La fatigue : est-elle détectable par les traits du visage ?

1. Introduction Le sommeil occupe un tiers de notre vie, mais n'a été, jusqu'à maintenant, que très peu étudié. En effet, dans les spécialisations médicales suisses, il n'existe pas de FMH dans ce domaine. Dans notre société, nous dormons moins qu'auparavant. En effet, au cours des cinquante dernières années, la moyenne de sommeil par nuit a diminué de 1.5 - 2h [1]. Il n'est donc pas rare que des personnes aient « l'air fatiguées ». Mais, comment pouvons-nous juger qu'elles le sont ou non ? Qu'est-ce qui nous permet de remarquer qu'une personne est, ou non, fatiguée ? Y a-t-il des aspects physionomiques qui permettraient de déterminer la fatigue d'un individu ? Il est connu qu'être fatigué peut s'avérer dangereux pour soi-même et pour les autres. En effet, d'une part le manque de sommeil a des effets neurocognitifs, dont la diminution de l'attention, de la mémoire et une modification de l'humeur. Williamson et al. (2000) ont démontré qu'une période d'éveil de 17 à 19 heures consécutives, diminuait les performances de la même façon que pour une personne ayant un taux d'alcoolémie d'au moins 0.5 0/00[2]. D'autre part, des modifications au niveau des heures de sommeil ont une incidence sur les systèmes cardiovasculaire et endocrinien. Ainsi, ce serait un facteur de risque d'hypertension artérielle, du syndrome métabolique et du diabète sucré. Alors que les risques de l'alcool au volant sont bien connus (loi fédérale de 2005 qui tolère 0.5 grammes pour mille lors de la conduite[3]), ceux du manque de sommeil le sont beaucoup moins. Il n'y a, en effet, aucun contrôle sur l'état de fatigue lors de la conduite. Pour le quantifier et dans le but d'augmenter la sécurité des conducteurs, des recherches ont été faites, dans ce domaine. Par exemple, en 2013, les chercheurs du centre d'investigations neurocognitives et neurophysiologiques de l'Université de Strasbourg, ont mis au point une application pour Smartphone qui permet de déterminer le niveau de somnolence, se basant sur un test de réactivité. Si le temps de réactivité est augmenté, l'application conseille à l'utilisateur d'effectuer une sieste de 20 minutes avant de prendre la route[4]. Il est également connu que le visage d'une personne est une grande source d'informations. Willis et al. (2006) ont démontré qu'il suffit de visionner un visage pendant 100 millisecondes pour se faire un avis sur différents paramètres tels que l'attractivité, la confiance et la compétence [5]. Dès lors, serait-il possible d'évaluer de la même façon le niveau de fatigue d'une personne ? L'hypothèse de travail de cette étude est de voir, si l'oeil humain est capable de différencier l'état fatigué de l'état reposé d'une même personne sur la base d'une photo. Par ailleurs, il s'agira de déterminer quels traits du visage se modifient ou sont perçus différemment après une nuit de privation de sommeil. Si notre hypothèse s'avère juste, il serait envisageable de développer des systèmes de sécurité dans des voitures intelligentes qui pourraient reconnaitre la fatigue sur le visage du conducteur et lui envoyer un signal d'alarme lorsqu'il est considéré comme étant trop fatigué, ce qui aurait comme but de diminuer les accidents de la route

The effects of economic deprivation on psychological well-being among the working population of Switzerland

BACKGROUND: The association between poverty and mental health has been widely investigated. There is, however, limited evidence of mental health implications of working poverty, despite its representing a rapidly expanding segment of impoverished populations in many developed nations. In this study, we examined whether working poverty in Switzerland, a country with substantial recent growth among the working poor, was correlated with two dependent variables of interest: psychological health and unmet mental health need. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data drawn from the first 3 waves (1999–2001) of the Swiss Household Panel, a nationally representative sample of the permanent resident population of Switzerland. The study sample comprised 5453 subjects aged 20–59 years. We used Generalized Estimating Equation models to investigate the association between working poverty and psychological well-being; we applied logistic regression models to analyze the link between working poverty and unmet mental health need. Working poverty was represented by dummy variables indicating financial deficiency, restricted standard of living, or both conditions. RESULTS: After controlling other factors, restricted standard of living was significantly (p < .001) negatively correlated with psychological well-being; it was also associated with approximately 50% increased risk of unmet mental health need (OR = 1.55; 95% CI 1.17 – 2.06). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the potential psychological impact of material deprivation on working Swiss citizens. Such knowledge may aid in the design of community intervention programs to help reduce the individual and societal burdens of poverty in Switzerland

Transformative Pedagogies for Sustainable Development

Transformative pedagogies for sustainable development encourage learners to change the direction of development that seems to be inevitable by enhancing their awareness, understanding of complexities, empathy, compassion and empowermentPeer reviewe

TS-AMIR: a topology string alignment method for intensive rapid protein structure comparison

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In structural biology, similarity analysis of protein structure is a crucial step in studying the relationship between proteins. Despite the considerable number of techniques that have been explored within the past two decades, the development of new alternative methods is still an active research area due to the need for high performance tools.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we present TS-AMIR, a Topology String Alignment Method for Intensive Rapid comparison of protein structures. The proposed method works in two stages: In the first stage, the method generates a topology string based on the geometric details of secondary structure elements, and then, utilizes an n-gram modelling technique over entropy concept to capture similarities in these strings. This initial correspondence map between secondary structure elements is submitted to the second stage in order to obtain the alignment at the residue level. Applying the Kabsch method, a heuristic step-by-step algorithm is adopted in the second stage to align the residues, resulting in an optimal rotation matrix and minimized RMSD. The performance of the method was assessed in different information retrieval tests and the results were compared with those of CE and TM-align, representing two geometrical tools, and YAKUSA, 3D-BLAST and SARST as three representatives of linear encoding schemes. It is shown that the method obtains a high running speed similar to that of the linear encoding schemes. In addition, the method runs about 800 and 7200 times faster than TM-align and CE respectively, while maintaining a competitive accuracy with TM-align and CE.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The experimental results demonstrate that linear encoding techniques are capable of reaching the same high degree of accuracy as that achieved by geometrical methods, while generally running hundreds of times faster than conventional programs.</p

Evaluation of the process of reabilitation of a stretch of Riparian forest in Itapemirim river watershed - ES

Este estudo foi realizado em uma área de floresta ciliar em processo de recuperação mediante reabilitação.A área de estudo está localizada na sub-bacia hidrográfica do rio Itapemirim, no Município de Alegre, ES, Brasil.A ocupação e uso do solo antes da revegetação eram de pastagem com Brachiaria sp. A revegetação da áreafoi feita em 1997, com espécies autóctones e alóctones arbóreas, em arranjo de distribuição aleatório, em umaárea de 1,2 ha. Para a realização dos estudos foram feitos inventários florestais nos períodos de 2004/2005e 2005/2006, sendo medidos os indivíduos de hábito arbustivo e arbóreo com circunferência à altura do peito(CAP) > 5 cm e suas alturas totais. As espécies encontradas na área foram identificadas e classificadas de acordocom seus grupos ecológicos, síndromes de dispersão e presença silvestre, sendo calculados os parâmetros florísticos,a estrutura vertical e a dinâmica estrutural desse povoamento. O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar o desenvolvimentodo povoamento implantado para subsidiar práticas silviculturais quanto à seleção e implantação de espécies pararevegetação de áreas de floresta ciliar degradadas, em condições semelhantes. Os resultados demonstraram quefoi implantado um povoamento florestal com grande diversidade de espécies e a estratificação em classes dealtura foi à semelhança de povoamentos heterogêneos naturais. As espécies identificadas como edificadoras darevegetação da área estudada foram: Anadenanthera colubrina, Caesalpinia leyostachia, Acacia auriculiformis,Acacia mangium, Handroanthus serratifolius, Inga edulis, Joannesia princeps, Pterogyne nitens, Enterelobiumcontortisiliquum, Tabernaemontana hystrix e Anthocephalus indicus. A distribuição em classes de tamanho dacomunidade implantada ocorre em forma de "J" reverso, havendo a predominância de indivíduos pioneiros emtodas as classes de CAP. A dinâmica da estrutura horizontal apontou que, para o sucesso, continuidade e desenvolvimentoda recuperação da área, seja monitorada a regeneração natural em relação à sua presença e à eficiência dos fatoresbióticos e abióticos que nela interferem. A não observância de indivíduos arbustivos e arbóreos regenerados naturalmente,na classe de inclusão do estudo, indica a fragilidade inicial da área rumo à sustentabilidade do sistema.The study was realized in an area of riparian forest in process by means of rehabilitation. Thestudy area is located in Rio Itapemirim, in Alegre city, Brazil. The occupation and use of the soil beforethe recovery were of pasture with Brachiaria sp. The recovery of this area was in 1997, with autochthonousand allochthonous species, in casually distribution arrangement, in an area of 1,2 ha. For this studies wasrealized forest inventories in the periods of 2004/2005 and 2005/2006, being measured the arboreal individualswith circumference at breast height (CBH) and total heights. The species found in the area were identifiedand classified in this ecological groups, dispersion syndromes and wild presence, it forms calculated thefloristic parameters, the vertical structure and the structural dynamics of this plantation. The objective ofthis work went evaluate the development of the plantation implanted to subsidize practical silviculture withrelationship to the selection and plantation of species for the revegetation of degraded areas of riparianforest, in similar conditions. The results of the studies demonstrated that a forest plantation was implantedwith great diversity of species and the bedding in height classes it went to the likeness of natural heterogeneous.The species identified as builders of the plantation of the studied area were: Anadenanthera colubrina, Caesalpinia leyostachia, Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia mangium, Handroanthus serratifolius, Inga edulis, Joannesia princeps,Pterogyne nitens, Enterelobium contortisiliquum, Tabernaemontana hystrix, and Anthocephalus indicus . Theimplanted community's distribution diametric happens in reverse J shape having the pioneer individuals'predominance in all the classes of CBH. The dynamics of the horizontal structure points that for the success,continuity and development of the recovery of the area, the natural regeneration be monitored in relationto its presence and efficiency of the biotic factors and abiotic those interfere in the same. The not tree individualsobservance in natural regeneration, in the class of inclusion of the study, indicate the initial fragility of thearea heading for sustentabilidade of the system