Preventing Falls in Older Californians: State of the Art

In February 2003, the Foundation convened over 150 leaders in academic, legislative, community-based services, consumer advocates, aging network, housing, public health, public safety, and other leaders who worked for two days on a statewide blueprint on fall prevention.  In preparation for the convening, a Preconference White Paper was created and used to build the blueprint.  The California Blueprint describes state-of-the-art approaches to reducing the risks of falls, and the challenges to implementing fall prevention in California.  One of the top recommendations from this blueprint was the creation of a coordination center that could serve as a statewide resource and lead efforts in fall prevention.  This recommendation eventually led to the creation of the Fall Prevention Center of Excellence (FPCE)

Genomic and functional characterization of a mucosal symbiont involved in early-stage colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer is a major health concern worldwide. Growing evidence for the role of the gut microbiota in the initiation of CRC has sparked interest in approaches that target these microorganisms. However, little is known about the composition and role of the microbiota associated with precancerous polyps. Here, we found distinct microbial signatures between patients with and without polyps and between polyp subtypes using sequencing and culturing techniques. We found a correlation between Bacteroides fragilis recovered and the level of inflammatory cytokines in the mucosa adjacent to the polyp. Additional analysis revealed that B. fragilis from patients with polyps are bft-negative, activate NF-κB through Toll-like receptor 4, induce a pro-inflammatory response, and are enriched in genes associated with LPS biosynthesis. This study provides fundamental insight into the microbial microenvironment of the pre-neoplastic polyp by highlighting strain-specific genomic and proteomic differences, as well as more broad compositional differences in the microbiome

Institutional Trust and Subjective Well-Being across the EU

This paper analyzes the impact of institutions upon happiness through their intermediary impact upon individual trust. The empirical work is based on Eurobarometer data covering the 15 countries of the EU prior to its expansion in 2004. With respect to trust, we present evidence that, although it is endogenous with respect to the performance of the institution, changes in the individual's personal circumstances can also have an impact, indicating that trust is not simply learned at an early age. Hence unemployed people tend to have lower levels of trust not only in the main economic institutions - government and the Central Bank - but in other state institutions too such as the police and the law. Trust also differs in a systematic manner with respect to education and household income, increases (decreases) in either increase (decrease) trust in most institutions. If we assume that more educated people make better judgments, this suggests that on average people tend to have too little trust in institutions. However, it is also possible that both of these variables impact on the interaction between institutions such as the police and other government agencies and the citizen, with prosperous, well educated people being at an advantage and possibly able to command more respect. Age too impacts on institutional trust. For the UN, the unions, big business, voluntary organizations and the EU, trust first declines and then increases with the estimated turning points ranging between 44 and 56 years. For most other organizations trust significantly increases with age. Turning to subjective well-being, we find the standard set of socio-economic variables to be significant. But the focus here is on the impact of institutional trust. We find that trust (mistrust) in the European Central Bank, the EU, national government, the law and the UN all impact positively (negatively) on well-being. Hence overall our results support the conclusion that happiness does not solely lie within the realm of the individual, but that institutional performance also has a direct impact upon subjective well-being. Copyright 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd..

Integrating psychological contracts and ecosystems in career studies and management

Psychological contracts, an individual’s system of beliefs regarding exchange arrangements, are key components in the construction and development of individual careers and the career systems of organizations and societies. In explicating careers and their management, multiple stakeholders are increasingly relevant to worker psychological contracts as individuals shoulder greater responsibility for their own careers and seek resources and ties with diverse career agents. The roles played by stakeholders who serve as career agents vary as a function of the larger career ecosystem in which the individual is embedded. We offer an ecosystems perspective as a bridge for understanding the intersection between psychological contracts, careers and the multiple stakeholders of each