Disentangling Individual and Community Effects on Environmentally Sensitive Behaviors

A major criticism of the environmental behavior literature is the nearly exclusive focus on the role of attitudes and individual-level characteristics. Despite this concentration on individual-level causes, variation in environmental behavior remains. As individual behavior becomes an increasingly significant source of pollution, a better understanding of the influences individual behavior is critical to addressing environmental degradation. This research re-directs the focus on individual-level influences on environmental behaviors by building models examining the varying dimensions of environmental behaviors as influenced by community characteristics. This is accomplished by testing a series of hypotheses under the auspices of two theoretical frameworks: the neoclassical economic theory and a social contextual model of environmental actions. Using individual-level data from the 1993 and 2000 General Social Survey and MSA data from the U.S. Census and the Environmental Protection Agency, I estimate two-level hierarchical models for three environmentally sensitive behaviors (environmentally sensitive food consumption, environmentally sensitive automobile use, and environmental activism). Multi-level analyses yield models revealing significant associations between MSA measures and individual environmental behaviors. Objective environmental conditions, region of MSA and MSA education level are significantly associated with environmentally sensitive food consumption behaviors, environmentally sensitive automobile use, and environmental activism behaviors, though their influence assumes diverse forms. Among the community measures, MSA education level is the primary social process that produces change in all environmental behaviors. In each of the models, MSA education level exhibits effects on all three behavioral measures and significant cross-level effects on automobile use behaviors. Living in a well educated MSA, particularly in the West or Northeast suggests higher environmental participation. Region of MSA is also a characteristic that must be considered when evaluating environmental behaviors, particularly for those living in the West and Northeast. Theoretical conclusions suggest that individual environmental behavior decision making is not simply a market exchange, but social forces are at work in the individual decision-making process

The effect of schooling on teenage childbearing: evidence using changes in compulsory education laws

Education, Childbearing, Endogeneity bias, I21,

A Critical Role for a Tyrosine Residue in the Cannabinoid Receptors for Ligand Recognition

Previous mutation and modeling studies have identified an aromatic cluster in the transmembrane helix (TMH) 3-4-5 region as important for ligand binding at the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors. Through novel mixed mode Monte Carlo/Stochastic Dynamics (MC/SD) calculations, we tested the importance of aromaticity at position 5.39(275) in CB1. MC/SD calculations were performed on wild-type (WT) CB1 and two mutants, Y5.39(275)F and Y5.39(275)I. Results indicated that while the CB1 Y5.39(275)F mutant is very similar to WT, the Y5.39(275)I mutant shows pronounced topology changes in the TMH 3-4-5 region. Site-directed mutagenesis studies of tyrosine 5.39 to phenylalanine (Y→F) or isoleucine (Y→I) in both CB1 and CB2 were performed to determine the functional role of this amino acid in each receptor subtype. HEK 293 cells transfected with mutant receptor cDNAs were evaluated in radioligand binding and cyclic AMP assays. The CB1 mutant and WT receptors were also co-expressed with G-protein-coupled inwardly rectifying channels (GIRK1 and GIRK4) in Xenopus oocytes to assess functional coupling. The Y→F mutation resulted in cannnabinoid receptors with subtle differences in WT binding and signal transduction. In contrast, the Y→I mutations produced receptors that could not produce signal transduction or bind to multiple cannabinoid compounds. However, immunofluorescence data indicate that the Y→I mutation was compartmentalized and expressed at a level similar to that of the WT cannabinoid receptor. These results underscore the importance of aromaticity at position CB1 5.39(275) and CB2 5.39(191) for ligand recognition in the cannabinoid receptors