Urban Green Parks for Long-term Subjective Well-being: Empirical Relationships between Personal Characteristics, Park Characteristics, Park Use, Sense of Place, and Satisfaction with Life in the Netherlands

As our living environment is becoming increasingly urbanized, this puts the livability, health, and quality of life in cities under pressure. Due to the urbanization process, urban green spaces are under threat of becoming scarce, while it is recognized that these green spaces can positively contribute to the subjective well-being of citizens. It is thus important to maximize the use and benefits derived from green spaces by designing them as positively experienced places. The aim of this research is to gain more empirical insights on the relationships between personal and park characteristics, park use behavior, sense of place, and park visitors’ long-term subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction). An online questionnaire was administered to participants in two medium-sized cities in The Netherlands, namely Eindhoven and ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Data were analyzed using a structural equation model. The results of this study show that the appreciation of facilities and the absence of disturbances positively influence the use and sense of place of a park. Furthermore, the findings show that sense of place has a positive influence on life satisfaction. The findings can be used by designers and policy-makers as guidelines to improve existing parks or to design new parks that support the subjective well-being of individuals in The Netherlands

Global-change effects on early-stage decomposition processes in tidal wetlands – implications from a global survey using standardized litter

Tidal wetlands, such as tidal marshes and mangroves, are hotspots for carbon sequestration. The preservation of organic matter (OM) is a critical process by which tidal wetlands exert influence over the global carbon cycle and at the same time gain elevation to keep pace with sea-level rise (SLR). The present study assessed the effects of temperature and relative sea level on the decomposition rate and stabilization of OM in tidal wetlands worldwide, utilizing commercially available standardized litter. While effects on decomposition rate per se were minor, we show strong negative effects of temperature and relative sea level on stabilization, as based on the fraction of labile, rapidly hydrolyzable OM that becomes stabilized during deployment. Across study sites, OM stabilization was 29 % lower in low, more frequently flooded vs. high, less frequently flooded zones. Stabilization declined by ∼ 75 % over the studied temperature gradient from 10.9 to 28.5 ∘C. Additionally, data from the Plum Island long-term ecological research site in Massachusetts, USA, show a pronounced reduction in OM stabilization by > 70 % in response to simulated coastal eutrophication, confirming the potentially high sensitivity of OM stabilization to global change. We therefore provide evidence that rising temperature, accelerated SLR, and coastal eutrophication may decrease the future capacity of tidal wetlands to sequester carbon by affecting the initial transformations of recent OM inputs to soil OM

Vegetation and peat accumulation steer Holocene tidal–fluvial basin filling and overbank sedimentation along the Old Rhine River, The Netherlands

In the transformation from tidal systems to freshwater coastal landscapes, plants act as eco-engineering species that reduce hydrodynamics and trap sediment, but nature and timing of the mechanisms of land creation along estuaries remains unclear. This article focuses on the Old Rhine estuary (The Netherlands) to show the importance of vegetation in coastal landscape evolution, predominantly regarding tidal basin filling and overbank morphology. This estuary hosted the main outflow channel of the river Rhine between ca 6500 to 2000 cal bp, and was constrained by peat during most of its existence. This study reconstructs its geological evolution, by correlating newly integrated geological data and new field records to varying conditions. Numerical modelling was performed to test the inferred mechanisms. It was found that floodbasin vegetation and resulting organic accumulation strongly accelerated back-barrier infill, by minimizing tidal influence. After tidal and wave transport had already sufficiently filled the back-barrier basin, reed rapidly expanded from its edges under brackish conditions, as shown by diatom analysis and datings. Reed growth provided a positive infilling feedback by reducing tidal flow and tidal prism, accelerating basin infilling. New radiocarbon dates show that large-scale crevassing along the Old Rhine River – driven by tidal backwater effect – only started as nutrient-rich river water transformed the floodbasin into an Alder carr in a next phase of estuary evolution. Such less dense vegetation promotes crevassing as sediments are more easily transported into the floodbasin. As river discharge increased and estuary mouth infilling progressed, crevasse activity diminished around 3800 to 3000 cal bp, likely due to a reduced tidal backwater effect. The insights from this data-rich Holocene study showcase the dominant role that vegetation may have in the long-term evolution of coastal wetlands. It provides clues for effective use of vegetation in vulnerable wetland landscapes to steer sedimentation patterns to strategically adapt to rising water levels

Full genome comparison and characterization of avian H10 viruses with different pathogenicity in Mink (Mustela vison) reveals genetic and functional differences in the non-structural gene

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The unique property of some avian H10 viruses, particularly the ability to cause severe disease in mink without prior adaptation, enabled our study. Coupled with previous experimental data and genetic characterization here we tried to investigate the possible influence of different genes on the virulence of these H10 avian influenza viruses in mink.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Phylogenetic analysis revealed a close relationship between the viruses studied. Our study also showed that there are no genetic differences in receptor specificity or the cleavability of the haemagglutinin proteins of these viruses regardless of whether they are of low or high pathogenicity in mink.</p> <p>In poly I:C stimulated mink lung cells the NS1 protein of influenza A virus showing high pathogenicity in mink down regulated the type I interferon promoter activity to a greater extent than the NS1 protein of the virus showing low pathogenicity in mink.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Differences in pathogenicity and virulence in mink between these strains could be related to clear amino acid differences in the non structural 1 (NS1) protein. The NS gene of mink/84 appears to have contributed to the virulence of the virus in mink by helping the virus evade the innate immune responses.</p

QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives

We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]