Why the UK Needs a Social Policy on Ageing

This article makes the case for a radical new strategy on ageing which focuses on the whole life course with the intention of preventing many of the chronic conditions associated with old age. The case is built on recent research evidence and the life-course concept of ‘active ageing’ is used to encapsulate the practical measures required. Combining biological and social science insights it is argued that, while ageing is inevitable, it is also plastic. This means that it not only manifests itself in different ways but also that it can be modified by mitigating the various risk factors that drive it. Such action would have considerable potential to reduce the personal costs of chronic conditions such as strokes and those falling on family carers but, also, to cut the associated health and social care expenditures. The question of why such apparently beneficial policy action is not being taken is discussed and a range of barriers are identified. One of these appears to be the UK's extreme brand of neo-liberalism, which militates against the collective approach necessary to implement a social policy for active ageing. Although the case is made with primary reference to UK policy and practice, the call for action to prevent chronic conditions has global relevance

“Full-time wife” and the change of gender order in the Chinese City

Work and family are the most critical of the contested terrains that determine the status of women in the gender order, the differing pattern of inequality between men and women. “Full-time wife” is a relatively new label in China, emerging only in the late twentieth century. It corresponds to the term “housewife” used in the 1950s and 1960s. Based on 59 in-depth interviews carried out between 2006 and 2007 in Guangzhou City, this article focuses on “full-time wives” and the dilemma they face in the conflict between family and work, an issue that is essential to an understanding of changing gender relations in China. The paper argues that a combination of the traditional Chinese gender order, improving wages of the family under the “socialist” market economy, and the rolling back of state protection was a key reason for the emergence of the full-time wife phenomenon. The analysis of the position of the full-time wife demonstrates how rolling back state protection affected women and specifically how it undermined the admittedly inconsistent advances in gender equality made in the previous era. For example, women now experience many new kinds of subordination, both in the labor market and the family. China’s market economy requires social policies that aim to improve the work-family balance in order to prevent or mitigate the further development of the market-constructed gender order

Effects of the variability of the nucleus of NGC 1275 on X-ray observations of the surrounding intracluster medium

The active galaxy NGC 1275 lies at the centre of the Perseus cluster of galaxies, which is the X-ray brightest cluster in the Sky. The nucleus shows large variability over the past few decades. We compile a light curve of its X-ray emission covering about 40 years and show that the bright phase around 1980 explains why the inner X-ray bubbles were not seen in the images taken with the Einstein Observatory. The flux had dropped considerably by 1992 when images with the ROSAT HRI led to their discovery. The nucleus is showing a slow X-ray rise since the first Chandra images in 2000. If it brightens back to the pre-1990 level, then X-ray absorption spectroscopy by ASTRO-H can reveal the velocity structure of the shocked gas surrounding the inner bubbles

Coping responses as predictors of psychosocial functioning amongst individuals suffering from chronic pain

Background: Research on coping with chronic pain has focused on exploring the impact of different coping responses on various aspects of living with chronic pain. The aim of this study is to determine whether certain coping responses can be identified as predictors of the level of pain intensity reported by the chronic pain patient, as well as predictors of these individuals’ psychosocial functioning.Methods: One hundred and seventy-two individuals suffering from chronic pain completed both the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory and the Coping Responses Inventory – Adult Form. The prevalence of the use of Avoidance and Approach Coping, and the relationship between these responses and psychosocial functioning (Pain Severity, Interference, Support, Life Control, and Affective Distress) were explored. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed in order to determine the amount of variance explained by the specific predictor variables.Results: The findings of this research suggest that coping responses do impact upon the psychosocial functioning of individuals with chronic pain, and more specifically, on the level of interference, severity of pain, perceived amount of control over life and the amount of emotional distress experienced by these patients.Conclusion: The outcomes of this study appear to contradict the general consensus in literature that regards Approach Coping responses as being associated with decreased pain severity and improved psychosocial functioning. The manner in which specific components of each type of coping response relates to specific aspects of psychosocial functioning wasinvestigated; an aspect that was found to be lacking in most research regarding coping and chronic pain.Keywords: chronic pain; psychosocial functioning; pain severity; affective distress; avoidance coping; approach copin

Combined prednisolone and intravenous immunoglobulin treatment for acquired factor VIII inhibitors: a 2-year review

Acquired inhibitors to factor VIII (FVIII) are rare, but life- threatening in up to 22% of cases. The optimal therapy for suppression of these inhibitors remains unclear. Prednisolone is the mainstay of therapy, producing responses in approximately 30% of cases. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) has a similar response rate, but a more rapid effect. We report the results of prednisolone 1 mg kg(-1) combined with IVIg 2 g kg(-1) in divided doses as first-line therapy in seven consecutive patients with acquired FVIII inhibitors. All patients were bleeding at the time of diagnosis with prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time. There were four complete responses, one partial response, one nonresponse and one with an inadequate follow-up for assessment of response, giving an overall response rate of 71%. In all complete responders the inhibitor declined rapidly and was undetectable by day 21 from start of treatment. Therapy was well tolerated and responses have been maintained off treatment for 2-8 months. This is a safe, well-tolerated rapidly acting regimen with good response rates

Pensions and social inclusion in an ageing China

The inclusive development strategy proposed by the Chinese government embraces social inclusion for older people. In line with most developing countries, China's policy on social inclusion for older people focuses almost exclusively on material security in the form of pensions. This paper examines the impact of pensions on social inclusion for older people across four dimensions: family interaction, social support, social participation and self-assessment using data from the 2014 China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey. The results demonstrate that pensions improve dramatically the relationships between older adults and their family members and friends, and therefore their social inclusion in the life world. The exception is social participation which seems to be immune to material income effects. However, the stratified pension system in China generates complex and hierarchical effects on social inclusion among different sub-groups. Social inclusion among older people with high exclusion risks but low pensions is very sensitive to pension levels. Conversely, most pensions are distributed to those with the lowest exclusion risks as a result of the disappearance of their impact on social inclusion. We argue that future social inclusion policies for older people in China should focus first on achieving greater equality in pensions

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Brane Cosmologies

We examine constraints from Big Bang nucleosynthesis on type II Randall-Sundrum brane cosmologies with both a dark radiation component and a quadratic term that depends on the 5-dimensional Planck mass, M_5. Using limits on the abundances of deuterium and helium-4, we calculate the allowed region in the M_5-dark radiation plane and derive the precise BBN bound on M_5 alone with no dark radiation: M_5 > 13 TeV.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, references added, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Building Capacity in the Zambian Mental Health Workforce through Engaging College Educators: Evaluation of a Development Partnership in Higher Education (DelPHe) project

yesBetween 2008 and 2011 academic teaching staff from Leeds Beckett University (UK) and Chainama Hills College of Health Sciences (Zambia) worked together on a Development Partnership in Higher Education (DelPHe) project funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) via the British Council. The partnership focused on “up-scaling” the provision of mental health education which was intended to build capacity through the delivery of a range of workshops for health educators at Chainama College, Lusaka. The project was evaluated on completion using small focus group discussions (FGDs), so educators could feedback on their experience of the workshops and discuss the impact of learning into their teaching practice. This chapter discusses the challenges of scaling up the mental health workforce in Zambia; the rationale for the content and delivery style of workshops with the health educators and finally presents and critically discusses the evaluation findings.Department for International Development (DFID) via the British Counci