Health belief model for coronavirus infection risk determinants

OBJECTIVE: To use the advantages of a ratio scale with verbal anchors in order to measure the risk perception in the novel coronavirus infection, which causes covid-19, in a health belief model-based questionnaire, as well as its validity and reproducibility. METHOD: We used the health belief model, which explores four dimensions: perceived susceptibility (five questions), perceived severity (five questions), perceived benefits (five questions), and perceived barriers (five questions). Additionally, we included a fifth dimension, called pro-health motivation (four questions). The questions composed an electronic questionnaire disseminated by social networks for an one-week period. Answers were quantitative values of subjective representations, obtained by a psychophysically constructed scale with verbal anchors ratio (CentiMax®). Mean time for total filling was 12 minutes (standard deviation = 1.6). RESULTS: We obtained 277 complete responses to the form. One was excluded because it belonged to a participant under 18 years old. Reproducibility measures were significant for 22 of the 24 questions in our questionnaire (Cronbach’s α = 0.883). Convergent validity was attested by Spearman-Brown’s split half reliability coefficient (r = 0.882). Significant differences among groups were more intense in perceived susceptibility and severity dimensions, and less in perceived benefits and barriers. CONCLUSION: Our health belief model-based questionnaire using quantitative measures enabled the confirmation of popular beliefs about covid-19 infection risks. The advantage in our approach lays in the possibility of quickly, directly and quantitatively identifying individual belief profiles for each dimension in the questionnaire, serving as a great ally for communication processes and public health education

Psicofísica clínica: aplicação de metodologia psicofísica no auxílio de diagnósticos. Descrição de método

La psychophysique appliquée à la clinique avec les humains peuvent fournir d'autres outils pour faciliter l'accès à l'objectif et quantifiable conditions internes du patient, qui ne pouvaient être obtenus autrement, à travers leurs récits et descriptions. Un exemple de ce partenariat et la mise en œuvre de psychophysique est l'unité commerciale C-Quant (Oculus Optikgeräte, Allemagne), dont la psychophysique méthode d'accès à la valeur de la diffusion de la lumière dans la rétine a été développé par le groupe de chercheurs néerlandais mené par le prof. Dr. Thomas van den Berg, Pays-Bas Institut de Neuroscience (NIN). L'accès à la quantité de diffusion de la lumière dans la rétine est utile pour le diagnostic de diverses maladies oculaires comme la cataracte. Dans cet article, la méthode psychophysique dans cette unité (comparaison de la rémunération) est décrite.La Psicofísica aplicada a la clínica con los seres humanos puede proporcionar herramientas alternativas para facilitar el acceso objetivo y cuantificable a las condiciones internas del paciente, que sólo se podría obtener de otra manera, a través de sus historias y descripciones. Un ejemplo de esta asociación y la aplicación de la psicofísica es la unidad comercial de C-Quant (Oculus Optikgeräte, Alemania), cuyo método psicofísico de acceso al valor de dispersión de la luz en la retina fue desarrollado por el grupo de investigadores holandeses dirigidos por el Prof. Dr. Thomas van den Berg, del Netherland Institute of Neuroscience (NIN). El acceso al valor de dispersión de luz en la retina es útil para el diagnóstico de diversas enfermedades oculares, como cataratas. En este artículo el método psicofísico presente en esta unidad comercial (Comparación de la compensación) es descrito.A Psicofísica aplicada à Clínica com seres humanos pode prover ferramentas alternativas que auxiliem o acesso objetivo e quantificável a condições internas do paciente, que só poderiam ser obtidas, de outra forma, através de seus relatos e descrições. Um exemplo dessa parceria e aplicação da Psicofísica é o aparelho comercial C-Quant (Oculus Optikgeräte, Alemanha), cujo método psicofísico de acesso ao valor de dispersão de luz na retina foi desenvolvido pelo grupo de pesquisadores holandeses liderados pelo Prof. Dr. Thomas van den Berg, do Netherland Institute of Neuroscience (NIN). O acesso ao valor de dispersão de luz na retina é útil para auxiliar no diagnóstico de várias doenças oculares, como catarata. Neste artigo o método psicofísico presente no aparelho (Comparação da Compensação) é descrito.The Psychophysics applied to the clinic with humans may provide alternative tools to assist access to objective and quantifiable internal conditions of the patient, which could only be obtained otherwise, through their stories and descriptions. An example of this partnership and implementation of Psychophysics is the commercial unit C-Quant (Oculus Optikgeräte, Germany), whose psychophysical method of access to the value of light scattering in the retina was developed by the group of Dutch researchers led by prof. Dr. Thomas van den Berg, Netherland's Institute of Neuroscience (NIN). Access to the amount of light scattering in the retina is useful for the diagnosis of various eye diseases such as cataracts. In this article the psychophysical method in this unit (Comparison of compensation) is described

Modelo de crença em saúde para determinantes de risco para contaminação por coronavírus

OBJECTIVE: To use the advantages of a ratio scale with verbal anchors in order to measure the risk perception in the novel coronavirus infection, which causes covid-19, in a health belief model-based questionnaire, as well as its validity and reproducibility. METHOD: We used the health belief model, which explores four dimensions: perceived susceptibility (five questions), perceived severity (five questions), perceived benefits (five questions), and perceived barriers (five questions). Additionally, we included a fifth dimension, called pro-health motivation (four questions). The questions composed an electronic questionnaire disseminated by social networks for an one-week period. Answers were quantitative values of subjective representations, obtained by a psychophysically constructed scale with verbal anchors ratio (CentiMax®). Mean time for total filling was 12 minutes (standard deviation = 1.6). RESULTS: We obtained 277 complete responses to the form. One was excluded because it belonged to a participant under 18 years old. Reproducibility measures were significant for 22 of the 24 questions in our questionnaire (Cronbach’s α = 0.883). Convergent validity was attested by Spearman-Brown’s split half reliability coefficient (r = 0.882). Significant differences among groups were more intense in perceived susceptibility and severity dimensions, and less in perceived benefits and barriers. CONCLUSION: Our health belief model-based questionnaire using quantitative measures enabled the confirmation of popular beliefs about covid-19 infection risks. The advantage in our approach lays in the possibility of quickly, directly and quantitatively identifying individual belief profiles for each dimension in the questionnaire, serving as a great ally for communication processes and public health education.OBJETIVO: Neste estudo buscamos utilizar as vantagens de uma escala de razão por ancoragem verbal para medidas da percepção de risco de contágio pelo novo coronavírus, causador da covid-19, em um questionário baseado no modelo de crença em saúde, assim como avaliar sua validade e reprodutibilidade. MÉTODO: Utilizamos o modelo de crença em saúde, o qual explora quatro dimensões: percepção individual de susceptibilidade percebida (cinco questões), severidade percebida (cinco questões), benefícios percebidos (cinco questões) e barreiras percebidas (cinco questões). Adicionalmente, incluímos uma quinta dimensão, a qual denominamos motivação pró-saúde (quatro questões). As questões definiram um questionário eletrônico que foi divulgado por redes sociais pelo período de uma semana. As respostas foram valores quantitativos de representações subjetivas, obtidas por meio de uma escala psicofísica de razão com ancoragem verbal (CentiMax®). O tempo médio total de preenchimento foi de 12 minutos (desvio-padrão = 1,6). RESULTADOS: Obtivemos 277 respostas completas ao formulário. Uma foi excluída por se tratar de participante com menos de 18 anos de idade. Medidas de reprodutibilidade foram significantes para 22 das 24 questões de nosso questionário (α de Cronbach = 0,883). A validade convergente foi atestada pelo coeficiente de correlação de Spearman-Brown split half (r = 0,882). Diferenças significantes entre grupos foram encontradas mais intensamente nas dimensões susceptibilidade percebida e severidade percebida, e menos intensamente para benefícios percebidos e barreiras percebidas. CONCLUSÃO: Nosso questionário baseado no modelo de crença em saúde utilizando medidas quantitativas permitiu evidenciar as crenças populares sobre os riscos de contágio por covid-19. A vantagem de nossa abordagem é a possibilidade de se identificar os perfis de crença individuais para cada dimensão do questionário de forma rápida, direta e quantitativa, podendo ser uma grande aliada em processos de comunicação e educação em saúde pública

Mining multi-layered networks - applications to the portuguese urban system and EU domains

O objetivo desta tese é enfatizar a importância de uma abordagem multicamada numa análise de redes, através da aplicação das métricas mais adequadas a dois casos práticos: uma análise territorial tendo por base um conjunto de variáveis que caracterizam o sistema urbano português e um estudo dos mais importantes e influentes países da União Europeia.Por um lado, apresentando as bases teóricas para uma análise de redes monocamadas e multicamadas, os investigadores desenvolvem uma sólida seleção de conceitos e medidas analíticas, tendo em conta a estrutura geral dos diferentes tipos de redes. Por outro lado, o enquadramento teórico é testado em duas redes multicamada reais, de modo a mostrar a validade e significância das medidas introduzidas, capazes de extrair informação importante e não-aleatória sobre tais fenómenos complexos.Os autores analisam os (atuais) 308 municípios portugueses em alguns dos aspetos económicos que caracterizam uma sociedade (trabalho e educação) e os atuais 28 países que compõem a União Europeia em importantes prioridades de políticas de integração europeia tais como o comércio internacional, o investimento direto estrangeiro e os fluxos migratórios e de remessas.Para ambos os cenários nacional e europeu, depois de uma análise individual a cada variável, o método mais adequado para detetar comunidades é implementado numa perspetiva multicamada. Tais resultados são seguidamente comparados com os inicialmente obtidos. A aplicação de redes multivariadas permite inferir padrões espaciais mais consistentes quando comparados com a estrutura geográfica obtida estudando cada camada de rede separadamente. Assim, o problema de investigação adjacente a esta dissertação contribui com um modelo de análise estruturado para identificar medidas analíticas apropriadas para espelhar as estruturas gerais do sistema urbano português e da União Europeia.The main purpose of this thesis is to emphasise the importance of a multi-layered approach to a network analysis, by applying the most appropriate metrics to two case studies: a territorial network analysis capturing several insights of the Portuguese society and a study identifying the most important and influential leading countries of the European Union.On the one hand, by giving the basis for monolayer and multilayer network analysis, the researchers develop a solid selection of the main concepts and analytical measures, bearing in mind the general structure of different types of networks. On the other hand, these frameworks are tested in two real multilayer networks, showing the validity and the meaningfulness of the introduced measures, as important and non-random information to mine complex phenomena.The researchers analyse all the 308 Portuguese municipalities in some economic features that describe a society (work and education) and the current EU-28 countries composition in important priorities of union policies such as commercial trade, foreign direct investment and migration and remittance flows.For both national and European schemes, after the analysis of each variable, where communities are detected individually, an adequate method is implemented to detect communities under the perspective of a multilayer network. Subsequently, the multilayer outcomes are compared with the monolayer ones. The application of a multi-layered network allows inferring spatial patterns in a way more consistent in comparison to the geographical structure deduced from each network layer taken separately. Thus, the research problem underlying this dissertation contributes to a structured analysis model to identify the appropriate analytical measures to derive the Portuguese urban system and the European Union global structures

Psychophysical measurements of luminance and chromatic spatial and temporal contrast sensitivity in Duchenne muscular dystrophy

In children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, color vision losses have been related to dystrophin deletions downstream of exon 30, which affect a dystrophin isoform, Dp260, present in the retina. To further evaluate visual function in DMD children, we measured spatial, temporal, and chromatic red-green and blue-yellow contrast sensitivity in two groups of DMD children with gene deletion downstream and upstream of exon 30. Psychophysical spatial contrast sensitivity was measured for low, middle, and high spatial frequencies with achromatic gratings and for low and middle frequencies with red-green and blue-yellow chromatic gratings. Temporal contrast sensitivity was also measured with achromatic stimuli. A reduction in sensitivity at all spatial luminance contrasts was found for the DMD patients with deletion downstream of exon 30. Similar results were found for temporal luminance contrast sensitivity. Red-green chromatic contrast sensitivity was reduced in DMD children with deletion downstream of exon 30, whereas blue-yellow chromatic contrast sensitivity showed no significant differences. We conclude that visual function is impaired in DMD children. Furthermore, we report a genotype-phenotype relationship because the visual impairment occurred in children with deletion downstream but not upstream of exon 30, affecting the retinal isoform of dystrophin Dp260.FAPESPConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Correlations between color perception and motor function impairment in children with spastic cerebral palsy

Abstract\ud \ud Introduction\ud The aim of the present study was to evaluate color perception thresholds and relate them to the degree of motor impairment in children with spastic cerebral palsy (SCP).\ud \ud \ud Methods\ud Binocular and monocular chromaticity discrimination thresholds were estimated for the protan, deutan, and tritan color confusion axes in 43 SCP children aged 6–15 years who were classified as tetraplegic (n = 12), diplegic (n = 16), and hemiplegic (n = 15) without ophthalmological complaints. Motor impairment was rated according to the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) in five levels of severity.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud Analysis of variance showed significantly reduced discrimination in tetraplegic children (p < 0.001) compared with the diplegic, hemiplegic, and control groups. We also found a positive correlation between chromaticity discrimination thresholds and GMFCS ratings in all of the groups.\ud \ud \ud Discussion\ud Chromaticity discrimination thresholds measured psychophysically were reduced for all three color confusion axis in tetraplegic children compared with normal children. Diplegic and hemiplegic children had similar results as normal children. The finding of a correlation between quantified motor impairment and color discrimination losses in SCP patients is a new observation that might help elucidate the causes of color perception loss in these patients. Visual information is essential for the rehabilitation of CP children. Knowledge of the degree of correlation between vision and motor impairment is valuable when planning a rehabilitation program.Research supported by a master graduate fellowship from CAPES to J.C.P.\ud and CNPq #472093/2010-0 grants to M.F.C. We thank our colleagues in the\ud Department of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy for support in\ud performing the patient examinations and Claudiel Luiz dos Santos for\ud general assistance. M.F.C. is a level 2 fellow researcher from CNPq

Visual impairment in children with spastic cerebral palsy measured by psychophysical and electrophysiological grating acuity tests

Background: This study measured grating visual acuity in 173 children between 6-48 months of age who had different types of spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Behavioural acuity was measured with the Teller Acuity Cards (TAC) using a staircase psychophysical procedure. Electrophysiological visual acuity was estimated using the sweep VEP (sVEP). Results: The percentage of children outside the superior tolerance limits was 44 of 63 (69%) and 50 of 55 (91%) of tetraplegic, 36 of 56 (64%) and 42 of 53 (79%) of diplegic, 10 of 48 (21%) and 12 of 40 (30%) of hemiplegic for sVEP and TAC, respectively. For the sVEP, the greater visual acuity deficit found in the tetraplegic group was significantly different from that of the hemiplegic group (p &lt; 0.001). In the TAC procedure the mean visual acuity deficits of the tetraplegic and diplegic groups were significantly different from that of hemiplegic group (p &lt; 0.001). The differences between sVEP and TAC means of visual acuity difference were statistically significant for the tetraplegic (p &lt; 0.001), diplegic (p &lt; 0.001), and hemiplegic group (p = 0.004). Discussion: Better visual acuities were obtained in both procedures for hemiplegic children compared to diplegic or tetraplegic. Tetraplegic and diplegic children showed greater discrepancies between the TAC and sVEP results. Inter-ocular acuity difference was more frequent in sVEP measurements. Conclusions: Electrophysiologically measured visual acuity is better than behavioural visual acuity in children with CP.FAPESP [02/12733-8]CNPq [523303/95-5]USP-PROPESPCAPES/PROCAD [0019/01-1

PERCEPÇÃO SOCIAL DE EMOÇÕES EM FACES: Julgando sexo, gênero e raça

O presente estudo teve como objetivo observar as relações entre sexo, raça e julgamento de emoções em faces humanas. Para a realização do estudo, foram coletados dados sobre a identificação e intensidade percebidas sobre a emoção de faces humanas. As faces apresentadas eram de diferentes sexo e raça, além de mostrar diferentes emoções. Durante o experimento, os participantes eram expostos a essas faces e eles respondiam por meio de formulário eletrônico, o nome da emoção apresentada e, em escala tipo Likert, a intensidade que julgava a emoção na figura apresentada. A análise estatística da coleta identificou uma preferência de julgamento para faces do mesmo sexo e raça do participante. A relevância dessa preferência está relacionada a empatia entre raças e sexo, representada minimamente pelo reconhecimento de emoções mutuamente