The Impact of a “Three Good Things in Nature” Writing Task on Nature Connectedness, Pro-nature Conservation Behavior, Life Satisfaction, and Mindfulness in Children

This research explores relationships between nature connectedness, pro-nature conservation behaviour, life satisfaction and mindfulness in children aged 9-11 years and assesses the impact of a 3 good-things in nature writing intervention. Participants were assigned to either an experimental condition, writing about 3 good-things in nature, or a control condition, writing about any three things, over 5 days. In total, 138 children provided complete data. Multiple regression showed nature connectedness and environmental perceptions predicted pro-nature conservation behaviour whilst nature connectedness and mindfulness predicted life satisfaction. MANOVA examined group differences and revealed a significant multivariate effect of time with univariant effects for nature connectedness, mindfulness and life satisfaction, but not pro-nature conservation behaviour. A significant multivariate time x group interaction was observed whereby univariate ANOVA revealed time x group interactions for pro-conservation behaviour and nature connectedness. Post hoc t-tests for pro-conservation behaviour indicated no group differences at baseline, but higher pro-conservation behaviour post-intervention in the experimental condition. For nature connectedness, post-hoc t-tests indicated higher levels in the experimental condition at all three time points; whilst change in nature connectedness from baseline to post-intervention was greater in the experimental group than the control. There was no group difference in change in nature connectedness from baseline to follow-up. Data was collected during late spring/early summer which may result in seasonal effects. Future research could address this by collecting data throughout the year. This research demonstrates support for relationships between nature connectedness and both pro-conservation behaviour and life satisfaction in children and shows that short interventions can impact on nature connectedness and pro-conservation behaviour, although the impact on nature connectedness was relatively short-lived

Ratio of sickle-cell anemia hemoglobin to normal hemoglobin in sicklemics

It has been observed that all of the erythrocytes of individuals with sickle-cell trait undergo sickling and that a greater reduction in partial pressure of oxygen is required to produce complete sickling in sickle-cell trait erythrocytes than in those of sickle-cell anemics (1). These observations indicate that each sicklemia erythrocyte contains both normal hemoglobin and sickle-cell anemia hemoglobin. In a pooled sample of blood from five sicklemic individuals the ratio of t,he abnormal to the normal hemoglobin was found to be 39:61 (7). In the light of this knowledge it was considered pertinent to ascertain the extent of the variation of the ratio of sickle-cell anemia hemoglobin (SCA hemoglobin) to normal hemoglobin in sicklemic individuals and the effect of various factors on this ratio. Such information not only would increase the knowledge of sickle-cell disease but also might shed some light on the general problem of the control of hemoglobin anabolism

Use of Cytochrome c Oxidase Subunit I (COI) Nucleotide Sequences for Identification of the Korean Luciliinae Fly Species (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in Forensic Investigations

Blowflies, especially species belonging to the subfamily Luciliinae, are the first insects to lay eggs on corpses in Korea. Fast and accurate species identification has been a key task for forensic entomologists. Because conventional morphologic identification methods have many limitations with respect to forensic practice, molecular methods have been proposed to identify fly species of forensic importance. To this end, the authors amplified and sequenced the full length of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of the Luciliinae fly species collected in Korea. The results showed the COI sequences are instrumental in identifying Luciliinae fly species. However, when compared with previously reported data, considerable inconsistencies were noted. Hemipyrellia ligurriens data in this study differed significantly from two of the five pre-existing data. Two closely related species, Lucilia illustris and Lucilia caesar, showed an overlap of COI haplotypes due to four European sequences. The results suggest that more individuals from various geographic regions and additive nuclear DNA markers should be analyzed, and morphologic identification keys must be reconfirmed to overcome these inconsistencies

Improving primary healthcare workforce retention: in small rural and remote health communities: How important is ongoing education and training?

The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development Strategy

The good things children notice in nature: An extended framework for reconnecting children with nature

This research identifies themes emerging from a children’s writing task, where they wrote about good things they noticed in nature over a five day period. Eighty four children aged nine to eleven participated, resulting in 847 written statements. Content analysis using an emergent coding approach identified ten themes, with “Active Animals” being the most frequently occurring theme. Combining the themes with Author (2017a, b, c) pathways to nature connection provides an extended framework to inform children’s activity programmes, design of school grounds and urban spaces, aiming to connect children with nature. Future research could extend the framework into a practitioner’s tool kit.N/

Nonsurgical Transurethral Radiofrequency Collagen Denaturation: Results at Three Years after Treatment

Objective. To assess treatment efficacy and quality of life in women with stress urinary incontinence 3 years after treatment with nonsurgical transurethral radiofrequency collagen denaturation. Methods. This prospective study included 139 women with stress urinary incontinence due to bladder outlet hypermobility. Radiofrequency collagen denaturation was performed using local anesthesia in an office setting. Assessments included incontinence quality of life (I-QOL) and urogenital distress inventory (UDI-6) instruments. Results. In total, 139 women were enrolled and 136 women were treated (mean age, 47 years). At 36 months, intent-to-treat analysis (n = 139) revealed significant improvements in quality of life. Mean I-QOL score improved 17 points from baseline (P = .0004), while mean UDI-6 score improved (decreased) 19 points (P = .0005). Conclusions. Transurethral collagen denaturation is a low-risk, office-based procedure that results in durable quality-of-life improvements in a significant proportion of women for as long as 3 years

The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency in social anxiety

[Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In: R. G. Heimberg, M. R. Liebowitz, D. A. Hope, & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: diagnosis, assessment, and treatment (pp. 69–93). New York: Guildford Press] cognitive model of social phobia suggests that both public and private sources of information contribute to the construction of the self as a social object, which is thought to maintain the disorder. This study used two concepts developed in social psychology that might help to explain the processes that contribute to the development of this constructed self. These two concepts are the spotlight effect [Gilovich, T., Medvec, V. H., & Savitsky, K. (2000). The spotlight effect in social judgment: an egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 211–222] and the illusion of transparency [Gilovich, T., Medvec, V. H., & Savitsky, K. (1998). The Illusion of transparency: biased assessments of others’ ability to read one’s own emotional states. Journal of personality and social psychology, 75(2), 332–346]. Participants performed a memory task under either a low or a high social-evaluative condition. In the high social-evaluative condition, participants reported higher levels of the spotlight effect and more negative evaluation of task performance, compared to participants in the low social-evaluative condition. There were no differences between the two conditions in levels of the illusion of transparency. Surprisingly, however, in the low socialevaluative condition, participants reported higher levels of the illusion of transparency than the spotlight effect, whereas, in the high social-evaluative condition, they reported the opposite. Results suggest that the spotlight effect may be specific to social-evaluative concerns, whereas, the illusion of transparency may represent more general features of social anxiety concerns. Implications of the results for Clark and Wells’ cognitive model of social phobia model are discussed

Investigation of bacterial diversity in the feces of cattle fed different diets

The objective of this study is to investigate individual animal variation of bovine fecal microbiota including as affected by diets. Fecal samples were collected from 426 cattle fed 1 of 3 diets typically fed to feedlot cattle: 1) 143 steers fed finishing diet (83% dry-rolled corn, 13% corn silage, and 4% supplement), 2) 147 steers fed late growing diet (66% dry-rolled corn, 26% corn silage, and 8% supplement), and 3) 136 heifers fed early growing diet (70% corn silage and 30% alfalfa haylage). Bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons were determined from individual fecal samples using next-generation pyrosequencing technology. A total of 2,149,008 16S rRNA gene sequences from 333 cattle with at least 2,000 sequences were analyzed. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were dominant phyla in all fecal samples. At the genus level, Oscillibacter, Turicibacter, Roseburia, Fecalibacterium, Coprococcus, Clostridium, Prevotella, and Succinivibrio were represented by more than 1% of total sequences. However, numerous sequences could not be assigned to a known genus. Dominant unclassified groups were unclassified Ruminococcaceae and unclassified Lachnospiraceae that could be classified to a family but not to a genus. These dominant genera and unclassified groups differed (P \u3c 0.001) with diets. A total of 176,692 operational taxonomic units (OTU) were identified in combination across all the 333 cattle. Only 2,359 OTU were shared across 3 diet groups. UniFrac analysis showed that bacterial communities in cattle feces were greatly affected by dietary differences. This study indicates that the community structure of fecal microbiota in cattle is greatly affected by diet, particularly between forage- and concentrate-based diets