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Understanding the Determinants of Geologically Responsible Behaviour among Geotourists: A Multi-Destination Analysis
Get PDFThis study explores the drivers of geologically responsible behaviour among geotourists in three geoparks in the Greater China region: Danxiashan UNESCO Global Geopark in southern China, Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark, and Yehliu Geopark in northern Taiwan. On-site questionnaire surveys were conducted, collecting over 800 respondents in these geoparks, and structural equation modelling was applied for our analysis. The findings reveal that geologically responsible behaviour is positively associated with environmentally responsible attitudes, in line with some previous research. Notably, place attachment and visitor satisfaction were not directly related to geologically responsible behaviour but were positively correlated with environmentally responsible attitudes. This suggests that emotional connections to geoparks and visitor satisfaction indirectly nurture environmentally responsible attitudes, subsequently leading to geologically responsible behaviour. These results offer practical implications for geopark management practices. Providing informative guided tours and quality informational materials can enhance visitors’ geological knowledge and foster environmentally responsible attitudes. The improvement of the visitor experience, combined with the dissemination of accurate environmental knowledge and conservation messaging, can enhance visitor satisfaction, deepen attachment to geoparks, and, ultimately, encourage more geologically responsible behaviours. Understanding these relationships can assist geotourism destinations in promoting geological resources’ conservation while enhancing the visitor experience
Dancing Under Dark Skies [by The Long dead Stars]
No full textThe composition has been developed from working with geologists to understand deep time processes of rock formation and erosion and making a connection to the rural terrain (and its geology), of the North York Moors, .to compose a site-specific composition specifically for the Dark Skies Festival. The commission enabled the research to understand what was happening, astronomically, in the night sky, on the evening of the premier (performance), at the festival, where the audience were invited to walk across the moors, at night, in situ with the lyrics that discuss the terrain, and the astronomical sky above. Scores for performance were composed by Claire working to the geological processes of the formation of the once subterranean landscape, and mapping the names of such processes within the lyrics. The same process was used in relation to the mapping of the night sky working through the names of space objects on a detailed a sky map and making connections between the geological 'nick names' of object and the astronomical 'nick names' of objects in culture. Stories are told within a weave of narrative threads that relate to perceptions of the naming of things. The writing evolved directly out of the site’s geology in connection to the sky's astronomy on that specific date of performance.
The music is on Bandcamp and Spotify: https://thelongdeadstars.bandcamp.com/track/dancing-under-dark-skies-blakey-ridge-mi
New insights into changes in phosphorus profile at sediment-water interface by microplastics: Role of benthic bioturbation
No full textMicroplastics (MPs) have attracted increasing attention due to their ubiquitous occurrence in freshwater sediments and the detrimental effects on benthic invertebrates. However, a clear understanding of their downstream impacts on ecosystem services is still lacking. This study examines the effects of bio-based polylactic acid (PLA), fuel-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and biofilm-covered PET (BPET) MPs on the bioturbator chironomid larvae (Tanypus chinensis), and the influence on phosphorus (P) profiles in microcosms. The changes in biochemical responses and metabolic pathways indicated that MPs disrupted energy synthesis by causing intestinal blockage and oxidative stress in T. chinensis, leading to energy depletion and impaired bioturbation activity. The impairment further resulted in enhanced sedimentary P immobilization. For larval treatments, the internal-P loadings were respectively 11.4%, 8.6%, and 9.0% higher in the PLA, PET, and BPET groups compared to the non-MP control. Furthermore, the influence of bioturbation on P profiles was MP-type dependent. Both BPET and PLA treatments displayed more obvious impacts on P profiles compared to PET due to the changes in MP bioavailability or sediment microenvironment. This study connects individual physiological responses to broader ecosystem services, showing that MPs alter P biogeochemical processes by disrupting the bioturbation activities of chironomid larvae
Differentiating anticipated and anticipatory emotions and their sensitivity to depressive symptoms
Get PDFAnticipated emotions are the feelings one expects if a hypothetical future event were to occur, whereas anticipatory emotions are those one experiences right now while imagining the event. There has been little direct comparison of these two forms of future-oriented emotion; and authors have typically focussed on positive emotions (e.g., pleasure). Besides, their sensitivity to depressive symptoms – which may help to explain motivational problems in depression – has only recently been investigated (e.g., Anderson et al., 2023; Gamble et al., 2021). The present study (conducted Sept–Nov 2022) used innovative picture-and-text vignettes depicting everyday positive and negative future events, to which participants rated their anticipated and anticipatory responses on separate dimensions of valence (i.e., how positive/negative) and arousal (i.e., emotional intensity). Based on prior literature, anticipatory emotions were expected to be correlated with, yet weaker than, anticipated emotions, reflecting a conceptualisation of anticipatory emotions as a “foretaste” of the affective response one expects in the future. We also predicted that high depressive symptoms would coincide with diminished emotion ratings overall, and specifically for anticipatory emotions (tightly coupled with event expectations; Carrera et al., 2012). Results largely supported these pre-registered predictions; yet anticipatory emotions (positive and negative) were only weaker in more highly depressed participants. Depressive symptoms may therefore affect how one currently feels about future possibilities without altering one’s expectations of how such events would actually feel. Implications and future research objectives arising from this are discussed
Social Prescribing is a bit of a well-kept Secret that’s not meant to be a Secret: Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Social Prescribing for Families with Young Children
Get PDFSocial prescription (SP) is a community based non-medical intervention that is widely viewed as a viable public health initiative which will save healthcare workers time and money. Classically these interventions focus on loneliness in the elderly, however another transitional stage of the lifespan associated with loneliness is new parenthood. This study is based on an evaluation of the first SP creative play programme for families with 0-3-year-olds. It was identified that a gap in knowledge exists around stakeholders’ understanding and views for this type of SP. A range of 12 different stakeholders, from general practitioners to members of parliament, with different power dynamics and roles were recruited and took part in a seven-question semi-structured interview. The interview addressed relationships between stakeholders, how they feel families might value or stigmatize SP intervention and their thoughts and experiences with SP. The interview transcripts were analysed using an inductive interpretive thematic analysis. There were three main themes that came from the transcripts; 1) A New Offer: Getting it Right the First Time, 2) Barriers to Socially Prescribed Family Intervention and 3) Social Prescription for Complex Families. Results are discussed in terms of the roll out of SP for families and what this means for stakeholders, quality control for the interventions and helping stakeholders have a better understanding of this age group’s needs
The Future of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: Prospects, Challenges, and Policy Implications
Get PDFThe effect of long-term soccer training on left ventricular structure and function in elite male youth soccer players
Get PDFAims
Cardiac adaptations in elite, male adolescent youth soccer players have been demonstrated in relation to training status. The time course of these adaptations and the delineation of the influence of volatile growth phases from the training effect on these adaptations remain unclear. Consequently, the aims of the study were to evaluate the impact of 3 years of elite-level soccer training on changes in left ventricular (LV) structure and function in a group of highly trained elite youth male soccer players (SP) as they transitioned through the pre-to-adolescent phase of their growth.
Methods
Twenty-two male youth SP from the highest Level of English Premier League Academy U-12 teams were evaluated once a year for three soccer seasons as the players progressed from the U-12 to U-14 teams. Fifteen recreationally active control participants (CON) were also evaluated over the same 3-year period. Two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography was used to quantify LV structure and function.
Results
After adjusting for the influence of growth and maturation, training-induced increases in Years 2 and 3 were noted for: LV end diastolic volume (LVEDV; p = 0.02) and LV end systolic volume (LVESV; p = 0.02) in the SP compared to CON. Training-induced decrements were noted for LV ejection fraction (LVEF; p = 0.006) and TDI-S′ (p < 0.001).
Conclusions
An increase in training volume (Years 2 and 3) were aligned with LV volumetric adaptations and decrements in systolic function in the SP that were independent from the influence of rapid somatic growth. Decrements in systolic function were suggestive of a functional reserve for exercise
Assessing the engagement of participants at a pre-Christmas son et lumiere in Liverpool Cathedral: a study in the individual differences tradition
Get PDFRecent studies have drawn attention to the variety of events, installations, and activities within Anglican cathedrals that hold the capacity to attract wider publics into these iconic buildings where common ground and sacred space collide. In order to assess the engagement of participants at a pre-Christmas installation in Liverpool Cathedral, this project designed seven measures of engagement (styled as Christmas engagement, Cathedral engagement, Spiritual/religious engagement, Personal engagement, Imaginative engagement, Positive engagement, and Negative engagement). Data provided by 562 participants explored the effect of personal, educational, psychological, and religious factors on predicting levels of engagement across these seven measures. Two core findings were that the Luxmuralis installation, The light before Christmas: The angels are coming exerted its greatest impact on younger people and on those who did not attend church services. In this way, not only was the Cathedral extending its reach, but delivering an experience that enticed them to want to return
Improving Credit Card Fraud Detection with Combined Feature Extraction and Class Balance Optimisation Techniques
No full textCredit card fraud is a persistent and evolving challenge that poses significant financial harm to cardholders, financial institutions, national, and global economies. The use of Machine Learning (ML) methods has heavily enhanced the detection of credit card fraud, offering improvements to other traditional credit card fraud detection approaches such as human manual checks and rule-based methods. However, there are limitations that impact the performance and efficiency of the credit card detection using ML. This work addresses some of the current challenges associated with employing ML for credit card fraud by developing a robust credit card fraud detection model. The proposed model employs Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique (SMOTE) to address the class imbalance issue typically akin to credit card fraud datasets. A Recursive Feature Elimination with Cross-Validation (RFECV) scheme was utilized as a feature selection technique to select the optimal subset of features that can improve the accuracy of the credit card fraud detection model. Following rigorous evaluation, the proposed credit card fraud detection system demonstrates exceptional performance above other known existing systems across critical metrics including accuracy, recall, precision, F1 score, and ROC-AUC. Thus, is considered a better solution for more accurate detection of credit card fraud instances
