Many baby boomers in the U.S. skilled labor force are expected to retire by year's end, leaving more than 30 million jobs vacant, reports WRDW . This trend is driving up demand for "new blood," along with record numbers of people going to school to learn a trade. In South Carolina, the median income for an electrician with a high school diploma is $55,000 a year. "I graduated in the early 2000's, and they constantly pushed college prep," said Donald Kelly with IBEW Local Union 1579. "Well, a lot of people don't know that you can go and make good money and not take out student loans and be an electrician or a pipe fitter or brick mason." The average pay for an elevator repair person is $79,000 annually, which is slightly more than the yearly income an accountant with a college degree draws. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics also forecasts a 41 percent increase in home healthcare jobs.

Nursing community residents with limited mobility in Minnesota can avail themselves of the Cycling Without Age program to surmount their physical challenges and get out more, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune . Based on a concept that originated in Denmark, the program has spread to more than 40 countries. Cycling Without Age is promoted as a way to help older men and women combat feelings of loneliness and isolation. The program is currently set up at two St. Paul senior communities, and another 24 will be initiating or expanding such programs after the state's Department of Human Services informed them earlier this month that they will each be given $6,000 grants. The Minnesota Veterans Home in Minneapolis was one of the first in the state to start Cycling Without Age last fall, with funding from the Stratis Health nonprofit. Staff and volunteers pilot two trishaws nearly every weekday at the community. "I think it takes them out of . . . their ordinary routine," says coordinator Erin Betlock.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences detailed a model developed to better understand how drugs inhibit the growth of protein fibrils, offering a guide to develop more effective strategies to target protein aggregation diseases like Alzheimer's, reports Medical Xpress . Different drugs target different stages of protein accrual, and the timing of their administration is crucial to inhibiting fibril growth. "This understanding could have important implications for intervention protocols to prevent pathological protein aggregation," said Harvard University Professor L. Mahadevan. The team applied mathematical techniques from control theory, in conjunction with the physics of protein aggregation, to theoretically predict how and when to intervene with medication. They determined a drug's effectiveness depends on whether it inhibits primary or secondary nucleation. "By combining well-known concepts from two different fields, the kinetics of protein aggregation, and optimal control theory, we linked molecular-scale phenomena to macroscale strategies with relevance for a real, practical problem," noted Mahadevan.

Researchers from Iraq's Middle Technical University and the University of South Australia (UniSA) have designed a system to remotely monitor seniors and dispatch drones for assistance when they fall, reports Medical Xpress . A study in Sensors details a wearable device that tracks vital signs via a wireless sensor affixed to the upper arm, and sends an alert to an emergency call center if physiological abnormalities or a fall are detected. "The system not only correctly measures heart rate and falls with 99 percent accuracy, but also identifies the senior's location and delivers first aid much faster," claims UniSA Professor Javaan Chahl. The fall detection package includes a microcontroller, bio-sensors, a global-positioning system module to track location, and a Global System for Mobile Communications module to send an alert to caregivers' smartphones. A first aid package, a smartphone, and a drone are bundled together to deliver the package. "We have . . . designed an advanced smartphone-based program that uses an intelligent autopilot, containing a destination waypoint for planning the path of a drone," says Middle Technical University's Sadik Kamel Gharghan.

Researchers at University College London (UCL) are working with the Metropolitan Police and local branches of mental health charity Mind to trial a new intervention aimed at reducing the distressing psychological outcomes, known to be prevalent among older victims of crime, according to Phys.org . Early results from the study suggest that close to one in five older victims of crime continue to experience distress three months after the incident, with continued depressive or anxiety symptoms. Police officers are now meeting victims over 65 years of age who have been a victim of a crime within one month of the crime to screen them for significant distress. If people are identified as significantly affected by the crime, officers will provide them with information about how to seek help, such as advising a visit to a health care provider. Three months later, a UCL researcher will contact them to see what type of help they have sought, and to assess whether their psychological distress has subsided or persisted. Those who continue to experience psychological distress are invited to participate in the randomized controlled trial. Participants either receive usual care from a doctor, or usual care plus the Victim Improvement Package designed for the study, which consists of up to ten sessions of talking therapy using a newly designed cognitive behavioral approach. The UCL research team will be assessing the participants after the treatment intervention to see if their symptoms of depression or anxiety have improved.

Playgrounds designed for older adults are having beneficial effects, and advocates cite their ability to mitigate loneliness and improve physical fitness, reports Considerable . "They focus on promoting balance, flexibility, and range of motion, all of which can help with the functional capabilities of older people and allow them to do more of the things they want to do," said American Council on Exercise President Cedric X. Bryant. Some of these parks are exclusively for adults while others allow in multiple generations, and cater to each age group's specific requirement. These playgrounds also carry a social benefit, offering patrons opportunities to engage with their neighbors. "These environments can be highly social," noted International Council on Active Aging CEO Colin Milner. "There's something positive and invigorating about that, especially if the children have moved away or a spouse has passed on."

New Zealand researchers recently conducted a pilot study published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias on the effects of music and dance on older adults with dementia, reports News-Medical . The team used familiar, reminiscent music and the natural gestures of 22 participants to design dance exercises. The goal was to encourage an improved quality of life for people with dementia via memory stimulation, mood moderation, and social interaction. Over the course of 10 weekly sessions, the intuitive movement re-embodiment program supplied humor, imagination, and intuition, which motivated participants to dance and interact. Following the sixth session, participants noted significant improvements in their quality of life. "Positive responses such as memory recalling, spontaneous dancing, and joking with each other were observed in every session," said the University of Otago's Ting Choo. "These observations have certainly reversed the stereotypical understanding of this group of people being passive and immobile. The music stimulates their responses much better than verbal instructions."

A study in Taiwan published in JAMA Network Open suggested hearing loss in middle age is linked to cognitive decline and dementia in later years, reports Reuters Health . Researchers monitored more than 16,000 men and women, and found that a new diagnosis of hearing loss between 45 and 65 more than doubled the odds of a dementia diagnosis in the next 12 years. National Taiwan Normal University's Charles Tzu-Chi Lee said previous research suggested about 66 percent of the risk for dementia is hereditary or genetic, making approximately 33 percent attributable to modifiable factors like hearing loss. "The present study suggests that screening for hearing loss should be performed when people are middle aged," Lee said. The authors noted future studies will explore whether treatment of hearing loss can reduce the risk of dementia.

A study in The Lancet determined older adults who undergo elective surgeries often suffer "silent" strokes that doubles their risk of cognitive decline a year later, reports the Globe and Mail . Silent strokes can happen without patients noticing them, but are detected in brain scans. The study group received magnetic resonance imaging of the brain between two to nine days post-surgery. Seven percent of subjects 65 or older experienced a silent stroke after elective, non-cardiac surgery. Participants who had silent stroke were more than twice as likely to experience delirium after surgery. They also exhibited a twofold increase in likelihood of experiencing cognitive decline, and a fourfold increase in probability of having an overt stroke or ministroke a year later. "What we demonstrated was consistent across all non-cardiac surgeries — so in all types of surgeries, we saw these strokes — and across all centers involved in the study," said McMaster University's P.J. Devereaux. "This establishes that it's not infrequent."

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Wednesday addressed several important questions involving mandatory arbitration agreements following the U.S. Supreme Court's Epic Systems decision, including: that employers are not prohibited under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) from informing employees that failing or refusing to sign a mandatory arbitration agreement will result in their discharge; they're not prohibited under the NLRA from promulgating mandatory arbitration agreements in response to employees opting in to a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act or state wage-and-hour laws; but they are prohibited from taking adverse action against employees for engaging in concerted activity by filing a class or collective action, consistent with NLRB's long-standing precedent. This week's decision was indeed the first to address the lawfulness of employer conduct surrounding mandatory arbitration agreements since the Supreme Court's Epic Systems ruling issued in 2018. In Epic Systems v. Lewis , the court held that class- and collective-action waivers in mandatory arbitration agreements do not violate the NLRA.