Migration of the elderly in New South Wales : patterns and implications

In the five year period 1981 to 1986, over 228,000 or one-fifth of people in New South Wales, who, at 30 June 1986 were aged 55 years or older, had changed their place of usual residence. The extent to which this level of mobility alters the spatial distribution of the elderly, who with increasing age have particular requirements in health care, housing and various forms of social support, can have important implications for the planning and delivery of such services. Accordingly, this thesis investigates the residential mobility and patterns of inter-regional migration of elderly people in New South Wales (NSW). The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), landlocked within NSW as it is, is treated as an integral part of the study region. The age group 55 years and over is preferred to an older one as suitably defining the elderly. This choice is made due to the increasing importance of early retirement and the high propensity of early retirees to change their places of usual residence (Chapter 3). The study begins by examining the levels of mobility amongst the elderly and, in recognizing that the propensity to move is related to chronological age, investigates the factors associated with the ageing process that might account for these differences. Following a description of migration patterns at various geographic levels, and identification of those local planning areas in which the impact of migration has been greatest, the study investigates the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of movers in the preponderant migration streams. While a large proportion of moves occur within the local environment, large numbers of elderly migrants have been leaving the major cities, particularly Sydney. These out-movements have been mainly towards coastal localities, which have also attracted migrants from other areas in the State. In-migrants to these 'amenity' destinations are characteristically younger married elderly people who tend to be a little more affluent and better educated than non-movers in the destination areas. By inference, most move for lifestyle reasons. Counter-migration streams from the amenity areas are, on the other hand, marked by a greater representation of older people, particularly widowed women, with this type of movement almost certainly often being associated with moves towards kin and/or institutional settings. There are, however, elements of both types of movers in both types of migration stream

Middle East - North Africa and the millennium development goals : implications for German development cooperation

          Closed-loop controlled combustion is a promising technique to improve the overall performance of internal combustion engines and Diesel engines in particular. In order for this technique to be implemented some form of feedback from the combustion process is required. The feedback signal is processed and from it combustionrelated parameters are computed. These parameters are then fed to a control process which drives a series of outputs (e.g. injection timing in Diesel engines) to control their values. This paper’s focus lies on the processing and computation that is needed on the feedback signal before this is ready to be fed to the control process as well as on the electronics necessary to support it. A number of feedback alternatives are briefly discussed and for one of them, the in-cylinder pressure sensor, the CA50 (crank angle in which the integrated heat release curve reaches its 50% value) and the IMEP (Indicated Mean Effective Pressure) are identified as two potential control variables. The hardware architecture of a system capable of calculating both of them on-line is proposed and necessary feasibility size and speed considerations are made by implementing critical blocks in VHDL targeting a flash-based Actel ProASIC3 automotive-grade FPGA

Longitudinal predictors of informal and formal caregiving time in community-dwelling dementia patients

Care provided in the community for dementia patients on an individual basis may be very time consuming. Yet, little is known about the factors affecting caregiving time for community-dwelling dementia patients. Thus, we aimed to investigate the predictors of informal and formal caregiving time for these patients in a longitudinal approach. Caregiving time for n = 126 community-dwelling dementia patients was assessed by proxy interviews in four assessments at 6-month intervals (1.5 years of longitudinal follow-up; AgeCoDe study). Measurement of informal caregiving time was based on a German adaptation of the Resource Utilization in Dementia questionnaire. Dementia severity was measured by the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). We used random effects models to estimate the effects of sociodemographic variables (age, gender, marital status and education), comorbidity and dementia severity on informal and formal caregiving time. At the first assessment, mean age was 85.0 years (+/- 3.2 years). The majority of patients was female (65.9 %), not married (divorced, single, widowed: 55.6 %) and had primary education (63.5 %). Furthermore, mean GDS was 4.4 (+/- 0.8) and mean MMSE was 20.1 (+/- 5.1). According to CDR, 43 individuals had very mild dementia, 55 individuals had mild dementia and 28 individuals had moderate/severe dementia. Moreover, mean total caregiving time was 3.4 h per day (+/- 4.0). Thereof the main part represents informal caregiving time (2.3 h +/- A 3.4), whereas formal caregiving time was 1.2 h (+/- 2.4). Dementia severity was associated with total caregiving time, mainly influenced by informal caregiving time. Age was positively associated with total caregiving time, driven by formal caregiving time, while being married was positively associated with total caregiving time, mainly affected by informal caregiving time. All need categories of informal caregiving time were strongly related to dementia severity, whereas none of the categories of formal caregiving time were related to dementia severity. Our findings extend previous studies that found an association between informal caregiving time and dementia severity. Moreover, our findings highlight the role of informal care for community-dwelling dementia patients in Germany. Informal caregiving time strongly increases with dementia severity. Consequently, as the number of patients suffering from dementia is expected to increase considerably in the next decades, there is a paramount need to strengthen the informal care system to meet patients' needs

Social Capital and Social Justice: Critical Australian Perspectives

Social capital continues to be the subject of heated discussion and debate in social policy and social science arenas. However, there is a growing gulf between the manner and effect by which these discourses are being played out. This collection of essays brings together emerging and established scholars who have enlivened and enriched the debates about social capital in Australia. Collectively, the volume illustrates the continuing relevance of social capital in analysing Australian society and strengthening social policy and programs to promote social justice in contemporary Australia. This book is based on a workshop conducted under the auspices of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. Geoff Woolcock is Associate Professor and Research Fellow with the Urban Research Program at Griffith University. Lenore Manderson is Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.Social Capital and Social Justice in Critical Perspective /? Geoff Woolcock and Lenore Manderson -- Part I: Measuring and Applying Social Capital in Public Policy -- 1 Measuring Social Capital: New Developments in the Australian Bureau of Statistics /? Elisabeth Davis and Horst Posselt -- 2 Social Capital: The Specification and Measurement of a Concept /? John S. Western -- 3 Social Capital: The Productivity Commission's Review /? Tom Nankivell -- 4 Social Capital: The Nexus Between Community and the State /? Kate Brooks -- 5 The Public Policy of Social Capital in Australia /? David Adams -- 6 Faking Social Capital: State Intellectuals as Spin-Doctors /? Martin Mowbray -- 7 Network Capital: Borrowing on your Neighbours' Social Capital /? Robyn Keast, Kerry Brown and Chrys Guneskara -- Part II: The Application of Social Capital Discourse and Policy -- 8 Social Capital: A Meta Analysis /? Jenny Onyx, Paul Bullen and Melissa Edwards -- 9 Social Capital and the Master Planned Community: Theory and Practice /? Gabrielle Gwyther and Geoff Woolcock -- 10 The Role of Social Capital in Collaborative Natural Resource Management: Adventures in Paradox /? Peter Oliver -- 11 Social Capital, Higher Education and Policy Performance /? Ruth Wallace and Ian Falk -- 12 Cooking Alone: Social Capital and Wellbeing among Iraqi Women Refugees in Rural Victoria /? Lenore Manderson and Katie Vasey -- 13 Little Theory, Big Plans: Social Capital and Community Building in Aboriginal Australia /? Mark Brough and Chelsea BondJira Ticket : CDU-83 : Collection Development Manager made the decision that for the books that have this message " This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing to the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced, by any process, without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher, Charles Darwin University Press, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909, Australia" in the front they would treat CDU NTU Press as the copyright holder based on this statement. CDU Press have given permission for these to be added to our site but no additional licencing terms provided. That is a reasonable risk management based decision

Longitudinal Predictors of Institutionalization in Old Age

Objective To investigate time-dependent predictors of institutionalization in old age using a longitudinal approach. Methods In a representative survey of the German general population aged 75 years and older predictors of institutionalization were observed every 1.5 years over six waves. Conditional fixed-effects logistic regressions (with 201 individuals and 960 observations) were performed to estimate the effects of marital status, depression, dementia, and physical impairments (mobility, hearing and visual impairments) on the risk of admission to old-age home or nursing home. By exploiting the longitudinal data structure using panel econometric models, we were able to control for unobserved heterogeneity such as genetic predisposition and personality traits. Results The probability of institutionalization increased significantly with occurrence of widowhood, depression, dementia, as well as walking and hearing impairments. In particular, the occurrence of widowhood (OR = 78.3), dementia (OR = 154.1) and substantial mobility impairment (OR = 36.7) were strongly associated with institutionalization. Conclusion Findings underline the strong influence of loss of spouse as well as dementia on institutionalization. This is relevant as the number of old people (a) living alone and (b) suffering from dementia is expected to increase rapidly in the next decades. Consequently, it is supposed that the demand for institutionalization among the elderly will increase considerably. Practitioners as well as policy makers should be aware of these upcoming challenges