Search

To clarify and elaborate on the choices that were made in the development of the Patient Scale of the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale 3.0 (POSAS 3.0), based upon the rich information obtained from patients during focus groups and pilot tests. The discussions described in this paper are a reflection of the focus group study and pilot tests that were conducted in order to develop the Patient Scale of the POSAS3.0. The focus groups took place in the Netherlands and Australia and included 45 participants. Pilot tests were performed with 15 participants in Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. We discussed the selection, wording and merging of 17 included items. Additionally, the reason for exclusion of 23 characteristics are given. Based upon the unique and rich material of patient input obtained, two versions of the Patient Scale of the POSAS3.0 were developed: the Generic version, and the Linear scar version. The discussions and decisions taken during the development are informative for a good understanding of the POSAS 3.0 and are indispensable as a background for future translations and cross-cultural adaptations. • The Patient Scale was meant to be concise, readily assessable, quick, and user-friendly instrument assessing the key attributes of scar quality. • Two versions have been developed, the Generic version (total of 16 items), and the Linear scar version (total of 17 items). • Eight of the identified characteristics were merged into three included items. • Twenty-three characteristics were excluded during different phases of the development process for multiple reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actors experience considerable uncertainty when developing and realizing mobility innovations that can contribute in the transition to a sustainable transport system. Although the role of uncertainty and its handling is mentioned as important in the literature on transitions and innovations, there is a lack of understanding how uncertainty affects decision-making processes and actors themselves. This paper investigates the interplay of uncertainty competencies and governance settings in four innovation cases of Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Our findings demonstrate it is difficult to sustain MaaS beyond a research trial, because actors experience too much uncertainty about governance questions of long-term responsibilities and role distribution. Although individual actors possess effective project management skills and willingness to innovate in a trial context, they are unable to bring MaaS to a next level because MaaS is not seen as a part of a larger design quest in which stakeholders experiment and play with uncertainty through different institutional configurations. • Exploring innovation processes through actors' experience of uncertainty enables to explain why they (do not) move forward. • In uncertain innovation trials, uncertainty is often translated by actors as risk that should be reduced. • Innovation trials are good at resolving uncertainties on a project level. • Full implementation of mobility innovations requires broader experimentation with actor responsibilities and legislative configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social connectedness experiences among older migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Australia. Data were collected via two rounds of semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic and cluster analysis. Participants were 40 migrants aged 66-91 years, of German, Dutch, Romanian, Chinese, and Vietnamese origin. They identified a range of factors affecting their social connectedness experiences: personal preferences, individual efforts to connect with others, English language proficiency, driving ability, and length of residence. Data analysis also revealed four groupings of experience: the isolated, family, ethnic community, and multicultural cluster. These patterns of connectedness were experienced differently across the ethnic groups. The findings suggest the benefits of providing culture-specific social connection opportunities to help older migrants to stay socially connected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Innovation in the water sector is at play when addressing the global water security challenge. This paper highlights an emerging role for Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) and health-based targets in the design and application of robust and flexible water quality regulation to protect public health. This role is especially critical as traditional supply sources are subject to increased contamination, and recycled wastewater and stormwater become a crucial contribution to integrated water supply strategies. Benefits and weaknesses of QMRA-based regulation are likely to be perceived differently by the multiple stakeholders involved. The goal of the current study is to evaluate the experience of QMRA-based regulation implementation in the Netherlands and Australia, and to draw some lessons learned for regulators, policy makers, the industry and scientists. Water experts from regulatory bodies, government, water utilities, and scientists were interviewed in both countries. This paper explores how QMRA-based regulation has helped decision-making in the Netherlands in drinking water safety management over the past decade. Implementation is more recent in Australia: an analysis of current institutional barriers to nationally harmonized implementation for water recycling regulation is presented. This in-depth retrospective analysis of experiences and perceptions highlights the benefits of QMRA-based regulation and the challenges of implementation. QMRA provides a better assessment of water safety than the absence of indicators. Setting a health target addresses the balance between investments and public safety, and helps understand risks from alternative water sources. Challenges lie in efficient monitoring, institutional support for utilities, interpretation of uncertainty by regulators, and risk communication to consumers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper provides an evidence-based contribution to understanding processes of climate change adaptation in water governance systems in the Netherlands, Australia and South Africa. It builds upon the work of Ostrom on institutional design principles for local common pool resources systems. We argue that for dealing with complexities and uncertainties related to climate change impacts (e.g. increased frequency and intensity of floods or droughts) additional or adjusted institutional design propositions are necessary that facilitate learning processes. This is especially the case for dealing with complex, cross-boundary and large-scale resource systems, such as river basins and delta areas in the Netherlands and South Africa or groundwater systems in Western Australia. In this paper we provide empirical support for a set of eight refined and extended institutional design propositions for the governance of adaptation to climate change in the water sector. Together they capture structural, agency and learning dimensions of the adaptation challenge and they provide a strong initial framework to explore key institutional issues in the governance of adaptation to climate change. These institutional design propositions support a “management as learning” approach to dealing with complexity and uncertainty. They do not specify blueprints, but encourage adaptation tuned to the specific features of local geography, ecology, economies and cultures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Given the raised profile that parenting support and education is currently receiving on government family policy agendas in many nations, this paper reviews the ways in which parenting support and education policies are embedded within eight OECD countries. Drawing out the similarities and differences of policy and practice, and comparing the financial support each country affords to parenting support, it assesses the effectiveness of parenting support programmes in relation to national expenditure and links parenting policy to child outcomes. The paper concludes with some recommendations for policy makers and programme developers. The countries reviewed are: The UK, Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, the US, Finland, Australia and New Zealand. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Assemblage thinking is an increasingly influential approach in critical studies of food and farming, and particularly in research on new agri-food technology such as precision agriculture (PA). This research is important in highlighting the distributed forms of power and agency through which farming worlds are assembled, and what these engender for more sustainable and equitable farming futures. However, to date, there has been limited attention to assembling PA from the perspective of farmers, what Legun and Burch (2021) refer to as 'deliberative assembling'. This paper contributes to knowledge in this area by applying post actor network theoretical work to investigate across case studies in Australia, the Netherlands and France, the forms of tinkering by which farmers attempt to make PA workable, and what these engender for farmer agency. Through our analysis, we show that much of the tinkering by farmers is aimed at holding together their own priorities, routines, and experiences with practices inscribed in PA technology, such as dependence on commercial advice, data-driven knowledge, and commitment to a single technological platform/company. Integral to this tinkering work are support networks that include agronomists, advisors, machinery dealers and/or farmer discussion groups. We argue that whilst these support networks are critical to holding together different practices, and making PA workable, they also play a more diverse and nuanced role in PA implementation than what has previously been recognised. Our case studies provide insights into three key forms of tinkering used by farmers in navigating support networks to make PA workable – disconnection, experimentation and trial-and-error, and trade-offs and compromises – and the specific distributions of agency which these tinkering practices engender. In conclusion, we argue that a tinkering lens provides a valuable approach for enabling agri-food scholars to tease out in greater depth deliberative assembling practices and how these variously open-up or foreclose options for farmers in making PA workable. • Farmers use tinkering to make precision agriculture (PA) workable. • Analysis of PA tinkering happens in Australia, The Netherlands and France. • Principal forms of tinkering are holding together, separation, experimentation. • Support networks are critical to tinkering in PA implementation. • Appropriateness of this PA implementation support is a key consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Western cultural practices and values have largely shaped advance care planning (ACP) policies across the world. Low uptake of ACP among ethnic minority groups in Western countries has been interpreted with reference to cultural differences. This paper adopts a life-history approach to explore attitudes towards ACP among older, first-generation Dutch-Australian and Italian-Australian migrants. Thirty people participated in extended ethnographic interviews (N = 17) and group discussions (N = 13) during 2012. Transcripts were thematically analyzed and interpreted using a Foucauldian perspective on knowledge and power. Migration experiences, ongoing contact with the native country and participation in migrant community support networks influenced attitudes towards ACP. Dutch participants framed ACP discussions with reference to euthanasia, and adopted a more individualist approach to medical decision-making. Italian participants often spoke of familial roles and emphasized a family-based decision making style. The importance of migrant identity has been neglected in previous discussions of cultural factors influencing ACP uptake among ethnic minority groups. The unique migration experience should be considered alongside culturally appropriate approaches to decision-making, in order to ensure equitable access to ACP among migrant groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The increasing complexity and flexibility of modern land use requires that cadastres need an improved capacity to manage the third dimension. As the world is per definition not static, there also will be needs in relation to the representation of the temporal (fourth) dimension either integrated with the spatial dimensions or as separate attribute(s). In this paper, registration of utility networks in cadastre are considered in this 3D+time (=4D) context. A number of countries in the world have developed methods to register utility networks complying with their legal, organizational, and technical structure. We researched the different approaches of three specific countries: Turkey, The Netherlands and Queensland, Australia. These are analysed to evaluate a solution that matches legal, organizational, and technical cadastral requirements in the most optimal way. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Techniques for late spontaneous recovery from stuttering clustered into six strategies. • The strategies reflect components of established treatments and naïve explanations. • Causal attributions of recovery clustered into three implicit theories about recovery. • Knowledge about strategies and implicit theories may help to improve treatment. (1) To survey the employed techniques and the reasons/occasions which adults who had recovered from stuttering after age 11 without previous treatment reported as causal to overcome stuttering, (2) to investigate whether the techniques and causal attributions can be reduced to coherent (inherently consistent) dimensions, and (3) whether these dimensions reflect common therapy components. 124 recovered persons from 8 countries responded by SurveyMonkey or paper-and-pencil to rating scale questions about 49 possible techniques and 15 causal attributions. A Principal Component Analysis of 110 questionnaires identified 6 components (dimensions) for self-assisted techniques (Speech Restructuring; Relaxed/Monitored Speech; Elocution; Stage Performance; Sought Speech Demands; Reassurance; 63.7% variance explained), and 3 components of perceived causal attributions of recovery (Life Change, Attitude Change, Social Support; 58.0% variance explained). Two components for self-assisted techniques (Speech Restructuring; Elocution) reflect treatment methods. Another component (Relaxed/Monitored Speech) consists mainly of items that reflect a common, non-professional understanding of effective management of stuttering. The components of the various perceived reasons for recovery reflect differing implicit theories of causes for recovery from stuttering. These theories are considered susceptible to various biases. This identification of components of reported techniques and of causal attributions is novel compared to previous studies who just list techniques and attributions. The identified dimensions of self-assisted techniques and causal attributions to reduce stuttering as extracted from self-reports of a large, international sample of recovered formerly stuttering adults may guide the application of behavioral stuttering therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]