The world population is ageing rapidly. As society ages, the incidence of physical limitations is dramatically increasing, which reduces the quality of life and increases healthcare expenditures. In western society, ~30% of the population over 55 years is confronted with moderate or severe physical limitations. These physical limitations increase the risk of falls, institutionalization, co-morbidity, and premature death. An important cause of physical limitations is the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass, also referred to as sarcopenia. Emerging evidence, however, clearly shows that the decline in skeletal muscle mass is not the sole contributor to the decline in physical performance. For instance, the loss of muscle strength is also a strong contributor to reduced physical performance in the elderly. In addition, there is ample data to suggest that motor coordination, excitation-contraction coupling, skeletal integrity, and other factors related to the nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems are critically important for physical performance in the elderly. To better understand the loss of skeletal muscle performance with ageing, we aim to provide a broad overview on the underlying mechanisms associated with elderly skeletal muscle performance. We start with a system level discussion and continue with a discussion on the influence of lifestyle, biological, and psychosocial factors on elderly skeletal muscle performance. Developing a broad understanding of the many factors affecting elderly skeletal muscle performance has major implications for scientists, clinicians, and health professionals who are developing therapeutic interventions aiming to enhance muscle function and/or prevent mobility and physical limitations and, as such, support healthy ageing.
One of the aims of the TALENTS-project is to create (interdisciplinary) learning communities in which engineering professionals, students, teachers, and researchers can learn together and collaborate as equal partners, within the context of authentic challenges, starting from their individual learning goals. To what extent are partners willing to participate in this partnership and under which conditions do they consider it to have added value? We conducted individual interviews with engineering students (N=11), teachers (N=12) and professionals (N=10) about what they require to participate in the learning community, employing epistemic, spatial, instrumental, temporal, and social elements of learning environments. We also inquired which resources participants were willing to invest. Data were summarized on group level in a within-group matrix, following these elements. Next, we employed a cross-group analysis, focusing on commonalities and differences. The most striking results were found in the epistemic, social, and instrumental elements. Respondents have similar needs when it comes to improving dialogue to formulate a challenge. However, professionals prefer to have more influence on formulating this challenge and its output, whereas teachers wish to focus on students’ development. Students wish to co-create with partners and they place importance on matching students with a challenge that aligns with their educational background and personal interest. To create an environment based on equality, students need traditional roles of teachers, clients, and students to be less apparent. Ultimately, almost all respondents are willing to co-operate as equal partners in the learning community because they can see it leads to added value.
MULTIFILE
Doel van de quickscan is te achterhalen hoeverre de binnen het consortium in gebruik zijnde e-learning applicaties met QTI kunnen omgaan. Meer dan alleen een matrix (ja/nee) zal de quickscan waar mogelijk ook aangeven waarom het niet altijd lukt, of er work-arounds zijn en hoeveel inspanning deze met zich meebrengen. In het onderzoek zijn de volgende applicaties meegenomen: Respondus, QuestionMark Perception, N@tschool!, Blackboard, WebCT, Learn eXact, Testvision, TeleTOP, Lotus LearningSpace. Daarnaast zijn de functionele wensen van het project Rechten Online meegenomen in de evaluatie. Er is in twee stappen gewerkt. In de eerste stap is onderzocht welk van de genoemde applicaties een QTI import heeft (al dan niet via Respondus), applicaties die QTI importmogelijkheid hadden werden onderworpen aan een detailtest. Naast deze rapportage is ook de bij deze quickscan gebruikte testset is in zijn geheel beschikbaar.
