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Introduction: People in need of care or support are severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We lack valid data of long-term assessments. We present a register study to detect the physical and psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people in need of care or support in Bavaria, Germany. To describe the persons' life conditions comprehensively, we assess the perspectives and needs of the respective care teams too. Results will serve as evidence-based source to manage the pandemic and long-term prevention strategies., Methods and Analysis: The 'Bavarian ambulatory COVID-19 Monitor' is a multicentre registry including a purposive sample of up to 1000 patient-participants across three study sites in Bavaria. The study group consists of 600 people in need of care with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. Control group 1 comprises 200 people in need of care with a negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test, while control group 2 comprises 200 people with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test but are not in need of care. We assess the clinical course of infection, psychosocial aspects and care needs using validated measures. Follow-up is every 6 months for up to 3 years. Additionally, we assess up to 400 people linked to these patient-participants (caregivers, general practitioners (GPs)) for their health and needs. Main analyses are stratified by level of care I-V (I=minor/V=most severe impairment of independence), inpatient/outpatient care setting, sex and age. We use descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse cross-sectional data and changes over time. In qualitative interviews with 60 stakeholders (people in need of care, caregivers, GPs, politicians), we explore interface problems of different functional logics, of everyday and professional perspectives., Ethics and Dissemination: The Institutional Review Board of the University Hospital LMU Munich (#20-860) and the study sites (Universities of Wurzburg and Erlangen) approved the protocol. We disseminate the results by peer-reviewed publications, international conferences, governmental reports, etc., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

How will the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic develop in the coming months and years? Based on an expert survey, we examine key aspects that are likely to influence the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. The challenges and developments will strongly depend on the progress of national and global vaccination programs, the emergence and spread of variants of concern (VOCs), and public responses to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). In the short term, many people remain unvaccinated, VOCs continue to emerge and spread, and mobility and population mixing are expected to increase. Therefore, lifting restrictions too much and too early risk another damaging wave. This challenge remains despite the reduced opportunities for transmission given vaccination progress and reduced indoor mixing in summer 2021. In autumn 2021, increased indoor activity might accelerate the spread again, whilst a necessary reintroduction of NPIs might be too slow. The incidence may strongly rise again, possibly filling intensive care units, if vaccination levels are not high enough. A moderate, adaptive level of NPIs will thus remain necessary. These epidemiological aspects combined with economic, social, and health-related consequences provide a more holistic perspective on the future of the COVID-19 pandemic., Competing Interests: ENI, VP, SB, and SBM were supported by the Max Planck Society. VP received honoraria for lectures and presentations on COVID-19 mitigation strategies. PB was supported by the Epipose project from the European Union's SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020 programme (grant agreement number 101003688), and consulting fees were paid to his institution by Pfizer and Pfizer Belgium. ACV was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. TC was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme project PERISCOPE (grant agreement number 101016233). EGl was supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund. EGr received fees from the German Board of Pharmacists for educational events on COVID-19 and is the president of the German Society for Epidemiology. MK was supported by ZonMw grants number 10430022010001 and number 91216062, and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme project CORESMA (grant agreement number 101003480). NL was supported by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme project EpiPose (grant agreement number 101003688), and the Swiss National Science Foundation (project number 176233). MM is a member of UK Independent SAGE. SBM was supported by egePan 01KX7021. MPi was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) [ES/S013873/1; ES/T014164/1], the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) [MR/S035818/1], FWO, and Wellcome Trust [209519/Z/17/Z; 106612/Z/14/Z]. BP is a member of the Austrian National Bioethics Commission, and the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies, advising the Austrian Government and the EU Commission respectively. Other research projects in the lab of ESz are partly funded by Merck Healthcare KGaA. All other authors have no competing interests to declare., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

The general practitioner is fundamentally dealing with uncertainty. On the one hand, we want to demonstrate that uncertainty cannot simply be stipulated as a matter of fact. Instead, we will show that this uncertainty is a performative effect of the primary care setting. On the other hand, we want to point out that the general practitioner's ability to bear uncertainty is a genuinely hypermodern way of productively dealing with uncertainty., (Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

Visual art because of its artistic context can be related to the general idea of providing alternative perceptual experiences. However, research examining the neural basis of art beyond the paradigm of beauty has been neglected. This study seeks to determine how the perception of a body in an artwork can be distinguished from the perception of a body in a non-artistic photography. While viewing different body representations in both artworks and photographs, subjects were required to evaluate the appeal of the portrayed persons. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we show that the perception of a body within the context of art leads to a higher activation in the right parietal cortex and the extrastriate cortex bilaterally. Relating this result to concepts from previous research, we suggest that the perception of art is linked to visuo-spatial coding and also motor mapping. In contrast, the higher activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the primary visual cortex during the perception of a body in a non-artistic frame of reference, i.e. in a photograph, can be linked to processes of person evaluation. Possibly, the task to judge the appeal of a person in a photograph might be more daunting and, thus, cause emotional and even moral challenges being reflected in the ventromedial prefrontal activity. Taken together, perceptual experiences within an artistic vs. a non-artistic frame of reference are based on distinct patterns of neuronal activity., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)