The purpose is to give an overview of the extent, range and nature of existing definitions of the concept ‘ageing in place’. Providing such an overview may be helpful, for policy makers, researchers, communities and service providers, to make sense of the versatility and uses of the concept, and allow the improvement and increase the success of efforts to contribute to the quality of life of older people. The overview was created using Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review methodology. Out of 3,692 retrieved articles, 34 met the inclusion criteria. These studies concentrate on the following five key themes concerning ‘ageing in place’: ‘ageing in place’ in relation to place, to social networks, to support, to technology and to personal characteristics. Each of these key themes consists of other aspects, like physical place and attachment to place for the keyword place. This study concludes that the concept ‘ageing in place’ is broad and can be viewed from different (i.e. five) key themes. A more thorough understanding of ‘ageing in place’ provides knowledge about the existing key themes and aspects. These findings might provide practical support for professionals and governments when they develop their policies about ‘ageing in place’ integrally and to develop fit policies.

In this study the strain states in alternating multilayers of an extrinsic O2− ion conductor yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and an insulator RE2O3 (RE = Er, Y) are investigated as a function of the layer thickness. Multilayers with narrow columnar crystallites and coherent phase boundaries were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). A detailed strain analysis is performed by X-Ray Diffraction XRD, measuring distinct reflections in and perpendicular to the interface planes. Because of small columnar crystallites in the layers, the interfacial strain decays by shear with increasing distance from the interface. The extent of the strained interface regions in the YSZ layers is estimated from XRD data. By using a quantitative analytical model based on the pressure dependence of the free migration enthalpy for vacancies the results are compared to former published experimental data on O2− ion conductivity and diffusion.

The Baltic Sea is characterized by organisms that can tolerate brackish water. Because of the Sea's history during glacial times, its flora and fauna (and also their parasites) can be traced to marine, freshwater and genuine brackish elements beside glacial relics. Snails, planktonic copepods, benthic amphipods and isopods are important intermediate hosts of diverse helminths; in addition polychaetes, bivalves and fishes may also act as final hosts. The most important final hosts, beside fishes, were seals and birds; these were able to disperse the parasites over the whole of the Baltic. Decreasing salinity from west to east limits the distribution of many parasites. Several marine and genuine brackish water species have almost spread over the whole Baltic. Freshwater species, however, have a lower tolerance than marine species and are only rarely found in the western part. A serious problem in the Baltic is eutrophication which can lead to massive abundances of generalist parasites, in host populations as well as host individuals. The final stage of this influence can cause a general decrease of host abundance and, as a consequence, of all kinds of parasites, due to oxygen deficiency. In comparison with the species spectrum of other brackish waters in Europe, the Baltic presents some endemic parasites as well as sharing parasite species with the Mediterranean and even the Black Sea.

In the process of developing thin film electro-optical waveguides we investigated the influence of different substrates on the optical and structural properties of epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films. These films are grown by on-axis pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on MgO(100), MgAl2O4(100), SrTiO3(100) and MgO buffered A12O3(1102) substrates. The waveguide losses and the refractive indices were measured with a prism coupling setup. The optical data are correlated to the results of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry/ion channeling (RBS/C). X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). BaTiO3 films on MgO(100) substrates show planar waveguide losses of 3 dB/cm and ridge waveguide losses of 5 dB/cm at a wavelength of 633 nm.

Within our program to develop ferroelectric thin film optical waveguides, we have studied the growth of epitaxial waveguides BaTiO3 on r-plane sapphire substrates with a MgO buffer layer. The films were prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Their structural properties were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Rutherford backscattering (RBS) in random and channeling (RBS-c) configuration and atomic force microscopy (AFM). They displayed good crystalline quality, characterized by an RBS-c minimum yield of about 4–6%, a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the XRD rocking curve measurement of the BaTiO3(200) reflection of 0.32° and a rms roughness of 1.2 nm in a film of ∼ 1.0 μm thickness. The epitaxial relationship was found to be BaTiO3(100) // MgO(100) // A12O3(1102). The refractive index, the birefringence and the optical losses have been measured.

Technologically interesting optical materials such as BaTiO3 and KnbO3 are difficult to grow as single crystals of large dimensions. Thin film techniques can overcome this problem by synthesizing these materials on commercially available substrates. We demonstrate the deposition of single crystalline BaTiO3 and KnbO3 on MgO, SrTiO3 and buffered MgO substrates by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The samples are characterized by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry / Channeling (RBS/C), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). We found excellent crystalline quality, confirmed by RBS/C minimum yield values of 2 % and a FWHM of 0.36° of the BaTiO3(002) rocking curve. Even films of a few microns thickness have been grown without loss of crystalline perfection, and all films show very flat surfaces. The RMS roughness of a 950 nm BaTiO3 film was found to be 1.1 nm.

The growth of thin films of LiNbO3 and Er:LiNbO3 on LiNbO3 single crystals produced by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) was studied. Samples were characterized by RBS/Channeling Spectrometry, X-ray diffraction measurements, Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Film preparation is performed in a two-step process including deposition and in-situ-annealing. Buried Er doped layers of approx. 800 nm thickness were grown.

We present investigations of YBa2Cu3O7-x, thin films deposited on Silicon on Sapphire (SoS) substrates by pulsed laser deposition and dc sputtering. A compound buffer system consisting of YSZ and CeO2 is used for improved YBa2Cu3O7-x growth characteristics. The critical thickness of YBa2Cu3O7-x on CeO2/YSZ/SoS is determined to be 280 nm.

Thin films of ZrO2, BaF2, and noble metals on TiN have been examined by RBS as potential diffusion barriers between Si(100) substrates and high-temperature superconductors. As best result so far, a buffer layer of 260 nm ZrO2 enabled the growth of a 230 nm film of YBa2Cu3O7-x, which had been deposited by laser ablation. The relatively low zero resistance temperature of about 60 K may result from some interdiffusion between YBaCuO components and the ZrO2 layer or from holes in the film. A 520 nm BaF2 layer was able to prevent Si outdiffusion towards the surface, when exposed to an oxidizing ambient at typical YBa2Cu3O7-x deposition temperatures between 750 and 800°C. A strong reaction between YBaCuO components and BaF2, however, resulted in non-superconducting films. At high temperatures in oxidizing ambient the noble metal/TiN/Si samples suffered severely from oxidation and surface roughening.

Thin films of YBa2Cu3O7-x have been produced in situ by laser ablation. As the condensation of the superconducting film is done onto hot substrates (600 - 780°C) at high oxygen pressures (~ 1 mbar), this techniques does not require any special postannealing step. Thus the total process time amounts to less than 10 min. Films were found to be polycrystalline with the c-axis preferentially oriented normal to the substrate plane on single crystalline (001) SrTiO3 and (random) ZrO2, as measured by ion channeling (Xmin = 5.5 % on SrTiO3), x-ray scattering and TEM. Complete superconducting transitions above 90 K with transition widths of about 1 K have been observed even on YSZ substrates. Critical current densities, jc (77 K), of more than 2 x 106 A/cm2 could be obtained on SrTiO3-substrates. The high quality of the thin films over large areas was demonstrated by the measurement of persistent superconducting current densities at 77 K in the order of 105 A/cm2 in a 1.5 mm broad ring of 9 mm diameter. No dissipation of this persistent current could be observed during one hour. Measurements of the same film after 8 months in normal air showed a 40 % decrease of jc and a stronger decrease of jc with an externed magnetic field, suggesting that in the meantime the macroscopic ring current density is dominated by intergranular weak links.

Bulk samples of YBa2Cu3O7−x have been homogenously irradiated with 3 MeV electrons at temperatures below 20 K. Whereas the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, drops dramatically with increasing dose the width of the transition remains unchanged (Δ Tc ≤ 1.5 K). The normal state resistance at 100 K increases substantially during the electron irradiation. Several irreproducible experiments can be interpreted with a radiation induced, unstable increase of Tc.