A comprehensive vulnerability assessment is a scientific basis for the realization of the United Nations' sustainable development goals. Energy resilience plays a crucial role in mitigating social vulnerability due to disaster shocks. Often, energy infrastructure and services collapse after disasters. The recent Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated Europe's energy crisis and social vulnerabilities, making it even more urgent to add energy resilience to vulnerability assessments. This paper takes the Netherlands as the study area for vulnerability assessment, constructs a new social vulnerability indicator (SVI) system supplemented with the energy element, and compares that with the traditional energy indicator system. The results indicate that: 1) The introduction of energy indicators fills the gap of traditional SVI assessment. 2) Energy indicators reveal regional and spatial differences in potential social vulnerability in the Netherlands. 3) Energy-inclusive SVI demonstrates that uneven urbanization exacerbates risks and inequalities for vulnerable groups, with potential impacts on social vulnerability. Sustainable urban development requires the search for a recognized and coordinated approach to managing vulnerability across regions. The complementarity of energy indicators offers opportunities to provide a more comprehensive assessment of spatial patterns of social vulnerability, identify potentially vulnerable areas, enhance urban disaster resilience, and achieve sustainable urban development.
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The design of health game rewards for preadolescents Videogames are a promising strategy for child health interventions, but their impact can vary depending on the game mechanics used. This study investigated achievement-based ‘rewards’ and their design among preadolescents (8-12 years) to assess their effect and explain how they work. In a 2 (game reward achievement system: social vs. personal) x 2 (game reward context: in-game vs. out-game) between-subjects design, 178 children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Findings indicated that a ‘personal’ achievement system (showing one’s own high scores) led to more attention and less frustration than a ‘social’ achievement system (showing also high scores of others) which, in turn, increased children’s motivation to make healthy food choices. Furthermore, ‘out’-game rewards (tangible stickers allocated outside the game environment) were liked more than ‘in’-game rewards (virtual stickers allocated in the game environment), leading to greater satisfaction and, in turn, a higher motivation to make healthy food choices.
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To date, a range of qualitative and mixed-methods approaches have been applied to assess the age-friendliness of cities and communities. The Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ) has been developed to fill a gap for a systematic quantitative method approach to evaluate baseline age-friendliness in cities and communities and then measure ongoing efforts to become more age-friendly, aligned with the model by the World Health Organization (WHO). As such, it offers a valid and valuable quantitative method for cities to assess age-friendliness. This paper presents the process and results of a study undertaken to test the validity and reliability of the AFCCQ for the Australian context. It is part of a broader cross-cultural project seeking to test the AFCCQ across Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America to generate methodological insight and comparable data. Informed by consultation with local experts in population and ageing research, as well as with people aged 65 and over, the instrument proved reliable in the Australian context before being distributed to 334 older people in Greater Adelaide for validation. Results show that the AFCCQ-AU proved a valid and reliable tool for evaluating the age-friendliness of larger cities and communities in Australia. Overall, the total score indicated moderate-good satisfaction with the age-friendliness features of the Greater Adelaide Region with the domain of Housing scoring highest (highly satisfactory). Psychometric validation and cluster analysis led to the identification of five typologies of older people living in Greater Adelaide, characterised by distinct socio-demographic profiles and concomitant experiences and evaluations of age-friendliness. This Australian validation adds further weight to the role of the AFCCQ in being able to assess the age-friendliness of cities and communities across the WHO's Global Network for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. Used in combination with the rich and nuanced qualitative data at the local level, the tool has the ability to create significant outcomes for older people and their communities.
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