Australian Hearing

To identify facilitators and barriers to implementing an injury surveillance system for amateur boxing in Australia, and to evaluate an implementation trial of an injury surveillance system. Mixed methods research. (1) Semi-structured interviews of key informants from the Australian amateur boxing community (i.e. athletes, coaches, promoters, referees, medical professionals, and boxing governing body officials) were transcribed and subjected to a reflexive thematic analysis. (2) Implementation trial of an injury surveillance system at five amateur boxing events in Australia was evaluated using the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance framework indicators; however, the maintenance domain was not evaluated. Three primary themes were generated in the reflexive thematic analysis: (1) value of data, which included sub-themes on growing the sport, improving athlete performance, and informing educational activities; (2) trust, which was engendered by a strong sense of rapport and connection between the boxing community and the research team; and (3) barriers to implementation, which included sub-themes on fear, resistance to change, and process requirements. The implementation trial involved five amateur boxing events, which comprised a total of 210 registered athletes, of which 181 were eligible to participate in this research. The reach indicator was 81 %, the four effectiveness indicators ranged from 86 % to 100 %, the adoption indicator was 100 %, and implementation indicator was 100 %. It is feasible to implement an injury surveillance system and obtain good-quality data in the amateur boxing setting in Australia, but there are potential barriers to implementation at scale.

ABSTRACT The Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS) is a deep, high-completeness multiwavelength survey based around spectroscopic observations using the Anglo-Australian Telescope’s AAOmega spectrograph. The survey covers $\sim 4.5$ deg$^{2}$ over three extragalactic fields to Y$_{\mathrm{ AB}}< 21.2$ mag and probes sources at $0< z< 1.2$, with a median redshift of $z=0.53$. Here, we describe the DEVILS spectroscopic observations, data reduction, and redshift analysis. We then describe and release to the community all DEVILS data in the 10h [D10, COSMOS (Cosmological Evolution Survey)] region including: (i) catalogues of redshifts, photometry, spectral energy distribution fitting for physical properties, visual morphologies, structural decompositions, and group environments/halo masses, (ii) matched imaging in 28 bands from X-rays to radio continuum, and (iii) reduced 1D spectra. All data are made publicly available through Data Central (datacentral.org.au). Within D10, we obtain 5442 new high-quality spectroscopic redshifts. When combined with existing, lower quality, redshift information ($\mathrm{ {\mathrm i.e.}}$ photometric redshifts), this is increased to 7946. Of these, 3122 have a spectroscopic redshift from another source (many that was not available at the time of the DEVILS observations). As such, DEVILS provides new unique high-quality spectroscopic redshifts for 4824 faint sources in COSMOS. This increases the spectroscopic completeness at Y-mag $\sim$ 21 from $\sim$50 per cent in other samples to $\sim$90 per cent in DEVILS. Finally, we show the power of this data set by exploring the suppression of star formation in overdense environments, split by morphology and stellar mass, and highlighting the ubiquitous nature of environmental quenching.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed critical vulnerabilities in Europe’s public health infrastructure, highlighting significant challenges faced in the European Union (EU’s) mission to strengthen health systems, and to increase security and preparedness. Key obstacles such as fragmented data systems, unequal access to care across EU Member States (MS), limited trauma system capacity, and the lack of real-time health surveillance and intelligence, hamper timely detection, assessment, and the deployment of coordinated response to cross-border health threats. These gaps have already been highlighted in the EU’s health preparedness agenda, yet its scope ought to widen beyond infectious disease outbreaks so as to address a wider spectrum of preventable non-communicable harms, incl. injury, violence, and occupational trauma. Moreover, evolving and interconnected pressures such as climate change, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), urbanization, and an extremely intense pace of technological advancement, demand a more integrated, agile, and forward-thinking approach to safeguard health systems and security across the Continent.As the EU seeks to align public health systems and security with environmental sustainability and digital transformation, it becomes clear that siloed preparedness strategies are insufficient. Instead, interoperability, cross-sector collaboration and data integration, and citizen empowerment, must form the foundation of future-proof health systems, and also health surveillance systems. A comprehensive approach ought to consider all levels of care and adopt an intersectoral prism, to ensure patient and citizen safety whilst safeguarding the interests of public health and a robust innovation ecosystem.This panel will convene representatives from the patient community together with public health experts to explore how Europe can enhance its capacity to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to health crises. The discussion will focus on integrating risk intelligence, cutting-edge technologies, and inclusive governance models to safeguard public health and promote safety throughout the life course. Additionally, particular emphasis will be given to access and accessibility, including the creation of inclusive environments for individuals living with disabilities or experiencing compromised access for other reasons. Key themes include the strategic opportunities emerging at the nexus of digital transformation, the potential of data integration across sectors, citizen engagement, risk intelligence, and multisectoral governance. The panel will examine how the next generation of European health systems can be co-created to be anticipatory, inclusive, interoperable and resilient.The session will explore how whole-of-society (WoS) approaches can drive comprehensive safety and prevention strategies across all levels of health systems, involving all stakeholders, from the local community to national and European institutions. Emphasizing the critical need for harmonized and interoperable data streams across sectors, including health, environment, transportation, education, and social services, the discussion will highlight how integrated data can be used to enhance reporting on short- and long-term health and societal outcomes, reduce system burdens, and support robust, evidence-informed policymaking in both high- and low-resource contexts.Resilient infrastructures must not only provide efficient emergency responses but also ensure equitable access, support mental health, adequately address trauma and injury, and reduce inequalities. The session will thus discuss how spaces that are designed inclusively, integrating accessibility, dignity, and psychological safety, can foster trust in health systems, improve patient and worker wellbeing, and support recovery and reintegration.A special focus will be placed on the transformative role of digital innovation in health governance. This includes the expanding use of real-time analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI-) powered predictive modelling, and interoperable surveillance platforms that enable rapid, precise, and proactive decision-making. The panel will examine how the potential of these technologies can be responsibly harnessed to anticipate and identify emerging risks in real-time, how they ought to be evaluated so as to optimize resource allocation, and strengthen system responsiveness.Moreover, the panel will delve into the practical integration of One Health principles, promoting a holistic, interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach to health security. Central to this approach is embedding citizen and patient voices in the design and governance of health systems and of AI technologies to ensure that policies are grounded in lived experiences, foster public trust, and reflect community needs.Finally, the session will critically assess frameworks for evaluating the effectiveness, safety, and equitable value of emerging health technologies in detail. It will underscore the importance of ensuring that innovations translate into accessible, affordable, and timely tools that meet the diverse needs of populations, particularly in vulnerable or underserved communities, thereby advancing health equity alongside technological progress.Through moderated discussions and practical case studies, this panel aims to foster a shared understanding among European institutions, civil society, and scientific stakeholders on how to co-create health systems that are not only crisis-responsive but also sustainable, trusted, and safe for all populations.

Previous studies have confirmed stem morphemes (e.g., book) are identified in any position (e.g., in both bookmark and textbook) but prefixes and suffixes (e.g., re- in replay and -er in player) cannot be recognized when moved from their typical word-initial or word-final locations. However, English words with multiple affixes (e.g., unresolved, mindfulness) suggest there must be further nuance to the positional constraints imposed on affixes in the reading system to facilitate cases where affixes occur in atypical locations but still convey meaning. We used two lexical decision experiments (N = 90 native English-speaking participants each) to investigate the positional encoding of mid-embedded suffixes. In Experiment 1, transposed tri-morphemic nonwords ending in a chain of two suffixes (e.g., spitenessful [derived from spitefulness]), and transposed nonwords with string-initial suffixes (e.g., fulyouthness [derived from youthfulness]) were compared against orthographic controls (e.g., spitementdom/domyouthment). In Experiment 2, transposed tri-morphemic nonwords ending in a stem (e.g., bestersell [derived from bestseller]) and transposed nonwords with string-initial suffixes (e.g., erwalksleep [derived from sleepwalker]) were compared against orthographic controls (e.g., bestalsell/enwalksleep). Across both experiments, the results revealed a significantly larger morpheme transposition effect relative to controls for the mid-embedded compared with the string-initial suffix conditions. Items like bestersell activated the corresponding lexical representation of "bestseller" and made it more difficult to reject the target nonword, revealing that suffixes are not as strictly positionally encoded as previously assumed. These findings challenge existing predictions of positional requirements for affixes and provide evidence calling for more nuanced theoretical models of morphological processing.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an increasingly popular neuroimaging technique that measures cortical hemodynamic activity in a non-invasive and portable fashion. Although the fNIRS community has been successful in disseminating open-source processing tools and a standard file format (SNIRF), reproducible research and sharing of fNIRS data amongst researchers has been hindered by a lack of standards and clarity over how study data should be organized and stored. This problem is not new in neuroimaging, and it became evident years ago with the proliferation of publicly available neuroimaging datasets. To solve this critical issue, the neuroimaging community created the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) that specifies standards for how datasets should be organized to facilitate sharing and reproducibility of science. Currently, BIDS supports dozens of neuroimaging modalities including MRI, EEG, MEG, PET, and many others. In this paper, we present the extension of BIDS for NIRS data alongside tools that may assist researchers in organizing existing and new data with the goal of promoting public disseminations of fNIRS datasets.

This umbrella review aims to summarize the major benefits of hearing aid usage in adults by synthesizing findings from published review articles. A comprehensive search of databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar, was conducted. The search was limited to English-language review articles published between 1990 and 2023, focusing on hearing aid outcomes in at least 5 adults (aged ≥18 years). Two researchers independently screened titles, abstracts, and full-text articles, and conducted a quality assessment using the Joanna Briggs Checklist for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses. A third researcher was involved in discussions with the 2 researchers to resolve conflicts during the screening and quality assessment stages. Eleven articles were included in this review. There were three systematic reviews with meta-analysis and eight systematic reviews without meta-analysis. The quality assessment indicated that articles scored between 6 and 11 out of a total of 11 criteria. Three articles met all quality criteria. Study participants tended to be middle-aged (≥40 years) or older adults (≥65 years). Participant gender was less clear as this was not consistently reported but appeared to favor men. This umbrella review found that speech perception, communication function, hearing handicap, and self-assessed hearing aid benefit were consistently positively associated with hearing aid use in the analysis of included studies. Hearing handicap was the most frequently reported outcome with evidence from four different studies supporting its mitigation with hearing aid use. There was insufficient evidence in terms of benefit on balance, cognitive function, depression, tinnitus, loneliness, and social isolation. There was conflicting evidence on the impact of hearing aid use on quality of life. Among eligible studies, there were no reports of negative impacts of hearing aid use. There are a number of potential benefits associated with hearing aid use. However, this review found that there was a clear lack of high-quality evidence and limited use of robust study design to support the benefits of hearing aids on other outcomes such as quality of life and cognition. Inconsistent use and interpretation of various outcome measures makes it difficult to produce homogenous data which is needed to make more conclusive statements about the benefits of hearing aids.