EUStress: A human behaviour analysis system for monitoring and assessing stress during exams

In today’s society, there is a compelling need for innovative approaches for the solution of many pressing problems, such as understanding the fluctuations in the performance of an individual when involved in complex and high-stake tasks. In these cases, individuals are under an increasing demand for performance, driving them to be under constant pressure, and consequently to present variations in their levels of stress. Human stress can be viewed as an agent, circumstance, situation, or variable that disturbs the normal functioning of an individual, that when not managed can bring mental problems, such as chronic stress or depression. In this paper, we propose a different approach for this problem. The EUStress application is a non-intrusive and non-invasive performance monitoring environment based on behavioural biometrics and real time analysis, used to quantify the level of stress of individuals during online exams.FCT - Fuel Cell Technologies Program(NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-017832)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

X3S: A multi-modal approach to monitor and assess stress through human-computer interaction

Stress evaluation is nowadays gaining an increasing importance in a time in which inter-individual competition continuously pushes us to be better. Indeed, in the workplace, in the academia or in many other contexts there is increasing pressure for better performance, which pushes us forward but also wears us out. This phenomenon has been studied from many different angles, including psychology, medicine or occupational dynamics. In a medical or biological context, stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension, which can cause or influence the course of many medical conditions including psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety. In these cases, individuals are under an increasing demand for performance, driving them to be under constant pressure, and consequently to present variations in their levels of stress. To mitigate this condition, this paper proposes to add a new dimension in human–computer interaction through the development of a distributed multi-modal framework approach entitled X3S, which aims to monitor and assess the psychological stress of computer users during high-end tasks, in a non-intrusive and non-invasive way, through the access of soft sensors activity (e.g. task performance and human behaviour). This approach presents as its main innovative key the capacity to validate each stress model trained for each individual through the analysis of cortisol and stress assessment survey data. Overall, this paper discusses how groups of medical students can be monitored through their interactions with the computer. Its main aim is to provide a stress marker that can be effectively used in large numbers of users and without inconvenienceThis work is part-funded by ERDF–European Regional Development Fund and by National Funds through the FCT–Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within project NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-017832. FCT grant with the reference ICVS-BI-2016-005info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A non-invasive approach to detect and monitor acute mental fatigue

In our day to day, we often experience a sense of being tired due to mental or physical workload. Along with that, there is also a feeling of degrading performance, even after the completion of simple tasks. These mental states however, are often not felt consciously or are ignored. This is an attitude that may result in human error, failure, and may lead to potential health problems together with a decrease in quality of life. States of acute mental fatigue may be detected with the close monitoring of certain indicators, such as productivity, performance and health indicators. In this paper, a model and prototype are proposed to detect and monitor acute acute fatigue, based on non-invasive Humancomputer Interaction (HCI). This approach will enable the development of better working environments, with an impact on the quality of life and the work producedThis work was developed in the context of the project CAMCoF - Contextaware Multimodal Communication Framework funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT - Funda ção para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980

A multi-modal architecture for non-intrusive analysis of performance in the workplace

Human performance, in all its different dimensions, is a very complex and interesting topic. In this paper we focus on performance in the workplace which, asides from complex is often controversial. While organizations and generally competitive working conditions push workers into increasing performance demands, this does not necessarily correlates positively to productivity. Moreover, existing performance monitoring approaches (electronic or not) are often dreaded by workers since they either threat their privacy or are based on productivity measures, with specific side effects. We present a new approach for the problem of performance monitoring that is not based on productivity measures but on the workers’ movements while sitting and on the performance of their interaction with the machine. We show that these features correlate with mental fatigue and provide a distributed architecture for the non-intrusive and transparent collection of this data. The easiness in deploying this architecture, its non-intrusive nature, the potential advantages for better human resources management and the fact that it is not based on productivity measures will, in our belief, increase the willingness of both organizations and workers to implement this kind of performance management initiatives.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013. The work of Davide Carneiro is supported by a Post-Doctoral Grant by FCT (SFRH/BPD/109070/2015).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Harnessing content and context for enhanced decision making

In a time in which a significant amount of interpersonal interactions take place online, one must enquire to which extent are these milieus suitable for supporting the complexity of our communication. This is especially important in more sensitive domains, such as the one of Online Dispute Resolution, in which inefficient communication environments may result in misunderstandings, poor decisions or the escalation of the conflict. The conflict manager, in particular, may find his skills severely diminished, namely in what concerns the accurate perception of the state of the parties. In this paper the development of a rich communication framework is detailed that conveys contextual information about their users, harnessed from the transparent analysis of their behaviour while communicating. Using it, the conflict manager may not only better perceive the conflict and how it affects each party but also take better contextualized decisions, closer to the ones taken in face-to-face settings.This work is part-funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT { Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980 (PTDC/EEI-SII/1386/2012) and project PEst- OE/EEI/UI0752/2014

Anxious to see you: Neuroendocrine mechanisms of social vigilance and anxiety during adolescence.

Social vigilance is a behavioral strategy commonly used in adverse or changing social environments. In animals, a combination of avoidance and vigilance allows an individual to evade potentially dangerous confrontations while monitoring the social environment to identify favorable changes. However, prolonged use of this behavioral strategy in humans is associated with increased risk of anxiety disorders, a major burden for human health. Elucidating the mechanisms of social vigilance in animals could provide important clues for new treatment strategies for social anxiety. Importantly, during adolescence the prevalence of social anxiety increases significantly. We hypothesize that many of the actions typically characterized as anxiety behaviors begin to emerge during this time as strategies for navigating more complex social structures. Here, we consider how the social environment and the pubertal transition shape neural circuits that modulate social vigilance, focusing on the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and prefrontal cortex. The emergence of gonadal hormone secretion during adolescence has important effects on the function and structure of these circuits, and may play a role in the emergence of a notable sex difference in anxiety rates across adolescence. However, the significance of these changes in the context of anxiety is still uncertain, as not enough studies are sufficiently powered to evaluate sex as a biological variable. We conclude that greater integration between human and animal models will aid the development of more effective strategies for treating social anxiety

Monitoring mental fatigue through the analysis of keyboard and mouse interaction patterns

In our living, we often have a sense of being tired due to a mental or physical work, plus a feeling of performance degradation even in the accomplishment of simple tasks. However, these mental states are often not consciously felt or are ignored, an attitude that may result in human failures, errors and even in the occurrence of health problems or on a decrease in the quality of life. States of fatigue may be detected with a close monitoring of some indicators, such as productivity, performance or even the health states. In this work it is proposed a model and a prototype to detect and monitor fatigue based on some of these items. We focus specifically on mental fatigue, a key factor in an individual’s performance. With this approach we aim to develop leisure and work context-aware environments that may improve the quality of life and the individual performance of any human being

The perils of automaticity

Classical theories of skill acquisition propose that automatization (i.e., performance requires progressively less attention as experience is acquired) is a defining characteristic of expertise in a variety of domains (e.g., Fitts & Posner, 1967). Automaticity is believed to enhance smooth and efficient skill execution by allowing performers to focus on strategic elements of performance rather than on the mechanical details that govern task implementation (Williams & Ford, 2008). By contrast, conscious processing (i.e., paying conscious attention to one’s action during motor execution) has been found to disrupt skilled movement and performance proficiency (e.g., Beilock & Carr, 2001). On the basis of this evidence, researchers have tended to extol the virtues of automaticity. However, few researchers have considered the wide range of empirical evidence which indicates that highly automated behaviors can, on occasion, lead to a series of errors that may prove deleterious to skilled performance. Therefore, the purpose of the current paper is to highlight the perils, rather than the virtues, of automaticity. We draw on Reason’s (1990) classification scheme of everyday errors to show how an overreliance on automated procedures may lead to 3 specific performance errors (i.e., mistakes, slips, and lapses) in a variety of skill domains (e.g., sport, dance, music). We conclude by arguing that skilled performance requires the dynamic interplay of automatic processing and conscious processing in order to avoid performance errors and to meet the contextually contingent demands that characterize competitive environments in a range of skill domains

Applying refinement to the use of mice and rats in rheumatoid arthritis research

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a painful, chronic disorder and there is currently an unmet need for effective therapies that will benefit a wide range of patients. The research and development process for therapies and treatments currently involves in vivo studies, which have the potential to cause discomfort, pain or distress. This Working Group report focuses on identifying causes of suffering within commonly used mouse and rat ‘models’ of RA, describing practical refinements to help reduce suffering and improve welfare without compromising the scientific objectives. The report also discusses other, relevant topics including identifying and minimising sources of variation within in vivo RA studies, the potential to provide pain relief including analgesia, welfare assessment, humane endpoints, reporting standards and the potential to replace animals in RA research