Covid-19 e o uso de tecnologias informacionais e de comunicação por pessoas idosas: revisão integrativa / Covid-19 and the use of information and communication technologies by older people: integrative review / Covid-19 y el uso de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación por parte de las personas mayores: revisión integradora

Acrise sanitária ocasionada pela COVID-19 fomentou o desenvolvimento e uso das plataformas digitais e, consequentemente, a população idosa precisou se adaptar ao uso desses recursos. Objetivo:Investigar o uso das tecnologias digitais pela população idosa durante o contexto da pandemia da COVID-19. Metodologia:Revisão integrativa realizada entre os meses de janeiro a março de 2022, de artigos publicados na íntegra em português e inglês, disponíveis na Literatura Latino Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), National Library of Medicine (NLM-PubMed) e PubMed. Foram utilizados os descritores "aged/elderly" AND "covid-19/sars-cov-2/coronavírus" AND "information and communication technology", sendo selecionados e analisados nove estudos. Resultados:a população idosa utilizou diversos recursos tecnológicos durante a pandemia, com intuito de auxiliar o processo de comunicação, proporcionar distração e lazer, e obter auxílio e atendimento de saúde. Conclusões:Durante o isolamento social, o uso de tecnologias pela população idosa possibilitou interação social e acesso aos mais diversos recursos para busca de informações, além de amenizar a solidão e reduzir a exposição ao risco de infecção pelo vírus SARS-CoV-2 (AU).

The health crisis brought about by COVID-19 prompted the development and use of digital platforms and, consequently, theneed for theelderly population to adapt to the use of these resources. Objective:to investigate the use of digital technologies by older peopleduring the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method:This is an integrative review carried out between January and March 2022 of articles published in Portuguese and English, available in full in the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS), National Library of Medicine (NLM-PubMed) and PubMed. The descriptors "aged/elderly" AND "covid-19/sars-cov-2/coronavirus" AND "information and communication technology" were used, and nine studies were selected and analyzed. Results:The elderly population used various technological resources during the pandemic to assist in theircommunication process, provide distraction and leisure, and get help and health care. Conclusion:During social distancing, the use of technologies by the elderly population allowed social interaction and access to the most diverse resources for searching for information, in addition to alleviating loneliness and reducing exposure to the risk of infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (AU).

La crisis sanitaria provocada por el COVID-19 fomentó el desarrollo y uso de plataformas digitales y, en consecuencia, la población anciana necesitó adaptarse al uso de estos recursos. Objetivo:Investigar el uso de las tecnologías digitales por parte delas personas mayores durante el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19. Metodología:Revisión integradora realizada entre enero y marzo de 2022 de artículos publicados en portugués e inglés, disponibles íntegramente en la Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe en Ciencias de la Salud (LILACS), Biblioteca Nacional de Medicina (NLM-PubMed) y PubMed. Se utilizaron los descriptores "aged/elderly" AND "covid-19/sars-cov-2/coronavírus" AND "information and communication technology", y se seleccionaron y analizaron nueve estudios. Resultados:Se identificó el uso de diversos recursos tecnológicos en la vida cotidiana de los ancianos, especialmente para ayudar en el proceso de comunicación, proporcionar distracción y ocio, así como para obtener asistencia y cuidadossanitarios. Conclusiones: Durante el aislamiento social, el uso de la tecnología por las personas mayorespermitió la interacción social y el acceso a una amplia gama de recursos de búsqueda de información, además de aliviar la soledad sin favorecer la exposición al riesgo de infección por SARS-CoV-2 (AU).

Determinants of the acceptance and adoption of a digital contact tracing tool during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore.

The motivations that govern the adoption of digital contact tracing (DCT) tools are complex and not well understood. Hence, we assessed the factors influencing the acceptance and adoption of Singapore's national DCT tool - TraceTogether - during the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed 3943 visitors of Tan Tock Seng Hospital from July 2020 to February 2021 and stratified the analyses into three cohorts. Each cohort was stratified based on the time when significant policy interventions were introduced to increase the adoption of TraceTogether. Binary logistic regression was preceded by principal components analysis to reduce the Likert items. Respondents who 'perceived TraceTogether as useful and necessary' had higher likelihood of accepting it but those with 'Concerns about personal data collected by TraceTogether' had lower likelihood of accepting and adopting the tool. The injunctive and descriptive social norms were also positively associated with both the acceptance and adoption of the tool. Liberal individualism was mixed in the population and negatively associated with the acceptance and adoption of TraceTogether. Policy measures to increase the uptake of a national DCT bridged the digital divide and accelerated its adoption. However, good public communications are crucial to address the barriers of acceptance to improve voluntary uptake widespread adoption.

Adaptação e produção acadêmica em tempos de distanciamento social: relato de experiência / Adaptation and academic production in times of social distancing: experience report

O presente artigo objetiva relatar a experiência deestudantesde Odontologia acerca de suasadaptaçõesaos meios digitais de ensino e produção acadêmica durante a interrupção das aulas e das medidas de distanciamento social diante da pandemia do novo coronavírus em 2020. Nesse contexto, buscando a continuidade em suasformaçõesextracurriculares, osacadêmicosparticiparamde jornadas on-line, com apresentação de trabalhos por meio da ferramenta de videoconferência; encontros mensais em projetos de extensões universitárias promovidos pelos docentes coordenadores das ações extensionistas; participaramde webinários nacionais e internacionais com temas pertinentes aos controles de risco e mudanças na prática odontológica em tempos de COVID-19; elaboraram, submeterame publicaramartigos científicos em periódicos indexados e fizeramcursosde qualificaçãoadistância pelo portal UNASUS. O ensino e produção acadêmica, antes somente praticados pelos meios tradicionais, deram espaço a uma nova realidade para toda a comunidade acadêmica, fazendo com que alunos e professores busquem sempre inovações no processo ensino-aprendizagem, inclusão de ferramentas digitais e meios de qualificação para acompanharem as mudanças consequentes do atual parâmetro de distanciamento social (AU).

This article aims to report the experience of Dentistry students about their adaptations to digital means of teaching and academic production during the interruption of classes and measures of social distancing in the face of the new coronavirus pandemic in 2020. In this context, seeking continuity in their extracurricular training, the academics participated in on-line journeys, with the presentation of works through the videoconference tool; monthly meetings in university extension projects promoted by the coordinating professors of the extension actions; they participated in national and international webinars on topics relevant to risk controls and changes in dental practice in the days of COVID-19; they elaborated, submitted and published scientific articles in indexed journals and they took distance qualification courses through UNASUS website. Teaching and academic production, previously only practiced by traditional means, gave space to a new reality for the entire academic community, making students and professors always seek innovations in the teaching-learning process, inclusion of digital tools and means of qualification to accompany the consequent changes in the current parameter of social distancing (AU).

A digital sensor to measure real-time leaf movements and detect abiotic stress in plants.

Plant and plant organ movements are the result of a complex integration of endogenous growth and developmental responses, partially controlled by the circadian clock, and external environmental cues. Monitoring of plant motion is typically done by image-based phenotyping techniques with the aid of computer vision algorithms. Here we present a method to measure leaf movements using a digital inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor. The lightweight sensor is easily attachable to a leaf or plant organ and records angular traits in real-time for two dimensions (pitch and roll) with high resolution (measured sensor oscillations of 0.36 ± 0.53° for pitch and 0.50 ± 0.65° for roll). We were able to record simple movements such as petiole bending, as well as complex lamina motions, in several crops, ranging from tomato to banana. We also assessed growth responses in terms of lettuce rosette expansion and maize seedling stem movements. The IMU sensors are capable of detecting small changes of nutations (i.e. bending movements) in leaves of different ages and in different plant species. In addition, the sensor system can also monitor stress-induced leaf movements. We observed that unfavorable environmental conditions evoke certain leaf movements, such as drastic epinastic responses, as well as subtle fading of the amplitude of nutations. In summary, the presented digital sensor system enables continuous detection of a variety of leaf motions with high precision, and is a low-cost tool in the field of plant phenotyping, with potential applications in early stress detection.

Digital electronics in fibres enable fabric-based machine-learning inference.

Digital devices are the essential building blocks of any modern electronic system. Fibres containing digital devices could enable fabrics with digital system capabilities for applications in physiological monitoring, human-computer interfaces, and on-body machine-learning. Here, a scalable preform-to-fibre approach is used to produce tens of metres of flexible fibre containing hundreds of interspersed, digital temperature sensors and memory devices with a memory density of ~7.6 × 105 bits per metre. The entire ensemble of devices are individually addressable and independently operated through a single connection at the fibre edge, overcoming the perennial single-fibre single-device limitation and increasing system reliability. The digital fibre, when incorporated within a shirt, collects and stores body temperature data over multiple days, and enables real-time inference of wearer activity with an accuracy of 96% through a trained neural network with 1650 neuronal connections stored within the fibre. The ability to realise digital devices within a fibre strand which can not only measure and store physiological parameters, but also harbour the neural networks required to infer sensory data, presents intriguing opportunities for worn fabrics that sense, memorise, learn, and infer situational context.

Design and development of a digital stethoscope encapsulation for simultaneous acquisition of phonocardiography and electrocardiography signals: the SmartHeart case study.

The stethoscope is a major symbol of modern medicine. It is used for diagnosis of different conditions and enables physicians to listen to internal body sounds. Electrocardiography was only introduced in medicine in the beginning of the twentieth century. Today measuring heart's electrical activity is also fundamental cardiac diseases diagnosis. Although performed with independent devices, requiring physician and patient presence in the same physical space, in combination they enhance cardiovascular assessment. In this paper, a digital stethoscope encapsulation was designed, adding new functionality to this advanced medical device. Today wired and wireless communications enable different medical devices to share data and information, over long distances. Using low-cost hardware technologies, the encapsulation will add the ability to acquire and transmit via Bluetooth the Electrocardiographic activity, determined in the same cardiac focus and synchronised with the Phonocardiographic sound recordings. Several encapsulation concepts were developed and prototyped using 3D printing. They were easily fitted to the digital stethoscope and tested in a hospital environment for ergonomics, acoustic and electric signals acquisition. The best concept was chosen with the help of a physician's opinion and the final prototype performance was very satisfactory.

Accuracy and Precision Evaluation of International Standard Spherical Model by Digital Dental Scanners.

With the popularization of digital technology and the exposure of traditional technology's defects, computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) has been widely used in the field of dentistry. And the accuracy of the scanning system determines the ultimate accuracy of the prosthesis, which is a very important part of CAD/CAM, so we decided to evaluate the accuracy of the intraoral and extraoral scanners. In this study, we selected the sphere model as the scanning object and obtained the final result through data analysis and 3D fitting. In terms of trueness and precision, the scanner of SHINING was significantly different from that of others; however, there was no significant difference between TRIOS and CEREC. SHINING showed the lowest level of accuracy, with CEREC slightly lower than TRIOS. The sphere model has also been proven to be scanned successfully.

Benefit of Digital Tools Used for Integrated Personalized Diabetes Management: Results From the PDM-ProValue Study Program.

BACKGROUND: Integrated personalized diabetes management (iPDM) is a digitally supported therapeutic concept to improve patient-physician interaction to overcome the aspects of clinical inertia. Integrated personalized diabetes management can support decision making and improve therapeutic outcomes of suboptimally controlled persons with insulin-treated type 2 diabetes (T2D). In this paper, we report the results of an analysis of the PDM-ProValue study program on the effectiveness and perceived benefit of this approach, with a focus on how physicians used and assessed the digital tools provided for the iPDM process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study program included two 12-month, prospective, controlled, cluster-randomized multicenter trials. A total of 101 practices participated with 907 patients. Practices were cluster-randomized to an intervention group and a control group. Digital tools for data visualization and analysis applied were used. HCP were asked to assess the use, relevance, and usefulness of the tools. RESULTS: A clear preference was stated for the visual overview over more statistically complex analyses. A total of 83% of the participants rated a high relevance of the "daily profile," 81% of the "total profile," and 68% the "risk illustrated by traffic light symbols" for the therapy decision. The overall iPDM process was very favorably rated with respect to structuredness and potential for personalized treatment and well accepted among health care professionals (HCP). CONCLUSIONS: Embedding digital tools in a structured process (iPDM) were proved to provide a benefit for insulin-treated T2D patients and their physicians. These results offer insight for further development and improvement of the tools and add information on how to overcome clinical inertia.

Priorities for science to overcome hurdles thwarting the full promise of the 'digital agriculture' revolution.

The world needs to produce more food, more sustainably, on a planet with scarce resources and under changing climate. The advancement of technologies, computing power and analytics offers the possibility that 'digitalisation of agriculture' can provide new solutions to these complex challenges. The role of science is to evidence and support the design and use of digital technologies to realise these beneficial outcomes and avoid unintended consequences. This requires consideration of data governance design to enable the benefits of digital agriculture to be shared equitably and how digital agriculture could change agricultural business models; that is, farm structures, the value chain and stakeholder roles, networks and power relations, and governance. We argue that this requires transdisciplinary research (at pace), including explicit consideration of the aforementioned socio-ethical issues, data governance and business models, alongside addressing technical issues, as we now have to simultaneously deal with multiple interacting outcomes in complex technical, social, economic and governance systems. The exciting prospect is that digitalisation of science can enable this new, and more effective, way of working. The question then becomes: how can we effectively accelerate this shift to a new way of working in agricultural science? As well as identifying key research areas, we suggest organisational changes will be required: new research business models, agile project management; new skills and capabilities; and collaborations with new partners to develop 'technology ecosystems'. © 2018 The Authors. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Digital PCR and the QuantStudio™ 3D Digital PCR System.

The great promise of digital PCR is the potential for unparalleled precision enabling accurate measurements for detection and quantification of genetic material. This chapter walks the reader through the fundamentals of digital PCR technology including digital PCR modeling using Poisson statistics. It describes a highly successful implementation of digital PCR technology using the chip-based nanofluidic Applied Biosystems™ QuantStudio™ 3D digital PCR system. It reviews the large number of applications where digital PCR is poised to make significant impacts. These include applications where detection of rare genetic targets is prioritized such as liquid biopsy, rare mutation detection, confirmation of NGS variant detection, detection of fusion transcripts, detection of chimerism and GMO detection and monitoring. These further include applications where accurate quantification of genetic targets is prioritized such as generation of references and standards, copy number variation, and NGS Library quantification.

Assessing the impact of digital transformation of health services: report of the expert panel on effective ways of investing in Health (EXPH)

Sound and timely scientific advice is an essential requirement for the Commission to pursue modern, responsive and sustainable health systems. To this end, the Commission has set up a multidisciplinary and independent Expert Panel which provides advice on effective ways of investing in health (Commission Decision 2012/C 198/06). The core element of the Expert Panel's mission is to provide the Commission with sound and independent advice in the form of opinions in response to questions (mandates) submitted by the Commission on matters related to health care modernisation, responsiveness, and sustainability. The advice does not bind the Commission. The areas of competence of the Expert Panel include, and are not limited to, primary care,hospital care, pharmaceuticals, research and development, prevention and promotion, links with the social protection sector, cross-border issues, system financing, information systems and patient registers, health inequalities