 to 7.3%) and NSAIDs (3.9 to 6.0%). Rash was the most commonly documented reaction on reports for penicillins (25.5%, n = 371 825), sulfonamides (25.6%, n = 165 954) and NSAIDs (10.3%, n = 65 741). The most common reaction for opiates was nausea/vomiting (17.9%, n = 211 864), cough/coughing for ACE inhibitors (41.0%, n = 270 537) and muscle pain/myalgia for statins (34.1%, n = 186 565). Conclusions: We report that penicillins and opiates are the most commonly documented drug allergies among VA inpatients, but other drug classes such as ACE inhibitors, statins and NSAIDs are becoming increasingly common. Clinicians also commonly document non-allergic ADRs in the allergy section such as cough or myalgia. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Prenatal Stress due to a Natural Disaster Predicts Adiposity in Childhood: The Iowa Flood Study

Prenatal stress can affect lifelong physical growth, including increased obesity risk. However, human studies remain limited. Natural disasters provide models of independent stressors unrelated to confounding maternal characteristics. We assessed degree of objective hardship and subjective distress in women pregnant during severe flooding. At ages 2.5 and 4 years we assessed body mass index (BMI), subscapular plus triceps skinfolds (SS + TR, an index of total adiposity), and SS: TR ratio (an index of central adiposity) in their children (n=106). Hierarchical regressions controlled first for several potential confounds. Controlling for these, flood exposure during early gestation predicted greater BMI increase from age 2.5 to 4, as well as total adiposity at 2.5. Greater maternal hardship and distress due to the floods, as well as other nonflood life events during pregnancy, independently predicted greater increase in total adiposity between 2.5 and 4 years. These results support the hypothesis that prenatal stress increases adiposity beginning in childhood and suggest that early gestation is a sensitive period. Results further highlight the additive effects of maternal objective and subjective stress, life events, and depression, emphasizing the importance of continued studies on multiple, detailed measures of maternal mental health and experience in pregnancy and child growth

The Effect of Molecular Rapid Diagnostic Testing on Clinical Outcomes in Bloodstream Infections: A Systematic Review & Meta-analysis

Background. Previous reports on molecular rapid diagnostic testing (mRDT) do not consistently demonstrate improved clinical outcomes in bloodstream infections (BSIs). This meta-analysis seeks to evaluate the impact of mRDT in improving clinical outcomes in BSIs. Methods. We searched PubMed, CINAHL, Web of science, and EMBASE through May 2016 for BSI studies comparing clinical outcomes by mRDT and conventional microbiology methods. Results. Thirty-one studies were included with 5,920 patients. Risk of morality was significantly lower with mRDT as compared to conventional microbiology methods (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.54-0.80) yielding a NNT of 20. The risk of mortality was slightly lower with mRDT in studies with antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.51-0.79) and non-ASP studies failed to demonstrate a significant decrease in risk of mortality (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.46-1.12). Significant decreases in mortality risk were observed with both Gram-positive (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.55-0.97) and Gram-negative organisms (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.33-0.78) but not yeast (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.49-1.67). Time to effective therapy decreased by a weighted mean difference of -5.03 hours (95% CI -8.60 to -1.45) and length of stay decreased by -2.48 days (95% CI -3.90 to -1.06). Conclusions. For BSIs, mRDT was associated with significant decreases in risk of mortality in the presence of a ASP, but not in its absence. Additionally, mRDT decreased time to effective therapy and length of stay. mRDT should be considered as part of the standard of care in patients with BSIs

Suitable Reference Gene Selection for Different Strains and Developmental Stages of the Carmine Spider Mite, Tetranychus cinnabarinus, using Quantitative Real-Time PCR

Reference genes are used as internal controls in gene expression studies, but their expression levels vary according to tissue types and experimental treatments. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) is the most sensitive technique for transcript quantification provided that gene transcription patterns are normalized to an evaluated reference gene. In this study, the suitability of eight commonly used genes (β?-actin, 5.8SrRNA, α?-TUB, GAPDH, RPL13a, RPS18, TBP, SDHA) were cloned and investigated to find the most stable candidates for normalizing real-time PCR data generated from the four different strains (abamectin-resistant, fenpropathrin-resistant, omethoate-resistant, and susceptible strains) and different developmental stages (eggs, protonymphs, nymphs, and adults) of carmine spider mite, Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduval) (Acarina: Tetranychidae). The stability of gene expression was assessed using two different analysis programs, geNorm and NormFinder. Using these analyses, RPS18 and 5.8SrRNA had the most stable expression regardless of the four different strains, whereas RPS18 and α?-TUB were expressed most stably in different developmental stages

DEPTOR Is an mTOR Inhibitor Frequently Overexpressed in Multiple Myeloma Cells and Required for Their Survival

The mTORC1 and mTORC2 pathways regulate cell growth, proliferation, and survival. We identify DEPTOR as an mTOR-interacting protein whose expression is negatively regulated by mTORC1 and mTORC2. Loss of DEPTOR activates S6K1, Akt, and SGK1, promotes cell growth and survival, and activates mTORC1 and mTORC2 kinase activities. DEPTOR overexpression suppresses S6K1 but, by relieving feedback inhibition from mTORC1 to PI3K signaling, activates Akt. Consistent with many human cancers having activated mTORC1 and mTORC2 pathways, DEPTOR expression is low in most cancers. Surprisingly, DEPTOR is highly overexpressed in a subset of multiple myelomas harboring cyclin D1/D3 or c-MAF/MAFB translocations. In these cells, high DEPTOR expression is necessary to maintain PI3K and Akt activation and a reduction in DEPTOR levels leads to apoptosis. Thus, we identify a novel mTOR-interacting protein whose deregulated overexpression in multiple myeloma cells represents a mechanism for activating PI3K/Akt signaling and promoting cell survival.Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Investigator)Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (High-Tech Research Fund)National Cancer Institute (U.S.)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Intramural Research Program)American Cancer SocietyCanadian Institutes of Health Research (Fellowship)American Diabetes Association (Fellowship)W. M. Keck FoundationNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01 CA103866)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH; R01 AI47389