ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate the focus of pediatricians’ gaze during the heel prick of neonates. Methods: Prospective study in which pediatricians wearing eye tracker glasses evaluated neonatal pain before/after a heel prtick. Pediatricians scored the pain they perceived in the neonate in a verbal analogue numerical scale (0=no pain; 10=maximum pain). The outcomes measured were number and time of visual fixations in upper face, lower face, and hands, in two 10-second periods, before (pre) and after the puncture (post). These outcomes were compared between the periods, and according to pediatricians’ pain perception: absent/mild (score: 0–5) and moderate/intense (score: 6–10). Results: 24 pediatricians (31 years old, 92% female) evaluated 24 neonates. The median score attributed to neonatal pain during the heel prick was 7.0 (Interquartile range: 5–8). Compared to pre-, in the post-periods, more pediatricians fixed their gaze on the lower face (63 vs. 92%; p=0.036) and the number of visual fixations was greater on the lower face (2.0 vs. 5.0; p=0.018). There was no difference in the number and time of visual fixations according to the intensity of pain. Conclusions: At bedside, pediatricians change their focus of attention on the neonatal face after a painful procedure, focusing mainly on the lower part of the face.

RESUMO Objetivo: Avaliar o foco do olhar do pediatra durante a punção do calcanhar de neonatos. Métodos: Estudo prospectivo no qual pediatras, utilizando óculos de rastreamento visual, avaliaram a dor neonatal antes/depois de uma punção de calcanhar. Os pediatras pontuaram a dor de acordo com a sua percepção por meio de uma escala analógica verbal (0=sem dor; 10=dor máxima). Os desfechos analisados foram o número e o tempo das fixações visuais na face superior, face inferior e mãos, em dois períodos de 10 segundos, antes (PRÉ) e depois da punção (PÓS). Os resultados foram comparados entre os períodos e segundo a percepção da dor do pediatra: ausente/leve (escore: 0–5) e moderada/grave (escore: 6–10). Resultados: Vinte e quatro pediatras (31 anos, 92% sexo feminino) avaliaram 24 neonatos. A mediana do escore atribuído à dor do recém-nascido durante a punção do calcanhar foi 7,0 (intervalo interquartil: 5–8). Comparado ao período PRÉ, no período PÓS, o maior número de pediatras fixou o olhar na face inferior (63 vs. 92%; p=0,036) e o número de fixações visuais foi maior na face inferior (2,0 vs. 5,0; p=0,018). Não houve diferença no número e no tempo das fixações visuais de acordo com a intensidade da dor. Conclusões: À beira do leito, os pediatras mudam seu foco de atenção visual na face do recém-nascido após um procedimento doloroso, focando o olhar principalmente na parte inferior da face.

Abstract Objective: To analyze the regions that trigger the attention of adults’ gaze when assessing pain in newborn infants’ pictures and to verify if there are differences between health and non-health professionals. Method: Experimental study with 84 health professionals and 59 non-health professionals, who evaluated two images of 10 neonates, one at rest and the other during a painful procedure. Each image was shown for 7 seconds on a computer screen, while eye movements were tracked by the Tobii TX300 EyeTracker. After evaluating each image, participants gave a score from 0 (absent pain) to 10 (maximum pain), according to their perception of neonatal pain. For each image, the number and total time of gaze fixations in the forehead, eyes, nasolabial furrow, and mouth were studied. Comparisons between both groups of adults were made by an intraclass correlation coefficient, Student’s t-test, and Bland Altman graphic. Results: Health professionals (93% female; 34 ± 9 years old), compared to non-health professionals (64% female; 35 ± 11 years old), gave lower scores for images at rest (0.81 ± 0.50 vs. 1.59 ± 0.76; p = 0.010), with no difference for those obtained during the painful procedure (6.98 ± 1.08 vs. 6.73 ± 0.82). There was a strong or almost perfect correlation for the number of fixations in the mouth, eyes, forehead, and for the total fixation time in the eyes and forehead. Conclusions: Adults, irrespective of their profession, showed a homogeneous gaze pattern when evaluating pictures of neonates at rest or during a painful procedures.

O projeto de circuitos integrados analógicos é uma tarefa complexa devido ao grande número de variáveis de entrada a serem determinadas simultaneamente com o intuito de atender as inúmeras especificações de um projeto de circuito integrado analógico. Este trabalho descreve e implementa um sistema evolucionário baseado em Algoritmos Genéticos (AG) que foi integrado computacionalmente ao simulador de circuitos SPICE e tem a capacidade de buscar soluções que melhor atendam aos objetivos especificados pelo projetista. A avaliação simultânea das variáveis de entrada permite ao sistema proposto (AGSPICE) mapear o comportamento dessas variáveis em função das especificações do projeto ao longo do processo de otimização e o seu entendimento de forma mais clara. Os resultados dos experimentos realizados com o sistema AGSPICE para projeto de um Amplificador Operacional de Transcondutância (OTA) CMOS são comparados com os resultados obtidos manualmente e apresentam soluções compatíveis com aquelas descritas na literatura.

Analog integrated circuits design is a complex task due to the large number of input variables to be determined simultaneously in order to comply with innumerable design features of an analog integrated circuit design. This work describes and implements an evolvable system based on Genetic Algorithms (GA) which was computationally integrated to the simulation program SPICE and has the capability to search for solutions that best comply with the designer specified objectives. The simultaneous evaluation of the input variables allows the proposed system (AGSPICE) to track the changes of these variables along the optimization process and its understanding in a clearer way. Our experimental results with the AGSPICE applied to an Operational Transconductance Amplifier (OTA) CMOS design are compared to the results obtained manually and present compatible solutions to other works available in the related literature.

A critical issue of applying Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is both the singularity and instability of the within-class scatter matrix. In practice, particularly in image recognition applications such as face recognition, there are often a large number of pixels or pre-processed features available, but the total number of training patterns is limited and commonly less than the dimension of the feature space. In this study, a new LDA-based method is proposed. It is based on a straightforward stabilisation approach for the within-class scatter matrix. In order to evaluate its effectiveness, experiments on face recognition using the well-known ORL and FERET face databases were carried out and compared with other LDA-based methods. The classification results indicate that our method improves the LDA classification performance when the within-class scatter matrix is not only singular but also poorly estimated, with or without a Principal Component Analysis intermediate step and using less linear discriminant features. Since statistical discrimination methods are suitable not only for classification but also for characterisation of differences between groups of patterns, further experiments were carried out in order to extend the new LDA-based method to visually analyse the most discriminating hyper-plane separating two populations. The additional results based on frontal face images indicate that the new LDA-based mapping provides an intuitive interpretation of the two-group classification tasks performed, highlighting the group differences captured by the multivariate statistical approach proposed.