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PubMed2005

Hong Kong nursing students' perception of the clinical environment: a questionnaire survey.

Clinical practice is a vital component of the nursing curriculum yet it takes place in a complex social context. This survey examined Hong Kong nursing students' perception of the social climate of the clinical learning environment. The targeted subjects were all Years 2-4 pre-registration nursing students at the school of nursing of a major University in Hong Kong. Participants were invited to complete the two versions, the actual and preferred forms, of the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory following the completion of their clinical field placement. Two hundred and eighty one actual forms and 243 preferred forms were returned. SPPS version 11 was employed to analyse the data using descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that there were significant differences between students' perceptions of the actual clinical learning environment and the ideal clinical learning environment they desired. The study highlights the need for a supportive clinical learning environment which is of paramount importance in securing the required teaching and learning process for students on clinical practice.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Obesity and the built environment.

Biological, psychological, behavioral, and social factors are unable to fully explain or curtail the obesity epidemic. In this article we review research on the influence of the built environment on obesity. Studies were evaluated with regard to their methods of assessing the environment and obesity, as well as to their effects. Methods used to investigate the relationships between the built environment and obesity were found to be dissimilar across studies and varied from indirect to direct. Levels of assessment between and within studies varied from entire counties down to the individual level. Despite this, obesity was linked with area of residence, resources, television, walkability, land use, sprawl, and level of deprivation, showing promise for research utilizing more consistent assessment methods. Recommendations were made to use more direct methods of assessing the environment, which would include specific targeting of institutions thought to vary widely in relation to area characteristics and have a more influential effect on obesity-related behaviors. Interventions should be developed from the individual to the neighborhood level, specifically focusing on the effects of eliminating barriers and making neighborhood level improvements that would facilitate the elimination of obesogenic environments.

City Planning↗

PubMed2006

Students' perception of the psycho-social clinical learning environment: an evaluation of placement models.

Nursing is a practice based discipline. A supportive environment has been identified as important for the transfer of learning in the clinical context. The aim of the paper was to assess undergraduate nurses' perceptions of the psychosocial characteristics of clinical learning environments within three different clinical placement models. Three hundred and eight-nine undergraduate nursing students rated their perceptions of the psycho-social learning environment using a Clinical Learning Environment Inventory. There were 16 respondents in the Preceptor model category, 269 respondents in the Facilitation model category and 114 respondents in the clinical education unit model across 25 different clinical areas in one tertiary facility. The most positive social climate was associated with the preceptor model. On all subscales the median score was rated higher than the two other models. When clinical education units were compared with the standard facilitation model the median score was rated higher in all of the subscales in the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory. These results suggest that while preceptoring is an effective clinical placement strategy that provides psycho-social support for students, clinical education units that are more sustainable through their placement of greater numbers of students, can provide greater psycho-social support for students than traditional models.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2003

Genetic architecture and evolutionary constraint when the environment contains genes.

The environment provided by conspecifics is often the most important component of the environment experienced by individuals, frequently having profound effects on fitness and trait expression. Although these social effects on fitness and trait expression may appear to be purely environmental, they differ from other sorts of environmental influences, because they can have a genetic basis and thus can contribute to evolution. Theory has shown that these effects modify the definition of genetic architecture by making the phenotype the property of the genotypes of multiple individuals and alter evolutionary dynamics by introducing additional heritable components contributing to trait evolution. These effects suggest that genetic and evolutionary analyses of traits influenced by social environments must incorporate the genetic components of variation contributed by these environments. However, empirical studies incorporating these effects are generally lacking. In this paper, I quantify the contribution of genetically based environmental effects arising from social interactions during group rearing to the quantitative genetics of body size in Drosophila melanogaster. The results demonstrate that the genetic architecture of body size contains an important component of variation contributed by the social environment, which is hidden to ordinary genetic analyses and opposes the direct effects of genes on body-size development within a population. Using a model of trait evolution, I show that these effects significantly alter evolutionary predictions by providing hidden constraints on phenotypic evolution. The importance of relatedness of interactants and the potential impact of kin selection on the evolution of body size are also examined.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Enhancement of auditory fear conditioning after housing in a complex environment is attenuated by prior treatment with amphetamine.

Prior exposure to drugs of abuse has been shown to occlude the structural plasticity associated with living in a complex environment. Amphetamine treatment may also occlude some cognitive advantages normally associated with living in a complex environment. To test this hypothesis we examined the influence of prior exposure to amphetamine on fear conditioning in rats housed in either a standard or complex environment. Housing in a complex environment facilitated fear learning to an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS), but not to the training context, relative to animals housed singly or in a social group. Prior treatment with amphetamine eliminated this effect. These results indicate that living in a complex environment facilitates conditional freezing to an auditory CS, and that this effect is abolished by pretreatment with amphetamine.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2006

Physical environmental stimuli that turn healthcare facilities into healing environments through psychologically mediated effects: systematic review.

AIM: This paper reports a systematic review to determine the effects of physical environmental stimuli in healthcare settings on the health and well-being of patients. BACKGROUND: The concept of healing environments suggests that the physical environment of the healthcare setting can encourage the healing process and patients' feelings of well-being. Understanding the effects of physical environmental stimuli will allow us to design healthcare environments that generate these potential health benefits. METHOD: A search was conducted using the MedLine, PsychInfo, Embase, CINAHL, Iconda, ScienceDirect, Compendex and the ISI Citation Indexes databases. Studies were included if they concerned interventions involving health effects of environmental stimuli in healthcare settings on patients, and were based on controlled clinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals. Both clinical and psychological outcome measures were included. The search was completed in 2005. FINDINGS: Of the over 500 potentially relevant studies identified, only 30 met all criteria and were included in this review. Predominantly positive effects were found for sunlight, windows, odour and seating arrangements. Inconsistent effects were found for sound, nature, spatial layout, television and multiple stimuli interventions. In general, both the size and direction of effects seem highly dependent on characteristics of patient populations and healthcare settings. CONCLUSIONS: Studies that manipulate several environmental stimuli simultaneously clearly support the general notion that the physical healthcare environment affects the well-being of patients. However, when scrutinizing the effects of specific environmental stimuli, conclusive evidence is still very limited and difficult to generalize. The field thus appears to be in urgent need of well-conducted, controlled clinical trials. At present, and on the basis of the available research, it would be premature to formulate evidence-based guidelines for designing healthcare environments.

Environment Design↗

PubMed2025

Experimental Validation of Genome-Environment Associations in Arabidopsis.

Identifying the genetic basis of local adaptation is a key goal in evolutionary biology. Allele frequency clines along environmental gradients, known as genotype-environment associations (GEA), are often used to detect potential loci causing local adaptation but are rarely followed by experimental validation. Here, we tested loci identified in three moisture-related GEA studies on Arabidopsis. We studied 42 GEA-identified genes using t-DNA knockout lines under drought and tested effects on flowering time, an adaptive trait, and genotype-by-environment (GxE) interactions for performance and fitness. In total, 16/42 genes had significant effects on traits involved in local adaptation or performance responses to the environment. We found that wrky38 mutants had significant GxE effects for fitness; lsd1 plants had a significant GxE effect for flowering time, and 11 genes showed flowering time effects with no drought interaction. However, most GEA candidates did not exhibit GxE. In the follow-up experiments, wrky38 caused decreased stomatal conductance and specific leaf area under drought, indicating potentially adaptive drought avoidance. Additionally, GEA identified natural putative LoF variants of WRKY38 associated with dry environments, as well as alleles associated with variation in LSD1 expression. While only a few GEA-identified genes were validated for GxE interactions for fitness, we likely overlooked some genes because experiments might not well represent natural environments and t-DNA insertions might not well represent natural alleles. Nevertheless, GEAs apparently identified some genes contributing to local adaptation. GEA and follow-up experiments are straightforward to implement in model systems and demonstrate prospects for GEA discovery of new local adaptations.

Arabidopsis↗

PubMed2006

Obesity, physical activity, and the urban environment: public health research needs.

Persistent trends in overweight and obesity have resulted in a rapid research effort focused on built environment, physical activity, and overweight. Much of the focus of this research has been on the design and form of suburbs. It suggests that several features of the suburban built environment such as low densities, poor street connectivity and the lack of sidewalks are associated with decreased physical activity and an increased risk of being overweight. But compared to suburban residents, inner city populations have higher rates of obesity and inactivity despite living in neighborhoods that are dense, have excellent street connectivity and who's streets are almost universally lined with sidewalks. We suggest that the reasons for this apparent paradox are rooted in the complex interaction of land use, infrastructure and social factors affecting inner city populations. Sometimes seemingly similar features are the result of very different processes, necessitating different policy responses to meet these challenges. For example, in suburbs, lower densities can result from government decision making that leads to restrictive zoning and land use issues. In the inner city, densities may be lowered because of abandonment and disinvestment. In the suburbs, changes in land use regulations could result in a healthier built environment. In inner cities, increasing densities will depend on reversing economic trends and investment decisions that have systematically resulted in distressed housing, abandoned buildings and vacant lots. These varying issues need to be further studied in the context of the totality of urban environments, incorporating what has been learned from other disciplines, such as economics and sociology, as well as highlighting some of the more successful inner city policy interventions, which may provide examples for communities working to improve their health. Certain disparities among urban and suburban populations in obesity and overweight, physical activity and research focus have emerged that are timely to address. Comparable research on the relationship of built environment and health is needed for urban, especially inner city, neighborhoods.

Cities↗

PubMed2004

Measuring the environment for friendliness toward physical activity: a comparison of the reliability of 3 questionnaires.

OBJECTIVES: We tested the reliability of 3 instruments that assessed social and physical environments. METHODS: We conducted a test-retest study among US adults (n = 289). We used telephone survey methods to measure suitableness of the perceived (vs objective) environment for recreational physical activity and nonmotorized transportation. RESULTS: Most questions in our surveys that attempted to measure specific characteristics of the built environment showed moderate to high reliability. Questions about the social environment showed lower reliability than those that assessed the physical environment. Certain blocks of questions appeared to be selectively more reliable for urban or rural respondents. CONCLUSIONS: Despite differences in content and in response formats, all 3 surveys showed evidence of reliability, and most items are now ready for use in research and in public health surveillance.

Adult↗

PubMed1981

Need satisfaction of older persons living in the community and in institutions, part 1. The environment.

A descriptive study was conducted that compared the need satisfaction of older persons living in institutions. In the first article of a two-part series, the impact of environment on the satisfaction of needs was examined. Subjects included 20 community and 21 institutionalized older persons. Using Maslow's need hierarchy as the theoretical framework, it was found that the community environment satisfied belongingness/love and esteem needs to a greater degree than the institutional environment. No difference was found in the satisfaction of physiological, safety, and self-actualization needs between the two environments. Race, mental status, and whether a community resident lived alone or with others were variables that influenced the results. The findings emphasized the complexity of need satisfaction and supported the formulation that environment is a crucial factor in need satisfaction. In the second article, the relationship between engagement in activity and need satisfaction will be explored.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Creating a healing environment: the importance of the service setting in the new consumer-oriented healthcare system.

Over the last ten years, the healthcare industry has recognized that the physical environment is a valuable resource that can and does affect all of its customers. Although most service organizations give some thought to setting, its importance to the service experience has been most thoroughly understood by those who view and treat their customers as guests, that is, the guest service industry. An excellent healing environment will reinforce excellent clinical quality, but an inferior environment can detract from fine clinical care. One of the most important principles learned by the guest service industry is to provide the setting customers expect. Another is to create an environment that meets or exceeds customer needs for safety, security, support, competence, physical comfort, and psychological comfort. This article provides a detailed discussion of how such an environment can be created in healthcare facilities drawing from the experience of the best guest service organizations.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1975

Biology of the rice rat (Oryzomys palustris natator) in a laboratory environment. VII. Pre-weaning growth of the body.

Body growth using weight and length parameters have been examined following the introduction of the rice rat to laboratory conditions and a history of breeding covering some 15 generations. The pattern of growth shows a characteristic enphasic form which appears to be determined by the interplay of the external environment and the genetic endowment. The external environmental factors include the waxing and waning of the lactational performance of the mother and the intake of solid food, resulting in the first phase being mainly controlled by the maternal environment, the second phase being mainly controlled by a lessening maternal environment + external (solid food) environment + some genetics, the third phase being influenced by external environment + genetic endowment.

Animals↗

PubMed2001

The work environment impact assessment: a methodologic framework for evaluating health-based interventions.

BACKGROUND: A new conceptual framework is needed to evaluate health-based interventions based on the premise that like the environment, workplaces are complex ecologies. The proposed Work Environment Impact Assessment (WEIA) is analogous to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), a concept and method developed 30 years ago in the environmental policy arena to evaluate potential consequences of human activity for the natural environment. WEIA entails identifying and evaluating both intended and unintended consequences, or outcomes, associated with a particular intervention. Because the workplace is a complex ecology, changes in one aspect may lead to changes in other aspects. WEIA calls for a systematic and comprehensive approach to the total work environment. METHODS: To illustrate the utility of WEIA we use this approach to evaluate an intervention to reduce the public's exposure to the pesticide Alar, which had been used on apples until it was withdrawn from the market in 1989. RESULTS: While this intervention did indeed reduce the public's exposure to Alar, it also led to other unintended consequences, namely new ergonomic hazards for apple pickers, increased stress levels in the orchards for both pickers and growers, as well as new worker, and perhaps public, exposure to potent neurotoxins. CONCLUSIONS: The goal of using WEIA is not to engage in a risk-risk debate that stalls worthwhile interventions. Rather, we propose that by conducting a Work Environment Impact Assessment, all possible positive and negative "ripple" effects stemming from an intervention can be considered, so that the intervention can be designed to achieve maximum benefit.

Adult↗

PubMed1988

Unfamiliar environments impair information processing as measured by behavioral and cardiac orienting responses to auditory stimuli in preweanling and adult rats.

Placing animals in an unfamiliar environment triggers at least two major reactions: (1) a heightened state of arousal, fear, or distress and (2) a sharp increase in information processing as the animal attempts to learn about its new environment. These changes could have a profound effect on the way in which the animal reacts to the types of extraneous innocuous stimuli typically used to study learning and memory. For example, an increase in arousal or fear could either (1) make the animal more "attentive" to stimulus change resulting in a larger orienting response, or (2) produce a shift from orienting to defensive responding. Conversely, processing of the new stimuli present in the unfamiliar environment may make the animal less responsive to additional extrinsic stimulation. These possibilities were examined experimentally using both autonomic and behavioral measures of orienting and defensive responses. The results demonstrated that animals fail to exhibit either an orienting response or a defensive response to a novel auditory stimulus when they are first placed in an unfamiliar environment. With continued exposure to the test environment the orienting response appears and then shows a time-dependent increase in magnitude. This pattern of results was obtained in both preweaning and young adult rats. On the basis of additional research and analysis, it was concluded that a limitation in information processing capacity was the primary reason for the failure of the orienting response to occur when an animal is first placed in an unfamiliar test chamber.

Aging↗

PubMed1984

The resolution of genotype x environment interaction in segregation analysis of nuclear families.

A model is presented for the effects of one or two loci, a measured index of the environment and genotype x environment (G x E) interaction of risk for a discontinuous trait. Initial properties of the model are explored for the single locus case, with and without the effects of environment and G x E interaction. Seven data sets were simulated, each comprising 500 nuclear families on whom an environmental index has been measured. Maximum-likelihood estimation procedures were used to obtain parameter estimates under seven models for each data set. Likelihood ratio tests were constructed, and in all cases it was possible to identify the "correct" model for the simulated data. The matrices of information realized showed that the parameters could be estimated with acceptable precision and that the effects of genes, environment, and G x E interaction could be resolved in the simulated populations. The effects on conventional segregation analysis of ignoring the environment and G x E are considered.

Biometry↗

PubMed1986

Healthy nursing doctoral programs: relationship between perceptions of the academic environment and productivity of faculty and alumni.

Indicators of the environment of doctoral programs in nursing were examined in relationship to productivity. Student and faculty perceptions of the academic program environment were correlated with outcome measures of productivity for both faculty and alumni. Twenty-five of the 29 eligible doctoral programs in nursing participated in the study; results are based on the responses of 326 faculty, 659 students, and 296 alumni. Environmental and productivity indicators were primarily measured by the Graduate Program Self-Assessment (GPSA) instruments developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) for studying dimensions of quality in doctoral education. Significant relationships were found between faculty perceptions of the environment's scholarly excellence, available resources, and student commitment and motivation and faculty productivity. Students consistently viewed the environment more positively when greater percentages of the faculty were at the associate, rather than the assistant, professor level. There was minimal relationship between faculty and student perceptions of the environment and alumni productivity.

Education, Nursing, Graduate↗

PubMed1996

The consequences of phenotypic plasticity in cyclically varying environments: a genetic algorithm study.

By "phenotypic plasticity" we refer to the capacity of a genotype to exhibit different phenotypes, whether in the same or in different environments. We have previously demonstrated that phenotypic plasticity can improve the degree of adaptation achieved via natural selection (Behera & Nanjundiah, 1995). That result was obtained from a genetic algorithm model of haploid genotypes (idealized as one-dimensional strings of genes) evolving in a fixed environment. Here, the dynamics of evolution is examined under conditions of a cyclically varying environment. We find that the rate of evolution, as well as the extent of adaptation (as measured by mean population fitness) is lowered because of environmental cycling. The decrease in adaptation caused by a varying environment can, however, be partly or wholly compensated by an increase in the degree of plasticity that a genotype is capable of. Also, the reduction of population fitness caused by a variable environment can be partially offset by decreasing the total number of genetic loci. We conjecture that an increase in genome size may have been among the factors responsible for the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMed1999

Dissecting obesogenic environments: the development and application of a framework for identifying and prioritizing environmental interventions for obesity.

BACKGROUND: The "obesogenicity" of modern environments is fueling the obesity pandemic. We describe a framework, known as ANGELO (analysis grid for environments linked to obesity), which is a conceptual model for understanding the obesogenicity of environments and a practical tool for prioritizing environmental elements for research and intervention. METHODS: Development of the ANGELO framework. The basic framework is a 2 x 4 grid which dissects the environment into environmental size (micro and macro) by type: physical (what is available), economic (what are the costs), political (what are the "rules"), and sociocultural (what are the attitudes and beliefs). Within this grid, the elements which influence food intake and physical activity are characterized as obesogenic or "leptogenic" (promoting leanness). RESULTS: Application of the ANGELO framework. The ANGELO framework has been piloted at the population level (island communities) to prioritize the settings/sectors for intervention and at the setting level (fast food outlets) to prioritize research needs and interventions. Environmental elements were prioritized by rating their validity (evidence of impact), relevance (to the local context), and potential changeability. CONCLUSIONS: The ANGELO framework appears to be a flexible and robust instrument for the needs analysis and problem identification stages of reducing the obesogenicity of modern environments.

Dietary Fats↗