Nature Environments Research Articles

Digital cameras: agents in research with children

In a study on children's relations to outdoor places, 41 six- to eight-year-old children took photos with digital cameras during walks in schoolyards and nature environments. In the present article, the cameras and their role in the research process are in focus. A materialist approach has guided the analysis [Barad, K. 2003. “Post Humanist Performativity: Towards an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28 (3): 801–831 and Barad, K. M. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press]. The research process is seen as a materialist-discursive phenomenon in which several human and non-human agents intra-act. The results indicate that the cameras give rise to explorative activities and function as a third party in social situations. These activities occasionally counteract the purpose of the study.

Image Thinking: The Cultural-Psychological Underpinning of Chinese Patients’ Somatic Propensity

Under a cultural psychological perspective, the high somatization report rate among Chinese clients is a reasonable phenomenon that has long and deep cultural roots. In lack of the cultural knowledge that underpinned the cultural-psychological structure of a particular nation, one would find it hard to understand the diverse dimensions of a medical phenomenon. The disputes concerning somatization provide a typical case that we could recognize the paradox and limitation of modern medicine and find alternate accounts. Image thinking is the prototype of traditional Chinese thoughts. Differing form the western logic thinking, it is an anthropomorphic, analogous thinking paradigm that reveres the notion of Tian Ren He Yi, the self-evident harmonic corresponding relations between the structure, physiological functions, pathological changes of the human body as microcosm and the change of the nature environments and social world as a macrocosm. All existing elements in the world are supposed to be orderly interconnected via the force of Yin, Yang, and Five Elements. The disorder of natural and social forces is considered as the final cause of human disease and the ultimate source of all disasters and unhappiness. Human body is part of the interconnected world and thus is subject to disturbance from all possible natural and social forces. It is not only a biological body, but also reflects one's thoughts, emotions, and other psychological aspects. Human diseases, therefore, cannot be distinguished as physical diseases or psychological diseases, since they are interchangeable and almost occur simultaneously. Traditional Chinese Medicine also employs image thinking to explain, diagnose and cure diseases. According to the classic TCM theory, internal organs are centers of all psychological and physiological functions and emotions are regarded as important etiological factors of mental and physical illness. However, once physiological functions are disturbed, the logical methods of treatment become physiological or pharmacological interventions, together with certain psychological interventions. Though psychological interventions mainly serve as supplementary treatments, it is clear that body and mind are always treated together in the categorization and treatment of diseases, which is a distinct feature of TCM. A typical TCM practitioner is thus a physiological doctor and a psychotherapist simultaneously. He or she is suppose to listen to a patient's chief complaint carefully and examine the patient's symptom with a holistic view by asking the patient's living habits, diet, stress, sexual life, etc. A doctor is supposed to speculate the real factors underlying the apparent symptoms through looking, listening, asking, and touching, and the patient should be assigned with a customized treatment both pharmaceutically or psychologically. A practitioner that only detect and treat the bodily symptoms are usually referred as inferior doctors, while eminent doctors always know it is the unbalance status of Yin and Yang that cause any disease in any form and employ their medical knowledge to solve the problem and then restore the body to its normal balanced condition. The long prevalence of TCM in Chinese society has demonstrated the strength of image thinking. It encourages patients to freely talk about their illness, either in physical or psychological way. Both the patients and doctors have the consensus that the categorization of physical or psychological diseases itself is not important, and it is the doctor's liability to detect the real causes of patients' symptoms, which may be attributed to biological, social, or psychological factors. The patient's main complaint of disease is thus a culturally specified behavior that may differ significantly among different cultures.

Mapping bicyclists’ experiences in Copenhagen

This paper presents an approach to the collection, mapping, and analysis of cyclists’ experiences. By spatially relating located experiences to the availability of bicycle facilities and other aspects of the urban environment, their influence on cyclists’ experiences can be analysed. 398 cyclists responded and sketched their most recent cycle route and a total of 890 points to locations along the route where they had had positive and negative cycling experiences. The survey was implemented as an online questionnaire built on Google Maps, and allowed up to three positive and three negative experience points to be mapped and classified.By relating the characteristics of the experience points and the routes to the traversed urban area in general, the significance of the preconditions for obtaining positive or negative experiences could be evaluated. Thereby urban spaces can be mapped according to the potential promotion of positive or negative experiences. Further, the method might be applied to assess the effect of proposed changes to the urban design in terms of cyclists’ experiences.Statistical analysis of the location attributes, traffic environments and conflicts, bicycle facilities, urban density, centrality, and environmental amenities indicates that positive experiences, or the absence of negative experiences, are clearly related to the presence of en-route cycling facilities, and attractive nature environments within a short distance of large water bodies or green edges along the route.

Template-Free Synthesis of Renewable Macroporous Carbon via Yeast Cells for High-Performance Supercapacitor Electrode Materials

The urgent need for sustainable development has forced material scientists to explore novel materials for next-generation energy storage devices through a green and facile strategy. In this context, yeast, which is a large group of single cell fungi widely distributed in nature environments, will be an ideal candidate for developing effective electrode materials with fascinating structures for high-performance supercapacitors. With this in mind, herein, we present the first example of creating three-dimensional (3D) interpenetrating macroporous carbon materials via a template-free method, using the green, renewable, and widespread yeast cells as the precursors. Remarkably, when the as-prepared materials are used as the electrode materials for supercapacitors, they exhibit outstanding performance with high specific capacitance of 330 F g(-1) at a current density of 1 A g(-1), and good stability, even after 1000 charge/discharge cycles. The approach developed in this work provides a new view of making full use of sustainable resources endowed by nature, opening the avenue to designing and producing robust materials with great promising applications in high-performance energy-storage devices.

Influence of environmental preference and environment type congruence on judgments of restoration potential

This study (N=120) explored whether congruence between environmental preference and environment type influenced judgments of likelihood for directed attention restoration. The study differs from previous research by operationally defining preference as a representation of place identity from environmental psychology rather than as the attractiveness of the location. Preference was also treated as an influence on judgments of restoration potential instead of a consequence of directed attention fatigue. Persons experiencing images congruent with their environmental preference were expected to rate similar locations highest in restoration potential compared to incongruent images; however, this was not fully supported. Those with a nature preference perceived congruent environments as the most potentially restorative, but this was higher than, rather than equal to, the restoration expectations of those in the urban congruent condition. As expected, nature preferences influenced judgments of urban settings; this incongruence was rated least restorative. Persons with an urban preference perceived both nature and urban environments equal in restoration potential; this may explain circumstances when environment choice appears inconsistent to cognitive restoration goals. Water quality in the settings also influenced restoration judgments; pleasant waterscapes resulted in the best expectations. The findings illustrate the potential contribution of place identity from environmental psychology to the study of attention restoration outcomes and further support the growing literature endorsing the positive potential of urban settings.

Teaching reflective practice in practice settings: students' perceptions of their clinical educators

Reflective practice in practice settings can enhance practice knowledge, self-assessment and lifelong learning, develop future practice capability and professional identity, and critically appraise practice traditions rather than reproduce them. The inherent power imbalance between student and educator runs the risk for the reflective practice potential not being realised. This study explored final year physiotherapy students' perceptions of clinical educators as teachers of reflection and what role students assigned themselves in learning reflective practice. We found that only assertive students enforced reflection. Others waited for their educators to guide them and some were openly discouraged to reflect. As long as educators neglect the opportunity to deeply explore reflective practice moments with students, opportunities for students to develop autonomy and responsibility may continue to be missed or, at worst, inappropriately developed. Key dilemmas of teaching reflective practice are discussed including its implicit and tacit nature and non-conducive work environments.

Magnetic discrimination between Al‐substituted hematites synthesized by hydrothermal and thermal dehydration methods and its geological significance

Hematite, a ubiquitous mineral in aerobic sediments and soils of temperate and warm areas, is weakly magnetic. However, it carries a stable natural remanent magnetization, and thus can reflect paleoenvironment changes. To quantify the influence of Al content in hematite on its magnetic properties, two series of hematite particles were prepared by hydrothermal transformation of ferrihydrite in aqueous suspension (HFh* series) and by thermal dehydration of goethite (HG* series). Crystal morphological and mineral magnetic properties of these two types of hematites differ distinctively. More specifically, the HFh* series samples display oblate (plate‐like) morphologies, while the HG* series samples are prolate (highly acicular). HFh* series samples display higher saturation magnetization but lower magnetic coercivity than that of the HG* series. It is tenable that a better lattice ordering of Al substitution occurs during the process of dehydration of goethite than after transformation from ferrihydrite, resulting in weaker saturation magnetization for HG* series samples. The origin of single domain (SD) hematite in nature can be diagnosed by the correlation of unblocking temperature and magnetic coercivity: a positive correlation indicates the presence of pure (Al‐free) SD hematite, while a negative correlation indicates a chemical origin of SD Al‐substituted hematite. These results bear new information on decoding the complex magnetic properties of SD Al‐hematite in nature environments, and thus deepen our understanding of the mechanism of variations in both paleomagnetic and paleoenvironmental signals carried by Al‐hematite.

Study of Injury and Illness Rates in Multiday Ultramarathon Runners

This study aimed to describe injury and illness rates in runners competing in 7-d, 250-km off-road ultramarathon events. Three hundred ninety-six runners competing in the RacingThePlanet© 4 Desert Series ultramarathon races from 2005 to 2006 were prospectively followed. Descriptive analyses were used to evaluate overall injury/illness rates, types of injuries/illnesses, and diagnoses for all medical encounters. Multivariate linear regression was used to estimate the risk of number of injuries/illnesses and 95% confidence intervals associated with age, sex, and race completion time. Eight-five percent of runners representing a total of 1173 medical encounters required medical care. The overall injury/illness rates were 3.86 per runner and 65 per 1000-h run. Almost 95% were minor in nature, owing to skin-related disorders (74.3%), musculoskeletal injuries (18.2%), and medical illnesses (7.5%). Medical illnesses were more likely on the first day of the race, whereas musculoskeletal and skin injuries were more likely on day 3 or 4. A 10-yr increase in age was associated with 0.5 fewer injuries/illnesses, and females had 0.16 more medical illnesses compared with males. Despite the extreme nature and harsh environments of multiday ultramarathon races, the majority of injuries or illnesses are minor in nature. Future studies are needed to evaluate additional factors contributing to injuries.

Dynamical solutions for migration of chiral DNA-type objects in shear flows

We present a dynamical analysis of chiral object motions to explain physical mechanisms and give quantitative predictions on the shear-induced drift motions of chiral objects and the chiral separation of enantiomers using shear flows. For objects well represented by the uniaxial approximation, such as DNA and chiral disk hexamers, dynamical motions in low-Reynolds-number shear flows are solved analytically, in terms of steady-state object-flow interacting parameters, which can be calculated numerically by well-established methods. The shear-induced drifting speed of long helices are evaluated. Good agreements are found between our results and those obtained from dynamical simulations [Makino and Doi, Phys. Fluids 17, 103605 (2005)]. We also compare our results with those obtained experimentally [Marcos, Fu, Powers, and Stocker, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 158103 (2009)]. The analysis may also be extended to study other important chiral-flow interactions in nature environments and microfluidic devices, such as the particle-wall and interparticle interactions.

Characteristics in quasi-solid-liquid phase transition of granular shear flow and its phase diagram

The quasi-solid-liquid phase transition of granular materials exists wildly in the fields of engineering geology, nature environments and industry production, etc. The mechanical properties of granular system are quite different during the phase transition, which has been the hot and difficult problem in granular mechanics recently. With the mechanical behaviors investigation of granular quasi-solid-liquid transition, the phase diagram can be established to determine the transition conditions and to understand the transition mechanism. The quasi-solid-liquid phase transition can be divided in the two kinds following. The one is the transition between jamming and unjamming, and the other one is the transition between solid phase and liquid phase under flow conditions. According to the second phase transition, the simple shear flow of polydispersed granular materials with periodic boundary are simulated numerically with discrete element method (DEM). The macro parameters, such as averaged stress, coordination number, contact time number, effective friction coefficient, inertia number and generalized Savage number etc., are discussed to understand the intrinsic mechanism of quasi-solid-liquid phase transition under various volume fractions and shear rates. Finally, the e-τ-B phase transition diagram is established with the three basic parameters of porosity, dimensionless shear rate and macro shear stress.

Planning and Sustainability Trajectories in a Rapidly Growing Metropolis: Istanbul

Since sustainability is an optimization between physical (both natural and man-made), economic and social dimensions of development and conservation, plans, policies and applications in rapidly growing metropolises play a pivotal role for manifestation of this challenge. This article consists of three inter-related parts. First, core issues of a sustainable master plan are identified from a wide range of readings of the current literature. Second, as one of the most populated and rapidly growing metropolises of the world, Istanbul's master plans between 1980 and 2009 are evaluated in terms of their convenience to the core issues of sustainability. Finally in context of sustainability, the actual position of Istanbul is criticized on the basis of some additional qualitative and quantitative data. The above-mentioned core issues are: urban compactness, sustainable transportation, conservation of historical heritage, a clear balance between nature and man-made environments / permeability of the built environment (for natural corridors), protection of vulnerable natural assets, rehabilitation of natural ecosystems, natural resource management, a place-based economy, control of the population pressure over the environment, (low-income) housing, provision of social equity and cultural diversity. Consideration of these issues aids in analyzing the main policies of the three master plans (1980, 1995 and 2009) in context of sustainability on the one hand and picturing today's Istanbul, on the other. In fact the gap between planning and the actual situation is a characteristic problem for developing countries where illegal developments are almost legitimate. In these countries, planning also suffers from guiding development in sustainable terms due to lack of institutional capacity, participation and inadequate legal arrangements. In brief, this article focuses on the reasons and consequences of such a gap in the case of a rapidly growing metropolis.

Study Of Injury And Illness Rates In Multi-day Ultra-marathon Running Athletes

PURPOSE: To analyze and characterize injury and illness rates in runners competing in a seven day 250 kilometer multi-day off-road ultra-marathon event. METHODS: Three hundred and sixty nine runners competing in the RacingThePlanet 4 Desert Series Ultramarathon Races from 2005-2006 were prospectively followed. Descriptive analyses were used to evaluate overall injury/illness rates, types of injuries/illnesses and diagnoses for all medical encounters. Stratified analyses with use of relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals were performed to determine risk of injury/illness by stage of race, gender, age and race completion time. RESULTS: Eight five percent of runners representing a total of 1173 medical encounters required medical care. The overall injury/illness rate was 554.3 per 1000 athletic exposures (AE) and 3.88 per runner. Almost 95% were minor in nature, due to skin related disorders (74.3%), MSK injuries (18.2%) and medical illnesses (7.5%). Medical illnesses were more likely on the first day of the race, while MSK and skin injuries on day 3 or 4. Risk factors for injury included female gender; younger age and finishing in the second fastest time quartile. CONCLUSION: Despite the extreme nature and harsh environments of multi-day ultra-marathon races, these races are relatively safe with the majority of injuries or illnesses minor in nature. Medical staff and athletes should prepare to treat all types of injuries, especially foot injuries relating to blisters throughout the course of a race. Preventive strategies should including educating athletes on proper acclimation to the race environment and types of injuries throughout the course of a race. Future studies are needed to further evaluation risk factors for injury relating to gender, age and completion time.

A study of air pollution of city clusters

In this study, the Daily Air Pollution Index (DAPI) of 81 cities in China from June 2004 to June 2007 was used to study the air pollution of city clusters. The cluster analysis results show that the DAPI of 71 cities in central and eastern China is divided into two regimes, the north regime and the south regime along the Qinling Mountain and its eastern extension to Huaihe River. The demarcation line between the two DAPI regimes duplicates the demarcation line of the watersheds of the northern and southern climate regions and the DAPI were statistically negatively correlated to the amount of rainfall, suggesting that precipitation could play an important role in determining the two regimes. The two DAPI regimes are further divided into seven city clusters mainly associated with emissions of air pollutants and geographical distributions, supported by remote sensing data of aerosol optical depth (AOD), NO2 and emission inventories of air pollutants in China in 2006 reported in the literature. DAPI of three city clusters in the north regime exhibited a similar seasonal trend, which was different from the four city clusters in the south regime. Outbreak of dust storms in spring and an increase in emissions due to space-heating impacted the DAPI of the northern city clusters. Although the consumption of electricity decreased in the southern city clusters in the fall and winter, the reported high DAPI were the result of less rainfall and poor dispersion. Seven cities in western China were classified into two groups associated with their unique nature environments. Three cities were not allocated to any of the city clusters.

Learning from leisure: Developing nature connectedness in outdoor education

The “greening” of outdoor education has received increasing attention from educators in Aotearoa-New Zealand and internationally. Given contemporary global concerns about the scale of environmental issues and the associated recognition that educating for sustainability is a matter of urgency, the continuing exploration of pedagogies promoting human connection to nature is arguably a central concern for outdoor educators. This paper contributes to professional dialogue about outdoor education pedagogies that may facilitate the development of students' connectedness to, and care for, non-human nature. It draws from an interpretative research project that explored the meanings of nature-based leisure for eleven women aged 40 to 65 years. Findings from that research highlighted an important interplay between women's conceptions of nature and their participation in leisure. The paper directs attention to three interconnected pedagogical principles that are teased from the women's stories: repeated immersion in local nature environments, the decentring of traditional performance discourses, and critical reflection. These are presented as key considerations for outdoor education teachers and teacher educators in promoting nature connectedness and care. Recommendations are made for outdoor education researchers and teacher educators for future research directions.

A Rare Cause of Bacteremia in a Pediatric Patient with Down Syndrome: Sphingomonas Paucimobilis

Sphingomonas paucimobilis, is a yellow-pigmented, aerobic, non fermentative, gram negative motile bacillus. S. paucimobilis which is widely found in nature and hospital environments rarely cause serious or life threatening infections. In this report, a case of hospital acquired bloodstream infection due to S. paucimobilis in a patient with Down syndrome who was on treatment for presumed pneumonia is presented. A one year-old child patient who was a known case of Down syndrome and had previously experienced cardiac surgery was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia. On the 12th day of hospitalization, blood cultures were taken because of a high body temperature. One of the blood cultures was positive for gram-negative rods. After 48 hour of incubation, the sub-cultures on blood agar medium yielded pure growth of a yellow, non-fermentative, gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium. The microorganism was positive for oxidase, and esculin hydrolysis, while negative for urea and nitrate reduction, citrate utilisation and motility. The isolate had been identified as S. paucimobilis by using Vitek 2 system. The antibiotic susceptibility test was also performed with the same system and the strain was found to be susceptible to piperacillin-tazobactam and other antibiotics. Treatment with intravenous piperacilin-tazobactam (150 mg/kg/day) was initiated. He responded well to the treatment and was discharged after 10 days. This case is reported to emphasize that S. paucimobilis should be kept in mind as a nosocomial infectious agent in patients with Down syndrome and immunosuppressive patients and the infections should be treated according to the sensitivity test results.

Harmonic development and biodiesel

An increased expansion of renewable resources and biodiesel is observed and prognosed, since fossile energy resources are about to run out. Hungary achieved outstanding sunflower years in the recent years in worldwide comparison. In the future, the feedstock of biodiesel production can also be rape besides sunflower.According to the concept of harmonious development, the balance between nature, society, economy and human environments is represented by their mutual presumptive character. Research and development need to be aligned into this system. Our aim was to examine the advantages anddisadvantages of biodiesel production in different environments, using a model to do so. In order to maintain the harmony, the existing resources have to be managed properly, taking the correlations of the system into consideration. Targeted technological developments are necessary, similarly to the improvement of energy safety and efficiency.

Sexual/Environmental Justice and Ecocriticism of the New Century

Key words: environmental justice, sexuality, reproductivity, food industry, queer ecology Environmental justice in the 21st century should advance in the exploration, both theoretical and practical, of aspects of identity such as sexuality and reproductivity, which up to the present have been less analyzed than aspects of race, class and gender. The novels of Ruth Ozeki illustrate brilliantly the intersection between justice related to the food industry and sexual justice. Moreover, queer environmental justice has largely benefited from the theoretical framework established by Cate Sandilands for queer ecology. Palabras clave: justicia medioambiental, sexualidad, reproducción, industria alimentaria, ecología queer La justicia medioambiental del siglo XXI debe avanzar hacia la exploración, tanto teórica como práctica, de aspectos de la identidad del individuo tales como la sexualidad y la reproductividad, menos analizadas hasta la fecha desde este punto de vista, que las variables de raza, clase o género. Las novelas de Ruth Ozeki ilustran de manera excelente la intersección entre la justicia relacionada con la industria alimentaria y la justicia sexual. Al mismo tiempo, la justicia medioambiental de carácter queer se ha beneficiado en gran medida de los marcos teóricos establecidos por Cate Sandilands para atender cuestiones de ecología queer.

Stress Recovery during Exposure to Nature Sound and Environmental Noise

Research suggests that visual impressions of natural compared with urban environments facilitate recovery after psychological stress. To test whether auditory stimulation has similar effects, 40 subjects were exposed to sounds from nature or noisy environments after a stressful mental arithmetic task. Skin conductance level (SCL) was used to index sympathetic activation, and high frequency heart rate variability (HF HRV) was used to index parasympathetic activation. Although HF HRV showed no effects, SCL recovery tended to be faster during natural sound than noisy environments. These results suggest that nature sounds facilitate recovery from sympathetic activation after a psychological stressor.

A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK RELATING TO EXPONENTIALLY FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION MODEL IN POLLAK'S SENSE

Allowing the exponentially frequency-dependent fitnesses and taking into consideration the viability effect on the fertility model, a deterministic mathematical model of selection in a one-locus two-allele genetic system has been developed in such a way that equilibrium frequencies of the three genotypes are the same as those of optimizing the mean fertility of the population. Under the consideration of both exponentially increasing and decreasing nature environments in the sense of viability and fertility selections to be opposite, degenerate optimization points have been calculated by verifying whether those equilibrium points are Kuhn–Tucker points or not. The Hadeler–Liberman symmetric fertility model has also been accounted for derivation of all sets of frequencies of this type. Assuming the Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection, a mathematical expression has been derived to show the variation of mean fertility with generation.

The Human Relation With Nature and Technological Nature

Two world trends are powerfully reshaping human existence: the degradation, if not destruction, of large parts of the natural world, and unprecedented technological development. At the nexus of these two trends lies technological nature—technologies that in various ways mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world. Current examples of technological nature include videos and live webcams of nature, robot animals, and immersive virtual environments. Does it matter for the physical and psychological well-being of the human species that actual nature is being replaced with technological nature? As the basis for our provisional answer (it is “yes”), we draw on evolutionary and cross-cultural developmental accounts of the human relation with nature and some recent psychological research on the effects of technological nature. Finally, we discuss the issue—and area for future research—of “environmental generational amnesia.” The concern is that, by adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing.