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Publications

2019

Unraveling the Black Box: Exploring Usage Patterns of a Blended Treatment for Depression in a Multicenter Study

Authors
Kemmeren, LL; van Schaik, DJF; Smit, JH; Ruwaard, J; Rocha, A; Henriques, MR; Ebert, DD; Titzler, I; Hazo, JB; Dorsey, M; Zukowska, K; Riper, H;

Publication
JMIR MENTAL HEALTH

Abstract
Background: Blended treatments, combining digital components with face-to-face (FTF) therapy, are starting to find their way into mental health care. Knowledge on how blended treatments should be set up is, however, still limited. To further explore and optimize blended treatment protocols, it is important to obtain a full picture of what actually happens during treatments when applied in routine mental health care. Objective: The aims of this study were to gain insight into the usage of the different components of a blended cognitive behavioral therapy (bCBT) for depression and reflect on actual engagement as compared with intended application, compare bCBT usage between primary and specialized care, and explore different usage patterns. Methods: Data used were collected from participants of the European Comparative Effectiveness Research on Internet-Based Depression Treatment project, a European multisite randomized controlled trial comparing bCBT with regular care for depression. Patients were recruited in primary and specialized routine mental health care settings between February 2015 and December 2017. Analyses were performed on the group of participants allocated to the bCBT condition who made use of the Moodbuster platform and for whom data from all blended components were available (n=200). Included patients were from Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and France; 64.5% (129/200) were female and the average age was 42 years (range 18-74 years). Results: Overall, there was a large variability in the usage of the blended treatment. A clear distinction between care settings was observed, with longer treatment duration and more FTF sessions in specialized care and a more active and intensive usage of the Web-based component by the patients in primary care. Of the patients who started the bCBT, 89.5% (179/200) also continued with this treatment format. Treatment preference, educational level, and the number of comorbid disorders were associated with bCBT engagement. Conclusions: Blended treatments can be applied to a group of patients being treated for depression in routine mental health care. Rather than striving for an optimal blend, a more personalized blended care approach seems to be the most suitable. The next step is to gain more insight into the clinical and cost-effectiveness of blended treatments and to further facilitate uptake in routine mental health care.

2019

A Low-Cost System to Estimate Leaf Area Index Combining Stereo Images and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

Authors
Mendes, JM; Filipe, VM; dos Santos, FN; dos Santos, RM;

Publication
PROGRESS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, EPIA 2019, PT I

Abstract
In order to determine the physiological state of a plant it is necessary to monitor it throughout the developmental period. One of the main parameters to monitor is the Leaf Area Index (LAI). The objective of this work was the development of a non-destructive methodology for the LAI estimation in wine growing. This method is based on stereo images that allow to obtain a bard 3D representation, in order to facilitate the segmentation process, since to perform this process only based on color component becomes practically impossible due to the high complexity of the application environment. In addition, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index will be used to distinguish the regions of the trunks and leaves. As an low-cost and non-evasive method, it becomes a promising solution for LAI estimation in order to monitor the productivity changes and the impacts of climatic conditions in the vines growth. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.

2019

Development of a brain emotional learning based controller for application to vibration control of a building structure under seismic excitation

Authors
Braz César, M; Gonçalves, J; Coelho, J; Barros, R;

Publication
COMPDYN Proceedings

Abstract
In this paper, a numerical simulation of a semi-active neuroemotional based control system for vibration reduction of a 3-story framed building structure under seismic excitation is presented. The Brain Emotional Learning Based Intelligent Controller (BELBIC) is used to design a closed-loop control system that determines the required control action (emotional response) based on the desired and actual system response (sensory input). In this case, the control signal is used to adjust in real time the damping force of a MagnetoRheological (MR) damper to reduce the system response. The results obtained from the numerical simulation validate the effectiveness of the brain emotional learning semi-active controller in improving the overall response of the structural system. © 2019 The authors.

2019

Automatic strategy for extraction of anthropometric measurements for the diagnostic and evaluation of deformational plagiocephaly from infant's models

Authors
Oliveira, B; Torres, HR; Veloso, F; Vilhena, E; Rodrigues, NF; Fonseca, JC; Morais, P; Vilaca, JL;

Publication
MEDICAL IMAGING 2019: COMPUTER-AIDED DIAGNOSIS

Abstract
Deformational Plagiocephaly (DP) refers to an asymmetrical distortion of an infant's skull resulting from external forces applied over time. The diagnosis of this condition is performed using asymmetry indexes that are estimated from specific anatomical landmarks, whose are manually defined on head models acquired using laser scans. However, this manual identification is susceptible to intra-/inter-observer variability, being also time-consuming. Therefore, automatic strategies for the identification of the landmarks and, consequently, extraction of asymmetry indexes, are claimed. A novel pipeline to automatically identify these landmarks on 3D head models and to estimate the relevant cranial asymmetry indexes is proposed. Thus, a template database is created and then aligned with the unlabelled patient through an iterative closest point (ICP) strategy. Here, an initial rigid alignment followed by an affine one are applied to remove global misalignments between each template and the patient. Next, a non-rigid alignment is used to deform the template information to the patient-specific shape. The final position of each landmark is computed as a local weight average of all candidate results. From the identified landmarks, a head's coordinate system is automatically estimated and later used to estimate cranial asymmetry indexes. The proposed framework was evaluated in 15 synthetic infant head's model. Overall, the results demonstrated the accuracy of the identification strategy, with a mean average distance of 2.8 +/- 0.6 mm between the identified landmarks and the ground-truth. Moreover, for the estimation of cranial asymmetry indexes, a performance comparable to the inter-observer variability was achieved.

2019

Conditional Value of Lost Load based Unit Commitment in Microgrid Considering Uncertainty in Battery Swap Station

Authors
Moaidi, F; Golkar, MA;

Publication
2019 IEEE Milan PowerTech

Abstract

2019

Prediction of Journey Destination for Travelers of Urban Public Transport: A Comparison Model Study

Authors
Costa, V; Fontes, T; Borges, JL; Dias, TG;

Publication
Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, LNICST

Abstract
In public transport, smart card-based ticketing system allows to redesign the UPT network, by providing customized transport services, or incentivize travelers to change specific patterns. However, in open systems, to develop personalized connections the journey destination must be known before the end of the travel. Thus, to obtain that knowledge, in this study three models (Top-K, NB, and J48) were applied using different groups of travelers of an urban public transport network located in a medium-sized European metropolitan area (Porto, Portugal). Typical travelers were selected from the segmentation of transportation card signatures, and groups were defined based on the traveler age or economic conditions. The results show that is possible to predict the journey’s destination based on the past with an accuracy rate that varies, on average, from 20% in the worst scenarios to 65% in the best. © 2019, ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.

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