A literature review of connectedness to nature and its potential for environmental management

Understanding how people's relationships with nature form, how they influence personal values and attitudes, and what behavioural implications they may have could provide more insight into how connectedness to nature (CNT) can effectively contribute to environmental management goals. This paper undertakes a review of literature published over the past decade (2002e2011) on SCOPUS; and describes the current state of knowledge regarding CNT, assesses any efforts towards the spatial mapping of CNT for environmental management, and identifies measures of CNT defined in the broader literature. This review suggests that there is quite some overlap in the literature on CNT concepts, and that more effort needs to be made towards multi-disciplinary research which explores how CNT can be useful to environmental planning and conservation research on the field. It also further corroborates the need and relevance of applying more social and affective strategies to promote conservation behaviour. The main progress in CNT theory seems to have been made in the development of measurement tools, and it is clear that there is a strong convergent validity amongst the different measures due to their similarity, and functional associations. Further efforts towards the exploration of multi-dimensional measures is recommended since they consistently stand out as showing better results. The geographic visualisation of CNT constructs is another area of research that deserves attention since it can provide a unique point of view towards guiding participatory protected area planning and management.peer-reviewe

New populations of Brachytrupes megacephalus (Lefevre, 1827) on mainland Malta and some notes on its adaptive capacity (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

Until recent years, records of the indigenous gryllid species Brachytrupes megacephalus within the Maltese Islands were restricted to Għadira and Armier on Malta, and Ramla l-Ħamra on Gozo. Four newly recorded additional populations are discussed, taking into account the different characteristics of the habitat at the various sites, and associated adaptations of the species in relation to substrate within each site.peer-reviewe

Decoupling economic growth and environmental degradation : reviewing progress to date in the small island state of Malta

This paper considers the challenge of decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation; in contrast to several large-scale cross-country analyses that focus on limited indicators of environmental degradation, we analyze in some depth the experience of a single small-scale island state setting (Malta). We use available statistical data to derive decoupling factors, in order to consider the extent to which decoupling has been achieved in four sectors: (i) energy intensity, climate change, and air quality; (ii) water; (iii) waste; and (iv) land. Results indicate relative decoupling between economic growth and several indicators considered, and to a lesser extent, relative decoupling between population growth and the same indicators of environmental pressure. Absolute decoupling has been achieved in at least one instance but there has been no decoupling of land development from either economic or population growth. Land use and population thus appear to be notable sources of pressure. The results suggest that decoupling analyses that present environmental degradation in terms of single variables (e.g., carbon emissions) may misrepresent somewhat the state of the environment at local level. Furthermore, the study highlights the need for methodologies that factor in the "embedding" of small-scale settings within much larger trade networks, for a more accurate estimation of environmental impact, and points to some limitations of solely quantitative analyses of environment-ecology relationships.peer-reviewe

The European Landscape Convention : challenges of participation

Review of book The European Landscape Convention: Challenges of Participation by Michael Jones & Marie Stenseke.N/

International Real Business Cycles in the Developed and Emerging Economies of NAFTA and the EU

This study empirically and theoretically evaluates economic interdependence of emerging and developed economies in terms of business cycles. In addition to evaluating Mexico�s business cycles relative to the developed NAFTA economies, it considers the business cycles of some of the Eastern European emerging economies in the EU relative to developed EU economies. By evaluating intra- and cross-country statistics, the study finds that there are empirical regularities (stylized facts) for emerging economies -just as there are for developed ones. A key empirical finding is that developed economies belonging to the same trade agreement tend to have highly synchronized business cycles and hence positive output and consumption correlations, but that this relationship does not necessarily hold with respect to emerging economies. In fact, the correlations are virtually absent and sometimes even negative when comparing the emerging economies� business cycles with those of their developed trading partners. It is shown that the intra-country statistics for both types of economies can successfully be reproduced using a one-country international real business cycle model with an endogenous interest rate. In addition, the non-existent or negative output and consumption correlations between the two economy types can be captured by a two-country international real business cycle model using portfolio adjustment costs and applying negative spillover effects in the productivity process of the emerging economy. The negative spillover effect also allows for a reversal of the usual theoretical implication of theses model types that there should be more consumption- than output smoothing (while data shows the opposite to be true). The study additionally gives a comprehensive overview of contemporary solution mechanisms used to solve this class of models

Limits of stakeholder participation in sustainable development : "where facts are few, experts are many"

Extract from: The Mediterranean coastal areas from watershed to the sea : interactions and changes / by L.F. Cassar ... [et al.]. Proceedings of the MEDCORE International conference, Florence, 10th-14th November 2005The notion of including stakeholders, those affected (positively or negatively) by a sustainable development programme in both its design and implementation, has become a central concern for those implementing such programmes. Such an approach is often referred to as ‘stakeholder participation’, as ‘participatory development’ or more simply still as ‘participation’. How best to achieve this has been the topic of a substantial literature, with a host of different methodologies presented and promoted. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but there has been surprisingly little discussion in the sustainable development literature as to the limits and dangers of participation irrespective of the approach employed to ‘best’ facilitate it. Inter-linked with the limits of participation is the role of specialists and expert opinion in sustainable development. This paper discusses the results of participatory exercises conducted in Gozo (Malta) between 2003 and 2005. On the positive side, participation yielded many useful and interesting insights and invoked a sense of ‘involvement’ in sustainable development, but there were problems and these are discussed in this paper. For example, the outcome of the exercise crucially depends upon representation, and a simplified vision of ‘community’ often employed in participation to make it practicable can load the process in favour of certain stakeholder groups at the expense of others.peer-reviewe

A literature review of connectedness to nature and its potential for environmental management

a b s t r a c t Understanding how people's relationships with nature form, how they influence personal values and attitudes, and what behavioural implications they may have could provide more insight into how connectedness to nature (CNT) can effectively contribute to environmental management goals. This paper undertakes a review of literature published over the past decade (2002e2011) on SCOPUS; and describes the current state of knowledge regarding CNT, assesses any efforts towards the spatial mapping of CNT for environmental management, and identifies measures of CNT defined in the broader literature. This review suggests that there is quite some overlap in the literature on CNT concepts, and that more effort needs to be made towards multi-disciplinary research which explores how CNT can be useful to environmental planning and conservation research on the field. It also further corroborates the need and relevance of applying more social and affective strategies to promote conservation behaviour. The main progress in CNT theory seems to have been made in the development of measurement tools, and it is clear that there is a strong convergent validity amongst the different measures due to their similarity, and functional associations. Further efforts towards the exploration of multi-dimensional measures is recommended since they consistently stand out as showing better results. The geographic visualisation of CNT constructs is another area of research that deserves attention since it can provide a unique point of view towards guiding participatory protected area planning and management. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. A substantial body of literature has been published in the social and behavioural sciences over the last three decades examining the humanenature relationship (e.g. CNT theory suggests that a relationship with the natural world directly affects people's physical, mental, and overall wellbeing due to benefits gained by increased exposure to nature and positive experiences in the natural world E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Restall). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v ie r . c o m / l o c a t e / j e n v m a n Better insight into people and their relationships with nature has the potential to enhance our ability to effectively meet conservation goals. Understanding how these relationships form, how they influence personal values and attitudes, and what behavioural implications they may have remains critical. The ability to link CNT concepts to geographically defined spaces could also potentially be useful for purposes of environmental management, and for conservation planning in particular. Given the above, this paper provides a literature review of CNT academic literature over the past decade (2001e2011), with three main objectives: a) to describe the current state of knowledge regarding CNT; b) to assess any efforts towards the spatial mapping of CNT for environmental management and c) to identify measures of CNT defined in the literature. Connectedness to nature and its relevance to environmental management Various authors have suggested that humans were in the past more physically and psychologically connected to nature than people living in industrialised nations today Klassen (2010) suggests a strong interrelatedness between ecological identity, sense of place and ecological literacy, and establishes that the degree to which these three concepts influence individuals varies from person to person. He also concludes that an individual's CNT is dependent on a variety of precursors, including 'prior knowledge', 'lived experiences', 'cultural background', as well as 'encountering and conversing with people who display their compassion, caring, and dedication for environmental concerns'. Schultz (2002) also suggests that 'values' act as a bond between all these concepts and precursors mentioned by Klassens since they underpin the relationship with the natural world, and their affective psychological and physiological responses to natural settings Schultz (2002, 2004) argues that the construct for CNT is composed of three dimensions of psychological inclusion in nature e i) a cognitive or mental representation of that self that creates an interdependence with nature; ii) an affective representation which refers to an individual's emotional bond with nature that creates a sense of intimacy and care for it; and iii) a behavioural component which refers to an individual's commitment to act in the best interest of the natural environment and protect it. However Ashmore et al. Several authors (e.g. The above 'eco-psychological' arguments then suggest that there are significant disparities in the way individuals are attracted to nature, and disconnectedness from nature could indirectly contribute to environmental deterioration Methods Data collection protocol and search strategy This paper presents two sets of literature reviews e the first dataset based on a review of the literature undertaken using principles of Systematic Literature Review (SLRs) protocols as a guide, and the second dataset based on a less restrictive but wider search for relevant literature related specifically to measures of CNT. The SLR protocol was identified a-priori and detailed the study inclusion criteria, established a series of review questions, identified relevant studies, appraised their quality and summarised the evidence to provide an overall picture of CNT literature. The aim was to synthesize findings from recent literature in order to understand the direction CNT research is taking, while reducing the effect of the reviewers' own bias, identifying gaps, and suggesting directions for further research The first step of the literature review involved systematically identifying data sources. The papers which formed our dataset were thus selected from peer reviewed literature on CNT published between January 2002 and December 2014 for the first dataset. Searches of web-based databases hosted by SciVerse (Scopus) were conducted, specifically under the categories for "Life sciences" (7200 journal titles) and "Social sciences and humanities" (5300 titles). Scopus was selected because it offers significant coverage of databases that deal with the environmental social sciences. The search terms used were "connectedness to nature" and "nature relatedness", with papers selected for further evaluation if they contained this term within the article title, abstract and/or keywords. Other related search terms were excluded since CNT is by now established as the leading term for this construct. The use of the Scopus database inevitably means that other relevant CNT literature may have been overlooked, since it only offers literature written in English, and excludes other works published in books, dissertations, and conference proceedings or online. Nonetheless peer-reviewed research communicated through the medium of established journals remains the most reliable source for a systematic literature review that can withstand academic scrutiny, despite the above limitations. For researchers trying to identify or build a CNT measure ideal for their needs, a more complete list of available measures is needed. Consequently, in order to provide a more comprehensive literature review of measures associated with CNT, the author also undertook a Scopus search beyond the reference years; and furthermore screened the first 100 returns of 'grey literature' from the Google search engine using the same keywords, but focussing specifically on measurement of CNT. This second dataset was used specifically to provide a more comprehensive collation of CNT measures beyond the first dataset. Only English language publications were assessed. Study inclusion criteria Each article returned by the database search had its full text reviewed if the title and/or abstract were deemed to meet any three of the following study inclusion criteria, namely: a) articles specifically dealing with the topic of connectedness to nature; b) articles containing a measure quantifying the connection to the natural world; and c) articles that attempt to map CNT. Publications were scored for the extent to which they discussed each of the three inclusion criteria listed above in the title or abstract, and when necessary in the introduction and discussion sections. Thus, whether a published article was deemed relevant was dependent on the context of the study, and its direct relevance to CNT. Consequently papers that simply mentioned CNT or simply discussed fringe aspects of underlying CNT concepts were deemed to be irrelevant to this review. All papers were assessed by the primary author to ensure consistency, with key findings then reviewed by the second author. After searching the Scopus database, the selection was narrowed down to 260 papers published between 2002 and 2014. Of these 260 sources, 170 were rejected because they did not match the study inclusion criteria mentioned above. Our final sample was comprised of 90 peer reviewed papers from forty different journals and are listed in Annex I. Coding protocol The selected 90 papers were each reviewed carefully to assess their relevance against an a-priori protocol derived following a preliminary review of all papers. We identified the following ten review variables in order to describe the papers' context and methods for measuring CNT, and these variables were subsequently used to score each relevant paper accordingly. Limitations Bibliographic and academic research databases available B. Restall, E. Conrad / Journal of Environmental Management xxx (2015) 1e15 Results and discussion CNT papers published and their wider research contexts Ninety papers were found to be of direct relevance to CNT within the 13 years analysed on the Scopus database. A comparison against the coverage of other similar psychological constructs like place attachment (in the same database and over the same period) suggests that CNT is still somewhat under-represented in the Scopus literature. For instance a similar search for the term "place attachment" (PA) revealed 1064 potential sources which are of direct relevance to the PA literature. Out of the 90 papers reviewed, 76 papers (84%) undertook empirical research which applies CNT within specific contexts, while only 12 published papers (13%) comprised literature reviews, and only two papers were general format papers in the form of essays, reports or discussion papers. While the benefits of widespread empirical research are clear, this result also confirms there is scope for reviews of this nature. The majority of papers were standalone studies (78%) and the remaining 22% of the studies formed part of wider programmes of research e primarily looking at related health issues in connection with CNT, or else exploring the interplay between teaching and CNT. 54% of the studies received no reported funding whatsoever, and only 31% of papers received state funding, with only 4% receiving academic funding and 7% receiving NGO funding. Journals publishing about CNT Between 2002 and 2014, 17 journals published papers specifically dealing with CNT; however, 15 of these journals only published one paper on the subject over this time span. The 'Journal of Environmental Psychology' (JEP) published 30% of all papers (27 papers), followed by Landscape and Urban Planning (LUP) at 56% and Health & Place, Ecological Economics, Journal of Environmental Management, Procedia e Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Environment and Behavior which published 3% of the papers. This result comes as no surprise since the JEP is a leading journal for academics who have a specific interest in the interrelationships between people and their physical surroundings. This implies that CNT is somewhat relegated to the psychology literature base and has limited exposure or application in other multi-disciplinary publications or academic literature, which can be a limiting factor towards the potential influence of CNT concepts in environmental policy or management decisions. Country interest in CNT For each paper we noted the institution and country where authors were based in order to give an idea of the spread of CNT research and to identify any cultural biases which may be present. All papers originated only from 25 countries, and the largest numbers of publications (27%) were written from USA institutes, followed by 17% in Australia and 8% in the UK, 7% in the Netherlands, 6% in Canada, while Germany made a modest contribution (4%). The only lower income country represented, based on the gross national income per capita and a classification of economies by the World Bank (2010e2014), was Iran; however the paper in question was written by academics in India. Overall this suggests that studies in CNT are undertaken in high-income countries, and that low-income countries are poorly represented in CNT literature. Unfortunately this bias towards high-income countries is not specific to CNT literature alone and remains prevalent in most fields of research Academic domains pursuing CNT, and their spatial focus As can be expected, the greatest proportion of papers (66%) analysed CNT purely from the psychological point of view, or looked at its application within the environmental and social psychology domain. Only 13% of papers focused on the implications of CNT on conservation, 6% on human geography, 3% on sociology along with a similar 3% on the medical sciences. Other varied disciplines like education only garnered a share of 7%of the literature. This suggests that CNT is somewhat grounded in the psychological sciences but still garners interest from various domains Our review indicates that there is a moderately varied distribution of studies across the identified spatial scales. Papers considering the relevance of CNT for 'Nature in general' dominated the literature (29%); followed by a specific focus on 'Natural areas (not directly modified for human purposes)' at 13%. 'Urban areas' (12%) and 'Agricultural areas' (11%) also were the subject of study; while 'Rural areas', (7%), 'Outdoor areas or urban parks' (6%), 'Touristic areas' (2%), and 'Contaminated/polluted environments' (1%) garnered modest interest. 'Office environments' received no direct CNT attention in the period reviewed and 16% of the papers had no particular spatial focus. These results indicate that research is mostly focused on understanding CNT within a generic appreciation of nature, or simply focused on the psychological implications of CNT on people, rather than being framed within specific environments. However, natural and urban areas do seem to be of direct interest in CNT, while fewer studies where applied to agricultural areas, rural areas, outdoor areas or urban parks, and touristic areas. This is possibly the result of people moving out of rural areas and relocating to coastal and urban settlements (Daily, 2001; Stakeholder involvement There is doubt that successful nature management can be designed or implemented without taking in consideration the relationship with the broader society. For instance, conserving rural landscapes has been shown to require complex coordination with many public and private stakeholders Spatial mapping of CNT constructs Spatial mapping and analysis of geographically referenced information is being used extensively in the social sciences to gain spatial perspectives that can solve complex environmental problems which are embedded in space and time If we are serious about the view that people are part of an ecosystem, then good ecosystem management should stand to gain from the mapping of social or personal meanings or value people attribute to nature; or how we view humaneenvironment relationships and the extent to which people agree or disagree on these meanings Research methods used for measuring CNT The aim of this section is to provide an overview of CNT measures mentioned or used in the wider literature to measure, quantify and categorize the human relationship with our natural environment. We review the distinctiveness of these measures as a further contribution to the theoretical understanding of connection to nature, and undertake a critical analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. Out of the papers reviewed for the first dataset, 49% actually use one or more tools to quantify CNT, and some of the studies reviewed have even developed psychometric scales of their own. Although a number of the papers reviewed or assessed numerous instruments that measure CNT, it is clear that other established CNT measurement tools were omitted since they were not published in peer-reviewed journals. Consequently a wider and less restrictive literature review beyond the SCOPUS journal and date parameters was undertaken for this section in order to create a second dataset. There is clearly substantial similarity and possible overlap between the various measures and constructs of CNT reviewed above, even though they theoretically focus on different aspects of CNT. These similarities are even acknowledged by the authors themselves in some cases. Nevertheless, these results also suggest that while the subtle statistical divergences of these measures cannot be ignored, it is evident that NR and EID show a persistent correlation with the criterion variables, and that the NR scale was consistently reliabl

Ixekizumab and ustekinumab in psoriasis: post-hoc comparison of onset and duration of treatment response.

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Disease-Independent Skin Recruitment and Activation of Plasmacytoid Predendritic Cells Following Imiquimod Treatment

Background: Imiquimod, an immune response modifier that is used topically to treat different types of skin cancer, induces the production of proinflammatory cytokines that stimulate an antitumor immune response. We assessed characteristics of the imiquimod-induced immune activation in epithelial and lymphoproliferative neoplasias of human skin. We focused on plasmacytoid predendritic cells (PDCs), the primary producer of interferon α (IFN-α) after imiquimod activation in vitro. Methods: We used Affymetrix oligonucleotide arrays to compare gene expression profiles from tumors from 16 patients, 10 with superficial basal cell carcinomas (sBCCs), five with cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCLs), and one with Bowen's disease, before and after topical imiquimod treatment. We used quantitative immunohistochemistry with PDC-specific antibodies against BDCA-2 and CD123 to characterize the PDC population before and after imiquimod treatment in these specimens. Activation status of PDCs from four sBCC patients was assessed by intracellular IFN-α staining and flow cytometry. Results: Expression of various IFN-α-inducible genes (e.g., CIG5, G1P2, OASL, IFIT1, STAT1, IFI35, OAS1, ISG20, MxA, and IRF7), the so-called IFN-α signature, was increased similarly in both sBCC and CTCL lesions after imiquimod treatment. PDCs were recruited and activated in both lesion types, and they produced IFN-α after imiquimod treatment in vivo (mean percentage of PDCs producing IFN-α = 14.5%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.9% to 24%; range = 3.3%-27%, n = 4 lesions). Imiquimod induced similar immune activation patterns in all three diseases, and these patterns were associated with the number of PDCs recruited to the treatment site. Two imiquimod-treated sBCC patients who did not mount an inflammatory response to imiquimod and whose lesions lacked the IFN-α signature after treatment had fewer PDCs in treated lesions compared with other treated patients with such a response. Conclusions: Imiquimod induces immune activation patterns that relate to the number of the PDCs recruited to the treatment site, thus supporting the role of PDC in responsiveness to imiquimod in human