Cognitive facilitation following intentional odor exposure

This paper reviews evidence that, in addition to incidental olfactory pollutants, intentional odor delivery can impact cognitive operations both positively and negatively. Evidence for cognitive facilitation/interference is reviewed alongside four potential explanations for odor-induced effects. It is concluded that the pharmacological properties of odors can induce changes in cognition. However, these effects can be accentuated/attenuated by the shift in mood following odor exposure, expectancy of cognitive effects, and cues to behavior via the contextual association with the odor. It is proposed that greater consideration is required in the intentional utilization of odors within both industrial and private locations, since differential effects are observed for odors with positive hedonic qualities

The Living Planet Index (LPI) for migratory freshwater fish:Technical Report

Migratory freshwater fish (i.e. fish that use freshwater systems, either partly or exclusively) occur around the world and travel between critical habitats to complete their life cycle. They are disproportionately threatened compared to other fish groups but global trends in abun-dance, regional differences and drivers of patterns have not yet been comprehensively described. Using abundance information from the Living Planet Database, we found widespread declines between 1970 and 2016 in tropical and temperate areas and across all regions, all migration categories and all populations. Globally, migratory freshwater fish have declined by an average of 76%. Average declines have been more pronounced in Europe (-93%) and Latin America & Caribbean (-84%), and least in North America (-28%). The percentage of species represented was highest in the two temperate regions of Europe and North America (almost 50%). For the continents of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America, data was highly deficient, and we advise against making conclusions on the status of migratory freshwater SUMMARYfish in these areas. Potamodromous fish, have declined more than fish migrating between fresh and salt water on average (-83% vs -73%). Populations that are known to be affected by threats anywhere along their migration routes show an average decline of 94% while those not threatened at the population level have increased on av-erage. Habitat degradation, alteration, and loss accounted for around a half of threats to migratory fish, while over-exploitation accounted for around one-third. Protected, regulated and exploited populations decreased less than unmanaged ones, with the most often recorded actions being related to fisheries regulations, including fishing restrictions, no-take zones, fisheries closures, bycatch reductions and stocking (these were most com-mon in North America and Europe). Recorded reasons for observed increases tended to be mostly unknown or un-described, especially in tropical regions. This information is needed to assemble a more complete picture to assess how declines in migratory freshwater fishes could be reduced or reversed. Our findings confirm that migratory freshwater fish may be more threatened throughout their range than previously documented

How victim age affects the context and timing of child sexual abuse: applying the routine activities approach to the first sexual abuse incident

The aim of this study was to examine from the routine activities approach how victim age might help to explain the timing, context and nature of offenders’ first known contact sexual abuse incident. One-hundred adult male child sexual abusers (M = 45.8 years, SD = 12.2; range = 20–84) were surveyed about the first time they had sexual contact with a child. Afternoon and early evening (between 3 pm and 9 pm) was the most common time in which sexual contact first occurred. Most incidents occurred in a home. Two-thirds of incidents occurred when another person was in close proximity, usually elsewhere in the home. Older victims were more likely to be sexually abused by someone outside their families and in the later hours of the day compared to younger victims. Proximity of another person (adult and/or child) appeared to have little effect on offenders’ decisions to abuse, although it had some impact on the level of intrusion and duration of these incidents. Overall, the findings lend support to the application of the routine activities approach for considering how contextual risk factors (i.e., the timing and relationship context) change as children age, and raise questions about how to best conceptualize guardianship in the context of child sexual abuse. These factors should be key considerations when devising and implementing sexual abuse prevention strategies and for informing theory development

Intra-week spatial-temporal patterns of crime

Since its original publication, routine activity theory has proven most instructive for understanding temporal patterns in crime. The most prominent of the temporal crime patterns investigated is seasonality: crime (most often assault) increases during the summer months and decreases once routine activities are less often outside. Despite the rather widespread literature on the seasonality of crime, there is very little research investigating temporal patterns of crime at shorter time intervals such as within the week or even within the day. This paper contributes to this literature through a spatial-temporal analysis of crime patterns for different days of the week. It is found that temporal patterns are present for different days of the week (more crime on weekends, as would be expected) and there is a spatial component to that temporal change. Specifically, aside from robbery and sexual assault at the micro-spatial unit of analysis (street segments) the spatial patterns of crime changed. With regard to the spatial pattern changes, we found that assaults and theft from vehicle had their spatial patterns change in predictable ways on Saturdays: assaults increased in the bar district and theft from vehicles increased in the downtown and recreational car park areas

A review of air pollution impact on subjective well-being: Survey versus visual psychophysics

Air pollution is a worldwide environmental and health issue, especially in major developing countries. A recent World Health Organization report shows about 3 million deaths in the world in 2012 are due to ambient air pollution and China and India are the countries with the most severe challenge. Air pollution influences people's thought and experience of their lives directly by visual perceptions. This reduces people's subjective well-being (SWB) to a significant degree. Empirical researchers have made efforts to examine how self-reported well-being varies with air quality typically by survey method - matching SWB data with monitored air pollution data. Their findings show NO2, particles, lead, SO2 and O3 have significant negative impact on SWB. However, it is very hard to match air pollution characteristics from monitor stations with each respondent's state of SWB at the moment a survey is conducted. Also it is very hard to find the detailed trend impact from only air pollution factor on SWB. This review illustrates the features and limitations of previous survey studies on quantifying the effects of air pollution on subjective well-being. This review further displays the progress of psychophysics and its application in landscape and air quality research. We propose using psychophysics application to quantify air pollution impact on SWB