Alteraciones perceptivas y dificultades en el aprendizaje : alcance, validez y eficacia de un modelo de intervención psicopedagógica rehabilitadora mediante el empleo de feedback informativo.

Se intenta aislar algún componente diagnóstico de la dislexia y poner a prueba las hipótesis explicativas más actuales. A) 12 sujetos con trastornos de lectura, 12 con trastornos conductuales y 12 normales (9-13 años). Sexo balanceado. B) 20 sujetos disléxicos, 20 deficientes y 20 normales. Se consideró la inteligencia y se descartaron aquellos que en la exploración neurológica mostraron algún tipo de trastorno. A) Diseño mixto con medidas repetidas. VI.: 1) Tiempo de exposición de los estímulos, 2) Grupo experimental. VD.: 1) Tiempo de lectura, 2) Errores, 3) Ausencia de respuesta. Procedimiento: leer estímulos visuales presentados en un taquistoscopio. B) Diseño mixto. VI.: 1) Grupo experimental, 2) Tiempo de exposición del estímulo, 3) Orden de presentación de las listas de palabras, 4) Tipo de listas de palabras. VD.: 1) Errores de lectura, 2) Palabras leídas y palabras leídas correctamente, 3) Errores en la reproducción de estímulos visuales. Variables controladas: ajuste social y status social. Procedimiento: prueba de lectura de textos y de lectura de listas de palabras presentadas en un taquistoscopio. Cada lista era presentada, en orden balanceado, para cada tiempo de exposición. Después, se presentaron estímulos visuales procedentes del test de Retención Visual de Benton, pidiéndose al sujeto que los reproduzca. A) Tarjetas. B) Pruebas de lectura y de comprensión lectora. Para controlar factores individuales se aplicó la Escala de Adaptación de Achenbach. A) Kruskall-Wallis y 'U' de Mann-Withney. B) Anova y Ancova. Análisis de correlación. Intercomparaciones (Scheffe). A) Se observan diferencias significativas en el 'N' de errores cometidos por el grupo de disléxicos frente al de control, en especial a partir de palabras bisilábicas y trisilábicas. La variable 'N' de fracasos es la más discriminativa. B) Comparando sujetos disléxicos y normales se observan diferencias significativas en el 'N' de errores en las pruebas de lectura (además, los tipos de errores muestran configuraciones diferenciales significativas) y en las pruebas de comprensión lectora. En las pruebas de taquistoscopio hay diferencias debidas al grupo pero no al tiempo de exposición, aunque esta variable tiene efecto en otras medidas dependientes. Estímulos visuales: no hay diferencias significativas globales, aunque determinados ítems resultan discriminativos. Grupo de deficientes: se observa clara influencia del tiempo de exposición en determinados errores de lectura. No hay diferencias en la ejecución lectora ni en la reproducción de dibujos. Los resultados indican un patrón diferencial claro entre disléxicos y normales. El rendimiento de los primeros en tareas verbales es inferior. Sin embargo, no se confirma la hipótesis de igual rendimiento en las tareas gráficas no lingüísticas. En los sujetos deficientes, las diferencias más notables radican en que no usan estrategias mnemotécnicas, aunque son susceptibles de entrenamiento.

Web-based occupant feedback for building energy management systems using fuzzy logic

This paper describes the development and validation of a novel web-based interface for the gathering of feedback from building occupants about their environmental discomfort including signs of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). The gathering of such feedback may enable better targeting of environmental discomfort down to the individual as well as the early detection and subsequently resolution by building services of more complex issues such as SBS. The occupant's discomfort is interpreted and converted to air-conditioning system set points using Fuzzy Logic. Experimental results from a multi-zone air-conditioning test rig have been included in this paper.

A netball specific fitness test.

Performance analysis has been used for many applications including providing feedback to coaches and players, media applications, scoring of sports performance and scientific research into sports performance. The current study has used performance analysis to generate knowledge relating to the demands of netball competition which has been used in the development of a Netball Specific Fitness Test (NSFT). A modified version of the Bloomfield movement classification was used to provide a detailed analysis of player movement during netball competition. This was considered during a needs analysis when proposing the structure of the NSFT. A series of pilot versions were tested during an evolutionary prototyping process that resulted in the final version of the NSFT, which was found to be representative of movement in netball competition and it distinguished between recreational club players and players of university first team level or above. The test is incremental and involves forward, backward and sideways movement, jumping, lunging, turning and choice reaction.

PINCER trial: a cluster randomised trial comparing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a pharmacist-led IT-based intervention with simple feedback in reducing rates of clinically important errors in medicines management in general practices

Background: Medication errors in general practice are an important source of potentially preventable morbidity and mortality. Building on previous descriptive, qualitative and pilot work, we sought to investigate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and likely generalisability of a complex pharm acist-led IT-based intervention aiming to improve prescribing safety in general practice. Objectives: We sought to: • Test the hypothesis that a pharmacist-led IT-based complex intervention using educational outreach and practical support is more effective than simple feedback in reducing the proportion of patients at risk from errors in prescribing and medicines management in general practice. • Conduct an economic evaluation of the cost per error avoided, from the perspective of the National Health Service (NHS). • Analyse data recorded by pharmacists, summarising the proportions of patients judged to be at clinical risk, the actions recommended by pharmacists, and actions completed in the practices. • Explore the views and experiences of healthcare professionals and NHS managers concerning the intervention; investigate potential explanations for the observed effects, and inform decisions on the future roll-out of the pharmacist-led intervention • Examine secular trends in the outcome measures of interest allowing for informal comparison between trial practices and practices that did not participate in the trial contributing to the QRESEARCH database. Methods Two-arm cluster randomised controlled trial of 72 English general practices with embedded economic analysis and longitudinal descriptive and qualitative analysis. Informal comparison of the trial findings with a national descriptive study investigating secular trends undertaken using data from practices contributing to the QRESEARCH database. The main outcomes of interest were prescribing errors and medication monitoring errors at six- and 12-months following the intervention. Results: Participants in the pharmacist intervention arm practices were significantly less likely to have been prescribed a non-selective NSAID without a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) if they had a history of peptic ulcer (OR 0.58, 95%CI 0.38, 0.89), to have been prescribed a beta-blocker if they had asthma (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.58, 0.91) or (in those aged 75 years and older) to have been prescribed an ACE inhibitor or diuretic without a measurement of urea and electrolytes in the last 15 months (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.34, 0.78). The economic analysis suggests that the PINCER pharmacist intervention has 95% probability of being cost effective if the decision-maker’s ceiling willingness to pay reaches £75 (6 months) or £85 (12 months) per error avoided. The intervention addressed an issue that was important to professionals and their teams and was delivered in a way that was acceptable to practices with minimum disruption of normal work processes. Comparison of the trial findings with changes seen in QRESEARCH practices indicated that any reductions achieved in the simple feedback arm were likely, in the main, to have been related to secular trends rather than the intervention. Conclusions Compared with simple feedback, the pharmacist-led intervention resulted in reductions in proportions of patients at risk of prescribing and monitoring errors for the primary outcome measures and the composite secondary outcome measures at six-months and (with the exception of the NSAID/peptic ulcer outcome measure) 12-months post-intervention. The intervention is acceptable to pharmacists and practices, and is likely to be seen as costeffective by decision makers.

The power of anticipated feedback: Effects on students' achievement goals and achievement emotions.

In an experimental study (N = 153 high school students), we tested a theoretical model positing that anticipated achievement feedback influences achievement goals and achievement emotions, and that achievement goals mediate the link between anticipated feedback and emotions. Participants were informed that they would receive self-referential feedback, normative feedback, or no feedback for their performance on a test. Subsequently, achievement goals and discrete achievement emotions regarding the test were assessed. Self-referential feedback had a positive influence on mastery goal adoption, whereas normative feedback had a positive influence on performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal adoption. Furthermore, feedback condition and achievement goals predicted test-related emotions (i.e., enjoyment, hope, pride, relief, anger, anxiety, hopelessness, and shame). Achievement goals were documented as significant mediators of the influence of feedback instruction on emotions, and mediation was observed for seven of the eight focal emotions. Implications for educational research and practice are discussed.

Comments on 'Current GCMs' Unrealistic Negative Feedback in the Arctic'

In contrast to prior studies showing a positive lapse-rate feedback associated with the Arctic inversion, Boé et al. reported that strong present-day Arctic temperature inversions are associated with stronger negative longwave feedbacks and thus reduced Arctic amplification in the model ensemble from phase 3 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3). A permutation test reveals that the relation between longwave feedbacks and inversion strength is an artifact of statistical self-correlation and that shortwave feedbacks have a stronger correlation with intermodel spread. The present comment concludes that the conventional understanding of a positive lapse-rate feedback associated with the Arctic inversion is consistent with the CMIP3 model ensemble.

Effects of realistic force feedback in a robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery system

Robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery systems not only have the advantages of traditional laparoscopic procedures but also restore the surgeon's hand-eye coordination and improve the surgeon's precision by filtering hand tremors. Unfortunately, these benefits have come at the expense of the surgeon's ability to feel. Several research efforts have already attempted to restore this feature and study the effects of force feedback in robotic systems. The proposed methods and studies have some shortcomings. The main focus of this research is to overcome some of these limitations and to study the effects of force feedback in palpation in a more realistic fashion.

A new computerized adaptive test advancing the measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children: the Kids-CAT

Purpose: Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) via Computerized Adaptive Tests (CAT) provides greater measurement precision coupled with a lower test burden compared to conventional tests. Currently, there are no European pediatric HRQoL CATs available. This manuscript aims at describing the development of a HRQoL CAT for children and adolescents: the Kids-CAT, which was developed based on the established KIDSCREEN-27 HRQoL domain structure. Methods: The Kids-CAT was developed combining classical test theory and item response theory methods and using large archival data of European KIDSCREEN norm studies (n = 10,577–19,580). Methods were applied in line with the US PROMIS project. Item bank development included the investigation of unidimensionality, local independence, exploration of Differential Item Functioning (DIF), evaluation of Item Response Curves (IRCs), estimation and norming of item parameters as well as first CAT simulations. Results: The Kids-CAT was successfully built covering five item banks (with 26–46 items each) to measure physical well-being, psychological well-being, parent relations, social support and peers, and school well-being. The Kids-CAT item banks proved excellent psychometric properties: high content validity, unidimensionality, local independence, low DIF, and model conform IRCs. In CAT simulations, seven items were needed to achieve a measurement precision between.8 and.9 (reliability). It has a child-friendly design, is easy accessible online and gives immediate feedback reports of scores. Conclusions: The Kids-CAT has the potential to advance pediatric HRQoL measurement by making it less burdensome and enhancing the patient–doctor communication.

Erratum to: A new computerized adaptive test advancing the measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children: the Kids-CAT

Abstract
Purpose
Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) via Computerized Adaptive Tests (CAT) provides greater measurement precision coupled with a lower test burden compared to conventional tests. Currently, there are no European pediatric HRQoL CATs available. This manuscript aims at describing the development of a HRQoL CAT for children and adolescents: the Kids-CAT, which was developed based on the established KIDSCREEN-27 HRQoL domain structure.
Methods
The Kids-CAT was developed combining classical test theory and item response theory methods and using large archival data of European KIDSCREEN norm studies (n=10,577–19,580). Methods were applied in line with the US PROMIS project. Item bank development included the investigation of unidimensionality, local independence, exploration of Differential Item Functioning (DIF), evaluation of Item Response Curves (IRCs), estimation and norming of item parameters as well as first CAT simulations.
Results
The Kids-CAT was successfully built covering five item banks (with 26–46 items each) to measure physical well-being, psychological well-being, parent relations, social support and peers, and school well-being. The Kids-CAT item banks proved excellent psychometric properties: high content validity, unidimensionality, local independence, low DIF, and model conform IRCs. In CAT simulations, seven items were needed to achieve a measurement precision between .8 and .9 (reliability). It has a child-friendly design, is easy accessible online and gives immediate feedback reports of scores.
Conclusions
The Kids-CAT has the potential to advance pediatric HRQoL measurement by making it less burdensome and enhancing the patient–doctor communication.

Observer-based state-feedback versus H-infinity output feedback control solved by LMI approach for applications in smart structures

This paper aims with the use of linear matrix inequalities approach (LMIs) for application in active vibration control problems in smart strutures. A robust controller for active damping in a panel was designed with piezoelectrical actuators in optimal locations for illustration of the main proposal. It was considered, in the simulations of the closed-loop, a model identified by eigensystem realization algorithm (ERA) and reduced by modal decomposition. We tested two differents techniques to solve the problem. The first one uses LMI approach by state-feedback based in an observer design, considering several simultaneous constraints as: a decay rate, limited input on the actuators, bounded output peak (output energy) and robustness to parametic uncertainties. The results demonstrated the vibration attenuation in the structure by controlling only the first modes and the increased damping in the bandwidth of interest. However, it is possible to occur spillover effects, because the design has not been done considering the dynamic uncertainties related with high frequencies modes. In this sense, the second technique uses the classical H. output feedback control, also solved by LMI approach, considering robustness to residual dynamic to overcome the problem found in the first test. The results are compared and discussed. The responses shown the robust performance of the system and the good reduction of the vibration level, without increase mass.

Efeito da manipulação do feedback da percepção subjetiva de esforço esperada na percepção subjetiva de esforço e no desempenho de adultos de diferentes faixas etárias

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Manipulation effects of prior exercise intensity feedback by the Borg scale during open-loop cycling

Objective To verify the effects of exercise intensity deception by the Borg scale on the ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), heart rate (HR) and performance responses during a constant power output open-loop exercise. Methods Eight healthy men underwent a maximal incremental test on a cycle ergometer to identify the peak power output (PPO) and heart rate deflection point (HRDP). Subsequently, they performed a constant power output trial to exhaustion set at the HRDP intensity, in deception (DEC) and informed (INF) conditions: DEC-subjects were told that they would be cycling at an intensity corresponding to two categories below the RPE quantified at the HRDP; INF-subjects were told that they would cycle at the exact intensity corresponding to the RPE quantified at the HRDP. Results The PPO and power output at the HRDP obtained in maximal incremental tests were 247.5 +/- 32.1 W and 208.1 +/- 27.1 W, respectively. No significant difference in the time to exhaustion was found between DEC (525 +/- 244 s) or INF (499 +/- 224 s) trials. The slope and the first and second measurements of the RPE and HR parameters showed no significant difference between trials. Conclusions Psychophysiological variables such as RPE and HR as well as performance were not affected when exercise intensity was deceptively manipulated via RPE scores. This may suggest that unaltered RPE during exercise is a regulator of performance in this open-loop exercise.

STRUCTURAL CONTROL OF A SMALL-SCALE TEST-BED SHAKER STRUCTURE USING A SPONGE-TYPE MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL FLUID DAMPER

Semi-active damping devices have been shown to be effective in mitigating unwanted vibrations in civil structures. These devices impart force indirectly through real-time alterations to structural properties. Simulating the complex behavior of these devices for laboratory-scale experiments is a major challenge. Commercial devices for seismic applications typically operate in the 2-10 kN range; this force is too high for small-scale testing applications where requirements typically range from 0-10 N. Several challenges must be overcome to produce damping forces at this level. In this study, a small-scale magneto-rheological (MR) damper utilizing a fluid absorbent metal foam matrix is developed and tested to accomplish this goal. This matrix allows magneto-rheological (MR) fluid to be extracted upon magnetic excitation in order to produce MR-fluid shear stresses and viscosity effects between an electromagnetic piston, the foam, and the damper housing. Dampers for uniaxial seismic excitation are traditionally positioned in the horizontal orientation allowing MR-fluid to gather in the lower part of the damper housing when partially filled. Thus, the absorbent matrix is placed in the bottom of the housing relieving the need to fill the entire device with MR-fluid, a practice that requires seals that add significant unwanted friction to the desired low-force device. The damper, once constructed, can be used in feedback control applications to reduce seismic vibrations and to test structural control algorithms and wireless command devices. To validate this device, a parametric study was performed utilizing force and acceleration measurements to characterize damper performance and controllability for this actuator. A discussion of the results is presented to demonstrate the attainment of the damper design objectives.

Quality of feedback to e-mail requests - an explorative study in alpine tourism destinations

The central aim of our project is to explore the handling of e-mail request from customers by tourist organisations and to explain the perceived behaviour. For this purpose, we designed a qualitative empirical study which consists basically of two stages. The first stage consists of a black-box test where we employ the setting of a qualitative experiment to measure the behaviour of the organisation to an e-mail request. The second stage comprises a with-box test where we want to look into the tourist organizations and analyse the relevant information processes. This study should give as some insight in the internal processing of e-mail requests and thus should help to explain the reactions that we registered.

Subjective perception of sleepiness in a driving simulator is different from that in the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test.

OBJECTIVE To test whether sleep-deprived, healthy subjects who do not always signal spontaneously perceived sleepiness (SPS) before falling asleep during the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT) would do so in a driving simulator. METHODS Twenty-four healthy subjects (20-26 years old) underwent a MWT for 40 min and a driving simulator test for 1 h, before and after one night of sleep deprivation. Standard electroencephalography, electrooculography, submental electromyography, and face videography were recorded simultaneously to score wakefulness and sleep. Subjects were instructed to signal SPS as soon as they subjectively felt sleepy and to try to stay awake for as long as possible in every test. They were rewarded for both "appropriate" perception of SPS and staying awake for as long as possible. RESULTS After sleep deprivation, seven subjects (29%) did not signal SPS before falling asleep in the MWT, but all subjects signalled SPS before falling asleep in the driving simulator (p <0.004). CONCLUSIONS The previous results of an "inaccurate" SPS in the MWT were confirmed, and a perfect SPS was shown in the driving simulator. It was hypothesised that SPS is more accurate for tasks involving continuous feedback of performance, such as driving, compared to the less active situation of the MWT. Spontaneously perceived sleepiness in the MWT cannot be used to judge sleepiness perception while driving. Further studies are needed to define the accuracy of SPS in working tasks or occupations with minimal or no performance feedback.