The diverse European landscape of climate consciousness is shaped by political values, financial constraints, and country-specific point of view. The aim of the study was to unravel age-specific ecological awareness, forms of engagement, and perceptions, contributing to a nuanced understanding of climate dynamics.Selected regions: Germany (Rheinisches Revier), the Netherlands (Amsterdam Metropolitan Area), and Poland (Upper Silesia/Metropolis GZM) present different states regarding recycling/Circular Economy principles, and different environments.The research design incorporates an inductive qualitative approach to investigate environmental awareness and attitudes toward ecologically friendly behaviors. Six FGIs (Focus Group Interviews) were conducted across three European regions, involving participants from diverse age groups (20–39 years and 40–60 years) in each region.The study shows that ecological awareness varies between countries and generations, reflecting distinctive environmental strategies shaped by cultural and developmental factors. Participants in each region and age group exhibit diverse levels of engagement in sustainable activities, and highlight issues such as the need for tailored strategies, concerns related to eco-labelling, greenwashing, and inadequate waste treatment, as well as information gaps.These variations in pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors across age groups and regions underscore the need for tailored strategies and regional policies. Transparency in waste management, eco-labelling, and sustainable transportation alternatives should be prioritized. Educational initiatives addressing information gaps, especially regarding lifestyle choices, are crucial. Collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches are essential for fostering positive change and a sustainable future across the European Union. Transparent communication, regulatory measures, and accessible eco-friendly options encourage widespread adoption of pro-environmental behaviors.
Achtergrond: Ernstige psychische aandoeningen (epa) gaan gepaard met hoge ggz- en andere zorgkosten. Om de discussie hierover tussen verzekeraars, gemeenten en ggz transparanter te voeren zijn in 2012 zorgvignetten ontwikkeld die in een regio een beeld moeten geven over de aanwezige groepen patiënten met epa, ingedeeld naar zorgintensiteit. Doel: Inzicht krijgen in de vraag hoe bruikbaar en valide deze epa-vignetten zijn in relatie tot zorgbehoeften en psychosociaal functioneren. Methode: rom-uitkomsten (zorgbehoeften en psychosociaal functioneren) van 706 patiënten werden per zorgzwaartevignet vergeleken (m.b.v. χ2-toetsen en anova’s). Voor twee complexe zorgzwaartevignetten (zorgwekkende zorgmijders en gevaar afwenden) werden verschillen in zorgbehoeften en functioneren longitudinaal onderzocht (met repeated measures-anova’s en analyses volgens McNemar). Resultaten: De vignetten waren in beperkte mate onderscheidend wat betreft zorgbehoeften en functioneren. Patiënten met vignetten ‘zorgwekkende zorgmijders’ en ‘gevaar afwenden’ hadden de meeste beperkingen in functioneren en de meeste (onvervulde) zorgbehoeften. Deze bevindingen bleken stabiel over tijd. Conclusie: De vignetten zijn onvoldoende onderscheidend. Om regionale zorgplanning te verbeteren is het wenselijk om bestaande informatie van zorgvignetten te verrijken met informatie over zorgbehoeften en functioneren
It is crucial that ASR systems can handle the wide range of variations in speech of speakers from different demographic groups, with different speaking styles, and of speakers with (dis)abilities. A potential quality-of-service harm arises when ASR systems do not perform equally well for everyone. ASR systems may exhibit bias against certain types of speech, such as non-native accents, different age groups and gender. In this study, we evaluate two widely-used neural network-based architectures: Wav2vec2 and Whisper on potential biases for Dutch speakers. We used the Dutch speech corpus JASMIN as a test set containing read and conversational speech in a human-machine interaction setting. The results reveal a significant bias against non-natives, children and elderly and some regional dialects. The ASR systems generally perform slightly better for women than for men.
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