Empowering pro-environmental behavior in tourists through digital media: the influence of eco-guilt and empathy with nature.

In the digital economy era, leveraging digital media to foster tourists' pro-environmental behavioral intention (TPEBI) has become crucial in the field of sustainable tourism. While existing studies have mainly focused on the driving mechanism of TPEBI within physical tourism contexts, the correlation between digital media information sharing and TPEBI remains unclear. Our study employs the cognitive-affective-conative framework to construct a theoretical model, considering eco-guilt and empathy with nature as mediating variables. It aims to explore the influencing mechanism of destination environmental information sharing through digital media on TPEBI from a presence perspective. Thereby, two scenario experiments were designed: Study 1 examined the impact of different formats of destination environmental threat information presentation on digital media on the sense of presence, while Study 2 explored the influencing mechanism of presence on TPEBI based on the conclusions of Study 1. Results indicate that (1) vivid and visible presentation formats of destination environmental threat information on digital media enhance individuals' sense of presence; (2) sense of presence positively influences TPEBI; and (3) eco-guilt and empathy with nature mediate between presence and TPEBI. These findings not only contribute to theoretical and empirical research on digital media information sharing in sustainable tourism but also offer guidance for governments and tourism destinations to effectively stimulate TPEBI through digital media, achieve the sustainable development of destinations.

The impact of environment-friendly short videos on consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention: A communicative ecology theory perspective.

As key participants in tourism activities, the tourists have an important role in the carbon emissions. Therefore, it is essential to identify the key elements that can arouse consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention; this has become an important topic for the academic community. However, to the best of my knowledge, most studies have explored the process of formation of consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention from the cognitive or emotional perspective, and have seldom paid attention to the communication perspective. As a result, the interpretation and prediction of consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention is limited. Based on the framework of communicative ecology theory (CET) and stimulus-organism-response theory (SOR), our study constructs an integrated model of the relationship between environment-friendly short video experience and consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention at the technological, content and social levels, introduces emotional elements such as empathy with nature and perceived environmental responsibility. Structural equation model and bootstrap method were employed for analyzing the data. Results revealed that the presence and perception of environmental education are the cognitive factors that impact consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention; these can effectively stimulate consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention. Empathy with nature and perceived environmental responsibility are the emotional factors that impact consumers' low-carbon tourism behavior; they play significant mediating roles between environment-friendly short video experience (presence, perception of environmental education, online interaction) and consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention. On the one hand, the research conclusions enrich the perspective and content of the research on consumers' low-carbon tourism behavioral intention and its influencing mechanism; on the other hand, they acquaint with the practical significance of implementing environmental education via the emerging communication modes such as short videos, improve consumers' awareness of their environmental responsibility, and promote environmental governance and sustainable development of tourist destinations.

Shedding lights on the flexible-armed porphyrins: Human telomeric G4 DNA interaction and cell photocytotoxicity research.

DNA polymorphism exerts a fascination on a large scientific community. Without crystallographic structural data, clarification of the binding modes between G-quadruplex (G4) and ligand (complex) is a challenging job. In the present work, three porphyrin compounds with different flexible carbon chains (arms) were designed, synthesized and characterized. Their binding, folding and stabilizing abilities to human telomeric G4 DNA structures were comparatively researched. Positive charges at the end of the flexible carbon chains seem to be favorable for the DNA-porphyrin interactions, which were evidenced by the spectral results and further confirmed by the molecular docking calculations. Biological function analysis demonstrated that these porphyrins show no substantial inhibition to Hela, A549 and BEL 7402 cancer cell lines under dark while exhibit broad inhibition under visible light. This significantly enhanced photocytotoxicity relative to the dark control is an essential property of photochemotherapeutic agents. The feature of the flexible arms emerges as critical influencing factors in the cell photocytotoxicity. Moreover, an ROS-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction pathway was suggested for the cell apoptosis induced by these flexible-armed porphyrins. It is found that the porphyrins with positive charges located at the end of the flexible arms represent an exciting opportunity for photochemotherapeutic anti-cancer drug design.

The single nucleotide polymorphisms of Kir3.4 gene and their correlation with lone paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in Chinese Han population.

BACKGROUND: Acetylcholine induced inwardly rectifying current (I(KACh)) is a heteromultimeric complex formed by Kir3.1 and Kir3.4 subunits and plays important roles in the development of atrial fibrillation (AF). AF is a common disorder among Chinese, the frequency of AF is about 0.61%, and in patients with strokes it is 12.1%. We hypothesise that lone paroxysmal AF genetic variation in Kir3.4 may predispose the atria to fibrillation in the Chinese population. METHODS: We recruited 186 patients with lone paroxysmal AF, and 210 matched controls by age (49.61+/-8.04 years), sex, smoking habit, and left atrial dimension in Zhejiang Province, China. Genotype of Kir3.4 was determined with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct sequencing. The SPSS statistical software was used for chi(2) test. LD and haplotypes were calculated using SHESIS software package. RESULTS: Three synonymous known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Kir3.4 were genotyped, including C171T (rs6590357), G810T (rs7118824) and C834T (rs7118833). We found low levels of linkage disequilibrium (LD) between C171T and G810T (D'=0.272), complete LD between SNPs G810T and C834T (D'=1) in AF patients and controls. The case-control analysis revealed that the frequency of genotype and allele in three SNPs are significantly different between lone paroxysmal AF patients than in control subjects. The odds ratio (OR) for AF 171T and 810T alleles were 1.546 (95% CI 1.015-2.355) and 1.520 (95% CI 1.012-2.284), respectively, when compared with patients without Kir3.4T alleles in these two loci. The OR for AF in patients with C-T genotype were 13.364 (95% CI 5.710-31.278) and 37.135 (95% CI 9.050-152.381) when comparing patients with T-G genotype. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that C171T and G810T SNPs in Kir3.4 gene might be risk factors for lone paroxysmal AF in Chinese population.