Agricultural methane emissions represent a significant contributor to global climate change, with irrigated rice cultivation being one of the primary sources. Despite the availability of effective mitigation technologies, their adoption often remains limited due to behavioural and institutional constraints. Water management practice that extends drainage periods during cultivation can curb methane emissions from irrigated rice at low cost, yet uptake among Japanese farmers remains modest. We surveyed 2219 rice producers in Shiga Prefecture using a labelled choice experiment that embedded two behavioural nudges (social norm and loss aversion) and one informational boost (knowledge enhancement), presented with or without a reminder. Farmers most favoured a 7-day drainage extension. Social-norm messages did not robustly shift adoption intentions, but loss-aversion and knowledge enhancement paired with reminders increased the probability of choosing water management practice by 5-10 percentage points, particularly when financial incentives were modest. The added value of nudges and boosts faded once subsidies approached prevailing ceiling levels, suggesting diminishing marginal returns to stacking instruments. These findings suggest that timely, low-cost behavioural interventions can effectively complement agri-environmental payments in resource-constrained settings, providing a scalable and context-sensitive strategy to accelerate the adoption of climate-smart rice practices.
Nurse plants can modify local microenvironments and influence the performance of co-occurring species in alpine ecosystems. While facilitative interactions between cushion plants and their beneficiaries have been widely studied, little is known about how alpine shrubs influence the balance between facilitation and competition across heterogeneous microhabitats. Such knowledge is increasingly important because shrub expansion is occurring in many alpine regions under climate warming. We examined how microhabitats formed by the creeping pine Pinus pumila affect the growth, leaf traits, and foliar chemistry of the dwarf shrub Vaccinium vitis-idaea on Mt. Norikura, Japan. We compared dense shrub thickets on slopes (MAT), isolated patchy shrubs on ridges (PATs), and open bare ridges without pine cover (OUTs). We quantified environmental conditions (light availability, wind velocity, soil moisture, and nutrient availability), leaf morphology (leaf mass per area; LMA), foliar chemistry (C, N, and P contents, δ13C, δ15N), and growth traits (shoot length and plant height) of V. vitis-idaea. MAT and PATs showed lower canopy openness and wind exposure than OUTs, while soil conditions were more strongly influenced by topography than by shrub presence. V. vitis-idaea exhibited greater shoot length, plant height, and foliar N under MAT, but higher LMA and δ13C in OUTs, indicating acclimation to high-irradiance and drier conditions. These results suggest that P. pumila simultaneously mitigates wind exposure and dry conditions while imposing light limitation, resulting in trait-specific responses of V. vitis-idaea. Growth traits reflected competitive responses to shading, whereas foliar δ13C indicated facilitative effects associated with improved water availability. Our findings highlight the ecological importance of non-cushion nurse plants in alpine ecosystems.
The necessity of citizen involvement in biodiversity conservation activities is widely recognized in practical conservation operations. Clarifying the roles of annual-fee membership schemes is important, as they enable diverse styles of citizen participation. Kyororo is a museum whose main theme is the Satoyama in snowy regions, and the Kyororo Friends Association is an affiliated annual-fee membership program. This study examines the results of a questionnaire survey distributed among the association's members to examine their perceptions of Kyororo's activities, in addition to their characteristics-such as age group, place of residence, and type of involvement-and their motivations for joining the association. This study contributes by revising four potential roles of annual-fee membership in terms of promoting citizen participation. The first is as a platform for citizen involvement that is independent of geographic distance or direct participation. The second is as a platform for sustaining the involvement of individuals who have contributed to the accumulated history of the activities. The third is as platforms for citizens who understand and trust community-level nature, conservation activities, and their values to affiliate with and provide their support. The fourth is as a platform for sustained citizen support through regular fixed-amount payments to trusted entities.
This paper explores the mutually shaping relationship between embodiment and narrativity in the formation of selfhood. Although previous research has tended to treat the embodied and narrative self as interacting, yet distinct, layers, we argue for a more integrated account in which each is grounded in and shaped by the other, characterizing them as mutually shaping. Drawing on phenomenological concepts such as body schema and habituality, we first demonstrate how bodily dispositions support the temporal continuity and expressive unfolding of the narrative self, including both the “narrated I” and the “narrating I.” In this view, narrative identity emerges from embodied engagement with the world rather than from purely cognitive processes. In the second half of the paper, we reverse the direction of influence, examining how identification with narrative figures can reshape body image and bodily orientation through mechanisms such as the Proteus effect. However, we also show that such narrative-induced transformations are constrained by sociocultural norms and master narratives that delimit which bodies and identities are deemed intelligible or aspirational. Through this analysis, we propose an account of selfhood as fundamentally embodied, narratively structured, and constrained by systems of power, visibility, and cultural representation.
To apply n-type Ti0.3Zn0.7O1.3/p-type Si junctions in tunnel field-effect transistors (FETs), the relationship between the interface formation and the initial deposition of TiO2 or ZnO layers on Si, as well as its effect on the tunnel current components was investigated. Microscopic and chemical bonding state analyses revealed that Ti0.3Zn0.7O1.3 with the initial TiO2 layer formed a low-roughness interface layer with a higher-quality intermediate layer due to the effects of Ti with high oxygen bond dissociation energy. Furthermore, analysis of the electric field dependence and temperature dependence on the band-to-band and trap-assisted tunneling (TAT) currents revealed that oxygen vacancies and electron trapping at the interface with the initial TiO2 layer were more significantly suppressed, and the tunneling barrier and activation energy were reduced. These results imply that the optimization of interface formation process suppress the TAT and make the band-to-band tunneling dominant, suggesting the increase in on-current of tunnel FETs.
