PhobiAR, an artefact of augmented reality to support the exposure therapy of specific phobias

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Informatics EngineeringPhobia is a type of anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Currently, exposure therapy is the most practiced method to treat phobias, although it comes with limitations. We can reduce these limitations by combining Augmented Reality techniques with exposure therapy. Its benefits are a decrease in costs, versatility of the process, and full control of the procedure by the therapist. As shown in multiple research, Augmented Reality has obtained interesting results in the therapy of psychological disorders serving as a foundation for the development of this project. The recent technological advances in the field also allowed for easier access to Augmented Reality which is accessible to use even in old smartphones. The goal of this Master’s dissertation was to develop an artefact in conjunction with psychologists who treat phobic patients, to create a program to support the therapy of phobias with a gradual exposure system. Their help was essential to understand the most important features needed for the platform. The platform was deployed in the informatics department servers, which could be accessed by everyone that had internet connection. Multiple psychologists were invited to test the platform by following a user guide created and give their technical feedback in the end. The results gathered were positive, which proves the viability of this system as an extension to the current methods by providing comfort and efficiency.A fobia é um tipo de transtorno de ansiedade definido por um medo persistente e excessivo de um objeto ou situação. Atualmente, o terapia de exposição é o método mais praticado para tratar fobias, embora com limitações. Estas limitações são reduzidas combinando técnicas de Realidade Aumentada com a terapia de exposição. Os seus benefícios são uma redução de custos, versatilidade do processo e controle total do procedimento pelo terapeuta. Como foi demostrado em várias pesquisas, a Realidade Aumentada obteve resultados interessantes no tratamento de distúrbios psicológicos, servindo de base para o desenvolvimento deste projeto. Os recentes avanços tecnológicos no campo permitem também um acesso fácil à Realidade Aumentada, acessível para uso mesmo em smartphones antigos. Nosso objetivo é desenvolver um artefato em conjunto com psicólogos que tratam de pacientes fóbicos, para criar um programa para apoiar o tratamento de fobias com um sistema de exposição gradual. A ajuda deles foi essencial para entender os recursos que são mais importantes para a plataforma. A plataforma foi colocada nos servidores do departamento de informática e podia ser acedida por qualquer pessoa que tivesse conexão à internet. Vários psicólogos foram convidados a testar a plataforma seguindo um guião criado e dando seu feedback técnico no final. Os resultados recolhidos foram positivos, o que comprova a viabilidade deste sistema como uma extensão dos métodos atuais providenciando conforto e eficiência

Intracyclic Variation of Force and Swimming Performance

In front-crawl swimming, the upper limbs perform alternating movements with the aim of achieving a continuous application of force in the water, leading to lower intracyclic velocity variation (dv). This parameter has been identified as a crucial criterion for swimmers’ evaluation. Purpose: To examine the assessment of intracyclic force variation (dF) and to analyze its relationship with dv and swimming performance. Methods: A total of 22 high-level male swimmers performed a maximaleffort 50-m front-crawl time trial and a 30-s maximal-effort fully tethered swimming test, which were randomly assigned. Instantaneous velocity was obtained by a speedometer and force by a strain-gauge system. Results: Similarity was observed between the tests, with dF attaining much higher magnitudes than dv (P < .001; d = 8.89). There were no differences in stroke rate or in physiological responses between tethered and free swimming, with a high level of agreement for the stroke rate and blood lactate increase. Swimming velocity presented a strong negative linear relationship with dF (r = −.826, P < .001) and a moderate negative nonlinear relationship with dv (r = .734, P < .01). With the addition of the maximum impulse to dF, multiple-regression analysis explained 83% of the free-swimming performance. Conclusions: Assessing dF is a promising approach for evaluating a swimmer’s performance. From the experiments, this new parameter showed that swimmers with higher dF also present higher dv, leading to a decrease in performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Kaluza-Klein five-point functions from AdS5×S5 supergravity

Abstract We continue to explore the bootstrap approach to five-point correlation functions for IIB supergravity on AdS 5 × S 5. Building on the result of [1], we develop an improved algorithm that allows us to more efficiently compute correlators of higher Kaluza-Klein modes. The new method uses only factorization and a superconformal twist, and is entirely within Mellin space where the analytic structure of holographic correlators is simpler. Using this method, we obtain in a closed form all five-point functions of the form 〈pp222〉, extending the earlier result for p = 2. As a byproduct of our analysis, we also obtain explicit results for spinning four-point functions of higher Kaluza-Klein modes

Influence of palm fatty acid distillate on rumen degradability and protozoa population in buffaloes

Oil and fat as energy sources at low cost are relevant in ruminant nutrition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) on the degradability and ciliate protozoa population in buffalo. Four rumen fistulated buffaloes were fed a basal diet in a Latin square (4x4) design trial. Treatments were designed with four of different levels of PFAD added directly into the rumen: 0; 200; 420 and 500 g/animal/d. High levels of PFAD (420 and 500 g/d) promoted higher degradation of the soluble fraction and lower in potentially degradable fraction of dry matter (DM) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) with lower values of potential and effective degradability in two evaluated grasses, bermudagrass and brachiariagrass. Significant decreases in the total number of protozoa/mL of rumen content, Entodinium and ciliates belonging to subfamily Diplodiniinae were observed at higher level of PFDA addition in the rumen. Also, Epidinium and Holotrich ciliates disappeared from the rumen. Significant correlations were observed of the ciliate concentration and composition as a function of dietary lipids content. Entodinium composition increased from 68.0% to 99.6% and Diplodiniinae reduced from 30.4% to 0.4% with increasing PFAD level indicating higher fat toxicity effect on the Diplodiniinae ciliates than Entodinium species and direct action of the larger ciliates on the fibre degradation

Comparison between multitrait and unitrait analysis in the heritability estimate of electrical conductivity of milk

Electrical conductivity of milk is an indirect method for diagnosis of mastitis that can be used as criterion of selection in breeding programs, to obtain more resistant animals to infection. Data from 9,302 records of electrical conductivity from the morning milking (ECM), 13,070 milk yield records (MY) and 11,560 records of milking time (MT), of 1,129 first lactation Holstein cows, calving from 2001 to 2011, were used in statistical analysis. Data of eight herds of Southeast region of Brazil were obtained by the WESTFALIA® electronic milking machines, with “Dairyplan” management system. Two analysis were performed: a multitrait, including MY, MT and ECM, and an unitrait, considering only test-day morning electrical conductivity. The model included additive genetic, permanent environmental and residual effects as random. Additionally, contemporary groups (CG), the age of cow at calving (AGC) and days in milk (DIM) (linear and quadratic regression) were included as fixed effects. The CG was composed by herd, year and month of test. DIM classes were formed with weekly intervals, constituting a total of 42 classes. The variance components were estimated by Restricted Maximum Likelihood Method (REML), using the Wombat software. The average and standard deviation of ECM were 4.80 mS cm-1 and 0.54 mS cm-1, respectively. The heritability estimates by multitrait model and their standard errors were 0.33 (0.05), 0.15 (0.03) and 0.22 (0.03) for ECM, MY and MT, respectively. Genetic correlation was 0.74 for MY and MT, 0.37 for MY and ECM and -0.09 for MY and ECM. In the unitrait analysis, the heritability estimate for ECM was 0.35 with a standard error of 0.05. These results agree with the literature that reported heritability estimates for electrical conductivity ranging from 0.26 to 0.39. Although the estimates were close, the heritability estimated by unitrait analysis was slightly higher that estimated by multtrait probably because the pedigree file was the same for both analysis. In general, multitrait analysis are more appropriated when the study involves correlated traits, because they use information more appropriately. Heritability estimates obtained in this study suggest the possibility of genetic gain through selection using ECM as selection criterion, aiming resistance to mastitis, since there is a reasonable additive genetic variance for this trait

Comparação entre as análises multicaracterística e unicaracterística na estimativa da herdabildade e da condutividade elétrica do leite

O artigo não apresenta resumo em português

Degradability of grasses, ruminal fermentation and protozoa in beef cattle on diet with different additives

<p></p><p>SUMMARY Four cattle rumen fistulae were fed on Latin Square with four treatments including the daily addition into rumen of: yeast (5g), monensin (200mg), Fator P (3g) and control. In situ degradability was determined with three tropical grasses: Tifton-85, Brachiaria, Mombasa and Mombasa silage, as well as ruminal pH, production of volatile fatty acids, ammonia-N and protozoa population. There was no significant interaction between treatment and grasses and significant differences between treatments, except in fraction b of Brachiaria and Mombasa silage. The Mombasa showed high solubility of DM and NDF compared to other grasses and Brachiaria higher solubility of CP. Processing of Mombasa as silage promoted reduction of soluble fraction and potential (PD) and effective degradabilities (ED) of DM and NDF and increased soluble fraction and ED of CP. Monensin produced lower production of acetic acid, higher of propionic and lower acetic: propionic acid. Yeast and Fator P showed higher total acids concentration than monensin and control. Diplodiniinae protozoa was increased with monensin compared to the control diet, but there was no difference in Entodinium and total ciliates between treatments. Tropical grasses in the form of hay and silage have different ruminal degradability not being influenced by additives in the diet, but these affect fermentation and protozoa population in the rumen.</p><p></p

I Diretriz Latino-Americana para avaliação e conduta na insuficiência cardíaca descompensada I Latin American Guidelines for the assessment and management of decompensated heart failure

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