2025
Autores
Ferreira, S; Rodrigues, MA; Mateus, C; Rodrigues, PP; Rocha, NB;
Publicação
Abstract In modern, high-speed work settings, the significance of mental health disorders is increasingly acknowledged as a pressing health issue, with potential adverse consequences for organizations, including reduced productivity and increased absenteeism. Over the past few years, various mental health management solutions, such as biofeedback applications, have surfaced as promising avenues to improve employees' mental well-being. To gain deeper insights into the suitability and effectiveness of employing biofeedback-based mental health interventions in real-world workplace settings, given that most research has predominantly been conducted within controlled laboratory conditions. A systematic review was conducted to identify studies that used biofeedback interventions in workplace settings. The review focused on traditional biofeedback, mindfulness, app-directed interventions, immersive scenarios, and in-depth physiological data presentation. The review identified nine studies employing biofeedback interventions in the workplace. Breathing techniques showed great promise in decreasing stress and physiological parameters, especially when coupled with visual and/or auditory cues. Future research should focus on developing and implementing interventions to improve well-being and mental health in the workplace, with the goal of creating safer and healthier work environments and contributing to the sustainability of organizations.
2025
Autores
Coelho J.A.B.; Brancalião L.; Alvarez M.; Costa P.; Gonçalves J.;
Publicação
Lecture Notes in Educational Technology
Abstract
Integrating physical robots in an educational context often entails acquiring expensive equipment that often operates using proprietary software. Both conditions restrict the students from exploring and fully understanding the internal operation of robots. In response to these limitations, a three-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator, based on the “EEZYbotARM MK2” open-source design by Carlo Franciscone, is being repurposed and integrated within the SimTwo simulation environment to operate within a hardware-in-the-loop architecture. To accomplish this objective, first, an open-source Arduino-based library was developed aiming at the robot’s online and offline programming akin to industrial robots. The firmware is able to communicate with the SimTwo software in which the digital twin’s robot is living. The dynamic behavior of the robot’s digital twin must be properly parametrized and aligned with the physical robot’s dynamics. This article describes the modeling of the robot joint’s actuator and its closed-loop controller formulation. The obtained results show that the dynamic behavior of the robot joint digital twin closely matches both open and closed-loop, the one of its physical counterpart.
2025
Autores
Souadda, LI; Halitim, AR; Benilles, B; Oliveira, JM; Ramos, P;
Publicação
Abstract
2025
Autores
Ghorvei, M; Karhu, T; Hietakoste, S; Ferreira Santos, D; Hrubos Strom, H; Islind, AS; Biedebach, L; Nikkonen, S; Leppaenen, T; Rusanen, M;
Publicação
JOURNAL OF SLEEP RESEARCH
Abstract
Obstructive sleep apnea is a heterogeneous sleep disorder with varying phenotypes. Several studies have already performed cluster analyses to discover various obstructive sleep apnea phenotypic clusters. However, the selection of the clustering method might affect the outputs. Consequently, it is unclear whether similar obstructive sleep apnea clusters can be reproduced using different clustering methods. In this study, we applied four well-known clustering methods: Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering; K-means; Fuzzy C-means; and Gaussian Mixture Model to a population of 865 suspected obstructive sleep apnea patients. By creating five clusters with each method, we examined the effect of clustering methods on forming obstructive sleep apnea clusters and the differences in their physiological characteristics. We utilized a visualization technique to indicate the cluster formations, Cohen's kappa statistics to find the similarity and agreement between clustering methods, and performance evaluation to compare the clustering performance. As a result, two out of five clusters were distinctly different with all four methods, while three other clusters exhibited overlapping features across all methods. In terms of agreement, Fuzzy C-means and K-means had the strongest (kappa = 0.87), and Agglomerative hierarchical clustering and Gaussian Mixture Model had the weakest agreement (kappa = 0.51) between each other. The K-means showed the best clustering performance, followed by the Fuzzy C-means in most evaluation criteria. Moreover, Fuzzy C-means showed the greatest potential in handling overlapping clusters compared with other methods. In conclusion, we revealed a direct impact of clustering method selection on the formation and physiological characteristics of obstructive sleep apnea clusters. In addition, we highlighted the capability of soft clustering methods, particularly Fuzzy C-means, in the application of obstructive sleep apnea phenotyping.
2025
Autores
Coelho J.P.; Coelho J.A.B.; Gonçalves J.;
Publicação
Lecture Notes in Educational Technology
Abstract
This paper explores the integration of SolidWorks, LabVIEW, and Arduino as a comprehensive and cost-effective approach to teaching robotics to undergraduate students. In scenarios where real hardware is unavailable or prohibitively expensive, this methodology offers significant advantages. SolidWorks enables students to design and simulate robotic components in a virtual environment, fostering a deep understanding of mechanical design and engineering principles. LabVIEW provides an intuitive graphical interface for programming and control, allowing students to develop and test their algorithms. Finally, Arduino, as an open-source hardware platform, bridges the gap between virtual simulations and physical implementation, offering a hands-on experience with minimal financial investment. Together, these tools create a robust educational framework that enhances theoretical knowledge through practical application, encourages innovation, and prepares students for real-world engineering challenges. The paper concludes that this integrated approach not only mitigates the limitations of resource constraints but also enriches the learning experience by providing a versatile and accessible platform for robotics education.
2025
Autores
Benhanifia, A; Ben Cheikh, Z; Oliveira, PM; Valente, A; Lima, J;
Publicação
INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS
Abstract
Predictive maintenance (PDM) is emerging as a strong transformative tool within Industry 4.0, enabling significant improvements in the sustainability and efficiency of manufacturing processes. This in-depth literature review, which follows the PRISMA 2020 framework, examines how PDM is being implemented in several areas of the manufacturing industry, focusing on how it is taking advantage of technological advances such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The presented in-depth evaluation of the technological principles, implementation methods, economic consequences, and operational improvements based on academic and industrial sources and new innovations is performed. According to the studies, integrating CDM can significantly increase machine uptime and reliability while reducing maintenance costs. In addition, the transition to PDM systems that use real-time data to predict faults and plan maintenance more accurately holds out promising prospects. However, there are still gaps in the overall methodologies for measuring the return on investment of PDM implementations, suggesting an essential research direction.
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