Dynamics and Dependencies in Regional Collaboration for Biodiversity Restoration: Reflections from the Netherlands.

Biodiversity restoration on a landscape level requires people with different backgrounds to connect and collaborate over an extended period of time. Hence, understanding how conservation and restoration goals are negotiated and achieved necessitates an understanding of the dynamics of the social fabric: the social networks and interactions that develop, underpin, and sustain collective action. This paper identifies patterns and factors that have contributed to constructive collaboration for biodiversity in the rural area of Ooijpolder-Groesbeek, which has been at the vanguard of nature and landscape development in the Netherlands. We conducted a historical analysis of the period between 1985 and 2022, based on a broad range of literature and interviews with key actors in the region. We provide a narrative account of the tipping points and the preceding processes that propelled the region to its current state. The emergence of these tipping points is analyzed through the lens of a conceptual framework on the dynamic interplay between practices, social interactions, events, and circumstances. Our findings reveal how an integrative landscape approach, the use of suitable boundary objects, and continuous network building and relation management across various levels have contributed to the success of the collective effort.

Influence of musical context on sensorimotor synchronization in classical ballet solo dance.

Several studies have addressed motor coordination in dance, but few have addressed the influence of musical context on micro-timing during sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) in classical ballet. In this study, we analyze the Promenade in Arabesque of the Odile variations, first as a dance-music fragment non-embedded in a musical context, then as a dance-music fragment embedded in a musical context at two different instances. Given the musical structure of the fragments, there are repeats of patterns between and within the fragments. Four dancers were invited to perform the three fragments in twelve successive performances. The beats of the music were extracted and compared with the timing of the dancers' heel movements, using circular-linear smooth regression modelling, and circular statistics. The results reveal an effect of repeat within fragments, and an effect of musical context between fragments, on micro-timing anticipation in SMS. The methodology offers a framework for future work on dynamical aspects of SMS.

Not All Puppies and Sunshine: How Dog Keepers Cope with Dog-Related Problems in Dutch Society.

Zoonoses, biting incidents, hereditary problems, and other issues can threaten the welfare of both humans and dogs. The Dutch government and animal welfare organizations seem to have little effect in their campaigns to influence the behavior of (potential) dog keepers, who can experience dissonance when faced with these campaigns and use coping strategies to relieve the dissonance instead of changing their behavior. In this study, in focus group discussions, dog keepers with pedigree dogs, high-risk dogs, foreign shelter dogs, and dogs purchased at puppy farms shared their experiences with opinions on dogs and were confronted with negative opinions on their dogs. The data were analyzed using a coping strategies framework. Most coping strategies were found in all groups, but were used in response to different dilemmas, with different manifestations. These differences should be kept in mind when behavior change in dog keepers is opportune. Special attention should be given to differentiating target groups, as use of the detachment coping strategy suggests that boundaries might be set differently than expected. Broad attention on problems with and for dogs can address perceived dissonance and prompt behavior change. In dialogue with dog keepers, in influential campaigns and in policy formulation, the chances of success are greater if initiators are aware of the strategies that they may encounter.

Tick treatment practices in the field: Access to, knowledge about, and on-farm use of acaricides in Laikipia, Kenya.

The prevention of tick-borne diseases is a major challenge for livestock production globally. Tick control strategies include the use of acaricides, but the prescribed strategies do not achieve the desired results in several countries, including Kenya. To better understand how tick treatment practices, contribute to reported tick treatment failures, we assessed livestock owners' acaricide procurement, level of knowledge about acaricides and tick resistance, and how they apply acaricides. We also assessed the quality of the commonly available acaricides. We focused on three livestock systems in Laikipia County, Kenya: two private ranches; one community ranch whose members communally graze their cattle and acquire and apply acaricides; and individual livestock owners in two pastoral communities who individually graze their cattle and acquire and apply acaricides. Through interviews and focus group discussions we assessed; access to acaricides, livestock owners' knowledge, and acaricide use practices; interview data were triangulated with participant observations (n = 107). We analysed nine commonly used acaricides to determine the active ingredient concentration and we determined the concentration of active ingredients in acaricide dilutions collected on farms. All livestock owners had access to and used chemical acaricides for tick control, predominantly amitraz-based. Private ranchers bought one amitraz-based acaricide in bulk directly from the manufacturer, while all other livestock owners bought from agrovet shops. The livestock owners acquired knowledge about acaricides from their own experiences and through experience-based recommendations from peers, but not from the technical information provided by the manufacturers and agrovet shops. All pastoral livestock frequently changed acaricide brand and active ingredient class. A large majority of pastoralists (86%) mixed acaricide brands within and across active ingredient classes; a smaller majority (56%) mixed acaricides with crop pesticides and insecticides. Our lab tests confirmed the content description on the labels bought from agrovet shops. However, on-farm acaricide dilutions from all three livestock systems deviated from the level recommended for effective treatment. If too diluted, the acaricide does not kill ticks, promoting resistance development. If too concentrated, this increases environmental contamination and raises public health concerns. Livestock owners lack a technical understanding of the functioning of acaricides, compromising their use and effectiveness. The widely adopted mixing of acaricides with insecticides and pesticides raises serious health concerns.

The compatibility of reductionistic and complexity approaches in a sociomedical innovation perspective.

Medical technologies, e-health and personalised medicine are rapidly changing the healthcare landscape. Successful implementation depends on interactions between the technology, the actors and the context. More traditional reductionistic approaches aim to understand isolated factors and linear cause-effect relations and have difficulties in addressing inter-relatedness and interaction. Complexity theory offers a myriad of approaches that focus specifically on behaviour and mechanisms that emerge from interactions between involved actors and the environment. These approaches work from the assumption that change does not take place in isolation and that interaction and inter-relatedness are central concepts to study. However, developments are proceeding fast and along different lines. This can easily lead to confusion about differences and usefulness in clinical and healthcare research and practice. Next to this, reductionistic and complexity approaches have their own merits and much is to be gained from using both approaches complementary. To this end, we propose three lines in complexity research related to health innovation and discuss ways in which complexity approaches and reductionistic approaches can act compatibly and thereby strengthen research designs for developing, implementing and evaluating health innovations.

Exploring the Framing of Animal Farming and Meat Consumption: On the Diversity of Topics Used and Qualitative Patterns in Selected Demographic Contexts.

In various contexts, people talk about animal farming and meat consumption using different arguments to construct and justify their (non-)acceptability. This article presents the results of an in-depth qualitative inquiry into the content of and contextual patterns in the everyday-life framing regarding this issue, performed among consumers in various settings in two extremes in the European sphere: the Netherlands and Turkey. We describe the methodological steps of collecting, coding, and organizing the variety of encountered framing topics, as well as our search for symbolic convergence in groups of consumers from different selected demographic contexts (country, urban-rural areas, gender, age, and education level). The framing of animal farming and meat consumption in everyday-life is not a simple one-issue rational display of facts; people referred to a vast range of topics in the categories knowledge, convictions, pronounced behaviour, values, norms, interests, and feelings. Looking at framing in relation to the researched demographic contexts, most patterns were found on the level of topics; symbolic convergence in lines of reasoning and composite framing was less prominent in groups based on single demographic contexts than anticipated. An explanation for this lies in the complexity of frame construction, happening in relation with multiple interdependent contextual features.

Individual, social-environmental, and physical-environmental factors that underlie sense of coherence in Dutch adults.

Antonovsky's salutogenesis is a theoretical perspective on health development that explores physical, mental, and social factors that contribute to a 'healthy life orientation' and also a theoretical approach to behavior change. Previous studies applying salutogenesis show that a high sense of coherence (SOC), a composite measure from salutogenesis indicating one's capacity to cope with stress, is associated with a healthy life orientation and lifestyle behaviors, including healthy eating patterns. However, limited evidence exists on the factors that underlie SOC, which could be used to strengthen this capacity as a means to enable healthier eating. Dutch adults ( N = 781) participated in a cross-sectional study examining the relationship between SOC and a set of individual, social-environmental, and physical-environmental factors. The main findings indicate that high SOC was associated with a diverse set of factors including lower doctor-oriented health locus of control; higher satisfaction with weight; higher perceived levels of neighborhood collective efficacy; higher situational self-efficacy for healthy eating; lower social discouragement for healthy eating; and higher neighborhood affordability, accessibility and availability of healthy foods. These findings can inform the design of nutrition interventions that target these factors that strengthen SOC and provide the building blocks for a healthier life orientation.

Food stories: Unraveling the mechanisms underlying healthful eating.

The biomedical model of health (BMH) studies the causes and origins of disease. When applied to nutrition research, eating is studied as a behavior that supports physical health. However, the lack of attention the BMH pays to social and historical circumstances in which health behaviors are constructed has been widely addressed in literature. When people are studied without considering contextual influences, the relevance to everyday life is limited. As a result, how individuals actively deal with their context to manage healthful eating is poorly understood. This research applies a complementary model, salutogenic model of health (SMH), and uses life course research methodology to study a group of healthy eaters. The purpose of this research is to unravel how healthful eating develops in everyday life. Healthy eaters (n = 17) were identified and recruited from the NQplus research panel at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Life course experiences were examined through narrative inquiry. Participants recalled and visually explored life experiences with food and health using timelines. Results indicate that healthful eating results from exposure to individual- and context-bounded factors during childhood and adulthood and involves specific mental and social capacities relevant to coping including amongst others, critical self-awareness; flexibility, craftiness, and fortitude. Through life-course learning moments, participants were able to develop proactive coping strategies which strengthened their sense of agency and helped them in overcoming stressors and challenges. Findings show that nutrition strategies should not only focus on strengthening food-specific factors like cooking skills and nutrition knowledge, but other factors like stress management, empowerment, and participation. Such factors support the development of adaptive skills and behaviors, enable individuals to deal with the demands of everyday life, and are building blocks for health promotion.

Finding common ground in implementation: towards a theory of gradual commonality.

This article reports on an empirical study that aimed to design a practice-based theory about collaboration on the local implementation of a nationally developed health-promoting intervention. The study's objective is to better understand the dynamic process of complex collaboration. The research is based on a Delphi study among some 100 individuals in local and regional networks, in which various professionals work together to implement the BeweegKuur, which translates as 'course of exercise'. The BeweegKuur is a combined lifestyle intervention aimed at promoting sufficient physical exercise and a healthy diet among people in the Netherlands who are overweight and at risk of diabetes. The Delphi study in three rounds systematically and interactively constructs a common perspective on implementation, reflecting stakeholders' ideas about the collaboration and providing an insight into how these ideas are influenced by the context of the implementation. The statistical and qualitative analyses of the responses to the feedback in the Delphi study form the basis for this practice-based theory on complex collaboration, called the theory of gradual commonality. During interaction, consensus gradually emerges about co-creation as a collaboration strategy. Co-creation leaves room for various ways of achieving the ambitions of the BeweegKuur. This article discusses the importance of this practice-based theory and the value of the Delphi research strategy for promoting health.

Applying the salutogenic framework to nutrition research and practice.

SYNOPSIS: Much research has identified a sea of factors related to unhealthy diets to make sense of why people struggle to eat healthy diets. However, little is known of factors that empower healthy eating. Antonovsky's salutogenesis provides an innovative framework to study these factors and identify resources and mechanisms underlying healthy eating practices. We give recommendations for future research and provide examples of how salutogenesis has inspired our own research to gain new insights into the origins of healthy eating. Lastly, implications of using future findings in designing novel nutrition promotion strategies are outlined.

Profiling healthy eaters. Determining factors that predict healthy eating practices among Dutch adults.

Research has identified multiple factors that predict unhealthy eating practices. However what remains poorly understood are factors that promote healthy eating practices. This study aimed to determine a set of factors that represent a profile of healthy eaters. This research applied Antonovsky's salutogenic framework for health development to examine a set of factors that predict healthy eating in a cross-sectional study of Dutch adults. Data were analyzed from participants (n = 703) who completed the study's survey in January 2013. Logistic regression analysis was performed to test the association of survey factors on the outcome variable high dietary score. In the multivariate logistic regression model, five factors contributed significantly (p < .05) to the predictive ability of the overall model: being female; living with a partner; a strong sense of coherence (construct from the salutogenic framework), flexible restraint of eating, and self-efficacy for healthy eating. Findings complement what is already known of the factors that relate to poor eating practices. This can provide nutrition promotion with a more comprehensive picture of the factors that both support and hinder healthy eating practices. Future research should explore these factors to better understand their origins and mechanisms in relation to healthy eating practices.