Health promotion intervention for people with early-stage dementia: A quasi-experimental study

Introduction: With the limited advancements in medical treatment, there is a growing need for supporting people with early‐stage dementia adjust to their diagnosis and improve their quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a 12‐week health promotion course for people with early‐stage dementia. Methods: Quasi‐experimental, single group, pretest‐posttest design. A total of 108 persons with dementia participated in this study, and for each participant, a carer was interviewed. The 12‐week health promotion intervention consisted of 2‐hr sessions at weekly intervals. Outcome measures were cognition, measured by Mini‐Mental State Examination, personal, and instrumental activities of daily living (P‐ADL and I‐ADL), measured by Lawton and Brody's Physical Self‐Maintenance Scale and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale, self‐rated health, measured by the European Quality of life Visual Analogue Scale, depressive symptoms, measured by the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms, measured by The Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Assessments were conducted at baseline and at follow‐up 1–2 months postintervention. Results: The results demonstrate a small but statistically significant improvement in depressive symptoms (p = .015) and in self‐rated health (p = .031). The results also demonstrated a small statistically significant decline in the participants’ I‐ADL (p = .007). The participants’ cognitive function, P‐ADL, and neuropsychiatric symptoms were stable during the 4‐month follow‐up. Conclusion: This study demonstrates promising results with regard to the benefit of attending a 12‐week health promotion intervention in promoting health and well‐being in people with early‐stage dementia. With the majority of participants with early‐stage dementia living at home without any healthcare services in a vulnerable stage of the condition, this study makes an important contribution to highlighting the need for, and benefit of, educational approaches for this population.publishedVersio

Seed system security assessment : Southern Sudan : November-December 2010

Juba, South Suda

Management of transboundary and straddling fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic in view of climate-induced shifts in spatial distribution

The introduction of 200 n.m. exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the late 1970s required increased collaboration among neighbouring coastal states to manage transboundary and straddling fish stocks. The established agreements ranged from bilateral to multilateral, including high‐seas components, as appropriate. However, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea does not specify how quotas of stocks crossing EEZs should be allocated, nor was it written for topical scenarios, such as climate change with poleward distribution shifts that differ across species. The productive Northeast Atlantic is a hot spot for such shifts, implying that scientific knowledge about zonal distribution is crucial in quota negotiations. This diverges from earlier, although still valid, agreements that were predominately based on political decisions or historical distribution of catches. The bilateral allocations for Barents Sea and North Sea cod remain robust after 40 years, but the management situation for widely distributed stocks, as Northeast Atlantic mackerel and Norwegian spring‐spawning herring, appears challenging, with no recent overall agreements. Contrarily, quotas of Northern hake are, so far, unilaterally set by the EU despite the stock's expansion beyond EU waters into the northern North Sea. Negotiations following the introduction of EEZs were undertaken at the end of the last cooler Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) period, that is, with stock distributions generally in a southerly mode. Hence, today's lack of management consensus for several widely distributed fish stocks typically relates to more northerly distributions attributed to the global anthropogenic signal accelerating the spatial effect of the current warmer AMO

National parks policy and planning: a comparative analysis of friluftsliv (Norway) and the dual mandate (New Zealand)

This is an original manuscript / preprint of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events on 26.02.2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/19407963.2016.1145688.Conservation management in Norway is anchored in the historical tradition of friluftsliv although Norway's evolving economic policy signals that growing priority is being given to recreation and nature-based tourism development in association with protected natural areas (PNAs). Here we present the results of an international comparative study that examined conservation policy and recreation/tourism management in Norway and New Zealand, where a legislated dual mandate of conservation and tourism in PNAs is longstanding. Our analysis of conservation policy and planning documents in Norway and New Zealand highlights important contrasts in conservation and recreation/tourism management that are deeply embedded in national socio-historical contexts. Our findings highlight lessons that may be learned and applied in Norway. However we also caution that the application of lessons from New Zealand's ‘utilitarian conservation’ policy context may require a reformulation or refinement of the friluftsliv tradition.submittedVersio