Better cars or older cars?: Assessing CO2 emission reduction potential of passenger vehicle replacement programs

The primary motivation for the vehicle replacement schemes that were implemented in many countries was to encourage the purchase of new cars. The basic assumption of these schemes was that these acquisitions would benefit both the economy and the environment as older and less fuel-efficient cars were scrapped and replaced with more fuel-efficient models. In this article, we present a new environmental impact assessment method for assessing the effectiveness of scrappage schemes for reducing CO2 emissions taking into account the rebound effect, driving behavior for older versus new cars and entire lifecycle emissions for during the manufacturing processes of new cars. The assessment of the Japanese scrappage scheme shows that CO2 emissions would only decrease if users of the scheme retained their new gasoline passenger vehicles for at least 4.7 years. When vehicle replacements were restricted to hybrid cars, the reduction in CO2 achieved by the scheme would be 6-8.5 times higher than the emissions resulting from a scheme involving standard, gasoline passenger vehicles. Cost-benefit analysis, based on the emission reduction potential, showed that the scheme was very costly. Sensitivity analysis showed that the Japanese government failed to determine the optimum, or target, car age for scrapping old cars in the scheme. Specifically, scrapping cars aged 13 years and over did not maximize the environmental benefits of the scheme. Consequently, modifying this policy to include a reduction in new car subsidies, focused funding for fuel-efficient cars, and modifying the target car age, would increase environmental benefits. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Willingness-to-pay for infrastructure investments for alternative fuel vehicles

This study investigates potential demand for infrastructure investment for alternative fuel vehicles by applying stated preference methods to a Japanese sample. The potential demand is estimated on the basis of how much people are willing to pay for alternative fuel vehicles under various refueling scenarios. Using the estimated parameters, the economic efficiency of establishing battery-exchange stations for electric vehicles is examined. The results indicate that infrastructural development of battery-exchange stations can be efficient when electric vehicle sales exceed 5.63% of all new vehicle sales. Further, we find a complementary relationship between the cruising ranges of alternative fuel vehicles and the infrastructure established.

Waste generations and efficiency measures in Japan

This study measures the efficiencies incorporating waste generation using Japanese prefecture level data. We apply and compare several models using directional distance functions. There are wide variations in the efficiency scores between the two orientations, "input, desirable and undesirable output orientation" and "undesirable output orientation". However, the difference in abatement factor does not result in wide variations in the efficiency scores. Our results show that there are wide differences in the efficiency scores among prefectures. © 2012 Springer.

Testing the international linkage in the platinum-group metal futures markets

This study tests whether an international market exists in the platinum-group metal (PGM) futures markets. For this purpose, we tested the law of one price (LOP) and the causality between the U.S. and Japanese platinum and palladium futures markets. We also performed the test when structural breaks are considered. Long-run price relationships were found in both platinum and palladium markets but the LOP only sustained in the palladium market. The causality test revealed that it is the U.S. market that leads the price to transmit information between the U.S. and Japanese markets. Structural breaks had large impacts on the test results, suggesting that incorporating breaks is important when investigating the international price linkage in the PGM futures markets.

The pollution release and transfer register system in the U.S. and Japan : an analysis of productivity

This study analyzes Total Factor Productivity (TFP), which includes all categories of productivity. Our measure investigates productivity in the context of the provision and dissemination of environmental information policies. We investigated data on the emission of toxic chemical substances for the U.S. and Japanese manufacturing firms, including 386 firms for the period 1999-2007 and 466 firms for the period 2001-2008. The results show that productivity improved in all nine industrial sectors and that pollution levels were high in the U.S. and Japan from 2001 to 2007. In particular, the electronics industry improved rapidly after 2002 in both countries, which may be attributed to the enforcement of RoHS and the REACH directive in Europe. As a result of these stringent policies on toxic chemical emissions, the U.S. and Japanese firms, many of which export to the European market, have strong incentives to reduce their toxic chemical emissions.

Does the housing market respond to information disclosure? : Effects of toxicity indices in Japan

The policy instruments that provide information on a firm's or facility's environmental performance, such as the U.S. Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) and the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register system (PRTRs) used in some European countries and Japan, play an important role in encouraging firms or facilities to improve their environmental performance, if investors, consumers and residents recognize their environmental performance. This study uses a hedonic approach to explore how the Japanese rental housing market responds to carcinogenic risk arising from releases and transfers of chemical substances produced and used at close facilities. We found that residents do not perceive carcinogenic risk generated more than 1.0 km away from their residence and that they seem to recognize the increased carcinogenic risk at distances from 0.5 km to 1.0 km away; a 1% increase in carcinogenic risk reduces the average rent by 0.0007%. The distance at which residents perceive the risk arising from such facilities is less than in previous studies. This suggests that the risk perception recognized in previous studies may capture the other externalities in addition to the chemical risk because the risk is measured by the distance.

Does energy substitution affect carbon dioxide emissions : income relationship?

Considerable discussion has taken place during the last decade regarding the role of economic growth in determining environmental quality. Using data from 30 OECD countries for the period 1960-2003 and the nonparametric method of generalized additive models, which enables us to use flexible functional forms, this paper examines the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for carbon dioxide (CO2). We find that the reduction of coal share in energy use has a significant effect on CO2. Our results imply that economic growth is not sufficient to decrease CO2 emissions.

Productivity analysis with CO2 emissions in Japan

This article measures Japanese prefectures' productivity from 1991 to 2002, taking CO2 emissions into consideration, and examines the factors that impact on productivity. We use the data envelopment analysis and measure the Luenberger productivity indicator, incorporating CO2 emissions in the analysis. Our results show that productivity was decreasing during the period of investigation. According to the results of the generalized method of moment estimation, the operations rate, the share of the energy intensive industries and social capital significantly impact on productivity.

Productivity growth and biased technological change : Credit banks in Japan

This paper investigates the productivity change of Japanese credit banks with a Malmquist index and the input technological bias during 2000-2006. Our results indicate that the traditional growth accounting method, which assumes Hicks neutral technological change, is not appropriate for analyzing changes in productivity. Our analysis unambiguously shows that management of Shinkin banks has to be improved. These must be based on the improvement of technical efficiency and/or technological change, emulating the procedures of the best-practice banks, i.e., those banks with Malmquist productivity scores higher than one and simultaneously with technical efficiency and technological change higher than one.

Do children and adolescents with Down syndrome have deficits in motivation?

There appears to be a general acceptance that individuals with intellectual disability (ID) have deficits in motivation. Yet research with infants and young children has usually identified few differences in motivation for children with ID compared with those of the same mental age who are developing typically. Studies of motivation in children with ID in the middle years of childhood or adolescence are almost non-existent. However, research conducted more than 30 years ago (Harter & Zigler, 1974) continues to be cited as evidence of motivational deficits in those with ID even though the life experiences of people with ID have changed dramatically since that time.

Vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping in changing outdoor environments

For robots operating in outdoor environments, a number of factors, including weather, time of day, rough terrain, high speeds, and hardware limitations, make performing vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping with current techniques infeasible due to factors such as image blur and/or underexposure, especially on smaller platforms and low-cost hardware. In this paper, we present novel visual place-recognition and odometry techniques that address the challenges posed by low lighting, perceptual change, and low-cost cameras. Our primary contribution is a novel two-step algorithm that combines fast low-resolution whole image matching with a higher-resolution patch-verification step, as well as image saliency methods that simultaneously improve performance and decrease computing time. The algorithms are demonstrated using consumer cameras mounted on a small vehicle in a mixed urban and vegetated environment and a car traversing highway and suburban streets, at different times of day and night and in various weather conditions. The algorithms achieve reliable mapping over the course of a day, both when incrementally incorporating new visual scenes from different times of day into an existing map, and when using a static map comprising visual scenes captured at only one point in time. Using the two-step place-recognition process, we demonstrate for the first time single-image, error-free place recognition at recall rates above 50% across a day-night dataset without prior training or utilization of image sequences. This place-recognition performance enables topologically correct mapping across day-night cycles.

Learned stochastic mobility prediction for planning with control uncertainty on unstructured terrain

Motion planning for planetary rovers must consider control uncertainty in order to maintain the safety of the platform during navigation. Modelling such control uncertainty is difficult due to the complex interaction between the platform and its environment. In this paper, we propose a motion planning approach whereby the outcome of control actions is learned from experience and represented statistically using a Gaussian process regression model. This mobility prediction model is trained using sample executions of motion primitives on representative terrain, and predicts the future outcome of control actions on similar terrain. Using Gaussian process regression allows us to exploit its inherent measure of prediction uncertainty in planning. We integrate mobility prediction into a Markov decision process framework and use dynamic programming to construct a control policy for navigation to a goal region in a terrain map built using an on-board depth sensor. We consider both rigid terrain, consisting of uneven ground, small rocks, and non-traversable rocks, and also deformable terrain. We introduce two methods for training the mobility prediction model from either proprioceptive or exteroceptive observations, and report results from nearly 300 experimental trials using a planetary rover platform in a Mars-analogue environment. Our results validate the approach and demonstrate the value of planning under uncertainty for safe and reliable navigation.

The cytochrome P-450 isoenzyme CYP2E1 in the biological processing of industrial chemicals : consequences for occupational and environmental medicine

The importance of the isoform CYP2E1 of the human cytochrome P-450 superfamily of enzymes for occupational and environmental medicine is derived from its unique substrate spectrum that includes a number of highly important high-production chemicals, such as aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, solvents and industrial monomers (i.a. alkanes, alkenes, aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons). Many polymorphic genes, such as CYP2E1, show considerable differences in allelic distribution between different human populations. The polymorphic nature of the human CYP2E1 gene is significant for inter-individual differences in toxicity of its substrates. Since the substrate spectrum of CYP2E1 includes many compounds of basic relevance to industrial toxicology, a rationale for metabolic interactions of different CYP2E1 substrates is provided. In-depth research into the inter-individual phenotypic differences of human CYP2E1 enzyme activities was enabled by the recognition that the 6-hydroxylation of the drug chlorzoxazone is mediated by CYP2E1. Studies on CYP2E1 phenotyping have pointed to inter-individual variations in enzyme activities. There are consistent ethnic differences in CYP2E1 enzyme expression, mostly demonstrated between European and Japanese populations, which point to a major impact of genetic factors. The most frequently studied genetic polymorphisms are the restriction fragment length polymorphisms PstI/RsaI (mutant allele: CYP2E1*5B) located in the 5′-flanking region of the gene, as well as the DraI polymorphism (mutant allele: CYP2E1*6) located in intron 6. These polymorphisms are partly related, as they form the common allele designated CYP2E1*5A. Striking inter-ethnic differences between Europeans and Asians appear with respect to the frequencies of the CYP2E1*5A allele (only approximately 5% of Europeans are heterozygous, but 37% of Asians are, whilst 6% of Asians are homozygous). Available studies indicate a wide variation in human CYP2E1 expression, which are very likely based on complex gene-environment interactions. Major inter-ethnic differences are apparent on the genotyping and the phenotyping levels. Selected cases are presented where inter-ethnic variations of CYP2E1 may provide likely explanations for unexplained findings concerning industrial chemicals that are CYP2E1 substrates. Possible consequences of differential inter-individual and inter-ethnic susceptibilities are related to individual expressions of clinical symptoms of chemical toxicity, to results of biological monitoring of exposed workers, and to the interpretation of results of epidemiological or molecular-epidemiological studies.

Fine-needle aspiration cytology of Merkel cell carcinoma-A review of 69 cases

Background This study reviewed the clinical presentation, cytologic findings and the immunophenotype of 69 Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) cases sampled by FNA. Methods Demographic and clinical data, the cytology findings and results of ancillary testing were reviewed. Results Median patient age was 78 years (37 – 104) with a 1:1.8 female to male ratio. The most common FNA sites sampled included lymph nodes in the neck, the axillary region, the inguinal region and the parotid gland. Most patients had a history of MCC (68%) &/or non-MCC malignancy (70%). The common cytologic pattern was a cellular smear with malignant cells arranged in a dispersed pattern with variable numbers of disorganised groups of cells. Cytoplasm was scant or absent and nuclei showed mild to moderate anisokaryosis, stippled chromatin, inconspicuous nucleoli and nuclear molding. Numerous apoptotic bodies were often present. Cell block samples (28 cases) were usually positive for cytokeratins in a perinuclear dot pattern, including 88% of cases with CK20 positivity. CD56 was the most sensitive (95%) neuroendocrine marker on cell blocks and was also positive with flow cytometry in 9 cases tested. Conclusions MCC is most commonly seen in FNA specimens from the head and neck of elderly patients, often with a history of previous skin lesions. Occasional cases present in younger patients and some may be mistaken for other round blue cell tumors, such as lymphoma. CD 56 may be a useful marker in cell block preparations and in flow cytometric analysis of MCC.