Cross-cultural comparison of nudging effects for environmental protection: A case-study of risk-averse attitudes toward disposable plastics.

Disposable plastics are drawing considerable attention as a source of environmental risk despite their benefits in daily life. Banning the use of disposable plastics could increase other types of risks, which may damage the public good in the long run. Considering the trade-off of the risks and benefits, one way to improve social welfare is to conduct proper recycling and to continue using plastics but limit them to essential use, avoiding an unnecessary ban. A potential barrier to such a policy might be risk-averse attitudes toward actions that are perceived to threaten future generations, which is a well-known phenomenon. We previously designed a framework for information provision using messages that remind individuals about familial support, which had significant effects in multiple countries on increasing positive attitudes toward air pollution caused by industrialization. We hypothesized that this information provision could also be effective for disposable plastic use. Thus, we conducted a randomized controlled trial via online surveys in Japan, Canada, and the US to identify the effects of our designed messages about recycling on increasing positive attitudes toward disposable plastics. The intervention effects were measured by the difference-in-difference method and panel analysis based on linear regression models using the respondents' attributes and personality traits. The effects were consistently correlated with a sense of familial support, with the effect sizes varying according to country (US > Japan > Canada). Attributes that positively contributed to the message being more effective were higher agreeableness, lower Machiavellianism, lower psychopathy, and being a woman. Although personal fear about COVID-19 moderated the message effects, concern about the threats to relatives and family boosted the effects. Although the effect sizes were influenced by external factors, the results suggested that our proposed framework for information provision has the potential to be applied to a wider variety of risk-related topics.

Designing information provision to serve as a reminder of altruistic benefits: A case study of the risks of air pollution caused by industrialization.

A well-known phenomenon is that humans perceive risks to threaten future generations as more dangerous in many cases. However, this tendency could be changed depending on certain conditions and could potentially be explained by the evolution of altruism. Our multi-agent simulation model, which was constructed to identify attributes contributing to subjective assessment of a risk source based on kin selection theory, showed that support from relatives can affect the agents' subjective risk assessment. We utilize this insight, which has never been explored in the context of nudge, to show that real-world messages reminding respondents that they are supported by their relatives can moderate the perception of a risk source as extremely dangerous. A randomized control trial based on an internet questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the intervention effect of such messages, using air pollution caused by industrialization as the risk source for the case study. Our analysis suggests that messages moderate extreme attitudes. Presentation of additional visual information can boost the sense of familial support and increase the effect of a message compared with a message comprising only textual information. The attributes and personality traits of the respondents who are responsive to the intervention message are also discussed.

Splitting culture medium by air-jet and rewetting for the assessment of the wettability of cultured epithelial cell surfaces.

This study found that the phenomenon of rewetting after squeezing culture medium varied in different culture conditions for rat oral mucosal epithelial cells. When culture medium covering over cultured cells was squeezed by an air-jet application, the motion of squeezed culture medium was able to be observed by using a commercially available movie camera. Squeezed width on cells cultured in keratinocyte culture medium (KCM), which contained with fetal bovine serum, was one-sixth of that in FBS-free KCM. This result corresponded to the mucous layer staining statuses of cultured cells in both cases; positive in KCM and negative in FBS-free medium. Furthermore, the gene expression of mucous glycoprotein MUC4 in KCM was 100 times higher than that in FBS-free medium, and the expression of MUC4 protein only showed on the apical surface of cells cultured in KCM. The relative gene expression levels of MUC1, 13, 15, and 16 in both the normal and FBS-free medium were found to be no more than one-thirtieth of that of MUC4 in KCM. The main factor of the wettability difference between KCM and FBS-free medium was speculated to be the difference of MUC4 expression between both media. This method can be a simple technique for testing not only the surface wettability but also the mucous formation of cultured cells.

Steal phenomenon-induced lung perfusion defects in pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas: assessment with automated perfusion SPECT-CT fusion images.

PURPOSE: Lung perfusion impairment in patients with pulmonary arteriovenous fistula (AVF) was evaluated by automated deep inspiratory breath-hold (DIBrH) perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)-CT fusion images. METHODS: Participants were 14 patients with a single (N=6) or multiple nodular AVFs (N=8) diagnosed by contrast-enhanced CT scan and/or pulmonary angiography. After the injection of 185MBq Tc-99m-macroaggregated albumin, a whole-body scan was obtained to quantify an intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt. Subsequently, DIBrH SPECT was obtained using the continuous rotating acquisition mode of a dual-headed SPECT system, which was automatically coregistered with DIBrH CT. The anatomic relationship between AVF and perfusion defects was assessed on the fusion images. RESULTS: The whole-body scan depicted systemic organs indicating the presence of an intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt in all the patients. DIBrH SPECT showed 34 perfusion defects in these patients, which were located at the AVF and in the surrounding lungs of the AVF on the fusion images, regardless of the absence of morphologic abnormality on CT in all the patients. These defects were considered to be caused by the 'steal phenomenon' associated with the high and fast pulmonary arterial flow to each AVF, which were more extensive and severe in the multiple AVFs compared with a single AVF (P=0.0012), occasionally extending to the entire lobe with AVF or even to the adjacent lobe. In five patients, the fusion images detected a total of six tiny AVFs with unexpectedly extensive 'steal phenomenon'-induced defects, which had been missed by other radiological imaging techniques. The summed value of the shunt index estimated by the whole-body scan and the lung perfusion defect extent estimated by DIBrH SPECT was significantly correlated with PaO2 in all the patients (P < 0.0001), with a better correlation compared with the shunt index alone. CONCLUSION: In addition to the right-to-left shunt, 'steal phenomenon'-induced perfusion defects are common in the surrounding lung of pulmonary nodular AVF and cause hypoxemia. DIBrH SPECT-CT fusion images contribute to the objective evaluation of 'steal phenomenon'-induced lung perfusion impairment in AVF and the detection of tiny, subtle AVFs that may be missed by other radiological imaging techniques.