(Un)Healthy in the city:Adverse health effects of traffic-related noise and air pollution

We investigated the adverse health effects of urbanity, traffic-related noise and air pollution. We used harmonized data from multiple European cohort studies: LifeLines, HUNT, FINRISK, EPIC-Oxford and KORA. Based on our studies, we concluded that the living environment may be associated with adverse health effects. Urban inhabitants had a decreased lung function, and more anxiety and depression, while metabolic syndrome was more prevalent in rural inhabitants. We also found a relation between road traffic noise and increased heart rate, but relations between noise and blood pressure differed per cohort study. Additionally, road traffic noise was not associated with prevalence of common somatic symptoms, such as headache, stomachache, and chest pain, but we did find a relation between noise annoyance and an increase in somatic symptoms. The results for the association between air pollution and depression were inconsistent. Our findings also illustrate that heterogeneity between cohort studies can be challenging for multi-cohort research. The main advantages of using multiple cohort studies were the very large sample sizes, broad exposure ranges, and the ability to make comparisons across cohorts. In our study populations, exposure to traffic-related noise and air pollution was not consistently associated with our study outcomes. These findings are meaningful because they show us to be cautious with interpreting results from a single cohort study. The use of data from multiple cohort studies provides excellent opportunities for studying harmful environmental exposures. The scientific community should invest in the sharing and harmonization of their cohort data, supporting research on large geographical scales

An internal wave generation method for the non-hydrostatic model swash

Numerical wave propagation models are commonly used as engineering tools for the study of wave transformation in coastal areas. In order to simulate waves in the nearshore zone correctly, the generation and absorption of waves at the boundaries of the models need to be modelled accurately. In numerical models, incident waves are usually generated by prescribing their horizontal velocity component at the boundary of the computational domain over the vertical direction. Additionally, in order to absorb and to prevent re-reflections in front of the numerical wave generator, a weakly reflective wave generation boundary condition is applied in which the total velocity signal is a superposition of the incident velocity signal and a velocity signal of the reflected waves. However, this method is based on the assumption that the reflected waves are small amplitude shallow water waves propagating perpendicular to the boundary of the computational domain and hence this method is weakly reflective for directional and dispersive waves. Within the present study, an internal wave generation method combined with sponge layers is applied in the non-hydrostatic model SWASH, in order to more accurately generate waves and avoid re-reflections at the boundaries

Personal possessions as cues for autobiographical remembering

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.An encounter with personal possessions in everyday life, such as souvenirs, jewellery, or digital photos, may bring the past back to mind. Sometimes this is a quick and fleeting memory, other times it brings back vivid memories and emotional responses. The research presented in this thesis investigates personal possessions as cues: The cued responses personal possessions evoke, how the item-memories relationship evolves, and what characteristics of items facilitate cued remembering. The phenomenon of the activation of memories is what we call ‘cuing’ and the memories of personal experiences of one’s individual life ‘autobiographical memories’ (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce 2000). Academia and industry have been developing products aiming to cue personal memories in everyday life. In the last few decades, the interest in design for remembering in the field of human-computer interaction has increased, with many new technologies facilitating remembering and storytelling (Van den Hoven 2014; Van den Hoven, Sas & Whittaker 2012). Especially the ease and growth of capturing media digitally, for example with cameras and mobile phones, inspired the development of new products and research prototypes to facilitate remembering. This motivated us to investigate the process of cued remembering by personal possessions, and how the item-memories relationship comes into existence to enable cued remembering. A better understanding of cued remembering may improve designs for remembering. Through three qualitative studies, this PhD research aimed to provide insight into the aspects influencing the item-memories relationship and the process of cued remembering, for physical as well as digital items. We found that different uses of personal items could influence their potential to cue memories, and also tensions in the relationship with possessions affected their potential to cue. We found that possessions could cue different types of responses and that these items had particular characteristics. From a longitudinal study, we found several reasons why cued responses by personal possessions changed over time. Based on interviews with repair professionals and object owners, we gained insights into the role of possessions’ traces and ageing on cued remembering. At the end of this thesis, we reflect on and discuss how the gained knowledge can facilitate design for remembering with design considerations for designers

Life and times of personal information management: memento, memory, or Memento Mori?

This panel/round-table discussion will explore contemporary challenges within our everyday personal information management practices when it comes to how we select, store, and prepare our life histories for ourselves and others. With all the affordances and access provided by digital technologies, we collect information across a variety of platforms, modes, and mediums, be they documents, text files, images, or audio. Not all of this information is meaningful to us in the long-term, but nevertheless, some of our most valuable information does get entangled in this chaos. Issues discussed include maintaining, organizing, and accessing our information, not to mention how others access what we want to pass on to them. Challenges include technological obsolescence, privacy concerns, cultural and generational changes, family dynamics, and even memory loss as we age. We will also explore solutions and propose and ‘idea box’ for how we can prepare for the future of our personal information, such as creating and implementing information legacy plans, digitization, storage, and access permissions

The evaluation of the 3-30-300 green space rule and mental health

Background and aims: Urban green space has many health benefits, but it is still unclear how much actually is needed for better health. Recently a new 3-30-300 rule of thumb for urban forestry and urban greening has been proposed, but this rule has not been evaluated for benefits on health. The rule requires that every citizen should be able to see at least three trees from their home, have 30 percent tree canopy cover in their neighbourhood and not live more than 300 m away from the nearest park or green space. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the 3-30-300 green space rule and its components in relation to mental health. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study based on a population-based sample of 3145 individuals aged 15-97 years from in Barcelona, Spain who participated in the Barcelona Health Survey (2016-2017). We created 3-30-300 green space indicators using questionnaire data, GIS, remote sensing and land cover maps. Mental health status was assessed with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and also the use of tranquilizer/sedatives or antidepressants and psychiatrist or psychologist visits. Analyses were conducted using mixed effects logistic regression models with districts as the random effect, adjusted for relevant covariates. Results: We found that people in Barcelona had relatively little exposure to green space, whether through window view, living in an area with sufficient greenness, or access to a major green space, and only 4.7% met a surrogate 3-30-300 green space rule. Residential surrounding greenness, but not tree window view or access to major green space, was significantly associated with better mental health, less medication use, and fewer psychologist or psychiatrist visits. Meeting the full surrogate 3-30-300 green space rule was associated with better mental health, less medication use, and fewer psychologist or psychiatrist visits, but only for the latter combined the association was statistically significant (Odds ratio = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.91). Conclusion: Few people achieved the 3-30-300 green space in Barcelona and we used a surrogate measure. We observed health benefits when the full surrogate rule was met