How Perceived Sensory Dimensions of Forest Park Are Associated with Stress Restoration in Beijing?

A growing number of studies suggest that the perceived sensory dimensions (PSDs) of green space are associated with stress restoration offered by restorative environment. However, there is little known about PSDs and stress restoration as well as their relationship to forest park. To fill this gap, an on-site questionnaire survey was conducted in three forest parks in Beijing, as a result of which a total number of 432 completed responses were collected and analyzed. The mean values of PSDs were used to represent PSDs of forest park. Using independent sample t-test and ANOVA, this study analyzed the individual characteristics that affected PSDs and stress restoration. Linear mixed model was used to identify the relationship between PSDs and stress restoration of forest park, which took into account the interactions of stress level and PSDs. The results showed that: (1) the perceived degree of PSDs in forest park from strong to weak was Serene, Space, Nature, Rich in species, Prospect, Refuge, Social and Culture, which varied with visitors’ gender, age, level of stress, visit frequency, activity intensity, visit duration and commuting time; (2) in PSDs, Refuge, Serene, Social and Prospect had significantly positive effects on the stress restoration of forest parks (3) there was no significant difference in the effect of the eight PSDs on the stress restoration between different stress groups; (4) stress restoration was influenced by visitors’ gender, age, visit frequency and visit duration. These findings can offer references for managers to improve the health benefits of forest park for visitors, and can enrich the knowledge about PSDs and stress restoration.

Park visitation in the context of Khartoum town

Parks improve people's physical and mental well-being, strengthen communities, and make towns and neighborhoods more appealing places to live and work. Many reasons discourage frequent park visitations, such as poor park characteristics, poor management system, and the lack of programs to encourage park visitation. Participation in different outdoor activities has become a necessity for many people nowadays. However, many residents are not engaged in recreational activities in Khartoum, making parks an important element. Therefore, the study aimed at investigating parks characteristics and different patterns of users based on societal needs. The study concentrates on the residents' characteristics such as age, gender, income, education level; these characteristics are tested against park visitation patterns such as type of visitation, the best day for visitation, and visit frequency. A two hundred and fifty (250) participant questionnaire survey was carried out in Al Tifl Park to assess the park's visitation pattern based on the purposive sampling technique. The result shows that most of the visitation patterns were not frequent regardless of the visitors' characteristics. It proves that the visitation pattern was not based on the visitors' characteristics but rather on the park characteristics. The study recommends that the park's features be redesigned based on user affinity to improve visitation, visitor benefits, and income generation.

Effects of physician visit frequency for Parkinson’s disease treatment on mortality, hospitalization, and costs: a retrospective cohort study

Background The number of patients with Parkinson’s disease among older adults is rapidly increasing. Such patients mostly take medication and require regular physician visits. However, the effect of physician visit frequency for the treatment for Parkinson’s disease has not been evaluated. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of physician visit frequency for Parkinson’s disease treatment on mortality, healthcare days, and healthcare and long-term care costs among older adults. Methods This study employed a retrospective cohort design utilizing claims data from the Fukuoka Prefecture Wide-Area Association of Latter-Stage Elderly Healthcare Insurance and Long-Term Care Insurance. Patients aged ≥75 years who were newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2014 were included in this study, following the onset of Parkinson’s disease to March 31, 2019. We calculated the restricted mean survival time to evaluate mortality, focusing on the frequency of physician visits for Parkinson’s disease treatment. Inpatient days, outpatient days, and healthcare and long-term care costs per month were calculated using a generalized linear model. Results There were 2224 participants, with 46.5% mortality among those with a higher frequency of physician visits and 56.4% among those with a lower frequency of physician visits. A higher frequency of physician visits was associated with a significant increase in survival time (1.57 months at 24 months and 5.00 months at 60 months) after the onset of Parkinson’s disease and a decrease in inpatient days and healthcare costs compared to a lower frequency of physician visits. Conclusions A higher frequency of physician visits was significantly associated with longer survival time, fewer inpatient days, and lower healthcare costs. Caregivers should support patients with Parkinson’s disease to visit physicians regularly for their treatment.

Implementing Health Related Social Needs Screening in an Outpatient Clinic: A Cross-Sectional Study

BackgroundTo date, health-related social needs (HRSN) screening implementation efforts have reported high rates of identified social needs. However, little is known about how screening processes may fail to leverage implementation strategies to optimize reach, and thereby unintentionally target non-representative groups for screening and referral programs. MethodsElectronic medical data were abstracted from 2016-2020 for 4,731 screened patients from 7 affiliated clinics of a federally-qualified health center (FQHC). Unscreened patients were pulled first as a random sample from the study period, then matched based on clinic site and clinic visit frequency. Sociodemographic traits, comorbid conditions, and outpatient encounter type and frequency were compared between the screened and unscreened patient cohorts using descriptive statistics.ResultsScreened patients (n-4731) had a median of 3.3 (+/- 2.5) unmet HRSN. Compared to a random sample of unscreened FQHC patients, screened patients had significantly more clinic visits (26.8 vs 16.3; p<0.05) and carried a higher comorbid disease burden (3+ conditions: 8% vs 2%; p<0.05). When the unscreened cohort was matched to the screened cohort for clinic site, these findings remained constant. Due to high visit frequency in the screened cohort, our analysis was matched for clinic visit frequency. Screened patients continued to demonstrate a higher comorbid disease burden (3+ conditions, 8% vs 3%; p<0.05), but only had a higher prevalence of 4 chronic conditions (diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and anxiety/depression). ConclusionsWithout an a priori plan for implementation, we have found a predisposition to screen patients who visit outpatient services more often and have a higher comorbid disease burden. HRSN screening processes will benefit from implementation strategies to improve reach and to ensure maximal uptake of screening.

Evaluating accessibility to city parks utilizing a space syntax method. A case study: city parks in Malang city

The government of Malang city has developed public space by increasing the number of city parks and revitalising the existing parks, functioned as active parks and city forests. Despite the development of individual city parks, about the debate has circulated regarding how the parks are integrated with the city’s spatial system. The focus of this research comprises the evaluation of city parks performance according to the parks’ relative position in the city’s spatial system. This study applies the two variables, including: the relative position of city parks and the visit frequency. The relative position is identified by employing the notion of spatial configuration and space syntax. The visit frequency is explored by utilizing questionnaires. The correlation between the two variables is investigated by using Pearson Product Moment. The research indicates that there is a correlation between the two variables. This finding additionally proves that the spatial configuration determined access to city parks, thereby encouraging the visits. Further, this study has navigated some other motives for the visits in addition to the access.

PSXIV-9 Predicting dry matter intake in beef cattle with water intake and other variables

Technology that facilitates estimation of individual animal intake rates in group-housed settings will result in improvements in animal production and management efficiency. Estimating intake in pasture settings may benefit from models that use other variables as proxies. Relationships among dry matter intake (DMI), animal performance variables, and environmental variables to model DMI were investigated. 202 animals were studied in a drylot setting (153 bulls for 85 days and 55 steers for 55 days) using VYTELLE SENSETM In-Pen-Weighing and Feed-Intake nodes. A machine learning model was calibrated using: DMI, sex, age, full body weight, ADG, water intake, water visit frequency and duration. DMI was positively related to full body weight (r = 0.39, P &lt; 0.001), water intake (r=0.23, P &lt; 0.001), and ADG (r=0.18, P &lt; 0.001). In addition, DMI had significant but weak correlations with water visit frequency (r=0.031, P &lt; 0.001). DMI exhibited weak negative relationships with maximum air temperature (r=-0.094, P &lt; 0.001) maximum relative humidity (r=-0.056, P &lt; 0.001), net radiation (r=-0.040, P &lt; 0.001), and precipitation (r=-0.022, P &lt; 0.001). Weak positive relationships were observed between DMI and maximum wind speed (r=0.031, P &lt; 0.001) and direction (r=-0.022, P &lt; 0.001). The model was validated with resultant average RMSE of 1.06 kg for daily predicted DMI compared to measured daily DMI. In addition, when daily predicted DMI was averaged for each animal, the accuracy of model results improved with RMSE of 0.11 kg. Study results demonstrate that inclusion of water intake and animal performance variables improves predictive accuracy of DMI. Validating and refining the model used to predict DMI in drylots will facilitate future extrapolation to larger group field settings. Vytelle and its logo are trademarks of Vytelle, LLC.

Time burden and logistical intensity of early-phase clinical trials (EP-CTs).

84 Background: EP-CTs are increasingly important options for patients with cancer and often involve intensive monitoring. Thus, characterizing the time burden and logistical intensity of EP-CTs could help patients and clinicians make informed decisions regarding trial participation. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the electronic health records of consecutive patients enrolled in EP-CTs at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017-2019 to obtain baseline characteristics (demographics and clinical factors), EP-CT investigational agent (immunomodulatory therapy [IM], targeted inhibitor(s) [TI], antibody drug conjugate [ADC]/chemotherapy prodrug), and logistical intensity (trial visit frequency, presence of extended visits, distance traveled in one direction from home zip code to trial site). We defined visit frequency as the number of visits per protocol within the first 28 days on trial. We defined an extended visit as six or more hours in clinic on at least one day during the first 28 days on study. We investigated associations among patient characteristics, investigational agent, and logistical intensity. Results: Among 421 patients (median age=60.6 years, 55.8% female, 97.4% metastatic disease), most (73.6%) had two or more sites of metastatic disease. EP-CTs included 43.2% IM, 43.0% TI, and 13.8% ADC/chemotherapy prodrug. Patients enrolled in ADC/prodrug trials had the highest burden of metastatic disease (mean sites: 2.8 [ADC] vs 2.4 [TI] vs 2.3 [IM], p = 0.007) and oldest age (mean years: 64.0 [ADC] vs 61.7 [IM] vs 58.5 [TI], p = 0.003). Patients enrolled on TI trials had the highest visit frequency compared with those enrolled on other trials (mean visits: 5.5 [TI] vs 5.3 [ADC] vs 5.0 [IM], p = 0.027) and the fewest days spent on trial (mean days: 78.3 [TI] vs 102.2 [IM] vs 131.8 [ADC], p = 0.003). Patients enrolled on TI trials were also most likely to have an extended visit (82.3% [TI] vs 58.2% [IM] vs 29.3% [ADC], p < 0.001) and least likely to receive first in human therapy (38.1% [TI] vs 74.1% [ADC] vs 74.2% [IM], p < 0.001). Distance traveled from home to clinic did not significantly differ across trial type (median miles traveled: 35.1 [TI] vs 34.1 [IM] vs 33.2 [ADC], p = 0.884). Conclusions: In this cohort of patients participating in EP-CTs, we found that a plurality enrolled in IM studies. Those receiving ADC/prodrug regimens were older and had a higher burden of disease. On average, patients participating in EP-CTs had over five visits in the first month, with those enrolled on TI trials having the highest visit frequency and greatest likelihood of extended visits. Patients on TI trials also spent the fewest total days on trial. Despite the lack of significant differences in distance traveled, most patients were still traveling over 30 miles to get to the trial site. These data highlight the time burden and logistical intensity of various EP-CTs, which may help inform patient-clinician discussions about trial participation.

How many giraffes are there? A comparison of abundance estimators at Ongava Game Reserve, Namibia

Camera-traps are a versatile and widely adopted tool to collect biological data in wildlife conservation and management. If estimating population abundance from camera-trap data is the primarily goal of many projects, what population estimator is suitable for such data needs to be investigated. We took advantage of a 21 days camera-trap monitoring on giraffes at Onvaga Game Reserve, Namibia to compare capture-recapture (CR), saturation curves and N-mixture estimators of population abundance. A marked variation in detection probability of giraffes was observed in time and between individuals. Giraffes were also less likely to be detected after they were seen at a waterhole with cameras (visit frequency of f = 0.25). We estimated population size to 119 giraffes with a Cv = 0.10 with the best CR estimator. All other estimators we a applied over-estimated population size by ca. -20 to >+80%, because they did not account for the main sources of heterogeneity in detection probability. We found that modelling choices was much less forgiving for N-mixture than CR estimators. Double counts were problematic for N-mixture models, challenging the use of raw counts at waterholes to monitor giraffes abundance.