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Background and Objectives: The aging experiences of military veterans provide critical insights into what successful aging is and means for later life contexts constrained by distinct health and social needs. Can veterans "successfully" age when they are exposed to so many stressors with serious health and social consequences for later life? Veterans can offer valuable lessons for developing comprehensive approaches to refining successful aging, ensuring inclusivity of different older populations. Building on Rowe and Kahn's idea of successful aging, we utilize the complementary concept of "active aging" to explore if there are unique factors, characteristics, and interventions that support active aging in veterans, compared with nonveteran populations., Research Design and Methods: A rapid review and evidence synthesis was conducted across 9 databases in medicine, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and public health to search for peer-reviewed articles and research reports., Results: Findings suggest that programs linking health and social dimensions can support the active aging of veterans, namely interventions promoting active physical and cognitive lifestyle as well as social connectedness and engagement. Such programs and interventions help prevent and combat mental and physical health decline and increase quality of life and well-being., Discussion and Implications: Findings have implications for veteran and nonveteran populations more broadly, as people can actively age even when they have unique health and social needs., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.)

Plants and algae play a crucial role in the earth's ecosystems. Through photosynthesis they convert light energy into chemical energy, capture CO2 and produce oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds. Photosynthetic organisms are primary producers and synthesize the essential omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. They have also unique and highly diverse complex lipids, such as glycolipids, phospholipids, triglycerides, sphingolipids and phytosterols, with nutritional and health benefits. Plant and algal lipids are useful in food, feed, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical industries but also for green chemistry and bioenergy. The analysis of plant and algal lipidomes represents a significant challenge due to the intricate and diverse nature of their composition, as well as their plasticity under changing environmental conditions. Optimization of analytical tools is crucial for an in-depth exploration of the lipidome of plants and algae. This review highlights how lipidomics analytical tools can be used to establish a complete mapping of plant and algal lipidomes. Acquiring this knowledge will pave the way for the use of plants and algae as sources of tailored lipids for both industrial and environmental applications. This aligns with the main challenges for society, upholding the natural resources of our planet and respecting their limits., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Dunaliella salina is a green microalga extensively explored for β-carotene production, while knowledge of its lipid composition is still limited and poorly investigated. Among lipids, polar lipids have been highlighted as bioactive phytochemicals with health-promoting properties. This research aimed to provide an in-depth lipidome profiling of D. salina using liquid and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The lipid content was 6.8%, including phospholipids, glycolipids, betaine lipids, sphingolipids, triglycerides, diglycerides, and pigments. Among the total esterified fatty acids, 13.6% were 18:3 omega-3 and 14.7% were 18:1 omega-9. The lipid extract of D. salina showed anti-inflammatory activity by inhibiting cyclooxygenase-2 activity at 100 µg/mL, dose-dependent antioxidant scavenging activity, and antidiabetic activity by inhibiting α-glucosidase activity at 25 and 125 µg/mL. In conclusion, the lipid extract of D. salina has the potential to be used as a functional food ingredient or in the nutraceutical and cosmeceutical industries.

The COVID-19 pandemic shed light on systemic issues plaguing care (nursing) homes, from staff shortages to substandard healthcare. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, including robots and chatbots, have been proposed as solutions to such issues. Yet, socio-ethical concerns about the implications of AI for health and care practices have also been growing among researchers and practitioners. At a time of AI promise and concern, it is critical to understand how those who develop and implement these technologies perceive their use and impact in care homes. Combining a sociological approach to trust with Annemarie Mol's logic of care and Jeanette Pol's concept of fitting, we draw on 18 semi-structured interviews with care staff, advocates, and AI developers to explore notions of human-AI care. Our findings show positive perceptions and experiences of AI in care homes, but also ambivalence. While integrative care incorporating humans and technology was salient across interviewees, we also identified experiential, contextual, and knowledge divides between AI developers and care staff. For example, developers lacked experiential knowledge of care homes' daily functioning and constraints, influencing how they designed AI. Care staff demonstrated limited experiential knowledge of AI or more critical views about contexts of use, affecting their trust in these technologies. Different understandings of 'good care' were evident, too: 'warm' care was sometimes linked to human care and 'cold' care to technology. In conclusion, understandings and experiences of AI are marked by different logics of sociotechnical care and related levels of trust in these sensitive settings., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: People with dementia of all ages have a human right to equal access to quality health care. Despite evidence regarding its effectiveness, many people living with dementia are unable to access rehabilitation for promoting function and quality of life. Conducted in Australia, this study was designed to (1) explore barriers to access to dementia rehabilitation and (2) identify solutions that improve access to rehabilitation., Methods: People living with dementia (n = 5) and care partners (n = 8) and health professionals (n = 13) were recruited nationally. Experience-based codesign across three virtual workshops was used to understand barriers and design solutions to improve access to rehabilitation treatments. Socio-ecological analyses, using the Levesque Access to Health care framework, were applied to findings regarding barriers and to aid selection of solutions., Results: There was high attendance (92.3%) across the three workshops. Barriers were identified at a user level (including lack of knowledge, transport, cost and difficulty navigating the health, aged care and disability sectors) and health service level (including health professional low dementia knowledge and negative attitudes, inequitable funding models and non-existent or fragmented services). Solutions focused on widespread dementia education and training, including ensuring that people with dementia and their care partners know about rehabilitation therapies and that health professionals, aged care and disability co-ordinators know how to refer to and deliver rehabilitation interventions. Dementia care navigators, changes to Australia's public funding models and specific dementia rehabilitation programmes were also recommended., Conclusions: Barriers to accessing rehabilitation for people with dementia exist at multiple levels and will require a whole-community and systems approach to ensure change., Patient or Public Contribution: People with living experience (preferred term by those involved) were involved at two levels within this research. A Chief Investigator living with dementia was involved in the design of the study and writing of the manuscript. People with living experience, care partners and service providers were participants in the codesign process to identify barriers and design potential solutions., (© 2024 The Author(s). Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Consumer priorities in healthy diets and lifestyle boosted the demand for nutritious and functional foods as well as plant-based ingredients. Avocado has become a food trend due to its nutritional and functional values, which in turn is increasing its consumption and production worldwide. Avocado edible portion has a high content of lipids, with the pulp and its oil being rich in monounsaturated fatty acids and essential omega - 3 and omega - 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). These fatty acids are mainly esterified in triacylglycerides, the major lipids in pulp, but also in minor components such as polar lipids (phospholipids and glycolipids). Polar lipids of avocado have been overlooked despite being recently highlighted with functional properties as well. The growth in the industry of avocado products is generating an increased amount of their byproducts, such as seed and peels (nonedible portions), still undervalued. The few studies on avocado byproducts pointed out that they also contain interesting lipids, with seeds particularly rich in polar lipids bearing PUFA, and thus can be reused as a source of add-value phytochemical. Mass spectrometry-based lipidomics approaches appear as an essential tool to unveil the complex lipid signature of avocado and its byproducts, contributing to the recognition of value-added lipids and opening new avenues for their use in novel biotechnological applications. The present review provides an up-to-date overview of the lipid signature from avocado pulp, peel, seed, and its oils., (© 2024 The Authors. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Institute of Food Technologists.)

Objectives: Virtual reality (VR) is not a common leisure activity in aged care, despite pilot studies demonstrating its value as a tool to combat inactivity and loneliness. This study investigated the organisational enablers and barriers to sustained uptake of VR among aged care staff and organisations, who may lack familiarity or confidence with the technology., Methods: Creative methods were adopted to co-design and develop a VR implementation toolkit tailored specifically for aged care staff. Three aged care homes in South-East Queensland participated, with 15 residents and seven staff engaging in up to four VR sessions facilitated by the research team. Participant observation of the VR sessions was complemented by interviews with aged care staff and residents., Results: Guided by Normalisation Process Theory, a reflexive thematic analysis identified four key themes: (1) Positively Appreciating the VR Experience, (2) Staff VR Champions and the Importance of Personal Use and Experimentation with VR, (3) Management Support and (4) Technical Challenges., Conclusions: Our results indicate benefits and challenges of VR use in aged care, offering valuable insights into the factors that can lead to the long-term success of VR-based leisure activities for aged care. Providing time and resources for a VR champion to experiment and learn about the technology is critical. The development of an online implementation toolkit, based on our learning from this project, also provides aged care stakeholders with the evidence-based resources needed to ensure the successful implementation of VR-based leisure programs., (© 2023 The Authors. Australasian Journal on Ageing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AJA Inc’.)

This article proposes an expansive conceptualization of gerontological research by engaging with a "live gerontology" that combines sciences and arts to better understand and represent aging and its diverse meanings and contexts. Borrowing the sociological concept of "live methods," we argue that gerontology can benefit from a "live" approach-not only methodologically, but also conceptually. To guide pathways between artistic and gerontological fields and frame its practices and outcomes, we suggest four propositions for a live gerontology: (1) using multiple genres to artfully connect the whole-interweaving micro-, meso-, and macrolevels to contextualize aging within various sociocultural milieus; (2) fostering the use of the senses to capture more than just what people say-what they do, display, and feel; (3) enabling a critical inventiveness by relying on arts' playfulness to design/refine instruments; and (4) ensuring a constant reflection on ethics of representation and public responsibility. To apply and experiment with a live gerontological approach, we describe collaborations with an award-winning writer and an illustrator. The collaborations drew on qualitative data from a study on lived experiences of loneliness in long-term care through ethnography and interviews with residents of 2 Australian facilities. The writer explored participants' accounts as creative stories, which were then illustrated. Motivated by an ethics of representation, we aimed to represent findings without othering or further marginalizing participants. The creative materials offered more than appealing representations, shining new light on the intricate nature of aging, loneliness, institutionalization, and gerontology research and practice., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.)

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the greatest contributor to global morbidity and mortality. Poor social health plays a critical role in CVD incidence. Additionally, the relationship between social health and CVD may be mediated through CVD risk factors. However, the underlying mechanisms between social health and CVD are poorly understood. Certain social health constructs (social isolation, low social support and loneliness) have complicated the characterisation of a causal relationship between social health and CVD., Aim: To provide an overview of the relationship between social health and CVD (and its shared risk factors)., Method: In this narrative review, we examined published literature on the relationship between three social health constructs (social isolation, social support, and loneliness) and CVD. Evidence was synthesised in a narrative format, focusing on the potential ways in which social health affects CVD, including shared risk factors., Results: The current literature highlights an established relationship between social health and CVD with a likelihood for bi-directionality. However, there is speculation and varied evidence regarding how these relationships may be mediated through CVD risk factors., Conclusions: Social health can be considered an established risk factor for CVD. However, the potential bi-directional pathways of social health with CVD risk factors are less established. Further research is needed to understand whether targeting certain constructs of social health may directly improve the management of CVD risk factors. Given the health and economic burdens of poor social health and CVD, improvements to addressing or preventing these interrelated health conditions would have societal benefits., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This article explores views about older people and aging underpinning practices and perceptions of development and implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in long-term care homes (LTC). Drawing on semi-structured interviews with seven AI developers, seven LTC staff, and four LTC advocates, we analyzed how AI technologies for later life are imagined, designed, deployed, and resisted. Using the concepts of "promissory discourse" and "aging anxieties", we investigated manifestations of ageism in accounts of AI applications in LTC. Despite positive intentions, both AI developers and LTC staff/advocates engaged in simplistic scripts about aging, care, and the technological capacity of older people. We further uncovered what we termed sociotechnical ageism -a form that is not merely digital but rests on interacting pre-conceptions about the inability or lack of interest of older people to use emerging technologies coupled with social assumptions about aging, LTC, and technological innovation.

Background and Objectives: While research on loneliness in later life has increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we still lack diverse qualitative approaches capturing lived experiences of lonely older adults. Approaches to research with older adults instead of on them are also scant in gerontological literature on loneliness. Through solicited diaries, this study aimed to explore how older Australians who were already lonely before the pandemic managed lockdowns (stay-at-home orders) in Victoria, Australia, which lived through one of the longest lockdowns in the world., Research Design and Methods: This article is based on qualitative diaries completed by 32 older adults (aged 65 and older). Diaries provide a 'live' document where participants become active research partners, recording and sharing their perceptions and experiences. This method is useful to capture sensitive issues, but to the best of our knowledge has not been employed in loneliness studies. Data were thematically analyzed through the identification of themes within and across diaries., Results: Loneliness was defined by participants as a detrimental absence of companionship and meaningful social interactions. For most, lockdowns exacerbated loneliness, presented new triggers, and upended coping strategies. The disruption of the 'emotion work' involved with managing loneliness led to a reconfiguration of response strategies, including through digital technology, which brought both challenges (e.g., digital ageism) and opportunities (e.g., novel communication forms)., Discussion and Implications: Understanding how older people living alone define and respond to loneliness in diverse contexts-for example, before and during a pandemic that restricts social interaction-provides critical insights to inform interventions to tackle loneliness., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.)

Losartan potassium (LOS) is one of the most antihypertensives used in the world, and its presence in environmental matrices can cause impacts to biota. In this study, the ecotoxicity and genotoxicity of LOS was assessed before and after treatment by UVC/photolysis and UV/H 2 O 2 . The photodegradations were carried out at LOS solutions (2.5 mg L -1 ; 4.6 μM) for 30, 60, 90, 120, 240, and 480 min of treatment. For chromatographic analysis, the samples were submitted to solid-phase extraction (SPE) and analyzed by HPLC-DAD. Ecotoxicity bioassays were conducted using Daphnia magna (acute) and Desmodesmus subspicatus (chronic) for all the degradation times. To evaluate the genotoxicity, the comet assay was performed with a D. magna whole organism cell suspension applying the alkaline gel electrophoresis technique. For both process, the degradation rate was over 99% at 30 min, which reduced the acute toxicity of LOS to D. magna. In addition, only the sample treated at 240 min by UV/H 2 O 2 showed significant chronic and acute toxicity. However, the genotoxicity effect was observed for samples treated LOS before treatment and at 480 min by UV/H 2 O 2 . Therefore, even reaching high LOS degradation rates, for both processes, the bioassays demonstrated the importance of ecotoxicological analyses by AOPs treatment.

Research into companion robots for older adults, including those who are socially isolated and lonely, continues to grow. Although some insight into older adults' preferences for various robotic types and functionality is emerging, we lack research examining how these robots fulfil or challenge a range of values and aspirations individuals have in later life. This study examines the attitudes and perspectives of 16 older adults (aged 65+) living independently but alone in their own homes, who were interviewed and shown videos depicting three distinctive companion robots: a talking assistant; a roving toylike vehicle; and a robotic dog. This approach illuminated values, preferences, and needs amongst older people that are vital for understanding the potential of companion robots. In comparing the robots, participants expressed concerns about the impact of different companion robots on their abilities and skills, their sense of autonomy and control over their lives, and the maintenance of several kinds of dignity. These results inform user-centered design and use of companion robots for older people living alone and independently.

This paper explores how Latent Class Models (LCM) can be applied in social research, when the basic assumptions of regression models cannot be validated. We examine the usefulness of this method with data collected from a study on the relationship between bridging social capital and the Internet. Social capital is defined here as the resources that are potentially available in one's social ties. Bridging is a dimension of social capital, usually related to weak ties (acquaintances), and a source of instrumental resources such as information. The study surveyed a stratified random sample of 417 inhabitants of Lisbon, Portugal. We used LCM to create the variable bridging social capital, but also to estimate the relationship between bridging social capital and Internet usage when we encountered convergence problems with the logistic regression analysis. We conclude by showing a positive relationship between bridging and Internet usage, and by discussing the potential of LCM for social science research., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)