Digital Inclusion of Older Adults during COVID-19: Lessons from a Case Study of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS).

Older adults' relationship to information and communications technology (ICT) is often discussed in terms of the digital divide or technology gap. Older persons, those 65 years of age and older, are seen as excluded or marginally represented in the digital sphere, even though data show their use of technology is increasing. Challenges in technology adoption and models for improving digital inclusion are both well-known, but the COVID pandemic and its general shift to digital life have created a critical need to increase digital inclusion of older persons. A case study of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) and the organization's migration from in-person to virtual programming is used as an example of reframing the way the relationship of older adults to technology is seen in the field and in practice. Policy and programming implications of this new view of technology are discussed in the conclusion.

A computational model of blast loading on the human eye.

Ocular injuries from blast have increased in recent wars, but the injury mechanism associated with the primary blast wave is unknown. We employ a three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction computational model to understand the stresses and deformations incurred by the globe due to blast overpressure. Our numerical results demonstrate that the blast wave reflections off the facial features around the eye increase the pressure loading on and around the eye. The blast wave produces asymmetric loading on the eye, which causes globe distortion. The deformation response of the globe under blast loading was evaluated, and regions of high stresses and strains inside the globe were identified. Our numerical results show that the blast loading results in globe distortion and large deviatoric stresses in the sclera. These large deviatoric stresses may be indicator for the risk of interfacial failure between the tissues of the sclera and the orbit.

Quantitative mapping of collagen fiber orientation in non-glaucoma and glaucoma posterior human sclerae.

PURPOSE: The posterior sclera has a major biomechanical influence on the optic nerve head, and may therefore be important in glaucoma. Scleral material properties are influenced significantly by collagen fiber architecture. Here we quantitatively map fiber orientation in non-glaucoma and glaucoma posterior human sclerae. METHODS: Wide-angle x-ray scattering quantified fiber orientation at 0.5-mm intervals across seven non-glaucoma post-mortem human sclerae, and five sclerae with glaucoma history and confirmed axon loss. Multiphoton microscopy provided semiquantitative depth-profiling in the peripapillary sclera. RESULTS: Midposterior fiber orientation was either uniaxial (one preferred direction) or biaxial (two directions). The peripapillary sclera was characterized by a ring of fibers located mainly in the mid-/outer stromal depth and encompassing ∼50% of the total tissue thickness. Fiber anisotropy was 37% higher in the peripapillary sclera compared with midposterior, varied up to 4-fold with position around the scleral canal, and was consistently lowest in the superior-nasal quadrant. Mean fiber anisotropy was significantly lower in the superior-temporal (P < 0.01) and inferior-nasal (P < 0.05) peripapillary scleral quadrants in glaucoma compared with non-glaucoma eyes. CONCLUSIONS: The collagen fiber architecture of the posterior human sclera is highly anisotropic and inhomogeneous. Regional differences in peripapillary fiber anisotropy between non-glaucoma and glaucoma eyes may represent adaptive changes in response to elevated IOP and/or glaucoma, or baseline structural properties that associate with predisposition to glaucomatous axon damage. Quantitative fiber orientation data will benefit numerical eye models aimed at predicting the sclera's influence on nerve head biomechanics, and thereby its possible role in glaucoma.