Does Britain or the United States Have the Right Gasoline Tax?

This paper develops an analytical framework for assessing the second-best optimal level of gasoline taxation, taking into account unpriced pollution, congestion, and accident externalities and interactions with the broader fiscal system. We provide calculations of the optimal taxes for the United States and the United Kingdom under a wide variety of parameter scenarios, with the gasoline tax substituting for a distorting tax on labor income. Under our central parameter values, the second-best optimal gasoline tax is $1.01 per gallon for the United States and$1.34 per gallon for the United Kingdom. These values are moderately sensitive to alternative parameter assumptions. The congestion externality is the largest component in both nations, and the higher optimal tax for the United Kingdom is due mainly to a higher assumed value for marginal congestion cost. Revenue-raising needs, incorporated in a “Ramsey” component, also play a significant role, as do accident externalities and local air pollution. The current gasoline tax in the United Kingdom ($2.80 per gallon) is more than twice this estimated optimal level. Potential welfare gains from reducing it are estimated at nearly one-fourth the production cost of gasoline used in the United Kingdom. Even larger gains in the United Kingdom can be achieved by switching to a tax on vehicle miles with equal revenue yield. For the United States, the welfare gains from optimizing the gasoline tax are smaller, but those from switching to an optimal tax on vehicle miles are very large.gasoline tax, pollution, congestion, accidents, fiscal interactions

Should Urban Transit Subsidies Be Reduced?

This paper derives intuitive and empirically useful formulas for the optimal pricing of passenger transit and for the welfare effects of adjusting current fare subsidies, for peak and off-peak urban rail and bus systems. The formulas are implemented based on a detailed estimation of parameter values for the metropolitan areas of Washington (D.C.), Los Angeles, and London. Our analysis accounts for congestion, pollution, and accident externalities from automobiles and from transit vehicles; scale economies in transit supply; costs of accessing and waiting for transit service as well as service crowding costs; and agency adjustment of transit frequency, vehicle size, and route network to induced changes in demand for passenger miles. The results support the efficiency case for the large fare subsidies currently applied across mode, period, and city. In almost all cases, fare subsidies of 50 percent or more of operating costs are welfare improving at the margin, and this finding is robust to alternative assumptions and parameters.transit subsidies, scale economies, traffic congestion, welfare effects

Should Urban Transit Subsidies Be Reduced?

This paper derives intuitive and empirically useful formulas for the optimal pricing of passenger transit and for the welfare effects of adjusting current fare subsidies, for peak and off-peak urban rail and bus systems. The formulas are implemented based on a detailed estimation of parameter values for the metropolitan areas of Washington (D.C.), Los Angeles, and London. Our analysis accounts for congestion, pollution, and accident externalities from automobiles and from transit vehicles; scale economies in transit supply; costs of accessing and waiting for transit service as well as service crowding costs; and agency adjustment of transit frequency, vehicle size, and route network to induced changes in demand for passenger miles. The results support the efficiency case for the large fare subsidies currently applying across mode, period, and city. In almost all cases, fare subsidies of 50% or more of operating costs are welfare improving at the margin, and this finding is robust to alternative assumptions and parameters.Transit subsidies; Scale economies; Traffic congestion; Welfare effects

Some Unpublished Oscar Wilde Letters

Oscar Wilde scholar Ian Small provides the historical context off our Wilde letters held in the Syracuse University Library

Pastoral Farmer Goals and Intensification Strategies

Focus groups were held with four pastoral sectors (sheep, dairy, deer, and beef) to investigate intensification strategies available to each sector. Focus groups first identified drivers of intensification in their sector, then identified the strategies they perceived as available, and evaluated the identified strategies in terms of favourability. For a researcher selected intensification strategy in each pastoral sector, benefits, barriers and solutions, and the relationship between farmer goals and the selected strategy was examined. The three main drivers of intensification in the sheep industry were profit, higher land values and return on capital. The researcher chosen strategy, high fecundity sheep, was viewed by the focus group as having benefits of increased financial security, increased profit, better return on capital and better land utilisation. However the strategy was seen as conflicting with other desirable goals such as lifestyle, social life, work variety, self reliance, environmental concerns and animal welfare. The three main drivers of intensification in the dairy sector were declining market prices, need for increased profit and need for increased productivity. The researcher chosen strategy, robotic milking, was viewed as having benefits of: reduced labour requirements, enhanced lifestyle, greater job satisfaction, reduce operational costs and increased profit. Implementation cost was viewed as a barrier as was the need for new specialised technical skills. The three main drivers of intensification in the deer industry were return on investment, competition from other land uses and returns per hectare compared with other pastoral sectors. The researcher chosen strategy, 100kg weaner by 1st June, had benefits of increased management options, increased profit, achievement of animals’ genetic potential, better predictability and a higher kill-out yield. The strategy presents challenges to animal welfare – an important consideration for the group. Three industry enterprises (dairy, calf rearers, and beef finishers) are involved in beef production. All three agreed that profit was the main driver for intensification. The researcher chosen strategy was dairy/beef progeny. Benefits of this strategy for the industry were: increased profit, access to prime markets, higher yielding quicker growing animals, and better behaved animals. The primary barrier to the success of this strategy was the need for co-operation across the three industry enterprises and the processors, and the need to ensure increased profits are distributed to all parts of the chain. Dairy farmers (the source of 65% of animals farmed for beef) were particular concerned about animal welfare issues and the consequent financial risks presented to their operations by this strategy.Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Method of Manufacturing a Humidity Sensing Material

A method is provided for manufacturing a humidity sensing material. Particles of a trivalent rare earth hydroxide or oxide (such as lanthanum hydroxide) are mixed with particles of barium oxide and titanium dioxide in specified proportions. The particle mixture is heated to generate a sintered mixture that is milled. The resulting milled particles are mixed with glass particles, an organic surfactant, a solvent, an organic vehicle, and an alkali hydroxide. The resulting liquid mixture is deposited as a layer thereof onto a substrate. The substrate and layer thereon are processed to remove liquid portions of the liquid mixture. Such liquid removal processing includes at least one cycle of heating the layer followed by a corresponding cycle of cooling the layer in a nitrogen atmosphere containing less than 25 parts per million of oxygen

Studies on the NADH-nitrate reductase from barley

The structure and properties of barley nitrate reductase (NADH ; nitrate oxidoreductase, E.C. 1.6.6.1.) have been analysed. A protocol has been established for the purification of barley nitrate reductase, involving (NH4)2SO4 fractionation, gel filtration through Biogel A1.5 m and affinity chromatography through Blue Dextran-Sepharose. This protocol should allow the preparation of homogeneous enzyme at higher yields than have hitherto been obtained, although this goal was not achieved in the work reported here. Barley nitrate reductase has been shown to have a calculated molecular weight of 203,000, based on experimentally determined values for its sedimentation coefficient (7.7 S) and Stokes radius (6.4 nm). The enzyme is highly asymmetrical with a frictional ratio of 1.65 and an axial ratio of 11:1. It can catalyse the reduction of nitrate using either NADH (the physiological electron donor), FMNH or reduced methyl viologen as electron donor and can also catalyse an NADH-dependent reduction of cytochrome c. Barley nitrate reductase is shown to break down to give rise to NADH-cytochrome c reductase species possessing molecular weights of 40 000, 61 000, and 163 000 and the levels of these species are shown to be much higher in extracts from plants older than 90 hours than in extracts (V) from 90-hour old plants. A purification procedure for the 40 000 molecular weight NADH-cytochrome c reductase species has been established and involves Blue Dextran- Sepharose affinity chromatography. Data is presented which characterises a ferrocyanide-activated NADH-cytochrome c reductase species in extracts from barley plants and shows it to be a globular protein with a molecular weight of 45 000. Evidence is presented which suggests that this species is not related to nitrate reductase. The ability of artificial electron acceptors to accept electrons from nitrate reductase in place of cytochrome c has been examined. It is concluded that although DCPIP, ferricyanide and nitroblue-tetrazolium are capable of acting as substrates for the reaction, they do so much less efficiently than cytochrome c and are much less specific than cytochrome c. The thermal stability of all the associated activities of barley nitrate reductase at 45° has been examined. Whereas the half-lives of both NADH-dependent activities were short (3-5 minutes) those of FMNH- and reduced methyl viologen nitrate reductase activities were much longer (23.5 minutes and 35 minutes respectively). Thermal inactivation of FMNH-nitrate reductase-activity was shown to be biphasic and evidence is presented which suggests that FMNH may donate electrons at two separate sites on barley nitrate reductase. Attempts were made to reconstitute nitrate reductase activity in vitro from the isolated 40 000 molecular weight NADH-cytochrome c reductase species and MCC derived from acid-treated barley nitrate reductase. These were unsuccessful. In the General Discussion, the evidence available regarding the structure of the nitrate reductases from fungal, algal and higher plant sources is reviewed and analysed. A model for the structure of higher plant nitrate reductase is presented which accounts for the data reported here and in the literature. A mechanism for the turnover of nitrate reductase in vivo is also proposed as is the probable route of genetic evolution of the nitrate reductases

What have we learned? A review of the literature on children’s health and the environment in the Aral Sea area

Objectives - To review the published literature examining the impacts of the Aral Sea disaster on children’s health. // Methods - A systematic review of the English language literature. // Results - The literature search uncovered 26 peer-reviewed articles and four major reports published between 1994 and 2008. Anemia, diarrheal diseases, and high body burdens of toxic contaminants were identified as being among the significant health problems for children. These problems are associated either directly with the environmental disaster or indirectly via the deterioration of the region’s economy and social and health care services. While links between persistent organic pollutant exposures and body burdens are clear, health impacts remain poorly understood. No clear evidence for the link between dust exposure and respiratory function was identified. // Conclusion - While important questions about the nature of the child health and environment relationships remain to be answered, the literature unequivocally illustrates the seriousness of the public health tragedy and provides sufficient evidence to justify immediate action. Regrettably, international awareness of the crisis continues to be poor, and the level of action addressing the situation is wholly inadequate

Plant organellar RNA maturation

Plant organellar RNA metabolism is run by a multitude of nucleus-encoded RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) that control RNA stability, processing, and degradation. In chloroplasts and mitochondria, these post-transcriptional processes are vital for the production of a small number of essential components of the photosynthetic and respiratory machinery—and consequently for organellar biogenesis and plant survival. Many organellar RBPs have been functionally assigned to individual steps in RNA maturation, often specific to selected transcripts. While the catalog of factors identified is ever-growing, our knowledge of how they achieve their functions mechanistically is far from complete. This review summarizes the current knowledge of plant organellar RNA metabolism taking an RBP-centric approach and focusing on mechanistic aspects of RBP functions and the kinetics of the processes they are involved in.Peer Reviewe