OBJECTIVES:There are no data in the literature with regard to the acute effects of different styles of music on the geometric indices of heart rate variability. In this study, we evaluated the acute effects of relaxant baroque and excitatory heavy metal music on the geometric indices of heart rate variability in women.METHODS:We conducted this study in 21 healthy women ranging in age from 18 to 35 years. We excluded persons with previous experience with musical instruments and persons who had an affinity for the song styles. We evaluated two groups: Group 1 (n = 21), who were exposed to relaxant classical baroque musical and excitatory heavy metal auditory stimulation; and Group 2 (n = 19), who were exposed to both styles of music and white noise auditory stimulation. Using earphones, the volunteers were exposed to baroque or heavy metal music for five minutes. After the first music exposure to baroque or heavy metal music, they remained at rest for five minutes; subsequently, they were re-exposed to the opposite music (70-80 dB). A different group of women were exposed to the same music styles plus white noise auditory stimulation (90 dB). The sequence of the songs was randomized for each individual. We analyzed the following indices: triangular index, triangular interpolation of RR intervals and Poincaré plot (standard deviation of instantaneous beat-by-beat variability, standard deviation of the long-term RR interval, standard deviation of instantaneous beat-by-beat variability and standard deviation of the long-term RR interval ratio), low frequency, high frequency, low frequency/high frequency ratio, standard deviation of all the normal RR intervals, root-mean square of differences between the adjacent normal RR intervals and the percentage of adjacent RR intervals with a difference of duration greater than 50 ms. Heart rate variability was recorded at rest for 10 minutes.RESULTS:The triangular index and the standard deviation of the long-term RR interval indices were reduced during exposure to both music styles in the first group and tended to decrease in the second group whereas the white noise exposure decreased the high frequency index. We observed no changes regarding the triangular interpolation of RR intervals, standard deviation of instantaneous beat-by-beat variability and standard deviation of instantaneous beat-by-beat variability/standard deviation in the long-term RR interval ratio.CONCLUSION:We suggest that relaxant baroque and excitatory heavy metal music slightly decrease global heart rate variability because of the equivalent sound level.

The cardiovascular diseases are among the main death causes in the developed world. They have been increasing epidemically in the developing countries. In spite of several alternatives for the treatment of the coronary artery disease; the surgery of the myocardial revascularization is an option with proper indications of medium and long-term with good results. It provides the remission of the angina symptoms contributing to the increase of the expectation and improvement of the life quality. Most of patients undergoing myocardial revascularization surgery develop postoperative lung dysfunction with important reduction of the lung volumes, damages in the respiratory mechanism, decrease in the lung indulgence and increase of the respiratory work. The reduction of volumes and lung capacities can contribute to alterations in the gas exchanges, resulting in hypoxemia and decrease in the diffusion capacity. Taking this into account, the Physiotherapy has been requested more and more to perform in the pre as well as in the postoperative period of this surgery. This study aimed at updating the knowledge regarding the respiratory physiotherapy performance in the pre and postoperative period of the myocardial revascularization surgery enhancing the prevention of lung complications. The Physiotherapy uses several techniques in the preoperative period; such as: the incentive spirometry, exercises of deep breathing, cough, inspiratory muscle training, earlier ambulation and physiotherapeutic orientations. While in the postoperative period, the objective is the treatment after lung complications took place, performed by means of physiotherapeutic maneuvers and noninvasive respiratory devices, aiming at improving the respiratory mechanism, the lung reexpansion and the bronchial hygiene. Respiratory physiotherapy is an integral part in the care management of the patient with cardiopathy, either in the pre or in the postoperative period, since it contributes significantly to a better prognosis of these patients with the use of specific techniques. Descriptors: Physical Therapy (Specialty). MyocardialRevascularization. Preoperative Care. Postoperative Care. ResumoAs doenças cardiovasculares estão entre as principais causas de morte no mundo desenvolvido, e sua ocorrência tem aumentado de forma epidêmica nos países em desenvolvimento. Apesar das inúmeras alternativas para o tratamento da doença arterial coronariana; a cirurgia de revascularização do miocárdio é uma opção com indicações precisas de médio e longo prazo, com bons resultados. Pode proporcionar a remissão dos sintomas de angina e, também, contribui para o aumento da expectativa e melhora da qualidade de vida. Pacientes submetidos à cirurgia de revascularização do miocárdio desenvolvem, em sua maioria, disfunção pulmonar pós-operatória com redução importante dos volumes pulmonares, prejuízos na mecânica respiratória, diminuição na complacência pulmonar e aumento do trabalho respiratório. A redução dos volumes e capacidades pulmonares contribui para alterações na...

This paper presents a genetic algorithm (GA) for the procedural generation of levels in the Angry Birds game. The GA evaluates the levels based on a simulation which measures the elements' movement during a period of time. The algorithm's objective is to minimize this metric to generate stable structures. The level evaluation also considers some restrictions, leading the levels to have certain characteristics. Since there is no open source code of the game, a game clone has been developed independently of our algorithm. This implementation can be used to support experiments with procedural content generation (peG) methods for this game type. We performed experiments in order to evaluate the expressivity of the level generator and the results showed that the proposed algorithm could generate levels with interesting stable structures.

BackgroundChronic classical music was reported to increase parasympathetic activitywhen evaluating heart rate variability (HRV). It is poor in the literature investigation of the acute effects of baroque and heavy metal styles of musical auditory stimulation on HRV. In this study we evaluated the acute effects of relaxant baroque and excitatory heavy metal music on the geometric indices of HRV in healthy men.MethodThe study was performed in 12 healthy men between 18 and 30 years old. We excluded persons with previous experience with music instrument and those who had affinity with the song styles. We analyzed the following indices: RRtri, TINN and Poincaré plot (SD1, SD2 and SD1/SD2 ratio). HRV was recorded at rest for ten minutes. Subsequently they were exposed to relaxant baroque or excitatory heavy metal music for five minutes through an earphone. After the first music exposure they remained at rest for more five minutes and them they were exposed again to Baroque or Heavy Metal music (65–80 dB). The sequence of songs was randomized for each individual.ResultsThe RRTri and SD2 indices were reduced during the heavy metal musical auditory stimulation (p < 0.05). No changes were observed regarding TINN, SD1 and SD1/SD2 ratio (p > 0.05).The qualitative Poincaré plot analysis indicated that during relaxant classical baroque music there was observed a higher beat-to-beat dispersion of RR intervals compared with no music exposure and during excitatory heavy metal musical auditory stimulation, showing higher HRV.ConclusionWe suggest that excitatory heavy metal music acutely decreases global HRV.

Journal of Human Growth and Development 2013; 23(1): 94-98 ORIGINAL RESEARCH INTRODUÇÃOA música sempre fez parte de diversas culturas da humanidade, estabelecendo ligação entre sensações e prazeres humanos e sentidos, através da melodia e do ritmo. No entanto, com o abuso da intensidade, duração e / ou frequência da música, esse ruído pode se tornar um problema para audição 1 . A perda auditiva induzida por ruído é bem conhecida por estudos relacionados com o ambiente de trabalho. Por outro lado, há uma crescente preocupação sobre os danos causados pela exposição não ocupacional ao ruído, como nos casos do uso de fones de ouvido (sistema estéreo portáteis) 2 . ResumoA literatura já demonstrou que a estimulação auditiva por meio de música influencia o sistema cardiovascular. Neste estudo, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura, a fim de investigar a relação entre os mecanismos auditivos e a regulação autonômica cardíaca. Os estudos selecionados indicaram forte correlação entre a intensidade do ruído e o equilíbrio simpatovagal. Além disso, foi relatado que a terapia com música melhorou a variabilidade da frequência cardíaca em pacientes com câncer de mama tratados com antraciclinas. Postula-se que a dopamina liberada no sistema estriatal, induzida por canções alegres, está envolvida na regulação autonômica. Estudos posteriores são necessários para adicionar novos elementos na literatura, para melhorar a novas terapias e para o tratar doenças cardiovasculares.Palavras-chave: estimulação auditiva; sistema nervoso autônomo. AbstractThe literature has already demonstrated that auditory stimulation with music influences the cardiovascular system. In this study, we performed a literature review in order to investigate the relationship between auditory mechanisms and cardiac autonomic regulation. The selected studies indicated that there is a strong correlation between noise intensity and vagal-sympathetic balance. Also, it was reported that music therapy improved heart rate variability in anthracycline-treated breast cancer patients. It was hypothesized that dopamine release in the striatal system induced by pleasure songs are involved in the cardiac autonomic regulation. Further studies are necessary to add new elements in the literature to improve new therapies to treat cardiovascular disorders.Key words: auditory stimulation; autonomic nervous system. Recentemente, um estudo sobre o conhecimento das crianças e de seus pais sobre o risco de perda de audição, informou que 17,3% das crianças entrevistadas ouviam música intensa por meio de fones de ouvido 3 . Esse hábito na população jovem está aumentando o risco para a aquisição de perda auditiva induzida pela exposição excessiva a musica. O autor desse estudo observou que 14% dos jovens pesquisados relataram comportamento de risco para aquisição de perda auditiva 4 . Outro estudo relacionado com o conhecimento dos alunos sobre atitudes e práticas para a saú-de auditiva e uso de iPod e / ou dispositivos sonoros pessoais demonstrou que uma parte dos

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BackgroundWe evaluated the effects of the PCM on the fractal analysis of the HRV in healthy womenMethodWe evaluated healthy women between 18 and 30 years old. HRV was analyzed in the time (SDNN, RMSSD, NN50 and pNN50) and frequency (LF, HF and LF/HF ratio) domains as well as short and long-term fractal exponents (alpha-1 and alpha-2) of the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). HRV was recorded at rest for ten minutes at seated rest and then the women quickly stood up from a seated position in up to three seconds and remained standing for 15 minutes. HRV was recorded at the following time: rest, 0–5 min, 5–10 min and 10–15 min during standing.ResultsWe observed decrease (p < 0.05) in the time-domain indices of HRV between seated and 10–15 minutes after the volunteer stood up. The LF (ms2) and HF (ms2) indices were also reduced (p < 0.05) at 10–15 minutes after the volunteer stood up compared to seated while the LF (nu) was increased at 5–10 min and 10–15 min (p < 0.05). The short-term alpha-1 exponent was increased (p < 0.05) at all moments investigated compared to seated. Increase in the properties of short-term fractal correlations of heart rate dynamics accompanied by a decrease in the parasympathetic modulation and global HRV was observed in response to the postural change maneuver.ConclusionWe suggest that fractal analysis of HRV is more sensitive than frequency and time-domain analysis of HRV during the postural change maneuver.

This paper presents an overview of the sixth AIBIRDS competition, held at the 26th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. This competition tasked participants with developing an intelligent agent which can play the physics-based puzzle game Angry Birds. This game uses a sophisticated physics engine that requires agents to reason and predict the outcome of actions with only limited environmental information. Agents entered into this competition were required to solve a wide assortment of previously unseen levels within a set time limit. The physical reasoning and planning required to solve these levels are very similar to those of many realworld problems. This year's competition featured some of the best agents developed so far and even included several new AI techniques such as deep reinforcement learning. Within this paper we describe the framework, rules, submitted agents and results for this competition. We also provide some background information on related work and other video game AI competitions, as well as discussing some potential ideas for future AIBIRDS competitions and agent improvements.