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Understanding the links between well-being and rule breaking around protected areas
No full textAround the world, protected areas represent an essential tool in the efforts to conserve biodiversity. Yet their success requires the support of people living alongside them, including their compliance with protected area rules. But what factors influence people's support for protected areas? And their compliance with rules? And how do you measure these? These are some of the questions the Conservation and Human Behaviour (CONHUB) project and researchgroup based at Bangor University (UK), and led by Dr Freya St John, aimed to answer. Between 2019 and 2022 the project collected data to explore relationships between people and protected areas in two important conservation landscapes: The Leuser Ecosystem in Northern Sumatra and the Ruaha-Rungwa landscape in central-southern Tanzania. Here, key themes and findings from the research are presented as a series of comics
Seamlessly Converged Fiber-Wireless Access Networks with Dynamic Sub-wavelength Switching and Tunable Photonic mmWave Generation
Get PDFFor implementing next-generation radio accessnetworks (NG-RANs) supporting services/applications in thebeyond-5G (B5G) era, seamless fiber-wireless networkconvergence is vital for enabling heterogeneous signals of variouscharacteristics to continuously flow between the optical andelectrical domains, i.e., the baseband unit (BBU) and userequipment (UE), without optical-electrical-optical (O-E-O)conversions or digital signal processing (DSP) at any intermediatenodes. To address such challenges, this paper proposes andexperimentally demonstrates, for the first time, a cost-effectivefiber-wireless converged flexible and dynamic access networkbased on intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD). Thedemonstrated network utilizes O-E-O conversion-free Soft-reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (Soft-ROADMs) atremote nodes to dynamically establish connections between theBBU and the remote radio heads (RRHs) at the sub-wavelengthlevel. In addition, free-running laser-enabled photonic millimeter-wave (mmWave) signal generation and passive electrical envelopedetector-enabled mmWave down-conversion are also used,respectively, at the RRHs and UEs to achieve mmWave frequencytunability and adaptive wireless network coverage. The networkperformance and optimum network configuration areexperimentally explored extensively in a fiber-wireless convergedaccess network with 3×1.333 Gbps dynamic BBU-UE connectionsover a 10 km IM-DD fiber link and a 5 m, 38 GHz mmWavewireless link. The results show that wide mmWave frequencytuning ranges and adaptive mmWave coverages are achievable byjust adjusting the RRH-laser frequency and output powers
An investigation of data-driven player positional roles within the Australian Football League Women's competition using technical skill match-play data
Get PDFUnderstanding player positional roles are important for match-play tactics, player recruitment, talent identification, and development by providing a greater understanding of what each positional role constitutes. Currently, no analysis of competition technical skill data exists by player position in the Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) competition. The primary aim of the research was to use data-driven techniques to observe what positions and roles characterise AFLW match-play using detailed technical skill action data of players. A secondary aim was to comment on the application of clustering methods to achieve more interpretable, reflective positional clustering. A two-stage, unsupervised clustering approach was applied to meet these aims. Data cleaning resulted in 165 variables across 1296 player seasons in the 2019–2022 AFLW seasons which was used for clustering. First-stage clustering found four positions following a common convention (forwards, midfielders, defenders, and rucks). Second-stage clustering found roles within positions, resulting in a further 13 clusters with three forwards, three midfielders, four defenders, and three ruck positional roles. Key variables across all positions and roles included the field location of actions, number of contested possessions, clearances, interceptions, hitouts, inside 50s, and rebound 50s. Unsupervised clustering allowed the discovery of new roles rather than being constrained to pre-defined existing classifications of previous literature. This research assists coaches and practitioners by identifying key game actions players need to perform in match-play by position, which can assist in player recruitment, player development, and identifying appropriate match-play styles and tactics, while also defining new roles and suggestions of how to best use available data
The effect of verb surprisal on the acquisition of second language syntactic structures in adults: An artificial language learning study
Get PDFInverse probability adaptation effects (the finding that encountering a verb in an unexpected structure increases long-term priming for that structure) have been observed in both L1 and L2 speakers. However, participants in these studies all had established representations of the syntactic structures to be primed. It therefore remains an open question whether inverse probability adaptation effects could take place with newly encountered L2 structures. In a pre-registered experiment, we exposed participants (n = 84) to an artificial language with active and passive constructions. Training on Day 1 established expectations for specific co-occurrence patterns between verbs and structures. On Day 2, established patterns were violated for the surprisal group (n = 42), but not for the control group (n = 42). We observed no immediate priming effects from exposure to high-surprisal items. On Day 3, however, we observed an effect of input variation on comprehension of verb meaning in an auditory grammaticality judgment task. The surprisal group showed higher accuracy for passive structures in both tasks, suggesting that experiencing variation during learning had promoted the recognition of optionality in the target language
Factors associated with low fruit and vegetable consumption among people with severe mental ill health
Get PDFSevere mental ill health (SMI) is associated with excess mortality, and poor diet is one associated modifiable risk factor. This study investigated factors associated with low consumption of fruit and vegetables among people with SMI (N = 9914). A total of 8.4% of participants ate no portions per day, while only 15% ate 5 + portions. Individuals who never consumed fruit and vegetables or ate < 5 portions per day were more likely to be male, younger than 65, unemployed, experience poorer general health, or perceive health as unimportant. Poor diet is common among people with SMI and tailored dietary improvement interventions are required.</p
The traumatic rural unconscious in contemporary Galician culture: hydro-political violence in literature and film
Get PDFThe article starts with an analysis of the national politics implicit in the España vacía debate, arguing that its vision of a unified Spanish territory marked by urban–rural tensions acts as a new imaginary of consensus. In parallel, it argues that the national politics of the España vacía debate relegate to invisibility the historical specificities of regions such as Galicia, whose traumatic process of rural dispossession has shaped both culture and politics in the region to the degree that Galicia’s traumatic relationship with the disappearance of its rural ecosystem constitutes the “traumatic unconscious” of contemporary Galician culture. To substantiate this claim, the article will offer new readings of three key works in contemporary Galician culture, focusing on reservoir building and hydropolitics. Chus Pato’s poetry book A ponte das poldras (1996, 2006), Enrique Otero’s film Crebinsky (2011) and César Souto and Luis Avilés’s documentary Os días afogados (2015) are read here as critiques of Galicia’s traumatic rural-to-urban transformations in the second half of the twentieth century. These works’ commentary on the experiences of forced displacement of Galician rural populations during Francoism, as well as their engagement with questions such as language and belonging, encapsulates the complex relation between rural dispossession, identity, violence and trauma that state-led debates on España vacía can camouflage
Trapping and bypassing of suspended particulate matter, particulate nutrients and faecal indicator organisms in the river-estuary transition zone of a shallow macrotidal estuary
Get PDFHydrodynamic controls of the transport of suspended particulate matter (SPM), particulate nutrients and faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) in the river-estuary transition zone (RETZ) of a shallow macrotidal estuary were studied on tidal and seasonal timescales. The RETZ was found to be a conduit for SPM rather than a zone of particle accumulation during spring tides, with complex size fractionation and biogeochemical exchanges of particulate nutrient/FIO compositions. The downstream RETZ was characterised by flood-dominant currents, but with ebb-dominant turbulence due to the suppression of flood tide turbulence by salinity stratification created by lateral convergence; this produced a net seaward mass transport of SPM. Without lateral convergence in the narrower upstream RETZ, flood-dominant currents and flood-dominant turbulence were experienced. Hence the RETZ exported SPM landwards from its upper end and seawards from its lower end - a process observed throughout the year during spring tides and low-to-mean river flows. During neap tides when SPM concentrations were reduced, the RETZ became a zone of minor particle accumulation as its lower end imported SPM landwards from the estuary and its upper end imported SPM seawards from the river. During a river flood event, net SPM flux was significantly increased and was seawards throughout the RETZ. SPM mass concentration and carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and FIO concentrations peaked due to local resuspension and advection of an ephemeral estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM). The ETM formed on the advancing flood tide due to entrainment of material from intertidal flats. Flocculation and settling occurred at high slack water. The ETM was reconstituted by entrainment on the ebb and was composed of larger flocs than on the flood. Particulate nutrients and FIOs were associated with flocs in the 10-200 μm range but not with smaller or larger flocs. SPM concentrations in the resuspension component and ETM exceeded microbial water quality standards, emphasising the need for monitoring practices that consider tidal dynamics. The results from this study showing periodic SPM export from, rather than prolonged accumulation in, the RETZ and the influence of particle size fractionation on biogeochemical fluxes in the RETZ, are likely to be transferable to many other embayment-type estuaries on macrotidal coasts. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Evaluating the Well-Being Benefits and Social Value of Volunteer Gardening: Health Economics Meets Behavioral Science:Behavioral Sciences
Get PDFMultidisciplinary collaboration is key to strengthening the evidence base for multifaceted illness prevention interventions. We bring together health economics and behavioral science to explore the well-being benefits and social cost–benefit of volunteer gardening at an accredited botanic garden, Wales, UK. A health economics-informed social return on investment (SROI) evaluation was combined with the assessment of volunteers’ basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), connection to nature, and their interrelatedness in this innovative nature-based intervention study. Pre- and post-volunteering outcome data were collected using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS), the ICEpop CAPability measure for Adults (ICECAP-A), the 12-item diary version of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSNF), the Nature Connection Index (NCI), and a bespoke Client Service Receipt Inventory (CSRI). Results indicate that volunteer gardening can provide well-being benefits to participants and cost savings to the NHS. The well-being benefits observed were estimated to generate social value in the range of GBP 4.02 to GBP 5.43 for every GBP 1 invested. This study contributes to the evidence base that simple nature-based interventions such as volunteer gardening could offer low-cost supportive environments that deliver significant well-being benefits and associated social value to local communities, including a reduced burden on overstretched local healthcare services
Interventions to improve mental health and well-being in care-experienced children and young people aged less than 25:the CHIMES systematic review
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Children and young people with experience of being in care (e.g. foster care, kinship care, residential care or at home with a supervision requirement order) are at higher risk of adverse mental health and well-being outcomes compared to the general population. Despite a range of policy recommendations and interventions, it is not clear what approaches are effective in the United Kingdom, or how context factors give rise to facilitators and inhibitors of implementation and acceptability.OBJECTIVES: The CHIMES review is a complex-systems-informed mixed-method systematic review that aimed to synthesise the international evidence base for interventions addressing the mental health and well-being of care-experienced children and young people (age ≤ 25 years) and to assess the potential transportability of this evidence base to the United Kingdom context.DATA SOURCES: We searched 16 electronic bibliographic databases and 22 websites from 1990 to May 2022. We conducted citation tracking, screened relevant systematic reviews and contacted international experts.METHOD: We used a convergent synthesis design. We first constructed an evidence map to confirm review scope before undertaking method-level syntheses for outcome evaluations, process evaluations and economic evaluations. These elements were integrated into a review-level synthesis to identify potential evidence-based interventions that may progress to further development, adaptation and evaluation in the United Kingdom. We conducted stakeholder consultations to prioritise intervention theories, types and outcomes.RESULTS: We identified 64 interventions from 124 study reports. Interventions were primarily evaluated in the United States and targeted young people's competencies or carers' parenting practices. Meta-analysis reported limited evidence that interventions effectively improved mental health in the shorter term (0-6 months): total social, emotional and behavioural problems (d = -0.15, 95% confidence interval -0.28 to -0.02); internalising problem behaviours (d = -0.35, 95% confidence interval -0.61 to -0.08); externalising problem behaviours (d = -0.30, 95% confidence interval -0.53 to -0.08); depression and anxiety (d = -0.26, 95% confidence interval -0.40 to -0.13) and social-emotional functioning difficulties (d = -0.18, 95% confidence interval -0.31 to -0.05), but these impacts were not observed in the longer term (> 6 months). Five key context factors potentially explain challenges to implementation and acceptability: lack of system resources; the time, cognitive and emotional burden of delivery or participation; interprofessional tensions; the devaluing of young people, meaning that they felt unable to express dissatisfaction with interventions; and the devaluating of carers' expertise and needs. From the evidence, stakeholder consultation identified two priority interventions: (1) mentoring by individuals with knowledge and experience of care and (2) system and ethos change to create harmonisation between organisations and facilitate interprofessional relationships. Well-being and suicide-related behaviours are priority outcomes alongside mental health.LIMITATIONS: The review was limited by a paucity of theory and economic evaluations, so it is unclear how interventions might function or their potential cost-effectiveness. Interventions were insufficiently described, making it challenging to map the evidence base. Outcome evaluations were poorly reported. Due to ongoing restrictions with COVID-19, stakeholder consultations were conducted later than intended with a smaller number of attendees.CONCLUSIONS: The review identified some evidence for interventions impacting mental health in the short term. There is a lack of system-level interventions and approaches that target subjective well-being and suicide-related outcomes. Future intervention might prioritise mentoring and targeting system culture.STUDY REGISTRATION: This study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42020177478.FUNDING: This award was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme (NIHR award ref: NIHR129113) and is published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 12, No. 14. See the NIHR Funding and Awards website for further award information.</p
Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children in Montenegro: Preliminary outcomes, dissemination, and broader embedding of the program
Get PDFThe quality of parenting program implementation significantly affects the extent to which a program is delivered effectively as well as the likelihood of it becoming embedded in everyday services. The group based Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children (PLH-YC) program for parents of children aged 2 – 9 years was developed specifically for implementation in low- and middle-income contexts, has been tested in five randomised trials, and incorporates a number of strategies to encourage fidelity of delivery. This paper reports on the introduction of PLH-YC to Montenegro, including initial work to engage government agencies and service providers, adapt the program and, following initial evidence of effectiveness, to implement strategies to promote effective delivery and embed the program. Following program adaptation and initial facilitator training, eight groups were run, supported with resources and supervision and independently evaluated. The successful pilot led to program training accreditation by national professional agencies and a series of steps to successfully further embed it into routine settings in Montenegro, including by recognizing the program in national policy documents. This led to further facilitator trainings, now numbering 97 facilitators and the certification of ten coaches and two trainers. By the end of 2023 1,278 parents, across 13 municipalities (half of all municipalities in Montenegro) and a range of service providers, have received the program. The paper describes the project phases and key fidelity components that underpinned the successful introduction and embedding of the program in Montenegro. The plan has resulted in Montenegro having its own domestic resources to continue to implement the program effectively and further plan for widespread dissemination