Restorative Potential Research Articles

Assessment of the ecological state of soils in roadside territories using chemical and biological indication

Chemical and bioindication studies of soils in the roadside areas of railways and highways have been carried out. The studies have shown that on the territories directly adjacent to the transport routes, the concentrations of the petroleum products in soils are 1.6-32.4 times exceeding the APC (approximate permissible concentration). The most substantive exceedances of the APC are recorded in the highways roadside spaces. We have investigated the dependence of the petroleum products concentration in the soils and their bioindication indices on the distance to transport routes. It has been established that the pollution of roadside soil by petroleum products decreases sharply at a distance of 10-15 m from transport routes. And bioindicators show different dynamics with increasing distance from the source of pollution (and, consequently, decrease in concentration of petroleum products in soils): the intensity of respiration of soils increases, and catalase activity decreases, which reflects its characteristic as an enzyme of stress.According to bioindication data, it has been shown, that the soils of the roadside space (especially, as for railways) retain high restorative potential.

Welcome to your plaza: Assessing the restorative potential of urban squares through survey and objective evaluation methods

Psychological restoration is a widely study topic in environmental health, environmental psychology and urban studies literatures. Most of the attention has been directed towards the benefits of the contact with natural/green spaces. On the contrary, the study of the restorative properties of built settings, even though it has experienced a relative increase in recent years, remains greatly understudied. In this work, we assessed the objective design features of a sample of 6 urban squares and conducted a survey study to measure the patterns of use of such settings and restorative experiences of their users. Regression analyses revealed that both objective variables and the patterns of use were scarcely associated to the experience of restoration whereas psychological variables such as the perception of the restorative qualities of the squares and the psychological bonding to them remained strongly associated even in the presence of the rest of the variables included in the study. The implications of the study for this line of research and for urban planning initiatives are discussed.

Empirical study of landscape types, landscape elements and landscape components of the urban park promoting physiological and psychological restoration

Urban parks have been found to benefit human health and well-being. Many studies have addressed the relationship between spatial characteristics and health restoration, but little research systematically focused on specific landscape components. In this study, the effects of three landscape types, six landscape elements and various landscape components of a traditional urban park on psychophysiological activities were investigated using physiological (blood pressure, blood glucose and electroencephalography) and psychological indicators (the abbreviated Profile of Mood States and the Landscape Perceived Restorativeness Scale). The results indicated that: (1) Different landscape types led to different physiological responses and mood states; (2) The topography landscape with natural mountain forest appearance had the most restorative effect; (3) Landscape elements of water, topography and plants had significant positive effects on human perceived restorativeness; (4) Bamboo forest, poetry walls and decorative openwork windows, were ranked as the top three landscape components in terms of perceived restorativeness. These findings suggest that single-item landscape composition can be applied to evaluate perceived restorativeness, and the restorative potential of the area can be reinforced by suitable selection and configuration of landscape types, landscape elements and landscape components in future landscape design. An active intervention approach to the targeted improvement of restorative efficiency in existing urban parks can provide a feasible solution for satisfying the health recovery needs of growing populations.

Characteristics of urban streets in relation to perceived restorativeness.

The research on the restorative capacity of various environments has been growing exponentially in recent years. However, previous researchers mainly focus on urban green spaces, natural environments or urban landscapes. The streetscapes which have a close tie with residents' daily life and may have an essential effect on people's psychological wellbeing have not attracted extensive attention from academic research, failing to provide a cohesive guideline for streetscape design. To address this gap, this paper conducted an experiment to explore the relationship between restorative quality and streetscape characteristics, in which 30 photographs representing the various streetscapes in Xuzhou in eastern China, were used as stimuli, and the restorative qualities of these photographs were measured through online surveys. The results indicated that: (1) the streetscape with higher rate of plants in the view and diverse species of plants implied a high restorative capacity; (2) less non-motor vehicles and clear traffic signs painted on the streets are the other promoters of the restorative capacity of streetscapes. These findings contribute new knowledge about the role of streetscape characteristics to enhance the restorative potential and have applications for designers and urban managers.

The Potential of Open Space for Enhancing Urban Seismic Resilience: A literature Review

For a city to perform successfully, and its citizens to feel safe and comfortable, the health of basic urban components and the overall resilience of the urban system is crucial. As the importance of the resilient urban system has been recognized in the scientific literature, many studies have been done on this topic. Therefore, to find out the gaps in the existing literature and the opportunities for further research, a new systematic literature review has been performed in three stages. Different bibliographic techniques (co-occurrence and co-citation analysis) have been applied and, in the final stage of the analysis, an in-depth study of the content of the selected papers addressing open space in relation to urban seismic resilience has been carried out. The obtained results and trends have shown a lack of research on the potential of open space for enhancing urban seismic resilience, as well as a challenge for its quantitative assessment. The ability of the affected resilient system is to achieve at least a pre-disaster performance level in an acceptable time, which can be gained, among others, by using the restorative potential of open space. Based on the synthesis of these findings the authors’ draft model of an urban system integrating the potential of open space is presented in terms of a complex network theory.

Trees, grass, or concrete? The effects of different types of environments on stress reduction

Despite a number of studies about how natural environments can affect human health and well-being, few have examined the potentially different effects of different types of vegetation. We therefore designed and conducted a randomised controlled experiment to identify the restorative potential of different types of trees and grass in an urban virtual reality (VR) environment. We initially induced stress in participants (n = 89) by asking them to complete a 5-minute math test while listening to noise, after which they were randomly assigned each to one of three VR environments: a courtyard with grass, a courtyard with trees, or a courtyard devoid of any vegetation. Participants were immersed in the VR experience for 10 min, during which we measured skin conductance levels (SCLs). We also assessed participants’ positive and negative affect scores at baseline, before VR immersion, and after VR immersion. Repeated-measures analysis of variance with a general linear model indicated that the grassy environment had the greatest effect on positive affect. SCLs during the second half of VR immersion were significantly lower in both the grass and tree environments than in the concrete-only environment. Our results are consistent with Ulrich’s theory that unlearned factors of evolutionary origin influence affective responses to environments. Our findings provide preliminary practical evidence for landscape planning that can maximise the restorative effects of urban environments.

Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Over S1 Differentially Modulates Proprioceptive Accuracy in Young and Old Adults.

BackgroundProprioception is a prerequisite for successful motor control but declines throughout the lifespan. Brain stimulation techniques such as anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) are capable of enhancing sensorimotor performance across different tasks and age groups. Despite such growing evidence for a restorative potential of tDCS, its impact on proprioceptive accuracy has not been studied in detail yet.ObjectiveThis study investigated online effects of a-tDCS over S1 on proprioceptive accuracy in young (YA) and old healthy adults (OA).MethodsThe effect of 15 min of a-tDCS vs. sham on proprioceptive accuracy was assessed in a cross-over, double blind experiment in both age groups. Performance changes were tested using an arm position matching task in a robotic environment. Electrical field (EF) strengths in the target area S1 and control areas were assessed based on individualized simulations.Resultsa-tDCS elicited differential changes in proprioceptive accuracy and EF strengths in the two groups: while YA showed a slight improvement, OA exhibited a decrease in performance during a-tDCS. Stronger EF were induced in target S1 and control areas in the YA group. However, no relationship between EF strength and performance change was found.Conclusiona-tDCS over S1 elicits opposing effects on proprioceptive accuracy as a function of age, a result that is important for future studies investigating the restorative potential of a-tDCS in healthy aging and in the rehabilitation of neurological diseases that occur at advanced age. Modeling approaches could help elucidate the relationship between tDCS protocols, brain structure and performance modulation.

Observation of environments with different restorative potential results in differences in eye patron movements and pupillary size

The Environmental Psychological Restoration (EPR) is the result of the recovery of an antecedent deficit (e.g. stress or attentional fatigue) culminating in a restorative environment exposure. Recent findings suggest that visual contact with nature is important in triggering restorative responses. We measure the behavioral evidence of visual exposure to restorative environments in an eye-tracking study. Eye movement patterns (fixations and pupil dilatation) were evaluated while a sample of participants (n=27; 15 females and 12 males) viewed photographs with High Restorative Potential (HRP) or Low Restorative Potential (LRP). The eye patterns during the observation of LRP were distinct to those of the HRP environments. Eye movements related to LRP photographs were characterized by a greater number of fixations compared to those related to HRP. Fixation times predicted an inverse relation, with LRP settings having a significantly shorter time per fixation than HRP pictures. Differences on pupil diameter were found. A higher pupil size was found during the view of HRP vs. LRP environments. Our eye tracking study suggest that restorative environment observation is associated with reduced eye movement activity relative to low restorative potential environment perception, which may reflect a lower cognitive effort in processing natural scenes. Likewise, pupillary dilatation variations suggest a possible link between the affective valences of the settings and its restorative quality. Data results are confronted according to attention restoration theory on restorative environments.

Beyond nature: The roles of visual appeal and individual differences in perceived restorative potential

Natural environments are typically judged to be more restorative than built environments in terms of fostering recovery from stress or buffering against resource depletion. But this comparison tends to be categorical – nature versus built environments – and consequently, questions remain regarding the restorative potential of environments that do not fit into these categories. Furthermore, individual differences in evaluations of perceived restorative potential is not well understood. In Study 1, participants rated the perceived restorative potential of environments that ranged on a continuum from natural to built. Environmental attributes and individual differences were measured to predict perceived restorative potential. In Study 2, we measured the relationship between self-reported need-for-restoration and perceived restorative potential. The results support an account of perceived restorative potential that emphasizes the importance of visual appeal, naturalness, and an absence of people as important environment dimensions. These factors are influenced very little by assessed individual differences other than perceived need-for-restoration.

Excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy and central nervous system hypersomnias.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is the core complaint of central nervous system (CNS) hypersomnias. In this mini-review, we summarized EDS features in CNS hypersomnias to provide a guide for differential diagnosis purposes. A review of recent literature was performed to provide an update in CNS hypersomnias. At clinical evaluation, narcolepsy patients report a good restorative potential of sleep together with the frequent occurrence of dreaming even during short-lasting naps. These features are mirrored by the neurophysiological evidence of REM sleep at sleep onset (SOREMP) during the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT), a specific marker. Conversely, patients with idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) complain sleep inertia and prolonged nocturnal sleep. Polysomnographic studies show high sleep propensity on the MSLT or high 24-h total sleep time during continuous monitoring. Patients with insufficient sleep syndrome (ISS) can present with variable clinical EDS features in between narcolepsy and IH. ISS diagnosis is based on the clinical evidence of nocturnal sleep curtailment (weekdays versus vacations) associated with the disappearance of EDS complaint after sleep extension. Polysomnographic data are not required, but when the MSLT is performed, ISS patients can present with SOREMP arising from non-REM stage 2 sleep (vs narcolepsy patients entering into SOREM most frequently from wakefulness). Kleine-Levin Syndrome is characterized by recurrent episodes of enormously prolonged sleep time lasting days associated with abnormal cognition and behavior intermixed by asymptomatic periods, a sleep pattern that can be well documented by actigraphy. Different CNS hypersomnias present with specific features of EDS are useful to guide the clinician to apply and interpret appropriate neurophysiological investigations.

Humanities Fiction: Translation and ‘Transplanetarity’ in Ted Chiang’s “The Story of Your Life” and Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival

Abstract One of the more interesting science fiction movies of recent years, at least to Humanities academics, is Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 alien-invasion movie, Arrival. It is a film which not only features a Professor of Linguistics as its heroine, but the plot of which is organised around the critical global importance of a multi-million dollar translation project. This essay compares the film with the original novella upon which it was based – Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” (1998) – to examine the role translation plays in both, with the aim of placing this in the context of the crisis in the Humanities which has marked universities over the last few years, and can be linked to a more general crisis in liberal values. While founded upon a time-honoured science fiction scenario the movie also clearly articulates the sense of global peril which is typical of much of the cultural production of our current times, manifested in fears about ecological catastrophe, terrorist attacks, and the anthropocene, etc. Another of its crisis-points is also ‘very 2016’: its ability to use science fiction tropes to express an anxiety about how liberal values are in danger of being overtaken by a self-interested, forceful, intolerant kind of politics. Arrival is as much a work of ‘hu-fi’ as it is ‘sci-fi’, that is, ‘Humanities fiction’, a film which uses Chiang’s original novella to convey a message about the restorative potential of ‘Humanities values’ in the face of a new global threat.

Nimíciwinán, nipimátisiwinán – “Our food is our way of life”: On-Reserve First Nation perspectives on community food security and sovereignty through oral history in Fisher River Cree Nation, Manitoba

Food insecurity in Indigenous communities in Canada continue to gain increasing attention among scholars, community practitioners, and policy makers. Meanwhile, the role and importance of Indigenous foods, associated knowledges, and perspectives of Indigenous peoples (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014) that highlight community voices in food security still remain under-represented and under-studied in this discourse. University of Winnipeg (UW) researchers and Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN) representatives began an action research partnership to explore Indigenous knowledges associated with food cultivation, production, and consumption practices within the community since 2012. The participatory, place-based, and collaborative case study involved 17 oral history interviews with knowledge keepers of FRCN. The goal was to understand their perspectives of and challenges to community food security, and to explore the potential role of Indigenous food knowledges in meeting community food security needs. In particular, the role of land-based Indigenous foods in meeting community food security through restoration of health, cultural values, identity, and self-determination were emphasized by the knowledge keepers—a vision that supports Indigenous food sovereignty. The restorative potential of Indigenous food sovereignty in empowering individuals and communities is well-acknowledged. It can nurture sacred relationships and actions to renew and strengthen relationships to the community’s own Indigenous land-based foods, previously weakened by colonialism, globalization, and neoliberal policies.

The Expert Cure? Exploring the Restorative Potential of Expertise for Public Satisfaction With Parties

The declining legitimacy of political parties has become something of a truism in political science discourse. Less often reflected upon is how these legitimacy problems could potentially be resolved. This article contributes to this underexplored issue by examining the restorative potential of expertise as a supplement to intra-party democracy. Building on an established literature on Stealth Democracy, we explore the potential for expert-inspired reforms to boost citizens’ satisfaction with parties. Using original survey questions, we provide evidence that a perceived lack of expert engagement in parties predicts citizen dissatisfaction, before using deliberative workshop data to distil traits that define the appeal of experts and expertise. This mixed-methods approach allows us to demonstrate some common desires of which parties should be aware, but also traits that make these ideas difficult to realise. Combining these insights, we argue that while expertise has appeal, parties face considerable challenges in satisfying citizens’ desires.

A systematic social observation tool to measure the restorative potential of urban settings / Diseño de una herramienta de observación social sistemática del potencial restaurador de espacios urbanos

The study of psychological restoration in urban settings has undergone significant growth in recent years. The aim of this paper is to develop an instrument for the objective evaluation of the restorative potential of urban public spaces. Perceived restoration scales and a large number of systematic social observation instruments were reviewed, selecting items that might be suitable for the aims of this study and adding other items designed ad hoc. The resulting tool is made up of 183 items, grouped into 12 domains. The final format of the instrument was used by a group of four evaluators in a total of six urban squares. This paper reports the statistics obtained for the internal consistency of the instrument (inter-judge agreement) and convergent validity through correlations of the objective scores from each public square with the perceived and experienced restoration of a sample of users of said public squares (N = 296). The tool delivered an adequate level of reliability, and its scores were related to restoration measures, although the size of this association was small.

Place attachment and identification as predictors of expected landscape restorativeness

This study explores the roles of place attachment and place identification in the evaluation of the restorative potential of landscapes. Two hundred university students recruited at campuses in the Basque Country (Spain) and Chile evaluated the restorative value of a set of landscape photographs including local and non-local locations. The results indicated that local natural landscapes were preferred and assessed as more restorative as compared to non-local ones, and that place attachment and identification positively predicted their restoration ratings. Conversely, urban local landscapes were less preferred and seen as less restorative than their non-local counterparts. In this latter case, attachment remained a positive predictor whereas identification was found to negatively contribute to the restorative potential of local urban landscapes. In line with recent research, we found that person-place bonding affects landscape preferences and the perception of its restorative properties. This study contributes to an emerging line of research that addresses the role of a wider set of personal, social and cultural variables in the psychological restoration process.

Recovery in sensory-enriched break environments: integrating vision, sound and scent into simulated indoor and outdoor environments

To deal with stress and exhaustion at work, personal resources need to be replenished during breaks. The aim of this laboratory study (n = 122 students) was to test the restorative potential of sensory-enriched break environments (SEBEs) in between-subjects with repeated measures design, focusing on the type of the environment (natural outdoor vs. built indoor environment) and sensory input (no sensory input vs. audiovisual input vs. audiovisual and olfactory input). Analyses showed that SEBEs simulating either a natural or a lounge environment were perceived as more pleasant and restorative (fascination/being away) than a standard break room, which in turn facilitated the recovery of personal resources (mood, fatigue, arousal). Moreover, adding a congruent scent to an audiovisual simulation indirectly facilitated the recovery of personal resources via greater scent pleasantness and higher fascination and being away. The current study shows the opportunities for sensory enrichment to foster restoration in break environments.

The restorative potential of a university campus: Objective greenness and student perceptions in Turkey and the United States

University students who balance multidimensional stress with their learning have everyday encounters with different locations of green outdoor campus spaces. Objective greenness of campus was measured in this study through the Normalized Differential Vegetation Index at three spatial levels - overall campus, central campus, and around the academic building. Students (n = 1079) pursuing business, design, or psychology degrees from two universities each in Turkey and the United States (U.S.) reported their perceptions of campus greenness, restorativeness, and quality of life. Correlation analysis demonstrated positive associations between objective and perceived greenness at each level, perceived restorativeness, and quality of life. In the U.S. there was a mismatch between objective and perceived greenness at the building level. Serial mediation analyses showed direct effects of all three levels of objective greenness on overall quality of life, but also indirect increases mediated by perceived greenness and perceived restorativeness. Campus green spaces are everyday sources for student restoration and knowing at which locations they are most effective can help planning and design efforts that reveal their potential as restorative resources.

Characteristics of urban green spaces in relation to aesthetic preference and stress recovery

Urban green spaces contribute to both aesthetic appreciation and health benefits for people. However, most previous researchers have focused on the effects of urban green spaces on aesthetic preference or stress restoration. Little research has involved both simultaneously. This paper uses a direct rating approach based on a single-item measurement to explore the effects of characteristics of urban green spaces on both aesthetic preference and perceived restorativeness of 24 images. These images were created using the photomontage technique by manipulating four dimensions: number of trees, flowers, water and small animals (birds or fish) relative to a baseline photograph taken in China. The results indicated that: (1) Aesthetic preference increased with the increase of number of trees and presence of flowers, water and fish in the images; while the restorative potential increased with the number of trees and presence of flowers or water, but was not affected by fish in the images; (2) Though birds increased fascination, they have no significant influence on both preference and overall restorative potential; and (3) there was a strong positive relationship between aesthetic preference and restorative potential. In regards to the approach, the results suggested that the single-item measurement could be applied to evaluate the perceived restorativeness. Potential applications to the practical design of urban green spaces include that planting more trees and brightly color flowers as well as providing access to clear water may be a reliable method to improve both aesthetic preference and restoration simultaneously.

Is it Really Nature That Restores People? A Comparison With Historical Sites With High Restorative Potential.

Research on restorative environments has showed the healthy outcomes of nature experience, though often by comparing attractive natural to unattractive built environments. Some studies indeed showed the restorative value of artistic/historical settings. In a quasi-experimental study involving 125 participants in Rome, Italy, a natural and a built/historical environment, both scoring high in restorative properties, were evaluated in a natural, built/historical, or neutral setting. In accordance with the Biophilia hypothesis and the Attention Restoration Theory (ART), we hypothesized: a higher restorative potential of nature also when compared to built/historical environments; a moderation effect of on-site experience on perceived restorative potential (PRP) of both environmental typologies; higher levels of restorative properties of the environment for on-site vs. not on-site respondents; and a mediation effect of the restorative properties of the environment in the relationship between time spent on-site and PRP. Results supported the hypotheses. In addition, different psychological processes leading to restoration emerged for the natural and the built/historical environment. Theoretical implications for ART and practical applications for an integrative urban design with natural and historical elements are discussed.

Опыт оценки динамического состояния растительности на основе крупномасштабной карты современного растительного покрова (на примере территории «Левашовский лес», Санкт-Петербург)

The article is devoted to the vegetation mapping of the “Levashovskiy les”— a large forest-mire massif located in the northern part of St. Petersburg (Fig. 1). It continues a series of articles on the vegetation of existing and proposed specially protected natural areas of St. Petersburg (Volkova, Khramtsov, 2018). Large-scale map of modern vegetation (Fig. 2) is presented; the map legend includes 67 main numbers, the signs and numeric indexes at the numbers made it possible to show 93 mapping units (associations and their variants). Brief description of the main types of plant communities (spruce, pine, birch, aspen, gray alder and black alder forests; raised bogs, transitional mires and fens, floodplain and upland meadows) reveals the content of the legend. Vegetation cover is characterized by the dominance of secondary communities. The main anthropogenic impacts on modern vegetation are following: drainage reclamation, deforestation and former agricultural use, forest fires, gas pipelines, highways. Most of the forest communities are secondary ones; they have grown under the pressure of various anthropogenic factors and at different time. Nowadays an active process of natural regeneration of conife­rous (mainly spruce) trees goes in the forests. Plant community structure and species composition were taken into account as well as their dynamic state. To assess the degree of disturbance of plant communities and the potential for their restoration, the analysis of all mapped vegetation categories with respect to their position in the ranks of restorative successions was made. Then an assessment map “Dynamic state of plant communities” (Fig. 3) was compiled. The map shows following categories of dynamic types of communities: conventionally primary; relatively long-term secondary and stable long-term secondary (Sukachev, 1938; Isachenko, 1964; Karpenko, 1965; Gribova, Isachenko, 1972); short-term secondary that were divided into 3 categories representing different stages of restorative series. Present state of the vegetation cover of the “Levashovskiy les” can be determined by the ratio of the areas of conventionally primary and secondary communities. Areal analysis of dynamic categories of plant communities showed that only a bit more than 20 % of the territory is occupied by conventionally primary communities and about 60 % – by short-term secondary ones with good restorative potential. Without strong anthropogenic and natural disturbances, a significant part of the disturbed plant communities will be able to self-restore to their natural state. The establishment of a specially protected natural area as well as the regulation of conservation regime will support restoration process of nature ecosystems.