Spanish-speaking Patients' Experiences with Hearing Health Care.

Health care providers working with Spanish-speaking patients must provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care to meet the communication needs of this population. Disparities related to hearing health care access remain understudied, leaving gaps in clinical practice and guidance for audiologists. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Spanish-speaking patients with hearing loss when accessing hearing health care services through a limited income hearing aid program.

Resource Deployment in Response to Trauma Patients.

Background Variance in the deployment of the trauma team to the emergency department (ED) can result in patient treatment delays and excess burden on ED personnel. Characteristics of trauma patients, including mechanism of injury, injury type, and age, have been associated with differences in trauma resource deployment. Therefore, this retrospective, single-site study aimed to examine the deployment patterns of trauma resources, the characteristics of the trauma patients associated with levels of trauma resource deployment, and the deployment impact on ED workforce utilization and non-trauma ED patients.

Measuring Emergency Department Staff Perceptions of Causes and Management of Violence.

Background: Half of all reported violent incidents in health care settings occur in the emergency department (ED) placing all staff members at risk. However, research typically does not include all ED work groups or validated measures beyond nurses and physicians.

Objective: The aims of this study were to (a) validate an established instrument measuring perceptions of causes of violence and attitudes toward managing violence within an inclusive workforce sample; and (b) explore variation in perceptions, attitudes, and incidence of violence and safety to inform a violence prevention program.

Interprofessional education activity to improve communication with older adults.

Given the increasing older adult population, students in the health professions need to be trained to work in interprofessional teams to effectively interact with and manage communication difficulties in this population. Through an interprofessional education case study activity focused on communication with a complex older adult patient, 92 students from Communication Sciences and Disorders and Nursing learned about interprofessional collaboration, age-related hearing loss, and communication strategies. Participants completed a knowledge assessment quiz, the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale (IPAS), and a post-activity evaluation survey.

Detection and distribution of two dominant alleles associated with the sweet kernel phenotype in almond cultivated germplasm.

Almond [ Miller (D. A. Webb), syn.

Global differences in acute heart failure treatment: analysis of the STRONG-HF site feasibility questionnaire.

Aims: Acute heart failure (AHF) has an impact on human health worldwide. Despite guidelines for treatment and management of AHF, mortality rates remain high. The main objective of this study was to compare standard in-hospital treatment and management of AHF against current clinical guidelines and variations across regions.

Magnetically induced stiffening for soft robotics.

Soft robots are well-suited for human-centric applications, but the compliance that gives soft robots this advantage must also be paired with adequate stiffness modulation such that soft robots can achieve more rigidity when needed. For this reason, variable stiffening mechanisms are often a necessary component of soft robot design. Many techniques have been explored to introduce variable stiffness structures into soft robots, such as pneumatically-controlled jamming and thermally-controlled phase change materials.

Considering Individuals' Hearing Ability Before Administering Cognitive Assessments.

Sensory impairments such as age-related hearing loss and poor eyesight have been associated with a negative impact on cognitive screening test scores. Many researchers use cognitive tests and consider factors such as vision and cardiac issues but do not account for hearing loss. We reviewed published literature in the field of gerontology to determine if hearing loss was considered in human subjects research that involved the administration of a cognitive battery or screening test.

Evaluating Research Transparency and Openness in Communication Sciences and Disorders Journals.

Purpose: To improve the credibility, reproducibility, and clinical utility of research findings, many scientific fields are implementing transparent and open research practices. Such open science practices include researchers making their data publicly available and preregistering their hypotheses and analyses. A way to enhance the adoption of open science practices is for journals to encourage or require submitting authors to participate in such practices.

The Impact of Amplification on Cognitive Screening Test Scores.

Hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline in older adults. Research has shown that hearing loss negatively affects cognitive screening test measures as patients may mishear verbally administered questions. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of amplification on performance on a commonly used cognitive screening test.

Recent breakthroughs in the treatment of chronic hepatitis Delta.

Hepatitis Delta virus (HDV) is responsible for the most aggressive form of chronic hepatitis, which may evolve towards cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and death within few years. During the last 30 years the only available therapy was interferon or peg-IFN, which was characterized by poor tolerability and modest results. The detailed knowledge of the HDV replication cycle and its interaction with HBV allowed the introduction of new drugs which are currently in phase II or III of experimentation.

The Relevance of Discovering and Recovering the Biodiversity of Apulian Almond Germplasm by Means of Molecular and Phenotypic Markers.

Almond cultivation has great traditional and economic relevance in Southern Italy, especially in the Apulia region, where almond trees feature an ample and ancient varietal richness. To contrast the loss of plant genetic erosion and to safeguard the available bioresources, as well as to reinforce the local production, the regional Re.Ge.

The Impact of COVID-19 Home Confinement on Mexican University Students: Emotions, Coping Strategies, and Self-Regulated Learning.

One of the main challenges in higher education is promoting students' autonomous and self-regulated learning, which involves managing their own emotions and learning processes in different contexts and circumstances. Considering that online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic may be an opportunity for university students to take greater responsibility for their learning, it is essential to explore the strategies they have developed in the face of emotional and learning challenges during the health crisis. This study aimed at analyzing the relationships between students' emotions, coping strategies, and self-regulated learning in online learning during COVID-19 home confinement.

Readability and Suitability of Spanish-Language Hearing Aid User Guides.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the readability and suitability of Spanish-language hearing aid user guides. Method Hearing aid user guides in English and Spanish were downloaded for analysis. Readability for the English guides was calculated using the Flesch Reading Ease Scale and the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formula, and readability for the Spanish guides was calculated using the Fernandez-Huerta and Spaulding Formula and Fry Graph.

Methodological Considerations for Auditory Training Interventions for Adults With Hearing Loss: A Rapid Review.

Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate literature on auditory training published since 2013. Method A rapid review or a streamlined approach to systematically identify and summarize relevant studies was performed. Selected health sciences databases were searched using a search strategy developed with the PICO (population, intervention, comparison, and outcome) framework.

Almond diversity and homozygosity define structure, kinship, inbreeding, and linkage disequilibrium in cultivated germplasm, and reveal genomic associations with nut and seed weight.

Almond [Prunus dulcis Miller (D.A. Webb)] is the main tree nut species worldwide.

Unmasking misunderstandings: Strategies for better communication with patients.

Positive patient outcomes depend on successful communication. Increased use of personal protective equipment such as face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic can exacerbate communication difficulties. This article describes situations in which miscommunications may occur, identifies sources of communication breakdowns, and offers strategies to prevent them in real-life scenarios.

Survey of Hearing Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Service Delivery.

Purpose This study aimed to explore older adults' perceptions of their hearing health during the stay-at-home order issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method A 24-item survey was completed by 150 community-dwelling older adults in the United States. Participants were asked about their self-reported hearing status, use of hearing aids and difficulty wearing masks while wearing hearing aids, relative importance of their hearing health, priority of their hearing health during the COVID-19 pandemic, difficulty communicating with masks, and utilization of telepractice services.

Coronavirus-Related Anxiety, Social Isolation, and Loneliness in Older Adults in Northern California during the Stay-at-Home Order.

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of and associations between anxiety, social isolation, and loneliness in a sample of older adults in Northern California during the stay-at-home order enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. 514 older adults completed a 24-item survey. Perceived isolation and loneliness were reported in 56.

Innovative Soil Management and Micro-Climate Modulation for Saving Water in Peach Orchards.

Microclimatic and soil management studies emphasize that roofing above the canopy or soil mulching contributes to reduce water losses from horticultural cropping systems and, at the same time, to increase water use efficiency. The aim of this 2-year on-farm study, carried out on a late ripening peach (cv. California) orchard, was to investigate the combined effect of water supply (full or deficit irrigation, DI), incoming light (hail or shading net), and soil management (tilling or mulching) on: microclimate; fruit growth; yield; irrigation water use productivity (WP); and soil water stress coefficient (Ks).

An Examination of Effect Sizes and Statistical Power in Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

Purpose The purpose was to examine and determine effect size distributions reported in published audiology and speech-language pathology research in order to provide researchers and clinicians with more relevant guidelines for the interpretation of potentially clinically meaningful findings. Method Cohen's Hedges' Pearson and sample sizes ( = 1,387) were extracted from 32 meta-analyses in journals in speech-language pathology and audiology. Percentile ranks (25th, 50th, 75th) were calculated to determine estimates for small, medium, and large effect sizes, respectively.