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This study aims to identify and evaluate the spatial distribution of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) benefits perceived by people in both urban and rural areas. A public participation GIS (PPGIS) approach was applied with local people who responded to an online survey and mapped their important places related to CES benefits in the Kokemäenjoki area. We explore the perceived ecosystem services of the community using different infrastructure types (green, grey, yellow and blue) based on the Corine Land Cover (CLC) classes. We identified spatial patterns of mapped important places using kernel dens ity estimation and related CES benefit associations with the infrastructures using chi-square residuals. We found that CES in urban areas are provided more often when there is more than one type of infrastructure (e.g., grey and green; grey and blue), but grey infrastructures are preferred in urban areas, while blue infrastructures produce more CES benefits in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the preferences of residents towards green areas and, in particular, for agricultural environments in Vantaa City, southern Finland. The study area includes three growing suburbs and farming land immediately adjacent to the city centre. During the study period, new residential areas in the fringe area, combined with a simultaneous build-up of the road network, resulted in fragmentation and increased land use diversity. We found that the farming land at the fringe of the city had a greater recreational role than its basic function linked to either food or fodder production. Visual mapping of pleasant places proved the importance of public traditional farms and that preserved nature areas were preferred more than constructed parks for residents living in the urban fringe. This suggests that an emphasis in careful urban land use policy might be placed more upon the maintenance of natural areas that remain unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous work has shown that calcitonin inhibits eating by rats and that it affects several neurotransmitter systems suspected to play a role in alcohol consumption. The present study was an initial test of whether calcitonin does affect voluntary alcohol consumption by male Wistar rats with prolonged alcohol experience. Calcitonin (20p IU/kg) or saline was injected subcutaneously on 10 consecutive days when the rats ( n= 20) had continual access to 10% (v/v) ethanol solution, and to food and water. Using a cross-over design, the effects of 40 IU/kg calcitonin vs. saline were then examined in a second 10-day treatment period. Similar patterns of effects were obtained with both calcitonin doses, but the patterns differed with alcohol, food, and water intake. Alcohol drinking showed biphasic changes with both doses, producing highly significant Treatment × Day interactions ( p < 1E-10 and p= 6E-7): it was significantly reduced on the first day of calcitonin treatment and significantly increased on the last few days. Food intake was reduced on all calcitonin days although most markedly on the first. Water drinking was not altered on the first calcitonin day, but was greatly increased on the second, then gradually returned toward the baseline. In a second experiment, the animals were switched to 1 hr of alcohol access per day, and calcitonin (20 IU/kg) was administered periodically to one group 4 hr before the alcohol access. Alcohol drinking was significantly reduced in all cases when the calcitonin injection was preceded by at least 1 day without calcitonin. It is concluded that the effect of calcitonin on alcohol consumption depends upon the duration of calcitonin treatment: it had a suppressive effect when given only periodically but an enhancing effect when given on consecutive days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale organic farming is developing rapidly in China, especially in suburbs of megacities, and enriches the connotation of urban agriculture–. Much attention has been paid to the socio-economic aspects of small-scale organic farming and takes for granted that it contributes to the local environment and the sustainable agriculture while little has been explored regarding its actual environmental contributions and associated influencing factors, especially in those rapid developing suburb areas. Based on the case study of three small-scale organic farms in the suburbs of Shanghai, we examined uncertificated organic farming practices, focusing on the farm diversity, fertilization and pest control without chemical inputs, and the restoration of biosystems. Potential of environmental contributions were evaluated from the production perspective of input reductions. It was found that such uncertificated small-scale organic farming does contribute to the local water environment, helping improve soil quality, and gradual recovery of farm biodiversity. However, all the environmental benefits are fragile and highly dependent on the profit availability and professional knowledge of the farm as well as the availability of policy supports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]