VITASENIOR-MT: a telehealth solution for the elderly focused on the interaction with TV

Remote monitoring of health parameters is a promising approach to improve the health condition and quality of life of particular groups of the population, which can also alleviate the current expenditure and demands of healthcare systems. The elderly, usually affected by chronic comorbidities, are a specific group of the population that can strongly benefit from telehealth technologies, allowing them to reach a more independent life, by living longer in their own homes. Usability of telehealth technologies and their acceptance by end-users are essential requirements for the success of telehealth implementation. Older people are resistant to new technologies or have difficulty in using them due to vision, hearing, sensory and cognition impairments. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an IoT-based telehealth solution designed specifically to address the elderly needs. The end-user interacts with a TV-set to record biometric parameters, and to receive warning and recommendations related to health and environmental sensor recordings. The familiarization of older people with the TV is expected to provide a more user-friendly interaction ensuring the effectiveness integration of the end-user in the overall telehealth solution.This work has been financially supported by the IC&DT project VITASENIOR-MT CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER- 023659 with FEDER funding through programs CENTRO2020 and FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modelling visual-vestibular integration and behavioural adaptation in the driving simulator

It is well established that not only vision but also other sensory modalities affect drivers’ control of their vehicles, and that drivers adapt over time to persistent changes in sensory cues (for example in driving simulators), but the mechanisms underlying these behavioural phenomena are poorly understood. Here, we consider the existing literature on how driver steering in slalom tasks is affected by down-scaling of vestibular cues, and propose, for the first time, a computational model of driver behaviour that can, based on neurobiologically plausible mechanisms, explain the empirically observed effects, namely: decreased task performance and increased steering effort during initial exposure, followed by a partial reversal of these effects as task exposure is prolonged. Unexpectedly, the model also reproduced another previously unexplained empirical finding: a local optimum for motion down-scaling, where path-tracking is better than when one-to-one motion cues are available. Overall, our findings suggest that: (1) drivers make direct use of vestibular information as part of determining appropriate steering actions, and (2) motion down-scaling causes a yaw rate underestimation phenomenon, where drivers behave as if the simulated vehicle is rotating more slowly than it is. However, (3) in the slalom task, a certain degree of such underestimation brings a path-tracking performance benefit. Furthermore, (4) behavioural adaptation in simulated slalom driving tasks may occur due to (a) down-weighting of vestibular cues, and/or (b) increased sensitivity in timing and magnitude of steering corrections, but (c) seemingly not in the form of a full compensatory rescaling of the received vestibular input. The analyses presented here provide new insights and hypotheses about simulated driving and simulator design, and the developed models can be used to support research on multisensory integration and behavioural adaptation in both driving and other task domains

The Effects of Specific Force on Self-Motion Perception in a Simulation Environment

Control and SimulationAerospace Engineerin

Effect of simulator motion space on realism in the Desdemona simulator

The goal of this study was to assess the effect of an increasing motion space on the fidelity of driving simulation in the Desdemona research simulator. The experimental task was a standardized slalom maneuver where the car velocity was limited to 70 km/h. Subjective measures, which included eight statements on realism and task performance were used to assess simulation fidelity. The slalom task was driven in four conditions: 1) one-toone motion space, 2) 0.7 times the motion space, 3) 0.4 times the motion space, and 4) nomotion. The conditions were compared pair-wise. In total 16 participants completed the experiment. Compared to the no-motion condition, driving a slalom maneuver in Desdemona was judged more realistic when motion cues were available, where the magnitude of the motion, within the range of 0.4 to 1, has less to no effect on the realism compared to the issue of motion versus no-motion. Furthermore, the participants indicated that motion and forces actuated by Desdemona helped to conduct their task better

Qualidade da Aprendizagem no Ensino Superior - Concepções, Abordagens à Aprendizagem e Preferência pelo Ensino

Resumo Numerosos estudos, enquadrados pelo modelo SAL (Students Approaches to Learning), realizados com estudantes de várias nacionalidades, identificaram três componentes fundamentais como descritoras da qualidade da aprendizagem dos estudantes do ensino superior: concepções de aprendizagem, abordagens à aprendizagem/ensino e percepção do contexto de ensino. A investigação aqui apresentada procurou identificar as concepções de aprendizagem, abordagens ao estudo e preferências pelo ensino em estudantes que frequentavam três instituições de Ensino Superior da região Alentejo (Évora, Beja e Portalegre) recorrendo ao ASSIST (Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students). De um modo geral encontramos confirmada a estrutura factorial do instrumento para a população portuguesa e, tal como nos vários estudos transculturais, correlação positiva entre abordagens mais profundas e sucesso académico dos estudantes. Abstract Several studies framed by the SAL model (Students approaches to Learning), conducted with students of various nationalities identified three key components as descriptors of the quality of student learning in higher education: conceptions of learning, approaches to learning/studying and preference for teaching. The results of the present research identify the conceptions of learning, approaches to studying and preferences of teaching of students attending three institutions of higher education in the Portuguese region of Alentejo (Évora, Beja and Portalegre) using the ASSIST (Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students). In general the factorial structure of the instrument to the Portuguese population was confirmed and, as in several cross-cultural studies, a positive correlation between deeper approaches and academic success of students

Fertilidade de quistos hidáticos em diferentes espécies de animais, em Portugal

A hidatidose apresenta uma distribuição cosmopolita e encontra-se entre as zoonoses de maior importância a nível mundial. O parasita Echinococcus granulosus, responsável por esta doença, apresenta uma distribuição cosmopolita afectando diversas espécies de animais e, acidentalmente, o Homem. O objectivo do estudo é a obtenção do estado larvar do E. granulosus (protoescólices) para o estudo da fertilidade dos quistos em diferentes espécies animais em Portugal. MATERIAL E MÉTODOS: Para este estudo foi utilizado material biológico parasitado, obtido em matadouros públicos e privados da zona centro (Castelo Branco, Pedrógão e Guarda), recolhido entre Outubro de 2007 e Março de 2010. Procedeu-se à extracção do conteúdo dos quistos hidáticos (líquido e areia hidáticos). E através da observação ao microscópio óptico, observou-se a presença de protoescólices e/ou ganchos, bem como o seu estado de conservação e a presença de elementos estranhos. As amostras férteis foram conservadas a - 20ºC para posteriores trabalhos. RESULTADOS: Foram analisadas um total de 95 amostras de quistos hidáticos provenientes do fígado e pulmão de ovinos, bovinos e caprinos e estabelecida uma relação entre a fertilidade/infertilidade dos quistos e os órgãos parasitados. Relativamente à espécie hospedeira e faixa etária do animal parasitado, os resultados obtidos não foram estatisticamente significativos. DISCUSSÃO: Foi encontrada uma associação entre a fertilidade dos quistos hidáticos e órgão parasitado, apresentando uma relação semelhante às obtidas em estudos do mesmo género efectuados noutras zonas endémicas

The Effect of Simulator Motion Cueing on Steering Control Performance – a Driving Simulator Study

The goal of the presented study was to explore how simulator motion cueing affects the driver’s control performance of a car. We looked at steering behavior as a measure of control performance. The experimental task was a slalom maneuver where the car velocity was limited to 70 km/h. Subjective and objective variables were measured. This paper describes the objective steering behavior. The slalom task was driven in four conditions: a lateral motion scale factor of 1 (one-to-one lateral motion), 0.7, 0.4 and 0 (no-motion), respectively. In total 16 participants completed the experiment. The study showed that the motion condition affects the steering-wheel behavior. The general tendency is that less steering correction took place when the magnitude of the motion cues was increased, which was quantified by two performance indicators. Firstly, the number of steering wheel reversals reduced when the motion-cue magnitude was increased. Secondly, the amount of relative high-frequency correction was reduced with increasing motion cue magnitude. It is concluded that motion feedback can improve the driver’s control performance in an extreme scenario like a slalom maneuver

An application of the canal-otolith interaction model for tilt-coordination during a braking maneuver

In motion simulation, motion cueing algorithms are used to transform vehicle inertial cues into inertial cues that are within the simulator physical limits. Most motion cueing algorithms aim to minimize the error between these vehicle inertial cues and those generated by the simulator. Although this is one way to approach the problem, one can also aim to minimize the error between the perceived cues in the vehicle and the ones in the simulator. In this paper we designed a motion cueing algorithm based on a self-motion perception model. An experiment involving a braking maneuver was developed were subjects compared this perceptual motion cueing algorithm with a classical washout filter and a road rumble algorithm. Results showed no significant differences between the perceptual and the classical washout algorithms for both subjective and objective measures. However, we found significant differences in driving behavior between these two motion cueing algorithms and the road rumble algorithm. This study showed that inertial feedback has a positive influence in driving behavior. Therefore, this feedback might be essential to correctly simulate a braking maneuver

The time constant of the somatogravic illusion

Met desdemona hebben we gevonden dat de tijd constante van de somatografische illusie rond twee seconden is. Dit resultaat verschilt van wat was gevonden in ander onderzoek dat gebruikt maakt van een gewone centrifug