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Background and Objectives Population aging has led to an increased interest in cognitive health and, in particular, the role that stress plays in cognitive disparities. This paper extends previous work by characterizing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) stress type prevalence and its association with cognitive health in metro-Detroit among Black, Middle Eastern/Arab (MENA), and White older adults. Research Design and Methods Data come from a regionally representative sample of adults aged 65+ in metro-Detroit (N = 600; MENA n = 199; Black n = 205; White n = 196). We used generalized linear models to compare groups on sociodemographic, objective stress, and social stress indicators. Multiple group structural equation models evaluated whether COVID-19 stress predicted cognitive health and whether that association varied across racial/ethnic groups. Results MENA and Black older adults reported higher levels of objective stress than Whites. There were no racial/ethnic group differences in social stress. More objective stress was associated with better cognitive health, and more social stress was associated with worse cognitive health. The positive effect of objective stress was especially apparent for White older adults. Discussion and Implications Though it appears that minority stress was not exacerbated in the context of pandemic stress, links between greater objective stress and better cognitive health apparent among White older adults were not evident among MENA or Black older adults. Broadening health disparities research by including underrepresented populations allows us to elevate scientific knowledge by clarifying what is universal and what is unique about the stress process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses articles within the issue on topics including the role of cultural complexity in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) care, incidence and prevalence of ADRD in minoritized racial and ethnic groups, and factors that influence ADRD care.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine dynamic links between changes in social ties and changes in emotional well-being. Method Trivariate dual-change score models were used to test whether a large number of close ties would be more strongly associated with low levels of depressed affect than a large number of weaker ties, and a large number of weaker ties would be more strongly associated with high levels of positive affect compared to a large number of close ties, across three waves of a large, regionally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 40 and older (N = 802). Results We found that a greater number of weaker ties was associated with having more close ties over time, and that the number of weaker ties was more strongly predictive of positive age-related changes in both aspects of well-being (i.e. more positive affect and less depressed affect) than the number of close ties. Discussion Contrary to popular theoretical orientations in gerontology, weaker ties may offer older adults a more effective avenue for promoting emotional well-being over time than close ties, and may have the additional benefit of compensating for losses in the number of close ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of the Study: This study examines national variations in social networks among older adults across 4 countries in diverse regions of the world: Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, and the United States. The aim is to provide insights into universal as well as unique attributes of social networks in later life. Design and Methods: The analyses examine convoy characteristics among adults aged 50+ in metropolitan areas of Japan (N = 557), Lebanon (N = 284), Mexico (N = 556), and the United States (N = 583). Data were collected using the hierarchical mapping technique on representative samples in each locale. Multilevel models were conducted by nation to examine whether convoy characteristics vary by age and closeness. Results: Network size and geographic proximity were dimensions of social networks sensitive to national context. By contrast, how age and feelings of closeness varied with contact frequency and the presence of children in networks revealed universal patterns. Furthermore, feelings of closeness varied by age with regard to size and contact frequency in Lebanon, proximity in Japan, and composition in Mexico. Implications: Identifying universal and unique characteristics of social networks in later life provide a preliminary empirical basis upon which to advance a global perspective on convoys of social relations and how they inform policies that can facilitate health and well-being among middle-aged and older people around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue focuses on contextual factors that contribute to cognitive aging, as they have important implications for prevention and intervention strategies to reduce the global burden of age-related cognitive impairment. Context is defined broadly in terms of geographic residence, socioeconomic conditions, social network characteristics, and the spousal/partner relationship. Each of these lifetime contextual factors has been linked to variability in cognitive development, and the included papers advance this extant literature by examining how these lifespan contexts interact with person-level characteristics in the largest, nationally representative study of aging in the United States (U.S.), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the government has instituted several laws that have become more invasive of private life, including the reading and viewing habits of Americans. As a result, public libraries have been asked to comply with FBI or other government agency requests about patron information. In 2005 the National Security Agency demanded patron records from four Connecticut librarians. In addition, these librarians were issued a "gag order, "prohibiting them from speaking about this issue, even with their own families. In 2007 residents tried to prevent a library in Cheshire, Connecticut from shelving a book about a gruesome murder that took place in that town. In 2011 another Connecticut library was pressured to cancel a showing of Michael Moore 's "Sicko," a provocative film about the US health care industry. As these three examples show, free speech is not so alive and well. Nevertheless, as this article will also show, these three public libraries (and their librarians) fought to keep or show controversial media or literature, along with fighting the US Government to maintain library patron confidentiality. If these examples show how free speech in the United States is under assault in the twenty-first century, it also shows how the public library has come to be the first line of defense for one of our most cherished values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, Delaware corporate law prohibits the indemnification of violations of the duty of loyalty, acts or omissions not in good faith, intentional misconduct, knowing violation of law, and several other categories of transgressions. However, it permits the indemnification of breaches of the duty of care. In contrast, although the implied contractual covenant of good faith and fair dealing may not be waived, Delaware's alternative entity law places the duty of loyalty and the duty of care on equal footing insofar as it permits the waiver of both the duty of loyalty and the duty of care and statutorily provides indemnification for all claims. Chief Justice Leo E. Strine, Jr. and Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster would change this scheme in part by prohibiting the waiver of the duty of loyalty in diversely-held alternative entities. Waivers of the duty of care would continue to be permitted in all Delaware alternative entities, and a duty of care waiver would be presumed in certain cases. How well-received the Strine-Travis proposal will be depends in part on the business community's views and expectations surrounding the duty of loyalty and the duty of care. It has always been assumed that stakeholders in the business community regard duty of loyalty violations differently from duty of care violations, and believe that the law should take the former more seriously than the latter. However, legal scholars have not empirically examined these propositions. This Article begins a long overdue exploration of the business community's expectations surrounding the duty of loyalty and the duty of care with a pilot survey. The survey was sent to 117 sophisticated executives, of whom 45 replied regarding their views of default duties in private companies and their perceptions of express waivers of the duty of loyalty or the duty of care in hypothetical public and private company scenarios. The respondents displayed significantly less support for the waiver in the duty of loyalty scenarios than for the waiver in the duty of care scenarios and least support overall for a waiver of the duty of loyalty when the company posited was publicly-owned. Definitive conclusions must be avoided based upon this very limited pilot survey. However, the study makes a contribution by pointing the way toward a new avenue of empirical legal research that explores attitudes toward and comprehension levels of internal governance laws. The Article analyzes the empirical findings against the backdrop of literature on trust, and recommends further empirical research to help gauge the business and investor community's reactions to the differential treatment of the duty of loyalty and the duty of care and its comprehension of waivers and indemnification rules. It explains why internal governance laws are now at a major crossroad and presents a policy analysis of alternative approaches to fiduciary duties. The Article recommends incorporating aspects of a Concession/Stakeholder vision of business entities into the Nexus-of-Contracts paradigm. Irrespective of which fiduciary duty reforms are finally adopted, it is argued that ethical training should be integrated into multiple law school courses in a coherent fashion beginning with contracts, agency law, business organizations, business planning, and estate planning. A similar integrated approach should be taken to strengthen ethics training in both the undergraduate and graduate business school curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study systematically analyzed convoys of social relations to investigate the ways in which gender and income shape patterns of social relations across the life course in Lebanon. Methods: Data were drawn from a representative sample of adults aged 18 and older in Greater Beirut, Lebanon (N = 500). Multiple linear regression and multilevel models were conducted to examine main and interactive effects of age, gender, and income on social relations. Results: Findings indicate main effects of age, income, and gender on network structure and relationship quality. Older age was associated with larger network size, greater proportion of kin in network, higher positive and lower negative relationship quality. Higher income was associated with larger network size and decreased contact frequency. Female gender was also associated with decreased contact frequency. Gender interacted with income to influence network size and network composition. Higher income was associated with a larger network size and higher proportion of kin for women. Discussion: Findings suggest diversity in the experience of social relations. Such nuance is particularly relevant to the Lebanese context where family is the main source of support in old age. Policy makers and program planners may need to refrain from viewing social relations simplistically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly forgotten, Pascal D'Angelo's early 20th century autobiography "Son of Italy" lies in the tradition of other texts detailing immigrant experiences to the United States. Where D'Angelo's text differs is in how his memoir details an existential dilemma shaped by fruitless labor. Like the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, who is condemned to roll a rock on top of a mountain only to see such object roll back down, D'Angelo's struggle as a laborer in his new land becomes a similar absurd quest. This absurd struggle, however, also adds a rich layer to D'Angelo's narrative. Similar to the way French author Albert Camus writes about Sisyphus in "The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays," D'Angelo's immigrant experience makes him an early "Spokesman for the Absurd." Yet as many struggle to find gainful, sustaining employment today, can an early 20th century narrative about one Italian's journey to America and his often fruitless efforts to sustain himself as a "pick-and-shovel man," also address the dilemma for labor in the early 21st century? Despite D'Angelo's "Sisyphean" attempt at finding meaningful employment, this immigrant who broke American soil with his pick and shovel for less than sustaining wages, still managed to pen a rich and dynamic memoir that deserves a much wider audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been known that despite well-documented improvements in longevity for most Americans, alarming disparities persist among racial groups and between the well-educated and those with less education. In this article we update estimates of the impact of race and education on past and present life expectancy, examine trends in disparities from 1990 through 2008, and place observed disparities in the context of a rapidly aging society that is emerging at a time of optimism about the next revolution in longevity. We found that in 2008 US adult men and women with fewer than twelve years of education had life expectancies not much better than those of all adults in the 1950s and 1960s. When race and education are combined, the disparity is even more striking. In 2008 white US men and women with 16 years or more of schooling had life expectancies far greater than black Americans with fewer than 12 years of education-14.2 years more for white men than black men, and 10.3 years more for white women than black women. These gaps have widened over time and have led to at least two "Americas," if not multiple others, in terms of life expectancy, demarcated by level of education and racial-group membership. The message for policy makers is clear: implement educational enhancements at young, middle, and older ages for people of all races, to reduce the large gap in health and longevity that persists today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Innovative Technology-Enabled Astronomy for Middle Schools (ITEAMS) initiative of the Harvard College Observatory Science Education Department (SED). The initiative is said to use small "MicroObservatory" telescopes to provide students with space images of their choice. The authors claim that this helps students to meet the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) goal of learning about the place and scale of the Earth in relation other celestial bodies.

This article provides current data and details of potential drivers of demand for residences within independent living (IL) communities based on a large random sample of 70+ households in the U.S. from the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. The percentage of age 70+ households who find IL communities to be desirable places to live is less than that population's awareness of IL communities, but more than 50% of 70+ households do find them desirable places to live. The research results reveal that frailty, single-person household status, and adult children's recommendations are the main drivers of potential demand. In addition, evidence is presented that visiting an IL community and rating it as a very desirable place to live are strong precursors for being open to moving to a community in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the influence of teachers unions, National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, in policy making in the U.S. NEA is a public-sector labor union that represents some 2.3 million K-12 public school teachers and about a million education support workers, retirees and college student members. AFT is the smaller of the two national professional education unions. According to the author, NEA and AFT apply their influence directly by means of lobbying and election campaigns.

The research note examines changes in beliefs and attitudes over a 14-year period, from 1990, when the revolution in genomic science was just beginning, to 2004, the most recent time point for which data are available. The analysis makes clear that there is no simple causal path from changes in technology to changes in values and beliefs, at least over the period of time during which we have been able to track this process. At the same time, claimed awareness about the new technology is slowly and gradually diffusing throughout the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic increase in life expectancy and lowered fertility, especially in more advantaged countries, has resulted in people living longer and in more complex family structures. Other important changes affecting the family include greater geographical mobility, increased racial and ethnic diversity, new patterns of immigration and identity reformulation, as well as changing work and family roles. With reduced governmental resources available, it is especially important to understand the changing nature of multigenerational family structures, functioning, and roles in individual well-being in order to maximize the effectiveness of informal and formal supports available to those in need. This special issue addresses basic factors related to multigeneration support systems that will be needed to anticipate, understand, and design support programs to cope with the challenges facing individuals in all generation positions, families, and communities in the United States and around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the availability of several options to a class action whose defendant has declared bankruptcy in the U.S. It found out that a codefendant may opt to remain in the original jurisdiction and move the case along with the debtor defendant. It may seek removal and transfer on the basis of related to jurisdiction in the bankruptcy court in which the case is filed.

Our purpose in this article was to examine the influences of age group, timing of immigration, and race/ethnicity on self-reported health, self-esteem, and serious mental disorders among Black Caribbean immigrants to the United States. Analyses of the recently collected National Survey of American Life (Jackson et al., 2004) revealed that immigrants have better self-reported physical health and mental health than nonimmigrant ancestry group members. Age group, however, moderates and complicates this relationship. Black Caribbeans who immigrated more recently tend to have better self-reported health; older, more recent immigrants have lower self reported health than those who are older and have lived longer in the United States. Similar results were found for the prevalence rates of reported any lifetime or 12 month Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on public attitudes in the U.S. toward genetic testing. In the past few years, the number of genes estimated to make up the human genome has been drastically reduced from 80,000 to, at most, half that number, more likely close to 30,000, most of which have now been identified. As of May 2002, there were genetic tests for over 900 inherited conditions, 556 of them available on a clinical basis, 323 of those were offered as prenatal tests, and the number of such tests is growing. These developments increasingly make possible widespread screening for defective genes in healthy individuals, prenatal testing for genetic defects in the fetus, and ultimately, it is hoped, treatment of the defect. Among the general public, attitudes toward novel technologies are unlikely to be mediated by personal experience; instead, they are likely to be influenced by the coverage they receive in the news media. Analyses in this article are based on four national surveys of the U.S. population aged 18 years and over.

This study examined associations between social relationships and psychological well-being through (a) quantitative analyses of surveys of representative samples ranging in age from 13 to 93 in the United States (N = 1498) and Japan (N = 1641) and (b) qualitative content analyses of 12 focus group discussions conducted separately with American and Japanese participants. Survey results revealed that having a spouse or a best friend was related more strongly to some aspects of psychological well-being in Japan than in the United States. Findings regarding the quality of social relationships were more mixed; some aspects of quality were related more strongly to well-being in Japan but others were related more strongly in the United States. Focus group participants described social relationships as influencing well-being by offering a sense of belonging, providing someone in whom to confide, making too many demands and not allowing enough independence, and affecting perceptions of success in relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined associations between well-being and positive and negative aspects of social relationships among 128 married older adults with a best friend. Women were more depressed than men if they did not have a friend in whom to confide, but women who did have a friend in whom to confide reported lower levels of depressive symptomatology, closer to levels reported by men. Men's depressive symptomatology was not related to having a friend confidant. Similarly, women who did not have a same-sex best friend in whom to confide were less satisfied with life than women who did have a friend confidant and men in general. Having a best friend who gets on their nerves was negatively related to men's life satisfaction and positively related to women's. Thus, positive and negative aspects of friendships were related to women's and men's well-being in different ways and were more important for women. Positive and negative aspects of marital relationships, on the other hand, related to depressive symptomatology and life satisfaction of women in comparable ways as for men. Results are considered in terms of the practical implications for supportive relationships to help older people meet the challenges of aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-national comparison of the social relations-physical health association in the elderly can broaden our understanding of the implications of social relationships in this age group. Using representative cross-sectional samples of adults aged 60-93 years from metropolitan areas in the United States and Japan (n = 1005), we used analysis of variance to examine between-country differences in the association of illness with measures of network structure, social support, and negative relations. One significant between-country difference in this association was found: in Japan only, ill women reported more available financial help from their child than did non-ill women (p < .05). Ill women in both countries reported less sick care available from their spouse than did ill men (p < .05) and more negative relations with their child than did non-ill women (p < .05). These results suggest the primacy of gender, rather than cultural context, in shaping the association between social relations and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the correlation of values and advance directives decision making in the U.S. Articulation of advance directives based on individual values and beliefs; Directives on various medical advances; Relationship between pertinent quality of life and termination of care values.

This article examines the influences of supportive and conflictual mother-daughter relationships on depressive symptoms expressed by African American and White teenage mothers and grandmothers. The authors remark that previous research has indicated that the most consistent source of support for a teenage mother is her family of origin, especially her own mother. However, the birth of an infant to a teenager represents an accelerated role transition which has consequences not only for the teenager and her infant, but for the entire family system as well. The teenager becomes a mother, her parents become grandparents, and her grandparents become great-grandparents. Adjustment to these role transitions is likely to be influenced by the nature of relationships that exist within families with teenage mothers who depend upon the family for their overall well-being. Here the authors explore the influences of the quality of intergenerational family relationships on psychological adaptation in families with teenage mothers. They examine positive and negative aspects of the mother-daughter relationship that may be associated with psychological well-being among African American and White teenage mothers and their mothers. Of particular interest is the influence that supportive and conflictual relationships may have on levels of depressive symptoms expressed in both generations.

Whether the empty-nest experience has positive or negative consequences for women's well-being at midlife may depend on their historical cohort membership and employment status. In this study, it was posited that the empty nest was likely to be a negative experience among the particular cohort of women (Cohort II) who reached adulthood during the period of strong societal emphasis on women's maternal role known as the feminine mystique, would be experienced positively among the earlier cohort (Cohort I) who as young adults were encouraged to enter the labor force during World War II. Analyses of covariance tested the relationships among empty-nest Status, cohort membership, and employment status, and three measures of psychological well-being, adjusted for age, education, and marital status. The results of this study show that cohort and employment each have important independent associations with women's well-being at midlife, but that the experience of the empty nest depends on these two factors, especially cohort experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on contemporary social, economic, political and world affairs. Debate over the proposed education bill in the United States Congress; Competency level of American public school teachers; Sexual behaviors of teenagers in the United States; Wealth of Michael Jordan, a basketball player, and Bill Gates, owner of the Microsoft Corp.

LISA Pathfinder, the second of the European Space Agency's Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART), is a dedicated technology demonstrator for the joint ESA/NASA Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. The technologies required for LISA are many and extremely challenging. This coupled with the fact that some flight hardware cannot be fully tested on ground due to Earth-induced noise led to the implementation of the LISA Pathfinder mission to test the critical LISA technologies in a flight environment. LISA Pathfinder essentially mimics one arm of the LISA constellation by shrinking the 5 million kilometre armlength down to a few tens of centimetres, giving up the sensitivity to gravitational waves, but keeping the measurement technology: the distance between the two test masses is measured using a laser interferometric technique similar to one aspect of the LISA interferometry system. The scientific objective of the LISA Pathfinder mission consists then of the first in-flight test of low frequency gravitational wave detection metrology. LISA Pathfinder is due to be launched in 2013 on-board a dedicated small launch vehicle (VEGA). After a series of apogee raising manoeuvres using an expendable propulsion module, LISA Pathfinder will enter a transfer orbit towards the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1). After separation from the propulsion module, the LPF spacecraft will be stabilized using the micro-Newton thrusters, entering a 500 000 km by 800 000 km Lissajous orbit around L1. Science results will be available approximately 2 months after launch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To report the toxicity profile of high-dose-rate (HDR)-brachytherapy (BT) as monotherapy in a Human Investigation Committee-approved study consisting of a single implant and two fractions (12 Gy × 2) for a total dose of 24 Gy, delivered within 1 day. The dose was subsequently increased to 27 Gy (13.5 Gy × 2) delivered in 1 day. We report the acute and early chronic genitourinary and gastrointestinal toxicity. Methods and Materials: A total of 173 patients were treated between December 2005 and July 2010. However, only the first 100 were part of the IRB-approved study and out of these, only 94 had a minimal follow-up of 6 months, representing the study population for this preliminary report. All patients had clinical Stage T2b or less (American Joint Committee on Cancer, 5th edition), Gleason score 6-7 (3+4), and prostate-specific antigen level of ≤12 ng/mL. Ultrasound-guided HDR-BT with real-time dosimetry was used. The prescription dose was 24 Gy for the first 50 patients and 27 Gy thereafter. The dosimetric goals and constraints were the same for the two dose groups. Toxicity was scored using the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 3. The highest toxicity scores encountered at any point during follow-up are reported. Results: The median follow-up was 17 months (range, 6–40.5). Most patients had Grade 0-1 acute toxicity. The Grade 2 acute genitourinary toxicity was mainly frequency/urgency (13%), dysuria (5%), hematuria, and dribbling/hesitancy (2%). None of the patients required a Foley catheter at any time; however, 8% of the patients experienced transient Grade 1 diarrhea. No other acute gastrointestinal toxicities were found. The most common chronic toxicity was Grade 2 urinary frequency/urgency in 16% of patients followed by dysuria in 4% of patients; 2 patients had Grade 2 rectal bleeding and 1 had Grade 4, requiring laser treatment. Conclusions: Favorable-risk prostate cancer patients treated with a single implant HDR-BT to 24–27 Gy in two fractions within 1 day have excellent tolerance with minimal acute and chronic toxicity. Longer follow-up is needed to confirm these encouraging early results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]