'Living together on one's own': Cohousing for older people - an example from Denmark and The Netherlands

‘Living together on one’s own’ is the seemingly contradictory expression of the National Association of Housing Communities for Elderly People (LVGO) in The Netherlands which in fact captures the essence of cohousing. Cohousing is a novel kind of neighbourhood, housing a novel form of intentional community, which began to take shape in Denmark in the early to mid-1960s and, independently, in The Netherlands a few years later. The inventors of cohousing wanted to live in a much more communal or community-oriented neighbourhood than was usual, but they wanted to do so without sacrificing the privacy of individual families or households and their dwellings. Could they have their cake and eat it too? It would seem so. What is cohousing for older people (op-cohousing)? Op-cohousing is essentially no different, except for the differences in outlook or expectations, experience, interests and abilities that a particular, exclusively older, group of people have brought to this housing type. I discuss and analyse several communities in both countries.

The Conditional Autonomy of Tafuri's Historian / De Provisorische Autonomie van de Historicus bij Tafuri

This article considers the conditions placed on the autonomous architectural history discipline often understood at stake in Manfredo Tafuri's 1968 book Teorie e storia dell'architettura.

Recreational fishing and fishing policies in the Netherlands and Australia: A comparative review

This article compares fisheries management, environmental problems and policies of the Netherlands and Australia. From this comparison lessons can be learned for countries that experience economic growth and on increase of leisure activity. In both countries, conflicts between the user groups, e.g. commercial and recreational fishers, are identified and the ways in which policymakers deal with these problems are outlined. Often suggested tools to address these problems are decision-making procedures based on a holistic framework in which economic, sociocultural, political/institutional, ecological aspects are included in the decision framework. Recreational fishing is today often the dominant factor in the resolution of these matters because of the relative economic, social and political power of recreational fishers as a group.

A revision of Benedenia Diesing, 1858 including a redescription of B-sciaenae (van Beneden, 1856) Odhner, 1905 and recognition of Menziesia Gibson, 1976 (Monogenea : Capsalidae)

Benedenia Diesing, 1858, a genus of capsalid (benedeniine) monogeneans, is redefined. The generic diagnosis is amended to include: the path of tendons in the haptor from extrinsic muscles in the body; presence and form of the marginal valve; a penis occupying a penis canal with weakly muscular wall; a weakly muscular accessory gland reservoir proximal to the penis and enclosed by a proximal extension of the wall of the penis canal; male and female genital apertures usually common, rarely separate; vagina with pore usually close to the common genital pore but may open in mid body between the germarium and the common genital pore, or anterior to the common genital pore. A conservative approach is adopted and the generic diagnosis is clarified and broadened to accommodate species that display some variation in reproductive anatomy, especially of the female system. We argue against potential alternative actions such as defining Benedenia strictly to contain species with separate male and female genital apertures and against recognition of a separate genus, Tareenia Hussey, 1986, for species with a vaginal pore anterior to the common genital pore. Under our conception, Benedenia comprises 21 species: B. sciaenae (van Beneden, 1856) Odhner, 1905 (type species); B. acanthopagri (Hussey, 1986) comb. nov.; B. anticavaginata Byrnes, 1986; B. bodiani Yamaguti, 1968; B. elongata (Yamaguti, 1968) Egorova, 1997; B. epinepheli (Yamaguti, 1937) Meserve, 1938; B. hawaiiensis Yamaguti, 1968; B. hendorffi(von Linstow, 1889) Odhner, 1905; B. hoshinai Ogawa, 1984; B. innobilitata Burhnheim Gomes and Varela, 1973: B. jaliscana Bravo-Hollis, 1952; B. lolo Yamaguti, 1968; B. lutjani Whittington and Kearn, 1993: B. monticellii (Parona and Perugia, 1895) Johnston, 1929; B. ovata (Goto, 1894) Johnston. 1929: B. pompatica Burhnheim, Gomes and Varela, 1973; B. rohdei Whittington, Kearn and Beverley-Burton, 1994; B. scari Yamaguti, 1968; B. sekii (Yamaguti, 1937) Meserve, 1938; B, seriolae (Yamaguti, 1934) Meserve, 1938; and B. synagris Yamaguti, 1953. The type species, B. sciaenae, is redescribed based on new material from Australia. No types for this taxon were designated and we have assigned a series of voucher specimens. Tareenia acanthopagri Hussey, 1986 becomes B. acanthopagri (Hussey, 1986) comb. nov. and T. anticavaginata (Byrnes, 1986) Egorova, 1997 and T. lutjani (Whittington and Kearn, 1993) Egorova, 1997 are returned to Benedenia as B. anticavaginata and B. lutjani Benedenia akaisaki Iwata, 1990 is considered a synonym of B. ovata and B. kintoki Iwata, 1990 is considered a synonym of B. elongata. Two species, B, madai Ishii and Sawada, 1938 and B. pagrosomi Ishii and Sawada, 1938, are considered species inquirendae. Based on the redefinition of Benedenia, the diagnosis for the Benedeniinae is amended. Tareenia is synonymized with Benedenia but Menziesia Gibson, 1976 is recognized and its generic diagnosis amended to include: anterior attachment organs tending to form a 'hooded' appearance; prominent anterior gland cells between the pharynx and the anterior margin of the body: long penis, tapering proximally, occupying a penis canal with weakly muscular wall: penis canal and penis describe a sigmoid; accessory gland reservoir dorsal and alongside, or posterior and lateral to, proximal end of the penis and enclosed by a proximal extension of the wall of the penis canal. Under this conception. Menziesia comprises: M. noblei (Menzies. 1946) Gibson, 1976 (type species); M. malaboni (Velasquez. 1982) comb. nov.: M. merinthe (Yamaguti, 1968) Gibson. 1976: M. ovalis (Yamaguti, 1968) Gibson, 1976: and M. sebastodis (Yamaguti, 1934) comb, nov. A key to valid species of Benedenia and Menziesia is provided and a list is presented of published records of undescribed or unattributed species of Benedenia. Some protocols are suggested for preparation of benedeniine material to enhance future taxonomic studies and comparisons. The host-specificity and geographic distribution of species in these revised genera are discussed. The composition of the Capsalidae is discussed and some difficulties in defining and distinguishing between its different subfamilies are considered.

Genetics of cognition: Outline of a collaborative twin study

Amultidisciplinary collaborative study examining cognition in a large sample of twins is outlined. A common experimental protocol and design is used in The Netherlands, Australia and Japan to measure cognitive ability using traditional IQ measures (i.e., psychometric IQ), processing speed (e.g., reaction time [RT] and inspection time [IT]), and working memory (e.g., spatial span, delayed response [DR] performance). The main aim is to investigate the genetic covariation among these cognitive phenotypes in order to use the correlated biological markers in future linkage and association analyses to detect quantitativetrait loci (QTLs). We outline the study and methodology, and report results from our preliminary analyses that examines the heritability of processing speed and working memory indices, and their phenotypic correlation with IQ. Heritability of Full Scale IQ was 87% in the Netherlands, 83% in Australia, and 71% in Japan. Heritability estimates for processing speed and working memory indices ranged from 33–64%. Associations of IQ with RT and IT (−0.28 to −0.36) replicated previous findings with those of higher cognitive ability showing faster speed of processing. Similarly, significant correlations were indicated between IQ and the spatial span working memory task (storage [0.31], executive processing [0.37]) and the DR working memory task (0.25), with those of higher cognitive ability showing better memory performance. These analyses establish the heritability of the processing speed and working memory measures to be used in our collaborative twin study of cognition, and support the findings that individual differences in processing speed and working memory may underlie individual differences in psychometric IQ.

Heritabilities of Apolipoprotein and Lipid Levels in Three Countries

This study investigated the influence of genes and environment on the variation of apolipoprotein and lipid levels, which are important intermediate phenotypes in the pathways toward cardiovascular disease. Heritability estimates are presented, including those for apolipoprotein E and All levels which have rarely been reported before. We studied twin samples from the Netherlands (two cohorts; n = 160 pairs, aged 13-22 and n = 204 pairs, aged 34-62), Australia (n = 1362 pairs, aged 28-92) and Sweden (n = 302 pairs, aged 42-88). The variation of apolipoprotein and lipid levels depended largely on the influences of additive genetic factors in each twin sample. There was no significant evidence for the influence of common environment. No sex differences in heritability estimates for any phenotype in any of the samples were observed. Heritabilities ranged from 0.48-0.87, with most heritabilities exceeding 0.60. The heritability estimates in the Dutch samples were significantly higher than in the Australian sample. The heritabilities for the Swedish were intermediate to the Dutch and the Australian samples and not significantly different from the heritabilities in these other two samples. Although sample specific effects are present, we have shown that genes play a major role in determining the variance of apolipoprotein and lipid levels in four independent twin samples from three different countries.

Long-term trends in sunshine duration and its association with schizophrenia birth rates and age at first registration - data from Australia and the Netherlands

Back ground. Based on the well-described excess of schizophrenia births in winter and spring, we hypothesised that individuals with schizophrenia (a) would be more likely to be born during periods of decreased perinatal sunshine, and (b) those born during periods of less sunshine would have an earlier age of first registration. Methods. We undertook an ecological analysis of long-term trends in perinatal sunshine duration and schizophrenia birth rates based on two mental health registers (Queensland. Australia n = 6630; The Netherlands n = 24, 474). For each of the 480 months between 1931 and 1970, the agreement between slopes of the trends in psychosis and long-term sunshine duration series were assessed. Age at first registration was assessed by quartiles of long-term trends in perinatal sunshine duration, Males and females were assessed separately. Results. Both the Dutch and Australian data showed a statistically significant association between falling long-term trends in sunshine duration around the time of birth and rising schizophrenia birth rates for males only. In both the Dutch and Australian data there were significant associations between earlier age of first registration and reduced long-term trends in sunshine duration around the time of birth for both males and females, Conclusions. A measure of long-term trends in perinatal sunshine duration was associated with two epidemiological features of schizophrenia in two separate data sets. Exposures related to sunshine duration warrant further consideration in schizophrenia research. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.