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The biology of high-altitude peoples
The peoples of the high-altitude regions of the world have long fascinated both scientists and laymen from the lowlands. This book, while it draws heavily on the research conducted in the International Biological Programme, is a comprehensive review of our knowledge about the biology of the high-altitude peoples of the world.
Book
Indoor and outdoor physical surroundings and guests’ emotional well-being
PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relationship of internal/external physical environments and emotional well-being and to explore the possible influence of such an association with guest satisfaction and retention considering the moderating role of price perception in the luxury resort hotel context.Design/methodology/approachA total of 603 responses were gathered from a field survey at luxury resort hotels. The data were analyzed using quantitative data analyses to achieve research objectives.FindingsThe results from the structural model assessment revealed that both internal and external physical environments elicited emotional well-being, which in turn leads to the increased guest satisfaction and retention. More specifically, internal atmospherics had a stronger impact on triggering subsequent variables compared to external environment factors. The outcomes also indicated the significant mediating role of emotional well-being and satisfaction. Emotional well-being was found to mediate the effect of internal and external physical environments on guest satisfaction, while guest satisfaction mediated the effect of emotional well-being on guest retention. Moreover, price perception significantly moderated the guest satisfaction–guest retention association. Overall, the proposed conceptual framework satisfactorily accounted for variance in guest retention.Originality/valueThe findings help practitioners in luxury resort hotels to develop ways to boost guests’ post-purchase behaviors by using internal/external atmospherics and emotional well-being.
Journal Article
Quantifying the effects of active learning environments: separating physical learning classrooms from pedagogical approaches
Prior findings on the effects of active learning environments were limited by both research design and data-analysis techniques, such as lack of controls over confounding factors and misuse of statistical modeling. We (1) investigated the effects of active learning environments on student achievement and motivation and (2) overcame the limitations of prior studies. Using a three-group design, the effects of physical learning environments and pedagogical approaches were successfully separated. Active learning environments were found to have little influence, whereas active learning and teaching were found to have a significantly-positive influence on student achievements. The findings contribute to understandings of active learning environments in higher education, and invite more debate about whether further investments in active learning classrooms are worthwhile.
Journal Article
Risk Terrain and Multilevel Modeling of Street Robbery Distribution in Baltimore City
The structure and functions of neighborhoods determine the impact of measures used to estimate the distribution of street robbery across space and time. The risk of street robbery could vary between different sections of the area. Prior research has typically relied on one-dimensional analysis, which sparsely accounts for the hierarchical configuration of a neighborhood’s influence on spatial crime distribution. Much less is known about how the predictor variables moderate each other at different neighborhood levels. Data was collected from 13,789 US Census blocks (N = 13,788) aggregated to administrative neighborhoods (N = 278) to examine how neighborhood structure affects street robbery distribution at two spatial levels. A Risk Terrain Model was adopted to develop a physical environment risk measure—Aggregate Neighborhood Risk of Crime (ANROC), which, alongside sociodemographic risk factors, predicted the outcomes of the Negative Binomial General Linear Regression models. Study findings suggest that individual-level (block) and group (neighborhood) level predictors influenced street robbery. Both group-level physical environment and total population moderated the impact of the individual-level physical environment on street robbery incidents.
Plain Language Summary
Explaining How the Risk of Street Robbery is Spread in Baltimore City
How neighborhoods are structured and function influences the places and the times that street robberies occur. This means that the risk of street robbery will differ between neighborhoods, just as it will be different between different places within the same neighborhood. This research examined the effect of physical environment facilities (ANROC) and social forces, such as the proportion of single-female-headed homes, the population under 18 years, and the proportion of renters on street robbery. It examined the different levels of street robbery between 278 neighborhoods in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. The study also examined the differences in the levels of street robbery between the 13,789 places (blocks) within the neighborhoods. The study found that the forces determined by the places within and between the neighborhoods influenced the distribution of street robbery. Notably, the physical environment forces (ANROC) and the total population of the neighborhoods moderated how the physical environment influenced street robbery at places within the neighborhoods.
Journal Article
The evaluation of physical learning environments : a critical review of the literature
This article critically reviews the methodologies and methods that have been used for the evaluation of physical learning environments. To contextualise discussion about the evaluation of learning spaces, it initially charts the development of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) for non-domestic buildings. It then discusses the recent evolution of POE into the broader evaluative framework of building performance evaluation. Subsequently, a selection of approaches used to evaluate higher education and school learning environments are compared and critically analysed in view of contemporary approaches to teaching and learning. Gaps in these evaluative approaches are identified and an argument is put forward for the evaluation of physical learning environments from a more rigorous pedagogical perspective. [Author abstract, ed]
Journal Article
A framework for exploration of relationship between the psychosocial and physical learning environment
In order to construct a shared body of knowledge, research involving the relationship between the psychosocial learning environment (PSLE) and the physical learning environment (PLE) needs a commonly-accepted conceptual framework. By means of a thematic literature review, we collected the main aspects of the PSLE and PLE, their definitions and their relations as identified by earlier research. These findings led to a conceptual framework that structures the dimension of the PSLE into the sub-dimensions of personal development, relationships, and system maintenance and change, and the dimension of the PLE into the sub-dimensions of naturalness, individualisation, and stimulation. For each of these sub-dimensions, the framework distinguishes an intended, implemented and attained representation. A conceptual PSLE-PLE Relationship (PPR) model enables relations to be visualised. The review confirms that PSLE and PLE are interrelated in interactions between different sub-dimensions and their representations. However, evidence regarding these relationships is still weak because of the limited number of studies and their methodological limitations.
Journal Article
Physical learning environments’ supportiveness to innovative pedagogies: students’ and teachers’ experiences
Research into the relationship between innovative physical learning environments (PLEs) and innovative psychosocial learning environments (PSLEs) indicates that it must be understood as a network of relationships between multiple psychosocial and physical aspects. Actors shape this network by attaching meanings to these aspects and their relationships in a continuous process of gaining and exchanging experiences. This study used a psychosocial-physical, relational approach for exploring teachers’ and students’ experiences with six innovative PLEs in a higher educational institute, with the application of a psychosocial-physical relationship (PPR) framework. This framework, which brings together the multitude of PLE and PSLE aspects, was used to map and analyse teachers’ and students’ experiences that were gathered in focus group interviews. The PPR framework proved useful in analysing the results and comparing them with previous research. Previously-identified relationships were confirmed, clarified, and nuanced. The results underline the importance of the attunement of system aspects to pedagogical and spatial changes, and of a psychosocial-physical relational approach in designing and implementing new learning environments, including the involvement of actors in the discourse within and between the different system levels. Interventions can be less invasive, resistance to processes could be reduced, and innovative PLEs could be used more effectively.
Journal Article
Living Environment Matters
Characteristics of an individual alone cannot exhaustively explain all the causes of poor health, and neighborhood of residence have been suggested to be one of the factors that contribute to health. However, knowledge about aspects of the neighborhood that are most important to health is limited. The main objective of this study was to explore associations between certain features of neighborhood environment and self-rated health and depressive symptoms in Maastricht (The Netherlands). A large amount of routinely collected neighborhood data were aggregated by means of factor analysis to 18 characteristics of neighborhood social and physical environment. Associations between these characteristics and self-rated health and presence of depressive symptoms were further explored in multilevel logistic regression models adjusted for individual demographic and socio-economic factors. The study sample consisted of 9,879 residents (mean age 55 years, 48 % male). Residents of unsafe communities were less likely to report good health (OR 0.88 95 % CI 0.80–0.97) and depressive symptoms (OR 0.81 95 % CI 0.69–0.97), and less cohesive environment was related to worse self-rated health (OR 0.81 95 % CI 0.72–0.92). Residents of neighborhoods with more car traffic nuisance and more disturbance from railway noise reported worse mental health (OR 0.79 95 % CI 0.68–0.92 and 0.85 95 % CI 0.73–0.99, respectively). We did not observe any association between health and quality of parking and shopping facilities, facilities for public or private transport, neighborhood aesthetics, green space, industrial nuisance, sewerage, neighbor nuisance or satisfaction with police performance. Our findings can be used to support development of integrated health policies targeting broader determinants of health. Improving safety, social cohesion and decreasing traffic nuisance in disadvantaged neighborhoods might be a promising way to improve the health of residents and reduce health inequalities.
Journal Article
Second Grade Students’ Perspectives of Their Classrooms’ Physical Learning Environment: A Multiple Case Study
The study employed a qualitative multiple case study approach to investigate second-grade students’ perceptions of their classrooms’ physical learning environment. Data were collected through interviews, participant-generated photographs, and observations. Participants in the study were 16 students in four classrooms in three school districts. A physical learning environment tool, Assessing the Pillars of the Physical Environment for Academic Learning (APPEAL), developed by Evanshen and Faulk and published in 2019, was used to select classrooms to participate in the study. According to the scale, the top-scoring classrooms were more learner-centered (more constructivist) than the lowest-scoring (more traditional) classrooms. Generally, participants believed that classroom physical learning environments that were best for them were meaningful, offered easy access to resources and materials, and provided active learning and social engagement opportunities. Both physical and emotional comfort were important to participants. There were more similarities than differences between the participants’ perceptions in the classrooms that scored highest on the APPEAL and the classes that scored lowest. The findings suggested that young children’s perceptions of the environment can be influenced by their experiences or contexts and their differences. The results encourage teachers of young children to think about their students as actively affected by their environment and challenge them to design classroom physical learning environments that support the diverse needs of students within these spaces.
Journal Article