Exploring the Lived Experiences of Female Retirement Living Seniors and Their Social Relationships

Objective This research examines the lived experiences of seniors living within a retirement home (RH) and their social relationships with friends, family, and RH peers. The phenomena is explored through two perspectives (the senior and their support person) in order to better understand how retirement home living affects individuals’ social patterns and social well-being. Methods The theoretical orientation used to guide this study was phenomenology. After completing a background questionnaire, one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 women living in a retirement home and 7 primary support persons. Interviews were transcribed verbatim for further data analysis. Field notes, member checks, and triangulation were used to enhance the credibility of the research. Results Four key themes emerged: (1) It’s all in the attitude; (2) Barriers to friendship; (3) Life beyond the RH; (4) The bigger picture. The following themes and their respective subthemes highlighted the various factors that influenced social life and relationships within a retirement home. Despite the challenges associated with RH living, all participants recognized the RH was the best place for the seniors to be. Conclusions Participants’ narratives revealed the realisms of making and maintaining social relationships while living in a RH. The dual perspective from seniors and their support persons provided insights into effective methods of keeping seniors socially active, as well as suggestions on how to foster meaningful social participation and interactions

RAE-1 ligands for the NKG2D receptor are regulated by E2F transcription factors, which control cell cycle entry.

The NKG2D stimulatory receptor expressed by natural killer cells and T cell subsets recognizes cell surface ligands that are induced on transformed and infected cells and facilitate immune rejection of tumor cells. We demonstrate that expression of retinoic acid early inducible gene 1 (RAE-1) family NKG2D ligands in cancer cell lines and proliferating normal cells is coupled directly to cell cycle regulation. Raet1 genes are directly transcriptionally activated by E2F family transcription factors, which play a central role in regulating cell cycle entry. Induction of RAE-1 occurred in primary cell cultures, embryonic brain cells in vivo, and cells in healing skin wounds and, accordingly, wound healing was delayed in mice lacking NKG2D. Transcriptional activation by E2Fs is likely coordinated with posttranscriptional regulation by other stress responses. These findings suggest that cellular proliferation, as occurs in cancer cells but also other pathological conditions, is a key signal tied to immune reactions mediated by NKG2D-bearing lymphocytes

Cymatic Bricolage: Visualizing everyday aural experience

Historically, the sound of an object or material was rarely considered by its maker unless it was intended to be acoustic by design. As a result, the contemporary environment is made up of unintentional aural byproducts. Cymatic Bricolage is an interdisciplinary method that investigates this notion of unplanned aural experience by re-contextualizing discarded objects as soniferous. In the exhibition of this work sounds are visualized to create an immersive audiovisual experience reflecting my experience of being exposed to an environment that periodically produces physical waste and is characterized by unintentional acoustic spaces. It builds upon the traditional Cymatic Method, developed by Hans Jenny between 1965 and 1975, by using physical and aural cultural byproducts to establish a relationship between sight and sound

Visual responses in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus at early stages of retinal degeneration in rd¹ PDE6β mice

Inherited retinal degenerations encompass a wide range of diseases that result in the death of rod and cone photoreceptors, eventually leading to irreversible blindness. Low vision survives at early stages of degeneration, at which point it could rely on residual populations of rod/cone photoreceptors as well as the inner retinal photoreceptor, melanopsin. To date, the impact of partial retinal degeneration on visual responses in the primary visual thalamus (dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, dLGN) remains unknown, as does their relative reliance on surviving rod and cone photoreceptors vs. melanopsin. To answer these questions, we recorded visually evoked responses in the dLGN of anesthetized rd1 mice using in vivo electrophysiology at an age (3–5 wk) at which cones are partially degenerate and rods are absent. We found that excitatory (ON) responses to light had lower amplitude and longer latency in rd1 mice compared with age-matched visually intact controls; however, contrast sensitivity and spatial receptive field size were largely unaffected at this early stage of degeneration. Responses were retained when those wavelengths to which melanopsin is most sensitive were depleted, indicating that they were driven primarily by surviving cones. Inhibitory responses appeared absent in the rd1 thalamus, as did light-evoked gamma oscillations in firing. This description of fundamental features of the dLGN visual response at this intermediate stage of retinal degeneration provides a context for emerging attempts to restore vision by introducing ectopic photoreception to the degenerate retina