Bat Roosts in Rock

This guide provides descriptions of when the species of bats resident in British and Ireland use natural and man-made rock habitats, how they use them, and the environment each species occupies within them. This data is part of the Bat Rock Habitat Key project. For the first time it brings together a) historic scientific investigations; b) useful photographic accounts; and c) open access biological records, in a practical narrative. The text encompasses: - Descriptions of the features that a climber, caver or professional ecologist might encounter on and in natural and man-made rock habitats, and within which bats have been recorded roosting. - Recording criteria for both the physical and environmental attributes of different features and situations. - The identification of suitability thresholds against which the recorded information can be compared to assess the likelihood that a specific feature might be exploited by a specific bat species. - Some suggestions for how to avoid mistakes and misery when performing a survey. The idea is that the use of the book will generate standardised biological records that will feed into the online database at www.batrockhabitatkey.co.uk. This data will be analysed to search for patterns that can increase the confidence in the suitability thresholds, build new roost features that deliver the environment each species really wants; their fundamental niche on each environmental gradient.

Belonging to Green

Sarajevo's natural layout is extensively green as it covers large rural and natural areas. The city struggles with an insufficient urban layout in terms of environmental quality. Through a top-down approach, this study investigates the user's perception of ‘green' and examines the environmental attributes of place attachment in the case of Sarajevo. The semi-structured study is based on online surveys with experts and in-depth interviews with residents and applies a reframed model of place attachment which provides both a quantitative and qualitative translation of, among other aspects, environmental factors. Within this framework, the research presents a recap of Sarajevo's environmental experiences and focuses on lessons learned regarding the post-war urban development in the environmental context of the city.

From urban neighbourhood environments to cognitive health: a cross-sectional analysis of the role of physical activity and sedentary behaviours

Background There is a dearth of studies on the effects of the neighbourhood environment on adults’ cognitive function. We examined how interrelated aspects of the built and natural neighbourhood environment, including air pollution, correlate with adults’ cognitive function, and the roles of physical activity and sedentary behaviours in these associations. Methods We used data from 4,141 adult urban dwellers who participated in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle 3 study on socio-demographic characteristics, neighbourhood self-selection, physical activity and sedentary behaviours, and cognitive function. Neighbourhood environmental characteristics included population density, intersection density, non-commercial land use mix, and percentages of commercial land, parkland and blue space, all within 1 km residential buffers. We also calculated annual mean concentrations of NO2 and PM2.5. Generalised additive mixed models informed by directed acyclic graphs were used to estimate the total, direct and indirect effects of environmental attributes on cognitive functions and the joint-significance test was used to examine indirect effects via behaviours. Results In the total effects models, population density and percentage of parkland were positively associated with cognitive function. A positive association of PM2.5 with memory was also observed. All neighbourhood environmental attributes were directly and/or indirectly related to cognitive functions via other environmental attributes and/or physical activity but not sedentary behaviours. Engagement in transportation walking and gardening frequency partially mediated the positive effects of the neighbourhood environment on cognitive function, while frequency of transportation walking mediated the negative effects. Conclusions In the context of a low-density country like Australia, denser urban environments with access to parkland may benefit residents’ cognitive health by providing opportunities for participation in a diversity of activities. A more fine-grained characterisation of the neighbourhood environment may be necessary to tease out the negative and positive impacts of inter-related characteristics of urban neighbourhood environments on cognitive function.

Experiences of the COVID-19 infected persons during isolation in Nepal

Isolation is the separation and restriction of movement of people diagnosed with COVID-19 positive. Isolation is one of the best measures for preventing and controlling pandemics; however, it might be stressful. This study intends to explore the perceptions of COVID-19 infected people towards the COVID-19 pandemic and their experiences at Nepal's isolation centers with the broad theoretical frame of the transactional theory of stress and coping by Lazarus & Folkman (1986). This qualitative study was conducted in institutional isolation centers in Nepal's Morang, Rautahat, Sindhupalchowk, Tanahun, Banke, Surkhet, and Kailali districts. Thirty-five participants, five from every seven provinces, were selected using a purposive-convenient sampling method. Data were collected through interviews in the period of October to December 2020. The findings of the study have been presented in four different themes: personal and environmental attributes, perception of COVID-19 as a stressor, short-term outcome based on situation, and adoption of coping mechanism. There were individual differences in perceiving the COVID-19 as a stressor. Environment and available facilities acted as another source of stress. Similarly, anxiety, irritation, lack of sleep, loss of appetite resulted from stress while staying in isolation. Regarding the coping mechanism of the stress, most participants were found to use mobile phones, play games, watch movies, and talk to family members. We recommend emphasizing psychological intervention comprising meditation, outdoor games, yoga, and counseling in institutional isolation based on this study.

Food: Not Only Safety, but Also Sustainability. The Emerging Trend of New Social Consumers

Consumers’ purchasing choices are no longer based only on economic factors but also on ethical reasons related to environmental sustainability and food safety. However, nutritional information on food labels is underused by consumers. Often the lack or incompleteness of information available on the market obstructs the complex transition towards sustainable consumption patterns. This empirical study analysed a sample of 359 consumers from an area in Southern Italy (city of Naples) to identify homogeneous consumer clusters with respect to the assessment of the level of consumer attention to sustainable environmental, social behaviours in daily life, and also to safety attributes. The most important sources of information influencing the consumers’ choices, food safety knowledge, and future purchasing behaviour were analysed. The research sample was self-selected, and the questionnaire for the survey was administrated through a non-probability sample from a reasoned choice. The results indicate that the ideal solution is a five-cluster partition that confirms a good level of attention to intrinsic attributes, in particular food expiry, transparency of food information, food traceability, and seller confidence. In addition, the research could provide an opportunity to consider collaborative actions between policy makers and industries to increase consumer awareness of environmental attributes.

Attributes of resilient pasture for achieving environmental outcomes at farm scale

Pasture resilience commonly refers to a pasture’s ability to withstand or rebound from pressures to maintain production and quality of sown species. We suggest that a broader definition of pasture resilience is needed that also includes environmental responses, thus ensuring that productivity and environmental outcomes are considered together. Key attributes of resilient pastures to minimise soil erosion and nutrient, greenhouse gas and soil carbon losses are summarised based on current understanding of environmental losses from pastoral systems. These attributes include maintaining consistent pasture cover, high energy and/or low nitrogen species and species diversity that provides complementary root morphology and/or growth seasonality; all are likely to have positive benefits for production and productivity. There is a potential tension, however, between productivity and methane emissions, as methane production increases with increased feed intake. Increasing pasture quality is therefore also an important consideration for pasture resilience as it can maintain animal productivity at lower levels of feed intake. From a farm systems perspective, the choice of pasture species should reflect the desired attributes for both productivity and environmental outcomes, and ensure that the sown species persist in the sward. Finally, we note that none of the environmental attributes/benefits are likely to deliver major farm-scale improvements on their own; progress will likely be incremental improvements upon implementing a range of attributes.

The Closer the Better? Modeling Spatial Spillover Effects of Ecological Externalities in Coastal Mangroves

As an important part of ecological externalities, the spatial spillover effect has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of environmental economics. However, the traditional view that the spillover mechanism of ecological externalities generally decreases in line with increases in distance remains to be thoroughly proven. Effective ecological management requires an understanding of the relationship between the natural environment and human communities. In this study, the concept of geographical accessibility and a two-step mobile search model are introduced in order to connect ecosystems and humans by a spatial distance. This model can fully demonstrate the external spatial spillover effect of ecology. Based on research from the Beihai Wetland Reserve, Guangxi, China, this study found that the change in the ecological externality spillover mechanism is not only affected by spatial distance but is also affected by the pro-environmental attributes of individual residents around the region. Under the same conditions, residents with a high degree of interaction with ecological protection zones can display a stronger spatial spillover effect. The conclusion of this study provides a more accurate understanding of the changes in the spillover effect of ecological externalities, which in turn can help managers to formulate more adequate ecological protection policies that are based on the specific conditions of different residents. This is crucial for the successful management of protected ecological areas that are highly linked to human communities.

The Interplay between Housing Environmental Attributes and Design Exposures and Psychoneuroimmunology Profile—An Exploratory Review and Analysis Paper in the Cancer Survivors’ Mental Health Morbidity Context

Adult cancer survivors have an increased prevalence of mental health comorbidities and other adverse late-effects interdependent with mental illness outcomes compared with the general population. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) heralds an era of renewed call for actions to identify sustainable modalities to facilitate the constructs of cancer survivorship care and health care delivery through physiological supportive domestic spaces. Building on the concept of therapeutic architecture, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) indicators—with the central role in low-grade systemic inflammation—are associated with major psychiatric disorders and late effects of post-cancer treatment. Immune disturbances might mediate the effects of environmental determinants on behaviour and mental disorders. Whilst attention is paid to the non-objective measurements for examining the home environmental domains and mental health outcomes, little is gathered about the multidimensional effects on physiological responses. This exploratory review presents a first analysis of how addressing the PNI outcomes serves as a catalyst for therapeutic housing research. We argue the crucial component of housing in supporting the sustainable primary care and public health-based cancer survivorship care model, particularly in the psychopathology context. Ultimately, we illustrate a series of interventions aiming at how housing environmental attributes can trigger PNI profile changes and discuss the potential implications in the non-pharmacological treatment of cancer survivors and patients with mental morbidities.