Savoring mediates the effect of nature on positive affect

The more time people spend in nature, the happier they feel. But how consistent is this link, and what mechanisms might account for this beneficial effect of nature on wellbeing? The aim of the present study was to test one potential mechanism linking nature to wellbeing—the ability to savor experiences. Participants (N = 60, 70% female, aged 18 to 34, university students) were randomly assigned to take a daily 20-minute walk in a natural or urban environment for seven consecutive days. Each night, they completed a daily diary report about their experiences that day, including the amount and types of their savoring during the walk (i.e., absorption and intensification of experiences), savoring after the walk (i.e., expression of gratitude and sharing their experiences with others) all adapted from the Ways of Savoring Checklist (Bryant & Veroff, 2007), and their daily feelings of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), adapted from the affective circumplex (Barrett & Russell, 1998). Path analyses using multi-level structural equation modeling (MSEM) found that the composite measure of daily savoring significantly mediated the effect of nature on PA, controlling for NA and physical activity. Daily exposure to nature contributed to greater daily savoring, which predicted higher daily PA. Additional analyses showed that absorption and intensification of experiences in nature and sharing nature experiences with others were the key components of savoring, which may help to explain why people feel happier as a result of spending time in nature

The question-behaviour effect: a theoretical and methodological review and meta-analysis

Research has demonstrated that asking people questions about a behaviour can lead to behaviour change. Despite many, varied studies in different domains, it is only recently that this phenomenon has been studied under the umbrella term of the question-behaviour effect (QBE) and moderators of the effect have been investigated. With a particular focus on our own contributions, this article: (1) provides an overview of QBE research; (2) reviews and offers new evidence concerning three theoretical accounts of the QBE (behavioural simulation and processing fluency; attitude accessibility; cognitive dissonance); (3) reports a new meta-analysis of QBE studies (k = 66, reporting 94 tests) focusing on methodological moderators. The findings of this meta-analysis support a small significant effect of the QBE (g = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.11, 0.18, p < .001) with smaller effect sizes observed in more carefully controlled studies that exhibit less risk of bias and (4) also considers directions for future research on the QBE, especially studies that use designs with low risk of bias and consider desirable and undesirable behaviour separately

PAN AIR: A computer program for predicting subsonic or supersonic linear potential flows about arbitrary configurations using a higher order panel method. Volume 2: User's manual (version 3.0)

A comprehensive description of user problem definition for the PAN AIR (Panel Aerodynamics) system is given. PAN AIR solves the 3-D linear integral equations of subsonic and supersonic flow. Influence coefficient methods are used which employ source and doublet panels as boundary surfaces. Both analysis and design boundary conditions can be used. This User's Manual describes the information needed to use the PAN AIR system. The structure and organization of PAN AIR are described, including the job control and module execution control languages for execution of the program system. The engineering input data are described, including the mathematical and physical modeling requirements. Version 3.0 strictly applies only to PAN AIR version 3.0. The major revisions include: (1) inputs and guidelines for the new FDP module (which calculates streamlines and offbody points); (2) nine new class 1 and class 2 boundary conditions to cover commonly used modeling practices, in particular the vorticity matching Kutta condition; (3) use of the CRAY solid state Storage Device (SSD); and (4) incorporation of errata and typo's together with additional explanation and guidelines

Recognizing and Overcoming Difficult Site Conditions for Afforestation of Bottomland Hardwoods

In the last decade, about 370,000 acres (150,000 ha) of economically marginalfarmland in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV) have been restored tobottomland hardwood forests (Stanturf and others 1998, King and Keeland 1999,Schoenholtz and others 2001). Planting of this considerable acreage is due to several federal programs, such as the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), that assist landowners by financing afforestation (Figure 1). Unfortunately, these operational plantings have not performed as well as smaller plantings or research plots (Stanturf and others 2001a). For example, a recent survey of WRP plantings in westcentral Mississippi revealed that more than 90 percent of the sites failed to meet the criteria of 100 woody stems per acre (247 stems per ha) three years after planting or direct seeding. While planting 1-0 bareroot seedlings of oak was more successful than direct-seeding acorns, only 23percent of the land planted with seedlings met the criteria (C.J. Schweitzer unpublished data). Planting and direct seeding oak (Quercus spp.) on public land in the same area has been more successful. Meanwhile, Allen (1990) found 70 percent of the planted bottomland hardwood stands on the national wildlife refuges he evaluated had more than 200 trees per acre (494 stems per ha).We believe that the recurring problems in operational plantings on privatelands are due in part to the failure of planters to recognize adverse site conditions and their failure to use appropriate methods for overcoming site limitations. Our objectives in this paper are to synthesize research and experience into guidelines for recognizing adverse site conditions due to hydroperiod, soil, competing vegetation, and herbivory. We describe techniques for overcoming these conditions and suggest promising research areas

Growth and Characterization of Ce- Substituted Nd2Fe14B Single Crystals

Single crystals of (Nd1-xCex)2Fe14B are grown out of Fe-(Nd,Ce) flux. Chemical and structural analysis of the crystals indicates that (Nd1-xCex)2Fe14B forms a solid solution until at least x = 0.38 with a Vegard-like variation of the lattice constants with x. Refinements of single crystal neutron diffraction data indicate that Ce has a slight site preference (7:3) for the 4g rare earth site over the 4f site. Magnetization measurements show that for x = 0.38 the saturation magnetization at 400 K, a temperature important to applications, falls from 29.8 for the parent Nd2Fe14B to 27.6 (mu)B/f.u., the anisotropy field decreases from 5.5 T to 4.7 T, and the Curie temperature decreases from 586 to 543 K. First principles calculations carried out within density functional theory are used to explain the decrease in magnetic properties due to Ce substitution. Though the presence of the lower-cost and more abundant Ce slightly affects these important magnetic characteristics, this decrease is not large enough to affect a multitude of applications. Ce-substituted Nd2Fe14B is therefore a potential high-performance permanent magnet material with substantially reduced Nd content.Comment: 11 Pages, 8 figures, 5 table

Development of the ChatGPT, Generative Artificial Intelligence and Natural Large Language Models for Accountable Reporting and Use (CANGARU) Guidelines

The swift progress and ubiquitous adoption of Generative AI (GAI), Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs), and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, have spurred queries about their ethical application, use, and disclosure in scholarly research and scientific productions. A few publishers and journals have recently created their own sets of rules; however, the absence of a unified approach may lead to a 'Babel Tower Effect,' potentially resulting in confusion rather than desired standardization. In response to this, we present the ChatGPT, Generative Artificial Intelligence, and Natural Large Language Models for Accountable Reporting and Use Guidelines (CANGARU) initiative, with the aim of fostering a cross-disciplinary global inclusive consensus on the ethical use, disclosure, and proper reporting of GAI/GPT/LLM technologies in academia. The present protocol consists of four distinct parts: a) an ongoing systematic review of GAI/GPT/LLM applications to understand the linked ideas, findings, and reporting standards in scholarly research, and to formulate guidelines for its use and disclosure, b) a bibliometric analysis of existing author guidelines in journals that mention GAI/GPT/LLM, with the goal of evaluating existing guidelines, analyzing the disparity in their recommendations, and identifying common rules that can be brought into the Delphi consensus process, c) a Delphi survey to establish agreement on the items for the guidelines, ensuring principled GAI/GPT/LLM use, disclosure, and reporting in academia, and d) the subsequent development and dissemination of the finalized guidelines and their supplementary explanation and elaboration documents.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure, protoco

Structure and expression of GSL1 and GSL2 genes encoding gibberellin stimulated-like proteins in diploid and highly heterozygous tetraploid potato reveals their highly conserved and essential status

Background: GSL1 and GSL2, Gibberellin Stimulated-Like proteins (also known as Snakin-1 and Snakin-2), are cysteine-rich peptides from potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) with antimicrobial properties. Similar peptides in other species have been implicated in diverse biological processes and are hypothesised to play a role in several aspects of plant development, plant responses to biotic or abiotic stress through their participation in hormone crosstalk, and redox homeostasis. To help resolve the biological roles of GSL1 and GSL2 peptides we have undertaken an in depth analysis of the structure and expression of these genes in potato. Results: We have characterised the full length genes for both GSL1 (chromosome 4) and GSL2 (chromosome 1) from diploid and tetraploid potato using the reference genome sequence of potato, coupled with further next generation sequencing of four highly heterozygous tetraploid cultivars. The frequency of SNPs in GSL1 and GSL2 were very low with only one SNP every 67 and 53 nucleotides in exon regions of GSL1 and GSL2, respectively. Analysis of comprehensive RNA-seq data substantiated the role of specific promoter motifs in transcriptional control of gene expression. Expression analysis based on the frequency of next generation sequence reads established that GSL2 was expressed at a higher level than GSL1 in 30 out of 32 tissue and treatment libraries. Furthermore, both the GSL1 and GSL2 genes exhibited constitutive expression that was not up regulated in response to biotic or abiotic stresses, hormone treatments or wounding. Potato transformation with antisense knock-down expression cassettes failed to recover viable plants. Conclusions: The potato GSL1 and GSL2 genes are very highly conserved suggesting they contribute to an important biological function. The known antimicrobial activity of the GSL proteins, coupled with the FPKM analysis from RNA-seq data, implies that both genes contribute to the constitutive defence barriers in potatoes. The lethality of antisense knock-down expression of GSL1 and GSL2, coupled with the rare incidence of SNPs in these genes, suggests an essential role for this gene family. These features are consistent with the GSL protein family playing a role in several aspects of plant development in addition to plant defence against biotic stresses. © 2014 Meiyalaghan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Bibliometric Analysis of Publisher and Journal Instructions to Authors on Generative-AI in Academic and Scientific Publishing

We aim to determine the extent and content of guidance for authors regarding the use of generative-AI (GAI), Generative Pretrained models (GPTs) and Large Language Models (LLMs) powered tools among the top 100 academic publishers and journals in science. The websites of these publishers and journals were screened from between 19th and 20th May 2023. Among the largest 100 publishers, 17% provided guidance on the use of GAI, of which 12 (70.6%) were among the top 25 publishers. Among the top 100 journals, 70% have provided guidance on GAI. Of those with guidance, 94.1% of publishers and 95.7% of journals prohibited the inclusion of GAI as an author. Four journals (5.7%) explicitly prohibit the use of GAI in the generation of a manuscript, while 3 (17.6%) publishers and 15 (21.4%) journals indicated their guidance exclusively applies to the writing process. When disclosing the use of GAI, 42.8% of publishers and 44.3% of journals included specific disclosure criteria. There was variability in guidance of where to disclose the use of GAI, including in the methods, acknowledgments, cover letter, or a new section. There was also variability in how to access GAI guidance and the linking of journal and publisher instructions to authors. There is a lack of guidance by some top publishers and journals on the use of GAI by authors. Among those publishers and journals that provide guidance, there is substantial heterogeneity in the allowable uses of GAI and in how it should be disclosed, with this heterogeneity persisting among affiliated publishers and journals in some instances. The lack of standardization burdens authors and threatens to limit the effectiveness of these regulations. There is a need for standardized guidelines in order to protect the integrity of scientific output as GAI continues to grow in popularity.Comment: Pages 16, 1 figure, 2 table

Noncommutative elliptic theory. Examples

We study differential operators, whose coefficients define noncommutative algebras. As algebra of coefficients, we consider crossed products, corresponding to action of a discrete group on a smooth manifold. We give index formulas for Euler, signature and Dirac operators twisted by projections over the crossed product. Index of Connes operators on the noncommutative torus is computed.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur