Background: In modern, urban daily life, natural environments are increasingly recognized as an important resource for stress recovery and general well-being. Aim: the present review aims to provide an overview and synthesis of the past eight years’ research into the psycho-physiological effects of outdoor nature-based interventions, related to stress recovery. Method: a structured search was performed in seven databases, returning 5618 articles. Removal of duplicates and initial screening gave a total of 95 studies. After full text reading, 36 studies were included in the assessment. Results: most of the psychological outcomes were related to different emotional measures. The synthesis of the results points towards outdoor, nature-based exposure having a positive effect on different emotional parameters, related to stress relief. The studies into physiological measures showed more equivocal results. Conclusion: the research, conducted over the past eight years, into outdoor, nature-based exposure has now attained a sound evidence base for psychological and especially emotional effects, but the evidence base for physiological effects within this timeframe shows a great degree of heterogeneity. Limitations: interpretation of the results is limited by the review only covering the past eight years’ research on the subject.

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Today, urbanization presents a challenge to urban planning with regard to creating healthy living environments. The aim of this research is to gain further knowledge of the restorativeness of a best case urban and natural environment: that is a historic down town urban environment and forest environment located in an arboretum. The study has a cross-over design where 51 (N) female university students are exposed to the two environments through both seated viewing and walking. A mixed method approach is used with both physiological measurements of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate variability (HRV) and psychological measurements of mood change and perceived restorativeness. The HRV results show no significant differences between the two environments, and both environments are found to be more physiologically restorative than being at the office or on the minibus. The results of the psychological measures indicate that the forest walk has a positive effect on mood, while the walk in the urban environment has no effect. The forest environment is also rated more highly with regard to perceived restorativeness than the urban environment. The results support the current research that shows natural environments as more restorative than urban environments. The study also adds to the ongoing debate on healthy urban planning by indicating that architectural and historical qualities may be associated with the physiological well-being of citizens.

Treatment of barley alpha-amylase/subtilisin inhibitor (BASI) with reagents specific for arginine, histidine, methionine and tyrosine residues and amino and carboxyl groups indicates that an arginine residue(s) is essential for its action on the target enzyme barley alpha-amylase 2. Phenylglyoxal modified eight out of 12 arginine residues in BASI. Kinetic analysis shows that the inactivation of BASI follows a pseudo-first-order reaction and is due to reaction with one molecule of phenylglyoxal; the second-order rate constant is determined to be 2.95 M-1.min-1. At pH 8.0, BASI and barley alpha-amylase 2 form an inactive 1:1 complex. The Ki value of this association is 2.2 x 10(-10) M. The alpha-amylase protects four arginine residues and also the alpha-amylase inhibitory activity of BASI against phenylglyoxal. When BASI from the phenylglyoxal-modified target enzyme-inhibitor complex is isolated and subjected to a second treatment with phenylglyoxal, four additional arginine residues are modified, with concomitant loss of the inhibitory activity. These results are discussed in relation to a three-dimensional model of BASI based on the known structure of the corresponding inhibitor from wheat.

The design of the Nacadia® therapy garden is based on a model for evidence-based health design in landscape architecture (EBHDL). One element of the model is a diagnostic post-occupancy evaluation (DPOE), which has not previously been fully developed. The present study develops a generic DPOE for therapy gardens, with a focus on studying the effects of the design on patients’ health outcomes. This is done in order to identify successes and failures in the design. By means of a triangulation approach, the DPOE employs a mixture of methods, and data is interpreted corroborating. The aim of the present study is to apply the DPOE to the Nacadia® therapy garden. The results of the DPOE suggest that the design of the Nacadia® therapy garden fulfills its stated aims and objectives. The overall environment of the Nacadia ® therapy garden was experienced as protective and safe, and successfully incorporated the various elements of the nature-based therapy programme. The participants encountered meaningful spaces and activities which suited their current physical and mental capabilities, and the health outcome measured by EQ-VAS (self-estimated general health) indicated a significant increase. Some design failures were identified, of which visual exposure was the most noteworthy. The DPOE model presented appears to be efficient but would nonetheless profit from being validated by other cases.