A large amount of beta amyloid, or “plaques,” in the brain may trigger more significant memory loss in healthy older people than the genetic risk factor associated with Alzheimer’s disease, known as the APOE ɛ4 allele, according to new research from Australia.

“Our finding that brain-plaque-related memory decline can occur while people still have normal memory and thinking shows that these plaque-related brain changes can be detected and measured while older people are still healthy,” said study author Yen Ying Lim, of the University of Melbourne. “This provides an enormous opportunity for understanding the development of early Alzheimer’s disease and even a sound basis for the assessment of plaque-targeting therapies.”

While careful to point out that this does not indicate a cause-and-effect relationship, this association could lead to a greater understanding of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as potential treatments. Click here to see the full article.

It takes careful planning to manage your digital estate after your death. AARP has the following tips:

•  Take inventory of how much information you have on your computer and online. Write down a list of sites on which you have an account.
• Make a list of user names and passwords for your computer as well as for any websites or Web services where you store information or files.
• Store these lists in a safe off-site place — don’t keep them near your computer. Make sure they are stored someplace that your lawyer and heirs will be able to access. Remember to update this list when you change your passwords or add new websites.
• Be sure to keep a local copy of any important documents or pictures that you keep in online storage places like iCloud, Flickr, Shutterfly, Dropbox or Google Drive.
• Think about how you want your heirs to handle your digital estate. Would you like your Facebook friends to be able to see and post on your page after your death, or would you feel more comfortable if your profile is removed?
• Once you have reviewed your digital information and made decisions on what you would like to do, write out a list of instructions. Talk to your lawyer about including these instructions with your will and other estate documents.

Speak with your family, lawyer, or estate planner for more information.

• Descriptive prompts are words that are used to describe specific activities of interest that are available to the residents, based on one’s personal preference. For example “Come join us as we play a game like Crossword Puzzles”. By doing this you are allowing the resident to make associations of things that are or were once of interest to them, therefore enticing one to attend and become engaged.
• Modifying communication styles helps understanding, stimulation, and interest. Be sure to communicate clearly while explaining things in short, comprehensible phrases or statements. Words can often become overwhelming.
• Skill-appropriate atmospheres should match one’s cognitive capabilities and not hinder them by focusing on programs that are not too challenging or too easy for one’s comprehension level.
• Keeping things simple helps maintaining a sense of familiarity. For example, using common household supplies or props engages one’s long term memory.
• Multisensory programs capture interest and initiate reminiscing through long term memory. For example, if you are having a program about “Beaches of the World”, try passing around a bottle of sun tan lotion for your residents to smell before engaging in a conversation. You may also want to allow the residents to place their hands in sand and then rinse them in a bucket of warm water.

Osborn’s versatile digital-signage system offers many ways to incorporate these ideas into your daily slideshow. 

Osborn’s Digital Signage makes use of photography and images to communicate with your viewers. Imagery of activities (photographs of board games for a game night, guitars or record players for a music night, and so on) can help prepare your residents for the upcoming event. We can even incorporate sound or video to help communicate with your residents through non-verbal means.

We’re pleased to report that Honan’s story has a happy ending- with help from a data-recovery service, he was able to save some of the content from his computer-

My data came back to me on an external hard drive, organized by file types. The thing I cared most about, above all else, was my photo library. And there, in a folder full of JPGs, was photo after photo after photo that I had feared were gone forever. Subfolders were organized by the year, month and day files were created. I went immediately to the folder that bore the date my daughter was born. They were there. Everything was there. We were floored. I nearly cried.

Even in the case of a hack as advanced as Mat Honan’s, there are still ways to recover lost data. Data-recovery services, such as DriveSavers and Kroll Ontrack, can salvage some data from hard-drives, even after they’ve been erased. But be warned:

 

The bill for all this? $1,690. Data doesn’t come cheap.

 

Prevention is more important than ever- don’t wait! Take the following steps to keep your data safe:

• Use a complex password, with some capital letters and symbols. Update your passwords regularly, and don’t use the same password for multiple services.
• Enable two-step authorization, if possible. This can prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to your personal information, even if they somehow get your password.
• Back-up your personal data regularly on an external harddrive. There are many programs that will automatically back-up your computer- try Backup and Restore on Windows, or Time Machine if you use a Mac.

Online security is a pressing matter, with more exploits and leaks being revealed almost-daily. There is still much to be done, but taking these steps will go a long way towards protecting yourself.

Seniors are a growing demographic, with more than half of U.S. adults 65 and older online, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
For many elderly citizens, particularly those who live alone and far from their families, social networking sites offer new opportunities to stay in touch, share photos, make new friends or reconnect with old ones.
[...]Josh Soule, the senior librarian at the Spuyten Duyvil Library, explained what Facebook is, how to start an account and deal with notifications, newsfeeds, timelines and privacy issues.

The hands-on classes are popular and attract seniors of all ages. His oldest student was a 97-year-old woman.

“They are more tech savvy than they think they are,” said Soule after teaching a class of five seniors – two men and three women. “They tend to be unsure of themselves, I find, and they need reinforcement and some tips about how to use it better.”

To read the complete article, visit the Huffington Post.

In the hope of preventing you from experiencing a similar fate, we’ve listed a number of steps you can take to protect your data and your identity online. While nothing is foolproof — if hackers install a keystroke logging Trojan horse on your computer, all bets are off — these steps will help protect you from the tactics that Honan’s hackers used, and other ones out there.

Apple on Tuesday ordered its support staff to immediately stop processing AppleID password changes requested over the phone, following the identity hacking of Wired reporter Mat Honan over the weekend, according to Apple employees.

An Apple worker with knowledge of the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Wired that the over-the-phone password freeze would last at least 24 hours. The employee speculated that the freeze was put in place to give Apple more time to determine what security policies needed to be changed, if any.

The change follows similar security tightening at Amazon, which on Tuesday closed a hole in its customer service systems that gave people the ability to gain control of a customer’s Amazon account as long as the hacker knew the name, e-mail address and mailing address of the victim.

This is a major step in the right direction- as mentioned yesterday, hackers were able to gain control of tech-writer Mat Honan’s computers and phone through information garnered from Amazon and Apple’s customer service representatives.

While this is a major improvement, it is still more important than ever to protect yourself online. If possible, enable two-step verification on your email accounts. To quote Mat Honan:

In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were daisy-chained together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter. Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, it’s possible that none of this would have happened[.]

In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.

With more and more personal information hosted online, hacking is becoming a more serious problem. Many people keep personal, medical, and financial information linked to accounts that are frighteningly insecure.

Using a good password is a good start, but many use the same password for multiple services, leaving themselves open to security vulnerabilities. It is becoming apparent that a password is simply not secure enough.

You can help improve security on your accounts using two-step verification. Two-step verification uses your phone to supply 6-digit codes when logging into a new computer.

This takes just a few minutes to set up on your Gmail account. To learn more, they have provided the following video to help you protect your information.

Remember to change your passwords regularly, and back up important information on an external hard drive. It could make all the difference between a minor security breach and a catastrophic one.

• The Ability to Age in Place Assisted living regulations often prevented residents from aging in place. When residents were moved to a nursing home or other setting, relationships with that resident did not continue. Aging in place positively affects relationship building by increasing continuity.
• Effective Programming Structured daily activities allowed a chance for residents to get to know each other. Promoting activity attendance, encouraging interaction during activities, and offering a variety of activities that appeal to specific resident interests helps foster social engagement.
• Thoughtful Table Assignments Mealtimes were extremely important in all communities studied. Researchers emphasized that table assignments should be created based on resident personalities and preferences and should be reviewed for suitability on a regular basis.
• Community Design Conveniently located common areas with comfortable seating and outdoor access promoted social interaction. Having common areas in highly trafficked parts of the community, such as near the dining room, encouraged residents to socialize.
• Staff Involvement Staff involvement helped facilitate familiarity between residents in many cases. Introducing new residents at community-wide meetings, pairing new residents with socially engaged residents who can help them get acquainted, and featuring a resident of the month and resident birthdays in the community newsletter can help engage residents socially.

Digital signage can go a long way towards improving these factors in your community. Using digital signage adds emphasis to your common area, a gathering place where your residents can meet and socialize. A comprehensive program raises awareness of your daily activities and special events, increasing interest and attendance.

Perhaps most importantly, digital signage can be used to emphasize the human element of your community. It can be a platform to introduce new staff or residents, to announce birthdays or anniversaries, to show photographs of past outings and events. These special touches go a long way to create a sense of companionship and community with your residents and staff.

You can read the study’s abstract, or purchase the full study, from The Journals of Gerontology.

The London 2012 site and NBC’s Olympic coverage feature a schedule of events, continuously-updated medal counts, and steaming video.

Additional updates and articles can be found through Twitter; NBC Olympics offers medal results and interviews with athletes, while Olympics delivers a look behind the scenes of the 2012 games and exclusive photographs.

Fans of the games should also check out the Olympics’ tumblr for stunning photography from the events.