ObjectiveEvaluating the TBI incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic era compared with similar period in previous year.BackgroundThe emergence of SARS-CoV2 influenced the evolution of governmental and hospital policy worldwide, which might eventually impact many aspects. The incidence of many diseases in the Emergency Department (ED), especially traumatic brain injury (TBI), has been an area of interest.Design/MethodsRetrospective study comparing TBI incidence before and during COVID-19 pandemic era starting from the declaration of national pandemic date (March 16, 2020) until June 14, 2020 with the comparison of the same period in the previous year.ResultsThere was an increase in admission rate due to TBI during COVID-19 pandemic compared with the previous year (157/752 (20.9%) vs 106/766 (13.8%), p < 0.001, respectively). While the range of age was similar between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 era (37.9 ± 14.8 vs 38.6 ± 15.4 years, p = 0.712), male was higher in percentage to experience the injury (131/157 (83.4%) vs 67/106 (63.2%), p < 0.001). During the pandemic era, road traffic injury (97/157 (61.8%) vs 56/106 (52.8%), p = 0.149) as well as moderate-to-severe brain injury tended to increase (30/157 (19.1%) vs 17/106 (16.0%) p = 0.524) albeit statistically insignificant. Although the mortality rate was similar (12/157 (7.6%) vs 9/106 (8.5%), p = 0.804), higher hospitalization rate was observed in the pandemic era (81/157 (51.2%) vs 37/106 (34.9%) p = 0.008).ConclusionsTBI incidence remained increasing despite entering the COVID-19 era. These phenomena required further investigation and analysis that may possibly be unrelated with the COVID-19, but due to the change of the government policy and its impact, such as the more quiet road after national social distancing.

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THE EFFECTS OF NOISE-MODULATED MONAURAL BEATS AUDITORY TOWARD MEMORY CAPACITY INCREMENT OF ELDERLY PATIENTSABSTRACTIntroduction: Memory impairment is one of the disturbances of cognitive function that is often found and influential in elderly life activities. Memory impairment in elderly can be improved by applying several intervention modes, including auditory stimuli, because brain waves play a role in decreasing memory function in the elderly.Aims: To determine the effect of noise-modulated monaural beats auditory stimulation on improves memory capacity in the elderly.Methods: This study was a quasi-experiment with pre-test-post-test control group design, combining two methods of interventions; pink noise and monaural beats on alpha waves. Memory Impairment Screen (MIS) instrument were used to measure memory capacity. Subjects in this study came from the elderly population at the PELKRIS Foundation Semarang which has memory impairment based on MIS score <4.Results: There were 34 subjects of 75-90 years old with memory impairment. Most of them were women. There was significant positive effect of noise-modulated monaural beats auditory stimulation that improved memory capacity in (p<0.001) and signifiant difference of influence between treatment group and control group (p<0.001).Discussion: There were positive and significant effect of noise-modulated monaural beats auditory stimulation to improves memory capacity in elderly.Keywords: Elderly, memory, Memory Impairment Screen, monaural beats, noise stimulationABSTRAKPendahuluan: Gangguan memori merupakan salah satu masalah gangguan fungsi kognitif yang sering dihadapi para lansia dan berpengaruh dalam aktivitas kehidupan lansia. Masalah gangguan memori pada lansia dapat diatasi dengan beberapa metode intervensi, antara lain pemberian stimulus suara, karena gelombang otak berperan terhadap penurunan fungsi memori pada lansia.Tujuan: Mengetahui pengaruh stimulus noise-modulated monaural beats auditory terhadap peningkatan kapasitas memori pada lansia.Metode: Desain penelitian berupa kuasi eksperimen dengan teknik metode pre-test post-test control group design menggabungkan dua metode intervensi, yaitu penggabungan pink noise dan monaural beats pada gelombang alfa. Kapasitas memori diukur menggunakan instrumen Memory Impairment Screen (MIS). Subjek penelitian adalah populasi lansia di Yayasan PELKRIS, Semarang, yang mengalami gangguan memori berdasarkan skor MIS <4.Hasil: Didapatkan 34 subjek dengan penurunan fungsi memori yang usia terbanyak sekitar 75-90 tahun dan jumlah perempuan lebih banyak dibanding laki-laki. Terdapat pengaruh positif stimulus noise-modulated monaural beats auditory terhadap peningkatan kapasitas memori pada lansia yang signifikan (p<0,001) dan beda pengaruh antara kelompok perlakuan dan kelompok kontrol secara bermakna (p<0,001).Diskusi: Terdapat pengaruh positif dan signifikan stimulus noise-modulated monaural beats auditory terhadap peningkatan kapasitas memori pada lansia.Kata kunci: Lansia, memori, Memory Impairment Screen, monaural beats, stimulus noise

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Approximate Number System (ANS), a cognitive system which represents and estimates the cardinality of a set, and mathematics competency of primary school children. Many findings on ANS and its relations with mathematics competency showed inconsistency. This research is the first of its kind in Indonesia. 318 fourth and fifth-grade primary school students were instructed to perform non-symbolic (dots) comparison task to measure their Weber fraction (w), accuracy (percentage correct), and response time (ms) which are the measurement for ANS acuity. Mathematics competencies of the students were taken from school’s report card and the data were standardized for each school separately. Correlation and regression linear analysis were conducted to find the relationship between ANS acuity and mathematics’ competency. Analysis showed there was a weak but significant (p < 0.05) correlation between two measurements of ANS acuity, namely the Weber fraction and accuracy, with mathematics competency, but not response time (p > 0.05). Further analysis with linear regression showed there was no relationship between the two variables and mathematics score, which disproves this correlation. This study shows that there is no relationship between children’s ANS acuity and mathematics competency. Intrinsic factors such as children’s attention, engagement, and motivation, also methodological aspect needed further consideration. Future studies are needed to investigate the methodological aspect related to the measurement of ANS and mathematics’ competency as there is no ‘gold standard’ yet to measure ANS.