The philanthropy scale: a sociological perspective in measuring new forms of pro social behaviour

Philanthropy re-appears on the public stage. It has become part again of daily life in most industrialized countries. Growing wealth, uneven distributed, evokes the philanthropic response. The media attention for donors as Gates and Buffet may proof this. But also the plea for a “civil society” in Western European welfare states and the founding of the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit in the P.M. Cabinet in the UK (2005) show a shift from state responsibility into the direction of “market” and “philanthropy”. The European Commission launched December 2007 the “European Forum on Philanthropy and Research Funding”. Giving Campaigns have been started in France and the UK , the release of Clinton’s book Giving (2007), the fast growth of community foundations and family foundations (Gouwenberg et al 2007), these facts and actions all show a strong and renewed appearance of philanthropy in industrialized economies. Scholars follow and rediscover philanthropy as an interesting domain of research (Bekkers and Wiepking 2007). They stem from different academic disciplines and cover a wide range and different aspects of the phenomenon. Psychologists, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, all strive to discover the underlying incentives, facilitators and motivators of philanthropic behavior. These developments at the academia side as well as at the philanthropic practice, amplify each other. A first question emerges “how may the appearance of a new kind of philanthropy be explained?” and “how may this new kind of philanthropy be defined?” [...]

An Automated Design-flow for FPGA-based Sequential Simulation

In this paper we describe the automated design flow that will transform and map a given homogeneous or heterogeneous hardware design into an FPGA that performs a cycle accurate simulation. The flow replaces the required manually performed transformation and can be embedded in existing standard synthesis flows. Compared to the earlier manually translated designs, this automated flow resulted in a reduced number of FPGA hardware resources and higher simulation frequencies. The implementation of the complete design flow is work in progress.\u

The effects of intelligence and education on the development of dementia

A number of recent epidemiological studies have shown that the prevalence and incidence of dementia are increased in population strata with low compared to high levels of education. This has been explained as a consequence of a greater 'brain reserve capacity' in people with a high level of education. Theoretically, however, brain reserve capacity is better reflected by intelligence than by level of education. Thus, the emergence of dementia will be better predicted by low pre-morbid intelligence than by low education. This prediction was tested in a population based sample of elderly subjects (N = 2063; age range 65-84; Amsterdam Study of the Elderly) who were followed over 4 years. Dementia was diagnosed using the Geriatric Mental State examination (GMS). Pre-morbid intelligence was measured using the Dutch Adult Reading Test (DART), a short reading test which gives a good estimate of verbal intelligence, and is relatively insensitive to brain dysfunction. The effects of age, gender, occupational level, number of diseases affecting the central nervous system and family history of dementia or extreme forgetfulness were also examined. Logistic regression analysis showed that low DART-IQ predicted incident dementia better than low level of education. A high occupational level (having been in charge of subordinates) had a protective effect. This result supports the brain reserve theory. It also indicates that low pre-morbid intelligence is an important risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. Use of reading ability tests is to be preferred over years of education as estimator of pre-morbid cognitive level in (epidemiological) dementia researc

Do personal conditions and circumstances surrounding partner loss explain loneliness in newly bereaved older adults?

This longitudinal study aims to explain loneliness in newly bereaved older adults, taking into account personal and circumstantial conditions surrounding the partner's death. A distinction is made between emotional and social loneliness. Data were gathered both before and after partner loss. Results were interpreted within the framework of the Theory of Mental Incongruity. The findings reveal that being unable to anticipate the partner's death is related to higher levels of emotional loneliness. Standards of instrumental support, measured indirectly by poor physical condition, lead to stronger emotional as well as social loneliness. Standards measured directly by importance attached to support or contacts result in higher emotional loneliness but, unexpectedly, in lower social loneliness. Furthermore, difficulties with establishing personal contacts, caused, for instance, by social anxiety, add to loneliness. It is concluded that circumstances related to the partner's illness may contribute to emotional loneliness after bereavement. Moreover, the results highlight the importance of taking coping attitudes into consideration for a better understanding of how newly bereaved older adults adapt to the loss of a partner

Prevention of hip fractures by external hip protectors - A randomized controlled trial

Context: Several randomized controlled trials have been performed to examine the effectiveness of external hip protectors in reducing the incidence of hip fractures, but the results are controversial. Objective: To examine the effectiveness of hip protectors in reducing the incidence of hip fractures in an elderly high-risk population. Design, Setting, and Participants: Randomized controlled trial of elderly persons aged 70 years or older, who have low bone density, and are at high risk for falls. Participants lived in apartment houses for the elderly, homes for the elderly, and nursing homes in Amsterdam and surrounding areas in the Netherlands. They were enrolled in the study between March 1999 and March 2001; the mean follow-up was 69.6 weeks. Of the 830 persons who were screened, 561 persons were enrolled. Intervention: External hip protector. Both groups received written information on bone health and risk factors for falls. Main Outcome Measure: Time to first hip fracture. Survival analysis was used to include all participants for the time they participated. Results: In the intervention group, 18 hip fractures occurred vs 20 in the control group. Four hip fractures in the intervention group occurred while an individual was wearing a hip protector. At least 4 hip fractures in the intervention group occurred late at night or early in the morning. Both in univariate analysis (log-rank P=.86) and in multivariate analysis (hazard ratio [HR], 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55-2.03), no statistically significant difference between the intervention group and control group was found with regard to time to first hip fracture. In addition, the per protocol analysis in compliant participants did not show a statistically significant difference between the groups (HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.25-2.38). Conclusion: The hip protector studied was not effective in preventing hip fractures