Emotional State Recognition Performance Improvement on a Handwriting and Drawing Task

In this work we combine time, spectral and cepstral features of the signal captured in a tablet to characterize depression, anxiety, and stress emotional state recognition on the EMOTHAW database. EMOTHAW contains the emotional states of users represented by capturing signals from sensors on the tablet and pen when the user is performing 3 specific handwriting and 4 drawing tasks, which had been categorized into depressed, anxious, stressed, and typical, according to the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). Each user was characterized with six time-domain features, and the number of spectral-domain and cepstral-domain features for the horizontal and vertical displacement of the pen, the pressure on the paper, and the time spent on-air and off-air, depended on the configuration of the filterbank. As next step, we select the best features using the Fast Correlation-Based Filtering method. Since our dataset has 129 users, then as next step, we augmented the training data by randomly selecting a percentage of the training data and adding a small random Gaussian noise to the extracted features. We then train a radial basis SVM model using the Leave-One-Out (LOO) methodology. The experimental results show an average accuracy classification improvement ranging of 15%, and an accuracy classification improvement ranging from 4% to 34% compared with baseline (state of the art) for specific emotions such as depression, anxiety, stress, and typical emotional states

Competencia investigativa estudiantil durante la pandemia

El deseo de comprender diferentes áreas del conocimiento humano permite que el método científico ayude a transformar los problemas en propuestas accionables que hagan una contribución significativa a la solución de estos. El objetivo de este trabajo es determinar las competencias investigativas estudiantiles durante la pandemia, precisando los factores asociados al logro de las mismas. El método empleado es de tipo básico, paradigma positivista, enfoque cuantitativo, diseño no experimental, descriptivo, transversal. La muestra por conveniencia no probabilística estuvo conformada por 134 estudiantes del último ciclo de cinco programas de maestría. Los datos se recopilaron con la encuesta, apoyados en el cuestionario de competencia investigativa. Para la identificación de los factores asociados al logro de la competencia se aplicó la prueba de Chi Cuadrado. La investigación demostró que los factores género, edad y maestría se asocian con el logro de la competencia investigativa en los participantes del estudio. En conclusión, los estudiantes reconocen la debilidad en la construcción de los productos científicos acorde a la normativa vigente, en la selección de los medios de divulgación y la preparación para realizar el análisis estadístico, a través de diferentes modelos matemáticos

Mood State Detection in Handwritten Tasks Using PCA–mFCBF and Automated Machine Learning

In this research, we analyse data obtained from sensors when a user handwrites or draws on a tablet to detect whether the user is in a specific mood state. First, we calculated the features based on the temporal, kinematic, statistical, spectral and cepstral domains for the tablet pressure, the horizontal and vertical pen displacements and the azimuth of the pen’s position. Next, we selected features using a principal component analysis (PCA) pipeline, followed by modified fast correlation–based filtering (mFCBF). PCA was used to calculate the orthogonal transformation of the features, and mFCBF was used to select the best PCA features. The EMOTHAW database was used for depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS) assessment. The process involved the augmentation of the training data by first augmenting the mood states such that all the data were the same size. Then, 80% of the training data was randomly selected, and a small random Gaussian noise was added to the extracted features. Automated machine learning was employed to train and test more than ten plain and ensembled classifiers. For all three moods, we obtained 100% accuracy results when detecting two possible grades of mood severities using this architecture. The results obtained were superior to the results obtained by using state-of-the-art methods, which enabled us to define the three mood states and provide precise information to the clinical psychologist. The accuracy results obtained when detecting these three possible mood states using this architecture were 82.5%, 72.8% and 74.56% for depression, anxiety and stress, respectively

Penile doppler ultrasound findings associated with severity in patients with dysfunction erectile in a private institution in Lima

Determinar la asociación entre la severidad de la disfunción eréctil y los hallazgos ecográficos en hombres de una institución privada en Lima

Severity associated factors in male patients diagnosed with chronic prostatitis/ chronic pelvic pain (cp/cpps) in private practice in Peru

La prostatitis crónica / dolor pélvico crónico (CP / CPPS) es un síndrome complejo clínico etiológicamente incierto; se pasan por alto sus efectos sobre la función sexual y el estilo de vida. Requiere un enfoque multidisciplinario para disminuir la gravedad en la presentación clínica

Functional and Psychological Characteristics of Belgian Men with Premature Ejaculation and Their Partners

Physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional factors are generally acknowledged to play a role in premature ejaculation (PE). However, the nature and the extent of their etiological impact remain largely imprecise. The present study examined functional and psychometric dynamics at work in a PE population. A total of 461 men with PE and 80 partners completed an online questionnaire. The main outcome measures were self-reported ejaculatory latency time, the feeling of control upon ejaculation, sexual satisfaction, distress related to PE, trait anxiety (STAI-B), sexual cognitions (SIQ), social anxiety (LSAS and SISST), and personality traits (TCI-R). In our sample, the median latency time to ejaculation was between 1 and 2 minutes. Sexual satisfaction and distress correlated more strongly with the feeling of control than with the self-reported latency time. Men experienced more distress and dissatisfaction related to PE than did their partners while overestimating their partners’ distress and dissatisfaction. PE participants’ scores differed significantly, albeit slightly, from STAI-B, SIQ, LSAS, and SISST norms. The differences were negligible on TCI-R. Some differences became stronger when subtypes were considered. Participants combining generalized and lifelong PE with self-reported latency times of < 30 sec reported lower sexual satisfaction and control, higher distress, higher social anxiety, and harm avoidance (TCI-R/HA) scores. By contrast, the situational subtype of PE was found to be characterized by a higher level of satisfaction, a greater feeling of control, less distress, and higher trait anxiety scores. However, the trends remained statistically discrete.BibliothE

NEOSQUIRREL: a data set of ecological knowledge on Neotropical squirrels

The squirrels (Sciuridae), with 292 species, make up the second most diverse family of rodents. Squirrels play important roles as seed and spore dispersers and seed predators in all regions where they occur. In Neotropical regions, around 28 species of squirrel are recognised. However, our knowledge of the ecology of the Neotropical Sciuridae is severely incomplete, lacking in the most basic ecological information for most species. We reviewed the literature in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, for all squirrel species in the Neotropical biogeographic region, summarising ecological interactions between squirrels and the local biota, population density records, the number of publications, and the distribution of study sites. We found information for 20 squirrel species (71% of the recognised species), from 15 countries, in 48 publications containing 126 population density records and 155 publications containing 649 ecological interactions. The most studied species were Guerlinguetus brasiliensis, Notosciurus granatensis, and Sciurus variegatoides, with 53% of all publications, whereas for eight species of Microsciurus, we found no publications. The density of Neotropical squirrels varied from 0.08 to 100 individuals per km(2) and was negatively correlated with forest area. Neotropical squirrels were recorded eating 174 plant taxa, five fungus taxa, four invertebrate taxa, and one species of vertebrate. Palms were common in the diet of squirrels (30 palm species, 27% of feeding records). Squirrels cached 28 plant species, of which 15 were palms. Sixty-five taxa of parasites are documented to occur in Neotropical squirrels, and the most common were Enderleinellus lice. Zoonotic parasites, including trypanosomes, Leptospira spp., Leishmania spp., and plague were also reported. Our review reveals the main information gaps in the current knowledge about the ecology of Neotropical Sciuridae and maps the geographic distribution of the available information throughout South and Central America. Squirrels often thrive in small forest fragments and fulfil important roles as seed dispersers and prey for mesopredators