Keep calm and go out : urban nature exposure, mental health, and perceived value during the COVID-19 lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of incorporating nature-based solutions in urban design, in order to create sustainable and resilient cities. Inspired by these events, the present study aims at exploring the mental health benefits of nature exposure during the outbreak. Secondarily, we investigate changes in use patterns towards urban green spaces (UGS) and urban blue spaces (UBS) and whether extreme conditions, such as these of a lockdown, can lead to an increase in people’s appreciation of urban nature. Through an online survey, we observed that the pandemic resulted in a decrease in the frequency of visitation to UGS/UBS (p < 0.001). Significant differences were found for exercise (p < 0.001) and socialization (p < 0.05) as main drivers for visiting urban nature pre- and post-lockdown. Accordingly, visitation rates for forests (p < 0.05), playgrounds (p < 0.001), and the sea (p < 0.001) differed significantly when comparing the two periods. In people’s perception, UGS/UBS are important for the urban fabric (89%). Our structural equation model indicated that nature exposure had a beneficial effect on participants’ mental health (p < 0.001). Pathways that explain the relationship between nature exposure and post- lockdown value were nature relatedness, motivation, and perceived importance of UGS/UBS. No mediation could be extracted for nature exposure and mental health. Our findings show the positive association between nature exposure and mental health improvement, especially in times of crisis, as well as a shift in the “value domain” towards urban nature

Differential DARC/ACKR1 expression distinguishes venular from non-venular endothelial cells in murine tissues

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant AI112521 and the John and Virginia Kaneb Fellowship

Οπτική εξέταση μορφολογικών αλλαγών κατά την UV ακτινοβόληση van der waals υμενίων

Explosive boiling has been proposed, by extensive theoretical and experimental work, to be one of the dominant mechanisms in the UV nanosecond laser ablation. For a better understanding of the processes involved in material ejection, simple systems have to be examined. Van der Waals molecular solids provide a unique medium for studying these issues. This thesis concerns optical examination of the temporal evolution of morphological changes induced to van der Waals films, upon irradiation below and above the ablation threshold, in order to quantitatively describe the explosive boiling process. Neat toluene film is studied extensively, because it is highly transparent and, thus, optical examination is possible, via optical probing techniques. This thesis continues the previous work to examine in quantitative way the explosive boiling. Parameters examined: a. the dependence on laser pulses. It is shown that this is a critical parameter for the reproducibility of the results and that there is a high sensitivity of bubble formation on the structure/morphology of the film. b. neat toluene is compared with mixtures composed of toluene with a dopant ((CH3)2O or c- C6H12) to show how the phenomenon depends on chemical composition. The most important result is that bubble formation is much lower for the more volatile dopant, which is opposite to what a simple theory of explosive boiling predicts. This directly demonstrates the competition between explosive boiling and surface desorption. c. a preliminary examination of solid vs. liquid toluene. Bubble formation and growth is indicated to be consistent with material ejection. However, several discrepancies exist between theoretical estimations and experiment. The most important one is that ablation is predicted to occur at temperatures close to the spinodal limit, whereas, experimentally, ablation is observed at temperatures well below that limit. Overall, we claim that the quantitative description of explosive boiling is not so well described by the theoretical models. Therefore, theoretical estimations will have to be improved, by taking into account all these factors that affect bubble formation and growth

Δυναμική αλλαγών φάσης κατά την ακτινοβόληση με υπεριώδες λέιζερ μοριακών στερεών

The main objective of this thesis has been to examine the phase transformations induced in molecular systems (solids) upon irradiation with nanosecond laser pulses. To this end we choose toluene (C6H5CH3), which upon vapor condensation at low temperatures, forms a glass of high optical quality. Thus, its structural changes upon UV (248 nm) laser irradiation can be probed via optical transmission/reflection and imaging. We demonstrate that distinctly different structural processes occur in different fluence ranges. Irradiation in the ~15-30 mJ/cm2 range results in ‘devitrification’, whereas irradiation at higher fluences results in annealed glass re-formation. Devitrification-vitrification can be alternately effected by appropriately tuning the laser fluence. The capability of pulsed laser irradiation for inducing phase transformations in molecular systems provides the potential for high time-resolved studies of the dynamics of molecular glasses. In particular, the dynamics of the laser-induced vitrification/devitrification shows differences from that of the phase changes induced in conventional thermogravimetric studies. We ascribe these differences in the orders-of-magnitude higher rates of heating and cooling involved in laser heating. Most importantly, at higher laser fluences, but still well below the ablation threshold, (homogeneous) bubble formation at 60-100ns is demonstrated. The density and size of the bubbles increases with increasing laser fluence. However, below the ablation threshold, the bubbles eventually decay (at ∼100 -200 ns). In contrast, above the ablation threshold, material ejection (plume formation) is observed following bubble formation. The observation of bubble formation at fluences well below the ablation threshold, in combination with the previous mass spectrometric study of the desorption dynamics, demonstrates that ablation is due to explosive boiling. This is the first demonstration of melting and subsequent superheating of molecular systems in UV laser irradiation which shows that, in the nanosecond case, ablation is due to ‘explosive boiling’ due to overheating of the film. Most importantly, nucleation is observed at fluences/ temperatures well below those indicated by classical nucleation theory. This discrepancy cannot be ascribed to the factors/ limitations invoked in corresponding studies on liquids (e.g. heterogeneous bubble formation). Thus, bubble nucleation/ growth is not quantitatively well described in laser irradiation of solids. Most importantly, a pronounced dependence of bubble nucleation/ growth on the structure of the as-deposited solid is observed. This is most surprising given that melting should be much faster and, thus, bubble formation should not keep any ‘memory’ of the solid structure. This result demonstrates that the simple ‘solid to-liquid-to bubble nucleation-to gas’ model may not be applicable. We suggest that nucleation occurs competitively with melting and, thus, provides the means for the observed dependence. Tentatively, we ascribe these effects to the sensitivity/ dependence of bubble nucleation on the extent of free volume, presence of defects, variations in the crystallinity etc. in the solid. These studies have been extended to the examination of the phase transformations induced in the irradiation of dopant/toluene bi-component cryogenic systems, where dopants include (CH3)2O, C6H12, C10H22. Qualitatively, similar dynamics as for the neat C6H5CH3 films/solids are observed, however, in their case, segregation effects dominate the processes. In previous studies of our group on laser ablation of molecular cryogenic solids it was found that there is qualitative agreement between the experimental results and Molecular Dynamics simulations on these systems. However, this agreement has often been questioned, due to various simplifications introduced by the simulations. Quantitatively, we find that below the ablation threshold, the activation energies of the desorbates are consistent with the energies specified by thermal desorption spectroscopy, while above the ablation threshold there is no such correlation. However, the temperatures estimated at the ablation thresholds are much lower than the temperatures assumed by theoretical models and MD simulations (spinodal temperatures). Both results suggest that ablation is due to ‘phase explosion’ (i.e., by a process which entails long-scale coherent motions of the atoms /particles of the system). We indicate that explosive boiling is the responsible process, entailing localized bubble formation at temperatures between the boiling temperature (at the external pressure) and well below those predicted by theoretical models. Matrix-Assisted-Pulsed-Laser-Evaporation (MAPLE) has emerged as a highly promising technique for the deposition of polymers and biopolymers in intact and functional form. However, mechanistic understanding of the procedure is still limited. Herein, we examine laser (248 nm) induced desorption from condensed CHCl3 solid, which has been employed as potential matrix in MAPLE. In view of the result of the pronounced increase in solid absorptivity, which is attributed to the formation and accumulation of absorbing photoproducts, the mechanistic difficulties indicated in studies employing multipulse irradiation protocols are resolved. A number of additional implications are also discussed. Finally, a preliminary study of explosive boiling in the UV (248 nm) laser irradiation of solutions of polystyrene and metallic nanoparticles of different sizes is presented. In this case, bubble formation at 40-100 ns is observed. Bubble formation is facilitated in the case of the polystyrene nanoparticles, evidently due to the formation of gaseous species by the photolysis of the nanoparticles

Giving Birth in Unpredictable Conditions: Association between Parents&rsquo; COVID-19 Related Concerns, Family Functioning, Dyadic Coping, Perceived Social Support and Depressive Symptoms

Background: The way postpartum parents&rsquo; COVID-19-related concerns are associated with the family environment, support resources and depressive symptoms areunder-investigated. Methods: Two hundred and forty-three new parents (132 mothers, 111 fathers) completed self-report questionnaires within an 8-week period after birth. Parental concerns for COVID-19-related life changes were assessed with the COVID-19 Questionnaire, perceived social support with the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, perceived family functioning with the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales IV Package, dyadic coping behaviors with the Dyadic Coping Inventory and maternal/paternal postnatal depression with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Results: (a) Higher levels of COVID-19-related concerns about daily life were associated with lower levels of family communication, satisfaction and increased depressive symptomatology in both parents, and with lower levels of family functioning in mothers; (b) Maternal health care COVID-19-related concerns were linked with lower levels of family communication, lower perceived social support and with an increase in maternal depressive symptoms; and (c) COVID-19-related concerns about neonate hospitalization were associated with increased maternal depressive symptoms. Conclusion: &Tau;hese findings suggest that COVID-19-related concerns had a common negative effect on both postpartum mothers&rsquo; and fathers&rsquo; mental health and on certain aspects of family functioning

A world of lies

This article reports two worldwide studies of stereotypes about liars. These studies are carried out in 75 different countries and 43 different languages. In Study 1, participants respond to the open-ended question "How can you tell when people are lying?" In Study 2, participants complete a questionnaire about lying. These two studies reveal a dominant pan-cultural stereotype: that liars avert gaze. The authors identify other common beliefs and offer a social control interpretation