Activity

COVID-19.

In this study, we investigate the number of emergency room consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 in Germany compared to figures from the previous year.

Case numbers from calendar weeks 1 through 22 of the two consecutive years 2019 and 2020 were obtained from 29 university hospitals and 7 non-university hospitals in Germany. Information was also obtained on the patients’ age, sex, and urgency, along with the type of case (outpatient/inpatient), admitting ward, and a small number of tracer diagnoses (I21, myocardial infarction; J44, COPD; and I61, I63, I64, G45, stroke /TIA), as well as on the number of COVID-19 cases and of tests performed for SARS-CoV-2, as a measure of the number of cases in which COVID-19 was suspected or at least included in the differential diagnoses.

A total of 1 022 007 emergency room consultations were analyzed, of which 546 940 took place in 2019 and 475 067 in 2020. The number of consultations with a positive test for the COVID-19 pathogen was 3122. The total numbthe COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant drop in medical emergencies of all kinds presenting to the nation’s emergency departments. A recovery effect began to be seen as early as calendar week 15, but the levels seen in 2019 were not yet reached overall by calendar week 22; only the prevalence of myocardial infarction had renormalized by then. The reasons for this require further investigation.Online decision support systems (DSS) may help older adults self-select assistive technology (AT) by offering recommendations. User interactions with DSSs may change the recommendations they receive.

We evaluated recommendations stability and usability of an online DSS.

Middle-aged and older adults (n=43) were observed while using the DSS. The stability of DSS recommendations (ATs and advice) was compared between two time points, using a three-point scale no, partial, or full agreement. Usability was coded, referencing ISO standards.

Half (51%) of participants received AT recommendations from the DSS in both sessions, with full (14%) or partial (12%) agreement. All but one participant received advice, and almost all of them had full (40%) or partial (56%) agreement between sessions. Many of the usability issues appear to be the result of the users inaccurately measuring their environment, challenges in understanding the questions being asked, and improperly making selections from the system.

Strict AT matching rules versus generic advice, and usability issues, likely reduced the matching rate and stability of AT recommendations.

It appears that some users may require assistance with the system, and we suggest changes to the DSS format and content to improve stability and usability.

It appears that some users may require assistance with the system, and we suggest changes to the DSS format and content to improve stability and usability.The discovery of words in continuous speech is one of the first challenges faced by infants during language acquisition. This process is partially facilitated by statistical learning, the ability to discover and encode relevant patterns in the environment. Here, we used an electroencephalogram (EEG) index of neural entrainment to track 6-month-olds’ (N = 25) segmentation of words from continuous speech. Infants’ neural entrainment to embedded words increased logarithmically over the learning period, consistent with a perceptual shift from isolated syllables to wordlike units. Moreover, infants’ neural entrainment during learning predicted postlearning behavioral measures of word discrimination (n = 18). Finally, the logarithmic increase in entrainment to words was comparable in infants and adults, suggesting that infants and adults follow similar learning trajectories when tracking probability information among speech sounds. Statistical-learning effects in infants and adults may reflect overlapping neural mechanisms, which emerge early in life and are maintained throughout the life span.Automatic gain control (AGC) compresses the wide dynamic range of sounds to the narrow dynamic range of hearing-impaired listeners. Setting AGC parameters (time constants and knee points) is an important part of the fitting of hearing devices. These parameters do not only influence overall loudness elicited by the hearing devices but can also affect the recognition of speech in noise. We investigated whether matching knee points and time constants of the AGC between the cochlear implant and the hearing aid of bimodal listeners would improve speech recognition in noise. We recruited 18 bimodal listeners and provided them all with the same cochlear-implant processor and hearing aid. We compared the matched AGCs with the default device settings with mismatched AGCs. As a baseline, we also included a condition with the mismatched AGCs of the participants’ own devices. We tested speech recognition in quiet and in noise presented from different directions. The time constants affected outcomes in the monaural testing condition with the cochlear implant alone. There were no specific binaural performance differences between the two AGC settings. Therefore, the performance was mostly dependent on the monaural cochlear implant alone condition.Salmonella spp. is a foodborne pathogen present in the pork production chain, leading to potential contamination of end products and causing salmonellosis cases and outbreaks worldwide. The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella spp., especially isolates obtained from animal origin food, is a global concern. This study aimed to isolate Salmonella from swine mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and to characterize the virulence and antibiotic resistance profiles. MLN samples were obtained from a swine slaughterhouse and subjected to Salmonella spp. isolation. Ten MLN samples were positive and 29 isolates were identified based on PCR (invA and ompC) and serotyping Derby, Cerro, and Give. Afimoxifene Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis allowed to group the isolates based on their serotypes, resulting in three major clusters. All isolates presented the virulence-related genes pefA, sipA, sopB, spaN, and pagC. Relatively high numbers of Salmonella spp. were resistant to neomycin, polymyxin B, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, and nalidixic acid.