The health benefits of the great outdoors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes

Background: The health benefits of greenspaces have demanded the attention of policymakers since the 1800s. Although much evidence suggests greenspace exposure is beneficial for health, a gap exists for a systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesise and quantify the impact of greenspace on many health outcomes. Objective: To quantify evidence of the impact of greenspace on a wide range of health outcomes. Methods: We searched five online databases and reference lists up to January 2017. Studies satisfying a priori eligibility criteria were evaluated independently by two authors. Results: We included 103 observational and 40 interventional studies investigating ~100 health outcomes. Meta-analysis results showed increased greenspace exposure was associated with decreased salivary cortisol -0.05 (95% CI -0.07, -0.04), heart rate -2.57 (95% CI -4.30, -0.83), diastolic blood pressure -1.97 (95% CI -3.45, -0.19), HDL cholesterol -0.03 (95% CI -0.05, <-0.01), low frequency heart rate variability (HRV) -0.06 (95% CI -0.08, -0.03) and increased high frequency HRV 91.87 (95% CI 50.92, 132.82), as well as decreased risk of preterm birth 0.87 (95% CI 0.80, 0.94), type II diabetes 0.72 (95% CI 0.61, 0.85), all-cause mortality 0.69 (95% CI 0.55, 0.87), small size for gestational age 0.81 (95% CI 0.76, 0.86), cardiovascular mortality 0.84 (95% CI 0.76, 0.93), and an increased incidence of good self-reported health 1.12 (95% CI 1.05, 1.19). Incidence of stroke, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, asthma, and coronary heart disease were reduced, as well as reductions in systolic blood pressure and fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, and increased gestational age were also found, however these results were not statistically significant. For several non-pooled health outcomes, between 66.7% and 100% of studies showed health-denoting associations with increased greenspace exposure including neurological and cancer-related outcomes, and respiratory mortality. Conclusions: Greenspace exposure is associated with numerous health benefits in intervention and observational studies. These results are indicative of a beneficial influence of greenspace on a wide range of health outcomes, however a number of meta-analyses results are limited by poor study quality and high levels of heterogeneity. Green prescriptions involving greenspace use may have substantial benefits. Our findings should encourage practitioners and policymakers to give due regard to how they can create, maintain, and improve existing accessible greenspaces in deprived areas. Furthermore the development of strategies and interventions for the utilisation of such greenspaces by those who stand to benefit the most

Getting in, being heard, and influencing change:The labours of policy engagement in employment and social security research

UK employment policy is at a critical juncture; the effects of Covid-19 and Brexit on the labour market have heightened pre-existing and created new employment and income inequalities. Such experiences (and related temporary government policy responses) play out alongside the long-term roll-out of Universal Credit, a social security policy that imposes conditionality on a range of individuals, including people who are in work. As Universal Credit has the potential to transform power dynamics between individuals, the state and employers, revisiting and questioning the direction of Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) should unite the interests of diverse social security and employment researchers (including scholars of Human Resource Management, Sociology of Work and Industrial Relations). Policymakers should draw on an abundance of research to reform the UK’s ALMPs and avoid replicating the problems of narrowly conceived work-first programmes and practices. In this chapter, we explore the role of social policy researchers in influencing policy change, reflecting on our own experiences as early career researchers. We advocate a ‘pragmatic realist’ approach to policy engagement and reflect on different approaches to operating at the evidence-policy interface. While we advocate for social policy researchers to engage with research methods and knowledge exchange practices to increase the uptake of research and expertise, we do not believe this is a one-way process and we also contend that policymakers and practitioners have a responsibility to open up to critical evaluation and policy insights from the social policy community

Roll diffusion bonding of titanium alloy panels

Roll diffusion bonding technique is used for fabricating T-stiffened panel assemblies from titanium alloy. The single unit fabrication exhibits excellent strength characteristics under tensile and compressive loads. This program is applied to structures in which weight/strength ratio and integral construction are important considerations

A value chain analysis of interventions to control production diseases in the intensive pig production sector

Value chain analysis (VCA) calculated the financial effects on food chain actors of interventions to improve animal health and welfare in the intensive pig sector. Two interventions to reduce production diseases were studied. A generic chain diagram of linkages between stakeholders and value-added dimensions was designed. Data on structure and financial performance were collected for the sector. The production parameters and financial effects of the interventions were then described to illustrate impact on the supply chain. The effects of the interventions were also assessed at market level using economic welfare analysis. The sectors in Finland and the UK are small in farm numbers and few companies produced much of the output in a largely vertically-integrated structure. The most beneficial intervention in financial terms to farmers was improved hygiene in pig fattening (around +50% in gross margin). It was calculated to reduce the consumer price for pig meat by up to 5% when applied at large, whereas for improved management measures, it would reduce consumer price by less than 0.5%. However, the latter added value also through food quality attributes. We show that good hygiene and animal care can add value. However, evaluation of the financial and social viability of the interventions is needed to decide what interventions are adopted. The structure of supply chains influences which policy measures could be applied. Of the two interventions, improved pig hygiene had the largest potential to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The studied interventions can also provide new business opportunities to farms, slaughterhouses and food sector companies. More evidence is needed to support public policies and business decision-making in the sector. For this, evidence on consumer attitudes to production diseases is needed. Nevertheless, the study makes an important contribution by showing how improvements in health and welfare benefit the whole chain

NMR analogues of the quantum Zeno effect

We describe Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) demonstrations of the quantum Zeno effect, and discuss briefly how these are related to similar phenomena in more conventional NMR experiments.Comment: 8 pages including 4 figures; intended as a possible answer to Malcolm Levitt's question at the 2005 Magnetic Resonanace GRC: "What is the NMR analogue of the quantum Zeno effect?". In press at Physics Letters

Arbitrary precision composite pulses for NMR quantum computing

We discuss the implementation of arbitrary precision composite pulses developed using the methods of Brown et al. [Phys. Rev. A 70 (2004) 052318]. We give explicit results for pulse sequences designed to tackle both the simple case of pulse length errors and for the more complex case of off-resonance errors. The results are developed in the context of NMR quantum computation, but could be applied more widely.Comment: 16 pages elsart, no figures. In press at Journal of Magnetic resonanc

Experimental Implementation of Remote State Preparation by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

We have experimentally implemented remote state preparation (RSP) of a qubit from a hydrogen to a carbon nucleus in molecules of carbon-13 labeled chloroform $^{13}$CHCl$_{3}$ over interatomic distances using liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. Full RSP of a special ensemble of qubits, i.e., a qubit chosen from equatorial and polar great circles on a Bloch sphere with Pati's scheme, was achieved with one cbit communication. Such a RSP scheme can be generalized to prepare a large number of qubit states and may be used in other quantum information processing and quantum computing.Comment: 10 pages,5 PS figure