Using Sound to Enhance Users’ Experiences of Mobile Applications

The latest smartphones with GPS, electronic compass, directional audio, touch screens etc. hold potentials for location based services that are easier to use compared to traditional tools. Rather than interpreting maps, users may focus on their activities and the environment around them. Interfaces may be designed that let users search for information by simply pointing in a direction. Database queries can be created from GPS location and compass direction data. Users can get guidance to locations through pointing gestures, spatial sound and simple graphics. This article describes two studies testing prototypic applications with multimodal user interfaces built on spatial audio, graphics and text. Tests show that users appreciated the applications for their ease of use, for being fun and effective to use and for allowing users to interact directly with the environment rather than with abstractions of the same. The multimodal user interfaces contributed significantly to the overall user experience

Information Network Navigation

In this paper, we develop an interactive system to navigate information networks as a space with geometry, assigning each node in the network to geographical coordinates, and with that the ability to navigate as if on a map. A map-based rendering of the network gives the user the ability to understand meta-relationships (i.e., non-link-based relationships) that exist in the dataset that are lost with a traditional web search and (hyper-)link navigation. This requires first being able to represent the information corpus in such a way as to enable a quantifiable notion of similarity between the information nodes. A t-SNE (t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding) model then finds an optimal embedding of the nodes in two-dimensional space such that the pairwise distances (dissimilarities) between points are best preserved. With this there are many opportunities to enhance the exploration of the space such as visualizing exploration paths and a compass displaying the orientation of the information space

Measuring Practicing Clinicians’ Information Literacy: An Exploratory Analysis in the Context of Panel Management

BACKGROUND: As healthcare moves towards technology-driven population health management, clinicians must adopt complex digital platforms to access health information and document care. OBJECTIVES: This study explored information literacy, a set of skills required to effectively navigate population health information systems, among primary care providers in one Veterans' Affairs (VA) medical center. METHODS: Information literacy was assessed during an 8-month randomized trial that tested a population health (panel) management intervention. Providers were asked about their use and comfort with two VA digital tools for panel management at baseline, 16 weeks, and post-intervention. An 8-item scale (range 0-40) was used to measure information literacy (Cronbach's α=0.84). Scores between study arms and provider types were compared using paired t-tests and ANOVAs. Associations between self-reported digital tool use and information literacy were measured via Pearson's correlations. RESULTS: Providers showed moderate levels of information literacy (M= 27.4, SD 6.5). There were no significant differences in mean information literacy between physicians (M=26.4, SD 6.7) and nurses (M=30.5, SD 5.2, p=0.57 for difference), or between intervention (M=28.4, SD 6.5) and control groups (M=25.1, SD 6.2, p=0.12 for difference). Information literacy was correlated with higher rates of self-reported information system usage (r=0.547, p=0.001). Clinicians identified data access, accuracy, and interpretability as potential information literacy barriers. CONCLUSIONS: While exploratory in nature, cautioning generalizability, the study suggests that measuring and improving clinicians' information literacy may play a significant role in the implementation and use of digital information tools, as these tools are rapidly being deployed to enhance communication among care teams, improve health care outcomes, and reduce overall costs

The Southeastern Librarian v. 60, no. 1 (Spring 2012) Complete Issue

Complete issue of The Southeastern Librarian, volume 60, No. 1 (Spring 2012)

Challenges and Opportunities: Student and Practitioner Experiences During COVID-19

This report elevates the voices of those closest to the work—students, AmeriCorps members and teachers – to bring to life their extraordinary efforts to support student success. It draws insights from City Year's work across the country and highlights how three City Year sites and Compass Academy (a charter public middle school in Denver cofounded by City Year, Johns Hopkins University School of Education, and the Denver community in 2015) have adjusted their practices to respond to the unique challenges that students are facing in the wake of COVID-19- induced school closures.The primary sources of data for this research project were eight focus groups, two interviews, and one student survey. Secondary data sources for this project include Compass Academy artifacts, 2020-2021 Compass Academy Mid-Year Survey results as well as the 2020-2021 City Year AmeriCorps member, teacher and principal survey results

I Gotta Testify: Kanye West, Hip Hop, and the Church

The goal of this project, “I Gotta Testify: Kanye West, Hip Hop, and the Church,” is to add a new perspective to the scholarly discourse on Hip Hop and Christianity within classrooms, religious institutions, and popular culture by focusing on Kanye. We chose to focus on Kanye because he has been one of Hip Hop’s most influential artists in the past decade. Furthermore, Kanye is one of the most polarizing celebrities in America and across the globe. His music, fashion, political views, and family (which includes the Kardashians) dominate discourse on social media, blogs, television, and other forms of mass media. With the exception of Julius Bailey’s 2014 edited book, The Cultural Impact of Kanye West, there has been little scholarly work published on Kanye. Bailey’s book contained just one essay, written by Monica R. Miller, dedicated to the theme of Kanye and religion. We intended to produce a nontraditional journal issue, partly because Kanye has never adhered to traditional boundaries. We also chose this method because we wanted to provide a document suitable for both academic and popular audiences. Kanye West identifies as a Christian and primarily uses Christian themes in his music, videos, concerts, and messaging. Dr. Joshua K. Wright, Dr. Adria Y. Goldman and Dr. VaNatta S. For

FFAS server: novel features and applications.

The Fold and Function Assignment System (FFAS) server [Jaroszewski et al. (2005) FFAS03: a server for profile-profile sequence alignments. Nucleic Acids Research, 33, W284-W288] implements the algorithm for protein profile-profile alignment introduced originally in [Rychlewski et al. (2000) Comparison of sequence profiles. Strategies for structural predictions using sequence information. Protein Science: a Publication of the Protein Society, 9, 232-241]. Here, we present updates, changes and novel functionality added to the server since 2005 and discuss its new applications. The sequence database used to calculate sequence profiles was enriched by adding sets of publicly available metagenomic sequences. The profile of a user's protein can now be compared with ∼20 additional profile databases, including several complete proteomes, human proteins involved in genetic diseases and a database of microbial virulence factors. A newly developed interface uses a system of tabs, allowing the user to navigate multiple results pages, and also includes novel functionality, such as a dotplot graph viewer, modeling tools, an improved 3D alignment viewer and links to the database of structural similarities. The FFAS server was also optimized for speed: running times were reduced by an order of magnitude. The FFAS server, http://ffas.godziklab.org, has no log-in requirement, albeit there is an option to register and store results in individual, password-protected directories. Source code and Linux executables for the FFAS program are available for download from the FFAS server

The Role of CIOs and Board’s IT Competence on HIT Investments

Healthcare organizations currently face tough decisions regarding allocating resources to reduce costs and improve patient care. While IT investments have consistently been a priority, it is widely accepted as a given, resulting in research primarily examining IT investment outcomes. Recent studies highlight tensions between the role of CIOs and governing boards in determining IT resource allocations. Recognizing this, the current study investigates the dynamics between healthcare CIO presence and the board in driving targeted HIT investments. Drawing on the upper echelons theory, we theorize and propose several hypotheses to clarify the tensions between the CIO and the influence of boards in the healthcare industry, specifically in the context of HIT investments