With the numerous benefits of informal learning environments come large pragmatic constraints that may hinder the success and depth of the learning that the setting was intentionally created to support. If certain pragmatic issues including the type of activity chosen, time constraints, and high demands for facilitation are left to chance, then the learning will also be left to chance. By recog...

We analyze the speciication of a hydroelectric power plant by ENEL (the Italian Electric Company). Our goal is to show that for the speciication of the plant (its control system in particular) some given properties hold. We were provided with an informal speciication of the plant. From such informal speciication we wrote a formal speciication using the CCS/Meije process algebra formalism. We de...

BACKGROUND Few personalized e-interventions are available for informal and professional caregivers of people with dementia. The DEMentia Digital Interactive Social Chart (DEM-DISC) is an ICT tool to support customized disease management in dementia. The aim of this study was to improve and evaluate DEM-DISC, its user-friendliness and usefulness and to investigate the future implementation. ME...

BACKGROUND Informal caregivers are essential figures for maintaining frail elderly at home. Providing informal care can affect the informal caregivers' physical and psychological health and labour market participation capabilities. They need support to prevent caregiver burden. A variety of existing support measures can help the caregiver care for the elderly at home, but with some limitations....

PURPOSE The provision of informal care plays a crucial role in supporting those with long term illness such as MS to stay in the community, but there is no recent United Kingdom (UK) research into the nature of this care provision and how it interacts with professional community care. The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of informal and professional care in a community population...

Much care for older, ill and disabled people is provided by informal unpaid carers usually in the context of familial relationships. Such care can involve providing support with aspects of daily living including shopping, transport to medical appointments as well as physical and personal care. Those who receive informal care may be living with multiple health conditions that give rise to comple...

Informal caring is of significant and increasing importance in the context of an ageing population, growing pressures on public finances, and increasing life expectancy at older ages. A growing body of research has examined the characteristics associated with informal care provision, as well as the impact of caring for the carer's physical and mental health, and their economic activity. However...

Informal care is a vital pillar of the British welfare state. A well-known fact in the small economic literature on informal care is the apparent negative relation between care responsibilities and labour market participation. Yet, caring and labour market participation may be endogenous. Using an instrumental variable approach and panel data techniques and employing data from the British House...

BACKGROUND Many countries face substitution from formal to informal care. It is essential that a sufficient number of caregivers, such as family, friends or neighbors, are willing and able to lend care to address the needs of ill or elderly persons. We investigated whether the general public, who might become caregivers in the future, and current informal caregivers align with the shift to more...