Conectar
by Lilien Schewski, Mathew Magimai Doss, Guido Beldi, Sandra Keller
Speech analysis offers a non-invasive method for assessing emotional and cognitive states through acoustic correlates, including spectral, prosodic, and voice quality features. Despite growing interest, research remains inconsistent in identifying reliable acoustic markers, providing limited guidance for researchers and practitioners in the field. This review identifies key acoustic correlates for detecting negative emotions, stress, and cognitive load in speech. A systematic search was conducted across four electronic databases: PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, and Scopus. Peer-reviewed articles reporting studies conducted with healthy adult participants were included. Thirty-eight articles were reviewed, encompassing 39 studies, as one article reported on two studies. Among all features, prosodic features were the most investigated and showed the greatest accuracy in detecting negative emotions, stress, and cognitive load. Specifically, anger was associated with elevated fundamental frequency (F0), increased speech volume, and faster speech rate. Stress was associated with increased F0 and intensity, and reduced speech duration. Cognitive load was linked to increased F0 and intensity, although the results for F0 were overall less clear than those for negative emotions and stress. No consistent acoustic patterns were identified for fear or anxiety. The findings support speech analysis as a useful tool for researchers and practitioners aiming to assess negative emotions, stress, and cognitive load in experimental and field studies.Smoking is a well-established risk factor that exacerbates multiple sclerosis (MS) progression and increases disease activity. Smoking cessation promotion practices of MS clinicians are not meeting the needs of people with MS (pwMS). This study aimed to explore the current practices and barriers faced by MS clinicians in Germany.
A qualitative study design, using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis.
Interviews with participants were held online, via telephone or face-to-face at our institute in Hamburg, Germany.
We recruited eight neurologists and four MS nurses from hospitals, neurology practices and rehabilitation facilities in Germany via purposive and snowball sampling.
We identified 27 codes across four themes: (1) knowledge: the 12 participants demonstrated a satisfactory general knowledge of the negative impacts of smoking on MS (2) current practice: significant variability was reported in the current practices, with some clinicians providing detailed advice while others merely assessing smoking status without further advice or assistance. (3) Barriers: key barriers identified included limited consultation time, perceived lack of patient motivation and insufficient availability of resources, like information material, for effective smoking cessation support. (4) Needs and wishes: participants wished for specific smoking cessation courses to which they could refer patients, as well as information material to use during patient counselling.
The study reveals considerable gaps in the consistency and comprehensiveness of smoking cessation support provided by MS clinicians in Germany. Addressing these gaps through targeted interventions, and improving the availability of information materials could enhance smoking cessation promotion for pwMS.
Heated tobacco products (HTPs) are electronic devices that heat tobacco instead of burning it to produce an inhalable aerosol. This study aimed to investigate usage patterns, sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors, as well as co-use characteristics of people who use HTPs within the German population to inform interventions and preventive measures.
We conducted analysis with pooled cross-sectional data from the German Study on Tobacco Use (DEBRA) from June 2018 till November 2023. We estimated weighted, descriptive and bimonthly data on current and ever HTP usage and descriptive data on user patterns. To analyse the variance between people who ever versus people who never used HTPs in relation to user characteristics, we performed ² tests and calculated percentages and CIs.
The proportions of both people who currently use and people who ever used HTPs have increased from 2018 (current user: 0.1% [95%CI:
HTP use has increased in Germany, particularly among younger males in urban areas. Public health interventions should target these demographics, focusing on raising awareness about potential health risks. The ban on aroma components in Germany may reduce the appeal for new users. Continuous monitoring is essential to assess the long-term impact of HTPs.
To investigate the level of adoption of evidence-based family engagement and support during end-of-life cancer care and subsequent bereavement and its contextual facilitators and barriers from health professionals' perspectives, and to explore differences between professional groups.
Contextual analysis using an online cross-sectional survey.
This study was conducted in four Swiss hospitals and three home care oncology and palliative care services. Non-parametric testing was used to investigate the level of adoption and differences between nurses, physicians, occupational- and physiotherapists and psychosocial professionals (chaplains, onco-psychologists and social workers). The STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies was followed.
The majority of the 111 participating health professionals were nurses. Adoption was statistically significantly higher during end-of-life care than bereavement, with nurses and physicians reporting higher levels than the other professional groups. Guidance on end-of-life family care was available in about half of the cases, in contrast to a quarter for bereavement care. Self-perceived knowledge, skills and attitudes were moderate to high, with nurses and physicians reporting higher levels than others, except for general skills in working with families. Organisational structures were experienced as rather supportive, with the psychosocial group appraising the organisational context as significantly less conducive to fully implementing end-of-life and bereavement care than others, particularly during the end-of-life phase.
Evidence-based family engagement and support were better adopted during end-of-life care than bereavement. Overall, nurses and physicians felt better enabled to care for families compared to other professional groups.
No patient or public contribution.
Implementation and quality improvement efforts should focus particularly on the bereavement phase and be tailored to professional groups.
The findings show that evidence-based family engagement and support practices during end-of-life were rather well adopted in contrast to subsequent bereavement care, with nurses and physicians better enabled than other professionals to provide care. A better understanding of health professionals' contributions and roles in family care is important to build interprofessional capacity for evidence-based end-of-life and bereavement support.
The STROBE checklist for reports of cross-sectional studies was followed (von Elm et al., 2007).
A limited understanding of the pathology underlying chronic wounds has hindered the development of effective diagnostic markers and pharmaceutical interventions. This study aimed to elucidate the molecular composition of various common chronic ulcer types to facilitate drug discovery strategies. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of leg ulcers (LUs), encompassing venous and arterial ulcers, foot ulcers (FUs), pressure ulcers (PUs), and compared them with surgical wound healing complications (WHCs). To explore the pathophysiological mechanisms and identify similarities or differences within wounds, we dissected wounds into distinct subregions, including the wound bed, border, and peri-wound areas, and compared them against intact skin. By correlating histopathology, RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), and immunohistochemistry (IHC), we identified unique genes, pathways, and cell type abundance patterns in each wound type and subregion. These correlations aim to aid clinicians in selecting targeted treatment options and informing the design of future preclinical and clinical studies in wound healing. Notably, specific genes, such as PITX1 and UPP1, exhibited exclusive upregulation in LUs and FUs, potentially offering significant benefits to specialists in limb preservation and clinical treatment decisions. In contrast, comparisons between different wound subregions, regardless of wound type, revealed distinct expression profiles. The pleiotropic chemokine-like ligand GPR15L (C10orf99) and transmembrane serine proteases TMPRSS11A/D were significantly upregulated in wound border subregions. Interestingly, WHCs exhibited a nearly identical transcriptome to PUs, indicating clinical relevance. Histological examination revealed blood vessel occlusions with impaired angiogenesis in chronic wounds, alongside elevated expression of genes and immunoreactive markers related to blood vessel and lymphatic epithelial cells in wound bed subregions. Additionally, inflammatory and epithelial markers indicated heightened inflammatory responses in wound bed and border subregions and reduced wound bed epithelialization. In summary, chronic wounds from diverse anatomical sites share common aspects of wound pathophysiology but also exhibit distinct molecular differences. These unique molecular characteristics present promising opportunities for drug discovery and treatment, particularly for patients suffering from chronic wounds. The identified diagnostic markers hold the potential to enhance preclinical and clinical trials in the field of wound healing.
FreshRSS 