scholarly journals Patterns of COVID-19 pandemic dynamics following deployment of a broad national immunization program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hagai Rossman ◽  
Smadar Shilo ◽  
Tomer Meir ◽  
Malka Gorfine ◽  
Uri Shalit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
The Real ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Life Impact

AbstractStudies on the real-life impact of the BNT162b2 vaccine, recently authorized for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), are urgently needed. Here, we analysed the temporal dynamics of the number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalization in Israel following a rapid vaccination campaign initiated on December 20th, 2020. We conducted a retrospective descriptive analysis of data originating from the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH) from March 2020 to February 2021. In order to distill the possible effect of the vaccinations from other factors, including a third lockdown imposed in Israel on January 2021, we compared the time-dependent changes in number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations between (1) individuals aged 60 years and older, eligible to receive the vaccine earlier, and younger age groups; (2) the latest lockdown (which was imposed in parallel to the vaccine rollout) versus the previous lockdown, imposed on September 2020; (3) early-vaccinated cities compared to late-vaccinated cities; and (4) early-vaccinated geographical statistical areas (GSAs) compared to late-vaccinated GSAs. In mid-January, the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalization started to decline, with a larger and earlier decrease among older individuals, followed by younger age groups, by the order in which they were prioritized for vaccination. This fast and early decline in older individuals was more evident in early-vaccinated compared to late-vaccinated cities. Such a pattern was not observed in the previous lockdown. Our analysis demonstrates evidence for the real-life impact of a national vaccination campaign in Israel on the pandemic dynamics. We believe that our findings have major public health implications in the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, including the public ’s perception of the need for and benefit of nationwide vaccination campaigns. More studies aimed at assessing the effectiveness and impact of vaccination both on the individual and on the population level, with longer followup, are needed.

scholarly journals How Relevant Is It to Use Mineral Proxies to Mimic the Atmospheric Reactivity of Natural Dust Samples? A Reactivity Study Using SO2 as Probe Molecule

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 282
Author(s):  
Darya Urupina ◽  
Manolis N. Romanias ◽  
Frederic Thevenet
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Complex Mixtures ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
The Real ◽  
Atmospheric Processes ◽  
Real Effects ◽  
Mineral Aerosols ◽  
Life Impact ◽  
Reactivity Study

The experimental investigation of heterogeneous atmospheric processes involving mineral aerosols is extensively performed in the literature using proxy materials. In this work we questioned the validity of using proxies such as Fe2O3, FeOOH, Al2O3, MgO, CaO, TiO2, MnO2, SiO2, and CaCO3 to represent the behavior of complex mixtures of minerals, such as natural desert and volcanic dusts. Five volcanic dusts and three desert dusts were compared to a number of metal oxides, commonly used in the literature to mimic the behavior of desert dusts in the ability to form sulfites and sulfates on the surface exposed to SO2 gas. First, all samples were aged at room temperature, atmospheric pressure, under controlled experimental conditions of 175 ppm SO2 for 1 h under 30% of relative humidity. Second, they were extracted with 1% formalin and analyzed by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to quantify and compare the amount of sulfites and sulfates formed on their surfaces. It was evidenced that under the experimental conditions of this study neither one selected pure oxide nor a mixture of oxides can adequately typify the behavior of complex mixtures of natural minerals. Therefore, to evaluate the real-life impact of natural dust on atmospheric processes it is of vital importance to work directly with the natural samples, both to observe the real effects of desert and volcanic dusts and to evaluate the relevancy of proposed proxies.

scholarly journals Knowledge about mammography and associated factors: population surveys with female adults and elderly

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 930-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ione Jayce Ceola Schneider ◽  
Marui Weber Corseuil ◽  
Antonio Fernando Boing ◽  
Eleonora d'Orsi
Keyword(s):  
Associated Factors ◽  
Elderly Women ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Cancer Information ◽  
Population Surveys ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Adjusted Model

The purpose of this paper is to describe the knowledge about mammography and to identify associated factors in female adults and elderly. Data were obtained from two population surveys, one with female adults and another with elderly women from Florianópolis (SC) in 2009 - 2010. A descriptive analysis of the variables was carried out, the appropriate mean of responses about mammography was estimated and crude and adjusted Poisson regression was conducted to identify associated factors. Among adults, 23.1% answered all of the questions appropriately and the appropriate average responses was 7.2 (95%CI 7.1 - 7.3) in a total of 9. In the adjusted model, older age, higher education and income were associated with knowledge about mammography. For the elderly, 15.3% answered all questions appropriately and the average of appropriate responses was 6.4 (95%CI 5.2 - 6.5) and the factors associated with knowledge about mammography in the adjusted model were younger age groups, increased education and income, and identification of mammography as the main diagnostic method for breast cancer. Information about mammography can neither be transmitted in a clear way nor be easily understood; there are also demographic and socioeconomic differences concerning the knowledge about the exam.

scholarly journals Sport and exercise in times of self-quarantine: How Germans changed their behaviour at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 101269022093433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mutz ◽  
Markus Gerke
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Sports Clubs ◽  
Federal States ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Community Sports ◽  
Sport And Exercise

Due to the massive spread of a new Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), many European governments enacted rules and legislations in order to reduce social interactions and contain the spread of the virus. German authorities put in force a lockdown of all non-essential infrastructure, starting on 22 March 2020. These policies included the closing of sports clubs, fitness centres and community sports grounds. Most federal states prohibited social gatherings of more than two people, thereby further restricting opportunities to play sport and exercise together. The paper addresses how Germans adapted their leisure time sport and exercise (LTSE) activities in this unprecedented situation. Based on survey data representing the adult population (⩾ 14 years, N=1001, data collection 27 March to 6 April 2020), the paper shows a significant decline in LTSE activities at population level. Overall, 31% of Germans reduced their LTSE, while 27% maintained and 6% intensified their LTSE level. A share of 36% was not engaged in LTSE, either before or at the beginning of the lockdown. Younger age groups were more likely to maintain LTSE levels compared with older ones. Comparisons of ‘reducers’ and ‘maintainers/ intensifiers’ indicate that the latter group increased home-based workouts and outdoor endurance sports, while ‘reducers’ did not find adequate substitutes for their sporting routines.

scholarly journals Quantifying the real-life impacts of vaccination on critical COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mircea T Sofonea ◽  
Corentin Boennec ◽  
Anne Fontalirant ◽  
Marjolaine Regnat ◽  
Jean-Yves Lefrant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Vaccine Coverage ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Epidemiological Model ◽  
Simultaneous Reduction ◽  
The Real ◽  
Hospital Deaths ◽  
Vaccine Impact

The effectiveness of individual prophylaxis of symptomatic or severe COVID-19 by anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is now well established. However, real-life quantification of the vaccine impact on critical COVID-19 forms -- which require critical care and may lead to death -- is still lacking, especially because simultaneous reduction in community spread has to be accounted for. In this study, we use an epidemiological model tailored to capture hospital dynamics in France to investigate counterfactual scenarios, including purely collective and purely individual vaccines. The model estimates the transmissibility reduction from breakthrough infections to 43% ([32 -- 55]% 95%-likelihood interval) and that 39,100 critical care stays ([26,100 -- 57,100] 95% confidence interval) and 47,400 ([36,200-62,800]) hospital deaths have been prevented by the French vaccination campaign by August 20 2021 -- respectively corresponding to 46% and 57% relative preventions of these outcomes. Furthermore, we show that most of the critical COVID-19 forms have been prevented by the collective component of the vaccine rather than individual prophylaxis, despite its greater effectiveness. These results are in line with the accelerating decrease in fatality ratio with vaccine coverage we highlight in worldwide data.

scholarly journals A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (36) ◽  
pp. 17735-17740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Steyvers ◽  
Guy E. Hawkins ◽  
Frini Karayanidis ◽  
Scott D. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Adult Lifespan ◽  
Task Practice ◽  
Task Irrelevant

An important feature of human cognition is the ability to flexibly and efficiently adapt behavior in response to continuously changing contextual demands. We leverage a large-scale dataset from Lumosity, an online cognitive-training platform, to investigate how cognitive processes involved in cued switching between tasks are affected by level of task practice across the adult lifespan. We develop a computational account of task switching that specifies the temporal dynamics of activating task-relevant representations and inhibiting task-irrelevant representations and how they vary with extended task practice across a number of age groups. Practice modulates the level of activation of the task-relevant representation and improves the rate at which this information becomes available, but has little effect on the task-irrelevant representation. While long-term practice improves performance across all age groups, it has a greater effect on older adults. Indeed, extensive task practice can make older individuals functionally similar to less-practiced younger individuals, especially for cognitive measures that focus on the rate at which task-relevant information becomes available.

scholarly journals Facial Recognition and Visual Processing as We Age: Using the Thatcher Illusion with Famous and Non-Famous Faces

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Richard E. Hicks ◽  
Victoria Alexander ◽  
Mark Bahr
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One ◽  
Interaction With Age ◽  
Thatcher Illusion

This paper reports a study examining preferred visual processes in recognition of facial features in older vs younger age groups, using Thatcherised images of famous and non-famous people in the one study. The aims were to determine whether decline in visual system processing occurs increasingly as we grow older, and whether there is less decline in recognition of famous (or familiar) faces. Three groups (younger, middle-old and older) made up the sample of 73 people (aged 19-82 years). Visual decline in face recognition across the age groups was assessed based on the Thatcher illusion—using four famous and four non-famous faces either with normal features or with distorted features. The faces were presented one at a time on computer screen, and participants were asked to judge whether the face was distorted (eyes and/or mouth not aligned in relation to the face); in addition, time taken to decision (latency) was also measured. Decline was found in visual processing such that older individuals gave limited attention to facial details (processing faces holistically, with detail errors) and they took longer to decide. Whether the faces were famous or not did not have significant effects on the decisions and there was no interaction with age, though famous faces were given longer attention. Our visual system processes decline as we age in that we give less attention to details and more to holistic processing and so make more errors in recognition. Implications for treatment or amelioration of the effects are discussed.

scholarly journals The real-life impact of vaccination on COVID-19 mortality in Europe and Israel

Public Health ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 198 ◽  
pp. 230-237
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jabłońska ◽  
Samuel Aballéa ◽  
Mondher Toumi
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
The Real ◽  
Life Impact

scholarly journals Investigating the Evidence of the Real-Life Impact of Acute Hyperglycaemia

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Heller ◽  
Natalie Houwing ◽  
Nana Kragh ◽  
Uffe Jon Ploug ◽  
Annie Nikolajsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
The Real ◽  
Acute Hyperglycaemia ◽  
Life Impact

scholarly journals The effects of rapid mass vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and its Variants-of-Concern: Evidence from an early VoCs hotspot

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
joerg paetzold ◽  
Florian Krammer ◽  
Dorothee von Laer ◽  
Hannes winner ◽  
Janine Kimpel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Population ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Mass Vaccination ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Mass Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Large Outbreak ◽  
Rapid Mass

Abstract We studied the real-life effect of an unprecedented rapid mass vaccination campaign. Following a large outbreak of B.1.351 and B.1.1.7/E484K in the district of Schwaz/Austria, 100,000 BNT162b2 doses were procured to mass vaccinate the entire adult population (16+) of the district between the 11th and 16th of March 2021. This made the district the first widely inoculated region in Europe. We examined the effect of this unique campaign on the number of infections including VoCs, hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. We compared Schwaz with (i) a control group of highly similar districts, and (ii) with populations residing in municipalities along the border of Schwaz which were just excluded from the campaign. We find large and significant decreases for all outcomes after the campaign, including VoCs cases. The reduction relative to the control regions was largest for younger age cohorts, which were mostly non-vaccinated in the rest of the country due to the age-gradient in the national vaccination plan. Our results demonstrate that rapid population-wide mass vaccination can be an effective tool to curb overall infections as well as VoCs.

Surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy in older patients

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren Boling ◽  
Frederick Andermann ◽  
David Reutens ◽  
François Dubeau ◽  
Laetitia Caporicci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Complex Partial Seizures ◽  
Meaningful Improvement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Returning To Work ◽  
Fine Print

Object. The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) in older (≥ 50 years of age) patients. Methods. The authors conducted a review of all patients 50 years of age or older with TLE surgically treated at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital since 1981 by one surgeon (A.O.). Only patients without a mass lesion were included. Outcome parameters were compared with those of younger individuals with TLE, who were stratified by age at operation. In patients aged 50 years and older, the onset of complex partial seizures occurred 5 to 53 years (mean 35 years) prior to the time of surgery. Postoperatively, over a mean follow-up period of 64 months, 15 patients (83%) obtained a meaningful improvement, becoming either free from seizures or only experiencing a rare seizure. Most surgery outcomes were similar in both older and younger individuals, except for a trend to more freedom from seizures and increased likelihood of returning to work or usual activities in the younger patients. Note that a patient's long-standing seizure disorder did not negatively affect their ability to achieve freedom from seizures following surgery. Conclusions. Surgery for TLE appears to be effective for older individuals, comparing favorably with results in younger age groups, and carries a small risk of postoperative complications.

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