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The study investigates residents' behavior towards reducing the use of single-use plastic (SUP), specifically in the context of food packaging. The widespread view holds that pro-environmental behavior (PB) results from a person's moral and rational deliberations. In reducing single-use plastic (SUP) consumption and waste, the relative roles of rationality and morality models in validating PB among rural and urban residents are not yet clear. In this empirical study, we compared the relative efficacy of two models for explaining people's SUP reduction behavior: the theory of planned behavior (TPB; rationality) and the value belief norm (VBN; morality). We investigated Thailand's rural (Sichang Island) and metropolitan (Nonthaburi city) areas. As a result, we surveyed people living on Sichang Island (n = 255) and in Nonthaburi city (n = 310). We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) for data analysis in this study. Findings showed that while morality better justified all the study participants' SUP reduction behavior, rationality underpinned behaviors of rural residents, while morality better explained the actions of city residents. We discussed future theoretical development and a policy roadmap based on these findings., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This study explores whether a school-based group counseling program for adolescent girls, implemented at scale, can mitigate trauma-related mental health harms. In a randomized trial involving 3749 Chicago public high school girls, we find that participating in the program for 4 months induces a 22% reduction in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and find significant decreases in anxiety and depression. Results surpass widely accepted cost-effectiveness thresholds, with estimated cost-utility well below $150,000 per quality adjusted life year. We find suggestive evidence that effects persist and may even increase over time. Our results provide the first efficacy trial of such a program specifically designed for girls, conducted in America's third largest city. These findings suggest the promise of school-based programs to mitigate trauma-related harms.

Increasing farmers' adoption of sustainable nitrogen management practices is crucial for improving water quality. Yet, research to date provides ambiguous results about the most important farmer-level drivers of adoption, leaving high levels of uncertainty as to how to design policy interventions that are effective in motivating adoption. Among others, farmers' engagement in outreach or educational events is considered a promising leverage point for policy measures. This paper applies a Bayesian belief network (BBN) approach to explore the importance of drivers thought to influence adoption, run policy experiments to test the efficacy of different engagement-related interventions on increasing adoption rates, and evaluate heterogeneity of the effect of the interventions across different practices and different types of farms. The underlying data comes from a survey carried out in 2018 among farmers in the Central Valley in California. The analyses identify farm characteristics and income consistently as the most important drivers of adoption across management practices. The effect of policy measures strongly differs according to the nitrogen management practice. Innovative farmers respond better to engagement-related policy measures than more traditional farmers. Farmers with small farms show more potential for increasing engagement through policy measures than farmers with larger farms. Bayesian belief networks, in contrast to linear analysis methods, always account for the complex structure of the farm system with interdependencies among the drivers and allow for explicit predictions in new situations and various kinds of heterogeneity analyses. A methodological development is made by introducing a new validation measure for BBNs used for prediction., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Huanglongbing (HLB) disease of citrus, which is associated with the bacterium ' Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus', has been confined to residential properties in Southern California 8 years after it was first detected in the state. To prevent the spread of HLB to commercial citrus groves, growers have been asked to adopt a portfolio of voluntary best management practices. This study evaluates the citrus industry's propensity to adopt these practices using surveys and a novel multivariate ordinal regression model. We estimate the impact on adoption of perceived vulnerability to HLB, intentions to stay informed and communicate about the disease and various socio-economic factors, and reveal what practices are most likely to be jointly adopted as an integrated approach to HLB. Survey participants were in favor of scouting and surveying for HLB symptoms, but they were reluctant to test trees, use early detection technologies (EDTs), and install barriers around citrus groves. Most practices were perceived as complementary, particularly visual inspections and some combinations of preventive practices with tests and EDTs. Participants who felt more vulnerable to HLB had a higher propensity to adopt several practices, as did those who intended to stay informed and communicate with the coordinators of the HLB control program, although this effect was modulated by the perceived vulnerability to HLB. Communication with neighbors and the size of citrus operations also influenced practice adoption. Based on these results, we provide recommendations for outreach about HLB management in California and suggest future directions for research about the adoption of plant disease management practices.[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

TAK-653 is a novel α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR)-positive allosteric modulator being developed as a potential therapeutic for major depressive disorder (MDD). Currently, there are no translational biomarkers that evaluate physiological responses to the activation of glutamatergic brain circuits available. Here, we tested whether noninvasive neurostimulation, specifically single-pulse or paired-pulse motor cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation (spTMS and ppTMS, respectively), coupled with measures of evoked motor response captures the pharmacodynamic effects of TAK-653 in rats and healthy humans. In the rat study, five escalating TAK-653 doses (0.1-50 mg/kg) or vehicle were administered to 31 adult male rats, while measures of cortical excitability were obtained by spTMS coupled with mechanomyography. Twenty additional rats were used to measure brain and plasma TAK-653 concentrations. The human study was conducted in 24 healthy volunteers (23 males, 1 female) to assess the impact on cortical excitability of 0.5 and 6 mg TAK-653 compared with placebo, measured by spTMS and ppTMS coupled with electromyography in a double-blind crossover design. Plasma TAK-653 levels were also measured. TAK-653 increased both the mechanomyographic response to spTMS in rats and the amplitude of motor-evoked potentials in humans at doses yielding similar plasma concentrations. TAK-653 did not affect resting motor threshold or paired-pulse responses in humans. This is the first report of a translational functional biomarker for AMPA receptor potentiation and indicates that TMS may be a useful translational platform to assess the pharmacodynamic profile of glutamate receptor modulators.

Agricultural regions in the United States are experimenting with sustainability partnerships that, among other goals, seek to improve growers' ability to manage their vineyards sustainably. In this paper, we analyze the association between winegrape grower participation in sustainability partnership activities and practice adoption in three winegrowing regions of California. Using data gathered from a survey of 822 winegrape growers, we find a positive association between participation and adoption of sustainable practices, which holds most strongly for practices in which the perceived private benefits outweigh the costs, and for growers with relatively dense social networks. We highlight the mechanisms by which partnerships may catalyze sustainable farm management, and discuss the implications of these findings for improving sustainability partnerships. Taken together, we provide one of the most comprehensive quantitative analyses to date regarding the effectiveness of agricultural sustainability partnerships for improving farm management., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cost-benefit trade-offs for individuals participating in social behaviors are the basis for current theories on the evolution of social behaviors and societies. However, research on social strategies has largely ignored solitary animals, in which we assume that rare interactions are explained by courtship or territoriality or, in special circumstances, resource distributions or kinship. We used directed network analysis of conspecific tolerance at food sources to provide evidence that a solitary carnivore, the puma ( Puma concolor ), exhibited adaptive social strategies similar to more social animals. Every puma in our analysis participated in the network, which featured densely connected communities delineated by territorial males. Territorial males also structured social interactions among pumas. Contrary to expectations, conspecific tolerance was best characterized by direct reciprocity, establishing a fitness benefit to individuals that participated in social behaviors. However, reciprocity operated on a longer time scale than in gregarious species. Tolerance was also explained by hierarchical reciprocity, which we defined as network triangles in which one puma (generally male) received tolerance from two others (generally females) that also tolerated each other. Hierarchical reciprocity suggested that males might be cheating females; nevertheless, we suspect that males and females used different fitness currencies. For example, females may have benefited from tolerating males through the maintenance of social niches that support breeding opportunities. Our work contributes evidence of adaptive social strategies in a solitary carnivore and support for the applicability of theories of social behavior across taxa, including solitary species in which they are rarely tested.

Preventative disease management is challenging to farmers because it requires paying immediate costs in the hopes of returning uncertain future benefits. Understanding farmer decision making about prevention has the potential to reduce disease incidence and minimize the need for more costly postinfection practices. For example, the grapevine trunk-disease complex (esca, Botryosphaeria dieback, Eutypa dieback, and Phomopsis dieback) significantly affects vineyard productivity and longevity. Given the chronic nature of the infections and inability to eradicate the fungal pathogens, the preventative practices of delayed pruning, applications of pruning-wound protectants, and double pruning (also known as prepruning) are the most effective means of management. We surveyed wine-grape growers in six regions of California on their use of these three practices. In spite of acknowledging the yield impacts of trunk diseases, a substantial number of respondents either choose not to use preventative practices or incorrectly adopted them in mature vineyards, too late in the disease cycle to be effective. Growers with more negative perceptions of cost efficacy were less likely to adopt preventative practices or were more likely to time adoption incorrectly in mature vineyards. In general, preventative management may require strong intervention in the form of policy or extension to motivate behavioral change.

Vineyards with trunk diseases (Botryosphaeria dieback, Esca, Eutypa dieback, and Phomopsis dieback) can have negative returns in the long run. Minimizing economic impacts depends on effective management, but adopting a preventative practice after infection occurs may not improve yields. Pest control advisers may reduce grower uncertainty about the efficacy of and need for prevention, which often entails future and unobservable benefits. Here, we surveyed advisers in California to examine their influence over grower decision-making, in the context of trunk diseases, which significantly limit grape production and for which curative practices are unavailable. Our online survey revealed adviser awareness of high disease incidence, and reduced yields and vineyard lifespan. Advisers rated both preventative and postinfection practices positively. Despite higher cost estimates given to postinfection practices, advisers did not recommend preventative practices at higher rates. High recommendation rates were instead correlated with high disease incidence for both preventative and postinfection practices. Recommendation rates declined with increasing cost for preventative, but not for postinfection, practices. Our findings suggest that even when advisers acknowledge the risks of trunk diseases, they may not recommend preventative practices before infection occurs. This underscores the importance of clear outreach, emphasizing both the need for prevention and its long-term cost efficacy.