Supporting dynamic change detection: using the right tool for the task

Detecting task-relevant changes in a visual scene is necessary for successfully monitoring and managing dynamic command and control situations. Change blindness—the failure to notice visual changes—is an important source of human error. Change History EXplicit (CHEX) is a tool developed to aid change detection and maintain situation awareness; and in the current study we test the generality of its ability to facilitate the detection of changes when this subtask is embedded within a broader dynamic decision-making task. A multitasking air-warfare simulation required participants to perform radar-based subtasks, for which change detection was a necessary aspect of the higher-order goal of protecting one’s own ship. In this task, however, CHEX rendered the operator even more vulnerable to attentional failures in change detection and increased perceived workload. Such support was only effective when participants performed a change detection task without concurrent subtasks. Results are interpreted in terms of the NSEEV model of attention behavior (Steelman, McCarley, & Wickens, Hum. Factors 53:142–153, 2011; J. Exp. Psychol. Appl. 19:403–419, 2013), and suggest that decision aids for use in multitasking contexts must be designed to fit within the available workload capacity of the user so that they may truly augment cognition

Tracking the spatial diffusion of influenza and norovirus using telehealth data: A spatiotemporal analysis of syndromic data

Background: Telehealth systems have a large potential for informing public health authorities in an early stage of outbreaks of communicable disease. Influenza and norovirus are common viruses that cause significant respiratory and gastrointestinal disease worldwide. Data about these viruses are not routinely mapped for surveillance purposes in the UK, so the spatial diffusion of national outbreaks and epidemics is not known as such incidents occur. We aim to describe the geographical origin and diffusion of rises in fever and vomiting calls to a national telehealth system, and consider the usefulness of these findings for influenza and norovirus surveillance. Methods: Data about fever calls (5- to 14-year-old age group) and vomiting calls (≥ 5-year-old age group) in school-age children, proxies for influenza and norovirus, respectively, were extracted from the NHS Direct national telehealth database for the period June 2005 to May 2006. The SaTScan space-time permutation model was used to retrospectively detect statistically significant clusters of calls on a week-by-week basis. These syndromic results were validated against existing laboratory and clinical surveillance data. Results: We identified two distinct periods of elevated fever calls. The first originated in the North-West of England during November 2005 and spread in a south-east direction, the second began in Central England during January 2006 and moved southwards. The timing, geographical location, and age structure of these rises in fever calls were similar to a national influenza B outbreak that occurred during winter 2005–2006. We also identified significantly elevated levels of vomiting calls in South-East England during winter 2005–2006. Conclusion: Spatiotemporal analyses of telehealth data, specifically fever calls, provided a timely and unique description of the evolution of a national influenza outbreak. In a similar way the tool may be useful for tracking norovirus, although the lack of consistent comparison data makes this more difficult to assess. In interpreting these results, care must be taken to consider other infectious and non-infectious causes of fever and vomiting. The scan statistic should be considered for spatial analyses of telehealth data elsewhere and will be used to initiate prospective geographical surveillance of influenza in England.

Correlação entre os diagnósticos citopatológicos e histopatológicos das lesões da mucosa oral após a punção aspirativa por agulha fina

OBJETIVO: Fazer um estudo retrospectivo, correlacionando os diagnósticos citopatológicos obtidos por punção aspirativa por agulha fina (PAAF) com os diagnósticos histopatológicos de lesões da região bucomaxilofacial, de pacientes que foram atendidos no Serviço de Cirurgia e Traumatologia Bucomaxilofacial do Hospital Universitário Antonio Pedro/UFF, entre maio de 1999 e maio de 2004. MÉTODO: Foram analisados os laudos cito e histopatológicos emitidos pelo Serviço de Anatomia Patológica (SAP-HUAP), de quarenta e cinco pacientes submetidos à a punção aspirativa por agulha fina (PAAF) por apresentar lesão na região bucomaxilofacial. RESULTADOS: Foi obtida uma precisão diagnóstica da citopatologia a partir da PAAF de 77,8% (35 casos), e especificidade e sensibilidade da técnica de 100%, não havendo nenhum resultado falso-positivo e falso-negativo. CONCLUSÃO: A citopatologia realizada a partir da PAAF é um método diagnóstico inicial eficiente, de baixo custo, praticamente indolor e rápido de ser realizado, que contribui para a identificação da natureza da lesão proporcionando um melhor planejamento terapêutico

Embryonic development of human lice: rearing conditions and susceptibility to spinosad

The embryonic development of human lice was evaluated according to the changes in the morphology of the embryo observed through the transparent chorion. Based on ocular and appendage development, three stages of embryogenesis were established: early, medium, and late. Influence of temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the laboratory rearing of Pediculus humanus capitis eggs was assessed. The optimal ranges for temperature and RH were 27-31°C and 45-75%. The susceptibility of human louse eggs to insecticide spinosad (a macrocyclic lactone) was assessed by immersion method. The results showed similar susceptibility to spinosad in early, medium, and late stages of head lice eggs. In addition, this study showed similar susceptibility of head and body lice eggs to spinosad, an insecticide that has not been used as pediculicide in Argentina (lethal concentration 50: 0.01%)