Test Persons Research Articles

Measurement of the Memory B Cell Response via Antibodies from Activated Cells.

The body's immune response to infections and vaccination leads to the formation of memory B cells (MBCs), which protect against future infections. MBCs circulate in the blood, and the strength of the MBC response is measured with different tests. In this study, tests to measure the MBC response were compared. An MBC enzyme-linked immunospot assay (MBC-ELISpot), which counts the antibody-releasing cells (MASCs) that arise from memory B cells in vitro, and two versions of an MBC enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MBC-ELISA), which measures the concentration of antibodies released by the MASCs, were compared. The lower measurement limit of MBC-ELISpot and ELISA was determined, and it was investigated how the measurement results of individual samples and in a sample of test persons correlate. Both methods had similar lower limits of detection, and the antibody concentration correlated strongly with the number of MASCs in individual samples. The antibody concentrations measured on a sample correlated with Pearson correlation coefficients of R = 0.83-0.87 with the number of MASCs, and the proportion of antigen-specific antibodies in total IgG correlated with R = 0.74-0.82 with the proportion of antigen-specific MASCs in all antibody-secreting cells. Since the measurement sensitivity of MBC-ELISA and MBC-ELISpot is similar and the measurement results correlate strongly in a random sample, the tests are interchangeable. The MBC-ELISA has an advantage over the ELISpot in that the antibody measurements can be divided up over time, repeated, and extended. This creates new possibilities for measuring the MBC response.

Assessing diastolic function using CMR as an alternative to echocardiography: age- and gender-related normal reference values.

Impaired diastolic function is associated with a variety of diseases such as myocarditis or dilated cardiomyopathy. Currently, echocardiography is the standard method for assessing diastolic function. Recently, it has been postulated that cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is an at least equivalent or superior alternative to echocardiography. To assess CMR-based age- and gender-dependent diastolic functional normal reference values, pulmonary venous and transmitral blood-flow parameters were examined in heart-healthy test persons. Flow-sensitive phase-contrast CMR imaging was performed in the right upper pulmonary vein (RUPV) and at the level of the mitral valve (MV) in 183 healthy subjects (age 10-70years; 97 women, 86 men). The data wasdistributed as evenly as possible across all groups. Strong age-dependence was observed for PV S/D; r = 0.718, p < 0.001 (Pearson product-moment correlation) and for transmitral MV E/A; ρ = -0.736, p < 0.001 (Spearman's Rho correlation). Moderate age-dependence was found for PV slope D-wave; r = 0.394, p < 0.001. Except for MV slope E-wave (male -292cm/s2 interquartile range (IQR) {-338; -243} vs. female -319 ± 82cm/s2; p = 0.047), no gender-related differences were observed. In a subgroup (N = 100), CMR data were compared with echocardiographic data. Strong correlation was found between CMR and echocardiography for PV S/D; r = 0.545, p < 0.001 and MV E/A; ρ = 0.692, p < 0.001. Diastolic functional parameters change with age, while gender-differences are small. CMR and echocardiography showed similar PV S/D and MV E/A ratios, making CMR a promising alternative for assessing diastolic function.

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Precision of Body Tracking Outcomes in Industrial Gesture Control.

The body tracking systems on the current market offer a wide range of options for tracking the movements of objects, people, or extremities. The precision of this technology is often limited and determines its field of application. This work aimed to identify relevant technical and environmental factors that influence the performance of body tracking in industrial environments. The influence of light intensity, range of motion, speed of movement and direction of hand movement was analyzed individually and in combination. The hand movement of a test person was recorded with an Azure Kinect at a distance of 1.3 m. The joints in the center of the hand showed the highest accuracy compared to other joints. The best results were achieved at a luminous intensity of 500 lx, and movements in the x-axis direction were more precise than in the other directions. The greatest inaccuracy was found in the z-axis direction. A larger range of motion resulted in higher inaccuracy, with the lowest data scatter at a 100 mm range of motion. No significant difference was found at hand velocity of 370 mm/s, 670 mm/s and 1140 mm/s. This study emphasizes the potential of RGB-D camera technology for gesture control of industrial robots in industrial environments to increase efficiency and ease of use.

Usability Evaluation in a Remote Access Scenario.

We present an approach to use the think aloud method for formative usability evaluation for medical software in a remote access scenario which combines researchers in two different locations and test persons distributed across five Swiss hospitals into one study using MS-Teams. We could show that a) these tests can be performed remote in a tight time schedule and b) that results valuable for the formative development of the examined mockup solution could be achieved. Two sessions had to be rescheduled for technical problems but all test persons could complete the think aloud study in 30 minutes at their usual working environment. This offers the opportunity to software providers to develop medical software with better usability in close cooperation with future users.

What Medical Specialties do ME/CFS Sufferers Consult? A Public Health Study on the need for Better Medical Education and Training

The disease ME/CFS is unknown to many doctors in Germany. Within the healthcare system, significant deficits in dealing with ME/CFS patients have been repeatedly revealed. Hence, the aim of the present study was to identify the specialties of the doctors consulted by ME/CFS patients and to find out whether information on the medical procedure in the context of the diagnosis process can be derived from this. As part of the APAV-ME/CFS survey, the quantitative responses of 674 adult ME/CFS sufferers (>20 y.; 554 ♀, 120 ♂) who already had a medical ME/CFS diagnosis were statistically examined. The sampling was done by self-activation and via the snowball principle. The data were primarily evaluated descriptively. An analysis of variance was carried out to consider possible relationships. Almost a quarter of the patients said they had suffered from ME/CFS for 6 to 10 years. Diagnosis was made within 10 years of disease onset in 62%. For 6.4% it took 21-40 years. 75% of the participants consulted 6 to 15 different doctors from a wide range of disciplines in the course of the disease, in particular from general medicine, neurology, internal medicine and psychosomatics/psychiatry. Diagnosis was made in particular by GPs and immunologists. On average, the test persons named 11 mostly neuroregulatory symptoms. The results suggest that in the context of finding a diagnosis in Germany for ME/CFS, referral behaviour to specialists based on single ME/CFS symptoms or rather arbitrary contacting of doctors from a wide variety of disciplines has prevailed so far. Therefore, training and further education measures on the subject of ME/CFS are urgently needed in all specialist disciplines in the resident, inpatient and rehabilitation sectors.

Learning outcome evaluation in manual assembly

Mass customization and shorter product life cycles are causing ever more variants in production, especially in manual assembly. At the same time, more diverse personnel structures are emerging due to demographic change and labor shortages. This is causing different challenges to production managers, e.g., competence gaps. To meet these challenges, learning in manual assembly becomes increasingly important. The design of the learning process can only be improved by checking whether the processes fulfill their purpose. Various learning evaluation measures are described in general vocational education and competence development, but it is hard to select the right one for the learning process. This paper shows a procedure, how learning evaluation measures can be selected, and how they can measure learning progress. For this, a test person study was conducted to compare different learning evaluation measures and show their usability and advantages in manual assembly. The results support making learning in assembly easier to apply and controllable. In the long term, feeding back the results improves the learning process design.

Difficulty-Generating Features of Text-based Physics Tasks

Influencing the difficulty of performance tasks is of great interest in science education as in several other subjects. In the context of the VAMPS project, difficulty-generating features with respect to the cognitive demand of text-based physics tasks were systematically varied at three levels. Based on preliminary work and two pilot studies presented here briefly, a model was developed by which cognitive requirement was varied according to three features. The viability of this model was empirically tested with a sample of n&amp;nbsp;=&amp;nbsp;414 secondary school students. The feature &lt;i&gt;cognitive activity&lt;/i&gt; proved to be a significant factor influencing the empirically measured difficulty of tasks. With the help of the feature &lt;i&gt;number of information obtained from task stem&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;number of subject-specific mental procedures&lt;/i&gt;, no systematic influence on task difficulty could be shown. The influence of the test persons’ individual prior knowledge on the actual task difficulty is generally assumed to be a confounding factor. Overall, the present study contributes to a better understanding of construct representation in assessments of subject-specific proficiency and empirically confirms that a systematic variation of the task feature &lt;i&gt;cognitive activity&lt;/i&gt; on three levels affects task difficulty

The Mechanism of Energy Changes That Occur Depending on the Ratio of Force and Speed in The Example of Bicycle Ergometric Testing

Introduction: For the first time, in the aspect of biophysics, the reasons for the increase in the power of the threshold of anaerobic metabolism developed by the test person during functional diagnostics. Methods: This occurs with an increase in the pedaling frequency with which the specified load on a bicycle ergometer in the range from 40 to 140 rpm (0.73-2.56 m/s) is overcome, have been substantiated. Results: It was determined that the ratio of force and velocity in the studied range of pedaling frequencies (muscle contractile speed) corresponds to the hyperbolic type with displaced axes Conclusion: At the same time, with an increase in pedaling frequency, power increases in a cubic dependence, and the rate of oxygen consumption by the test subject decreases linearly in the process of overcoming the same fixed-power load set on a bicycle ergometer and vice versa.

Feasibility of Using Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging Technology for Contactless 3D Body Scanning and Anthropometric Assessment of Athletes.

The scope of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of using the laser imaging detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology for contactless 3D body scanning of sports athletes and deriving anthropometric measurements of the lower limbs using available software. An Apple iPad Pro 3rd Generation with embedded LiDAR technology in combination with the iOS application Polycam were used. The effects of stance width, clothing, background, lighting, scan distance and measurement speed were initially assessed by scanning the lower limbs of one test person multiple times. Following these tests, the lower limbs of 12 male and 10 female participants were scanned. The resulting scans of the lower limbs were complete for half of the participants and categorized as good in quality, while the other scans were either distorted or presented missing data around the shank and/or the thigh. Bland-Altman plots between the LiDAR-based and manual anthropometric measures showed good agreement, with the coefficient of determination from correlation analysis being R2 = 0.901 for thigh length and R2 = 0.830 for shank length, respectively. The outcome of this pilot study is considered promising, and a further refinement of the proposed scanning protocol and advancement of available software for 3D reconstruction are recommended to exploit the full potential of the LiDAR technology for the contactless anthropometric assessment of athletes.

Genetic studies on forensic-psychiatric inpatients? : Clinical, ethical and legal considerations

Research on people deprived of liberty raises serious questions, especially concerning behavioral genetic studies. Does including criminally detained patients with mental disorders in genetic studies lead to again of new knowledge and can this be ethically and legally justified? Evaluation of existing literature and interdisciplinary reflection. After areview of research ethics and legal norms, we consider the benefits and risks of behavioral genetic research, taking the unique situation of test persons deprived of their liberty into account. The fundamental right to freedom of research also justifies foundational research in forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy. The possible future benefits of improving treatment plans must be weighed against the risks resulting from potential data leaks and inappropriate public reception of research results. Then we analyze possible threats to voluntary and informed consent to study participation in more detail by the ethical concept of vulnerability. Alongside problems with grasping complex issues, above all dependencies and power dynamics in the correctional system play apivotal role. Recommendations on the ethical and legal inclusion of this study population are given. Including criminally detained study participants can be ethically and legally justified when autonomous consent is supported by specific organizational and legal procedures and measures, for example via aclear professional and organizational separation of correction and research.

A high sucrose detection threshold is associated with increased energy intake and improved post-prandial glucose response independent of the sweetness intensity of isocaloric sucrose solutions

Several studies proposed a role for the sweet taste receptor in energy intake and blood glucose regulation, but little is yet known about the impact of the individual sweet taste perception. Here, we found in a cross-over human intervention study with 29 male participants that modulating the sweetness of an isocaloric sucrose solution did not influence postprandial plasma concentrations of blood glucose and associated hormones over 120 min and 2 h post-load energy intake. Independent of the sweetness of the test solution, tests persons with a higher sucrose detection threshold had an average of 402 ± 78.8 kcal (39 ± 21%) higher energy intake and a higher glucose/insulin ratio, combined with a higher liking for sweet tasting food, than the test persons of the low threshold group. The body composition suggested a higher fat-free mass in the high threshold group that may have influenced energy intake and post-prandial glucose responses.

Towards a Miniaturized Photoacoustic Sensor for Transcutaneous CO2 Monitoring.

A photoacoustic sensor system (PAS) intended for carbon dioxide (CO2) blood gas detection is presented. The development focuses on a photoacoustic (PA) sensor based on the so-called two-chamber principle, i.e., comprising a measuring cell and a detection chamber. The aim is the reliable continuous monitoring of transcutaneous CO2 values, which is very important, for example, in intensive care unit patient monitoring. An infrared light-emitting diode (LED) with an emission peak wavelength at 4.3 µm was used as a light source. A micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) microphone and the target gas CO2 are inside a hermetically sealed detection chamber for selective target gas detection. Based on conducted simulations and measurement results in a laboratory setup, a miniaturized PA CO2 sensor with an absorption path length of 2.0 mm and a diameter of 3.0 mm was developed for the investigation of cross-sensitivities, detection limit, and signal stability and was compared to a commercial infrared CO2 sensor with a similar measurement range. The achieved detection limit of the presented PA CO2 sensor during laboratory tests is 1 vol. % CO2. Compared to the commercial sensor, our PA sensor showed less influences of humidity and oxygen on the detected signal and a faster response and recovery time. Finally, the developed sensor system was fixed to the skin of a test person, and an arterialization time of 181 min could be determined.

Comparison of Safety Mechanisms for Human-Robot Collaboration in Assembly using a Top-View RGB-D Camera System

The paradigm shift from mass production to mass customization is leading to new requirements in today's manufacturing environment. Especially in manual manufacturing processes, these requirements are characterized by high-cost pressure, increasing variant diversity and required lot size. In contrast to full-automation settings with industrial robots, human-robot collaboration offers the potential to design adaptable hybrid solutions and generate individual levels of automation in rapidly changing production lines. The safety of the operator in collaborative robot applications is one of the key factors for facilitating their use in industrial practice. This paper addresses this issue and presents a solution for safe human-robot collaboration using a top-view RGB-D camera system that continuously monitors the shared workspace. Based on the detection of visual markers and human hand tracking, different safety strategies according to DIN ISO/TS 15066 are implemented and successively compared in a paradigmatic assembly scenario as a part of a user study with 12 test persons. The utilized safety strategies include safety-rated monitored stop, speed and separation monitoring, and active contact prevention. Compared to the incorporated safety features of collaborative robots, the results show that the acceptance and fluency of collaborative robot applications improves, but the execution time increases at the same time.

Age dynamics of graphic reflection of social identity

Social identity recently has become one of the actual subjects of scientific research in social psychology, social cognitive psychology. Social identity reflects conscious and unconscious feelings of a person’s belonging to certain communities, is the context for decision-making in situations of choice. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of little-conscious aspects of identity, namely the subjective significance of communities to which a person belongs by the fact of his birth or main activity, as well as subjective inclusion in such a community. The author has developed a procedure of graphic representation of social identity based on the techniques used in projective drawing methods. The test person is asked to draw himself and five communities (family, occupation group, locality and country of residence, all people of the world) with the help of circles. This experimental procedure was conducted in nine age groups, starting with 6-7 year olds and ending with working adults. A total of 282 people participated in the experiment. The data (21 indicators) were subjected to factor analysis by the method of principal components. The following results were obtained: for each age group the average sizes of images of self and proposed social communities were revealed, using Student’s t-criterion the conclusions about significant differences in the sizes of images of the country and territory of residence for age groups were obtained. Discussion of results and conclusions. Factor analysis by the principal component method revealed four factors of social identity, which were labeled as: multiple, hierarchical, egocentric, and diffuse social identity. The proposed types of social identity were described, their psychological interpretation was given, and criteria for identification by graphic representation were proposed. The results of the study can be used in pedagogical practice, practice of psychological and pedagogical counseling.

Comparison of different techniques for prehospital cervical spine immobilization: Biomechanical measurements with a wireless motion capture system.

Various rescue techniques are used for the prehospital transport of trauma patients. This study compares different techniques in terms of immobilization of the cervical spine and the rescue time. A wireless motion capture system (Xsens Technologies, Enschede, The Netherlands) was used to record motion in three-dimensional space and the rescue time in a standardized environment. Immobilization was performed by applying different techniques through different teams of trained paramedics and physicians. All tests were performed on the set course, starting with the test person lying on the floor and ending with the test person lying on an ambulance cot ready to be loaded into an ambulance. Six different settings for rescue techniques were examined: rescue sheet with/without rigid cervical collar (P1S1, P1S0), vacuum mattress and scoop stretcher with/without rigid cervical collar (P2S1, P2S0), and long spinal board with/without rigid cervical collar (P3S1, P3S0). Four time intervals were defined: the time interval in which the rigid cervical collar is applied (T0), the time interval in which the test person is positioned on rescue sheet, vacuum mattress and scoop stretcher, or long spinal board (T1), the time interval in which the test person is carried to the ambulance cot (T2), and the time interval in which the ambulance cot is rolled to the ambulance (T3). An ANOVA was performed to compare the different techniques. During the simulated extrication procedures, a rigid cervical collar provided biomechanical stability at all angles with hardly any loss of time (mean angle ranges during T1: axial rotation P1S0 vs P1S1 p<0.0001, P2S0 vs P2S1 p<0.0001, P3S0 vs P3S1 p<0.0001; lateral bending P1S0 vs P1S1 p = 0.0263, P2S0 vs P2S1 p<0.0001, P3S0 vs P3S1 p<0.0001; flexion/extension P1S0 vs P1S1 p = 0.0023, P2S0 vs P2S1 p<0.0001). Of the three techniques examined, the scoop stretcher and vacuum mattress were best for reducing lateral bending in the frontal plane (mean angle ranges during T1: P2S1 vs P3S1 p = 0.0333; P2S0 vs P3S0 p = 0.0123) as well as flexion and extension in the sagittal plane (mean angle ranges during T2: P1S1 vs P2S1 p<0.0001; P1S0 vs P2S0 p<0.0001). On the other hand, the rescue sheet was clearly superior in terms of time (total duration P1S0 vs P2S0 p<0.001, P1S1 vs P2S1 p<0.001, P1S0 vs P3S0 p<0.001, P1S1 vs P3S1 p<0.001) but was always associated with significantly larger angular ranges of the cervical spine during the procedure. Therefore, the choice of technique depends on various factors such as the rescue time, the available personnel, as well as the severity of the suspected instability.

Open time studies of cold curing polyurethane adhesives using a standardized spatula test setup suitable for near-production conditions

The presented studies introduce a new set-up and method to analyse the maximum open time of cold curing adhesives in a production environment. By using this new set-up, a manual spatula test, Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and a rheological method, the curing reaction of two cold curing two component polyurethane adhesives, were investigated. Furthermore, the effect of different joining times on the bonding behaviour were investigated using single lap shear samples.The lap shear tests showed that the prior problem for industrial applications is the dimensional accuracy rather than the adhesion to the substrates as all samples showed cohesive or substrate near cohesive failure even when joined after the maximum open time. All used methods showed a coherent curing behaviour for both adhesives. However, the derived times as well as their accuracies vary depending on the used method. Using the easy manual spatula test, the open time is determined by the sensory feelings of the testing person while pressing a wooden spatula into the adhesive bead and is often used in industrial applications. However, the accuracy lies only within 10–20 s especially for slow curing adhesives. In comparison, the ATR-FTIR method, which is based on the decrease of the isocyanate group during the reaction, showed shorter times, whereas longer times were determined by observing the complex viscosity increase of the rheological measurements. Even though the ATR-FTIR and rheological measurements showed reproducible times due to the required laboratory environment and testing procedure, they are therefore not suitable for production conditions. As the introduced new method is based on the manual spatula test, it is suitable for the production environment with the advantage of a good reproducibility. Furthermore, with this method decreasing maximum open times were observed for increasing bead cross sections.

Coaching Opera Secco Recitatives by Using Singers’ Native Dialects: A Pilot Study

This study investigated whether individual coaching can improve role portrayal and emotional expression in opera secco recitatives. An experimental comparative study. Eighteen students (mean age 24 years) from Norway and Sweden majoring in opera singing volunteered as test persons. As singing tasks each test person studied a short opera secco recitative in their Voice Fach during 14 days. All recitatives were picked up from renowned Italian operas from the Classical period. The texts were translated in the singers' mother tongue but performed in Italian, a foreign language to all test persons Thirteen test persons were enrolled in a Test group, and they were coached individually for 1h in interpretation of their singing tasks. During the intervention the test persons combined speaking the translated text in their native dialects with singing the recitative in Italian. The test persons were asked to distinguish various emotions and motivation in the singing task, and rehearsed how to express the singing task equally distinctly in Italian as in their native dialects. The singing task was recorded a capella immediately before and after the intervention. The test persons in the Control group recorded their singing tasks pre and post 1 h self-directed rehearsing on their singing tasks, without any coaching.. The recordings of all test persons were presented in randomized order for ten expert listeners to rate the expression of emotions and role portrayal. The samples were also analysed acoustically. Post coaching samples were rated significantly better in expression of various emotions and motivation compared to pre coaching samples. The Control group singers showed no significant changes in perceptual variables. Pausing increased in both groups after rehearsing. A short individual coaching in performance of an opera recitative seemed to stimulate young opera singers` emotional and motivational expression.

70 Visual Attention and Emotion Recognition Deficits in Patients with Cerebellar Tumors

Objective:Social cognition refers to processing, analyzing and understanding information about emotions and social situations. Many studies indicate a frequent deficit of these functions in people with tumors of the cerebellum. Visual search is an important attention process prior to information processing. It also mediates the relationship between cognitive function (attention) and social cognition. There are numerous data showing that disorders of various aspects of attention are fairly common in patients with tumors of the cerebellum. The question arises whether there is any relationship between these functions. The purpose of this study was to find out if there is a relationship between visual search performance and the ability to recognize emotions.Participants and Methods:The study included 19 patients with the cerebello-pontine angle (CPA) tumors (mean age = 38.84, SD = 14.27; 10 women and 9 men) and 19 healthy controls (mean age 38.26, SD = 10.40; 10 women and 9 men). The research group consisted of patients from the Department of Neurosurgery, UCK Medical University of Warsaw, the control group was healthy. The groups did not differ demographically. At the beginning, the respondents completed a questionnaire in which they were asked about demographic data and health status. Then, a series of 40 boards presenting the letters T in two colors, blue and orange, scattered in different planes was presented. The letters were right or upside down. The test person’s task was to find and click the correctly positioned orange T letter as quickly as possible. Then, a series of 56 photos of faces representing seven different emotions was presented (happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear and a neutral face). The test person’s task was to decide which of the emotions mentioned under the photo were presented by the presented face.Results:The results indicated that patients with tumors in the CPA area had a longer mean reaction time and lower accuracy when performing visual searches than subjects from the control group. Likewise, there were longer times and lower accuracy in the emotional recognition task. Moreover, in the group of patients with CPA tumor, the response time during visual search was negatively associated with the correctness of the response in visual search (p = -0.57, p &lt;0.05). There were also negative correlations between the reaction time and the correctness of recognizing particular emotional states: anger (p = -0.48, p &lt;0.05), disgust (p = -0.62, p &lt;0.01) and neutral (p = -0.64, p &lt;0.01). The correctness of answers in visual search correlated positively with the accuracy of emotion recognition (p = 0.72, p &lt;0.01). None of the above-mentioned relationships were found in the control group.Conclusions:The obtained results indicate a relationship between the quality of visual attention and the ability to recognize emotions in people with cerebellar lesions. In order to better understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to continue research in this field.

Activity of antimicrobial examination gloves under realistic conditions: challenge not fulfilled

BackgroundAntimicrobial materials or surfaces are advertised as part of infection prevention bundles. However, the efficacy of such antimicrobial surfaces has not been sufficiently investigated in hospitals. In this study, the antimicrobial activity of examination gloves with light-activated antimicrobial properties against Gram-positive microorganisms was investigated modelling real live conditions.MethodIn a standardized experimental set-up with dry and realistic contamination, the antimicrobial properties of gloves claiming light dependent antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive organisms were tested in comparison with conventional examination gloves. All gloves were contaminated through a standardized activity of the test persons for construction with contaminated building blocks. For contamination suspensions of Enterococcus faecium ATCC 6057, Acinetobacter baumannii (outbreak strain), methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 43300 or E. faecium (VRE) patient isolate were dried on the surfaces. After the standardized activity, the gloves were held for 10 min in the light present in the room (bright conditions) and the grade of contamination was determined subsequently by quantitative culture. In one experimental series gloves were held in a dark box after contamination as a control (dark conditions).ResultsThe light intensity in all experiments under bright conditions was significantly above the limit value specified by the manufacturer for the activation of antimicrobial properties (> 500 lx). The mean values for experiments with antimicrobial active and non-active gloves were 955 and 935 lx, respectively. As claimed by the manufacture, the gloves showed no sufficient efficacy against A. baumannii under bright conditions. Against Gram-positive microorganisms such as E. faecium, E. faecium (VRE) and methicillin resistant S. aureus the gloves showed only very low antimicrobial activity with a reduction factor < 1 log10 even after 10 min in bright conditions. Interestingly, comparable results for experiments with A. baumannii and E. faecium were shown under dark conditions.ConclusionThe lack of activity of the active principle against Gram-negative microorganisms could be confirmed. The reduction factors of > 4 log10 within 5 min for Gram-positive microorganisms claimed for the product using a standard test procedure (ASTM D7907) could not be confirmed in a realistic experimental test set-up even after 10 min of light exposure. The effectiveness against Gram-positive microorganisms should be further investigated under realistic (dry) conditions, including patient care. At this stage, the use of supposedly antimicrobial gloves should not be recommended, as the belief in their efficacy may encourage the misuse of gloves.

From the practice of monitoring SARS-CoV-2 test sites in the city of Cologne

In spring 2021, a law for the nationwide opening of test centers in Germany was passed. The local health department fulfilled the task of monitoring the test centers that subsequently opened throughout Cologne regarding the infectious and hygienic risks. Inspections were carried out using structured checklists. A retrospect evaluation of the identified deficiencies was run for the period between March 15 and July 31, 2021. In 84% of the cases, hygienic deficiencies were found when the test sites were inspected for the first time. 35% of the test sites were closed immediately, most of them temporarily. These first results provide information on frequent and important hygienic problems of the rapid set up of test sites and important advice for avoiding those and thus protecting employees and test persons.