Sensitive extraction of seven pesticide residues from environmental water with magnetic graphene oxide-based covalent organic framework.

The use of pesticides has increased with the development of agriculture. However, due to the trace content and the matrix's inherent complexity in environmental water, development of rapid and sensitive detection method present significant challenges in the analysis of pesticide residues. The study synthesized magnetic graphene oxide (MGO) by combining superparamagnetic nanoparticles with the easy modification of graphene oxide (GO). Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) were then modified to have a large specific surface area. Finally, magnetic graphene oxide-based covalent organic frameworks, namely MGO-COFs, were obtained with a spherical structure and used as magnetic solid-phase extraction materials, which was successfully used to determine the seven pesticide residues in environmental samples in conjunction with high performance liquid chromatography. The method has a wide linear range for the tested pesticides, with satisfactory correlation coefficients (R ≥ 0.099) and low detection limits (0.3-1.21 µg L-1). The correlation coefficients for all seven pesticides were high (R2 ≥ 0.9996). The spiked recoveries, exhibiting a range of 91.3 to 109 %, demonstrated that the developed MGO-COF-MSPE-HPLC-UV method is simple, efficient, and suitable for the analysis and detection of seven pesticide residues in environmental water.

Vocal and early speech development in Korean-acquiring children with hearing loss and typical hearing.

This study investigated the vocal and early speech development of Korean-acquiring children with hearing loss (HL) who underwent early auditory amplification compared to their typical hearing (TH) counterparts. The research focused on phonological characteristics of child vocalisation based on samples collected from naturalistic home environments. One-day home recordings using a Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recorder were obtained from 6 children with HL and 12 children with TH who ranged from 17 to 23 months of age in Korean monolingual environments. Child volubility, canonical babbling ratio (CBR), consonant distributions, and utterance structures of vocalisations were evaluated through qualitative and quantitative analyses of vocalisation samples collected from LENA recordings. The findings revealed that children with HL displayed comparable vocalisation levels to children with TH, with no significant differences in volubility and CBR. In consonant and utterance shape inventories, noticeable quantitative and qualitative differences were observed between children with HL and those with TH. The study also suggested both universal and language-specific production patterns, revealing the early effects of ambient language on consonant distributions and utterance structures within their vocalisation repertoire. This study emphasised the role of auditory input and the importance of early auditory amplification to support speech development in children with HL.

The Effect of LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) for Children with Hearing Loss in Denmark including a Pilot Validation for the Danish Language.

Background/Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether day-long recordings with Language Environment Analysis (LENA) can be utilized in a hospital-based Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) program in Denmark for children with hearing loss and to conduct a pilot validation in the Danish language. Methods and materials: A license for the LENA system (LENA SP) was purchased, and trials were offered to three families enrolled in the AVT program. Each family made two day-long recordings with 3-4 months in between and received feedback during the therapy sessions. From 18 × 10-min clips randomly pulled out of the recordings, a comparison of adult word counts (AWC) between the LENA algorithm counts and the counts made by two human transcribers was made and used for the pilot validation. Results: LENA proved to be valuable as a guiding tool for Danish parents. Pilot validation showed good correlations and an acceptable limit of agreement (LoA). Conclusions: LENA holds the potential for Danish validation and use in AVT/clinical practice. When used in clinical practice, parents must be informed of the biases and limitations, and possible ethical issues must be considered. Because of the GDPR rules, there is a need to discuss the possibility of implementing this tool clinically in Denmark and the EU.

Ecological risk assessment and transmission of soil heavy metals in pastoral areas of the Tibetan plateau based on network environment analysis.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is distinguished by its diverse ecosystems and biodiversity, which are highly dependent on their soil. In this study, a comprehensive analysis was conducted to assess the ecological risks in Maqin County, located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, along with the local background values of soil elements, level of element enrichment, and source appointment of soil elements. The findings show that the background soil element levels in Maqin County were greater than the average soil content values in China. The soils in the study area exhibited pollution levels ranging from weak to moderate. The positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was employed to successfully categorized soil elements into four sources: F1 (natural sources), F2 (grazing sources), F3 (volcanic and rock fracture sources), and F4 (intrusive and deep rock source). Based on the characteristics of the ecological communities and the network environmental analysis model, ecological risks were directly introduced through vegetation and soil microorganisms, with subsequent transmission to other components of the ecosystem through the food chain. The integrated risks associated with vegetation, herbivores, soil microorganisms, and carnivores were 0.0106, 0.00193, 0.0282, and 0.00132, respectively. Notably, soil microorganisms were found to be the primary contributors to the total ecological risk in the study area. Furthermore, network environmental analysis and human health risk models revealed that F1, F2, F3, and F4 accounted for 16.85 %, 8.90 %, 21.76 %, and 52.49 % of the input risk of vegetation and soil microorganisms, respectively. Particularly, F4 emerged as the largest contributor to human health risks. This study provides valuable information for the preservation of the ecological environment in pastoral areas, contributing to the global promotion of sustainable ecological practices.

The Language ENvironment Analysis system (LENA): A validation study with Italian-learning children.

This study is a validation of the LENA system for the Italian language. In Study 1, to test LENA's accuracy, seventy-two 10-minute samples extracted from daylong LENA recordings were manually transcribed for 12 children longitudinally observed at 1;0 and 2;0. We found strong correlations between LENA and human estimates in the number of Adult Word Count (AWC) and Child Vocalisations Count (CVC) and a weak correlation between LENA and human estimates in Conversational Turns Count (CTC). In Study 2, to test the concurrent validity, direct and indirect language measures were considered on a sample of 54 recordings (19 children). Correlational analyses showed that LENA's CVC and CTC were significantly related to the children's vocal production, a parent report measure of prelexical vocalizations and the vocal reactivity scores. These results confirm that the automatic analyses performed by the LENA device are reliable and powerful for studying language development in Italian-speaking infants.

Family-level factors of early childhood development: Evidence from rural China.

Family-level factors that characterize the home environment are critical inputs to early language and cognitive development, and potential mechanisms for improving developmental outcomes in vulnerable populations. Many studies conducted in high-income and Western settings highlight stimulating parenting, the home language environment, and parental self-efficacy as possible mechanisms of early development, though less is known about how these family-level factors impact child development in low- or middle-income settings. Even less is known about these family-level factors and early childhood development in rural China, where rates of cognitive and language delay in children aged 0-3 years are as high as 45% and 46%, respectively. Using data collected from 77 rural households with children aged 18-24 months in Southwestern China, this study examines the associations between stimulating parenting, the home language environment, and parental self-efficacy, and early cognitive and language development. The results indicate that stimulating parenting was significantly associated with cognitive, language, and overall development; the home language environment was only significantly associated with language development; and parental self-efficacy was not significantly associated with any developmental outcomes. The implications of such findings reveal mechanisms for supporting healthy child development in rural China.

Language environment and parent-infant close contact in neonatal care and emerging lexical abilities of very preterm children-a longitudinal study.

AIM: This longitudinal study investigated associations between language environment and parent-infant close contact in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and preterm children's lexical abilities. METHODS: NICU language environment of 43 very preterm infants (born<32 gestational weeks) was measured with the Language Environment Analysis System (LENA; variables: number of adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalisations). Parent-infant close contact (holding and skin-to-skin contact) in the NICU was reported using parental closeness diaries. At 15 and 18 months' corrected age, lexical development was measured with screening methods, and eye tracking-based lexical processing was assessed at 18 months. N varied between 29 and 38 in different outcome measures. RESULTS: LENA measured conversational turns and child vocalisations, and parent-infant close contact associated positively with lexical development (r = 0.35-0.57). High numbers of NICU adult words associated negatively with lexical processing (r = -0.38- -0.40). In regression models, conversational turns and parent-infant close contact explained 34%-35% of receptive development. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that adult-infant turn taking and parent-infant close contact in the NICU are positively associated with lexical development. High numbers of overheard words in the NICU may not favour later lexical processing. Further research is warranted on the significance of NICU language environment on later lexical abilities.

Effects of multilingualism on Australian infants' language environments in early childhood education centers.

This study investigates differences in the language environments experienced by multilingual and monolingual infants in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. The Language Environment Analysis (LENA) technology was used to collect day-long audio-recordings from 181 one-year-old infants (age range from 12 to 21 months). We examined whether infants' multilingual status predicts the amount of educators' language input (adult word count, AWC), child vocalizations (CVC) and conversational turns (CTC), as well as interaction effects on AWC, CVC and CTC of infants' multilingual status and other infant, home and ECEC characteristics. Multilevel mixed effects models revealed no main effect of infants' multilingual status on the language environment outcome variables. Instead, infant gender significantly predicted adult word count, with female infants hearing more words from educators than male infants. There was a significant interaction effect between the infants' multilingual status and both their age and length of time in an ECEC setting on child vocalizations. While monolingual infants produced more vocalizations as their age increased, multilingual infants did not show this increase in vocalizations with age. Further, the difference between monolingual and multilingual children's vocalizations decreased as the length of time in ECEC increased. There were no significant predictors of conversational turns. Findings from this study suggest that early childhood educators do not adjust their talk according to the multilingual status of the infants. However, multilingual infants do not increase their vocalizations as their age increases to the same extent as do their monolingual peers. The interaction effect between multilingualism and the length of ECEC attendance also implies that ECEC environments may be particularly beneficial for supporting multilingual infants' vocalizations. This study highlights the need to provide pedagogical support to educators to help them to encourage multilingual infants' vocalizations in ECEC settings.

Multi-location evaluation of mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) in Indian climates: Ecophenological dynamics, yield relation, and characterization of locations.

Crop yield varies considerably within agroecology depending on the genetic potential of crop cultivars and various edaphic and climatic variables. Understanding site-specific changes in crop yield and genotype × environment interaction are crucial and needs exceptional consideration in strategic breeding programs. Further, genotypic response to diverse agro-ecologies offers identification of strategic locations for evaluating traits of interest to strengthen and accelerate the national variety release program. In this study, multi-location field trial data have been used to investigate the impact of environmental conditions on crop phenological dynamics and their influence on the yield of mungbean in different agroecological regions of the Indian subcontinent. The present attempt is also intended to identify the strategic location(s) favoring higher yield and distinctiveness within mungbean genotypes. In the field trial, a total of 34 different mungbean genotypes were grown in 39 locations covering the north hill zone (n = 4), northeastern plain zone (n = 6), northwestern plain zone (n = 7), central zone (n = 11) and south zone (n = 11). The results revealed that the effect of the environment was prominent on both the phenological dynamics and productivity of the mungbean. Noticeable variations (expressed as coefficient of variation) were observed for the parameters of days to 50% flowering (13%), days to maturity (12%), reproductive period (21%), grain yield (33%), and 1000-grain weight (14%) across the environments. The genotype, environment, and genotype × environment accounted for 3.0, 54.2, and 29.7% of the total variation in mungbean yield, respectively (p < 0.001), suggesting an oversized significance of site-specific responses of the genotypes. Results demonstrated that a lower ambient temperature extended both flowering time and the crop period. Linear mixed model results revealed that the changes in phenological events (days to 50 % flowering, days to maturity, and reproductive period) with response to contrasting environments had no direct influence on crop yields (p > 0.05) for all the genotypes except PM 14-11. Results revealed that the south zone environment initiated early flowering and an extended reproductive period, thus sustaining yield with good seed size. While in low rainfall areas viz., Sriganganagar, New Delhi, Durgapura, and Sagar, the yield was comparatively low irrespective of genotypes. Correlation results and PCA indicated that rainfall during the crop season and relative humidity significantly and positively influenced grain yield. Hence, the present study suggests that the yield potential of mungbean is independent of crop phenological dynamics; rather, climatic variables like rainfall and relative humidity have considerable influence on yield. Further, HA-GGE biplot analysis identified Sagar, New Delhi, Sriganganagar, Durgapura, Warangal, Srinagar, Kanpur, and Mohanpur as the ideal testing environments, which demonstrated high efficiency in the selection of new genotypes with wider adaptability.

Co-hydrothermal carbonization of organic solid wastes to hydrochar as potential fuel: A review.

The organic solid waste (OSW) is a potential resource that loses its original value in people's daily production process. It can be used for secondary energy utilization through hydrothermal technology, which is similar to artificially simulating the natural coalification process. Co-hydrothermal carbonization (co-HTC) is a promising thermochemical conversion pathway, and advanced mechanisms can eliminate the drawbacks of single-feedstock hydrothermal carbonization (HTC). The preparation and production process of hydrochar can solve the problems of energy crisis and environmental pollution. This paper comprehensively reviews the key mechanisms of co-HTC to prepare solid fuels, and reviews the development process and practical application of hydrothermal technology. To begin with, the physical and chemical properties and combustion performance of co-hydrochar depend on the production method, process parameters, and selection of raw materials. The co-hydrochar usually has a higher HHV and a low atomic ratio of H/C and O/C, which improves combustion performance. Subsequently, the transformation path of the hydrothermal process of lignocellulosic and protein OSW was comprehensively expounded, and the reaction mechanism of the co-HTC of the two OSWs was effectively proposed. The effect of the ratio of different raw materials on the synergistic effect of co-HTC was also analyzed. Furthermore, the typical advantages and disadvantages of environmental safety, technical economy, and practical application in the co-HTC process are expounded. All in all, this review provides some foundations and new directions for the co-HTC of OSWs to prepare potential fuel. In addition, several prospects for the development and integrated application of co-HTC are presented in the future.

Maritime Environment Assessment and Management Using through Balanced Scorecard by Using DEMATEL and ANP Technique.

Previous studies have found that the occurrence of maritime accidents often lacks a sound environment management mechanism. The reason is that maritime safety needs management functions to promote each other. This study aims to assess the risk analysis of maritime accidents, applying balanced scorecard (BSC) concepts integrating decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) with analytic network process (ANP). The empirical results are that the balanced scorecard could be applied as a maritime procedure management method in maritime risk analysis. A total of 30 questionnaires were collected via scholar questionnaire, and five criteria or key factors for strengthening risk assessment of marine accidents were determined. According to the application of BSC, the risk analysis criteria constructed can assist maritime authorities to reduce the maritime accidents.

The home language environment and early language ability in rural Southwestern China.

Using premier Language Environment Analysis technology to measure and analyze the home language environment, this observational study aims to describe the home language environment and child language ability, drawing on empirical data from 77 households with children aged 18-24 months from rural China. The results show large variation in measures of the home language environment and early language ability, similar to other rural Chinese samples. Results also demonstrate significant correlations between child age and the home language environment, maternal employment and the home language environment, father's educational attainment and the home language environment, adult-child conversations and early language ability, and child vocalizations and early language ability.

Layered filter paper-silver nanoparticle-ZIF-8 composite for efficient multi-mode enrichment and sensitive SERS detection of thiram.

A SERS substrate FP/Ag/ZIF-8 composed of filter paper (FP), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) film arranged in a layered structure was developed for sensitive detection of pesticide thiram in various samples. Roles of these components in analyte adsorption and Raman signal enhancement were studied using a pesticide intermediate 4-Aminothiophenol (4-ATP) as the probe. The substrate showed high adsorption and optimized SERS response with thick metal organic framework (MOF) coating (125 nm), which is different from previous reported plasmonic particle-MOF composite substrate, where thinnest MOF coating produced the strongest SERS signal. Detection limit for 4-ATP improved 1000-fold on FP/Ag/ZIF-8 (3 pM) compared with that on FP/Ag (3 nM). Importantly, the FP/Ag/ZIF-8 with porous and flexible property can efficiently capture pesticide thiram in different real samples using soaking, filtration or swabbing operation. The subsequent SERS detection of thiram showed advantages of low detection limit (soaking, LOD: 0.04 nM in lake water), fast detection (filtration, within 1 min in peach juice) and suitable for curve surface analysis (swabbing, LOD: 0.1 ng/cm2 on apple peel), respectively. The substrate also displayed good reproducibility, high stability and size-selective response for thiram detection. Such a layered plasmonic particle/MOF hybrid may hold great promise for toxicant analysis in environment and food.

A Systematic Narration of Some Key Concepts and Procedures in Plant Breeding.

The goal of a plant breeding program is to develop new cultivars of a crop kind with improved yield and quality for a target region and end-use. Improved yield across locations and years means better adaptation to the climatic, soil, and management conditions in the target region. Improved or maintained quality renders and adds value to the improved yield. Both yield and quality must be considered simultaneously, which constitutes the greatest challenge to successful cultivar development. Cultivar development consists of two stages: the development of a promising breeding population and the selection of the best genotypes out of it. A complete breeder's equation was presented to cover both stages, which consists of three key parameters for a trait of interest: the population mean (µ), the population variability (σ G ), and the achieved heritability (h 2 or H), under the multi-location, multi-year framework. Population development is to maximize µσ G and progeny selection is to improve H. Approaches to improve H include identifying and utilizing repeatable genotype by environment interaction (GE) through mega-environment analysis, accommodating unrepeatable GE through adequate testing, and reducing experimental error via replication and spatial analysis. Related concepts and procedures were critically reviewed, including GGE (genotypic main effect plus genotype by environment interaction) biplot analysis, GGE + GGL (genotypic main effect plus genotype by location interaction) biplot analysis, LG (location-grouping) biplot analysis, stability analysis, spatial analysis, adequate testing, and optimum replication. Selection on multiple traits includes independent culling and index selection, for the latter GYT (genotype by yield*trait) biplot analysis was recommended. Genomic selection may provide an alternative and potentially more effective approach in all these aspects. Efforts were made to organize and comment on these concepts and procedures in a systematic manner.

A system-scale environmental risk analysis with considering a conceptual conversion from material/energy flow to information flow under uncertainties.

A conceptual conversion from material/energy flow to information flow is presented in this study for evaluating network environment analysis (NEA) within the naphthalene-contaminated groundwater ecosystems under stochastic-fuzzy uncertainties. Four components (i.e., vegetation, herbivore, soil microorganism, and carnivore) are considered into the NEA framework for quantifying their direct and integral ecological risks. Carcinogenic risk related to human health concern is also evaluated under four remediation periods. The developed method is then applied to a power plant site. Results reveal that the average naphthalene concentration after pump-and-treat treatment would significantly decrease from 8.672 to 1.232 µg/L when remediation period extends to 10 years. The probabilities of suffering from carcinogenic risk would reach 0.9862, 0.9566, 0.8746, and 0.6142 under different remediation periods. Soil microorganism would receive more input risk than vegetation owing to its higher vulnerability. Although the upper-layer components (such as herbivore and carnivore) are not exposed to risk sources, they would gradually accumulate to a high-level ecological risk through food chains. Sensitivity analysis shows that variations in standard boundaries would have a significant impact on the risks of all components within groundwater ecosystems. This study can offer a novel perspective and methodology for comprehensively assessing the system-scale environment risks.

Multi-trait genomic-enabled prediction enhances accuracy in multi-year wheat breeding trials.

Implementing genomic-based prediction models in genomic selection requires an understanding of the measures for evaluating prediction accuracy from different models and methods using multi-trait data. In this study, we compared prediction accuracy using six large multi-trait wheat data sets (quality and grain yield). The data were used to predict 1 year (testing) from the previous year (training) to assess prediction accuracy using four different prediction models. The results indicated that the conventional Pearson's correlation between observed and predicted values underestimated the true correlation value, whereas the corrected Pearson's correlation calculated by fitting a bivariate model was higher than the division of the Pearson's correlation by the squared root of the heritability across traits, by 2.53-11.46%. Across the datasets, the corrected Pearson's correlation was higher than the uncorrected by 5.80-14.01%. Overall, we found that for grain yield the prediction performance was highest using a multi-trait compared to a single-trait model. The higher the absolute genetic correlation between traits the greater the benefits of multi-trait models for increasing the genomic-enabled prediction accuracy of traits.

Whole Genome Analysis of Three Multi-Drug Resistant Listeria innocua and Genomic Insights Into Their Relatedness With Resistant Listeria monocytogenes.

Listeria innocua are Gram-positive rod-shaped bacteria, which are not generally infectious as opposed to Listeria monocytogenes. However, the comparatively high genomic similarity between both along with on occasion, their coexistence in similar ecological niches may present the opportunity for resistance or virulence gene transfer. In this study, three multi-drug resistant L. innocua originally cultured from food were put forward for long-read genome sequencing. Chromosome and plasmid genomes were assembled and annotated. Analysis demonstrated that the resistant phenotypes correlated well with genotypes. Three plasmids pLI42, pLI203, and pLI47-1 were identified which harbor resistance islands. Sequence alignments suggested that plasmids pLI42 and pLI203 were highly similar to a previously sequenced L. monocytogenes plasmid pLR1. Similarly, another three types of resistance gene islands were observed on chromosome, including tet(M) gene islands (transposon Tn916 orthologs), dfrG gene islands and optrA-erm(A) gene islands. All three L. innocua isolates possessed listeria pathogenicity island-4 (LIPI-4) which is linked to cases of mengitis. Further genome environment and phylogenic analysis of regions flanking LIPI-4 of L. innocua and L. monocytogenes showed that these may have common origins and with the potential to transmit from the former. Our findings raise the possible need to include both L. monocytogenes and L. innocua in food surveillance programs so as to further understand of the origins of antimicrobial resistance and virulence markers of public health importance in L. monocytogenes.

Growing Up in a Digital World - Digital Media and the Association With the Child's Language Development at Two Years of Age.

Digital media (DM), such as cellphones and tablets, are a common part of our daily lives and their usage has changed the communication structure within families. Thus, there is a risk that the use of DM might result in fewer opportunities for interactions between children and their parents leading to fewer language learning moments for young children. The current study examined the associations between children's language development and early DM exposure. Participants: Ninety-two parents of 25months olds (50 boys/42 girls) recorded their home sound environment during a typical day [Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA)] and participated in an online questionnaire consisting of questions pertaining to daily DM use and media mediation strategies, as well as a Swedish online version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory, which includes a vocabulary scale as well as a grammar and pragmatics scale. Results: Through correlations and stepwise regressions three aspects of language were analyzed. The child's vocabulary was positively associated with interactional turn-taking. The child's vocabulary and grammar were negatively associated with the likelihood of parent's device use during everyday child routines and the amount of TV watched by the child. The child's pragmatic development was also positively associated with the parent's device use in child routines but also with the parent's joint media engagement (JME), as well as the child's gender (where girls perform better). Conclusion: Our study confirms that specific aspects of the 2-year old's DM environment are associated with the child's language development. More TV content, whether it is viewed on a big screen or tablet, is negatively associated with language development. The likelihood of parents' use of DM during everyday child routines is also negatively associated with the child's language development. Positive linguistic parental strategies such as interactional turn-taking with the child, JME, and book reading, on the other hand, are positively associated with the child's language development.

Exposure to electronic media between 6 and 24 months of age: An exploratory study.

This study explores the associations between electronic media exposure, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) in a longitudinal sample of 24 infants from English-speaking families. Leveraging Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) technology, the study seeks to characterize the relation between electronic media exposure and parental and child vocal activity. We analyzed ecologically valid, daylong audio recordings collected in infants' homes when they were 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months old. SES was measured with the Hollingshead Index, and exposure to electronic media and adult and infant vocal activity were measured automatically with LENA. On average, the children in the sample were exposed to 58 min of electronic media daily. We found that electronic media exposure was negatively associated with SES and decreased with child age, but only amongst high-SES families. We also found that electronic media exposure negatively impacted concurrent adult and child vocal activity, irrespective of SES and infant age. The present findings are an important step forward in examining the role of demographic factors in exposure to electronic media and enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which exposure to electronic media may impact linguistic development in infancy and beyond.

Practical training in medical sociology "Analysis of social environments of living quarters". A field experiment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: In the summer semester 2020, a new format was introduced at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg for first-year medical students in the subject of medical sociology with a neighborhood-related social environment analysis. Didactic approach: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the didactic concept had to be changed at short notice from seminar group-related fieldwork in different districts of Magdeburg to individual work at the place of study or home, supplemented by accompanying online offers. The students were asked to characterize their neighborhood in terms of quality of life, health and illness as well as medical care by means of interviews with inhabitants of their immediate living environment, a neighborhood inspection with the taking of photographs and an analysis of official secondary data. The aim was to gain initial experience in scientific work (data collection, presentation and interpretation of results, as well as reporting). An evaluation of this new course and conclusions derived from it for its further development will be reported. Evaluation: 51 percent of the students participated in an evaluation of the course. The clear majority rated the internship as "good" or "very good". As a suggestion for improvement, the desire for optional supplementary individual counseling and better formal preparation for the performance assessments were expressed several times. Two thirds of those surveyed consider the online teaching format to be useful even in post-pandemic times.