Audiological practice and COVID-19: recommendations that audiological centers can use to maintain the safety and quality of service-expert opinion

Purpose Audiology is an essential service for some patient groups and some interventions. This article sets forth experience-based recommendations for how audiological centers can continue to safely and effectively function during COVID-19. Methods The recommendations are the result of panel discussion and are based on the clinical experience of the panelists/authors. Results The recommendations cover which patient groups and which interventions should be treated when and whether this can be performed in the clinic or remotely; how to maintain the safety of workplace via optimizing patient flow within the clinic and the sanitation of rooms and equipment; and overcoming communication challenges that COVID-19 intensifies. Conclusion For essential audiological services to continue under COVID-19, safety measures must be implemented and maintained, and treatment and communication strategies must be adapted to offset communication difficulties due to personal protective equipment (PPE) and social distancing and to bolster patient confidence. In short, it is vital that staff feel safe, that patients either feel the clinic is safe enough to visit or that remote treatment may be an option, and that clinics and patients have a broad agreement on the urgency of any needed service. We hope that these recommendations help clinics effectively accomplish these goals

Comparison of direct electrocaloric characterization methods exemplified by 0.92 Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.08 PbTiO3 multilayer ceramics

Electrocaloric device structures have been developed as multilayer ceramics (MLCs) based on fundamental research carried out on PMN-8PT bulk ceramics. Two different MLC structures were prepared with nine layers each and layer thicknesses of 86 μm and 39 μm. The influence of the device design on its properties has been characterized by microstructural, dielectric, ferroelectric, and direct electrocaloric measurement. For direct characterization two different methods, ie temperature reading (thermistor and thermocouple) and heat flow measurement (differential scanning calorimetry), were used. A comparison of results revealed a highly satisfactory agreement between the different methods. This study confirms that MLCs are promising candidates for implementation into energy-efficient electrocaloric cooling systems providing large refrigerant volume and high electrocaloric effect. Due to their micron-sized active layers, they allow for the application of high electric fields under low operation voltages. We measured a maximum electrocaloric temperature change of ΔT=2.67 K under application/withdrawal of an electric field of ΔE=16 kV mm−1, which corresponds to operation voltages below 1.5 kV

High-resolution HLA allele and haplotype frequencies in several unrelated populations determined by next generation sequencing: 17th International HLA and Immunogenetics Workshop joint report

The primary goal of the unrelated population HLA diversity (UPHD) component of the 17th International HLA and Immunogenetics Workshop was to characterize HLA alleles at maximum allelic-resolution in worldwide populations and re-evaluate patterns of HLA diversity across populations. The UPHD project included HLA genotype and sequence data, generated by various next-generation sequencing methods, from 4,240 individuals collated from 12 different countries. Population data included well-defined large datasets from the USA and smaller samples from Europe, Australia, and Western Asia. Allele and haplotype frequencies varied across populations from distant geographical regions. HLA genetic diversity estimated at 2- and 4-field allelic resolution revealed that diversity at the majority of loci, particularly for European-descent populations, was lower at the 2-field resolution. Several common alleles with identical protein sequences differing only by intronic substitutions were found in distinct haplotypes, revealing a more detailed characterization of linkage between variants within the HLA region. The examination of coding and non-coding nucleotide variation revealed many examples in which almost complete biunivocal relations between common alleles at different loci were observed resulting in higher linkage disequilibrium. Our reference data of HLA profiles characterized at maximum resolution from many populations is useful for anthropological studies, unrelated donor searches, transplantation, and disease association studies