Feeling Stressed and Ugly? Leave the City and Visit Nature! An Experiment on Self- and Other-Perceived Stress and Attractiveness Levels

Natural environments, compared to urban environments, usually lead to reduced stress and positive body appreciation. We assumed that walks through nature and urban environments affect self- and other-perceived stress and attractiveness levels. Therefore, we collected questionnaire data and took photographs of male participants’ faces before and after they took walks. In a second step, female participants rated the photographs. As expected, participants felt more restored and attractive, and less stressed after they walked in nature compared to an urban environment. A significant interaction of environment (nature, urban) and time (pre, post) indicated that the men were rated by the women as being more stressed after the urban walk. Other-rated attractiveness levels, however, were similar for both walks and time points. In sum, we showed that the rather stressful experience of a short-term urban walk mirrors in the face of men and is detectable by women.

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Virtual Reality Relaxation for Patients With a Psychiatric Disorder: Crossover Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.17233 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Wim Veling ◽

Bart Lestestuiver ◽

Marieke Jongma ◽

H J Rogier Hoenders ◽

Catheleine van Driel

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Psychiatric Disorder ◽

Perceived Stress ◽

Psychiatric Symptoms ◽

Self Management ◽

Affective States ◽

Short Term ◽

Before And After ◽

Relaxation Exercises ◽

Short Term Effects

BACKGROUND Virtual reality (VR) relaxation is a promising mental health intervention that may be an effective tool for stress reduction but has hardly been tested in clinical trials with psychiatric patients. We developed an easy-to-use VR self-management relaxation tool (VRelax) with immersive 360° nature videos and interactive animated elements. OBJECTIVE To investigate the immediate effects of VR relaxation on negative and positive affective states and short-term effects on perceived stress and symptoms in patients with a psychiatric disorder, compared to standard relaxation exercises. METHODS A randomized crossover trial was conducted in 50 patients receiving ambulatory treatment for anxiety, psychotic, depressive, or bipolar disorder. Participants were randomly assigned to start with VRelax or standard relaxation and used both interventions for 10 days at home. They completed 8 visual analog scales of momentary negative and positive affective states before and after each session. Global perceived stress and psychiatric symptoms were measured before and after both intervention periods. Treatment effects were analyzed with multilevel mixed model regression analyses and 2-way analysis of variance. RESULTS Both VRelax and standard relaxation exercises led to a statistically significant immediate improvement of all negative and positive affective states. Compared to standard relaxation, VRelax resulted in a significantly greater reduction of total negative affective state (change 16.2% versus 21.2%; t1684=−2.02, 95% CI −18.70 to −0.28; P=.04). Specifically, VRelax had a stronger beneficial effect on momentary anxiety (t1684=−3.24, 95% CI −6.86 to −1.69), sadness (t1684=−2.32, 95% CI −6.51 to −0.55), and cheerfulness (t1684=2.35, 95% CI 0.51 to 5.75). There were no significant differences between short-term effects of the two treatments on global perceived stress and symptoms. CONCLUSIONS If the results of this trial are replicated and extended, VRelax may provide a much-needed, effective, easy-to-use self-management relaxation intervention to enhance psychiatric treatments. CLINICALTRIAL Netherlands Trial Register NTR7294; https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/7096

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How nature nurtures: Amygdala activity decreases as the result of a one-hour walk in nature

10.31234/osf.io/tucy7 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Sonja Sudimac ◽

Vera Sale ◽

Simone Kühn

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Preventive Measure ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Natural Environments ◽

Mental Strain ◽

Fearful Faces ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Before And After ◽

Amygdala Activity

Since living in cities is associated with an increased risk for mental disorders such as anxiety disorders, depression and schizophrenia, it is essential to understand how exposure to urban and natural environments affects mental health and the brain. It has been shown that the amygdala is more activated during a stress task in urban compared to rural dwellers. However, no study so far has examined the causal effects of natural and urban environments on stress-related brain mechanisms. To address this question, we conducted an intervention study to investigate changes in stress-related brain regions as an effect of a one-hour walk in an urban (busy street) vs. natural environment (forest). Brain activation was measured in 63 healthy participants, before and after the walk, using a fearful faces task. Our findings reveal that amygdala activation decreases after the walk in nature, whereas it remains stable after the walk in an urban environment. These results suggest that going for a nature walk can have salutogenic effects for stress-related brain regions, and consequently, it may act as a preventive measure against mental strain and potentially disease. Given the rapidly increasing urbanization, the present results aim to influence urban planning to create more accessible green areas and to adapt urban environments in a way that will be beneficial for citizens’ mental health.

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William Caferro, Petrarch's War: Florence and the Black Death in Context

The Business History Review ◽

10.1017/s0007680518001022 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 92 (4) ◽

pp. 749-753

Author(s):

Robert Fredona

Keyword(s):

Small Scale ◽

Black Death ◽

Mountainous Terrain ◽

Global History ◽

Short Term ◽

Trade Routes ◽

Italian Peninsula ◽

The Face ◽

Black Plague ◽

The City

Late in the spring of 1349, Petrarch, famous for his lyrical cries for peace on the Italian peninsula, wrote the priors of Florence urging the city to war. Two of the poet's dearest friends had been attacked while passing through the mountainous terrain controlled by the rural Ubaldini clan, renegade Ghibellines who menaced crucial trade routes between Florence and Bologna and were taking advantage of Florence's vulnerability in the wake of the 1348 outbreak of the Black Plague. The two campaigns that Florence launched against the Ubaldini, one in 1349 and one in 1350, although little known (overshadowed by the plague on one side and, less so, by the 1351–1353 Florentine war with Milan on the other), are better documented than any contemporary war and, as such, serve as the perfect material for William Caferro's new book, Petrarch's War, whose declared subject is “contradiction” and whose method, ultimately, is the subjection of received ideas and fashionable methods to interrogation in the face of the experience of rigorous and self-conscious archival research (p. 1). “Archives are subversive,” Caferro says, and this is, in many ways, a subversive book (p. 13). Resolutely revisionist and sometimes demandingly démodé—in an age of “big data” and global history and “usable” history—Caferro embraces the problematic and the anomalous, the short term and the small scale. Together with his impressive and prizewinning 2006 book, John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy, Petrarch's War secures Caferro's place as one of the most important economic historians working today.

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Simulated nature walks improve psychological well-being along a natural to urban continuum

10.31234/osf.io/q75eh ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Giuliana Brancato ◽

Kathryne Van Hedger ◽

Marc Berman ◽

Stephen Charles Van Hedger

Keyword(s):

Well Being ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Pine Forest ◽

Natural Environments ◽

Emotional States ◽

Urban Neighborhood ◽

City Center ◽

Physical Environments ◽

Before And After ◽

Category Variability

Compared to urban environments, interactions with natural environments have been associated with several health benefits including psychological restoration and improved emotional well-being. However, classifying environments dichotomously as either natural or urban may emphasize between-category differences and minimize potentially important within-category variation (e.g., forests versus fields of crops; neighborhoods versus city centers). Therefore, the current experiment assessed how viewing brief videos of different environments, ranging along a continuum from stereotypically natural to stereotypically urban, influenced subjective ratings of mood, restoration, and well-being. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four video conditions, which depicted a simulated walk through a pine forest, a farmed field, a tree-lined urban neighborhood, or a bustling city center essentially devoid of greenery. Immediately before and after the videos, participants rated their current emotional states. Participants additionally rated the perceived restorativeness of the video. The results supported the idea that the virtual walks differentially influenced affect and perceived restoration, even when belonging to the same nominal category of natural or urban. The pine forest walk significantly improved happiness relative to both urban walks, whereas the farmed field walk did not. The bustling city center walk decreased feelings of calmness compared to all other walks, including the tree-lined neighborhood walk. The walks also differed on two perceived restorativeness measures (daydreaming and being away) in a graded fashion; however, the farmed field walk was found to be less fascinating than all other walks, including both urban walks. Taken together, these results suggest that categorizing environments as “natural versus urban” may gloss over meaningful within-category variability regarding the restorative potential of different physical environments.

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Resilience of Nurses in the Face of Disaster

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness ◽

10.1017/dmp.2015.70 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 601-604 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Stephanie B. Turner

Keyword(s):

Full Range ◽

The State ◽

Psychological Effects ◽

City Hospital ◽

Resilience Scale ◽

Before And After ◽

Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽

The Face ◽

High Level ◽

The City

AbstractObjectiveOn April 27, 2011, the state of Alabama encountered a horrific day of tornados that left a trail of damage throughout the state. The city of Tuscaloosa was devastated by an EF-4 that resulted in many victims and casualties. Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa had a massive inflow of victims with both mild and major injuries. When disasters such as this occur, nurses must respond with efficiency and effectiveness to help as many victims as possible. However, little is known about the psychological effects of disasters on nurses and how these impact nurses both personally and professionally. Because resilience can directly impact how a nurse responds to a situation, this article aimed to examine the resilience levels of nurses working during the disaster.MethodsThis study was part of a larger study examining the needs of nurses both before and after disasters. Ten nurses were interviewed and completed a 10-item survey on resilience, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). The full range of scores on this scale is from 0 to 40, with higher scores reflecting greater resilience.ResultsIn this survey of 10 nurses, the scores ranged from 33 to 40, with a mean score of 36.7.ConclusionsThe nurses who were interviewed and completed the survey possessed a high level of resilience. More research should be done on the causes of increased resilience in nurses after disasters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:601–604)

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(SELF-MANAGED) URBAN RESILIENCE AND MASS SOCIAL HOUSING

Journal of Research in Architecture and Planning ◽

10.53700/jrap2322017_1 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Evandro Holz

Keyword(s):

Social Housing ◽

Urban Resilience ◽

Short Term ◽

Great Opportunity ◽

Positive Effects ◽

The Face ◽

Project Phases ◽

New Perspective ◽

The City

The outlook on urban resilience has gone through significant evolution. Its concept has been broadened from an emphasis on endurance of functions, through a focus on adaptability of systems, towards transformative capabilities in the face of uncertainty of events. Most notably, new visions acknowledge both short-term ‘shocks’ (e.g. hurricanes) and longer-term ‘stresses’ (e.g. inequality), recognising crises as intrinsic to the complexities of the world we live in, and actually necessary for our progress. To encompass the uneven and unpredictable circumstances we experience, it is essential that we acknowledge the empowerment of citizens, along with their tangible and intangible assets (e.g. infrastructure and education, respectively), as the main drivers of change (which I refer to as ‘self-managed resilience’). Social housing programmes present a great opportunity to build on this new perspective on resilience. They allow the transformation of a set of issues (including shocks, e.g. natural disaster, and stresses, e.g. poverty) into an opportunity to embrace change and evolve from it. However, they often cause a big disruption in the city fabric and, in the long-term, even replicate the problems beneficiaries faced before it. This article shows how the application of new urban resilience perspectives in social housing, particularly via self-managed practices, can minimize the occurrence of these issues. Drawing on experiences in Brazil, it describes the positive effects in social, economic and environmental resilience derived from beneficiaries’ engagement in all project phases. Moreover, it provides a forward-looking conclusion including recommendations to further improve self-managed resilience and housing practices. Key words: urban resilience, self-managed housing, social housing

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Virtual Reality Relaxation for Patients With a Psychiatric Disorder: Crossover Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/17233 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. e17233

Author(s):

Wim Veling ◽

Bart Lestestuiver ◽

Marieke Jongma ◽

H J Rogier Hoenders ◽

Catheleine van Driel

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Psychiatric Disorder ◽

Perceived Stress ◽

Psychiatric Symptoms ◽

Self Management ◽

Affective States ◽

Short Term ◽

Before And After ◽

Relaxation Exercises ◽

Short Term Effects

Background Virtual reality (VR) relaxation is a promising mental health intervention that may be an effective tool for stress reduction but has hardly been tested in clinical trials with psychiatric patients. We developed an easy-to-use VR self-management relaxation tool (VRelax) with immersive 360° nature videos and interactive animated elements. Objective To investigate the immediate effects of VR relaxation on negative and positive affective states and short-term effects on perceived stress and symptoms in patients with a psychiatric disorder, compared to standard relaxation exercises. Methods A randomized crossover trial was conducted in 50 patients receiving ambulatory treatment for anxiety, psychotic, depressive, or bipolar disorder. Participants were randomly assigned to start with VRelax or standard relaxation and used both interventions for 10 days at home. They completed 8 visual analog scales of momentary negative and positive affective states before and after each session. Global perceived stress and psychiatric symptoms were measured before and after both intervention periods. Treatment effects were analyzed with multilevel mixed model regression analyses and 2-way analysis of variance. Results Both VRelax and standard relaxation exercises led to a statistically significant immediate improvement of all negative and positive affective states. Compared to standard relaxation, VRelax resulted in a significantly greater reduction of total negative affective state (change 16.2% versus 21.2%; t1684=−2.02, 95% CI −18.70 to −0.28; P=.04). Specifically, VRelax had a stronger beneficial effect on momentary anxiety (t1684=−3.24, 95% CI −6.86 to −1.69), sadness (t1684=−2.32, 95% CI −6.51 to −0.55), and cheerfulness (t1684=2.35, 95% CI 0.51 to 5.75). There were no significant differences between short-term effects of the two treatments on global perceived stress and symptoms. Conclusions If the results of this trial are replicated and extended, VRelax may provide a much-needed, effective, easy-to-use self-management relaxation intervention to enhance psychiatric treatments. Trial Registration Netherlands Trial Register NTR7294; https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/7096

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The Burden of Online Friends: The Effects of Giving Up Facebook on Stress and Well-Being

10.31234/osf.io/8vwf6 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Eric John Vanman ◽

Rosemary Baker ◽

Stephanie Tobin

Keyword(s):

Life Satisfaction ◽

Social Network ◽

Perceived Stress ◽

Salivary Cortisol ◽

Online Social Network ◽

Well Being ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Short Term ◽

Before And After ◽

Social Disconnection

People occasionally choose to cut themselves off from their online social network by taking extended breaks from Facebook. This study investigated whether abstaining from Facebook reduces stress but also reduces subjective well-being because of the resulting social disconnection. Participants (138 active Facebook users) were assigned to either a condition in which they were instructed to give up Facebook for five days or continue to use Facebook as normal. Perceived stress and well-being, as well as salivary cortisol, were measured before and after the test period. Relative to those in the Facebook Normal condition, those in the No Facebook condition experienced lower levels of cortisol and life satisfaction. Our results suggest that the typical Facebook user may occasionally find the large amount of social information available taxing, and Facebook vacations could ameliorate this stress—at least in the short-term.

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TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF BMV ON P WAVE DISPERSION AND SHORT TERM PROGNOSTIC IMPACT OF P WAVE DISPERSION IN PREDICTION OF CLINICAL OUTCOME AFTER PERCUTANEOUS BALLOON MITRAL VALVULOPLASTY IN PATIENTS WITH MITRAL STENOSIS AND SINUS RHYTHM

International Journal of Medical and Biomedical Studies ◽

10.32553/ijmbs.v4i9.1397 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (9) ◽

Author(s):

Ashish Kumar Agarwal ◽

Daulat Singh Meena ◽

Vijay Pathak ◽

Anoop Jain ◽

Rakesh Kumar Ola

Keyword(s):

Clinical Outcome ◽

Right Ventricular ◽

Wave Dispersion ◽

Tissue Doppler ◽

P Wave ◽

Short Term ◽

P Wave Dispersion ◽

Mitral Valvuloplasty ◽

Percutaneous Balloon ◽

Before And After

Background: The aim of the present study was to study the effect of percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty (PBMV) on P wave dispersion and to test the correlation between P-maximum and P-dispersion to right ventricular function and pulmonary artery pressure before and after PMBV. Also to study the impact of P-maximum and P-wave dispersion on the short term clinical outcome after successful PBMV in patients with mitral stenosis (MS) and sinus rhythm. Methods: 75 patients undergoing PMBV were enrolled in this study. We evaluated P-maximum, P-minimum and P-wave dispersion before and one month and one year after PBMV . We studied the changes in pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), left atrial (LA) dimension, mitral diastolic gradient, and mitral valve area, in addition to the changes in right ventricular function utilizing tissue Doppler assessment both before and after PMBV, in addition the role of the P-wave dispersion in prediction of late cardiac events. Results: There were significant decrease in mean diastolic gradient, PAP, and LA size and significant improvement in right ventricular tissue Doppler indices after PMBV. Accompany these hemodynamic changes after PMBV. P-maximum and P-wave dispersion were found to be decreased (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Successful PBMV was associated with a decrease in Pmax and PWD. These simple electrocardiographic indices may predict the success of the procedure immediately after PBMV. The P-maximum and P-wave dispersion changes were correlated with significant impairment of right dysfunction and the degree of pulmonary artery pressure. Keywords: PBMV.PAP,LA

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Minimetrò in Perugia as leverage for urban regeneration

TERRITORIO ◽

10.3280/tr2019-091015 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 148-163

Author(s):

Luca Fondacci

Keyword(s):

Urban Regeneration ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Sustainable Mobility ◽

Field Surveys ◽

Peripheral Area ◽

Alternative Means ◽

Considerable Impact ◽

The City ◽

Historical Centre

In the 1970s, the fragile historical centre of the city of Perugia was a key area where the binomial of sustainable mobility and urban regeneration was developed and applied. At the turn of the xxi century, the low carbon automatic people-mover Minimetrò broadened that application from the city's historical centre to the outskirts, promoting the enhancement of several urban environments. This paper is the outcome of an investigation of original sources, field surveys and direct interviews, which addresses the Minimetrò as the backbone of a wide regeneration process which has had a considerable impact on the economic development of a peripheral area of the city which was previously devoid of any clear urban sense. The conclusion proposes some solutions to improve the nature of the Minimetrò as an experimental alternative means of transport.

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