Neuroergonomic and psychometric evaluation of full-face crew oxygen masks respiratory tolerance: a proof-of-concept study

IntroductionPreventing in-flight hypoxia in pilots is typically achieved by wearing oxygen masks. These masks must be as comfortable as possible to allow prolonged and repeated use. The consequences of mask-induced facial contact pressure have been extensively studied, but little is known about mask-induced breathing discomfort. Because breathlessness is a strong distractor and engages cerebral resources, it could negatively impact flying performances.MethodsSeventeen volunteers (age 20–32) rated respiratory discomfort while breathing with no mask and with two models of quick-donning full-face crew oxygen masks with regulators (mask A, mask B). Electroencephalographic recordings were performed to detect a putative respiratory-related cortical activation in response to inspiratory constraint (experiment 1, n=10). Oxygen consumption was measured using indirect calorimetry (experiment 2, n=10).ResultsWith mask B, mild respiratory discomfort was reported significantly more frequently than with no mask or mask A (experiment 1: median respiratory discomfort on visual analogue scale 0.9 cm (0.5–1.4), experiment 1; experiment 2: 2 cm (1.7–2.9)). Respiratory-related cortical activation was present in 1/10 subjects with no mask, 1/10 with mask A and 6/10 with mask B (significantly more frequently with mask B). Breathing pattern, sigh frequency and oxygen consumption were not different.ConclusionsIn a laboratory setting, breathing through high-end aeronautical full-face crew oxygen masks can induce mild breathing discomfort and activate respiratory-related cortical networks. Whether or not this can occur in real-life conditions and have operational consequences remains to be investigated. Meanwhile, respiratory psychometric and neuroergonomic approaches could be worth integrating to masks development and evaluation processes.

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Modifications in Prefrontal Cortex Oxygenation in Linear and Curvilinear Dual Task Walking: A Combined fNIRS and IMUs Study

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21186159 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (18) ◽

pp. 6159

Author(s):

Valeria Belluscio ◽

Gabriele Casti ◽

Marco Ferrari ◽

Valentina Quaresima ◽

Maria Sofia Sappia ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Dual Task ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Cognitive Task ◽

Real Life ◽

Motor Task ◽

Hemoglobin Concentration ◽

Cortical Activation ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Gait Quality

Increased oxygenated hemoglobin concentration of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been observed during linear walking, particularly when there is a high attention demand on the task, like in dual-task (DT) paradigms. Despite the knowledge that cognitive and motor demands depend on the complexity of the motor task, most studies have only focused on usual walking, while little is known for more challenging tasks, such as curved paths. To explore the relationship between cortical activation and gait biomechanics, 20 healthy young adults were asked to perform linear and curvilinear walking trajectories in single-task and DT conditions. PFC activation was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, while gait quality with four inertial measurement units. The Figure-of-8-Walk-Test was adopted as the curvilinear trajectory, with the “Serial 7s” test as concurrent cognitive task. Results show that walking along curvilinear trajectories in DT led to increased PFC activation and decreased motor performance. Under DT walking, the neural correlates of executive function and gait control tend to be modified in response to the cognitive resources imposed by the motor task. Being more representative of real-life situations, this approach to curved walking has the potential to reveal crucial information and to improve people’ s balance, safety, and life’s quality.

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New approach to simplifying and optimising acute malnutrition treatment in children aged 6–59 months: the OptiMA single-arm proof-of-concept trial in Burkina Faso

British Journal Of Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s0007114519003258 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 123 (7) ◽

pp. 756-767 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Maguy Daures ◽

Kevin Phelan ◽

Mariama Issoufou ◽

Séni Kouanda ◽

Ousmane Sawadogo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Burkina Faso ◽

Real Life ◽

Acute Malnutrition ◽

Proof Of Concept ◽

New Approach ◽

Multivariate Survival ◽

Arm Circumference ◽

Mid Upper Arm Circumference ◽

Programme Outcomes ◽

Therapeutic Food

AbstractThe Optimising treatment for acute MAlnutrition (OptiMA) strategy trains mothers to use mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) bracelets for screening and targets treatment to children with MUAC < 125 mm or oedema with one therapeutic food at a gradually reduced dose. This study seeks to determine whether OptiMA conforms to SPHERE standards (recovery rate > 75 %). A single-arm proof-of-concept trial was conducted in 2017 in Yako district, Burkina Faso including children aged 6–59 months in outpatient health centres with MUAC < 125 mm or oedema. Outcomes were stratified by MUAC category at admission. Multivariate survival analysis was carried out to identify variables predictive of recovery. Among 4958 children included, 824 (16·6 %) were admitted with MUAC < 115 mm or oedema, 1070 (21·6 %) with MUAC 115–119 mm and 3064 (61·8 %) with MUAC 120–124 mm. The new dosage was correctly implemented at all visits for 75·9 % of children. Global recovery was 86·3 (95 % CI 85·4, 87·2) % and 70·5 (95 % CI 67·5, 73·5) % for children admitted with MUAC < 115 mm or oedema. Average therapeutic food consumption was 60·8 sachets per child treated. Recovery was positively associated with mothers trained to use MUAC prior to child’s admission (adjusted hazard ratio 1·09; 95 % CI 1·01, 1·19). OptiMA was successfully implemented at the scale of an entire district under ‘real-life’ conditions. Programme outcomes exceeded SPHERE standards, but further study is needed to determine if increasing therapeutic food dosages for the most severely malnourished will improve recovery.

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Idioms in intercultural communication

International Journal of Language and Culture ◽

10.1075/ijolc.00026.sen ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 38-62

Author(s):

Karsten Senkbeil

Keyword(s):

Intercultural Communication ◽

Figurative Language ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Real Life ◽

Laboratory Setting ◽

Native Languages ◽

Pragmatic Aspects ◽

Linguistic Approaches ◽

Empirical Approaches ◽

Cultural Linguistics

Abstract This paper combines central ideas from Intercultural Pragmatics and Cultural Linguistics to rethink an issue that has been amply discussed in various branches of linguistics: idioms, ‘phrasemes,’ and other forms of fixed-form figurative language, when used in intercultural communication (ICC). It argues that an interaction-oriented approach needs to think beyond the description and mapping of idioms in different languages and cultures, and apply both pragmatic and cognitive linguistic approaches to explain if and how idiomatic language works (or does not work) in ICC. Methodologically, this paper relies on a combination of empirical approaches. A data-inductive analysis of authentic intercultural discourse involving native speakers of German, Afrikaans, and Zulu, who use English as a lingua franca in a project management setting provides interesting real-life examples of the pragmatic aspects of idiomatic language in authentic ICC. The results of this pragmalinguistic analysis have inspired and are accompanied by a deductive-experimental study, using questionnaires for speakers of various native languages (Arabic, German, Russian, Spanish, Turkish), testing the cross-linguistic communicability of English idioms in a ‘laboratory setting.’ These experiments show that an appreciation of both the embodied and empractic-interactional dimensions of idioms promises insights into how figurative language and fixed-form expressions are used successfully or unsuccessfully in ICC and why.

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Polygraph Lie Detection on Real Events in a Laboratory Setting

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1993.76.3.1051 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 76 (3) ◽

pp. 1051-1058 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

M. T. Bradley ◽

M. C. Cullen

Keyword(s):

Laboratory Study ◽

Real Life ◽

Lie Detection ◽

Laboratory Setting ◽

Control Question ◽

Polygraph Testing ◽

Emotional Events

This laboratory study dealt with real-life intense emotional events. Subjects generated embarrassing stories from their experience, then submitted to polygraph testing and, by lying, denied their stories and, by telling the truth, denied a randomly assigned story. Money was given as an incentive to be judged innocent on each story. An interrogator, blind to the stories, used Control Question Tests and found subjects more deceptive when lying than when truthful. Stories interacted with order such that lying on the second story was more easily detected than lying on the first. Embarrassing stories provide an alternative to the use of mock crimes to study lie detection in the laboratory.

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Psychosocial stress based on public speech in humans: is there a real life/laboratory setting cross-adaptation?

Stress ◽

10.1080/10253890.2016.1203416 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 429-433 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

D. Jezova ◽

N. Hlavacova ◽

I. Dicko ◽

P. Solarikova ◽

I. Brezina

Keyword(s):

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Real Life ◽

Laboratory Setting ◽

Public Speech ◽

Cross Adaptation

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Distributed learning: Developing a predictive model based on data from multiple hospitals without data leaving the hospital – A real life proof of concept

Radiotherapy and Oncology ◽

10.1016/j.radonc.2016.10.002 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 121 (3) ◽

pp. 459-467 ◽

Cited By ~ 61

Author(s):

Arthur Jochems ◽

Timo M. Deist ◽

Johan van Soest ◽

Michael Eble ◽

Paul Bulens ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Predictive Model ◽

Real Life ◽

Distributed Learning ◽

Proof Of Concept ◽

Model Based

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Impact of Partitioning in Short-Term Food Contact Applications Focused on Polymers in Support of Migration Modelling and Exposure Risk Assessment

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules27010121 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 121

Author(s):

Rainer Brandsch ◽

Mark Pemberton ◽

Dieter Schuster ◽

Frank Welle

Keyword(s):

Steady State ◽

Real Life ◽

Minor Role ◽

Contact Period ◽

Worst Case ◽

Food Contact ◽

Consumer Safety ◽

Prolonged Contact ◽

Repeated Use ◽

Migration Testing

Food contact materials (FCMs) can transfer chemicals arising from their manufacture to food before consumption. Regulatory frameworks ensure consumer safety by prescribing methods for the assessment of FCMs that rely on migration testing either into real-life foods or food simulants. Standard migration testing conditions for single-use FCMs are justifiably conservative, employing recognized worst-case contact times and temperatures. For repeated-use FCMs, the third of three consecutive tests using worst-case conditions is taken as a surrogate of the much shorter contact period that often occurs over the service life of these items. Food contact regulations allow for the use of migration modelling for the chemicals in the FCM and for the partitioning that occurs between the FCM and food/simulant during prolonged contact, under which steady-state conditions are favored. This study demonstrates that the steady-state is rarely reached under repeated-use conditions and that partitioning plays a minor role that results in migration essentially being diffusion controlled. Domains of use have been identified within which partitioning does not play a significant role, allowing modelling based upon diffusion parameters to be used. These findings have the potential to advance the modelling of migration from repeated-use articles for the benefit of regulatory guidance and compliance practices.

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Effect of nitric oxide synthase inhibition on hypercapnia-induced hypothermia and hyperventilation

Journal of Applied Physiology ◽

10.1152/jappl.1998.85.3.967 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 85 (3) ◽

pp. 967-972 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Renata C. H. Barros ◽

Luiz G. S. Branco

Keyword(s):

Nitric Oxide ◽

Oxygen Consumption ◽

Body Temperature ◽

Respiratory Function ◽

Breathing Pattern ◽

Ventilatory Response ◽

No Synthase ◽

Induced Hypothermia ◽

Control Situation ◽

Oxide Synthase

Hypercapnia elicits hypothermia in a number of vertebrates, but the mechanisms involved are not well understood. In the present study, we assessed the participation of the nitric oxide (NO) pathway in hypercapnia-induced hypothermia and hyperventilation by means of NO synthase inhibition by using N ω-nitro-l-arginine (l-NNA). Measurements of ventilation, body temperature, and oxygen consumption were performed in awake unrestrained rats before and afterl-NNA injection (intraperitoneally) and l-NNA injection followed by hypercapnia (5% CO2). Control animals received saline injections. l-NNA altered the breathing pattern during the control situation but not during hypercapnia. A significant ( P < 0.05) drop in body temperature was measured after bothl-NNA (40 mg/kg) and 5% inspired CO2, with a drop in oxygen consumption in the first situation but not in the second. Hypercapnia had no effect onl-NNA-induced hypothermia. The ventilatory response to hypercapnia was not changed byl-NNA, even thoughl-NNA caused a drop in body temperature. The present data indicate that the two responses elicited by hypercapnia, i.e., hyperventilation and hypothermia, do not share NO as a common mediator. However, thel-arginine-NO pathway participates, although in an unrelated way, in respiratory function and thermoregulation.

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Using Graphs of Queues and Genetic Algorithms to Fast Approximate Crowd Simulations

Proceedings ◽

10.3390/proceedings2191216 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (19) ◽

pp. 1216

Author(s):

Ismael Sagredo-Olivenza ◽

Marlon Cárdenas-Bonett ◽

Jorge Gómez-Sanz ◽

Juan Pavón

Keyword(s):

Genetic Algorithms ◽

Assisted Living ◽

Ambient Assisted Living ◽

Real Life ◽

Realistic Model ◽

Crowd Simulation ◽

Proof Of Concept ◽

Crowd Simulations ◽

Sufficient Degree ◽

Simulation Task

The use of Crowd Simulation for re-enacting different real life scenarios has been studied in the literature. In this field of research, the interplay between ambient assisted living solutions and the behavior of pedestrians in large installations is highly relevant. However, when designing these simulations, the necessary simplifications may result in different ranges of accuracy. The more realistic the simulation task is, the more complex and computational expensive it becomes. We present an approach towards a reasonable trade-off: given a complex and computational expensive crowd simulation, how to produce fast crowd simulations whose results approximate the results of the detailed and more realistic model. These faster simulations can be used to forecast the outcome of several scenarios, enabling the use of simulations in decision-making methods. This work contributes with a simplified faster simulation model that uses a graph of queues for modeling an environment where a set of agents will navigate. This model is configured using Genetic Algorithms (GA) applied to data obtained from complex 3D crowd simulations. This is illustrated with a proof-of-concept scenario where a 3D simulation of one floor of a faculty building, with its corresponding students, is re-enacted in the network of queues version. The success criteria are achieving a similar total number of people in particular floor areas along the simulation in both the simplified simulation and the original one. The experiments confirm that this approach approximates the number of people in each area with a sufficient degree of fidelity with respect to the results that are obtained by a more complex 3D simulator.

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Are two views better than one? Investigating three-quarter view facial composites

Journal of Forensic Practice ◽

10.1108/jfp-10-2014-0040 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 291-306 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hayley Ness ◽

Peter J.B. Hancock ◽

Leslie Bowie ◽

Vicki Bruce ◽

Graham Pike

Keyword(s):

Real Life ◽

Societal Implications ◽

Composite Construction ◽

Content Type ◽

Single View ◽

Face View ◽

Full Face ◽

The Impact ◽

Practical Implications ◽

Facial Composite

Purpose – The introduction of a three-quarter-view database in the PRO-fit facial-composite system has enabled an investigation into the effects of image view in face construction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of constructing full-face and three-quarter-view composites under different encoding conditions. It also examines the potential value of three-quarter-view composites that can be generated automatically from a front-view composite. The authors also investigate whether there is an identification benefit for presenting full-face and three-quarter composites together. Design/methodology/approach – Three experiments examine the impact of encoding conditions on composite construction and presentation of composites at the evaluation stage. Findings – The work revealed that while standard full-face composites perform well when all views of the face have been encoded, care should be taken when a person has only seen one view. When a witness has seen a side view of a suspect, a three-quarter-view composite should be constructed. Also, it would be beneficial for a witness to construct two composites of a suspect, one in full-face view and one in a three-quarter-view, particularly when the witness has only encoded one view. No benefit emerged for use of three-quarter-view composites generated automatically. Research limitations/implications – This is the first study to examine viewpoint in facial composite construction. While a great deal of research has examined viewpoint dependency in face recognition tasks, composite construction is a reconstruction task involving both recall and recognition. The results indicate that there is a viewpoint effect that is similar to that described in the recognition literature. However, more research is needed in this area. Practical implications – The practical implications of this research are that it is extremely important for facial composite operators in the field (police operators) to know who will make a good likeness of the target. Research such as this which examines real-life issues is incredibly important. This research shows that if a witness has seen all views of a perpetrator’s face then standard composite construction using a full-face view will work well. However, if they have only seen a single view then it will not. Social implications – There are obvious wider societal implications for any research which deals with eyewitness memory and the potential identification of perpetrators. Originality/value – No research to date has formally examined the impact of viewpoint in facial-composite construction.

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