Analysis of the Role of Female Hormones During Infection by COVID-19.

Women have metabolic, immunological, and genetic variables that ensure more protection from coronavirus infection. However, the indication of treatment for several pathologies and contraception is determined by hormones that have adverse effects and raise doubts about their use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the present study searches women specificities and the relation between female sexual hormones and COVID-19, and reports the main recommendations in this background.

Cochlear implant telemedicine: Remote fitting based on psychoacoustic self-tests and artificial intelligence.

This study aims to assess the feasibility of autonomous cochlear implant (CI) fitting by adult CI recipients based on psychoacoustic self-testing and artificial intelligence (AI). A feasibility study was performed on six adult CI recipients implanted with a Nucleus device. Two weeks after processor activation in the clinic, a 'self-fitting' session was organized in a supervised simulated home environment.

Speech polar plots for different directionality settings of SONNET cochlear implant processor.

The newest CI processor from MED-EL company, the SONNET, has two new directional microphone settings. Besides the Omnidirectional microphone mode, it has the possibility to switch to Natural or Adaptive directionality. Both new modes favour perception of sound coming from a front-facing direction compared to sounds from sources at alternate azimuths.

The use of cochlear's SCAN and wireless microphones to improve speech understanding in noise with the Nucleus6® CP900 processor.

Objectives: The newest Nucleus CI processor, the CP900, has two new options to improve speech-in-noise perception: (1) use of an adaptive directional microphone (SCAN mode) and (2) wireless connection to MiniMic1 and MiniMic2 wireless remote microphones.

Design: An analysis was made of the absolute and relative benefits of these technologies in a real-world mimicking test situation. Speech perception was tested using an adaptive speech-in-noise test (sentences-in-babble noise).

Computer-assisted CI fitting: Is the learning capacity of the intelligent agent FOX beneficial for speech understanding?

Objective: The software application FOX ('Fitting to Outcome eXpert') is an intelligent agent to assist in the programing of cochlear implant (CI) processors. The current version utilizes a mixture of deterministic and probabilistic logic which is able to improve over time through a learning effect. This study aimed at assessing whether this learning capacity yields measurable improvements in speech understanding.