Environmental Regulator Research Articles

99th Dahlem Conference on Infection, Inflammation and Chronic Inflammatory Disorders: Host–microbe interactions in the gut: target for drug therapy, opportunity for drug discovery

The commensal microbiota, most of which resides in the gut, is an environmental regulator of mucosal and systemic immune maturation. Epidemiological studies suggest that changes in the microbiota may represent a link between a modern lifestyle and risk of certain immuno-allergic diseases. This suggests that the microbiota is an appropriate target for therapy or prophylaxis, the rationale for which is addressed here using inflammatory bowel disease as an example. It is also evident from comparative studies of germ-free and conventionally colonized animals that the microbiota is a source of regulatory signals for full development of the host. In some instances these signals have been defined molecularly, and may be suitable for exploitation in novel drug discovery. Most of the versatile drugs in common usage today were derived originally from living matter in the wider environment; could it be time to mine new drugs from microbial-derived signalling molecules in the inner environment of the gut? Several examples illustrate the potential of the gut microbiota as a rich repository from which bioactives with immunological impact can be mined, and translated to human health care or to animal husbandry.

S1677 The Gut Microbiota As An Environmental Regulator of Regulatory T Cells and Antigen Presentation Function of Dendritic Cells.

S1677 The Gut Microbiota As An Environmental Regulator of Regulatory T Cells and Antigen Presentation Function of Dendritic Cells.

Environment Law, Regulation and Governance: Shifting Architectures

Environmental law and policy has come a long way since the birth of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the launch of the first European environmental policy in 1972. Today law is no longer centre stage but simply one instrument among others in the environmental regulator's toolkit. And talk of regulation may itself be giving way to the broader concept of environmental governance. This article examines the evolution of environmental law, regulation and governance over almost four decades. It explores the major initiatives of that period and the lessons that can be learned from them, it maps shifting regulatory architectures and explains what has worked and why and it considers the changing nature of the environmental challenge itself. Finally, it seeks to identify which particular architectures are most suited to deal with particular types of environmental problems.

Enforcement and Environmental Quality in a Decentralized Emission Trading System

This paper addresses the issue of whether the powers of monitoring compliance and allocating tradeable emissions allowances within a federation of countries should be appointed to a unique federal regulator or decentralized to several local regulators. To this end, we develop a two stage game played by environmental regulator(s) and the polluting industries of two countries. Regulator(s) choose the amount of emission allowances to be issued and set the level of monitoring effort to achieve full compliance, while regulated firms choose actual emissions and the number of permits to be held. We identify various, possibly conflicting, spillovers among states in a decentralized setting. We show that cost advantage in favor of local regulators is not sufficient to justify decentralization. Nevertheless, cost differential in monitoring violations can imply lower emissions and greater welfare under a decentralized institutional setting than under a centralized one. However, while a better environmental quality under decentralization is a sufficient condition for higher welfare under the same regime, it is not also a necessary condition.

Determinação do índice de qualidade subsuperficial em um Latossolo Amarelo Coeso dos Tabuleiros Costeiros, sob floresta natural

O solo é um recurso natural fundamental para a vida. Sua capacidade para funcionar como substrato para vegetais, filtro ambiental, regulador de fluxo de gases, água e energia é definida como qualidade do solo, cuja quantificação pode ser feita via estabelecimento de um índice numérico, que permite monitorar os efeitos do uso agrícola nos atributos e propriedades do solo. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi determinar o índice de qualidade do solo (IQS) para os horizontes subsuperficiais em um Latossolo Amarelo coeso argissólico (LAx) dos Tabuleiros Costeiros, sob floresta natural. A área estudada localiza-se em uma reserva de Mata Atlântica situada no município de Cruz das Almas-BA, e as amostras foram coletadas em um grid de 18 x 8 m, com espaçamento regular de 2 m, resultando em 50 repetições. Para determinação do índice de qualidade do solo, foram avaliados 11 indicadores de qualidade: macroporosidade, densidade do solo, condutividade hidráulica saturada, retenção de água a -33 kPa (Uv33/PT), relação de disponibilidade de água no solo (AD/PT), pH, resistência à penetração (RP), capacidade de troca catiônica (CTC), percentagem de saturação por bases (V), percentagem de saturação por alumínio (m) e teor de matéria orgânica (MO), agrupados em três funções principais: crescimento radicular em profundidade (CRP), condução e armazenamento de água (CAA) e suprimento de nutrientes (SN). O valor do IQS foi de 0,4620, indicando que o solo possui baixa qualidade para produção vegetal e seu uso em sistemas agrícolas exige melhorias nos indicadores de qualidade para o suprimento de nutrientes e condução e armazenamento de água.

Corporate greening and changing regulatory regimes: the UK water industry

AbstractThis article looks at the relationship between economic regulation, environmental regulation, company strategy and the environment in the UK water and sewerage industry. The regulatory field in this industry, following privatization in 1989, is highly complex and interdependent. The paper presents three case studies of company interpretation of and response to changes in this regulatory field, focusing particularly on the third review by the economic regulator, in 1999, which involved a reduction of the prices companies were allowed to charge their customers. This had significant but complex repercussions for environmental strategy and management in the companies, with different impacts on mandatory and non‐mandatory activities. It also showed in relief the opportunities for building coalitions between companies and the environmental regulator, both in general terms and revolving around specific, local environmental issues and schemes. Companies' strategic direction was also found to have an impact on their response to the regulatory review. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Human Body Temperature (37°C) Increases the Expression of Iron, Carbohydrate, and Amino Acid Utilization Genes in Escherichia coli K-12

Using DNA microarrays, we identified 126 genes in Escherichia coli K-12 whose expression is increased at human body temperature (37 degrees C) compared to growth at 23 degrees C. Genes involved in the uptake and utilization of amino acids, carbohydrates, and iron dominated the list, supporting a model in which temperature serves as a host cue to increase expression of bacterial genes needed for growth. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we investigated the thermoregulatory response for representative genes in each of these three categories (hisJ, cysP, srlE, garP, fes, and cirA), along with the fimbrial gene papB. Increased expression at 37 degrees C compared to 23 degrees C was retained in both exponential and stationary phases for all of the genes and in most of the various media tested, supporting the relative importance of this cue in adapting to changing environments. Because iron acquisition is important for both growth and virulence, we analyzed the regulation of the iron utilization genes cirA and fes and found that growth in iron-depleted medium abrogated the thermoregulatory effect, with high-level expression at both temperatures, contrasting with papB thermoregulation, which was not greatly altered by limiting iron levels. A positive role for the environmental regulator H-NS was found for fes, cirA, hisJ, and srlE transcription, whereas it had a primarily negative effect on cysP and garP expression. Together, these studies indicate that temperature is a broadly used cue for regulating gene expression in E. coli and that H-NS regulates iron, carbohydrate, and amino acid utilization gene expression.

Effects of hypoxia on proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts

Oxygen is an environmental and developmental signal regulator, and its role is involved in energy homeostasis, development and process of differentiation. Myoblasts persist in skeletal muscle as satellite cells, which possess capability of self-renewing and differentiation into mature myofiber. Myoblasts play a critical role in postnatal muscle regeneration after injury as well as maintaining myofibers' function. Though oxygen is vital to nearly all forms of life, studies focused on investigating the effects of oxygen level on proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts are few. Lower oxygen concentration is more close to the level of oxygen in physiological and pathological environment in vivo. So physiological environment is actually optimum condition for myogenesis. It is significant for understanding repair and regeneration of skeletal muscle to study on effects of hypoxia on myogenesis. HIF-1 signaling pathway was involved in these processes as well as other signaling pathways would be, and accordingly, deep studying and further revealing the signaling pathways involved in mechanism will provide evidences or references for looking for novel targets for stem cells therapy and drug treatment.

Flood hazard and management: a UK perspective

This paper discusses whether flood hazard in the UK is increasing and considers issues of flood risk management. Urban development is known to increase fluvial flood frequency, hence design measures are routinely implemented to minimize the impact. Studies suggest that historical effects, while potentially large at small scale, are not significant for large river basins. Storm water flooding within the urban environment is an area where flood hazard is inadequately defined; new methods are needed to assess and manage flood risk. Development on flood plains has led to major capital expenditure on flood protection, but government is attempting to strengthen the planning role of the environmental regulator to prevent this. Rural land use management has intensified significantly over the past 30 years, leading to concerns that flood risk has increased, at least at local scale; the implications for catchment-scale flooding are unclear. New research is addressing this issue, and more broadly, the role of land management in reducing flood risk. Climate change impacts on flooding and current guidelines for UK practice are reviewed. Large uncertainties remain, not least for the occurrence of extreme precipitation, but precautionary guidance is in place. Finally, current levels of flood protection are discussed. Reassessment of flood hazard has led to targets for increased flood protection, but despite important developments to communicate flood risk to the public, much remains to be done to increase public awareness of flood hazard.

Sociology, Science and Sustainability: Developing Relationships in Scotland

This paper considers the application of the sociological imagination during the analysis of data collected during an ethnographic study of an environmental regulator, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). SEPA is tasked with implementing the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Scotland, which will radically alter the regulation of water use. Applying a sociological imagination allowed the researcher to advocate for a more interdisciplinary and equitable understanding of sustainable water use when feeding back initial research results at the end of the data collection period. The researchers introduced socialised definitions of the environment, which linked social justice and ecological concerns. These insights provided a challenge to the traditional bio-physical science focus of the organisational participants, for whom sustainability is a relatively new addition to their duties. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of developing these interdisciplinary relationships in the future.

Greenhouse gas emission trading schemes: a new tool for the environmental regulator's kit

As the European Union greenhouse gas emission trading scheme (ETS) is emerging, it seems interesting to look back on previous experiments and to bring together a few elements of reflection about the pertinence of ETS as a new policy tool to regulate industrial pollution. So far, several regulatory tools have been used to decrease pollution. This article focuses on two of them, command-and-control (CAC) and ETS. There is no simple answer to which one is more efficient. It depends strongly on the context. Given a few elements outlined in this paper, the choice of an ETS to abate industrial emissions of greenhouse gases in the European Union (EU) can be considered pertinent. But, ultimately, what makes a scheme environmentally efficient is not the tool in itself (ETS or CAC) but the ambition of the target. Hence the design of the National Allocation Plans setting the emission caps are of paramount importance. They will make the EU ETS either a useless mess or an effective climate change mitigation policy tool.

Environmental geophysics investigations in urban areas

Dr John M. Reynolds, managing director and principal geophysicist at Reynolds Geo- Sciences, presents some case histories illustrating how the obstacles of noisy urban sites have been overcome to produce highly useful interpretable data sets, often far exceeding the expectations of the clients involved. Urban areas represent some of the most challenging environments in which to undertake geophysical investigations. Restricted space, the necessity for traffic management, high ambient noise (electrical and vibration), underground utilities, etc. all help to complicate the design and setting out of the geophysical profiles or grids. In many cases, such sites could not be investigated as the acquisition methods, the type of equipment and subsequent data processing software were not readily available. Over the last few years, significant changes in the capabilities of the equipment and software have permitted geophysical surveys to be undertaken in these hitherto inappropriate areas. The first case history at Field Road, Reading, Berkshire, was by far the largest, most complex and technically challenging. It shows how with very careful survey design, particular attention to data acquisition, and specialist data reduction and modelling, a labyrinth of shallow chalk mine galleries were mapped successfully using micro-gravity. The second involved a housing development in northwest London where the intrusive investigations had failed to satisfy the requirements of the Environment Agency, the environmental regulator in England and Wales (Scotland has a separate but similar regulatory body). Furthermore, the client and his engineering advisers were sceptical about the use of geophysics. Despite the technical difficulties of a complex partially developed site, the geophysical investigation demonstrated clearly the benefits of such a survey when integrated with intrusive investigations targeted on the basis of the geophysical survey. The client and his advisers became keen advocates of the use of geophysics once the results were made known. The third example is a complete contrast to the first two in that, despite the site being in a town, it comprised open space. The method used was the tried and tested and now very well established technique using a Geonics EM31 ground conductivity meter. (Detailed descriptions of geophysical methods discussed here have been presented by Reynolds (1997)). It demonstrates that even simple, long established techniques used very simply can produce some very clear and graphic results. The last case history involved the development of a former landfill site in south Wales. The 12.6 ha site was being cleared and earthworks to level the site were well in progress. At this late stage, it was suggested that steel drums might have been buried on the site but their location was unknown. A detailed geophysical investigation on the extremely busy construction site was undertaken using predominantly magnetic gradiometry and drum graves were located successfully and proven by excavation. The additional feature of all these case histories has been the involvement of what has subsequently become known as an ‘Engineering Geophysics Adviser’, an extremely experienced geophysicist (or group of geophysicists) independent of the geophysical contractor. This role has been advocated within the most recent guidelines for the use of engineering (and environmental) geophysics (McDowell et al., 2002).

Emissions and Taxation: Is Chaotic CO2 Concentration Controllable?

This paper demonstrates that an adjustment process of the global carbon tax rate can be chaotic. To this end, a discrete-time dynamic game is constructed in which the environmental regulator updates the tax rate for given observation of the regulated industry's CO2 emissions. It is shown that if the regulator considers the marginal benefit of increasing the tax rate is high, the adjustment process becomes chaotic. It is also demonstrated that the atmospheric CO2 concentration level with chaotic emission is higher than the level with a stationary state of “high tax and low emissions.” Given that the regulator wishes to control the concentration level with low emission, an adaptive adjustment of the tax rate is investigated.

Ageing, growth hormone and physical performance.

Human ageing is associated to a declining activity of the GH/IGF-I axis and to several changes in body composition, function and metabolism which show strict similarities with those of younger adults with pathological GH deficiency. The age-related changes of the GH/IGF-I axis activity are mainly dependent on age-related variations in the hypothalamic control of somatotroph function, which is also affected by changes in peripheral hormones and metabolic input. The term "somatopause" indicates the potential link between the age-related decline in GH and IGF-I levels and changes in body composition, structural functions and metabolism which characterise ageing. Physical exercise is an important environmental regulator of the GH/IGF-I axis activity. Increased physical fitness and regular training increase GH production in adults, while the GH response to aerobic or resistance exercise is reduced with age. In older subjects regular exercise has the potential to improve overall fitness and quality of life and is also associated to decreased morbidity and increased longevity. Similar effects are seen following GH therapy in adult deficiency. This assumption led to clinical trials focusing on rhGH and/or rhlGF-I as potential anabolic drug interventions in elderly subjects. To restore the activity of GH/IGF-I axis with anabolic, anti-ageing purposes, attention has been also paid to GH-releasing molecules such as GHRH, orally active synthetic GH-secretagogues (GHS) and, more recently, to the endogenous natural GHS, ghrelin, which exerts several important biological actions, including the regulation of metabolic balance and orexigenic effects. At present, however, there is no definite evidence that "frail" elderly subjects really benefit from restoring GH and IGF-I levels within the young adult range by treatment with rhGH, rhlGF-I, GHRH or GHS. In this article the alteration of the GH/IGF-I axis activity during ageing is revised taking into account the role of physical activity as a regulator of the axis function and considering the effects of the restoration of GH and IGF-I circulating levels on body composition and physical performance.

Insurance as an alternative environmental regulator: findings from a retrospective pollution claims survey

AbstractLittle inquiry has occurred on insurance as an alternative environmental regulator, despite a growing interest in the subject. This paper presents the findings from a survey and questionnaire on two leading UK insurance companies' pollution claims. Insurers' initial underwriting assessments and post‐loss investigations and insureds' environmental management practices are poorly developed regarding pollution issues. Insurance is currently a weak financial instrument to prevent pollution losses. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment

Environment agency scoping guidance on the environmental impact assessment of projects

Scoping the impacts on the environment of proposed development projects is key to the good practice of environmental impact assessment (EIA). The Environment Agency is the most important environmental advisor and regulator in England and Wales and a statutory consultee in the EIA process. It has produced generic Scoping Guidance for its own staff, external developers and their consultants, and other stakeholders. This is intended to help identify opportunities and constraints early in development planning and help avoid inconsistencies in scoping practice. The Guidance addresses specific impacts and associated mitigation measures for 72 different project types and four categories of site operations. In this paper, the development of this Scoping Guidance is discussed and its format explained. The implications for scoping potential impacts on the environment in England and Wales (and elsewhere) are discussed.

The Timing of Environmental Policy: A Note on the Role of Product Differentiation

We examine the role that product differentiation can play in the design of environmental policy under full commitment and no commitment on the part of the environmental regulator. We consider a setting with two firms selling a differentiated product which generates pollution through emissions. Firms can reduce their emissions by undertaking abatement activities while an environmental regulator taxes emissions. The main results are: (1) When products are highly differentiated, the optimal time-consistent (no commitment) tax is always lower than the optimal pre-commitment tax. As the degree of product differentiation decreases, for relatively efficient abatement technology and high damages, the time-consistent emission tax exceeds the optimal pre-commitment one. (2) Abatement when product differentiation is extensive is higher under the time-consistent regime unless the abatement technology is extremely efficient. The same ranking applies to social welfare. However, as products become more and more similar, these results are (partially) reversed and pre-commitment could lead to both higher levels of abatement and welfare.

MONITORING THE DISTRIBUTION OF CRAYFISH IN ENGLAND AND WALES

The distribution of crayfish in England and Wales is described for the period 1997 to 2001 inclusive and is illustrated using a catchment based classification scheme and 10-km square maps. Comparison with previous data from the period 1990 to 1996 shows a decrease in the number of catchments where the native crayfish, Austropotamobius pallipes, is present. Conversely there has been an increase in the distribution of non-native species, notably Pacifastacus leniusculus, which is now more widely distributed than A. pallipes (according to presence within 10-km squares of the Ordnance Survey National Grid of England and Wales). The Environment Agency is the main environmental regulator in England and Wales, and plays a key role in gathering crayfish survey data. A co-ordinated programme of monitoring and reporting, ideally involving partner organisations, should be utilised to accurately reflect the changing status of crayfish in these countries. Crayfish survey data is currently recorded on a series of local databases within the Agency, and records are also stored on a national freshwater invertebrate archive used primarily for water quality monitoring purposes. Records generated by other groups and individuals are collated by the Biological Records Centre, with whom the Environment Agency has established links, and the need for a dedicated national database has been expressed by many workers. One area currently under development involves the National Biodiversity Network, a medium for sharing wildlife information via the internet, founded by a consortium of statutory and conservation organisations.

Regulating an Externality-Generating Utility Environmental Taxes Under Limited Information

Global warming is currently an important item on most nationalenvironmental agendas. In many countries, coal-fired electricity generatingstations represent an important source of greenhouse gases. We examinehow regulations to curb emissions affect public utility pricing regulationwhen regulators act non-cooperatively. We show that, when there is limitedinformation on fixed abatement costs, an environmental regulator prefersan emission tax over an output tax or a lump sum environmental tax. Thepublic utility regulator prefers the lump sum tax regime.

Optimal design of a phase-in emissions trading program

This paper studies a phase-in emissions trading program with voluntary opt-in possibilities for non-affected firms and derives optimal permits allocations to affected and opt-in firms when the environmental regulator has incomplete information on individual unrestricted emissions and control costs. The regulator faces a trade-off between production efficiency (minimization of control costs) and information rent extraction (reduction of excess permits allocated to opt-in firms). The first-best equilibrium can be attained if the regulator can freely allocate permits to affected and opt-in firms; otherwise a second-best equilibrium is implemented. The latter is sensitive to uncertainty in control costs and benefits.