'Meaning in life? Make it as bearable , enjoyable and good as possible!' A qualitative study among community-dwelling aged adults who receive home nursing in the Netherlands

The population of adults ageing in place and using home‐care services is growing rapidly worldwide. Meaning in life (MiL) of this group of clients is relevant for healthcare and social workers. MiL is associated with many positive outcomes, but can be challenging for aged persons. Objective of this study was to explore MiL in daily life of community‐dwelling aged persons who receive homecare. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was followed. Three waves of semi‐structured interviews took place among 24 clients of a home‐care organisation in the Netherlands between November 2015 and July 2018. Photo‐elicitation was part of the interview procedure. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and dialogues enhanced understanding. Findings show that participants derived meaning from self, others, environment and living. The process of retaining MiL involved maintaining, adapting and discovering. We conclude that community‐dwelling aged adults can draw MiL from many sources. Retaining MiL is interwoven in everyday life and requires continuous adaptation to ever‐changing life conditions during later life. Although relevant general themes were sketched in this paper, the importance of each, and the connections between them, vary and come to light at the individual level. The themes in this paper and the cases in the appendices provide insights that may help professionals recognise MiL in their work. Besides listening to the stories of aged adults, person‐centred interventions should support aged adult's strategy to retain MiL

High renin and prorenin in plasma and pleural exudate of a patient with the ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome

We present the case of a 35-year-old woman with a severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) as a complication of ovulation induction for primary infertility. The clinical picture showed massively enlarged ovaries, pleural effusion and haemoconcentration. She needed a thoracentesis for evacuation of the large pleural effusion. High levels of renin and prorenin were observed in plasma and pleural exudate

Draft whole-genome sequence of <em>Bacillus sonorensis </em>strain L12, a source of nonribosomal lipopeptides

The Bacillus sonorensis L12 draft genome sequence is approximately 4,647,754 bp in size with a G+C content of 45.2%. Over 86% of the genome contains protein-encoding genes, including several gene clusters for de novo biosynthesis of the nonribosomal lipopeptides iturin, bacitracin, and fengycin, which could mean that the strain exhibits antifungal effects

Isotopic Resolution of Fission Fragments from 238U+12C Transfer and Fusion Reactions

Expérience GANILInternational audienceRecent results from an experiment at GANIL, performed to investigate the main properties of fission-fragment yields and energy distributions in different fissioning nuclei as a function of the excitation energy, in a neutron-rich region of actinides, are presented. Transfer reactions in inverse kinematics between a 238U beam and a 12C target produced different actinides, within a range of excitation energy below 30 MeV. These fissioning nuclei are identified by detecting the target-like recoil, and their kinetic and excitation energy are determined from the reconstruction of the transfer reaction. The large-acceptance spectrometer VAMOS was used to identify the mass, atomic number and charge state of the fission fragments in flight. As a result, the characteristics of the fission-fragment isotopic distributions of a variety of neutron-rich actinides are observed for the first time over the complete range of fission fragments

Extensive literature search on cropping practices of host plants of some harmful organisms listed in Annex II A II of Directive 2000/29/EC

The European Commission is currently seeking advice from EFSA (Mandate M-2012-0272) to assess for Arabis mosaic virus, Raspberry ringspot virus, Strawberry latent ringspot virus, Tomato black ring virus, Strawberry mild yellow edge virus, Strawberry crinkle virus, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Eutetranychus orientalis, Parasaissetia nigra, Clavibacter michiganensis spp. michiganensis, Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria, Didymella ligulicola and Phytophthora fragariae the risk to plant health for the EU territory and to evaluate the effectiveness of risk reduction options in reducing the level of risk. In addition, the Panel is requested to provide an opinion on the effectiveness of the present EU requirements against these organisms laid down in Council Directive 2000/29/EC. As a consequence EFSA needs insight in the cropping practices of Citrus spp., Fragaria x ananassa, Ribes spp., Rubus spp., Vaccinium spp., Humulus lupulus, Vitis vinifera, Prunus armeniaca, P. avium, P. cerasus, P. domestica and P. persica, which are host plants for these pests. An extensive and systematic literature search was done in which scientific and grey/technical literature was retrieved from the 28 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway. All references were stored in EndNote libraries, separately for scientific literature and grey/technical literature. For each reference information is provided on the source/search strategy, the crop, the country, the topic (cropping practice, propagation, protection or irrigation (only for Citrus)) and protected cultivation vs. field production. Yields of references depended on the crop and on the country. Over 27,000 references were provided to EFSA. This allows EFSA to quickly find information on crop production, both indoors and outdoors, of all crops that were studied in this extensive literature search. The data can be used by EFSA for the present mandate, but are also an excellent basis for other current and future mandates

Lifespan extension and the doctrine of double effect

Recent developments in biogerontology—the study of the biology of ageing—suggest that it may eventually be possible to intervene in the human ageing process. This, in turn, offers the prospect of significantly postponing the onset of age-related diseases. The biogerontological project, however, has met with strong resistance, especially by deontologists. They consider the act of intervening in the ageing process impermissible on the grounds that it would (most probably) bring about an extended maximum lifespan—a state of affairs that they deem intrinsically bad. In a bid to convince their deontological opponents of the permissibility of this act, proponents of biogerontology invoke an argument which is grounded in the doctrine of double effect. Surprisingly, their argument, which we refer to as the ‘double effect argument’, has gone unnoticed. This article exposes and critically evaluates this ‘double effect argument’. To this end, we first review a series of excerpts from the ethical debate on biogerontology in order to substantiate the presence of double effect reasoning. Next, we attempt to determine the role that the ‘double effect argument’ is meant to fulfil within this debate. Finally, we assess whether the act of intervening in ageing actually can be justified using double effect reasoning

Out-of-hours care in western countries: assessment of different organizational models

Contains fulltext : 81655.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Internationally, different organizational models are used for providing out-of-hours care. The aim of this study was to assess prevailing models in order to identify their potential strengths and weaknesses. METHODS: An international web-based survey was done in 2007 in a sample of purposefully selected key informants from 25 western countries. The questions concerned prevailing organizational models for out-of-hours care, the most dominant model in each country, perceived weaknesses, and national plans for changes in out-of-hours care. RESULTS: A total of 71 key informants from 25 countries provided answers. In most countries several different models existed alongside each other. The Accident and Emergency department was the organizational model most frequently used. Perceived weaknesses of this model concerned the coordination and continuity of care, its efficiency and accessibility. In about a third of the countries, the rota group was the most dominant organizational model for out-of-hours care. A perceived weakness of this model was lowered job satisfaction of physicians. The GP cooperative existed in a majority of the participating countries; no weaknesses were mentioned with respect to this model. Most of the countries had plans to change the out-of-hours care, mainly toward large scale organizations. CONCLUSION: GP cooperatives combine size of scale advantages with organizational features of strong primary care, such as high accessibility, continuity and coordination of care. While specific patients require other organizational models, the co-existence of different organizational models for out-of-hours care in a country may be less efficient for health systems