Conspicuous Consumption in the emergent VanLife Community

As the worth of experiential consumption increases, so does the importance of experiential conspicuous consumption. Traveling is an outstanding example for experiential consumption, which resulted in increased research interest in travel as means of conspicuous consumption. The emergent VanLife community is a prime example of experiential consumption, but to this date no connection to conspicuous consumption has been made. This paper explores the underlying motivations for choosing VanLife as a vacation mode and possible connections to conspicuous consumption. For this purpose, a qualitative study was conducted. While the participants could not be directly linked to conspicuous consumption, indirect evidence of conspicuous consumption in the broader VanLife community could be found

The effect of nudges on autonomy in hypothetical and real life settings

Nudges have repeatedly been found to be effective, however they are claimed to harm autonomy, and it has been found that laypeople expect this too. To test whether these expectations translate to actual harm to experienced autonomy, three online studies were conducted. The paradigm used in all studies was that participants were asked to voluntarily participate in a longer version of the questionnaire. This was either done in a hypothetical setting, where participants imagined they were asked this question, but did not answer it, and reported their expectations for autonomy; Or in an actual choice setting where participants answered the question and then reported their actual autonomy. The first study utilized the hypothetical setting and tried to replicate that laypeople expect nudges to harm autonomy with the current paradigm. A total of 451 participants were randomly assigned to either a control, a default nudge, or a social norm nudge condition. In the default nudge condition, the affirmative answer was pre-selected, and in the social norm nudge condition it was stated that most people answered affirmative. The results showed a trend for lower expected autonomy in nudge conditions, but did not find significant evidence. In Study 2, with a sample size of 454, the same design was used in an actual choice setting. Only the default nudge was found to be effective, and no difference in autonomy was found. In Study 3, Studies 1 and 2 were replicated. Explanation of the nudge was added as an independent variable and the social norm nudge condition was dropped, resulting in six conditions and 1322 participants. The results showed that participants indeed expected default nudges to harm their autonomy, but only if the nudge was explained. When actually nudged, no effect on autonomy was found, independent of the presence of an explanation.Public Health and primary carePrevention, Population and Disease management (PrePoD

The influence of nudge transparency on the experience of autonomy

While nudges have been shown to be effective and are already being implemented, there is still a debate on the ethics of nudging. This debate specifically refers to the potential of nudges negatively affecting autonomy. It has been suggested that making a nudge transparent may resolve this issue. Whereas previous research has already demonstrated that transparency does not violate nudge effectiveness, it is unknown how transparency affects autonomy and related decision satisfaction and experienced pressure. In an online study with 905 participants, we investigated whether two variations of transparency influence the decision maker’s experience of autonomy, as well as their choice satisfaction and the experienced pressure to choose the nudged option. The results show that autonomy and satisfaction were high–and pressure low–across all conditions, and were therefore not influenced by transparency. Suggesting that nudges do not negatively affect autonomy and that transparency does also not increase it

Fos regulates macrophage infiltration against surrounding tissue resistance by a cortical actin-based mechanism in Drosophila

The infiltration of immune cells into tissues underlies the establishment of tissue-resident macrophages and responses to infections and tumors. Yet the mechanisms immune cells utilize to negotiate tissue barriers in living organisms are not well understood, and a role for cortical actin has not been examined. Here, we find that the tissue invasion of Drosophila macrophages, also known as plasmatocytes or hemocytes, utilizes enhanced cortical F-actin levels stimulated by the Drosophila member of the fos proto oncogene transcription factor family (Dfos, Kayak). RNA sequencing analysis and live imaging show that Dfos enhances F-actin levels around the entire macrophage surface by increasing mRNA levels of the membrane spanning molecular scaffold tetraspanin TM4SF, and the actin cross-linking filamin Cheerio, which are themselves required for invasion. Both the filamin and the tetraspanin enhance the cortical activity of Rho1 and the formin Diaphanous and thus the assembly of cortical actin, which is a critical function since expressing a dominant active form of Diaphanous can rescue the Dfos macrophage invasion defect. In vivo imaging shows that Dfos enhances the efficiency of the initial phases of macrophage tissue entry. Genetic evidence argues that this Dfos-induced program in macrophages counteracts the constraint produced by the tension of surrounding tissues and buffers the properties of the macrophage nucleus from affecting tissue entry. We thus identify strengthening the cortical actin cytoskeleton through Dfos as a key process allowing efficient forward movement of an immune cell into surrounding tissues

ISTA Thesis

The infiltration of immune cells into tissues underlies the establishment of tissue-resident macrophages and responses to infections and tumors. However, the mechanisms immune cells utilize to collectively migrate through tissue barriers in vivo are not yet well understood. In this thesis, I describe two mechanisms that Drosophila immune cells (hemocytes) use to overcome the tissue barrier of the germband in the embryo. One strategy is the strengthening of the actin cortex through developmentally controlled transcriptional regulation induced by the Drosophila proto-oncogene family member Dfos, which I show in Chapter 2. Dfos induces expression of the tetraspanin TM4SF and the filamin Cher leading to higher levels of the activated formin Dia at the cortex and increased cortical F-actin. This enhanced cortical strength allows hemocytes to overcome the physical resistance of the surrounding tissue and translocate their nucleus to move forward. This mechanism affects the speed of migration when hemocytes face a confined environment in vivo. Another aspect of the invasion process is the initial step of the leading hemocytes entering the tissue, which potentially guides the follower cells. In Chapter 3, I describe a novel subpopulation of hemocytes activated by BMP signaling prior to tissue invasion that leads penetration into the germband. Hemocytes that are deficient in BMP signaling activation show impaired persistence at the tissue entry, while their migration speed remains unaffected. This suggests that there might be different mechanisms controlling immune cell migration within the confined environment in vivo, one of these being the general ability to overcome the resistance of the surrounding tissue and another affecting the order of hemocytes that collectively invade the tissue in a stream of individual cells. Together, my findings provide deeper insights into transcriptional changes in immune cells that enable efficient tissue invasion and pave the way for future studies investigating the early colonization of tissues by macrophages in higher organisms. Moreover, they extend the current view of Drosophila immune cell heterogeneity and point toward a potentially conserved role for canonical BMP signaling in specifying immune cells that lead the migration of tissue resident macrophages during embryogenesis

Membranen mit integrierter Stützstruktur

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Herstellung von porösen Membranen mit integrierter Stützstruktur, wobei ihre Membrandicke geringer als ihr Porendurchmesser ist. Derartige Membranen können unter dem Begriff Mikrosiebe zusammengefasst werden und versprechen ein hohes Anwendungspotential als Filtermedien in industriellen und medizinischen Bereichen. Für die Membranstabilisierung werden Gewebe, extrudierte Gitter und Gewirke eingesetzt und erforscht. Gleichzeitig erfolgt die Weiterentwicklung eines bestehenden Herstellungsverfahrens von Membranen, welche nach dem Prinzip der partikelassistierten Benetzung (PAB) hergestellt werden. Die verschiedenen Stützstrukturen werden direkt bei der Membranherstellung fest in diese integriert. Weiterhin werden verschiedene Herstellungsparameter, wie zum Beispiel das Membranmaterial, die Funktionalisierung der Porenbildner und die leichtflüchtige Komponente gezielt untersucht und optimiert. Somit können mechanisch stabilisierte Membranen hergestellt werden, welche einen Durchmesser von bis zu 10 cm aufweisen. Für die abschließende Charakterisierung werden Filtrationsversuche und Stabilitätsmessungen durchgeführt

Do Nudges Harm Autonomy? Empirical Studies on the Effect of Nudges on Expected and Experienced Autonomy

In the past decade, nudging as a tool to change behaviour has become increasingly popular in scientific research and public policy. However, it has been suggested that nudges may come at the cost of the decision maker’s perceived autonomy. Previous research has shown that perceived autonomy is crucial for well-being. We therefore examined whether nudges violate subjective autonomy as has been suggested. The first part of the dissertation focussed on people’s expectations about different types of nudges to harm subjective autonomy. We found that social norm nudges were not expected to harm autonomy, while default nudges, under specific conditions, were expected to have a negative effect. Further research showed that neither social norm nudges, nor default nudges, harmed autonomy when people had actually been exposed to these nudges. It was also investigated whether making the decision maker aware of the nudge and its effect would increase (expected) subjective autonomy. We found that transparency in general did not affect autonomy, with the exception that it negatively affected autonomy expectations under certain circumstances. Finally, we found that also in high stake choices (i.e., being registered as an organ donor), nudges did not decrease perceived autonomy when people made an active choice upon being nudged. People who did not act after being nudged and were therefore automatically registered as a donor did report lower autonomy. Altogether, nudges appear to be mostly harmless insofar subjective autonomy is concerned even though people sometimes expect otherwise. In case of passive decision makers who do not respond to nudges, nudges may bear negative implications. These findings bear important implications for communication as a public policy tool