[Relationship between Quality of Life (QOL) and cognitive function among community-dwelling elderly].

Science.gov (United States)

Konagaya, Yoko; Watanabe, Tomoyuki; Ohta, Toshiki; Takata, Kazuko

2009-03-01

It has become important for elderly to live better rather than to live longer. There have been many reports about quality of life (QOL) of the elderly, but we have no knowledge about the relation between the QOL and the cognitive function. We investigated the relationship between the QOL and the cognitive function among community-dwelling elderly. A total of 12,059 community-dwelling elderly were invited to join a cognitive screening study by telephone (TICS-J) combined with a mailed QOL questionnaire. Among them, 1,920 subjects (age 71.87+/-5.50 (mean+/-SD) years old, duration of education 11.08+/-2.61 years) who completed both TICS-J and QOL questionnaire were actually measured. TICS-J was administered by the previously reported method, and the QOL questionnaire was developed based on the component of QOL proposed by Lawton, and consisted of 6 subscales (daily activity, satisfaction with health, satisfaction with human support, satisfaction with economic state, symptoms of depression, and positive mental attitude). Correlations were analyzed among the scores of TICS-J, age, duration of education, and scores on each QOL subscale. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted after QOL subscale scores, adjusting for gender, age, and duration of education, were entered as dependent variables. Four out of 6 subscales scores of QOL showed significant differences between men and women. All QOL subscale scores showed significant differences between the two groups in the TICS-J scores. Partial correlations were seen among TICS-J scores and each QOL subscale score. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed significant influence of cognitive function by TICS-J on QOL subscales scores. Cognitive function was considered to have more influence on QOL scores than gender or age. TICS-J and the QOL questionnaire in this study were useful to evaluate the outcome of welfare in community-dwelling elderly.

Factor Structure of the Schalock and Keith Quality of Life Questionnaire (QOL-Q): Validation on Mexican and Spanish Samples

Science.gov (United States)

Caballo, C.; Crespo, M.; Jenaro, C.; Verdugo, M. A.; Martinez, J. L.

2005-01-01

Background: The Quality of Life Questionnaire (QOL-Q) is used widely to evaluate the quality of life of persons with intellectual disability (ID). Its validity for use with Spanish-speaking cultures has been demonstrated for individuals with visual disabilities, but not for those with physical or intellectual disabilities. Such was the purpose of…

Local and global limits on visual processing in schizophrenia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marc S Tibber

Full Text Available Schizophrenia has been linked to impaired performance on a range of visual processing tasks (e.g. detection of coherent motion and contour detection. It has been proposed that this is due to a general inability to integrate visual information at a global level. To test this theory, we assessed the performance of people with schizophrenia on a battery of tasks designed to probe voluntary averaging in different visual domains. Twenty-three outpatients with schizophrenia (mean age: 40±8 years; 3 female and 20 age-matched control participants (mean age 39±9 years; 3 female performed a motion coherence task and three equivalent noise (averaging tasks, the latter allowing independent quantification of local and global limits on visual processing of motion, orientation and size. All performance measures were indistinguishable between the two groups (ps>0.05, one-way ANCOVAs, with one exception: participants with schizophrenia pooled fewer estimates of local orientation than controls when estimating average orientation (p = 0.01, one-way ANCOVA. These data do not support the notion of a generalised visual integration deficit in schizophrenia. Instead, they suggest that distinct visual dimensions are differentially affected in schizophrenia, with a specific impairment in the integration of visual orientation information.

Validation of the prolapse quality-of-life questionnaire (P-QOL): An ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background. The prolapse quality-of-life questionnaire (P-QOL) has been validated and translated into eight languages. The lack of an Afrikaans version of the P-QOL limits studies in Afrikaans-speaking patients with pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Objective. To validate an Afrikaans version of the P-QOL in a South African ...

3D Visualization of Global Ocean Circulation

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, V. G.; Sharma, R.; Zhang, E.; Schmittner, A.; Jenny, B.

2015-12-01

Advanced 3D visualization techniques are seldom used to explore the dynamic behavior of ocean circulation. Streamlines are an effective method for visualization of flow, and they can be designed to clearly show the dynamic behavior of a fluidic system. We employ vector field editing and extraction software to examine the topology of velocity vector fields generated by a 3D global circulation model coupled to a one-layer atmosphere model simulating preindustrial and last glacial maximum (LGM) conditions. This results in a streamline-based visualization along multiple density isosurfaces on which we visualize points of vertical exchange and the distribution of properties such as temperature and biogeochemical tracers. Previous work involving this model examined the change in the energetics driving overturning circulation and mixing between simulations of LGM and preindustrial conditions. This visualization elucidates the relationship between locations of vertical exchange and mixing, as well as demonstrates the effects of circulation and mixing on the distribution of tracers such as carbon isotopes.

Merging Psychophysical and Psychometric Theory to Estimate Global Visual State Measures from Forced-Choices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Massof, Robert W; Schmidt, Karen M; Laby, Daniel M; Kirschen, David; Meadows, David

2013-01-01

Visual acuity, a forced-choice psychophysical measure of visual spatial resolution, is the sine qua non of clinical visual impairment testing in ophthalmology and optometry patients with visual system disorders ranging from refractive error to retinal, optic nerve, or central visual system pathology. Visual acuity measures are standardized against a norm, but it is well known that visual acuity depends on a variety of stimulus parameters, including contrast and exposure duration. This paper asks if it is possible to estimate a single global visual state measure from visual acuity measures as a function of stimulus parameters that can represent the patient's overall visual health state with a single variable. Psychophysical theory (at the sensory level) and psychometric theory (at the decision level) are merged to identify the conditions that must be satisfied to derive a global visual state measure from parameterised visual acuity measures. A global visual state measurement model is developed and tested with forced-choice visual acuity measures from 116 subjects with no visual impairments and 560 subjects with uncorrected refractive error. The results are in agreement with the expectations of the model

The Impact of Cataract Surgery on Subjective Visual Functions and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2016-12-13

Dec 13, 2016 ... The second eye surgery confers additional gains in terms of VF and QoL in ... subjective visual function (VF) and QoL of our patients.[10-12]. Most similar ... For reprints contact: reprints@medknow.com. How to cite this article: ...

A web-mapping system for real-time visualization of the global terrain

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Liqiang; Yang, Chongjun; Liu, Donglin; Ren, Yingchao; Rui, Xiaoping

2005-04-01

In this paper, we mainly present a web-based 3D global terrain visualization application that provides more powerful transmission and visualization of global multiresolution data sets across networks. A client/server architecture is put forward. The paper also reports various relevant research work, such as efficient data compression methods to reduce the physical size of these data sets and accelerate network delivery, streaming transmission for progressively downloading data, and real-time multiresolution terrain surface visualization with a high visual quality by M-band wavelet transforms and a hierarchical triangulation technique. Finally, an experiment is performed using different levels of detailed data to verify that the system works appropriately.

A cross-sectional study of QOL of diabetic patients at tertiary care hospitals in Delhi

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Gautam Yogesh

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Background: According to WHO estimates India will be the global capital of diabetes by 2025, accounting for 57.2 million diabetics. Worsening the situation is the fact that diabetes affects the economically productive age-group (45-65 years in developing countries. Objective : To measure quality of life (QOL and study the clinical profiles and associated sociodemographic factors affecting diabetic patients aged 20 years and above. Materials and Methods: We conducted a hospital-based cross-sectional study using a generic instrument, Short-Form 36 (SF-36 of the Medical Outcome Study Group to measure QOL of diabetic subjects aged ≥20 years. Two hundred and sixty diabetics, including 91 males and 169 females, were selected from the clinics of SSK Hospital and Dr RML Hospital of New Delhi. Data was analysed using SPSS for Windows, version 12. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 49.7 years, with 80% of respondents being in the age-group of 40-69 years. The majority (52.1% of female respondents were illiterate and 91.1% were economically dependent. Of the male respondents, 65.9% were skilled workers. Substance abuse was present among 41.8% male subjects. Type 2 diabetes was the commonest, with 94.6% of the subjects having this form. The mean duration of diabetes was 6.96 ± 6.08 years. Oral hypoglycemic agents were being taken by 70.77% of the respondents. Among the diabetics the most common comorbidity was hypertension (30.8% and the commonest complication was neuropathy (26.2%. We calculated the body mass index (BMI of all subjects and found that, 46.2% of the male and 59.8% of the female respondents were either overweight or obese. As predicted by the waist/hip ratio (WHR, 53.8% of the male and 66.9% of the female respondents had high risk for CHD. Regular physical activity was undertaken by less than half of the subjects (46.5%. Out of eight domains of QOL in the SF-36, the two most affected were ′General Health′ and �

Factors that influence the QOL of cancer patients who have undergone radiotherapy as outpatients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Senuma, Maiko; Shinoda, Shizuyo; Kitada, Yoko; Takei, Akemi; Kanda, Kiyoko; Seyama, Ruka; Igarashi, Reiko

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the factors that influence the QOL of cancer patients who have undergone radiotherapy in the outpatient setting. The patient's quality of life (QOL) was investigated by using the QOL evaluation standard functional assessment of cancer therapy-general (FACT-G) in 73 cancer patients (mean age 64.2±12.2 yrs standard deviation (SD)) who had undergone radiotherapy as outpatients. The mean QOL score was 74.8±17.1 pointy, and a significant difference was seen in about 25 items as a result of examining the factors that influenced the patient's QOL. In addition, a stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the factors which influenced the QOL were the operation due to the original disease, social support (excluding the family), tiredness, relapse and the metastasis, performance status (PS), uneasiness of presence in descending order of influence. The results revealed the strong influence of psychological, mental and social factors on the QOL score. From the patient of view of nursing support for cancer patients, screening for these factors may allow earlier detection of any decrease in the QOL, or identify when the QOL has already decreased. Furthermore, support should be initiated at as early a stage as possible. (author)

Circuit Mechanisms Governing Local vs. Global Motion Processing in Mouse Visual Cortex

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Rune; Yonehara, Keisuke

2017-01-01

components represented by component direction-selective (CDS) cells. However, how PDS and CDS cells develop their distinct response properties is still unresolved. The visual cortex of the mouse is an attractive model for experimentally solving this issue due to the large molecular and genetic toolbox...... literature on global motion processing based on works in primates and mice. Lastly, we propose what types of experiments could illuminate what circuit mechanisms are governing cortical global visual motion processing. We propose that PDS cells in mouse visual cortex appear as the perfect arena...

The Impact of Cataract Surgery on Subjective Visual Functions and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Purpose: To determine the impact of cataract surgery on visual functions (VFs) and quality of life (QoL) in patients with cataract at the National Eye Center, Kaduna. Methods: VFs and QoL questionnaires were administered to the patients preoperatively and 6 weeks postoperatively. Correlation was assessed among ...

The Role of Global and Local Visual Information during Gaze-Cued Orienting of Attention.

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Munsters, Nicolette M; van den Boomen, Carlijn; Hooge, Ignace T C; Kemner, Chantal

2016-01-01

Gaze direction is an important social communication tool. Global and local visual information are known to play specific roles in processing socially relevant information from a face. The current study investigated whether global visual information has a primary role during gaze-cued orienting of attention and, as such, may influence quality of interaction. Adults performed a gaze-cueing task in which a centrally presented face cued (valid or invalid) the location of a peripheral target through a gaze shift. We measured brain activity (electroencephalography) towards the cue and target and behavioral responses (manual and saccadic reaction times) towards the target. The faces contained global (i.e. lower spatial frequencies), local (i.e. higher spatial frequencies), or a selection of both global and local (i.e. mid-band spatial frequencies) visual information. We found a gaze cue-validity effect (i.e. valid versus invalid), but no interaction effects with spatial frequency content. Furthermore, behavioral responses towards the target were in all cue conditions slower when lower spatial frequencies were not present in the gaze cue. These results suggest that whereas gaze-cued orienting of attention can be driven by both global and local visual information, global visual information determines the speed of behavioral responses towards other entities appearing in the surrounding of gaze cue stimuli.

Visual disability and quality of life in glaucoma patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Cesareo, Massimo; Ciuffoletti, Elena; Ricci, Federico; Missiroli, Filippo; Giuliano, Mario Alberto; Mancino, Raffaele; Nucci, Carlo

2015-01-01

Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy that can result in progressive and irreversible vision loss, thereby affecting quality of life (QoL) of patients. Several studies have shown a strong correlation between visual field damage and visual disability in patients with glaucoma, even in the early stages of the disease. Visual impairment due to glaucoma affects normal daily activities required for independent living, such as driving, walking, and reading. There is no generally accepted instrument for assessing quality of life in glaucoma patients; different factors involved in visual disability from the disease are difficult to quantify and not easily standardized. This chapter summarizes recent works from clinical and epidemiological studies, which describe how glaucoma affects the performance of important vision-related activities and QoL. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Validation of the Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL): test of reliability and validity of the Danish version (SS-QOL-DK).

Science.gov (United States)

Muus, Ingrid; Williams, Linda S; Ringsberg, Karin C

2007-07-01

To test the reliability and validity of the Danish version of the Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale version 2.0 (SS-QOL-DK), an instrument for evaluation of health-related quality of life. A correlational study. A stroke unit that provides acute care and rehabilitation for stroke patients in Frederiksborg County, Denmark. One hundred and fifty-two stroke survivors participated; 24 of these performed test-retest. Questionnaires were sent out and returned by mail. A subsequent telephone interview assessed functional level and missing items. Test-retest was measured using Spearman's r, internal consistency was estimated using Cronbach's alpha, and evaluation of floor and ceiling values in proportion of minimum and maximum scores. Construct validity was assessed by comparing patients' scores on the SS-QOL-DK with those obtained by other test methods: Beck's Depression Index, the General Health Survey Short Form 36 (SF-36), the Barthel Index and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, evaluating shared variance using coefficient of determination, r2. Comparing groups with known scores assessed known-group validity. Convergent and discriminant validity were assessed. Test-retest of SS-QOL-DK showed excellent stability, Spearman's r = 0.65-0.99. Internal consistency for all domains showed Cronbach's alpha = 0.81-0.94. Missing items rate was 1.0%. Most SS-QOL-DK domains showed moderately shared variance with similar domains of other test methods, r2 = 0.03-0.62. Groups with known differences showed statistically significant difference in scores. Item-to-scale correlation coefficients of 0.37-0.88 supported convergent validity. SS-QOL-DK is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring self-reported health-related quality of life on group level among people with mild to moderate stroke.

Overview of the Spinal Cord Injury--Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) measurement system.

Science.gov (United States)

Tulsky, David S; Kisala, Pamela A; Victorson, David; Tate, Denise G; Heinemann, Allen W; Charlifue, Susan; Kirshblum, Steve C; Fyffe, Denise; Gershon, Richard; Spungen, Ann M; Bombardier, Charles H; Dyson-Hudson, Trevor A; Amtmann, Dagmar; Kalpakjian, Claire Z; Choi, Seung W; Jette, Alan M; Forchheimer, Martin; Cella, David

2015-05-01

The Spinal Cord Injury--Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) measurement system was developed to address the shortage of relevant and psychometrically sound patient reported outcome (PRO) measures available for clinical care and research in spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation. Using a computer adaptive testing (CAT) approach, the SCI-QOL builds on the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and the Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders (Neuro-QOL) initiative. This initial manuscript introduces the background and development of the SCI-QOL measurement system. Greater detail is presented in the additional manuscripts of this special issue. Classical and contemporary test development methodologies were employed. Qualitative input was obtained from individuals with SCI and clinicians through interviews, focus groups, and cognitive debriefing. Item pools were field tested in a multi-site sample (n=877) and calibrated using item response theory methods. Initial reliability and validity testing was performed in a new sample of individuals with traumatic SCI (n=245). Five Model SCI System centers and one Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center across the United States. Adults with traumatic SCI. n/a n/a The SCI-QOL consists of 19 item banks, including the SCI-Functional Index banks, and 3 fixed-length scales measuring physical, emotional, and social aspects of health-related QOL (HRQOL). The SCI-QOL measurement system consists of psychometrically sound measures for individuals with SCI. The manuscripts in this special issue provide evidence of the reliability and initial validity of this measurement system. The SCI-QOL also links to other measures designed for a general medical population.

Quality of life (QOL) assessment in patients received carbon ion radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Imai, Reiko; Kamada, Tadashi; Tsujii, Hirohiko

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in quality of life (QoL) of medically inoperable bone and soft tissue sarcoma treated carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT). Fifty-eight patients followed over 1 year were reviewed in this report. The questionnaire, European Organaization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (EORTC-QLQ-C30) was assessed before the start of CIRT, and subsequently at the end of CIRT, 3, 6, 12, 24 months after CIRT. During follow-up, it was send to the patients by mail. The compliance was 98% for all follow-up period in this study. The scores about QoL and functioning did not significantly change for 1 year. QoL scores tended to decrease in large clinical target volume (CTV) (>600 cc) group compared to small CTV group. CIRT could keep QoL levels of patients with medically inoperable bone and soft tissue tumors. (author)

Regions of mid-level human visual cortex sensitive to the global coherence of local image patches.

Science.gov (United States)

Mannion, Damien J; Kersten, Daniel J; Olman, Cheryl A

2014-08-01

The global structural arrangement and spatial layout of the visual environment must be derived from the integration of local signals represented in the lower tiers of the visual system. This interaction between the spatially local and global properties of visual stimulation underlies many of our visual capacities, and how this is achieved in the brain is a central question for visual and cognitive neuroscience. Here, we examine the sensitivity of regions of the posterior human brain to the global coordination of spatially displaced naturalistic image patches. We presented observers with image patches in two circular apertures to the left and right of central fixation, with the patches drawn from either the same (coherent condition) or different (noncoherent condition) extended image. Using fMRI at 7T (n = 5), we find that global coherence affected signal amplitude in regions of dorsal mid-level cortex. Furthermore, we find that extensive regions of mid-level visual cortex contained information in their local activity pattern that could discriminate coherent and noncoherent stimuli. These findings indicate that the global coordination of local naturalistic image information has important consequences for the processing in human mid-level visual cortex.

Visual literacy and visual communication for global education : innovations in teaching e-learning in art, design and communication

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Velders, Teun; de Vries, Sjoerd A.; Vaicaityte, Loreta

2007-01-01

This paper presents the (student) proceedings of a successful inter-university co-operation between a research university and a university of applied sciences, in the field of Visual Literacy and Visual Communication. The origin lays in the international symposium “Digital Communities for Global

Circuit Mechanisms Governing Local vs. Global Motion Processing in Mouse Visual Cortex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rune Rasmussen

2017-12-01

Full Text Available A withstanding question in neuroscience is how neural circuits encode representations and perceptions of the external world. A particularly well-defined visual computation is the representation of global object motion by pattern direction-selective (PDS cells from convergence of motion of local components represented by component direction-selective (CDS cells. However, how PDS and CDS cells develop their distinct response properties is still unresolved. The visual cortex of the mouse is an attractive model for experimentally solving this issue due to the large molecular and genetic toolbox available. Although mouse visual cortex lacks the highly ordered orientation columns of primates, it is organized in functional sub-networks and contains striate- and extrastriate areas like its primate counterparts. In this Perspective article, we provide an overview of the experimental and theoretical literature on global motion processing based on works in primates and mice. Lastly, we propose what types of experiments could illuminate what circuit mechanisms are governing cortical global visual motion processing. We propose that PDS cells in mouse visual cortex appear as the perfect arena for delineating and solving how individual sensory features extracted by neural circuits in peripheral brain areas are integrated to build our rich cohesive sensory experiences.

Global processing takes time: A meta-analysis on local-global visual processing in ASD

OpenAIRE

Van der Hallen, Ruth; Evers, Kris; Brewaeys, K.; Van Den Noortgate, Wim; Wagemans, Johan

2015-01-01

What does an individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perceive first: the forest or the trees? In spite of 30 years of research and influential theories like the weak central coherence (WCC) theory and the enhanced perceptual functioning (EPF) account, the interplay of local and global visual processing in ASD remains only partly understood. Research findings vary in indicating a local processing bias or a global processing deficit, and often contradict each other. We have applied a for...

Validation of a health-related quality of life instrument for primary ciliary dyskinesia (QOL-PCD).

Science.gov (United States)

Behan, Laura; Leigh, Margaret W; Dell, Sharon D; Dunn Galvin, Audrey; Quittner, Alexandra L; Lucas, Jane S

2017-09-01

Quality of life (QOL)-primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is the first disease-specific, health-related QOL instrument for PCD. Psychometric validation of QOL-PCD assesses the performance of this measure in adults, including its reliability, validity and responsiveness to change. Seventy-two adults (mean (range) age: 33 years (18-79 years); mean (range) FEV 1 % predicted: 68 (26-115)) with PCD completed the 49-item QOL-PCD and generic QOL measures: Short-Form 36 Health Survey, Sino-Nasal Outcome Test 20 (SNOT-20) and St George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ)-C. Thirty-five participants repeated QOL-PCD 10-14 days later to measure stability or reproducibility of the measure. Multitrait analysis was used to evaluate how the items loaded on 10 hypothesised scales: physical, emotional, role and social functioning, treatment burden, vitality, health perceptions, upper respiratory symptoms, lower respiratory symptoms and ears and hearing symptoms. This analysis of item-to-total correlations led to 9 items being dropped; the validated measure now comprises 40 items. Each scale had excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α: 0.74 to 0.94). Two-week test-retest demonstrated stability for all scales (intraclass coefficients 0.73 to 0.96). Significant correlations were obtained between QOL-PCD scores and age and FEV 1 . Strong relationships were also found between QOL-PCD scales and similar constructs on generic questionnaires, for example, lower respiratory symptoms and SGRQ-C (r=0.72, pmeasures of different constructs. QOL-PCD has demonstrated good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent and divergent validity. QOL-PCD offers a promising tool for evaluating new therapies and for measuring symptoms, functioning and QOL during routine care. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

A new questionnaire for measuring quality of life - the Stark QoL.

Science.gov (United States)

Hardt, Jochen

2015-10-26

The Stark questionnaire measures health-related quality of life (QoL) using pictures almost exclusively. It is supplemented by a minimum of words. It comprises a mental and a physical health component. A German sample of n = 500 subjects, age and gender stratified, filled out the Stark Qol questionnaire along with various other questionnaires via internet. The physical component shows good reliability (Cronbach's alpha = McDonalds Omega = greatest lower bound = .93), the mental component can be improved (Cronbach's alpha = .63, McDonalds Omega = .72, greatest lower bound = .77). Confirmatory factor analysis shows a good fit (Bentlers CFI = .97). Construct validity was proven. The Stark QoL is a promising new development in measuring QoL, it is a short and easy to apply questionnaire. Additionally, it is particularly promising for international research.

Sensitivity and responsiveness of the patient-reported TED-QOL to rehabilitative surgery in thyroid eye disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Fayers, Tessa; Fayers, Peter M; Dolman, Peter J

2016-12-01

We tested the sensitivity and responsiveness of the TED-QOL to rehabilitative surgery in thyroid eye disease (TED). The 3-item TED-QOL and 16-item GO-QOL, which assess quality of life (QoL) in TED, were administered to consecutive patients undergoing rehabilitative surgery. The questionnaires were completed pre-and post-operatively to assess sensitivity (ability to discriminate between different surgical groups) and responsiveness (ability to detect within patient changes over time).56 patients underwent 69 procedures for TED (29 orbital decompressions, 15 strabismus operations, 25 eyelid procedures). The differences in scores between the three types of surgery (a measure of sensitivity) were statistically significant at the 5% level pre-operatively and post-operatively for all 3 TED-QOL scales and for both GO-QOL scales, but much more so for the TED-QOL scales in each case. The within-patient changes between the pre- and post-operative scores for the same subjects (a measure of responsiveness) were statistically very highly significant for the TED-QOL overall and appearance scales for each of the surgeries. The pre- and post-operative difference for the TED-QOL functioning scale was highly statistically significant for strabismus surgery but not for decompression or lid surgery. The change between the pre- and post-operative scores for the GO-QOL was significant for the functioning scale with strabismus and lid surgery, and was highly significant for the appearance scale with lid surgery but not for strabismus surgery or decompression. The 3-item TED-QOL is sensitive and responsive to rehabilitative surgery in TED and compares favorably with the lengthier GO-QOL for these parameters.

Ultrascale collaborative visualization using a display-rich global cyberinfrastructure.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Byungil; Leigh, Jason; Johnson, Andrew; Renambot, Luc; Brown, Maxine; Jagodic, Ratko; Nam, Sungwon; Hur, Hyejung

2010-01-01

The scalable adaptive graphics environment (SAGE) is high-performance graphics middleware for ultrascale collaborative visualization using a display-rich global cyberinfrastructure. Dozens of sites worldwide use this cyberinfrastructure middleware, which connects high-performance-computing resources over high-speed networks to distributed ultraresolution displays.

Overview of the Spinal Cord Injury – Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) measurement system

Science.gov (United States)

Tulsky, David S.; Kisala, Pamela A.; Victorson, David; Tate, Denise G.; Heinemann, Allen W.; Charlifue, Susan; Kirshblum, Steve C.; Fyffe, Denise; Gershon, Richard; Spungen, Ann M.; Bombardier, Charles H.; Dyson-Hudson, Trevor A.; Amtmann, Dagmar; Z. Kalpakjian, Claire; W. Choi, Seung; Jette, Alan M.; Forchheimer, Martin; Cella, David

2015-01-01

Context/Objective The Spinal Cord Injury – Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) measurement system was developed to address the shortage of relevant and psychometrically sound patient reported outcome (PRO) measures available for clinical care and research in spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation. Using a computer adaptive testing (CAT) approach, the SCI-QOL builds on the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and the Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders (Neuro-QOL) initiative. This initial manuscript introduces the background and development of the SCI-QOL measurement system. Greater detail is presented in the additional manuscripts of this special issue. Design Classical and contemporary test development methodologies were employed. Qualitative input was obtained from individuals with SCI and clinicians through interviews, focus groups, and cognitive debriefing. Item pools were field tested in a multi-site sample (n = 877) and calibrated using item response theory methods. Initial reliability and validity testing was performed in a new sample of individuals with traumatic SCI (n = 245). Setting Five Model SCI System centers and one Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center across the United States. Participants Adults with traumatic SCI. Interventions n/a Outcome Measures n/a Results The SCI-QOL consists of 19 item banks, including the SCI-Functional Index banks, and 3 fixed-length scales measuring physical, emotional, and social aspects of health-related QOL (HRQOL). Conclusion The SCI-QOL measurement system consists of psychometrically sound measures for individuals with SCI. The manuscripts in this special issue provide evidence of the reliability and initial validity of this measurement system. The SCI-QOL also links to other measures designed for a general medical population. PMID:26010962

Higher levels of depression are associated with reduced global bias in visual processing.

Science.gov (United States)

de Fockert, Jan W; Cooper, Andrew

2014-04-01

Negative moods have been associated with a tendency to prioritise local details in visual processing. The current study investigated the relation between depression and visual processing using the Navon task, a standard task of local and global processing. In the Navon task, global stimuli are presented that are made up of many local parts, and the participants are instructed to report the identity of either a global or a local target shape. Participants with a low self-reported level of depression showed evidence of the expected global processing bias, and were significantly faster at responding to the global, compared with the local level. By contrast, no such difference was observed in participants with high levels of depression. The reduction of the global bias associated with high levels of depression was only observed in the overall speed of responses to global (versus local) targets, and not in the level of interference produced by the global (versus local) distractors. These results are in line with recent findings of a dissociation between local/global processing bias and interference from local/global distractors, and support the claim that depression is associated with a reduction in the tendency to prioritise global-level processing.

The measurement of health-related quality of life (QOL in paediatric clinical trials: a systematic review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eiser Christine

2004-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The goal of much care in chronic childhood illness is to improve quality of life (QOL. However, surveys suggest QOL measures are not routinely included. In addition, there is little consensus about the quality of many QOL measures. Objectives To determine the extent to which quality of life (QOL measures are used in paediatric clinical trials and evaluate the quality of measures used. Design Systematic literature review. Review Methods Included paediatric trials published in English between 1994 and 2003 involving children and adolescents up to the age of 20 years, and use of a standardised QOL measure. Data Sources included MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMB Reviews, AMED, BNI, PSYCHINFO, the Cochrane library, Internet, and reference lists from review articles. Results We identified 18 trials including assessment of QOL (4 Asthma, 4 Rhinitis, 2 Dermatitis, and single studies of Eczema, Cystic fibrosis, Otis media, Amblyopia, Diabetes, Obesity associated with a brain tumour, Idiopathic short stature, and Congenital agranulocytosis. In three trials, parents rated their own QOL but not their child's. Fourteen different QOL measures were used but only two fulfilled our minimal defined criteria for quality. Conclusions This review confirms previous reports of limited use of QOL measures in paediatric clinical trials. Our review provides information about availability and quality of measures which will be of especial value to trial developers.

Development and evaluation of oral Cancer quality-of-life questionnaire (QOL-OC).

Science.gov (United States)

Nie, Min; Liu, Chang; Pan, Yi-Chen; Jiang, Chen-Xi; Li, Bao-Ru; Yu, Xi-Jie; Wu, Xin-Yu; Zheng, Shu-Ning

2018-05-03

In this study scales and items for the Oral Cancer Quality-of-life Questionnaire (QOL-OC) were designed and the instrument was evaluated. The QOL-OC was developed and modified using the international definition of quality of life (QOL) promulgated by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and analysis of the precedent measuring instruments. The contents of each item were determined in the context of the specific characteristics of oral cancer. Two hundred thirteen oral cancer patients were asked to complete both the EORTC core quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLC-C30) and the QOL-OC. Data collected was used to conduct factor analysis, test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity. Questionnaire compliance was relatively high. Fourteen of the 213 subjects accepted the same tests after 24 to 48 h demonstrating a high test-retest reliability for all five scales. Overall internal consistency surpasses 0.8. The outcome of the factor analysis coincides substantially with our theoretical conception. Each item shows a higher correlation coefficient within its own scale than the others which indicates high construct validity. QOL-OC demonstrates fairly good statistical reliability, validity, and feasibility. However, further tests and modification are needed to ensure its applicability to the quality-of-life assessment of Chinese oral cancer patients.

Global perception depends on coherent work of bilateral visual cortices: transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies.

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Zhang, Xin; Han, ShiHui

2007-08-01

Previous research suggests that the right and left hemispheres dominate global and local perception of hierarchical patterns, respectively. The current work examined whether global perception of hierarchical stimuli requires coherent work of bilateral visual cortices using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Subjects discriminated global or local properties of compound letters in Experiment 1. Reaction times were recorded when single-pulse real TMS or sham TMS was delivered over the left or right visual cortex. While a global precedence effect (i.e., faster responses to global than local targets and stronger global-to-local interference than the reverse) was observed, TMS decreased global-to-local interference whereas increased local-to-global interference. Experiment 2 ruled out the possibility that the effects observed in Experiment 1 resulted from perceptual learning. Experiment 3 used compound shapes and observed TMS effect similar to that in Experiment 1. Moreover, TMS also slowed global RTs whereas speeded up local RTs in Experiment 3. Finally, the TMS effects observed in Experiments 1 and 3 did not differ between the conditions when TMS was applied over the left and right hemispheres. The results support a coherence hypothesis that global perception of compound stimuli depends upon the coherent work of bilateral visual cortices.

Coding Local and Global Binary Visual Features Extracted From Video Sequences

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Baroffio, Luca; Canclini, Antonio; Cesana, Matteo; Redondi, Alessandro; Tagliasacchi, Marco; Tubaro, Stefano

2015-11-01

Binary local features represent an effective alternative to real-valued descriptors, leading to comparable results for many visual analysis tasks, while being characterized by significantly lower computational complexity and memory requirements. When dealing with large collections, a more compact representation based on global features is often preferred, which can be obtained from local features by means of, e.g., the Bag-of-Visual-Word (BoVW) model. Several applications, including for example visual sensor networks and mobile augmented reality, require visual features to be transmitted over a bandwidth-limited network, thus calling for coding techniques that aim at reducing the required bit budget, while attaining a target level of efficiency. In this paper we investigate a coding scheme tailored to both local and global binary features, which aims at exploiting both spatial and temporal redundancy by means of intra- and inter-frame coding. In this respect, the proposed coding scheme can be conveniently adopted to support the Analyze-Then-Compress (ATC) paradigm. That is, visual features are extracted from the acquired content, encoded at remote nodes, and finally transmitted to a central controller that performs visual analysis. This is in contrast with the traditional approach, in which visual content is acquired at a node, compressed and then sent to a central unit for further processing, according to the Compress-Then-Analyze (CTA) paradigm. In this paper we experimentally compare ATC and CTA by means of rate-efficiency curves in the context of two different visual analysis tasks: homography estimation and content-based retrieval. Our results show that the novel ATC paradigm based on the proposed coding primitives can be competitive with CTA, especially in bandwidth limited scenarios.

The prevalence of visual symptoms in poppers users: a global survey.

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Davies, Andrew J; Borschmann, Rohan; Kelly, Simon P; Ramsey, John; Ferris, Jason; Winstock, Adam R

2017-01-01

The use of 'poppers' (volatile alkyl nitrites) has been associated with the development of visual symptoms secondary to the development of maculopathy. There are currently no data regarding the prevalence of this condition among poppers users. The aim of this study was to quantify the presence of visual symptoms among poppers users from a global cohort. The Global Drug Survey (GDS) conducts annual anonymous online surveys of drug and alcohol use. Within the 2012 GDS, questions were inserted regarding the presence of visual symptoms in poppers users. The GDS received a total of 21 575 valid responses, with a total of 17 479 from the UK, Australia, USA and Eurozone. Within these areas, 5152 (29.5%) had used poppers within their lifetime and 1322 (7.6%) within the previous year. Of the 'last year' users, when asked the question: 'Do you think poppers use has affected your eyesight?', 29 (2.2%) people responded 'yes', 130 (10.0%) responded 'maybe' and 1146 (87.8%) responded 'no (17 people did not answer). Both multiple choice and free-text responses regarding the nature of visual symptoms correlated with the central visual disturbance that would be expected from maculopathy. There was significant increased symptom prevalence with age (likelihood ratio (χ 2 )=19.0; ppoppers users have visual symptoms. Clinical correlation is required to determine whether these reported symptoms are due to poppers associated maculopathy, or an alternative cause.

Visual working memory for global, object, and part-based information.

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Patterson, Michael D; Bly, Benjamin Martin; Porcelli, Anthony J; Rypma, Bart

2007-06-01

We investigated visual working memory for novel objects and parts of novel objects. After a delay period, participants showed strikingly more accurate performance recognizing a single whole object than the parts of that object. This bias to remember whole objects, rather than parts, persisted even when the division between parts was clearly defined and the parts were disconnected from each other so that, in order to remember the single whole object, the participants needed to mentally combine the parts. In addition, the bias was confirmed when the parts were divided by color. These experiments indicated that holistic perceptual-grouping biases are automatically used to organize storage in visual working memory. In addition, our results suggested that the bias was impervious to top-down consciously directed control, because when task demands were manipulated through instruction and catch trials, the participants still recognized whole objects more quickly and more accurately than their parts. This bias persisted even when the whole objects were novel and the parts were familiar. We propose that visual working memory representations depend primarily on the global configural properties of whole objects, rather than part-based representations, even when the parts themselves can be clearly perceived as individual objects. This global configural bias beneficially reduces memory load on a capacity-limited system operating in a complex visual environment, because fewer distinct items must be remembered.

Coding Local and Global Binary Visual Features Extracted From Video Sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Baroffio, Luca; Canclini, Antonio; Cesana, Matteo; Redondi, Alessandro; Tagliasacchi, Marco; Tubaro, Stefano

2015-11-01

Binary local features represent an effective alternative to real-valued descriptors, leading to comparable results for many visual analysis tasks while being characterized by significantly lower computational complexity and memory requirements. When dealing with large collections, a more compact representation based on global features is often preferred, which can be obtained from local features by means of, e.g., the bag-of-visual word model. Several applications, including, for example, visual sensor networks and mobile augmented reality, require visual features to be transmitted over a bandwidth-limited network, thus calling for coding techniques that aim at reducing the required bit budget while attaining a target level of efficiency. In this paper, we investigate a coding scheme tailored to both local and global binary features, which aims at exploiting both spatial and temporal redundancy by means of intra- and inter-frame coding. In this respect, the proposed coding scheme can conveniently be adopted to support the analyze-then-compress (ATC) paradigm. That is, visual features are extracted from the acquired content, encoded at remote nodes, and finally transmitted to a central controller that performs the visual analysis. This is in contrast with the traditional approach, in which visual content is acquired at a node, compressed and then sent to a central unit for further processing, according to the compress-then-analyze (CTA) paradigm. In this paper, we experimentally compare the ATC and the CTA by means of rate-efficiency curves in the context of two different visual analysis tasks: 1) homography estimation and 2) content-based retrieval. Our results show that the novel ATC paradigm based on the proposed coding primitives can be competitive with the CTA, especially in bandwidth limited scenarios.

Quality of life outcome measures following partial glossectomy: Assessment using the UW-QOL scale

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Kazi R

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Background: The consequences of a diagnosis of head and neck cancer and the impact of treatment have a clear and direct influence on well-being and associated quality of life (QOL in these patients. Aims: To determine the QOL in head and neck cancer patients following a partial glossectomy operation. Design and Setting: Cross-sectional cohort study; Head and Neck Oncology Unit, tertiary referral center. Materials and Methods: 38 patients with partial glossectomy were assessed with the University of Washington head and neck quality of life (UW-QOL scale, version 4. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 10.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago version III. Information from the scale was correlated using the Mann Whitney test. A P value less than/equal to 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The mean (sd composite score of the QOL in our series was 73.6 (16.1. The majority (71.8% quoted their QOL as good or very good. Swallowing (n = 16, 47.1%, speech (n = 15, 44.1% and saliva (n = 15, 44.1% were most commonly cited issues over the last 7 days. On the other hand, the groups with reconstruction, neck dissection, complications and radiotherapy demonstrated a significant reduction of quality of life scores (Mann Whitney test, P < 0.05. Conclusion: The composite score and overall QOL as assessed using the UW-QOL scale (version 4 were modestly high in our series of partial glossectomy patients. Swallowing, speech, and saliva are regarded as the most important issues. Stage of the disease, neck dissection, reconstruction, complications, radiotherapy and time since operation were seen to significantly affect domain scores.

Self-initiated coping with Tourette's syndrome: Effect of tic suppression on QOL.

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Matsuda, Natsumi; Kono, Toshiaki; Nonaka, Maiko; Fujio, Miyuki; Kano, Yukiko

2016-02-01

Because of the semi-voluntary nature of tics, patients with Tourette' syndrome (TS) often report self-initiated coping with tics. Our goals were to understand the experiences of self-initiated coping with tics by individuals with TS (e.g., suppression frequency, suppression ability, and side effects of tic suppression), and investigate the effects of tic control on quality of life (QOL). One hundred participants with TS (38 children and 62 adults) answered a questionnaire concerning tic control, QOL, and other clinical characteristics. Fifty-eight percent of the participants always or frequently tried to suppress tics daily. In contrast, over 90% felt uncomfortable or incomplete when they suppressed tics and needed concentration or extra effort to suppress them. Thirty-four percent could suppress tics for less than one minute and 65% could suppress tics for less than 10min. Higher subjective satisfaction with tic control was positively correlated with life satisfaction and QOL. Individuals with TS often attempt self-initiated coping in their daily lives, especially through tic suppression, despite experiencing subjective discomfort and being aware that the duration of tic suppression is often limited. Moreover, it was found that their subjective satisfaction with tic control and effective tic suppression might have a positive influence on their life satisfaction and QOL. Thus, self-initiated coping with tics is vital for improving the QOL of individuals with TS and intervention aimed at enhancing subjective satisfaction with tic control could help manage TS. Copyright © 2015 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quality of life (QoL) and neurotoxicity in germ-cell cancer survivors (GCCS)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lauritsen, J.; Bandak, Mikkel; Mortensen, M. S.

2016-01-01

Background: The majority of patients with testicular cancer become long-term survivors. However, treatment is associated with late effects which may hamper QoL. The aims of the present study were to assess the impact of treatment on long-term QoL and evaluate the influence of neurotoxicity on Qo...

rTMS in fibromyalgia: a randomized trial evaluating QoL and its brain metabolic substrate.

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Boyer, Laurent; Dousset, Alix; Roussel, Philippe; Dossetto, Nathalie; Cammilleri, Serge; Piano, Virginie; Khalfa, Stéphanie; Mundler, Olivier; Donnet, Anne; Guedj, Eric

2014-04-08

This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study investigated the impact of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on quality of life (QoL) of patients with fibromyalgia, and its possible brain metabolic substrate. Thirty-eight patients were randomly assigned to receive high-frequency rTMS (n = 19) or sham stimulation (n = 19), applied to left primary motor cortex in 14 sessions over 10 weeks. Primary clinical outcomes were QoL changes at the end of week 11, measured using the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). Secondary clinical outcomes were mental and physical QoL component measured using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), but also pain, mood, and anxiety. Resting-state [(18)F]-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET metabolism was assessed at baseline, week 2, and week 11. Whole-brain voxel-based analysis was performed to study between-group metabolic changes over time. At week 11, patients of the active rTMS group had greater QoL improvement in the FIQ (p = 0.032) and in the mental component of the SF-36 (p = 0.019) than the sham stimulation group. No significant impact was found for other clinical outcomes. Compared with the sham stimulation group, patients of the active rTMS group presented an increase in right medial temporal metabolism between baseline and week 11 (p FIQ and mental component SF-36 concomitant changes (r = -0.38, p = 0.043; r = 0.51, p = 0.009, respectively). QoL improvement involved mainly affective, emotional, and social dimensions. Our study shows that rTMS improves QoL of patients with fibromyalgia. This improvement is associated with a concomitant increase in right limbic metabolism, arguing for a neural substrate to the impact of rTMS on emotional dimensions involved in QoL. This study provides Class II evidence that rTMS compared with sham rTMS improves QoL in patients with fibromyalgia.

A Global System for Transportation Simulation and Visualization in Emergency Evacuation Scenarios

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Lu, Wei [ORNL; Liu, Cheng [ORNL; Thomas, Neil [ORNL; Bhaduri, Budhendra L [ORNL; Han, Lee [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

2015-01-01

Simulation-based studies are frequently used for evacuation planning and decision making processes. Given the transportation systems complexity and data availability, most evacuation simulation models focus on certain geographic areas. With routine improvement of OpenStreetMap road networks and LandScanTM global population distribution data, we present WWEE, a uniform system for world-wide emergency evacuation simulations. WWEE uses unified data structure for simulation inputs. It also integrates a super-node trip distribution model as the default simulation parameter to improve the system computational performance. Two levels of visualization tools are implemented for evacuation performance analysis, including link-based macroscopic visualization and vehicle-based microscopic visualization. For left-hand and right-hand traffic patterns in different countries, the authors propose a mirror technique to experiment with both scenarios without significantly changing traffic simulation models. Ten cities in US, Europe, Middle East, and Asia are modeled for demonstration. With default traffic simulation models for fast and easy-to-use evacuation estimation and visualization, WWEE also retains the capability of interactive operation for users to adopt customized traffic simulation models. For the first time, WWEE provides a unified platform for global evacuation researchers to estimate and visualize their strategies performance of transportation systems under evacuation scenarios.

Neurons Responsive to Global Visual Motion Have Unique Tuning Properties in Hummingbirds.

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Gaede, Andrea H; Goller, Benjamin; Lam, Jessica P M; Wylie, Douglas R; Altshuler, Douglas L

2017-01-23

Neurons in animal visual systems that respond to global optic flow exhibit selectivity for motion direction and/or velocity. The avian lentiformis mesencephali (LM), known in mammals as the nucleus of the optic tract (NOT), is a key nucleus for global motion processing [1-4]. In all animals tested, it has been found that the majority of LM and NOT neurons are tuned to temporo-nasal (back-to-front) motion [4-11]. Moreover, the monocular gain of the optokinetic response is higher in this direction, compared to naso-temporal (front-to-back) motion [12, 13]. Hummingbirds are sensitive to small visual perturbations while hovering, and they drift to compensate for optic flow in all directions [14]. Interestingly, the LM, but not other visual nuclei, is hypertrophied in hummingbirds relative to other birds [15], which suggests enhanced perception of global visual motion. Using extracellular recording techniques, we found that there is a uniform distribution of preferred directions in the LM in Anna's hummingbirds, whereas zebra finch and pigeon LM populations, as in other tetrapods, show a strong bias toward temporo-nasal motion. Furthermore, LM and NOT neurons are generally classified as tuned to "fast" or "slow" motion [10, 16, 17], and we predicted that most neurons would be tuned to slow visual motion as an adaptation for slow hovering. However, we found the opposite result: most hummingbird LM neurons are tuned to fast pattern velocities, compared to zebra finches and pigeons. Collectively, these results suggest a role in rapid responses during hovering, as well as in velocity control and collision avoidance during forward flight of hummingbirds. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessment of Quality of Life (QOL) in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Dysthymic Disorder (DD): A Comparative Study.

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Vasudev, Roopesh Gopal Nariyandada; Yallappa, Sudarshan Chikkanayakanahalli; Saya, Ganesh Kumar

2015-05-01

There is paucity of data on Quality of Life (QOL) in non-psychotic mental disorders. To assess the Quality of Life (QOL) in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and compare it with Dysthymic Disorder (DD). This hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted in 30 patients each diagnosed to have OCD and DD during October 2009 to September 2011 in a medical institution in Davanagere, Karnataka, India. DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic statistical manual-IV-Text Revised) criteria was used for diagnosis of OCD and DD. Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and WHO QOL BREF (brief form) scales were used. Data was analysed by independent sample t-test. Overall QOL score was 51.07(SD=11.47) and 50.91(SD=7.41) in OCD and DD groups respectively. QOL score was comparatively low in psychological domain with score of 44.12(SD=14.14) and 45.10(12.35) in OCD and DD respectively. There was no significant difference in the QOL score of the two groups with respect to socio demographic variables in OCD group, but it was different with respect to place of residence in DD group (p0.05). Overall QOL score was average and there was no significant difference of QOL score between the OCD and DD groups implying that both these non-psychotic mental disorders may have same influence or effect on QOL of the subjects. Further analytical studies will explore the associated factors of QOL in OCD and DD.

Comparison of QOL between patients with different degenerative dementias, focusing especially on positive and negative affect.

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Kurisu, Kairi; Terada, Seishi; Oshima, Etsuko; Horiuchi, Makiko; Imai, Nao; Yabe, Mayumi; Yokota, Osamu; Ishihara, Takeshi; Yamada, Norihito

2016-08-01

Quality of life (QOL) has become an important outcome measure in the care of dementia patients. However, there have been few studies focusing on the difference in QOL between different dementias. Two-hundred seventy-nine consecutive outpatients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) or frontotemporal dementia (FTD) were recruited. The QOL was evaluated objectively using the QOL Questionnaire for Dementia (QOL-D).The QOL-D comprises six domains: positive affect, negative affect and actions, communication, restlessness, attachment to others, and spontaneity. General cognition, daily activities, and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia were also evaluated. The scores of positive affect of QOL-D of AD patients were significantly higher than those of patients with DLB or FTD (AD 3.1 ± 0.8, DLB 2.6 ± 0.9, FTD 2.6 ± 0.7). The scores of negative affect and action of QOL-D of FTD patients were significantly higher than those of patients with AD or DLB (FTD 2.0 ± 0.8, AD 1.4 ± 0.5, DLB 1.5 ± 0.6). The apathy scores of FTD and DLB patients were significantly higher than those of patients with AD. The disinhibition scores of FTD patients were significantly higher than those of patients with AD or DLB. The apathy of FTD and DLB patients and depression of DLB patients might affect the lower positive affect of FTD and DLB patients compared to AD patients. The disinhibition of FTD patients might affect the abundance of negative affect & actions in FTD patients compared to AD and DLB patients.

Quality of life assessment in cosmetics: specificity and interest of the international BeautyQol instrument.

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Beresniak, Ariel; Auray, Jean-Paul; Duru, Gérard; Aractingi, Selim; Krueger, Gerald G; Talarico, Sergio; Tsutani, Kiichiro; Dupont, Danielle; de Linares, Yolaine

2015-09-01

The wide use of cosmetics and their perceived benefits upon well-being imply objective descriptions of their effects upon the different dimensions contributing to the quality of life (QoL). Such a goal pleas for using relevant and validated scientific instruments with robust measurement methods. This paper discusses the interest of the new validated questionnaire BeautyQoL specifically designed to assess the effect of cosmetic products on physical appearance and QoL. After conducting a review of skin appearance and QoL, three phases of the international codevelopment have been carried out in the following sequence: semi-directed interviews (Phase 1), acceptability study (Phase 2), and validation study (Phase 3). Data collection and validation process have been carried out in 16 languages. This review confirms that QoL instruments developed in dermatology are not suitable to assess cosmetic products, mainly because of their lack of sensitivity. General acceptability of BeautyQol was very good. Forty-two questions have been structured in five dimensions that explained 76.7% of the total variance: Social Life, Self-confidence, Mood, Vitality, and Attractiveness. Cronbach's alpha coefficients are between 0.932 and 0.978, confirming the good internal consistency of the results. The BeautyQol questionnaire is the first international instrument specific to cosmetic products and physical appearance that has been validated in 16 languages and could be used in a number of clinical trials and descriptive studies to demonstrate the added value of these products on the QoL. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Methodology for the development and calibration of the SCI-QOL item banks.

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Tulsky, David S; Kisala, Pamela A; Victorson, David; Choi, Seung W; Gershon, Richard; Heinemann, Allen W; Cella, David

2015-05-01

To develop a comprehensive, psychometrically sound, and conceptually grounded patient reported outcomes (PRO) measurement system for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Individual interviews (n=44) and focus groups (n=65 individuals with SCI and n=42 SCI clinicians) were used to select key domains for inclusion and to develop PRO items. Verbatim items from other cutting-edge measurement systems (i.e. PROMIS, Neuro-QOL) were included to facilitate linkage and cross-population comparison. Items were field tested in a large sample of individuals with traumatic SCI (n=877). Dimensionality was assessed with confirmatory factor analysis. Local item dependence and differential item functioning were assessed, and items were calibrated using the item response theory (IRT) graded response model. Finally, computer adaptive tests (CATs) and short forms were administered in a new sample (n=245) to assess test-retest reliability and stability. A calibration sample of 877 individuals with traumatic SCI across five SCI Model Systems sites and one Department of Veterans Affairs medical center completed SCI-QOL items in interview format. We developed 14 unidimensional calibrated item banks and 3 calibrated scales across physical, emotional, and social health domains. When combined with the five Spinal Cord Injury--Functional Index physical function banks, the final SCI-QOL system consists of 22 IRT-calibrated item banks/scales. Item banks may be administered as CATs or short forms. Scales may be administered in a fixed-length format only. The SCI-QOL measurement system provides SCI researchers and clinicians with a comprehensive, relevant and psychometrically robust system for measurement of physical-medical, physical-functional, emotional, and social outcomes. All SCI-QOL instruments are freely available on Assessment CenterSM.

Translation and validation of a Japanese version of the irritable bowel syndrome-quality of life measure (IBS-QOL-J

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Hongo Michio

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Aims To compare quality of life (QOL for patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS between the U.S. and Japan, it is indispensable to develop common instruments. The IBS-QOL, which is widely used in Western countries, was translated into Japanese as there has been a lack of Japanese disease-specific QOL measures for IBS. Methods The original 34 items of the IBS-QOL were translated from English into Japanese through two independent forward translations, resolution, back translation, and resolution of differences. Forty nine patients who had GI symptoms but did not have any organic diseases (including 30 IBS patients diagnosed by Rome II criteria were recruited from Tohoku University Hospital in Sendai, Japan and completed a Japanese version of the IBS-QOL (IBS-QOL-J concomitant with a Japanese version of the IBS severity index (IBSSI-J twice within 7–14 days. Results The IBS-QOL-J demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha; 0.96 and high reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient; 0.92, p Conclusion The IBS-QOL-J is a reliable instrument to assess the disease-specific QOL for IBS. Considering cross-cultural comparison, this measure is likely to be a valuable tool to investigate the QOL in Japanese patients with IBS.

The Assessment of the Quality of Life in Visually Impaired People with Different Level of Physical Activity

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Kamelska Anna Malwina

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Quality of life (QOL is associated with factors such as health, physical functioning, life satisfaction, a sense of happiness, and others. In case of disabled people, much attention is paid to their QOL rather than only the improvement of physiological variables. In a group of blind and visually impaired people, the effect of physical activity (PA on the socialization process, the ability to explore own personality traits, developing creativity, and more motivation and desire to overcome the difficulties associated with visual impairment were observed.

The QOL-DASS Model to Estimate Overall Quality of Life and General Health

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Mehrdad Mazaheri

2011-01-01

Full Text Available "n Objective: In order to find how rating the WHOQOL-BREF and DASS scales are combined to produce an overall measure of quality of life and satisfaction with health rating, a QOL-DASS model was designed ; and the strength of this hypothesized model was examined using the structural equation modeling "n "nMethod: Participants included a sample of 103 voluntary males who were divided into two groups of unhealthy (N=55 and healthy (N=48. To assess satisfaction and negative  emotions of depression, anxiety and stress among the participants, they were asked to fill out the WHOQOLBREF and The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-42. "nResults: Our findings on running the hypothesized model of QOL-DASS indicated that the proposed model of QOL-DASS fitted the data well for the both healthy and unhealthy groups "nConclusion: Our findings with CFA to evaluate the hypothesized model of QOL-DASS indicated that the different satisfaction domain ratings and the negative emotions of depression, anxiety and stress as the observed variables can represent the underlying constructs of general health and quality of life on both healthy and unhealthy groups.

QOL in caregivers of Japanese patients with Prader-Willi syndrome with reference to age and genotype.

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Ihara, Hiroshi; Ogata, Hiroyuki; Sayama, Masayuki; Kato, Aya; Gito, Masao; Murakami, Nobuyuki; Kido, Yasuhiro; Nagai, Toshiro

2014-09-01

This study aimed to measure quality of life (QOL) of the primary family caregivers for patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Comparisons were made between caregivers' QOL in regard to their dependents' genotype and age group. The participants with PWS consisted of 22 children (aged from 6 to 12 years) and 23 adolescents (aged from 13 to 19 years), including 6 children and 7 adolescents with maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD) and 16 children and 16 adolescents with deletion (DEL). The QOL of the primary family caregiver for each patient was assessed using the Japanese version of the WHOQOL-BREF. To examine the effect that age (children vs. adolescents) and genotype (DEL vs. mUPD) have on the QOL of caregivers, a two-way ANOVA was conducted, followed by the Bonferroni procedure to test the simple main effects. The two age groups and the two genotypes of PWS were used as independent variables and the total QOL of caregivers as a dependent variable. The two-way ANOVA (F(1, 41) = 6.98, P caregivers of DEL adolescents showed little difference from that with DEL children, but the QOL of caregivers for mUPD adolescents was shown to be lower than that with mUPD children along with that of caregivers with DEL adolescents. There is hence a growing tendency for the deterioration in the QOL of caregivers to manifest itself later in the patients' adolescence, found mainly with mUPD patients. © 2014 The Authors. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relationship Between Student QoL With Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Related Factors at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

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Asadi

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS is one of the most common functional disorders of the lower gastrointestinal tract characterized by abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits. This disorder changes the QoL (QoL for patients. Objectives This study examines the relationship between QoL for nursing students with other associated factors. Patients and Methods These descriptive-analytic studies indicate a census for 57 senior nursing students of the School of Nursing-Midwifery, Ahvaz in 2013–2014. The data from the demographic questionnaire and QoL questionnaire (QOL-34 was collected. Data using ANOVA and t-tests with significance level of P 0.05.While for QoL and academic Grade Point Average (P = 0.048, ethnicity (P = 0.006, disease duration (P = 0.049, and disease severity (P = 0.030 were significantly related . Conclusions It seems important to pay attention to health problems and to apply interventions that will influence QoL. Lifestyle changes and staying away from activities that are associated with tension stress can help to eliminate the symptoms and disease severity and improve the QoL for student.

The QOL-DASS Model to Estimate Overall Quality of Life and General Subjective Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazaheri, Mehrdad

2011-01-01

In Order to find how rating the WHOQOL-BREF and DASS scales are combined to produce an overall measure of quality of life and satisfaction with health rating, a QOL-DASS model was designed; and the strength of this hypothesized model was examined using the structural equation modeling. Participants included a sample of 103 voluntary males who were divided into two groups of unhealthy (N=55) and healthy (N=48). To assess satisfaction and negative emotions of depression, anxiety and stress among the participants, they were asked to fill out the WHOQOL-BREF and The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-42). Our findings on running the hypothesized model of QOL-DASS indicated that the proposed model of QOL-DASS fitted the data well for the both healthy and unhealthy groups. Our findings with CFA to evaluate the hypothesized model of QOL-DASS indicated that the different satisfaction domain ratings and the negative emotions of depression, anxiety and stress as the observed variables can represent the underlying constructs of general health and quality of life on both healthy and unhealthy groups.

Sociodemographic, disease status, and illness perceptions predictors of global self-ratings of health and quality of life among those with coronary heart disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aalto, Anna-Mari; Aro, Arja R; Weinman, John

2006-01-01

This one-year follow-up study (n = 130 at baseline, n =2745 at follow-up, aged 45-74 years) examined the relationship of patients' perceptions of coronary heart disease (CHD) and illness-related factors with global health status and global quality of life (QOL) ratings. The independent variables...... were CHD history (myocardial infarction, revascularisation), CHD severity (use of nitrates, CHD risk factors and co-morbidities) and illness perceptions. In multivariate regression analysis, CHD history and severity explained 13% of variance in global health status and 8% in global QOL ratings...... at the baseline. Illness perceptions increased the share of explained variance by 18% and 16% respectively. In the follow-up, illness perceptions explained a significant but modest share of variance in change in health status and QOL when baseline health status and QOL and CHD severity were adjusted for more...

Dysphagia-related quality of life in oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy: Psychometric properties of the SWAL-QOL instrument.

Science.gov (United States)

Youssof, Sarah; Romero-Clark, Carol; Warner, Teddy; Plowman, Emily

2017-07-01

The Swallowing Quality of Life instrument (SWAL-QOL) is a patient-reported outcome measure of swallowing-related quality of life (SR-QoL). Its psychometric properties in oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) are not known. We administered the SWAL-QOL to U.S. OPMD Registry participants. We described SR-QoL profiles and assessed reliability and validity. The mean composite score in 113 individuals with OPMD was 54.4 ± 20.7, indicating moderate impairment. Severe impairments were observed in eating duration, burden, and fatigue scales. Internal consistency reliability of all scales was found to be satisfactory, and 9 of 10 scales demonstrated adequate test-retest reliability. Data confirmed 86% of hypotheses, supporting construct validity. The SWAL-QOL limitations in OPMD include: floor/ceiling effects in 7 of 10 scales and low specificity of sleep, fatigue, and communication scales for dysphagia. SR-QoL is reduced in OPMD. Given several limitations of the SWAL-QOL, development of an improved dysphagia-specific QoL instrument for OPMD is warranted. Muscle Nerve 56: 28-35, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Navon's classical paradigm concerning local and global processing relates systematically to visual object classification performance.

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Gerlach, Christian; Poirel, Nicolas

2018-01-10

Forty years ago David Navon tried to tackle a central problem in psychology concerning the time course of perceptual processing: Do we first see the details (local level) followed by the overall outlay (global level) or is it rather the other way around? He did this by developing a now classical paradigm involving the presentation of compound stimuli; large letters composed of smaller letters. Despite the usefulness of this paradigm it remains uncertain whether effects found with compound stimuli relate directly to visual object recognition. It does so because compound stimuli are not actual objects but rather formations of elements and because the elements that form the global shape of compound stimuli are not features of the global shape but rather objects in their own right. To examine the relationship between performance on Navon's paradigm and visual object processing we derived two indexes from Navon's paradigm that reflect different aspects of the relationship between global and local processing. We find that individual differences on these indexes can explain a considerable amount of variance in two standard object classification paradigms; object decision and superordinate categorization, suggesting that Navon's paradigm does relate to visual object processing.

Validity and reliability of the TED-QOL: a new three-item questionnaire to assess quality of life in thyroid eye disease.

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Fayers, Tessa; Dolman, Peter J

2011-12-01

To develop and test a user-friendly questionnaire for rapidly assessing quality of life (QOL) in thyroid eye disease (TED). A three-item questionnaire, the TED-QOL, was designed and compared to the 16-item Graves Ophthalmopathy (GO)-QOL and the nine-item GO-Quality of Life Scale (QLS). 100 patients with TED were administered all three questionnaires on two occasions. Results were compared to clinical severity scores (Vision, Inflammation, Strabismus, Appearance (VISA) classification). Main outcomes were construct and criterion validity, test-retest reliability, duration, comprehension and completion rates. TED-QOL correlated strongly with the other questionnaires for corresponding items (Pearson correlation: appearance 0.71, 0.62; functioning 0.69, 0.66; overall QOL 0.53). Test-retest analysis demonstrated good reliability for all three questionnaires (intraclass correlations: TED-QOL 0.81, 0.74, 0.87; GO-QOL 0.81, 0.82; GO-QLS 0.74, 0.86, 0.67). TED-QOL was significantly faster to complete (1.6 min vs GO-QOL 3.1 min, GO-QLS 2.7 min, p<0.0001) and had a higher completion rate (100% vs GO-QOL 78%, GO-QLS 94%). There was only moderate correlation between items on all three questionnaires and VISA scores. The TED-QOL is rapid and easy to complete and analyse and has similar validity and reliability to longer questionnaires. All questionnaires showed only moderate correlation with disease severity, emphasising the discrepancy between objective and subjective assessments and the importance of measuring both.

Physical and Mental Quality of Life (QOL) in Chronic Pancreatitis(CP): A Case-Control Study from the NAPS2 cohort

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Amann, Stephen T.; Yadav, Dhiraj; Barmada, M. Micheal; O’Connell, Michael; Kennard, Elizabeth D.; Anderson, Michelle; Baillie, John; Sherman, Stuart; Romagnuolo, Joseph; Hawes, Robert H.; AlKaade, Samer; Brand, Randall E.; Lewis, Michele D.; Gardner, Timothy B.; Gelrud, Andres; Money, Mary E.; Banks, Peter A.; Slivka, Adam; Whitcomb, David C

2012-01-01

Objectives Define the Quality of Life (QOL) in chronic pancreatitis (CP) subjects Methods We studied 443 well phenotyped CP subjects and 611 controls prospectively enrolled from 20 US centers between 2000–2006 in the North American Pancreatitis Study 2 (NAPS2). Responses to the SF-12 questionnaire were used to calculate the Mental (MCS) and Physical component summary scores (PCS) with norm based scoring (normal ≥50). QOL in CP subjects was compared with controls after controlling for demographic factors, drinking history, smoking and medical conditions. QOL in CP was also compared with known scores for several chronic conditions. Results Both PCS (38±11.5 vs. 52±9.4) and MCS (44±11.5 vs. 51±9.2) were significantly lower in CP compared with controls (p<0.001). On multivariable analyses, compared to controls, a profound decrease in physical QOL (PCS 12.02 points lower) and a clinically significant decrease in mental QOL (MCS 4.24 points lower) was seen due to CP. QOL in CP was similar to (heart, kidney, liver, lung disease) or worse than (non-skin cancers, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis) other chronic conditions. Conclusions The impact of CP on QOL appears substantial. The QOL in CP subjects appears to be worse or similar to the QOL of many other chronic conditions. PMID:23357924

The Cerebral Palsy Quality of Life for Children (CP QOL-Child): Evidence of Construct Validity

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Chen, Kuan-Lin; Wang, Hui-Yi; Tseng, Mei-Hui; Shieh, Jeng-Yi; Lu, Lu; Yao, Kai-Ping Grace; Huang, Chien-Yu

2013-01-01

The Cerebral Palsy Quality of Life for Children (CP QOL-Child) is the first health condition-specific questionnaire designed for measuring QOL in children with cerebral palsy (CP). However, its construct validity has not yet been confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Hence, this study assessed the construct validity of the caregiver…

Combined discriminative global and generative local models for visual tracking

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Zhao, Liujun; Zhao, Qingjie; Chen, Yanming; Lv, Peng

2016-03-01

It is a challenging task to develop an effective visual tracking algorithm due to factors such as pose variation, rotation, and so on. Combined discriminative global and generative local appearance models are proposed to address this problem. Specifically, we develop a compact global object representation by extracting the low-frequency coefficients of the color and texture of the object based on two-dimensional discrete cosine transform. Then, with the global appearance representation, we learn a discriminative metric classifier in an online fashion to differentiate the target object from its background, which is very important to robustly indicate the changes in appearance. Second, we develop a new generative local model that exploits the scale invariant feature transform and its spatial geometric information. To make use of the advantages of the global discriminative model and the generative local model, we incorporate them into Bayesian inference framework. In this framework, the complementary models help the tracker locate the target more accurately. Furthermore, we use different mechanisms to update global and local templates to capture appearance changes. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach performs favorably against state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy.

[The relationship of quality of life (QOL) with physical fitness, competence and stress response in elderly in Japan].

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Uemura, Shinichi; Machida, Kazuhiki

2003-09-01

In order to evaluate the relationship of quality of life (QOL) with physical fitness, competence and stress response in the elderly population in Japan, a cross sectional field survey of elderly subjects was conducted. This survey was taken in Naguri village, Saitama. The data collected included physical fitness, competence, stress response and QOL in addition to demographic variables. As for physical fitness indexes, grip strength (GS), single leg balance with eyes closed (SLB), bar grip ping reaction time (RT), trunk flexion (RF), ten-meter walking time (WT) and vital capacity (VC) were measured. The SF-36 was used for QOL assessment. A total of 120 elderly subjected participated to the survey. There were 42 males (73.5 +/- 5.74 years) and 78 females (74.2 +/- 6.17 years). The associations between physical health parameters in SF-36 and WT were highly significant: physical functioning (beta = -2.96, p fit indexes of the structural equation model describing the relationships among physical fitness, competence, stress response and QOL indicated excellent fit to the data with GFI = 0.95 and AGFI = 0.88. Stress response showed relatively stronger influence on QOL than physical fitness or competence. Although there were slight differences in degree of influence, physical fitness, stress response and competence were found to be clearly related to QOL in elderly subjects. To keep good QOL status, it is important to maintain good physical fitness and level of competence and to reduce stress response.

The Validity and Reliability Test of the Indonesian Version of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Quality of Life (GERD-QOL) Questionnaire.

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Siahaan, Laura A; Syam, Ari F; Simadibrata, Marcellus; Setiati, Siti

2017-01-01

to obtain a valid and reliable GERD-QOL questionnaire for Indonesian application. at the initial stage, the GERD-QOL questionnaire was first translated into Indonesian language and the translated questionnaire was subsequently translated back into the original language (back-to-back translation). The results were evaluated by the researcher team and therefore, an Indonesian version of GERD-QOL questionnaire was developed. Ninety-one patients who had been clinically diagnosed with GERD based on the Montreal criteria were interviewed using the Indonesian version of GERD-QOL questionnaire and the SF 36 questionnaire. The validity was evaluated using a method of construct validity and external validity, and reliability can be tested by the method of internal consistency and test retest. the Indonesian version of GERD-QOL questionnaire had a good internal consistency reliability with a Cronbach Alpha of 0.687-0.842 and a good test retest reliability with an intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.756-0.936; pGERD-QOL questionnaire has been proven valid and reliable to evaluate the quality of life of GERD patients.

Exploring the quality of life (QOL) in the Indian software industry: a public health viewpoint.

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Jha, Ayan; Sadhukhan, Sanjoy Kumar; Velusamy, Saravanan; Banerjee, Gargi; Banerjee, Arpita; Saha, Amitava; Talukdar, Sumit

2012-04-01

Our objectives were to describe the QOL and its determinants among software professionals of Kolkata, and to compare the same according to information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sub-sectors. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among software professionals of Kolkata applying a two-stage stratified random sampling technique. The WHO QOL BREF questionnaire was administered along with a list of pertinent variables. Overall, the analysis for 338 software professionals (177 IT and 161 ITeS) clearly demonstrated significant differences between mean scores of these two sectors for each of the six outcome domains of WHO QOL BREF. Multilevel multivariate analysis outlined 13 significant predictors of QOL-four positive (age, regular fitness regimes, foreign placements and changing companies frequently) and the rest of the nine, negative (multiple sex partners, multiple addictions, extended working hours, night-shift duties, income, expenditure, carrying office work home, current illness and ITeS company type). Our study helps in obtaining a clear understanding of the multifaceted risk factors prevailing in this sector, the majority of which can be effectively addressed by specific health promotional interventions. A dedicated health policy is mandated at both government and company levels.

Validation of the prolapse quality-of-life questionnaire (P-QOL): An ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Afrikaans version of the P-QOL limits studies in Afrikaans-speaking patients with pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Objective. ... The Cronbach alpha was used to determine internal consistency and ... German,[11] ..... quality of life, and risk factors.

Sources of global climate data and visualization portals

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, David C.

2014-01-01

Climate is integral to the geophysical foundation upon which ecosystems are structured. Knowledge about mechanistic linkages between the geophysical and biological environments is essential for understanding how global warming may reshape contemporary ecosystems and ecosystem services. Numerous global data sources spanning several decades are available that document key geophysical metrics such as temperature and precipitation, and metrics of primary biological production such as vegetation phenology and ocean phytoplankton. This paper provides an internet directory to portals for visualizing or servers for downloading many of the more commonly used global datasets, as well as a description of how to write simple computer code to efficiently retrieve these data. The data are broadly useful for quantifying relationships between climate, habitat availability, and lower-trophic-level habitat quality - especially in Arctic regions where strong seasonality is accompanied by intrinsically high year-to-year variability. If defensible linkages between the geophysical (climate) and the biological environment can be established, general circulation model (GCM) projections of future climate conditions can be used to infer future biological responses. Robustness of this approach is, however, complicated by the number of direct, indirect, or interacting linkages involved. For example, response of a predator species to climate change will be influenced by the responses of its prey and competitors, and so forth throughout a trophic web. The complexities of ecological systems warrant sensible and parsimonious approaches for assessing and establishing the role of natural climate variability in order to substantiate inferences about the potential effects of global warming.

Validation of the quality of life-radiation therapy instrument (QOL-RTI) in patients receiving definitive radiation therapy for locally advanced prostate cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gwede, Clement; Friedland, Jay L.; Johnson, Darlene J.; Casey, Linda; Cantor, Alan; Sauder, Bonnie; Beres, Kathleen L.

1996-01-01

Purpose/Objective: The incidence of prostate cancer has tripled over the last 10 years, doubled over the last four years and continues to increase. A common method of treating prostate cancer is with external beam radiotherapy with or without hormones. Accurate and comprehensive documentation through prospective studies with long term follow-up is necessary to reduce the negative impact of treatment on a patient's quality of life. While it is increasingly recognized that radiation therapy treatment for prostate cancer may result in permanent alteration of the patient's quality of life, the extent and timing of this change in quality of life has not been adequately investigated in a comprehensive and prospective manner. Furthermore, there are limited instruments developed for use with patients undergoing definitive radiotherapy. The purpose of this paper is to report on the validation of the Quality of Life Radiation Therapy Instrument (QOL-RTI), a 24-item visual analogue general quality of life tool developed for use with patients receiving radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: Health related quality of life was assessed in a prospective study of 62 patients treated with either combined hormonal therapy (HT) plus external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or EBRT alone for locally advanced prostate cancer. Quality life was measured prospectively before, during, and after radiation therapy. Results: The estimated reliability of the subscales was assessed with coefficient alpha which ranged from 0.57 to 0.68. Internal consistency was calculated using initial questionnaires for the entire sample, yielding a Cronbach's alpha of 0.82. Test-retest produced a correlation coefficient of 0.75 (p<0.0001) [n=60]. Construct validity was assessed by a repeated measures design to look for time effect, group effect, group and time interaction effect. We examined quality of life total scores, subscale total scores and performance status scores for patients who were treated with HT+ EBRT and

NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services - Technologies for Visualizing Earth Science Data

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Cechini, M. F.; Boller, R. A.; Baynes, K.; Schmaltz, J. E.; Thompson, C. K.; Roberts, J. T.; Rodriguez, J.; Wong, M. M.; King, B. A.; King, J.; De Luca, A. P.; Pressley, N. N.

2017-12-01

For more than 20 years, the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) has collected earth science data for thousands of scientific parameters now totaling nearly 15 Petabytes of data. In 2013, NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) formed its vision to "transform how end users interact and discover [EOS] data through visualizations." This vision included leveraging scientific and community best practices and standards to provide a scalable, compliant, and authoritative source for EOS earth science data visualizations. Since that time, GIBS has grown quickly and now services millions of daily requests for over 500 imagery layers representing hundreds of earth science parameters to a broad community of users. For many of these parameters, visualizations are available within hours of acquisition from the satellite. For others, visualizations are available for the entire mission of the satellite. The GIBS system is built upon the OnEarth and MRF open source software projects, which are provided by the GIBS team. This software facilitates standards-based access for compliance with existing GIS tools. The GIBS imagery layers are predominantly rasterized images represented in two-dimensional coordinate systems, though multiple projections are supported. The OnEarth software also supports the GIBS ingest pipeline to facilitate low latency updates to new or updated visualizations. This presentation will focus on the following topics: Overview of GIBS visualizations and user community Current benefits and limitations of the OnEarth and MRF software projects and related standards GIBS access methods and their in/compatibilities with existing GIS libraries and applications Considerations for visualization accuracy and understandability Future plans for more advanced visualization concepts including Vertical Profiles and Vector-Based Representations Future plans for Amazon Web Service support and deployments

Quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia: validation and psychometric properties of the German Quality of Life Scale (QOLS-G).

Science.gov (United States)

Offenbächer, Martin; Sauer, Sebastian; Kohls, Niko; Waltz, Millard; Schoeps, Peter

2012-10-01

Our objectives were to translate the Quality of Life Scale (QOLS) into German and to evaluate its reliability and validity for the use in patients with fibromyalgia (FMS). Together with German versions of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), the SF-36, a tender point count (TPC) and other questionnaires, we administered the QOLS to 146 patients with FMS. Patients were asked about the severity of pain today (VAS) and the duration of symptoms. Test-retest reliability was assessed using Spearman's correlations. Internal consistency was evaluated with Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity of the QOLS was evaluated by correlating the QOLS with the FIQ, the SF-36, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) as well as with the pain variables. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was also conducted. Mean age was 53.1 years. Means were for pain today 6.8 and for duration of symptoms 11.8 years. Test-retest reliability for the total QOLS was rho = .91. Internal consistency was α = .90. Low-to-moderate correlations were obtained between the QOLS and the total FIQ (rho = -.42), the SF-36 (e.g. physical functioning rho = .37; mental health rho = .56) as well as the pain variables (VAS rho = -.11 ns; TPC rho = -.20). Psychological variables were moderately to substantially correlated with the QOLS (e.g. BDI rho = -.61). An EFA suggested a three-factor solution. The QOLS-G is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring quality of life in German patients with FMS.

Can Global Visual Features Improve Tag Recommendation for Image Annotation?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oge Marques

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Recent advances in the fields of digital photography, networking and computing, have made it easier than ever for users to store and share photographs. However without sufficient metadata, e.g., in the form of tags, photos are difficult to find and organize. In this paper, we describe a system that recommends tags for image annotation. We postulate that the use of low-level global visual features can improve the quality of the tag recommendation process when compared to a baseline statistical method based on tag co-occurrence. We present results from experiments conducted using photos and metadata sourced from the Flickr photo website that suggest that the use of visual features improves the mean average precision (MAP of the system and increases the system's ability to suggest different tags, therefore justifying the associated increase in complexity.

Preserved visual lexicosemantics in global aphasia: a right-hemisphere contribution?

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Gold, B T; Kertesz, A

2000-12-01

Extensive testing of a patient, GP, who encountered large-scale destruction of left-hemisphere (LH) language regions was undertaken in order to address several issues concerning the ability of nonperisylvian areas to extract meaning from printed words. Testing revealed recognition of superordinate boundaries of animals, tools, vegetables, fruit, clothes, and furniture. GP was able to distinguish proper names from other nouns and from nonwords. GP was also able to differentiate words representing living things from those denoting nonliving things. The extent of LH infarct resulting in a global impairment to phonological and syntactic processing suggests LH specificity for these functions but considerable right-hemisphere (RH) participation in visual lexicosemantic processing. The relative preservation of visual lexicosemantic abilities despite severe impairment to all aspects of phonological coding demonstrates the importance of the direct route to the meaning of single printed words.

Life in unexpected places: Employing visual thinking strategies in global health training.

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, Jill; Mulay, Shree; Kidd, Monica

2017-01-01

The desire to make meaning out of images, metaphor, and other representations indicates higher-order cognitive skills that can be difficult to teach, especially in the complex and unfamiliar environments like those encountered in many global health experiences. Because reflecting on art can help develop medical students' imaginative and interpretive skills, we used visual thinking strategies (VTS) during an immersive 4-week global health elective for medical students to help them construct new understanding of the social determinants of health in a low-resource setting. We were aware of no previous formal efforts to use art in global health training. We assembled a group of eight medical students in front of a street mural in Kathmandu and used VTS methods to interpret the scene with respect to the social determinants of health. We recorded and transcribed the conversation and conducted a thematic analysis of student responses. Students shared observations about the mural in a supportive, nonjudgmental fashion. Two main themes emerged from their observations: those of human-environment interactions (specifically community dynamics, subsistence land use, resources, and health) and entrapment/control, particularly relating to expectations of, and demands on, women in traditional farming communities. They used the images as well as their experience in Nepali communities to consolidate complex community health concepts. VTS helped students articulate their deepening understanding of the social determinants of health in Nepal, suggesting that reflection on visual art can help learners apply, analyze, and evaluate complex concepts in global health. We demonstrate the relevance of drawing upon many aspects of cultural learning, regarding art as a kind of text that holds valuable information. These findings may help provide innovative opportunities for teaching and evaluating global health training in the future.

Clinical Utility and Psychometric Properties of the Traumatic Brain Injury Quality of Life Scale (TBI-QOL) in US Military Service Members.

Science.gov (United States)

Lange, Rael T; Brickell, Tracey A; Bailie, Jason M; Tulsky, David S; French, Louis M

2016-01-01

To examine the clinical utility and psychometric properties of the Traumatic Brain Injury Quality of Life (TBI-QOL) scale in a US military population. One hundred fifty-two US military service members (age: M = 34.3, SD = 9.4; 89.5% men) prospectively enrolled from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other nationwide community outreach initiatives. Participants included 99 service members who had sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 53 injured or noninjured controls without TBI (n = 29 and n = 24, respectively). Participants completed the TBI-QOL scale and 5 other behavioral measures, on average, 33.8 months postinjury (SD = 37.9). Fourteen TBI-QOL subscales; Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian version; Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test; Combat Exposure Scale. The internal consistency reliability of the TBI-QOL scales ranged from α = .91 to α = .98. The convergent and discriminant validity of the 14 TBI-QOL subscales was high. The mild TBI group had significantly worse scores on 10 of the 14 TBI-QOL subscales than the control group (range, P quality of life in a mild TBI military sample. Additional research is recommended to further evaluate the clinical utility of the TBI-QOL scale in both military and civilian settings.

Validity, reliability, and factor analysis of Persian version of quality of life questionnaire for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-QOL-34

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nasrine Masaeli

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Quality of life (QOL improvement is the main objective of treating patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS. This study aimed to assess the validity, reliability, and factor analysis of IBS-QOL-34 questionnaire as a common transcultural instrument for Iranian IBS patients. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and forty patients with IBS (based on gastroenterologists′ diagnosis according to ROM III criteria were referred to Digestive Health Clinic in Psychosomatic Research Center have been selected in this study. Aside with IBS-QOL-34, MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36 and IBS severity index (IBSSI questionnaires were completed by the cases for determination of correlation coefficients; the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, Cronbach′s alpha, Pearson correlation coefficient by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS software, version 18. Results: Total reliability of the questionnaire was reported by using Cronbach′s alpha as 0.95, ranging from 0.65 to 0.90. Correlation coefficients of concurrent implementation of IBS-QOL with SF-36 and IBSSI resulted in −0.61 and 0.64, respectively. Exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation identified eight principle components, which will determine QOL at 67% variance. Conclusion: According to the results, IBS-QOL-34 questionnaire has good psychometric properties in the research community and can be safely used as a valid tool to assess QOL of patients with IBS for healthcare and therapeutic purposes.

Validation and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Quality of Life Scale (QOLS) in patients with fibromyalgia.

Science.gov (United States)

Latorre-Román, Pedro A; Martínez-Amat, Antonio; Martínez-López, Emilio; Moral, Angel; Santos, María A; Hita-Contreras, Fidel

2014-04-01

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic disease associated with high disability levels, which in turn lead to low quality of life (QOL). The objectives of this study were to translate the Quality of Life Scale (QOLS) into Spanish and to assess its reliability and validity for its use in patients with FM. A total of 140 women are suffering from FM (52.87 ± 9.35 years old). All belonged to an association of FM patients (AFIXA, Jaén, Spain). The Spanish versions of the FM impact questionnaire (FIQ), the SF-36, and Beck's Depression Inventory were used to assess them. The construct's validity was checked by means of exploratory factorial analysis (varimax with Kaiser normalization). Test-retest reliability was assessed through intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and convergent validity through Spearman's correlation. Results show that Cronbach's alpha was 0.887, which revealed high internal consistency. The value of ICC for the QOLS total was 0.765 (95 % CI 0.649-0.843, p < 0.001). QOLS presented a significant Spearman's correlation (p < 0.01) with Beck's Inventory, with the physical and mental subtotals of SF-36 and with FIQ. The main component analysis and the varimax rotation revealed the convergence on three factors that account for 54.05 % of variance. Taking into account the severity of the disorder, significant differences (p < 0.05) appeared in QOLS, with moderately afflicted patients getting higher scores than the most severe cases. In conclusion, our study shows that the Spanish version of the QOLS is a reliable instrument, with a good convergent and discriminant construct validity, for measuring the QOL of Spanish FM patients.

Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Bladder Management Difficulties and Bowel Management Difficulties item banks and short forms and the SCI-QOL Bladder Complications scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Tulsky, David S; Kisala, Pamela A; Tate, Denise G; Spungen, Ann M; Kirshblum, Steven C

2015-05-01

To describe the development and psychometric properties of the Spinal Cord Injury--Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Bladder Management Difficulties and Bowel Management Difficulties item banks and Bladder Complications scale. Using a mixed-methods design, a pool of items assessing bladder and bowel-related concerns were developed using focus groups with individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) and SCI clinicians, cognitive interviews, and item response theory (IRT) analytic approaches, including tests of model fit and differential item functioning. Thirty-eight bladder items and 52 bowel items were tested at the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation Research Center, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital, and the James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY. Seven hundred fifty-seven adults with traumatic SCI. The final item banks demonstrated unidimensionality (Bladder Management Difficulties CFI=0.965; RMSEA=0.093; Bowel Management Difficulties CFI=0.955; RMSEA=0.078) and acceptable fit to a graded response IRT model. The final calibrated Bladder Management Difficulties bank includes 15 items, and the final Bowel Management Difficulties item bank consists of 26 items. Additionally, 5 items related to urinary tract infections (UTI) did not fit with the larger Bladder Management Difficulties item bank but performed relatively well independently (CFI=0.992, RMSEA=0.050) and were thus retained as a separate scale. The SCI-QOL Bladder Management Difficulties and Bowel Management Difficulties item banks are psychometrically robust and are available as computer adaptive tests or short forms. The SCI-QOL Bladder Complications scale is a brief, fixed-length outcomes instrument for individuals with a UTI.

QOL models constructed for the community-dwelling elderly with ikigai (purpose in life) as a composition factor, and the effect of habitual exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Demura, Shinichi; Kobayashi, Hidetsugu; Kitabayashi, Tamotsu

2005-09-01

The purpose of this study was to construct QOL models for the elderly that included ikigai as a composition factor and to clarify differences in two kinds of models, one constructed for the elderly with habitual exercise and the other for those without it. The subjects were 1,566 healthy community-dwelling independent people aged 60 years or more (752 males, 814 females). First, the ratio of subjects with ikigai was calculated. The ratios of subjects with different kinds of objects of ikigai were also calculated. Next, structural equation models (SEM) were constructed on the basis of social, physical, and mental QOL and ikigai. Fits of the models were evaluated. To examine whether the presence or absence of habitual exercise caused any difference in the QOL model, subjects were divided into 4 groups according to whether they were male or female and whether they had or did not have an exercise habit. Multi-population group simultaneous analysis was then performed among the four groups. More than 85% of the subjects had objects of ikigai. Ikigai is an important factor for comprehending the QOL of the elderly. It was possible to construct QOL models for the elderly with ikigai as a composition factor. The effect of physical QOL on mental QOL was negligible in females irrespective of whether they had an exercise habit. The effect of social QOL on mental QOL was profound in aged females with an exercise habit. The effect of the living situation on mental QOL was profound in aged females without an exercise habit. The effect of mental QOL on ikigai was more marked in subjects without an exercise habit than in those with an exercise habit.

Personal goals and factors related to QoL in Dutch homeless people: what is the role of goal-related self-efficacy?

Science.gov (United States)

van der Laan, Jorien; Boersma, Sandra N; van Straaten, Barbara; Rodenburg, Gerda; van de Mheen, Dike; Wolf, Judith R L M

2017-05-01

Very little is known about the personal goals of homeless people and how these relate to their quality of life (QoL). By using survey data on 407 homeless adults upon entry to the social relief system in 2011, we examined the personal goals of homeless adults and the association between their perceived goal-related self-efficacy and their QoL. A hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyse the association between QoL and goal-related self-efficacy, relative to factors contributing to QoL, such as demographic characteristics, socioeconomic resources, health and service use. Results indicate that the majority of homeless adults had at least one personal goal for the coming 6 months and that most goals concerned housing and daily life (94.3%) and finances (83.6%). The QoL of homeless adults appeared to be lower in comparison with general population samples. General goal-related self-efficacy was positively related to QoL (β = 0.09, P = 0.042), independent of socioeconomic resources (i.e. income and housing), health and service use. The strongest predictors of QoL were psychological distress (β = -0.45, P people as the starting point of integrated service programmes and to promote their goal-related self-efficacy by strength-based interventions. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Access NASA Satellite Global Precipitation Data Visualization on YouTube

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Z.; Su, J.; Acker, J. G.; Huffman, G. J.; Vollmer, B.; Wei, J.; Meyer, D. J.

2017-12-01

Since the satellite era began, NASA has collected a large volume of Earth science observations for research and applications around the world. Satellite data at 12 NASA data centers can also be used for STEM activities such as disaster events, climate change, etc. However, accessing satellite data can be a daunting task for non-professional users such as teachers and students because of unfamiliarity of terminology, disciplines, data formats, data structures, computing resources, processing software, programing languages, etc. Over the years, many efforts have been developed to improve satellite data access, but barriers still exist for non-professionals. In this presentation, we will present our latest activity that uses the popular online video sharing web site, YouTube, to access visualization of global precipitation datasets at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC). With YouTube, users can access and visualize a large volume of satellite data without necessity to learn new software or download data. The dataset in this activity is the 3-hourly TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA). The video consists of over 50,000 data files collected since 1998 onwards, covering a zone between 50°N-S. The YouTube video will last 36 minutes for the entire dataset record (over 19 years). Since the time stamp is on each frame of the video, users can begin at any time by dragging the time progress bar. This precipitation animation will allow viewing precipitation events and processes (e.g., hurricanes, fronts, atmospheric rivers, etc.) on a global scale. The next plan is to develop a similar animation for the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG). The IMERG provides precipitation on a near-global (60°N-S) coverage at half-hourly time interval, showing more details on precipitation processes and development, compared to the 3

Validity and QOL of neck dissection preceding radiation therapy for hypopharyngeal cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uemura, Hirokazu; Yoshino, Kunitoshi; Fujii, Takashi; Suzuki, Motoyuki

2009-01-01

Thirty-one cases of hypopharyngeal cancer with neck dissection preceding radiation and 16 cases of hypopharyngeal cancer with neck dissection for locoregional recurrences after radiation were reviewed in order to make comparative evaluations of difficulty in surgical operation, postoperative complications, laryngeal preservation rate, and cause specific 5-year survival rate retrospectively. And quality of life (QOL) after neck dissection was additionally evaluated through the questionnaire. Since neck dissection preceding radiation for hypopharyngeal cancer may be superior to neck dissection for radiation failure, with easy surgical approach an non-lymphoid tissue preservation, that modality can be a reasonable choice of treatment for patients with nodal lesions, which are probably difficult to treat with radiation alone. Even though further investigation on QOL questionnaire is necessary, this modality can make a contribution to the neck and shoulder condition after neck dissection. (author)

Domain-Specific Ratings of Importance and Global Self-Worth of Children with Visual Impairments

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, Deborah R.; Moffett, Aaron; Lieberman, Lauren; Dummer, Gail M.

2008-01-01

This study examined perceived competence; ratings of importance of physical appearance, athletic competence, and social acceptance; discrepancy scores; and global self-worth of 43 children with visual impairments. The findings revealed that the children discounted the importance of physical appearance, athletic competence, and social acceptance…

Translation and validation of the Uterine Fibroid Symptom and Quality of Life (UFS-QOL questionnaire for the Brazilian Portuguese language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luiz Gustavo Oliveira Brito

2017-03-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Uterine fibroids (UF, also known as leiomyomas, are the most prevalent gynecological tumors. The Uterine Fibroid Symptoms and Quality of Life (UFS-QOL is the only specific questionnaire that assesses symptom intensity and quality-of-life issues for women with symptomatic UF; however, it only exists in the English language. Thus, we aimed to translate and culturally validate the UFS-QOL questionnaire for the Brazilian Portuguese language. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, FMRP-USP. METHODS: 113 patients with UF (case group and 55 patients without UF (control group were interviewed using the UFS-QOL questionnaire after translation and cultural adaptation. The Short Form-36 questionnaire was used as a control. Demographic and psychometric variables were analyzed. RESULTS: Women with UF presented higher mean age, body mass index, weight, parity and comorbidities than the control group (P < 0.05. The most prevalent complaints were abnormal uterine bleeding (93.8%, pelvic pain (36.3% and extrinsic compression (10.6% and these presented adequate construct validity regarding UFS-QOL severity (P < 0.05. The UFS-QOL questionnaire presented good internal consistency regarding symptom severity and quality-of-life-related domains (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC = 0.82/0.88. Structural validity presented correlation coefficients ranging from 0.59 to 0.91. Test-retest comparison did not show differences among the UFS-QOL subscales. After treatment, women with UF presented improvements on all subscales. CONCLUSION: The UFS-QOL questionnaire presented adequate translation to the Brazilian Portuguese language, with good internal consistency, discriminant validity, construct validity, structural validity and responsiveness, along with adequate test-retest results.

Measuring the quality of life of people with dementia in nursing homes in Germany - the study protocol for the Qol-Dem Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Dichter, Martin Nikolaus; Halek, Margareta; Dortmann, Olga; Meyer, Gabriele; Bartholomeyczik, Sabine

2013-01-01

QUALIDEM is a standardized dementia-specific quality of life (Qol) measurement, which was developed and validated in the Netherlands. A German version has been available since 2008. This study protocol describes the design and methodology for the quality of life of people with dementia (Qol-Dem) project. This project aims to evaluate the reliability and validity of the German version of the QUALIDEM. Due to the lack of both a universal definition of Qol and of standards to verify the validity of Qol measurements, this study is divided into three phases. The aim of the first theoretical phase is the development of a dementia-specific Qol model as a result of a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. The second empirical phase consists of the three following steps: (a) an investigation of the scalability and internal consistency of the measure, (b) an evaluation of the interrater and intrarater reliability, and (c) an extensive evaluation of the validity of the QUALIDEM. The resulting Qol model (phase 1) will be used for the selection of appropriate comparators for validity testing. In the third phase, the QUALIDEM will be adapted, if necessary, based on the knowledge generated in the first two phases. The findings of the Qol-Dem project should deliver an accurate assessment of the psychometric properties of the German version of the QUALIDEM. The results will contribute to the further development of the instrument. Furthermore, the results will contribute to the theoretical development of the concept of Qol among people with dementia.

Determinants of quality of life (QoL) and quality of university life (QuL) in Malaysian public university students

Science.gov (United States)

Haron, Halilah; Osman, Balkish Mohd; Maidinsah, Hamidah; Sari, Maznita Maksari @ Md; Zaki, Nurul Qusna Mohd

2015-02-01

Quality of life (QoL) refers to the degree of satisfaction, or the sense of well being, people experience in organizations including universities. The quality of life students experience in a university increases when they believe their needs are aligned with the goals of the university because they perceive that the university is responsive to their needs. Quality of University Life (QuL) refers to the students' ability to stabilize their life regarding social activities, academic performance, health and spiritual. A study was undertaken to investigate the accountability of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia, in terms of teaching and learning. The objective of this paper is to identify and evaluate the determinants of QoL and QuL measurement models. Data from 788 students who responded to a set of questionnaire were collected from nine faculties. Factor analysis performed on the data resulted in six determinants for QuL; friendly, skills, satisfaction, interest, learning and feeling. Only two determinants, environment and quality represented QoL. Results indicated that the measures were highly reliable (in terms of internal consistency) based on Cronbach Alpha values ranging from 0.705 to 0.905 for QuL and 0.826 to 0.888 for QoL. Construct validity was supported by Average Variance Extraction values of more than 0.5 for QuL (0.481 - 0.724) and QoL. (0.503 and 0.519). The construct reliability (CR) values ranging between 0.623 to 0.882 for QuL and 0.731 to 0.815 for QoL suggested good reliability construct.

Testing the interval-level measurement property of multi-item visual analogue scales

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krabbe, Paul F M; Stalmeier, Peep F M; Lamers, Leida M; Busschbach, Jan J V

2006-01-01

BACKGROUND: Conditions were studied that may invalidate health-state values derived from the visual analogue scale (VAS). METHODS: Respondents were asked to place cards with descriptions of EQ-5D health states on a 20 cm EuroQol VAS and modified versions of it, positioning them such that the

Prediction of specific depressive symptom clusters in youth with epilepsy: The NDDI-E-Y versus Neuro-QOL SF.

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Kellermann, Tanja S; Mueller, Martina; Carter, Emma G; Brooks, Byron; Smith, Gigi; Kopp, Olivia J; Wagner, Janelle L

2017-08-01

Proper assessment and early identification of depressive symptoms are essential to initiate treatment and minimize the risk for poor outcomes in youth with epilepsy (YWE). The current study examined the predictive utility of the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory-Epilepsy for Youth (NDDI-E-Y) and the Neuro-QOL Depression Short Form (Neuro-QOL SF) in explaining variance in overall depressive symptoms and specific symptom clusters on the gold standard Children's Depression Inventory-2 (CDI-2). Cross-sectional study examining 99 YWE (female 68, mean age 14.7 years) during a routine epilepsy visit, who completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms, including the NDDI-E-Y, CDI-2, and the Neuro-QOL SF. Caregivers completed a measure of seizure severity. All sociodemographic and medical information was evaluated through electronic medical record review. After accounting for seizure and demographic variables, the NDDI-E-Y accounted for 45% of the variance in the CDI-2 Total score and the CDI-2 Ineffectiveness subscale. Furthermore, the NDDI-E-Y predicted CDI-2 Total scores and subscales similarly, with the exception of explaining significantly more variance in the CDI-2 Ineffectiveness subscale compared to the Negative Mood subscale. The NDDI-E-Y explained greater variance compared to Neuro-QOL SF across the Total (48% vs. 37%) and all CDI-2 subscale scores; however, the NDDI-E-Y emerged as a stronger predictor of only CDI-2 Ineffectiveness. Both the NDDI-E-Y and Neuro-QOL SF accounted for the lowest amount of variance in CDI-2 Negative Mood. Sensitivity was poor for the Neuro-QOL SF in predicting high versus low CDI-2 scores. The NDDI-E-Y has strong psychometrics and can be easily integrated into routine epilepsy care for quick, brief screening of depressive symptoms in YWE. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International League Against Epilepsy.

Deficits in Attention and Visual Processing but not Global Cognition Predict Simulated Driving Errors in Drivers Diagnosed With Mild Alzheimer's Disease.

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Yamin, Stephanie; Stinchcombe, Arne; Gagnon, Sylvain

2016-06-01

This study sought to predict driving performance of drivers with Alzheimer's disease (AD) using measures of attention, visual processing, and global cognition. Simulated driving performance of individuals with mild AD (n = 20) was contrasted with performance of a group of healthy controls (n = 21). Performance on measures of global cognitive function and specific tests of attention and visual processing were examined in relation to simulated driving performance. Strong associations were observed between measures of attention, notably the Test of Everyday Attention (sustained attention; r = -.651, P = .002) and the Useful Field of View (r = .563, P = .010), and driving performance among drivers with mild AD. The Visual Object and Space Perception Test-object was significantly correlated with the occurrence of crashes (r = .652, P = .002). Tests of global cognition did not correlate with simulated driving outcomes. The results suggest that professionals exercise caution when extrapolating driving performance based on global cognitive indicators. © The Author(s) 2015.

The Impact of Globalization on a Country's Quality of Life: Toward an Integrated Model

Science.gov (United States)

Sirgy, M. Joseph; Lee, Dong-Jin; Miller, Chad; Littlefield, James E.

2004-01-01

The purpose of the paper is to develop a set of theoretical propositions to explain the impact of globalization on a country's quality of life (QOL). In this paper, we describe how globalization impacts the quality of life of residents of a country by first articulating the globalization construct (in terms of inflows and outflows of goods,…

Description and Psychometric Properties of the CP QOL-Teen: A Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Elise; Mackinnon, Andrew; Davern, Melanie; Boyd, Roslyn; Bohanna, India; Waters, Elizabeth; Graham, H. Kerr; Reid, Susan; Reddihough, Dinah

2013-01-01

To assess the measurement properties of a new QOL instrument, the Cerebral Palsy Quality of Life Questionnaire-Teen (CP QOL-Teen), in adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) aged 13-18 years, examining domain structure, reliability, validity and adolescent-caregiver concordance. Based on age, 695 eligible families were invited to participate by mail.…

Treatment, patient and tumor characteristics impact quality of life (QOL) in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer: Report of the radiation therapy oncology group (RTOG) trial 90-03

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fisher, J.; Scott, C.; Fu, K.; Trotti, A.; Spencer, S.; Garden, A.; Phillips, T.; Movsas, B.; Byhardt, R.; Ang, K.

2001-01-01

Purpose: To determine factors that effect QOL in patients with locally advanced squamous cell cancer of the head and neck randomized to standard fractionation radiotherapy (SFX), hyperfractionation (HFX), Accelerated Fractionation with Split (AFX-S) and Accelerated Fractionation with Concomitant Boost (AFX-C). Materials and Methods: RTOG 90-03 used the Head and Neck Performance Status Scale (HNPSS) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-H and N), version 2 to assess QOL. The HNPSS has three components Normalcy of Diet, Eating in Public, and Understandability of Speech. The FACT-H and N has two components: a global QOL questionnaire (FACT-G) consisting of 4 domains; Physical Well Being (PWB), Social Well Being (SWB), Emotional Well Being (EWB), Functional Well Being (FWB), and an additional H and N specific questionnaire (AC). Between 3/92 and 8/97, 1113 pts. were randomized; 718 completed a pretreatment FACT-H and N. Pts. completed the HNPSS and FACT-H and N; pretreatment, 4 weeks post-RT, every 3 months for 1 year. Results: Prior to the start of radiotherapy (RT) 48% of pts had normal diets, 64% had normal public eating, and 77% had normal speech. Age ( 60), KPS, tumor site (oral cavity vs. other), T-stage (T3+T4 vs. T1+T2+TX), N-stage (N0 vs. other), Race (Non-White vs. White), and marital status (single vs. married), FACT-G, PWB, EWB, FWB, AC, use of oral nutrient supplements, feeding tube, and parenteral nutrition predicted for pretreatment diet, public eating, and speech. During the acute toxicity phase diet, eating, and speech were related to the intensity of RT (HFX or AFX-C), marital status (single), tumor site (oral cavity), use of oral nutrient supplements, and feeding tube. At one-year oral cavity tumors, AFX-C, oral nutrient supplements, feeding tube, and single patients had worse diet, eating, and speech. Conclusion: Pretreatment patient and tumor characteristics impact on QOL prior to the initiation of therapy. Intensification of

Impact of visual impairment on vision-specific quality of life among older adults living in nursing home.

Science.gov (United States)

Dev, Mahesh Kumar; Paudel, Nabin; Joshi, Niraj Dev; Shah, Dev Narayan; Subba, Shishir

2014-03-01

Visual impairment (VI) has a significant negative impact on quality of life (QoL) amongst older people living in nursing homes. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of VI and blindness and to explore the association between severity of VI and vision-specific QoL among older people living in nursing homes of Kathmandu, Nepal. This cross-sectional study involved 158 residents aged 60 years or older residing in seven nursing homes of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Near acuity, presenting and the best corrected distance visual acuity (VA) were assessed in each eye and considered in the better eye after adequate refraction. A complete anterior and posterior segment examination was carried out. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a 57-item Nursing Home Vision-Targeted Health-Related Quality of Life (NHVQoL) questionnaire. The mean age of residents was 75.60 ± 7.12 years and the majority were female (66.46%). The prevalence of VI and blindness was 45.57% and its leading cause was cataract, which was followed by age-related macular degeneration, corneal opacity, glaucoma and macular scar. The mean composite score of NHVQoL questionnaire was 52.22 ± 12.49. There was a consistent overall deterioration in the mean composite score as well as each subscale score of NHVQoL questionnaire with a worsening of VA. VI and blindness are highly prevalent among older people living in nursing homes. VI has a significant negative impact on vision-specific QoL. Vision-specific QoL is reduced, and the reduction in the QoL bears a positive association with severity of VI among older people living in nursing homes.

The GPlates Portal: Cloud-Based Interactive 3D Visualization of Global Geophysical and Geological Data in a Web Browser.

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, R Dietmar; Qin, Xiaodong; Sandwell, David T; Dutkiewicz, Adriana; Williams, Simon E; Flament, Nicolas; Maus, Stefan; Seton, Maria

2016-01-01

The pace of scientific discovery is being transformed by the availability of 'big data' and open access, open source software tools. These innovations open up new avenues for how scientists communicate and share data and ideas with each other and with the general public. Here, we describe our efforts to bring to life our studies of the Earth system, both at present day and through deep geological time. The GPlates Portal (portal.gplates.org) is a gateway to a series of virtual globes based on the Cesium Javascript library. The portal allows fast interactive visualization of global geophysical and geological data sets, draped over digital terrain models. The globes use WebGL for hardware-accelerated graphics and are cross-platform and cross-browser compatible with complete camera control. The globes include a visualization of a high-resolution global digital elevation model and the vertical gradient of the global gravity field, highlighting small-scale seafloor fabric such as abyssal hills, fracture zones and seamounts in unprecedented detail. The portal also features globes portraying seafloor geology and a global data set of marine magnetic anomaly identifications. The portal is specifically designed to visualize models of the Earth through geological time. These space-time globes include tectonic reconstructions of the Earth's gravity and magnetic fields, and several models of long-wavelength surface dynamic topography through time, including the interactive plotting of vertical motion histories at selected locations. The globes put the on-the-fly visualization of massive data sets at the fingertips of end-users to stimulate teaching and learning and novel avenues of inquiry.

Development of a head and neck companion module for the quality of life-radiation therapy instrument (QOL-RTI)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trotti, Andy; Johnson, Darlene J.; Gwede, Clement; Casey, Linda; Sauder, Bonnie; Cantor, Alan; Pearlman, James

1998-01-01

Purpose/Objective: A review of available head and neck quality of life (QOL) instruments reveals them to inadequately address important radiation related side effects, or to be too cumbersome for routine use. The purpose of this study was to develop a head and neck disease specific module as a companion to the previously developed quality of life - radiation therapy instrument (QOL-RTI). The goal was to create a more complete, yet concise, head and neck site-specific module geared toward patients receiving radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. Methods and Materials: This exploratory study included 34 consecutive patients undergoing definitive radiotherapy over a 6-7 week course (60-79.8 Gy). We developed and administered a 14-item questionnaire to all eligible patients treated with radiotherapy for head and neck cancer who were not already registered in another research study assessing quality of life (e.g., RTOG). During the treatment period, the QOL-RTI general tool and the head and neck (H and N) module were administered as follows: at baseline, at week four (for test-retest), and at the end of the treatment period. For validation purposes the QOL-RTI/H and N was compared to the functional assessment cancer tool head and neck (FACT-H and N) questionnaire. The FACT-H and N was administered one time at week 4, on the same day as the QOL-RTI/H and N. This report includes the treatment phase of the study (during the course of radiation). Results: Mean age was 62 years (range 40-75). Internal consistency of the module was satisfactory (Chronbach's α = 0.85). Test-retest yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.90 (p < 0.001). Concurrent validity, established by comparing the module to the FACT/H and N , yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.85. Significant changes in quality of life scores during a course of radiation was noted for both general quality of life tool and the site specific module. For the head and neck module, the difference in the mean baseline

Improvement of Quality of Life (QOL in Osteoporotic Patients by Elcatonin Treatment: A Trial Taking the Participants’ Preference into Account

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Yoh

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Osteoporosis is associated with compromised quality of life (QOL, to which pain has the most important contribution. Elcatonin, a derivative of calcitonin, is widely used in the treatment of osteoporosis in two ways. One is as the inhibitor of osteoclastic bone resorption. The other is for osteoporosis-related pain based on the unique analgesic effects of elcatonin. Since pain is subjective in nature, and QOL is the only clinical outcome representing the patients’ subjective perception of health status, pain associated with osteoporosis would be best evaluated based on QOL assessment. Evidence based medicine gives the highest remarks to the double-blinded, randomized controlled trial, which, however, cannot be free from methodological problems on some occasions. For example, it is practically impossible to remain blinded in the trial of a potent analgesia, which in turn causes biases. Thus, the significance of taking the patients’ preference into account is increasingly acknowledged. In this study, 45 osteoporotic patients were given brochures describing the pros and cons on the three treatment choices; calcium and alfacalcidol, additional use of elcatonin, and additional use of bisphosphonate. Those who favored elcatonin were older, had more vertebral fractures, and lower QOL scores. QOL was evaluated before and three months after the treatment using SF-8; the most widely used generic questionnaire, and RDQ; a lumbago-specific measure. Elcatonin treatment improved physical function, general health, and vitality of SF-8, and RDQ score. Although this is a preliminary study, our results suggest that patients with vertebral fracture(s have impaired QOL and more likely to favor elcatonin treatment expecting analgesia.

Cultural adaptation and validation of the Neuropathy - and Foot Ulcer - Specific Quality of Life instrument (NeuroQol for Brazilian Portuguese - Phase 1 Adaptación cultural y validación del Neuropathy - and Foot Ulcer - Specific Quality of Life (NeuroQol para el idioma portugués de Brasil - Fase 1 Adaptação cultural e validação do Neuropathy - and Foot Ulcer - Specific Quality of Life (NeuroQol para a língua portuguesa do Brasil - Fase 1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonia Tayana da Franca Xavier

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This methodological study aimed to adapt the Neuropathy - and Foot Ulcer - Specific Quality of Life instrument - NeuroQol to Brazilian Portuguese and to analyze its psychometric properties. Participants were 50 people with peripheral diabetic neuropathy and foot ulcers. The floor and ceiling effects, the convergent and discriminant validity and the reliability were analyzed. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to test the reliability and the Pearson’s correlation coefficient to estimate the convergent validity, the Student’s t test was used to evaluate the discriminant validity in the comparison of the NeuroQol scores between participants with and without ulcers. Floor and ceiling effects were found in some domains of the NeuroQol. The reliability was satisfactory. The correlations between the domains of the NeuroQol and the SF-36 were negative, significant and of moderate to strong magnitude. The findings show that the Brazilian version of the NeuroQol is reliable and valid and may be employed as a useful tool for improving nursing care for people with DM.Estudio metodológico que tuvo como objetivos adaptar el Neuropathy - and Foot Ulcer - Specific Quality of Life - NeuroQol para el idioma portugués de Brasil y analizar sus propiedades psicométricas. Participaron 50 personas con neuropatía diabética periférica y úlceras en los pies. Fueron analizados los efectos floor y ceiling, la validez convergente, la discriminante y la confiabilidad. Fue utilizado el coeficiente alfa de Cronbach para comprobar la confiabilidad y la correlación de Pearson para estimar la validez convergente; el test t-Student fue empleado para evaluar la validez discriminante en la comparación de los puntajes del NeuroQol entre los participantes con y sin úlceras. Se constataron efectos floor y ceiling en algunos dominios del NeuroQol. La confiabilidad fue satisfactoria. Las correlaciones entre los dominios del NeuroQol y SF-36 fueron negativas

Learning about “wicked” problems in the Global South. Creating a film-based learning environment with “Visual Problem Appraisal”

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Witteveen, L.M.; Lie, R.

2012-01-01

The current complexity of sustainable development in the Global South calls for the design of learning strategies that can deal with this complexity. One such innovative learning strategy, called Visual Problem Appraisal (VPA), is highlighted in this article. The strategy is termed visual as it

Local-Global Visual Deficits in Williams Syndrome: Stimulus presence contributes to diminished performance on image-reproduction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Maria Abreu

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Impairments in visuospatial processing exhibited by individuals with Williams Syndrome (WS have been ascribed to a local processing bias. The imprecise specification of this local bias hypothesis has led to contradictions between different accounts of the visuospatial deficits in WS. We present two experiments investigating visual processing of geometric Navon stimuli by children with WS. The first experiment examined image reproduction in a visuoconstruction task and the second experiment explored the effect of manipulating global salience on recognition of visual stimuli by varying the density of local elements possessed by the stimuli. In the visuoconstruction task, the children with WS did show a local bias with respect to controls, but only when the target being copied was present; when drawing from memory, subjects with WS produced a heterogeneous pattern of answers. In the recognition task, children with WS exhibited the same sensitivity to global figures as matched controls, confirming previous findings in which no local bias in perception was found in WS subjects. We propose that subjects with WS are unable to disengage their attention from local elements during the planning stage of image reproduction (a visual-conflict hypothesis.

Development and psychometric testing of the Canine Owner-Reported Quality of Life questionnaire, an instrument designed to measure quality of life in dogs with cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Giuffrida, Michelle A; Brown, Dorothy Cimino; Ellenberg, Susan S; Farrar, John T

2018-05-01

OBJECTIVE To describe development and initial psychometric testing of an owner-reported questionnaire designed to standardize measurement of general quality of life (QOL) in dogs with cancer. DESIGN Key-informant interviews, questionnaire development, and field trial. SAMPLE Owners of 25 dogs with cancer for item development and pretesting and owners of 90 dogs with cancer for reliability and validity testing. PROCEDURES Standard methods for development and testing of questionnaire instruments intended to measure subjective states were used. Items were generated, selected, scaled, and pretested for content, meaning, and readability. Response items were evaluated with exploratory factor analysis and by assessing internal consistency (Cronbach α) and convergence with global QOL as determined with a visual analog scale. Preliminary tests of stability and responsiveness were performed. RESULTS The final questionnaire-which was named the Canine Owner-Reported Quality of Life (CORQ) questionnaire-contained 17 items related to observable behaviors commonly used by owners to evaluate QOL in their dogs. Several items pertaining to physical symptoms performed poorly and were omitted. The 17 items were assigned to 4 factors-vitality, companionship, pain, and mobility-on the basis of the items they contained. The CORQ questionnaire and its factors had high internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.68 to 0.90) and moderate to strong correlations (r = 0.49 to 0.71) with global QOL as measured on a visual analog scale. Preliminary testing indicated good test-retest reliability and responsiveness to improvements in overall QOL. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE The CORQ questionnaire was a valid, reliable owner-reported questionnaire that measured general QOL in dogs with cancer and showed promise as a clinical trial outcome measure for quantifying changes in individual dog QOL occurring in response to cancer treatment and progression.

Visual Structure and Function in Collision Sport Athletes.

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, Danielle; Morettin, Christina; Messner, Leonard V; Steinmetz, Robert J; Pang, Yi; Galetta, Steven L; Balcer, Laura J

2017-09-06

Vision-based measures have been shown to be useful markers in multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer and Parkinson disease. Therefore, these testing paradigms may have applications to populations explaining repetitive head trauma that has been associated with long-term neurodegenerative sequelae. We investigated retinal structure and visual function in professional collision sport athletes compared to age- and race-matched control participants. In this cross-sectional study, participants underwent spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) measurements of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and macular ganglion cell complex (GCC = ganglion cell + inner plexiform layers) thickness. High-contrast visual acuity (100% level), low-contrast letter acuity (LCLA) (1.25% and 2.5% levels), and King-Devick Test of rapid number naming performance were administered. Vision-specific quality of life (QOL) measures were assessed. Among 46 collision sport athletes (boxing, n = 14; football, n = 29; ice hockey, n = 3) and 104 control participants, average RNFL thickness was a significant predictor of athlete vs control status with athletes demonstrating 4.8-μm of thinning compared to controls (P = 0.01, generalized estimating equation [GEE] models accounting for age and within-subject, intereye correlations). Athlete vs control status was not a predictor of RNFL thickness for the subgroup of football players in this cohort (P = 0.60). Binocular (P = 0.001) and monocular (P = 0.02) LCLA at 2.5% contrast and vision-specific QOL (P = 0.04) were significant predictors of athlete vs control status (GEE models accounting for age and within-subject, intereye correlations). Rapid number naming performance times were not significantly different between the control and athlete groups. This study showed that retinal axonal and neuronal loss is present among collision sport athletes, with most notable differences seen in boxers. These findings are accompanied by reductions in

The GPlates Portal: Cloud-Based Interactive 3D Visualization of Global Geophysical and Geological Data in a Web Browser.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R Dietmar Müller

Full Text Available The pace of scientific discovery is being transformed by the availability of 'big data' and open access, open source software tools. These innovations open up new avenues for how scientists communicate and share data and ideas with each other and with the general public. Here, we describe our efforts to bring to life our studies of the Earth system, both at present day and through deep geological time. The GPlates Portal (portal.gplates.org is a gateway to a series of virtual globes based on the Cesium Javascript library. The portal allows fast interactive visualization of global geophysical and geological data sets, draped over digital terrain models. The globes use WebGL for hardware-accelerated graphics and are cross-platform and cross-browser compatible with complete camera control. The globes include a visualization of a high-resolution global digital elevation model and the vertical gradient of the global gravity field, highlighting small-scale seafloor fabric such as abyssal hills, fracture zones and seamounts in unprecedented detail. The portal also features globes portraying seafloor geology and a global data set of marine magnetic anomaly identifications. The portal is specifically designed to visualize models of the Earth through geological time. These space-time globes include tectonic reconstructions of the Earth's gravity and magnetic fields, and several models of long-wavelength surface dynamic topography through time, including the interactive plotting of vertical motion histories at selected locations. The globes put the on-the-fly visualization of massive data sets at the fingertips of end-users to stimulate teaching and learning and novel avenues of inquiry.

Global Appearance Applied to Visual Map Building and Path Estimation Using Multiscale Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco Amorós

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In this work we present a topological map building and localization system for mobile robots based on global appearance of visual information. We include a comparison and analysis of global-appearance techniques applied to wide-angle scenes in retrieval tasks. Next, we define multiscale analysis, which permits improving the association between images and extracting topological distances. Then, a topological map-building algorithm is proposed. At first, the algorithm has information only of some isolated positions of the navigation area in the form of nodes. Each node is composed of a collection of images that covers the complete field of view from a certain position. The algorithm solves the node retrieval and estimates their spatial arrangement. With these aims, it uses the visual information captured along some routes that cover the navigation area. As a result, the algorithm builds a graph that reflects the distribution and adjacency relations between nodes (map. After the map building, we also propose a route path estimation system. This algorithm takes advantage of the multiscale analysis. The accuracy in the pose estimation is not reduced to the nodes locations but also to intermediate positions between them. The algorithms have been tested using two different databases captured in real indoor environments under dynamic conditions.

Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996–2008

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Philip H. Howard

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The commercial seed industry has undergone tremendous consolidation in the last 40 years as transnational corporations entered this agricultural sector, and acquired or merged with competing firms. This trend is associated with impacts that constrain the opportunities for renewable agriculture, such as reductions in seed lines and a declining prevalence of seed saving. To better characterize the current structure of the industry, ownership changes from 1996 to 2008 are represented visually with information graphics. Since the commercialization of transgenic crops in the mid-1990s, the sale of seeds has become dominated globally by Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta. In addition, the largest firms are increasingly networked through agreements to cross-license transgenic seed traits.

From elements to perception: local and global processing in visual neurons.

Science.gov (United States)

Spillmann, L

1999-01-01

Gestalt psychologists in the early part of the century challenged psychophysical notions that perceptual phenomena can be understood from a punctate (atomistic) analysis of the elements present in the stimulus. Their ideas slowed later attempts to explain vision in terms of single-cell recordings from individual neurons. A rapprochement between Gestalt phenomenology and neurophysiology seemed unlikely when the first ECVP was held in Marburg, Germany, in 1978. Since that time, response properties of neurons have been discovered that invite an interpretation of visual phenomena (including illusions) in terms of neuronal processing by long-range interactions, as first proposed by Mach and Hering in the last century. This article traces a personal journey into the early days of neurophysiological vision research to illustrate the progress that has taken place from the first attempts to correlate single-cell responses with visual perceptions. Whereas initially the receptive-field properties of individual classes of cells--e.g., contrast, wavelength, orientation, motion, disparity, and spatial-frequency detectors--were used to account for relatively simple visual phenomena, nowadays complex perceptions are interpreted in terms of long-range interactions, involving many neurons. This change in paradigm from local to global processing was made possible by recent findings, in the cortex, on horizontal interactions and backward propagation (feedback loops) in addition to classical feedforward processing. These mechanisms are exemplified by studies of the tilt effect and tilt aftereffect, direction-specific motion adaptation, illusory contours, filling-in and fading, figure--ground segregation by orientation and motion contrast, and pop-out in dynamic visual-noise patterns. Major questions for future research and a discussion of their epistemological implications conclude the article.

High-dose radiotherapy or concurrent chemo-radiation in lung cancer patients only induces a temporary, reversible decline in QoL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pijls-Johannesma, Madelon; Houben, Ruud; Boersma, Liesbeth; Grutters, Janneke; Seghers, Katarina; Lambin, Philippe; Wanders, Rinus; De Ruysscher, Dirk

2009-01-01

Background and purpose: Aggressive radiotherapy or concurrent chemo-radiation therapy for lung cancer leads to a high incidence of severe, mostly esophageal, toxicity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the evolution of quality of life (QoL) in patients with lung cancer, selected for curative radiotherapy (RT) or chemo-RT. Methods: Seventy-five lung cancer patients completed a longitudinal the EORTC QLQ-C30 and LC13. Linear mixed regression models were fitted to investigate the impact of different factors on overall QoL. Results: Overall QoL decreased shortly after the end of RT (4 points, p = 0.19), but increased back to baseline within 3 months. Mean scores of role functioning (p = 0.018), cognitive functioning (p = 0.002), dyspnoea (EORTC QLQ-LC13; p = 0.043), dysphagia (p = 0.005) and hoarseness (p = 0.029), showed a significant worsening over time. Emotional functioning (p = 0.033) improved significantly over time. Severe esophagitis (≥grade 2) was reported in only 12% of the patients. Next to maximal esophageal toxicity ≥grade 2 (p = .0.010), also tumor stage IIIA (p < 0.001), tumor stage IIIB (p = 0.003), gender (p = 0.042) and fatigue (p < 0.001) appeared to be significant predictors of QoL. Conclusion: High-dose radiotherapy or concurrent chemo-radiation in the treatment of lung cancer seems to be a well-tolerated treatment option with preservation of QoL.

Changes of visual-field global indices after cataract surgery in primary open-angle glaucoma patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Seol, Bo Ram; Jeoung, Jin Wook; Park, Ki Ho

2016-11-01

To determine changes of visual-field (VF) global indices after cataract surgery and the factors associated with the effect of cataracts on those indices in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patients. A retrospective chart review of 60 POAG patients who had undergone phacoemulsification and intraocular lens insertion was conducted. All of the patients were evaluated with standard automated perimetry (SAP; 30-2 Swedish interactive threshold algorithm; Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc.) before and after surgery. VF global indices before surgery were compared with those after surgery. The best-corrected visual acuity, intraocular pressure (IOP), number of glaucoma medications before surgery, mean total deviation (TD) values, mean pattern deviation (PD) value, and mean TD-PD value were also compared with the corresponding postoperative values. Additionally, postoperative peak IOP and mean IOP were evaluated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the factors associated with the effect of cataract on global indices. Mean deviation (MD) after cataract surgery was significantly improved compared with the preoperative MD. Pattern standard deviation (PSD) and visual-field index (VFI) after surgery were similar to those before surgery. Also, mean TD and mean TD-PD were significantly improved after surgery. The posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC) type showed greater MD changes than did the non-PSC type in both the univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. In the univariate logistic regression analysis, the preoperative TD-PD value and type of cataract were associated with MD change. However, in the multivariate logistic regression analysis, type of cataract was the only associated factor. None of the other factors was associated with MD change. MD was significantly affected by cataracts, whereas PSD and VFI were not. Most notably, the PSC type showed better MD improvement compared with the non-PSC type after cataract surgery

Abnormal global processing along the dorsal visual pathway in autism: a possible mechanism for weak visuospatial coherence?

Science.gov (United States)

Pellicano, Elizabeth; Gibson, Lisa; Maybery, Murray; Durkin, Kevin; Badcock, David R

2005-01-01

Frith and Happe (Frith, U., & Happe, F. (1994). Autism: Beyond theory of mind. Cognition, 50, 115-132) argue that individuals with autism exhibit 'weak central coherence': an inability to integrate elements of information into coherent wholes. Some authors have speculated that a high-level impairment might be present in the dorsal visual pathway in autism, and furthermore, that this might account for weak central coherence, at least at the visuospatial level. We assessed the integrity of the dorsal visual pathway in children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and in typically developing children, using two visual tasks, one examining functioning at higher levels of the dorsal cortical stream (Global Dot Motion (GDM)), and the other assessing lower-level dorsal stream functioning (Flicker Contrast Sensitivity (FCS)). Central coherence was tested using the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT). Relative to the typically developing children, the children with ASD had shorter CEFT latencies and higher GDM thresholds but equivalent FCS thresholds. Additionally, CEFT latencies were inversely related to GDM thresholds in the ASD group. These outcomes indicate that the elevated global motion thresholds in autism are the result of high-level impairments in dorsal cortical regions. Weak visuospatial coherence in autism may be in the form of abnormal cooperative mechanisms in extra-striate cortical areas, which might contribute to differential performance when processing stimuli as Gestalts, including both dynamic (i.e., global motion perception) and static (i.e., disembedding performance) stimuli.

Visualization system on ITBL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Yoshio

2004-01-01

Visualization systems PATRAS/ITBL and AVS/ITBL, which are based on visualization software PATRAS and AVS/Express respectively, have been developed on a global, heterogeneous computing environment, Information Technology Based Laboratory (ITBL). PATRAS/ITBL allows for real-time visualization of the numerical results acquired from coupled multi-physics numerical simulations, executed on different hosts situated in remote locations. AVS/ITBL allow for post processing visualization. The scientific data located in remote sites may be selected and visualized on a web browser installed in a user terminal. The global structure and main functions of these systems are presented. (author)

Is the content of the Chinese Quality of Life Instrument (ChQOL) really valid in the context of traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong?

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Wendy; Lam, Cindy L K; Leung, K F; Zhao, L

2009-01-01

Content validity is crucial in quality of life instrument development but there is very little literature on this in Chinese culture. The Chinese Quality of Life Instrument (ChQOL) was developed in Mainland China to capture the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) concepts specific to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The aim of this study was to evaluate the content validity of ChQOL in a Chinese population whose spoken dialect and health-care system are different from those of Mainland China to find out whether the instrument is generalizable. 8 TCM practitioners and 10 patients rated the clarity, relevance and appropriateness of each of the 50 items of the ChQOL (HK version), and completed qualitative cognitive debriefing interviews. The content of ChQOL was rated valid by TCM practitioners with CVIs on clarity, relevance and appropriateness ranging from 80 to 100%. 49 out of 50 items were well understood by patients, but 12 items had CVI on relevance and 5 items had CVI on appropriateness lower than 70% among patients. After reviewing the patients and TCM practitioners' opinions, revisions were made for three items (2, 8 and 29) to form the ChQOL (HK version)-2008. In general, the ChQOL was found to be too long which called for shorter version. The content of ChQOL was shown to be really valid in the context of Chinese Medicine for Cantonese speaking Chinese. There was some discrepancy between the judgments of TCM practitioners and patients indicating the importance of evaluation by both experts and lay persons.

Electrophysiological evidence of altered visual processing in adults who experienced visual deprivation during infancy.

Science.gov (United States)

Segalowitz, Sidney J; Sternin, Avital; Lewis, Terri L; Dywan, Jane; Maurer, Daphne

2017-04-01

We examined the role of early visual input in visual system development by testing adults who had been born with dense bilateral cataracts that blocked all patterned visual input during infancy until the cataractous lenses were removed surgically and the eyes fitted with compensatory contact lenses. Patients viewed checkerboards and textures to explore early processing regions (V1, V2), Glass patterns to examine global form processing (V4), and moving stimuli to explore global motion processing (V5). Patients' ERPs differed from those of controls in that (1) the V1 component was much smaller for all but the simplest stimuli and (2) extrastriate components did not differentiate amongst texture stimuli, Glass patterns, or motion stimuli. The results indicate that early visual deprivation contributes to permanent abnormalities at early and mid levels of visual processing, consistent with enduring behavioral deficits in the ability to process complex textures, global form, and global motion. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Comparison of visual scoring and quantitative planimetry methods for estimation of global infarct size on delayed enhanced cardiac MRI and validation with myocardial enzymes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mewton, Nathan, E-mail: nmewton@gmail.com [Hopital Cardiovasculaire Louis Pradel, 28, Avenue Doyen Lepine, 69677 Bron cedex, Hospices Civils de Lyon (France); CREATIS-LRMN (Centre de Recherche et d' Applications en Traitement de l' Image et du Signal), Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR CNRS 5220, U 630 INSERM (France); Revel, Didier [Hopital Cardiovasculaire Louis Pradel, 28, Avenue Doyen Lepine, 69677 Bron cedex, Hospices Civils de Lyon (France); CREATIS-LRMN (Centre de Recherche et d' Applications en Traitement de l' Image et du Signal), Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR CNRS 5220, U 630 INSERM (France); Bonnefoy, Eric [Hopital Cardiovasculaire Louis Pradel, 28, Avenue Doyen Lepine, 69677 Bron cedex, Hospices Civils de Lyon (France); Ovize, Michel [Hopital Cardiovasculaire Louis Pradel, 28, Avenue Doyen Lepine, 69677 Bron cedex, Hospices Civils de Lyon (France); INSERM Unite 886 (France); Croisille, Pierre [Hopital Cardiovasculaire Louis Pradel, 28, Avenue Doyen Lepine, 69677 Bron cedex, Hospices Civils de Lyon (France); CREATIS-LRMN (Centre de Recherche et d' Applications en Traitement de l' Image et du Signal), Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR CNRS 5220, U 630 INSERM (France)

2011-04-15

Purpose: Although delayed enhanced CMR has become a reference method for infarct size quantification, there is no ideal method to quantify total infarct size in a routine clinical practice. In a prospective study we compared the performance and post-processing time of a global visual scoring method to standard quantitative planimetry and we compared both methods to the peak values of myocardial biomarkers. Materials and methods: This study had local ethics committee approval; all patients gave written informed consent. One hundred and three patients admitted with reperfused AMI to our intensive care unit had a complete CMR study with gadolinium-contrast injection 4 {+-} 2 days after admission. A global visual score was defined on a 17-segment model and compared with the quantitative planimetric evaluation of hyperenhancement. The peak values of serum Troponin I (TnI) and creatine kinase (CK) release were measured in each patient. Results: The mean percentage of total left ventricular myocardium with hyperenhancement determined by the quantitative planimetry method was (20.1 {+-} 14.6) with a range of 1-68%. There was an excellent correlation between quantitative planimetry and visual global scoring for the hyperenhancement extent's measurement (r = 0.94; y = 1.093x + 0.87; SEE = 1.2; P < 0.001) The Bland-Altman plot showed a good concordance between the two approaches (mean of the differences = 1.9% with a standard deviation of 4.7). Mean post-processing time for quantitative planimetry was significantly longer than visual scoring post-processing time (23.7 {+-} 5.7 min vs 5.0 {+-} 1.1 min respectively, P < 0.001). Correlation between peak CK and quantitative planimetry was r = 0.82 (P < 0.001) and r = 0.83 (P < 0.001) with visual global scoring. Correlation between peak Troponin I and quantitative planimetry was r = 0.86 (P < 0.001) and r = 0.85 (P < 0.001) with visual global scoring. Conclusion: A visual approach based on a 17-segment model allows a rapid

Comparison of visual scoring and quantitative planimetry methods for estimation of global infarct size on delayed enhanced cardiac MRI and validation with myocardial enzymes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mewton, Nathan; Revel, Didier; Bonnefoy, Eric; Ovize, Michel; Croisille, Pierre

2011-01-01

Purpose: Although delayed enhanced CMR has become a reference method for infarct size quantification, there is no ideal method to quantify total infarct size in a routine clinical practice. In a prospective study we compared the performance and post-processing time of a global visual scoring method to standard quantitative planimetry and we compared both methods to the peak values of myocardial biomarkers. Materials and methods: This study had local ethics committee approval; all patients gave written informed consent. One hundred and three patients admitted with reperfused AMI to our intensive care unit had a complete CMR study with gadolinium-contrast injection 4 ± 2 days after admission. A global visual score was defined on a 17-segment model and compared with the quantitative planimetric evaluation of hyperenhancement. The peak values of serum Troponin I (TnI) and creatine kinase (CK) release were measured in each patient. Results: The mean percentage of total left ventricular myocardium with hyperenhancement determined by the quantitative planimetry method was (20.1 ± 14.6) with a range of 1-68%. There was an excellent correlation between quantitative planimetry and visual global scoring for the hyperenhancement extent's measurement (r = 0.94; y = 1.093x + 0.87; SEE = 1.2; P < 0.001) The Bland-Altman plot showed a good concordance between the two approaches (mean of the differences = 1.9% with a standard deviation of 4.7). Mean post-processing time for quantitative planimetry was significantly longer than visual scoring post-processing time (23.7 ± 5.7 min vs 5.0 ± 1.1 min respectively, P < 0.001). Correlation between peak CK and quantitative planimetry was r = 0.82 (P < 0.001) and r = 0.83 (P < 0.001) with visual global scoring. Correlation between peak Troponin I and quantitative planimetry was r = 0.86 (P < 0.001) and r = 0.85 (P < 0.001) with visual global scoring. Conclusion: A visual approach based on a 17-segment model allows a rapid and accurate

The Effects of Instruction with Visual Materials on the Development of Preservice Elementary Teachers' Knowledge and Attitude towards Global Warming

Science.gov (United States)

Bozdogan, Aykut Emre

2011-01-01

This study aimed to identify the erroneous knowledge and misconceptions of preservice elementary teachers about global warming and examine the effects of instruction with visual materials on rectifying these misconceptions and fostering a positive attitude towards the issue of global warming. Having a quasi-experimental design, the study made use…

Long-term functional outcomes of PPPD in children--Nutritional status, pancreatic function, GI function and QOL.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Hwon-Ham; Kim, Hyun-Young; Jung, Sung-Eun; Lee, Seong-Cheol; Park, Kwi-Won

2016-03-01

The purpose of this study was to analyze the long-term outcomes, such as nutritional status, pancreatic function, gastrointestinal (GI) function, and quality of life (QOL), in children who underwent pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy (PPPD). Between 1992 and 2013, there were 15 children who underwent PPPD at Seoul National University Children's Hospital, and 10 of them participated in this study. A retrospective review of the patients' medical records and follow-up was done. Their nutritional statuses were estimated by height, body weight, weight for age Z-score, body mass index (BMI), and serum protein, albumin levels. The endocrine and exocrine functions of the pancreas were estimated by diabetes mellitus (DM), steatorrhea, and Bristol stool chart. The GI function and QOL were evaluated via questionnaires. The follow-up period ranged from 3 to 18years. There were no severe growth disturbances, 6 patients experienced mild steatorrhea and 3 showed above the category 6 in Bristol stool chart. All the patients experienced mild GI symptoms. As for the QOL, there were no significant negative answers, except for one patient with DM. Almost all the study subjects, who underwent PPPD in their childhood, did not present significant problems except for one patient with DM. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quality-of-life assessment in advanced cancer.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Donnelly, S

2000-07-01

In the past 5 years, quality-of-life (QOL) assessment measures such as the McGill, McMaster, Global Visual Analogue Scale, Assessment of QOL at the End of Life, Life Evaluation Questionnaire, and Hospice QOL Index have been devised specifically for patients with advanced cancer. The developers of these instruments have tried to respond to the changing needs of this specific population, taking into account characteristics including poor performance status, difficulty with longitudinal study, rapidly deteriorating physical condition, and change in relevant issues. Emphasis has been placed on patient report, ease and speed of completion, and the existential domain or meaning of life. Novel techniques in QOL measurement have also been adapted for palliative care, such as judgment analysis in the Schedule for the Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life. It is generally agreed that a single tool will not cover all QOL assessment needs.

Quality of life (QOL) among community dwelling older people in Taiwan measured by the CASP-19, an index to capture QOL in old age.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Tai-Yin; Chie, Wei-Chu; Kuo, Kuan-Liang; Wong, Wai-Kuen; Liu, Jen-Pei; Chiu, Shih-Ting; Cheng, Yeung-Hung; Netuveli, Gopal; Blane, David

2013-01-01

There was no existing scale in Mandarin Chinese to specifically measure QOL in old age. We aimed to validate a Chinese Taiwan version of the CASP-19 (control, autonomy, self-realization, pleasure), a QOL questionnaire, in Taiwan. The existing CASP-19 Cantonese version was modified into Chinese Taiwan version and pilot tested. Data were then gathered from 699 older people. Score distribution, exploratory and confirmatory factor structure, reliability and clinical validity of the CASP-19 and its shortened version, the CASP-12, were examined. The mean age of the participants was 75.5 (standard deviation (SD) 6.5), and half (49.5%) were female. The mean CASP-19 score was 38.2 (range 11-56; SD 7.1), lower than that of Western countries. Exploratory factor analysis revealed an additional factor, 'participation' (CASPP-19). There was satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's α 0.63-0.85) for the subscales, except for the control domain. For the 19-item scale, the first order five-domain model (CASPP-19) yielded the best fit. For the CASP-12, first and second order original CASP-12 models performed equally well. There was an inverse relationship between the CASP total scores and frailty, chronic diseases, depressive disorders, living alone and fall events in the past 12months, supporting good clinical validity for all versions of the CASP scale (CASP-19, CASPP-19, original and new CASP-12). The original CASP-12 may be presently the best choice for use in China, Taiwan or other Mandarin-speaking populations due to its conciseness and model parsimony. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Getting from Here to There and Knowing Where: Teaching Global Positioning Systems to Students with Visual Impairments

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Craig L.

2011-01-01

Global Positioning Systems' (GPS) technology is available for individuals with visual impairments to use in wayfinding and address Lowenfeld's "three limitations of blindness." The considerations and methodologies for teaching GPS usage have developed over time as GPS information and devices have been integrated into orientation and mobility…

Serum magnesium and not vitamin D is associated with better QoL in COPD

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hashim Ali Hussein, Sarah; Nielsen, Lars Peter; Dolberg, Mette K.Bøgebjerg

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Deficiency of serum levels of vitamin D3 (se vitD), magnesium (se Mg) and calcium (se Ca) may be associated with increased exacerbation risk in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, associations with other aspects of COPD, e.g. lung function and quality of life (QoL),...

The impact of dysphagia on quality of life in ageing and Parkinson's disease as measured by the swallowing quality of life (SWAL-QOL) questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Leow, Li Pyn; Huckabee, Maggie-Lee; Anderson, Tim; Beckert, Lutz

2010-09-01

This prospective, cross-sectional study evaluated the impact of dysphagia on quality of life in healthy ageing and in subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD) using the Swallowing Quality of Life (SWAL-QOL) questionnaire. Sixteen healthy young adults (8 males, mean age = 25.1 years) and 16 healthy elders (8 males, mean age = 72.8 years) were recruited. Thirty-two subjects with idiopathic PD (mean age = 68.5 years) were recruited from a movement disorders clinic. The severity of PD was staged using the Hoehn and Yahr scale. Results revealed that elders experienced symptoms of dysphagia more frequently than young adults but the overall SWAL-QOL scores were not significantly different. Subjects with PD who experienced dysphagia reported greatly reduced QOL, and significant differences were found in all but one subsection of the SWAL-QOL. Disease progression detrimentally impacts QOL, with subjects in later-stage PD experiencing further reduction in the desire to eat, difficulty with food selection, and prolonged eating duration. These features, which increase with disease severity, are likely to impact negatively upon nutritional status, which is already under threat from PD-related dysphagia.

rTMS in fibromyalgia: a randomized trial evaluating QoL and its brain metabolic substrate

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boyer, L.; Dousset, A.; Roussel, P.; Dossetto, N.; Cammilleri, S.; Piano, V.M.M.; Khalfa, S.; Mundler, O.; Donnet, A.; Guedj, E.

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE: This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study investigated the impact of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on quality of life (QoL) of patients with fibromyalgia, and its possible brain metabolic substrate. METHODS: Thirty-eight patients were randomly assigned

Quality of life (QOL) assessment in patients received carbon ion radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamada, Tadashi; Mizoe, Jun-Etsu; Tsuji, Hiroshi; Yanagi, Tsuyoshi; Miyamoto, Tada-aki; Kato, Hirotoshi; Oono, Tatsuya; Yamada, Shigeru; Tsujii, Hirohiko

2003-01-01

Until February 2003, a total of 1,463 patients were enrolled in clinical trials of carbon ion radiotherapy. Most of the patients had locally advanced and/or medically inoperable tumors. The clinical trials revealed that carbon ion radiotherapy provided definite local control and offered a survival advantage without unacceptable morbidity in a variety of tumors that were hard to cure by other modalities. In this study, quality of life (QOL) outcomes of patients with unresectable bone and soft tissue sarcoma after carbon ion radiotherapy are investigated. (author)

Quality of Life (QoL) Survey in Hong Kong: Understanding the Importance of Housing Environment and Needs of Residents from Different Housing Sectors.

Science.gov (United States)

Gou, Zhonghua; Xie, Xiaohuan; Lu, Yi; Khoshbakht, Maryam

2018-01-27

This study presents a Quality of Life (QoL) survey to understand the influence of the housing environment and needs of residents from different housing sectors. The research focuses on Hong Kong where living conditions have become the main affect for people's QoL. Through a household survey using a standard instrument "Word Health Organisation (WHO) Quality of Life-BREF", the article found that among the four WHO QoL domains (Physical Health, Psychological Health, Social Relations And Environment), Environment, particularly its constitute aspect housing environment was the most influential factor for overall quality of life for the public rental housing sector where low-income people live. This research also found that different groups of people have differing needs of their housing environments: the low-income group needs better location and privacy while the medium and high-income groups need better architectural quality. Based on differentiating their needs and wants, this research argues for prioritizing the low-income group's needs for effectively improving their QoL.

Development of a head and neck companion module for the quality of life - radiation therapy instrument (QOL-RTI)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trotti, Andy; Johnson, Darlene J.; Gwede, Clement; Casey, Linda; Cantor, Alan

1997-01-01

Purpose/Objective: The purpose of this study is to develop a Likert version, disease specific module for the Quality of Life - Radiation Therapy Instrument (QOL-RTI) for head and neck patients. This module combined with the QOL-RTI may help us to determine what changes, if any, occur in the quality of life of patients receiving primary radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. A compelling reason to study head and neck patients is because of the extensive difficulties these patients experience while undergoing radiotherapy. Their psychological and emotional well-being may also have an adverse affect on their quality of life as they strive to cope with both a life-threatening disease and with the prospect of disfigurement or dysfunction that cannot be hidden from view. Many tools have been developed to measure quality of life, however, previously published literature has focused on quantifying functional status and toxicity assessment rather than the alteration of quality of life as perceived by the patient. This study, limited to patients receiving primary radiation, is expected to yield a tool that is applicable to the patient receiving multi-modality treatment for head and neck cancer and will be useful to the physician/nurse in determining interventions for these patients. Materials and Methods: This study is an uncontrolled, non-randomized exploratory study, including fifty (50) consecutive eligible patients undergoing definitive primary radiotherapy. The questionnaires were given to all eligible patients being treated with radiotherapy for head and neck cancer who are not already registered on another research study assessing Quality of Life (i.e. RTOG). During the 5-8 week treatment period, the QOL-RTI/H and N instrument is administered as follows: at baseline evaluation (immediately prior to the beginning of radiotherapy), at week four (4) two days in a row (for test-retest) and at the end of the treatment period. For validation purposes the QOL-RTI/H and

The GPlates Portal: Cloud-based interactive 3D and 4D visualization of global geological and geophysical data and models in a browser

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Dietmar; Qin, Xiaodong; Sandwell, David; Dutkiewicz, Adriana; Williams, Simon; Flament, Nicolas; Maus, Stefan; Seton, Maria

2017-04-01

The pace of scientific discovery is being transformed by the availability of 'big data' and open access, open source software tools. These innovations open up new avenues for how scientists communicate and share data and ideas with each other, and with the general public. Here, we describe our efforts to bring to life our studies of the Earth system, both at present day and through deep geological time. The GPlates Portal (portal.gplates.org) is a gateway to a series of virtual globes based on the Cesium Javascript library. The portal allows fast interactive visualization of global geophysical and geological data sets, draped over digital terrain models. The globes use WebGL for hardware-accelerated graphics and are cross-platform and cross-browser compatible with complete camera control. The globes include a visualization of a high-resolution global digital elevation model and the vertical gradient of the global gravity field, highlighting small-scale seafloor fabric such as abyssal hills, fracture zones and seamounts in unprecedented detail. The portal also features globes portraying seafloor geology and a global data set of marine magnetic anomaly identifications. The portal is specifically designed to visualize models of the Earth through geological time. These space-time globes include tectonic reconstructions of the Earth's gravity and magnetic fields, and several models of long-wavelength surface dynamic topography through time, including the interactive plotting of vertical motion histories at selected locations. The portal has been visited over half a million times since its inception in October 2015, as tracked by google analytics, and the globes have been featured in numerous media articles around the world. This demonstrates the high demand for fast visualization of global spatial big data, both for the present-day as well as through geological time. The globes put the on-the-fly visualization of massive data sets at the fingertips of end-users to

Measuring anxiety after spinal cord injury: Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Anxiety item bank and linkage with GAD-7.

Science.gov (United States)

Kisala, Pamela A; Tulsky, David S; Kalpakjian, Claire Z; Heinemann, Allen W; Pohlig, Ryan T; Carle, Adam; Choi, Seung W

2015-05-01

To develop a calibrated item bank and computer adaptive test to assess anxiety symptoms in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), transform scores to the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) metric, and create a statistical linkage with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7, a widely used anxiety measure. Grounded-theory based qualitative item development methods; large-scale item calibration field testing; confirmatory factor analysis; graded response model item response theory analyses; statistical linking techniques to transform scores to a PROMIS metric; and linkage with the GAD-7. Setting Five SCI Model System centers and one Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in the United States. Participants Adults with traumatic SCI. Spinal Cord Injury-Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Anxiety Item Bank Seven hundred sixteen individuals with traumatic SCI completed 38 items assessing anxiety, 17 of which were PROMIS items. After 13 items (including 2 PROMIS items) were removed, factor analyses confirmed unidimensionality. Item response theory analyses were used to estimate slopes and thresholds for the final 25 items (15 from PROMIS). The observed Pearson correlation between the SCI-QOL Anxiety and GAD-7 scores was 0.67. The SCI-QOL Anxiety item bank demonstrates excellent psychometric properties and is available as a computer adaptive test or short form for research and clinical applications. SCI-QOL Anxiety scores have been transformed to the PROMIS metric and we provide a method to link SCI-QOL Anxiety scores with those of the GAD-7.

Transcultural adaptation and validation of the Celiac Disease Quality of Life (CD-QOL survey, a specific questionnaire to measure quality of life in patients with celiac disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesc Casellas

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: celiac disease is a chronic condition that requires continued treatment, with the resultant impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL of people who suffer it. Most studies in this field have used generic questionnaires to measure HRQOL in celiac patients. It was therefore decided to conduct a study to translate into Spanish and validate a specific questionnaire for celiac disease, the Celiac Disease Quality Of Life Survey (CD-QOL. Objectives: to translate and validate in Spanish the specific celiac disease questionnaire CD-QOL. Methods: a multicenter, prospective, observational study was designed consisting of two phases: In the first phase, the questionnaire was translated and adapted into Spanish using the translation/back translation procedure and an understandability study. In the second phase, internal consistency of the translated questionnaire was analyzed. For this, results of the CD-QOL were compared to those of EuroQol and the Daily Fatigue Impact Scale (D-FIS. Understandability of the translated and adapted questionnaire was tested in six patients, and the validation study was done in 298 celiac patients (201 treated with a gluten-free diet and 97 at diagnosis. Results: in both celiac groups, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was high (0.90, feasibility was excellent (99.2 % of patients completed all questions, and there were no ceiling and floor effects. Spearman correlation to EuroQol and D-FIS was statistically significant (p < 0.05. CD-QOL score was different depending on whether state of health was good, fair, or poor based on the EuroQol score. Conclusion: the Spanish version of the CD-QOL is a valid tool for measuring HRQOL in celiac patients.

Dispositional Optimism and Terminal Decline in Global Quality of Life

Science.gov (United States)

Zaslavsky, Oleg; Palgi, Yuval; Rillamas-Sun, Eileen; LaCroix, Andrea Z.; Schnall, Eliezer; Woods, Nancy F.; Cochrane, Barbara B.; Garcia, Lorena; Hingle, Melanie; Post, Stephen; Seguin, Rebecca; Tindle, Hilary; Shrira, Amit

2015-01-01

We examined whether dispositional optimism relates to change in global quality of life (QOL) as a function of either chronological age or years to impending death. We used a sample of 2,096 deceased postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative clinical trials who were enrolled in the 2005-2010 Extension Study and for whom at least 1…

Ganglion cell loss in relation to visual disability in multiple sclerosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Walter, Scott D; Ishikawa, Hiroshi; Galetta, Kristin M; Sakai, Reiko E; Feller, Daniel J; Henderson, Sam B; Wilson, James A; Maguire, Maureen G; Galetta, Steven L; Frohman, Elliot; Calabresi, Peter A; Schuman, Joel S; Balcer, Laura J

2012-06-01

We used high-resolution spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) with retinal segmentation to determine how ganglion cell loss relates to history of acute optic neuritis (ON), retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thinning, visual function, and vision-related quality of life (QOL) in multiple sclerosis (MS). Cross-sectional study. A convenience sample of patients with MS (n = 122; 239 eyes) and disease-free controls (n = 31; 61 eyes). Among MS eyes, 87 had a history of ON before enrollment. The SD-OCT images were captured using Macular Cube (200×200 or 512×128) and ONH Cube 200×200 protocols. Retinal layer segmentation was performed using algorithms established for glaucoma studies. Thicknesses of the ganglion cell layer/inner plexiform layer (GCL+IPL), RNFL, outer plexiform/inner nuclear layers (OPL+INL), and outer nuclear/photoreceptor layers (ONL+PRL) were measured and compared in MS versus control eyes and MS ON versus non-ON eyes. The relation between changes in macular thickness and visual disability was also examined. The OCT measurements of GCL+IPL and RNFL thickness; high contrast visual acuity (VA); low-contrast letter acuity (LCLA) at 2.5% and 1.25% contrast; on the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25) and 10-Item Neuro-Ophthalmic Supplement composite score. Macular RNFL and GCL+IPL were significantly decreased in MS versus control eyes (Pvisual function and vision-specific QOL in MS, and may serve as a useful structural marker of disease. Our findings parallel those of magnetic resonance imaging studies that show gray matter disease is a marker of neurologic disability in MS. Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references. Copyright © 2012 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Preterm-associated visual impairment and estimates of retinopathy of prematurity at regional and global levels for 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Blencowe, Hannah; Lawn, Joy E.; Vazquez, Thomas; Fielder, Alistair; Gilbert, Clare

2013-01-01

Background: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of potentially avoidable childhood blindness worldwide. We estimated ROP burden at the global and regional levels to inform screening and treatment programs, research, and data priorities. Methods: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were undertaken to estimate the risk of ROP and subsequent visual impairment for surviving preterm babies by level of neonatal care, access to ROP screening, and treatment. A compartmental model was used to estimate ROP cases and numbers of visually impaired survivors. Results: In 2010, an estimated 184,700 (uncertainty range: 169,600–214,500) preterm babies developed any stage of ROP, 20,000 (15,500–27,200) of whom became blind or severely visually impaired from ROP, and a further 12,300 (8,300–18,400) developed mild/moderate visual impairment. Sixty-five percent of those visually impaired from ROP were born in middle-income regions; 6.2% (4.3–8.9%) of all ROP visually impaired infants were born at >32-wk gestation. Visual impairment from other conditions associated with preterm birth will affect larger numbers of survivors. Conclusion: Improved care, including oxygen delivery and monitoring, for preterm babies in all facility settings would reduce the number of babies affected with ROP. Improved data tracking and coverage of locally adapted screening/treatment programs are urgently required. PMID:24366462

Measuring depression after spinal cord injury: Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Depression item bank and linkage with PHQ-9.

Science.gov (United States)

Tulsky, David S; Kisala, Pamela A; Kalpakjian, Claire Z; Bombardier, Charles H; Pohlig, Ryan T; Heinemann, Allen W; Carle, Adam; Choi, Seung W

2015-05-01

To develop a calibrated spinal cord injury-quality of life (SCI-QOL) item bank, computer adaptive test (CAT), and short form to assess depressive symptoms experienced by individuals with SCI, transform scores to the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) metric, and create a crosswalk to the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9. We used grounded-theory based qualitative item development methods, large-scale item calibration field testing, confirmatory factor analysis, item response theory (IRT) analyses, and statistical linking techniques to transform scores to a PROMIS metric and to provide a crosswalk with the PHQ-9. Five SCI Model System centers and one Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in the United States. Adults with traumatic SCI. Spinal Cord Injury--Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Depression Item Bank Individuals with SCI were involved in all phases of SCI-QOL development. A sample of 716 individuals with traumatic SCI completed 35 items assessing depression, 18 of which were PROMIS items. After removing 7 non-PROMIS items, factor analyses confirmed a unidimensional pool of items. We used a graded response IRT model to estimate slopes and thresholds for the 28 retained items. The SCI-QOL Depression measure correlated 0.76 with the PHQ-9. The SCI-QOL Depression item bank provides a reliable and sensitive measure of depressive symptoms with scores reported in terms of general population norms. We provide a crosswalk to the PHQ-9 to facilitate comparisons between measures. The item bank may be administered as a CAT or as a short form and is suitable for research and clinical applications.

Measuring pain phenomena after spinal cord injury: Development and psychometric properties of the SCI-QOL Pain Interference and Pain Behavior assessment tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Matthew L; Kisala, Pamela A; Dyson-Hudson, Trevor A; Tulsky, David S

2018-05-01

To develop modern patient-reported outcome measures that assess pain interference and pain behavior after spinal cord injury (SCI). Grounded-theory based qualitative item development; large-scale item calibration field-testing; confirmatory factor analyses; graded response model item response theory analyses; statistical linking techniques to transform scores to the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) metric. Five SCI Model Systems centers and one Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in the United States. Adults with traumatic SCI. N/A. Spinal Cord Injury - Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Pain Interference item bank, SCI-QOL Pain Interference short form, and SCI-QOL Pain Behavior scale. Seven hundred fifty-seven individuals with traumatic SCI completed 58 items addressing various aspects of pain. Items were then separated by whether they assessed pain interference or pain behavior, and poorly functioning items were removed. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed that each set of items was unidimensional, and item response theory analyses were used to estimate slopes and thresholds for the items. Ultimately, 7 items (4 from PROMIS) comprised the Pain Behavior scale and 25 items (18 from PROMIS) comprised the Pain Interference item bank. Ten of these 25 items were selected to form the Pain Interference short form. The SCI-QOL Pain Interference item bank and the SCI-QOL Pain Behavior scale demonstrated robust psychometric properties. The Pain Interference item bank is available as a computer adaptive test or short form for research and clinical applications, and scores are transformed to the PROMIS metric.

Learning about “wicked” problems in the Global South. Creating a film-based learning environment with “Visual Problem Appraisal”

OpenAIRE

Loes Witteveen; Rico Lie

2012-01-01

The current complexity of sustainable development in the Global South calls for the design of learning strategies that can deal with this complexity. One such innovative learning strategy, called Visual Problem Appraisal (VPA), is highlighted in this article. The strategy is termed visual as it creates a learning environment that is film-based. VPA enhances the analysis of complex issues, and facilitates stakeholder dialogue and action planning. The strategy is used in workshops dealing with ...

Neuro-QOL: brief measures of health-related quality of life for clinical research in neurology.

Science.gov (United States)

Cella, D; Lai, J-S; Nowinski, C J; Victorson, D; Peterman, A; Miller, D; Bethoux, F; Heinemann, A; Rubin, S; Cavazos, J E; Reder, A T; Sufit, R; Simuni, T; Holmes, G L; Siderowf, A; Wojna, V; Bode, R; McKinney, N; Podrabsky, T; Wortman, K; Choi, S; Gershon, R; Rothrock, N; Moy, C

2012-06-05

To address the need for brief, reliable, valid, and standardized quality of life (QOL) assessment applicable across neurologic conditions. Drawing from larger calibrated item banks, we developed short measures (8-9 items each) of 13 different QOL domains across physical, mental, and social health and evaluated their validity and reliability. Three samples were utilized during short form development: general population (Internet-based, n = 2,113); clinical panel (Internet-based, n = 553); and clinical outpatient (clinic-based, n = 581). All short forms are expressed as T scores with a mean of 50 and SD of 10. Internal consistency (Cronbach α) of the 13 short forms ranged from 0.85 to 0.97. Correlations between short form and full-length item bank scores ranged from 0.88 to 0.99 (0.82-0.96 after removing common items from banks). Online respondents were asked whether they had any of 19 different chronic health conditions, and whether or not those reported conditions interfered with ability to function normally. All short forms, across physical, mental, and social health, were able to separate people who reported no health condition from those who reported 1-2 or 3 or more. In addition, scores on all 13 domains were worse for people who acknowledged being limited by the health conditions they reported, compared to those who reported conditions but were not limited by them. These 13 brief measures of self-reported QOL are reliable and show preliminary evidence of concurrent validity inasmuch as they differentiate people based upon number of reported health conditions and whether those reported conditions impede normal function.

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD): Prevalence and impact on quality of life (QoL).

Science.gov (United States)

Nappi, Rossella E; Cucinella, Laura; Martella, Silvia; Rossi, Margherita; Tiranini, Lara; Martini, Ellis

2016-12-01

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) and quality of life (QOL) are both multidimensional and have a bidirectional relationship across the reproductive life span and beyond. Methodological difficulties exist in estimating the real prevalence of FSD because it is hard to determine the level of distress associated with sexual symptoms in a large-scale survey. Approximately 40-50% of all women report at least one sexual symptom, and some conditions associated with hormonal changes at menopause, such as vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA) and hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), have a significant impact on sexual function and QOL. Sexual distress peaks at midlife, declines with age and is strongly partner-related. Many postmenopausal women are still sexually active, especially if they are in a stable partnership. Even though sexual functioning is impaired, a variety of psychosocial factors may maintain sexual satisfaction. That being so, health care providers (HCPs) should proactively address sexual symptoms at midlife and in older women, from a balanced perspective. Adequate counselling should be offered. Women with distressing symptoms may benefit from tailored hormonal and non-hormonal therapies, whereas women without distress related to their sexual experiences should not receive any specific treatment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surgery for two cases with markedly impaired QOL(Quality of Life) of radiation enterocolitis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiba, Tadaaki; Tanishima, Satoru; Sato, Masahiko; Yanagisawa, Terumasa; Yoshino, Masaaki; Takatsuka, Jun

1996-01-01

Two cases of radiation enterocolitis with markedly impaired QOL for a long period were reported. Case 1: A 61 years old female. She received 60 Gy irradiation post hysterectomy and ovariectomy due to uterine cancer at the age of 39 y. She suffered from fecal incontinence and anal pain at 58 y, was diagnosed to have radiation colitis. She was hospitalized due to neurosis, anal pain and hypertension at 59 y. She received nephrostomy due to hydronephrosis and ureterostenosis at 60 y, and colostomy and ileal conduit formation due to anal pain and dyschezia. Case 2: A 70 years old female who received 60 Gy irradiation post surgery similar to case 1 at the age of 61 y. She suffered from ileus, intestinal retention and hydronephrosis thereafter. She was hospitalized due to metastasis of the cancer to sacred bone, and received further 40 Gy radiation therapy at the age of 65 y. Up to the present, she received several operations such as ileostomy, nephrostomy and hemorrhoids excision. It is important for surgeons to understand the actual QOL of patients with radiation enterocolitis. (K.H.)

Surgery for two cases with markedly impaired QOL(Quality of Life) of radiation enterocolitis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shiba, Tadaaki; Tanishima, Satoru; Sato, Masahiko; Yanagisawa, Terumasa; Yoshino, Masaaki; Takatsuka, Jun [Toho Univ., Tokyo (Japan). School of Medicine

1996-10-01

Two cases of radiation enterocolitis with markedly impaired QOL for a long period were reported. Case 1: A 61 years old female. She received 60 Gy irradiation post hysterectomy and ovariectomy due to uterine cancer at the age of 39 y. She suffered from fecal incontinence and anal pain at 58 y, was diagnosed to have radiation colitis. She was hospitalized due to neurosis, anal pain and hypertension at 59 y. She received nephrostomy due to hydronephrosis and ureterostenosis at 60 y, and colostomy and ileal conduit formation due to anal pain and dyschezia. Case 2: A 70 years old female who received 60 Gy irradiation post surgery similar to case 1 at the age of 61 y. She suffered from ileus, intestinal retention and hydronephrosis thereafter. She was hospitalized due to metastasis of the cancer to sacred bone, and received further 40 Gy radiation therapy at the age of 65 y. Up to the present, she received several operations such as ileostomy, nephrostomy and hemorrhoids excision. It is important for surgeons to understand the actual QOL of patients with radiation enterocolitis. (K.H.)

Effects of Aqua Exercises Towards Improving The Quality of Life (QoL) of Obese Women in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Karim, Noor Liyana Binti; Jalil, Asma Diyana binti Abd; Hasri, Noor Haninah Binti; Rahman, Hezlin Aryani Binti Abd; Shari, Maisarah Binti; Idris, Nur Izzati Binti

2018-05-01

Aqua exercise is a form of water exercise, done in the water which is beneficial for weight loss as well as improving the quality of life. It is suitable for all age group and fitness levels whereby due to the water buoyancy makes it easier to perform exercises especially for obese and knee-injured people. However, there was not much study done to measure the effectiveness of the aqua exercises in improving the quality life. Thus, this study aims to investigate and compare the effectiveness of aqua exercises towards obese women within eight domains of the Quality of Life (QoL). This study uses the 36-Items Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire and a purposive sample of 61 participants to measure the effectiveness of the aqua exercise before and after 36 days of aqua workout. As the nature of the data collected was not normally distributed, hence the Wilcoxon signed rank test was used as the statistical method of analysis. The findings of this study showed that there was a significant difference between the overall QoL pre and post since the p-value physical functioning, general health, social functioning, mental health, and health transition were the domains showing significant difference between the pre and post-test (p-value < 0.05), and where majority of the participants showed a significant improvement after the aqua workouts. Thus, it can be concluded that aqua exercises is effective in improving the general QoL of obese women.

Introduction: Critical Visual Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Ludes

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The studies selected for publication in this special issue on Critical Visual Theory can be divided into three thematic groups: (1 image making as power making, (2 commodification and recanonization, and (3 approaches to critical visual theory. The approaches to critical visual theory adopted by the authors of this issue may be subsumed under the following headings (3.1 critical visual discourse and visual memes in general and Anonymous visual discourse in particular, (3.2 collective memory and gendered gaze, and (3.3 visual capitalism, global north and south.

Neuro-QOL and the NIH Toolbox: implications for epilepsy

Science.gov (United States)

Nowinski, Cindy J; Victorson, David; Cavazos, Jose E; Gershon, Richard; Cella, David

2011-01-01

The impact of neurological disorders on the lives of patients is often far more complex than what is measured in routine examination. Measurement of this impact can be challenging owing to a lack of brief, psychometrically sound and generally accepted instruments. Two NIH-funded initiatives are developing assessment tools, in English and Spanish, which address these issues, and should prove useful to the study and treatment of epilepsy and other neurological conditions. The first, Neuro-QOL, has created a set of health-related quality of life measures that are applicable for people with common neurological disorders. The second, the NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function, is assembling measures of cognitive, emotional, motor and sensory health and function that can be used across all ages, from 3 to 85 years. This article describes both the projects and their potential value to epilepsy treatment and research. PMID:21552344

Collinearity Impairs Local Element Visual Search

Science.gov (United States)

Jingling, Li; Tseng, Chia-Huei

2013-01-01

In visual searches, stimuli following the law of good continuity attract attention to the global structure and receive attentional priority. Also, targets that have unique features are of high feature contrast and capture attention in visual search. We report on a salient global structure combined with a high orientation contrast to the…

Decreased QOL and muscle strength are persistent 1 year after intramedullary nailing of a tibial shaft fracture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Peter; Elsoe, Rasmus; Laessoe, Uffe

2016-01-01

was measured with the questionnaire Eq5D-5L and compared to norm data from a reference population. Recordings of pain and contralateral muscle strength (isometric maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) for knee flexion and extension were collected at 6 weeks, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively. Ipsilateral MVCs......INTRODUCTION:To evaluate the development in patient-reported quality of life (QOL) and muscle strength in the period from surgery to 12 months postoperatively after intramedullary nailing of a tibial shaft fracture. MATERIALS AND METHODS:The design was a prospective, follow-up cohort study. QOL...... compared to the reference population. Six and 12 months after surgery patients demonstrated decreased muscle strength in the injured leg compared to the non-injured leg for knee extension and flexion (P strength during knee...

Images of climate change in the news: Visual framing of a global environmental issue

Science.gov (United States)

Rebich Hespanha, S.; Rice, R. E.; Montello, D. R.; Retzloff, S.; Tien, S.

2012-12-01

News media play a powerful role in disseminating and framing information and shaping public opinion on environmental issues. Choices of text and images that are made by the creators and distributors of news media not only influence public perception about which issues are important, but also surreptitiously lead consumers of these media to perceive certain aspects or perspectives on an issue while neglecting to consider others. Our research was motivated by a desire to obtain comprehensive quantitative and qualitative understanding of the types of information - both textual and visual -- that have been provided to the U.S. public over the past several decades through news reports about climate change. As part of this project, we documented and examined 118 themes in 19 categories presented in 350 randomly-selected visual images from U.S. news coverage of global climate change between 1969 and late 2009. This study examines how the use of imagery in print news positions climate change within public and private arenas and how it emphasizes particular geographic, political, scientific, technological, sociological, and ideological aspects of the issue.

The QOL-DASS Model to Estimate Overall Quality of Life and General Health

OpenAIRE

Mehrdad Mazaheri

2011-01-01

"n Objective: In order to find how rating the WHOQOL-BREF and DASS scales are combined to produce an overall measure of quality of life and satisfaction with health rating, a QOL-DASS model was designed ; and the strength of this hypothesized model was examined using the structural equation modeling "n "nMethod: Participants included a sample of 103 voluntary males who were divided into two groups of unhealthy (N=55) and healthy (N=48). To assess satisfaction and negative  emotions of depress...

Direct experimental visualization of the global Hamiltonian progression of two-dimensional Lagrangian flow topologies from integrable to chaotic state

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baskan, O.; Clercx, H. J. H [Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven (Netherlands); Speetjens, M. F. M. [Energy Technology Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven (Netherlands); Metcalfe, G. [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Melbourne, Victoria 3190 (Australia); Swinburne University of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hawthorn VIC 3122 (Australia)

2015-10-15

Countless theoretical/numerical studies on transport and mixing in two-dimensional (2D) unsteady flows lean on the assumption that Hamiltonian mechanisms govern the Lagrangian dynamics of passive tracers. However, experimental studies specifically investigating said mechanisms are rare. Moreover, they typically concern local behavior in specific states (usually far away from the integrable state) and generally expose this indirectly by dye visualization. Laboratory experiments explicitly addressing the global Hamiltonian progression of the Lagrangian flow topology entirely from integrable to chaotic state, i.e., the fundamental route to efficient transport by chaotic advection, appear non-existent. This motivates our study on experimental visualization of this progression by direct measurement of Poincaré sections of passive tracer particles in a representative 2D time-periodic flow. This admits (i) accurate replication of the experimental initial conditions, facilitating true one-to-one comparison of simulated and measured behavior, and (ii) direct experimental investigation of the ensuing Lagrangian dynamics. The analysis reveals a close agreement between computations and observations and thus experimentally validates the full global Hamiltonian progression at a great level of detail.

Direct experimental visualization of the global Hamiltonian progression of two-dimensional Lagrangian flow topologies from integrable to chaotic state.

Science.gov (United States)

Baskan, O; Speetjens, M F M; Metcalfe, G; Clercx, H J H

2015-10-01

Countless theoretical/numerical studies on transport and mixing in two-dimensional (2D) unsteady flows lean on the assumption that Hamiltonian mechanisms govern the Lagrangian dynamics of passive tracers. However, experimental studies specifically investigating said mechanisms are rare. Moreover, they typically concern local behavior in specific states (usually far away from the integrable state) and generally expose this indirectly by dye visualization. Laboratory experiments explicitly addressing the global Hamiltonian progression of the Lagrangian flow topology entirely from integrable to chaotic state, i.e., the fundamental route to efficient transport by chaotic advection, appear non-existent. This motivates our study on experimental visualization of this progression by direct measurement of Poincaré sections of passive tracer particles in a representative 2D time-periodic flow. This admits (i) accurate replication of the experimental initial conditions, facilitating true one-to-one comparison of simulated and measured behavior, and (ii) direct experimental investigation of the ensuing Lagrangian dynamics. The analysis reveals a close agreement between computations and observations and thus experimentally validates the full global Hamiltonian progression at a great level of detail.

Food allergy QoL questionnaire for children aged 0-12 years : content, construct, and cross-cultural validity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

DunnGalvin, A.; de BlokFlokstra, B. M. J.; Burks, A. W.; Dubois, A. E. J.; Hourihane, J. O'B.

Background To date, there is no food allergy-specific questionnaire that allows parents to report children's health-related QoL (HRQL) from the child's perspective. Objective The aim of this study was to develop a sensitive, multi-dimensional measure to assess parental perception of HRQL in children

Trajectories and associated factors of quality of life, global outcome, and post-concussion symptoms in the first year following mild traumatic brain injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiang, Chia-Chen; Guo, Su-Er; Huang, Kuo-Chang; Lee, Bih-O; Fan, Jun-Yu

2016-08-01

To investigate the associated factors and change trajectories of quality of life (QoL), global outcome, and post-concussion symptoms (PCS) over the first year following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This was a prospective longitudinal study of 100 participants with mTBI from neurosurgical outpatient departments in Chiayi County District Hospitals in Taiwan. The checklist of post-concussion syndromes (CPCS) was used to assess PCS at enrollment and at 1, 3, and 12 months after mTBI; the glasgow outcome scale extended (GOSE), the quality of life after brain injured (QOLIBRI), Chinese version, and the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36), Taiwan version, were used to assess mTBI global outcome and QoL at 1, 3, and 12 months after mTBI. Latent class growth models (LCGMs) indicated the change trajectories of QOLIBRI, PCS SF-36, MCS SF-36, GOSE, and PCS. Classes of trajectory were associated with age ≥40 years, unemployment at 1 month after injury, and educational level ≤12 years. Univariate analysis revealed that employment status at 1 month post-injury was correlated with the trajectories of QOLIBRI, PCS SF-36, MCS SF-36, and GOSE, but not PCS. Employment status was the most crucial associated factor for QoL in individuals with mTBI at the 1-year follow-up. Future studies should explore the benefits of employment on QoL of individuals with mTBI.

Visual Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buhl, Mie; Flensborg, Ingelise

2010-01-01

The intrinsic breadth of various types of images creates new possibilities and challenges for visual education. The digital media have moved the boundaries between images and other kinds of modalities (e.g. writing, speech and sound) and have augmented the possibilities for integrating the functi......The intrinsic breadth of various types of images creates new possibilities and challenges for visual education. The digital media have moved the boundaries between images and other kinds of modalities (e.g. writing, speech and sound) and have augmented the possibilities for integrating...... to emerge in the interlocutory space of a global visual repertoire and diverse local interpretations. The two perspectives represent challenges for future visual education which require visual competences, not only within the arts but also within the subjects of natural sciences, social sciences, languages...

Lighting design for globally illuminated volume rendering.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yubo; Ma, Kwan-Liu

2013-12-01

With the evolution of graphics hardware, high quality global illumination becomes available for real-time volume rendering. Compared to local illumination, global illumination can produce realistic shading effects which are closer to real world scenes, and has proven useful for enhancing volume data visualization to enable better depth and shape perception. However, setting up optimal lighting could be a nontrivial task for average users. There were lighting design works for volume visualization but they did not consider global light transportation. In this paper, we present a lighting design method for volume visualization employing global illumination. The resulting system takes into account view and transfer-function dependent content of the volume data to automatically generate an optimized three-point lighting environment. Our method fully exploits the back light which is not used by previous volume visualization systems. By also including global shadow and multiple scattering, our lighting system can effectively enhance the depth and shape perception of volumetric features of interest. In addition, we propose an automatic tone mapping operator which recovers visual details from overexposed areas while maintaining sufficient contrast in the dark areas. We show that our method is effective for visualizing volume datasets with complex structures. The structural information is more clearly and correctly presented under the automatically generated light sources.

Factors During Pregnancy, Delivery and Birth Affecting Global Quality of Life of the Adult Child at Long-term Follow-up. Results from the Prospective Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort 1959-61

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Søren Ventegodt

2005-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a prospective cohort study, where we explore associations between pregnancy, delivery and the global quality of life (QOL of the adult child 31-33 years later. The data is from the Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort 1959-61 using two sets of questionnaires send to 7,222 persons: one filled out by physicians during pregnancy and delivery, while the follow-up questionnaire was completed by the adult children 31-33 years later. The main outcome measures were objective factors describing pregnancy and delivery along with global quality of life, including: Well-being, life satisfaction, happiness, fulfilment of needs, experience of life's temporal and spatial domains, expression of life's potentials and objective measures. Results showed two main factors in pregnancy that seemed to be associated with a reduced quality of life for the child 31-33 years later: the mother's smoking habits and the mother's medication–especially painkillers and different psychopharmacological drugs with the association being most prevalent early in pregnancy. Considering what can and do go wrong during the various stages of labour and delivery and considering how few connections we found between the factors examined and the later global QOL, it seems that the child is remarkably resilient to external influences during pregnancy and delivery concerned with global QOL, as an adult.

Object representations in visual memory: evidence from visual illusions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ben-Shalom, Asaf; Ganel, Tzvi

2012-07-26

Human visual memory is considered to contain different levels of object representations. Representations in visual working memory (VWM) are thought to contain relatively elaborated information about object structure. Conversely, representations in iconic memory are thought to be more perceptual in nature. In four experiments, we tested the effects of two different categories of visual illusions on representations in VWM and in iconic memory. Unlike VWM that was affected by both types of illusions, iconic memory was immune to the effects of within-object contextual illusions and was affected only by illusions driven by between-objects contextual properties. These results show that iconic and visual working memory contain dissociable representations of object shape. These findings suggest that the global properties of the visual scene are processed prior to the processing of specific elements.

Home-based walking improves cardiopulmonary function and health-related QOL in community-dwelling adults.

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Okamoto, N; Nakatani, T; Morita, N; Saeki, K; Kurumatani, N

2007-12-01

The objective of our study was to investigate the effects of a home-based walking program on physical fitness and QOL among community residents. Subjects (n = 200, mean age: 64.2 years, range: 42 - 75 years) who participated in the 32-week trial were randomly allocated to one of two groups: an exercise (E) group and a control (C) group. The E group was instructed to increase the number of steps a day that they walked and to perform aerobic walking at a target heart rate for 20 minutes or more daily, 2 or more days a week. The C group was told to continue their normal level of activity. Outcome measures were the 3-minute shuttle stamina walk test (SSWT), 30-second chair-stand test (CS-30), and SF-36. Increases in SSWT values were significantly greater in the E group than in the C group (men 24.1 m vs. 6.3 m; women 8.8 m vs. 2.4 m), as were increases in CS-30 values (men 5.9 vs. 2.6; women 4.5 vs. - 0.1). On the SF-36, the scores in the E group for vitality and mental health increased significantly. Home-based walking is considered to be an effective and feasible method to improve physical fitness and QOL among community residents.

Caring for a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Parents' Quality of Life: Application of the CarerQol

NARCIS (Netherlands)

R.J. Hoefman (Renske); N. Payakachat (Nalin); N.J.A. van Exel (Job); K.A. Kuhlthau (Karen); E.M. Kovacs (Erica); J.M. Pyne (Jeffrey); J.M. Tilford (John Mick)

2014-01-01

textabstractThis study describes the impact of caregiving on parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Secondly, we investigate construct validation of the care-related quality of life instrument (CarerQol) measuring impact of caregiving. Primary caregivers of children with ASDs

Depression, quality of life (QoL) and will to live of community-dwelling postmenopausal women in three Asian countries: Korea, China and Japan.

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Ina, Koichiro; Hayashi, Toshio; Nomura, Hideki; Ishitsuka, Asako; Hirai, Hisako; Iguchi, Akihisa

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of screening-detected depression and the association of depression with QoL in community-dwelling postmenopausal women living in three Asian countries. We examined self-reported questionnaires and conducted the study. A total of 698 community-dwelling postmenopausal women living in three Asian countries participated in this study. The mean age was 59.4±6.6 years (±SD) Depressive symptoms were assessed using a 15-item geriatric depression scale (GDS-15). Using the cut-off of 5/6 for the GDS-15, the percentages of subjects with depression were 39.0% of the Korean subjects, 29.2% of the Chinese subjects, and 33.9% of the Japanese subjects. For the assessment of QoL, we used the EQ-5D of the EuroQoL Group. The following five dimensions were assessed: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. The proportions of subjects reporting problems for each dimension were examined. Subjects with depression had significantly lower levels of some dimensions of QoL than those without depression in all three countries. In all three countries, 29.2-39.0% of community-dwelling postmenopausal women had screening-detected depression, which was significantly associated with a lower level of some dimensions of QoL. These results suggest that clinicians should pay more attention to depression in community-dwelling postmenopausal women. Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

The QOL-DASS Model to Estimate Overall Quality of Life and General Subjective Health

OpenAIRE

Mazaheri, Mehrdad

2011-01-01

Objective In Order to find how rating the WHOQOL-BREF and DASS scales are combined to produce an overall measure of quality of life and satisfaction with health rating, a QOL-DASS model was designed; and the strength of this hypothesized model was examined using the structural equation modeling. Method Participants included a sample of 103 voluntary males who were divided into two groups of unhealthy (N=55) and healthy (N=48). To assess satisfaction and negative emotions of depression, anxiet...

Learning about “wicked” problems in the Global South. Creating a film-based learning environment with “Visual Problem Appraisal”

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Loes Witteveen

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The current complexity of sustainable development in the Global South calls for the design of learning strategies that can deal with this complexity. One such innovative learning strategy, called Visual Problem Appraisal (VPA, is highlighted in this article. The strategy is termed visual as it creates a learning environment that is film-based. VPA enhances the analysis of complex issues, and facilitates stakeholder dialogue and action planning. The strategy is used in workshops dealing with problem analysis and policy design, and involves the participants “meeting” stakeholders through filmed narratives. The article demonstrates the value of using film in multi stakeholder learning environments addressing issues concerning sustainable development.

A Visual Approach to Investigating Shared and Global Memory Behavior of CUDA Kernels

KAUST Repository

Rosen, Paul

2013-01-01

We present an approach to investigate the memory behavior of a parallel kernel executing on thousands of threads simultaneously within the CUDA architecture. Our top-down approach allows for quickly identifying any significant differences between the execution of the many blocks and warps. As interesting warps are identified, we allow further investigation of memory behavior by visualizing the shared memory bank conflicts and global memory coalescence, first with an overview of a single warp with many operations and, subsequently, with a detailed view of a single warp and a single operation. We demonstrate the strength of our approach in the context of a parallel matrix transpose kernel and a parallel 1D Haar Wavelet transform kernel. © 2013 The Author(s) Computer Graphics Forum © 2013 The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

A Visual Approach to Investigating Shared and Global Memory Behavior of CUDA Kernels

KAUST Repository

Rosen, Paul

2013-06-01

We present an approach to investigate the memory behavior of a parallel kernel executing on thousands of threads simultaneously within the CUDA architecture. Our top-down approach allows for quickly identifying any significant differences between the execution of the many blocks and warps. As interesting warps are identified, we allow further investigation of memory behavior by visualizing the shared memory bank conflicts and global memory coalescence, first with an overview of a single warp with many operations and, subsequently, with a detailed view of a single warp and a single operation. We demonstrate the strength of our approach in the context of a parallel matrix transpose kernel and a parallel 1D Haar Wavelet transform kernel. © 2013 The Author(s) Computer Graphics Forum © 2013 The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Development and validation of the positive affect and well-being scale for the neurology quality of life (Neuro-QOL) measurement system.

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Salsman, John M; Victorson, David; Choi, Seung W; Peterman, Amy H; Heinemann, Allen W; Nowinski, Cindy; Cella, David

2013-11-01

To develop and validate an item-response theory-based patient-reported outcomes assessment tool of positive affect and well-being (PAW). This is part of a larger NINDS-funded study to develop a health-related quality of life measurement system across major neurological disorders, called Neuro-QOL. Informed by a literature review and qualitative input from clinicians and patients, item pools were created to assess PAW concepts. Items were administered to a general population sample (N = 513) and a group of individuals with a variety of neurologic conditions (N = 581) for calibration and validation purposes, respectively. A 23-item calibrated bank and a 9-item short form of PAW was developed, reflecting components of positive affect, life satisfaction, or an overall sense of purpose and meaning. The Neuro-QOL PAW measure demonstrated sufficient unidimensionality and displayed good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, model fit, convergent and discriminant validity, and responsiveness. The Neuro-QOL PAW measure was designed to aid clinicians and researchers to better evaluate and understand the potential role of positive health processes for individuals with chronic neurological conditions. Further psychometric testing within and between neurological conditions, as well as testing in non-neurologic chronic diseases, will help evaluate the generalizability of this new tool.

Quality of life at 6 months in the Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension Treatment Trial.

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Bruce, Beau B; Digre, Kathleen B; McDermott, Michael P; Schron, Eleanor B; Wall, Michael

2016-11-01

To examine the changes in vision-specific and overall health-related quality of life (QOL) at 6 months in participants with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and mild visual loss enrolled in the Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension Treatment Trial (IIHTT) and to determine the signs and symptoms of IIH that mediate the effect of acetazolamide on QOL. We assessed QOL using the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25), the 10-Item NEI-VFQ-25 Neuro-Ophthalmic Supplement, and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). We examined associations among changes in QOL measures over 6 months, treatment status, and changes in signs and symptoms using linear and structural equation models. Among the 165 participants with IIH (86 randomized to acetazolamide, 79 to placebo), beneficial effects of acetazolamide were seen on all QOL scales evaluated, as well as on the Near Activities (5.60 points, p = 0.03), Social Functioning (3.85 points, p = 0.04), and Mental Health (9.82, p = 0.04) subscales of the NEI-VFQ-25. Positive acetazolamide-related effects on QOL appeared to be primarily mediated by improvements in visual field, neck pain, pulsatile tinnitus, and dizziness/vertigo that outweighed the side effects of acetazolamide. The marked reductions in baseline QOL seen among patients with mild visual loss from IIH are improved by treatment with acetazolamide. When combined with acetazolamide-associated improvements in visual field and other aspects of IIH, our findings with respect to QOL provide further support from the IIHTT in favor of acetazolamide to augment a dietary intervention in the treatment of IIH with mild visual loss (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01003639). © 2016 American Academy of Neurology.

Pre-diagnosis quality of life (QoL) in patients with hematuria : Comparison of bladder cancer with other causes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goossens-Laan, C.A.; Kil, P.J.M.; Bosch, J.L.; de Vries, J.

2013-01-01

Purpose To examine quality of life (QoL), health status, sexual function, and anxiety in patients with primary hematuria who later appear to have bladder cancer (BC) and patients with other diagnoses. Methods From July 2007 to July 2010, 598 patients with primary hematuria were enrolled in this

Comparison of AIMS2-SF, WOMAC, x-ray and a global physician assessment in order to approach quality of life in patients suffering from osteoarthritis

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Szecsenyi Joachim

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Chronic diseases like osteoarthritis (OA substantially affect different dimensions of quality of life (QoL. The aim of the study was to reveal possible factors which mainly influence general practitioners (GPs assessment of patients' QoL. Methods 220 primary care patients with OA of the knee or the hip treated by their general practitioner for at least one year were included. All GPs were asked to assess patients' QoL based on the patients' history, actual examination and existing x-rays by means of a visual analog scale (VAS scale, resulting in values ranging from 0 to 10. Patients were asked to complete the McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC and the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale2 Short Form (AIMS2-SF questionnaire. Results Significant correlations were revealed between "GP assessment" and the AIMS2-SF scales "physical" (rho = 0.495 and "symptom" (rho = 0.598 as well as to the "pain" scale of the WOMAC (rho = 0.557. A multivariate ordinal regression analysis revealed only the AIMS2-SF "symptom" scale (coefficient beta = 0.2588; p = 0.0267 and the x-ray grading according to Kellgren and Lawrence as significant influence variables (beta = 0.6395; p = 0.0004. Conclusion The results of the present study suggest that physicians' assessment of patients' QoL is mainly dominated by physical factors, namely pain and severity of x-ray findings. Our results suggest that socioeconomic and psychosocial factors, which are known to have substantial impact on QoL, are underestimated or missed. Moreover, the overestimation of x-ray findings, which are known to be less correlated to QoL, may cause over-treatment while important and promising targets to increase patients' QoL are missed.

Measuring the Impact of Globalization on the Well-being of the Poor: Methodology and an Application to Africa

OpenAIRE

Rahman, Tauhidur; Mittelhammer, Ronald C.

2006-01-01

Whereas a large number of empirical studies have been devoted to analyzing the relationship between measures of income and globalization (defined by openness to international trade), much less attention has been paid to the analysis of well-being for the various subgroups of population and their causal associations with globalization. To address this gap in the literature, this paper first analyzes the quality of life (QOL) of 'poor' and 'non-poor' population segments of 40 African countries ...

Health-related quality of life, visual function and treatment satisfaction following intravitreal dexamethasone implant for diabetic macular edema

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Ramu J

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Jayashree Ramu,1 Irini Chatziralli,1 Yit Yang,2 Geeta Menon,3 Clare Bailey,4 Michael Eckstein,5 Phil Hykin,1 Sobha Sivaprasad1 On behalf of the OZDRY Study Group 1NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, London, 2The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, Wolverhampton, 3Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, Surrey, 4Bristol Eye Hospital, Bristol, 5Brighton and Sussex University Hospital, Brighton, UK Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore and describe quantitatively patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs, ie, health-related quality of life (QoL, visual function and treatment satisfaction, in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME receiving two different regimens of Ozurdex (intravitreal dexamethasone implant. Methods: In this multicenter, prospective study, 100 patients with center-involving refractory DME were randomized 1:1 to either five monthly fixed dosing or optical coherence tomography (OCT-guided pro re nata (PRN regimen of dexamethasone intravitreal implant therapy. The primary outcome was the difference between arms in change in PROMs and health-related QoL from baseline to 12 months, as measured by the Retinopathy-Dependent Quality of Life (RetDQoL questionnaire, Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (VFQ-25 and Retinopathy Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (RetTSQ. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the RetDQoL score and VFQ-25 score at month 12 compared to those at baseline, whereas the total mean RetTSQ score increased significantly at the exit visit. The two treatment arms did not differ significantly regarding the change in PROMs and health-related QoL questionnaires. Logistic regression analysis showed that visual acuity (VA of ≥55 letters, central foveal thickness <300 µm and macular volume <9.2 mm3 at the exit visit (month 12 predicted a higher change in RetTSQ. Conclusion: This study showed that there is a statistically significant improvement in treatment satisfaction, as

Implication for QOL after I-125 brachytherapy for prostate cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teishima, Jun; Yasumoto, Hiroaki; Inoue, Syogo; Masumoto, Hiroshi; Hasegawa, Yasuhisa; Matsubara, Akio

2009-01-01

The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of patients following prostate brachytherapy. Between July 2004 and May 2008, 139 patients underwent I-125 permanent brachytherapy. Among those patients, 69 who were followed up for more than one year using the Expanded Prostate Index Composite (EPIC), Japanese version v1 TM , were enrolled in this study. Urinary summary scores became worse temporarily at 1 month after the end of treatment, but then recovered gradually to the level before treatment. Sexual summary scores before treatment were 42.2±16.3. They became worse temporarily at 1 month after treatment but then recovered gradually in patients whose sexual summary scores were more than 40. Urinary morbidity scores after prostate brachytherapy were not so severe and recovered within a short period. Further long-term observation is thought to be required in the future. Sexual function scores of patients before treatment in the present study were lower compared with those recorded in previous studies. (author)

Global Skin-Friction Measurements Using Particle Image Surface FLow Visualization and a Luminescent Oil-Film

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Husen, Nicholas; Roozeboom, Nettie; Liu, Tianshu; Sullivan, John P.

2015-01-01

A quantitative global skin-friction measurement technique is proposed. An oil-film is doped with a luminescent molecule and thereby made to fluoresce in order to resolve oil-film thickness, and Particle Image Surface Flow Visualization is used to resolve the velocity field of the surface of the oil-film. Skin-friction is then calculated at location x as (x )xh, where x is the displacement of the surface of the oil-film and is the dynamic viscosity of the oil. The data collection procedure and data analysis procedures are explained, and preliminary experimental skin-friction results for flow over the wing of the CRM are presented.

Correlation of physical aptitude; functional capacity, corporal balance and quality of life (QoL) among elderly women submitted to a post-menopausal physical activities program.

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de Souza Santos, César Augusto; Dantas, Estélio Enrique Martin; Moreira, Maria Helena Rodrigues

2011-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of physical activity from the "Menopause in Form" program on physical aptitude, functional capacity, corporal balance and QoL among elderly women. In addition, correlations among these variables were examined. The present work was a longitudinal study that was quasi-experimental and correlational. A total of 323 elderly women (age: 69.0±5.53 years) participated in this study. Subjects were non-institutionalized, post-menopausal individuals residing at the Elderly Care Center in Belém Municipality (Pará, Brazil) and practiced one activity (i.e., dancing or walking) over a 10-month period. The assessment protocols used were the following: the Fullerton functional fitness test battery (physical aptitude); the activities of daily living (ADL) indices (functional capacity); the Tinetti-scale (corporal balance); and the WHOQOL-OLD questionnaire (QoL). The adopted significance level was p<0.05. Results from the Wilcoxon test demonstrated significant differences for the post-test assessment of functional capacity (Δ%=5.63%; p=0.0001) and general QoL (Δ%=9.19%; p=0.001). These results suggest that the physical activities employed during the "Menopause in Form" program resulted in significant improvements in the functional capacity and QoL of post-menopausal elderly women. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does relationship satisfaction and financial aid from offspring influence the quality of life of older parents?: a longitudinal study based on findings from the Korean longitudinal study of aging, 2006-2012.

Science.gov (United States)

Ju, Yeong Jun; Han, Kyu-Tae; Lee, Tae-Hoon; Kim, Woorim; Kim, Juyeong; Park, Eun-Cheol

2016-07-26

Quality of life (QoL) in old age is of major importance because the global population is aging rapidly. Offspring support, including financial and emotional support, is important in later life and directly affects the wellbeing of elderly individuals. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between QoL in older parents and offspring support. We used baseline data from the 2006-2012 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, from 3,274 individuals aged 65 years or older. We measured the individual's QoL using a visual analog scale and included both relationship satisfaction and regular economic support as variables. A generalized estimating equation (GEE) model was used to perform longitudinal regression analysis on the data. Regarding the QoL of older parents, those with an unsatisfying relationship with their offspring had a QoL of -21.93 (SE = 0.55; P financial aid from their offspring had a QoL of -0.92 (SE = 0.38; P = 0.0171) compared to those who received such economic support. Combination effects were observed, with cases living alone - and having poor offspring relationships and no regular financial support from their offspring - showing the most drastic decrease in QoL (-23.46; SE = 1.03; P < 0.0001). Offspring support influences the QoL of elderly individuals, and Korean children appear to play a crucial role in the QoL of their (older) parents. Considering that the role of offspring is rapidly diminishing due to industrialization policies, initiatives are required to revitalize offspring support for elderly parents.

Effects of interactive metronome training on upper extremity function, ADL and QOL in stroke patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Ga-Hui; Lee, Jae-Shin; Kim, Su-Kyoung; Cha, Tae-Hyun

2017-01-01

Rhythm and timing training is stimulation that substitutes for a damaged function controls muscular movement or temporal element, which has positive impacts on the neurological aspect and movement of the brain. This study is to assess the changes caused by rhythm and timing training using an interactive metronome (IM) on upper extremity function, ADL and QOL in stroke patients. In order to assess the effects of IM training, a group experiment was conducted on 30 stroke patients. Twelve sessions of IM training were provided for the experimental group three times a week for four weeks, while the control group was trained with a Bilateral arm Self-Exercise (BSE) for the same period. Both groups were evaluated by pre- and post-tests through MFT, MAL, K-MBI and SS-QOL. There were more statistically significant differences (<0.05) in the total score of MFT and the finger control item in the IM Group than in the BSE Group. With respect to ADL, there were more statistically significant differences (<0.05) in the total score of K-MBI and the dressing item in the IM Group than in the BSE Group. The study proposes that IM training can be applied as an occupational therapy program in patients with various diseases who need to adjust the time for performing movements as well as stroke patients.

Future trends in global blindness

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Serge Resnikoff

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this review is to discuss the available data on the prevalence and causes of global blindness, and some of the associated trends and limitations seen. A literature search was conducted using the terms "global AND blindness" and "global AND vision AND impairment", resulting in seven appropriate articles for this review. Since 1990 the estimate of global prevalence of blindness has gradually decreased when considering the best corrected visual acuity definition: 0.71% in 1990, 0.59% in 2002, and 0.55% in 2010, corresponding to a 0.73% reduction per year over the 2002-2010 period. Significant limitations were found in the comparability between the global estimates in prevalence or causes of blindness or visual impairment. These limitations arise from various factors such as uncertainties about the true cause of the impairment, the use of different definitions and methods, and the absence of data from a number of geographical areas, leading to various extrapolation methods, which in turn seriously limit comparability. Seminal to this discussion on limitations in the comparability of studies and data, is that blindness has historically been defined using best corrected visual acuity.

[Are Visual Field Defects Reversible? - Visual Rehabilitation with Brains].

Science.gov (United States)

Sabel, B A

2017-02-01

Visual field defects are considered irreversible because the retina and optic nerve do not regenerate. Nevertheless, there is some potential for recovery of the visual fields. This can be accomplished by the brain, which analyses and interprets visual information and is able to amplify residual signals through neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of the brain to change its own functional architecture by modulating synaptic efficacy. This is actually the neurobiological basis of normal learning. Plasticity is maintained throughout life and can be induced by repetitively stimulating (training) brain circuits. The question now arises as to how plasticity can be utilised to activate residual vision for the treatment of visual field loss. Just as in neurorehabilitation, visual field defects can be modulated by post-lesion plasticity to improve vision in glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy or optic neuropathy. Because almost all patients have some residual vision, the goal is to strengthen residual capacities by enhancing synaptic efficacy. New treatment paradigms have been tested in clinical studies, including vision restoration training and non-invasive alternating current stimulation. While vision training is a behavioural task to selectively stimulate "relative defects" with daily vision exercises for the duration of 6 months, treatment with alternating current stimulation (30 min. daily for 10 days) activates and synchronises the entire retina and brain. Though full restoration of vision is not possible, such treatments improve vision, both subjectively and objectively. This includes visual field enlargements, improved acuity and reaction time, improved orientation and vision related quality of life. About 70 % of the patients respond to the therapies and there are no serious adverse events. Physiological studies of the effect of alternating current stimulation using EEG and fMRI reveal massive local and global changes in the brain. These include

[QOL questionnaire for pediatric patients with bronchial asthma and their parents or caregivers. Preparation and evaluation of the short form version 2008 (Gifu)].

Science.gov (United States)

Kondo, Naomi; Hirayama, Koichiro; Matsui, Eiko; Teramoto, Takahide; Kaneko, Hideo; Fukao, Toshiyuki; Orii, Kenji; Kawamoto, Minako; Funato, Michinori; Ohnishi, Hidenori; Kawamoto, Norio; Morita, Hideyuki; Kimura, Takeshi; Nada, Masatoshi; Tokumi, Tetsuji; Hori, Tomohiro; Watanabe, Rinko

2008-08-01

The QOL questionnaire version 2001 for pediatric patients with bronchial asthma and their parents or caregivers includes 15 questions for patients under the age of 4 years and 20 questions for patients over the age of 4 years. We have already reported that the QOL questionnaire version 2001 reflects reliability (including reproducibility), factorial validity, and changes in paroxysmal attacks of asthma. In this study, we revised the questionnaire for use in routine medical practice. In this study, based on the data of a previous report, the number of questions was reduced further and it was revised to the questionnaire the short form by integrated data. The revised version 2008 (Gifu) consisted of emotional burden, asthma attack, instability of symptoms and proper acceptance of asthma as a common factor, moreover 4 or more years old added load of exercise factor which consisted of two questions in each factor. This QOL short form questionnaire version 2008 (Gifu) is a disease specific questionnaire in comparison with health control, bronchial asthma and non-asthmatic patients, such as atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis. Although Cronbach's alpha fell with reduction of the number of questions, we conclude that it was acceptable in the clinical practice.

The Impact of Hyposalivation on Quality of Life (QoL and Oral Health in the Aging Population of Al Madinah Al Munawarrah

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Mohammad S. Ahmad

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Hyposalivation (HS affects aging individuals by causing pain and discomfort in the oral cavity. The aim here was to determine the impact of hyposalivation and the saliva pH on the quality of life and caries status of geriatrics population. A total of 138 male outpatients attending the Taibah University College of Dentistry (TUCoD dental clinic were included in the study. The saliva flow, pH, Quality of Life (QoL, and caries status were recorded. The QoL was measured using the Arabic version of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14, and the caries status was recorded using the Decayed, Missed, Filled Teeth (DMFT index. The mean age was 67.5 years and 64% were classified as having hyposalivation. The older respondents tended to have a lower saliva flow and pH compared to their younger counterparts. There was a significant inverse association (p = 0.02 between the caries status and mean saliva flow rate. There was also a significant (p < 0.001 positive correlation between caries and the OHIP-14 scores (Spearman’s ρ = 0.293. The prevalence of hyposalivation was relatively high and there was an inverse relationship between the age, the saliva flow, and pH. Those with more caries reported significantly poor QoL.

Quality-of-Life (QOL during Screening for Phase 1 Trial Studies in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors and Its Impact on Risk for Serious Adverse Events

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Sidra Anwar

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Serious adverse events (SAEs and subject replacements occur frequently in phase 1 oncology clinical trials. Whether baseline quality-of-life (QOL or social support can predict risk for SAEs or subject replacement among these patients is not known. Methods: Between 2011–2013, 92 patients undergoing screening for enrollment into one of 22 phase 1 solid tumor clinical trials at Roswell Park Cancer Institute were included in this study. QOL Questionnaires (EORTC QLQ-C30 and FACT-G, Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOSSSS, Charlson comorbidity scores (CCS and Royal Marsden scores (RMS were obtained at baseline. Frequency of dose limiting toxicities (DLTs, subject replacement and SAEs that occurred within the first 4 cycles of treatment were recorded. Fisher’s exact test and Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test were used to study the association between categorical and continuous variables, respectively. A linear transformation was used to standardize QOL scores. p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Baseline QOL, MOSSSS, CCS and RMS were not associated with subject replacement nor DLTs. Baseline EORTC QLQ-C30 scores were significantly lower among patients who encountered SAEs within the first 4 cycles (p = 0.04. Conclusions: Lower (worse EORTC QLQ-C30 score at baseline is associated with SAE occurrence during phase 1 oncology trials.

Bilateral theta-burst TMS to influence global gestalt perception.

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Bernd Ritzinger

Full Text Available While early and higher visual areas along the ventral visual pathway in the inferotemporal cortex are critical for the recognition of individual objects, the neural representation of human perception of complex global visual scenes remains under debate. Stroke patients with a selective deficit in the perception of a complex global Gestalt with intact recognition of individual objects - a deficit termed simultanagnosia - greatly helped to study this question. Interestingly, simultanagnosia typically results from bilateral lesions of the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ. The present study aimed to verify the relevance of this area for human global Gestalt perception. We applied continuous theta-burst TMS either unilaterally (left or right or bilateral simultaneously over TPJ. Healthy subjects were presented with hierarchically organized visual stimuli that allowed parametrical degrading of the object at the global level. Identification of the global Gestalt was significantly modulated only for the bilateral TPJ stimulation condition. Our results strengthen the view that global Gestalt perception in the human brain involves TPJ and is co-dependent on both hemispheres.

Caring for a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Parents' Quality of Life: Application of the CarerQol

Science.gov (United States)

Hoefman, Renske; Payakachat, Nalin; van Exel, Job; Kuhlthau, Karen; Kovacs, Erica; Pyne, Jeffrey; Tilford, J. Mick

2014-01-01

This study describes the impact of caregiving on parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Secondly, we investigate construct validation of the care-related quality of life instrument (CarerQol) measuring impact of caregiving. Primary caregivers of children with ASDs were included. Many parents experienced considerable problems…

Predictors of family caregiver ratings of patient quality of life in Alzheimer disease: cross-sectional results from the Canadian Alzheimer's Disease Quality of Life Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Naglie, Gary; Hogan, David B; Krahn, Murray; Black, Sandra E; Beattie, B Lynn; Patterson, Christopher; Macknight, Chris; Freedman, Morris; Borrie, Michael; Byszewski, Anna; Bergman, Howard; Streiner, David; Irvine, Jane; Ritvo, Paul; Comrie, Janna; Kowgier, Matthew; Tomlinson, George

2011-10-01

To assess whether the core symptoms of Alzheimer disease (AD) and caregiver factors consistently predict family caregiver ratings of patient quality of life (QOL) as assessed by a variety of QOL measures in a large national sample. : Cross-sectional. Fifteen dementia and geriatric clinics across Canada. : Family caregivers (n = 412) of community-living patients with AD of all severities. Caregiver ratings of patient QOL using three utility indexes, the European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions, Quality of Well-Being Scale and Health Utilities Index; a global QOL visual analogue scale; a disease-specific measure, the Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease; and a generic health status measure, the Short Form-36. Patient cognition was assessed with the cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale and Mini-Mental State Examination, function with the Disability Assessment for Dementia, and behavioral and psychological symptoms with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Caregiver burden was assessed with the Zarit Burden Interview and caregiver depression with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. One-way analysis of variance and fully adjusted multiple linear regression were used to assess the relationship between patient dementia symptom and caregiver variables with QOL ratings. In multivariable analyses, caregiver ratings of patient function and depressive symptoms were the only consistent independent predictors of caregiver-rated QOL across the QOL measures. Caregiver ratings of patient function and depression were consistent independent predictors of caregiver-rated QOL, using a spectrum of QOL measures, while measures of patient cognition and caregiver burden and depression were not. These findings support the continued use of caregiver ratings as an important source of information about patient QOL and endorse the inclusion in AD clinical trials of caregiver-rated measures of patient function, depression

Visualization of Global Disease Burden for the Optimization of Patient Management and Treatment

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Winfried Schlee

2017-06-01

Full Text Available BackgroundThe assessment and treatment of complex disorders is challenged by the multiple domains and instruments used to evaluate clinical outcome. With the large number of assessment tools typically used in complex disorders comes the challenge of obtaining an integrative view of disease status to further evaluate treatment outcome both at the individual level and at the group level. Radar plots appear as an attractive visual tool to display multivariate data on a two-dimensional graphical illustration. Here, we describe the use of radar plots for the visualization of disease characteristics applied in the context of tinnitus, a complex and heterogeneous condition, the treatment of which has shown mixed success.MethodsData from two different cohorts, the Swedish Tinnitus Outreach Project (STOP and the Tinnitus Research Initiative (TRI database, were used. STOP is a population-based cohort where cross-sectional data from 1,223 non-tinnitus and 933 tinnitus subjects were analyzed. By contrast, the TRI contained data from 571 patients who underwent various treatments and whose Clinical Global Impression (CGI score was accessible to infer treatment outcome. In the latter, 34,560 permutations were tested to evaluate whether a particular ordering of the instruments could reflect better the treatment outcome measured with the CGI.ResultsRadar plots confirmed that tinnitus subtypes such as occasional and chronic tinnitus from the STOP cohort could be strikingly different, and helped appreciate a gender bias in tinnitus severity. Radar plots with greater surface areas were consistent with greater burden, and enabled a rapid appreciation of the global distress associated with tinnitus in patients categorized according to tinnitus severity. Permutations in the arrangement of instruments allowed to identify a configuration with minimal variance and maximized surface difference between CGI groups from the TRI database, thus affording a means of optimally

MELAHIRKAN IMPERATIF MORALITAS DALAM KARYA VISUAL

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Obed Bima Wicandra

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Visual aesthetics in visual arts are more and more questioned in the context of open global culture. Works that lead to violence%2C pornography%2C lies%2C and other things far from morality and ethics%2C are faced with public s identity to follow their desire to fulfill their consumtive needs. The blossoming of visual works and their media stimulates the visual creators in expressing ideas and imagination. Created visual works must support a better cultural direction for human life. Faith in its relation to God plays a role in achieveing space for interaction%2C so that visual works can reflect codes or symbols in the cycle of ideology or cultural values that respect the essence of faith. Abstract in Bahasa Indonesia : Estetika visual dalam seni rupa semakin dipertanyakan dalam konteks budaya global yang terbuka. Karya yang menjurus kekerasan%2C pornografi%2C kebohongan dan hal lain yang jauh dari moral dan etika diperhadapkan dengan identitas masyarakat yang mengikuti hasrat dalam memenuhi kebutuhan konsumtifnya. Karya-karya visual yang semakin berkembang beserta dengan medianya merangsang kreator visual dalam menuangkan gagasan dan imajinasi. Bagi peradaban kehidupan manusia%2C karya-karya visual yang dibuat harus mendukung arah peradaban yang lebih baik. Di sini peran iman dalam hubungannya dengan Tuhan mendapat ruang berinteraksi%2C sehingga karya visual yang dihasilkan mencerminkan kode-kode maupun simbol dalam perputaran ideologi atau nilai-nilai budaya yang menjunjung tinggi hakikat keimanan. visual aesthetics%2C moral imperative%2C faith.

Many Neighbors are not Silent. fMRI Evidence for Global Lexical Activity in Visual Word Recognition.

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Mario eBraun

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Many neurocognitive studies investigated the neural correlates of visual word recognition, some of which manipulated the orthographic neighborhood density of words and nonwords believed to influence the activation of orthographically similar representations in a hypothetical mental lexicon. Previous neuroimaging research failed to find evidence for such global lexical activity associated with neighborhood density. Rather, effects were interpreted to reflect semantic or domain general processing. The present fMRI study revealed effects of lexicality, orthographic neighborhood density and a lexicality by orthographic neighborhood density interaction in a silent reading task. For the first time we found greater activity for words and nonwords with a high number of neighbors. We propose that this activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex reflects activation of orthographically similar codes in verbal working memory thus providing evidence for global lexical activity as the basis of the neighborhood density effect. The interaction of lexicality by neighborhood density in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex showed lower activity in response to words with a high number compared to nonwords with a high number of neighbors. In the light of these results the facilitatory effect for words and inhibitory effect for nonwords with many neighbors observed in previous studies can be understood as being due to the operation of a fast-guess mechanism for words and a temporal deadline mechanism for nonwords as predicted by models of visual word recognition. Furthermore, we propose that the lexicality effect with higher activity for words compared to nonwords in inferior parietal and middle temporal cortex reflects the operation of an identification mechanism and based on local lexico-semantic activity.

The impact of hereditary multiple exostoses on quality of life, satisfaction, global health status, and pain.

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D'Ambrosi, Riccardo; Ragone, Vincenza; Caldarini, Camilla; Serra, Nicola; Usuelli, Federico Giuseppe; Facchini, Renato Mario

2017-02-01

The aim of the study was to evaluate quality of life (QOL), global health status, pain, and level of satisfaction in patients with hereditary multiple exostoses (HME), and to correlate the association between the severity of diseases and age, sex, number of surgical procedures, and number of exostoses. The data of 50 patients with HME were retrospectively evaluated and recorded. QOL was evaluated with the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) questionnaire, the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q-SF); intensity of pain was measured using the visual analogue scale (VAS). The association of age, gender, pain, quality of life, number of exostoses, and number of surgical procedures were evaluated and correlated. Mean number of exostoses in our patient's cohort resulted 18.12 ± 8.60, and every patient underwent to a mean of 5.62 ± 5.74 surgical procedures for the exostoses. Mean VAS resulted 5.16 ± 2.90. Considering SF-12, mental (MCS) and physical (PCS) component resulted, respectively, 45.36 ± 10.76 and 38.73 ± 11.09, while GHQ-12 and Q-LES-Q-SF were 15.48 ± 4.70 and 45.28 ± 9.55, respectively. We found a significant positive correlation between the number of exostoses and the number of surgical procedures (p life as measured by the MCS and PCS scores similar to the disability associated with osteoarthritis in the mental component and tumors or diabetes as regards the physical component. Moreover, we found no difference in patients' quality of life as regards number of exostoses, age, and surgical procedure, but we found that women have a worse response as regards the psychological side than men.

Visualising Earth's Mantle based on Global Adjoint Tomography

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Bozdag, E.; Pugmire, D.; Lefebvre, M. P.; Hill, J.; Komatitsch, D.; Peter, D. B.; Podhorszki, N.; Tromp, J.

2017-12-01

Recent advances in 3D wave propagation solvers and high-performance computing have enabled regional and global full-waveform inversions. Interpretation of tomographic models is often done on visually. Robust and efficient visualization tools are necessary to thoroughly investigate large model files, particularly at the global scale. In collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), we have developed effective visualization tools and used for visualization of our first-generation global model, GLAD-M15 (Bozdag et al. 2016). VisIt (https://wci.llnl.gov/simulation/computer-codes/visit/) is used for initial exploration of the models and for extraction of seismological features. The broad capability of VisIt, and its demonstrated scalability proved valuable for experimenting with different visualization techniques, and in the creation of timely results. Utilizing VisIt's plugin-architecture, a data reader plugin was developed, which reads the ADIOS (https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/center-projects/adios/) format of our model files. Blender (https://www.blender.org) is used for the setup of lighting, materials, camera paths and rendering of geometry. Python scripting was used to control the orchestration of different geometries, as well as camera animation for 3D movies. While we continue producing 3D contour plots and movies for various seismic parameters to better visualize plume- and slab-like features as well as anisotropy throughout the mantle, our aim is to make visualization an integral part of our global adjoint tomography workflow to routinely produce various 2D cross-sections to facilitate examination of our models after each iteration. This will ultimately form the basis for use of pattern recognition techniques in our investigations. Simulations for global adjoint tomography are performed on ORNL's Titan system and visualization is done in parallel on ORNL's post-processing cluster Rhea.

Visual rehabilitation: visual scanning, multisensory stimulation and vision restoration trainings

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Neil M. Dundon

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Neuropsychological training methods of visual rehabilitation for homonymous vision loss caused by postchiasmatic damage fall into two fundamental paradigms: compensation and restoration. Existing methods can be classified into three groups: Visual Scanning Training (VST, Audio-Visual Scanning Training (AViST and Vision Restoration Training (VRT. VST and AViST aim at compensating vision loss by training eye scanning movements, whereas VRT aims at improving lost vision by activating residual visual functions by training light detection and discrimination of visual stimuli. This review discusses the rationale underlying these paradigms and summarizes the available evidence with respect to treatment efficacy. The issues raised in our review should help guide clinical care and stimulate new ideas for future research uncovering the underlying neural correlates of the different treatment paradigms. We propose that both local within-system interactions (i.e., relying on plasticity within peri-lesional spared tissue and changes in more global between-system networks (i.e., recruiting alternative visual pathways contribute to both vision restoration and compensatory rehabilitation that ultimately have implications for the rehabilitation of cognitive functions.

Implicit integration in a case of integrative visual agnosia.

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Aviezer, Hillel; Landau, Ayelet N; Robertson, Lynn C; Peterson, Mary A; Soroker, Nachum; Sacher, Yaron; Bonneh, Yoram; Bentin, Shlomo

2007-05-15

We present a case (SE) with integrative visual agnosia following ischemic stroke affecting the right dorsal and the left ventral pathways of the visual system. Despite his inability to identify global hierarchical letters [Navon, D. (1977). Forest before trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 353-383], and his dense object agnosia, SE showed normal global-to-local interference when responding to local letters in Navon hierarchical stimuli and significant picture-word identity priming in a semantic decision task for words. Since priming was absent if these features were scrambled, it stands to reason that these effects were not due to priming by distinctive features. The contrast between priming effects induced by coherent and scrambled stimuli is consistent with implicit but not explicit integration of features into a unified whole. We went on to show that possible/impossible object decisions were facilitated by words in a word-picture priming task, suggesting that prompts could activate perceptually integrated images in a backward fashion. We conclude that the absence of SE's ability to identify visual objects except through tedious serial construction reflects a deficit in accessing an integrated visual representation through bottom-up visual processing alone. However, top-down generated images can help activate these visual representations through semantic links.

Mourning Mandela: sacred drama and digital visuality in Cape Town

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Paula Uimonen

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The world united in unprecedented ways in mourning the global icon Nelson Mandela, an emotionally charged historical event in which digital visuality played an influential role. The memorial service for Nelson Mandela on Tuesday, 10 December 2013, gathered dignitaries and celebrities from around the world at the First National Bank Stadium in Johannesburg, to mourn the passing of Madiba and to celebrate his life work. At the Grand Parade in Cape Town, the event was broadcast on large public screens, followed by live music performances and narrowcast interaction with the audience. Building on recent research on public screens during global media events, this article addresses the mediated mourning rituals at the Grand Parade in terms of a sacred drama. Focusing on social relationality, the article discusses how digital visuality mediated a sense of global communitas, thus momentarily overcoming historical frictions between the global north and the global south, while expanding the fame of Madiba. Paying attention to the public display of visual memory objects and the emotional agency of images, it argues that digital visuality mediated social frictions between the living and the dead, while recasting a historical subject as a historical object. The article further discusses how digital visuality mediated cultural frictions of apartheid and xenophobia, through the positioning of Mandela in the pantheon of Pan-African icons, thus underlining the African origin of this global icon. The analysis is based on ethnographic observations and experiences in Cape Town.

Visualization of the chains of risks under global climate change

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Yokohata, T.; Nishina, K.; Takahashi, K.; Kiguchi, M.; Iseri, Y.; Sueyoshi, T.; Yoshimori, M.; Iwase, K.; Yamamoto, A.; Shigemitsu, M.; Honda, Y.; Hanasaki, N.; Masaki, Y.; Ito, A.; Iizumi, T.; Sakurai, G.; Okada, M.; Emori, S.; Oki, T.

2014-12-01

Anthropogenic climate change possibly causes various impacts on human society and ecosystem. Here, we call possible damages or benefits caused by the future climate change as "climate risks". Many climate risks are closely interconnected with each other by direct cause-effect relationship. In this study, the major climate risks are comprehensively summarized based on the survey of studies in the literature using IPCC AR5 etc, and their cause-effect relationship are visualized by a "network diagram". This research is conducted by the collaboration between the experts of various fields, such as water, energy, agriculture, health, society, and eco-system under the project called ICA-RUS (Integrated Climate Assessment - Risks, Uncertainties and Society). First, the climate risks are classified into 9 categories (water, energy, food, health, disaster, industry, society, ecosystem, and tipping elements). Second, researchers of these fields in our project survey the research articles, and pick up items of climate risks, and possible cause-effect relationship between the risk items. A long list of the climate risks is summarized into ~130, and that of possible cause-effect relationship between the risk items is summarized into ~300, because the network diagram would be illegible if the number of the risk items and cause-effect relationship is too large. Here, we only consider the risks that could occur if climate mitigation policies are not conducted. Finally, the chain of climate risks is visualized by creating a "network diagram" based on a network graph theory (Fruchtman & Reingold algorithm). Through the analysis of network diagram, we find that climate risks at various sectors are closely related. For example, the decrease in the precipitation under the global climate change possibly causes the decrease in river runoff and the decrease in soil moisture, which causes the changes in crop production. The changes in crop production can have an impact on society by

Data Visualization and Analysis Tools for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Validation Network

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Morris, Kenneth R.; Schwaller, Mathew

2010-01-01

The Validation Network (VN) prototype for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission compares data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite Precipitation Radar (PR) to similar measurements from U.S. and international operational weather radars. This prototype is a major component of the GPM Ground Validation System (GVS). The VN provides a means for the precipitation measurement community to identify and resolve significant discrepancies between the ground radar (GR) observations and similar satellite observations. The VN prototype is based on research results and computer code described by Anagnostou et al. (2001), Bolen and Chandrasekar (2000), and Liao et al. (2001), and has previously been described by Morris, et al. (2007). Morris and Schwaller (2009) describe the PR-GR volume-matching algorithm used to create the VN match-up data set used for the comparisons. This paper describes software tools that have been developed for visualization and statistical analysis of the original and volume matched PR and GR data.

Effect of martial arts practice on global self-esteem in people with visual impairment and the associated mechanisms and strategies

OpenAIRE

Qasim, Samir H.

2015-01-01

The effect of exercise programmes on psychosocial characteristics, namely self-esteem, of people with visual impairment (VI) is limited. Martial arts practice has been found to improve global self-esteem among different age groups and among people with different abilities, but not for people with VI. This presents a notable gap in the research literature on people with VI. This thesis conducted three studies with the aim of investigating whether martial arts practice improves s...

The primary visual cortex in the neural circuit for visual orienting

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Zhaoping, Li

The primary visual cortex (V1) is traditionally viewed as remote from influencing brain's motor outputs. However, V1 provides the most abundant cortical inputs directly to the sensory layers of superior colliculus (SC), a midbrain structure to command visual orienting such as shifting gaze and turning heads. I will show physiological, anatomical, and behavioral data suggesting that V1 transforms visual input into a saliency map to guide a class of visual orienting that is reflexive or involuntary. In particular, V1 receives a retinotopic map of visual features, such as orientation, color, and motion direction of local visual inputs; local interactions between V1 neurons perform a local-to-global computation to arrive at a saliency map that highlights conspicuous visual locations by higher V1 responses. The conspicuous location are usually, but not always, where visual input statistics changes. The population V1 outputs to SC, which is also retinotopic, enables SC to locate, by lateral inhibition between SC neurons, the most salient location as the saccadic target. Experimental tests of this hypothesis will be shown. Variations of the neural circuit for visual orienting across animal species, with more or less V1 involvement, will be discussed. Supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

Delayed processing of global shape in developmental prosopagnosia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gerlach, Christian; Klargaard, Solja K.; Starrfelt, Randi

2017-01-01

and fragmented objects. In contrast, their visual short-term memory capacity, visual processing speed, efficiency of top-down selectivity, and spatial allocation of attentional resources were within the normal range. This suggests that the reduced global bias effect found in the DP-sample reflects a perceptual...... 10 subjects with DP and 20 matched controls on Navon's paradigm with compound letters. We also assessed visual attention and object recognition in both groups. The DP-group exhibited a reduced global precedence effect compared with the control group. They were also impaired recognizing silhouette...... rather than an attentional deficit. To examine whether the reduction in the global precedence effect was systematically related to the face recognition impairment of the DPs we examined the correlation between the magnitude of the global precedence effect and performance on the Cambridge Face Memory Test...

Quality of Life Assessment Using EuroQOL EQ-5D Questionnaire in Patients with Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis: The Relation with Symptoms and Locations

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Touboul, C.; Amate, P.; Ballester, M.; Bazot, M.; Fauconnier, A.; Daraï, E.

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of patients with deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) using EuroQOL (EQ-5D) and its correlation with symptoms and locations of endometriotic lesions. One hundred and fifty-nine patients referred for DIE from January 2011 to April 2011 were prospectively invited to complete questionnaires evaluating symptoms associated with endometriosis as well as the EQ-5D questionnaire and health state. Patients also had locations of DIE evaluated by clinical examination and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All 159 patients completed the questionnaires. Item response rate was 91.1%. The most intense symptoms were dysmenorrhea (7.1/10), painful defecation (6.3/10), and fatigue (6.0/10). Mean (SD) scores were 77 (14) for the EQ-5D questionnaire and 63.4 (21) for the health state. A relation was observed between the EQ-5D questionnaire and the presence of dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, cyclic pelvic pain, painful defecation, and diarrhea or constipation. Vaginal and rectal infiltrations were significantly associated with altered EQ-5D and health state scores. The EQ-5D questionnaire is easy to complete and well related to symptoms of DIE. Rectal and vaginal infiltrations were found to be determinant factors of altered QOL by the EQ-5D questionnaire and health state. PMID:26464845

Decreased physical activity, reduced QoL and presence of debilitating fatigue in patients with Addison's disease.

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van der Valk, Eline S; Smans, Lisanne C C J; Hofstetter, Hedwig; Stubbe, Janine H; de Vries, Marieke; Backx, Frank J G; Hermus, Ad R M M; Zelissen, Pierre M J

2016-09-01

Health-related quality of life in patients with Addison's disease has been assessed in various European countries, indicating a reduced quality of life. However, no studies have addressed the impact of Addison's disease on physical activity. The aim of this study was to investigate the quality of life in Dutch patients with Addison's disease particularly regarding the presence of fatigue and the ability to be physically active. In this cross-sectional study, a postal survey was performed among Dutch patients with Addison's disease on stable glucocorticoid replacement therapy with hydrocortisone or cortisone acetate. For quality of life and physical activity assessment, patients completed general and health-related quality of life and physical activity questionnaires, and scores were compared to Dutch controls. A total of 328 patients with Addison's disease were studied. In patients with Addison's disease, only 45·7% met the standard of physical activity (Combinorm) compared to 67·8% of Dutch controls (P < 0·01). Forty-eight per cent of patients showed abnormal fatigue, while 61% had severe fatigue. The CIS fatigue scores were significantly higher compared to controls (P < 0·01). We found reduced general subjective health-related QoL scores in both male and female patients, especially in younger patients <65 years of age. Physical activity is decreased in patients with Addison's disease, combined with a reduced subjective health-related QoL and increased fatigue. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Construct validity of the items on the Stroke Specific Quality of Life (SS-QOL) questionnaire that evaluate the participation component of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.

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Silva, Soraia Micaela; Corrêa, Fernanda Ishida; Pereira, Gabriela Santos; Faria, Christina Danielli Coelho de Morais; Corrêa, João Carlos Ferrari

2018-01-01

Analyze the construct validity and internal consistency of the Stroke Specific Quality of Life (SS-QOL) items that address the participation component of the ICF as well as analyze the ceiling and floor effects. One hundred subjects were analyzed: 85 community-dwelling and 15 institutionalized individuals. The analysis of construct validity was performed using classic psychometrics: (1) the comparison of known groups (individuals without restriction to participation vs. those with restriction to participation) using the Mann-Whitney test and (2) convergent validity - correlation between the scores on the SS-QOL items that address participation and the subscale scores of measures used to evaluate the similar constructs and concepts [the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and grip strength test]. Spearman's correlation coefficients were calculated for this analysis. Cronbach's α was used for the analysis of internal consistency and both the ceiling and floor effects were analyzed. The level of significance for all analyses was α = 0.05. The a priori hypotheses regarding construct validity were partially demonstrated, as only five of the eight domains exhibited positive moderate to strong correlations (r > 0.40) with measures that address constructs similar to those addressed on the SS-QOL questionnaire. The items demonstrated adequate internal consistency and are capable of differentiating individuals with and without restriction to participation. The ceiling and floor effects were considered adequate for the total SS-QOL score, but beyond acceptable standards for some domains. The 26 items of the SS-QOL questionnaire measure a multidimensional construct and therefore do not only address participation. However, the items demonstrated adequate internal consistency and are capable of differentiating individuals with and without restriction to participation. Implications for rehabilitation The 26 items of the SS-QOL

Visual working memory modulates low-level saccade target selection: Evidence from rapidly generated saccades in the global effect paradigm

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Hollingworth, Andrew; Matsukura, Michi; Luck, Steven J.

2013-01-01

In three experiments, we examined the influence of visual working memory (VWM) on the metrics of saccade landing position in a global effect paradigm. Participants executed a saccade to the more eccentric object in an object pair appearing on the horizontal midline, to the left or right of central fixation. While completing the saccade task, participants maintained a color in VWM for an unrelated memory task. Either the color of the saccade target matched the memory color (target match), the color of the distractor matched the memory color (distractor match), or the colors of neither object matched the memory color (no match). In the no-match condition, saccades tended to land at the midpoint between the two objects: the global, or averaging, effect. However, when one of the two objects matched VWM, the distribution of landing position shifted toward the matching object, both for target match and for distractor match. VWM modulation of landing position was observed even for the fastest quartile of saccades, with a mean latency as low as 112 ms. Effects of VWM on such rapidly generated saccades, with latencies in the express-saccade range, indicate that VWM interacts with the initial sweep of visual sensory processing, modulating perceptual input to oculomotor systems and thereby biasing oculomotor selection. As a result, differences in memory match produce effects on landing position similar to the effects generated by differences in physical salience. PMID:24190909

Visual working memory modulates low-level saccade target selection: evidence from rapidly generated saccades in the global effect paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Hollingworth, Andrew; Matsukura, Michi; Luck, Steven J

2013-11-04

In three experiments, we examined the influence of visual working memory (VWM) on the metrics of saccade landing position in a global effect paradigm. Participants executed a saccade to the more eccentric object in an object pair appearing on the horizontal midline, to the left or right of central fixation. While completing the saccade task, participants maintained a color in VWM for an unrelated memory task. Either the color of the saccade target matched the memory color (target match), the color of the distractor matched the memory color (distractor match), or the colors of neither object matched the memory color (no match). In the no-match condition, saccades tended to land at the midpoint between the two objects: the global, or averaging, effect. However, when one of the two objects matched VWM, the distribution of landing position shifted toward the matching object, both for target match and for distractor match. VWM modulation of landing position was observed even for the fastest quartile of saccades, with a mean latency as low as 112 ms. Effects of VWM on such rapidly generated saccades, with latencies in the express-saccade range, indicate that VWM interacts with the initial sweep of visual sensory processing, modulating perceptual input to oculomotor systems and thereby biasing oculomotor selection. As a result, differences in memory match produce effects on landing position similar to the effects generated by differences in physical salience.

Multiattribute health utility scoring for the computerized adaptive measure CAT-5D-QOL was developed and validated.

Science.gov (United States)

Kopec, Jacek A; Sayre, Eric C; Rogers, Pamela; Davis, Aileen M; Badley, Elizabeth M; Anis, Aslam H; Abrahamowicz, Michal; Russell, Lara; Rahman, Md Mushfiqur; Esdaile, John M

2015-10-01

The CAT-5D-QOL is a previously reported item response theory (IRT)-based computerized adaptive tool to measure five domains (attributes) of health-related quality of life. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a multiattribute health utility (MAHU) scoring method for this instrument. The MAHU scoring system was developed in two stages. In phase I, we obtained standard gamble (SG) utilities for 75 hypothetical health states in which only one domain varied (15 states per domain). In phase II, we obtained SG utilities for 256 multiattribute states. We fit a multiplicative regression model to predict SG utilities from the five IRT domain scores. The prediction model was constrained using data from phase I. We validated MAHU scores by comparing them with the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) and directly measured utilities and by assessing between-group discrimination. MAHU scores have a theoretical range from -0.842 to 1. In the validation study, the scores were, on average, higher than HUI3 utilities and lower than directly measured SG utilities. MAHU scores correlated strongly with the HUI3 (Spearman ρ = 0.78) and discriminated well between groups expected to differ in health status. Results reported here provide initial evidence supporting the validity of the MAHU scoring system for the CAT-5D-QOL. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Metallic stents provide better QOL than plastic stents in patients with stricture of unresectable advanced esophageal cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohta, Kazuki; Nagahara, Akihito; Iijima, Katsuyori

2006-01-01

The aim of this study was to elucidate the utility and safety of treatment with esophageal stents (plastic and metallic stents) for unresectable advanced esophageal cancer. Between 1992 and 2002, 14 cases of unresectable advanced esophageal cancer were treated with esophageal stents (the plastic stent group, 7 cases; and the metallic stent group, 7 cases). Of these, 10 cases had a history of chemotherapy and or radiotherapy. An improvement in oral intake and performance status (PS), survival time, periods at home, and adverse events were compared between the two groups. After stenting, oral intake and PS were significantly improved in the metallic stent group. Follow-up at home was possible in 71.4%. There was no significant difference in survival or duration of time at home between the two groups. All adverse events were controllable and there was no difference between the two groups. Stenting not only improved oral intake and PS but also allowed a stay at home, resulting in a marked improvement in patients' quality of life (QOL). Stenting was performed safely even in cases with a history of radiotherapy. There was no difference in survival, ratios of staying at home, and safety between the two groups, but QOL was significantly improved in the metallic stent group. These outcomes indicate that placement of metallic stents should be actively considered to treat stricture due to advanced esophageal cancer. (author)

A novel role for visual perspective cues in the neural computation of depth.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, HyungGoo R; Angelaki, Dora E; DeAngelis, Gregory C

2015-01-01

As we explore a scene, our eye movements add global patterns of motion to the retinal image, complicating visual motion produced by self-motion or moving objects. Conventionally, it has been assumed that extraretinal signals, such as efference copy of smooth pursuit commands, are required to compensate for the visual consequences of eye rotations. We consider an alternative possibility: namely, that the visual system can infer eye rotations from global patterns of image motion. We visually simulated combinations of eye translation and rotation, including perspective distortions that change dynamically over time. We found that incorporating these 'dynamic perspective' cues allowed the visual system to generate selectivity for depth sign from motion parallax in macaque cortical area MT, a computation that was previously thought to require extraretinal signals regarding eye velocity. Our findings suggest neural mechanisms that analyze global patterns of visual motion to perform computations that require knowledge of eye rotations.

Relationships between appetite and quality of life in hemodialysis patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Zabel, Rachel; Ash, Susan; King, Neil; Juffs, Philip; Bauer, Judith

2012-08-01

The aim of this paper was to investigate the association between appetite and kidney-disease specific quality of life in maintenance hemodialysis patients. Quality of life (QoL) was measured using the kidney disease quality of life survey. Appetite was measured using self-reported categories and a visual analog scale. Other nutritional parameters included Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PGSGA), dietary intake, body mass index and biochemical markers C-reactive protein and albumin. Even in this well nourished sample (n=62) of hemodialysis patients, PGSGA score (r=-0.629), subjective hunger sensations (r=0.420) and body mass index (r=-0.409) were all significantly associated with the physical health domain of QoL. As self-reported appetite declined, QoL was significantly lower in nine domains which were mostly in the SF36 component and covered social functioning and physical domains. Appetite and other nutritional parameters were not as strongly associated with the Mental Health domain and Kidney Disease Component Summary Domains. Nutritional parameters, especially PGSGA score and appetite, appear to be important components of the physical health domain of QoL. As even small reductions in nutritional status were associated with significantly lower QoL scores, monitoring appetite and nutritional status is an important component of care for hemodialysis patients. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Developing SPPVM modules with visual basic | Ekpenyong | Global ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PVMs enable large computational problems to be solved more cost effectively by using aggregated power and memory of many computers. This paper develops a SPPVM (Single Processor Parallel Virtual Machine) with Visual Basic. It employs the VB Shell command to cause a single program or instruction to execute in ...

Impact of Gemcitabine Chemotherapy and 3-Dimensional Conformal Radiation Therapy/5-Fluorouracil on Quality of Life of Patients Managed for Pancreatic Cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Short, Michala [Discipline of Medical Radiation Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Western Australia Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care/Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia (Australia); Goldstein, David [Department of Medical Oncology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Halkett, Georgia [Western Australia Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care/Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia (Australia); Reece, William [Covance Asia Pacific, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Borg, Martin [Adelaide Radiotherapy Centre, Adelaide, South Australia (Australia); Zissiadis, Yvonne [Department of Radiation Oncology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia (Australia); Kneebone, Andrew [Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Spry, Nigel, E-mail: Nigel.Spry@health.wa.gov.au [Department of Radiation Oncology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, Western Australia (Australia); Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia (Australia)

2013-01-01

Purpose: To report quality of life (QOL) results for patients receiving chemoradiation therapy for pancreatic cancer. Methods and Materials: Eligible patients (n=41 locally advanced, n=22 postsurgery) entered the B9E-AY-S168 study and received 1 cycle of induction gemcitabine (1000 mg/m{sup 2} weekly Multiplication-Sign 3 with 1-week break) followed by 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (RT) (54 Gy locally advanced and 45 Gy postsurgery) and concomitant continuous-infusion 5-fluorouracil (5FU) (200 mg/m{sup 2}/d throughout RT). After 4 weeks, patients received an additional 3 cycles of consolidation gemcitabine chemotherapy. Patients completed the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 and QLQ-PAN26 questionnaires at baseline, before RT/5FU, at end of RT/5FU, before consolidation gemcitabine, and at treatment completion. Results: The patterns of change in global QOL scores differed between groups. In the locally advanced group global QOL scores were +13, +8, +3, and +1 compared with baseline before RT/5FU (P=.008), at end of RT/5FU, before consolidation gemcitabine, and at treatment completion, respectively. In the postsurgery group, global QOL scores were -3, +4, +15, and +17 compared with baseline at the same time points, with a significant improvement in global QOL before consolidation gemcitabine (P=.03). No significant declines in global QOL were reported by either cohort. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that global QOL and associated function and symptom profiles for pancreatic chemoradiation therapy differ between locally advanced and postsurgery patients, likely owing to differences in underlying disease status. For both groups, the treatment protocol was well tolerated and did not have a negative impact on patients' global QOL.

Impact of Gemcitabine Chemotherapy and 3-Dimensional Conformal Radiation Therapy/5-Fluorouracil on Quality of Life of Patients Managed for Pancreatic Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Short, Michala; Goldstein, David; Halkett, Georgia; Reece, William; Borg, Martin; Zissiadis, Yvonne; Kneebone, Andrew; Spry, Nigel

2013-01-01

Purpose: To report quality of life (QOL) results for patients receiving chemoradiation therapy for pancreatic cancer. Methods and Materials: Eligible patients (n=41 locally advanced, n=22 postsurgery) entered the B9E-AY-S168 study and received 1 cycle of induction gemcitabine (1000 mg/m 2 weekly ×3 with 1-week break) followed by 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (RT) (54 Gy locally advanced and 45 Gy postsurgery) and concomitant continuous-infusion 5-fluorouracil (5FU) (200 mg/m 2 /d throughout RT). After 4 weeks, patients received an additional 3 cycles of consolidation gemcitabine chemotherapy. Patients completed the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 and QLQ-PAN26 questionnaires at baseline, before RT/5FU, at end of RT/5FU, before consolidation gemcitabine, and at treatment completion. Results: The patterns of change in global QOL scores differed between groups. In the locally advanced group global QOL scores were +13, +8, +3, and +1 compared with baseline before RT/5FU (P=.008), at end of RT/5FU, before consolidation gemcitabine, and at treatment completion, respectively. In the postsurgery group, global QOL scores were −3, +4, +15, and +17 compared with baseline at the same time points, with a significant improvement in global QOL before consolidation gemcitabine (P=.03). No significant declines in global QOL were reported by either cohort. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that global QOL and associated function and symptom profiles for pancreatic chemoradiation therapy differ between locally advanced and postsurgery patients, likely owing to differences in underlying disease status. For both groups, the treatment protocol was well tolerated and did not have a negative impact on patients' global QOL.

Psychometrics of the Short Form 36 Health Survey version 2 (SF-36v2) and the Quality of Life Scale for Drug Addicts (QOL-DAv2.0) in Chinese mainland patients with methadone maintenance treatment.

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Zhou, Kaina; Zhuang, Guihua; Zhang, Hongmei; Liang, Peifeng; Yin, Juan; Kou, Lingling; Hao, Mengmeng; You, Lijuan

2013-01-01

To test psychometrics of the Short Form 36 Health Survey version 2 (SF-36v2) and the Quality of Life Scale for Drug Addicts (QOL-DAv2.0) in Chinese mainland patients with methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). A total of 1,212 patients were recruited from two MMT clinics in Xi'an, China. Reliability was estimated with Cronbach's α and intra-class correlation (ICC). Convergent and discriminant validity was assessed using multitrait-multimethod correlation matrix. Sensitivity was measured with ANOVA and relative efficiency. Responsiveness was evaluated by pre-post paired-samples t-test and standardized response mean based on the patients' health status changes following 6-month period. Cronbach's α of the SF-36v2 physical and mental summary components were 0.80 and 0.86 (eight scales range 0.73-0.92) and the QOL-DAv2.0 was 0.96 (four scales range: 0.80-0.93). ICC of the SF-36v2 two components were 0.86 and 0.85 (eight scales range: 0.72-0.87) and the QOL-DAv2.0 was 0.94 (four scales range: 0.88-0.92). Convergent validity was lower between the two instruments (γ <0.70) while discriminant validity was acceptable within each instrument. Sensitivity was satisfied in self-evaluated health status (both instruments) and average daily methadone dose (SF-36v2 physical functioning and vitality scales; QOL-DAv2.0 except psychology scale). Responsiveness was acceptable in the improved health status change (SF-36v2 except vitality scale; QOL-DAv2.0 except psychology and symptoms scales) and deteriorated health status change (SF-36v2 except vitality, social functioning and mental health scales; QOL-DAv2.0 except society scale). The SF-36v2 and the QOL-DAv2.0 are valid tools and can be used independently or complementary according to different emphases of health-related quality of life evaluation in patients with MMT.

Psychometrics of the Short Form 36 Health Survey version 2 (SF-36v2 and the Quality of Life Scale for Drug Addicts (QOL-DAv2.0 in Chinese mainland patients with methadone maintenance treatment.

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Kaina Zhou

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To test psychometrics of the Short Form 36 Health Survey version 2 (SF-36v2 and the Quality of Life Scale for Drug Addicts (QOL-DAv2.0 in Chinese mainland patients with methadone maintenance treatment (MMT. METHODS: A total of 1,212 patients were recruited from two MMT clinics in Xi'an, China. Reliability was estimated with Cronbach's α and intra-class correlation (ICC. Convergent and discriminant validity was assessed using multitrait-multimethod correlation matrix. Sensitivity was measured with ANOVA and relative efficiency. Responsiveness was evaluated by pre-post paired-samples t-test and standardized response mean based on the patients' health status changes following 6-month period. RESULTS: Cronbach's α of the SF-36v2 physical and mental summary components were 0.80 and 0.86 (eight scales range 0.73-0.92 and the QOL-DAv2.0 was 0.96 (four scales range: 0.80-0.93. ICC of the SF-36v2 two components were 0.86 and 0.85 (eight scales range: 0.72-0.87 and the QOL-DAv2.0 was 0.94 (four scales range: 0.88-0.92. Convergent validity was lower between the two instruments (γ <0.70 while discriminant validity was acceptable within each instrument. Sensitivity was satisfied in self-evaluated health status (both instruments and average daily methadone dose (SF-36v2 physical functioning and vitality scales; QOL-DAv2.0 except psychology scale. Responsiveness was acceptable in the improved health status change (SF-36v2 except vitality scale; QOL-DAv2.0 except psychology and symptoms scales and deteriorated health status change (SF-36v2 except vitality, social functioning and mental health scales; QOL-DAv2.0 except society scale. CONCLUSIONS: The SF-36v2 and the QOL-DAv2.0 are valid tools and can be used independently or complementary according to different emphases of health-related quality of life evaluation in patients with MMT.

Body image, visual working memory and visual mental imagery

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Stephen Darling

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Body dissatisfaction (BD is a highly prevalent feature amongst females in society, with the majority of individuals regarding themselves to be overweight compared to their personal ideal, and very few self-describing as underweight. To date, explanations of this dramatic pattern have centred on extrinsic social and media factors, or intrinsic factors connected to individuals’ knowledge and belief structures regarding eating and body shape, with little research examining links between BD and basic cognitive mechanisms. This paper reports a correlational study in which visual and executive cognitive processes that could potentially impact on BD were assessed. Visual memory span and self-rated visual imagery were found to be predictive of BD, alongside a measure of inhibition derived from the Stroop task. In contrast, spatial memory and global precedence were not related to BD. Results are interpreted with reference to the influential multi-component model of working memory.

Executive functioning and local-global visual processing: candidate endophenotypes for autism spectrum disorder?

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Van Eylen, Lien; Boets, Bart; Cosemans, Nele; Peeters, Hilde; Steyaert, Jean; Wagemans, Johan; Noens, Ilse

2017-03-01

Heterogeneity within autism spectrum disorder (ASD) hampers insight in the etiology and stimulates the search for endophenotypes. Endophenotypes should meet several criteria, the most important being the association with ASD and the higher occurrence rate in unaffected ASD relatives than in the general population. We evaluated these criteria for executive functioning (EF) and local-global (L-G) visual processing. By administering an extensive cognitive battery which increases the validity of the measures, we examined which of the cognitive anomalies shown by ASD probands also occur in their unaffected relatives (n = 113) compared to typically developing (TD) controls (n = 100). Microarrays were performed, so we could exclude relatives from probands with a de novo mutation in a known ASD susceptibility copy number variant, thus increasing the probability that genetic risk variants are shared by the ASD relatives. An overview of studies investigating EF and L-G processing in ASD relatives was also provided. For EF, ASD relatives - like ASD probands - showed impairments in response inhibition, cognitive flexibility and generativity (specifically, ideational fluency), and EF impairments in daily life. For L-G visual processing, the ASD relatives showed no anomalies on the tasks, but they reported more attention to detail in daily life. Group differences were similar for siblings and for parents of ASD probands, and yielded larger effect sizes in a multiplex subsample. The group effect sizes for the comparison between ASD probands and TD individuals were generally larger than those of the ASD relatives compared to TD individuals. Impaired cognitive flexibility, ideational fluency and response inhibition are strong candidate endophenotypes for ASD. They could help to delineate etiologically more homogeneous subgroups, which is clinically important to allow assigning ASD probands to different, more targeted, interventions. © 2016 Association for Child and Adolescent

Visual impairment secondary to congenital glaucoma in children: visual responses, optical correction and use of low vision AIDS

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Maria Aparecida Onuki Haddad

2009-01-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Congenital glaucoma is frequently associated with visual impairment due to optic nerve damage, corneal opacities, cataracts and amblyopia. Poor vision in childhood is related to global developmental problems, and referral to vision habilitation/rehabilitation services should be without delay to promote efficient management of the impaired vision. OBJECTIVE: To analyze data concerning visual response, the use of optical correction and prescribed low vision aids in a population of children with congenital glaucoma. METHOD: The authors analyzed data from 100 children with congenital glaucoma to assess best corrected visual acuity, prescribed optical correction and low vision aids. RESULTS: Fifty-five percent of the sample were male, 43% female. The mean age was 6.3 years. Two percent presented normal visual acuity levels, 29% mild visual impairment, 28% moderate visual impairment, 15% severe visual impairment, 11% profound visual impairment, and 15% near blindness. Sixty-eight percent received optical correction for refractive errors. Optical low vision aids were adopted for distance vision in 34% of the patients and for near vision in 6%. A manual monocular telescopic system with 2.8 × magnification was the most frequently prescribed low vision aid for distance, and for near vision a +38 diopter illuminated stand magnifier was most frequently prescribed. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Careful low vision assessment and the appropriate prescription of optical corrections and low vision aids are mandatory in children with congenital glaucoma, since this will assist their global development, improving efficiency in daily life activities and promoting social and educational inclusion.

Comparative studies of RNFL thickness measured by OCT with global index of visual fields in patients with ocular hypertension and early open angle glaucoma

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Sergios Taliantzis

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Sergios Taliantzis, Dimitris Papaconstantinou, Chrysanthi Koutsandrea, Michalis Moschos, Michalis Apostolopoulos, Gerasimos GeorgopoulosAthens University Medical School, Department of Ophthalmology, Athens, GreecePurpose: To compare the functional changes in visual fields with optical coherence tomography (OCT findings in patients with ocular hypertension, open angle glaucoma, and suspected glaucoma. In addition, our purpose is to evaluate the correlation of global indices with the structural glaucomatous defect, to assess their statistical importance in all the groups of our study, and to estimate their validity to the clinical practice.Methods: One hundred sixty nine eyes (140 patients were enrolled. The patients were classified in three groups. Group 1 consisted of 54 eyes with ocular hypertension, group 2 of 42 eyes with preperimetric glaucoma, and group 3 of 73 eyes with chronic open angle glaucoma. All of them underwent ophthalmic examination according to a prefixed protocol, OCT exam (Stratus 3000 for retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL thickness measurement with fast RNFL thickness protocol and visual fields (VF examination with Octopus perimeter (G2 program, central 30–2 threshold strategy. Pearson correlation was calculated between RNFL thickness and global index of VF.Results: A moderate correlation between RNFL thickness and indices mean sensitivity (MS, mean defect (MD and loss variance (LV of VF (0.547, -0.582, -0.527, respectively; P < 0.001 was observed for all patients. Correlations of the ocular hypertension and preperimetric groups are weak. Correlation of RNFL thickness with global indices becomes stronger as the structural alterations become deeper in OCT exam. Correlation of RNFL thickness with the global index of VF, in respective segments around optic disk was also calculated and was found significant in the nasal, inferior, superior, and temporal segments.Conclusion: RNFL average thickness is not a reliable index for early

Event-related potentials reveal increased distraction by salient global objects in older adults

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wiegand, Iris; Finke, Kathrin; Töllner, Thomas

Age-related changes in visual functions influence how older individuals perceive and react upon objects in their environment. In particular, older individuals might be more distracted by highly salient, irrelevant information. Kanizsa figures induce a ‘global precedence’ effect, which reflects...... a processing advantage for salient whole-object representations relative to configurations of local elements not inducing a global form. We investigated event-related potential (ERP) correlates of age-related decline in visual abilities, and specifically, distractibility by salient global objects in visual...

An approach for the development of visual configuration systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvam, Lars; Ladeby, Klaes Rohde

2007-01-01

How can a visual configuration system be developed to support the specification process' in companies that manufacture customer tailored products? This article focuses on how visual configuration systems can be developed. The approach for developing visual configuration systems has been developed...... by Centre for Product Modelling (CPM) at The Technical University of Denmark. The approach is based on experiences from a visualization project in co-operation between CPM and the global provider of power protection American Power Conversion (APC). The visual configuration system was developed in 2001...... of the product in the visual configuration system....

Measuring stigma after spinal cord injury: Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Stigma item bank and short form.

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Kisala, Pamela A; Tulsky, David S; Pace, Natalie; Victorson, David; Choi, Seung W; Heinemann, Allen W

2015-05-01

To develop a calibrated item bank and computer adaptive test (CAT) to assess the effects of stigma on health-related quality of life in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Grounded-theory based qualitative item development methods, large-scale item calibration field testing, confirmatory factor analysis, and item response theory (IRT)-based psychometric analyses. Five SCI Model System centers and one Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in the United States. Adults with traumatic SCI. SCI-QOL Stigma Item Bank A sample of 611 individuals with traumatic SCI completed 30 items assessing SCI-related stigma. After 7 items were iteratively removed, factor analyses confirmed a unidimensional pool of items. Graded Response Model IRT analyses were used to estimate slopes and thresholds for the final 23 items. The SCI-QOL Stigma item bank is unique not only in the assessment of SCI-related stigma but also in the inclusion of individuals with SCI in all phases of its development. Use of confirmatory factor analytic and IRT methods provide flexibility and precision of measurement. The item bank may be administered as a CAT or as a 10-item fixed-length short form and can be used for research and clinical applications.

Quality of life and adverse effects of olanzapine versus risperidone therapy in patients with schizophrenia.

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Chaves, Katarina Melo; Serrano-Blanco, Antoni; Ribeiro, Susana Barbosa; Soares, Luiz Alberto Lira; Guerra, Gerlane Coelho Bernardo; do Socorro Costa Feitosa Alves, Maria; de Araújo Júnior, Raimundo Fernandes; de Paula Soares Rachetti, Vanessa; Filgueira Júnior, Antônio; de Araújo, Aurigena Antunes

2013-03-01

This cross-sectional study aimed to compare the effects of treatment with an atypical antipsychotic drug (olanzapine or risperidone) on quality of life (QoL) and to document adverse effects in 115 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia who attended the ambulatory service of Hospital Dr. João Machado, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and clinical variables were compared. The QoL Scale validated for Brazil (QLS-BR) was used to evaluate QoL, and adverse effects were assessed using the Udvalg for Kliniske Undersøgelser Side Effect Rating Scale. Data were analyzed using the χ(2) test and Student's t test, with a significance level of 5 %. Patients in both drug groups showed severe impairment in the occupational domain of the QLS-BR. Global QLS-BR scores indicated impairment among risperidone users and severe impairment among olanzapine users. The most significant side effects were associated with risperidone, including asthenia/lassitude/fatigue, somnolence/sedation, paresthesia, change in visual accommodation, increased salivation, diarrhea, orthostatic posture, palpitations/tachycardia, erythema, photosensitivity, weight loss, galactorrhea, decreased sexual desire, erectile/orgasmic dysfunction, vaginal dryness, headache, and physical dependence. QoL was impaired in patients using olanzapine and in those using risperidone. Risperidone use was associated with psychic, neurological, and autonomous adverse effects and other side effects.

N1 enhancement in synesthesia during visual and audio-visual perception in semantic cross-modal conflict situations: an ERP study

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Christopher eSinke

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Synesthesia entails a special kind of sensory perception, where stimulation in one sensory modality leads to an internally generated perceptual experience of another, not stimulated sensory modality. This phenomenon can be viewed as an abnormal multisensory integration process as here the synesthetic percept is aberrantly fused with the stimulated modality. Indeed, recent synesthesia research has focused on multimodal processing even outside of the specific synesthesia-inducing context and has revealed changed multimodal integration, thus suggesting perceptual alterations at a global level. Here, we focused on audio-visual processing in synesthesia using a semantic classification task in combination with visually or auditory-visually presented animated and inanimated objects in an audio-visual congruent and incongruent manner. Fourteen subjects with auditory-visual and/or grapheme-color synesthesia and 14 control subjects participated in the experiment. During presentation of the stimuli, event-related potentials were recorded from 32 electrodes. The analysis of reaction times and error rates revealed no group differences with best performance for audio-visually congruent stimulation indicating the well-known multimodal facilitation effect. We found an enhanced amplitude of the N1 component over occipital electrode sites for synesthetes compared to controls. The differences occurred irrespective of the experimental condition and therefore suggest a global influence on early sensory processing in synesthetes.

GABAA receptors in visual and auditory cortex and neural activity changes during basic visual stimulation

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Pengmin eQin

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Recent imaging studies have demonstrated that levels of resting GABA in the visual cortex predict the degree of stimulus-induced activity in the same region. These studies have used the presentation of discrete visual stimulus; the change from closed eyes to open also represents a simple visual stimulus, however, and has been shown to induce changes in local brain activity and in functional connectivity between regions. We thus aimed to investigate the role of the GABA system, specifically GABAA receptors, in the changes in brain activity between the eyes closed (EC and eyes open (EO state in order to provide detail at the receptor level to complement previous studies of GABA concentrations. We conducted an fMRI study involving two different modes of the change from EC to EO: An EO and EC block design, allowing the modelling of the haemodynamic response, followed by longer periods of EC and EO to allow the measuring of functional connectivity. The same subjects also underwent [18F]Flumazenil PET measure GABAA receptor binding potentials. It was demonstrated that the local-to-global ratio of GABAA receptor binding potential in the visual cortex predicted the degree of changes in neural activity from EC to EO. This same relationship was also shown in the auditory cortex. Furthermore, the local-to-global ratio of GABAA receptor binding potential in the visual cortex also predicts the change of functional connectivity between visual and auditory cortex from EC to EO. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of GABAA receptors in stimulus-induced neural activity in local regions and in inter-regional functional connectivity.

Physical activity, self-efficacy, and quality of life in older Czech adults.

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Mudrak, Jiri; Stochl, Jan; Slepicka, Pavel; Elavsky, Steriani

2016-03-01

Despite efforts to expand global physical activity (PA) surveillance data to include both low- and high-income countries worldwide, our understanding of the relationship between PA and quality of life (QOL) in older adults from culturally diverse backgrounds is limited. We tested McAuley's social-cognitive model of the PA-QOL relationship in the cultural context of the Czech Republic, a post-communist central European country. A total of 546 older Czech adults (mean age 68 years) completed a battery of questionnaires assessing indicators of PA, self-efficacy, health status, and global QOL. A structural equation model was used to test the relationship between PA and QOL. The model hypothesized an indirect relationship between PA and QOL: PA predicted self-efficacy, which in turn predicted global QOL through mental and physical health status. The analyses indicated an acceptable fit of the proposed model, albeit with different emphases than those of studies from Western countries. Above all, we observed a stronger effect of PA on self-efficacy and a weaker mediating effect of health status on the PA-QOL relationship. Our findings supported the validity of McAuley's PA-QOL social-cognitive model for a non-Western cultural context. However, it seems that self-efficacy and health status may influence the PA-QOL relationship in this population in a manner different from that proposed in McAuley's model.

Relationships between quality of life and family function in caregiver

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Gómez-Marcos Manuel Á

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There are caregivers who see their quality of life (QoL impaired due to the demands of their caregiving tasks, while others manage to adapt and overcome the crises successfully. The influence of the family function in the main caregiver's situation has not been the subject of much evaluation. The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between the functionality of the family and the QoL of caregivers of dependent relatives. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study including 153 caregivers. Setting: Two health centers in the city of Salamanca(Spain. Caregiver variables analysed: demographic characteristics, care recipient features; family functionality (Family APGAR-Q and QoL (Ruiz-Baca-Q perceived by the caregiver. Five multiple regressions are performed considering global QoL and each of the four QoL dimensions as dependent variables. The Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA was used to study the influence of the family function questionnaire on QoL. Results Family function is the only one of the variables evaluated that presented an association both with global QoL and with each of the four individual dimensions (p Conclusion We find an association between family functionality and the caregiver's QoL. This relation holds for both the global measure of QoL and each of its four individual dimensions.

The effect of cognitive appraisal for stressors on the oral health-related QOL of dry mouth patients.

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Matsuoka, Hirofumi; Chiba, Itsuo; Sakano, Yuji; Saito, Ichiro; Abiko, Yoshihiro

2014-01-01

Dry mouth is very common symptom, and psychological factors have an influence on this symptom. Although the influence of emotional factor related to patients with oral dryness has been examined in previous studies, the cognitive factors have not been examined thus far. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of cognitive factors on patients with oral dryness. The participants were 106 patients complaining of oral dryness. They were required to complete a questionnaire measuring subjective oral dryness, oral-related QOL, cognition for stressors, and mood state. Correlational analyses revealed that OHIP-14 is significantly related to oral dryness, appraisal for effect, appraisal for threat, and commitment. These correlations were maintained even after controlling for the influence of depression and anxiety. Using oral dryness, appraisal for effect, appraisal for threat, and commitment, cluster analysis was done and three clusters (cluster-1, severe oral dryness; cluster-2, positive cognitive style: cluster-3, negative cognitive style) were extracted. The results of ANOVA showed that the group with severe oral dryness (cluster-1) had a significantly higher score on OHIP-14 than the other two groups. There was no significant difference between the groups with positive (cluster-2) and negative (cluster-3) cognitive style. Although the group of patients with positive cognitive style complained of more severe oral dryness than the group with negative cognitive style, no significant difference was observed between these two groups in OHIP-14. These results indicate that cognitive factors would be a useful therapeutic target for the improvement of the oral-related QOL of patients with oral dryness.

The Influence of Self-Efficacy, Fear-Avoidance Belief, and Coping Styles on Quality of Life for Chinese Patients with Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Multisite Cross-Sectional Study.

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Du, Shizheng; Hu, Lingli; Bai, Yamei; Dong, Jianshu; Jin, Shengji; Zhang, Heng; Zhu, Ying

2017-11-23

As a bio-psycho-social issue, chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been a significant topic in health management, and patients' quality of life (QOL) is gaining extensive attention. Self-efficacy, pain fear-avoidance belief (FAB), and coping styles play important roles in the QOL of CLBP patients. However, it remains unclear how self-efficacy and FAB influence QOL through specific coping styles. This study aimed to explore the influencing paths of self-efficacy, FAB, and coping styles on the QOL of patients with CLBP. This study relies on a multisite, cross-sectional design involving 221 CLBP patients. Stepwise multiple regression and structural equation modeling were employed. CLBP patients lived with a poor global QOL. Self-efficacy played a direct, positive role in predicting QOL for patients with CLBP (β = 0.35), and it also played an indirect, positive role in predicting QOL (β = 0.19) through active coping styles (β = 0.31). FAB played a direct, negative role in predicting QOL (β = -0.33), and it also played an indirect, negative role in predicting QOL (β = -0.32) through passive coping styles (β = 0.32). Self-efficacy and FAB are both directly and indirectly related to global QOL, and coping styles are important mediating variables. Self-efficacy and active coping are protective factors for the QOL of CLBP patients, while FAB and passive coping are risk factors. Health education strategies are recommended by medical personnel to enhance CLBP patients' pain self-efficacy, decrease pain FAB, and modify pain coping styles, so that their global QOL can be improved. © 2017 World Institute of Pain.

Neuro-ophthalmologic evaluation, quality of life, and functional disability in patients with MS.

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Garcia-Martin, Elena; Rodriguez-Mena, Diego; Herrero, Raquel; Almarcegui, Carmen; Dolz, Isabel; Martin, Jesus; Ara, Jose R; Larrosa, Jose M; Polo, Vicente; Fernández, Javier; Pablo, Luis E

2013-07-02

To evaluate correlations between longitudinal changes in neuro-ophthalmologic measures and quality of life (QOL) and disability in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), using optical coherence tomography (OCT), visual evoked potentials (VEP), and visual field examination. Fifty-four patients with relapsing-remitting MS were enrolled in this study and underwent Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life questionnaire (54 items) (MSQOL-54) and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) evaluation, as well as complete neuro-ophthalmologic examination including visual field testing and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurements using Cirrus and Spectralis OCT and VEP. All patients were re-evaluated at 12, 24, and 36 months. Logistical regression was performed to analyze which measures, if any, could predict QOL. Overall, RNFL thickness results at the baseline evaluation were significantly different from those at 3 years (p ≤ 0.05), but there were no differences in functional measures (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, color vision, visual field, and VEP). A reduced MSQOL-54 score was associated with an increase in EDSS score and a decrease in both functional and structural parameters. Patients with longer MS duration presented with a lower MSQOL-54 score (reduction in QOL). Patients with progressive axonal loss as seen in RNFL results had a lower QOL and more functional disability.

The spatially global control of attentional target selection in visual search

OpenAIRE

Berggren, Nick; Jenkins, M.; McCants, C.W.; Eimer, Martin

2017-01-01

Glyn Humphreys and his co-workers have made numerous important theoretical and empirical contributions to research on visual search. They have introduced the concept of attentional target templates and investigated the nature of these templates and how they are involved in the control of search performance. In the experiments reported here, we investigated whether feature-specific search template for particular colours can guide target selection independently for different regions of visual s...

Measuring psychological trauma after spinal cord injury: Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Psychological Trauma item bank and short form.

Science.gov (United States)

Kisala, Pamela A; Victorson, David; Pace, Natalie; Heinemann, Allen W; Choi, Seung W; Tulsky, David S

2015-05-01

To describe the development and psychometric properties of the SCI-QOL Psychological Trauma item bank and short form. Using a mixed-methods design, we developed and tested a Psychological Trauma item bank with patient and provider focus groups, cognitive interviews, and item response theory based analytic approaches, including tests of model fit, differential item functioning (DIF) and precision. We tested a 31-item pool at several medical institutions across the United States, including the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital and the James J. Peters/Bronx Veterans Administration hospital. A total of 716 individuals with SCI completed the trauma items The 31 items fit a unidimensional model (CFI=0.952; RMSEA=0.061) and demonstrated good precision (theta range between 0.6 and 2.5). Nine items demonstrated negligible DIF with little impact on score estimates. The final calibrated item bank contains 19 items The SCI-QOL Psychological Trauma item bank is a psychometrically robust measurement tool from which a short form and a computer adaptive test (CAT) version are available.

GABA(A) receptors in visual and auditory cortex and neural activity changes during basic visual stimulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Pengmin; Duncan, Niall W; Wiebking, Christine; Gravel, Paul; Lyttelton, Oliver; Hayes, Dave J; Verhaeghe, Jeroen; Kostikov, Alexey; Schirrmacher, Ralf; Reader, Andrew J; Northoff, Georg

2012-01-01

Recent imaging studies have demonstrated that levels of resting γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the visual cortex predict the degree of stimulus-induced activity in the same region. These studies have used the presentation of discrete visual stimulus; the change from closed eyes to open also represents a simple visual stimulus, however, and has been shown to induce changes in local brain activity and in functional connectivity between regions. We thus aimed to investigate the role of the GABA system, specifically GABA(A) receptors, in the changes in brain activity between the eyes closed (EC) and eyes open (EO) state in order to provide detail at the receptor level to complement previous studies of GABA concentrations. We conducted an fMRI study involving two different modes of the change from EC to EO: an EO and EC block design, allowing the modeling of the haemodynamic response, followed by longer periods of EC and EO to allow the measuring of functional connectivity. The same subjects also underwent [(18)F]Flumazenil PET to measure GABA(A) receptor binding potentials. It was demonstrated that the local-to-global ratio of GABA(A) receptor binding potential in the visual cortex predicted the degree of changes in neural activity from EC to EO. This same relationship was also shown in the auditory cortex. Furthermore, the local-to-global ratio of GABA(A) receptor binding potential in the visual cortex also predicted the change in functional connectivity between the visual and auditory cortex from EC to EO. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of GABA(A) receptors in stimulus-induced neural activity in local regions and in inter-regional functional connectivity.

Quality of Life Theory I. The IQOL Theory: An Integrative Theory of the Global Quality of Life Concept

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soren Ventegodt

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Quality of life (QOL means a good life and we believe that a good life is the same as living a life with a high quality. This paper presents the theoretical and philosophical framework of the Danish Quality of Life Survey, and of the SEQOL, QOL5, and QOL1 questionnaires.The notion of a good life can be observed from subjective to the objective, where this spectrum incorporates a number of existing quality of life theories. We call this spectrum the integrative quality-of-life (IQOL theory and discuss the following aspects in this paper: well being, satisfaction with life, happiness, meaning in life, the biological information system (�balance�, realizing life potential, fulfillment of needs, and objective factors.The philosophy of life outlined in this paper tries to measure the global quality of life with questions derived from the integrative theory of the quality of life. The IQOL theory is an overall theory or meta-theory encompassing eight more factual theories in a subjective-existential-objective spectrum. Other philosophies of life can stress other aspects of life, but by this notion of introducing such an existential depth into the health and social sciences, we believe to have taken a necessary step towards a new humility and respect for the richness and complexity of life.

Visual Magnocellular Function in Perceptual Disorders

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David P. Crewther

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD, dyslexia, schizophrenia and dyscalculia have also been reported to show abnormal visual perception. Central to the four disorders are observations of altered global/local perception, motion sensation and grouping that are suggestive of a magnocellular abnormality(s. Such psychophysical observations do not easily yield neurophysiological mechanisms that can explain the altered perception/vision. Nonlinear visual evoked potentials have allowed the separation of magnocellular (M and parvocellular (P contributions to the VEP (Klistorner et al., 1997. Using these tools we compare the patterns of abnormality in groups with visual disorders. The second order kernel responses of the VEP in autistic tendency show interference between P and M nonlinearities at high contrast (Sutherland & Crewther, 2010 resulting in a delay of completion of firing. While afferent latencies of M and P cortical activation are not different in ASD, the delay in completion may allow a revision of the ideas surrounding the “magnocellular advantage” which relate to the alterations observed in global and local perception.

Peranan Komunikasi Visual bagi Identitas Perusahaan

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Laura Christina Luzar

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In the current era of globalization, along with expanding the market, many companies are competing to attract the attention of consumers to buy their products. One way to compete and survive in this growing market is by creating an image and visual identity. Strong characters could position the image of a company, visual identity is so necessary in showing the image which wants to be introduced to the public. The vigorous competition between firms creates visual identity, become a prominent feature of each companies. Therefore, it is needed a visual communication designer who can create and develop the concept of corporate identity systems. Visual communication designer also have responsibility to create identity into a system that does not sell directly, but provides identity, information, persuasive and ultimately serves as an effective marketing media. 

How visual search relates to visual diagnostic performance: a narrative systematic review of eye-tracking research in radiology.

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van der Gijp, A; Ravesloot, C J; Jarodzka, H; van der Schaaf, M F; van der Schaaf, I C; van Schaik, J P J; Ten Cate, Th J

2017-08-01

Eye tracking research has been conducted for decades to gain understanding of visual diagnosis such as in radiology. For educational purposes, it is important to identify visual search patterns that are related to high perceptual performance and to identify effective teaching strategies. This review of eye-tracking literature in the radiology domain aims to identify visual search patterns associated with high perceptual performance. Databases PubMed, EMBASE, ERIC, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science were searched using 'visual perception' OR 'eye tracking' AND 'radiology' and synonyms. Two authors independently screened search results and included eye tracking studies concerning visual skills in radiology published between January 1, 1994 and July 31, 2015. Two authors independently assessed study quality with the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument, and extracted study data with respect to design, participant and task characteristics, and variables. A thematic analysis was conducted to extract and arrange study results, and a textual narrative synthesis was applied for data integration and interpretation. The search resulted in 22 relevant full-text articles. Thematic analysis resulted in six themes that informed the relation between visual search and level of expertise: (1) time on task, (2) eye movement characteristics of experts, (3) differences in visual attention, (4) visual search patterns, (5) search patterns in cross sectional stack imaging, and (6) teaching visual search strategies. Expert search was found to be characterized by a global-focal search pattern, which represents an initial global impression, followed by a detailed, focal search-to-find mode. Specific task-related search patterns, like drilling through CT scans and systematic search in chest X-rays, were found to be related to high expert levels. One study investigated teaching of visual search strategies, and did not find a significant effect on perceptual performance. Eye

Balancing Attended and Global Stimuli in Perceived Video Quality Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

You, Junyong; Korhonen, Jari; Perkis, Andrew

2011-01-01

. This paper proposes a quality model based on the late attention selection theory, assuming that the video quality is perceived via two mechanisms: global and local quality assessment. First we model several visual features influencing the visual attention in quality assessment scenarios to derive......The visual attention mechanism plays a key role in the human perception system and it has a significant impact on our assessment of perceived video quality. In spite of receiving less attention from the viewers, unattended stimuli can still contribute to the understanding of the visual content...... an attention map using appropriate fusion techniques. The global quality assessment as based on the assumption that viewers allocate their attention equally to the entire visual scene, is modeled by four carefully designed quality features. By employing these same quality features, the local quality model...

The Role of Visual-Spatial Abilities in Dyslexia: Age Differences in Children's Reading?

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Giovagnoli, Giulia; Vicari, Stefano; Tomassetti, Serena; Menghini, Deny

2016-01-01

Reading is a highly complex process in which integrative neurocognitive functions are required. Visual-spatial abilities play a pivotal role because of the multi-faceted visual sensory processing involved in reading. Several studies show that children with developmental dyslexia (DD) fail to develop effective visual strategies and that some reading difficulties are linked to visual-spatial deficits. However, the relationship between visual-spatial skills and reading abilities is still a controversial issue. Crucially, the role that age plays has not been investigated in depth in this population, and it is still not clear if visual-spatial abilities differ across educational stages in DD. The aim of the present study was to investigate visual-spatial abilities in children with DD and in age-matched normal readers (NR) according to different educational stages: in children attending primary school and in children and adolescents attending secondary school. Moreover, in order to verify whether visual-spatial measures could predict reading performance, a regression analysis has been performed in younger and older children. The results showed that younger children with DD performed significantly worse than NR in a mental rotation task, a more-local visual-spatial task, a more-global visual-perceptual task and a visual-motor integration task. However, older children with DD showed deficits in the more-global visual-perceptual task, in a mental rotation task and in a visual attention task. In younger children, the regression analysis documented that reading abilities are predicted by the visual-motor integration task, while in older children only the more-global visual-perceptual task predicted reading performances. Present findings showed that visual-spatial deficits in children with DD were age-dependent and that visual-spatial abilities engaged in reading varied across different educational stages. In order to better understand their potential role in affecting reading

Global motion perception is associated with motor function in 2-year-old children.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Benjamin; McKinlay, Christopher J D; Chakraborty, Arijit; Anstice, Nicola S; Jacobs, Robert J; Paudel, Nabin; Yu, Tzu-Ying; Ansell, Judith M; Wouldes, Trecia A; Harding, Jane E

2017-09-29

The dorsal visual processing stream that includes V1, motion sensitive area V5 and the posterior parietal lobe, supports visually guided motor function. Two recent studies have reported associations between global motion perception, a behavioural measure of processing in V5, and motor function in pre-school and school aged children. This indicates a relationship between visual and motor development and also supports the use of global motion perception to assess overall dorsal stream function in studies of human neurodevelopment. We investigated whether associations between vision and motor function were present at 2 years of age, a substantially earlier stage of development. The Bayley III test of Infant and Toddler Development and measures of vision including visual acuity (Cardiff Acuity Cards), stereopsis (Lang stereotest) and global motion perception were attempted in 404 2-year-old children (±4 weeks). Global motion perception (quantified as a motion coherence threshold) was assessed by observing optokinetic nystagmus in response to random dot kinematograms of varying coherence. Linear regression revealed that global motion perception was modestly, but statistically significantly associated with Bayley III composite motor (r 2 =0.06, Pmotor scores (r 2 =0.06, pmotor and fine motor scores, but unaided visual acuity was not statistically significantly associated with any of the motor scores. These results demonstrate that global motion perception and binocular vision are associated with motor function at an early stage of development. Global motion perception can be used as a partial measure of dorsal stream function from early childhood. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Visual teaching and learning in the fields of engineering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyvete S. Shatri

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Engineering education today is faced with numerous demands that are closely connected with a globalized economy. One of these requirements is to draw the engineers of the future, who are characterized with: strong analytical skills, creativity, ingenuity, professionalism, intercultural communication and leadership. To achieve this effective teaching methods should be used to facilitate and enhance the learning of students and their performance in general, making them able to cope with market demands of a globalized economy. One of these methods is the visualization as a very important method that increases the learning of students. A visual approach in science and in engineering also increases communication, critical thinking and provides analytical approach to various problems. Therefore, this research is aimed to investigate the effect of the use of visualization in the process of teaching and learning in engineering fields and encourage teachers and students to use visual methods for teaching and learning. The results of this research highlight the positive effect that the use of visualization has in the learning process of students and their overall performance. In addition, innovative teaching methods have a good effect in the improvement of the situation. Visualization motivates students to learn, making them more cooperative and developing their communication skills.

Visual field impairment captures disease burden in multiple sclerosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz-Perez, Santiago; Andorra, Magí; Sanchez-Dalmau, Bernardo; Torres-Torres, Rubén; Calbet, David; Lampert, Erika J; Alba-Arbalat, Salut; Guerrero-Zamora, Ana M; Zubizarreta, Irati; Sola-Valls, Nuria; Llufriu, Sara; Sepúlveda, María; Saiz, Albert; Villoslada, Pablo; Martinez-Lapiscina, Elena H

2016-04-01

Monitoring disease burden is an unmeet need in multiple sclerosis (MS). Identifying patients at high risk of disability progression will be useful for improving clinical-therapeutic decisions in clinical routine. To evaluate the role of visual field testing in non-optic neuritis eyes (non-ON eyes) as a biomarker of disability progression in MS. In 109 patients of the MS-VisualPath cohort, we evaluated the association between visual field abnormalities and global and cognitive disability markers and brain and retinal imaging markers of neuroaxonal injury using linear regression models adjusted for sex, age, disease duration and use of disease-modifying therapies. We evaluated the risk of disability progression associated to have baseline impaired visual field after 3 years of follow-up. Sixty-two percent of patients showed visual field defects in non-ON eyes. Visual field mean deviation was statistically associated with global disability; brain (normalized brain parenchymal, gray matter volume and lesion load) and retinal (peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and macular ganglion cell complex thickness) markers of neuroaxonal damage. Patients with impaired visual field had statistically significative greater disability, lower normalized brain parenchymal volume and higher lesion volume than patients with normal visual field testing. MS patients with baseline impaired VF tripled the risk of disability progression during follow-up [OR = 3.35; 95 % CI (1.10-10.19); p = 0.033]. The association of visual field impairment with greater disability and neuroaxonal injury and higher risk of disability progression suggest that VF could be used to monitor MS disease burden.

Hierarchically organized layout for visualization of biochemical pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsay, Jyh-Jong; Wu, Bo-Liang; Jeng, Yu-Sen

2010-01-01

Many complex pathways are described as hierarchical structures in which a pathway is recursively partitioned into several sub-pathways, and organized hierarchically as a tree. The hierarchical structure provides a natural way to visualize the global structure of a complex pathway. However, none of the previous research on pathway visualization explores the hierarchical structures provided by many complex pathways. In this paper, we aim to develop algorithms that can take advantages of hierarchical structures, and give layouts that explore the global structures as well as local structures of pathways. We present a new hierarchically organized layout algorithm to produce layouts for hierarchically organized pathways. Our algorithm first decomposes a complex pathway into sub-pathway groups along the hierarchical organization, and then partition each sub-pathway group into basic components. It then applies conventional layout algorithms, such as hierarchical layout and force-directed layout, to compute the layout of each basic component. Finally, component layouts are joined to form a final layout of the pathway. Our main contribution is the development of algorithms for decomposing pathways and joining layouts. Experiment shows that our algorithm is able to give comprehensible visualization for pathways with hierarchies, cycles as well as complex structures. It clearly renders the global component structures as well as the local structure in each component. In addition, it runs very fast, and gives better visualization for many examples from previous related research. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

ELEMEN-ELEMEN DALAM DESAIN KOMUNIKASI VISUAL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christine Suharto Cenadi

1999-01-01

Full Text Available In the recent information and technology globalization era%2C the role of Visual Communication Design has become important and it has become a hot topic which is inescapable from our daily lives. Almost every day%2C everwhere we go%2C we will encounter different forms of Visual Communication Design. Unfortunately%2C most of us have not yet realized the objectives and purposes of the Visual Communication Design. This paper will discuss about what the functions%2C purposes%2C elements and fields of the Visual Communication Design are. Abstract in Bahasa Indonesia : Dalam era globalisasi informasi dan teknologi seperti sekarang ini%2C Desain Komunikasi Visual berperan penting dan menjadi topik hangat yang tidak dapat terlepas dari kehidupan kita sehari-hari. Hampir setiap hari%2C kemanapun kita pergi%2C kita akan menjumpai bentuk-bentuk dari Desain Komunikasi Visual. Sayangnya%2C banyak diantara kita yang belum sadar akan tujuan dan manfaat dari Desain Komunikasi Visual itu sendiri. Tulisan ini akan membahas mengenai apa tujuan%2C manfaat%2C elemen dan lapangan kerja dari Desain Komunikasi Visual

A comparative analysis of global and local processing of hierarchical visual stimuli in young children (Homo sapiens) and monkeys (Cebus apella).

Science.gov (United States)

De Lillo, Carlo; Spinozzi, Giovanna; Truppa, Valentina; Naylor, Donna M

2005-05-01

Results obtained with preschool children (Homo sapiens) were compared with results previously obtained from capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) in matching-to-sample tasks featuring hierarchical visual stimuli. In Experiment 1, monkeys, in contrast with children, showed an advantage in matching the stimuli on the basis of their local features. These results were replicated in a 2nd experiment in which control trials enabled the authors to rule out that children used spurious cues to solve the matching task. In a 3rd experiment featuring conditions in which the density of the stimuli was manipulated, monkeys' accuracy in the processing of the global shape of the stimuli was negatively affected by the separation of the local elements, whereas children's performance was robust across testing conditions. Children's response latencies revealed a global precedence in the 2nd and 3rd experiments. These results show differences in the processing of hierarchical stimuli by humans and monkeys that emerge early during childhood. 2005 APA, all rights reserved

Measuring care-related quality of life of caregivers for use in economic evaluations: CarerQol tariffs for Australia, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the US.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoefman, R.J.; Exel, N.J.A. van; Brouwer, W.B.F.

2017-01-01

Background: Informal care is often not included in economic evaluations in healthcare, while the impact of caregiving can be relevant for cost-effectiveness recommendations from a societal perspective. The impact of informal care can be measured and valued with the CarerQol instrument, which

Global Sensory Qualities and Aesthetic Experience in Music

Science.gov (United States)

Brattico, Pauli; Brattico, Elvira; Vuust, Peter

2017-01-01

A well-known tradition in the study of visual aesthetics holds that the experience of visual beauty is grounded in global computational or statistical properties of the stimulus, for example, scale-invariant Fourier spectrum or self-similarity. Some approaches rely on neural mechanisms, such as efficient computation, processing fluency, or the responsiveness of the cells in the primary visual cortex. These proposals are united by the fact that the contributing factors are hypothesized to be global (i.e., they concern the percept as a whole), formal or non-conceptual (i.e., they concern form instead of content), computational and/or statistical, and based on relatively low-level sensory properties. Here we consider that the study of aesthetic responses to music could benefit from the same approach. Thus, along with local features such as pitch, tuning, consonance/dissonance, harmony, timbre, or beat, also global sonic properties could be viewed as contributing toward creating an aesthetic musical experience. Several such properties are discussed and their neural implementation is reviewed in the light of recent advances in neuroaesthetics. PMID:28424573

Measuring resilience after spinal cord injury: Development, validation and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Resilience item bank and short form.

Science.gov (United States)

Victorson, David; Tulsky, David S; Kisala, Pamela A; Kalpakjian, Claire Z; Weiland, Brian; Choi, Seung W

2015-05-01

To describe the development and psychometric properties of the Spinal Cord Injury--Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Resilience item bank and short form. Using a mixed-methods design, we developed and tested a resilience item bank through the use of focus groups with individuals with SCI and clinicians with expertise in SCI, cognitive interviews, and item-response theory based analytic approaches, including tests of model fit and differential item functioning (DIF). We tested a 32-item pool at several medical institutions across the United States, including the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital and the James J. Peters/Bronx Department of Veterans Affairs medical center. A total of 717 individuals with SCI completed the Resilience items. A unidimensional model was observed (CFI=0.968; RMSEA=0.074) and measurement precision was good (theta range between -3.1 and 0.9). Ten items were flagged for DIF, however, after examination of effect sizes we found this to be negligible with little practical impact on score estimates. The final calibrated item bank resulted in 21 retained items. This study indicates that the SCI-QOL Resilience item bank represents a psychometrically robust measurement tool. Short form items are also suggested and computer adaptive tests are available.

Occupational performance, pain, and global quality of life in women with upper extremity fractures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dekkers, Merete Klindt; Nielsen, Tove Lise

2010-01-01

on the COPM and with the COPM satisfaction score, and it can be argued that a finding of a low DASH score in elderly women with upper extremity fractures should be followed up by a referral to occupational therapy. Future studies, preferably follow-up studies, are called for to further explore the multiple......To examine pain, occupational performance problems, and quality of life (QoL) and possible associations between these variables, 41 elderly women with acute pain due to a fracture of the upper extremity were assessed with COPM, DASH, validated questions on pain, and a global question on Qo...

Health-Related Quality of Life

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Linde, Louise; Sørensen, Jan; Ostergaard, Mikkel

2008-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To compare validity, reliability, and responsiveness of generic and disease specific health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instruments in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Two samples of patients completed the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36), EuroQol (EQ)-5D......, 15D, Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality of Life Scale (RAQoL), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), and visual analog scales (VAS) for pain, fatigue, and global RA. Validity (convergent, discriminant, and known-groups) was evaluated in a cross-section of 200 patients. Reliability was evaluated...

Quality of Life in Patients with Noninfectious Uveitis Treated with or without Systemic Anti-inflammatory Therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Gui, Wei; Dombrow, Matthew; Marcus, Inna; Stowe, Meredith H; Tessier-Sherman, Baylah; Yang, Elizabeth; Huang, John J

2015-04-01

To compare vision-related (VR-QOL) and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) in patients with noninfectious uveitis treated with systemic anti-inflammatory therapy versus nonsystemic therapy. A prospective, cross-sectional study design was employed. VR-QOL and HR-QOL were assessed by the 25-Item Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25) and the Short Form 12-Item Health Survey (SF-12), respectively. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to assess the VR-QOL and HR-QOL based on treatment. Among the 80 patients, the median age was 51 years with 28 males (35%). The adjusted effect of treatment modality on VR-QOL or HR-QOL showed no statistically significant difference in all subscores of VFQ-25 or physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS) of SF-12. Systemic therapy did not compromise VR-QOL or HR-QOL compared to nonsystemic therapy. Systemic therapy can be effectively used to control serious cases of noninfectious uveitis without significant relative adverse impact on quality of life.

The influence of visual and phonological features on the hemispheric processing of hierarchical Navon letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Aiello, Marilena; Merola, Sheila; Lasaponara, Stefano; Pinto, Mario; Tomaiuolo, Francesco; Doricchi, Fabrizio

2018-01-31

The possibility of allocating attentional resources to the "global" shape or to the "local" details of pictorial stimuli helps visual processing. Investigations with hierarchical Navon letters, that are large "global" letters made up of small "local" ones, consistently demonstrate a right hemisphere advantage for global processing and a left hemisphere advantage for local processing. Here we investigated how the visual and phonological features of the global and local components of Navon letters influence these hemispheric advantages. In a first study in healthy participants, we contrasted the hemispheric processing of hierarchical letters with global and local items competing for response selection, to the processing of hierarchical letters in which a letter, a false-letter conveying no phonological information or a geometrical shape presented at the unattended level did not compete for response selection. In a second study, we investigated the hemispheric processing of hierarchical stimuli in which global and local letters were both visually and phonologically congruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of smaller uppercase G), visually incongruent and phonologically congruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of small lowercase g) or visually incongruent and phonologically incongruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of small lowercase or uppercase M). In a third study, we administered the same tasks to a right brain damaged patient with a lesion involving pre-striate areas engaged by global processing. The results of the first two experiments showed that the global abilities of the left hemisphere are limited because of its strong susceptibility to interference from local letters even when these are irrelevant to the task. Phonological features played a crucial role in this interference because the interference was entirely maintained also when letters at the global and local level were presented in different uppercase vs. lowercase formats. In contrast, when local features

OPTIMUM: a protocol for a multicentre randomised controlled trial comparing Out Patient Talc slurry via Indwelling pleural catheter for Malignant pleural effusion vs Usual inpatient Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Sivakumar, P; Douiri, A; West, A; Rao, D; Warwick, G; Chen, T; Ahmed, L

2016-10-18

The development of malignant pleural effusion (MPE) results in disabling breathlessness, pain and reduced physical capability with treatment a palliative strategy. Ambulatory management of MPE has the potential to improve quality of life (QoL). The OPTIMUM trial is designed to determine whether full outpatient management of MPE with an indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) and pleurodesis improves QoL compared with traditional inpatient care with a chest drain and talc pleurodesis. OPTIMUM is currently open for any centres interested in collaborating in this study. OPTIMUM is a multicentre non-blinded randomised controlled trial. Patients with a diagnosis of MPE will be identified and screened for eligibility. Consenting participants will be randomised 1:1 either to an outpatient ambulatory pathway using IPCs and talc pleurodesis or standard inpatient treatment with chest drain and talc pleurodesis as per British Thoracic Society guidelines. The primary outcome measure is global health-related QoL at 30 days measured using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire. Secondary outcome measures include breathlessness and pain measured using a 100 mm Visual Analogue Scale and health-related QoL at 60 and 90 days. A sample size of 142 patients is needed to demonstrate a clinically significant difference of 8 points in global health status at 30 days, for an 80% power and a 5% significance level. The study has been approved by the NRES Committee South East Coast-Brighton and Sussex (reference 15/LO/1018). The trial results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific conferences. UKCRN19615 and ISRCTN15503522; Pre-results. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

The Global Lives Project: Making New Media Matter in a Global World

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasse Jørgensen, Stina

2010-01-01

Computing has infiltrated the everyday life of people all over the world. It is no longer merely a tool for communication and interaction, but also something-to-think-with, a medium that can give us new dimensions in the way we experience and engage with the world.Critical computing evokes...... in the user new ways of thinking and interacting with a globalized world. The Global Lives Project is a compelling example of this usage of computing technology. The GLP archive, which contains visual documentation of the lives of different people from around the world on a digital platform on the Internet......, enables users to actively engage with global cultures. As a critical computing project, the Global Lives Project hopes to bring a critical awareness of how culture is categorized and transformed by engaging users in a collaborative new media project....

Exposure to organic solvents used in dry cleaning reduces low and high level visual function.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ingrid Astrid Jiménez Barbosa

Full Text Available To investigate whether exposure to occupational levels of organic solvents in the dry cleaning industry is associated with neurotoxic symptoms and visual deficits in the perception of basic visual features such as luminance contrast and colour, higher level processing of global motion and form (Experiment 1, and cognitive function as measured in a visual search task (Experiment 2.The Q16 neurotoxic questionnaire, a commonly used measure of neurotoxicity (by the World Health Organization, was administered to assess the neurotoxic status of a group of 33 dry cleaners exposed to occupational levels of organic solvents (OS and 35 age-matched non dry-cleaners who had never worked in the dry cleaning industry. In Experiment 1, to assess visual function, contrast sensitivity, colour/hue discrimination (Munsell Hue 100 test, global motion and form thresholds were assessed using computerised psychophysical tests. Sensitivity to global motion or form structure was quantified by varying the pattern coherence of global dot motion (GDM and Glass pattern (oriented dot pairs respectively (i.e., the percentage of dots/dot pairs that contribute to the perception of global structure. In Experiment 2, a letter visual-search task was used to measure reaction times (as a function of the number of elements: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 100 in both parallel and serial search conditions.Dry cleaners exposed to organic solvents had significantly higher scores on the Q16 compared to non dry-cleaners indicating that dry cleaners experienced more neurotoxic symptoms on average. The contrast sensitivity function for dry cleaners was significantly lower at all spatial frequencies relative to non dry-cleaners, which is consistent with previous studies. Poorer colour discrimination performance was also noted in dry cleaners than non dry-cleaners, particularly along the blue/yellow axis. In a new finding, we report that global form and motion thresholds for dry cleaners were also

PENDIDIKAN DAN PEKERJAAN BERDASARKAN KUALITAS HIDUP PADA REMAJA (GAMBARAN DESKRIPTIF DATA RISKESDAS 2007

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Siti Isfandari

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Not many studies explored the quality of life (QOL of adolescence as one of the health status indicators. Their Morbidity and behavior problems received more attention. Furthermore, most health variables were treated as dependent variable, influenced by other condition, such as economic status, education or employment status. This analysis used different approach which treated the QOL of adolescence as factor that influences other factors, such as education and employment. Objective of the analysis was to explore the contribution of the QOL for schooling and employment for Indonesia youth. Methodology: Respondents for the analysis were 73,646 adolescence aged 15-19, sub-sample of Riskesdas 2007 respondents. Good QOL is defined as not having any problem in audio visual, functioning, mobility, self care, communication, participation and psychological & interaction. There was 7% of adolescence with QOL problem, defined as having at least one problem of the above categories. This analysis had been exploring how the education and employment status of adolescence with problem in their QOL as compared to those with good QOL using table descriptive analysis. Result: There was apparent difference of education and employment status between the adolescence with good QOL and those withQOL problem. Proportion of no schooling and not finished elementary school, as well as unemployed washigher for those with QOL problems (14-39.8% vs. 8% & (27-45% vs. 22%, while education level was higher for those with good QOL (68% vs. 37.4-61%. QOL problem in audio visual and functioning had worsened the adolescence's participation in schooling. Disadvantageous was experienced more by adolescence living in rural area. Conclusion: This analysis showed that the QOL had influenced the education and employment status of adolescence. But without controlling socio economic status, the strongest factors influencing education status was economic factor, represented by

Quantitative evaluation of vision-related and health-related quality of life after endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, Amparo; Coros, Alexandra; Bierer, Joel; Goncalves, Sandy; Cooper, Paul; Van Uum, Stan; Lee, Donald H; Proulx, Alain; Nicolle, David; Fraser, J Alexander; Rotenberg, Brian W; Duggal, Neil

2017-08-01

OBJECTIVE Endoscopic resection of pituitary adenomas has been reported to improve vision function in up to 80%-90% of patients with visual impairment due to these adenomas. It is unclear how these reported rates translate into improvement in visual outcomes and general health as perceived by the patients. The authors evaluated self-assessed health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) and vision-related QOL (VR-QOL) in patients before and after endoscopic resection of pituitary adenomas. METHODS The authors prospectively collected data from 50 patients who underwent endoscopic resection of pituitary adenomas. This cohort included 32 patients (64%) with visual impairment preoperatively. Twenty-seven patients (54%) had pituitary dysfunction, including 17 (34%) with hormone-producing tumors. Patients completed the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey preoperatively and 6 weeks and 6 months after surgery. RESULTS Patients with preoperative visual impairment reported a significant impact of this condition on VR-QOL preoperatively, including general vision, near activities, and peripheral vision; they also noted vision-specific impacts on mental health, role difficulties, dependency, and driving. After endoscopic resection of adenomas, patients reported improvement across all these categories 6 weeks postoperatively, and this improvement was maintained by 6 months postoperatively. Patients with preoperative pituitary dysfunction, including hormone-producing tumors, perceived their general health and physical function as poorer, with some of these patients reporting improvement in perceived general health after the endoscopic surgery. All patients noted that their ability to work or perform activities of daily living was transiently reduced 6 weeks postoperatively, followed by significant improvement by 6 months after the surgery. CONCLUSIONS Both VR-QOL and patient's perceptions of their ability to do work and

Chess Evolution Visualization.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Wei-Li; Wang, Yu-Shuen; Lin, Wen-Chieh

2014-05-01

We present a chess visualization to convey the changes in a game over successive generations. It contains a score chart, an evolution graph and a chess board, such that users can understand a game from global to local viewpoints. Unlike current graphical chess tools, which focus only on highlighting pieces that are under attack and require sequential investigation, our visualization shows potential outcomes after a piece is moved and indicates how much tactical advantage the player can have over the opponent. Users can first glance at the score chart to roughly obtain the growth and decline of advantages from both sides, and then examine the position relations and the piece placements, to know how the pieces are controlled and how the strategy works. To achieve this visualization, we compute the decision tree using artificial intelligence to analyze a game, in which each node represents a chess position and each edge connects two positions that are one-move different. We then merge nodes representing the same chess position, and shorten branches where nodes on them contain only two neighbors, in order to achieve readability. During the graph rendering, the nodes containing events such as draws, effective checks and checkmates, are highlighted because they show how a game is ended. As a result, our visualization helps players understand a chess game so that they can efficiently learn strategies and tactics. The presented results, evaluations, and the conducted user studies demonstrate the feasibility of our visualization design.

Are vision-specific quality of life questionnaires important in assessing rehabilitation for patients with hemianopia post stroke?

Science.gov (United States)

George, Stacey; Hayes, Allison; Chen, Celia; Crotty, Maria

2011-01-01

To explore the relationship between disability and functional measures with vision-specific quality of life (QoL) measures for people with hemianopia and stroke. The Behavioral Inattention Test (BIT) and the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory (MPAI) were compared with scores on 2 vision-specific QoL measures, the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) and Veteran Low Vision Visual Function Questionnaire (VA LV VFQ-48). Rehabilitation hospitals in Adelaide, South Australia. Stroke patients (n = 24) with homonymous hemianopia. Most of the BIT and MPAI scores were significantly associated with the NEI VFQ-25 and VA LV VFQ-48 scores. Behavioral test scores of the BIT and the MPAI total score correlated with more aspects of the QoL measures than the other components of the BIT and the MPAI. BIT and MPAI measure constructs associated with QoL for people with hemianopia following stroke. Vision-specific QoL questionnaires can complement the functional instruments by identifying the domains of difficulty, based on the instrument's subscale, that can guide rehabilitation therapists to address the person's deficit.

Left Global Hemineglect in High Autism-Spectrum Quotient Individuals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Paul Crewther

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Autism remains as a significant issue for many individuals due to the social impairment accompanying the disorder. Recent theories present potential relationships between autistic tendency and visual perceptual differences to explore differences in underlying visual pathways. These differences have been explored though the use of global and local stimuli to show difference in perception. This study compared the balance of global versus local perception between sub-groups from the normal population both high and low on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ. A diamond illusion task containing rivaling global and local percepts was used to explore the effects of changing the occluder contrast and peripheral viewing upon global/local percept. An increase in global perception relative to increasing eccentricity of the stimulus from a fixation point was also seen in both groups. However, with increasing contrast of the occluding stripes both groups showed an increase in the percentage of global perception. When comparing between groups the high AQ showed a significant reduction in global perception compared to the low AQ group when the stimulus was presented in left hemifield. This difference wasn't present within right hemifield. We discuss how global perceptual hemineglect may suggest abnormal parietal function in individuals with high AQ.

Electrophysiology and optical coherence tomography to evaluate Parkinson disease severity.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Martin, Elena; Rodriguez-Mena, Diego; Satue, Maria; Almarcegui, Carmen; Dolz, Isabel; Alarcia, Raquel; Seral, Maria; Polo, Vicente; Larrosa, Jose M; Pablo, Luis E

2014-02-04

To evaluate correlations between visual evoked potentials (VEP), pattern electroretinogram (PERG), and macular and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and the severity of Parkinson disease (PD). Forty-six PD patients and 33 age and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled, and underwent VEP, PERG, and OCT measurements of macular and RNFL thicknesses, and evaluation of PD severity using the Hoehn and Yahr scale to measure PD symptom progression, the Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living Scale (SE-ADL) to evaluate patient quality of life (QOL), and disease duration. Logistical regression was performed to analyze which measures, if any, could predict PD symptom progression or effect on QOL. Visual functional parameters (best corrected visual acuity, mean deviation of visual field, PERG positive (P) component at 50 ms -P50- and negative (N) component at 95 ms -N95- component amplitude, and PERG P50 component latency) and structural parameters (OCT measurements of RNFL and retinal thickness) were decreased in PD patients compared with healthy controls. OCT measurements were significantly negatively correlated with the Hoehn and Yahr scale, and significantly positively correlated with the SE-ADL scale. Based on logistical regression analysis, fovea thickness provided by OCT equipment predicted PD severity, and QOL and amplitude of the PERG N95 component predicted a lower SE-ADL score. Patients with greater damage in the RNFL tend to have lower QOL and more severe PD symptoms. Foveal thicknesses and the PERG N95 component provide good biomarkers for predicting QOL and disease severity.

The global burden of visual difficulty in low, middle, and high income countries.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ellen E Freeman

Full Text Available Using a world-wide, population-based dataset of adults, we sought to determine the frequency of far visual difficulty and its associated risk factors.The World Health Survey (WHS was conducted in 70 countries throughout the world in 2003 using a random, multi-stage, stratified, cluster sampling design of adults ages 18 years and older. Far vision was assessed by asking "In the last 30 days, how much difficulty did you have in seeing and recognizing a person you know across the road (i.e. from a distance of about 20 meters?". Responses included none, mild, moderate, severe, or extreme/unable. The income status of countries was estimated using gross national income per capita data from 2003 from the World Bank. Prevalence and regression estimates were adjusted to account for the complex sample design.21% of adults reported any visual difficulty. The rate varied by the income status of the country with the percentage who had any visual difficulty being 24%, 23%, and 13% in low, middle, and high income countries, respectively. Five percent of people reported severe or extreme visual difficulty with rates in low, middle, and high income countries of 6%, 5%, and 2% respectively. Risk factors for visual difficulty included older age, female sex, poorer socioeconomic status, little to no formal education, and diabetes (P<0.05.One out of five adults in the WHS reported some degree of far visual difficulty. Given the importance of vision to living an independent life, better access to quality eye care services and life course factors affecting vision health (e.g. repeated eye infections, diet lacking vitamin A must receive adequate attention and resources, especially in low and middle income countries.

How does age-related macular degeneration affect real-world visual ability and quality of life? A systematic review

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Deanna J; Hobby, Angharad E; Binns, Alison M; Crabb, David P

2016-01-01

Objectives To review systematically the evidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affecting real-world visual ability and quality of life (QoL). To explore trends in specific topics within this body of the literature. Design Systematic review. Methods A systematic literature search was carried out using MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PsychARTICLES and Health and Psychosocial Instruments for articles published up to January 2015 for studies including people diagnosed with AMD, assessing real-world visual ability or QoL as an outcome. Two researchers screened studies for eligibility. Details of eligible studies including study design, characteristics of study population and outcomes measured were recorded in a data extraction table. All included studies underwent quality appraisal using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool 2011 Version (MMAT). Results From 5284 studies, 123 were eligible for inclusion. A range of approaches were identified, including performance-based methods, quantitative and qualitative patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). AMD negatively affects tasks including mobility, face recognition, perception of scenes, computer use, meal preparation, shopping, cleaning, watching TV, reading, driving and, in some cases, self-care. There is evidence for higher rates of depression among people with AMD than among community dwelling elderly. A number of adaptation strategies have been associated with AMD of varying duration. Much of the research fails to report the type of AMD studied (59% of included studies) or the duration of disease in participants (74%). Of those that do report type studied, the breakdown is as follows: wet AMD 20%, dry AMD 4% and both types 17%. Conclusions There are many publications highlighting the negative effects of AMD in various domains of life. Future research should focus on delivering some of this research knowledge into patient management and clinical trials and differentiating between the types of AMD. PMID

The Impact of Globalization on The Arts in Contemporary Ghana ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of globalization on certain aspects ... The study revealed a number of positive and negative impacts of globalization on the visual arts, ...

An Hour of Spectacular Visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Hasler, Arthur F.

2005-01-01

The NASA/NOAA Electronic Theater presents Earth science observations and visualizations from space in a historical perspective. Fly in from outer space to Athens and site of the 2004 Summer Olympics and the Far East using 1 m IKONOS "Spy Satellite" data. Contrast the 1972 Apollo 17 "Blue Marble" image of the Earth with the latest US and International global satellite images that allow us to view our Planet from any vantage point. See the latest spectacular images from NASA/NOAA/Commercial remote sensing missions like Terra, GOES, TRMM, SeaWiFS, & Landsat 7, QuickBird of the SE Asia Tsunami, devastation of Hurricane Katrina this year in New Orleans, and the LA/San Diego Fires of 2003. See how High Definition Television (HDTV) is revolutionizing the way we do science communication. Take the pulse of the planet on a daily, annual and 30-year time scale. See daily thunderstorms, the annual blooming of the northern hemisphere land masses and oceans, fires in Africa, dust storms in Iraq, and carbon monoxide exhaust from global burning. See visualizations featured on Newsweek, TIME, National Geographic, Popular Science covers & National & International Network TV. Spectacular new global visualizations of the observed and simulated atmosphere & oceans are shown. See the currents and vortexes in the oceans that bring up the nutrients to feed tiny plankton and draw the fish, whales and fishermen. See the how the ocean blooms in response to El Nino/La Nina climate changes. The Etheater will be presented using the latest High Definition TV (HDTV) and video projection technology on a large screen. See city lights around the globe and in your area observed by the "night-vision" DMSP satellite, Also see how Keyhole and Google Maps are using satellite and aerial photography to help you find your house and plan your vacation.

A randomized assessment of three quality of life (QOL) questionnaires for prostate cancer patients undergoing different radiation treatment modalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Senter, K.K.; Hardy, M.; Flynn, C.; Lewis, L.; Wallace, M.; Boyea, G.; Mitchell, C.; Fluellen, L.; Henry, C.St.; Martinez, A.

2001-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this prospective, randomized study was to assess and compare compliance of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer to completing three different validated QOL instruments pre-treatment and six months later. Materials and Methods: Between April 2000 and April 2001, 124 patients were asked to fill out only one of three randomly selected QOL questionnaires (version A, B, C). Each addressed urinary and sexual function. One also addressed patients' physical, social, family, emotional, and functional well being. Study patients received External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT) or Brachytherapy (BRACHY), according to departmental policy. Exclusion criteria included current/previous hormone therapy and prostatectomy. Patients were asked to return the questionnaire at their first treatment visit. The three tools were: A The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy for Prostate Patients (FACT-P), The Sexual Adjustments Questionnaire (SAQ), and The American Urological Association (AUA) Questionnaire. The Fact-P questionnaire elicits information about physical, social, family, emotional, and functional well being as they relate to prostate cancer. SAQ focuses on sexual function; the AUA on urinary symptoms. B SAQ and AUA only; identical to Version A, but does not address physical, social, family, emotional, and functional well-being. C The International Prostate Symptom Score (I-PSS) Questionnaire, which addresses urinary symptoms and Patient Sexual Function Questionnaire, which focuses on erectile function. Additionally, patients were asked to respond yes/no to four variables designed to evaluate these questionnaires: 1) ease of understanding, 2) too personal, 3)addresses concerns regarding urinary function and sexual potency and 4) willingness to complete questionnaire in six months. These variables were examined for any trends that may exist between the different questionnaires. Results: Fifteen (12%) of the 124 patients returned incomplete questionnaires

[The subjective quality of life of patients with schizophrenia: influence of psychopathology and patients' expectations. A comparative study].

Science.gov (United States)

Salomé, F; Petitjean, F; Germain, C; Demant, J-C

2004-01-01

Most studies on the quality of life (Qol) of patients with schizophrenia deal with objective living conditions and how they are perceived by hospitalized patients. The few studies that compare Qol for patients treated in part time services with the Qol of ambulatory patients do not show any significant difference in terms of subjective Qol. Some stu-dies evaluate the influence of psychopathology and needs (or expectations) on the subjective Qol in these groups of patients. Available data indicate that the general well-being is influenced by psychopathology (positive, negative or depressive symptoms) and unmet needs in ambulatory patients. They also show that subjective Qol in certain life domains (social relations, family relations, leisure, health, law and security) is influenced by negative symptoms, anxiety and depression in patients treated in part-time services. The aim of this study is to compare the objective and subjective Qol of patients with schizophrenia treated in part time services (day hospital and day care center) to the Qol of out-patients treated on a purely ambulatory basis (out patient clinic). We studied the Qol of 2 groups of 30 patients with schizophrenia (ICD 10 criteria) treated in various centers. The first group was made of ambulatory patients, the second one was constituted of patients treated in a day hospital or a day care center. Patients were matched for age, duration of illness, number of hospitalizations. The instruments used for rating were the following: Clinical Global Impression (CGI), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), Positive And Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI-10). The Qol was measured with a french version of the Lancashire Quality Of Life Profile (LQOLP) (Salomé, Germain, Petitjean, Demant and Boyer, 2000). This instrument measures the objective Qol as well as the subjective Qol. It does possess satisfying psychometric properties and offers the possibility to establish Qol profiles. All

Global Transsaccadic Change Blindness During Scene Perception

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Henderson, John

2003-01-01

.... The results from two experiments demonstrated a global transsaccadic change-blindness effect, suggesting that point-by-point visual representations are not functional across saccades during complex scene perception. Ahstract.

Use of subjective and objective criteria to categorise visual disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Kajla, Garima; Rohatgi, Jolly; Dhaliwal, Upreet

2014-04-01

Visual disability is categorised using objective criteria. Subjective measures are not considered. To use subjective criteria along with objective ones to categorise visual disability. Ophthalmology out-patient department; teaching hospital; observational study. Consecutive persons aged >25 years, with vision disability; group-zero: normal range of vision, to group-X: no perception of light, bilaterally. Snellen's vision; binocular contrast sensitivity (Pelli-Robson chart); automated binocular visual field (Humphrey; Esterman test); and vision-related quality of life (Indian Visual Function Questionnaire-33; IND-VFQ33) were recorded. SPSS version-17; Kruskal-wallis test was used to compare contrast sensitivity and visual fields across groups, and Mann-Whitney U test for pair-wise comparison (Bonferroni adjustment; P visual fields were comparable for differing disability grades except when disability was severe (P disability grades but comparable for groups III (78.51 ± 6.86) and IV (82.64 ± 5.80), and groups IV and V (77.23 ± 3.22); these were merged to generate group 345; similarly, global scores were comparable for adjacent groups V and VI (72.53 ± 6.77), VI and VII (74.46 ± 4.32), and VII and VIII (69.12 ± 5.97); these were merged to generate group 5678; thereafter, contrast sensitivity and global and individual IND-VFQ33 scores could differentiate between different grades of disability in the five new groups. Subjective criteria made it possible to objectively reclassify visual disability. Visual disability grades could be redefined to accommodate all from zero-100%.

Effects of music and art education in early life and oral functions on the QOL of the Takarazuka Revue Company OG compared with general elderly females.

Science.gov (United States)

Masutani, Takiko; Yamamoto, Yasuji; Konishi, Junya; Maeda, Kiyoshi

2010-03-01

Today, Japan is becoming a super-aged society, with senior citizens already constituting over 21% of the population. In this situation, the question of how elderly people can extend their lives and enjoy independent lifestyles is becoming more important. The present study aims to clarify the relationship between the Quality of Life (QOL) of elderly females and their current oral functions and experiences of music and art education in early life. We carried out a survey study focusing on elderly females (Takarazuka Revue Company OG group and general female group) by carrying out a questionnaire survey and comparing cognitive function, oral examinations, cerebral atrophy in magnetic resonance imaging, and other characteristics. It was shown that the Takarazuka Revue Company OG group had greater hippocampal volumes and significantly higher cognitive functions than the general female group. In addition, in the general female group, there was a significant correlation between a decrease in the number of remaining teeth and a decrease in activities in daily living, but in the Takarazuka Revue Company OG group, no such correlation was observed. The results showed that those who have received art education as part of their careers over an extensive period since early life have higher levels of cognitive function, QOL, physical activity, social activity and life satisfaction compared with the general female group; showing that they sense a purpose in life and live with a positive attitude. In contrast, in the general female group, those who have continued to enjoy hobbies have higher levels of cognitive function, QOL, physical activity, social activity and life satisfaction than those who have not, thus showing that they live with a positive attitude.

Relationships between Participants' International Prostate Symptom Score and BPH Impact Index Changes and Global Ratings of Change in a Trial of Phytotherapy for Men with Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

Science.gov (United States)

Barry, Michael J.; Cantor, Alan; Roehrborn, Claus G.

2014-01-01

Purpose To relate changes in AUA Symptom Index (AUASI) scores with bother measures and global ratings of change among men with lower urinary tract symptoms enrolled in a trial of saw palmetto. Materials and Methods To be eligible, men were ≥45 years old, had ajpeak uroflow ≥4 ml/sec, and an AUASI score ≥ 8 and ≤ 24. Participants self-administered the AUASI, IPSS quality of life item (IPSS QoL), BPH Impact Index (BII) and two global change questions at baseline and 24, 48, and 72 weeks. Results Among 357 participants, global ratings of “a little better” were associated with mean decreases in AUASI scores from 2.8 to 4.1 points, across three time points. The analogous range for mean decreases in BII scores was 1.0 to 1.7 points, and for the IPSS QoL item 0.5 to 0.8 points. At 72 weeks, for the first global change question, each change measure could discriminate between participants rating themselves at least a little better versus unchanged or worse 70-72% of the time. A multivariable model increased discrimination to 77%. For the second global change question, each change measure correctly discriminated ratings of at least a little better versus unchanged or worse 69-74% of the time, and a multivariable model increased discrimination to 79%. Conclusions Changes in AUASI scores could discriminate between participants rating themselves at least a little better versus unchanged or worse. Our findings support the practice of powering studies to detect group mean differences in AUASI scores of at least 3 points. PMID:23017510

Structural information theory and visual form

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeuwenberg, E.L.J.; Kaernbach, C.; Schroeger, E.; Mueller, H.

2003-01-01

The paper attends to basic characteristics of visual form as approached by Structural information theory, or SIT, (Leeuwenberg, Van der Helm and Van Lier). The introduction provides a global survey of this approach. The main part of the paper focuses on three characteristics of SIT. Each one is made

INFORMATION VISUALIZATION AND VISUAL RHETORIC ON DIGITAL JOURNALISM

OpenAIRE

MOISES RIBEIRO DA SILVA

2012-01-01

Esta pesquisa analisa o campo do design especialmente no que tange à produção de visualização de informação para meios digitais no âmbito do jornalismo, com o olhar voltado para a retórica visual dessas imagens. Relacionada com o advento das novas mídias - que trouxe a viabilidade de representações visuais a partir de bases de dados dinâmicas - a pesquisa visa contribuir para uma discussão ainda incipiente em nível global (e especialmente nacional) dado o cenário tecnológico...

A Collaborative Education Network for Advancing Climate Literacy using Data Visualization Technology

Science.gov (United States)

McDougall, C.; Russell, E. L.; Murray, M.; Bendel, W. B.

2013-12-01

One of the more difficult issues in engaging broad audiences with scientific research is to present it in a way that is intuitive, captivating and up-to-date. Over the past ten years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has made significant progress in this area through Science On a Sphere(R) (SOS). SOS is a room-sized, global display system that uses computers and video projectors to display Earth systems data onto a six-foot diameter sphere, analogous to a giant animated globe. This well-crafted data visualization system serves as a way to integrate and display global change phenomena; including polar ice melt, projected sea level rise, ocean acidification and global climate models. Beyond a display for individual data sets, SOS provides a holistic global perspective that highlights the interconnectedness of Earth systems, nations and communities. SOS is now a featured exhibit at more than 100 science centers, museums, universities, aquariums and other institutions around the world reaching more than 33 million visitors every year. To facilitate the development of how this data visualization technology and these visualizations could be used with public audiences, we recognized the need for the exchange of information among the users. To accomplish this, we established the SOS Users Collaborative Network. This network consists of the institutions that have an SOS system or partners who are creating content and educational programming for SOS. When we began the Network in 2005, many museums had limited capacity to both incorporate real-time, authentic scientific data about the Earth system and interpret global change visualizations. They needed not only the visualization platform and the scientific content, but also assistance with methods of approach. We needed feedback from these users on how to craft understandable visualizations and how to further develop the SOS platform to support learning. Through this Network and the collaboration

Robust Subjective Visual Property Prediction from Crowdsourced Pairwise Labels.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Yanwei; Hospedales, Timothy M; Xiang, Tao; Xiong, Jiechao; Gong, Shaogang; Wang, Yizhou; Yao, Yuan

2016-03-01

The problem of estimating subjective visual properties from image and video has attracted increasing interest. A subjective visual property is useful either on its own (e.g. image and video interestingness) or as an intermediate representation for visual recognition (e.g. a relative attribute). Due to its ambiguous nature, annotating the value of a subjective visual property for learning a prediction model is challenging. To make the annotation more reliable, recent studies employ crowdsourcing tools to collect pairwise comparison labels. However, using crowdsourced data also introduces outliers. Existing methods rely on majority voting to prune the annotation outliers/errors. They thus require a large amount of pairwise labels to be collected. More importantly as a local outlier detection method, majority voting is ineffective in identifying outliers that can cause global ranking inconsistencies. In this paper, we propose a more principled way to identify annotation outliers by formulating the subjective visual property prediction task as a unified robust learning to rank problem, tackling both the outlier detection and learning to rank jointly. This differs from existing methods in that (1) the proposed method integrates local pairwise comparison labels together to minimise a cost that corresponds to global inconsistency of ranking order, and (2) the outlier detection and learning to rank problems are solved jointly. This not only leads to better detection of annotation outliers but also enables learning with extremely sparse annotations.

Assessing quality of life in the treatment of patients with age-related macular degeneration: clinical research findings and recommendations for clinical practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuzawa, Mitsuko; Fujita, Kyoko; Tanaka, Erika; Wang, Edward C Y

2013-01-01

The importance of incorporating quality-of-life (QoL) assessments into medical practice is growing as health care practice shifts from a "disease-based" to a "patient-centered" model. The prevalence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is increasing in today's aging population. The purpose of this paper is: (1) to discuss, by reviewing the current literature, the impact of AMD on patients' QoL and the utility of QoL assessments in evaluating the impact of AMD and its treatment; and (2) to make a recommendation for incorporating QoL into clinical practice. We conducted a PubMed and an open Internet search to identify publications on the measurement of QoL in AMD, as well as the impact of AMD and the effect of treatment on QoL. A total of 28 articles were selected. AMD has been found to cause a severity-dependent decrement in QoL that is comparable to systemic diseases such as cancer, ischemic heart disease, and stroke. QoL impairment manifests as greater social dependence, difficulty with daily living, higher rates of clinical depression, increased risk of falls, premature admission to nursing homes, and suicide. The National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) is the most widely used eye disease-specific QoL instrument in AMD. It has been shown to correlate significantly with visual acuity (VA). QoL reflects aspects of AMD including psychological well-being, functional capacity, and the ability to perform patients' valued activities, which are not captured by a single, numerical VA score. The literature shows that the adverse impact of AMD on QoL is comparable to serious systemic disease. Eye disease-specific instruments for measuring QoL, such as the NEI VFQ-25, have shown a significant correlation of QoL decrement with measures of disease severity, as well as significant QoL improvement with treatment. The NEI VFQ-25 and other validated instruments provide a wide-ranging assessment of vision-related functioning that is important to

Quality of life in long-term survivors of oropharynx carcinoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pourel, Nicolas; Peiffert, Didier; Lartigau, Eric; Desandes, Emmanuel; Luporsi, Elisabeth; Conroy, Thierry

2002-01-01

Purpose: To collect data on the health-related quality of life (QOL) of long-term survivors and to determine to what extent QOL might be an appropriate end point in the comparison of treatment options in oropharyngeal carcinoma. Methods and Materials: All patients treated between 1992 and 1998, in two French comprehensive cancer centers, by brachytherapy (BT) ± external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or surgery plus RT, or exclusive EBRT for T1-T3 (International Union Against Cancer staging system) oropharynx squamous cell carcinoma, were included. QOL was measured once in disease-free patients at least 2 years after treatment initiation. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 questionnaire and the specific H and N35 module were self-administered by all participating patients. Sociodemographic data were collected using a questionnaire specifically designed for the study. The association between the QOL scores of the various treatment-, disease-, and patient-related variables was performed through bivariate analysis and then by multivariate analysis. The mean QOL scores of the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire were compared with the mean scores in the general population. Results: Of the 159 eligible patients, 113 agreed to participate (97 men and 16 women, median age 61 years, range 41-83). The initial treatment was EBRT plus BT in 49 patients, surgery plus RT in 27, and EBRT alone in 37. The median follow-up time was 62 months (range 24-110). Compared with the general population, the three scores indicating the most impaired QOL were emotional and social functioning and fatigue. The clinical significance of global QOL impairment was borderline. The physical functioning, role functioning, and pain scores did not significantly differ from those of the general population. In multivariate analysis, the initial treatment had no significant influence on any dimension of QOL, except global QOL and emotional functioning. Surprisingly, surgery

Descrição do desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor e visual de crianças com deficiência visual

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Telma de Araujo Souza

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Objetivo: Avaliar o desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor e visual de crianças com deficiência visual. Métodos: Foram avaliadas 45 crianças, de ambos os gêneros, em um período de 6 meses. As crianças foram distribuidas em dois grupos de estudo: experimental e de controle. Dessa forma aplicou-se a avaliação do desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor e da funcionalidade visual. Resultado: No grupo controle 86,66% da amostra estava inadequado quanto ao comportamento da coordenação, entretanto, todos os aspectos analisados estavam inadequados. As diferenças entre os grupos mostraram-se significativas, já que valores como p<0,05 foram evidenciados, tanto no comportamento da funcionalidade visual, quanto no desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor. Conclusão: Na amostra estudada, observou-se que os deficientes visuais caracterizavam-se por apresentar atraso global, do desenvolvimento, principalmente no comportamento da coordenação.

Quantification and Visualization of Variation in Anatomical Trees

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Amenta, Nina; Datar, Manasi; Dirksen, Asger; de Bruihne, Marleen; Feragen, Aasa; Ge, Xiaoyin; Holst Pedersen, Jesper; Howard, Marylesa; Owen, Megan; Petersen, Jens; Shi, Jie; Xu, Qiuping

2015-07-01

This paper presents two approaches to quantifying and visualizing variation in datasets of trees. The first approach localizes subtrees in which significant population differences are found through hypothesis testing and sparse classifiers on subtree features. The second approach visualizes the global metric structure of datasets through low-distortion embedding into hyperbolic planes in the style of multidimensional scaling. A case study is made on a dataset of airway trees in relation to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Atención selectiva visual en el procesamiento de letras: un estudio comparativo

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Gilberto Galindo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available La maduración de la atención selectiva visual en la edad infantil depende del desarrollo del procesamiento visuo-espacial, que a su vez guarda una estrecha relación con el aprendizaje y los factores ambientales, culturales y de la que dependen funciones complejas de procesos de lectura. Objetivo, comparar el procesamiento de estímulos visuales complejos, en niños procedentes de entornos culturales rurales y urbanos. Se estimó la habilidad de procesamiento selectivo visual para reconocer los aspectos globales y locales de patrones visuales midiendo agudeza de respuesta (AR y tiempo de reacción (TR ante tareas de percepción de letras jerárquicamente organizadas. Ambos grupos mostraron bajo nivel de agudeza en el reconocimiento de aspectos locales de los estímulos visuales. El grupo rural mostró peculiaridades en el reconocimiento de los estímulos, mostrando bajo nivel de agudeza en la percepción de las características globales, tiempos de reacción más cortos combinados con menor AR y ausencia del efecto de precedencia global. Los resultados sugieren que diferencias ambientales pueden influir sobre características de percepción visuo-espacial, atención y habilidades de aprendizaje de lectura en niños.

The impact of a visual arts program on quality of life, communication, and well-being of people living with dementia: a mixed-methods longitudinal investigation.

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Windle, Gill; Joling, Karlijn J; Howson-Griffiths, Teri; Woods, Bob; Jones, Catrin Hedd; van de Ven, Peter M; Newman, Andrew; Parkinson, Clive

2018-03-01

ABSTRACTBackground:Research reviews highlight methodological limitations and gaps in the evidence base for the arts in dementia care. In response, we developed a 12-week visual art program and evaluated the impact on people living with dementia through a mixed-methods longitudinal investigation. One hundred and twenty-five people living with mild to severe dementia were recruited across three research settings in England and Wales (residential care homes, a county hospital, and community venues). Quantitative and qualitative data on quality of life (QoL), communication and perceptions of the program were obtained through interviews and self-reports with participants and their carers. Eight domains of well-being were measured using a standardized observation tool, and data compared to an alternative activity with no art. Across all sites, scores for the well-being domains of interest, attention, pleasure, self-esteem, negative affect, and sadness were significantly better in the art program than the alternative condition. Proxy-reported QoL significantly improved between baseline and 3-month follow-up, but no improvements in QoL were reported by the participants with dementia. This was contrasted by their qualitative accounts, which described a stimulating experience important for social connectedness, well-being, and inner-strength. Communication deteriorated between baseline and follow-up in the hospital setting, but improved in the residential care setting. The findings highlight the potential for creative aging within dementia care, the benefits of art activities and the influence of the environment. We encourage dementia care providers and arts and cultural services to work toward embedding art activities within routine care provision.

Measuring self-esteem after spinal cord injury: Development, validation and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Self-esteem item bank and short form.

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Kalpakjian, Claire Z; Tate, Denise G; Kisala, Pamela A; Tulsky, David S

2015-05-01

To describe the development and psychometric properties of the Spinal Cord Injury-Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Self-esteem item bank. Using a mixed-methods design, we developed and tested a self-esteem item bank through the use of focus groups with individuals with SCI and clinicians with expertise in SCI, cognitive interviews, and item-response theory-(IRT) based analytic approaches, including tests of model fit, differential item functioning (DIF) and precision. We tested a pool of 30 items at several medical institutions across the United States, including the University of Michigan, Kessler Foundation, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Washington, Craig Hospital, and the James J. Peters/Bronx Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. A total of 717 individuals with SCI completed the self-esteem items. A unidimensional model was observed (CFI=0.946; RMSEA=0.087) and measurement precision was good (theta range between -2.7 and 0.7). Eleven items were flagged for DIF; however, effect sizes were negligible with little practical impact on score estimates. The final calibrated item bank resulted in 23 retained items. This study indicates that the SCI-QOL Self-esteem item bank represents a psychometrically robust measurement tool. Short form items are also suggested and computer adaptive tests are available.

Studi Perancangan Identitas Visual Wilayah Karimunjawa

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Arif Priyono Susilo Ahmad

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Effective communication is a critical need in our lives. Communication that is not running properly will impede the flow and the system of social activity. Living in a world filled with information needs language as a right marker so that the meaning of a message can be conveyed properly. At such moments, a marker, which also functions as the identity for the people, demands to look unique, creative, communicative, and comprehensible globally, beyond the boundaries of culture and geography. Visual markers of an area are needed so that miscommunication can be reduced. Visual markers were developed in regard to communication strategies within the context of destination branding. Sharp communication strategy would manifest in the form of creative concept, a kind of platform on which to base and the main idea behind the overall design visualization. Manifestation the visual form of logo design, typography, tone color, shapes, graphic elements, mascot, pictograms, wayfinding, posters, merchandise, and so on. The visual identity of the region, in relation to destination branding program, specifically intended for a destination region, will raise the values of locality, the uniqueness, diversity, and distinctiveness of the region. Designing visual identity Karimunjawa region in this case study apply the principles of creativity and uniqueness that is processed into a visual appealing, distinctive, and attractive, yet understated and powerful in raising local elements.   

The role of size constancy for the integration of local elements into a global shape

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Johannes eRennig

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Visual perception depends on the visual context and is likely to be influenced by size constancy, which predicts a size and distance invariant perception of objects. However, size constancy can also result in optical illusions that allow the manipulation of the perceived size. We thus asked whether the integration of local elements into a global object can be influenced by manipulations of the visual context and size constancy? A set of stimuli was applied in healthy individuals that took advantage of the ‘Kanizsa’ illusion, in which three circles with open wedges oriented towards a center point are placed to form an illusionary perception of a triangle. In addition, a 3D-perspective view was implemented in which the global target (‘Kanizsa’ triangle was placed in combination with several distractor circles either in a close or a distant position. Subjects were engaged in a global recognition task on the location of the ‘Kanizsa’ triangle. Global recognition of ‘Kanizsa’ triangles improved with a decreasing length of the illusory contour. Interestingly, recognition of ‘Kanizsa’ triangles decreased when they were perceived as if they were located further away. We conclude that the integration of local elements into a global object is dependent on the visual context and dominated by size constancy.

Using Linear Equating to Map PROMIS(®) Global Health Items and the PROMIS-29 V2.0 Profile Measure to the Health Utilities Index Mark 3.

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Hays, Ron D; Revicki, Dennis A; Feeny, David; Fayers, Peter; Spritzer, Karen L; Cella, David

2016-10-01

Preference-based health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) scores are useful as outcome measures in clinical studies, for monitoring the health of populations, and for estimating quality-adjusted life-years. This was a secondary analysis of data collected in an internet survey as part of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS(®)) project. To estimate Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI-3) preference scores, we used the ten PROMIS(®) global health items, the PROMIS-29 V2.0 single pain intensity item and seven multi-item scales (physical functioning, fatigue, pain interference, depressive symptoms, anxiety, ability to participate in social roles and activities, sleep disturbance), and the PROMIS-29 V2.0 items. Linear regression analyses were used to identify significant predictors, followed by simple linear equating to avoid regression to the mean. The regression models explained 48 % (global health items), 61 % (PROMIS-29 V2.0 scales), and 64 % (PROMIS-29 V2.0 items) of the variance in the HUI-3 preference score. Linear equated scores were similar to observed scores, although differences tended to be larger for older study participants. HUI-3 preference scores can be estimated from the PROMIS(®) global health items or PROMIS-29 V2.0. The estimated HUI-3 scores from the PROMIS(®) health measures can be used for economic applications and as a measure of overall HR-QOL in research.

Inert Cities: Globalization, Mobility and Suspension in Visual Culture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Donald, S.H.; Lindner, C.

2014-01-01

We usually associate contemporary urban life with movement and speed. But what about those instances when the forms of mobility associated with globalized cities - the flow of capital, people, labor and information - freeze, or decelerate? How can we assess the value of interruption in a city? What

Modeling global scene factors in attention

Science.gov (United States)

Torralba, Antonio

2003-07-01

Models of visual attention have focused predominantly on bottom-up approaches that ignored structured contextual and scene information. I propose a model of contextual cueing for attention guidance based on the global scene configuration. It is shown that the statistics of low-level features across the whole image can be used to prime the presence or absence of objects in the scene and to predict their location, scale, and appearance before exploring the image. In this scheme, visual context information can become available early in the visual processing chain, which allows modulation of the saliency of image regions and provides an efficient shortcut for object detection and recognition. 2003 Optical Society of America

Global Repetition Influences Contextual Cueing

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Zang, Xuelian; Zinchenko, Artyom; Jia, Lina; Li, Hong

2018-01-01

Our visual system has a striking ability to improve visual search based on the learning of repeated ambient regularities, an effect named contextual cueing. Whereas most of the previous studies investigated contextual cueing effect with the same number of repeated and non-repeated search displays per block, the current study focused on whether a global repetition frequency formed by different presentation ratios between the repeated and non-repeated configurations influence contextual cueing effect. Specifically, the number of repeated and non-repeated displays presented in each block was manipulated: 12:12, 20:4, 4:20, and 4:4 in Experiments 1–4, respectively. The results revealed a significant contextual cueing effect when the global repetition frequency is high (≥1:1 ratio) in Experiments 1, 2, and 4, given that processing of repeated displays was expedited relative to non-repeated displays. Nevertheless, the contextual cueing effect reduced to a non-significant level when the repetition frequency reduced to 4:20 in Experiment 3. These results suggested that the presentation frequency of repeated relative to the non-repeated displays could influence the strength of contextual cueing. In other words, global repetition statistics could be a crucial factor to mediate contextual cueing effect. PMID:29636716

Visual impairment in children in middle- and lower-income countries.

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Courtright, Paul; Hutchinson, Amy K; Lewallen, Susan

2011-12-01

Reducing visual impairment and blindness in children in resource-poor countries is one of the key components of the major global prevention of blindness initiative, VISION 2020 the Right to Sight. Although visual impairment and blindness among children is much less common than among adults, the potential lifespan of a child means that the lifelong impact of such impairment is very large. Over 10 years ago, it was estimated that, globally, 1.4 million children were blind. Much has changed in the past 10-20 years and there is a need to reassess both the magnitude and causes of global childhood blindness and visual impairment. While the widespread implementation of vitamin A supplementation and measles immunisation programmes have led to a reduction in vitamin A deficiency-related blindness in many poor countries, retinopathy of prematurity is now undergoing a third wave of endemicity, particularly in newly industrialising countries in Latin America and Asia. Childhood cataract is better recognised as an important potentially avoidable problem, as is paediatric glaucoma and refractive error in some populations. Trained paediatric ophthalmologists, although still too few, are growing in number in poor countries. A programmatic approach with a multidisciplinary team is essential to reducing childhood blindness. The elements of such programmes and the need for planning are discussed.

Peripheral global neglect in high versus low autistic tendency

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Daniel Paul Crewther

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In addition to its core social deficits, autism is characterised by altered visual perception, with a preference for local percept in those high in autistic tendency. Here, the balance of global versus local percepts for the perceptually rivalrous diamond illusion was assessed between groups scoring high and low on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ. The global percept of a diamond shape oscillating horizontally behind three occluders can as easily be interpreted as the local percept of four line elements, each moving vertically. Increasing the luminance contrast of the occluders with respect to background resulted in an increase of initial global percept in both groups, with no difference in sensitivity between groups. Presenting the target further into the periphery resulted in a marked increase in the percentage of global perception with visual field eccentricity. However, while the performance for centrally presented diamond targets was not different between AQ groups, the peripheral global performance of the High AQ group was significantly reduced compared with the Low AQ group. On the basis of other imaging studies, this peripheral but not foveal global perceptual neglect may indicate an abnormal interaction between striate cortex and the Lateral Occipital Complex, or to differences in the deployment of attention between the two groups.

Family Literacy and Global Literature: Parents as Partners in the Common Core

Science.gov (United States)

Truesdell, Kim S.; del Prado Hill, Pixita

2015-01-01

This "Teaching Tip" will explain an initiative, Global Book Hour, that engages families in a global literature read aloud. GBH integrates social studies, the visual and performing arts, healthy eating, and vocabulary development as children travel the world through high quality global children's literature. The program is a…

Visual-based simultaneous localization and mapping and global positioning system correction for geo-localization of a mobile robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berrabah, Sid Ahmed; Baudoin, Yvan; Sahli, Hichem

2011-01-01

This paper introduces an approach combining visual-based simultaneous localization and mapping (V-SLAM) and global positioning system (GPS) correction for accurate multi-sensor localization of an outdoor mobile robot in geo-referenced maps. The proposed framework combines two extended Kalman filters (EKF); the first one, referred to as the integration filter, is dedicated to the improvement of the GPS localization based on data from an inertial navigation system and wheels' encoders. The second EKF implements the V-SLAM process. The linear and angular velocities in the dynamic model of the V-SLAM EKF filter are given by the GPS/INS/Encoders integration filter. On the other hand, the output of the V-SLAM EKF filter is used to update the dynamics estimation in the integration filter and therefore the geo-referenced localization. This solution increases the accuracy and the robustness of the positioning during GPS outage and allows SLAM in less featured environments

A Cloud-Based Global Flood Disaster Community Cyber-Infrastructure: Development and Demonstration

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Zhanming; Hong, Yang; Khan, Sadiq; Gourley, Jonathan; Flamig, Zachary; Kirschbaum, Dalia; Tang, Guoqiang

2014-01-01

Flood disasters have significant impacts on the development of communities globally. This study describes a public cloud-based flood cyber-infrastructure (CyberFlood) that collects, organizes, visualizes, and manages several global flood databases for authorities and the public in real-time, providing location-based eventful visualization as well as statistical analysis and graphing capabilities. In order to expand and update the existing flood inventory, a crowdsourcing data collection methodology is employed for the public with smartphones or Internet to report new flood events, which is also intended to engage citizen-scientists so that they may become motivated and educated about the latest developments in satellite remote sensing and hydrologic modeling technologies. Our shared vision is to better serve the global water community with comprehensive flood information, aided by the state-of-the- art cloud computing and crowdsourcing technology. The CyberFlood presents an opportunity to eventually modernize the existing paradigm used to collect, manage, analyze, and visualize water-related disasters.

Accurate or assumed: visual learning in children with ASD.

Science.gov (United States)

Trembath, David; Vivanti, Giacomo; Iacono, Teresa; Dissanayake, Cheryl

2015-10-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often described as visual learners. We tested this assumption in an experiment in which 25 children with ASD, 19 children with global developmental delay (GDD), and 17 typically developing (TD) children were presented a series of videos via an eye tracker in which an actor instructed them to manipulate objects in speech-only and speech + pictures conditions. We found no group differences in visual attention to the stimuli. The GDD and TD groups performed better when pictures were available, whereas the ASD group did not. Performance of children with ASD and GDD was positively correlated with visual attention and receptive language. We found no evidence of a prominent visual learning style in the ASD group.

Quality-of-life outcomes in Graves disease patients after total thyroidectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Kus, Lukas H; Hopman, Wilma M; Witterick, Ian J; Freeman, Jeremy L

2017-01-01

Historically, research into surgical treatment of Graves disease has assessed subtotal rather than total thyroidectomy. Most clinicians now recommend total thyroidectomy, but little information is available regarding quality-of-life (QOL) outcomes for this procedure. Our aim was to assess QOL after total thyroidectomy. This is a retrospective, pilot study of patients with Graves disease who underwent total thyroidectomy from 1991 to 2007 at a high-volume tertiary referral center in Toronto, Canada. Questionnaires addressing disease-specific symptoms and global QOL concerns were sent to 54 patients. Analyses included parametric and nonparametric tests to assess the differences between perception of symptoms and global QOL before and after surgery. Forty patients responded (response rate: 74%) at a median of 4.8 years postoperatively. On a 10-point scale, overall wellness improved from 4.1 preoperatively to 8.7 postoperatively (p total thyroidectomy. Patients experienced marked and rapid improvement in QOL postoperatively. These findings suggest that total thyroidectomy is a safe and effective treatment.

Outcome, general, and symptom-specific quality of life after various types of parotid resection.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciuman, Raphael Richard; Oels, Wolfgang; Jaussi, Rolf; Dost, Philipp

2012-06-01

To document the outcome and impact on general and symptom-specific quality of life (QOL) after various types of parotid resection. General and symptom-specific QOL assessment at least 1 year after performed surgery. Retrospective data and outcome analysis of patients. Between 2004 and 2010, 353 parotid resections in 337 patients were conducted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Teaching Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital Gelsenkirchen, Gelsenkirchen, Germany. A total of 196 patients fit the inclusion criteria and were available for postoperative evaluation. The general QOL assessment was based on both the global health status and global QOL scales of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality-of-Life Questionnaire in 34 patients. Symptom-specific QOL was assessed with the Parotidectomy Outcome Inventory-8 (POI-8). In addition, aesthetic outcome was evaluated with an ordinal scale. Outcome of parotidectomies in benign disease has little impact on general QOL and global health status. However, hypoesthesia or dysesthesia, Frey's syndrome, and cosmetic discontent are quite common and may affect symptom-specific and general QOL. Correlation with extent of surgery and statistically significant differences of patient evaluation for aesthetic outcome, sensory impairment, and Frey's syndrome between various types of limited parotid surgery (enucleation, extracapsular dissection, partial superficial parotidectomy) and superficial parotidectomy could be shown. An adequate parotid resection technique must be chosen to achieve the least disturbing outcome. In addition, in our patient collective, there was no increased recurrence rate found after limited parotid resection for pleomorphic adenoma or cystadenolymphoma. Copyright © 2012 The American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society, Inc.

How the public engages with global warming: A social representations approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Nicholas; Joffe, Helene

2013-01-01

The present study utilises social representations theory to explore common sense conceptualisations of global warming risk using an in-depth, qualitative methodology. Fifty-six members of a British, London-based 2008 public were initially asked to draw or write four spontaneous "first thoughts or feelings" about global warming. These were then explored via an open-ended, exploratory interview. The analysis revealed that first thoughts, either drawn or written, often mirrored the images used by the British press to depict global warming visually. Thus in terms of media framings, it was their visual rather than their textual content that was spontaneously available for their audiences. Furthermore, an in-depth exploration of interview data revealed that global warming was structured around three themata: self/other, natural/unnatural and certainty/uncertainty, reflecting the complex and often contradictory nature of common sense thinking in relation to risk issues.

Mapping health assessment questionnaire disability index (HAQ-DI) score, pain visual analog scale (VAS), and disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28) onto the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) utility score with the KORean Observational study Network for Arthritis (KORONA) registry data.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hye-Lin; Kim, Dam; Jang, Eun Jin; Lee, Min-Young; Song, Hyun Jin; Park, Sun-Young; Cho, Soo-Kyung; Sung, Yoon-Kyoung; Choi, Chan-Bum; Won, Soyoung; Bang, So-Young; Cha, Hoon-Suk; Choe, Jung-Yoon; Chung, Won Tae; Hong, Seung-Jae; Jun, Jae-Bum; Kim, Jinseok; Kim, Seong-Kyu; Kim, Tae-Hwan; Kim, Tae-Jong; Koh, Eunmi; Lee, Hwajeong; Lee, Hye-Soon; Lee, Jisoo; Lee, Shin-Seok; Lee, Sung Won; Park, Sung-Hoon; Shim, Seung-Cheol; Yoo, Dae-Hyun; Yoon, Bo Young; Bae, Sang-Cheol; Lee, Eui-Kyung

2016-04-01

The aim of this study was to estimate the mapping model for EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) utility values using the health assessment questionnaire disability index (HAQ-DI), pain visual analog scale (VAS), and disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28) in a large, nationwide cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in Korea. The KORean Observational study Network for Arthritis (KORONA) registry data on 3557 patients with RA were used. Data were randomly divided into a modeling set (80 % of the data) and a validation set (20 % of the data). The ordinary least squares (OLS), Tobit, and two-part model methods were employed to construct a model to map to the EQ-5D index. Using a combination of HAQ-DI, pain VAS, and DAS28, four model versions were examined. To evaluate the predictive accuracy of the models, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) were calculated using the validation dataset. A model that included HAQ-DI, pain VAS, and DAS28 produced the highest adjusted R (2) as well as the lowest Akaike information criterion, RMSE, and MAE, regardless of the statistical methods used in modeling set. The mapping equation of the OLS method is given as EQ-5D = 0.95-0.21 × HAQ-DI-0.24 × pain VAS/100-0.01 × DAS28 (adjusted R (2) = 57.6 %, RMSE = 0.1654 and MAE = 0.1222). Also in the validation set, the RMSE and MAE were shown to be the smallest. The model with HAQ-DI, pain VAS, and DAS28 showed the best performance, and this mapping model enabled the estimation of an EQ-5D value for RA patients in whom utility values have not been measured.

Quality of life in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), assessed using the IBS-Quality of Life (IBS-QOL) measure after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment with mebeverine hydrochloride or pinaverium bromide: results of an international prospective observational cohort study in Poland, Egypt, Mexico and China.

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Xiaohua; Chen, Shengliang; Zhang, Yali; Sha, Weihong; Yu, Xiaofeng; Elsawah, Hesham; Afifi, Afifi Fahmy; El-Khayat, Hisham Raafat; Nouh, Alaa; Hassan, Mohamed Fathalla; Fatah, Ayman Abdel; Rucker Joerg, Isabel; Sánchez Núñez, Juan Manuel; Osthoff Rueda, Rodolfo; Jurkowska, Grazyna; Walczak, Michal; Malecka-Panas, Ewa; Linke, Krzysztof; Hartleb, Marek; Janssen-van Solingen, Gwendolyn

2014-11-01

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) has a substantial impact on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) but high-quality data pre- and post-treatment using the IBS-Quality of Life (IBS-QOL) measure are limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes from baseline of the IBS-QOL scores, symptom scores and health economic data in IBS patients, after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment with mebeverine hydrochloride or pinaverium bromide. This was a prospective observational cohort study in patients with IBS, diagnosed using the Rome III criteria in four countries (Poland, Egypt, Mexico and China). A total of 607 patients were enrolled. At baseline, the IBS-QOL total scores were 52.0 in Poland, 48.9 in Egypt, 51.9 in Mexico, 76.4 in China and 56.4 overall. Increases in IBS-QOL total score were statistically significant at Weeks 4 and 8 overall and in each country (overall: 11.8 at Week 4, 24.3 at Week 8; p < 0.001). Improvements were shown in all IBS-QOL subscales and scores. Symptoms and health economic outcomes were improved. Furthermore, the favourable safety profile of these treatments was confirmed in this study. This study demonstrated that IBS patients have a substantially reduced HR-QoL and that treatment with mebeverine hydrochloride or pinaverium bromide improved HR-QoL.

Does higher severity really correlate with a worse quality of life in obsessive–compulsive disorder? A meta-regression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pozza A

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Andrea Pozza,1 Christine Lochner,2 Fabio Ferretti,1 Alessandro Cuomo,3 Anna Coluccia1 1Department of Medical Sciences, Surgery and Neurosciences, Santa Maria alle Scotte University Hospital of Siena, Siena, Italy; 2SU/UCT MRC Unit on Anxiety and Stress Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa; 3Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Siena School of Medicine and Department of Mental Health, University of Siena Medical Center (AOUS, Siena, Italy Background: Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD is one of the leading causes of disability and reduced quality of life (QOL, with impairment in a number of domains. However, there is a paucity of literature on the association between severity of OCD symptoms and QOL, and the data that do exist are inconsistent. In addition, the role of severity in QOL has not been summarized as yet from a cross-generational perspective (ie, across childhood/adolescence and adulthood. Through meta-regression techniques, the current study summarized evidence about the moderator role of severity of OCD symptoms on differences in global QOL between individuals with OCD and controls. Methods: Online databases were searched, and cross-sectional case–control studies comparing participants of all ages with OCD with controls on self-report QOL measures were included. Random-effect meta-regression techniques were used to comment on the role of illness severity in global QOL in individuals with OCD. Results: Thirteen studies were included. A positive significant association emerged between OCD severity and effect sizes on global QOL: in samples with higher severity, there were narrower differences in QOL between patients with OCD and controls than in samples with lower severity. Such positive association was confirmed by a sensitivity analysis conducted on studies including only adults, where the difference in QOL ratings between patients and controls was significantly narrower

Improving Symptom Control, QOL, and Quality of Care for Women with Breast Cancer: Developing a Research Program on Neurological Effects via Doctoral Education

Science.gov (United States)

2006-06-01

orQOL "I CAN’T tell where my feet are" <is> Root Footwear Issues <is> Root Emotional Rx:: Mood effects <is> Root Sx Description <is...time, holding a pen and “scrawling” handwriting , “loss of fine motor skills”, “loss of strength”, “dropping things • LEISURE: turning book pages...interventions on pain in adults with cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum, 31(2), 313-319. Devine, E., & Westlake, S. (1995). The effects of psychoeducational care

The health and social situation of the mother during pregnancy and global quality of life of the child as an adult. Results from the prospective Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort 1959-1961

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Søren Ventegodt

2005-01-01

Full Text Available A prospective cohort study (Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort 1959-61 of 7,222 persons was used in order to explore the association between the social and health situation during pregnancy and the global quality of life (QOL of the adult child 31-33 years later. Two sets of questionnaires were used with one filled out by physicians during pregnancy and one filled out by the adult children 31-33 years later. The questionnaires included mother's situation during pregnancy and global QOL of the child at follow-up: Well-being, life satisfaction, happiness, fulfilment of needs, experience of life’s temporal and spatial domains, expression of life’s potentials and objective measures. The only indicators to have clear connections with a reduced quality of life were the cases of mother's with syphilis (8.5%, mother's congenital malformations (8.8%, low social group (6.9% and failing contraception (3.8%. The results obtained repudiate the common notion and hypothesis that the mother's situation during pregnancy is highly important for the quality of life that the child experience as an adult. This suggest that the aspects important for quality of life later on are not found solely in early conditions, but instead more dependent on later attitude towards life of that specific person.

High prevalence of seasonal affective disorder among persons with severe visual impairment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Helle Østergaard; Dam, Henrik; Hageman, Ida

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: Light severely affects the occurrence of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). AIMS: To compare the prevalence of SAD in persons with severe visual impairment and persons with full sight, and in persons with severe visual impairment with or without light perception. METHOD: This cross......-sectional study assessed the Global Seasonality Score (GSS) and the prevalence of SAD among 2781 persons with visual impairment and 4099 persons with full sight using the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). RESULTS: Respondents with visual impairment had significantly higher GSS and prevalence...... of SAD compared with full sight controls, Pvisual impairment and SPAQ-defined SAD parameters...

Impact of hormone therapy on quality of life after menopause.

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Utian, Wulf H; Woods, Nancy Fugate

2013-10-01

Given the complexity of the literature on quality of life (QOL) and hormone therapy (HT) among women in the menopausal transition and postmenopause, the purposes of this integrative review were to (1) define QOL as a multidimensional construct; (2) review validated instruments for measurement of QOL; (3) review results of HT and QOL clinical trials that have used validated instruments; and (4) assess the effectiveness of HT on QOL, including health-related QOL (HRQOL), menopause-specific QOL (MSQOL), and global QOL (GQOL). The literature on HT and QOL was searched for definitions of QOL and validated instruments for measuring QOL, and the results were summarized. The purposes of this integrative review were to evaluate the effects of HT on HRQOL, differentiating the effects of HT on GQOL, HRQOL, and MSQOL. As a basis for this review, we searched for published controlled clinical trials in which the effects of HT on QOL were studied using validated QOL instruments, in particular menopause-specific validated instruments. Clear definitions are elucidated. Validated instruments for the measurements of HRQOL, GQOL, and MSQOL are summarized, and the necessity of their incorporation into future research and clinical practice is emphasized. The published effects on QOL of estrogens and progestogens administered to symptomatic and nonsymptomatic women in the menopausal transition and beyond are reviewed. The impact of various health state-related symptoms on HRQOL and GQOL is now an integral component of contemporary health care. Effects of HT include GQOL and HRQOL and should be menopause-specific. There is clearly a need for further studies on menopause and menopause-related therapies using appropriate and validated instruments. Literature review shows that HT provides a significant benefit for MSQOL in midlife women, mainly through relief of symptoms, but treatment also may result in a global increase in sense of well-being (GQOL). HRQOL benefits are contingent on

Coherence of brain electrical activity: a quality of life indicator in Alzheimer’s disease?Coerência da atividade elétrica cerebral: indicador da qualidade de vida na doença de Alzheimer?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lineu Corrêa Fonseca

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Objective To investigate the relationships between quality of life (QOL and clinical and electroencephalogram (EEG aspects in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD. Method Twenty-eight patients with mild or moderate AD, 31 with Parkinson’s disease (PD, and 27 normal controls (NC were submitted to: CERAD neuropsychological battery, Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Rating Scales, Functional Activities Questionnaire, QOL scale for patients with AD, and quantitative EEG measures. Results AD and PD patients had similar QOL (31.0 ± 5.8; 31.7 ± 4.8, respectively, worse than that of NC (37.5 ± 6.3. AD patients had lower global interhemispheric theta coherence (0.49 ± 0.04; 0.52 ± 0.05; 0.52 ± 0.05; respectively than PD and NC. Multiple linear regression for QOL of AD patients revealed that global interhemispheric theta coherence, and Hamilton depression scores were significant factors (coefficients; 58.2 and -0.27, respectively; R2, 0.377. Conclusion Interhemispheric coherence correlates with QOL regardless of cognitive and functional variables and seems to be a neurophysiological indicator of QOL in AD patients.

Quality of life of family caregivers of cancer patients in Singapore and globally.

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Lim, Haikel A; Tan, Joyce Ys; Chua, Joanne; Yoong, Russell Kl; Lim, Siew Eng; Kua, Ee Heok; Mahendran, Rathi

2017-05-01

Family caregivers of cancer patients often suffer from impaired quality of life (QOL) due to stress arising from the responsibility of caregiving. Most research on such QOL impairments was conducted in Western populations. Thus, this exploratory study sought to (a) examine the QOL levels of family caregivers of cancer patients in an Asian population in Singapore, in relation to caregivers from other countries within and outside of Asia; and (b) investigate the association between sociodemographic factors and QOL impairments in family caregivers in Singapore. A total of 258 family caregivers of cancer patients who were receiving outpatient treatment completed the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC) and a sociodemographic survey. We compared the published CQOLC total scores from Turkey, Iran, Taiwan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada with the Singapore dataset and examined the demographic relationships. Caregivers in Singapore and Asia had lower CQOLC total scores than their Western counterparts. Caregivers who were male, of Chinese ethnicity, had parental relationships with their care recipient, or cared for advanced-stage cancer patients were found to have impaired QOL. The findings of this study highlight possible areas in which support can be provided for family caregivers of cancer patients, and underscore the need to reconcile cultural diversity, values, societal expectations and demographic characteristics in Singapore. Copyright: © Singapore Medical Association

Picturing the world—cinematic globalization in the deserts of Babel

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Mads Anders Baggesgaard

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Globalization remains a challenge for the art of cinema. No art form is more suited to the task of showing clashes between cultures and the internal conflicts of a society, but as films are both narratively and physically dependent on locations—even if these can be multiple and dispersed throughout the world—and because of the logistics and the finances required for the production of film, cinema has almost always been placed in a national or regional framework. Reflecting the totality and networked nature of the globalized world seems more readily attainable for more conceptual forms of art. This article discusses Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu's 2006 film Babel, often cited as the “first film of globalization,” asking the question of whether this claim can be substantiated alone with reference to the networked narrative of the film and use of multiple locations, suggesting that the relationship between cinema and globalization should in fact be understood on the terms of the medium as a visual reflection of images of the globe. Drawing on theories on the visual nature of globalization by Arjun Appadurai, Martin Heidegger, and W. J. T. Mitchell, this article thus argues for a different conception of cinematic globalization rooted in the history of cinema rather than in theories of globalization.

Baseline Quality of Life and Risk of Stroke in the ALLHAT Study (Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial).

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Shams, Tanzila; Auchus, Alexander P; Oparil, Suzanne; Wright, Clinton B; Wright, Jackson; Furlan, Anthony J; Sila, Cathy A; Davis, Barry R; Pressel, Sara; Yamal, Jose-Miguel; Einhorn, Paula T; Lerner, Alan J

2017-11-01

The visual analogue scale is a self-reported, validated tool to measure quality of life (QoL). Our purpose was to determine whether baseline QoL predicted strokes in the ALLHAT study (Antihypertensive and Lipid Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial) and evaluate determinants of poststroke change in QoL. In the ALLHAT study, among the 33 357 patients randomized to treatment arms, 1525 experienced strokes; 1202 (79%) strokes were nonfatal. This study cohort includes 32 318 (97%) subjects who completed the baseline visual analogue scale QoL estimate. QoL was measured on a visual analogue scale and adjusted using a Torrance transformation (transformed QoL [TQoL]). Kaplan-Meier curves and adjusted proportional hazards analyses were used to estimate the effect of TQoL on the risk of stroke, on a continuous scale (0-1) and by quartiles (≤0.81, >0.81≤0.89, >0.89≤0.95, >0.95). We analyzed the change from baseline to first poststroke TQoL using adjusted linear regression. After adjusting for multiple stroke risk factors, the hazard ratio for stroke events for baseline TQoL was 0.93 (95% confidence interval, 0.89-0.98) per 0.1 U increase. The lowest baseline TQoL quartile had a 20% increased stroke risk (hazard ratio=1.20 [95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.44]) compared with the reference highest quartile TQoL. Poststroke TQoL change was significant within all treatment groups ( P ≤0.001). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that baseline TQoL was the strongest predictor of poststroke TQoL with similar results for the untransformed QoL. The lowest baseline TQoL quartile had a 20% higher stroke risk than the highest quartile. Baseline TQoL was the only factor that predicted poststroke change in TQoL. URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00000542. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

Scientific Visualization & Modeling for Earth Systems Science Education

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Chaudhury, S. Raj; Rodriguez, Waldo J.

2003-01-01

Providing research experiences for undergraduate students in Earth Systems Science (ESS) poses several challenges at smaller academic institutions that might lack dedicated resources for this area of study. This paper describes the development of an innovative model that involves students with majors in diverse scientific disciplines in authentic ESS research. In studying global climate change, experts typically use scientific visualization techniques applied to remote sensing data collected by satellites. In particular, many problems related to environmental phenomena can be quantitatively addressed by investigations based on datasets related to the scientific endeavours such as the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). Working with data products stored at NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers, visualization software specifically designed for students and an advanced, immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment, students engage in guided research projects during a structured 6-week summer program. Over the 5-year span, this program has afforded the opportunity for students majoring in biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, physics, engineering and science education to work collaboratively in teams on research projects that emphasize the use of scientific visualization in studying the environment. Recently, a hands-on component has been added through science student partnerships with school-teachers in data collection and reporting for the GLOBE Program (GLobal Observations to Benefit the Environment).

Visualizing nD Point Clouds as Topological Landscape Profiles to Guide Local Data Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oesterling, Patrick [Univ. of Leipzig (Germany). Computer Science Dept.; Heine, Christian [Univ. of Leipzig (Germany). Computer Science Dept.; Federal Inst. of Technology (ETH), Zurich (Switzerland). Dept. of Computer Science; Weber, Gunther H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Computational Research Division; Scheuermann, Gerik [Univ. of Leipzig (Germany). Computer Science Dept.

2012-05-04

Analyzing high-dimensional point clouds is a classical challenge in visual analytics. Traditional techniques, such as projections or axis-based techniques, suffer from projection artifacts, occlusion, and visual complexity.We propose to split data analysis into two parts to address these shortcomings. First, a structural overview phase abstracts data by its density distribution. This phase performs topological analysis to support accurate and non-overlapping presentation of the high-dimensional cluster structure as a topological landscape profile. Utilizing a landscape metaphor, it presents clusters and their nesting as hills whose height, width, and shape reflect cluster coherence, size, and stability, respectively. A second local analysis phase utilizes this global structural knowledge to select individual clusters or point sets for further, localized data analysis. Focusing on structural entities significantly reduces visual clutter in established geometric visualizations and permits a clearer, more thorough data analysis. In conclusion, this analysis complements the global topological perspective and enables the user to study subspaces or geometric properties, such as shape.

Visual graphics for human rights, social justice, democracy and the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Keywords: art, democracy, human rights, social justice, the public good, visual graphics. Introduction ..... in industry and global communications pay scant regard to their effect on the environment. The ..... Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merril.

"What makes life good?" Developing a culturally grounded quality of life measure for Alaska Native college students.

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Sharma, Dinghy Kristine B; Lopez, Ellen D S; Mekiana, Deborah; Ctibor, Alaina; Church, Charlene

2013-01-01

Alaska Native (AN) college students experience higher attrition rates than their non-Native peers. Understanding the factors that contribute to quality of life ("what makes life good") for AN students will help inform supportive programs that are congruent with their culture and college life experiences. Co-develop a conceptual model and a measure of quality of life (QOL) that reflects the experiences of AN college students. Six focus groups were conducted with 26 AN college students. Within a community-academic partnership, interactive data collection activities, co-analysis workgroup sessions and an interactive findings forum ensured a participant-driven research process. Students identified and operationally defined eight QOL domains (values, culture and traditions, spirituality, relationships, basic needs, health, learning and leisure). The metaphor of a tree visually illustrates how the domains values, culture and traditions and spirituality form the roots to the other domains that appear to branch out as students navigate the dual worldviews of Native and Western ways of living. The eight QOL domains and their items identified during focus groups were integrated into a visual model and an objective QOL measure. The hope is to provide a useful tool for developing and evaluating university-based programs and services aimed toward promoting a positive QOL and academic success for AN students.

Neuropsychological functioning in Wernicke′s encephalopathy

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Sushree Sangita Behura

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Context: Wernicke′s encephalopathy (WE is caused by thiamine (Vitamin B1 deficiency and most commonly found in chronic alcoholism and malnutrition. Clinically, the key features are mental status disturbances (global confusion, oculomotor abnormalities, and gait disturbances (ataxia. Apart from these clinical features, we can find deficits in neuropsychological functioning in patients with WE, which is more prominent after the improvement in the physical conditions. Neuropsychological functioning includes both basic cognitive processes (i.e., attention-concentration as well as higher order cognitive processes (i.e., memory, executive functioning, reasoning, which is much vital for the maintenance of quality of life of an individual. However, unfortunately, in most of the cases, neuropsychological functioning is ignored by the clinicians. Materials and Methods: In this study four case reports of WE have been presented. The patients were taken from the outdoor department of Mental Health Institute, S.C.B. Medical College, Cuttack, Odisha. Neuropsychological functioning was measured by administration of PGIBBD and Quality of Life was measured by WHO-QOL BREF Odia Version. Discussion: As described in the literature, among the three cardinal signs ( global confusion, ataxia, and ocular sings, the first two were present in all cases, but nystagmus was present in only two cases.Memory dysfunction was so disabling that the persons were unable to maintain a good Quality of Life and occupational impairment was prominent. There are disturbances in recent, remote memory, immediate recall, delayed recall, and attention and concentration, ultimately creating both physical and mental disability. PGI-BBD findings also suggest the overall impairment in neuropsychological functioning other than memory, that is, executive functioning, visual acuity, and depth perception. Findings of WHO-QOL BREF suggest the impairment of four domains of QOL in all the cases, but

Quality of life outcomes in patients with anal cancer after combined radiochemotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Welzel, Grit; Haegele, Verena; Wenz, Frederik; Mai, Sabine Kathrin

2011-01-01

Purpose: To assess self-reported quality of life (QoL) experienced by anal cancer patients after radiochemotherapy, and to identify patient- and disease-related factors associated with QoL. Patients and Methods: A total of 88 patients treated for anal cancer at our institution between 1990 and 2006 were identified from our database. Of these, 15 patients had died, and 4 were lost to follow-up. QoL was assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire (cancer-specific QoL) and the colorectal cancer module QLQ-CR38 (site-specific QoL); 52 responses were received. The median follow-up was 36 months (range, 5-137 months). Results: As for cancer-specific QoL, global health QoL score (mean 60.4) was similar to the general German population, whereas most of the function and symptom scale scores were considerably lower/higher in anal cancer patients. The most prominent mean score differences were observed in role functioning (-21.8 points), emotional functioning (-20.7 points), social functioning (-28.9 points), diarrhea (+34.6 points), and financial difficulties (+26.9 points; p < 0.001). As for site-specific QoL, the mean function scale scores ranged from 22.1 (sexual function) to 63.2 (body image), and the mean symptom scale scores from 14.7 (weight loss) to 69.0 (stoma-related problems, 4 patients) and 67.9 (male sexual dysfunction), respectively. Most of the QoL scores were not affected by late toxicity, patient- or disease-related factors. Fatigue (+18.2 points) emerged as the strongest predictor of impaired QoL. Conclusion: The global health QoL of anal cancer patients is comparable with that of the general German population, but there are specific limitations, e.g., sexual dysfunction, urological/gastrointestinal complaints, financial difficulties, fatigue, and a reduction in emotional and social well-being. (orig.)

Quality of life outcomes in patients with anal cancer after combined radiochemotherapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Welzel, Grit; Haegele, Verena; Wenz, Frederik; Mai, Sabine Kathrin [Universitaetsklinikum Heidelberg, Mannheim (Germany). Dept. of Radiation Oncology

2011-03-15

Purpose: To assess self-reported quality of life (QoL) experienced by anal cancer patients after radiochemotherapy, and to identify patient- and disease-related factors associated with QoL. Patients and Methods: A total of 88 patients treated for anal cancer at our institution between 1990 and 2006 were identified from our database. Of these, 15 patients had died, and 4 were lost to follow-up. QoL was assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire (cancer-specific QoL) and the colorectal cancer module QLQ-CR38 (site-specific QoL); 52 responses were received. The median follow-up was 36 months (range, 5-137 months). Results: As for cancer-specific QoL, global health QoL score (mean 60.4) was similar to the general German population, whereas most of the function and symptom scale scores were considerably lower/higher in anal cancer patients. The most prominent mean score differences were observed in role functioning (-21.8 points), emotional functioning (-20.7 points), social functioning (-28.9 points), diarrhea (+34.6 points), and financial difficulties (+26.9 points; p < 0.001). As for site-specific QoL, the mean function scale scores ranged from 22.1 (sexual function) to 63.2 (body image), and the mean symptom scale scores from 14.7 (weight loss) to 69.0 (stoma-related problems, 4 patients) and 67.9 (male sexual dysfunction), respectively. Most of the QoL scores were not affected by late toxicity, patient- or disease-related factors. Fatigue (+18.2 points) emerged as the strongest predictor of impaired QoL. Conclusion: The global health QoL of anal cancer patients is comparable with that of the general German population, but there are specific limitations, e.g., sexual dysfunction, urological/gastrointestinal complaints, financial difficulties, fatigue, and a reduction in emotional and social well-being. (orig.)

Social support buffers the effect of self-esteem on quality of life of early-stage cervical cancer survivors in Taiwan.

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Li, Chia-Chun; Chen, Mei-Ling; Chang, Ting-Chang; Chou, Hung-Hsueh; Chen, Min-Yue

2015-10-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-esteem and social support on quality of life (QoL) in stage I and II cervical cancer survivors. The sample consisted of 110 participants who had been diagnosed with stage I-II cervical cancer and had completed their treatment 5 years or more before data collection. Each participant completed four structured questionnaires: a demographic-disease survey, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey, and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire 30. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, and hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses. The participants' mean age was 60.74 ± 10.69 years. Better QoL was significantly associated with younger age, higher self-esteem, and stronger social support; in addition, social support buffered the effect of self-esteem on global QoL. Together, five variables (age, time since treatment, self-esteem, social support, and the interaction term of self-esteem and social support) explained 36% of the variance in global QoL, with self-esteem being the strongest predictor. The results of this study advance current knowledge of QoL in cervical cancer survivors by demonstrating that survivors with low self-esteem and social support tend to have lower QoL than those with low self-esteem but high social support. Health professionals should help survivors seek support and provide appropriate strategies to expand their social networks and enhance their self-esteem to improve their global QoL after cervical cancer. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A framework for interactive visual analysis of heterogeneous marine data in an integrated problem solving environment

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Liu, Shuai; Chen, Ge; Yao, Shifeng; Tian, Fenglin; Liu, Wei

2017-07-01

This paper presents a novel integrated marine visualization framework which focuses on processing, analyzing the multi-dimension spatiotemporal marine data in one workflow. Effective marine data visualization is needed in terms of extracting useful patterns, recognizing changes, and understanding physical processes in oceanography researches. However, the multi-source, multi-format, multi-dimension characteristics of marine data pose a challenge for interactive and feasible (timely) marine data analysis and visualization in one workflow. And, global multi-resolution virtual terrain environment is also needed to give oceanographers and the public a real geographic background reference and to help them to identify the geographical variation of ocean phenomena. This paper introduces a data integration and processing method to efficiently visualize and analyze the heterogeneous marine data. Based on the data we processed, several GPU-based visualization methods are explored to interactively demonstrate marine data. GPU-tessellated global terrain rendering using ETOPO1 data is realized and the video memory usage is controlled to ensure high efficiency. A modified ray-casting algorithm for the uneven multi-section Argo volume data is also presented and the transfer function is designed to analyze the 3D structure of ocean phenomena. Based on the framework we designed, an integrated visualization system is realized. The effectiveness and efficiency of the framework is demonstrated. This system is expected to make a significant contribution to the demonstration and understanding of marine physical process in a virtual global environment.

Neural Global Pattern Similarity Underlies True and False Memories.

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Ye, Zhifang; Zhu, Bi; Zhuang, Liping; Lu, Zhonglin; Chen, Chuansheng; Xue, Gui

2016-06-22

The neural processes giving rise to human memory strength signals remain poorly understood. Inspired by formal computational models that posit a central role of global matching in memory strength, we tested a novel hypothesis that the strengths of both true and false memories arise from the global similarity of an item's neural activation pattern during retrieval to that of all the studied items during encoding (i.e., the encoding-retrieval neural global pattern similarity [ER-nGPS]). We revealed multiple ER-nGPS signals that carried distinct information and contributed differentially to true and false memories: Whereas the ER-nGPS in the parietal regions reflected semantic similarity and was scaled with the recognition strengths of both true and false memories, ER-nGPS in the visual cortex contributed solely to true memory. Moreover, ER-nGPS differences between the parietal and visual cortices were correlated with frontal monitoring processes. By combining computational and neuroimaging approaches, our results advance a mechanistic understanding of memory strength in recognition. What neural processes give rise to memory strength signals, and lead to our conscious feelings of familiarity? Using fMRI, we found that the memory strength of a given item depends not only on how it was encoded during learning, but also on the similarity of its neural representation with other studied items. The global neural matching signal, mainly in the parietal lobule, could account for the memory strengths of both studied and unstudied items. Interestingly, a different global matching signal, originated from the visual cortex, could distinguish true from false memories. The findings reveal multiple neural mechanisms underlying the memory strengths of events registered in the brain. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/366792-11$15.00/0.

The impact of recreational MDMA 'ecstasy' use on global form processing.

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White, Claire; Edwards, Mark; Brown, John; Bell, Jason

2014-11-01

The ability to integrate local orientation information into a global form percept was investigated in long-term ecstasy users. Evidence suggests that ecstasy disrupts the serotonin system, with the visual areas of the brain being particularly susceptible. Previous research has found altered orientation processing in the primary visual area (V1) of users, thought to be due to disrupted serotonin-mediated lateral inhibition. The current study aimed to investigate whether orientation deficits extend to higher visual areas involved in global form processing. Forty-five participants completed a psychophysical (Glass pattern) study allowing an investigation into the mechanisms underlying global form processing and sensitivity to changes in the offset of the stimuli (jitter). A subgroup of polydrug-ecstasy users (n=6) with high ecstasy use had significantly higher thresholds for the detection of Glass patterns than controls (n=21, p=0.039) after Bonferroni correction. There was also a significant interaction between jitter level and drug-group, with polydrug-ecstasy users showing reduced sensitivity to alterations in jitter level (p=0.003). These results extend previous research, suggesting disrupted global form processing and reduced sensitivity to orientation jitter with ecstasy use. Further research is needed to investigate this finding in a larger sample of heavy ecstasy users and to differentiate the effects of other drugs. © The Author(s) 2014.

SEISMIC RISK CARTOGRAPHIC VISUALIZATION FOR CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nina I. Frolova

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Earthquake loss estimations before future events and following strong earthquakesin emergency mode and their corresponding visualization are extremely important for properdecision on preventive measures and effective response in order to save lives and properties. The paper addresses the methodological issues of seismic risk and vulnerability assessment, mapping with GIS technology application. Requirements for simulation models,databases used at different levels, as well as ways of visualizations oriented for EmergencyManagement Agencies, as well federal and local authorities are discussed. Examples ofmapping at the different levels: global, country, region and urban one are given and theinfluence of input data uncertainties on the reliability of loss computations is analyzed.

Gender differences in global-local perception? Evidence from orientation and shape judgments.

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Kimchi, Ruth; Amishav, Rama; Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Anat

2009-01-01

Direct examinations of gender differences in global-local processing are sparse, and the results are inconsistent. We examined this issue with a visuospatial judgment task and with a shape judgment task. Women and men were presented with hierarchical stimuli that varied in closure (open or closed shape) or in line orientation (oblique or horizontal/vertical) at the global or local level. The task was to classify the stimuli on the basis of the variation at the global level (global classification) or at the local level (local classification). Women's classification by closure (global or local) was more accurate than men's for stimuli that varied in closure on both levels, suggesting a female advantage in discriminating shape properties. No gender differences were observed in global-local processing bias. Women and men exhibited a global advantage, and they did not differ in their speed of global or local classification, with only one exception. Women were slower than men in local classification by orientation when the to-be-classified lines were embedded in a global line with a different orientation. This finding suggests that women are more distracted than men by misleading global oriented context when performing local orientation judgments, perhaps because women and men differ in their ability to use cognitive schemes to compensate for the distracting effects of the global context. Our findings further suggest that whether or not gender differences arise depends not only on the nature of the visual task but also on the visual context.

'Translation is not enough': using the Global Person Generated Index (GPGI) to assess individual quality of life in Bangladesh, Thailand, and Ethiopia.

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Camfield, Laura; Ruta, Danny

2007-08-01

Currently few subjective measures of Quality of Life (QoL) are available for use in developing countries, which limits their theoretical, methodological, and practical contribution (for example, exploring the relationship between economic development and QoL, and ensuring effective and equitable service provision). One reason for this is the difficulty of ensuring that translated measures preserve conceptual, item, semantic, operational, measurement; and functional equivalence (Herdman, M., Fox-Rushby, J., & Badia, X. (1998). Quality of Life Research, 7, 331), which is illustrated by an account of the translation, pre-piloting, and administration of a new individualised QoL measure, the Global Person Generated Index or 'GPGI'. The GPGI is based on the widely used Patient Generated Index (Ruta, Camfield, & Martin, (2004) Quality of Life Research, 13, 1545.) and offers many of the advantages of the participatory approaches commonly used in developing countries, with added methodological rigour, and quantitative outcomes. It was successfully validated in Bangladesh, Thailand, and Ethiopia, using quantitative and qualitative methods--open-ended, semi-structured interviews (SSIs), conducted immediately post-administration. Both the measure and method of 'qualitative validation' described later in the paper offer an exciting alternative for future researchers and practitioners in this field. The quantitative results suggest the GPGI shows cultural sensitivity, and is able to capture both the areas that are important to respondents, and aspects of life one would expect to impact on QoL in developing countries. There were strong correlation between scores from the GPGI and SSIs for the area of health, and moderate correlations for 'material wellbeing' (MWB)('Material wellbeing' refers to respondents' perceptions of their achievement in the areas of farming, debt reduction, assets, crops, livestock, job, land, property, and agriculture) and children. Weak to moderate

A relational structure of voluntary visual-attention abilities

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Skogsberg, KatieAnn; Grabowecky, Marcia; Wilt, Joshua; Revelle, William; Iordanescu, Lucica; Suzuki, Satoru

2015-01-01

Many studies have examined attention mechanisms involved in specific behavioral tasks (e.g., search, tracking, distractor inhibition). However, relatively little is known about the relationships among those attention mechanisms. Is there a fundamental attention faculty that makes a person superior or inferior at most types of attention tasks, or do relatively independent processes mediate different attention skills? We focused on individual differences in voluntary visual-attention abilities using a battery of eleven representative tasks. An application of parallel analysis, hierarchical-cluster analysis, and multidimensional scaling to the inter-task correlation matrix revealed four functional clusters, representing spatiotemporal attention, global attention, transient attention, and sustained attention, organized along two dimensions, one contrasting spatiotemporal and global attention and the other contrasting transient and sustained attention. Comparison with the neuroscience literature suggests that the spatiotemporal-global dimension corresponds to the dorsal frontoparietal circuit and the transient-sustained dimension corresponds to the ventral frontoparietal circuit, with distinct sub-regions mediating the separate clusters within each dimension. We also obtained highly specific patterns of gender difference, and of deficits for college students with elevated ADHD traits. These group differences suggest that different mechanisms of voluntary visual attention can be selectively strengthened or weakened based on genetic, experiential, and/or pathological factors. PMID:25867505

Learning Human Actions by Combining Global Dynamics and Local Appearance.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Guan; Yang, Shuang; Tian, Guodong; Yuan, Chunfeng; Hu, Weiming; Maybank, Stephen J

2014-12-01

In this paper, we address the problem of human action recognition through combining global temporal dynamics and local visual spatio-temporal appearance features. For this purpose, in the global temporal dimension, we propose to model the motion dynamics with robust linear dynamical systems (LDSs) and use the model parameters as motion descriptors. Since LDSs live in a non-Euclidean space and the descriptors are in non-vector form, we propose a shift invariant subspace angles based distance to measure the similarity between LDSs. In the local visual dimension, we construct curved spatio-temporal cuboids along the trajectories of densely sampled feature points and describe them using histograms of oriented gradients (HOG). The distance between motion sequences is computed with the Chi-Squared histogram distance in the bag-of-words framework. Finally we perform classification using the maximum margin distance learning method by combining the global dynamic distances and the local visual distances. We evaluate our approach for action recognition on five short clips data sets, namely Weizmann, KTH, UCF sports, Hollywood2 and UCF50, as well as three long continuous data sets, namely VIRAT, ADL and CRIM13. We show competitive results as compared with current state-of-the-art methods.

The association of financial difficulties with clinical outcomes in cancer patients: secondary analysis of 16 academic prospective clinical trials conducted in Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Perrone, F; Jommi, C; Di Maio, M; Gimigliano, A; Gridelli, C; Pignata, S; Ciardiello, F; Nuzzo, F; de Matteis, A; Del Mastro, L; Bryce, J; Daniele, G; Morabito, A; Piccirillo, M C; Rocco, G; Guizzaro, L; Gallo, C

2016-12-01

Cancer may cause financial difficulties, but its impact in countries with public health systems is unknown. We evaluated the association of financial difficulties with clinical outcomes of cancer patients enrolled in academic clinical trials performed within the Italian public health system. Data were pooled from 16 prospective multicentre trials in lung, breast or ovarian cancer, using the EORTC quality of life (QOL) C30 questionnaire. Question 28 scores financial difficulties related to disease or treatment in four categories from 'not at all' to 'very much'. We defined financial burden (FB) as any financial difficulty reported at baseline questionnaire, and financial toxicity (FT) as score worsening in a subsequent questionnaire. We investigated (i) the association of FB with clinical outcomes (survival, global QOL response [questions 29/30] and severe toxicity), and (ii) the association of FT with survival. Multivariable analyses were performed using logistic regression models or the Cox model adjusting for trial, gender, age, region and period of enrolment, baseline global QOL and, where appropriate, FB and global QOL response. Results are reported as odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). At baseline 26% of the 3670 study patients reported FB, significantly correlated with worse baseline global QOL. FB was not associated with risks of death (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.85-1.04, P = 0.23) and severe toxicity (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.76-1.06, P = 0.19) but was predictive of a higher chance of worse global QOL response (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.08-1.70, P = 0.009). During treatment, 2735 (74.5%) patients filled in subsequent questionnaires and 616 (22.5%) developed FT that was significantly associated with an increased risk of death (HR 1.20, 95% CI 1.05-1.37, P = 0.007). Several sensitivity analyses confirmed these findings. Even in a public health system, financial difficulties are associated with relevant cancer patients outcomes like QOL and

Measurement of quality of life II. From the philosophy of life to science.

Science.gov (United States)

Ventegodt, Søren; Merrick, Joav; Andersen, Niels Jørgen

2003-10-13

We believe it should be possible to make operational the philosophical ideas of the good life in order to make it the object of scientific research. The Quality of Life Research Center in Copenhagen, Denmark has therefore spent the last several years with these questions and tried to find practical and evidence-based scientific solutions. This paper describes the theoretical road taken in moving from the abstract philosophy of life to the actual questionnaire. It presents an important aspect of our work with the quality-of-life (QOL) concept though the last decade. We have developed the quality-of-life philosophy; the SEQOL, QOL5, and QOL1 questionnaires; the quality-of-life theory; and the quality-of-life research methodology. We carried out quality-of-life population surveys and developed techniques for improving quality of life with the chronically sick patient. This paper presents the struggle to create a rating scale for the generic measurement of the global quality of life, based on quality-of-life theory, derived from quality-of-life philosophy. The developed rating scale is a ratio scale combining a Likert scale, a visual analogue scale, and a numerical scale, to a reduced combination scale. This allows for the extraction of as much information from the respondents as possible without exhausting them unduly or demanding more than can be reasonably expected.

Research on Visual Analysis Methods of Terrorism Events

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Guo, Wenyue; Liu, Haiyan; Yu, Anzhu; Li, Jing

2016-06-01

Under the situation that terrorism events occur more and more frequency throughout the world, improving the response capability of social security incidents has become an important aspect to test governments govern ability. Visual analysis has become an important method of event analysing for its advantage of intuitive and effective. To analyse events' spatio-temporal distribution characteristics, correlations among event items and the development trend, terrorism event's spatio-temporal characteristics are discussed. Suitable event data table structure based on "5W" theory is designed. Then, six types of visual analysis are purposed, and how to use thematic map and statistical charts to realize visual analysis on terrorism events is studied. Finally, experiments have been carried out by using the data provided by Global Terrorism Database, and the results of experiments proves the availability of the methods.

Visual graphics for human rights, social justice, democracy and the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Keywords: art, democracy, human rights, social justice, the public good, visual ..... (Figure 1), the symbolism is two-fold; firstly, the upper composition depicts the ... in industry and global communications pay scant regard to their effect on the ...

PLANETarium - Visualizing Earth Sciences in the Planetarium

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Ballmer, M. D.; Wiethoff, T.; Kraupe, T. W.

2013-12-01

In the past decade, projection systems in most planetariums, traditional sites of outreach and public education, have advanced from instruments that can visualize the motion of stars as beam spots moving over spherical projection areas to systems that are able to display multicolor, high-resolution, immersive full-dome videos or images. These extraordinary capabilities are ideally suited for visualization of global processes occurring on the surface and within the interior of the Earth, a spherical body just as the full dome. So far, however, our community has largely ignored this wonderful interface for outreach and education. A few documentaries on e.g. climate change or volcanic eruptions have been brought to planetariums, but are taking little advantage of the true potential of the medium, as mostly based on standard two-dimensional videos and cartoon-style animations. Along these lines, we here propose a framework to convey recent scientific results on the origin and evolution of our PLANET to the >100,000,000 per-year worldwide audience of planetariums, making the traditionally astronomy-focussed interface a true PLANETarium. In order to do this most efficiently, we intend to directly show visualizations of scientific datasets or models, originally designed for basic research. Such visualizations in solid-Earth, as well as athmospheric and ocean sciences, are expected to be renderable to the dome with little or no effort. For example, showing global geophysical datasets (e.g., surface temperature, gravity, magnetic field), or horizontal slices of seismic-tomography images and of spherical computer simulations (e.g., climate evolution, mantle flow or ocean currents) requires almost no rendering at all. Three-dimensional Cartesian datasets or models can be rendered using standard methods. With the appropriate audio support, present-day science visualizations are typically as intuitive as cartoon-style animations, yet more appealing visually, and clearly more

Advances in stochastic and deterministic global optimization

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Zhigljavsky, Anatoly; Žilinskas, Julius

2016-01-01

Current research results in stochastic and deterministic global optimization including single and multiple objectives are explored and presented in this book by leading specialists from various fields. Contributions include applications to multidimensional data visualization, regression, survey calibration, inventory management, timetabling, chemical engineering, energy systems, and competitive facility location. Graduate students, researchers, and scientists in computer science, numerical analysis, optimization, and applied mathematics will be fascinated by the theoretical, computational, and application-oriented aspects of stochastic and deterministic global optimization explored in this book. This volume is dedicated to the 70th birthday of Antanas Žilinskas who is a leading world expert in global optimization. Professor Žilinskas's research has concentrated on studying models for the objective function, the development and implementation of efficient algorithms for global optimization with single and mu...

Assessing quality of life in the treatment of patients with age-related macular degeneration: clinical research findings and recommendations for clinical practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuzawa M

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Mitsuko Yuzawa,1 Kyoko Fujita,1 Erika Tanaka,2 Edward C Y Wang21Department of Ophthalmology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Surugadai, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; 2Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Bayer Yakuhin Ltd, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, JapanBackground: The importance of incorporating quality-of-life (QoL assessments into medical practice is growing as health care practice shifts from a “disease-based” to a “patient-centered” model. The prevalence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD is increasing in today’s aging population. The purpose of this paper is: (1 to discuss, by reviewing the current literature, the impact of AMD on patients’ QoL and the utility of QoL assessments in evaluating the impact of AMD and its treatment; and (2 to make a recommendation for incorporating QoL into clinical practice.Methods: We conducted a PubMed and an open Internet search to identify publications on the measurement of QoL in AMD, as well as the impact of AMD and the effect of treatment on QoL. A total of 28 articles were selected.Results: AMD has been found to cause a severity-dependent decrement in QoL that is comparable to systemic diseases such as cancer, ischemic heart disease, and stroke. QoL impairment manifests as greater social dependence, difficulty with daily living, higher rates of clinical depression, increased risk of falls, premature admission to nursing homes, and suicide. The National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25 is the most widely used eye disease-specific QoL instrument in AMD. It has been shown to correlate significantly with visual acuity (VA. QoL reflects aspects of AMD including psychological well-being, functional capacity, and the ability to perform patients’ valued activities, which are not captured by a single, numerical VA score.Conclusion: The literature shows that the adverse impact of AMD on QoL is comparable to serious systemic disease. Eye disease

Optimizing visual comfort for stereoscopic 3D display based on color-plus-depth signals.

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Shao, Feng; Jiang, Qiuping; Fu, Randi; Yu, Mei; Jiang, Gangyi

2016-05-30

Visual comfort is a long-facing problem in stereoscopic 3D (S3D) display. In this paper, targeting to produce S3D content based on color-plus-depth signals, a general framework for depth mapping to optimize visual comfort for S3D display is proposed. The main motivation of this work is to remap the depth range of color-plus-depth signals to a new depth range that is suitable to comfortable S3D display. Towards this end, we first remap the depth range globally based on the adjusted zero disparity plane, and then present a two-stage global and local depth optimization solution to solve the visual comfort problem. The remapped depth map is used to generate the S3D output. We demonstrate the power of our approach on perceptually uncomfortable and comfortable stereoscopic images.

Short and long-term quality of life after reconstruction of bladder exstrophy in infancy: preliminary results of the QUALEX (QUAlity of Life of bladder EXstrophy) study.

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Jochault-Ritz, Sandy; Mercier, Mariette; Aubert, Didier

2010-08-01

The aim of the study was to assess quality of life (QOL) of patients born with bladder exstrophy (BE) and reconstructed during early childhood in 7 French university hospitals (QUALEX study: QUAlity of Life of bladder EXstrophy). Patients from 6 to 42 years old answered self-administered Short-Form 36 (SF-36), VSP-A (Vécu et Santé Perçue de l'Adolescent), VSP-AE (Vécu et Santé Perçue de l'Enfant), AUQUIE (AUto-QUestionnaire Imagé de l'Enfant), and general questionnaires about functional and socioeconomic data. Dimension scores were compared between adults and adolescents using SF-36 and adolescents and children using VSP-AE. Scores were also compared to the general French population. Among the 134 eligible patients, 36 adults, 18 adolescents, and 17 children answered the questionnaire. There was no difference between responders and nonresponders in reconstruction criteria. Continence was achieved in 77% of adults, 65% of adolescents, and 12% of children. Adolescent QOL was globally superior to adults and children. Adult QOL was globally lower than the general population except on the physical dimension. Children's QOL was also globally lower than the general population except for relations with family and school work. Adolescents' scores on SF-36 were superior to the general population but lower on half of the dimensions with VSP-AE. Patients presenting with reconstructed BE have impaired QOL, and functional results seem to be the most likely predictive factor of health-related QOL score. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Longitudinal analysis of quality of life in patients receiving conformal radiation therapy for prostate cancer

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Geinitz, Hans; Thamm, Reinhard; Scholz, Christian; Heinrich, Christine; Prause, Nina; Kerndl, Simone; Molls, Michael; Zimmermann, Frank B. [Dept. of Radiotherapy and Radiooncology, Technische Univ. Muenchen (Germany); Keller, Monika [Psychooncology Section, Dept. of Psychosomatic and General Clinical Medicine, Univ. Hospital, Heidelberg (Germany); Busch, Raymonde [Inst. of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Technische Univ. Muenchen (Germany)

2010-01-15

Purpose: To prospectively assess quality of life (QoL) in patients receiving conformal radiation therapy (CRT) for prostate cancer. Patients and Methods: 78 men with definitive CRT for prostate cancer were entered into the study. Patients were assessed before CRT, at 40 and 60 Gy, and 2, 12 and 24 months after the end of treatment. QoL was assessed using the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 and the prostate module PR25. Changes in mean QoL scores with time of {>=} 10 points were considered clinically relevant. Results: Global QoL did not change statistically significant during CRT and was slightly above baseline levels during follow-up. CRT had a statistically significant negative short-term impact on role functioning, fatigue, and PR25 urinary symptoms. The scores recovered within 2 months to 1 year after CRT. Emotional functioning and social functioning scores slightly increased during and after CRT. Role functioning decreased by > 10 points at 60 Gy and urinary symptoms decreased by > 10 points at 40 and 60 Gy. All other differences were < 10 points. A high number of concomitant diseases and having no children were negative pretreatment predictors for long-term global QoL. Conclusion: Definitive CRT for prostate cancer does not compromise global QoL during therapy and up to 2 years after treatment. It has a limited negative effect on role functioning, urinary symptoms and, to a lesser extent, on fatigue with restitution within 2 months to 1 year after treatment. (orig.)

Longitudinal analysis of quality of life in patients receiving conformal radiation therapy for prostate cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geinitz, Hans; Thamm, Reinhard; Scholz, Christian; Heinrich, Christine; Prause, Nina; Kerndl, Simone; Molls, Michael; Zimmermann, Frank B.; Keller, Monika; Busch, Raymonde

2010-01-01

Purpose: To prospectively assess quality of life (QoL) in patients receiving conformal radiation therapy (CRT) for prostate cancer. Patients and Methods: 78 men with definitive CRT for prostate cancer were entered into the study. Patients were assessed before CRT, at 40 and 60 Gy, and 2, 12 and 24 months after the end of treatment. QoL was assessed using the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 and the prostate module PR25. Changes in mean QoL scores with time of ≥ 10 points were considered clinically relevant. Results: Global QoL did not change statistically significant during CRT and was slightly above baseline levels during follow-up. CRT had a statistically significant negative short-term impact on role functioning, fatigue, and PR25 urinary symptoms. The scores recovered within 2 months to 1 year after CRT. Emotional functioning and social functioning scores slightly increased during and after CRT. Role functioning decreased by > 10 points at 60 Gy and urinary symptoms decreased by > 10 points at 40 and 60 Gy. All other differences were < 10 points. A high number of concomitant diseases and having no children were negative pretreatment predictors for long-term global QoL. Conclusion: Definitive CRT for prostate cancer does not compromise global QoL during therapy and up to 2 years after treatment. It has a limited negative effect on role functioning, urinary symptoms and, to a lesser extent, on fatigue with restitution within 2 months to 1 year after treatment. (orig.)

Prospective assessment of emotional distress, cognitive function, and quality of life in patients with cancer treated with chemotherapy.

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Iconomou, Gregoris; Mega, Vasiliki; Koutras, Angelos; Iconomou, Alexander V; Kalofonos, Haralabos P

2004-07-15

The current study sought to delineate prospectively the rates and clinical course of emotional distress, cognitive impairment, and quality of life (QOL) in chemotherapy-naive patients with cancer and to consider the determinants of global QOL. Patients who consented to participate were administered the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 questionnaire, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale before and at the end of treatment (EOT). Of the 102 patients initially assessed, 80 (78.4%) completed the study. Most aspects of QOL did not change considerably over time. At EOT, patients reported only significant increases in fatigue and significant decreases in sleep disturbance. Although no significant changes emerged in the rates of anxiety or depression throughout chemotherapy, nearly one-third of the patients experienced severe emotional distress at both points in time. In addition, the authors observed neither significant alteration in the cognitive performance over time nor reliable associations between scores on the MMSE and subjective cognitive function, emotional distress, or QOL. Finally, depression proved to be the leading predictor of global QOL at baseline and at EOT. The results indicated that a significant proportion of Greek patients with cancer experienced intense anxiety and depression throughout chemotherapy and confirmed the importance of depression as a strong predictor of global QOL. Routine screening of emotional distress across all phases of cancer is mandatory because it will contribute to the identification of patients who are in need of pharmaceutical and/or psychologic intervention. Copyright 2004 American Cancer Society.

Are psychosocial factors associated with quality of life in patients with haematological cancer? A critical review of the literature.

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Allart, Priscilla; Soubeyran, Pierre; Cousson-Gélie, Florence

2013-02-01

Haematological cancers differ from other cancers mainly with regard to treatment strategies: surgery is used for diagnostic purposes but rarely for treatment, whereas chemotherapy is of central importance and, in some cases, cures patients. This article reviews studies that examine the relationships between psychosocial factors and quality of life (QoL) in haematological cancer patients. A review of the literature was conducted from the databases 'PsycInfo', 'Medline' and 'Science Direct' using the keywords 'lymphoma', 'leukaemia', 'myeloma', 'quality of life', 'psychosocial factors', 'coping', 'social support', 'personality', 'anxiety,' 'depression', 'locus of control' and 'alexithymia'. Fourteen studies were analysed. One study found positive relationships between sense of coherence and health-related QoL, whereas another showed a positive link between self-esteem and QoL. Another study suggested that a high external health locus of control was related to a better QoL. Fighting spirit had a positive impact on QoL for two studies, and helplessness-hopelessness was positively related to emotional distress in one study. Two studies indicated the relationships between emotional distress and QoL. Satisfaction with information about disease determined emotional distress in another study. Social support, general health perceptions, global meaning or spirituality were found to improve QoL in four other reports. Literature about the relationships between psychosocial factors and QoL is lacking. Sense of coherence, self-esteem and health locus of control, coping strategies, social support, global meaning or emotional distress are associated with QoL. Results concerning coping and social support should be interpreted with caution because of level II evidence in studies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Quality of life of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy: from adolescence to young men.

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Lue, Yi-Jing; Chen, Shun-Sheng; Lu, Yen-Mou

2017-07-01

This study investigated quality of life (QOL) in adolescent and young men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Health-related QOL and global QOL were assessed with the Short Form 36 (SF-36) and World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). Associations between functional status and QOL were assessed. All domains of the SF-36 were below Taiwan norms (effect size: -14.2 to -0.5), especially Physical Function, Role Physical, and Social Function. Three of the four domains of the WHOQOL-BREF were below Taiwan norms (effect size: -2.0 to -0.7). The Physical Function of the SF-36 was moderately correlated with functional status (mobility, basic activities of daily living, and arm function). The Social Function of the SF-36 and Social Relationships of the WHOQOL-BREF were also moderately correlated with functional status (impairment, basic activities of daily living, and arm function). The adolescent and young men with DMD had poor health-related and global QOL. Poor QOL was related to both physical condition and social health. We suggest that rehabilitation programs focus on using assistive devices to facilitate arm function and encouraging participation in social activities to improve the QOL of patients with DMD. Implications for rehabilitation Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive muscle weakness disease that not only impacts physical health but also leads to poor quality of life in many domains. A valuable rehabilitation goal for patients with DMD is to encourage participation in social activities. Medical care and educational programs should plan a formal transition processes for patients with DMD from pediatric to adult care to maximum their quality of life. Arm function is associated with many domains of global quality of life, so a key element in improving quality of life may be to improve arm function.

Individual quality of life of people with severe mental disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Pitkänen, A; Hätönen, H; Kuosmanen, L; Välimäki, M

2009-02-01

People with mental disorders have been found to suffer from impaired quality of life (QoL). Therefore, the assessment of QoL has become important in psychiatric research. This explorative study was carried out in acute psychiatric wards. Thirty-five patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and related psychosis were interviewed. QoL was rated by the Schedule for Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life which is a respondent-generated QoL measure using semi-structured interview technique. Patients named five areas of life important to them and then rated their current status and placed relative weight on each QoL area. The data were analysed with qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics. The most frequently named areas for QoL were health, family, leisure activities, work/study and social relationships, which represented 72% of all QoL areas named. Patients' average satisfaction with these QoL areas ranged 49.0-69.1 (scale 0-100). The mean global QoL score was 61.5 (standard deviation 17.4; range 24.6-89.6; scale 0-100). Awareness of patients' perceptions of their QoL areas can enhance our understanding of an individual patient's QoL and reveal unsatisfactory areas where QoL could be improved with individually tailored needs-based interventions.

Attentional selection of relative SF mediates global versus local processing: evidence from EEG.

Science.gov (United States)

Flevaris, Anastasia V; Bentin, Shlomo; Robertson, Lynn C

2011-06-13

Previous research on functional hemispheric differences in visual processing has associated global perception with low spatial frequency (LSF) processing biases of the right hemisphere (RH) and local perception with high spatial frequency (HSF) processing biases of the left hemisphere (LH). The Double Filtering by Frequency (DFF) theory expanded this hypothesis by proposing that visual attention selects and is directed to relatively LSFs by the RH and relatively HSFs by the LH, suggesting a direct causal relationship between SF selection and global versus local perception. We tested this idea in the current experiment by comparing activity in the EEG recorded at posterior right and posterior left hemisphere sites while participants' attention was directed to global or local levels of processing after selection of relatively LSFs versus HSFs in a previous stimulus. Hemispheric asymmetry in the alpha band (8-12 Hz) during preparation for global versus local processing was modulated by the selected SF. In contrast, preparatory activity associated with selection of SF was not modulated by the previously attended level (global/local). These results support the DFF theory that top-down attentional selection of SF mediates global and local processing.

Ocean Thermal Extractable Energy Visualization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ascari, Matthew [Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, MD (United States)

2012-10-28

The Ocean Thermal Extractable Energy Visualization (OTEEV) project focuses on assessing the Maximum Practicably Extractable Energy (MPEE) from the world’s ocean thermal resources. MPEE is defined as being sustainable and technically feasible, given today’s state-of-the-art ocean energy technology. Under this project the OTEEV team developed a comprehensive Geospatial Information System (GIS) dataset and software tool, and used the tool to provide a meaningful assessment of MPEE from the global and domestic U.S. ocean thermal resources.

Defective motion processing in children with cerebral visual impairment due to periventricular white matter damage.

Science.gov (United States)

Weinstein, Joel M; Gilmore, Rick O; Shaikh, Sumera M; Kunselman, Allen R; Trescher, William V; Tashima, Lauren M; Boltz, Marianne E; McAuliffe, Matthew B; Cheung, Albert; Fesi, Jeremy D

2012-07-01

We sought to characterize visual motion processing in children with cerebral visual impairment (CVI) due to periventricular white matter damage caused by either hydrocephalus (eight individuals) or periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) associated with prematurity (11 individuals). Using steady-state visually evoked potentials (ssVEP), we measured cortical activity related to motion processing for two distinct types of visual stimuli: 'local' motion patterns thought to activate mainly primary visual cortex (V1), and 'global' or coherent patterns thought to activate higher cortical visual association areas (V3, V5, etc.). We studied three groups of children: (1) 19 children with CVI (mean age 9y 6mo [SD 3y 8mo]; 9 male; 10 female); (2) 40 neurologically and visually normal comparison children (mean age 9y 6mo [SD 3y 1mo]; 18 male; 22 female); and (3) because strabismus and amblyopia are common in children with CVI, a group of 41 children without neurological problems who had visual deficits due to amblyopia and/or strabismus (mean age 7y 8mo [SD 2y 8mo]; 28 male; 13 female). We found that the processing of global as opposed to local motion was preferentially impaired in individuals with CVI, especially for slower target velocities (p=0.028). Motion processing is impaired in children with CVI. ssVEP may provide useful and objective information about the development of higher visual function in children at risk for CVI. © The Authors. Journal compilation © Mac Keith Press 2011.

Sparsity-regularized HMAX for visual recognition.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaolin Hu

Full Text Available About ten years ago, HMAX was proposed as a simple and biologically feasible model for object recognition, based on how the visual cortex processes information. However, the model does not encompass sparse firing, which is a hallmark of neurons at all stages of the visual pathway. The current paper presents an improved model, called sparse HMAX, which integrates sparse firing. This model is able to learn higher-level features of objects on unlabeled training images. Unlike most other deep learning models that explicitly address global structure of images in every layer, sparse HMAX addresses local to global structure gradually along the hierarchy by applying patch-based learning to the output of the previous layer. As a consequence, the learning method can be standard sparse coding (SSC or independent component analysis (ICA, two techniques deeply rooted in neuroscience. What makes SSC and ICA applicable at higher levels is the introduction of linear higher-order statistical regularities by max pooling. After training, high-level units display sparse, invariant selectivity for particular individuals or for image categories like those observed in human inferior temporal cortex (ITC and medial temporal lobe (MTL. Finally, on an image classification benchmark, sparse HMAX outperforms the original HMAX by a large margin, suggesting its great potential for computer vision.

Dashboard visualizations: Supporting real-time throughput decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Franklin, Amy; Gantela, Swaroop; Shifarraw, Salsawit; Johnson, Todd R; Robinson, David J; King, Brent R; Mehta, Amit M; Maddow, Charles L; Hoot, Nathan R; Nguyen, Vickie; Rubio, Adriana; Zhang, Jiajie; Okafor, Nnaemeka G

2017-07-01

Providing timely and effective care in the emergency department (ED) requires the management of individual patients as well as the flow and demands of the entire department. Strategic changes to work processes, such as adding a flow coordination nurse or a physician in triage, have demonstrated improvements in throughput times. However, such global strategic changes do not address the real-time, often opportunistic workflow decisions of individual clinicians in the ED. We believe that real-time representation of the status of the entire emergency department and each patient within it through information visualizations will better support clinical decision-making in-the-moment and provide for rapid intervention to improve ED flow. This notion is based on previous work where we found that clinicians' workflow decisions were often based on an in-the-moment local perspective, rather than a global perspective. Here, we discuss the challenges of designing and implementing visualizations for ED through a discussion of the development of our prototype Throughput Dashboard and the potential it holds for supporting real-time decision-making. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Accessing Earth Science Data Visualizations through NASA GIBS & Worldview

Science.gov (United States)

Cechini, M. F.; Boller, R. A.; Baynes, K.; Wong, M. M.; King, B. A.; Schmaltz, J. E.; De Luca, A. P.; King, J.; Roberts, J. T.; Rodriguez, J.; Thompson, C. K.; Pressley, N. N.

2017-12-01

For more than 20 years, the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) has operated dozens of remote sensing satellites collecting nearly 15 Petabytes of data that span thousands of science parameters. Within these observations are keys the Earth Scientists have used to unlock many things that we understand about our planet. Also contained within these observations are a myriad of opportunities for learning and education. The trick is making them accessible to educators and students in convenient and simple ways so that effort can be spent on lesson enrichment and not overcoming technical hurdles. The NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) system and NASA Worldview website provide a unique view into EOS data through daily full resolution visualizations of hundreds of earth science parameters. For many of these parameters, visualizations are available within hours of acquisition from the satellite. For others, visualizations are available for the entire mission of the satellite. Accompanying the visualizations are visual aids such as color legends, place names, and orbit tracks. By using these visualizations, educators and students can observe natural phenomena that enrich a scientific education. This poster will provide an overview of the visualizations available in NASA GIBS and Worldview and how they are accessed. We invite discussion on how the visualizations can be used or improved for educational purposes.

On Difference of Convex Optimization to Visualize Statistical Data and Dissimilarities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carrizosa, Emilio; Guerrero, Vanesa; Morales, Dolores Romero

2016-01-01

In this talk we address the problem of visualizing in a bounded region a set of individuals, which has attached a dissimilarity measure and a statistical value. This problem, which extends the standard Multidimensional Scaling Analysis, is written as a global optimization problem whose objective...... is the difference of two convex functions (DC). Suitable DC decompositions allow us to use the DCA algorithm in a very efficient way. Our algorithmic approach is used to visualize two real-world datasets....

Visualizing Data as Objects by DC (Difference of Convex) Optimization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carrizosa, Emilio; Guerrero, Vanesa; Morales, Dolores Romero

2018-01-01

In this paper we address the problem of visualizing in a bounded region a set of individuals, which has attached a dissimilarity measure and a statistical value, as convex objects. This problem, which extends the standard Multidimensional Scaling Analysis, is written as a global optimization...... problem whose objective is the difference of two convex functions (DC). Suitable DC decompositions allow us to use the Difference of Convex Algorithm (DCA) in a very efficient way. Our algorithmic approach is used to visualize two real-world datasets....

Development and psychometric characteristics of the SCI-QOL Ability to Participate and Satisfaction with Social Roles and Activities item banks and short forms.

Science.gov (United States)

Heinemann, Allen W; Kisala, Pamela A; Hahn, Elizabeth A; Tulsky, David S

2015-05-01

To develop a spinal cord injury (SCI)-focused version of PROMIS and Neuro-QOL social domain item banks; evaluate the psychometric properties of items developed for adults with SCI; and report information to facilitate clinical and research use. We used a mixed-methods design to develop and evaluate Ability to Participate in Social Roles and Activities and Satisfaction with Social Roles and Activities items. Focus groups helped define the constructs; cognitive interviews helped revise items; and confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory methods helped calibrate item banks and evaluate differential item functioning related to demographic and injury characteristics. Five SCI Model System sites and one Veterans Administration medical center. The calibration sample consisted of 641 individuals; a reliability sample consisted of 245 individuals residing in the community. A subset of 27 Ability to Participate and 35 Satisfaction items demonstrated good measurement properties and negligible differential item functioning related to demographic and injury characteristics. The SCI-specific measures correlate strongly with the PROMIS and Neuro-QOL versions. Ten item short forms correlate >0.96 with the full banks. Variable-length CATs with a minimum of 4 items, variable-length CATs with a minimum of 8 items, fixed-length CATs of 10 items, and the 10-item short forms demonstrate construct coverage and measurement error that is comparable to the full item bank. The Ability to Participate and Satisfaction with Social Roles and Activities CATs and short forms demonstrate excellent psychometric properties and are suitable for clinical and research applications.

Haptic perception disambiguates visual perception of 3D shape

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijntjes, Maarten W A; Volcic, Robert; Pont, Sylvia C.; Koenderink, Jan J.; Kappers, Astrid M L

We studied the influence of haptics on visual perception of three-dimensional shape. Observers were shown pictures of an oblate spheroid in two different orientations. A gauge-figure task was used to measure their perception of the global shape. In the first two sessions only vision was used. The

Mobile Visual Search Based on Histogram Matching and Zone Weight Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Chuang; Tao, Li; Yang, Fan; Lu, Tao; Jia, Huizhu; Xie, Xiaodong

2018-01-01

In this paper, we propose a novel image retrieval algorithm for mobile visual search. At first, a short visual codebook is generated based on the descriptor database to represent the statistical information of the dataset. Then, an accurate local descriptor similarity score is computed by merging the tf-idf weighted histogram matching and the weighting strategy in compact descriptors for visual search (CDVS). At last, both the global descriptor matching score and the local descriptor similarity score are summed up to rerank the retrieval results according to the learned zone weights. The results show that the proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art image retrieval method in CDVS.

Voice- and swallow-related quality of life in idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

van Hooren, Michel R A; Baijens, Laura W J; Vos, Rein; Pilz, Walmari; Kuijpers, Laura M F; Kremer, Bernd; Michou, Emilia

2016-02-01

This study explores whether changes in voice- and swallow-related QoL are associated with progression of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD). Furthermore, it examines the relationship between patients' perception of both voice and swallowing disorders in IPD. Prospective clinical study, quality of life (QoL). One-hundred mentally competent IPD patients with voice and swallowing complaints were asked to answer four QoL questionnaires (Voice Handicap Index, MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory, Visual Analog Scale [VAS] voice, and Dysphagia Severity Scale [DSS]). Differences in means for the QoL questionnaires and their subscales within Hoehn and Yahr stage groups were calculated using one-way analysis of variance. The relationship between voice- and swallow-related QoL questionnaires was determined with the Spearman correlation coefficient. Scores on both voice and swallow questionnaires suggest an overall decrease in QoL with progression of IPD. A plateau in QoL for VAS voice and the DSS was seen in the early Hoehn and Yahr stages. Finally, scores on voice-related QoL questionnaires were significantly correlated with swallow-related QoL outcomes. Voice- and swallow-related QoL decreases with progression of IPD. A significant association was found between voice- and swallow-related QoL questionnaires. Healthcare professionals can benefit from voice- and swallow-related QoL questionnaires in a multidimensional voice- or swallow-assessment protocol. The patient's perception of his/her voice and swallowing disorders and its impact on QoL in IPD should not be disregarded. 2b. © 2015 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Stable statistical representations facilitate visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Corbett, Jennifer E; Melcher, David

2014-10-01

Observers represent the average properties of object ensembles even when they cannot identify individual elements. To investigate the functional role of ensemble statistics, we examined how modulating statistical stability affects visual search. We varied the mean and/or individual sizes of an array of Gabor patches while observers searched for a tilted target. In "stable" blocks, the mean and/or local sizes of the Gabors were constant over successive displays, whereas in "unstable" baseline blocks they changed from trial to trial. Although there was no relationship between the context and the spatial location of the target, observers found targets faster (as indexed by faster correct responses and fewer saccades) as the global mean size became stable over several displays. Building statistical stability also facilitated scanning the scene, as measured by larger saccadic amplitudes, faster saccadic reaction times, and shorter fixation durations. These findings suggest a central role for peripheral visual information, creating context to free resources for detailed processing of salient targets and maintaining the illusion of visual stability.

Letters in the Forest: Global precedence effect disappears for letters but not for non-letters under reading-like conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas eLachmann

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Normally-skilled reading involves special processing strategies for letters, which are habitually funneled into an abstract letter code. On the basis of previous studies we argue that this habit leads to the preferred usage of an analytic strategy for the processing of letters, while non-letters are preferably processed via a holistic strategy. The well-known Global Precedence Effect (GPE seems to contradict to this assumption, since, with compound, hierarchical figures, including letter items, faster responses are observed to the global than to the local level of the figure, as well as an asymmetric interference effect from global to local level. We argue that with letters these effects depend on presentation conditions; only when they elicit the processing strategies automatized for reading, an analytic strategy for letters in contrast to non-letters is to be expected. We compared the GPE for letters and non-letters in central viewing, with the global stimulus size close to the functional visual field in whole word reading (6.5o of visual angle and local stimuli close to the critical size for fluent reading of individual letters (.5o of visual angle. Under these conditions, the GPE remained robust for non-letters. For letters, however, it disappeared: letters showed no overall response time advantage for the global level and symmetric congruence effects (local-to-global as well as global-to local interference. We interpret these results as according to the view that reading is based on resident analytic visual processing strategies for letters.

Prevalence of swallowing and speech problems in daily life after chemoradiation for head and neck cancer based on cut-off scores of the patient-reported outcome measures SWAL-QOL and SHI.

Science.gov (United States)

Rinkel, Rico N; Verdonck-de Leeuw, Irma M; Doornaert, Patricia; Buter, Jan; de Bree, Remco; Langendijk, Johannes A; Aaronson, Neil K; Leemans, C René

2016-07-01

The objective of this study is to assess swallowing and speech outcome after chemoradiation therapy for head and neck cancer, based on the patient-reported outcome measures Swallowing Quality of Life Questionnaire (SWAL-QOL) and Speech Handicap Index (SHI), both provided with cut-off scores. This is a cross-sectional study. Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery of a University Medical Center. Sixty patients, 6 months to 5 years after chemoradiation for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Swallowing Quality of Life Questionnaire (SWAL-QOL) and SHI, both validated in Dutch and provided with cut-off scores. Associations were tested between the outcome measures and independent variables (age, gender, tumor stage and site, and radiotherapy technique, time since treatment, comorbidity and food intake). Fifty-two patients returned the SWAL-QOL and 47 the SHI (response rate 87 and 78 %, respectively). Swallowing and speech problems were present in 79 and 55 %, respectively. Normal food intake was noticed in 45, 35 % had a soft diet and 20 % tube feeding. Patients with soft diet and tube feeding reported more swallowing problems compared to patients with normal oral intake. Tumor subsite was significantly associated with swallowing outcome (less problems in larynx/hypopharynx compared to oral/oropharynx). Radiation technique was significantly associated with psychosocial speech problems (less problems in patients treated with IMRT). Swallowing and (to a lesser extent) speech problems in daily life are frequently present after chemoradiation therapy for head and neck cancer. Future prospective studies will give more insight into the course of speech and swallowing problems after chemoradiation and into efficacy of new radiation techniques and swallowing and speech rehabilitation programs.

Quality of Life With Ivabradine in Patients With Angina Pectoris: The Study Assessing the Morbidity-Mortality Benefits of the If Inhibitor Ivabradine in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease Quality of Life Substudy.

Science.gov (United States)

Tendera, Michal; Chassany, Olivier; Ferrari, Roberto; Ford, Ian; Steg, Philippe Gabriel; Tardif, Jean-Claude; Fox, Kim

2016-01-01

To explore the effect of ivabradine on angina-related quality of life (QoL) in patients participating in the Study Assessing the Morbidity-Mortality Benefits of the If Inhibitor Ivabradine in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease (SIGNIFY) QoL substudy. QoL was evaluated in a prespecified subgroup of SIGNIFY patients with angina (Canadian Cardiovascular Society class score, ≥ 2 at baseline) using the Seattle Angina Questionnaire and a generic visual analogue scale on health status. Data were available for 4187 patients (2084 ivabradine and 2103 placebo). There were improvements in QoL in both treatment groups. The primary outcome of change in physical limitation score at 12 months was 4.56 points for ivabradine versus 3.40 points for placebo (E, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, -0.14 to 2.05; P=0.085). The ivabradine-placebo difference in physical limitation score was significant at 6 months (P=0.048). At 12 months, the visual analogue scale and the other Seattle Angina Questionnaire dimensions were higher among ivabradine-treated patients, notably angina frequency (Pangina frequency (P=0.034). The effect on QoL was maintained over the study duration, and ivabradine patients had better scores on angina frequency at every visit to 36 months. Treatment with ivabradine did not affect the primary outcome of change in physical limitation score at 12 months. It did produce consistent improvements in other self-reported QoL parameters related to angina pectoris, notably in terms of angina frequency and disease perception. URL: http://www.isrctn.com. Unique identifier: ISRCTN61576291. © 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.

Design and globalization can graphic design in mass communication inspire a global culture?

OpenAIRE

Nguyen, V. (V.); Prebys, C. (C.)

2010-01-01

In this paper I deliver four points which support my assertion that graphic design in mass communication can inspire a global culture informed by Christianity. First, I argue that the environment in which people consistently find themselves will over time influence and affect the interior dispositions of the person, and when occurring in great numbers, the culture. I argue for the importance of graphic design as a vital component in the development of culture and how as visual ...

Action Video Games Improve Direction Discrimination of Parafoveal Translational Global Motion but Not Reaction Times.

Science.gov (United States)

Pavan, Andrea; Boyce, Matthew; Ghin, Filippo

2016-10-01

Playing action video games enhances visual motion perception. However, there is psychophysical evidence that action video games do not improve motion sensitivity for translational global moving patterns presented in fovea. This study investigates global motion perception in action video game players and compares their performance to that of non-action video game players and non-video game players. Stimuli were random dot kinematograms presented in the parafovea. Observers discriminated the motion direction of a target random dot kinematogram presented in one of the four visual quadrants. Action video game players showed lower motion coherence thresholds than the other groups. However, when the task was performed at threshold, we did not find differences between groups in terms of distributions of reaction times. These results suggest that action video games improve visual motion sensitivity in the near periphery of the visual field, rather than speed response. © The Author(s) 2016.

Longitudinal comparison of quality of life after real-time tumor-tracking intensity-modulated radiation therapy and radical prostatectomy in patients with localized prostate cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shinohara, Nobuo; Maruyama, Satoru; Abe, Takashige; Nonomura, Katsuya; Shimizu, Shinichi; Nishioka, Kentaro; Shirato, Hiroki; C-Hatanaka, Kanako; Oba, Koji

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of life (QOL) in patients with localized prostate cancer (PC) after intensity-modulated radiation therapy assisted with a fluoroscopic real-time intensity-modulated radiation therapy (RT-IMRT) tumor-tracking system versus the QOL after radical prostatectomy (RP). Between 2003 and 2006, 71 patients were enrolled in this longitudinal prospective study. Each patient was allowed to decide which treatment modality they would receive. Of the 71 patients, 23 patients underwent RT-IMRT, while 48 opted for RP. No patient received neo-adjuvant or adjuvant hormone therapy. The global QOL and disease-specific-QOL were evaluated before treatment and again at 1, 3 and 5 years after treatment. There was no significant difference in the background characteristics between the two groups. The 5-year biochemical progression-free survival was 90% in the RT-IMRT and 79% in the RP group. In the RT-IMRT group, there was no significant deterioration of the global QOL or disease-specific QOL through 5 years post-treatment. In the RP group, the urinary function, sexual function, and sexual bother indicators significantly deteriorated after treatment. Urinary and sexual function was significantly better in the RT-IMRT group at 1, 3 and 5 years post-treatment compared to the RP group. RT-IMRT may be a preferable treatment for localized PC because of similar efficacy to RP but better post-treatment QOL. (author)

Learning Visualizations by Analogy: Promoting Visual Literacy through Visualization Morphing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruchikachorn, Puripant; Mueller, Klaus

2015-09-01

We propose the concept of teaching (and learning) unfamiliar visualizations by analogy, that is, demonstrating an unfamiliar visualization method by linking it to another more familiar one, where the in-betweens are designed to bridge the gap of these two visualizations and explain the difference in a gradual manner. As opposed to a textual description, our morphing explains an unfamiliar visualization through purely visual means. We demonstrate our idea by ways of four visualization pair examples: data table and parallel coordinates, scatterplot matrix and hyperbox, linear chart and spiral chart, and hierarchical pie chart and treemap. The analogy is commutative i.e. any member of the pair can be the unfamiliar visualization. A series of studies showed that this new paradigm can be an effective teaching tool. The participants could understand the unfamiliar visualization methods in all of the four pairs either fully or at least significantly better after they observed or interacted with the transitions from the familiar counterpart. The four examples suggest how helpful visualization pairings be identified and they will hopefully inspire other visualization morphings and associated transition strategies to be identified.

Investigating Methods for Serving Visualizations of Vertical Profiles

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, J. T.; Cechini, M. F.; Lanjewar, K.; Rodriguez, J.; Boller, R. A.; Baynes, K.

2017-12-01

Several geospatial web servers, web service standards, and mapping clients exist for the visualization of two-dimensional raster and vector-based Earth science data products. However, data products with a vertical component (i.e., vertical profiles) do not have the same mature set of technologies and pose a greater technical challenge when it comes to visualizations. There are a variety of tools and proposed standards, but no obvious solution that can handle the variety of visualizations found with vertical profiles. An effort is being led by members of the NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) team to gather a list of technologies relevant to existing vertical profile data products and user stories. The goal is to find a subset of technologies, standards, and tools that can be used to build publicly accessible web services that can handle the greatest number of use cases for the widest audience possible. This presentation will describe results of the investigation and offer directions for moving forward with building a system that is capable of effectively and efficiently serving visualizations of vertical profiles.

Self-Orientation Modulates the Neural Correlates of Global and Local Processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Liddell, Belinda J; Das, Pritha; Battaglini, Eva; Malhi, Gin S; Felmingham, Kim L; Whitford, Thomas J; Bryant, Richard A

2015-01-01

Differences in self-orientation (or "self-construal") may affect how the visual environment is attended, but the neural and cultural mechanisms that drive this remain unclear. Behavioral studies have demonstrated that people from Western backgrounds with predominant individualistic values are perceptually biased towards local-level information; whereas people from non-Western backgrounds that support collectivist values are preferentially focused on contextual and global-level information. In this study, we compared two groups differing in predominant individualistic (N = 15) vs collectivistic (N = 15) self-orientation. Participants completed a global/local perceptual conflict task whilst undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanning. When participants high in individualistic values attended to the global level (ignoring the local level), greater activity was observed in the frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular networks that underpin attentional control, compared to the match (congruent) baseline. Participants high in collectivistic values activated similar attentional control networks o only when directly compared with global processing. This suggests that global interference was stronger than local interference in the conflict task in the collectivistic group. Both groups showed increased activity in dorsolateral prefrontal regions involved in resolving perceptual conflict during heightened distractor interference. The findings suggest that self-orientation may play an important role in driving attention networks to facilitate interaction with the visual environment.

Math for visualization, visualizing math

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijk, van J.J.; Hart, G.; Sarhangi, R.

2013-01-01

I present an overview of our work in visualization, and reflect on the role of mathematics therein. First, mathematics can be used as a tool to produce visualizations, which is illustrated with examples from information visualization, flow visualization, and cartography. Second, mathematics itself

Global facilitation of attended features is obligatory and restricts divided attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, Søren K; Hillyard, Steven A; Müller, Matthias M

2013-11-13

In many common situations such as driving an automobile it is advantageous to attend concurrently to events at different locations (e.g., the car in front, the pedestrian to the side). While spatial attention can be divided effectively between separate locations, studies investigating attention to nonspatial features have often reported a "global effect", whereby items having the attended feature may be preferentially processed throughout the entire visual field. These findings suggest that spatial and feature-based attention may at times act in direct opposition: spatially divided foci of attention cannot be truly independent if feature attention is spatially global and thereby affects all foci equally. In two experiments, human observers attended concurrently to one of two overlapping fields of dots of different colors presented in both the left and right visual fields. When the same color or two different colors were attended on the two sides, deviant targets were detected accurately, and visual-cortical potentials elicited by attended dots were enhanced. However, when the attended color on one side matched the ignored color on the opposite side, attentional modulation of cortical potentials was abolished. This loss of feature selectivity could be attributed to enhanced processing of unattended items that shared the color of the attended items in the opposite field. Thus, while it is possible to attend to two different colors at the same time, this ability is fundamentally constrained by spatially global feature enhancement in early visual-cortical areas, which is obligatory and persists even when it explicitly conflicts with task demands.

Mathematical Formula Program Application Visualization and Exercise Room and Construction Problems Using Interactive Visual Basic 6.0

OpenAIRE

Putri Soraya; Yudi Irawan Chandra, SKom, MMSI

2006-01-01

In the current era of globalization developments in science, technology and information increasingly fast and sophisticated. Many all fields associated with the computer because with knowledge of various computer performance is sought here. With easy to obtain such knowledge, the authors are interested in creating a collection of mathematical applications using Visual Basic 6.0. This application is made to meet the learning needs of students bagiu because the author saw the students are still...

Zooming into creativity: individual differences in attentional global-local biases are linked to creative thinking.

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Zmigrod, Sharon; Zmigrod, Leor; Hommel, Bernhard

2015-01-01

While recent studies have investigated how processes underlying human creativity are affected by particular visual-attentional states, we tested the impact of more stable attention-related preferences. These were assessed by means of Navon's global-local task, in which participants respond to the global or local features of large letters constructed from smaller letters. Three standard measures were derived from this task: the sizes of the global precedence effect, the global interference effect (i.e., the impact of incongruent letters at the global level on local processing), and the local interference effect (i.e., the impact of incongruent letters at the local level on global processing). These measures were correlated with performance in a convergent-thinking creativity task (the Remote Associates Task), a divergent-thinking creativity task (the Alternate Uses Task), and a measure of fluid intelligence (Raven's matrices). Flexibility in divergent thinking was predicted by the local interference effect while convergent thinking was predicted by intelligence only. We conclude that a stronger attentional bias to visual information about the "bigger picture" promotes cognitive flexibility in searching for multiple solutions.

Visualizing Data as Objects by DC (Difference of Convex) Optimization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carrizosa, Emilio; Guerrero, Vanesa; Morales, Dolores Romero

In this paper we address the problem of visualizing in a bounded region a set of individuals, which has attached a dissimilarity measure and a statistical value. This problem, which extends the standard Multidimensional Scaling Analysis, is written as a global optimization problem whose objective...

Applying Dataflow Architecture and Visualization Tools to In Vitro Pharmacology Data Automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pechter, David; Xu, Serena; Kurtz, Marc; Williams, Steven; Sonatore, Lisa; Villafania, Artjohn; Agrawal, Sony

2016-12-01

The pace and complexity of modern drug discovery places ever-increasing demands on scientists for data analysis and interpretation. Data flow programming and modern visualization tools address these demands directly. Three different requirements-one for allosteric modulator analysis, one for a specialized clotting analysis, and one for enzyme global progress curve analysis-are reviewed, and their execution in a combined data flow/visualization environment is outlined. © 2016 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

 Project Management as a Global Trend for Organization Work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kampf, Constance

in multination and global companies, understanding the power of visual rhetoric, genre and writing processes in the context of project management documentation can be an advantage for technical communicators.  In addition, project management tools and online documentation spaces are objects which cross...... Project Management as a Global Trend for Organization Work: Implications for Technical Communication Project Management tools and processes offer a visual approach to producing knowledge about a project in order to complete it.  As project management practices are used with increasing frequency......-cultural teams use to function.  This presentation will explore the potential of Project Management to be tightly integrated in Technical Communication curricula through a communications approach to project management.  Questions for discussion include: How tightly is project management integrated into different...

To be selected or not to be selected : a modeling and behavioral study of the mechanisms underlying stimulus-driven and top-down visual attention

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Voort van der Kleij, van der Gwendid T.

2007-01-01

This thesis investigates the mechanisms of stimulus-driven visual attention (global saliency), the mechanisms of top-down visual attention, and the interaction between these mechanisms, in visual search. Following the outline of an existing model of top-down visual attention, namely the Closed-Loop

Visualization of nonlinear kernel models in neuroimaging by sensitivity maps

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Peter Mondrup; Hansen, Lars Kai; Madsen, Kristoffer Hougaard

There is significant current interest in decoding mental states from neuroimages. In this context kernel methods, e.g., support vector machines (SVM) are frequently adopted to learn statistical relations between patterns of brain activation and experimental conditions. In this paper we focus...... on visualization of such nonlinear kernel models. Specifically, we investigate the sensitivity map as a technique for generation of global summary maps of kernel classification methods. We illustrate the performance of the sensitivity map on functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) data based on visual stimuli. We...

Alterations to global but not local motion processing in long-term ecstasy (MDMA) users.

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White, Claire; Brown, John; Edwards, Mark

2014-07-01

Growing evidence indicates that the main psychoactive ingredient in the illegal drug "ecstasy" (methylendioxymethamphetamine) causes reduced activity in the serotonin and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) systems in humans. On the basis of substantial serotonin input to the occipital lobe, recent research investigated visual processing in long-term users and found a larger magnitude of the tilt aftereffect, interpreted to reflect broadened orientation tuning bandwidths. Further research found higher orientation discrimination thresholds and reduced long-range interactions in the primary visual area of ecstasy users. The aim of the present research was to investigate whether serotonin-mediated V1 visual processing deficits in ecstasy users extend to motion processing mechanisms. Forty-five participants (21 controls, 24 drug users) completed two psychophysical studies: A direction discrimination study directly measured local motion processing in V1, while a motion coherence task tested global motion processing in area V5/MT. "Primary" ecstasy users (n = 18), those without substantial polydrug use, had significantly lower global motion thresholds than controls [p = 0.027, Cohen's d = 0.78 (large)], indicating increased sensitivity to global motion stimuli, but no difference in local motion processing (p = 0.365). These results extend on previous research investigating the long-term effects of illicit drugs on visual processing. Two possible explanations are explored: defuse attentional processes may be facilitating spatial pooling of motion signals in users. Alternatively, it may be that a GABA-mediated disruption to V5/MT processing is reducing spatial suppression and therefore improving global motion perception in ecstasy users.

Hormonal therapy is associated with better self-esteem, mood, and quality of life in transsexuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorin-Lazard, Audrey; Baumstarck, Karine; Boyer, Laurent; Maquigneau, Aurélie; Penochet, Jean-Claude; Pringuey, Dominique; Albarel, Frédérique; Morange, Isabelle; Bonierbale, Mireille; Lançon, Christophe; Auquier, Pascal

2013-11-01

Few studies have assessed the role of cross-sex hormones on psychological outcomes during the period of hormonal therapy preceding sex reassignment surgery in transsexuals. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between hormonal therapy, self-esteem, depression, quality of life (QoL), and global functioning. This study incorporated a cross-sectional design. The inclusion criteria were diagnosis of gender identity disorder (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision) and inclusion in a standardized sex reassignment procedure. The outcome measures were self-esteem (Social Self-Esteem Inventory), mood (Beck Depression Inventory), QoL (Subjective Quality of Life Analysis), and global functioning (Global Assessment of Functioning). Sixty-seven consecutive individuals agreed to participate. Seventy-three percent received hormonal therapy. Hormonal therapy was an independent factor in greater self-esteem, less severe depression symptoms, and greater "psychological-like" dimensions of QoL. These findings should provide pertinent information for health care providers who consider this period as a crucial part of the global sex reassignment procedure.

Peripheral global neglect in high vs. low autistic tendency

OpenAIRE

Crewther, Daniel P.; Crewther, David P.

2014-01-01

In addition to its core social deficits, autism is characterized by altered visual perception, with a preference for local percept in those high in autistic tendency. Here, the balance of global vs. local percepts for the perceptually rivalrous diamond illusion was assessed between groups scoring high and low on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). The global percept of a diamond shape oscillating horizontally behind three occluders can as easily be interpreted as the local percept of four line...

Peripheral global neglect in high versus low autistic tendency

OpenAIRE

Daniel Paul Crewther; David Philip Crewther

2014-01-01

In addition to its core social deficits, autism is characterised by altered visual perception, with a preference for local percept in those high in autistic tendency. Here, the balance of global versus local percepts for the perceptually rivalrous diamond illusion was assessed between groups scoring high and low on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). The global percept of a diamond shape oscillating horizontally behind three occluders can as easily be interpreted as the local percept of four l...

Evaluating the Quality of Life of Glaucoma Patients Using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.

Science.gov (United States)

Otori, Yasumasa; Takahashi, Genichiro; Urashima, Mitsuyoshi; Kuwayama, Yasuaki

2017-11-01

To evaluate anxiety felt by glaucoma patients. In total, 472 glaucoma patients responded to a questionnaire on anxiety, subjective symptoms, and vision-related quality of life (VR-QOL) associated with glaucoma. Anxiety was evaluated using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), state anxiety (STAI-State) subscale along with our novel questionnaire, assessing visual function and subjective symptoms, specialized for glaucoma. VR-QOL was evaluated using 5 subitems from the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25). Adherence to ophthalmic antiglaucoma agents was confirmed. As indexes of visual function, corrected visual acuity (measured by eye chart), mean deviation (MD) score (measured with static perimetry), and 4 thresholds at the center of vision were determined. Stages were classified according to the Aulhorn Classification. From the STAI-State scores, the prevalence of anxiety in glaucoma patients was evaluated. We analyzed the correlation between the STAI-State and VFQ-25, anxiety, subjective symptoms, adherence, and visual function indexes. In total, 78% of glaucoma patients experienced at least an intermediate level of anxiety. The STAI-State correlated significantly with anxiety and subjective symptoms as measured by our novel questionnaire, particularly for questions "current anxiety about loss of vision" and "current anxiety in life" (r=0.468 and 0.500; both Pglaucoma patients feel anxiety. The STAI-State is correlated with the VR-QOL and anxiety in glaucoma patients, making it useful for understanding the anxiety present in glaucoma patients.

Direct Contribution of Auditory Motion Information to Sound-Induced Visual Motion Perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Souta Hidaka

2011-10-01

Full Text Available We have recently demonstrated that alternating left-right sound sources induce motion perception to static visual stimuli along the horizontal plane (SIVM: sound-induced visual motion perception, Hidaka et al., 2009. The aim of the current study was to elucidate whether auditory motion signals, rather than auditory positional signals, can directly contribute to the SIVM. We presented static visual flashes at retinal locations outside the fovea together with a lateral auditory motion provided by a virtual stereo noise source smoothly shifting in the horizontal plane. The flashes appeared to move in the situation where auditory positional information would have little influence on the perceived position of visual stimuli; the spatiotemporal position of the flashes was in the middle of the auditory motion trajectory. Furthermore, the auditory motion altered visual motion perception in a global motion display; in this display, different localized motion signals of multiple visual stimuli were combined to produce a coherent visual motion perception so that there was no clear one-to-one correspondence between the auditory stimuli and each visual stimulus. These findings suggest the existence of direct interactions between the auditory and visual modalities in motion processing and motion perception.

Quality of life in cancer patients undergoing anticoagulant treatment with LMWH for venous thromboembolism: the QUAVITEC study on behalf of the Groupe Francophone Thrombose et Cancer (GFTC).

Science.gov (United States)

Farge, Dominique; Cajfinger, Francis; Falvo, Nicolas; Berremili, Toufek; Couturaud, Francis; Bensaoula, Okba; Védrine, Lionel; Bensalha, Hocine; Bonnet, Isabelle; Péré-Vergé, Denis; Coudurier, Marie; Li, Veronique; Rafii, Hanadi; Benzidia, Ilham; Connors, Jean M; Resche-Rigon, Matthieu

2018-06-05

Clinical guidelines recommend at least 3-months low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) treatment for established venous thromboembolism (VTE) in cancer patients. However, no study has analyzed the impact of 3-6 months of LMWH therapy on quality-of-life (QoL) in cancer patients. Among 400 cancer patients included at M0, 88.8% received long-term LMWH. Using a random-effects linear regression model with time as covariate, QoL scores in the MOS SF-36 (Global HRQoL, 1.3-fold per month [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.81-1.79], p < 0.0001) and EORTC QLQ-C30 (global health status/qol, 2.25-fold per month [95% CI 1.63-2.88]; p < 0.0001) questionnaires significantly improved over the 6-month study period in patients treated with LMWH, while VEINES-QOL scores did not change. In the MOS SF-36 and EORTC QLQ-C30, the following factors were associated with change in QoL: symptomatic VTE, cancer dissemination and histological type. Factors pertaining to reduced mobility were also identified as significant predictors of QoL outcomes, including being bedridden in the MOS SF-36 and ECOG score ≥ 2 in the EORTC QLQ-C30. Presence of acute infection and not undergoing anti-angiogenic therapy were additional factors associated with QoL improvement in the EORTC QLQ-C30. QUAVITEC, a prospective, longitudinal, multicenter study, recruited all consecutive eligible adult cancer patients with objectively confirmed VTE between February 2011 and 2012. Patients were asked to answer three QoL questionnaires at anticoagulant treatment initiation (M0) and at 3 (M3) and 6 (M6)-month follow-ups. QUAVITEC is the first study to show that QoL was improved in cancer patients receiving long-term LMWH treatment for established VTE.

Remote Sensing of Martian Terrain Hazards via Visually Salient Feature Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Milli, S.; Shaukat, A.; Spiteri, C.; Gao, Y.

2014-04-01

The main objective of the FASTER remote sensing system is the detection of rocks on planetary surfaces by employing models that can efficiently characterise rocks in terms of semantic descriptions. The proposed technique abates some of the algorithmic limitations of existing methods with no training requirements, lower computational complexity and greater robustness towards visual tracking applications over long-distance planetary terrains. Visual saliency models inspired from biological systems help to identify important regions (such as rocks) in the visual scene. Surface rocks are therefore completely described in terms of their local or global conspicuity pop-out characteristics. These local and global pop-out cues are (but not limited to); colour, depth, orientation, curvature, size, luminance intensity, shape, topology etc. The currently applied methods follow a purely bottom-up strategy of visual attention for selection of conspicuous regions in the visual scene without any topdown control. Furthermore the choice of models used (tested and evaluated) are relatively fast among the state-of-the-art and have very low computational load. Quantitative evaluation of these state-ofthe- art models was carried out using benchmark datasets including the Surrey Space Centre Lab Testbed, Pangu generated images, RAL Space SEEKER and CNES Mars Yard datasets. The analysis indicates that models based on visually salient information in the frequency domain (SRA, SDSR, PQFT) are the best performing ones for detecting rocks in an extra-terrestrial setting. In particular the SRA model seems to be the most optimum of the lot especially that it requires the least computational time while keeping errors competitively low. The salient objects extracted using these models can then be merged with the Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) generated from the same navigation cameras in order to be fused to the navigation map thus giving a clear indication of the rock locations.

On the use of visual methodologies in educational policy research

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In so doing, we suggest that the use of visual methodologies can help us to rethink policy, particularly in relation to studying social difference in globalizing ...... Religion, race, rights: Landmarks in the history of modern Anglo-American law. .... Governing the present: Administering economic, social and personal life.

Visual art and visual perception

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koenderink, Jan J.

2015-01-01

Visual art and visual perception ‘Visual art’ has become a minor cul-de-sac orthogonal to THE ART of the museum directors and billionaire collectors. THE ART is conceptual, instead of visual. Among its cherished items are the tins of artist’s shit (Piero Manzoni, 1961, Merda d’Artista) “worth their

Stepping Into Science Data: Data Visualization in Virtual Reality

Science.gov (United States)

Skolnik, S.

2017-12-01

Have you ever seen people get really excited about science data? Navteca, along with the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), within the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate have been exploring virtual reality (VR) technology for the next generation of Earth science technology information systems. One of their first joint experiments was visualizing climate data from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) in VR, and the resulting visualizations greatly excited the scientific community. This presentation will share the value of VR for science, such as the capability of permitting the observer to interact with data rendered in real-time, make selections, and view volumetric data in an innovative way. Using interactive VR hardware (headset and controllers), the viewer steps into the data visualizations, physically moving through three-dimensional structures that are traditionally displayed as layers or slices, such as cloud and storm systems from NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM). Results from displaying this precipitation and cloud data show that there is interesting potential for scientific visualization, 3D/4D visualizations, and inter-disciplinary studies using VR. Additionally, VR visualizations can be leveraged as 360 content for scientific communication and outreach and VR can be used as a tool to engage policy and decision makers, as well as the public.

Visual objects and universal meanings: AIDS posters and the politics of globalisation and history.

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, Claudia; Cooter, Roger

2011-01-01

Drawing on recent visual and spatial turns in history writing, this paper considers AIDS posters from the perspective of their museum 'afterlife' as collected material objects. Museum spaces serve changing political and epistemological projects, and the visual objects they house are not immune from them. A recent globally themed exhibition of AIDS posters at an arts and crafts museum in Hamburg is cited in illustration. The exhibition also serves to draw attention to institutional continuities in collecting agendas. Revealed, contrary to postmodernist expectations, is how today's application of aesthetic display for the purpose of making 'global connections' does not radically break with the virtues and morals attached to the visual at the end of the nineteenth century. The historicisation of such objects needs to take into account this complicated mix of change and continuity in aesthetic concepts and political inscriptions. Otherwise, historians fall prey to seductive aesthetics without being aware of the politics of them. This article submits that aesthetics is politics.

Visual Objects and Universal Meanings: AIDS Posters and the Politics of Globalisation and History

Science.gov (United States)

STEIN, CLAUDIA; COOTER, ROGER

2011-01-01

Drawing on recent visual and spatial turns in history writing, this paper considers AIDS posters from the perspective of their museum ‘afterlife’ as collected material objects. Museum spaces serve changing political and epistemological projects, and the visual objects they house are not immune from them. A recent globally themed exhibition of AIDS posters at an arts and crafts museum in Hamburg is cited in illustration. The exhibition also serves to draw attention to institutional continuities in collecting agendas. Revealed, contrary to postmodernist expectations, is how today’s application of aesthetic display for the purpose of making ‘global connections’ does not radically break with the virtues and morals attached to the visual at the end of the nineteenth century. The historicisation of such objects needs to take into account this complicated mix of change and continuity in aesthetic concepts and political inscriptions. Otherwise, historians fall prey to seductive aesthetics without being aware of the politics of them. This article submits that aesthetics is politics. PMID:23752866

Quality of life assessment as a predictor of survival in non-small cell lung cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Staren Edgar D

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There are conflicting and inconsistent results in the literature on the prognostic role of quality of life (QoL in cancer. We investigated whether QoL at admission could predict survival in lung cancer patients. Methods The study population consisted of 1194 non-small cell lung cancer patients treated at our institution between Jan 2001 and Dec 2008. QoL was evaluated using EORTC-QLQ-C30 prior to initiation of treatment. Patient survival was defined as the time interval between the date of first patient visit and the date of death from any cause/date of last contact. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression evaluated the prognostic significance of QoL. Results Mean age at presentation was 58.3 years. There were 605 newly diagnosed and 589 previously treated patients; 601 males and 593 females. Stage of disease at diagnosis was I, 100; II, 63; III, 348; IV, 656; and 27 indeterminate. Upon multivariate analyses, global QoL as well as physical function predicted patient survival in the entire study population. Every 10-point increase in physical function was associated with a 10% increase in survival (95% CI = 6% to 14%, p Conclusions Baseline global QoL and physical function provide useful prognostic information in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Visual Saliency Models for Text Detection in Real World.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renwu Gao

Full Text Available This paper evaluates the degree of saliency of texts in natural scenes using visual saliency models. A large scale scene image database with pixel level ground truth is created for this purpose. Using this scene image database and five state-of-the-art models, visual saliency maps that represent the degree of saliency of the objects are calculated. The receiver operating characteristic curve is employed in order to evaluate the saliency of scene texts, which is calculated by visual saliency models. A visualization of the distribution of scene texts and non-texts in the space constructed by three kinds of saliency maps, which are calculated using Itti's visual saliency model with intensity, color and orientation features, is given. This visualization of distribution indicates that text characters are more salient than their non-text neighbors, and can be captured from the background. Therefore, scene texts can be extracted from the scene images. With this in mind, a new visual saliency architecture, named hierarchical visual saliency model, is proposed. Hierarchical visual saliency model is based on Itti's model and consists of two stages. In the first stage, Itti's model is used to calculate the saliency map, and Otsu's global thresholding algorithm is applied to extract the salient region that we are interested in. In the second stage, Itti's model is applied to the salient region to calculate the final saliency map. An experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed model outperforms Itti's model in terms of captured scene texts.

Which factors determine our quality of life, health and ability? Results from a Danish population sample and the Copenhagen perinatal cohort.

Science.gov (United States)

Ventegodt, Søren; Flensborg-Madsen, Trine; Andersen, Niels Jørgen; Merrick, Joav

2008-07-01

To examine the statistical associations between Global Quality of Life (QOL) and a series of indicators representing health, ability, philosophy of life, sexuality, quality of working life and other medically relevant aspects of life. Cross-sectional comparative study using the self-administered SEQOL questionnaire. The Quality of Life Research Center, the University Hospital Copenhagen, Denmark. (1) A representative sample of 2,500 Danes (18-88 years) randomly selected from the CPR register, (2) Follow-up survey of members of the Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort, 4,648 Danes (31-33 years). The associations were measured qualitatively as well as quantitatively calculating the difference in percentage and using the method of weight modified linear regression. QOL, measured by SEQOL (self-evaluation of quality of life), containing eight global QOL measures: well-being, life-satisfaction, happiness, fulfillment of needs, experience of temporal and spatial domains, expression of life's potentials and objective factors. Strongest was the association between QOL, overall view of life (41.5% / 59.1%), relationship to self (39.3% / 56.8%), partner (32.2% / 31.7%) and friends (33.3% / 42.7%). Different aspects of physical as well as psychological health were also strongly correlated with QOL: self-perceived physical health (33.2% /29.4%), satisfaction with own health (27.3% / 29.0%), self-perceived mental health (38.4/51.0), number of severe health problems (29.8% / 35.3%). Objective factors such as income, age, sex, weight and social group did not have any noteworthy relationship to QOL, and neither did lifestyle factors such as tobacco and alcohol consumption, drug use, exercise, and diet. It seems that the factors important for present QOL and health is derived from good relations, with the close as well as the distant world, and overall view of life. What one possesses in objective terms--money, status, work--does not seem to be important to global quality of life and

Visual assessment of brain magnetic resonance imaging detects injury to cognitive regulatory sites in patients with heart failure.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Alan; Kumar, Rajesh; Macey, Paul M; Fonarow, Gregg C; Harper, Ronald M; Woo, Mary A

2013-02-01

Heart failure (HF) patients exhibit depression and executive function impairments that contribute to HF mortality. Using specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis procedures, brain changes appear in areas regulating these functions (mammillary bodies, hippocampi, and frontal cortex). However, specialized MRI procedures are not part of standard clinical assessment for HF (which is usually a visual evaluation), and it is unclear whether visual MRI examination can detect changes in these structures. Using brain MRI, we visually examined the mammillary bodies and frontal cortex for global and hippocampi for global and regional tissue changes in 17 HF and 50 control subjects. Significantly global changes emerged in the right mammillary body (HF 1.18 ± 1.13 vs control 0.52 ± 0.74; P = .024), right hippocampus (HF 1.53 ± 0.94 vs control 0.80 ± 0.86; P = .005), and left frontal cortex (HF 1.76 ± 1.03 vs control 1.24 ± 0.77; P = .034). Comparison of the visual method with specialized MRI techniques corroborates right hippocampal and left frontal cortical, but not mammillary body, tissue changes. Visual examination of brain MRI can detect damage in HF in areas regulating depression and executive function, including the right hippocampus and left frontal cortex. Visual MRI assessment in HF may facilitate evaluation of injury to these structures and the assessment of the impact of potential treatments for this damage. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Formula Making Mathematical Visualization and Exercise Room and Construction Problems Using Microsoft Visual Basic Interactive 6.0

OpenAIRE

Putri Soraya; Yudi Irawan Chandra, SKom, MMSI

2006-01-01

In the current era of globalization developments in science, technology and information increasingly fast and sophisticated. Many all fields associated with a computer because with a variety of computer knowledge can be searched here. With the convenience to gain that knowledge then the authors are interested in creating applications using the mathematical formula set Ms Visual Basic 6.0. This application is made to meet the needs of the learning process for students because the authors saw ...

Ultra-scale Visualization Climate Data Analysis Tools (UV-CDAT)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Williams, Dean N. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Silva, Claudio [New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States). Computer Science and Engineering Dept.

2013-09-30

For the past three years, a large analysis and visualization effort—funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—has brought together a wide variety of industry-standard scientific computing libraries and applications to create Ultra-scale Visualization Climate Data Analysis Tools (UV-CDAT) to serve the global climate simulation and observational research communities. To support interactive analysis and visualization, all components connect through a provenance application–programming interface to capture meaningful history and workflow. Components can be loosely coupled into the framework for fast integration or tightly coupled for greater system functionality and communication with other components. The overarching goal of UV-CDAT is to provide a new paradigm for access to and analysis of massive, distributed scientific data collections by leveraging distributed data architectures located throughout the world. The UV-CDAT framework addresses challenges in analysis and visualization and incorporates new opportunities, including parallelism for better efficiency, higher speed, and more accurate scientific inferences. Today, it provides more than 600 users access to more analysis and visualization products than any other single source.

Visualization rhetoric: framing effects in narrative visualization.

Science.gov (United States)

Hullman, Jessica; Diakopoulos, Nicholas

2011-12-01

Narrative visualizations combine conventions of communicative and exploratory information visualization to convey an intended story. We demonstrate visualization rhetoric as an analytical framework for understanding how design techniques that prioritize particular interpretations in visualizations that "tell a story" can significantly affect end-user interpretation. We draw a parallel between narrative visualization interpretation and evidence from framing studies in political messaging, decision-making, and literary studies. Devices for understanding the rhetorical nature of narrative information visualizations are presented, informed by the rigorous application of concepts from critical theory, semiotics, journalism, and political theory. We draw attention to how design tactics represent additions or omissions of information at various levels-the data, visual representation, textual annotations, and interactivity-and how visualizations denote and connote phenomena with reference to unstated viewing conventions and codes. Classes of rhetorical techniques identified via a systematic analysis of recent narrative visualizations are presented, and characterized according to their rhetorical contribution to the visualization. We describe how designers and researchers can benefit from the potentially positive aspects of visualization rhetoric in designing engaging, layered narrative visualizations and how our framework can shed light on how a visualization design prioritizes specific interpretations. We identify areas where future inquiry into visualization rhetoric can improve understanding of visualization interpretation. © 2011 IEEE

'Silent voices' in health services research: ethnicity and socioeconomic variation in participation in studies of quality of life in childhood visual disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Tadic, Valerie; Hamblion, Esther Louise; Keeley, Sarah; Cumberland, Phillippa; Lewando Hundt, Gillian; Rahi, Jugnoo Sangeeta

2010-04-01

Purpose. To investigate patterns of participation of visually impaired (VI) children and their families in health services research. Methods. The authors compared clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of children and their families who participated with those who did not participate in two studies of quality of life (QoL) of VI children. In Study 1, the authors interviewed VI children and adolescents, aged 10 to 15 years, about their vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) as the first phase of a program to develop a VRQoL instrument for this population. One hundred seven children with visual impairment (visual acuity in the better eye LogMar worse than 0.51) were invited to participate in the interviews. Study 2 investigated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of VI children using an existing generic instrument, administered in a postal survey. 151 VI children and adolescents, aged 2 to 16 years, with hereditary retinal disorders were invited to participate in the survey. Results. The overall participation level was below 50%. In both studies, participants from white ethnic and more affluent socioeconomic backgrounds were overrepresented. Participation did not vary by age, sex, or clinical characteristics. Conclusions. The authors suggest that there are barriers to participation in child- and family-centered research on childhood visual disability for children from socioeconomically deprived or ethnic minority groups. They urge assessment and reporting of participation patterns in further health services research on childhood visual disability. Failure to recognize that there are "silent voices" is likely to have important implications for equitable and appropriate service planning and provision for VI children.

Accurate or Assumed: Visual Learning in Children with ASD

Science.gov (United States)

Trembath, David; Vivanti, Giacomo; Iacono, Teresa; Dissanayake, Cheryl

2015-01-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often described as visual learners. We tested this assumption in an experiment in which 25 children with ASD, 19 children with global developmental delay (GDD), and 17 typically developing (TD) children were presented a series of videos via an eye tracker in which an actor instructed them to…

WetDATA Hub: Democratizing Access to Water Data to Accelerate Innovation through Data Visualization, Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Sarni, W.

2017-12-01

Water scarcity and poor quality impacts economic development, business growth, and social well-being. Water has become, in our generation, the foremost critical local, regional, and global issue of our time. Despite these needs, there is no water hub or water technology accelerator solely dedicated to water data and tools. There is a need by the public and private sectors for vastly improved data management and visualization tools. This is the WetDATA opportunity - to develop a water data tech hub dedicated to water data acquisition, analytics, and visualization tools for informed policy and business decisions. WetDATA's tools will help incubate disruptive water data technologies and accelerate adoption of current water data solutions. WetDATA is a Colorado-based (501c3), global hub for water data analytics and technology innovation. WetDATA's vision is to be a global leader in water information, data technology innovation and collaborate with other US and global water technology hubs. ROADMAP * Portal (www.wetdata.org) to provide stakeholders with tools/resources to understand related water risks. * The initial activities will provide education, awareness and tools to stakeholders to support the implementation of the Colorado State Water Plan. * Leverage the Western States Water Council Water Data Exchange database. * Development of visualization, predictive analytics and AI tools to engage with stakeholders and provide actionable data and information. TOOLS Education: Provide information on water issues and risks at the local, state, national and global scale. Visualizations: Development of data analytics and visualization tools based upon the 2030 Water Resources Group methodology to support the implementation of the Colorado State Water Plan. Predictive Analytics: Accessing publically available water databases and using machine learning to develop water availability forecasting tools, and time lapse images to support city / urban planning.

Visual laterality in dolphins: importance of the familiarity of stimuli

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Many studies of cerebral asymmetries in different species lead, on the one hand, to a better understanding of the functions of each cerebral hemisphere and, on the other hand, to develop an evolutionary history of hemispheric laterality. Our animal model is particularly interesting because of its original evolutionary path, i.e. return to aquatic life after a terrestrial phase. The rare reports concerning visual laterality of marine mammals investigated mainly discrimination processes. As dolphins are migrant species they are confronted to a changing environment. Being able to categorize new versus familiar objects would allow dolphins a rapid adaptation to novel environments. Visual laterality could be a prerequisite to this adaptability. To date, no study, to our knowledge, has analyzed the environmental factors that could influence their visual laterality. Results We investigated visual laterality expressed spontaneously at the water surface by a group of five common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in response to various stimuli. The stimuli presented ranged from very familiar objects (known and manipulated previously) to familiar objects (known but never manipulated) to unfamiliar objects (unknown, never seen previously). At the group level, dolphins used their left eye to observe very familiar objects and their right eye to observe unfamiliar objects. However, eyes are used indifferently to observe familiar objects with intermediate valence. Conclusion Our results suggest different visual cerebral processes based either on the global shape of well-known objects or on local details of unknown objects. Moreover, the manipulation of an object appears necessary for these dolphins to construct a global representation of an object enabling its immediate categorization for subsequent use. Our experimental results pointed out some cognitive capacities of dolphins which might be crucial for their wild life given their fission-fusion social system

Visual laterality in dolphins: importance of the familiarity of stimuli

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blois-Heulin Catherine

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Many studies of cerebral asymmetries in different species lead, on the one hand, to a better understanding of the functions of each cerebral hemisphere and, on the other hand, to develop an evolutionary history of hemispheric laterality. Our animal model is particularly interesting because of its original evolutionary path, i.e. return to aquatic life after a terrestrial phase. The rare reports concerning visual laterality of marine mammals investigated mainly discrimination processes. As dolphins are migrant species they are confronted to a changing environment. Being able to categorize new versus familiar objects would allow dolphins a rapid adaptation to novel environments. Visual laterality could be a prerequisite to this adaptability. To date, no study, to our knowledge, has analyzed the environmental factors that could influence their visual laterality. Results We investigated visual laterality expressed spontaneously at the water surface by a group of five common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus in response to various stimuli. The stimuli presented ranged from very familiar objects (known and manipulated previously to familiar objects (known but never manipulated to unfamiliar objects (unknown, never seen previously. At the group level, dolphins used their left eye to observe very familiar objects and their right eye to observe unfamiliar objects. However, eyes are used indifferently to observe familiar objects with intermediate valence. Conclusion Our results suggest different visual cerebral processes based either on the global shape of well-known objects or on local details of unknown objects. Moreover, the manipulation of an object appears necessary for these dolphins to construct a global representation of an object enabling its immediate categorization for subsequent use. Our experimental results pointed out some cognitive capacities of dolphins which might be crucial for their wild life given their

The Development of Spatial Configuration Processing of Visual Word Forms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chienhui Kao

2011-05-01

Full Text Available The analysis of spatial relationship, or configuration, among the components of a character is important for visual word form recognition (Kao et al., 2010. We investigated such spatial configuration processing in dyslexics and developing populations. Four types of characters: real- and non-characters and their upside-down versions were used in this study. The task of the observers was to determine whether two characters presented on the display were identical. One group of dyslexic children (Dys and two groups of non-dyslexic controls, one (RL matched Dys in reading performance and the other (CA matched in age, were recruited in this study. Dys performed significantly worse than the control groups for all character types, suggesting a worse visual word form processing in dyslexics. For Dys and CA, the proportional correct response for the upright real characters was better than that for their upside-down versions. RL, (which was younger showed the same effect for the non-characters. Since the non-characters disrupts the global configuration while the inverted characters disrupted both local and global configurations, our results suggest that younger children recognize a word with an analysis of the local configuration while older children, regardless of whether they are dyslexics or not, analyze the global configuration.

Entrainment to a real time fractal visual stimulus modulates fractal gait dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Rhea, Christopher K; Kiefer, Adam W; D'Andrea, Susan E; Warren, William H; Aaron, Roy K

2014-08-01

Fractal patterns characterize healthy biological systems and are considered to reflect the ability of the system to adapt to varying environmental conditions. Previous research has shown that fractal patterns in gait are altered following natural aging or disease, and this has potential negative consequences for gait adaptability that can lead to increased risk of injury. However, the flexibility of a healthy neurological system to exhibit different fractal patterns in gait has yet to be explored, and this is a necessary step toward understanding human locomotor control. Fifteen participants walked for 15min on a treadmill, either in the absence of a visual stimulus or while they attempted to couple the timing of their gait with a visual metronome that exhibited a persistent fractal pattern (contained long-range correlations) or a random pattern (contained no long-range correlations). The stride-to-stride intervals of the participants were recorded via analog foot pressure switches and submitted to detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) to determine if the fractal patterns during the visual metronome conditions differed from the baseline (no metronome) condition. DFA α in the baseline condition was 0.77±0.09. The fractal patterns in the stride-to-stride intervals were significantly altered when walking to the fractal metronome (DFA α=0.87±0.06) and to the random metronome (DFA α=0.61±0.10) (both p<.05 when compared to the baseline condition), indicating that a global change in gait dynamics was observed. A variety of strategies were identified at the local level with a cross-correlation analysis, indicating that local behavior did not account for the consistent global changes. Collectively, the results show that a gait dynamics can be shifted in a prescribed manner using a visual stimulus and the shift appears to be a global phenomenon. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Visualizing Vector Fields Using Line Integral Convolution and Dye Advection

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Han-Wei; Johnson, Christopher R.; Ma, Kwan-Liu

1996-01-01

We present local and global techniques to visualize three-dimensional vector field data. Using the Line Integral Convolution (LIC) method to image the global vector field, our new algorithm allows the user to introduce colored 'dye' into the vector field to highlight local flow features. A fast algorithm is proposed that quickly recomputes the dyed LIC images. In addition, we introduce volume rendering methods that can map the LIC texture on any contour surface and/or translucent region defined by additional scalar quantities, and can follow the advection of colored dye throughout the volume.

Insulin resistence and health-related quality of life in postmenopausal women.

Science.gov (United States)

Llaneza, Placido; González, Celestino; Fernandez-Iñarrea, Jose; Alonso, Ana; Arnott, Ignacio; Ferrer-Barriendos, Javier

2009-04-01

Health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) was similar between the menopausal women with and without Insulin Resistance (IR). However, when IR women with Metabolic Syndrome were considered, a higher level of problems on the HR-QOL global score was found and the difference was mainly due to Health and Sexuality domains.

Vision-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Ocular Graft-versus-Host Disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Saboo, Ujwala S; Amparo, Francisco; Abud, Tulio B; Schaumberg, Debra A; Dana, Reza

2015-08-01

To assess the vision-related quality of life (QOL) in a cohort of patients with ocular graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Prospective study. Eighty-four patients diagnosed with chronic ocular GVHD. We assessed the vision-related QOL with the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25). The symptoms of ocular GVHD were assessed using the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and Symptom Assessment in Dry Eye (SANDE) questionnaires. We assessed vision-related QOL with the NEI-VFQ-25 and compared the scores obtained from patients with ocular GVHD with those from a healthy population. In the ocular GVHD population, we also evaluated the associations between the NEI-VFQ-25 and the dry eye symptoms measured by the OSDI and SANDE questionnaires, age, duration of disease, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), corneal fluorescein staining (CFS), tear break-up time, and Schirmer test. The mean composite NEI-VFQ-25 score in patients with ocular GVHD was 76.5±17. Compared with healthy subjects, patients with ocular GVHD reported reduced scores on all NEI-VFQ-25 subscales (each P vision (P = 0.11). The NEI-VFQ-25 composite scores significantly correlated with OSDI (R = -0.81, P vision-related QOL. This study highlights the impact of ocular GVHD on the vision-related QOL, and thus the importance of comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of this condition. Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Optimization Method for Virtual Globe Ocean Surface Dynamic Visualization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HUANG Wumeng

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The existing visualization method in the virtual globe mainly uses the projection grid to organize the ocean grid. This special grid organization has the defects in reflecting the difference characteristics of different ocean areas. The method of global ocean visualization based on global discrete grid can make up the defect of the projection grid method by matching with the discrete space of the virtual globe, so it is more suitable for the virtual ocean surface simulation application.But the available global discrete grids method has many problems which limiting its application such as the low efficiency of rendering and loading, the need of repairing grid crevices. To this point, we propose an optimization for the global discrete grids method. At first, a GPU-oriented multi-scale grid model of ocean surface which develops on the foundation of global discrete grids was designed to organize and manage the ocean surface grids. Then, in order to achieve the wind-drive wave dynamic rendering, this paper proposes a dynamic wave rendering method based on the multi-scale ocean surface grid model to support real-time wind field updating. At the same time, considering the effect of repairing grid crevices on the system efficiency, this paper presents an efficient method for repairing ocean surface grid crevices based on the characteristics of ocean grid and GPU technology. At last, the feasibility and validity of the method are verified by the comparison experiment. The experimental results show that the proposed method is efficient, stable and fast, and can compensate for the lack of function of the existing methods, so the application range is more extensive.

Outcomes of xerostomia-related quality of life for nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated by IMRT: based on the EORTC QLQ-C30 and H&N35 questionnaires.

Science.gov (United States)

Bian, Xiuhua; Song, Tao; Wu, Shixiu

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to review the published literature addressing the question of whether intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) resulted in an improvement of quality of life (QoL), especially xerostomia-related QoL of all nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients as time progressed. A literature search of PubMed, Embase and Google Scholar was performed, only reports containing original data of the QoL scores after treated by IMRT were included. Two independent reviewers extracted information of study design, study population, interventions, outcome measures and conclusions for each article. The inclusion criteria were met by 14 articles covering outcomes based on the questionnaires treated by IMRT. Data from same questionnaires (European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 and H&N35 questionnaires) were exacted and we analyzed four items (global health status, dry mouth and sticky saliva, swallowing, social eating and social contact), which have a close relationship with xerostomia-related QoL. Results indicated that a maximal deterioration of most QoL scales including global health status developed during treatment or at the end of the treatment course and then followed by a gradual recovery to 1 year, 1-2 years after IMRT, compared with their baseline level, some specific head and neck items, most in the EORTC QLQ H&N35, remained worse for the surviving patients. In conclusion, the published data reasonably support the benefits of IMRT in improving QoL, but xerostomia-related items still had a significantly negative effect in 2 years to impact a survivor's QoL.

Using Interactive Technology to Support Students' Understanding of the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming

Science.gov (United States)

Varma, Keisha; Linn, Marcia C.

2012-01-01

In this work, we examine middle school students' understanding of the greenhouse effect and global warming. We designed and refined a technology-enhanced curriculum module called "Global Warming: Virtual Earth". In the module activities, students conduct virtual experiments with a visualization of the greenhouse effect. They analyze data and draw…

Oculo-visual status of newly employed workers in a tertiary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Visual impairment due to ocular diseases is a significant public health problem in many parts of the world including Nigeria. Worldwide, more than one billion people suffer from poor vision because they do not have the eyeglasses they need. Uncorrected refractive errors are a major cause of global disability ...

Multi-Agent Framework in Visual Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. M. Molina

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The recent interest in the surveillance of public, military, and commercial scenarios is increasing the need to develop and deploy intelligent and/or automated distributed visual surveillance systems. Many applications based on distributed resources use the so-called software agent technology. In this paper, a multi-agent framework is applied to coordinate videocamera-based surveillance. The ability to coordinate agents improves the global image and task distribution efficiency. In our proposal, a software agent is embedded in each camera and controls the capture parameters. Then coordination is based on the exchange of high-level messages among agents. Agents use an internal symbolic model to interpret the current situation from the messages from all other agents to improve global coordination.

Quality of life changes following inpatient and outpatient treatment in obsessive-compulsive disorder: a study with 12 months follow-up

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hertenstein Elisabeth

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Quality of life (QoL is increasingly recognized as a critical outcome parameter in mental health studies. The aim of this study was to investigate different domains of the QoL in persons with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD before and after a multimodal, disorder-specific in- and outpatient treatment. Methods Data of 73 persons with OCD treated in an inpatient setting followed by outpatient treatment were analyzed. The World Health Organization Quality of Life abbreviated (a multidimensional measure of the QoL and the Beck Depression Inventory were administered prior to (baseline and 12 months after the inpatient treatment (follow-up. Results At baseline, participants reported a significantly diminished psychological, social, physical, and global QoL compared to the German general population. Environmental QoL was not impaired in the present sample. The QoL was significantly improved at follow-up, except for social QoL, but remained below norm values. The QoL improvement was predicted by improvements of depressive symptoms. Conclusions The results indicate that persons with OCD suffer from a very low QoL. The QoL was significantly improved after 12 months of intensive state-of-the-art treatment. However, the QoL indices remained considerably lower than population norm values, indicating the need for additional research into novel treatment options for persons with OCD.

Pain, Sleep Disturbance, and Quality of Life Among Palestinian Patients Diagnosed with Cancer.

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Dreidi, Mu'taz M; Hamdan-Mansour, Ayman M

2016-12-01

The objective of this descriptive study is to explore the relationships between pain, sleep disturbance, and quality of life among Palestinian patients diagnosed with cancer in the West Bank. A cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational design was used to collect data from 184 patients with cancer. The quality of life questionnaire, visual analogue pain scale, and physical health status were used in data collection. The results showed that the mean score for pain was 5, the best functioning was for cognitive scale (M = 75, SD = 29), the worst symptoms experienced by patients was appetite loss (M = 47, SD = 35), a moderate global health status (M = 53, SD = 27), and the mean for sleep disturbance was 43 (SD = 35). Pain and sleep disturbance showed high negative correlations with functional scales of quality of life and positive with symptom scales. The findings showed that the co-occurrence of pain and sleep disturbance was negatively correlated with quality of life (QoL) and positively with symptom scales. The regression analysis revealed that pain and sleep disturbance accounted for a significant proportion of variance in the QoL (p quality among Palestinian patients with cancer.

Work performance evaluation and QoL of adults with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (HFASD).

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, Noomi; Dejak, Ifat; Gal, Eynat

2015-01-01

Studies suggest that adults with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (HFASD) are reliant on others for support in functioning in everyday life and employment. This study followed a work placement program for people with HFASD over a nine months period. It aimed to measure the trajectory of their work performance and Quality of life on jobs in the open market. Twenty-six participants with HFASD ages 18-40 underwent extensive evaluation and based on it were placed in various jobs on the open market. Participants were followed for nine months at their work place at four different time points. QoL was self-assessed in addition to work performance (WPE) which was assessed both by first-hand and team member's accounts. Team members are health professional who accompany and support the participants in the transition to their jobs. All 26 participants were able to maintain their jobs during the nine months of follow-up. WPE was perceived as high to start with, and its scores slightly improved by both people with HFASD and team members. Self-report suggests a significant change in the quality of life of the participants, specifically in their evaluations of self-competency. This study enhances the importance of providing people with HFASD with work placing programs and following up during actual work performance.

Monitoring Global Precipitation through UCI CHRS's RainMapper App on Mobile Devices

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, P.; Huynh, P.; Braithwaite, D.; Hsu, K. L.; Sorooshian, S.

2014-12-01

The Water and Development Information for Arid Lands-a Global Network (G-WADI) Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks—Cloud Classification System (PERSIANN-CCS) GeoServer has been developed through a collaboration between the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing (CHRS) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the UNESCO's International Hydrological Program (IHP). G-WADI PERSIANN-CCS GeoServer provides near real-time high resolution (0.04o, approx 4km) global (60oN - 60oS) satellite precipitation estimated by the PERSIANN-CCS algorithm developed by the scientists at CHRS. The G-WADI PERSIANN-CCS GeoServer utilizes the open-source MapServer software from the University of Minnesota to provide a user-friendly web-based mapping and visualization of satellite precipitation data. Recent efforts have been made by the scientists at CHRS to provide free on-the-go access to the PERSIANN-CCS precipitation data through an application named RainMapper for mobile devices. RainMapper provides visualization of global satellite precipitation of the most recent 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72-hour periods overlaid with various basemaps. RainMapper uses the Google maps application programing interface (API) and embedded global positioning system (GPS) access to better monitor the global precipitation data on mobile devices. Functionalities include using geographical searching with voice recognition technologies make it easy for the user to explore near real-time precipitation in a certain location. RainMapper also allows for conveniently sharing the precipitation information and visualizations with the public through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. RainMapper is available for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded (free) from the App Store and Google Play. The usefulness of RainMapper was demonstrated through an application in tracking the evolution of the recent Rammasun Typhoon over the

Visual attention shifting in autism spectrum disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Richard, Annette E; Lajiness-O'Neill, Renee

2015-01-01

Abnormal visual attention has been frequently observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Abnormal shifting of visual attention is related to abnormal development of social cognition and has been identified as a key neuropsychological finding in ASD. Better characterizing attention shifting in ASD and its relationship with social functioning may help to identify new targets for intervention and improving social communication in these disorders. Thus, the current study investigated deficits in attention shifting in ASD as well as relationships between attention shifting and social communication in ASD and neurotypicals (NT). To investigate deficits in visual attention shifting in ASD, 20 ASD and 20 age- and gender-matched NT completed visual search (VS) and Navon tasks with attention-shifting demands as well as a set-shifting task. VS was a feature search task with targets defined in one of two dimensions; Navon required identification of a target letter presented at the global or local level. Psychomotor and processing speed were entered as covariates. Relationships between visual attention shifting, set shifting, and social functioning were also examined. ASD and NT showed comparable costs of shifting attention. However, psychomotor and processing speed were slower in ASD than in NT, and psychomotor and processing speed were positively correlated with attention-shifting costs on Navon and VS, respectively, for both groups. Attention shifting on VS and Navon were correlated among NT, while attention shifting on Navon was correlated with set shifting among ASD. Attention-shifting costs on Navon were positively correlated with restricted and repetitive behaviors among ASD. Relationships between attention shifting and psychomotor and processing speed, as well as relationships between measures of different aspects of visual attention shifting, suggest inefficient top-down influences over preattentive visual processing in ASD. Inefficient attention shifting may be

The interplay of attention and consciousness in visual search, attentional blink and working memory consolidation.

Science.gov (United States)

Raffone, Antonino; Srinivasan, Narayanan; van Leeuwen, Cees

2014-05-05

Despite the acknowledged relationship between consciousness and attention, theories of the two have mostly been developed separately. Moreover, these theories have independently attempted to explain phenomena in which both are likely to interact, such as the attentional blink (AB) and working memory (WM) consolidation. Here, we make an effort to bridge the gap between, on the one hand, a theory of consciousness based on the notion of global workspace (GW) and, on the other, a synthesis of theories of visual attention. We offer a theory of attention and consciousness (TAC) that provides a unified neurocognitive account of several phenomena associated with visual search, AB and WM consolidation. TAC assumes multiple processing stages between early visual representation and conscious access, and extends the dynamics of the global neuronal workspace model to a visual attentional workspace (VAW). The VAW is controlled by executive routers, higher-order representations of executive operations in the GW, without the need for explicit saliency or priority maps. TAC leads to newly proposed mechanisms for illusory conjunctions, AB, inattentional blindness and WM capacity, and suggests neural correlates of phenomenal consciousness. Finally, the theory reconciles the all-or-none and graded perspectives on conscious representation.

The interplay of attention and consciousness in visual search, attentional blink and working memory consolidation

Science.gov (United States)

Raffone, Antonino; Srinivasan, Narayanan; van Leeuwen, Cees

2014-01-01

Despite the acknowledged relationship between consciousness and attention, theories of the two have mostly been developed separately. Moreover, these theories have independently attempted to explain phenomena in which both are likely to interact, such as the attentional blink (AB) and working memory (WM) consolidation. Here, we make an effort to bridge the gap between, on the one hand, a theory of consciousness based on the notion of global workspace (GW) and, on the other, a synthesis of theories of visual attention. We offer a theory of attention and consciousness (TAC) that provides a unified neurocognitive account of several phenomena associated with visual search, AB and WM consolidation. TAC assumes multiple processing stages between early visual representation and conscious access, and extends the dynamics of the global neuronal workspace model to a visual attentional workspace (VAW). The VAW is controlled by executive routers, higher-order representations of executive operations in the GW, without the need for explicit saliency or priority maps. TAC leads to newly proposed mechanisms for illusory conjunctions, AB, inattentional blindness and WM capacity, and suggests neural correlates of phenomenal consciousness. Finally, the theory reconciles the all-or-none and graded perspectives on conscious representation. PMID:24639586

Quality of life outcome measures using UW-QOL questionnaire v4 in early oral cancer/squamous cell cancer resections of the tongue and floor of mouth with reconstruction solely using local methods.

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Boyapati, Raghuram P; Shah, Ketan C; Flood, Valerie; Stassen, Leo F A

2013-09-01

Cancer treatment either by surgery alone or in a combination of surgery, radiotherapy±chemotherapy has significant consequences on the physical, mental, emotional and psychosocial wellbeing of the patient. Measurement of quality of life (QOL) is necessary to understand the patient's perception of their own treatment, as clinicians' views can be biased. Reconstruction of a cancerous defect with a free vascular flap is ideal in large, often composite defects, provided it is appropriate to the advanced stage and prognosis of the disease, medical condition of the patient, availability of surgical and financial resources and allows the prosthetic rehabilitation of the anatomic area. Using University of Washington Quality of life 4 questionnaire (UW-QOL4), we assessed the QOL of 38 patients, who underwent local surgical reconstructions after resection of T1/T2 tongue/floor of mouth squamous cell carcinoma defects. Objective assessment of speech and swallow function was also carried out using therapy outcome measure (TOM) scores by the speech and language therapy team (SALT) aiming to see the differences in the scores obtained in patients who underwent post-operative radiotherapy. Our study, conducted 6months after completion of all oncologic treatment for the primary disease, showed satisfactory levels of quality of life parameters with good function showing that local reconstructive methods are successful and may have benefits in the management of early oral cancers involving the tongue and floor of mouth. They are beneficial by providing a good quality in terms of function, by reducing the operating time, the surgical morbidity, simplifying post-operative care and thereby becoming an efficient, effective and a cost effective method. Copyright © 2012 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Quality-of-Life Effects of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Herman, Joseph M., E-mail: jherma15@jhmi.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (United States); Narang, Amol K. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (United States); Griffith, Kent A. [Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States); Zalupski, Mark M. [Department of Hematology Oncology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States); Reese, Jennifer B. [Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (United States); Gearhart, Susan L. [Department of Medical Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (United States); Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (United States); Azad, Nolifer S. [Department of Medical Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (United States); Chan, June; Olsen, Leah [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States); Efron, Jonathan E. [Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (United States); Lawrence, Theodore S.; Ben-Josef, Edgar [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States)

2013-01-01

Purpose: Existing studies that examine the effect of neoadjuvant chemoradiation (CRT) for locally advanced rectal cancer on patient quality of life (QOL) are limited. Our goals were to prospectively explore acute changes in patient-reported QOL endpoints during and after treatment and to establish a distribution of scores that could be used for comparison as new treatment modalities emerge. Methods and Materials: Fifty patients with locally advanced rectal cancer were prospectively enrolled at 2 institutions. Validated cancer-specific European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC QLQ-CR30) and colorectal cancer-specific (EORTC QLQ-CR38 and EORTC QLQ-CR 29) QOL questionnaires were administered to patients 1 month before they began CRT, at week 4 of CRT, and 1 month after they had finished CRT. The questionnaires included multiple symptom scales, functional domains, and a composite global QOL score. Additionally, a toxicity scale was completed by providers 1 month before the beginning of CRT, weekly during treatment, and 1 month after the end of CRT. Results: Global QOL showed a statistically significant and borderline clinically significant decrease during CRT (-9.50, P=.0024) but returned to baseline 1 month after the end of treatment (-0.33, P=.9205). Symptoms during treatment were mostly gastrointestinal (nausea/vomiting +9.94, P<.0001; and diarrhea +16.67, P=.0022), urinary (dysuria +13.33, P<.0001; and frequency +11.82, P=.0006) or fatigue (+16.22, P<.0001). These symptoms returned to baseline after therapy. However, sexual enjoyment (P=.0236) and sexual function (P=.0047) remained persistently diminished after therapy. Conclusions: Rectal cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant CRT may experience a reduction in global QOL along with significant gastrointestinal and genitourinary symptoms during treatment. Moreover, provider-rated toxicity scales may not fully capture this decrease in patient-reported QOL. Although most symptoms are transient

The Quality-of-Life Effects of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herman, Joseph M.; Narang, Amol K.; Griffith, Kent A.; Zalupski, Mark M.; Reese, Jennifer B.; Gearhart, Susan L.; Azad, Nolifer S.; Chan, June; Olsen, Leah; Efron, Jonathan E.; Lawrence, Theodore S.; Ben-Josef, Edgar

2013-01-01

Purpose: Existing studies that examine the effect of neoadjuvant chemoradiation (CRT) for locally advanced rectal cancer on patient quality of life (QOL) are limited. Our goals were to prospectively explore acute changes in patient-reported QOL endpoints during and after treatment and to establish a distribution of scores that could be used for comparison as new treatment modalities emerge. Methods and Materials: Fifty patients with locally advanced rectal cancer were prospectively enrolled at 2 institutions. Validated cancer-specific European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC QLQ-CR30) and colorectal cancer-specific (EORTC QLQ-CR38 and EORTC QLQ-CR 29) QOL questionnaires were administered to patients 1 month before they began CRT, at week 4 of CRT, and 1 month after they had finished CRT. The questionnaires included multiple symptom scales, functional domains, and a composite global QOL score. Additionally, a toxicity scale was completed by providers 1 month before the beginning of CRT, weekly during treatment, and 1 month after the end of CRT. Results: Global QOL showed a statistically significant and borderline clinically significant decrease during CRT (−9.50, P=.0024) but returned to baseline 1 month after the end of treatment (−0.33, P=.9205). Symptoms during treatment were mostly gastrointestinal (nausea/vomiting +9.94, P<.0001; and diarrhea +16.67, P=.0022), urinary (dysuria +13.33, P<.0001; and frequency +11.82, P=.0006) or fatigue (+16.22, P<.0001). These symptoms returned to baseline after therapy. However, sexual enjoyment (P=.0236) and sexual function (P=.0047) remained persistently diminished after therapy. Conclusions: Rectal cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant CRT may experience a reduction in global QOL along with significant gastrointestinal and genitourinary symptoms during treatment. Moreover, provider-rated toxicity scales may not fully capture this decrease in patient-reported QOL. Although most symptoms are

Quality of life and anterior resection syndrome after surgery for mid to low rectal cancer: A cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Trenti, Loris; Galvez, Ana; Biondo, Sebastiano; Solis, Alejandro; Vallribera-Valls, Francesc; Espin-Basany, Eloy; Garcia-Granero, Alvaro; Kreisler, Esther

2018-04-04

The aim of this study was to analyze the quality of life (QoL), low anterior resection syndrome (LARS) and fecal incontinence after surgery for mid to low rectal cancer and its relationship with the type of surgical procedure performed. A cross-sectional cohort survey study of 358 patients operated on for mid to low rectal cancer. Patients were included in three groups: abdominoperineal resection (APR), low mechanical colorectal anastomosis (CRA) and hand-sewn coloanal anastomosis (CAA). The QLQ-C30/CR29 questionnaires, LARS and Vaizey scores were used to study QoL and defecatory dysfunction. Multivariable analysis was used to estimate the prognostic effect of the variables on QoL and LARS scores. 62.6% of the patients answered the survey. The global QoL score was similar among APR, CRA and CAA. Patients' body image perception was significantly worse after APR than after CRA or CAA. LARS score was better in CRA group (p = 0.002). A major LARS was observed in 83.3% of the patients who underwent CAA and in 56.6% of the patients who underwent CRA. No relationship between surgical procedures and the global QoL score was observed. Neoadjuvant radiotherapy (p = 0.048) and CAA (p = 0.005) were associated with a major LARS. The Vaizey score was higher for CAA than for CRA (p = 0.036). Though CAA group presents worse LARS and higher faecal incontinence scores respect CRA patients, and APR is related with a worse body image, global QoL was similar in the three groups. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd, BASO ~ The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.

Scale-adaptive Local Patches for Robust Visual Object Tracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kang Sun

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the problem of robustly tracking objects which undergo rapid and dramatic scale changes. To remove the weakness of global appearance models, we present a novel scheme that combines object’s global and local appearance features. The local feature is a set of local patches that geometrically constrain the changes in the target’s appearance. In order to adapt to the object’s geometric deformation, the local patches could be removed and added online. The addition of these patches is constrained by the global features such as color, texture and motion. The global visual features are updated via the stable local patches during tracking. To deal with scale changes, we adapt the scale of patches in addition to adapting the object bound box. We evaluate our method by comparing it to several state-of-the-art trackers on publicly available datasets. The experimental results on challenging sequences confirm that, by using this scale-adaptive local patches and global properties, our tracker outperforms the related trackers in many cases by having smaller failure rate as well as better accuracy.

Color impact in visual attention deployment considering emotional images

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Chamaret, C.

2012-03-01

Color is a predominant factor in the human visual attention system. Even if it cannot be sufficient to the global or complete understanding of a scene, it may impact the visual attention deployment. We propose to study the color impact as well as the emotion aspect of pictures regarding the visual attention deployment. An eye-tracking campaign has been conducted involving twenty people watching half pictures of database in full color and the other half of database in grey color. The eye fixations of color and black and white images were highly correlated leading to the question of the integration of such cues in the design of visual attention model. Indeed, the prediction of two state-of-the-art computational models shows similar results for the two color categories. Similarly, the study of saccade amplitude and fixation duration versus time viewing did not bring any significant differences between the two mentioned categories. In addition, spatial coordinates of eye fixations reveal an interesting indicator for investigating the differences of visual attention deployment over time and fixation number. The second factor related to emotion categories shows evidences of emotional inter-categories differences between color and grey eye fixations for passive and positive emotion. The particular aspect associated to this category induces a specific behavior, rather based on high frequencies, where the color components influence the visual attention deployment.

fMRI orientation decoding in V1 does not require global maps or globally coherent orientation stimuli.

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Alink, Arjen; Krugliak, Alexandra; Walther, Alexander; Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus

2013-01-01

The orientation of a large grating can be decoded from V1 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, even at low resolution (3-mm isotropic voxels). This finding has suggested that columnar-level neuronal information might be accessible to fMRI at 3T. However, orientation decodability might alternatively arise from global orientation-preference maps. Such global maps across V1 could result from bottom-up processing, if the preferences of V1 neurons were biased toward particular orientations (e.g., radial from fixation, or cardinal, i.e., vertical or horizontal). Global maps could also arise from local recurrent or top-down processing, reflecting pre-attentive perceptual grouping, attention spreading, or predictive coding of global form. Here we investigate whether fMRI orientation decoding with 2-mm voxels requires (a) globally coherent orientation stimuli and/or (b) global-scale patterns of V1 activity. We used opposite-orientation gratings (balanced about the cardinal orientations) and spirals (balanced about the radial orientation), along with novel patch-swapped variants of these stimuli. The two stimuli of a patch-swapped pair have opposite orientations everywhere (like their globally coherent parent stimuli). However, the two stimuli appear globally similar, a patchwork of opposite orientations. We find that all stimulus pairs are robustly decodable, demonstrating that fMRI orientation decoding does not require globally coherent orientation stimuli. Furthermore, decoding remained robust after spatial high-pass filtering for all stimuli, showing that fine-grained components of the fMRI patterns reflect visual orientations. Consistent with previous studies, we found evidence for global radial and vertical preference maps in V1. However, these were weak or absent for patch-swapped stimuli, suggesting that global preference maps depend on globally coherent orientations and might arise through recurrent or top-down processes related to the perception of

Quality of life and salivary output in patients with head-and-neck cancer five years after radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Braam, Pètra M; Roesink, Judith M; Raaijmakers, Cornelis PJ; Busschers, Wim B; Terhaard, Chris HJ

2007-01-01

To describe long-term changes in time of quality of life (QOL) and the relation with parotid salivary output in patients with head-and-neck cancer treated with radiotherapy. Forty-four patients completed the EORTC-QLQ-C30(+3) and the EORTC-QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires before treatment, 6 weeks, 6 months, 12 months, and at least 3.5 years after treatment. At the same time points, stimulated bilateral parotid flow rates were measured. There was a deterioration of most QOL items after radiotherapy compared with baseline, with gradual improvement during 5 years follow-up. The specific xerostomia-related items showed improvement in time, but did not return to baseline. Global QOL did not alter significantly in time, although 41% of patients complained of moderate or severe xerostomia at 5 years follow-up. Five years after radiotherapy the mean cumulated parotid flow ratio returned to baseline but 20% of patients had a flow ratio <25%. The change in time of xerostomia was significantly related with the change in flow ratio (p = 0.01). Most of the xerostomia-related QOL scores improved in time after radiotherapy without altering the global QOL, which remained high. The recovery of the dry mouth feeling was significantly correlated with the recovery in parotid flow ratio

Visual motion transforms visual space representations similarly throughout the human visual hierarchy.

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Harvey, Ben M; Dumoulin, Serge O

2016-02-15

Several studies demonstrate that visual stimulus motion affects neural receptive fields and fMRI response amplitudes. Here we unite results of these two approaches and extend them by examining the effects of visual motion on neural position preferences throughout the hierarchy of human visual field maps. We measured population receptive field (pRF) properties using high-field fMRI (7T), characterizing position preferences simultaneously over large regions of the visual cortex. We measured pRFs properties using sine wave gratings in stationary apertures, moving at various speeds in either the direction of pRF measurement or the orthogonal direction. We find direction- and speed-dependent changes in pRF preferred position and size in all visual field maps examined, including V1, V3A, and the MT+ map TO1. These effects on pRF properties increase up the hierarchy of visual field maps. However, both within and between visual field maps the extent of pRF changes was approximately proportional to pRF size. This suggests that visual motion transforms the representation of visual space similarly throughout the visual hierarchy. Visual motion can also produce an illusory displacement of perceived stimulus position. We demonstrate perceptual displacements using the same stimulus configuration. In contrast to effects on pRF properties, perceptual displacements show only weak effects of motion speed, with far larger speed-independent effects. We describe a model where low-level mechanisms could underlie the observed effects on neural position preferences. We conclude that visual motion induces similar transformations of visuo-spatial representations throughout the visual hierarchy, which may arise through low-level mechanisms. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Representation of geographic terrain surface using global indexing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolar, Jan

2004-01-01

. Unlike cartographic maps, 3D models can capture the geometry of geographic features without flattening the environment, without cartographic projection?can avoid geometric distortion. More interestingly, however, 3D models can be composed into a single model spanning the whole world; it can be navigated...... visually in order to access information and data in the same geometric space as we navigate ourselves in our real environment.   This article attempts to narrow down the overhead of problems in visualization of 3D geographic information and intends to identify fundamental issues common to other systems......A global 3D geographic model a feasible solution for its visualization and management remains a challenging vision. The existence of a reusable platform would provide an unprecedented potential for development of applications related to geography and facilitate comprehension of geographic data...

Evaluation of vision-specific quality-of-life in albinism.

Science.gov (United States)

Kutzbach, Beth R; Merrill, Kimberly S; Hogue, Kathy M; Downes, Sara J; Holleschau, Ann M; MacDonald, John T; Summers, C Gail

2009-04-01

Human albinism is a genetic condition associated with visual impairment that affects many aspects of daily life. Office measurements of visual acuity do not necessarily reflect daily visual function and health status. This study used the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ) to determine the effect of albinism-associated ophthalmopathy on quality of life (QOL). We administered the NEI-VFQ, which consists of 25 questions about QOL (VFQ-25) and 14 questions about well-being (VFQ-39), to 44 consenting participants with albinism older than the age of 18 years. Nineteen male and 25 female subjects completed the study. Median age was 30.5 years (range, 18-79 years). Mean best-corrected visual acuity was 20/83 (range, 20/20 to 20/320). Forty-eight percent reported that they were currently able to drive with their condition. Participants perceived midscale problems with their general vision (median subscale score 60.0). Visual acuity correlated moderately with overall NEI-VFQ composite scores (r(s) = 0.40, p = 0.01 for VFQ-25 and r(s) = 0.36, p = 0.02 for VFQ-39). Most notable impairment was recorded for distance acuity, vision-specific mental health, and vision-specific role difficulties (VFQ-39 median subscale scores 66.7, 70.0, and 75.0, respectively). Differences by sex were insignificant. Greater ceiling effects were noted for the VFQ-25 than for the VFQ-39. The NEI-VFQ-39 is a method to evaluate self-reported effects of vision-related QOL in albinism and may be used as a baseline for evaluating outcomes in interventional studies in these patients.

Visualizing Three-dimensional Slab Geometries with ShowEarthModel

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, B.; Jadamec, M. A.; Fischer, K. M.; Kreylos, O.; Yikilmaz, M. B.

2017-12-01

Seismic data that characterize the morphology of modern subducted slabs on Earth suggest that a two-dimensional paradigm is no longer adequate to describe the subduction process. Here we demonstrate the effect of data exploration of three-dimensional (3D) global slab geometries with the open source program ShowEarthModel. ShowEarthModel was designed specifically to support data exploration, by focusing on interactivity and real-time response using the Vrui toolkit. Sixteen movies are presented that explore the 3D complexity of modern subduction zones on Earth. The first movie provides a guided tour through the Earth's major subduction zones, comparing the global slab geometry data sets of Gudmundsson and Sambridge (1998), Syracuse and Abers (2006), and Hayes et al. (2012). Fifteen regional movies explore the individual subduction zones and regions intersecting slabs, using the Hayes et al. (2012) slab geometry models where available and the Engdahl and Villasenor (2002) global earthquake data set. Viewing the subduction zones in this way provides an improved conceptualization of the 3D morphology within a given subduction zone as well as the 3D spatial relations between the intersecting slabs. This approach provides a powerful tool for rendering earth properties and broadening capabilities in both Earth Science research and education by allowing for whole earth visualization. The 3D characterization of global slab geometries is placed in the context of 3D slab-driven mantle flow and observations of shear wave splitting in subduction zones. These visualizations contribute to the paradigm shift from a 2D to 3D subduction framework by facilitating the conceptualization of the modern subduction system on Earth in 3D space.

Reduction in the retinotopic early visual cortex with normal aging and magnitude of perceptual learning.

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Chang, Li-Hung; Yotsumoto, Yuko; Salat, David H; Andersen, George J; Watanabe, Takeo; Sasaki, Yuka

2015-01-01

Although normal aging is known to reduce cortical structures globally, the effects of aging on local structures and functions of early visual cortex are less understood. Here, using standard retinotopic mapping and magnetic resonance imaging morphologic analyses, we investigated whether aging affects areal size of the early visual cortex, which were retinotopically localized, and whether those morphologic measures were associated with individual performance on visual perceptual learning. First, significant age-associated reduction was found in the areal size of V1, V2, and V3. Second, individual ability of visual perceptual learning was significantly correlated with areal size of V3 in older adults. These results demonstrate that aging changes local structures of the early visual cortex, and the degree of change may be associated with individual visual plasticity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of visual cortical function in infant macaques: A BOLD fMRI study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tom J Van Grootel

Full Text Available Functional brain development is not well understood. In the visual system, neurophysiological studies in nonhuman primates show quite mature neuronal properties near birth although visual function is itself quite immature and continues to develop over many months or years after birth. Our goal was to assess the relative development of two main visual processing streams, dorsal and ventral, using BOLD fMRI in an attempt to understand the global mechanisms that support the maturation of visual behavior. Seven infant macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta were repeatedly scanned, while anesthetized, over an age range of 102 to 1431 days. Large rotating checkerboard stimuli induced BOLD activation in visual cortices at early ages. Additionally we used static and dynamic Glass pattern stimuli to probe BOLD responses in primary visual cortex and two extrastriate areas: V4 and MT-V5. The resulting activations were analyzed with standard GLM and multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA approaches. We analyzed three contrasts: Glass pattern present/absent, static/dynamic Glass pattern presentation, and structured/random Glass pattern form. For both GLM and MVPA approaches, robust coherent BOLD activation appeared relatively late in comparison to the maturation of known neuronal properties and the development of behavioral sensitivity to Glass patterns. Robust differential activity to Glass pattern present/absent and dynamic/static stimulus presentation appeared first in V1, followed by V4 and MT-V5 at older ages; there was no reliable distinction between the two extrastriate areas. A similar pattern of results was obtained with the two analysis methods, although MVPA analysis showed reliable differential responses emerging at later ages than GLM. Although BOLD responses to large visual stimuli are detectable, our results with more refined stimuli indicate that global BOLD activity changes as behavioral performance matures. This reflects an hierarchical development of

Vision-related quality of life after transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Okamoto, Yoshifumi; Okamoto, Fumiki; Yamada, Shozo; Honda, Maiko; Hiraoka, Takahiro; Oshika, Tetsuro

2010-07-01

PURPOSE. To use the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25) to evaluate vision-related quality of life (VR-QOL) in patients with pituitary adenoma who undergo transsphenoidal surgery. METHODS. The VFQ-25 was self-administered by 74 patients with pituitary adenoma before and 3 months after surgery. Pre- and postoperative clinical data were collected, including age, sex, tumor type and size, logarithm of minimum angle of resolution best corrected visual acuity (logMAR BCVA), critical flicker fusion frequency, static perimetry scores (mean deviation [MD] and corrected pattern SD [CPSD]), duration of ocular symptoms, and number of systemic comorbidities. RESULTS. Seventy-four patients with a mean age of 48.2 years were studied. Transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenoma significantly improved logMAR BCVA and critical fusion flicker frequency in the worse-seeing eye and MD and CPSD scores in both the better- and worse-seeing eyes (P transsphenoidal surgery can dramatically improve VR-QOL in pituitary adenoma and that the preoperative VFQ-25 composite score and visual field disturbance in the better-seeing eye are particularly important predictors associated with the postoperative VR-QOL. The use of VFQ-25 provides a more comprehensive overview of the effectiveness of transsphenoidal surgery.

Scientific visualization uncertainty, multifield, biomedical, and scalable visualization

CERN Document Server

Chen, Min; Johnson, Christopher; Kaufman, Arie; Hagen, Hans

2014-01-01

Based on the seminar that took place in Dagstuhl, Germany in June 2011, this contributed volume studies the four important topics within the scientific visualization field: uncertainty visualization, multifield visualization, biomedical visualization and scalable visualization. • Uncertainty visualization deals with uncertain data from simulations or sampled data, uncertainty due to the mathematical processes operating on the data, and uncertainty in the visual representation, • Multifield visualization addresses the need to depict multiple data at individual locations and the combination of multiple datasets, • Biomedical is a vast field with select subtopics addressed from scanning methodologies to structural applications to biological applications, • Scalability in scientific visualization is critical as data grows and computational devices range from hand-held mobile devices to exascale computational platforms. Scientific Visualization will be useful to practitioners of scientific visualization, ...

Children inhibit global information when the forest is dense and local information when the forest is sparse.

Science.gov (United States)

Krakowski, Claire-Sara; Borst, Grégoire; Vidal, Julie; Houdé, Olivier; Poirel, Nicolas

2018-09-01

Visual environments are composed of global shapes and local details that compete for attentional resources. In adults, the global level is processed more rapidly than the local level, and global information must be inhibited in order to process local information when the local information and global information are in conflict. Compared with adults, children present less of a bias toward global visual information and appear to be more sensitive to the density of local elements that constitute the global level. The current study aimed, for the first time, to investigate the key role of inhibition during global/local processing in children. By including two different conditions of global saliency during a negative priming procedure, the results showed that when the global level was salient (dense hierarchical figures), 7-year-old children and adults needed to inhibit the global level to process the local information. However, when the global level was less salient (sparse hierarchical figures), only children needed to inhibit the local level to process the global information. These results confirm a weaker global bias and the greater impact of saliency in children than in adults. Moreover, the results indicate that, regardless of age, inhibition of the most salient hierarchical level is systematically required to select the less salient but more relevant level. These findings have important implications for future research in this area. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.