scholarly journals How Dead Wood in the Forest Decreases Relaxation? The Effects of Viewing of Dead Wood in the Forest Environment on Psychological Responses of Young Adults

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 871
Author(s):  
Emilia Janeczko ◽  
Ernest Bielinis ◽  
Ulfah Tiarasari ◽  
Małgorzata Woźnicka ◽  
Wojciech Kędziora ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Dead Wood ◽  
Short Exposure ◽  
Managed Forests ◽  
Environment Impact ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Dead Trees ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Positive Feelings ◽  
The Impact

The intensity of the neutral environment impact on humans may be determined by specific features of space, including dead wood occurrence. Dead wood is claimed to be disliked by the public because it reduces the scenic beauty and recreational values of the forest. The attractiveness of a forest with dead wood may be determined by its variants. Much is known about the preference for landscape with dead wood, but there is little information available about how such a landscape affects a person’s mental relaxation, improves mood, increases positive feelings, levels of vitality, etc. Hence, the aim of our research was to investigate the psycho-logical relaxing effects of short 15-min exposures to natural and managed forests with dead wood. In the study, three areas within the Białowieża Primeval Forest were used to measure the impact of different types of forest with dead wood (A: forest reserve with dead wood subject to natural decomposition processes; B: managed forest with visible cut wood and stumps; C: man-aged forest with dead trees from bark beetle outbreak standing) on human psychological relaxation in a randomized experiment. The participants of the experiment were forty-one young adults aged 19–20. Each respondent experienced each type of forest at intervals visiting it. Four psychological questionnaires were used in the project (Profile of Mood States (POMS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS), and Restorative Outcome Scale (ROS)) before and after the short exposure to the forest were evaluated. The results show that a forest landscape with dead wood affects the human psyche, and the relaxing properties of such a landscape are better in a protected forest with natural, slow processes of tree dieback than those obtained in managed forests

scholarly journals Impact of a Measles and Rubella Vaccination Campaign on Seroprevalence in Southern Province, Zambia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea C. Carcelen ◽  
Simon Mutembo ◽  
Kalumbu H. Matakala ◽  
Innocent Chilumba ◽  
Gina Mulundu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Southern Province ◽  
Vaccination Strategies ◽  
Population Immunity ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Rubella Vaccination ◽  
The Impact

Zambia conducted a measles and rubella (MR) vaccination campaign targeting children 9 months to younger than 15 years of age in 2016. This campaign was the first introduction of a rubella-containing vaccine in Zambia. To evaluate the impact of the campaign, we compared the MR seroprevalence estimates from serosurveys conducted before and after the campaign in Southern Province, Zambia. The measles seroprevalence increased from 77.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 73.2–81.9) to 96.4% (95% CI, 91.7–98.5) among children younger than 15 years. The rubella seroprevalence increased from 51.3% (95% CI, 45.6–57.0) to 98.3% (95% CI, 95.5–99.4). After the campaign, slightly lower seroprevalence remained for young adults 15 to 19 years old, who were not included in the campaign because of their age. These serosurveys highlighted the significant impact of the vaccination campaign and identified immunity gaps for those beyond the targeted vaccination age. Continued monitoring of population immunity can signal the need for future targeted vaccination strategies.

scholarly journals Forest Manners Exchange: Forest as a Place to Remedy Risky Behaviour of Adolescents: Mixed Methods Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 5725
Author(s):  
Karolina Macháčková ◽  
Roman Dudík ◽  
Jiří Zelený ◽  
Dana Kolářová ◽  
Zbyněk Vinš ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Emotional Instability ◽  
Risky Behaviour ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Projective Tests ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Thematic Apperception ◽  
Hand Test ◽  
The Impact

This paper evaluates the impact of the forest environment on aggressive manifestations in adolescents. A remedial educative programme was performed with 68 teenagers from institutions with substitute social care with diagnoses F 30.0 (affective disorders) and F 91.0 (family-related behavioural disorders), aged 12–16 years. Adolescents observed patterns of prosocial behaviour in forest animals (wolves, wild boars, deer, bees, ants, squirrels and birds), based on the fact that processes and interactions in nature are analogous to proceedings and bonds in human society. The methodology is based on qualitative and quantitative research. Projective tests (Rorschach Test, Hand Test, Thematic Apperception Test) were used as a diagnostic tool for aggressive manifestations before and after forest therapies based on Shinrin-yoku, wilderness therapy, observational learning and forest pedagogy. Probands underwent 16 therapies lasting for two hours each. The experimental intervention has a statistically significant effect on the decreased final values relating to psychopathology, irritability, restlessness, emotional instability, egocentrism, relativity, and negativism. Forest animals demonstrated to these adolescents ways of communication, cooperation, adaptability, and care for others, i.e., characteristics without which no community can work.

scholarly journals A View of Waste Might Decrease Relaxation: The Effects of Viewing an Open Dump in a Forest Environment on the Psychological Response of Healthy Young Adults

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bielinis Ernest ◽  
Janeczko Emilia ◽  
Takayama Norimasa ◽  
Słupska Alicja ◽  
Korcz Natalia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Positive And Negative Affect ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Forest Recreation ◽  
Psychological Indicators ◽  
Outdoor Experience ◽  
The Impact

AbstractForest recreation can be successfully used for the psychological relaxation of respondents and can be used as a remedy for common problems with stress. The special form of forest recreation intended for restoration is forest bathing. These activities might be distracted by some factors, such as viewing buildings in the forest or using a computer in nature, which interrupt psychological relaxation. One factor that might interrupt psychological relaxation is the occurrence of an open dump in the forest during an outdoor experience. To test the hypothesis that an open dump might decrease psychological relaxation, a case study was planned that used a randomized, controlled crossover design. For this purpose, two groups of healthy young adults viewed a control forest or a forest with an open dump in reverse order and filled in psychological questionnaires after each stimulus. A pretest was used. Participants wore oblique eye patches to stop their visual stimulation before the experimental stimulation, and the physical environment was monitored. The results were analyzed using the two-way repeated measures ANOVA. The measured negative psychological indicators significantly increased after viewing the forest with waste, and the five indicators of the Profile of Mood States increased: Tension-Anxiety, Depression-Dejection, Anger-Hostility, Fatigue, and Confusion. In addition, the negative aspect of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule increased in comparison to the control and pretest. The measured positive indicators significantly decreased after viewing the forest with waste, the positive aspect of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule decreased, and the Restorative Outcome Scale and Subjective Vitality scores decreased (in comparison to the control and pretest). The occurrence of an open dump in the forest might interrupt a normal restorative experience in the forest by reducing psychological relaxation. Nevertheless, the mechanism of these relevancies is not known, and thus, it will be further investigated. In addition, in a future study, the size of the impact of these open dumps on normal everyday experiences should be investigated. It is proposed that different mechanisms might be responsible for these reactions; however, the aim of this manuscript is to only measure this reaction. The identified psychological reasons for these mechanisms can be assessed in further studies.

scholarly journals Evaluation of a Pulsed Xenon Ultraviolet Disinfection System for Reduction of Healthcare-Associated Pathogens in Hospital Rooms

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Nerandzic ◽  
Priyaleela Thota ◽  
Thriveen Sankar C. ◽  
Annette Jencson ◽  
Jennifer L. Cadnum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Uv Irradiation ◽  
Organic Load ◽  
Short Exposure ◽  
Glass Slides ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Ultraviolet C ◽  
Pathogen Recovery ◽  
Healthcare Associated ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Uv C

OBJECTIVETo determine the effectiveness of a pulsed xenon ultraviolet (PX-UV) disinfection device for reduction in recovery of healthcare-associated pathogens.SETTINGTwo acute-care hospitals.METHODSWe examined the effectiveness of PX-UV for killing ofClostridium difficilespores, methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA), and vancomycin-resistantEnterococcus(VRE) on glass carriers and evaluated the impact of pathogen concentration, distance from the device, organic load, and shading from the direct field of radiation on killing efficacy. We compared the effectiveness of PX-UV and ultraviolet-C (UV-C) irradiation, each delivered for 10 minutes at 4 feet. In hospital rooms, the frequency of native pathogen contamination on high-touch surfaces was assessed before and after 10 minutes of PX-UV irradiation.RESULTSOn carriers, irradiation delivered for 10 minutes at 4 feet from the PX-UV device reduced recovery ofC. difficilespores, MRSA, and VRE by 0.55±0.34, 1.85±0.49, and 0.6±0.25 log10colony-forming units (CFU)/cm2, respectively. Increasing distance from the PX-UV device dramatically reduced killing efficacy, whereas pathogen concentration, organic load, and shading did not. Continuous UV-C achieved significantly greater log10CFU reductions than PX-UV irradiation on glass carriers. On frequently touched surfaces, PX-UV significantly reduced the frequency of positiveC. difficile, VRE, and MRSA culture results.CONCLUSIONSThe PX-UV device reduced recovery of MRSA,C. difficile, and VRE on glass carriers and on frequently touched surfaces in hospital rooms with a 10-minute UV exposure time. PX-UV was not more effective than continuous UV-C in reducing pathogen recovery on glass slides, suggesting that both forms of UV have some effectiveness at relatively short exposure times.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014;00(0): 1–6

scholarly journals A View of Waste Might Decrease Relaxation: The Effects of Viewing an Open Dump in a Forest Environment on the Psychological Response of Healthy Young Adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Bielinis ◽  
Emilia Janeczko ◽  
Norimasa Takayama ◽  
Anna Zawadzka ◽  
Alicja Słupska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Positive And Negative Affect ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Forest Recreation ◽  
Psychological Indicators ◽  
Outdoor Experience ◽  
The Impact

Forest recreation can be successfully used for the psychological relaxation of respondents and can be used as a remedy for common problems with stress. The special form of forest recreation intended for restoration is forest bathing. These activities might be distracted by some factors, such as viewing buildings in the forest or using a computer in nature, which interrupt psychological relaxation. One factor that might interrupt psychological relaxation is the occurrence of an open dump in the forest during an outdoor experience. To test the hypothesis that an open dump might decrease psychological relaxation, a case study was planned that used a randomized, controlled crossover design. For this purpose, two groups of healthy young adults viewed a control forest or a forest with an open dump in reverse order and filled in psychological questionnaires after each stimulus. A pretest was used. Participants wore oblique eye patches to stop their visual stimulation before the experimental stimulation, and the physical environment was monitored. The results were analyzed using the two-way repeated measures ANOVA. The measured negative psychological indicators significantly increased after viewing the forest with waste, and the five indicators of the Profile of Mood States increased: Tension-Anxiety, Depression-Dejection, Anger-Hostility, Fatigue, and Confusion. In addition, the negative aspect of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule increased in comparison to the control and pretest. The measured positive indicators significantly decreased after viewing the forest with waste, the positive aspect of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule decreased, and the Restorative Outcome Scale and Subjective Vitality scores decreased (in comparison to the control and pretest). The occurrence of an open dump in the forest might interrupt a normal restorative experience in the forest by reducing psychological relaxation. Nevertheless, the mechanism of these relevancies is not known, and thus, it will be further investigated. In addition, in a future study, the size of the impact of these open dumps on normal everyday experiences should be investigated. It is proposed that different mechanisms might be responsible for these reactions; however, the aim of this manuscript is to only measure this reaction. The identified psychological reasons for these mechanisms can be assessed in further studies.

scholarly journals Changes in Alcohol Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Young Adults: The Prospective Effect of Anxiety and Depression

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 4468
Author(s):  
Belén del Valle Vera ◽  
José Carmona-Márquez ◽  
Óscar Martín Lozano-Rojas ◽  
Alberto Parrado-González ◽  
Claudio Vidal-Giné ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Measured Quantity ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Drinking Frequency ◽  
The Impact

Health measures instantiated to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have imposed significant constraints for the population and impacted on drinking habits and mental health. This study longitudinally compared changes in alcohol consumption before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and the impact of sociodemographic and mental health variables on such changes among a community sample of young adults. Data were collected in the context of a larger, ongoing longitudinal study. The sample consisted of 305 young adults from Spain aged between 18 and 26 years (mean age = 21.27, (SD = 2.21), female = 53.4%; college students = 61.6%) who completed first (November-2019 and February-2020; i.e., before the outbreak of COVID-19) and second follow-up questionnaires (March 2021, a year after the COVID-19 outbreak). Alcohol use (quantity and drinking frequency), depression and anxiety symptoms were measured. Quantity and frequency of alcohol use decreased from the pre- to post-COVID-19 period. A decrease in drinking frequency was observed among college students, but not in noncollege peers. Although we found no effect of pre-COVID-19 anxiety on alcohol use changes, those with more depressive symptoms at the pre-COVID assessment were more resistant to decreasing their drinking quantity and frequency after the COVID-19 outbreak. This information will be of value when designing interventions aimed at reducing harmful alcohol use and highlights the role of mental health status when identifying high risk populations of young-adults during this, and future, public health crises.

scholarly journals DEAD WOOD DETECTION BASED ON SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION OF VHR AERIAL CIR IMAGERY USING OPTIMIZED FCN-DENSENET

2019 ◽  
Vol XLII-2/W16 ◽  
pp. 127-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Jiang ◽  
W. Yao ◽  
M. Heurich
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Deep Neural Network ◽  
Dead Wood ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Dead Trees

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The assessment of the forests’ health conditions is an important task for biodiversity, forest management, global environment monitoring, and carbon dynamics. Several research works were proposed to evaluate the state condition of a forest based on remote sensing technology. Concerning existing technologies, employing traditional machine learning approaches to detect the dead wood in aerial colour-infrared (CIR) imagery is one of the major trends due to its spectral capability to explicitly capturing vegetation health conditions. However, the complicated scene with background noise restricted the accuracy of existing approaches as those detectors normally utilized hand-crafted features. Currently, deep neural networks are widely used in computer vision tasks and prove that features learnt by the model itself perform much better than the hand-crafted features. The semantic image segmentation is a pixel-level classification task, which is best suitable to dead wood detection in very high resolution (VHR) mode because it enables the model to identify and classify very dense and detailed components on the tree objects. In this paper, an optimized FCN-DenseNet is proposed to detect dead wood (i.e. standing dead tree and fallen tree) in a complicated temperate forest environment. Since the appearance of dead trees generally occupies greatly different scales and sizes; several pooling procedures are employed to extract multi-scale features and dense connection is employed to enhance the inline connection among the scales. Our proposed deep neural network is evaluated over VHR CIR imagery (GSD-10cm) captured in a natural temperate forest in Bavarian national forest park, Germany, which has undergone on-site bark beetle attack. The results show that the boundary of dead trees can be accurately segmented, and the classification are performed with a high accuracy, even though only one labelled image with moderate size is used for training the deep neural network.</p>

scholarly journals When Urban Environment Is Restorative: The Effect of Walking in Suburbs and Forests on Psychological and Physiological Relaxation of Young Polish Adults

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Janeczko ◽  
Ernest Bielinis ◽  
Roman Wójcik ◽  
Małgorzata Woźnicka ◽  
Wojciech Kędziora ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Forest Bathing ◽  
Urban Greenery ◽  
Positive Feelings ◽  
The Impact

Background and Objectives: Physical activity, recreation and walks successfully counteract negative symptoms of stress in people, especially in large cities, and have many positive psychological and physiological effects. There are many studies showing that contact with nature plays an important role in the regeneration of the human body. The city is not without green enclaves such as forests, parks or greenery along the streets. However, it is not entirely clear how the different physical characteristics of the urban space affect mood improvement, increase of positive feelings, vitality level, etc. Materials and Methods: In the study, two urban environments (apartment and green suburbs) were used, as well as two forests (coniferous and deciduous) to measure the impact of these environments on human physiological and psychological relaxation during a walk in a randomized experiment. The participants of the experiment were 75 young adult Poles studying in the largest Polish agglomeration, Warsaw. Before each experiment, the physiological and psychological state of the participant was measured indoors (pre-test). Four psychological questionnaires were used in the project (Profile of Mood States; Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; Restorative Outcome Scale; Subjective Vitality Scale), and physiological measurements (heart rate, blood pressure) before and after the short walking program were evaluated. Results: As a result of the analyses, it was shown that both staying in an urban environment with greenery and staying in a forest environment have a positive effect on the physiological and psychological relaxation of the subjects. A short walk in the suburbs was no less attractive than a walk in the forest in fall. The above indicates that various places with urban vegetation can be successfully used for recreation, just as in a forest where forest bathing is practiced. This indicates that different places with urban greenery can be successfully used for recreation, as can the forests where forest bathing is carried out.

Efficacy of Methocarbamol for Acute Pain Management in Young Adults With Traumatic Rib Fractures

2020 ◽  
pp. 106002802096479
Author(s):  
Lindsay P. Deloney ◽  
Melanie Smith Condeni ◽  
Cassandra Carter ◽  
Alicia Privette ◽  
Stuart Leon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Pain Control ◽  
Oral Morphine ◽  
Hospital Length ◽  
Rib Fractures ◽  
Hospital Length Of Stay ◽  
Control Regimen ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Level 1 Trauma Center

Background: Rib fractures account for more than one-third of blunt thoracic injuries and are associated with serious complications. Use of nonopioid adjunctive agents such as methocarbamol for pain control has increased considerably. Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of methocarbamol addition to the pain control regimen on daily opioid requirements for young adults with rib fractures. Methods: This observational, retrospective study included patients aged 18 to 39 years with 3 or more rib fractures who were admitted to a level 1 trauma center between July 2014 and July 2018. Patients were dichotomized based on admission before and after methocarbamol addition to the institutional rib fracture protocol. The primary outcome was to determine the impact of methocarbamol on daily opioid requirements. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay (LOS) and diagnosis of pneumonia. Results: A total of 50 patients were included, with 22 and 28 patients in the preprotocol and postprotocol groups, respectively. All patients in the latter group received methocarbamol, whereas no patient in the preprotocol group received methocarbamol. Cumulative opioid exposure was significantly less for patients admitted after methocarbamol addition to the protocol (219 vs 337 mg oral morphine equivalents; P = 0.01), and hospital LOS was also decreased (4 vs 3 days; P = 0.03). No significant differences in the incidence of pneumonia or adverse effects were observed. Conclusion and Relevance: This is the first study to evaluate the impact of methocarbamol on reducing opioid requirements. Given the risks associated with opioids, use of methocarbamol as an analgesia-optimizing, opioid-sparing multimodal agent may be reasonable.

scholarly journals Modeling of Dead Wood Potential Based on Tree Stand Data

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 913
Author(s):  
Ninni Mikkonen ◽  
Niko Leikola ◽  
Panu Halme ◽  
Einari Heinaro ◽  
Ari Lahtinen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Dead Wood ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Surrogate Marker ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Managed Forests ◽  
Dead Trees ◽  
History Of

Here we present a framework for identifying areas with high dead wood potential (DWP) for conservation planning needs. The amount and quality of dead wood and dying trees are some of the most important factors for biodiversity in forests. As they are easy to recognize on site, it is widely used as a surrogate marker for ecological quality of forests. However, wall-to-wall information on dead wood is rarely available on a large scale as field data collection is expensive and local dead wood conditions change rapidly. Our method is based on the forest growth models in the Motti forest simulator, taking into account 168 combinations of tree species, site types, and vegetation zones as well as recommendations on forest management. Simulated estimates of stand-level dead wood volume and mean diameter at breast height were converted into DWP functions. The accuracy of the method was validated on two sites in southern and northeastern Finland, both consisting of managed and conserved boreal forests. Altogether, 203 field plots were measured for living and dead trees. Data on living trees were inserted into corresponding DWP functions and the resulting DWPs were compared to the measured dead wood volumes. Our results show that DWP modeling is an operable tool, yet the accuracy differs between areas. The DWP performs best in near-pristine southern forests known for their exceptionally good quality areas. In northeastern areas with a history of softer management, the differences between near-pristine and managed forests is not as clear. While accurate wall-to-wall dead wood inventory is not available, we recommend using DWP method together with other spatial datasets when assessing biodiversity values of forests.

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