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In this article, the author reflects on the effect of climate changes on the future of life in urban areas. It mentions that the U.S. is focusing on creating compact cities that will have limited impact on the environment. It also adds that people living in urban areas don't take the issues of climatic imbalance seriously.

In the Netherlands community-dwelling older people with dementia can attend regular day care services (RDCS). Since approximately 2000, farms (so-called 'green care farms') also offer day care. The present study introduces the concept of green care farms for older people with dementia. We further provide an integrative framework for the expected health benefits of day care at green care farms (GCF) for older people with dementia. We present an overview of evidence for dementia related interventions that correspond with the current developments in health care (i.e. environmental, activity-based and psychosocial interventions), and that are relevant for day care. We subsequently focus on the differences between day care at GCF and RDCS with regard to these interventions, and describe the integrative framework for the expected health benefits of GCF for older people with dementia. We conclude that at GCF interventions are naturally integrated in the environment. They are present simultaneously and continuously, which is more difficult to realize in RDCS. We hypothesize that GCF have more health benefits for older people with dementia than RDCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical examination of efforts to use Heidegger's thought to illuminate deep ecology. It argues that deep ecology does not entail a non-anthropocentric or ecocentric environmental ethic; rather, it is best understood as offering an ontological critique of the current environmental crisis, from a perspective of deep anthropocentrism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study's purpose was to identify and describe common patterns of person-environment interaction in persons with rheumatoid arthritis. Newman's propositions about pattern provided the theoretical foundation, and a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to recognize pattern. Sixty-six adults diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis completed questionnaires that assessed characteristic ways of functioning. Iterative cluster analysis of the data identified five distinct groups of individuals with similar response profiles. Content analysis of each group's characteristics produced a core theme representing the nature of the common pattern. The finding of multiple, distinct common patterns of person-environment interaction within the population of persons with RA is consistent with findings in other populations. Further study of the common patterns, in relation to health outcomes, has potential for increasing knowledge about the sources of different health experiences among persons with the same chronic illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with a study which proposed that the predictions of routine activity theory and the negative affect escape model of aggression can be reconciled by viewing inclement weather as a factor that reduces social contact by leading individuals to avoid outdoor setting. Methods; Temporal and weather variables; Moderators of temperature-violence relations.

Examines ambient illumination exposure in healthy volunteers in San Diego, California and Rochester, Minnesota, which are located at two different latitudes. Humans' seasonal rhythms in sleep, mood and birth rate; Seasonal rhythms' relation to changes in the timing and/or intensity of light exposure; Influence of season and geographic location on human illumination exposure.

In response to the call for greater integration across personality structure, process and development, we propose the analogy of climate and weather to traits and states as a means of emphasizing the importance of time in analyses of human behavior. While there is a tendency to focus on only one time scale (days, months, years) on both sides of the analogy, we suggest that the use of multiple time scales can facilitate the search for commonalities in causes and unique effects between structure, processes, and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented regarding the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), a single thermal index similar to air temperature with a widely known unit which can be used to assess cold stress, heat stress, and disease events in extreme weather conditions.