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Strategizing ecological sustainability in agricultural ecosystems:A systematic literature review on actor-specific practices and technologies
No full textSelf-Management and Support Needs of Patients Experiencing Persistent Symptoms Consistent With Hypothyroidism:A Qualitative Study
No full textPURPOSE: To gain insight into the self-management and support needs of patients experiencing persistent symptoms consistent with hypothyroidism, despite thyroid laboratory values within the normal range.METHODS: A qualitative study using the phenomenological approach was conducted. Semi-structured interviews including 19 patients diagnosed with persistent symptoms consistent with hypothyroidism, despite receiving adequate replacement therapy, were performed. Respondents were recruited using purposive sampling via Schildklier Organisatie Nederland (Dutch Thyroid Organization) (www.schildklier.nl). After transcription and coding, a thematic analysis was performed. RESULTS: All respondents reported that the persistent symptoms reduced their quality of life. The patients' main focus was on finding the cause of these symptoms and balancing activities in their personal, social, and professional lives. The most frequently mentioned support need was for physicians to pay more attention to patients' symptoms. Respondents expected that this would mainly improve their mental quality of life.CONCLUSIONS: Giving greater attention to persistent symptoms consistent with hypothyroidism in medical guidelines and (continuing) education might make general practitioners and internists more aware of these symptoms. This might help them better understand the impact of the persistent symptoms on quality of life and the support needs of patients, thereby improving the conversation between patients and physicians. This may reduce the perceived gap between patients' needs and what physicians (are able to) provide, which might support self-management of these persistent symptoms.</p
The Many Forms of "Good Ageing":Noticing Alignments and Frictions in Digital Innovation Initiatives
No full textDigital health and social care innovations for older people embody specific ideas about “good ageing.” But what does good ageing mean to older adults themselves? And how do their ideas and practices relate to the ideas of good ageing that have informed the design of those digital tools that they are invited to engage with? Our research comic explores these questions by drawing on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in three innovation initiatives that trial and implement health and social care innovations for older people in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.Presenting our research in the format of a research comic is an explicit attempt at sharing everyday experiences of ageing and technology with a broader audience including researchers but also older adults, city and community councils, social workers, and technology developers with whom we collaborated in the field. The drawings, fieldwork quotes, and accompanying reflections illustrate the diverse and sometimes conflicting forms of good ageing that shape users’ engagement with proposed technologies. As such, the research comic invites the reader to question dominant perceptions of technologies as simple tools that facilitate good ageing. It highlights the importance and value of geographical, cultural, and affective closeness to the everyday lives of those for and with whom these technologies are designed. Such closeness, we argue, is a first step in being able to notice conflicts between different forms of good ageing and to adjust digital tools and services in such a way that they facilitate forms of good ageing that older adults themselves find relevant
Understanding engaging and disengaging leadership behaviours within the Dutch Police Force:a qualitative study
No full textThe Dutch approach to honour-based violence:Navigating the complexities
No full textThe Dutch approach to honour-based violence (HBV) has evolved from isolated responses to a comprehensive strategy combining prevention, intervention, and prosecution. Triggered by high profile cases, the approach introduced specialized police methods, pilot projects, and the establishment of the National Expertise Centre for Honour-Based Violence (LEC EGG). HBV is defined as violence committed from a collective mentality to restore family honour, often involving group pressure and cultural norms. Dutch policy focuses primarily on sexuality and family-related contexts, while acknowledging diversity and avoiding cultural essentialism. Prevalence data are limited to police figures, with most cases involving threats and abuse rather than lethal violence. Although HBV is often framed as a migrant issue, research stresses its global nature and warns against stereotyping. Legal responses have shifted from cultural relativism to stricter punishment, rejecting cultural defence as a mitigating factor. Current debates concern whether HBV requires specific criminal provisions or can be addressed under general law. The Dutch model illustrates the tension between universal human rights and culturally sensitive interventions, highlighting the need for nuanced strategies to prevent and prosecute HBV effectivel
Non-breeding Range in Sahel of Lesser Kestrels Originating From Recovered Bulgarian Population
No full textCan we be bring the future into the present? Sustainability, motivations and valuing
No full textSustainability is about the future; it is embedded in the concept itself: we want things to sustain into the future. However, it less clear why we are motivated for that future and whether we can be motivated for the future in practice. If we look around us, there seems a wide-spread short-termism and there are many structural impediments to abandon such short-termism. A logical reply would be to promote long-term thinking, for instance by long-term projects such as the 10.000 Years clock. However, it is unclear whether this affects us personally. There is no personal connection and it is vague how this relates to our motivations. Thinking about motivations for the future is often limited to a purely moral frame, for the obvious reason that purely instrumental arguments about the future are not available. Scheffler's afterlife thesis, in line with earlier work of O’Neill and de-Shalit, shows there is a future-oriented dimension in the values we currently hold, namely that if we want our values to flourish, we should also care about their future beyond own life span. This provides another way of thinking about the future, somewhat in between a moral and instrumental way, one that has been pushed aside by modernity's individualization process. I argue that, in order to waken our future-oriented motivations, the personal dimension – the values we are attached to – need to be connected more explicitly with the future, both with regard to these values themselves as with the broader future that can sustain them
