Long-Term Effects of More Punitive Legislation Concerning the Use of Mobile Phone During Driving in Portugal

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a change in legislation regarding the use of handheld cell phones in Portugal provoked a substantial reduction of their use and if one year latter this reduction was still visible. Drivers’ handheld cell phone use was observed prior to the implementation of more punitive legislation, immediately after, 6 months and one year after the change in legislation. Estimated age (+ or – 40 years old) and gender was also registered for cellular telephones users. The counts were taken over 20 one-hour occasions equally divided over the four periods of observation and they were performed at the IC19 near Queluz, which is one of the roads with the most intense traffic flows of the region, for a total of 66841 observations. Results showed a considerable reduction from 1.29% of drivers before the law to 0.67% immediately after. However, one year later, the results (1.27%) were analogous to the initial observations. Phone users were predominantly male (75.35%), but this percentage is equivalent to all road users, so a gender trend was not found. On the contrary, we found a higher trend of younger drivers using mobile phones while driving. One of the most probable reasons for the main effect found was that as time goes by, drivers realize the low risk of being charged and punished for phone use while driving. The more punitive measures implemented with the new law regarding phone use showed no long-term effects

Associations of physical activity with driving-related cognitive abilities in older drivers: an exploratory study

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between physical activity and driving-related cognitive abilities of older drivers. Thirty-eight female and male drivers ages 61 to 81 years (M = 70.2, SD = 5.0) responded to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and were assessed on a battery of neuropsychological tests, which included measures of visual attention, executive functioning, mental status, visuospatial ability, and memory. A higher amount of reported physical activity was significantly correlated with better scores on tests of visual processing speed and divided visual attention. Higher amounts of physical activity was significantly associated with a better composite score for visual attention, but its correlation with the composite score for executive functioning was not significant. These findings support the hypothesis that physical activity is associated with preservation of specific driving-related cognitive abilities of older adults

Risco cardiovascular global e condição física funcional: estudo numa população idosa

Dissertação de licenciatura apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências do Desporto e Educação Física da Universidade de CoimbraEste trabalho tem por base verificar se existem relações e comparações entre variáveis da condição física funcional e factores de risco cardiovascular global em homens. Para a realização da pesquisa, foi seleccionada uma amostra constituída por 44 indivíduos, do sexo masculino, com idades compreendidas entre os 65 e os 95 anos de idade, do Concelho de Arganil. Esta amostra foi dividida no género e em 3 subgrupos (65 – 74 anos; 75 – 84 anos; ≥ 85 anos). Recorremos à aplicação da bateria de testes Functional Fitness Test (adaptada de Rikli & Jones, 1999) para ajuizar os parâmetros que suportam a condição física funcional. Os resultados provenientes do presente estudo demonstram que relativamente ao grupo total de homens, não se registam quaisquer associações significativas entre os parâmetros da condição física funcional e os do risco cardiovascular global Contudo, chegamos a resultados estatisticamente significativos no subgrupo dos homens com idades entre os 65 e os 74 anos, no qual foram encontradas associações entre a força inferior e a glicemia e também entre a flexibilidade superior, V.A.E. e resistência aeróbia com o colesterol total. No subgrupo dos homens ≥ 85 anos foram encontradas associações entre a resistência aeróbia e a pressão arterial sistólica. Relativamente às comparações realizadas neste estudo, constatamos que existem diferenças entre o grupo com a circunferência da cintura menor ou igual que 102 cm e o grupo com a circunferência maior que 102 cm, nos parâmetros do IMC, força superior, colesterol total e resistência aeróbia. E posteriormente concluímos também que existem diferenças entre o grupo que andou mais de 400 metros e o grupo que andou menos de 400 metros, nos parâmetros do IMC, circunferência abdominal, colesterol total, força, V.A.E. e flexibilidade superior. Podemos concluir também que, estas diferenças nos grupos de comparação referidos anteriormente, com excepção da V.A.E. e flexibilidade, observam-se para factores de risco cardiovascular global

The potential role of physical activity on driving performance and safety among older adults

The elderly represent the fastest growing driving population. Older drivers have a high crash rate per distance traveled, a high risk of injury or death in traffic accidents, and are commonly found to be ‘at fault’ in crashes. This reality has focused more interest on issues associated with the fitness to drive and the safety of older drivers. Many older adults depend greatly on their personal vehicle for transportation and suffer a marked loss of quality of life when, as a consequence of no longer being able or permitted to drive, their mobility becomes significantly restricted. The reasons for the deterioration of driving performance that occur during the aging process are multi-factorial and a great deal of research has focused on the identification of those factors. Nevertheless, some studies incorporating training programs have tried, with some success, to improve the driving-related abilities of older drivers. It has been demonstrated that physical activity can promote several skills that are associated with driving performance in older drivers. Few studies, though, have conducted exercise interventions among older drivers intended to enhance their driving-related abilities and promote road safety. In this context, the purpose of this work consists of examining the perceptual, cognitive, health, and physical factors related to fitness to drive in older adults and identifying possible strategies that can enhance their driving-related abilities. Moreover, potential mechanisms underlying the relationship among physical activity, driving ability, and road safety are discussed

Knowledge of results precision and learning : a review

La calidad de la información que el aprendiz recibe como consecuencia de la accion, en particular la precisión del conocimiento de los resultados, parece tener un efecto positivo en el proceso del aprendizaje. En este articulo, de acuerdo con lo expuesto anteriormente y el análisis de la investigación realizada en el ámbito de la precisión del conocimiento de los resultados, enfocaremos la influencia de otras variables mencionadas, por ejemplo: las características de la habilidad motora, el nivel de desarrollo de la persona y su capacidad de procesar la informaciónThe quality of the information given to the subject after performance, particulary the Knowledge of Results (KR) precision, seems to have a positive influence on the learning process. In this article, we review the investigation produced in KR precision and emphasize the influence of some variables, like the task characteristics, the development level of subjects and their capacity to process KR informatio

Implementação de algoritmos no domínio da resistência quântica de hall

É apresentada e descrita a definição da arquitectura do sistema de informação e de suporte lógico desenvolvido e implementado no LMEINETI, em linguagem de programação gráfica LabView, que possibilita a automatização do sistema experimental de Resistência Quântica de Hall, através do controlo da instrumentação associada, aquisição, processamento, tratamento estatístico e gestão de dados relativos a estudos comportamentais de amostras e de padrões convencionais. Considerando a diversidade de instrumentação utilizada no sistema experimental de EHQ, o elevado número de dados correspondentes à caracterização de amostras, a multiplicidade de parâmetros necessários à avaliação da sua quantificação e a necessidade de caracterizar o comportamento de padrões convencionais ao longo do tempo, tornou-se essencial o recurso a módulos aplicacionais integrados. Foram definidos algoritmos para o desenvolvimento e implementação de módulos aplicacionais, de forma a automatizar os seguintes aspectos: Controlo e Aquisição de Dados, Processamento e Análise e Gestão de Dados

Effects of age in Useful Field of View and Time-to-Arrival

The main aim of this study was to investigate possible age effects in Useful Field of View (UFOV) and Time to Arrival (TTA). Ninety-six male and female active drivers participated in this research: 32 young drivers (18-30 years old), 32 middle-aged drivers (38-50 years old) and 32 older drivers (60-75 years old). Concerning to UFOV, results showed that older drivers had poorer results in divided attention and selective attention. Furthermore, some nonlinear variation occur, revealing a much more evident decrease in visual attention performance from the middle-aged to the older group then from the younger to the middle-aged group. In TTA analysis, older adults were less consistent then the other drivers in judging a vehicle approaching at 50 km/h. TTA estimated accuracy increased when the approaching vehicle travels at higher speeds. Although not significant, it was founded a U-shape relationship between age and response bias of TTA. We conclude that UFOV is much more sensitive to age effects then TTA and interventions should be designed to enhance UFOV between older drivers. The effectiveness of TTA paradigm for driving behavior analysis is also discussed

Cognitive Factors and Gender Related to Self-reported Difficulties in Older Drivers

The purpose of this study is to determine the association between selfreported driving difficulties among older drivers and scores on specific cognitive tests. A cross-sectional study of 38 car drivers (22 men and 16 women), aged 61- 81 was carried out. The participants were volunteers recruited from two senior universities and a university health program for older drivers, in the area of Lisbon, Portugal. A battery of visual, psychomotor and cognitive measures was undertaken with a questionnaire about driving difficulties in a sample of healthy older adults. Difficulties in driving were the dependent variable in this study, defined as any reported difficulty in ≥ 4 driving situations. After a multivariate analysis, the independent factors significantly associated with driving difficulties were divided attention subtest of UFOV® (p=0.013), number of trials with success in the Tower of London (p=0.015) and gender (p=0.021). The drivers that reported difficulties in ≥ 4 driving situations made significantly less trials with success in the Tower of London test, had lower performances in divided attention between central and peripheral targets, and were more frequently females. Results suggest that planning ability, divided visual attention and gender are three important factors to be considered in the analysis of driving difficulties. However, further investigation with additional cognitive tests and driving measures (staterecorded crashes, driving simulator and on-road driving performance) could be developed in order to understand the factors related to driving difficulties in healthy older drivers

Conhecimento de resultados na aprendizagem de tarefas motoras: efeitos da freqüência versus complexidade da tarefa

The purpose of this study was to verify the existence of interaction between the effects of different frequencies of knowledge of results (KR) and the complexity of the task, in the learning of three variations (simple, intermediate and complex) of a sequential motor task, with spatial and temporal objectives. One hundred and twenty students, 60 of each gender, were used as subjects, distributed in 12 groups of 10 subjects each, with an equal number of subjects of each gender by group, regarding the different tasks, and the different KR frequencies (100, 66, 50 and 33%). The tasks required participants to press keys on the computer numeric keyboard, with different spatial and temporal requirements, manipulated in order to modify their complexity. The simple task was constituted of four keys with no changes in direction and partial times. The intermediate task was constituted of five keys, with different partial times and one change in direction. The complex task was constituted of six keys, with different partial times and random changes in direction. The study was composed of three phases: acquisition delayed retention and transfer phases (24 hours). The ANOVA was used to verify eventual differences and the Tukey test to determine specific differences. The results did not show the existence of interaction between the frequency of KR and the complexity of the task. Such result disagrees with some others found in the literature, showing that more studies are still necessary to clarify the issue.O objetivo do estudo foi verificar a existência de interação entre os efeitos de diferentes freqüências de conhecimento de resultados (CR) e a complexidade da tarefa, na aprendizagem de três variações (simples, intermediária e complexa) de uma tarefa motora sequencial, com objetivos espaciais e temporais. Cento e vinte estudantes universitários, 60 de cada sexo, foram utilizados como sujeitos, distribuídos em 12 grupos de 10 sujeitos cada, com igual número de sujeitos de cada sexo por grupo, considerando as diferentes tarefas e as diferentes freqüências de CR (100, 66, 50 e 33%). As tarefas requeriam que os participantes pressionassem teclas do teclado numérico do computador, com diferentes requerimentos espaciais e temporais, manipulados de forma a modificar a sua complexidade. A tarefa simples foi constituída de quatro teclas, sem mudanças em direção e tempos parciais. A tarefa intermediária foi constituída de cinco teclas, com diferentes tempos parciais e uma mudança em direção. A tarefa complexa foi constituída de seis teclas, com diferentes tempos parciais e várias mudanças de direção. O estudo foi composto de três fases: aquisição e, 24 horas depois desta, retenção e transferência. Foi utilizada a ANOVA a fim de verificar eventuais diferenças e o teste de Tukey para determinar diferenças específicas. Os resultados não demonstraram a existência de interação entre freqüência de CR e complexidade da tarefa. Tais resultados diferem de alguns outros encontrados na literatura, indicando que mais estudos são ainda necessários para clarificar a questão

The effect of mobile text messages and a novel floss holder on gingival health: a randomized control trial

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of using mobile text messages and a novel floss holder as compared to finger flossing or the novel floss holder alone, on the psychological, behavioral, and clinical parameters of patients with gingivitis.Methods: A total 165 adults were assessed for eligibility and 144 met the criteria for randomization into three groups: Finger Floss (FF, n=43), Novel Floss Holder (NFH, n= 40), and Novel Floss Holder plus Text Messages (NFH+TM, n= 61) following a dental hygiene consultation appointment. Gingival bleeding points were measured on probing (BOMP) at baseline and four months later by a calibrated dental hygienist, blinded to the experimental groups. Participants also self-reported their oral hygiene behaviors, and indicated psychological determinants of behavior change prior to the dental hygiene consultation and at four months. Descriptive statistics and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare groups over time.Results: Two subjects dropped out of the study making the total number of participants 142. At the four month follow-up, the NFH group and the NFH+TM groups demonstrated significantly higher levels of self-reported flossing, action self-efficacy, intention, action planning, and action control. The NFH+TM group showed lower levels of bleeding and higher levels of oral hygiene and recovery self-efficacy than the other groups, in addition to higher levels of maintenance self-efficacy as compared to the FF group.Conclusions: The use of a novel floss holder, NFH, was shown to improve the behavioral and psychological determinants of periodontal health four months after introduction of the device. However the clinical measures of BOMP only improved significantly when used in conjunction with text messages (NFH+TM). The use of a consciousness awareness technique,TMs, in combination with a novel device, may help patients to reach therapeutic objectives and contribute to the management of periodontal pathologies such as gingivitis.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio