COVID-19 Outbreaks Linked to Workplaces, 23 US Jurisdictions, August-October 2021

OBJECTIVES

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, several outbreaks were linked with facilities employing essential workers, such as long-term care facilities and meat and poultry processing facilities. However, timely national data on which workplace settings were experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks were unavailable through routine surveillance systems. We estimated the number of US workplace outbreaks of COVID-19 and identified the types of workplace settings in which they occurred during August-October 2021.

METHODS

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected data from health departments on workplace COVID-19 outbreaks from August through October 2021: the number of workplace outbreaks, by workplace setting, and the total number of cases among workers linked to these outbreaks. Health departments also reported the number of workplaces they assisted for outbreak response, COVID-19 testing, vaccine distribution, or consultation on mitigation strategies.

RESULTS

Twenty-three health departments reported a total of 12 660 workplace COVID-19 outbreaks. Among the 12 470 workplace types that were documented, 35.9% (n = 4474) of outbreaks occurred in health care settings, 33.4% (n = 4170) in educational settings, and 30.7% (n = 3826) in other work settings, including non-food manufacturing, correctional facilities, social services, retail trade, and food and beverage stores. Eleven health departments that reported 3859 workplace outbreaks provided information about workplace assistance: 3090 (80.1%) instances of assistance involved consultation on COVID-19 mitigation strategies, 1912 (49.5%) involved outbreak response, 436 (11.3%) involved COVID-19 testing, and 185 (4.8%) involved COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings underscore the continued impact of COVID-19 among workers, the potential for work-related transmission, and the need to apply layered prevention strategies recommended by public health officials.

Symbol relations training improves cognitive functioning in students with neurodevelopmental disorders

Students with neurodevelopmental disorders [Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)] often experience learning challenges due to underlying weaknesses in cognitive processes. As these are some of the most common conditions to impact functioning, the development of effective treatments is a priority for neuropsychologists. However, the task of designing effective cognitive interventions has proven one of the most difficult challenges for our field. The Arrowsmith Program uses a novel approach compared to other cognitive intervention programs. We hypothesized that intensive practice of one aspect of this program would lead to improved cognitive functions in students with neurodevelopmental disorders. Twenty-seven students with neurodevelopmental disorders (ages 9.4-18.4 years) were recruited from Arrowsmith schools. Cognitive baseline and post-intervention data were gathered using components of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Cognitive Abilities. The intervention consisted of 6 weeks of intensive practice of the Symbol Relations Task. W-scores were used in a paired sample t-test analysis to determine if cognitive skill improvement occurred. Significant improvements were found in several measures of neuropsychological assessment, in particular in the Cattell-Horn-Carroll broad abilities These results provide a foundation for further work examining the utility of this novel approach to cognitive intervention.

Divergent Thinking: The Performance of Students with Visual Impairments on Abstract and Scenario-Based Tasks and Their Correlates

Introduction:

Divergent thinking is a crucial component of effective problem-solving. This study investigated the divergent thinking of students with visual impairments (i.e., blindness or low vision) in three countries and explored the correlates of their performance on two tasks.

Methods:

A sample of 52 students with visual impairments completed two divergent thinking tasks, one traditional Alternate Uses task, and one scenario-based task created for this study. Each student’s teacher of students with visual impairments completed a questionnaire containing demographic, curriculum, and student characteristics.

Results:

Of the correlates examined, teacher-rated academic independence, working on grade level, number of expanded core curriculum (ECC) areas of instruction currently received, and ongoing receipt of assistive technology instruction were significantly related to task performance.

Discussion:

Findings demonstrate the strong relationship between real-life problem-solving, divergent thinking, and academic functioning in students with visual impairments. Further investigation is needed about the relationship between aspects of problem-solving instruction and student outcomes as they relate to divergent thinking.

Implications for practitioners:

Given the connection of divergent thinking to overall problem-solving ability, teachers should assess these skills in students. Using similar scenario-based real-life tasks, they can also incorporate practice opportunities for divergent thinking within ECC instruction.

Aberrant Cerebellar Resting-State Functional Connectivity Related to Reading Performance in Struggling Readers

Reading is a critical neurodevelopmental skill for school-aged children, which requires a distributed network of brain regions including the cerebellum. However, we do not know how functional connectivity between the cerebellum and other brain regions contributes to reading. Here we used resting-state functional connectivity to understand the cerebellum's role in decoding, reading speed, and comprehension in a group of struggling readers (RD) and a group of adolescents and children with typical reading abilities (TD). We observed an increase in functional connectivity between the sensorimotor network and the left angular gyrus, left lateral occipital cortex, and right inferior frontal gyrus in the RD group relative to the TD group. Additionally, functional connectivity between the cerebellum network and the precentral gyrus was decreased and was related to reading fluency in the RD group. Seed-based analysis revealed increased functional connectivity between crus 1, lobule 6, and lobule 8 of the cerebellum and brain regions related to the default mode network and the motor system for the RD group. We also found associations between reading performance and the functional connectivity between lobule 8 of the cerebellum and the left angular gyrus for both groups, with stronger relationships in the TD group. Specifically, the RD group displayed a positive relationship between functional connectivity, whereas the TD group displayed the opposite relationship. These results suggest that the cerebellum is involved in multiple components of reading performance and that functional connectivity differences observed in the RD group may contribute to poor reading performance.

Learning-Challenged Youth Show an Abnormal Relationship Between Fronto-Parietal Myelination and Mathematical Ability

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Differences in the microstructure of fronto-parietal white matter tracts have been associated with mathematical achievement. However, much of the supporting evidence relies on nonspecific diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, making it difficult to isolate the role of myelin in math ability.

METHODS

We used myelin water imaging to measure brain myelin. We related myelin water fraction (MWF) to Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III) basic math scores using region of interest (ROI) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analyses, in 14 typically developing and 36 learning challenged youth aged 9-17 years.

RESULTS

The ROI analysis found a positive relationship between fronto-parietal MWF and math in typically developing youth, but not in learning challenged youth. The relationship between fronto-parietal MWF and math observed in typically developing youth was fully mediated by age. No group differences in fronto-parietal MWF were found between typically developing and learning challenged youth. TBSS also found no group differences in MWF values. TBSS indicated math-MWF relationships extend beyond fronto-parietal tracts to descending and ascending projection tracts in typically developing youth. TBSS identified math-MWF relationships in the cerebral peduncles of learning challenged youth.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that in typically developing youth, brain myelination contributes to individual differences in basic math achievement. In contrast, youth with learning challenges appear to have less capacity to leverage myelin to improve math achievement.

Sex-specific growth, shape, and their impacts on the life history of a long-lived vertebrate

BACKGROUND

Individual growth rates both comprise and determine life-history phenotypes. Despite decades of interest in understanding the relationship between individual growth and life history, chelonian longevity has limited our ability to robustly estimate individual growth curves that span the life of both sexes.

QUESTIONS

(1) Do patterns of growth in size and shape differ between the sexes of the painted turtle, Chrysemys picta? (2) Does individual variation in size and shape affect female reproductive effort?

METHODS

Using 30 years of field data on shell morphology of a single population of painted turtles, we used principal components analysis to summarize multivariate size and shape. We assessed the ability of three non-linear growth models - the logistic, Gompertz, and von Bertalanffy - to predict size-at-age and used model comparison to justify sex-specific model fits. We correlated age-specific size and shape of females with their reproductive efforts.

RESULTS

Model comparison supported separate fits of the von Bertalanffy growth function for each sex; non-overlapping confidence intervals imply differences in sex-specific asymptotic size, but not growth rate. Higher-order axes of variation in shell morphology described significant sexual dimorphism in shell shape related to the sphericity and curviness of the shell. Shell sphericity of females covaried with clutch size, mean egg mass, and total clutch mass. Irrespective of shell morphology, we found evidence of an egg number versus egg mass trade-off. Yet, females who matured at a larger size produced greater reproductive efforts.

Analysis of neuroelectric implant integrity

A 10-year follow-up study of neuroelectric implant integrity has been completed for 27 subjects who were treated for movement disorders associated with cerebral palsy. Data used for analysis included X-ray material, clinical data, and results from electrophysiological testing. Of the 21 subjects with subcutaneous receivers placed in the thoracic region, 81% experienced wire (67%) or receiver (14%) failure. Of the 6 subjects with subcutaneous receivers placed in the occipital region, there were no wire failures and one (17%) receiver failure. The occipital units lasted a minimum of 5.2 years without complications, whereas the thoracic units failed as early as 6 months after surgery, and lasted an average of 3.8 years. All wire fractures occurred between C1 and T1. Two types of fracture occurred, one consisting of a clean break and the other consisting of a scenario of bending and kinking, then thinning and fraying, and finally progressive multiple fragmentation. With a few exceptions the clean breaks occurred between C1 and C3, while the fraying scenario occurred between C6 and T1. Mechanisms for failure are discussed, as are results from material tests of wire samples.

The comparative strengths of internal fixation techniques

The strengths of internal fixation techniques have been compared by transecting human cadaver metacarpals, reducing and fixing the fractures, and then applying forces to mechanically bend the bone during simulated flexion. Kirschner wires alone, intraosseous wire loops with and without Kirschner wires, and bone plates were tested. Intraosseous loops were tested in three configurations, each with four different wire gauges. Intraosseous loops were stronger than Kirschner wires. Right-angle loops were the best of the intraosseous configurations. The addition of a Kirschner wire strengthened the best dorsopalmar intraosseous loops but not the best right-angle loops. Dorsal bone plates were comparable with the best intraosseous loop configurations of 26-gauge wire.

Effects of subject position on balance platform measurements

The high cost of commercially available force plates instrumented to quantify postural sway can be prohibitive to both research and clinical institutions. Therefore custom plate design and construction within the institutional environment is not uncommon. Some plate designs, however, may give erroneous measurements depending upon subject position. We report here on the existence of a kern boundary on the plate surface. Loads placed inside this boundary result in support compression, while those placed outside cause at least one support to experience tension. The findings indicate that the type of force transducer used for corner support (unidirectional or bidirectional), the type of connection between the plate and transducers, plate weight, subject weight, plate dimensions and transducer preloads are all critical to accurate measurements.