Agri-environmental Policies and their Impacts on the Environment and Different Farm Types in Japan: An Economic-Biophysical Model Approach

Promoting environmentally friendly farming products is crucial to meeting consumer demand. Although governments implement policy measures to improve the environmental performance of the agriculture sector, their impacts are difficult to assess. This study analyses the performance of agri-environmental policies in Japan, by using the OECD’s policy impact model and reference level framework. In particular, it identifies the environmental impacts of three simulated agri-environmental policies based on farms’ characteristics. The results suggest that a policy mix of regulation and an incentive payment would reduce environmental impacts, suggesting that targeted approaches could improve the cost-effectiveness of agri-environmental policies

Cell cycle progression after cleavage failure: mammalian somatic cells do not possess a “tetraploidy checkpoint”

Failure of cells to cleave at the end of mitosis is dangerous to the organism because it immediately produces tetraploidy and centrosome amplification, which is thought to produce genetic imbalances. Using normal human and rat cells, we reexamined the basis for the attractive and increasingly accepted proposal that normal mammalian cells have a “tetraploidy checkpoint” that arrests binucleate cells in G1, thereby preventing their propagation. Using 10 μM cytochalasin to block cleavage, we confirm that most binucleate cells arrest in G1. However, when we use lower concentrations of cytochalasin, we find that binucleate cells undergo DNA synthesis and later proceed through mitosis in >80% of the cases for the hTERT-RPE1 human cell line, primary human fibroblasts, and the REF52 cell line. These observations provide a functional demonstration that the tetraploidy checkpoint does not exist in normal mammalian somatic cells

Agri‐environmental Policies to Meet Consumer Preferences in Japan: An Economic‐Biophysical Model Approach

Promoting environmentally friendly farming products is crucial to meeting consumer demand. Although governments implement policy measures to improve the environmental performance of the agriculture sector, theirimpacts are difficult to assess. This study analyses the performance of agri‐environmental policies in Japan, by using the OECD’s policy impact model and reference level framework. In particular, it identifies the environmental impacts of three simulated agri‐environmental policies based on farms’ characteristics. The results suggest that a policy mix of regulation and an incentive payment would reduce environmental impacts, suggesting that targeted approaches could improve the cost‐effectiveness of agri‐environmental policies