Understanding the Beneficial Relationship between Nature and Well-Being in Daily Life– a Multi-Method Mediational Investigation

Nature is thought to enrich well-being: The more time people spend in nature, the happier they feel. But how consistent is this link, and what mechanisms might account for the salutogenic effects of nature on well-being? The aim of this thesis was to investigate the beneficial effects of nature on emotional well-being in people’s daily lives and to deepen the scientific understanding of the mechanism(s) linking nature to emotional well-being. Following a brief overview of this thesis (Chapter 1- Introduction), I discuss the current literature on nature and well-being, focusing on theories of biophilia and attentional theories that might account for the nature and well-being relationship (Chapter 2- Literature Review). In the literature review, I identify several gaps in current research and discuss one possible mediator of the link between nature and well-being - the concept of fascination (defined as the extent to which attention is drawn effortlessly by objects in the environment). Next, I present a series of five empirical studies (Study 1-5) consisting of one correlational daily diary study and four field experiments that collectively sought to test the relationship between nature and two markers of well-being – increased positive affect and decreased negative affect. Study 1-2 explored and established fascination as a reliable mediator of the relationship between nature and positive affect (PA). Study 3-4 replicated fascination as a mediator of the nature-PA link and also eliminated two other potential mediators - mindfulness (Study 3) and heart rate variability as a physiological indicator (Study 4). After establishing fascination as the standard mediator which explains how nature may influence positive affect (PA), Study 5 investigated several other potential factors which together mediated the nature and PA link (fascination, fluency, and savoring). Path analyses in Study 5 using multi-level structural equation modeling (MSEM) suggested that daily fascination, fluency, and savoring collectively mediated the link between nature and PA: experiencing more fascination in nature contributed to greater fluency in nature, and this fascination-fluency circuit enhanced the experience of savoring, contributing to increases in daily PA. Overall, the results across all five studies confirmed the positive relationship between nature and PA in daily life, and suggested that the cognitive quality of experiences in nature (fascination and fluency) and emotion regulation following nature (savoring) may explain why people feel happier after spending time in nature. In the General Discussion, I discuss these findings and the contribution made by this thesis to the literature on nature and emotional well-being

Stress resistance and C1 metabolism involved in plant colonization of a methanotroph Methylosinus sp. B4S.

Methanotrophs are widespread and have been isolated from various environments including the phyllosphere. In this study, we characterized the plant colonization by Methylosinus sp. B4S, an α-proteobacterial methanotroph isolated from plant leaf. The gfp-tagged Methylosinus sp. B4S cells were observed to colonize Arabidopsis leaf surfaces by forming aggregates. We cloned and sequenced the general stress response genes, phyR, nepR and ecfG, from Methylosinus sp. B4S. In vitro analysis showed that the phyR expression level was increased after heat shock challenge, and phyR was shown to be involved in resistance to heat shock and UV light. In the phyllospheric condition, the gene expression level of phyR as well as mmoX and mxaF was found to be relatively high, compared with methane-grown liquid cultures. The phyR-deletion strain as well as the wild-type strain inoculated on Arabidopsis leaves proliferated at the initial phase and then gradually decreased during plant colonization. These results have shed light firstly on the importance of general stress resistance and C1 metabolism in methanotroph living in the phyllosphere

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

岩手医科大学歯学部口腔病理学教室における病理組織検査の報告 : 2002年度の集計

Pathological examinations undertaken in our department in 2002 were statistically reviewed. There were 602 examinations for 460 cases (Male 227, Female 233) Cases were most frequent in patients in their sixth decade (99 cases) According to histological classifications of the lesions (mean age±SD), odontogenic tumors consisted of 2 ameloblastomas (65 5±12 5), 4 odontomas (24 3±12 2) and 1 odontogenic ghost cell carcinoma (22) The non-odontogenic benign lesions were 29 fibrous hyperplasias (57 0±17 4), 23 hyperkeratoses (leukoplaskia) (57 3±16 2), 10 papillomas (62 1±143), 9 irritation fibromas (63 0±13 4), 8 hemangiomas (57 5±9 2), 6 papillary hyperplasias (65 7±13 7), 5 osteomas (exostosis, enostosis) (55 2±8 0), 4 epithelial dysplasias (60 8±13 3) and 4 penapical cemental dysplasias (45 3±5 7), 3 pleomorphic adenomas (44 3±5 7) Non-odontogenic malignant tumors consisted of 56 squamous cell carcinomas (658±126), 3 malignant lymphomas (68 7±20 1) The odontogenic cysts consisted of 37 radicular cysts (42 8± 15 7), 27 dentigerous cysts (42 9±186) and 16 primordial cysts (43 4±18 7) The non-odontogenic cysts consisted of 30 mucous retention cysts (mucoceles) (22 5±13 7), 18 postoperative maxillary cysts (56 7±9 1), 5 incisive canal cysts (49 8±3 7) and 2 simple bone cysts (13 0±1 4). Also found were 35 chronic inflammatory (granulation) tissues (54 7±14 1), 20 chronic localized hyperplastic gingivitises (epuhses) (50 4±16 8), 13 Sjogren syndromes (54 7±13 0), 10 sialohthiases (56 8±13 3), 7 lichen planuses (64 3±83), 7 dental granulomas (32 7±6 8) and 5 chronic (inflammatory) ulcers (61 0±7 5)

Abnormal axon guidance signals and reduced interhemispheric connection via anterior commissure in neonates of marmoset ASD model

In autism spectrum disorder (ASD), disrupted functional and structural connectivity in the social brain has been suggested as the core biological mechanism underlying the social recognition deficits of this neurodevelopmental disorder. In this study, we aimed to identify genetic and neurostructural abnormalities at birth in a non-human primate model of ASD, the common marmoset with maternal exposure to valproic acid (VPA), which has been reported to display social recognition deficit in adulthood. Using a comprehensive gene expression analysis, we found that 20 genes were significantly downregulated in VPA-exposed neonates. Of these, Frizzled3 (FZD3) and PIK3CA were identified in an axon guidance signaling pathway. FZD3 is essential for the normal development of the anterior commissure (AC) and corpus callosum (CC); hence, we performed diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging with a 7-Tesla scanner to measure the midsagittal sizes of these structures. We found that the AC size in VPA-exposed neonates was significantly smaller than that in age-matched controls, while the CC size did not differ. These results suggest that downregulation of the genes related to axon guidance and decreased AC size in neonatal primates may be linked to social brain dysfunctions that can happen later in life

Future change of daily precipitation indices in Japan: a stochastic weather generator-based bootstrap approach to provide probabilistic climate information

This study proposes the stochastic weather generator (WG)-based bootstrap approach to provide the probabilistic climate change information on mean precipitation as well as extremes, which applies a WG (i.e., LARS-WG) to daily precipitation under the present-day and future climate conditions derived from dynamical and statistical downscaling models. Additionally, the study intercompares the precipitation change scenarios derived from the multimodel ensemble for Japan focusing on five precipitation indices (mean precipitation, MEA; number of wet days, FRE; mean precipitation amount per wet day, INT; maximum number of consecutive dry days, CDD; and 90th percentile value of daily precipitation amount in wet days, Q90). Three regional climate models (RCMs: NHRCM, NRAMS and TWRF) are nested into the high-resolution atmosphere-ocean coupled general circulation model (MIROC3.2HI AOGCM) for A1B emission scenario. LARS-WG is validated and used to generate 2000 years of daily precipitation from sets of grid-specific parameters derived from the 20-year simulations from the RCMs and statistical downscaling model (SDM: CDFDM). Then 100 samples of the 20-year of continuous precipitation series are resampled, and mean values of precipitation indices are computed, which represents the randomness inherent in daily precipitation data. Based on these samples, the probabilities of change in the indices and the joint occurrence probability of extremes (CDD and Q90) are computed. High probabilities are found for the increases in heavy precipitation amount in spring and summer and elongated consecutive dry days in winter over Japan in the period 2081-2100, relative to 1981-2000. The joint probability increases in most areas throughout the year, suggesting higher potential risk of droughts and excess water-related disasters (e. g., floods) in a 20 year period in the future. The proposed approach offers more flexible way in estimating probabilities of multiple types of precipitation extremes including their joint probability compared to conventional approaches

Understanding the Beneficial Relationship between Nature and Well-Being in Daily Life– a Multi-Method Mediational Investigation

Nature is thought to enrich well-being: The more time people spend in nature, the happier they feel. But how consistent is this link, and what mechanisms might account for the salutogenic effects of nature on well-being? The aim of this thesis was to investigate the beneficial effects of nature on emotional well-being in people’s daily lives and to deepen the scientific understanding of the mechanism(s) linking nature to emotional well-being. Following a brief overview of this thesis (Chapter 1- Introduction), I discuss the current literature on nature and well-being, focusing on theories of biophilia and attentional theories that might account for the nature and well-being relationship (Chapter 2- Literature Review). In the literature review, I identify several gaps in current research and discuss one possible mediator of the link between nature and well-being - the concept of fascination (defined as the extent to which attention is drawn effortlessly by objects in the environment). Next, I present a series of five empirical studies (Study 1-5) consisting of one correlational daily diary study and four field experiments that collectively sought to test the relationship between nature and two markers of well-being – increased positive affect and decreased negative affect. Study 1-2 explored and established fascination as a reliable mediator of the relationship between nature and positive affect (PA). Study 3-4 replicated fascination as a mediator of the nature-PA link and also eliminated two other potential mediators - mindfulness (Study 3) and heart rate variability as a physiological indicator (Study 4). After establishing fascination as the standard mediator which explains how nature may influence positive affect (PA), Study 5 investigated several other potential factors which together mediated the nature and PA link (fascination, fluency, and savoring). Path analyses in Study 5 using multi-level structural equation modeling (MSEM) suggested that daily fascination, fluency, and savoring collectively mediated the link between nature and PA: experiencing more fascination in nature contributed to greater fluency in nature, and this fascination-fluency circuit enhanced the experience of savoring, contributing to increases in daily PA. Overall, the results across all five studies confirmed the positive relationship between nature and PA in daily life, and suggested that the cognitive quality of experiences in nature (fascination and fluency) and emotion regulation following nature (savoring) may explain why people feel happier after spending time in nature. In the General Discussion, I discuss these findings and the contribution made by this thesis to the literature on nature and emotional well-being

Improving LTE/EPC signaling for sporadic data with a control-plane based transmission procedure

International audienceThe architecture and the protocols of LTE/EPC were designed to deliver high transmission rates with QoS requirements. In order to be able to guarantee different levels of QoS each transmission is based on a bearer, which need to be set up within the network. It then requires to store contexts in the various entities of the network and to set up several tunnels or connections both in the user and the control planes. We consider the Short Message Service (SMS), which is a very simple but popular service and analyze the number of signaling messages that are exchanged within the core network and the access network to transmit one data message. We then propose a new procedure based on a set of simple messages to transport such isolated messages only in the control plane. We show that this procedure may generate additional signaling in some cases but is efficient as soon as the proportion of sporadic traffic is not negligible. This procedure is generic and may be used for any type of sporadic traffic, which will be increased in the next few years with the deployment of wirelessly connected smart devices

LTE radio configurations and capacity estimations for voice service

The LTE is a powerful technology concept for high-capacity high-data rate cellular systems. It is an OFDM-based radio access architecture that will provide, among other services, voice connectivity. The realisation of this service on the complex radio access network of LTE requires specific radio configurations. In this contribution, we would like to study the voice service of LTE at the RRM, Radio Resource Management, level while taking into account the QoS, Quality of Service, requirements. The objectives of this presentation are to provide : - short and clear summary of the LTE radio access ; - LTE session establishment concepts and relation to the QoS management ; - simple capacity estimations for different environment configurations