Harvard Gazette: Smart trackers may predict health risks in older adults. “Wearable devices that measure daily patterns of circadian rest-activity rhythms may be able to predict frailty-related health risks more than six years before an incidence occurs, according to a new study out of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital.”
Cornell University: Clearinghouse highlights aging, climate as interlinked risks. “[Professor Karl] Pillemer and colleagues have launched the Aging and Climate Change Clearinghouse, an initiative to gather, promote and stimulate research, real-world interventions and policies addressing the intersection of aging and climate change. Funded by CHE, the clearinghouse also aims to encourage older adults and environmental organizations to work together toward solutions.”
McKnights Senior Living: First national directory of university-associated retirement communities launches. “The website provides a comprehensive list of the university retirement communities, or URCs, in the country, with information on the history, services and costs of those communities. Carle said the goal of the site is to provide a one-stop directory and information resource for consumers, a membership resource site for academic institutions and senior living providers, and a certification program.”
University of York: Digital puzzle games could be good for memory in older adults, study shows . “Older adults who play digital puzzle games have the same memory abilities as people in their 20s, a new study has shown. The study, from the University of York, also found that adults aged 60 and over who play digital puzzle games had a greater ability to ignore irrelevant distractions, but older adults who played strategy games did not show the same improvements in memory or concentration.”
Georgia Tech: Researchers Highlight Ethical Issues for Developing Future AI Assistants. “Next-generation smart assistants aren’t on the market yet, but the research necessary to create them is underway now. This includes efforts to develop smart assistants that are proactive —that is, the system could anticipate the user’s wants and needs, and even assist and mediate social interactions between users and their support networks. But with the design of systems that seek to enhance the abilities of older adults as they experience cognitive decline, a broad range of ethical issues arises.”
Smashing Magazine: Designing Age-Inclusive Products: Guidelines And Best Practices. “With an estimated one in every eight individuals worldwide surpassing the age of 60, who are actively adopting online shopping, the need for user-friendly interfaces tailored to their needs becomes apparent. Explore the guidelines to help you design inclusive products for all, particularly for an older audience and your future self.”
Harvard Gazette: Using AI to target Alzheimer’s. “Although investigators have made strides in detecting signs of Alzheimer’s disease using high-quality brain imaging tests collected as part of research studies, a team at Massachusetts General Hospital recently developed an accurate method that relies on routinely collected clinical brain images. The advance could lead to more accurate diagnoses.”
University of Waterloo: DREAM resources support the health and wellness of persons living with dementia. “The [Dementia Resources for Eating, Activity, and Meaningful inclusion] project has developed a new series of learning modules and resources with an aim to improve how community service providers support and include persons living with dementia in their wellness programs and services, especially those related to physical activity and healthy eating.”
EurekAlert: Online forums help those with dementia find missing support and companionship. “Online forums for people with dementia provide a much-needed sense of community and hope and fill an important gap in the support they receive after diagnosis, a new study has found. The researchers suggest that clinicians, support workers and organisations could recommend online support forums to people with dementia, in addition to providing their regular in-person care.”
Western University News: AI tech exaggerates biases in facial age perception more than humans. “Researchers from Western University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel) tested a large sample of the prominent major AI technologies available today and found not only did they reproduce human biases in the recognition of facial age, but they exaggerated those biases.”
Gizmodo: Disney Made a Movie Quality AI Tool That Automatically Makes Actors Look Younger (or Older). “Further demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence when it comes to photorealistically altering footage, researchers from Disney have revealed a new aging/de-aging tool that can make an actor look convincingly older or younger, without the need for weeks of complex and expensive visual effects work.”
Brandeis NOW: The age of invention: patents show differences between younger and older inventors. “The study… examined more than 3 million U.S. patents filed from 1976 to 2000 to identify certain attributes, and then analyzed them based on the age of the filers. The research found older inventors are more likely to rely on their knowledge and experience, and build on novel applications of past inventions – what psychologists call crystallized intelligence – to develop a patent. Younger inventors are more likely to submit patents that are forward-looking and rely on abstract reasoning and novel problem-solving – all traits of fluid intelligence.”
Government of Pennsylvania: PA Council On The Arts Unveils Free, Innovative Digital Platform For Teaching Artists And Older Adults. “Today, Karl Blischke, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA), announced the launch of the Academy for Creative Aging, a free, digital platform that offers a certificate of completion for teaching artists and on-demand video lessons for older adults.” I tried accessing a couple of the on-demand lessons and they worked fine, so I don’t think this is restricted to Pennsylvania.
University of Michigan: New online tool can calculate your neighborhood’s ‘cognability’. “A new tool, an interactive map developed by University of Michigan researchers, allows you to plug in your address and assess how your neighborhood could support healthy cognitive aging under a theory U-M scientist Jessica Finlay and colleagues developed, called ‘cognability.’” I couldn’t get this to work with an address search, but it worked great when I searched by zip code.
PR Newswire: CDC Foundation and National Council on Aging Launch New Online Tool to Help Older Adults Prevent Falls and Fall Injuries (PRESS RELEASE). “Each year, 1 in 10 older adults will experience a fall that results in injury, such as a broken bone or head injury, according to CDC. Fall prevention is very important because these injuries can be life-altering and difficult to recover from. The Falls Free CheckUp asks 13 simple questions and only takes a few minutes to complete. It can be completed by either the individual or by a family member on their behalf.”
The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.
Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.