Tendencias del neurofeedback en psicología: revisión sistemática

Neurofeedback is a non-invasive method of operant conditioning designed to produce improvements in clinical and performance enhancement or sense of well-being in normal people by inducing neuroplastic effects in the brain.Objectives: Overview the literature indexed in PubMed and Scopus, and review the studies on attention deficit disorder and cognitive enhancement, performance and sense of well-being in normal people. Results: there are 156 complete articles published in Journals indexed in PubMed, 249 in Scopus, and an overall number of 310 papers. The application of the technique to the treatment of attention deficit disorder is well established in the literature, while the use for non-clinic conditions is still under development.Neurofeedback es una modalidad no invasiva de condicionamiento operante que tiene el objetivo de producir mejoras en cuadros clínicos y el aumento de la actuación o la sensación de bienestar en personas normales, por medio de la inducción de alteraciones plásticas cerebrales. Objetivos: Generar un panorama general de la literatura indexada en PubMed y Scopus y revisar la literatura en déficit de atención y en aumento de la cognición, actuación y sensación de bienestar en sujetos normales. Resultados: existen 156 artículos completos publicados en revistas indexadas en PubMed, 249 en Scopus y 310 en total. El uso para tratamiento de déficit de atención está bien establecido en la literatura, al paso que el uso para condiciones no clínicas permanece en franco desarrollo.Neurofeedback é uma modalidade não invasiva de condicionamento operante que visa produzir melhoras em quadros clínicos e aumento da performance ou sensação de bem-estar em pessoas normais, através da indução de alterações plásticas cerebrais. Os objetivos do estudo consistiram em gerar um panorama geral da literatura indexada no PubMed e Scopus e revisar a literatura em déficit de atenção e aumento da cognição, performance e sensação de bem-estar em sujeitos normais. Constatou-se que existem 156 artigos completos publicados em periódicos indexados no PubMed, 249 na Scopus e 310 ao todo. O uso para tratamento de déficit de atenção está bem-estabelecido na literatura, ao passo que o uso para condições não clínicas permanece em franco desenvolvimento.UNIFESP Universidade de São Paulo Faculdade de MedicinaUNIFESP, Universidade de São Paulo Faculdade de MedicinaSciEL

A Possible Solution to the Etiological Paradox that Ties Anti-Social Personality Disorder to Major Depression

Abstract. Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is a pervasive condition among youngsters around the globe, which has particular pungency in countries where the socioeconomic context favors delinquency. Several behavioral genetics studies have linked the disorder to the presence of copies of a polymorphic variation of the MAO-A gene that leads to enzymatic hypofunction. An emerging tendency in this literature is to also associate it to the presence of short variations of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism, which is well-known for its possible role in the vulnerability to major depression of individuals that were exposed to early-life stress. The current paper argues that the association of these findings introduce a theoretical problem that is not trivial ("an apparent paradox"), and further proposes a solution to it

Early childhood education teachers, assistants, and coordinators beliefs and attitudes about children's right to participation in early childhood educational settings

This quantitative study was carried out with a sample of 247 Portuguese early childhood education (ECE) professionals with different roles, such as coordinators, teachers and/or assistants. The main objectives of this study were: 1) to investigate the psychometric properties of the instrument “Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Participation”, developed to assess ECE professionals’ beliefs and attitudes; 2) to investigate associations between ECE professionals’ beliefs and attitudes, their participation practices, and their modernity beliefs; 3) investigate associations between ECE professionals’ beliefs and attitudes, their age and their years of experience in ECE settings; and finally, 4) to investigate differences between ECE professionals’ beliefs and attitudes according to their professional role (coordinator, teacher, or assistant). An exploratory factor analysis of the “Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Participation” scale identified four factors: Professional Development and Contextual Support to Participation; Professionals’ Knowledge and Competences; Children’s Competences and Decision-Making; and Implementation of Participation. Significant, positive associations were found between ECE professionals’ beliefs and attitudes, their participation practices, and their modernity beliefs, as well as with professionals age and years of experience. Differences were found between ECE professionals’ beliefs and attitudes according to the professional role in the ECE setting. The study shows significant results and suggestions for practical implications and intervention, in order to ensure and safeguard children’s right to participation in ECE settings.Este estudo quantitativo foi realizado com uma amostra de 247 profissionais portugueses que desempenhavam papeis profissionais como coordenadores, educadores e/ou assistentes, em contexto de educação de infância. O estudo teve como objetivos principais: 1) investigar as propriedades psicométricas do instrumento “Crenças e Atitudes Sobre Participação”, desenvolvido para avaliação das crenças e atitudes dos profissionais de educação de infância; 2) investigar associações entre as crenças e atitudes dos profissionais, as suas práticas de promoção da participação, e suas crenças de modernidade; 3) estudar associações entre as crenças e atitudes dos profissionais, sua idade e seus anos de experiência nesta área; e por último, 4) explorar se existem diferenças entre as crenças e atitudes dos profissionais de educação de infância, em função do papel profissional desempenhado (coordenador, educador, ou assistente). Uma análise fatorial exploratória da escala “Crenças e Atitudes Sobre Participação” permitiu identificar quatro fatores: Desenvolvimento Profissional e Contexto de Suporte para Participação; Conhecimentos e Competências Profissionais; Competências e Tomada de Decisão pelas Crianças; e Implementação da Participação. Foram encontradas associações significativas e positivas entre as crenças e atitudes dos profissionais de educação de infância, as suas práticas de participação e as suas crenças de modernidade. Encontraramse, também, associações significativas, positivas com a sua idade e anos de experiência, e diferenças entre as crenças e atitudes dos profissionais em função do papel profissional desempenhado. O estudo apresenta resultados importantes e sugestões para implicações práticas, com o intuito de assegurar e salvaguardar o direito de participação das crianças em educação de infância

Identificação organizacional como principal estratégia de retenção de jovens numa empresa de consultoria de IT: construção de um plano de retenção para a empresa

The purpose of this project is to show that Organisational Identification can be used as a main strategy to retain young professionals in the IT Consulting business. At the end of the project, a Retention Plan is expected to be constructed for Company A. For data collection, 10 semi-structured individual interviews and 1 focus group of 5 people were conducted. The participants consisted of young people, who already are a part of the Academy Project at the company where the plan is to be implemented and who already are inserted in the job market. The empirical research methods used were qualitative, and two separate content analysis were conducted – one of them to evaluate the information obtained in the interviews and the other for the focus group. Based on the result analysis, we were able to understand that the young people involved value four dimensions: organisational identification with company A, their relationship with company B, salary and benefits and the balance between professional and social life. The conclusions drawn were fundamental to reach the main purpose of the project: the construction of a retention plan for young workers at company A.Este projeto tem como objetivo mostrar que a Identificação Organizacional pode ser usada como principal estratégia de Retenção de Jovens em Consultoria de IT. No final do projeto é esperada a Construção de um Plano de Retenção para a Empresa A. Para a recolha de dados foram realizadas 10 entrevistas individuais semiestruturadas e 1 focus group composto por 5 pessoas, a jovens que fazem parte do Projeto Academia da empresa de IT onde será implementado o plano e que atualmente já estão inseridos no mercado de trabalho. Os métodos de investigação empírica utlizados foram qualitativos e foram efetuadas duas análises de conteúdo separadamente, às informações recolhidas nas entrevistas e no "focus group". Através da análise dos resultados foi-nos possível perceber que os jovens dão valor a quatro dimensões: identificação organizacional com a empresa A, a relação que têm com a empresa B, remuneração e benefícios e equilíbrio entre a vida profissional e social. As conclusões retiradas foram fundamentais para atingir o objetivo principal do projeto: construção de um plano de retenção de jovens para a empresa A

Mechanising an algebraic rely-guarantee refinement calculus

PhD ThesisDespite rely-guarantee (RG) being a well-studied program logic established in the 1980s, it was not until recently that researchers realised that rely and guarantee conditions could be treated as independent programming constructs. This recent reformulation of RG paved the way to algebraic characterisations which have helped to better understand the difficulties that arise in the practical application of this development approach. The primary focus of this thesis is to provide automated tool support for a rely-guarantee refinement calculus proposed by Hayes et. al., where rely and guarantee are defined as independent commands. Our motivation is to investigate the application of an algebraic approach to derive concrete examples using this calculus. In the course of this thesis, we locate and fix a few issues involving the refinement language, its operational semantics and preexisting proofs. Moreover, we extend the refinement calculus of Hayes et. al. to cover indexed parallel composition, non-atomic evaluation of expressions within specifications, and assignment to indexed arrays. These extensions are illustrated via concrete examples. Special attention is given to design decisions that simplify the application of the mechanised theory. For example, we leave part of the design of the expression language on the hands of the user, at the cost of the requiring the user to define the notion of undefinedness for unary and binary operators; and we also formalise a notion of indexed parallelism that is parametric on the type of the indexes, this is done deliberately to simplify the formalisation of algorithms. Additionally, we use stratification to reduce the number of cases in in simulation proofs involving the operational semantics. Finally, we also use the algebra to discuss the role of types in program derivation

Commentary: Free Will and Neuroscience: From Explaining Freedom Away to New Ways of Operationalizing and Measuring It

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Psychiat, Clin Neurosci Lab LinC, Sao Paulo, BrazilDepartment of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, BrazilFAPESP: 2015/03931-0Web of Scienc

An S3S_3 Model for Lepton Mass Matrices with Nearly Minimal Texture

We propose a simple extension of the electroweak standard model based on the discrete $S_3$ symmetry that is capable of realizing a nearly minimal Fritzsch-type texture for the Dirac mass matrices of both charged leptons and neutrinos. This is achieved with the aid of additional $Z_5$ and $Z_3$ symmetries, one of which can be embedded in $U(1)_{B-L}$. Five complex scalar singlet fields are introduced in addition to the SM with right-handed neutrinos. Although more general, the modified texture of the model retains the successful features of the minimal texture without fine-tuning; namely, it accommodates the masses and mixing of the leptonic sector and relates the emergence of large leptonic mixing angles with the seesaw mechanism. For large deviations of the minimal texture, both quasidegenerate spectrum or inverted hierarchy are allowed for neutrino masses.Comment: 11pp, 2 figures. v2: vev alignment addressed, additional analysis performed; to appear in PR

An architecture to predict anomalies in industrial processes

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceThe Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning algorithms (ML) are enabling a revolutionary change in digitization in numerous areas, benefiting Industry 4.0 in particular. Predictive maintenance using machine learning models is being used to protect assets in industry. In this paper, an architecture for predicting anomalies in industrial processes was proposed in which SMEs can be guided in implementing an IIoT architecture for predictive maintenance (PdM). This research was conducted to understand what machine learning architectures and models are generally used by industry for PdM. An overview of the concepts of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), machine learning (ML), and predictive maintenance (PdM) was provided, and through a systematic literature review, it was possible to understand their applications and which technologies enable their use. The survey revealed that PdM applications are increasingly common and that there are many studies on the development of new ML techniques. The survey conducted confirmed the usefulness of the artifact and showed the need for an architecture to guide the implementation of PdM. This research can be a contribution for SMEs, allowing them to become more efficient and reduce both production and maintenance costs in order to keep up with multinational companies