Suchergebnisse

Ageing-in-place policies have been implemented by many Western governments in order to delay and decrease the reliance on expensive institutionalised care. While such policies, as well as a large body of research, support the idea that ageing-in-place contributes to the wellbeing of older adults, ageing-in-place also has its downsides. Health problems and physical limitations can pose hazards within residential environments, such as falling or house fires. One way of dealing with incongruences between older persons and their housing situation is the physical adaptation of the residential environment; either through home modifications or relocation. The Dutch government wants older adults to anticipate on incongruences in the residential environment by making timely changes in order to prevent incidents from happening. However, insight is lacking in older adults' awareness and perception of such modifications as a strategy to age safely in place and how they view 'timeliness' in this respect. The objective of this paper is to understand Dutch older home owners' appraisal of residential environmental modifications. The results of this research are based on a survey and semi-structured interviews with nine older home owners (aged 55 and above). We use Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour as an interpretative framework for the analysis of the results. The insights provided by this study can provide input for policy makers and professionals in designing interventions to raise awareness amongst older adults about the possibilities for and benefits of timely residential environmental modifications.

To demonstrate the potential of time in understanding older adults' experiences of place, this paper draws attention to the everyday temporal dimensions of ageing in urban neighbourhoods. In this qualitative research, we utilise Lefebvre's Rhythmanalysis to illustrate how the rhythmic orderings of people and place come into being and inform their experiences. Rhythmanalysis proved to be a useful tool in eliciting how the social construction of ageing in social policy, with its focus on activity and work, becomes embodied in older adults' everyday lives in terms of how they value their own rhythms. The findings reveal how the contrasting daily rhythms of the older respondents and younger residents emphasise the slowness of the rhythms of later life. To counteract the negative connotations of these slowed rhythms, respondents sought temporal anchors that would enable them to experience daily life in their neighbourhood as eventful. That the rhythms of older and younger residents were not synchronised in time and space resulted in experiencing a 'generational divide' that emphasised respondents' stasis in the neighbourhood. Our findings suggest that the everyday rhythms linked to urban ageing can evoke a sense of 'otherness' within a neighbourhood. In the future, a challenge for societies will be to prevent neighbourhoods from becoming ensembles in which older adults feel 'out of sync' and out of place.

Abstract
Recent research has highlighted that adaptation tends to focus exclusively on the local and direct impacts of climate change and misses the crucial dimension of transboundary climate risk, which all countries are likely to face, irrespective of their level of development. This paper aims to improve the coverage of transboundary climate risk in case-study research for adaptation. It proposes a protocol to help researchers identify how their case studies can incorporate an analysis of transboundary climate risk, thereby supporting more holistic, effective, and just approaches to adaptation. Existing climate risk assessment frameworks and supporting guidelines have significant strengths but also various challenges when applied to the novel context of transboundary climate risk. This is illustrated with reference to the impact chain framework. Its opportunities pertain to both its flexible form and systems-first focus while its constraints include an analytic emphasis on linear cause–effect relationships (that bely the complexity and uncertainty of systemic risk) and its limited applicability to fragmented governance landscapes (in the absence of an effective consideration of risk ownership). After critically examining the suitability of the impact chain framework, a new protocol is introduced, which builds on principles for managing complex risk and frameworks for assessing risk ownership. The protocol is designed to enable case-study researchers to better identify, assess, and appraise transboundary climate risks, as well as enquire into appropriate risk owners and adaptation options across scales. The paper argues for more innovation in adaptation research to better reflect the complexity and interdependency that characterize today's world.

Significance Statement
This work aims to demonstrate why the transboundary nature of climate risk requires a distinct analytical approach and proposes a seven-step guide that aims to facilitate the exploration of transboundary climate risk through case-study-based research for adaptation. Domestic climate risks continue to dominate the field of climate change research, translating into a significant blind spot in adaptation planning and action. Without the provision of practical guidance—to equip researchers with approaches and tools specifically designed to analyze the transboundary and systemic nature of climate risk—adaptation action will fail to offer sufficient protection against the full range of risks climate change presents. This article begins to address this void and ultimately—through greater recognition and understanding of transboundary climate risk—promote approaches to adaptation that are reflective of the interdependency of our world today and our shared and common future.

The main tools for clinical diagnostics of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) are based on serology, i.e., detection of antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In some cases, PCR may be used as a supplement, e.g., on CSF from patients with early LNB. Standardisation of the molecular methods and systematic evaluation of the pre-analytical handling is lacking. To increase the analytical sensitivity for detection of Borrelia bacteria in CSF by PCR targeting the 16S rRNA gene, parameters were systematically evaluated on CSF samples spiked with a known amount of cultured Borrelia bacteria. The results showed that the parameters such as centrifugation time and speed, the use of complementary DNA as a template (in combination with primers and a probe aiming at target gene 16S rRNA), and the absence of inhibitors (e.g., erythrocytes) had the highest impact on the analytical sensitivity. Based on these results, a protocol for optimised handling of CSF samples before molecular analysis was proposed. However, no clinical evaluation of the proposed protocol has been done so far, and further investigations of the diagnostic sensitivity need to be performed on well-characterised clinical samples from patients with LNB. ; Funding Agencies|European Union through the European Regional Development FundEuropean Commission; Interreg NorthSea Region Programme 2014-2020 as part of the NorthTick project by Futurum-Academy for Healthcare, Region Joenkoeping County [38-2-7-19]; Division of Medical Diagnostics, Region of Joenkoeping County; Interreg IVA Program ScandTick [167226]; Interreg V program ScandTick Innovation [20200422, 2015-29 000167]