Influence of environmental variables on students' cognitive performance in indoor higher education environments.

BACKGROUND: Educational environments can have environmental conditions that are incompatible with the needs of students, compromising their well-being and affecting their performance. OBJECTIVE: To identify the environmental variables that influence the performance of university students and measure this influence through an experiment in indoor environments. METHODS: The study applied an experimental methodology for three consecutive days in seven educational environments located in different regions of Brazil, measuring the environ-mental conditions, the students' perception of the environment, and their cognitive performance. The impact of environmental variables and environmental perception on student performance was analyzed using Generalized Linear Models and a Structural Equation Model. RESULTS: Students who took the test at air temperatures between 22.4°C and 24.7°C had a 74.20% chance of performing better than those outside this range. Air temperatures between 26.2°C and 29°C were associated with an 86% chance of taking less time to complete the test. High illuminance levels increased the chance of taking longer to answer the test by 41.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Three environmental variables (relative humidity, lighting and air temperature) and two perceptual dimensions (light and thermal perception) directly influence student performance.

Systemic relations among the variables involved in occupational accidents of the nursing team in a psychiatric hospital.

BACKGROUND: The occupational activities carried out in hospital environments pose occupational risks to professionals. In psychiatric hospitals, due to the characteristics of the patients treated, professionals are also subjected to other risks, such as physical aggression. OBJECTIVE: This research aimed to identify the systemic context, highlighting the cause-and-effect relationships that culminate in occupational accidents that occurred with the nursing staff in a psychiatric hospital in Brazil. METHODS: The current study is an applied research and was divided into three stages. First, the collection of data related to the case study was made and accidents were analyzed and occupational hazards were identified. In the second stage, from the collected information, occupational safety indicators were defined. Lastly, in the third stage, the qualitative aspect of System Dynamics was applied to perform the systemic analysis and to identify how the different variables were related. RESULTS: The results showed that physical aggression was the main cause of accidents. Regarding safety indicators, while both the level of use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by professionals and the high level of PPE protection were positive aspects, the level of training of professionals to use PPE was a negative aspect. The Causal Link Diagram (CLD) showed that the perception of risk influenced the level of use of PPE and those organizational measures influenced the accident rate. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the systemic analysis of the system dynamics can optimize the diagnostic process of occupational accidents in psychiatric hospitals, and especially help to identify the cause and effect among the variables involved.

Quantitative analysis of the influence of air temperature variability on thermal perception of Brazilian university students.

BACKGROUND: The scientific literature has already identified the influence of thermal conditions on health and performance of students. However, users' opinions are often overwhelmed by normative evaluations, not receiving the necessary attention. OBJECTIVE: To quantitatively compare the influence of air temperature variability on the thermal perception of students from six air-conditioned teaching environments located in four regions of Brazil. METHODS: Three-day experiments were carried out in six environments. A thermal condition was proposed for each day. From that, the environmental parameters were measured and a questionnaire about the thermal perception was applied. Then, Generalized Linear Models were applied to obtain a measure of effect and hypothesis test and confidence interval were used to find comfort zones and compare environments. RESULTS: The results showed that students from environments A, B, C and E felt less the effects of the increase in air temperature compared to students from environments D and F. In addition, students from environments A, B, C and E showed less perceptual variability compared to students from environments D and F. CONCLUSIONS: Students acclimated to higher thermal conditions felt less the effects of the increase in air temperature, showed less perceptual variability and a higher degree of thermal adaptability.

Team Workload and Performance of Healthcare Workers with Musculoskeletal Symptoms.

In healthcare professionals, musculoskeletal complaints are the most frequent health disorders with the greatest potential for productivity losses. The teamwork developed by these professionals can be a coping strategy, but it can also be one more demand for the maintenance of performance. For this reason, this research aimed to investigate the relationship between team workload and performance in healthcare workers with different intensities of musculoskeletal symptoms. A survey was conducted with health professionals from 24 institutions of the Brazilian public health system, recruited by stratified probability sampling. Through non-hierarchical cluster analysis, the sample was allocated into three groups based on the intensity of musculoskeletal symptoms. We analyzed the approximation between the variables of "team workload" and "performance" of the groups formed in the previous phase through multiple correspondence analysis. In the group with higher musculoskeletal symptom scores, there was lower performance and a worse team workload. As the intensity of symptoms decreased, team workload and performance became closer variables in a two-dimensional space, indicating that the relationship between team workload and performance is improved in situations of low musculoskeletal symptom intensity.

Utilidad de los ácidos biliares séricos en el diagnóstico de las enfermedades hepatobiliares

Con el fin de establecer el valor diagnóstico de los ácidos biliares séricos se estudiaron 81 pacientes, atendidos por el Instituto de Enfermedades Hepatobiliares de la Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá (IEHB). Encontramos que la sensibilidad de la coliglicina (CG) RIA (un ácido biliar) para detectar enfermedad hepatobiliar fue similar a la de la AST y la fosfatasa alcalina (78.5 por ciento, 81.5 por ciento y 78.5 por ciento, respectivamente), y superior a la de las otras pruebas (ALT y bilirrubina total). La especificidad (100 por ciento) y los valores predictivos (prueba positiva 100 por ciento, prueba negativa 54.3 por ciento) fueron mejores que los de las pruebas convencionales (p<0.05). El perfil hepático (AST, ALT, fosfatasa alcalina y bilirrubina total) tuvo alta sensibilidad (95.4 por ciento), pero muy baja especificidad (43.8 por ciento). La CG RIA fue positiva en cirróticos un máyor número de veces que las otras pruebas (95.2 por ciento), pero no encontramos que los niveles de CG RIA se correlacionaran con el estudio clínico de la cirrosis según la clasificación de Child-Turcotte. Los niveles de CG RIA fueron normales en siete pacientes con síndrome de Gilbert. Concluímos que la CG RIA es una prueba de alto valor diagnóstico y que es útil como complemento del perfil hepático convencional; en segundo lugar, que no hay correlación entre los niveles de CG RIA y el estado clínico de la cirrosis, finalmente, que la CG RIA es normal en el síndrome de Gilbert, lo cual ayuda a descartar enfermedad hepatobiliar estructural o funcional en estos casos.