Environment change, economy change and reducing conflict at source

At a time when fossil fuel burning, nationalism, ethnic and religious intolerance, and other retrograde steps are being promoted, the prospects for world peace and environmental systems stability may appear dim. Yet now is it the more important to continue to examine the sources of conflict. A major obstacle to general progress is the currently dominant economic practice and theory, which is here called the economy-as-usual, or economics-as-usual, as appropriate. A special obstacle to constructive change is the language in which economic matters are usually discussed. This language is narrow, conservative, technical and often obscure. The rapid changes in the environment (physical and living) are largely kept in a separate compartment. If, however, the partition is removed, economics -as-usual, with its dependence on growth and its widening inequality, is seen to be unsustainable. Radical economic change, for better or worse, is to be expected. Such change is here called economy change. The change could be for the better if it involved an expansion of the concept of economics itself, along the lines of oikonomia, a modern revival of a classical Greek term for management or household. In such an expanded view, not everything of economic value can be measured. It is argued that economics-as-usual is the source of much strife. Some features are indicated of a less conflictual economy - more just, cooperative and peaceful. These features include a dignified life available to all people as of right, the word 'wealth' being reconnected with weal, well and well-being, and 'work' being understood as including all useful activity

Falls Assessment Clinical Trial (FACT): design, interventions, recruitment strategies and participant characteristics

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Guidelines recommend multifactorial intervention programmes to prevent falls in older adults but there are few randomised controlled trials in a real life health care setting. We describe the rationale, intervention, study design, recruitment strategies and baseline characteristics of participants in a randomised controlled trial of a multifactorial falls prevention programme in primary health care.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants are patients from 19 primary care practices in Hutt Valley, New Zealand aged 75 years and over who have fallen in the past year and live independently. Two recruitment strategies were used – waiting room screening and practice mail-out. Intervention participants receive a community based nurse assessment of falls and fracture risk factors, home hazards, referral to appropriate community interventions, and strength and balance exercise programme. Control participants receive usual care and social visits. Outcome measures include number of falls and injuries over 12 months, balance, strength, falls efficacy, activities of daily living, quality of life, and physical activity levels.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>312 participants were recruited (69% women). Of those who had fallen, 58% of people screened in the practice waiting rooms and 40% when screened by practice letter were willing to participate. Characteristics of participants recruited using the two methods are similar (p > 0.05). Mean age of all participants was 81 years (SD 5). On average participants have 7 medical conditions, take 5.5 medications (29% on psychotropics) with a median of 2 falls (interquartile range 1, 3) in the previous year.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The two recruitment strategies and the community based intervention delivery were feasible and successful, identifying a high risk group with multiple falls. Recruitment in the waiting room gave higher response rates but was less efficient than practice mail-out. Testing the effectiveness of an evidence based intervention in a 'real life' setting is important.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Australian Clinical Trials Register ID 12605000054617.</p

Oscillatory and ion-correlation forces observed in direct force measurements between silica surfaces in concentrated CaCl2 solutions

The force between silica spheres and naturally oxidised silicon wafer has been measured in calcium chloride solutions at concentrations between 1 and 5 M using an atomic force microscope. An oscillatory force, consistent in periodicity with the expulsion of layers of ions, was found to overlay the expected van der Waals force. The extent and magnitude of the oscillations increased markedly with electrolyte concentration. Measured pull-off forces point to the oscillatory force minima being much larger in magnitude than the maxima, and appears to confirm the existence of ion correlation forces, possibly resulting from shared hydration waters forming an attractive network. Forces were also measured in 1 M NaCl solution. A monotonic repulsion was observed at short-range, in contrast with the 'hard-wall' of Ca2+ ions observed in 1 M CaCl2 before expulsion at a force of 3 mN m(-1). These observations suggest that calcium ions are attracted to the surface strongly enough to disrupt the hydration of the surface and/or the ions, whereas sodium ions are not. The results demonstrate a simple methodology for the direct investigation of ion-specific surface forces at high salt concentrations

Investigating the adsorption of the gemini surfactant "12-2-12" onto mica using atomic force microscopy and surface force apparatus measurements

The adsorption of the cationic gemini surfactant 1,2-bis(n-dodecyldimethylammonium)ethane dibromide on mica was followed by measuring forces between mica surfaces and by atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging. The surface charge was found to be neutralized at total surfactant concentrations between 8 x 10(-7) and 5 x 10(-6) M, depending on equilibration time, as judged by the elimination of the repulsive electrostatic double-layer force. At around this concentration, monolayer aggregates of the surfactant started to form on the surface, varying in size between 8 and 130 nm across and between 0.5 and 0.6 nm high. The coverage rapidly increased with a small increase in surfactant concentration, as seen by AFM images. In the concentration range (5 x 10(-6))-(1 x 10(-4)) M the surfactant continued to adsorb steadily as judged by the increase in the double-layer repulsion between surfaces. The hydrophobicity of the surfaces was confirmed by the magnitude of the force required to separate the surfaces, which increased from 20 mN/m in pure water to 120 mN/m at 4.6 x 10(-6) M, up to 210 mN/m at 9.0 x 10(-6) M; it then stayed virtually constant. AFM imaging showed that, in this range, a significant amount of the surfactant adsorbed on top of the monolayer, although neither technique suggested that the adsorbing material aggregated into bilayer patches. At 1.8 x 10(-4) M, a full bilayer formed on each surface, causing an increase in the compressed layer thickness from I to 4 nm, and a reduction in pull-off force to 5-10 mN/m. In this concentration range, the nucleation and growth of the complete bilayer was directly observed with AFM. It appeared to occur as isotactic growth of patches, which were initially around 70 nn in size and evenly distributed. These patches grew and joined together to form a flat bilayer over a time scale of around 2 h. Between 1.8 x 10(-4) and 7.6 x 10(-4) M, a non-DLVO (Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek) force was observed between 12 and 7 nm, followed by an attractive force which pulled the surfaces into bilayer-bilayer contact. The extra repulsive force, which has not been observed previously with cationic surfactant bilayers, was probably due to additional surfactant adsorbed outside the bilayer. AFM imaging confirmed that an extra layer was present above the critical micellar concentration (cmc), as indicated by a significant increase in surface roughness from 0.5 nm to 7-8 nm