Convergent and predictive validity of three scales related to falls in the elderly.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale, Falls Efficacy Scale (FES), and Survey of Activities and Fear of Falling in the Elderly (SAFE) assessments measured fear of falling in the same manner (convergent validity) and to determine if they predicted those individuals who, based upon a previous history of falls, limitation of activity, and not leaving home, had an increased potential for falling (predictive validity). One hundred and eighteen individuals, 60 years of age and older, completed each of the assessments. They self-reported activity restriction, fall history, and the number of times they left the home each week.

Collapse of the California Current during glacial maxima linked to climate change on land.

Time series of alkenone unsaturation indices gathered along the California margin reveal large (4 degrees to 8 degrees C) glacial-interglacial changes in sea surface temperature (SST) over the past 550,000 years. Interglacial times with SSTs equal to or exceeding that of the Holocene contain peak abundances in the pollen of redwood, the distinctive component of the temperate rainforest of the northwest coast of California. In the region now dominated by the California Current, SSTs warmed 10,000 to 15,000 years in advance of deglaciation at each of the past five glacial maxima.