The real effect of legal institutions: Environmental courts and firm environmental protection expenditure

This paper evaluates the real effects of environmental justice reform on environmental governance at the firm level. Using the establishment of environmental courts in China as a quasi-natural experiment, our difference-in-differences estimation shows that: (1) environmental courts significantly enhance environmental investment by firms, and this relationship is robust to different specifications and alternative measures; (2) three possible channels are the improved levels of justice and enforcement of environmental protection, and the mitigation of local government intervention; (3) our findings are particularly pronounced in subsamples with severe local protectionism, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and non-SOEs with political connections; (4) at the city-level, environmental courts significantly increase air quality and promote cities to cross the inflection point of the environmental Kuznets curve earlier. Overall, this paper reveals the micro-mechanisms behind the real effects of environmental justice on firm environmental investment, thus providing timely implications for regulators concerned with environmental protection.     

Valuation of natural capital under uncertain substitutability

Natural capital is complex to value notably because of the high uncertainties surrounding the substitutability of its future ecosystem services. We examine a Lucas economy in which a consumption good is produced by combining different inputs, one of them being an ecosystem service that is partially substitutable with other inputs. The growth rate of these inputs and the elasticity of substitution evolve in a stochastic way. We characterize the socially efficient ecological discount rates that should be used to value future ecosystem services at different time horizons. We show that the inverse of the elasticity of substitution can be interpreted as the CCAPM beta of natural capital. We also show that any increase in risk of this beta reduces the ecological discount rate. If our collective beliefs about the elasticity of substitution of ecosystem services are Gaussian, the ecological discount rates go to minus infinity for finite maturities. In that case, a marginal increase in natural capital has an infinite value. We provide a realistic calibration of the model that is coherent with observed asset prices by using the model of extreme events of Barro (2006). The bliss maturity for infinite discount factors is less than 100 years in this calibration.     

环境污染应急处置技术的CBR-MADM两步筛选法模型

突发环境污染事件进行应急处置时,需要在历史案例库和处置技术库的基础上通过筛选模型筛选出最适宜的应急处置技术.其中筛选的效率和准确性是构建技术筛选模型的首要因素,目前尚无较为满意的解决方案.本文结合案例推理技术(CBR)和模糊多属性群决策模型(MADM)的优势,建立了环境污染应急处置技术的CBR-MADM两步筛选法模型:第1步,先利用基于熵权G1法的CBR推理从案例库中匹配案例,再从相似度最高的几个案例中提取应急处置技术作为备选技术;第2步,利用MADM对备选技术进行筛选和决策.CBR-MADM两步筛选法既充分利用了历史处置经验,又极大地提高了应急处置技术的筛选速度和效率.将该方法应用于2012年底山西长治浊漳河苯胺泄漏污染事件中,成功筛选出“投加混凝剂-活性炭坝拦截”技术,同实际情况吻合,验证了其适用性和可行性.     

不同pH条件下Cr6+对3种藻的毒性效应(The Toxicological Effects of Cr6+ on Chlorella Vulgaris, Scenedesmus Obliquus and Microcystis Aeruginosa at Different pH Values)

目前我国水质量生态基准的研究较为零星、分散.研究了不同pH条件下Cr6+对3种藻的毒性效应,以期为我国水生态基准的科学制定以及基准的相关研究工作提供参考.选取小球藻、斜生栅藻和铜绿微囊藻3种典型的藻种,在pH为7.0,8.0和9.0三个条件下,依据OECD-201藻类生长抑制实验指南,以72h藻生物量为测试终点,计算3种藻的比生长率,以及Cr6+对3种藻产生毒性效应的NOEC、LOEC、EC10和EC20值.结果表明,在本实验条件下,在不同pH条件下藻种生长不同,小球藻的最适pH值为7.0,斜生栅藻和铜绿微囊藻的最适pH值为9.0;在不同pH条件下,Cr6+对小球藻、斜生栅藻和铜绿微囊藻的毒性作用不同,Cr6+对小球藻在pH=7.0时毒性最小,对斜生栅藻和铜绿微囊藻在pH=9.0时的毒性最小.在藻最适生长的pH条件下,Cr6+的毒性可以达到最小程度;铜绿微囊藻对Cr6+比斜生栅藻和小球藻更加敏感.     

Comparison of 1-(2-naphthyloxymethylcarbonyl) pyrrolidine,PP-20/DPJ,newly synthesized compound with the nootropic drug piracetam in normal and aluminum-induced neurotoxic state

Nootropic drugs like piracetam, oxiracetam, and nifiracetam are used as memory enhancers. They are thought to directly influence the energetic processes in the brain and produce elevated acetylcholine levels, but they lack protecting therapeutic potentials. Thus, there is a continuing effort directed towards developing a new cognition-enhancing agent, which would be more effective than the currently available drugs, and 2-Naphthyloxy derivatives (PP-20/DPJ) were consequently developed. This in vivo study was designed to compare the memory enhancing potential of PP-20/DPJ with the known nootropic agent, piracetam, in aluminum (Al)-induced neurotoxic model. Results indicated that PP-20/DPJ improved the short-term memory and cognitive behaviors similar to piracetam. Further, both the compounds were equally effective in elevating the acetylcholinesterase and Mg⁺-ATPase enzyme activity in both the brain regions after Al treatment. Thus the current study suggests, that PP-20/DPJ acts as both a cognition-enhancing agent and as a metabolic enhancer.     

Investigation of the blood biochemical status of gas station workers

The aim of this study was to examine occupation-associated effects on blood cytokine and immunoglobulin g (IgG) levels, antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, GSHPx, and catalase), nitrite and nitrate levels, and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations in gas station workers (GSWs). Trace elements (Cu, Zn, and Pb) in serum, and the amount of hemoglobin in erythrocytes were also determined. Forty male GSWs and 30 male controls were included in the study. No significant difference was observed between the hemoglobin levels of GSWs and those in controls. Proinflammatory cytokine levels, such as tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-8 were significantly increased in GSWs’ sera. Interleukin-1β and interleukin-6 were below the detection limit of the assay in both the groups. Cytokine receptor interleukin 2R concentration and IgG levels were also significantly increased. Approximately, two-fold increase in nitrite and nitrate concentrations was found in GSWs’ sera. Erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme levels were significantly lower in GSWs’ blood. MDA concentration, a measure of lipid peroxidation, was found to be significantly elevated. Zn levels were significantly decreased, whereas Cu and Pb levels were increased in GSWs’ sera. Smoking was not found to be a major confounder for the association between exposure and blood parameters.     

Ethyl mercury induces Ca2+ uptake through the P2×7 receptor in a mouse cerebellar microglia cell line

Many observations are reported that organic mercury compounds are involved in increasing intracellular Ca²⁺ levels. However, the issue of which substances on the cell membrane participate in the Ca²⁺ uptake that is induced by ethyl mercury is unclear. The findings of this study suggest that the P2X receptor participates in this process. The uptake of Ca²⁺ by C8-B4 cells was induced in the presence of ethyl mercury. Ca channels in the cell membrane were not affected in this process. In contrast, pretreatment with suramin, an antagonist of the P2X receptor, inhibited the Ca²⁺ uptake induced by ethyl mercury, and also brilliant blue G, a nonselective antagonist of P2×4, P2×5, and P2×7 receptors. In addition, A438079 and A740003, selective antagonists of P2×7 receptor, reduced Ca²⁺ uptake, while 5-BDBD, a selective antagonist of P2×4 receptor, did not. Furthermore, the mRNAs of both the P2×4 and P2×7 receptors were expressed in the presence of ethyl mercury, but the P2×5 receptor mRNA was not. These findings suggest that ethyl mercury may induce Ca²⁺ uptake through the P2×7 receptor of the cell membrane.     

1st international round robin test on safety characteristics of hybrid mixtures

There is no applicable existing standard for the determination of safety characteristics for hybrid mixtures. While developing a new standard in a joint research project in Germany first results from parameter studies led to a standard procedure that can be adopted by laboratories that are already testing dusts in the so called 20L-sphere with as little additional effort as necessary. In fact, one of the main objectives of this research project was to keep modifications and adjustments from the generally accepted dust testing procedures as easy and minimal as possible so as to limit potential deviations from one laboratory to another.In this first round robin test on hybrid mixtures ever, with methane as gas component and a specific corn starch as dust sample, the practicality of the whole procedure, the scattering of the results and the deviation between the testing apparatuses is investigated. This paper summarizes the experimental procedure adopted and objectives of the first round-robin phase involving three of the four original German companies, plus volunteering laboratories from Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Poland and P.R. China. The results will have an impact on the new standard and may lead to robust data for later simulation purposes.