•A transdisciplinary research agenda & synthesis of key messages from our Special Issue.•Research on Africa’s urban green infrastructure & its benefits uses many frameworks.•Not all frameworks ...currently recognise Africa’s distinctive urban characteristics.•We propose a ten point list for developing novel, context-specific frameworks.•The few relatively well researched African cities are beacons for future activity.
Urban green infrastructure and its ecosystem services are often conceptualised in terms of a predominantly western perspective of cities and their wider social, economic and environmental challenges. However, the benefits which are derived from urban ecosystems are equally – if not more – important in the cities of the developing world. Cities in sub-Saharan Africa are well known to be facing severe pressures. Nevertheless, despite the challenges of rapid population change, high levels of poverty and seemingly chaotic urban development processes, there are also tremendous opportunities. Realising the opportunities around urban green infrastructure and its benefits requires harnessing the inherent local knowledge and community innovation associated with a multitude of inter-connected urban social-ecological systems. Such systems are a powerful driving force shaping urban realities. Associated planning regimes are frequently lambasted as being either absent, weakly enforced, corrupt or wholly inappropriate. Much of this criticism is justified. However, it must also be recognised that decision-makers are frequently working in contexts which lack the scientific foundations through which their decision-making might be made more effective and complementary to bottom-up initiatives. The paucity of research into urban ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa and the lack of development of context-specific conceptual, theoretical and empirical foundations is a problem which must be addressed. Drawing on papers from a Special Issue centred on urban green infrastructure and urban ecosystem services in sub-Saharan Africa, we consider what concepts and frameworks are in use and what needs to be considered when framing future research. We also synthesise key messages from the Special Issue and draw together themes to help create a new research agenda for the international research community.
Manufacturing industrial transfer is an important approach to promote the optimization and upgrading of industry, as well as leads to the spatial response of environmental pollution. In this paper, ...we applied the gravity centre model to measure the changes in pollutant discharge patterns from 2005 to 2015 in the Pan-Yangtze River Delta, and then investigated the drivers of pollutant discharge patterns changes with an improved econometric model which integrated the push–pull theory and STIRPAT random regression model. The results revealed great changes in pollutant discharge patterns due to manufacturing industrial transfer, with the pollution gravity centre and total discharge transferring from east to west. We also found indications of a delayed response between the movement of industry and a corresponding reduction in pollutant emissions. The modelling results suggested that differences in regional economy, technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and environmental regulation influenced observed changes in pollutant discharge patterns. Specifically, regional economic conditions and more stringent environmental regulations can push pollution-intensive industry out of developed areas into developing areas. Meanwhile improved innovation milieu and industrial optimization provided resistance for pollution-intensive industries to stay in developed areas as well as encouraging movement into developing areas.
•We study change, mechanism, and response of pollutant discharge pattern in PYRD.•Pollutant discharge patterns transfer from developed to developing areas.•The pollutant discharge pattern shows spatial correlation with industrial transfer.•Interregional differences drive pollutant discharge transfer.
Creating or improving urban green space has the potential to be an effective, sustainable and far-reaching way to increase physical activity and improve other aspects of wellbeing in the population. ...However, there is a dearth of well-conducted natural experimental studies examining the causal effect of changing urban green space on physical activity and wellbeing. This is especially true in older adults and in the United Kingdom. This paper describes a natural experimental study to evaluate the effect of four small-scale urban street greening interventions on older adults' physical activity and wellbeing over a 1-year period, relative to eight matched comparison sites. All sites are located in deprived urban neighbourhoods in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom.
Components of the interventions include tree and flower planting, and artificial tree decorations. Eight unimproved comparison sites were selected based on a systematic process of matching using several known objective and subjective environmental correlates of physical activity in older adults. The outcome measures are physical activity and two other behavioural indicators of wellbeing (Connect: connecting with other people; and Take Notice: taking notice of the environment), collected using a newly developed observation tool. The primary outcome is Take Notice behaviour due to largest effects on this behaviour being anticipated from improvements in the aesthetic quality of green space at the intervention sites. Baseline data collection occurred in September 2017 before the interventions were installed in November 2017. Follow-up data collection will be repeated in February/ March 2018 (6 months) and September 2018 (12 months).
The present study permits a rare opportunity to evaluate the causal effects of small-scale changes in urban green space in an understudied population and setting. Although the interventions are expected to have small effects on the outcomes, the present study contributes to developing natural experiment methodology in this field by addressing key methodological weaknesses causing high risk of bias in previous natural experimental studies. Key improvements to reduce risk of bias in the present study are rigorous matching of multiple comparison sites and appropriate statistical control of key confounders.
Retrospectively registered with study ID NCT03575923 . Date of registration: 3 July 2018.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Biodiversity underpins human health as an essential life-support system.•We present an integrated biodiversity-health framework.•Biodiversity influences human health via four domains of ...pathways.•The four pathway domains are: reducing harm, restoring capacities, building capacities, and causing harm.•Understanding biodiversity-health pathways can inform public health interventions.
Biodiversity is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. However, while evidence of the contributions of nature to human health is rapidly building, research into how biodiversity relates to human health remains limited in important respects. In particular, a better mechanistic understanding of the range of pathways through which biodiversity can influence human health is needed. These pathways relate to both psychological and social processes as well as biophysical processes. Building on evidence from across the natural, social and health sciences, we present a conceptual framework organizing the pathways linking biodiversity to human health. Four domains of pathways—both beneficial as well as harmful—link biodiversity with human health: (i) reducing harm (e.g. provision of medicines, decreasing exposure to air and noise pollution); (ii) restoring capacities (e.g. attention restoration, stress reduction); (iii) building capacities (e.g. promoting physical activity, transcendent experiences); and (iv) causing harm (e.g. dangerous wildlife, zoonotic diseases, allergens). We discuss how to test components of the biodiversity-health framework with available analytical approaches and existing datasets. In a world with accelerating declines in biodiversity, profound land-use change, and an increase in non-communicable and zoonotic diseases globally, greater understanding of these pathways can reinforce biodiversity conservation as a strategy for the promotion of health for both people and nature. We conclude by identifying research avenues and recommendations for policy and practice to foster biodiversity-focused public health actions.
•Research is underdeveloped on ketogenic diet therapy (KDT) caregiver support.•KDT caregiver support research is not a focus in the current KDT literature.•The limited extracted research emphasizes ...the importance of social connections.•KDT caregiver research can leverage theories applied in other caregiver contexts.•Quality support may improve patient outcomes and protect caregiver wellbeing.
Epilepsy affects millions of people and when medications are insufficient to maintain seizure control, individuals are diagnosed with refractory epilepsy (RE). Medical ketogenic diet therapy (KDT), a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates and sufficient in protein, is a well-established treatment for RE. However, compliance is one of the main reasons for discontinuation of KDT and, with pediatric RE patients, the ability of informal caregivers, typically family members, to maintain diet adherence is vital for successful KDT treatment.
The central role that informal caregivers play for effective KDT implementation is recognized, however, there is a need to elucidate the rationale and theoretical underpinnings of effective KDT caregiver support programs to inform best practices. Therefore, this systematic literature review aims to identify the existing fundamental understandings of KDT caregiver support to help build a foundation of theory-based knowledge to promote evidenced practice.
After screening 137 publications, three studies that discussed potential underlying components of effective caregiver support were included in this review. These articles followed a similar approach as they 1) employed qualitative methods delving into caregiver needs, 2) findings highlighted the importance of support from family, friends, fellow caregivers and their child’s medical team, and 3) the inclusion of caregiver support findings were a supplement to the main purpose of the manuscript.
Research focused on KDT caregivers is in its infancy. There is a clear need for the systematic examination of support for KDT caregivers to build a foundation for effective support programs and to increase the access to quality support programming to foster KDT implementation, desirable patient outcomes, and caregiver well being. In this article we discuss opportunities to apply self-determination theory to the KDT caregiver support research and practice.
This paper examines the urban heat island intensity in detail in the city of Manchester, UK. An increasing intensity is found over time. The urban heat island intensity (UHII) data is examined in ...more detail giving relationships between weather parameters, cloud cover, wind speed and the urban morphology. The urban heat island intensity in Manchester has a highly significant rising trend which by the end of the century could add 2.4K to the average annual urban temperature, on top of the predicted climate change increase. An analysis of the urban morphology showed that the urban site had indeed become more urban over 9years of the study, losing green spaces which mitigate against the UHII.
•The UHII is increasing significantly in Manchester, UK.•Manchester has an increasing urbanisation.•The cloud cover has a small decreasing trend over time.•Wind has an even less significant trend over time than the cloud cover.•Increasing urbanisation is considered the prime cause of the increasing UHII.
The vulnerabilities that enhance the likelihood of a household falling into fuel poverty are increasingly recognised as highly multidimensional and geographical. However, the most established ...indicators used to measure fuel poverty are primarily based upon expenditure. This paper seeks to understand to what extent expenditure-based indicators succeed in representing wider socio-spatial vulnerabilities that manifest in particular locales. Our analysis focuses upon England, where a policy review in 2012 led to the replacement of a 10% indicator with a low-income high-cost indicator. Fuel poverty estimates are scrutinized at a neighbourhood scale, considering their relationship with a range of socio-economic, demographic and socio-technical characteristics. Place-based effects upon these relationships that arise from the wider context within which each neighbourhood sits are also accounted for using geographically weighted regression. The findings suggest that a ‘one-size fits all’ expenditure-based indicator is unlikely to capture the heterogeneous socio-spatial vulnerabilities that enhance the likelihood of fuel poverty experienced between different demographics and geographical contexts.
Initially part of the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning (ML) has become a booming research area since branching out into its own field in the 1990s. After three decades of ...refinement, ML algorithms have accelerated scientific developments across a variety of research topics. The field of small molecule design is no exception, and an increasing number of researchers are applying ML techniques in their pursuit of discovering, generating, and optimizing small molecule compounds. The goal of this review is to provide simple, yet descriptive, explanations of some of the most commonly utilized ML algorithms in the field of small molecule design along with those that are highly applicable to an experimentally focused audience. The algorithms discussed here span across three ML paradigms: supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and ensemble methods. Examples from the published literature will be provided for each algorithm. Some common pitfalls of applying ML to biological and chemical data sets will also be explained, alongside a brief summary of a few more advanced paradigms, including reinforcement learning and semi-supervised learning.
The aim of this study was to determine whether the clinical results of zone I flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) tendon injuries managed with acute surgical repair are comparable to the clinical ...results of those managed without repair (eg, primary FDP excision or observation).
Patients aged ≥18 years presenting to a level 1 trauma center between 2015 and 2020 with zone I FDP tendon injury were identified with retrospective chart review. We assessed the following data: age, sex, physical therapy visits, surgical intervention, surgical complications (including infection, repeat surgery after the primary intervention, and rupture of repair), and patient-reported outcomes measurement information system scores.
Twenty-six patients met the inclusion criteria. Group 1 (N = 15 patients, 23 fingers) patients were treated with acute surgical repair. Group 2 (N = 11 patients, 11 fingers) patients were managed without surgical repair, including FDP excision (N = 7) or observation alone (N = 4). In group 1, the average distance from the distal palmar crease to fingertip at the final follow-up was 1.6 cm (range, 0–4 cm). Fourteen of the 15 patients participated in >3 therapy visits. The following complications occurred: 4 fingers with rerupture (2 patients), 4 fingers with surgical wound dehiscence (2 patients), 3 infections (2 patients), and 4 repeat surgeries for these complications. In group 2, the average distance from the distal palmar crease to fingertip at the final follow-up was 1.1 cm (range, 0.5–3 cm). There were no infections, episodes of wound dehiscence, or repeat surgeries. At the final follow-up, both groups showed clinically meaningful improvement on Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) upper extremity, pain interference, and physical function scores, with similar PROMIS domain scores between groups.
Patients treated without FDP tendon repair had similar outcomes to, and fewer complications than, patients treated with acute tendon repair. Our data suggest that the notable commitment of health care costs, time, and adherence to protocols/restrictions after surgical repair may not confer functional benefit.
Therapeutic IV.
Canopy phenology is sensitive to variability in local environmental settings. In temperate climates, urban phenological processes and their determinants are relatively well understood. Equivalent ...understanding of processes in tropical urban settings is, however, less resolved. In this paper, we explore the influence of local urban environmental characteristics (that is, degree of urbanization, land cover and urban climate) on canopy phenology of two deciduous tree species (
Jacaranda mimosifolia
,
n
= 48, and
Tabebuia rosea, n
= 24) in a tropical city (Kampala, Uganda). Our study design involved ground monitoring and field sampling in 2017, with a focus on the dry season. We found that both species experienced significantly higher rates of canopy cover decline in heavily built-up neighborhoods (
p
< 0.05 for both species). Moreover,
Jacaranda
was more sensitive to differences in the degree of urbanization than
Tabebuia
, both in terms of total percentage tree canopy cover (
p
< 0.01) and net leaf loss (
p
< 0.05). Total percentage tree canopy cover for
Jacaranda
declined with increasing proportion of impervious cover (that is, roads and paved cover) and was positively related to relative humidity (
p
< 0.01), a variable correlated with soil moisture. Net leaf loss in
Jacaranda
increased with the decreasing proportion of pervious land cover and as nighttime air temperature increased (
p
< 0.01). In contrast, land cover and urban climate had no significant influence on either measure of phenological traits for
Tabebuia
. These results provide new evidence of the effect of urbanization on canopy phenology of different tree species in the tropics. Such knowledge offers new insights into the spatial and temporal differences in the physiological functional traits of trees and also serves as a proxy for possible species responses under future climate change.
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