User perceptions of avatar-based patient monitoring: a mixed qualitative and quantitative study

Background

A new patient monitoring technology called Visual Patient, which transforms numerical and waveform data into a virtual model (an avatar) of the monitored patient, has been shown to improve the perception of vital signs compared to conventional patient monitoring. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the opinions of potential future users regarding the new technology, we have analyzed the answers of two large groups of anesthetists using two different study methods.

Methods

First, we carried out a qualitative analysis guided by the “consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research” checklist. For this analysis, we interviewed 128 anesthesiologists, asking: “Where do you see advantages in Visual Patient monitoring?” and afterward identified major and minor themes in their answers. In a second study, an online survey with 38 anesthesiologists at two different institutions, we added a quantitative part in which anesthesiologists rated statements based on the themes identified in the prior analysis on an ordinal rating scale.

Results

We identified four high-level themes: “quick situation recognition,” “intuitiveness,” “unique design characteristics,” and “potential future uses,” and eight subthemes.The quantitative questions raised for each major theme were: 1. “The Visual Patient technology enabled me to get a quick overview of the situation.” (63% of the participants agreed or very much agreed to this statement). 2. “I found the Visual Patient technology to be intuitive and easy to learn.” (82% agreed or very much agreed to this statement). 3. “The visual design features of the Visual Patient technology (e.g., the avatar representation) are not helpful for patient monitoring.” (11% agreed to this statement). 4. “I think the Visual Patient technology might be helpful for non-monitor experts (e.g., surgeons) in the healthcare system.” (53% of the participants agreed or strongly agreed).

Conclusion

This mixed method study provides evidence that the included anesthesiologists considered the new avatar-based technology to be intuitive and easy to learn and that the technology enabled them to get an overview of the situation quickly. Only a few users considered the avatar presentation to be unhelpful for patient monitoring and about half think it might be useful for non-experts.

     

The Lens of Science: Anthropometric Photography and the Chippewa, 1890–1920

ABSTRACT

Nineteenth-century anthropologists struggled to establish themselves as scientists in a cultural milieu of enthusiasm for “curiosities.” Because commercial photographers appropriated the “authenticity” of photographic realism, the need increased for ethnographic photographers to distinguish between such realism and the “scientific authority” of their own visual productions. Through a case study of anthropometric photography of the Chippewa, this article examines the tension between, on the one hand, ethnographers' exploitation of the technological and symbolic attributes of photography to promote the scientific and political goals of the discipline, and on the other hand, the influence and function of visual genres and visual allegories in conditioning and framing what viewers accepted as “real” and “true.”     

Visual processing of pictures

Word responses have been used to dedde whether pictures of expressive faces or postures portray truthful expressions. Previous investigators have assumed words are used only as symbols of “meaning”. They did not appreciate the use of words as symbols of “sorting”. If one viewer calls two photographs “angry” and another viewer calls the same two photographs “happy,” the viewers may disagree in their “meanings” but they agree in their ‘sortings” both agree each photograph portrays the same expression. Sorting groups reveal how the visual system processes photographic images.     

The manipulation mechanism of “push–pull” habitat management strategy and advances in its application

The “push–pull” habitat management strategy, as a new powerful and effective tool in integrated pest management (IPM), uses a combination of behavior-modifying stimuli to manipulate the distribution and abundance of pests and/or their natural enemies for pest control. In the “push–pull” strategy, pests are repelled or deterred away from the protected resource (push) by stimuli that disturb the host location and modulate the host become unattractive or unsuitable for the feeding and oviposition of pests. By using highly attractive stimuli, the target pests are simultaneously attracted (pull) to the specific source in which they are subsequently concentrated, facilitating their elimination and leaving the protected resource. Since stimuli usually are nontoxic, either “push” or “pull” components, the strategy is usually companied by population-reduced methods, such as using insecticides, exploiting nature enemies, and placing traps. Among them, methods of biological control are the most preferred. The “push–pull” strategies maximize efficacy of behavior-modifying stimuli through the additive and synergistic effects of integrating the use of methods for population reduction. In this review, the principles of the “push–pull” strategy were firstly described, then the potential behavior-modifying stimuli for “push” and “pull” components were introduced. The stimuli for use in “push–pull” strategies primarily include visual cues and chemical cues (synthetic or plant- or insect-derived semiochemicals). Visual stimuli, repellent and trap plants, host and non-host volatiles, insect pheromones, and antifeedants and oviposition deterrents are usually applied as the potential stimuli in the “push–pull” strategy for pest control. The stimuli are grouped as long-range stimuli and short-range stimuli. In addition, we also summarize models of “push–pull” habitat management strategy, such as agriculture, horticulture and forestry, of pest control and some successful case studies in applying of “push–pull” strategy and its potential ecological benefits. The “push–pull” technology (PPT), so far the most effective “push–pull” strategy in practice by farmers, developed for management of both stemborers and Striga hermonthica in maize-based farming system in eastern Africa were reviewed. The PPT uses an intercrop of repellent plants and border crops of attractive trap plants. Stemborer moths are effectively repelled away from the maize crop (push) by Desmodium and molasses grass, and are subsequently attracted (or trapped) to (pull) by the Napier grass and Sudan grass which emit the green leaf volatiles (GLVs) showing attractant properties. Finally, the problems in current research and future perspectives of the “push–pull” habitat management strategy are discussed in the present paper.     

Reconstructing visual experiences from brain activity evoked by natural movies

Quantitative modeling of human brain activity can provide crucial insights about cortical representations [1, 2] and can form the basis for brain decoding devices [3-5]. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have modeled brain activity elicited by static visual patterns and have reconstructed these patterns from brain activity [6-8]. However, blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals measured via fMRI are very slow [9], so it has been difficult to model brain activity elicited by dynamic stimuli such as natural movies. Here we present a new motion-energy [10, 11] encoding model that largely overcomes this limitation. The model describes fast visual information and slow hemodynamics by separate components. We recorded BOLD signals in occipitotemporal visual cortex of human subjects who watched natural movies and fit the model separately to individual voxels. Visualization of the fit models reveals how early visual areas represent the information in movies. To demonstrate the power of our approach, we also constructed a Bayesian decoder [8] by combining estimated encoding models with a sampled natural movie prior. The decoder provides remarkable reconstructions of the viewed movies. These results demonstrate that dynamic brain activity measured under naturalistic conditions can be decoded using current fMRI technology.     

Seeing through a ceiling fan

The retrograde rotation of wagon wheels in Western movies is a digital illusion of continuous motion. But vision itself is not continuous and it's not clear that the “stream” of consciousness that perceives it is continuous either.     

Video for Development

This paper breaches the traditional frontiers of visual anthropology and argues for a greater advocacy role within the research-based community. Arguing that visual anthropology should now move “beyond theory” to the more pragmatic science of “development communication,” the paper examines techniques commonly used in ethnographic film, and analyzes media case studies from development projects in Egypt and Pakistan. It demonstrates that video can capture voices and communicate ideas to planners and policy makers better than any other communication tool, and achieve a greater impact in transforming, for example, the image of rural women and the hierarchies of power that constrain their participation in development. It concludes that visual anthropologists, as media producers, are uniquely well equipped to use their expertise and knowledge of the field and of local languages to act as mediators, spurring interactions and building consensus between different developmental “actors.” In this way they could work to instigate public health reforms in poor communities and contribute to wealth creation by engaging in the process of development communications.     

Video preference assessment and behavioral management of single-caged Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) by movie presentation

Movie presentation can act as an enrichment technique for nonhuman primates, who also show preferences for certain contents. This study investigated the video preferences and effects of movies on behavioral abnormalities in single-caged Japanese macaques. When movie rewards were provided for subjects' touch responses, the subjects maintained the touch responses during 40 2-hr sessions. Although repeated presentation of 1 stimulus set decreased the subject's touch response, changing the stimulus set led to recovery of this response. The subjects showed clear preferences, consistent across 2 different stimulus sets, for movies showing humans or animation (61.1% of total duration). Subjects consistently played movies both with and without their preferred content. The availability of a variety of contents might be important for attracting subjects' interest. The frequency with which monkeys engaged in abnormal behaviors decreased in the experimental (20.9%) and the postexperimental (25.6%) periods compared with the preexperimental period (33.5%). Movie presentations could keep attracting the interest of single-caged monkeys in their visual environment, ameliorating their behavioral abnormalities for some time. In summary, social experience during infancy might influence Japanese macaques' movie preferences.     

THE MICRO-OPTICS OF LEAVES. I. PATTERNS OF REFLECTION FROM THE EPIDERMIS

Low-magnification photographs of glabrous upper surfaces using white light show that no matter whether the visual appearance is shiny or matte, the outer cuticles are specularly reflective. In all cases, the individual epidermal cells are seen as bright spots of reflected light, due to their convex outer surfaces. This shows that at least some of the apparently diffuse reflection from leaves is specularly reflected from the outer surface. Quantitative data were obtained for both upper and lower surfaces of a variety of leaves, using light of 632.8 nm incident at 60° from the normal. Light departing the leaf was detected in two directions: normal to the leaf (“diffuse”), and at 60° (“specular”), and compared with the reflection from a standard white block. By this criterion, some leaves were quite shiny, confirming the visual impression, but others were not. In only two cases did the “diffuse” reflection exceed the “specular” (as would be expected from a true diffuse reflector); these were leaves with thick coatings of hairs. Less than 10% of the incident light is reflected by the cuticle of a glabrous leaf.     

Five classes of visual interneurons in the optic nerve of the hermit crab

Response characteristics and trigger features are described for five operational classes of visual interneurons in the optic nerve of the hermit crab. The units were initially segregated on the basis of response sign (“on”, “off”, “on-off”) and duration (phasic, tonic). Tonic “on” and tonic “off” units were observed to be indistinguishable from the previously described sustaining and dimming fibers of other decapod crustacea. Phasic “off” units closely resemble either jittery motion or novelty detectors also previously documented. Phasic “on” units are characterized by an excitable antagonistic surround, a slow rate of habituation, and a sustained low level discharge during periods of increasing luminous flux at any point within their receptive fields. Highly sensitive to moving contours, they occasionally revealed a directional preference. The phasic “on” units are also capable of following brief stimuli at rates of up to 20/sec. Phasic “on-off” units were characterized by coextensive receptive fields for “on” and “off” responses and movement sensitivity independent of contrast.     

“Soetwyn”: Visuality,Cultural Tourism,Desire Paths and the ≠Khomani

Witdraai is home to a few hundred ≠Khomani who resettled there after the successful land claim of 1999. In all, the first phase of their claim granted them ownership of six farms totaling about 40,000 hectares of land. Before this restitution, the Bushmen had been an “Other-diaspora” dispersed by the forces of apartheid and colonialism. Being a small settlement in the vast Kalahari in Northern Cape Province, close to the Botswana border, Witdraai is rarely a cartographic highlight where the province’s main towns, cities and localities are concerned. For over a decade the ≠Khomani have been involved in trying to find solutions to the problem of appropriate development of the six farms for sustainable communal benefit. Alcohol abuse among many of the residents, however, seems to be complicating the search for lasting solutions. This article uses visual stills, collected during the 2011 trip to the Kalahari by University of KwaZulu–Natal researchers from the Centre for Communication, Media and Society (CCMS), to investigate alcohol use/abuse amongst some of the people living at or near Witdraai. The article applies “cultural mapping” of a different sort, focusing selectively on visual traces of the corporeal existence of “alcohol” in the sand-dune landscape of Witdraai against a backdrop of commercial tourist branding of the landscape.     

Parallel processing in the honeybee olfactory pathway: structure, function, and evolution

Animals face highly complex and dynamic olfactory stimuli in their natural environments, which require fast and reliable olfactory processing. Parallel processing is a common principle of sensory systems supporting this task, for example in visual and auditory systems, but its role in olfaction remained unclear. Studies in the honeybee focused on a dual olfactory pathway. Two sets of projection neurons connect glomeruli in two antennal-lobe hemilobes via lateral and medial tracts in opposite sequence with the mushroom bodies and lateral horn. Comparative studies suggest that this dual-tract circuit represents a unique adaptation in Hymenoptera. Imaging studies indicate that glomeruli in both hemilobes receive redundant sensory input. Recent simultaneous multi-unit recordings from projection neurons of both tracts revealed widely overlapping response profiles strongly indicating parallel olfactory processing. Whereas lateral-tract neurons respond fast with broad (generalistic) profiles, medial-tract neurons are odorant specific and respond slower. In analogy to “what-” and “where” subsystems in visual pathways, this suggests two parallel olfactory subsystems providing “what-” (quality) and “when” (temporal) information. Temporal response properties may support across-tract coincidence coding in higher centers. Parallel olfactory processing likely enhances perception of complex odorant mixtures to decode the diverse and dynamic olfactory world of a social insect.     

Neural coding properties based on spike timing and pattern correlation of retinal ganglion cells

Correlation between spike trains or neurons sometimes indicates certain neural coding rules in the visual system. In this paper, the relationship between spike timing correlation and pattern correlation is discussed, and their ability to represent stimulus features is compared to examine their coding strategies not only in individual neurons but also in population. Two kinds of stimuli, natural movies and checkerboard, are used to arouse firing activities in chicken retinal ganglion cells. The spike timing correlation and pattern correlation are calculated by cross-correlation function and Lempel–Ziv distance respectively. According to the correlation values, it is demonstrated that spike trains with similar spike patterns are not necessarily concerted in firing time. Moreover, spike pattern correlation values between individual neurons’ responses reflect the difference of natural movies and checkerboard; neurons cooperate with each other with higher pattern correlation values which represent spatiotemporal correlations during response to natural movies. Spike timing does not reflect stimulus features as obvious as spike patterns, caused by their particular coding properties or physiological foundation. As a result, separating the pattern correlation out of traditional timing correlation concept uncover additional insight in neural coding.     

Video Preference Assessment and Behavioral Management of Single-Caged Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata) by Movie Presentation

Movie presentation can act as an enrichment technique for nonhuman primates, who also show preferences for certain contents. This study investigated the video preferences and effects of movies on behavioral abnormalities in single-caged Japanese macaques. When movie rewards were provided for subjects' touch responses, the subjects maintained the touch responses during 40 2-hr sessions. Although repeated presentation of 1 stimulus set decreased the subject's touch response, changing the stimulus set led to recovery of this response. The subjects showed clear preferences, consistent across 2 different stimulus sets, for movies showing humans or animation (61.1% of total duration). Subjects consistently played movies both with and without their preferred content. The availability of a variety of contents might be important for attracting subjects' interest. The frequency with which monkeys engaged in abnormal behaviors decreased in the experimental (20.9%) and the postexperimental (25.6%) periods compared with the preexperimental period (33.5%). Movie presentations could keep attracting the interest of single-caged monkeys in their visual environment, ameliorating their behavioral abnormalities for some time. In summary, social experience during infancy might influence Japanese macaques' movie preferences.     

Selling with the san: Representations of bushman people and artefacts in South African print advertisements

This paper examines the use of visual images of the Bushman peoples (San) and their cultural objects in contemporary South African advertising. As an image is a site of meaning, the relationship between the people represented in the advertisement and the culture for which the advertisement is produced demonstrates strategies of subjection and power. Within the context of the advertisement, I explore the extent to which San people are appropriated by the consumer society and their ritual objects reduced or altered to a Western aesthetic dimension. The contexts and ideas of the producing society determine production of the visual object.

The relationship between the San “artefact” and the advertisement as a work of “art” reflects a dimension of South African social and political processes. Representations of the two juxtaposed societies suggest that the value systems and cultural attitudes of the dominant group present contested domains which are explored. Bushmen represent a malleable signifier which is used to promote an apparently/ ostensibly applied vision of an emerging non‐racial country.     

31 Effects of light and ammonium on growth,ammonium uptake and pigmentation of four porphyra (bangiales,rhodophyta) species native to the northwestern atlantic

“Phytopia: Discovery of the Marine Ecosystem” is an educational CD‐ROM that features a wealth of new images, animations, microscope‐ and satellite‐derived data sets, and multimedia discovery tools. It has received support from NASA and the National Science Foundation and can ordered on‐line through http://www.bigelow.org/phytopia . A pre‐release version of the “Phytopia” was tested by students, educators, and scientists at 34 institutions in Britain, Germany, Russia, and throughout the U.S. This product is designed for use in undergraduate classes; however, our testing has shown that it provides an exciting and interactive learning experience appropriate for Grades 7 and higher. The virtual microscope tool allows the user to view prepared assemblages of plankton at various magnifications, under different epifluorescence conditions, or by scanning electron microscopy. For several species, the user can view movies showing the organism's motility. Some species are featured as three‐dimensional models that can be viewed from any perspective. “Phytopia” also helps users connect ocean primary productivity patterns with environmental factors in several geographic areas. Innovative tools allow investigation of co‐registered temperature, wind, current, nutrient, and ocean color data. This tool is aligned with research efforts to better understand plankton ecology using remotely sensed data.     

Logical-Semantic Analysis and the Development of L.S. Vygotsky's Ideas About “Units” and “Elements” of Psychological Systems

Based on an analysis of L.S. Vygotsky's concepts of “units” and “elements” of psychological systems, this article highlights five of their attributes. It shows that these attributes are logically symmetrical, since in their wording they can be converted into one another by negation or by replacing some words with their opposites. This suggests that the concepts of the “unit” and “element” of a system are different poles of one theoretical construct of the activity of human psychology. Thus methods for the study of psychological systems by breaking them down into elements or by separating them into units can be seen as complementary. The article describes differences among the concepts of “unit,” “minimal unit,” and “cell” of a psychological system. It reviews several problems that are solvable using the “method of units,” as well as some concepts of the theory of psychological systems that are understood as holistic, conceptual, and active processes and/or results of human interaction with the world. Among the examples of such systems are “systems of psychological functions” (according to Vygotsky), as well as separate activities (according to A.N. Leontiev), human actions and operations (interactions with the world on the level of objects and mental or physical means). The “component” of a psychological system is defined as any “something” that in some sense belongs to or is included in human interaction with the world. A component that belongs to the system is called an “element” of it, but a component that is included in the functioning and development of the system is called a “part” of it. The article presents the mathematical and psychological foundation of these definitions. It identifies and discusses the substantial (independently existing) components of psychological systems and their attributes (properties and conditions). It describes the relationships between them using the bipolar theoretical constructs “part-element” and “substantial-attributive” component of a system.     

Minimal Hodgkin–Huxley type models for different classes of cortical and thalamic neurons

We review here the development of Hodgkin–Huxley (HH) type models of cerebral cortex and thalamic neurons for network simulations. The intrinsic electrophysiological properties of cortical neurons were analyzed from several preparations, and we selected the four most prominent electrophysiological classes of neurons. These four classes are “fast spiking” “regular spiking” “intrinsically bursting” and “low-threshold spike” cells. For each class, we fit “minimal” HH type models to experimental data. The models contain the minimal set of voltage-dependent currents to account for the data. To obtain models as generic as possible, we used data from different preparations in vivo and in vitro, such as rat somatosensory cortex and thalamus, guinea-pig visual and frontal cortex, ferret visual cortex, cat visual cortex and cat association cortex. For two cell classes, we used automatic fitting procedures applied to several cells, which revealed substantial cell-to-cell variability within each class. The selection of such cellular models constitutes a necessary step towards building network simulations of the thalamocortical system with realistic cellular dynamical properties.     

Synthetic communication signals influence wild harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) behaviour

We used our novel and programmable Porpoise Alarm (PAL, patd.) to synthesize life-like, electronic harbour porpoise communication signals based on those described for captive animals. In the Little Belt, Denmark, we employed PAL (source level 158 ± 1 dB p–p re 1 μPa@1 m; centroid frequency 133 ± 8.5 kHz) to synthesize three aggressive click train types termed “A”, “F3” and “M1” to naive, free-living harbour porpoises. Via theodolite tracking (372 h of total visual effort spread over 10 expeditions) we found that, depending on signal type, porpoises either avoid or become attracted to PAL: Signal types “A” and “F3” are slight deterrents, porpoises increasing minimum range (+23 to 32 m, respectively), whereas “M1” attracts porpoises, reducing range (by ? 29 m). As determined via archival acoustic detectors (AADs), both signals “F3” and “M1” led the animals to significantly intensify their click rate (by +10% and 68%, respectively) while signal “A” led to a significant reduction ( ? 59%). We propose that equipping fishing gear with PAL emitting signal “F3” could potentially reduce porpoise by-catch by increasing (1) awareness through enhanced echolocation and (2) distance to the nets. Detection probability and radius of PAL/AAD tandems could be improved by emitting signal “M1” to focus porpoise echolocation signals on the AAD. The signal may also be useful in luring animals away from hazards, which may be helpful for conservation measures prior to the onset of harmful acoustic activities such as pile-driving, seismic exploration or ammunition clearance.     

Mechanisms of Reading in Persons with Different Levels of Written Text Comprehension

The aim of the present study was to investigate the reading mechanisms in adults (27 subjects; mean age, 19.5 ± 0.8 [SD] years) with different levels of written text comprehension using fMRI. The main objective was to analyze the basic brain mechanisms of verbal stimuli perception with and without semantic component during reading discrimination tasks. The BOLD signal changes during WORD and PSEUDOWORD reading comparing to GAZE FIXATION state were estimated using both analysis of whole brain activation and ROIs (structures connected with the brain system providing reading) in two groups of subjects, “good” and “poor” readers. It was revealed that activations were higher in “poor” readers in lingual gyrus, SMG, STG compared to “good” readers during PSEUDOWORD reading. It was supposed, that the strategies of words and pseudowords recognition differed in two groups of readers: “good” readers identified words or pseudowords already at the stage of visual analysis of “word” structure and demonstrated attempts to decode pseudowords (i.e., language lexical zones were not activated); “poor” readers, apparently, tried to read pseudowords using the same strategy as for the words reading referring to the lexicon, and after failure identified pseudowords as meaningless concepts. In that case, activations of both lexical “language” zones and visual word form area (VWFA) were observed.