The International Journal of Wellbeing: An open access success story

Academics have long had the advantage of access to university libraries and their expensive subscriptions to scholarly journals. Critics of traditional journal publishing have complained that placing science and scholarship behind a paywall limits its potential. One solution to this problem is the emergence of open access journals. In this chapter, authors Weijers and Jarden offer a case study of a platinum open access journal they founded: the International Journal of Wellbeing. In their discussion of this new journal they offer both philosophical and practical insights that guide their work. They also point to often overlooked issues regarding open scholarship. One of these is the huge numbers of unaffiliated faculty or faculty from non-Western universities, all of whom suffer barriers to access to expensive journals. The authors look to increasing openness of journals to solve this and other problems

Measuring flourishing: The impact of operational definitions on the prevalence of high levels of wellbeing

The epidemiology of flourishing is an important research topic prompting international interest in its psychometric assessment. But the need to measure human feelings and functioning at the population level has resulted in the creation of a multitude of different conceptual frameworks of flourishing: a term now commonly used to describe high levels of subjective wellbeing. Not only do different researchers theorise and conceptualise flourishing in different ways, but also the categorical diagnosis of flourishing is dependent upon the various combinations of components, and researcher-determined thresholds, used in each operationalization. The multiplicity of approaches is potentially limiting the usefulness of the resultant epidemiology. This paper comprises two parts: Part 1 identifies four operationalizations of flourishing in the psychology literature and reviews their psychometric properties and utility; Part 2 investigates the impact of operational definition on the prevalence of flourishing using the Sovereign Wellbeing Index survey, a sample of 10,009 adult New Zealanders, and reports substantial variation in prevalence rates according to the four different operationalizations: Huppert and So (24%), Keyes (39%), Diener et al. (41%) and Seligman et al. (47%). Huppert and So’s model was the only one of the four to require endorsement of one particular variable, making it the most stringent criterion for flourishing, while the other three were more flexible in their categorisation. Cross-tabulation analysis indicated strong agreement between our replications of Keyes and Seligman et al.’s models (81%), and between Diener et al. and Seligman et al.’s models (80%). Agreement between Seligman, and Huppert and So’s, operationalizations was moderate (74%). Taken together, and in line with recent OECD recommendations, our findings reinforce the need for greater international collaboration and conceptualisation consensus when measuring flourishing. In the absence of any published empirical research investigating perceptions of flourishing among laypersons, a prototype analysis investigating alignment between lay and academic conceptualisations of flourishing is recommended

Permanence criteria for semi-free profinite groups

We introduce the condition of a profinite group being semi-free, which is more general than being free and more restrictive than being quasi-free. In particular, every projective semi-free profinite group is free. We prove that the usual permanence properties of free groups carry over to semi-free groups. Using this, we conclude that if k is a separably closed field, then many field extensions of k((x,y)) have free absolute Galois groups.Comment: 24 page

Needs and preferences among patients with high‐grade glioma and their caregivers – A longitudinal mixed methods study

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142983/1/ecc12806_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142983/2/ecc12806.pd

Associations between adherence, depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life in young adults with cystic fibrosis

BACKGROUND: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life shortening disease, however prognosis has improved and the adult population is growing. Most adults with cystic fibrosis live independent lives and balance the demands of work and family life with a significant treatment burden. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among treatment adherence, symptoms of depression and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a population of young adults with CF. METHODS: We administered three standardized questionnaires to 67 patients with CF aged 18–30 years; Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, Major Depression Inventory, and Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire-Revised. RESULTS: There was a response rate of 77 % and a majority of the young adults (84 %) were employed or in an education program. Most participants (74 %) reported low adherence to medications. One third (32.8 %) of the participants reported symptoms of depression. HRQoL scores were especially low on Vitality and Treatment Burden, and symptoms of depression were associated with low HRQoL scores (p < 0.01) with medium to large deficits across on all HRQoL domains (Cohen’s d 0.60–1.72) except for the domain treatment burden. High depression symptom scores were associated with low adherence (r = −0.412, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Despite improved physical health, many patients with CF report poor adherence, as well as impaired mental wellbeing and HRQoL. Thus, more attention to mental health issues is needed

The Long-Term Care System in Denmark

This document provides an overview of the long-term care system, the number and develop-ment of beneficiaries and the long-term care policy in Denmark. The report is part of the first stage of the European project ANCIEN (Assessing Needs of Care in European Nations), commissioned by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The first part of the project aims to facilitate structured comparison of the long-term care systems and policies in European Nations. Thus, this report is one of comparable reports provided for most European countries