scholarly journals Supporting Zoo Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) Welfare and Herd Dynamics with a More Complex and Expanded Habitat

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2566
Author(s):  
Sharon S. Glaeser ◽  
David Shepherdson ◽  
Karen Lewis ◽  
Natalia Prado ◽  
Janine L. Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Management ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Walking Distance ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Welfare Indicators ◽  
Herd Dynamics

Ensuring good health and welfare is an increasingly important consideration for conservation of endangered species, whether free-ranging or managed to varying degrees under human care. The welfare-based design of a new habitat for Asian elephants at the Oregon Zoo focused on meeting the elephants’ physical, physiological, psychological, and social needs 24 h a day and across life stages. The habitat was designed to encourage activity, promote species-typical behaviors, support changing social dynamics, offer increased opportunities for choice, and provide biologically meaningful challenges. In this 4-year study, we monitored elephant health and welfare indicators throughout the transition and acclimation from the previous habitat to the new habitat. Several welfare indicators obtained through longitudinal hormone analyses, behavior assessments, and GPS measurement of walking distance and space use provided evidence that these goals were achieved. The elephants were more active and walked farther on a daily basis in the new habitat, with an average walking distance of over 15 km per day. A switch from primarily caretaker-delivered food to seeking food on their own indicates that the disbursement of food with less temporal and spatial predictability increased foraging opportunities, which better satisfies appetitive motivations important for psychological well-being. All individuals showed adaptive and normal adrenal responses to change and challenge, with the highest fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations and variability during the construction phase, and a return to previous baseline concentrations in the new habitat, suggesting they acclimated well to the new environment. The elephants expressed a diverse range of species-typical behaviors and demonstrated social dynamics of a healthy herd in both habitats with transitions of individuals through life stages. They exhibited more autonomy in choosing whom to associate with socially and also by choosing different aspects of their environment with regular indoor/outdoor access and extensive resource use in the new habitat. Findings indicate that the complexity and flexibility of the new habitat and habitat management has been effective in improving overall welfare by providing meaningful challenges and the opportunity to express appetitive behaviors, by offering choice in environmental conditions, and by providing the space and resource distribution to support evolving herd dynamics and increased social equity for individuals.

scholarly journals Achieving ‘Good Health and Well-Being’ for Women in Diverse Socio-Economic Neighbourhoods

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Seyeon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Safe Environment ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Health And Well Being

Designing a place for women facing daily hardships often demands a distinct set of interventions that often bring unique challenges to designers. The Northside neighborhood is a poor and racially tensioned neighborhood with a lack of opportunity and social support. Many families in this neighborhood experiencing economic difficulties rising from such inequality and inadequate provision of opportunity, have raised concerns for no or limited access to basic necessities such as housing and healthcare. Particularly women in the Northside neighborhood raised their concerns about not a having socially and culturally safe environment in which they can engage in wellness activities (Stasya Erickson and Jonathan Logan, Personal Communication, June 18, 2018). Having daily challenges with childcare, financial hardship, accessibility, communication, cultural traditions that prevent them from taking care of their mental and physical wellness, these women do not have the luxury to concern about their health and wellbeing. Besides, conventional health facilities have been designed rather emphasizing the functional delivery of the space, which often lacked or unsuited to satisfy the psychological or social needs. This paper discusses the processes and results of three community design charrettes conducted to gather information on the need for women's fitness center with an aim to promote holistic means of wellness. The three design charrettes were organized with a) residents from the Northside community (n=15); b) local organizational stakeholders and community leaders (n=7), and c) potential wellness center partners (n=2). In conjunction with the design charrettes, an alternative market study survey (n=108) was conducted to learn about people’s opinions and views on the community’s primary interests and the needs for the women-focused health system in the Northside neighborhood. Both charrettes and survey discovered that women’s immense needs for childcare, sense of community, security, and privacy can be pursued through their participation to participate in the wellness activities. This research posits that design based on community’s voices would help designers, educators, and policymakers to produce a realistic and impactful design that responds to the needs of women in diverse socio-economic neighborhoods.

A Consumer Behavior-Influenced Multidisciplinary Transcendent Model of Motivation for Music Making

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie L. Vaccaro
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Self Actualization ◽  
Psychic Energy ◽  
Self Transcendence

This chapter reviews multidisciplinary research from the fields of consumer behavior, humanistic and positive psychology, music education, and other areas to develop a new Transcendent Model of Motivation for Music Making. One’s “extended self” identity can be defined partly by possessions and mastery over objects, and objects can “complete” the self. Music making involves a person’s investment of “psychic energy,” including attention, time, learning, and efforts, and is a creative path which can lead to peak experiences and flow. Music making can help satisfy social needs, achieve self-actualization, experience self-transcendence, enhance well-being, strengthen spirituality, and improve the quality of life.

Integrating Workforce Health Into Employer Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts

2020 ◽  
pp. 089011712098328
Author(s):  
Bruce W. Sherman ◽  
Rebecca K. Kelly ◽  
Pamela Payne-Foster
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Health Benefits ◽  
Family Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Business Success ◽  
Differential Outcomes ◽  
Sustained Change ◽  
Equity And Inclusion

Our collective experience with COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter has heightened awareness of deeply embedded racial and socioeconomic disparities in American businesses. This time, perhaps, sustained change is within reach. As organizations advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, an often overlooked focus of is the health status of employees and their families, where equitable access to high-value health benefits offerings should be available to all. This commentary provides guidance for employers to expand their DEI initiatives to include employee and family health and well-being as a central outcome measure. Employers should ensure that DEI efforts incorporate equitable benefits design, and objectively assess benefit design impact on healthcare utilization and cost. Additionally, employers must appreciate the workplace as a significant determinant of health—for lower income workers, in particular—with review of policies and practices to mitigate any discriminatory negative health or well-being impact. Further, race and ethnicity data should be incorporated in health benefits data analysis to understand more clearly the differential outcomes of health management offerings on these different sub-populations. Finally, social needs data should be incorporated into strategic benefits planning to better understand gaps and opportunities to foster greater benefits equity. The provided recommendations can support employer goals of achieving greater equity and value in workforce health, measurably contributing to business success.

scholarly journals Understanding what matters most to patients in acute care in seven countries, using the flash mob study design

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva S. van den Ende ◽  
◽  
Bo Schouten ◽  
Marjolein N. T. Kremers ◽  
Tim Cooksley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acute Care ◽  
Patient Perspective ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Patient Centred Care ◽  
Trial Register ◽  
What Matters

Abstract Background Truly patient-centred care needs to be aligned with what patients consider important, and is highly desirable in the first 24 h of an acute admission, as many decisions are made during this period. However, there is limited knowledge on what matters most to patients in this phase of their hospital stay. The objective of this study was to identify what mattered most to patients in acute care and to assess the patient perspective as to whether their treating doctors were aware of this. Methods This was a large-scale, qualitative, flash mob study, conducted simultaneously in sixty-six hospitals in seven countries, starting November 14th 2018, ending 50 h later. One thousand eight hundred fifty adults in the first 24 h of an acute medical admission were interviewed on what mattered most to them, why this mattered and whether they felt the treating doctor was aware of this. Results The most reported answers to “what matters most (and why)?” were ‘getting better or being in good health’ (why: to be with family/friends or pick-up life again), ‘getting home’ (why: more comfortable at home or to take care of someone) and ‘having a diagnosis’ (why: to feel less anxious or insecure). Of all patients, 51.9% felt the treating doctor did not know what mattered most to them. Conclusions The priorities for acutely admitted patients were ostensibly disease- and care-oriented and thus in line with the hospitals’ own priorities. However, answers to why these were important were diverse, more personal, and often related to psychological well-being and relations. A large group of patients felt their treating doctor did not know what mattered most to them. Explicitly asking patients what is important and why, could help healthcare professionals to get to know the person behind the patient, which is essential in delivering patient-centred care. Trial registration NTR (Netherlands Trial Register) NTR7538.

scholarly journals Bibliometric Analysis of SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 Studies from India and Connection to Sustainable Development Goals

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7555
Author(s):  
Raghu Raman ◽  
Ricardo Vinuesa ◽  
Prema Nedungadi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Bibliometric Analysis ◽  
Data Access ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Number Of Publications

India is ranked fifth in the world in terms of COVID-19 publications accounting for 6.7% of the total. About 60% of the COVID-19 publications in the year 2020 are from United States, China, UK, Italy, and India. We present a bibliometric analysis of the publication trends and citation structure along with the identification of major research clusters. By performing network analysis of authors, citations, institutions, keywords, and countries, we explore semantic associations by applying visualization techniques. Our study shows lead taken by the United States, China, UK, Italy, India in COVID-19 research may be attributed to the high prevalence of COVID-19 cases in those countries witnessing the first outbreak and also due to having access to COVID-19 data, access to labs for experimental trials, immediate funding, and overall support from the govt. agencies. A large number of publications and citations from India are due to co-authored publications with countries like the United States, UK, China, and Saudi Arabia. Findings show health sciences have the highest number of publications and citations, while physical sciences and social sciences and humanities counts were low. A large proportion of publications fall into the open-access category. With India as the focus, by comparing three major pandemics—SARS, MERS, COVID-19—from a bibliometrics perspective, we observe much broader involvement of authors from multiple countries for COVID-19 studies when compared to SARS and MERS. Finally, by applying bibliometric indicators, we see an increasing number of sustainable development-related studies from the COVID-19 domain, particularly concerning the topic of good health and well-being. This study allows for a deeper understanding of how the scholarly community from a populous country like India pursued research in the midst of a major pandemic which resulted in the closure of scientific institutions for an extended time.

scholarly journals Possible Selves Across the Lifespan

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 449-449
Author(s):  
Victoria Chen ◽  
Alysson Light
Keyword(s):  
Possible Selves ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Midlife Adults ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Possible selves are defined as “personalized representations of one’s self in future states” (Cross & Markus, 1991). Research has also found that thinking frequently about possible selves predicts lower well-being, whereas thinking clearly about possible selves is associated with higher well-being (McElwee & Haugh, 2010). However, possible selves differ across the lifespan (Hooker & Kaus, 1994; Cross & Markus, 1991) and life stages can impact exploration of possible identities (Arnett, 2000). Thus we hypothesize that the relationship between thought about possible selves and well-being differs across the lifespan. In a cross-sectional survey, 240 participants (age range: 18-92) reported on frequency and clarity of possible selves, as well as general self-clarity (Campbell et al., 1996). Results indicate curvilinear moderation by age of the link between possible self-clarity and well-being, with the association being stronger among midlife adults than among younger adults and older adults. Also, as clarity of feared possible selves increases, self-concept clarity decreases. Similarly, frequency of thinking about feared possible selves was negatively correlated with self-concept clarity. However, clarity and frequency of thought about hoped-for positive possible selves had no correlation with self-concept clarity.

scholarly journals Assessing Public Open Spaces: A Case of City Nagpur, India

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4997
Author(s):  
Pritam Ahirrao ◽  
Smita Khan
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Optimum Level ◽  
Public Parks ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Public Open Space

Major Indian cities have a lower public open space (POS)-capita ratio and do not meet national and international standards. Moreover, factors such as lack of design guidelines for POSs, limited funding, and lack of public participation have affected these limitedly available POSs and made them ineffective and incapable of meeting the contemporary needs of a diverse range of users. Therefore, it is essential to make them not only inclusive, user-friendly, attractive, and efficient, but also socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable in order to serve the various facilities and services at their optimum level. This study includes the assessment of two POSs to identify strengths and deficiencies that affect their character and use. These POSs are public parks, provide free access to users and are located in the city of Nagpur. For assessment, the study proposed the Public Open Space Index (POSI) that combines five aspects: Individual well-being, Inclusiveness, Engagement, Sustainable spaces, and Management.A mixed methods approach was considered for data collection, including a self-administered questionnaire survey and observations.According to the results, POSs have strengths in that they facilitate social cohesion, engagement, and basic facilities. POSs do not encourage equitable access and sustainable practices, which are considered deficiencies.The study helps planners, designers, and parenting authority to develop initiatives to make these limited POSs inclusive, functional, and sustainable.

scholarly journals Biodiversity of Secondary Metabolites Compounds Isolated from Phylum Actinobacteria and Its Therapeutic Applications

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (15) ◽  
pp. 4504
Author(s):  
Muhanna Al-shaibani ◽  
Radin Maya Saphira Radin Mohamed ◽  
Nik Sidik ◽  
Hesham Enshasy ◽  
Adel Al-Gheethi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Metabolites ◽  
Bioactive Compounds ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Bioactive Substances ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Potential Applications

The current review aims to summarise the biodiversity and biosynthesis of novel secondary metabolites compounds, of the phylum Actinobacteria and the diverse range of secondary metabolites produced that vary depending on its ecological environments they inhabit. Actinobacteria creates a wide range of bioactive substances that can be of great value to public health and the pharmaceutical industry. The literature analysis process for this review was conducted using the VOSviewer software tool to visualise the bibliometric networks of the most relevant databases from the Scopus database in the period between 2010 and 22 March 2021. Screening and exploring the available literature relating to the extreme environments and ecosystems that Actinobacteria inhabit aims to identify new strains of this major microorganism class, producing unique novel bioactive compounds. The knowledge gained from these studies is intended to encourage scientists in the natural product discovery field to identify and characterise novel strains containing various bioactive gene clusters with potential clinical applications. It is evident that Actinobacteria adapted to survive in extreme environments represent an important source of a wide range of bioactive compounds. Actinobacteria have a large number of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters. They can synthesise thousands of subordinate metabolites with different biological actions such as anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic, anti-fungal, anti-virus, anti-cancer and growth-promoting compounds. These are highly significant economically due to their potential applications in the food, nutrition and health industries and thus support our communities’ well-being.

scholarly journals Coping Strategies against Peer Victimization: Differences According to Gender, Grade, Victimization Status and Perceived Classroom Social Climate

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2605
Author(s):  
María-Jesús Cava ◽  
Ester Ayllón ◽  
Inés Tomás
Keyword(s):  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Peer Victimization ◽  
Classroom Climate ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Social Climate ◽  
Intervention Programs ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
School Grades ◽  
Teacher Student

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include “Good Health and Well-being” (SDG3) and “Quality Education” (SDG4). Nevertheless, many students cannot achieve these goals if they suffer peer victimization at their schools, and intervention programs to reduce it are necessary. These programs should consider the possible differences in the coping strategies preferred by students according to some personal (e.g., gender, grade, victimization status) and contextual (e.g., perceived classroom social climate) factors to be more effective. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze the possible differences in the coping strategies preferred by students (ask a friend for help, ask a teacher for help, ask parents for help, not ask anyone for help, fighting back, avoid the aggressor and ask the aggressor why) to handle situations of relational, physical and verbal peer victimization according to their gender, school grade, victimization status and perceived classroom social climate. The sample comprised 479 students (52.2% boys, 47.8% girls) aged from 9 to 14 years (M = 11.21, SD = 1.52). The results showed that girls chose the strategies of asking friends or adults for help and asking the aggressor why more than boys, while boys chose the strategies of fighting back and not ask anyone for help more than girls. The coping strategy of asking a teacher for help was preferred more by students of lower school grades and by students with a positive perception of the classroom climate. Victimized students preferred the strategy of not asking anyone for help. These results may be useful for developing more effective intervention programs. These programs should aim to enhance the teacher–student relationship in upper school grades, help victimized students to inform about peer aggression situations and improve perceived classroom social climate.

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