2024
Authors
Rodrigues, MG; Rodrigues, JD; Moreira, JA; Clemente, F; Dias, CC; Azevedo, LF; Rodrigues, PP; Areias, JC; Areias, ME;
Publication
CHILD CARE HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Abstract
PurposeTo develop, implement and assess the results of psychoeducation to improve the QoL of parents with CHD newborns.MethodsParticipants were parents of inpatient newborns with the diagnosis of non-syndromic CHD. We conducted a parallel RCT with an allocation ratio of 1:1 (intervention vs. control), considering the newborns, using mixed methods research. The intervention group received psychoeducation (Parental Psychoeducation in CHD [PPeCHD]) and the usual routines, and the control group received just the regular practices. The allocation concealment was assured. PI was involved in enrolling participants, developing and implementing the intervention, data collection and data analysis. We followed the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines.ResultsParents of eight newborns were allocated to the intervention group (n = 15 parents) and eight to the control group (n = 13 parents). It was performed as an intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis. In M2 (4 weeks), the intervention group presented better QoL levels in the physical, psychological, and environmental domains of World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument (WHOQOL-Bref). In M3 (16 weeks), scores in physical and psychological domains maintained a statistically significant difference between the groups.ConclusionsThe PPeCHD, the psychoeducational intervention we developed, positively impacted parental QoL. These results support the initial hypothesis. This study is a fundamental milestone in this research field, adding new essential information to the literature.
2024
Authors
Silva, T; Carvalho, T; Filipe, V; Gonçlves, L; Sousa, A;
Publication
2024 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GRAPHICS AND INTERACTION, ICGI
Abstract
In the modern world, making healthy food choices is increasingly important due to the rise in food-related illnesses. Existing tools, such as Nutri-Score and comprehensive food labels, often pose challenges for many consumers. This paper proposes an application that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies to read and interpret food labels, thus upgrading current solutions that rely mainly on reading product barcodes. By using advanced optical character recognition and machine learning techniques, the system aims to accurately extract and analyze nutritional information directly from food packaging without relying on a database of pre-registered products. This innovative approach not only increases consumer awareness, but also supports personalized diet management for diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, while promoting healthier eating habits and better health outcomes. Two minimalist functional prototypes were developed as a result of this work: a desktop application and a mobile application.
2024
Authors
Ferreira Moreira, EJV; Campos, JC;
Publication
SLATE
Abstract
Model checkers can automatically verify a system’s behavior against temporal logic properties. However, analyzing the counterexamples produced in case of failure is still a manual process that requires both technical and domain knowledge. However, this step is crucial to understand the flaws of the system being verified. This paper presents a language created to support the generation of natural language explanations of counterexamples produced by a model checker. The language supports querying the properties and counterexamples to generate the explanations. The paper explains the language components and how they can be used to produce explanations.
2024
Authors
Teixeira, AC; Bakon, M; Perissin, D; Sousa, JJ;
Publication
REMOTE SENSING
Abstract
Since the 1970s, extensive halite extraction in Macei & oacute;, Brazil, has resulted in significant geological risks, including ground collapses, sinkholes, and infrastructure damage. These risks became particularly evident in 2018, following an earthquake, which prompted the cessation of mining activities in 2019. This study investigates subsidence deformation resulting from these mining operations, focusing on the collapse of Mine 18 on 10 December 2023. We utilized the Quasi-Persistent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (QPS-InSAR) technique to analyze a dataset of 145 Sentinel-1A images acquired between June 2019 and April 2024. Our approach enabled the analysis of cumulative displacement, the loss of amplitude stability, the evolution of amplitude time series, and the amplitude change matrix of targets near Mine 18. The study introduces an innovative QPS-InSAR approach that integrates phase and amplitude information using amplitude time series to assess the lifecycle of radar scattering targets throughout the monitoring period. This method allows for effective change detection following sudden events, enabling the identification of affected areas. Our findings indicate a maximum cumulative displacement of -1750 mm, with significant amplitude changes detected between late November and early December 2023, coinciding with the mine collapse. This research provides a comprehensive assessment of deformation trends and ground stability in the affected mining areas, providing valuable insights for future monitoring and risk mitigation efforts.
2024
Authors
Fernandes, R; Pessoa, A; Nogueira, J; Paiva, A; Pacal, I; Salgado, M; Cunha, A;
Publication
Procedia Computer Science
Abstract
Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) has revolutionized the field of gastrointestinal examinations, being MedtronicTM WCE one of the most used in clinics. In those WCE videos, medical experts use RAPID READERTM tool to annotate findings in videos. However, the frame annotations are not available in an open format and, when exported, they have different resolutions and some annotated artefacts that make difficult their localization in the original videos. This difficult the use of WCE medical experts' annotations in the research of new computed-aid diagnostic (CAD) methods. In this paper, we propose a methodology to compare image similarities and evaluate it in a private MedtronicTM WCE SB3 video dataset to automatically identify the annotated frames in the videos. We used state-of-the-art pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) models, including MobileNet, InceptionResNetv2, ResNet50v2, VGG19, VGG16, ResNet101v2, ResNet152v2, and DenseNet121, as frame features extractors and compared them with the Euclidean distance. We evaluated the methodology performance on a private dataset consisting of 100 WCE videos, totalling 905 frames. The experimental results showed promising performance. The MobileNet model achieved an accuracy of 94% for identifying the first match, while the top 5, top 10, and top 20 matches were identified with accuracies of 94%, 94%, and 98%, respectively. The VGG16 and ResNet50v2 models also demonstrated strong performance, achieving accuracies ranging from 88% to 93% for various match positions. These results highlight the effectiveness of our proposed methodology in localizing target frames and even identifying similar frames very use useful for training data-driven models in CAD research. The code utilized in this experiment is available on the Github† © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.
2024
Authors
Leite, S; Mota, B; Silva, AR; Commons, ML; Miller, PM; Rodrigues, PP;
Publication
PLOS ONE
Abstract
Several studies demonstrate that the structure of the brain increases in hierarchical complexity throughout development. We tested if the structure of artificial neural networks also increases in hierarchical complexity while learning a developing task, called the balance beam problem. Previous simulations of this developmental task do not reflect a necessary premise underlying development: a more complex structure can be built out of less complex ones, while ensuring that the more complex structure does not replace the less complex one. In order to address this necessity, we segregated the input set by subsets of increasing Orders of Hierarchical Complexity. This is a complexity measure that has been extensively shown to underlie the complexity behavior and hypothesized to underlie the complexity of the neural structure of the brain. After segregating the input set, minimal neural network models were trained separately for each input subset, and adjacent complexity models were analyzed sequentially to observe whether there was a structural progression. Results show that three different network structural progressions were found, performing with similar accuracy, pointing towards self-organization. Also, more complex structures could be built out of less complex ones without substituting them, successfully addressing catastrophic forgetting and leveraging performance of previous models in the literature. Furthermore, the model structures trained on the two highest complexity subsets performed better than simulations of the balance beam present in the literature. As a major contribution, this work was successful in addressing hierarchical complexity structural growth in neural networks, and is the first that segregates inputs by Order of Hierarchical Complexity. Since this measure can be applied to all domains of data, the present method can be applied to future simulations, systematizing the simulation of developmental and evolutionary structural growth in neural networks.
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