Assessing pharmaceutical pictograms amongst cultural minorities: the example of Hindu patients speaking European Portuguese

Trabalho Final de Mestrado Integrado, Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia, 2017One of the sources of poor health outcomes is the lack of compliance to the prescribed treatment plans, often due to communication barriers between healthcare professionals and patients. Several authors researched ways to overcome these events, with one of the regularly found suggestion being pictograms. Pictograms are a form of communication based on pictorial representation of the information that is being conveyed. Albeit being often correlated with better comprehension of treatment regimens, leading to positive results, they are still subject to limitations. Pictograms can lead to misinterpretations if they’re not suited for the community in hand, thus requiring testing. The goal of this study is to examine the possibility of using pictograms in the pharmacies of Lisbon, namely for foreign populations. For that, a questionnaire was developed to allow a research about the understanding of pictograms by the Hindu community of Lisbon. Pictograms were gathered in two different sources, the United States Pharmacopeia Dispensing Information and the International Pharmaceutical Federation, allowing for the comparison of their designs with the facility in comprehension of the relayed information. There were difficulties in the understanding of the selected pictograms, possibly due to the reduced fluency of some participants in Portuguese. Results show a better interpretations of USP pictograms when compared to FIP pictograms, and also a better understand of pictograms composed of multiple images, with negative marks or those that don’t convey information regarding the medication. As our results indicate, pictograms should not be used in a specific population without previous studies, as they may require refining for the community at hand. In addition, we shouldn’t disregard other forms of communication with the patients, as pictograms are a complement to the currently used methods.Uma das principais limitações à obtenção de resultados em Saúde positivos é o incumprimento dos planos de tratamento, sendo umas das suas causas as barreiras de comunicação entre os profissionais de saúde e os doentes. Vários autores procuraram formas de transpor esta tendência, sendo o método mais consensual a utilização de pictogramas. Os pictogramas são uma forma de comunicação baseada na representação pictorial de uma dada informação. Ainda que frequentemente correlacionados com uma melhor compreensão dos regimes terapêuticos, viabilizando melhores resultados, estes possuem algumas limitações. Os pictogramas podem levar a interpretações erróneas caso não sejam os mais adequados para uma dada comunidade, devendo então ser testados. O objetivo deste estudo é averiguar a viabilidade de uso de pictogramas nas farmácias da área de Lisboa, nomeadamente para populações estrangeiras. Para tal, foi desenvolvido um questionário que permitisse estudar a assimilação da informação transposta pelos pictogramas para a comunidade Hindu de Lisboa. Os pictogramas foram obtidos por duas fontes, pela United States Pharmacopeia Dispensing Information (USP-DI) e pela International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), permitindo assim a comparação das suas características visuais com a facilidade de veiculação da informação. Observaram-se dificuldades na compreensão dos pictogramas estudados, possivelmente devido à reduzida fluência dos participantes na língua Portuguesa. Os resultados apontam para uma maior facilidade de interpretação dos pictogramas da USP que os da FIP, havendo também melhor compreensão em pictogramas com múltiplas imagens, com marcas que indiquem negação e em pictogramas que não veiculem informação relativa à administração. Como os resultados indicam, os pictogramas não deverão ser usados numa determinada população sem estudos prévios, podendo ser necessária a adaptação destas imagens para a comunidade em questão. Não devemos descontar também a importância das outras formas de comunicação com os doentes, sendo os pictogramas um complemento aos métodos atualmente utilizados

Expanded Everyday

[Expanded Everyday] Is a framework for augmentation of place that uses appropriation and digital interventions of unnoticed everyday objects, events, and memories collected through physical and conceptual explorations of urban space. My practice-based research departs with observations and explorations throughout urban space searching for an interventionist opportunity of unnoticed, unimportant, and forgotten everyday urban assets that belong to an everyday public dimension of the city. An always-present network of assets emerged from the visual language spoken by the city. These found assets are dismantled and re-purposed through visual experiments, and transmuted into parodistic digital appropriations, where their tangible nature blends into the digital realm through processes of hijacking and reconfiguration of their original function and purpose. I explore the confrontation of my work and the observers, the instant when they recognize the quotidian object in the artwork, and the one when later, makes them recognize the artwork in their quotidian experience. It is during that aftermemory where the political possibilities of my work are triggered in the observer's inner narrative. An interest in the city, a concern with its inhabitants, and an awareness of its potential as a site of transformative change began in 1999 as I fostered my artistic practice through experimentation in graphic design while developing an investigation about visual representation of popular culture in Bogotan society. I am setting a navigation point in the period where graphic design, art, digital media, the city, and the objects that live in its public space began to interact in a system of relations that have been evolving as important influences in my artistic practice since then and that are now formally developed in the context of this Master’s thesis project. The second chapter will revise the idea of the everyday as a subject of investigation, guided by the theoretical discussions developed in France during the fifties and sixties by authors such as Henri Lefebvre, Michel De Certeau, Guy Debord, and Georges Perec. I will revise the Situationist strategy of Derive and explore how the interruptions created in my work can open a political space for critical thinking and production of new meaning in contemporary urban life. The revision of the studio components of this thesis will begin with a brief analysis of two digital works inspired by the activist project Little Mountain Project (2012). In this analysis, I will review how a design commission for the project encouraged the production of a generative art piece inspired by the concept of disappearance, while at the same time opened a space for revising the tensions and crossings of the relation of art and design in my work, as well as the separation that I have imposed in my practice from graphic activism. Subsequently, this theoretical and historical material will be revised through the main body of work of my thesis project: Pedestrians Obey Your Signals, which operates alongside my definition of the everyday, and my understanding of the artwork as an interrupter in the quotidian perception of urban space. I will set in place the theories and ideas above exposed and revise in detail four animated works that compose this series.UrbanVideo ar

Analysing the effectiveness of pictograms as a hazard communication mechanism to reduce child exposure to chemicals in South Africa

Hazard communication mechanisms are essential for informing child caregivers of the dangers associated with chemical products. However, for caregivers to protect their own health and their children from the harm of toxic chemicals, it is important that they understand label information as scientifically intended. Therefore, to accommodate parts of society that have a lack of access to education, the placement of hazard communication pictograms on labels have been introduced to overcome literacy barriers. Many research studies have been conducted on the comprehensibility of pictograms and have found that many barriers exist in end-users being able to understand the intended message behind the pictogram. This study, therefore, explores further the awareness and comprehension of pictogram comprehensibility among caregivers in South Africa that have different backgrounds and living experiences. The study employed a mixed-methods cross-sectional design. The study was conducted with farmworkers from a farm in Paarl and students from the University of Cape Town. Two different data collection tools were used: a face-to-face questionnaire was administered to farmworkers (taking into account literacy barriers) and an online questionnaire to students due to unforeseen circumstances (COVID-19), that put a pause on face-to-face questionnaires being administered among UCT students. Both groups received the same questions except for small adjustments made to the online questionnaire to accommodate the platform. Data for the face-to-face questions were stored in the data collection application, CommCare, and transferred to Excel for quantitative analysis. The online questionnaire was administered through a Google form that was emailed to all students at the university by the Department of Student Affairs and data were then transferred to excel for quantitative analysis. The qualitative data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach where themes were created from theory in the literature and word repetitions that emerged from the respective group responses. Based on the overall results, comprehension of the pictograms varied greatly between caregiver groups indicating harmonization is necessary. Although beyond the scope of this study, the difference amongst the perception of danger warrants further analysis on whether age, educational level, perception of danger, lived experiences, and environmental exposure play a role in the two groups' comprehension of pictograms. The study focused on the already existing Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) pictograms as well as newly proposed ones to communicate the “Keep out of reach of children” message. Based on the overall results, what the pictograms represented varied greatly between the different caregiver groups, indicating that comprehension differs largely, and harmonization has not been entirely achieved as desired by the GHS. However, the study concludes that participants place responsibility on the chemical industry to make information about the harmful effects about their products more accessible to communities through educational talks, social media, experts at the point of sale to explain any potential hazards, and through the use of billboards and flyers. Though difficult to achieve, it is suggested that conversation amongst chemical legislators and industry commence on how to include the voice of end-users in the development and implementation of hazard communication strategies

Spotlight on Edward de Bono Thinking Skills and Twice-Exceptional Gifted Learners Applied to Mars Mysteries in NASA Photographs

This editorial provides background information concerning the lessons presented in the eight practical articles of this issue. All of these lessons address Mars Mysteries, anomalous features found in NASA photographs of the Martian surface. These unusual and thought-provoking features are explored by using Edward de Bono CoRT thinking skills to broaden perceptions enhancing critical and creative thinking. The lessons are intended to explore possibilities, but not to provide a definite final answer as to what the anomalies represent. These lessons were designed as enrichment lessons for gifted learners and support Renzulli’s Type I general exploratory experiences that expose students to a variety of issues not usually addressed by the school curriculum. These lessons also fit with Type II skill lessons because they focus on the de Bono thinking skills. Additionally, individual lessons are each designed to meet the needs of twice-exceptional gifted learners, containing lesson design features that assist gifted learners with specific disabilities or exceptionalities. Finally, each lesson includes a brief integrated arts project to synthesize the concepts discussed, expressing individual conclusions. Arts were integrated to foster engagement, increased level of attention, joy, and self-expression

Development of Criteria for Mobile Device Cybersecurity Threat Classification and Communication Standards (CTC&CS)

The increasing use of mobile devices and the unfettered access to cyberspace has introduced new threats to users. Mobile device users are continually being targeted for cybersecurity threats via vectors such as public information sharing on social media, user surveillance (geolocation, camera, etc.), phishing, malware, spyware, trojans, and keyloggers. Users are often uninformed about the cybersecurity threats posed by mobile devices. Users are held responsible for the security of their device that includes taking precautions against cybersecurity threats. In recent years, financial institutions are passing the costs associated with fraud to the users because of the lack of security. The purpose of this study was to design, develop, and empirically test new criteria for a Cybersecurity Threats Classification and Communication Standard (CTC&CS) for mobile devices. The conceptual foundation is based on the philosophy behind the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) of Labels and Pictograms that is mainly focused on chemical substances. This study extended the HCS framework as a model to support new criteria for cybersecurity classification and communication standards. This study involved three phases. The first phase conducted two rounds of the Delphi technique and collected quantitative data from 26 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in round one and 22 SMEs in round two through an anonymous online survey. Results of Phase 1 emerged with six threats categories and 62 cybersecurity threats. Phase 2 operationalized the elicited and validated criteria into pictograms, labels, and safety data sheets. Using the results of phase one as a foundation, two to three pictograms, labels, and safety data sheets (SDSs) from each of the categories identified in phase one were developed, and quantitative data were collected in two rounds of the Delphi technique from 24 and 19 SMEs respectively through an online survey and analyzed. Phase 3, the main data collection phase, empirically evaluated the developed and validated pictograms, labels, and safety data sheets for their perceived effectiveness as well as performed an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with 208 non-IT professional mobile device users. The results of this study showed that pictograms were highly effective; this means the participants were satisfied with the characteristics of the pictograms such as color, shapes, visual complexity, and found these characteristics valuable. On the other hand, labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDS) did not show to be effective, meaning the participants were not satisfied or lacked to identify importance with the characteristics of labels and SDS. Furthermore, the ANCOVA results showed significant differences in perceived effectiveness with SDSs with education and a marginal significance level with labels when controlled for the number of years of mobile device use. Based on the results, future research implications can observe discrepancies of pictogram effectiveness between different educational levels and reading levels. Also, research should focus on identifying the most effective designs for pictograms within the cybersecurity context. Finally, longitudinal studies should be performed to understand the aspects that affect the effectiveness of pictograms

What Words Can Do: Analyzing Adult/Child Relations in Narratives of Literature and Psychosocial Theory

This thesis enters into an analysis of adult/child relations by looking closely at affective social and historical representations of childhood. It asks, how to characterize the self-other relation when the subject is a child. This work is composed of thematic close readings of three primary texts: Piera Aulagnier (2001) introduces the child as being, Jacqueline Rose (1992) presents the enigmatic child, and Carolyn Steedman (1994) traces the spectacle of the child. This thesis grapples with the being of the child, beginning by exploring infancy as a state of dependency that marks growth. I examine the child’s vulnerability that precedes speech and discuss how imperceptible traces of that state intersect with the child’s introduction to symbolization and the words adults use to represent childhood. I turn to examine forms of childhood shaped through fantastical, cultural and historical narratives, questioning the place of the child and adult within those representations

Designing the Multilingual: Summer Olympic Sports Pictograms and Universal Design in Cross-cultural Context

This Major Research Paper explores Summer Olympic sports pictograms design in historical and cross-cultural context. The distinctive characteristic and significance of Olympic sports pictogram design lies in its capacity to negotiate specific cultural expression alongside universal legibility, ideally communicating without supplementary text. On the other hand, they are also sutured to the mission of expressing the national identity of the host city/country and charged with conveying the specific cultural legacy unique to the host. Through an in-depth case study of the design process for the pictograms of the 2008 Beijing Olympiad, it further attempts to counter the Western-centered perspective of Olympic design scholarship. Drawing on the role and meaning of Chinese script (direct inspiration for the 2008 pictograms), as well as interventions by domestic and international stakeholders, this paper demonstrates how these images negotiate a synthesis between specific cultural interests and universal communication

Final MA Portfolio

This portfolio is a compilation of graduate research and writing completed as the capstone project for the Master of Arts in English degree with a specialization in professional writing and rhetoric. The first selection is a research paper that reviews how embellishments in graphical representations and infographics affect viewer perception. The second research paper is a content analysis that explores the extent to which visual metaphors are used in ISO public information graphical symbols. The third research paper explores how to create effective video software tutorials and reorganizes existing guidelines into eighteen distinct guidelines in three major categories: accessibility, cognitive design, and affective design. The final selection is a teaching guide geared toward an introductory undergraduate technical writing course