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Purpose: To conduct a systematic review of existing methods to evaluate the individual aspects of welfare technology from the perspectives of independence, safety, activity, and participation. Furthermore, the study aimed to describe outcomes that have been the focus of previous research to evaluate individual aspects of welfare technology in older persons living in ordinary housing. Materials and methods: A systematic literature review in PubMed, CINAHL Plus, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science. Studies selected were those that explored the use of assistive and welfare technology devices from older persons' perspectives, and which considered the concepts of independence, safety, activity and participation, and quality of life. Results: A broad spectrum of instruments was applied in the studies. For independence, three questionnaires were used in the identified studies. For safety, one instrument was used in two versions. To study activity and participation as well as quality of life, several scales were used. Additionally, several studies included qualitative approaches for evaluation, such as interviews, or posed one or more questions regarding the effects of welfare technology. Conclusions: The integration of digital assistive and welfare technology should be based on the needs of older persons, and those needs must be assessed using reliable and relevant instruments. The heterogeneity of the target group, i.e., older persons, together with the fact that assessments must give consideration to identifying goals, obstacles, and risks as well as users' preferences, implies a person-centred approach. The integration of digital assistive and welfare technology should be based on older persons' needs, and those needs must be assessed using reliable and relevant instruments. The heterogeneity of the target group, i.e. older persons, together with the fact that assessments must give consideration to identifying goals, obstacles and risks as well as users' preferences, implies a person-centred approach. The ideal would be one coherent model that explores the use of digital assistive and welfare technology from the individual, economic as well as organisational dimensions. This would cover the different needs and expectations of various stakeholders, including economic and organisational, but also the needs of the older person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased number of older adults who experience longevity requires increased investment in healthcare services. Short-term goal-directed reablement is expected to strengthen the functional capacity and quality of life of older adults, while homecare hours, and thus municipal expenditures, decrease. Facilitation of successful interprofessional collaboration includes not only enhancing coordination structurally, but also establishing a commitment regarding culture that overcomes professionally differentiated attitudes. Nurses have an obvious role in these multi-professional teams and the study explores some aspects' of working in this type of collaboration. The aim was to illuminate the meaning of working with short-term goal-directed reablement of older adults as experienced by an interprofessional team. Data were collected after an intervention with goal-directed time-limited reablement of older people. Written narratives from an interprofessional team were analyzed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. Findings identified four major thematic structures that characterized the meaning: 1) Reliable relationship; including the aspects 'Confidence between the older adult and staff', 'A sense of security' and 'Continuity', 2) Empowered participation, including the following aspects: 'Listen to the older adult's desires' and 'Put the person in control', 3) Team with a negotiated approach, including the aspects: 'Closeness', 'Same direction and overarching goal', 'Learning from interprofessional dialogue', 4) Time for growth with the aspects 'Creating harmony' and 'Building the older adult's self-confidence'. The process of reablement seemed strengthened by the collaborative approach of different professions and their combined efforts. The present study argues that teamwork gives confidence both in terms of general knowledge of reablement but also specific confidence in one's profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents detailed flow-field measurements for a compressor cascade equipped with synthetic jet actuators for active flow control. The synthetic jets are mounted on the cascade sidewall and the suction side surface of the blade to reduce the total pressure loss caused by strong secondary flow structures developing in the passage. There are certain articles reporting that synthetic jets are well suited for flow control applications even in axial compressors and cascades. Most of them are focused on the parameter variation to optimize the efficiency of the control approach, still very little is known on the interaction of the synthetic jet actuators with the flow field. Detailed x-wire and pressure measurements were conducted to understand how synthetic jets influence the flow field and what causes the significant loss reduction in the cascade wake. It seems that the added momentum is not the key parameter for flow control with synthetic jets. In fact, the high mixing and the unsteadiness of the jets seem to amplify existing velocity fluctuations in the flow field. These increased fluctuations result in a shift of the shear layer between the flow separation and the surrounding flow, and thus in a dethrottling of the compressor cascade. Together with the increased mixing, loss reductions of approximately 10% can be reached using synthetic jet actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents the potential of active flow control to increase the aerodynamic performance of highly loaded turbomachinery compressor blades. Experimental investigations on a large-scale compressor cascade equipped with 30 synthetic jet actuators mounted to the sidewalls and the blades themselves have been carried out. Results for a variation of the inflow angle, the jet amplitude, and the actuation frequency are presented. The wake measurements show total pressure loss reductions of nearly 10 per cent for the synthetic jet actuation. An efficiency calculation reveals that the energy saved by actuation is nearly twice the energy consumption of the synthetic jets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FC (Active Flow Control) experiments have been performed by means of steady and pulsed blowing out of the sidewalls as well as out of the blade's suction surface in a highly loaded compressor cascade. PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) was used to evaluate the fully three-dimensional internal flow field and the impact of AFC methods. The aim was to observe the secondary flow structures and flow instabilities by PIV, to tune the AFC device operation parameters. This paper summarizes the different PIV measurements performed at the stator cascade to give an overview of the dominant flow features in the passage flow field and to obtain a detailed view of control mechanisms. In addition, a new vortex detection method is presented, based on a 2D-wavelet which is applicable in two-dimensional velocity data fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]