Acoustic and Perceptual Effects of Mask-Wearing on Voice and Communication in Healthcare Practitioners

The purpose of the present study aims to determine the perceptual and acoustic voice effects experienced by healthcare practitioners following prolonged use of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 19 participants were recruited and divided into control and experimental groups. Of these 19, 10 were assigned to the experimental group (E) which required participants to engage in increasing their fluid intake by 1 liter per day, while the remaining 9 were part of the control group (C) and had no additional instructions. To gather perceptual data, a survey was created and conducted via Qualtrics software, and addressed voice perception, mask use, and demographic information. To identify acoustic measure changes, pre and post work week, recordings were collected, analyzed, and compared using PRAAT software. Additionally, comparisons between the acoustic measures of subjects in the control and experimental groups was completed to determine discrepancies that may provide insight on hydration and its role in vocal discomfort. Data is currently being analyzed due to just completing data acquisition; however, it is hypothesized that the results of this study will indicate increased perceptions of vocal discomfort across all participants as per survey responses. Comparison of each subject’s pre and post work week recordings are also hypothesized to express acoustic measure differences correlating with higher instances of vocal fatigue post work week due to prolonged voice use. Lastly, comparisons between the participants in the experimental and control group is expected to indicate less vocal discomfort as a result of increased fluid intake—a common treatment method implemented for patients experiencing vocal discomfort.Findings of this study aim to expand on the current literature regarding perceptual and acoustic effects of masks in the voice of a population that requires 1. extensive use of their voice and 2. has experienced higher requirements of mask use to decrease transmission of infection. Both variables were noted to be exacerbated by the current pandemic which has been shown to impact and increase the demand for quality care by healthcare practitioners

Taxonomy and software architecture for real-time context-aware collaborative smart environments

The widespread of Internet of Things (IoT) and the price reduction and ubiquity of telecommunications has led to the emergence of smart environments where devices are becoming increasingly smarter and everything is connected and from which society aims to benefit. The data obtained from IoT is rapidly processed in various domains for the achievement of smart cities and societies. However, in many cases, applications are not contextualized by using data from outside the domain but are only contextualized using data from the domain itself, missing the opportunity for further contextualization. The lack of common criteria for the integration of data from different application domains is one of the main reasons that significantly hinders the integration of third-party data into real-time processing and decision-making systems and thus, the context awareness of developed applications. Although the use of several taxonomies and ontologies for context awareness in various application domains have been proposed, in many cases they are highly domain specific and/or difficult to integrate with other systems, which makes it challenging to facilitate data sharing between different systems and their processing to achieve enhanced context awareness. We aim to contribute to the addressing of these limitations through a reusable and extensible multi-domain taxonomy targeted to collaborative IoT and smart environments, which is also automatically integrated into a software architecture with real-time complex event processing technologies. The proposed solution has been illustrated through a case study and performance tests have been carried out in different computing capacity scenarios, showing its feasibility and usefulness

Squalene Extraction: Biological Sources and Extraction Methods

Squalene is a terpenoid with great importance in cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical industry; it was originally isolated from shark liver oil but is easily found in animals, vegetables and microorganisms. Nowadaysis shark fishing is prohibited in some countries, that is the main reason to use renewable sources forsqualene extraction to protect marine life, since last decade, squalene is extracted from different sources and methods to achieve best yields at lower possible cost. Traditional extraction methods usually involve organic solvents as hexane which left residues on the extracted matrix, that can limit material use for human consumptionafter extraction. Separation and purification stages after extraction can elevate operations cost, one of the most interesting technology to obtain squalene from biological matrix is supercritical fluid extraction with CO2as solvent because of economic, safe and easy removal characteristics

Production and relevance of cosmogenic radionuclides in NaI(Tl) crystals

The cosmogenic production of long-lived radioactive isotopes in materials is an hazard for experiments demanding ultra-low background conditions. Although NaI(Tl) scintillators have been used in this context for a long time, very few activation data were available. We present results from two 12.5 kg NaI(Tl) detectors, developed within the ANAIS project and installed at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory. The prompt data taking starting made possible a reliable quantification of production of some I, Te and Na isotopes with half-lives larger than ten days. Initial activities underground were measured and then production rates at sea level were estimated following the history of detectors; a comparison of these rates with calculations using typical cosmic neutron flux at sea level and a selected description of excitation functions was also carried out. After including the contribution from the identified cosmogenic products in the detector background model, we found that the presence of 3H in the crystal bulk would help to fit much better our background model and experimental data. We have analyzed the cosmogenic production of 3H in NaI, and although precise quantification has not been attempted, we can conclude that it could imply a very relevant contribution to the total background below 15 keV in NaI detectors.Comment: Proceedings of the Low Radioactivity Techniques 2015 workshop, March 2015, Seattle (US

Positron-neutrino correlations in 32Ar and 33Ar Decays: Probes of Scalar weak currents and nuclear isospin mixing

The positron-neutrino correlation in the 0^+ \to 0^+ \beta decay of ^{32}Ar was measured at ISOLDE by analyzing the effect of lepton recoil on the shape of the narrow proton group following the superallowed decay. Our result is consistent with the Standard Model prediction; for vanishing Fierz interference we find a=0.9989 \pm 0.0052 \pm 0.0036. Our result leads to improved constraints on scalar weak interactions. The positron-neutrino correlation in ^{33}Ar decay was measured in the same experiment; for vanishing Fierz interference we find a=0.944 \pm 0.002 \pm 0.003. The ^{32}Ar and ^{33}Ar correlations, in combination with precision measurements of the half-lives, superallowed branching ratios and beta endpoint energies, will determine the isospin impurities of the superallowed transitions. These will provide useful tests of isospin-violation corrections used in deducing |V_{\rm ud}| which currently indicates non-unitarity of the KM matrix.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Global Perspectives and Experiences of Community Psychologists for the Promotion of Social Change and the Construction of Radical Solidarities

In this special issue we seek to document and learn from exemplars from around the world of interventions and other forms of applied work in organisational, community, and everyday social settings that are aimed at producing social change and changing oppressive social and cultural realities. This introduction presents the colonial origins of oppression and strategies for building social change based on radical solidarity. Colonialism, violence, and social inequality are interconnected. We realize that it is urgent to generate solitarily social change to transform these historical and transnational realities of oppression. Social change is realized through the praxis developed in historically deprived community contexts, respecting individuals' cultural and identity characteristics. Radical solidarity is necessary to question possible practices of colonial tutelage of communities. Likewise, praxis for social change must be developed creatively at the various levels of action and respect the intersectional trajectories of groups and individuals. We present diverse praxis experiences for social change in different contexts and levels of action developed by community psychologists, seeking to build a network of radical solidarity focused on dismantling colonial power

EFICÁCIA DE COLOIDES VS CRISTALOIDES NA REPOSIÇÃO VOLÉMICA A NÍVEL HEPÁTICO EM PACIENTES HEMORRÁGICOS

Apesar dos avanços na sua abordagem terapêutica, a hemorragia severa continua a ser a principal causa de morbilidade e mortalidade em animais vítimas de trauma ou sujeitos a intervenção cirúrgica. A causa das lesões decorrentes, ou da morte consequente, deve-se ao deficit de volume de fluidos intravasculares e subsequente desenvolvimento do estado hipovolémico.O controlo da hipovolémia passa pela resolução da hemorragia e pela correção do deficit de volume intravascular causado e envolve, obrigatoriamente, o recurso à administração de fluidos intravenosos. A escolha do tipo de fluido mais adequado para a terapia intravenosa (IV), em cada ocorrência, é uma tarefa que exige reflexão e ponderação. O objetivo deste trabalho consistiu na avaliação do tipo de fluido mais adequado e eficiente para efetuar a reposição volémica em pacientes hemorrágicos, em particular no respeitante a qual deles acarreta menor comprometimento da função hepática. As lesões histopatológicas avaliadas nos diferentes grupos deste estudo não revelaram diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre os 3 grupos, o que validou a possibilidade de se usar qualquer um dos fluidos testados. Contudo, foi notória uma maior intensidade da gravidade das lesões no grupo 2. Assim, foi possível concluir que o uso do hidroxietilamido 130/0,4, em detrimento do lactato de Ringer em situações de hipovolémia, contribui para a preservação da integridade histológica e fisiológica hepática.COMPETE - FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-009525; FCT/CI&DETS (PEst- OE/CED/UI4016/2011

Global Perspectives and Experiences of Community Psychologists for the Promotion of Social Change and the Construction of Radical Solidarities

In this special issue we seek to document and learn from exemplars from around the world of interventions and other forms of applied work in organisational, community, and everyday social settings that are aimed at producing social change and changing oppressive social and cultural realities. This introduction presents the colonial origins of oppression and strategies for building social change based on radical solidarity. Colonialism, violence, and social inequality are interconnected. We realize that it is urgent to generate solitarily social change to transform these historical and transnational realities of oppression. Social change is realized through the praxis developed in historically deprived community contexts, respecting individuals' cultural and identity characteristics. Radical solidarity is necessary to question possible practices of colonial tutelage of communities. Likewise, praxis for social change must be developed creatively at the various levels of action and respect the intersectional trajectories of groups and individuals. We present diverse praxis experiences for social change in different contexts and levels of action developed by community psychologists, seeking to build a network of radical solidarity focused on dismantling colonial power

Status of the ANAIS Dark Matter Project at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory

The ANAIS experiment aims at the confirmation of the DAMA/LIBRA signal. A detailed analysis of two NaI(Tl) crystals of 12.5 kg each grown by Alpha Spectra will be shown: effective threshold at 1 keVee is at reach thanks to outstanding light collection and robust PMT noise filtering protocols and the measured background is well understood down to 3 keVee, having quantified K, U and Th content and cosmogenic activation in the crystals. A new detector was installed in Canfranc in March 2015 together with the two previous modules and preliminary characterization results will be presented. Finally, the status and expected sensitivity of the full experiment with 112 kg will be reviewed.Comment: Contributed to the 11th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, Zaragoza, June 22 to 26, 201