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The purpose of this paper is to propose a four-stage conflict resolution model. In the first stage, a multicriteria model is developed for each of the conflicting parties, taken as decision makers (DMs) facing evaluations of a set of alternatives according to proper criteria. In the second stage, the composition of probabilistic preferences (CPP) methodology is applied to identify the best alternative for each of the conflicting parties. In the third stage, negotiation is carried out to remove alternatives and to focus on the subset of best alternatives for the group of DMs. The fourth stage consists of applying CPP again to choose one among the remaining alternatives. The model is illustrated by means of applying it to two different conflicts. The main features of the model are that it allows the DMs (i) to understand differences and proximities between the positions of each of them, (ii) to strategically reduce the initial set of alternatives, (iii) to advance in their positions towards a common goal, and (iv) to construct a unique final solution quickly.

The nonparametric assessment of police efficiency and effectiveness is challenging due to the stochastic nature of criminal behavior and the subjective dependence on multiple decision criteria, leading to different prospects depending on the regulation, necessity, or organizational objective. There is a trade-off between sustainable efficiency and effectiveness in many police performance assessments, because many departments can be crime-specialized or cannot reproduce good results effectively on more severe or complex occurrences. This study aims to provide a non-compensatory ranking classification combining Conditional Frontier Analysis with the PROMETHEE II methodology for the multidimensional efficiency and effectiveness analysis of police. The results on Pernambuco (Brazil) Police departments offer interesting perspectives for public administrations concerning prioritizations of units based on the mitigation of resources and strategic objectives.

This exploratory retrospective study aims to investigate the thermal changes in the thyroid gland region of patients with hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia by analyzing the temperature of the brown adipose tissue (BAT). A total of 166 individuals from 1000 thermographic electronic medical records were classified into four groups: Group HP + FM-50 individuals with hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia; Group FM-56 individuals with fibromyalgia only; Group HP-30 individuals with hypothyroidism only, and Group Control-30 healthy individuals. The thermal images from the electronic medical records were acquired by a FLIR T650SC infrared camera (used for thermometry) and the temperature data for each group were statistically analyzed. Group HP + FM showed r  = 0, meaning that the average temperatures of the thyroid and BAT are independent of each other. Groups FM, HP and Control showed r  = 1, meaning that the average temperatures of the thyroid and BAT were directly related. Our findings showed that the average temperatures of the thyroid and BAT regions are similar. Also, there was no correlation between thyroid gland temperature and the presence of hypothyroidism or fibromyalgia using thermometry.

This paper contributes to the process of eliciting additive model scale constants in order to support choice problems, thereby reducing the effort a decision maker (DM) needs to make since partial information with regard to DM preferences can be used. Procedures related to eliciting weights without a tradeoff interpretation of weights are justified based on assumptions that DM is not able to specify fixed weight values or if DM is able to do so, this would not be reliable information. As long as partial information is provided, the flexible elicitation procedure performs dominance tests based on a linear programming problem to explore the DM’s preferences as a vector space which is built using the DM’s partial information. To provide evidence of the satisfactory performance of the flexible elicitation procedure, an empirical test is presented with results that indicate that this procedure requires less effort from DMs.

IntroductionSince the WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, the spread of the new coronavirus has been the focus of attention of scientists, governments and populations. One of the main concerns is the impact of this pandemic on health outcomes, mainly on mental health. Even though there are a few empirical studies on COVID-19 and mental health, so far, there is no systematic review about the impact of COVID-19 on mental health of young people and adults yet. We aim to critically synthesise the scientific evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of young people and adults.Methods and analysisA systematic review will be performed through eight databases: MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online), ISI-of-Knowledge, CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), EMBASE (Excerpta Medica Database), SCOPUS, LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature), PsycINFO (Psychology Information) and CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure), from inception until 30 June 2020. No restriction regarding the publication date, setting or languages will be considered. Preliminary search strategies were carried out on 29 March 2020 and will be updated in June 2020. The primary outcomes will be the prevalence and the severity of psychological symptoms in young people and adults (>18 years old) resulting from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Study selection will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses checklist. Pooled standardised mean differences and 95% CIs will be calculated. The risk of bias of the observational studies will be assessed through the Methodological Index for Non-Randomised Studies (MINORS). Additionally, if sufficient data are available, a meta-analysis will be conducted. Heterogeneity between the studies will be determined by the I2 statistics. Subgroup analyses will also be performed. Publication bias will be checked with funnel plots and Egger’s test. Heterogeneity will be explored by random-effects analysis.Ethics and disseminationEthical assessment was not required. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication and will be presented at conferences related to this field.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020177366.

The Tradeoff Elicitation Procedure is a Multi-Criteria Decision Making/Aiding method which is responsible for eliciting scaling constants and presents a robust axiomatic structure. As to its axiomatic structure, this procedure requires the decision-maker to identify the exact indifference point which induces a large number of inconsistencies in the process. In order to evaluate Decision Maker behavior in the Tradeoff elicitation and explore inconsistency in this process, a Neuroscience experiment was conducted using neuro tools, such as an Eye Tracking and an Electroencephalography (EEG). The experiment was applied in a sample of 52 management engineering students. After the data were collected, analyses were developed in order to suggest decision-makers’ behavior in the steps of this procedure. In summary, the responses of the pupils are increased during the process indicating a cognitive effort, and EEG data confirmed this result considering frontal alpha asymmetry and theta power in the frontal electrodes as variables for analysis.

Mechanical factors are primary complications that justify early removal of a peripherally inserted central catheter, and thrombotic catheter occlusion is the most critical mechanical complication associated with loss of device functionality. Studies have investigated these factors in adult patients, but findings are not directly applicable to newborns. Therefore, systematic reviews focusing on this population are necessary for consolidated evidence to aid clinical practice. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of intermittent heparin washing versus 0.9% sodium chloride solution for preventing occlusion in newborns with peripherally inserted central catheters. We will use the PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, and Clinical Trial Databases for article search, without language or publication periods restrictions. Randomized clinical trials evaluating the use of intermittent heparin washing versus 0.9% sodium chloride solution in newborns with peripherally inserted central venous catheters will be included. The primary outcome will be peripherally inserted central catheter occlusion. Two reviewers will independently screen the studies, based on the inclusion criteria, extract the data for each included study and assess the risk of bias using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The data will be synthesized using the Review Manager software (RevMan 5.4.1). To classify the strength of the evidence of results, we will use the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation Working Group (GRADE). The review was registered with PROSPERO (registration number CRD42021281509). We expect that this study would reveal the best method for preventing catheter occlusion in newborns with peripherally inserted central catheters.

•Investigation of depressive symptoms during pregnancy with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.•Just over a quarter of the sample was positive for depression risk.•A positive depressive symptom score increased the chance of gaining insufficient gestational weight.•No association was noted between depressive symptoms and excessive gestational weight gain. The relationship between psychosocial factors/mental health/depressive symptoms and inadequate gestational weight (GW) change remains poorly understood. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the association between depressive symptoms and inadequate GW change according to the criteria established by the Institute of Medicine in 2009. This cross-sectional study was part of a prospective cohort, and conducted in Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. Pregnant women who received prenatal care at basic health care units in the city participated in the study (n = 297). The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was used to assess depressive symptoms during pregnancy, and the cutoff point used for the positive screening of depressive symptoms was ≥13. The association between depressive symptoms and two outcomes (insufficient and excessive weight change during second and third trimesters) was investigated using logistic regression models with adjustment for potential confounders. Crude and adjusted effect measures (odds ratios) and their relevant 95% confidence intervals were estimated. There was an association between a positive score for depression during pregnancy and insufficient GW gain. No association was observed between depressive symptoms and excessive GW gain. The presence of depressive symptoms significantly increased the chance of insufficient GW change. This finding enhances the need for screening for depression in prenatal care.

Studies carried out during previous pandemics revealed an increase in the prevalence of Burnout Syndrome and other psychiatric disorders among health professionals. A high prevalence of psychiatric disorders is also observed in some health categories, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This systematic review/meta-analysis study aims to assess the prevalence of Burnout Syndrome and other psychiatric disorders (depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia) among health care professionals and other support professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Observational studies published from December 2019, without language restrictions in which the prevalence of Burnout Syndrome and other psychiatric disorders among health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic will be assessed. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHAL, PsycINFO, LILACS, SCOPUS, and The Cochrane Library will be searched for eligible studies. Two reviewers will independently screen and select studies, assess methodological quality, and extract data. A meta-analysis will be performed, if possible, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment Development and Evaluation (GRADE). This study will use secondary data. Thus, there is no need for submission to the ethics committee. The results of this systematic review will be published in a journal after a peer-review process. Systematic review registration number: CRD42020212036.

PurposeThis article presents two Brazilian Portuguese corpora collected from different media concerning public security issues in a specific location. The primary motivation is supporting analyses, so security authorities can make appropriate decisions about their actions.Design/methodology/approachThe corpora were obtained through web scraping from a newspaper's website and tweets from a Brazilian metropolitan region. Natural language processing was applied considering: text cleaning, lemmatization, summarization, part-of-speech and dependencies parsing, named entities recognition, and topic modeling.FindingsSeveral results were obtained based on the methodology used, highlighting some: an example of a summarization using an automated process; dependency parsing; the most common topics in each corpus; the forty named entities and the most common slogans were extracted, highlighting those linked to public security.Research limitations/implicationsSome critical tasks were identified for the research perspective, related to the applied methodology: the treatment of noise from obtaining news on their source websites, passing through textual elements quite present in social network posts such as abbreviations, emojis/emoticons, and even writing errors; the treatment of subjectivity, to eliminate noise from irony and sarcasm; the search for authentic news of issues within the target domain. All these tasks aim to improve the process to enable interested authorities to perform accurate analyses.Practical implicationsThe corpora dedicated to the public security domain enable several analyses, such as mining public opinion on security actions in a given location; understanding criminals' behaviors reported in the news or even on social networks and drawing their attitudes timeline; detecting movements that may cause damage to public property and people welfare through texts from social networks; extracting the history and repercussions of police actions, crossing news with records on social networks; among many other possibilities.Originality/valueThe work on behalf of the corpora reported in this text represents one of the first initiatives to create textual bases in Portuguese, dedicated to Brazil's specific public security domain.