Psychophysiological Reactions of Internet Users Exposed to Fluoride Information and Disinformation: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: False messages on the internet continually propagate possible adverse effects of fluoridated oral care products and water, despite their essential role in preventing and controlling dental caries. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the patterns of psychophysiological reactions of adults after the consumption of internet-based fluoride-related information and disinformation. METHODS: A 2-armed, single-blinded, parallel, and randomized controlled trial will be conducted with 58 parents or caregivers of children who attend the Clinics of Pediatric Dentistry at the Bauru School of Dentistry, considering an attrition of 10% and a significance level of 5%. The participants will be randomized into test and intervention groups, being respectively exposed to fluoride-related information and disinformation presented on a computer with simultaneous monitoring of their psychophysiological reactions, including analysis of their heart rates (HRs) and 7 facial features (mouth outer, mouth corner, eye area, eyebrow activity, face area, face motion, and facial center of mass). Then, participants will respond to questions about the utility and truthfulness of content, their emotional state after the experiment, eHealth literacy, oral health knowledge, and socioeconomic characteristics. The Shapiro-Wilk and Levene tests will be used to determine the normality and homogeneity of the data, which could lead to further statistical analyses for elucidating significant differences between groups, using parametric (Student t test) or nonparametric (Mann-Whitney U test) analyses. Moreover, multiple logistic regression models will be developed to evaluate the association of distinct variables with the psychophysiological aspects. Only factors with significant Wald statistics in the simple analysis will be included in the multiple models (P<.2). Furthermore, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis will be performed to determine the accuracy of the remote HR with respect to the measured HR. For all analyses, P<.05 will be considered significant. RESULTS: From June 2022, parents and caregivers who frequent the Clinics of Pediatric Dentistry at the Bauru School of Dentistry will be invited to participate in the study and will be randomized into 1 of the 2 groups (control or intervention). Data collection is expected to be completed in December 2023. Subsequently, the authors will analyze the data and publish the findings of the clinical trial by June 2024. CONCLUSIONS: This randomized controlled trial aims to elucidate differences between psychophysiological patterns of adults exposed to true or false oral health content. This evidence may support the development of further studies and digital strategies, such as neural network models to automatically detect disinformation available on the internet. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (RBR-7q4ymr2) U1111-1263-8227; https://tinyurl.com/2kf73t3d. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/39133.

Game-Calibrated and User-Tailored Remote Detection of Stress and Boredom in Games.

Emotion detection based on computer vision and remote extraction of user signals commonly rely on stimuli where users have a passive role with limited possibilities for interaction or emotional involvement, e.g., images and videos. Predictive models are also trained on a group level, which potentially excludes or dilutes key individualities of users. We present a non-obtrusive, multifactorial, user-tailored emotion detection method based on remotely estimated psychophysiological signals. A neural network learns the emotional profile of a user during the interaction with calibration games, a novel game-based emotion elicitation material designed to induce emotions while accounting for particularities of individuals. We evaluate our method in two experiments ( n = 20 and n = 62 ) with mean classification accuracy of 61.6%, which is statistically significantly better than chance-level classification. Our approach and its evaluation present unique circumstances: our model is trained on one dataset (calibration games) and tested on another (evaluation game), while preserving the natural behavior of subjects and using remote acquisition of signals. Results of this study suggest our method is feasible and an initiative to move away from questionnaires and physical sensors into a non-obtrusive, remote-based solution for detecting emotions in a context involving more naturalistic user behavior and games.

Diagnostic concordance between mobile interfaces and conventional workstations for emergency imaging assessment.

INTRODUCTION: Mobile devices and software are now available with sufficient computing power, speed and complexity to allow for real-time interpretation of radiology exams. In this paper, we perform a multivariable user study that investigates concordance of image-based diagnoses provided using mobile devices on the one hand and conventional workstations on the other hand. METHODS: We performed a between-subjects task-analysis using CT, MRI and radiography datasets. Moreover, we investigated the adequacy of the screen size, image quality, usability and the availability of the tools necessary for the analysis. Radiologists, members of several teams, participated in the experiment under real work conditions. A total of 64 studies with 93 main diagnoses were analyzed. RESULTS: Our results showed that 56 cases were classified with complete concordance (87.69%), 5 cases with almost complete concordance (7.69%) and 1 case (1.56%) with partial concordance. Only 2 studies presented discordance between the reports (3.07%). The main reason to explain the cause of those disagreements was the lack of multiplanar reconstruction tool in the mobile viewer. Screen size and image quality had no direct impact on the mobile diagnosis process. CONCLUSION: We concluded that for images from emergency modalities, a mobile interface provides accurate interpretation and swift response, which could benefit patients' healthcare.

Efficient medical image access in diagnostic environments with limited resources

Abstract Introduction A medical application running outside the workstation environment has to deal with several constraints, such as reduced available memory and low network bandwidth. The aim of this paper is to present an approach to optimize the data flow for fast image transfer and visualization on mobile devices and remote stationary devices. Methods We use a combination of client- and server-side procedures to reduce the amount of information transferred by the application. Our approach was implemented on top of a commercial PACS and evaluated through user experiments with specialists in typical diagnosis tasks. The quality of the system outcome was measured in relation to the accumulated amount of network data transference and the amount of memory used in the host device. Besides, the system's quality of use (usability) was measured through participants’ feedback. Results Contrarily to previous approaches, ours keeps the application within the memory constraints, minimizing data transferring whenever possible, allowing the application to run on a variety of devices. Moreover, it does that without sacrificing the user experience. Experimental data point that over 90% of the users did not notice any delays or degraded image quality, and when they did, they did not impact on the clinical decisions. Conclusion The combined activities and orchestration of our methods allow the image viewer to run on resource-constrained environments, such as those with low network bandwidth or little available memory. These results demonstrate the ability to explore the use of mobile devices as a support tool in the medical workflow.

Ausculta pulmonar e diagnóstico de obstruçäo brônquica / Pulmonary auscultation and bronchial obstruction diagnosis

Cinqüenta indivíduos normais ou com obstruçäo brônquica foram estudados, comparando-se a ausculta pulmonar (intensidade dos sons pulmonares de Pardee - ISP - e ausculta tradicional) a provas funcionais respiratórias. Todos foram submetidos a espirografia e 34 à curva fluxo-volume. Cuidou-se de eliminar fatores espúrios que pudessem interferir na ausculta dos sons pulmonares. O registro dos índices de ISP variou de 4 a 18, com tendência a menor freqüência nos valores mais baixos. Todos os parâmetros funcionais de obstruçäo brônquica evidenciaram significativa correlaçäo com a ISP (r = 0,71 a 0,83), demonstrando que esse método auscultatório permite inferir a existência de obstruçäo brônquica e avaliar quantitativamente sua intensidade, embora haja dispersäo näo-desprezível. No tocante ao estudo da ausculta pulmonar tradicional, o estudo comparativo entre o índice de Tiffeneau e aquele método semiológico demonstrou que, embora a ausculta do murmúrio vesicular (MV) normal indique probabilidade de ausência de obstruçäo brônquica, näo é descartável o achado da mesma, até razoavelmente intensa; por outro lado, a detecçäo de qualquer anormalidade (MV rude ou diminuiçäo de MV) indica a possibilidade de síndrome obstrutiva brônquica, embora sem caráter de gradaçäo e sendo possível a ocorrência de erros importantes. Podemos concluir que a avaliaçäo da ISP- de Pardee fornece informaçöes mais precisas que as da ausculta pulmonar tradicional (no tocante ao diagnóstico de obstruçäo brônquica) e que ambos os métodos têm utilidade clínica, näo devendo ser desprezados na avaliaçäo de um paciente provavelmente obstrutivo; deve-se ressaltar, entretanto, terem limitaçöes de precisäo mais ou menos importantes, näo podendo, portanto, substituir a avaliaçäo funcional respiratória

Aprovaçäo acadêmica: desempenho de duas geraçöes distanciadas de vinte anos / Academic approval: performance of 2 generations 20 years apart from each other

Analisa-se o desempenho acadêmico de duas geraçöes de alunos da mesma Faculdade, distanciadas de 20 anos. Levantam-se as notas obtidas pelos estudantes em todas as disciplinas do curso médico nos triênios 1958, 1959, 1960 e 1978, 1979, 1980, e calculados os porcentuais relativos à aprovaçäo e reprovaçäo. Ao mesmo tempo, distribuiu-se questionário a professores da Faculdade, no qual foram recolhidas opiniöes quanto à evoluçäo do ensino na instituiçäo, ao nível de interesse e de conhecimentos do estudante e aos procedimentos de avaliaçäo. Dos dados analisados, verificou-se que a aprovaçäo por média passou de 31,4% (triênio 1958-1960) para 79,3% (triênio 1978-1980). Quanto ao questionário, 68,5% dos professores acreditam que o processo de avaliaçäo tem sido menos rigoroso ao longo dos anos

Uma proposta de caminho: Plano de Aprimoramento Curricular da FCM-UERJ / A proposal of the way: Plain of curricular improvement of the FCM-UERJ

Após consideraçöes de ordem conceitual e doutrinária, expöe-se uma proposta de um novo currículo para a Faculdade de Ciência Médicas da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Ao longo da exposiçäo, faz-se estudo comparativo entre o currículo atual e o proposto, analisando-se os possíveis benefícios desta ou daquela modificaçäo

Dispneia da asma bronquica (revendo um velho conceito). / Dyspnea in bronchial asthma (reviewing an old concept)

Por intermedio de inquerito efetuado com 70 pacientes asmaticos e 55 medicos em exercicio da pratica medica geral, identifica-se significativa divergencia entre os grupos, no tocante ao tipo de dispneia apresentada pelos individuos asmaticos.Enquanto os padecedores de asma revelam que predomina a dispneia inspiratoria (74,3%), os medicos analisam a dispenia como essencialmente expiratoria (70,9%). Observa-se ainda que os medicos, na sua maioria 70,9%), dao noticia que foram os livros ou o curso medico as fontes que determinavam a referencia de dispneias expiratoria. EM torno dos resultados do inquerito tecem-se comentarios de ordem fisiopatologica, alinham-se estudos recentes que apoiam o relato dos individuos com asma, ao declararem o predominio da dificuldade inspiratoria quando da dispneia