26 research outputs found
Hoe past het? Een kwalitatieve analyse van narratieven van jongeren met een ondersteuningsbehoefte op het gebied van passend onderwijs en passende arbeid
No full textHoe past het? Een kwalitatieve analyse van narratieven van jongeren met een ondersteuningsbehoefte op het gebied van passend onderwijs en passende arbeidIn zorg, welzijn en onderwijs hebben zich in de afgelopen jaren transities voorgedaan die van invloed zijn op jongeren die ondersteuning behoeven bij het succesvol doorlopen van hun schoolloopbaan en/of het vinden van passende arbeid. Waar deze jongeren eerst op speciale scholen en in beschermde werkomgevingen te vinden waren, worden zij nu geacht regulier onderwijs te volgen en de reguliere arbeidsmarkt te betreden. Hoe ervaren deze jongeren zelf de ondersteuning die ze ontvangen en wat verwachten zij van hun toekomst? In de onderzoekslijn Van passend onderwijs naar passende arbeid, onderdeel van de Werkplaats Sociaal Domein Nijmegen, hebben studenten van de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen narratief onderzoek verricht (n=35). De transcripten van deze interviews zijn als onderzoeksobject gebruikt voor een exploratieve studie naar de ervaringen van deze groep jongeren met een ondersteuningsbehoefte. De jongeren geven aan zo veel mogelijk als “normaal” gezien te willen worden, maar beseffen tegelijkertijd niet zonder ondersteuning te kunnen. Zij waarderen ondersteuners die praktisch meedenken en zowel de mogelijkheden als beperkingen van de jongeren zien. Onzekerheid over hun (arbeids)perspectief, heeft invloed op verwachtingen die zij van zichzelf hebben. De overstap van school naar werk wordt als moeilijk ervaren. Verbeteringen ten aanzien van de hulpverlening liggen op het vlak van samenwerking met en tussen hulpverleners en de mogelijkheid om te ervaren welke vorm van werk daadwerkelijk past. What is appropriate? A qualitative analysis of the narratives of adolescents with special needs in education and in finding employment What is the impact of transitions in care and education in the Netherlands for adolescents who need professional support in order to succeed in education or work? What are their experiences of searching for adequate education or work? What do they need from the professional support system? And to what extent do the methods used by professionals meet the expectations and values of the adolescents? Transitions in care and education in the Netherlands, together with austerity measures, are leading to changes in professional support for adolescents who experience barriers to participating successfully in education or work. Policymakers plan to reform the social system in such a way that it will no longer be common for adolescents with special needs to attend special schools or work in sheltered work environments. They will be expected to participate in regular education or jobs, and they will only receive professional support when necessary and this will be kept as short as possible. Not long ago, lifelong dependency on social welfare was more or less the norm for this group of adolescents. Nowadays, the required support needs to be provided through their informal network, supplemented with support from teachers and professionals such as community workers in the local context (Movisie, 2015). Recent research shows that labour market participation among those who need support is significantly lower than among people with no such needs. For instance, 39 percent of adolescents with a physical challenge are working, while 65 to 72 percent of their peers with no physical challenge are in employment (Holwerda, 2013). For adolescents with an autistic disorder, percentages of between ten and fifty percent have been mentioned. Current research on transitions in care and education also shows that professionals encounter a range of problems in supporting adolescents who require support. Teachers cite inadequate skills and experience in working with parents and professionals from other institutions, and an inability to “speak the same language”. Teachers also mention the need to improve their knowledge and competences in special educational needs and the consequences of the psychological and mental challenges associated with successful participation in education and work. In the period 2016-2017, several student groups at HAN University of Applied Sciences conducted 35 narrative interviews during the final phase of their Bachelor’s programmes. Adolescents were recruited for the interviews by community service workers, through social media and informal contacts. They were asked about their experiences of receiving support while completing their education (mainly vocational education) and their experiences of finding suitable employment. The participants were all receiving support from some kind of professional support system at school or at work. For the purposes of this article, adolescents with special needs are defined as adolescents who cannot fulfil their educational goals or cannot find work without some kind of support. There are various reasons why they may need support, such as living with a physical or mental disability, a problematic family situation, debt problems or refugee status. The interview guidelines were based on the overall development of the adolescents and their need for support, both now and in the past. A qualitative explorative analysis was carried out in relation to the adolescents’ statements about their way of life, the challenges they face, the opportunities open to them and their experiences of professional support. Firstly, the transcripts were closely read and coded, and then organized thematically based on the patterns identified in the various narratives. This analysis showed that these vulnerable adolescents wish to live as normal a life as possible, and that they have an intrinsic need to progress in life. Their goals are based on a more or less traditional framework of values: paid work, independence and sharing their lives with the people they love. At the same time, they are also aware that they need support in order to make progress towards these goals. This makes the specific way in which professionals address the needs of these adolescents extremely important. They need support that reflects the reality of what they can achieve and their expectations of achieving those goals, rather than support that focuses solely on their ambitions and motivation. As regards finding professional support, the adolescents mentioned that finding the right support is hard, especially in higher vocational education and at university, and that lifelong dependency on professional care often comes with many uncertainties. As one of the adolescents said: “I don’t know where I’ll be living next year, who will be helping me and what I’ll be doing. Professionals are leaving, my need for support is changing and nobody stays with me for long. And this happens over and over again.” According to the adolescents interviewed, it is important that the professionals have skills such as: ensuring regular contact, providing practical support and acknowledging both what is and what is not possible in their specific situation. Transitions in care and education in the Netherlands mean that professional support for these adolescents is shorter and less intensive. They find it difficult to receive the right kind of support because often professionals from several organizations are involved and nobody is familiar with all the details of the adolescent’s situation. A further problem is that there is not enough joint action by teachers, social workers and the informal network of the adolescent in providing the best possible preparation for participation in society. Furthermore, these adolescents are often not given the opportunity to experience which kinds of work really suit their situation. This leads to further experiences of failure. Finally, regarding employment, the analysis leads to the conclusion that the shift from voluntary work to paid employment is hard to achieve. One of the factors mentioned is the lack of support for the employee in the workplace so that the work can be tailored to his/her needs, and the feeling of having to start all over again to find the right support to be able to achieve a sustainable situation
Impact of land use on functional plant diversity: A new assessment method demonstrated in Germany
No full textAssessing the human impacts on biodiversity is important for conserving biodiversity. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool to assess the impact product service systems have on the environment. To critically asses the human impact of land use on biodiversity in LCA, characterisation factors (CF) are needed to translate area and type of land use into loss of biodiversity. Most CFs are based on species richness but another biodiversity indicator, functional diversity (FD), better represents ecosystem functioning compared to taxonomic measures such as species richness. This study proposes a new method for calculating CFs, based on FD, for assessing impact of land use on plant biodiversity. To demonstrate the applicability of the method that is proposed, CFs were calculated based on data from Germany. The data was divided into four types, being land use, plant abundance, trait data and environmental data. The CFs developed show trends in impact on biodiversity in accordance with other studies. The proposed method in this study can guide in the development of more precise and geographically diverse CFs for assessing the impact of land use in biodiversity in LCA.The Master's programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology.Industrial Ecolog
Exploration of new steerable mechanism for stiff handheld minimally invasive surgery instrument
No full textBackground: Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) gained increasing support in the surgical community over the last decades. Due to the rigid tip of current used rigid instruments the maneuverability is limited during a procedure. To increase maneuverability steerable instruments have been developed. However current handheld steerable instruments contain low bending stiffness, which is one of the reasons that these instruments are hardly used in clinical practice. This study aims to design and evaluate a new stiff steerable mechanism with 2 Degrees Of Freedom (DOF) for use in a handheld MIS instrument. Methods: Characteristics of the steering mechanisms were described and analyzed. The most suited approach for creating a stiff steerable mechanism was selected. Multiple 2 DOF stiff concepts were designed. Of these, three concept prototypes (scaled 10) were engineered and manufactured (3D printing). The ability to steer and the stiffness of the prototypes was evaluated. In addition, the most promising mechanism was redesigned to fit the required 5 dimensions. It’s robustness was verified using Finite Element Method (FEM) techniques. Results: Eight different mechanisms were described and analyzed. The most suited approach is a mechanism that consists of solid rods and universal joints to guide steering forces from handle to tip and external forces from tip to handle. Five concepts were designed that enable a parallel motion of which three were developed further in 10 scale prototypes. Preliminary results showed an increase in stiffness of a factor 2,7 compared to existing instruments. The real scale implementation study resulted in a 5 version of the mechanism that is capable of guiding the forces required to drive all the functionalities of a MIS instrument (steering, grasping). Conclusion: It can be concluded that a 5 steerable MIS instrument with a stiff tip is feasible. The mechanism contains a cardan mechanism and axially moving rods that slide over a special constructed surface. The scaled prototype provided at least 2,7 times higher stiffness compared to existing instruments.Mechanical, Maritime and Materials EngineeringBiomechanical Engineerin
Cancun beach rehabilitation project
No full textThe major part of the ongoing growth of the worlds population takes place in coastal zones, making that coasts are more and more intensively used. However, coasts are dynamic systems characterized by variability in shoreline position and profile shape, which sometimes conflicts with human interests as is the case at Cancach in Mexico. In addition to hard coastal structures, beach nourishment is often used as a measure against erosion. After placement, the fill sediments are distributed across and along the shore by the action of waves and currents. This morphological behaviour consists of longshore spreading-out of the fill sediments and of cross-shore equilibration, i.e. the transformation of the construction profile to the dynamic equilibrium profile. However, this morphological behaviour is difficult to predict, complicating beach nourishment assessment and inducing the need to develop better modelling and design methods. Various modelling and design methods for beach nourishment are available, covering different aspects of the morphological behaviour. In this thesis the cross-shore modelling of the beach fill equilibration has been considered. The planned beach fill at Cancach (Mexico) has been used as a case study. Three possible borrow areas with varying sediment properties have been considered. Various design methods based on equilibrium models have been compared with process-based numerical modelling with the software package Unibest-TC (WL | Delft Hydraulics), leading to conclusions regarding the suitability of these design methods for beach fill equilibration. Furthermore, recommendations regarding the time scale of the beach fill equilibration and the final profile shape of the Cancach fill are made.Civil Engineering and Geoscience
Hoe past het? Een kwalitatieve analyse van narratieven van jongeren met een ondersteuningsbehoefte op het gebied van passend onderwijs en passende arbeid
No full textThe influence of certification and size of palm oil plantations on terrestrial biodiversity in Indonesia and Malaysia
No full textThe cultivation of palm oil has many adverse social and environmental impacts. The high level of biodiversity that is native to areas where palm oil plantations occur is at risk. Various measures are taken, such as the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The RSPO certification is a sector governance measure that indicates which management and operations interventions have to be implemented to protect the public interest – countering negative social and environmental impacts. No research has been done on the impact of RSPO certification and the plantation size on biodiversity. The research question of this thesis is “do RSPO certification and plantation size influence the level of biodiversity of palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia?” Three open source online data sets from Global Forest Watch containing information on plantations were used. These spatial data sets were combined with Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) species observations data. From GBIF, four taxa were selected to be used in this study, known to be impacted by palm oil cultivation: birds, lizards, primates and small mammals. The majority of the GBIF observations that laid within the studied plantation data set, however, were bird observations (93.0%). Only 1.8% of the GBIF observations laid within the palm oil plantations. Data analysis indicated that there is no significant difference between RSPO and non-RSPO-certified plantations in terms of biodiversity. The obtained results imply that the measures that are taken by plantations to obtain the RSPO certificate do not affect the level of biodiversity and therefore certification does not protect the species living on plantations better when compared to plantations that are not RSPO-certified. Results also indicate that biodiversity is not influenced by the size of a plantation – small, medium or large. The proposed research was the first attempt in getting insight into the effectiveness of certification and small-scaled plantations – in other words plantation size – on biodiversity levels. It can be concluded that the effectiveness of the two measures has not been proven yet. Suggestions for further research are done, in which higher quality data sets and larger numbers of observations are of importance
The direct effect of CO2 rise on the plant ionome: Implications for Exacerbating Global Malnutrition
No full textMalnutrition is worsening, affecting every country and over 3 billion people. There is evidence that rising CO2 levels will not only indirectly increase malnutrition through climate change effects, but also directly through a downshift in the plant ionome, reducing nutritional quality and increasing hidden hunger. Attempts to calculate the human health impact have been conducted with limited statistical power on a small group of nutrients. The impact on different age-sex groups, countries, and nutrients is still largely unknown. This research aims to fill this gap, creating a meta-analysis of the most data (5,809 entries), crops (43), and elements (31 plus phytate) of any study to date, resolving a methodological gap for disharmonious data and applying this to the GENuS model of global nutritional supply in 2011 for eight nutrients (calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, protein, and zinc) to see which countries will be able to provide enough nutrients for their citizens in a 550 ppm world compared to at 350 ppm.Bootstrapping reveals a distinct 5% to 12% systemic downshift in the plant ionome. Both C3 and C4 plants respond, disproving the hypothesis that C4 plants are mostly unaffected by CO2 rise and supporting the idea that the CO2 saturation point is not directly linked to mineral uptake. Elements have a differential response, suggesting that the carbon dilution theory is an inappropriate explanation. Zinc, protein, and iron have the largest decreases, and zinc in chickpeas decreases the most (40%) of all groups. Grains (wheat and rice) and soybeans are the hardest hit crops, decreasing in nutritional value up to 12%. The total nutrient supply decreases by 2.3% to 6.4%, increasing the malnourishment and obesity double burden. Countries will no longer provide enough nutrients from food solely due to changes in the plant ionome, impacting every country. Half of the world will develop new deficiencies. The strongest predictor of resiliency to nutritional changes from CO2 rise is diet diversity. Exacerbating global inequality, the impact will be particularly pronounced in African and Asian countries, and among women aged 25-29 compared to men of the same age group and children aged 0-4 years. Changing plant stoichiometry will have dramatic global implications for hidden hunger, worsening or introducing deficiencies, especially in iron, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.Code and dataset available upon request. They will be uploaded publicly once the thesis has been submitted for publication.Industrial Ecolog
Development of Ocean Acidification Endpoint Characterization Model for Life Cycle Assessment
No full textWith the current trend in emissions, the pH levels of the oceans are expected to decrease from 8.1 to 7.8 by the end of the century. In combination with the other stressors, it is projected that OA will have a wide range of impacts on marine life and its services to humanity. The representation of these implications is limited in environmental assessment tools such as Life Cycle Assessment. This research explores the relationship between the changing acidity of the oceans and marine biodiversity loss. This relation is quantified through utilising the ecotoxicology impact assessment approach for LCA. Following this approach, an endpoint characterization model is developed for ocean acidification. 3 different categorisations (climate zones, calcification, exposure duration) were made to assess their effects on species responses. The results revealed that there is no significant difference in responses based on different exposure durations or climate zones. Calcifying species on the other hand is found to have a higher sensitivity to ocean acidification as the change in carbonate chemistry directly influences the shell and skeleton formation of these organisms. Lastly, these models were integrated into an endpoint characterization model for ocean acidification. From the 3 GHG emissions included within the scope of this research (CO2, CO, CH4), CO2 has the highest (CFCO2 = 4.883 × 104 (𝑃𝐷𝐹)𝑚3/𝑘𝑔𝐺𝐻𝐺) and CH4 has the lowest (CFCH4 = 4.072 × 104 𝑃𝐷𝐹)𝑚3/𝑘𝑔𝐺𝐻𝐺) impact on marine biodiversity loss due to OA. These ecosystem damage indicators can be utilised in the impact assessment phase of the Life Cycle Assessment to translate the inventory results into impact on marine biodiversity. Through the quantification of the impacts of ocean acidification, the effects of this major stressor on marine life can be better understood and targeted strategies can be developed. However, more research is required to increase the robustness of these models through expanding the species scope and incorporating temporal and geographical aspects into the models. Furthermore, the cascading effects of the changing ocean pH are still unknown and its consequences on ecosystems and socio-economic structures are unprecedented. To establish science-based targets and strategies to conserve the species richness in marine life, the extent of our understanding of the damage caused by anthropogenic actions needs to be further explored and estimated.Industrial Ecolog
Partitioning the impact of environmental drivers and species interactions in dynamic aquatic communities
No full text© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Musters, C. J. M., Ieromina, O., Barmentlo, S. H., Hunting, E. R., Schrama, M., Cieraad, E., Vijver, M. G., & van Bodegom, P. M. Partitioning the impact of environmental drivers and species interactions in dynamic aquatic communities. Ecosphere, 10(11), (2019): e02910, doi:10.1002/ecs2.2910.Temperate aquatic communities are highly diverse and seasonally variable, due to internal biotic processes and environmental drivers, including human‐induced stressors. The impact of drivers on species abundance is supposed to differ fundamentally depending on whether populations are experiencing limitations, which may shift over the season. However, an integrated understanding of how drivers structure communities seasonally is currently lacking. In order to partition the effect of drivers, we used random forests to quantify interactions between all taxa and environmental factors using macrofaunal data from 18 agricultural ditches sampled over two years. We found that, over the agricultural season, taxon abundance became increasingly better predicted by the abundances of co‐occurring taxa and nutrients compared to other abiotic factors, including pesticides. Our approach provides fundamental insights in community dynamics and highlights the need to consider changes in species interactions to understand the effects of anthropogenic stressors.The authors are grateful to B. Schaub of Water Board Rijnland for his help, E. Gertenaar for assistance in the fieldwork, M. Wouterse for DOC measurements, and B. Koese for help with taxonomic identification of macrofaunal samples. CM designed the study, did the statistical modeling and analyses, and wrote the draft paper; OI did field sampling and taxonomic identification and constructed the datasets; OI and HB structured the data; EH, MS, ES, MV, and PvB contributed to the study design and the conceptual improvement of the manuscript; all authors substantially revised the subsequent drafts
