Trade and the environment Copeland, Brian R; Taylor, M. Scott
2003., 20131203, 2013, 2003, 2003-01-01, 20030101
eBook
Nowhere has the divide between advocates and critics of globalization been more striking than in debates over free trade and the environment. And yet the literature on the subject is high on rhetoric ...and low on results. This book is the first to systematically investigate the subject using both economic theory and empirical analysis. Brian Copeland and Scott Taylor establish a powerful theoretical framework for examining the impact of international trade on local pollution levels, and use it to offer a uniquely integrated treatment of the links between economic growth, liberalized trade, and the environment. The results will surprise many.
The authors set out the two leading theories linking international trade to environmental outcomes, develop the empirical implications, and examine their validity using data on measured sulfur dioxide concentrations from over 100 cities worldwide during the period from 1971 to 1986.
The empirical results are provocative. For an average country in the sample, free trade is good for the environment. There is little evidence that developing countries will specialize in pollution-intensive products with further trade. In fact, the results suggest just the opposite: free trade will shift pollution-intensive goods production from poor countries with lax regulation to rich countries with tight regulation, thereby lowering world pollution. The results also suggest that pollution declines amid economic growth fueled by economy-wide technological progress but rises when growth is fueled by capital accumulation alone.
Lucidly argued and authoritatively written, this book will provide students and researchers of international trade and environmental economics a more reliable way of thinking about this contentious issue, and the methodological tools with which to do so.
•Partitions in-between tables are rated significantly higher in terms of respondent perceptions and dining in likelihood than mannequins at tables.•The sequential cognitive-affective-behavioral ...framework from attitude theory is re-assessed as a mediation model•Individuals who have recently dined in at a restaurant are significantly more likely to visit a restaurant with either dining room setup.•Respondents aged 40 and over held significantly higher perceptions and dining in likelihood for restaurants with partitions between tables than those aged under 40.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic restaurant operators had to close their dining rooms for dine-in service for a number of weeks; however, once they were allowed to re-open concern still existed over safety and socially distancing many operators had to get creative in ensuring guest and worker safety. The current study sought to assess consumer perceptions and preferences regarding different types of dining room setups that were implemented by restaurants around the U.S. during the re-opening phase to ensure proper social distancing amongst guests. A quasi-experimental design was implemented where respondents were shown images of two different dining-room setups and provided responses to questions based on their perceptions and preferences for these socially distant servicescapes. Overall, respondents indicated that partitions between tables were preferred to mannequins being placed at tables. Academic and practical implications are discussed.
This edited book focuses on the organization and meaning of craft work in contemporary society. It considers the relationship between craft and place and how this enables the construction of a ...meaningful relationship with objects of production and consumption. The book explores the significance of raw materials, the relationship between the body, the crafted object and the mind, and the importance of skill, knowledge and learning in the making process. Through this, it raises important questions about the role of craft in facing future challenges by challenging the logic of globalized production and consumption.The Organization of Craft Work encompasses international analyses from the United States, France, Italy, Australia, Canada, the UK and Japan involving a diverse range of sectors, including brewing, food and wine production, clothing and shoe making, and perfumery. The book will be of interest to students and academic researchers in organization studies, marketing and consumer behaviour, business ethics, entrepreneurship, sociology of work, human resource management, cultural studies, geography, and fashion and design. In addition, the book will be of interest to practitioners and organizations with an interest in the development and promotion of craft work.
The action mechanism of daptomycin Taylor, Scott D.; Palmer, Michael
Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry,
12/2016, Letnik:
24, Številka:
24
Journal Article
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Daptomycin is a lipopeptide antibiotic produced by the soil bacterium Streptomyces roseosporus that is clinically used to treat severe infections with Gram-positive bacteria. In this ...review, we discuss the mode of action of this important antibiotic. Although daptomycin is structurally related to amphomycin and similar lipopeptides that inhibit peptidoglycan biosynthesis, experimental studies have not produced clear evidence that daptomycin shares their action mechanism. Instead, the best characterized effect of daptomycin is the permeabilization and depolarization of the bacterial cell membrane. This activity, which can account for daptomycin’s bactericidal effect, correlates with the level of phosphatidylglycerol (PG) in the membrane. Accordingly, reduced synthesis of PG or its increased conversion to lysyl-PG promotes bacterial resistance to daptomycin. While other resistance mechanisms suggest that daptomycin may indeed directly interfere with cell wall synthesis or cell division, such effects still await direct experimental confirmation. Daptomycin’s complex structure and biosynthesis have hampered the analysis of its structure activity relationships. Novel methods of total synthesis, including a recent one that is carried out entirely on a solid phase, will enable a more thorough and systematic exploration of the sequence space.
UNMASKING THE POLLUTION HAVEN EFFECT Levinson, Arik; Taylor, M. Scott
International economic review (Philadelphia),
February 2008, Letnik:
49, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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We use theory and empirics to examine the effect of environmental regulations on trade flows. A simple model demonstrates how unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity, and aggregation issues bias ...standard measurements of this relationship. A reduced-form estimate of the model, using data on U.S. regulations and trade with Canada and Mexico for 130 manufacturing industries from 1977 to 1986, indicates that industries whose abatement costs increased most experienced the largest increases in net imports. For the average industry, the change in net imports we ascribe to regulatory costs amounting to 10% of the total increase in trade volume over the period.
Hybridization between naturally co-occurring species that normally do not interbreed is being documented following anthropogenic habitat modifications for an increasing number of taxa. Here, we ...evaluate the mechanisms by which disturbance promotes hybridization and highlight the utility of human-caused hybridization for understanding evolution. Monitoring hybridization dynamics before, and following, disturbance over multiple timescales offers a unique opportunity to understand how disturbances alter species interactions and to pinpoint the mechanisms that cause species barriers to fail. Identifying the conditions promoting hybridization in disturbed habitats, the generality of these conditions across taxa, and the taxa most affected by human-mediated change is critical for furthering our understanding of human impacts on evolution and for informing management.
Anthropogenic habitat disturbances can cause hybridization between naturally co-occurring taxa that do not hybridize under natural conditions, particularly between closely related, but ecologically divergent taxa for which the disturbance alters the timing, location, or signaling environment in which they breed.
Anthropogenic hybridization provides an opportunity to study reproductive barrier breakdown, rather than only barrier maintenance (as with most stable hybrid zones), and is experimentally tractable due to the compressed timescale and geographic distribution of disturbed and undisturbed (control) habitat patches.
Detection of admixture from genomic data is now possible for most taxa, which will facilitate investigations of hybridization caused by physical human-mediated habitat disturbances.
When related taxa hybridize extensively, their genomes may become increasingly homogenized over time. This mixing via hybridization creates conservation challenges when it reduces genetic or ...phenotypic diversity and when it endangers previously distinct species via genetic swamping 1. However, hybridization also facilitates admixture mapping of traits that distinguish each species and the associated genes that maintain distinctiveness despite ongoing gene flow 2. We address these dual aspects of hybridization in the golden-winged/blue-winged warbler complex, two phenotypically divergent warblers that are indistinguishable using traditional molecular markers and that draw substantial conservation attention 3–5. Whole-genome comparisons show that differentiation is extremely low: only six small genomic regions exhibit strong differences. Four of these divergence peaks occur in proximity to genes known to be involved in feather development or pigmentation: agouti signaling protein (ASIP), follistatin (FST), ecodysplasin (EDA), wingless-related integration site (Wnt), and beta-carotene oxygenase 2 (BCO2). Throat coloration—the most striking plumage difference between these warblers—is perfectly associated with the promoter region of agouti, and genotypes at this locus obey simple Mendelian recessive inheritance of the black-throated phenotype characteristic of golden-winged warblers. The more general pattern of genomic similarity between these warblers likely results from a protracted period of hybridization, contradicting the broadly accepted hypothesis that admixture results from solely anthropogenic habitat change in the past two centuries 4. Considered in concert, these results are relevant to both the genetic architecture of avian feather pigmentation and the evolutionary history and conservation challenges associated with these declining songbirds.
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•Only six genomic regions differ between golden-winged and blue-winged warblers•Four of the regions are upstream of genes associated with plumage color and pattern•A SNP in the presumed agouti promoter correlates perfectly with throat color•Demographic models show hybridization is old and ongoing, against conventional wisdom
Using whole genomes, Toews, Taylor et al. find six small genomic regions that are divergent between hybridizing wood warblers, which differ strongly in coloration. Most of these regions contain candidate genes for feather patterning and pigmentation. Hybridization appears to be a long-term component of their history, against conventional wisdom.
Daptomycin (dap) is an important antibiotic that interacts with the bacterial membrane lipid phosphatidylglycerol (PG) in a calcium‐dependent manner. The enantiomer of dap (ent‐dap) was synthesized ...and was found to be 85‐fold less active than dap against B. subtilis, indicating that dap interacts with a chiral target as part of its mechanism of action. Using liposomes containing enantiopure PG, we demonstrate that the binding of dap to PG, the structural transition that occurs upon dap binding to PG, and the subsequent oligomerization of dap, depends upon the configuration of PG, and that dap prefers the 1,2‐diacyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phospho‐1′‐sn‐glycerol stereoisomer (2R,2′S configuration). Ent‐dap has a lower affinity for 2R,2′S liposomes than dap and cannot oligomerize to the same extent as dap, which accounts for why ent‐dap is less active than dap. To our knowledge, this is the first example whereby the activity of an antibiotic depends upon the configuration of a lipid head group.
Daptomycin (dap), an important clinical antibiotic, recognizes the absolute configuration of phosphatidylglycerol (PG), a key lipid found in bacterial membranes. The configuration at the headgroup of PG was found to be particularly important for dap–PG interactions. This is a rare example of a natural product targeting a membrane lipid through chiral recognition.
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