Empathic mediators for distance learning courses

Conferência Internacional realizada em Lisboa de 15-16 de novembro de 2018.Online distance learning introduces several challenges, such as the dependence of online tools, the asynchronous communication between teachers and students, and the lack of synchronous social engagement level that inclassroom teaching can leverage. The existence of an online tutor 24 hours/day would be an interesting asset to potentially work as an additional learning support tool. The Virtual Tutoring project aims at the development of solutions involving anthropomorphic 3D avatars that work as both virtual online tutors in the Moodle e-learning platform as well as coaches in a mobile application that interact empathically with the students by predicting their emotional state and selecting appropriate emotion regulation strategies. This paper presents the current status of the project, preliminary evaluations with students, and future developments.This work was developed in the context of the FCT project PTDC/IVC-PEC/3963/2014 with the support of the R&D units of his authors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

FPGA Implementation of Area-Efficient IEEE 754 Complex Divider

AbstractDivision algorithms are less often used unlike other arithmetic operations. But it cannot be avoided in some systems to achieve some functionality. The division of complex numbers has got applications in fields like telecommunication, microwave systems, signal processing, GPS etc. This work proposes an area-efficient method for complex divider implementation on FPGA. The operands are represented in single precision floating point (IEEE754) format. A novel method called module reuse technique is used for reducing the device utilization on FPGA. The proposed design is analyzed using the simulation and implementation results on Xilinx Artix-7 and Virtex-5 FPGA families

Effect of Antiplatelet Therapy on Survival and Organ Support–Free Days in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19

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