The Calhoun Times reports that the Georgia chapter of the Alzheimer's Association is offering Theatre Thursdays, a virtual theatre program for people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), across the state. The free, six-week course aims to provide entertaining and therapeutic social engagement for persons with early-stage dementia or MCI and their care partners. Atlanta-based professional actor Denise Arribas will apply improvisational, theatre, and storytelling techniques to educate and engage participants socially. The pandemic necessitates that this course be presented virtually. "Since my mom got diagnosed eight years ago, I've been passionate about figuring out ways to engage with those living with Alzheimer's, and it is a dream of mine to be able to share my love for theatre as a way to engage," Arribas said. "It is my hope that this program will help everyone feel more connected and less isolated." Mary Caldwell with the Alzheimer's Association, Georgia Chapter added that her organization understands "that those living with dementia and their care partners are facing unprecedented isolation this winter due to COVID-19 concerns. With that in mind, we are introducing Theatre Thursdays with Denise to foster connection, warmth, and a new way to have fun together."

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google and other companies are using the Champions Place facility in Georgia for people with physical disabilities as a user-research center for incubating accessible products. Google said it has supplied the facility with hardware that provides residents with voice control over their environments, such as the Nest Hub Max, which users can command to operate items like blinds and doors. The company also has provided Liftware eating utensils for people with tremors and limited hand and arm movements, developed by Google parent Alphabet's Verily life-sciences division. Google also is providing certain residents with smart jackets that let wearers control smartphone applications by brushing a sensor woven into the cuff. Some facility residents are testing Project Euphonia, an effort to train voice-recognition technology to understand people with impaired speech.

Integral Senior Living's (ISL) Canyon Trails Assisted Living and Memory Care in Canoga Park, Calif., is the first senior living community in the state to set up state-of-the-art sanitization technology, reports lighting solutions provider Healthe Inc . The community has installed a Healthe ENTRY gate, which uses far-ultraviolet C (UVC) 222-nanometer light to sterilize clothing and personal belongings. The solution is a free-standing, walk-through arch sanitizer that employs UVC light to remove up to 90 percent of the viral load on items in 20 seconds. "Healthe's innovative products utilize scientifically proven methods to inactivate pathogens, and provide additional layers of sanitization beyond the significant protective measures we already have in place," said ISL CEO Collette Gray. "Our hope with installing this leading-edge protective technology is not only to provide a cleaner and safer environment, but also to give our residents, associates, and eventually guests comfort and peace of mind." Far-UVC technology's safety and effectiveness against airborne pathogens, including coronaviruses, was demonstrated in a study in Scientific Reports . "As COVID-19 continues to negatively impact Americans, especially in hard-hit places like California, it is important that all sectors have access to the latest cutting-edge sanitization solutions," said Healthe Chief Commercial Officer Troy Temple. "At Healthe, we are helping to meet this great healthcare challenge, with a thoughtful, layered protection approach."

A study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences suggests foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas may help shield aging brain cells from Alzheimer's disease, reports ScienceDaily . Sulfhydration levels in the brain have been found to decline with age, a process exacerbated in persons with Alzheimer's disease. Johns Hopkins Medicine investigators studied mice genetically engineered to emulate human Alzheimer's disease, which they injected with a hydrogen sulfide-carrying compound called NaGYY, The compound gradually releases the passenger hydrogen sulfide molecules as it passes through the body. Over 12 weeks, the mice's cognitive and motor function improved by 50 percent compared with counterparts that were not administered NaGYY injections. Mice that got NaGYY also could recall the locations of platform exits better and appeared more physically active than the untreated specimens. Healthy levels of hydrogen sulfide were found to induce a change in the enzyme glycogen synthase ß (GSK3ß); the gas's absence caused GSK3ß to be excessively drawn to tau protein, which forms clumps in the brain that lead to cognitive deterioration characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. "Understanding the cascade of events is important to designing therapies that can block this interaction like hydrogen sulfide is able to do," said John Hopkins Medicine's Daniel Giovinazzo.

KGW reports that some seniors in Oregon are irate with Gov. Kate Brown's decision to prioritize teachers ahead of them for COVID-19 vaccinations. She explained in announcing the move that "these are really . . . tough decisions and the harsh reality is we do not have enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone at once." Senior Oregonians like Trish Smith are aware that this policy diverges from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel's recommendation to immunize older Americans first. "The recommendations . . . are that seniors should have priority either at 70 or 75 because we are the ones who die," she notes. Oregon Education Association President John Larson said, "all things being equal, if teachers weren't being put into that situation — if they could continue with comprehensive distance learning — then you probably should prioritize seniors." He feels Brown is forcing educators back into the classroom by giving local school districts authority over when to reopen. "They need some modicum of safety in order to feel they can go back and do their jobs without fear," Larson argued.

Californians 65 and older can start receiving COVID-19 vaccines immediately with the state's decision to widely expand its coronavirus immunization program partly to contain a surge in cases, reports the San Francisco Chronicle . The announcement follows federal guidance released Tuesday recommending that states issue shots to a broad spectrum of older adults, who are most vulnerable to getting sick, requiring hospitalization and intensive care, and dying. Although some Bay Area counties are making vaccines available right away, other counties and healthcare providers said they are unable to implement the new guidance without additional doses. Public health officials said inoculating the older population will not immediately affect the surge, but it could help alleviate some of the stress on healthcare services within several weeks. "The way that we're going to impact the surge is by prioritizing the older age groups," said California Department of Public Health Director Tomás Aragón. Robert Wachter with the University of California, San Francisco Department of Medicine said the new policy is sensible, as previous plans to offer the next round of doses to more narrowly defined groups based on exposure risk and serious illness were excessively complicated. He added that California must now contend with "a very, very large group of eligible people who are going to be clamoring for their vaccines."

A study in Neurology found a rare brain disease that causes erosion of language skills does not affect memory, reports HealthDay News . The researchers determined that about 40 percent of people who have primary progressive aphasia also have underlying Alzheimer's disease. They evaluated 17 people with primary progressive aphasia associated with Alzheimer's disease and 14 people with typical Alzheimer's and memory loss. Participants with aphasia showed no decline in memory skills across the course of study, although they had significant language-skill declines. Meanwhile, those with typical Alzheimer's had equally severe deterioration in verbal memory and language skills. Brain autopsies from eight of the aphasia patients and all of the Alzheimer's disease patients uncovered similar volumes of Alzheimer's-related plaques and tangles in both cohorts. "More research is needed to help us determine what factors allow people with primary progressive aphasia to show this resilience of memory skills even in the face of considerable Alzheimer's disease pathology in the brain," explained M. Marsel Mesulam at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

A U.S. News & World Report study found the occupation of physician assistant to be the best current job in the United States, with 39,300 projected positions and a median salary of $112,260, according to Becker's Hospital Review . Additional medical specialties ranked in the top 10 jobs for 2021 were nurse practitioner, medical and health services manager, physician, and speech-language pathologist. The findings were based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on jobs with the greatest projected hiring demand from 2019 to 2029. Other criteria factored into the rankings included opportunities for promotion, stress levels, and work-life balance.

A study in Nature Neuroscience has for the first time specified the neurons in the brain most susceptible to Alzheimer's disease, reports Courthouse News Service . "Some cells end up with high levels of tau tangles well into the progression of the disease, but for some reason don't die," said University of California, San Francisco (UCSD) Professor Lea Grinberg. "It has become a pressing question for us to understand the specific factors that make some cells selectively vulnerable to Alzheimer's pathology, while other cells appear able to resist it for years, if not decades." The investigators identified the culprit neurons by analyzing the tissue of 10 donor brains from deceased individuals at different stages of the disease. These samples were subjected to complex single-nucleus RNA sequencing, which uncovered two groups of neurons that appeared to be early targets of Alzheimer's. The first group is in the entorhinal cortex, which governs memory, navigation, and perception of time, while the second is based within the superior frontal gyrus, associated with self-awareness. These two groups were linked by the production of the protein RORB, and further study confirmed that these neurons are not only highly vulnerable, but also attract more tau tangles than other groups. "Our discovery of a molecular identifier for these selectively vulnerable cells gives us the opportunity to study in detail exactly why they succumb to tau pathology, and what could be done to make them more resilient," said UCSD's Kun Leng.

Parks Associates reports that during the pandemic, 55 percent of seniors have had an online video service subscription like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu, while 29 percent of U.S. seniors 65 and older have used videoconferencing, 27 percent have used telehealth/remote consultation, and 22 percent have used a grocery store delivery or pick-up service. As reported in Media Play News , "the shift toward tech service solutions is very pronounced among seniors as a result of COVID-19," said Parks analyst Kristen Hanich. She noted more than fourfold growth in telehealth services among seniors compared to last year. "Companies deploying connected solutions need a comprehensive strategy that crosses multiple industries, including healthcare, automation, and security, to ensure they maximize the value proposition for their solution," Hanich declared.