scholarly journals The Impacts of Symmetry in Architecture and Urbanism: Toward a New Research Agenda

Buildings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Michael W. Mehaffy
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Christopher Alexander ◽  
The One ◽  
New Research

Architecture has an ancient relationship to mathematics, and symmetry—in the broad sense of the term—is a core topic of both. Yet the contemporary application of theories of symmetry to architecture and built environments is a surprisingly immature area of research. At the same time, research is showing a divergence between the benefits of and preferences for natural environments on the one hand, and built environments on the other, demonstrating relatively deleterious effects of many contemporary built environments. Yet the research cannot yet pinpoint the actual geometric factors of architecture and urbanism that could produce such an important divergence. This paper explores this research gap, surveying the literature across a range of fields, and assessing current evidence for the impacts of symmetry in the built environment upon human perception and well-being. As an emerging case study, it considers the recent work by Christopher Alexander and Nikos Salingaros, two trained mathematicians who have made notable contributions to architecture and urbanism. The conclusion proposes a new research agenda toward further development of this immature subject area.

scholarly journals Defining a research agenda for youth sport specialisation in the USA: the AMSSM Youth Early Sport Specialization Summit

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Stephanie A Kliethermes ◽  
Stephen W Marshall ◽  
Cynthia R LaBella ◽  
Andrew M Watson ◽  
Joel S Brenner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Youth Sport ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Medical Society ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Usa

Sport specialisation is becoming increasingly common among youth and adolescent athletes in the USA and many have raised concern about this trend. Although research on sport specialisation has grown significantly, numerous pressing questions remain pertaining to short-term and long-term effects of specialisation on the health and well-being of youth, including the increased risk of overuse injury and burnout. Many current elite athletes did not specialise at an early age. Methodological and study design limitations impact the quality of current literature, and researchers need to prioritise pressing research questions to promote safe and healthy youth sport participation. The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine hosted a Youth Early Sport Specialization Summit in April 2019 with the goal of synthesising and reviewing current scientific knowledge and developing a research agenda to guide future research in the field based on the identified gaps in knowledge. This statement provides a broad summary of the existing literature, gaps and limitations in current evidence and identifies key research priorities to help guide researchers conducting research on youth sport specialisation. Our goals are to help improve the quality and relevance of research on youth sport specialisation and to ultimately assure that opportunities for healthy and safe sport participation continue for all youth.

Improving dietary behaviour with nutrition labelling: Towards a research agenda that serves consumer well-being

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydiane Nabec
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Dietary Behaviour ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Nutrition Labelling ◽  
Societal Context ◽  
New Research ◽  
Transformative Consumer Research

The nutrition labelling on food products represents a major challenge for the public authorities: to improve the dietary behaviour of consumers. This article provides an overview of current knowledge on this issue and invites marketing researchers to consider the contributions of transformative consumer research (TCR) as part of a new research agenda. It aims to understand the effects of nutrition labelling on the food well-being of consumers in light of the specific features of their social, cultural and societal context.

The Economic Psychology of Tax Compliance and Charitable Giving: A Comparative Analysis and Research Agenda

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
Cinzia Castiglioni ◽  
Edoardo Lozza
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Tax Compliance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
Good For ◽  
Main Determinants ◽  
New Research

Finding mechanisms to promote prosocial spending behavior is fundamental to the well-being of our societies and is more urgent than ever in a time of key global challenges, including social and economic inequalities. Tax payment and charitable giving can be seen as two complementary ways to financially provide for the common good and, like many other social dilemmas, they both involve a conflict between what is good for oneself and what is good for others. The aim of the present article is to perform a comparative analysis of the main determinants of tax behavior and charitable giving to identify some common antecedents to gain insight to promote pro-social financial decisions at large. Despite the intrinsic differences, several commonalities were found, thus suggesting a transcending common core. By identifying well-established literature and under-investigated areas, a new research agenda is formulated.

scholarly journals Rural Population Health and Aging: Toward a Multilevel and Multidimensional Research Agenda for the 2020s

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (9) ◽  
pp. 1328-1331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Jensen ◽  
Shannon M. Monnat ◽  
John J. Green ◽  
Lori M. Hunter ◽  
Martin J. Sliwinski
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Rural Population ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
New Research ◽  
Rural Places

The unique health and aging challenges of rural populations often go unnoticed. In fact, the rural United States is home to disproportionate shares of older and sicker people, there are large and growing rural–urban and within-rural mortality disparities, many rural communities are in population decline, and rural racial/ethnic diversity is increasing. Yet rural communities are not monolithic, and although some rural places are characterized by declining health, others have seen large improvements in population health. We draw on these realities to call for new research in five areas. First, research is needed to better describe health disparities between rural and urban areas and, because rural places are not monolithic, across rural America. Second, research is needed on how trends in rural population health and aging are affecting rural communities. Third, research is needed on the ways in which economic well-being and livelihood strategies interact with rural health and aging. Fourth, we need to better understand the health implications of the physical and social isolation characterizing many rural communities. Finally, we argue for new research on the implications of local natural environments and climate change for rural population health and aging.

scholarly journals Impact of Exposure to Natural and Built Environments on Positive and Negative Affect: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenfei Yao ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
San Wang ◽  
Xiaofeng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Study Region

There is increasing evidence that the natural environment provides substantial benefits to human emotional well-being. The current study synthesized this body of research using the meta-analysis and assessed the positive and negative effects of exposure to both the natural and built environments. We searched four databases and 20 studies were included in the review. The meta-analysis results showed the most convincing evidence that exposure to the natural environment could increase positive affect (standardized mean difference, SMD = 0.61, 95% CI 0.41, 0.81) and decreased negative affect (SMD = −0.47, 95% CI −0.71, −0.24). However, there was extreme heterogeneity between the studies, and the risk of bias was high. According to the subgroup analysis, study region, study design, mean age of the sample, sample size, and type of natural and built environment were found to be important factors during exposure to the natural environment. The implications of these findings for the existing theory and research are discussed. These findings will help convince the health professionals and policymakers to encourage the residents to increase their time spent in the natural environment. These findings of this systematic review also suggested that the creation, maintenance, and enhancement of accessible greenspaces or existing natural environments may form part of a multidimensional approach to increasing emotional well-being of the local populations.

Numerical competence in animals: Definitional issues, current evidence, and a new research agenda

1988 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hank Davis ◽  
Rachelle Pérusse
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Animal Cognition ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Numerical Competence ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Many ◽  
New Research ◽  
Relative Numerousness

AbstractNumerical competence is one of the many aspects of animal cognition that have enjoyed a resurgence of interest during the past decade. Evidence for numerical abilities in animals has followed a tortuous path to respectability, however, from Clever Hans, the counting horse, to modern experimental studies. Recent surveys of the literaturereveal theoretical as well as definitional confusion arising from inconsistent terminology for numerical processes and procedures. The term “counting” has been applied to situations having little to do with its meaning in the human literature. We propose a consistent vocabulary and theoretical framework for evaluating numerical competence. Relative numerousness judgments, subitizing, counting, and estimation may be the essential processes by which animals perform numerical discriminations. Ordinality, cardinality, and transitivity also play an important role in these processes. Our schema is applied to a variety of recent experimental situations. Some evidence of transfer is essential in demonstrating higher-order ability such as counting or “sense of number.” Those instances of numerical competence in which all viable alternatives to counting (e.g., subitizing) have been precluded, but no evidence of transfer has been demonstrated might be described as “protocounting.” To show that animals are capable of “true” counting future research will have to demonstrate generality across situations.

scholarly journals Roots, Riots, and Radical Change—A Road Less Travelled for Ecological Economics

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke Pirgmaier ◽  
Julia Steinberger
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Ecological Economics ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
The Core ◽  
New Research

In this paper, we put forward a new research agenda for ecological economics, based on three realisations. We then show how these can be connected through research and used to generate insights with the potential for application in broader, systemic change. The first realisation is that the core ambition of ecological economics, that of addressing the scale of human environmental resource use and associated impacts, often remains an aspirational goal, rather than being applied within research. In understanding intertwined environmental and social challenges, systemic approaches (including system dynamics) should be revitalised to address the full scope of what is possible or desirable. The second realisation is that the focus on biophysical and economic quantification and methods has been at the expense of a comprehensive social understanding of environmental impacts and barriers to change—including the role of power, social class, geographical location, historical change, and achieving human well-being. For instance, by fetishising growth as the core problem, attention is diverted away from underlying social drivers—monetary gains as profits, rent, or interest fuelled by capitalist competition and, ultimately, unequal power relations. The third realisation is that ecological economics situates itself with respect to mainstream (neoclassical) economics, but simultaneously adopts some of its mandate and blind spots, even in its more progressive camps. Pragmatic attempts to adopt mainstream concepts and tools often comfort, rather than challenge, the reproduction of the very power relations that stand in the way of sustainability transitions. We consider these three realisations as impediments for developing ecological economics as an emancipatory critical research paradigm and political project. We will not focus on or detail the failings of ecological economics, but state what we believe they are and reformulate them as research priorities. By describing and bringing these three elements together, we are able to outline an ambitious research agenda for ecological economics, one capable of catalysing real social change.

scholarly journals Contemplative Landscapes: Towards Healthier Built Environments

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo 1
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Passive Exposure ◽  
Current State

This review aims to show the current state of the knowledge in the area of the visual quality of landscapes in urbanized areas and their influence on people’s mental health and well-being. This falls under the passive recreation and passive exposure to the environmental stimuli present in our cities (such as walking in nature, quiet contemplation) as opposed to active interactions with the landscapes such as horticulture therapy, meditation, etc. Passive exposure to natural or built environments can shape our mental health patterns throughout the life cycle.Although we know that the quantity of green spaces in the cities can improve the well-being of city inhabitants and contact with natural environments can alleviate various psychological disorders, it is also likely that the quality of green spaces, including seemingly irrelevant landscape design nuances, can play a more important role for our mental health.Currently, one can observe a strong demand from policy makers for generating scientific evidence-based knowledge to provide recommendations for urban design and the maintenance of green spaces. The Contemplative Landscape Model (CLM) is an operationalised construct which includes aesthetic, environmental and mental health values of landscapes, and could serve as a useful tool to assist in the current need for knowledge. However, more research with an emphasis on causal relationships is needed.

Contemplative Landscapes: Towards Healthier Built Environments

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Passive Exposure ◽  
Current State

This review aims to show the current state of the knowledge in the area of the visual quality of landscapes in urbanized areas and their influence on people’s mental health and well-being. This falls under the passive recreation and passive exposure to the environmental stimuli present in our cities (such as walking in nature, quiet contemplation) as opposed to active interactions with the landscapes such as horticulture therapy, meditation, etc. Passive exposure to natural or built environments can shape our mental health patterns throughout the life cycle.Although we know that the quantity of green spaces in the cities can improve the well-being of city inhabitants and contact with natural environments can alleviate various psychological disorders, it is also likely that the quality of green spaces, including seemingly irrelevant landscape design nuances, can play a more important role for our mental health.Currently, one can observe a strong demand from policy makers for generating scientific evidence-based knowledge to provide recommendations for urban design and the maintenance of green spaces. The Contemplative Landscape Model (CLM) is an operationalised construct which includes aesthetic, environmental and mental health values of landscapes, and could serve as a useful tool to assist in the current need for knowledge. However, more research with an emphasis on causal relationships is needed.

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