Academic literature on the topic 'Fulfilling ageing'

Ayurveda is the ancient system of medicine in the world. Ayurveda has two basic principles i.e. mainte-nance of healthy individuals and cure from the diseases. Rasayana Chikitsa is one of the eight branches of Ayurveda which aims at achieving a long and healthy life with fulfilling both of the principles. Rasayana is the term given to special herbs which decreases the ageing process, increases the life longevity, increases the mental as well as physical strength and destroys the disease process. The main purpose of Rasayana Chikitsa is to impede the aging process and delay the degenerative process in the body. It involves clinical effects like Vaya Sthapaka, Ayushya, Medhya, Balya and Jara Vyadhi Nashaka effects and work as im-mune stimulant, antioxidant, adoptogenic and anti-stress agent etc.

AbstractAssistive Ambient Living (AAL) in ageing refers to any device used to support ageing related psychological and physical changes aimed at improving seniors’ quality of life and reducing caregivers’ burdens. The diffusion of these devices opens the ethical issues related to their use in the human personal space. This is particularly relevant when AAL technologies are devoted to the ageing population that exhibits special bio-psycho-social aspects and needs. In spite of this, relatively little research has focused on ethical issues that emerge from AAL technologies. The present article addresses ethical issues emerging when AAL technologies are implemented for assisting the elderly population and is aimed at raising awareness of these aspects among healthcare providers. The overall conclusion encourages a person-oriented approach when designing healthcare facilities. This process must be fulfilled in compliance with the general principles of ethics and individual nature of the person devoted to. This perspective will develop new research paradigms, paving the way for fulfilling essential ethical principles in the development of future generations of personalized AAL devices to support ageing people living independently at their home.

Aims:To investigate the relationship between psychological well-being and measures of active ageing in a British sample of older people. Active ageing is the process of optimising opportunities for health, participation and security to embrace quality of life as people age.Methods:A national survey of quality of life and psychological well-being including 999 people aged ≥65 years living in private households in Britain commenced in 1999. in the most recent follow up of 2007, 323 survivors aged ≥72 years completed a postal survey regarding their quality of life and specifically the process of active ageing. A subset of 42 participants was also interviewed qualitatively in 2008 about their perceptions of active ageing. Psychological well-being at baseline was measured using the 12 item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) and correlated with measures of active ageing at baseline and in subsequent follow ups. Measures of active ageing included number and frequency of leisure and social activities, physical ability and access to support networks.Results:A significant positive relationship between psychological well being and measures of active ageing was found at baseline (p< 0.05). Measure of active ageing in 2007 were also correlated with psychological well-being at baseline (p< 0.05). Qualitative interviews in 2008 provided additional insights into this relationship.Conclusions:Results suggesting a strong relationship between psychological health and ageing actively. Good psychological health may allow the elderly to maintain an active and fulfilling lifestyle and reduce isolation and dependence, which in turn may protect against some aspects of poor mental health.

Abstract. Retirement communities offer the promise of a fulfilling life in old age. Purposefully planned and constructed with the intention of encouraging consumption through the promotion of successful ageing and a space in which to enjoy it, the success of retirement communities rests partially on the images used in attendant advertisements. Using content analysis to analyze the text of informational brochures provided to potential residents, this paper examines the images used to sell retirement communities. The sentences are classified into one of three categories: successful ageing, physical attributes of the community and old age related decline. The results show the overwhelming use of positive images to describe retirement community living and a denial of old age related physical decline. Most of the sentences in the brochures relate to the availability and plethora of leisure amenities in retirement communities, or endorse the idea of successful ageing by describing residents as active, healthy individuals with money to spend.

ABSTRACTThis study explores whether the plans of older workers on the cusp of retirement are in line with the active ageing agenda set by policy makers in Europe. The study was carried out in Italy, England, and the United States of America (USA). A total of 133 older workers who planned to retire within the next 10–12 months were interviewed (55 in England, 40 in Italy and 38 in the USA) between May 2014 and early 2015 using common semi-structured questions. Active Ageing Index dimensions were used to gauge the orientation of older people towards their retirement. The results of the study suggest that, with some differences, retirement plans of interviewees were substantially consistent with the active ageing perspective. However, some challenges were highlighted, including the need for governments to do more to promote genuine freedom of choice in relation to leaving the labour market, and to provide greater support for informal family carers. Findings also pointed to the need to measure active ageing in connection with individual wellbeing,e.g.by including indicators of leisure activities and by considering the re-weighting of employment and informal care dimensions. Companies could also provide more support during the retirement transition, with opportunities for maintained social connection with former colleagues, and help in making and fulfilling retirement plans.

Current policies on ageing in the global north emphasize that ‘ageing well’ is an individual responsibility, and tend to undervalue the social, economic and cultural context of ageing. The capability approach is well-suited to address the interplay between context and individual in later life. In this article, we therefore use the capability approach to explore how individual capabilities and contextual opportunities and restrictions contribute to being independent in later life. A qualitative methodology was adopted and we conducted in-depth interviews with 32 adults aged 65 and older, who lived independently and in sheltered housing. The study was carried out in two urban neighborhoods in the North of the Netherlands. Our findings underline that different pathways to independence are shaped by individual resources and capabilities, as well as by social and physical characteristics of the living environment. The three key capabilities that lead to being independent that we found were 1) to be comfortable at home and in the neighborhood; 2) to enjoy fulfilling social relations, and 3) to be mobile. The generated insights could be linked to policy initiatives with regard to age-friendly environments.

This article reports the results of a national postal survey of employers' attitudes and policies towards older workers supported by the ESRC. The survey's key findings are discussed in the context of the declining labour force participation of older people over the last twenty years and the recent turnaround in official and some employer attitudes towards this group. Findings of particular importance are those relating to the sectoral differences in employers' orientations towards older workers, such as the larger proportion of those in the production and construction than in the service sectors who were using early retirement schemes and the differences in strategic responses to the ageing workforce, with the service sector leading production, construction and manufacturing; the impact of employers' perceptions of older workers' lack of appropriate skills which, when coupled with figures illustrating the lack of access of older people to both official and employer training programmes, suggests a self-fulfilling prophecy; and the surprising support given by employers for anti-age discrimination legislation. Data from the survey are also used to test the model put forward by Atkinson (1989) suggesting that employers' policies develop incrementally. The article concludes by arguing that the educative approach favoured by the government is not likely to have a significant impact on the employment prospects of older workers. Therefore this group is likely to be increasingly confined to a choice between low-skill/low-wage jobs in the service sector or non-employment.

Lack of financial resources has become one of the main issues in fulfilling social and physical needs in urban development. The declining levels of public resources make the collaboration between public and private investors necessary. When facing the challenges of ageing population, shared investment may contribute to the appropriate development of sheltered housing to meet the goals of spatial planning as well as certain standards at the level of urban design. By ensuring appropriate living conditions for all generations such urban PPP projects may contribute to the fulfilment of the public interest. The paper presents practice of PPP implementation in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where local authority with the collaboration of private partners ensured more than 400 sheltered apartments in the last years. Examples show the extension of the idea from the 70s onwards in finding new models of housing for the aging population. The development of new models can be a good example of strengthening the cooperation between public and private partners in the field of urban development practice.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a devastating, progressive disease and carries a prognosis worse than most cancers. Despite ongoing research, the mechanisms that underlie disease pathogenesis remain only partially understood. However, the self-perpetuating nature of pulmonary fibrosis has led several researchers to propose the existence of pathological signalling loops. According to this hypothesis, the normal wound-healing process becomes corrupted and results in the progressive accumulation of scar tissue in the lung. In addition, several negative regulators of pulmonary fibrosis are downregulated and, therefore, are no longer capable of inhibiting these feed-forward loops. The combination of pathological signalling loops and loss of a checks and balances system ultimately culminates in a process of unregulated scar formation. This review details specific signalling pathways demonstrated to play a role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. The evidence of detrimental signalling loops is elucidated with regard to epithelial cell injury, cellular senescence and the activation of developmental and ageing pathways. We demonstrate where these loops intersect each other, as well as common mediators that may drive these responses and how the loss of pro-resolving mediators may contribute to the propagation of disease. By focusing on the overlapping signalling mediators among the many pro-fibrotic pathways, it is our hope that the pulmonary fibrosis community will be better equipped to design future trials that incorporate the redundant nature of these pathways as we move towards finding a cure for this unrelenting disease.

Abstract Introduction Tube feeding is not recommended in persons with advanced dementia and dysphagia; it does not improve nutrition, reduce infections or mortality. In Singapore, limited data exists on the prevalence of oral versus tube feeding in persons with advanced dementia, and the alignment between the mode of administering food and fluids and a prior advanced care plan (ACP) discussion. Methods Retrospective review of 120 patients from January to October 2017 was conducted to examine the prevalence of oral and tube feeding in advanced dementia patients with ACP, and the alignment of the chosen mode of intake with their ACP. Outcomes include rates of readmission, pneumonia, ACP revisions and mortality at six months. Results 42 subjects fulfilling criteria were analysed. 81.0% continued oral feeding. There was a statistically significant difference in the decision for tube insertion between oral and tube feeding groups (p=0.02), which was influenced by the ACP discussion. Concordance with ACP discussion in the tube feeding group was mixed, with 50% agreeing for tube insertion and 33.3% who were clinically guided. Surrogates made the decisions in 90.5% of the discussions. Six-month readmission rate was 32.4% for orally-fed patients versus 75% for tube-fed patients (p=0.045). 52.9% of admissions were attributed to pneumonia. 8.8% of orally fed patients revised their ACP to opt for a trial of treatment in their own home instead of readmission to the hospital. There was no difference in 6-month mortality (p=0.123). Conclusions Oral feeding was continued for most advanced dementia patients. Tube feeding does not offer survival benefit or prevent aspiration at 6 months, yet is associated with increased hospitalisations. ACP discussion should be initiated earlier to provide persons with dementia the opportunity to express their preferences for the mode of food and fluid intake.

German text
Gutes Altern gelingt selbst bei den zumeist günstigen äusseren Voraussetzungen in der Schweiz nicht allen Menschen. Die Frage stellt sich, unter welchen Bedingungen sowohl echtes Wohlbefinden im Alltag als auch Lebenssinn und -perspektive erreicht und erhalten werden können. Gelingt dies bekennenden Christen besser als nicht religiösen Menschen? Im Hinblick auf diese Fragestellung untersuchte die vorliegende Arbeit die bisherige gerontologische Forschung hauptsächlich in der Schweiz. Es wurde versucht, die Begriffe Wohlbefinden, Lebenssinn in Verbindung mit Religionsgerontologie anhand einzelner Exponenten zu definieren und das Zusammenspiel der Faktoren aufzuzeigen. In einer qualitativen empirischen Studie wurden gemäss der Grounded Theory zwölf Personen zwischen 50 und 80 Jahren (drittes Alter) mit zehn verschiedenen religiös/spirituellen Hintergründen mit Hilfe eines halbstrukturierten Leitfadens interviewt. Die Hauptthemen waren Wohlbefinden, Lebenssinn, Glaube/Spiritualität und Sterben/Tod. Der Zusammenhang zwischen alltäglichem Wohlbefinden und Lebenssinn bzw. -perspektive erwies sich als stark. Menschen mit einer persönlichen Gottesbeziehung schienen über mehr Ressourcen zu verfügen, nicht nur, um die eigene Endlichkeit zu akzeptieren oder schwierige Ereignisse im Leben zu meistern, sondern auch, um ihren letzten Lebenssinn in Gott zu erkennen, also ausserhalb von sich selbst. So waren sie besser befähigt, in ihrem Lebenslauf Erreichtes wieder abzugeben. Dieser Lebensstil benötigt Einübung, er kann jedoch auch gezielt gefördert werden. Aufgrund der Erkenntnisse konnten eine Reihe von Aufgaben formuliert werden, die den älteren Menschen Anweisung geben, wie sie diesen Lebensstil konkret in ihrem Alltag umsetzen könnten. Zudem scheint christliche Gemeinde ein geeigneter Rahmen darzustellen, wenn sie für das dritte Alter interdisziplinäre Lernangebote aus den Bereichen Medizin, Psychologie, Soziologie und Theologie wie auch die Möglichkeit persönlicher Seelsorge bereitstellt. Der ältere Mensch wird dadurch frei, sich generativ für andere einzusetzen und für sie da zu sein, innerhalb der christlichen Gemeinde oder auch ausserhalb als Teil der Gesellschaft. Somit wird dem neutestamentlichen Gebot der Nächstenliebe nachgekommen, Solidarität anderen gegenüber wird gelebt. Stärkeres Sinnempfinden und höheres Wohlbefinden sind geschenkte Nebenprodukte, die zu einem erfüllten Leben beitragen.
In Switzerland ageing is not necessarily unproblematic, even in the most favorable conditions. The question to answer is on what conditions in everday life a high level of wellbeing as well as meaning and perspective of life can be attained and preserved. Do professing Christians succeed better than non-religious people? The present study examined the results of current gerontological resarch in this respect, primarily in Switzerland. It attempted to define the terms of wellbeing, meaning of life in connection with religious gerontology with specific criteria and to show up the interaction of their several components. In a qualitative empirical study, according to the Grounded Theory, twelve persons between fifty and eighty years of age with ten different religious/spiritual backgrounds were interviewed with the aid of a semistructured interview guide. The main topics were wellbeing, meaning of life, faith/spirituality and dying/death. The relationship between everyday wellbeing and meaning of life and life perspective proved to be strong. People with a personal relationship with God seemed to have more resources to accept not only their own mortality or to cope with negative events in life, but to recognize their ultimate meaning of life to be in God, which is outside themselves. In consequence they were better able to let go any of their own achievements. This lifestyle requires practise and promotion. On account of the results a number of tasks were formulated to guide the older people in their daily life in practicing this lifestyle. The Christian community seems to be a suitable framework to provide interdisciplinary learning opportunities for the third age in the fields of medicine, psychology, sociology and theology as well as the opportunity of personal counseling. In this way, the never-ending process of maturation of individual elderly people should be encouraged. They are free, according to their talents, to get themselves involved with other people, to have time for them, that is within the Christian community or outside, in society. Thus, the New Testament commandment to love one another can be complied with, and solidarity with others will truly be fact. A stronger sense of meaning and a higher grade of wellbeing will be welcome by-products, which will contribute to a fulfilled life.
Practical Theology
D. Th. (Practical Theology)

This book explores the implementation of international accountability for dependent territories under the United Nations during the early Cold War era. Although the Western nations that drafted the UN Charter saw the organization as a means of maintaining the international status quo they controlled, newly independent nations saw the UN as an instrument of decolonization and an agent of change disrupting global political norms. The book documents the unprecedented process through which these new nations came to wrest control of the United Nations from the World War II victors that founded it, allowing the UN to become a vehicle for global reform. It examines the consequences of these early changes on the global political landscape in the midst of heightened international tensions playing out in Europe, the developing world, and the UN General Assembly. The book puts this anti-colonial advocacy for accountability into perspective by making connections between the campaign for international accountability in the United Nations and other postwar international reform efforts such as the anti-apartheid movement, Pan-Africanism, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the drive for global human rights. Chronicling the combative history of this campaign, the book details the global impact of the larger UN reformist effort. It demonstrates the unintended impact of decolonization on the United Nations and its agenda, as well as the shift in global influence from the developed to the developing world.

We live in the time of multifaceted societal transition: demographic, familial, and epidemiological. All three transitions are advancing globally, though not universally, and there are enduring deviations. All three transitions bring us significant and welcome opportunities: longer, healthier, and potentially more fulfilling lives. Healthier and happier citizens should benefit their societies and promote development. However, the above opportunities are accompanied by challenges. After highlighting the major challenges and opportunities of ageing societies, the chapter turns to reviewing the international policy frameworks on ageing, focusing on the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and its regional implementation strategies. A brief overview of international policy players in the area of ageing is also included.

Albums kept by Sara Coleridge, Edith May Southey, and Dora Wordsworth between the early 1820s and late 1840s show that that although the Wordsworth circle daughters’ access to their famous fathers’ literary networks resulted in books exceptionally rich in album verse by well-known contemporary poets, their poet-fathers’ practical assistance and symbolic influence exacerbated the anxiety of reception for amateur contributors, and complicated each woman’s role as agent and subject of her own book. In the Wordsworth circle albums, scribal publication is perilously close to conventional publication, and contributors negotiate between fulfilling the woman owner’s wishes and articulating awareness of the revered older poets’ scepticism or downright hostility to feminized album culture. The poet-father’s presence turns albums into contested textual spaces where generational, gender, and power dynamics are played out in poetry.

This chapter offers an account of subjective obligation. Different accounts of rightness and wrongness meet different versions of a ‘responsibility constraint’. Subjective rightness meets a very strong version of the responsibility constraint, and correlates closely with praise- and blameworthiness. It also seems that subjective obligation must be accessible and action guiding. This chapter argues for some modifications to these starting points. First, subjective obligation should be action guiding, but not in the rich sense that people often intend when they say that subjective obligation should be action guiding. Second, it should be anchored in the true Morality, and so is accessible only to those in our moral community. Finally, we cannot formulate subjective obligation in terms of the agent’s beliefs about what ought to be done. Rather, we need to formulate subjective obligation in terms of trying: an agent is fulfilling her subjective obligation when she is trying to do well by Morality.

There is a strong correlation between the EU’s institutional architecture and policy output. The more complex the institutional set-up, the more challenges it poses for achieving an ambitious and coherent policy output. This is particularly at stake in the situation when the EU has to handle numerous crises and respond to international security challenges. The Lisbon Treaty has introduced a new institutional architecture by adding complexity with multiple actors in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The European External Action Service (EEAS) is in charge of EU foreign and security policy. At the same time, it must accommodate the interests of the EU Member States and those of the EU institutions in order to make the policy output credible and efficient. By contributing to this volume with its multidisciplinary approach, this chapter applies the Principal–Agent (P–A) theory of political science, which argues that the relationship between the Member States and the EEAS can be perceived as a delegation arrangement where the Member States (principal) sign a contract of delegation with the EEAS (agent) for fulfilling the mandate, yet deliberately leave a particular level of ‘discretion’ to the EEAS. The agent’s abuse of its empowered position may lead to ‘slippage’. To avoid this happening, the Member States could employ various control measures to keep the agent adhering to the preferences of the principal. The hypothesis is tested by drawing on the case of the EU Global Security Strategy. The chapter explores the means of control that the Member States use to maintain ownership in framing the new EU security strategy.

In recent decades in general and since the turn of the millennium in particular, accountability has emerged as the democratic state’s most important legitimation mechanism for national security and intelligence practices and institutions. The functional imperative of accountability is to scrutinize intelligence agencies, practices, and systems to ensure their compliance with regulations, mandates, laws, and the Constitution—largely to provide reassurance that organisations that must operate in secret are not abusing their special powers and authorities. In addition to compliance, however, many other benefits that flow from crucial subsidiary functions that intelligence accountability performs. This chapter tracks the value and importance of intelligence to detect, disrupt, and deter a growing number of threat actors and vectors to security, prosperity, and democracy, and concomitant shift in intelligence posture from foreign spies to an array of domestic counterterrorism, counterespionage, counter sabotage, counter propaganda, counter information and counter cyber operations. In an era of social and political disruption that is marked by technological change, changing threat vectors, changing public expectations and scandals, democratic governments have established, evolved, and expanded accountability systems to review and oversee the intelligence community. The chapter introduces readers to ways of theorizing and reconciling the relationship between the intelligence community and civilian institutions of the democratic state, notably as a principal–agent problem: a relationship in which one side (the civilians) attempts to have an epistemic community (the ‘spies’) carry out its will. Politicians and the civil service leverage the intelligence community’s expert knowledge to keep the democratic state, its institutions, and its citizens safe and secure and deter and contain existential threats. In fulfilling this mandate, the democratic public expects the intelligence community to comply with relevant legal and constitutional frameworks.

Abstract Products must often endure unpredictable and challenging conditions while fulfilling their intended functions. Game-theoretic methods make it possible for designers to design solutions that are robust against complicated conditions, however, these methods are often specific to the problems they investigate. This work introduces the Game-Augmented Robust Simulated Annealing Teams (GARSAT) framework, a game-theoretic agent-based architecture that generates solutions robust to variation, and models problems with elementary information, making it easily extendable. The platform was used to generate designs under consideration of a multidimensional attack. Designs were produced under various adversarial settings and compared to designs generated without considering adversaries to validate the model. The process successfully created robust designs able to withstand multiple combined conditions, and the effects of the adversarial settings on the designs were explored.