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Introduction In 2017, New York City (NYC) passed a minimum floor price law (MFPL) to raise the minimum price of a pack of cigarettes to $13.00. Evaluation of the MFPL in NYC is limited and has yet to examine its potential as a proequity policy. Aims and Methods Data (n  = 20 241; prepolicy n  = 15 037, postpolicy n  = 5204) were obtained from the New York State Adult Tobacco Survey, a quarterly repeated cross-sectional survey. Using the Difference-in-Differences approach, we compared changes in reported cigarette prices, cigarette consumption, and smoking status among NYC residents before and after policy implementation to changes in the same outcomes among residents in the rest of the state (ROS) over the same period. Results For some smokers, cigarette price increased in NYC for the postpolicy period; moreover, prices increased more in NYC than in ROS. NYC smokers who reported higher income, more education, or White or "Other" race, reported a bigger price increase than their ROS counterparts. Cigarette consumption decreased more in the postpolicy period for people in the ROS, in general and among certain groups. Everyday smoking status decreased similarly in both NYC and ROS, whereas someday smoking status decreased primarily in the ROS during the analysis period. Conclusions Cigarette prices in NYC increased after the 2017 MFPL; these increases were greater than those occurring elsewhere in the state, suggesting the policy might be a factor in the change. However, the increases were concentrated among relatively higher-priced purchases, and groups with lower smoking prevalence. Changes in smoking status and cigarette consumption did not correspond to study hypotheses. Implications This study provides an empirical analysis of a real-world policy in tobacco control. It examines the potential of the MFPL in NYC as a proequity policy. Findings extend the current MFPL literature and suggest that they may be able to raise cigarette prices for some purchases, but also may have a limited impact on smoking behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an experiment (N = 206) using skin cancer prevention messages and a 2 (mortality: salient, control) × 2 (freedom-limiting language: freedom-limiting, autonomy-supportive) independent-group design, we tested the terror management health model and integrated its predictions with the theory of psychological reactance. We used a sample of young adults because they are most at risk for excessive tanning. Consistent with the study predictions about proximal defenses, mortality salience significantly increased intentions to wear sunscreen all year around, relative to the control condition. A significant interaction between freedom-limiting language and mortality salience on behavioral intention to purchase high-SPF lotion revealed that, when a freedom-limiting message was paired with mortality salience, intentions to purchase high-SPF lotion were significantly greater as compared to autonomy-supportive language, indicating that mortality salience mitigated the maladaptive effects of reactance. These results add to a growing body of research identifying boundary conditions for reactance effects and, further, point to the utility of directive (albeit freedom-limiting language) in health-prevention messages attempting to communicate deadly health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Despite an evolving e-cigarette environment, few studies have looked at adolescent exposure to e-cigarette advertising over time and its associations with curiosity about and susceptibility to using e-cigarettes. We examined e-cigarette advertising exposure and its associations with curiosity and susceptibility across multiple years among adolescents who have never used e-cigarettes. Methods: We obtained data from the National Youth Tobacco Surveys (NYTSs), 2014-2020 (N = 97,496). The NYTS identified e-cigarette advertising exposure from four channels: Internet, newspapers and magazines, convenience stores, and TV. Logistic regressions explored e-cigarette advertising exposure over time and the associations between exposure from the four channels and both curiosity and susceptibility to using e-cigarettes. Results: Youth exposure to e-cigarette advertising on the Internet and in convenience stores formed an increase-decrease-increase pattern from 2014 to 2020, whereas exposure in newspapers and magazines and on TV generally decreased over this period. Exposure on the Internet and in convenience stores was consistently associated with curiosity and susceptibility; but exposure in newspapers and magazines and on TV was sporadically associated with the outcomes. Conclusions: Despite a changing e-cigarette marketplace, youth were consistently exposed to e-cigarette advertising, especially on the Internet and in convenience stores. This pattern is worrisome, as it may increase youth curiosity and susceptibility to using e-cigarettes. Comprehensive tobacco prevention efforts to prevent e-cigarette use in adolescents should continue to restrict e-cigarette advertising and marketing, thereby reducing exposure and discouraging e-cigarette use. Regular efforts should also be made to educate adolescents about the risks of using e-cigarettes to counteract the impact of high e-cigarette advertising exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of vaping among young people is a public health crisis. Social norms can contribute to the problem, but also to the solution. Objective: The current study examined young adults' responses to anti-vaping messages that varied on two features: social norms and behavioral framing. Methods: College students (N = 270) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions in a 2 (social norm: dynamic norm, static norm) X 2 (behavioral framing: vaping, not vaping) between-subjects factorial design with a no message control condition (n range = 49–58 in each condition). Results: Independent samples t-test, univariate analysis of variance, and structural equation modeling were used to test hypotheses and answer research questions. Results showed main effects of social norm, such that the dynamic (vs. static) norm message led to higher preconformity (p <.001) and self-efficacy (p =.012), and lower freedom threat (p =.040) and reactance (p <.001). There was also an indirect effect of dynamic norm on attitude as mediated by self-efficacy (p =.040). No main effect of behavioral framing was observed. Few interactions between social norm and behavioral framing were observed on preconformity (p <.001), anger (p <.001), and negative cognitions (p =.003). Conclusion: Overall, findings suggest a persuasive advantage for a dynamic norm relative to a static norm. Theoretically, these findings add to the literature suggesting the persuasiveness of dynamic norms. Practically, these results imply anti-vaping campaigns targeting young populations should communicate the changing (dynamic) norms in regard to (not) vaping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sought to examine the relationship between perceived message effectiveness (PME) and actual message effectiveness (AME) in a 3-week randomized trial of vaping prevention advertisements. Participants were US adolescents (n = 1,514) recruited in 2021. We randomly assigned them to view The Real Cost vaping prevention ads or control videos online. Participants viewed three videos at Visit 1, again at Visits 2 and 3, and completed a survey at each visit that assessed AME (susceptibility to vaping) and two types of PME – effects perceptions (potential for behavioral impact) and message perceptions (potential for message processing). At Visit 4, AME was measured. Compared to control, The Real Cost ads led to improved AME (lower susceptibility to vaping at Visit 4, p <.001). This was anticipated by The Real Cost ads eliciting higher PME ratings (higher effects and message perceptions at Visit 1, both p <.001). Furthermore, PME (both effects and message perceptions) at Visit 1 predicted susceptibility to vaping at Visits 1, 2, 3, and 4 (all p <.001). Finally, effects perceptions fully mediated the impact of The Real Cost ads on susceptibility to vaping (β = −.30; p <.001), while message perceptions only partially mediated the effect (β = −.04; p =.001). Our findings indicate a relationship between PME and AME, especially effects perceptions, and suggest that PME may be useful in message pre-testing to select messages with greater behavior change potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on youth vaping prevention has begun to grow, little work has examined language choice in vaping prevention messages. This study examined adolescents' responses to vaping prevention statements that varied on three features: behavioral framing, linguistic certainty, and target specification. We conducted a 2 (behavioral framing) by 2 (linguistic certainty) by 2 (target specification) by 3 (risk type) plus control condition between-subjects experiment using a national probability sample. Adolescents (N = 1,603) were randomly assigned to one of 25 conditions in which they viewed a vaping prevention statement (or a control statement about vape litter) followed by measures of perceived message effectiveness (PME), perceived severity and susceptibility of vaping risks, message trustworthiness, message relevance, and intentions to seek more information about vaping risks. Results showed main effects of behavioral framing, such that a declarative frame ("Vaping can ... ") led to higher PME, higher perceived severity, and greater information seeking intentions than a contingent frame ("If you vape, it can..."), while an interaction revealed that most declarative frame effects were driven by adolescents who were susceptible to vaping. There were also main effects of linguistic certainty, such that the word "can" ("Vaping can ... ") led to higher PME, higher perceived susceptibility and severity, and greater information seeking intentions than the word "could" ("Vaping could ... "). No main effect of target specification ("you" vs. "teens") was observed. Overall, findings suggest that vaping prevention messages that communicate greater certainty have greater behavior change potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: China, as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, faces significant challenges in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. The Chinese government has been actively promoting household photovoltaic (PV) power generation, which has great potential for application in rural areas. This study aims to explore whether the promotion of household PV systems in rural areas has a positive impact on farmers' low-carbon production behavior and to analyze the influencing factors and mechanisms. This research fills the research gap in the analysis of the promotion of household PV systems and farmers' low-carbon production behavior, providing scientific evidence to support policymakers in promoting widespread use of household PV systems and facilitating the transition of farmers to low-carbon production methods. Methods: This study adopts a qualitative research method and analyzes interview data and semi-structured questionnaire survey data from 48 farmers. By collecting, organizing, comparing, and extracting information and employing the research process of grounded theory, the researchers summarize the model of household PV-driven low-carbon production behavior. Results: The study finds that the installation of household PV systems indeed promotes farmers to adopt more low-carbon production behaviors. Farmers who install household PV systems show a greater willingness to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides, conserve water resources, and improve land utilization, among others. They perceive the positive effects of household PV systems and their own capacity for environmental protection, enhancing confidence and motivation to engage in low-carbon production behaviors. Discussion: Existing research methods have mainly relied on theoretical deduction combined with quantitative empirical approaches when exploring farmers' pro-environmental spillover behaviors. However, these methods often start from the perspectives of either egoism or altruism, resulting in biased tendencies toward negative spillover or positive spillover. Nevertheless, neither egoism nor altruism fully captures the decision-making process when deeply understanding farmers' production, life, and decision-making processes. The installation of household PV systems can change factors such as farmers' knowledge, skills, cognition, and resources, enhancing their green self-efficacy and helping them acquire more knowledge and skills in renewable energy. Therefore, this research adopts a qualitative research method to more accurately reflect farmers' decision-making process and provides practical recommendations to promote farmers' active transition to pro-environmental spillover behaviors. Conclusion: This study fills the research gap in the analysis of the promotion of household PV systems and farmers' low-carbon production behavior, providing practical recommendations for policymakers to facilitate farmers' positive behavioral changes. Qualitative research methods enable a more realistic understanding and promotion of farmers' pro-environmental spillover behaviors by deeply understanding their contexts. The study offers targeted suggestions to policymakers to drive farmers' transition to low-carbon production methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Alternative splicing generates transcripts that can promote tumorigenesis, but intron retention (IR), a form of alternative splicing, remains understudied. We investigated the role of IR in tumorigenesis and its potential clinical applications at the pan-cancer level. We identified IR events from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) that differ between tumor and normal samples, as well as IR events associated with patient survival. These IR events may modulate the expression of host genes, including those that play a role in cancer biology. For example, we experimentally validated a novel IR event within the STN1 5′UTR. The excellent performance of IR-based diagnostic and prognostic models and their biological importance in cancer suggest that IR is a potential biomarker and drug target. Alternative splicing can produce transcripts that affect cancer development and thus shows potential for cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, intron retention (IR), a type of alternative splicing, has been studied less in cancer biology research. Here, we generated a pan-cancer IR landscape for more than 10,000 samples across 33 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We characterized differentially retained introns between tumor and normal samples and identified retained introns associated with survival. We discovered 988 differentially retained introns in 14 cancers, some of which demonstrated diagnostic potential in multiple cancer types. We also inferred a large number of prognosis-related introns in 33 cancer types, and the associated genes included well-known cancer hallmarks such as angiogenesis, metastasis, and DNA mutations. Notably, we discovered a novel intron retention inside the 5′UTR of STN1 that is associated with the survival of lung cancer patients. The retained intron reduces translation efficiency by producing upstream open reading frames (uORFs) and thereby inhibits colony formation and cell migration of lung cancer cells. Besides, the IR-based prognostic model achieved good stratification in certain cancers, as illustrated in acute myeloid leukemia. Taken together, we performed a comprehensive IR survey at a pan-cancer level, and the results implied that IR has the potential to be diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarkers, as well as new drug targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of agency assignment on response to messages advocating threat preparedness, highlighting interactions between agency assignment and threat type. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions crossing human agency vs. threat agency with human ascribed threats vs. threats not ascribed to humans. Two messages were shown in random order in each condition with responses measured after each message. In line with extant research, results showed a significant main effect for agency assignment on behavioral intentions such that, relative to human agency, threat agency increased intentions to follow message recommendations for threat preparedness. The main effect of agency assignment was qualified by an agency assignment by threat type interaction, indicating a partial matching effect on behavioral intentions wherein threat agency led to greater behavioral intentions than human agency for threats not ascribed to humans – but not for threats ascribed to humans. Results, limitations, and implications of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, social capital is considered to be one of the important reasons for promoting economic development and causing regional economic differences, but in the existing research, there is little literature on the impact of regional social capital on enterprises' green innovation behavior and green total factor productivity (GTFP), so this paper aims to enrich the research in this area. This paper builds a regional social capital evaluation index system and uses the super-SBM model to measure the enterprise GTFP. Then, this paper brings regional social capital, enterprise green innovation and GTFP into a unified framework for the first time and further reveals the quantitative relationship between the three by using OLS and Tobit two-step methods based on the panel data of 30 provinces from 2011 to 2019. The results show that regional social capital has a positive effect on enterprise GTFP and green innovation (except for strategic green innovation output), enterprise green innovation output has a positive role in promoting GTFP, and enterprise green innovation capital investment has a masking effect between regional social capital and GTFP. Furthermore, the expansive study finds that there are differences in the impact of regional social capital on green innovation and the GTFP of heterogeneous enterprises, and financing constraints have a positive regulatory effect on the relationship between regional social capital and the GTFP of state-owned enterprises, while having an inhibitory effect on the GTFP of private enterprises. Fiscal decentralization has a partial mediating effect between regional social capital and enterprise GTFP, while urbanization and CO2 emissions have a masking effect. Additionally, this paper aims to provide a reference for the improvement of regional social capital theory, the strategic choice of green innovation of enterprises, and the high-quality development of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2), the COVID-19 disease cases stemming from it, and the resulting pandemic have imposed severe, distressing, physical, and psychological challenges on communities worldwide. The stressful situation faced by Chinese overseas students (COSs) has been particularly acute. With this population as the focus, the current study evaluated the psychological state of COSs abroad during the initial phases of the pandemic. Participants (N = 182) were recruited to complete an online survey (during April 7–14, 2020) assessing their physical and social circumstances, and sense of wellbeing. Results showed COSs experienced high levels of anxiety primarily stemming from discrimination from the media, fear of COVID-19, and mixed messages from their social connections. Feeling entrapped in a double bind (DbB) situation with their close relations significantly increased anxiety. Perceived social support negatively correlated with anxiety, and those experiencing a DbB felt the greatest stress, particularly those unable to effectively differentiate the opposing messages. Findings of the study, limitations, and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to deeply understand each dimension index and its connotation of clothing green information, clothing green information presentation strategies were explored and put forward in this paper. The green information display for clothing market is too general to meet the cognitive needs of consumers. Based on the grounded theory and network analytic network process, the green information of clothing was analyzed and systematically studied, the indicator system of green information of clothing was constructed and a quantitative analysis of the indicator system was made. The results show that the index system of clothing green information includes 6 dimensions and 21 indicators, and the importance to clothing green information of each dimension from strong to weak is as follows; green production information, green entity information, green service information, green service information, green brand information, green communication information. FinHy, feasible suggestions and references for clothing enterprises was provided to formulate green information strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiment explores the effects of agency assignment and self-construal on responses to tornado preparedness messages. Participants (N = 276) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions crossing agency assignment and self-construal. Results found threat agency associated with greater perceived susceptibility and tornado threat, whereas self-construal was primarily associated with perceived threat severity, such that those primed with interdependent self-construal showed marginally increased perceptions of tornado severity relative to those primed with independent self-construal. Self-construal did not appear to moderate the effects of agency assignment on attitudes or behavioral intentions. Results are discussed in light of potential psychological reactance, suggesting human agency assignment should be used cautiously, since it may pose an increased threat to perceived freedoms in certain instances. Moreover, combining human agency and independent self-construal may trigger negative cognitions directed toward the message and/or its source. It is concluded that cautious, strategic use of agency assignment can improve message acceptance and facilitate adaptive, preparedness actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the COVID-19 pandemic poses severe threats to human life around the globe, effective risk messages are needed to warn the public and encourage recommended actions for avoiding infection, especially as steps are taken to ease physical restrictions and restart economies. The present study examines the effects of agency assignment and reference point on perceptions of SARS-CoV-2 threat and assesses key message responses, including psychological reactance, source derogation, counterarguing, and behavioral intentions. Participants (N = 207) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions crossing agency assignment (SARS-CoV-2/human) and reference point (self/self-other). Results show, relative to human agency, SARS-CoV-2 agency assignment generated significantly more psychological reactance in the form of greater perceptions of freedom threat, anger, and negative cognitions, as well as more source derogation and counterarguing. No significant effects were found for reference point, and the interaction between agency assignment and reference point was not significant. The study findings, limitations, and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People tend to respond to rejection and attack with aggression. The present research examined the modulation role of attachment patterns on provoked aggression following punishment and proposed an executive functioning account of attachment patterns' modulating influence based on the General Aggression Model. Attachment style was measured using the Experiences in Close Relationships inventory. Experiments 1a and b and 2 adopted a social rejection task and assessed subsequent unprovoked and provoked aggression with different attachment patterns. Moreover, Experiment 1b and 2 used a Stroop task to examine whether differences in provoked aggression by attachment patterns are due to the amount of executive functioning following social rejection, or after unprovoked punishment, or even before social rejection. Anxiously attached participants displayed significant more provoked aggression than securely and avoidantly attached participants in provoked aggression following unprovoked punishment in Experiments 1 and 2. Meanwhile, subsequent Stroop tests indicated anxiously attached participants experienced more executive functioning depletion after social rejection and unprovoked aggression. The present findings support the General Aggression Model and suggest that provoked aggression is predicted by attachment patterns in the context of social rejection; different provoked aggression may depend on the degree of executive functioning that individuals preserved in aggressive situations. The current study contributes to our understanding of the importance of the role of attachment patterns in modulating aggressive behavior accompanying unfair social encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]