Industry Sectors Highly Affected by Worksite Outbreaks of Coronavirus Disease, Los Angeles County, California, USA, March 19-September 30, 2020.

Worksites with on-site operations have experienced coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks. We analyzed data for 698 nonresidential, nonhealthcare worksite COVID-19 outbreaks investigated in Los Angeles County, California, USA, during March 19, 2020‒September 30, 2020, by using North American Industry Classification System sectors and subsectors. Nearly 60% of these outbreaks occurred in 3 sectors: manufacturing (n = 184, 26.4%), retail trade (n = 137, 19.6%), and transportation and warehousing (n = 73, 10.5%). The largest number of outbreaks and largest number and highest incidence rate of outbreak-associated cases occurred in manufacturing. Furthermore, 7 of the 10 industry subsectors with the highest incidence rates were within manufacturing. Approximately 70% of outbreak-associated case-patients reported Hispanic ethnicity. Facilities employing more on-site staff had larger and longer outbreaks. Identification of highly affected industry sectors and subsectors is necessary for targeted public health planning, outreach, and response, including ensuring vaccine access, to reduce burden of COVID-19 in vulnerable workers.

Modulation of cortical activity during comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar text topics in speed reading and speed listening.

Brain activation associated with normal and speeded comprehension of expository texts on familiar and unfamiliar topics was investigated in reading and listening. The goal was to determine how brain activation and the comprehension processes it reflects are modulated by comprehension speed and topic familiarity. Passages on more familiar topics differentially activated a set of areas in the anterior temporal lobe and medial frontal gyrus, areas often associated with text-level integration processes, which we interpret to reflect integration of previous knowledge with the passage content. Passages presented at the faster presentation resulted in more activation of a network of frontal areas associated with strategic and working-memory processes (as well as visual or auditory sensory-related regions), which we interpret to reflect maintenance of local coherence among briefly available passage segments. The implications of this research is that the brain system for text comprehension adapts to varying perceptual and knowledge conditions.

Impact of language proficiency and orthographic transparency on bilingual word reading: an fMRI investigation.

The purpose of the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation was to examine how language proficiency and orthographic transparency (letter-sound mapping consistency) modulate neural activity during bilingual single word reading. Spanish-English bilingual participants, more fluent in their second language (L2; English) than their native language (L1; Spanish), were asked to read words in the two languages. Behavioral results showed that participants were significantly slower in reading words in their less proficient language (Spanish) than in their more proficient language (English). fMRI results also revealed that reading words in the less proficient language yielded greater activity in the articulatory motor system, consisting of supplementary motor area/cingulate, insula, and putamen. Together, the behavioral and fMRI results suggest that the less practiced, hence less proficient, language requires greater articulatory motor effort, which results in slower reading rates. Moreover, we found that orthographic transparency also played a neuromodulatory role. More transparent Spanish words yielded greater activity in superior temporal gyrus (STG; BA 22), a region implicated in phonological processing, and orthographically opaque English words yielded greater activity in visual processing and word recoding regions, such as the occipito-parietal border and inferior parietal lobe (IPL; BA 40). Overall, our fMRI results suggest that the articulatory motor system is more plastic, hence, more amenable to change because of greater exposure to the L2. By contrast, we propose that our orthography effect is less plastic, hence, less influenced by frequency of exposure to a language system.

Age of acquisition and word frequency: determinants of object-naming speed and accuracy.

The combined contributions of word age of acquisition (AoA) and word frequency (rated and objective) to word retrieval speed and accuracy were investigated, using a picture-naming paradigm. Results from two fully factorial studies revealed that both AoA and word frequency reliably facilitate the speed and accuracy of word retrieval. Furthermore, word frequency and AoA interacted across delay (0, 750, 1,500, and 2,250 msec) in Experiment 2. This resulted in word frequency's playing a stronger role for late-acquired words across delays. It is concluded that both AoA and word frequency play a fundamental role in lexical retrieval. The results are also consistent with the view that both factors affect the same processing stages.