Frontiers in Mental Health and the Environment

This book sheds light on the influence of the environment on people’s mental health. To what extent are exposures to green space, air pollution, natural disasters, etc. related to depression or suicide? Such questions are relevant for both scientists and policy-makers. A rich collection of chapters subsumes current research frontiers originating from disciplines such as geography, public health, epidemiology, environmental science, etc. The topics covered in the book are of interest to researchers, practitioners, and professionals. The editor hopes that the scientific outcome of this book will stimulate debate about how the environment affects mental health outcomes

Short-term exposure sequences and anxiety symptoms: A time series clustering of smartphone-based mobility trajectories

Background Short-term environmental exposures, including green space, air pollution, and noise, have been suggested to affect health. However, the evidence is limited to aggregated exposure estimates which do not allow the capture of daily spatiotemporal exposure sequences. We aimed to (1) determine individuals’ sequential exposure patterns along their daily mobility paths and (2) examine whether and to what extent these exposure patterns were associated with anxiety symptoms. Methods We cross-sectionally tracked 141 participants aged 18–65 using their global positioning system (GPS) enabled smartphones for up to 7 days in the Netherlands. We estimated their location-dependent exposures for green space, fine particulate matter, and noise along their moving trajectories at 10-min intervals. The resulting time-resolved exposure sequences were then partitioned using multivariate time series clustering with dynamic time warping as the similarity measure. Respondents’ anxiety symptoms were assessed with the Generalized Anxiety Disorders-7 questionnaire. We fitted linear regressions to assess the associations between sequential exposure patterns and anxiety symptoms. Results We found four distinctive daily sequential exposure patterns across the participants. Exposure patterns differed in terms of exposure levels and daily variations. Regression results revealed that participants with a “moderately health-threatening” exposure pattern were significantly associated with fewer anxiety symptoms than participants with a “strongly health-threatening” exposure pattern. Conclusions Our findings support that environmental exposures’ daily sequence and short-term magnitudes may be associated with mental health. We urge more time-resolved mobility-based assessments in future analyses of environmental health effects in daily life

Деякі особливості інноваційного розвитку Західного регіону України в контексті конкурентноспроможності

Головною метою державної інноваційної політики визначено створення соціально-економічних, організаційних і правових умов для ефективного відтворення, розвитку й використання науково-технічного потенціалу країни, забезпечення впровадження, виробництва і реалізації нових видів конкурентноздатної продукці

Urban greenery and mental wellbeing in adults: Cross-sectional mediation analyses on multiple pathways across different greenery measures

Multiple mechanisms have been proposed to explain how greenery enhances their mental wellbeing. Mediation studies, however, focus on a limited number of mechanisms and rely on remotely sensed greenery measures, which do not accurately capture how neighborhood greenery is perceived on the ground. To examine: 1) how streetscape and remote sensing-based greenery affect people's mental wellbeing in Guangzhou, China; 2) whether and, if so, to what extent the associations are mediated by physical activity, stress, air quality and noise, and social cohesion; and 3) whether differences in the mediation across the streetscape greenery and NDVI exposure metrics occurred. Mental wellbeing was quantified by the WHO-5 wellbeing index. Greenery measures were extracted at the neighborhood level: 1) streetscape greenery from street view data via a convolutional neural network, and 2) the NDVI remote sensing images. Single and multiple mediation analyses with multilevel regressions were conducted. Streetscape and NDVI greenery were weakly and positively, but not significantly, correlated. Our regression results revealed that streetscape greenery and NDVI were, individually and jointly, positively associated with mental wellbeing. Significant partial mediators for the streetscape greenery were physical activity, stress, air quality and noise, and social cohesion; together, they explained 62% of the association. For NDVI, only physical activity and social cohesion were significant partial mediators, accounting for 22% of the association. Mental health and wellbeing and both streetscape and satellite-derived greenery seem to be both directly correlated and indirectly mediated. Our findings signify that both greenery measures capture different aspects of natural environments and may contribute to people's wellbeing by means of different mechanisms

Natural environments and suicide mortality in the Netherlands: a cross-sectional, ecological study

Background: Natural outdoor environments, such as green spaces (ie, grass, forests, or parks), blue spaces (ie, visible bodies of fresh or salt water), and coastal proximity, have been increasingly shown to promote mental health. However, little is known about how and the extent to which these natural environments are associated with suicide mortality. Our aim was to investigate whether the availability of green space and blue space within people's living environments and living next to the coast are protective against suicide mortality. Methods: In this cross-sectional, ecological study, we analysed officially confirmed deaths by suicide between 2005 and 2014 per municipality in the Netherlands. We calculated indexes to measure the proportion of green space and blue space per municipality and the coastal proximity of each municipality using a geographical information system. We fitted Bayesian hierarchical Poisson regressions to assess associations between suicide risk, green space, blue space, and coastal proximity, adjusted for risk and protective factors. Findings: Municipalities with a large proportion of green space (relative risk 0·879, 95% credibility interval 0·779–0·991) or a moderate proportion of green space (0·919, 0·846–0·998) showed a reduced suicide risk compared with municipalities with less green space. Green space did not differ according to urbanicity in relation to suicide. Neither blue space nor coastal proximity was associated with suicide risk. The geographical variation in the residual relative suicide risk was substantial and the south of the Netherlands was at high risk. Interpretation: Our findings support the notion that exposure to natural environments, particularly to greenery, might have a role in reducing suicide mortality. If confirmed by future studies on an individual level, the consideration of environmental exposures might enrich suicide prevention programmes

Оборудование для испытания листовых конструкционных материалов при двухосном растяжении. Сообщение 2. Испытания двухосным нагружением в плоскости листа

Рассмотрены конструктивные особенности оборудования для механических испытаний листовых конструкционных материалов в условиях двухосного статического, циклического и динамического нагружения. Предложены оригинальные решения проблем, связанных с проведением усталостных испытаний крестообразных образцов без применения сложных гидравлических систем и динамических испытаний с использованием простейших испытательных машин на одноосное растяжение-сжатие.Розглянуто конструктивні особливості устаткування для механічних випробувань листових конструкційних матеріалів в умовах двовісного статичного, циклічного та динамічного навантаження. Запропоновано оригінальні розв’язки ряду проблем, що пов’язані з використанням хрестоподібних зразків для випробувань на втому без застосування складних гідравлічних систем та для динамічних випробувань за допомогою найпростіших випробувальних машин на одновісний розтяг-стиск.Original methods of mechanical testing of sheet materials under conditions of biaxial static, cyclic, and dynamic loading are described. Solutions were suggested for a number of problems related to the use of cruciform specimens in fatigue tests without employment of complex hydraulic systems and in dynamic tests in uniaxial tension-compression using mechanical testing machines