IoT Based Pain Management using Physiological Parameters

The continuous technology evaluation is benefiting our lives to a great extent. The evolution of Internet of things and deployment of wireless sensor networks is making it possible to have more connectivity between people and devices used extensively in our daily lives. Almost every discipline of daily life including health sector, transportation, agriculture etc. is benefiting from these technologies. There is a great potential of research and refinement of health sector as the current system is very often dependent on manual evaluations conducted by the clinicians. There is no automatic system for patient health monitoring and assessment which results to incomplete and less reliable heath information. Internet of things has a great potential to benefit health care applications by automated and remote assessment, monitoring and identification of diseases. Acute pain is the main cause of people visiting to hospitals. An automatic pain detection system based on internet of things with wireless devices can make the assessment and redemption significantly more efficient. The contribution of this research work is proposing pain assessment method based on physiological parameters. The physiological parameters chosen for this study are heart rate, electrocardiography, breathing rate and galvanic skin response. As a first step, the relation between these physiological parameters and acute pain experienced by the test persons is evaluated. The electrocardiography data collected from the test persons is analyzed to extract interbeat intervals. This evaluation clearly demonstrates specific patterns and trends in these parameters as a consequence of pain. This parametric behavior is then used to assess and identify the pain intensity by implementing machine learning algorithms. Support vector machines are used for classifying these parameters influenced by different pain intensities and classification results are achieved. The classification results with good accuracy rates between two and three levels of pain intensities shows clear indication of pain and the feasibility of this pain assessment method. An improved approach on the basis of this research work can be implemented by using both physiological parameters and electromyography data of facial muscles for classification.

Computer-based tools for assessing micro-longitudinal patterns of cognitive function in older adults

Patterns of cognitive change over micro-longitudinal timescales (i.e., ranging from hours to days) are associated with a wide range of age-related health and functional outcomes. However, practical issues with conducting high-frequency assessments make investigations of micro-longitudinal cognition costly and burdensome to run. One way of addressing this is to develop cognitive assessments that can be performed by older adults, in their own homes, without a researcher being present. Here, we address the question of whether reliable and valid cognitive data can be collected over micro-longitudinal timescales using unsupervised cognitive tests.In study 1, 48 older adults completed two touchscreen cognitive tests, on three occasions, in controlled conditions, alongside a battery of standard tests of cognitive functions. In study 2, 40 older adults completed the same two computerized tasks on multiple occasions, over three separate week-long periods, in their own homes, without a researcher present. Here, the tasks were incorporated into a wider touchscreen system (Novel Assessment of Nutrition and Ageing (NANA)) developed to assess multiple domains of health and behavior. Standard tests of cognitive function were also administered prior to participants using the NANA system.Performance on the two “NANA” cognitive tasks showed convergent validity with, and similar levels of reliability to, the standard cognitive battery in both studies. Completion and accuracy rates were also very high. These results show that reliable and valid cognitive data can be collected from older adults using unsupervised computerized tests, thus affording new opportunities for the investigation of cognitive function.

Synchronous primary malignant tumors of the breast, caecum and sigma. Case report

We present the case of a patient with a double adenocarcinoma of the right colon and sigma associated with a bilateral infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma. Sigma and caecum bowel cancers were diagnosed at colonoscopy, with computerized tomography staging, while breast cancer was found with screening mammography. Following right hemicolectomy , sigmoidectomy and bilateral mastectomy the histology confirmed the presence of colonic adenocarcinoma and infiltrating and in situ lobular cancer. This case report reviews the treatment of synchronous neoplasia.

A percepção dos bibliotecários quanto ao sistema de administração de bibliotecas Argo: um estudo de caso na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande

O presente trabalho possuiu como tema um estudo a respeito da percepção dos bibliotecários do Sistema de Bibliotecas (SIB) da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG) quanto ao Sistema de Administração de Bibliotecas (ARGO). Convém dizer que na atualidade falar dos sistemas informatizados é buscar caminhos para um suporte melhor a informação e ampliar o acesso para os usuários. Assim, o objetivo geral deste trabalho foi investigar a percepção dos bibliotecários quanto ao sistema de administração de bibliotecas ARGO. Sendo os objetivos específicos identificar os bibliotecários que atuam junto ao sistema; conhecer a opinião dos pesquisados sobre o sistema utilizado; refletir, a luz da literatura sobre os resultados da pesquisa; e apresentar a direção do SIB os resultados, de modo a colaborar com o Sistema. Foi utilizado como metodologia uma pesquisa exploratória, quali-quantitativa e também um estudo de caso. Entre os principais resultados se destaca que o sistema não possui os atributos necessários para um bom funcionamento. Nas considerações se observou que durante um tempo o ARGO atendeu as necessidades da instituição, mas devido ao grande crescimento da universidade e do volume de trabalho, ele deixou a desejar.

Ventilação e prescrições urbanísticas: uma aplicação simulada no bairro de Petrópolis em Natal/RN

The present work studies the natural ventilation and its relationship with the urban standards, which establishes the form of occupation and use of the land in our cities. The method simulates the application of the urban standards of the City Master Plan over the last three years. The simulation takes place in the District of Petrópolis, in the city of Natal , Brazil and analyses the effects of the standards of natural ventilation. The formulated hypothesis states that the reductions in the urban spaces between buildings rises up the vertical profile of ventilation, reducing, therefore, the velocity of the wind at the lower levels of the buildings. To develop the study, occupation models were built, using computerized, three-dimensional models. These occupation models were analyzed using the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code. The conclusion is that the more we reduce the urban space between buildings, the more we reduce the wind speed in constructed areas, increasing, therefore, the possibility to generate heat islands

A função da auditoria interna na Guarda Nacional Republicana: estudo de caso

Mestrado em Auditoria

Pseudoneglect and visual attention networks

Pseudoneglect represents the tendency for healthy individuals to show a slight but consistent bias in favour of stimuli appearing in the left visual field. The bias is often measured using variants of the line bisection task. An accurate model of the functional architecture of the visuospatial attention system must account for this widely observed phenomenon, as well as for modulation of the direction and magnitude of the bias within individuals by a variety of factors relating to the state of the participant and/or stimulus characteristics. To date, the neural correlates of pseudoneglect remain relatively unmapped. In the current thesis, I employed a combination of psychophysical measurements, electroencephalography (EEG) recording and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in an attempt to probe the neural generator(s) of pseudoneglect. In particular, I wished to utilise and investigate some of the factors known to modulate the bias (including age, time-on-task and the length of the to-be-bisected line) in order to identify neural processes and activity that are necessary and sufficient for the lateralized bias to arise. Across four experiments utilising a computerized version of a perceptual line bisection task, pseudoneglect was consistently observed at baseline in healthy young participants. However, decreased line length (experiments 1, 2 and 3), time-on-task (experiment 1) and healthy aging (experiment 3) were all found to modulate the bias. Specifically, all three modulations induced a rightward shift in subjective midpoint estimation. Additionally, the line length and time-on-task effects (experiment 1) and the line length and aging effects (experiment 3) were found to have additive relationships. In experiment 2, EEG measurements revealed the line length effect to be reflected in neural activity 100 – 200ms post-stimulus onset over source estimated posterior regions of the right hemisphere (RH: temporo-parietal junction (TPJ)). Long lines induced a hemispheric asymmetry in processing (in favour of the RH) during this period that was absent in short lines. In experiment 4, bi-parietal tDCS (Left Anodal/Right Cathodal) induced a polarity-specific rightward shift in bias, highlighting the crucial role played by parietal cortex in the genesis of pseudoneglect. The opposite polarity (Left Cathodal/Right Anodal) did not induce a change in bias. The combined results from the four experiments of the current thesis provide converging evidence as to the crucial role played by the RH in the genesis of pseudoneglect and in the processing of visual input more generally. The reduction in pseudoneglect with decreased line length, increased time-on-task and healthy aging may be explained by a reduction in RH function, and hence contribution to task processing, induced by each of these modulations. I discuss how behavioural and neuroimaging studies of pseudoneglect (and its various modulators) can provide empirical data upon which accurate formal models of visuospatial attention networks may be based and further tested.