Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Fragments in Wastewater Detects the Spread of New Variants during Major Events.

The sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater is an unbiased method to detect the spread of emerging variants and to track regional infection dynamics, which is especially useful in case of limited testing and clinical sequencing. To test how major international events influence the spread of new variants we have sequenced SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater samples of Davos, Landquart, Lostallo, and St. Moritz in the Swiss canton of Grisons in the time around the international sports competitions in Davos and St.

Projection of healthcare demand in Germany and Switzerland urged by Omicron wave (January-March 2022).

In January 2022, after the implementation of broad vaccination programs, the Omicron wave was propagating across Europe. There was an urgent need to understand how population immunity affects the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic when the loss of vaccine protection was concurrent with the emergence of a new variant of concern. In particular, assessing the risk of saturation of the healthcare systems was crucial to manage the pandemic and allow a transition towards the endemic course of SARS-CoV-2 by implementing more refined mitigation strategies that shield the most vulnerable groups and protect the healthcare systems.

Results from Canton Grisons of Switzerland suggest repetitive testing reduces SARS-CoV-2 incidence (February-March 2021).

In February 2021, in response to emergence of more transmissible SARS-CoV-2 virus variants, the Canton Grisons launched a unique RNA mass testing program targeting the labour force in local businesses. Employees were offered weekly tests free of charge and on a voluntary basis. If tested positive, they were required to self-isolate for ten days and their contacts were subjected to daily testing at work.

The Association Between Dating Violence and Student Absenteeism Among a Representative Sample of U.S. High School Students: Findings From the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Survey.

Student absenteeism affects students' engagement in school and academic and professional success. While research documents a significant association between school bullying/fighting and student absenteeism due to fear of being at school or getting to school, little research has examined the association of adolescent dating violence (ADV) victimization with this type of absenteeism. This study examined the relationship between physical and/or sexual ADV victimization in the past year (dichotomized as yes or no), and number of days of student absenteeism due to feeling unsafe at school or on the way to school in the past month (dichotomized as any vs.

Breastfeeding Communication Strategies, Challenges and Opportunities in the Twitter-Verse: Perspectives of Influencers and Social Network Analysis.

Using social media is one important strategy to communicate research and public health guidelines to the scientific community and general public. Empirical evidence about which communication strategies are effective around breastfeeding messaging is scarce. To fill this gap, we aimed to identify influencers in the largest available Twitter database using social network analysis ( = 10,694 users), inductively analyze tweets, and explore communication strategies, motivations, and challenges via semi-structured interviews.

Real-time Twitter interactions during World Breastfeeding Week: A case study and social network analysis.

Using Twitter to implement public health awareness campaigns is on the rise, but campaign monitoring and evaluation are largely dependent on basic Twitter Analytics. To establish the potential of social network theory-based metrics in better understanding public health campaigns, we analyzed real-time user interactions on Twitter during the 2020 World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) as an exemplar case. Social network analysis (SNA), including community and influencer identification, as well as topic modeling were used to compare the activity of n = 29,958 campaign participants and n = 10,694 reference users from the six-months pre-campaign period.

Physiological Monitoring and Hearing Loss: Toward a More Integrated and Ecologically Validated Health Mapping.

With an ongoing shift from managing disease toward the inclusion of maintaining health and preventing disease, the world has seen the rise of increasingly sophisticated physiological monitoring and analytics. Innovations range from wearables, smartphone-based spot monitoring to highly complex noncontact, remote monitoring, utilizing different mechanisms. These tools empower the individual to better navigate their own health.

The Quest for Ecological Validity in Hearing Science: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Advance It.

Ecological validity is a relatively new concept in hearing science. It has been cited as relevant with increasing frequency in publications over the past 20 years, but without any formal conceptual basis or clear motive. The sixth Eriksholm Workshop was convened to develop a deeper understanding of the concept for the purpose of applying it in hearing research in a consistent and productive manner.

Continuous noninvasive glucose monitoring; water as a relevant marker of glucose uptake in vivo.

With diabetes set to become the number 3 killer in the Western hemisphere and proportionally growing in other parts of the world, the subject of noninvasive monitoring of glucose dynamics in blood remains a "hot" topic, with the involvement of many groups worldwide. There is a plethora of techniques involved in this academic push, but the so-called multisensor system with an impedance-based core seems to feature increasingly strongly. However, the symmetrical structure of the glucose molecule and its shielding by the smaller dipoles of water would suggest that this option should be less enticing.

Retrospective Continuous-Time Blood Glucose Estimation in Free Living Conditions with a Non-Invasive Multisensor Device.

Even if still at an early stage of development, non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring (NI-CGM) sensors represent a promising technology for optimizing diabetes therapy. Recent studies showed that the Multisensor provides useful information about glucose dynamics with a mean absolute relative difference (MARD) of 35.4% in a fully prospective setting.

First Experiences With a Wearable Multisensor in an Outpatient Glucose Monitoring Study, Part I: The Users' View.

Background: Extensive past work showed that noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring with a wearable Multisensor device worn on the upper arm provides useful information about glucose trends to improve diabetes therapy in controlled and semicontrolled conditions.

Methods: To test previous findings also in uncontrolled in-clinic and outpatient conditions, a long-term study has been conducted to collect Multisensor and reference glucose data in a population of 20 type 1 diabetes subjects. A total of 1072 study days were collected and a fully on-line compatible algorithmic routine linking Multisensor data to glucose applied to estimate glucose trends noninvasively.

First Experiences With a Wearable Multisensor Device in a Noninvasive Continuous Glucose Monitoring Study at Home, Part II: The Investigators' View.

Background: Extensive past work showed that noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring with a wearable multisensor device worn on the upper arm provides useful information about glucose trends to improve diabetes therapy in controlled and semicontrolled conditions.

Method: To test previous findings also in uncontrolled conditions, a long term at home study has been organized to collect multisensor and reference glucose data in a population of 20 type 1 diabetes subjects. A total of 1072 study days were collected and a fully on-line compatible algorithmic routine linking multisensor data to glucose applied to estimate glucose levels noninvasively.

The Effect of a Global, Subject, and Device-Specific Model on a Noninvasive Glucose Monitoring Multisensor System.

Background: We study here the influence of different patients and the influence of different devices with the same patients on the signals and modeling of data from measurements from a noninvasive Multisensor glucose monitoring system in patients with type 1 diabetes. The Multisensor includes several sensors for biophysical monitoring of skin and underlying tissue integrated on a single substrate.

Method: Two Multisensors were worn simultaneously, 1 on the upper left and 1 on the upper right arm by 4 patients during 16 study visits.

Contrasting nonstructural carbohydrate dynamics of tropical tree seedlings under water deficit and variability.

Drought regimes can be characterized by the variability in the quantity of rainfall and the duration of rainless periods. However, most research on plant response to drought has ignored the impacts of rainfall variation, especially with regard to the influence of nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) in promoting drought resistance. To test the hypothesis that these components of drought differentially affect NSC dynamics and seedling resistance, we tracked NSC in plant tissues of tropical tree seedlings in response to manipulations of the volume and frequency of water applied.

Non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring with multi-sensor systems: a Monte Carlo-based methodology for assessing calibration robustness.

In diabetes research, non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring (NI-CGM) devices represent a new and appealing frontier. In the last years, some multi-sensor devices for NI-CGM have been proposed, which exploit several sensors measuring phenomena of different nature, not only for measuring glucose related signals, but also signals reflecting some possible perturbing processes (temperature, blood perfusion). Estimation of glucose levels is then obtained combining these signals through a mathematical model which requires an initial calibration step exploiting one reference blood glucose (RBG) sample.

Dielectric spectra broadening as a signature for dipole-matrix interaction. III. Water in adenosine monophosphate/adenosine-5'-triphosphate solutions.

In this, the third part of our series on the dielectric spectrum symmetrical broadening of water, we consider the nucleotide aqueous solutions. Where in Parts I [E. Levy et al.

Non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring: improved accuracy of point and trend estimates of the Multisensor system.

Non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring (NI-CGM) sensors are still at an early stage of development, but, in the near future, they could become particularly appealing in diabetes management. Solianis Monitoring AG (Zurich, Switzerland) has proposed an approach for NI-CGM based on a multi-sensor concept, embedding primarily dielectric spectroscopy and optical sensors. This concept requires a mathematical model able to estimate glucose levels from the 150 channels directly measured through the Multisensor.

The remote sensing of mental stress from the electromagnetic reflection coefficient of human skin in the sub-THz range.

Recent work has demonstrated that the reflection coefficient of human skin in the frequency range from 95 to 110 GHz (W band) mirrors the temporal relaxation of stress induced by physical exercise. In this work, we extend these findings to show that in the event of a subtle trigger to stress, such as mental activity, a similar picture of response emerges. Furthermore, the findings are extended to cover not only the W band (75-110 GHz), but also the frequency band from 110 to 170 GHz (D band).

A dielectric inverse problem applied to human skin measurements during glucose excursions.

A fringing field capacitive sensor has been used to measure the dielectric properties of human skin and underlying tissue in the MHz frequency range. It has recently been shown in clinical experimental studies that these dielectric properties can be related to the effects of in vivo glucose variations of the test subject. Previously, the relationship between electrical impedance and the glucose level has been established via statistical methods, such as the regression method.

Data processing for noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring with a multisensor device.

Background: Impedance spectroscopy has been shown to be a candidate for noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring in humans. However, in addition to glucose, other factors also have effects on impedance characteristics of the skin and underlying tissue.

Method: Impedance spectra were summarized through a principal component analysis and relevant variables were identified with Akaike's information criterion.

Dynamics of blood electrolytes in repeated hyper- and/or hypoglycaemic events in patients with type 1 diabetes.

Aims/hypothesis: Electrolyte disturbances are well-known consequences of the diabetic pathology. However, less is known about the cumulative effects of repeated changes in glycaemia, a characteristic of diabetes, on the electrolyte balance. We therefore investigated the ionic profiles of patients with type 1 diabetes during consecutive hyper- and/or hypoglycaemic events using the glucose clamp.

A 4-h hyperglycaemic excursion induces rapid and slow changes in major electrolytes in blood in healthy human subjects.

Hyperglycaemia is well known to cause reductions in plasma Na(+) levels or even hyponatraemia due to an osmotically induced dilution of the interstitium and blood. It is, however, unclear whether this dilution is significantly counteracted by ion regulatory homeostatic mechanism(s) or not. Furthermore, the effects of moderate hyperglycaemia on other major ions are less well known.

Characteristics of a multisensor system for non invasive glucose monitoring with external validation and prospective evaluation.

The Multisensor Glucose Monitoring System (MGMS) features non invasive sensors for dielectric characterisation of the skin and underlying tissue in a wide frequency range (1 kHz-100 MHz, 1 and 2 GHz) as well as optical characterisation. In this paper we describe the results of using an MGMS in a miniaturised housing with fully integrated sensors and battery. Six patients with Type I Diabetes Mellitus (age 44±16 y; BMI 24.

The effect of blood content on the optical and dielectric skin properties.

A wearable system incorporating sensors for dielectric and optical spectroscopy was used to study skin properties and their dependence on the cutaneous blood content (CBC). Simultaneous measurements with both modalities were carried out on the upper arm during blood perfusion-provoking exercises performed by four subjects in four separate sets of experiments. By relating changes in the attenuation of green (central wavelength λ(c) = 568 nm) and infrared (λ(c) = 798 nm) light, the ratio of mean pathlengths travelled by photons in the skin blood plexus was obtained.