Self-Selection Bias in Estimating the Determinants of Landowners' Re-enrollment Decisions in Forest Incentive Programs

Natural Resource Economics Discussion Papers are preliminary research reports by members of the GSA-NRE Kyoto University circulated for comments and suggestions. They have not been externally peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the editorial board.Despite increasing attention in recent years, only a very limited number of studies have investigated the determinants of landowner re-enrollment intention in conservation incentive programs, none of which controlled for the potential self-selection of participants. This concern for a self-selection bias is policy relevant because researchers and policymakers investigate the determinants of re-enrollment in order not only to predict the retention rate of participants but also to promote the long-term success of conservation programs. This paper uses data on eligible landowners, consisting of both participants and non-participants, from a forest incentive program in Japan to examine the determinants of the participant re-enrollment decision, controlling for a rich set of observable landowner attributes and conditioned on the unobserved participant attributes identified by modeling the re-enrollment decision jointly with the decision to participate. The empirical results indicate that the unconditional marginal effects from the separate re-enrollment model are biased by selection and underestimate the effects by between 12% and 48%. The results also show that the observable factors that attract landowners to participate also tend to encourage participants to remain in the program. This implies that interventions directed at increasing initial participation are also likely to increase re-enrollment

Peer Effects in Landowner Participation: Evidence from a Forest Incentive Program

Natural Resource Economics Discussion Papers are preliminary research reports by members of the GSA-NRE Kyoto University circulated for comments and suggestions. They have not been externally peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the editorial board.Identifying landowners' social interactions helps garner a better understanding of non-pecuniary incentives in their participation decision in an incentive-based program for conserving private lands. However, little is known in the literature about such peer effects among neighboring landowners. This study uses contract data from a forest incentive program implemented in a Japanese mountainous area with over 200 small local communities to estimate peer effects on individual participation. We identify peer effects using a binary choice model with social interactions, in which landowners are assumed to form heterogeneous expectations of community members' participation. The results reveal that their peers' participation significantly increases the likelihood of individual participation, suggesting peer effects are relevant for conservation policy design. Using the results, we demonstrate how including peer effects in the analysis improves policy predictions in estimating the impact of interventions and understanding the spatial configuration of participating land

子宮筋層の内外層に発生する子宮腺筋症おける、それぞれの組織学的特徴

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the phenotypic characterization of fibrotic process in adenomyosis occurring at the inner or the outer myometrium. METHODS: Eight cases of adenomyosis occurring at the inner myometrium (Subtype I) and 10 cases of adenomyosis occurring at the outer myometrium (Subtype II), and 10 normal counterparts were used in this study. A immunohistochemical study for smooth muscle cells (SMCs) was performed using cytoskeletal proteins, Type I and III collagen, TGF-β and its signaling molecules. RESULTS: An increased expression of Type I collagen was observed in the extracellular matrix of adenomyotic foci. In normal uteri, immunostaining of SMC differentiation marker proteins (Desmin, Smoothelin, Myosin heavy chain (MHC)) were absent or only found in low numbers at the inner myometrium, while all of these marker proteins were clearly stained at the outer myometrium. In both types of adenomyotic foci, Desmin, Smoothelin, and MHC commonly showed a negative staining at the adjacent area to the glands. A significant staining of Non-muscle myosin IIB, TGF-β, and phosphorylated TGF-β type I receptors were found only at the SMCs of Subtype II adenomyosis. The Smad3/2 ratio of Subtype II adenomyosis was significantly higher than that of Subtype I. CONCLUSIONS: The inner myometrium of normal uteri was composed of undifferentiated phenotypes of SMCs, while the outer myometrium was composed of terminally differentiated SMCs. Various fibrotic processes have been suggested in the development of uterine adenomyosis. Distinct expression patterns of fibrosis related proteins have been shown to be implicated with differences in the subtypes of adenomyosis.博士（医学）・甲第681号・平成30年3月15日Copyright: © 2017 Kishi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Hemolytic C-Type Lectin CEL-III from Sea Cucumber Expressed in Transgenic Mosquitoes Impairs Malaria Parasite Development

The midgut environment of anopheline mosquitoes plays an important role in the development of the malaria parasite. Using genetic manipulation of anopheline mosquitoes to change the environment in the mosquito midgut may inhibit development of the malaria parasite, thus blocking malaria transmission. Here we generate transgenic Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes that express the C-type lectin CEL-III from the sea cucumber, Cucumaria echinata, in a midgut-specific manner. CEL-III has strong and rapid hemolytic activity toward human and rat erythrocytes in the presence of serum. Importantly, CEL-III binds to ookinetes, leading to strong inhibition of ookinete formation in vitro with an IC50 of 15 nM. Thus, CEL-III exhibits not only hemolytic activity but also cytotoxicity toward ookinetes. In these transgenic mosquitoes, sporogonic development of Plasmodium berghei is severely impaired. Moderate, but significant inhibition was found against Plasmodium falciparum. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of stably engineered anophelines that affect the Plasmodium transmission dynamics of human malaria. Although our laboratory-based research does not have immediate applications to block natural malaria transmission, these findings have significant implications for the generation of refractory mosquitoes to all species of human Plasmodium and elucidation of mosquito–parasite interactions

Enhanced production of nitric oxide, reactive oxygen species, and pro-inflammatory cytokines in very long chain saturated fatty acid-accumulated macrophages

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Deterioration of peroxisomal β-oxidation activity causes an accumulation of very long chain saturated fatty acids (VLCSFA) in various organs. We have recently reported that the levels of VLCSFA in the plasma and/or membranes of blood cells were significantly higher in patients with metabolic syndrome and in patients with coronary artery disease than the controls. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of VLCSFA accumulation on inflammatory and oxidative responses in VLCSFA-accumulated macrophages derived from X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) protein (ALDP)-deficient mice.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Elevated levels of VLCSFA were confirmed in macrophages from ALDP-deficient mice. The levels of nitric oxide (NO) production stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ), intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), and pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interluekin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-12p70 (IL-12p70), were significantly higher in macrophages from ALDP-deficient mice than in those from wild-type mice. The inducible NO synthase (iNOS) mRNA expression also showed an increase in macrophages from ALDP-deficient mice.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggested that VLCSFA accumulation in macrophages may contribute to the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases through the enhancement of inflammatory and oxidative responses.</p

Preferable Forms of Relaxation for Health Promotion, and the Association between Recreational Activities and Self-perceived Health

Little research has been done on the association between relaxation and health. In the present study, by conducting a nationwide cross-sectional survey, we aimed to obtain scientific data on the preferable forms of relaxation for health promotion, and to clarify the associations between specific recreational activities and self-perceived mental and physical health. We selected 4,000 households by stratified random sampling from across Japan in November 2009 and used the interview method to collect data (number of subjects:2,206). The questionnaire contained items on sleep, recreation status, recreational activities, and self-perceived mental and physical health status. We obtained responses from 1,224 adults (response rate:55.5%). Insufficient rest from sleep, short sleep duration (＜6h/day), ineffective use of free time, and less free time used for activities other than rest showed independent positive associations with poor mental and physical health. The results of the logistic regression analyses showed significantly low adjusted odds ratios with regard to the status of poor mental and physical health for outings/walking among men (0.33 [95% confidence interval;0.16-0.68] and 0.49 [0.26-0.90], respectively), and for community activities among women (0.19 [0.04-0.79] and 0.27 [0.09-0.77], respectively). Relaxation for the promotion of health should include both passive relaxation (rest) and active relaxation (recreation). In addition, ensuring sufficient sleep duration is important for passive relaxation, and engaging in outings/walking for men and community activities for women are important for active relaxation

Occupied and unoccupied electronic structure of Na doped MoS2(0001)

The influence of sodium on the band structure of MoS2(0001) and the comparison of the experimental band dispersion with density functional theory show excellent agreement for the occupied states (angle-resolved photoemission) and qualitative agreement for the unoccupied states (inverse photoemission spectroscopy). Na-adsorption leads to charge transfer to the MoS2 surface causing an effect similar to n-type doping of a semiconductor. The MoS2 occupied valence band structure shifts rigidly to greater binding with little change in the occupied state dispersion. Likewise, the unoccupied states shift downward, approaching the Fermi level, yet the amount of the shift for the unoccupied states is greater than that of the occupied states, effectively causing a narrowing of the MoS2 bandgap