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BACKGROUND: To understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality, this study investigates overall, sex- and age-specific excess all-cause mortality in 20 countries, during 2020. METHODS: Total, sex- and age-specific weekly all-cause mortality for 2015-2020 was collected from national vital statistics databases. Excess mortality for 2020 was calculated by comparing weekly 2020 observed mortality against expected mortality, estimated from historical data (2015-2019) accounting for seasonality, long- and short-term trends. Crude and age-standardized rates were analysed for total and sex-specific mortality. RESULTS: Austria, Brazil, Cyprus, England and Wales, France, Georgia, Israel, Italy, Northern Ireland, Peru, Scotland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the USA displayed substantial excess age-standardized mortality of varying duration during 2020, while Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Mauritius, Norway, and Ukraine did not. In sex-specific analyses, excess mortality was higher in males than females, except for Slovenia (higher in females) and Cyprus (similar in both sexes). Lastly, for most countries substantial excess mortality was only detectable (Austria, Cyprus, Israel, and Slovenia) or was higher (Brazil, England and Wales, France, Georgia, Italy, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Peru and the USA) in the oldest age group investigated. Peru demonstrated substantial excess mortality even in the

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate overall and sex-specific excess all-cause mortality since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic until August 2020 among 22 countries. METHODS: Countries reported weekly or monthly all-cause mortality from January 2015 until the end of June or August 2020. Weekly or monthly COVID-19 deaths were reported for 2020. Excess mortality for 2020 was calculated by comparing weekly or monthly 2020 mortality (observed deaths) against a baseline mortality obtained from 2015-2019 data for the same week or month using two methods: (i) difference in observed mortality rates between 2020 and the 2015-2019 average and (ii) difference between observed and expected 2020 deaths. RESULTS: Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the UK (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) and the USA demonstrated excess all-cause mortality, whereas Australia, Denmark and Georgia experienced a decrease in all-cause mortality. Israel, Ukraine and Ireland demonstrated sex-specific changes in all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: All-cause mortality up to August 2020 was higher than in previous years in some, but not all, participating countries. Geographical location and seasonality of each country, as well as the prompt application of high-stringency control measures, may explain the observed variability in mortality changes.

Analysis of all-cause mortality is an important tool to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate the magnitude and potential determinants of excess all-cause mortality, from January until August 2020, using national mortality databases from 20 countries part of the C-MOR consortium. Excess weekly mortality for 2020 was calculated by comparing observed against expected weekly number of deaths for 2020. Expected 2020 weekly mortality was estimated using 2015-19 data based on a time series model adjusting for time trend and seasonality. The excess mortality was visualized against a stringency index (SI), based on nine government response indicators, downloaded from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker. Brazil, Cyprus, France, Ireland, Italy, countries of the UK, Spain and the USA showed a substantial increase in the observed mortality during 2020, which lasted from 1 (Cyprus) to 7 (England and Wales, Scotland) weeks. Australia, Denmark and Georgia observed fewer than expected deaths, whereas in Austria, Estonia, Israel, Norway, Slovenia and Ukraine 2020 mortality was as expected. Italy, Spain, UK and Brazil enforced high SI measures at least after 3 weeks from the first COVID-19 death. Sweden and the USA did not apply high SI measures for the duration of this study. In Austria, Estonia, Israel, Norway, Cyprus, Georgia, Slovenia and Ukraine, measures of high SI were implemented within 2 weeks of the first COVID-19 death. The decreased mortality in Australia is probably attributed to different seasonality patterns coupled with strict control measures. Several but not all countries showed excess all-cause mortality. Excess mortality was shown to be influenced by the seasonality patterns of each country, as well as the promptness of governments to apply high SI control measures. As the pandemic continues, the lessons learned from the first months of the pandemic can prove useful to minimize increases in all-cause mortality. Key messages Some countries showed excess all-cause mortality between January and August 2020, whereas others displayed either negligible excess mortality or even a decrease in all-cause mortality. Excess mortality may be partly attributed to delayed application of strict control measures whereas lack of excess mortality may be due to seasonality and/or strict control measures.

This paper presents a MaxSAT benchmark focused on identifying critical nodes in AND/OR graphs. We use AND/OR graphs to model Industrial Control Systems (ICS) as they are able to semantically grasp intricate logical interdependencies among ICS components. However, identifying critical nodes in AND/OR graphs is an NP-complete problem. We address this problem by efficiently transforming the input AND/OR graph-based model into a weighted logical formula that is then used to build and solve a Weighted Partial MaxSAT problem. The benchmark includes 80 cases with AND/OR graphs of different size and composition as well as the optimal cost and solution for each case., arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1905.04796

Beat perception is fundamental to how we experience music, and yet the mechanism behind this spontaneous building of the internal beat representation is largely unknown. Existing findings support links between the tempo (speed) of the beat and enhancement of electroencephalogram (EEG) activity at tempo-related frequencies, but there are no studies looking at how tempo may affect the underlying long-range interactions between EEG activity at different electrodes. The present study investigates these long-range interactions using EEG activity recorded from 21 volunteers listening to music stimuli played at 4 different tempi (50, 100, 150 and 200 beats per minute). The music stimuli consisted of piano excerpts designed to convey the emotion of ‘peacefulness’. Noise stimuli with an identical acoustic content to the music excerpts were also presented for comparison purposes. The brain activity interactions were characterized with the imaginary part of coherence (iCOH) in the frequency range 1.5-18 Hz (δ, θ, α, and lower β) between all pairs of EEG electrodes for the four tempi and the music/noise conditions, as well as a baseline resting state condition obtained at the start of the experimental task. Our findings can be summarized as follows: (a) there was an ongoing long-range interaction in the resting state engaging fronto-posterior areas; (b) this interaction was maintained in both music and noise, but its strength and directionality were modulated as a result of acoustic stimulation; (c) the topological patterns of iCOH were similar for music, noise and resting state, however statistically significant differences in strength and direction of iCOH were identified; and (d) tempo had an effect on the direction and strength of motor-auditory interactions. Our findings are in line with existing literature and illustrate a part of the mechanism by which musical stimuli with different tempi can entrain changes in cortical activity.

A case of broncho-oesophageal fistula causing bronchiectasis of the left· lung is reported. Oesophagorespiratory fistulas without atresia of the oesophagus often have an insidious clinical course and most commonly present in adulthood. This rare congenital anomaly should be considered as a cause of chronic pulmonary sepsis.. The clinical, radiographic and therapeutic features of this lesion are discussed.