Zero-Fidelity Simulation: Engaging Team Coordination without Physical, Functional, or Psychological Re-Creation

Team coordination is essential across domains, enabling efficiency and safety. As technology improves, our temptation is to simulate with ever-higher fidelity, by making simulators re-create reality through their physical interfaces, functionality, and by making participants believe they are undertaking the simulated task. However, high-fidelity simulations often miss salient human-human work practices. We introduce the concept of zero-fidelity simulation (ZFS), a move away from literal high-fidelity mimesis of the concrete environment. ZFS alternatively models cooperation and communication as the basis of simulation. The ZFS Team Coordination Game (TeC) is developed from observation of fire emergency response work practice. We identify ways in which team members are mutually dependent on one another for information, and use these as the basis for the ZFS game design. The design creates a need for cooperation by restricting individual activity and requiring communication. The present research analyzes the design of interdependence in the validated ZFS TeC game. We successfully simulate interdependence between roles in emergency response without simulating the concrete environment

Medição não invasiva de oxigenação sanguínea através de espectrofotometria

A espectrofotometria é uma ferramenta para a execução de medição não invasiva de oxigenação sanguínea. A saturação de oxigênio no sangue é expressa como uma porcentagem da hemoglobina oxigenada frente à hemoglobina não oxigenada. Para realizar a leitura, esse método utiliza duas fontes luminosas em dois comprimentos de onda, um de 600nm (vermelho) e um de 940nm (infravermelho) e de acordo com a absorção destes comprimentos de onda, pode-se inferir a proporção de hemoglobina oxigenada e não oxigenada. Foi desenvolvido um estudo sobre a técnica de espectrometria não invasiva com duas propostas de implementação, uma com componentes eletrônicos de prateleira e outra com o uso de um circuito integrado, o MAX30102, com o objetivo de entender o funcionamento, as características e as limitações de ambas as propostas. Desenvolveu-se um sistema de medidas utilizando o MAX30102 e comparou-se os resultados com um oxímetro comercial. Encontrou-se um grande desafio para manter a estabilidade mecânica com o protótipo, diferentemente do oxímetro comercial que já apresenta uma estrutura propícia para tal. Através dos testes comparativos realizados, a diferença dos resultados observados permaneceu dentro de 2%. Para uma avaliação completa, seriam necessários mais testes, utilizando um padrão confiável de comparação, que oferecesse a possibilidade de medidas em uma faixa ampla de oxigenação.Spectrophotometry is a tool for performing non-invasive measurement of blood oxygenation. Blood oxygen saturation is expressed as a percentage of oxygenated hemoglobin compared to non-oxygenated hemoglobin. To perform the reading, this method uses two light sources in two wavelengths, one 600nm (red) and one 940nm (infrared) and according to the absorption of these wavelengths, the proportion of oxygenated hemoglobin and not oxygenated hemoglobin can be inferred . A study was developed on the technique of noninvasive spectrometry with two implementation proposals, one with electronic components available for shopping separeted and the other with the use of an integrated circuit, the MAX30102, in order to understand the operation, characteristics and limitations of both the proposals. A measurement system was developed using the MAX30102 and the results were compared with a commercial oximeter. A great challenge was found to maintain mechanical stability with the prototype, unlike the commercial oximeter, which already has a favorable structure for this. Through the comparative tests carried out, the difference in the observed results remained within 2%. For a complete evaluation, more tests would be needed, using a reliable standard of comparison, which would offer the possibility of measurements in a wide range of oxygenation

Older people as equal partners in creative design

Active older people want to be actively engaged by contributing their experiences to design better services and products. This paper demonstrates the importance of older peoples engagement in the creative design process in a small study where older people were engaged together with designers in the design of digital devices. Three creative workshops were conducted: the first with designers, the second with designers and older people, and the third with older people only. During the illumination stage of the creative process flexibility and flow were measured with topics and turns. Results show that when older people were working with designers more topics and a higher total number of turns were developed than by older people or designers working on their own, which indicates that they had the highest flexibility of ideas and possibly also the greatest flow

On Birthing Dancing Stars: The Need for Bounded Chaos in Information Interaction

While computers causing chaos is acommon social trope, nearly the entirety of the history of computing is dedicated to generating order. Typical interactive information retrieval tasks ask computers to support the traversal and exploration of large, complex information spaces. The implicit assumption is that they are to support users in simplifying the complexity (i.e. in creating order from chaos). But for some types of task, particularly those that involve the creative application or synthesis of knowledge or the creation of new knowledge, this assumption may be incorrect. It is increasingly evident that perfect order—and the systems we create with it—support highly-structured information tasks well, but provide poor support for less-structured tasks.We need digital information environments that help create a little more chaos from order to spark creative thinking and knowledge creation. This paper argues for the need for information systems that offerwhat we term ‘bounded chaos’, and offers research directions that may support the creation of such interface

Impacts of caring for a child with the CDKL5 disorder on parental wellbeing and family quality of life

Background: Although research in this area remains sparse, raising a child with some genetic disorders has been shown to adversely impact maternal health and family quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate such impacts in families with a child with the CDKL5 disorder, a newly recognised genetic disorder causing severe neurodevelopmental impairments and refractory epilepsy. Methods: Data were sourced from the International CDKL5 Disorder Database to which 192 families with a child with a pathogenic CDKL5 mutation had provided data by January 2016. The Short Form 12 Health Survey Version 2, yielding a Physical Component Summary and a Mental Component Summary score, was used to measure primary caregiver's wellbeing. The Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale was used to measure family quality of life. Linear regression analyses were used to investigate relationships between child and family factors and the various subscale scores. Results: The median (range) age of the primary caregivers was 37.0 (24.6-63.7) years and of the children was 5.2 (0.2-34.1) years. The mean (SD) physical and mental component scores were 53.7 (8.6) and 41.9 (11.6), respectively. In mothers aged 25-54 years the mean mental but not the physical component score was lower than population norms. After covariate adjustment, caregivers with a tube-fed child had lower mean physical but higher mean mental component scores than those whose child fed orally (coefficient = -4.80 and 6.79; p = 0.009 and 0.012, respectively). Child sleep disturbances and financial hardship were negatively associated with the mental component score. The mean (SD) Beach Center Family Quality of Life score was 4.06 (0.66) and those who had used respite services had lower scores than those who had not across the subscales. Conclusions: Emotional wellbeing was considerably impaired in this caregiver population, and was particularly associated with increased severity of child sleep problems and family financial difficulties. Family quality of life was generally rated lowest in those using respite care extensively, suggesting that these families may be more burdened by daily caregiving

Studying Europe in Central Asia: The Case of Kyrgyzstan. EUCAM Commentary No. 5, November 2009

As the European Union sets out an ambitious agenda in its Central Asian strategy, its support for education may be used to raise awareness of Europe and help states create national cadres capable of sustaining the desired dialogue. A number of universities in Kyrgyzstan have already introduced European studies into their curricula. While it is far too early to take stock, some preliminary impressions can already be discussed