Hospital hero: a game for reducing stress and anxiety of children while waiting in emergency room

This report tells a story which started as an idea that came to us to fight the battle-cry feeling commonly known as stress and anxiety. Before creating the solution of the idea, we first need to understand the feelings underneath and its effects on our well-being. Throughout the course of our lives, we experience states of weakness and fear. These feelings can arise, for instance, while we are in an emergency room. Needless to say, how much it would have imaginable effects on children, who are unfamiliar to such environments. We ran through a serious of scenarios to find the most suitable solution, among them the study of interaction with positive expressions by Dr. Baldwin, proved to be a valued resource. It was reduced due to its length and to be suitable to our public audience. The game was then created in order to reduce or even eliminate the stress and anxiety of children. Since the game was initially released, some modifications had been made but the original idea - interaction with positive expressions – remained. When the time came, we asked children to play one of the two versions of the game while waiting in the emergency room. This not only created a diversion for them but also a learning experience as it displayed some hospital equipment. The difference between the two versions is that one provides expressions, while the other does not. After all our hard work, we felt rewarded because the project proved its worth and we would see that in the expressions on children’s faces while they played. Most importantly, their anxiety level numbers were significantly reduced during that short period of time.

LAUDMUS: rumo à implantação e gerenciamento de uma lista de audição musical online

SILVA, Alexandre Reche e. LAUDMUS: rumo à implantação e gerenciamento de uma lista de audição musical online. In: ENCONTRO REGIONAL DA ABEM NORDESTE (Associação Brasileira de Educação Musical), 9, Natal, RN, 2010. Anais eletronicos... Natal, RN, 2010.Trabalho Completo. Disponivel em: . Acesso em: 04 out. 2010.

Investigação da relação entre conteúdo onírico e aprendizado de uma tarefa cognitiva complexa

Several lines of evidence indicate that sleep is beneficial for learning, but there is no experimental evidence yet that the content of dreams is adaptive, i.e., that dreams help the dreamer to cope with challenges of the following day. Our aim here is to investigate the role of dreams in the acquisition of a complex cognitive task. We investigated electroencephalographic recordings and dream reports of adult subjects exposed to a computer game comprising perceptual, motor, spatial, emotional and higher-level cognitive aspects (Doom). Subjects slept two nights in the sleep laboratory, a completely dark room with a comfortable bed and controlled temperature. Electroencephalographic recordings with 28 channels were continuously performed throughout the experiment to identify episodes of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Behaviors were continuously recorded in audio and video with an infrared camera. Dream reports were collected upon forced awakening from late REM sleep, and again in the morning after spontaneous awakening. On day 1, subjects were habituated to the sleep laboratory, no computer game was played, and negative controls for gamerelated dream reports were collected. On day 2, subjects played the computer game before and after sleep. Each game session lasted for an hour, and sleep for 7-9 hours. 9 different measures of performance indicated significant improve overnight. 81% of the subjects experienced intrusion of elements of the game into their dreams, including potentially adaptative strategies (insights). There was a linear correlation between performance and dream intrusion as well as for game improval and quantity of reported dreaming. In the electrophysiological analysis we mapped the subjects brain activities in different stages (SWS 1, REM 1, SWS 2, REM 2, Game 1 and Game 2), and found a modest reverberation in motor areas related to the joystick control during the sleep. When separated by gender, we found a significant difference on female subjects in the channels that indicate motor learning. Analysis of dream reports showed that the amount of gamerelated elements in dreams correlated with performance gains according to an inverted-U function analogous to the Yerkes-Dodson law that governs the relationship between arousal and learning. The results indicate that dreaming is an adaptive behavior

Reactive Control for Transmission Overload Relief Based on Sensitivity Analysis and Cooperative Game Theory

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Game theory in sugarcane crop residue and available energy optimization

This work proposes a mathematical model to aid variety selection and planting quantity of sugarcane in order to reduce crop residues, maximize energy generated by this residue, and satisfy all the supply of the mill. We propose Linear Programming with two objective. The conflict between these objectives allows the use of the Nonzero-sum Game Theory. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Time series analysis for minority game simulations of financial markets

The minority game (MG) model introduced recently provides promising insights into the understanding of the evolution of prices, indices and rates in the financial markets. In this paper we perform a time series analysis of the model employing tools from statistics, dynamical systems theory and stochastic processes. Using benchmark systems and a financial index for comparison, several conclusions are obtained about the generating mechanism for this kind of evolution. The motion is deterministic, driven by occasional random external perturbation. When the interval between two successive perturbations is sufficiently large, one can find low dimensional chaos in this regime. However, the full motion of the MG model is found to be similar to that of the first differences of the SP500 index: stochastic, nonlinear and (unit root) stationary. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Multifractal regime transition in a modified minority game model

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A cooperative game theory analysis for transmission loss allocation

This paper presents an analysis and discussion, based on cooperative game theory, for the allocation of the cost of losses to generators and demands in transmission systems. We construct a cooperative game theory model in which the players are represented by equivalent bilateral exchanges and we search for a unique loss allocation solution, the Core. Other solution concepts, such as the Shapley Value, the Bilateral Shapley Value and the Kernel are also explored. Our main objective is to illustrate why is not possible to find an optimal solution for allocating the cost of losses to the users of a network. Results and relevant conclusions are presented for a 4-bus system and a 14-bus system. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Markov random field model for combining optimum-path forest classifiers using decision graphs and game strategy approach

The research on multiple classifiers systems includes the creation of an ensemble of classifiers and the proper combination of the decisions. In order to combine the decisions given by classifiers, methods related to fixed rules and decision templates are often used. Therefore, the influence and relationship between classifier decisions are often not considered in the combination schemes. In this paper we propose a framework to combine classifiers using a decision graph under a random field model and a game strategy approach to obtain the final decision. The results of combining Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) classifiers using the proposed model are reported, obtaining good performance in experiments using simulated and real data sets. The results encourage the combination of OPF ensembles and the framework to design multiple classifier systems. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Dynamic exercise versus tag game warm up: The acute effect on agility and vertical jump in children

Although dynamic and stretching exercises have been widely investigated, there is little information about warm up performed by tag games. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to verify the acute effect of dynamic exercises compared to a tag game warm up on agility and vertical jump in children. 25 boys and 24 girls participated in this study and performed the agility and vertical jump tests after warm up based on dynamic exercises or as a tag game lasting 10 min each in two different days randomly. Dynamic exercises warm up consisted in a run lasting 2.5 min followed by 2 series of 8 dynamic exercises lasting 10 seconds each interspersed with 20s of light run to recovery. Tag game warm up was performed by a tag game with two variations lasting 5 min each. The first variation there was a single cather, which aimed to get the other participants by touching hands. In the second part of the game, the rules were the same except that the participant that was caught had to help the catcher forming a team of catchers. Warm up intensity was monitored by OMNI perceived exertion scale. ANOVA 2x2 for repeated measures (Warm up x Sex) demonstrated no significant differences between dynamic exercises and tag game for agility and vertical jump (P>0.05) for boys and girls. Perceived exertion was significantly higher in tag game compared to dynamic exercises on girls (P<0.05). Both warm up models showed similar acute effects on agility and vertical jump in children. © Faculty of Education. University of Alicante.

Model of a game for improving integrated decisions in production management

This paper presents the results obtained with a business game whose model represents the decision making process related to two moments at an industrial company. The first refers to the project of the industrial plant, and the second to its management. The game model was conceived so the player's first decision would establish capacity and other parameters such as quantities of each product to produce, marketing expenses, research and development, quality, advertising, salaries, if purchases will be made in installments or in cash, if there will be credit sales and how many installments will be allowed and the number of workers in the assembly area. An experiment was conducted with employees of a Brazilian company. Data obtained indicate that the players have lack of contents, especially in finances. Although these results cannot be generalized, they confirm prior results with undergraduate and graduate students and they indicate the need for reinforcement in this undergraduate area. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

(m,k)-Gur game: Exploiting message discards in order to increase the lifetime and spatial diversity in autonomic wireless sensor networks

The main concern in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) algorithms and protocols are the energy consumption. Thus, the WSN lifetime is one of the most important metric used to measure the performance of the WSN approaches. Another important metric is the WSN spatial coverage, where the main goal is to obtain sensed data in a uniform way. This paper has proposed an approach called (m,k)-Gur Game that aims a trade-off between quality of service and the increasement of spatial coverage diversity. Simulation results have shown the effectiveness of this approach. © 2012 IEEE.

O ethos na linguagem da criança: um caminho para a identidade enunciativa

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)