Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation establishes a new visualization design process model devised to guide visualization designers in building more effective and useful visualization systems and tools. The novelty of this framework includes its flexibility for iteration, actionability for guiding visualization designers with concrete steps, concise yet methodical definitions, and connections to other visualization design models commonly used in the field of data visualization. In summary, the design activity framework breaks down the visualization design process into a series of four design activities: understand, ideate, make, and deploy. For each activity, the framework prescribes a descriptive motivation, list of design methods, and expected visualization artifacts. To elucidate the framework, two case studies for visualization design illustrate these concepts, methods, and artifacts in real-world projects in the field of cybersecurity. For example, these projects employ user-centered design methods, such as personas and data sketches, which emphasize our teams' motivations and visualization artifacts with respect to the design activity framework. These case studies also serve as examples for novice visualization designers, and we hypothesized that the framework could serve as a pedagogical tool for teaching and guiding novices through their own design process to create a visualization tool. To externally evaluate the efficacy of this framework, we created worksheets for each design activity, outlining a series of concrete, tangible steps for novices. In order to validate the design worksheets, we conducted 13 student observations over the course of two months, received 32 online survey responses, and performed a qualitative analysis of 11 in-depth interviews. Students found the worksheets both useful and effective for framing the visualization design process. Next, by applying the design activity framework to technique-driven and evaluation-based research projects, we brainstormed possible extensions to the design model. Lastly, we examined implications of the design activity framework and present future work in this space. The visualization community is challenged to consider how to more effectively describe, capture, and communicate the complex, iterative nature of data visualization design throughout research, design, development, and deployment of visualization systems and tools

An Investigation into the Phenomenon and Discourse of Working Out Loud.

Working Out Loud is a recent phenomenon that refers to a range of digital and networked practices that purportedly offer a range of benefits to both individuals and organisations. Within the changing context of work, emphasis is placed on digital skills, networks and learning, with individuals increasingly assuming responsibility. Within this, Working Out Loud has been hailed as an essential 21st century digital workplace skill (Hinchcliffe, 2015). Given such claims, and that knowledge of the phenomenon is nascent within the literature, Working Out Loud is deemed a suitable topic of research. Review of the literature and scrutiny of the phenomenon’s claims revealed a number of what might be termed ‘structural tensions’ that were seemingly presented as unproblematic. Given that the phenomenon is situated in a historically antagonistic relationship of capital and labour, matters of power are implicated. To understand how the phenomenon of Working Out Loud has emerged, what is meant by it and what the implications are for the relationship between individuals and organisations, a genealogical method of discourse analysis inspired by Michel Foucault was adopted to investigate matters of discourse/knowledge/power relative to Working Out Loud. Analysis revealed that the discourse of Working Out Loud is constructed through unification of a discourse of social business and a discourse of personal development/self-actualisation. By conflating different meanings of the word help across the two discourses, the primary subject position created in the discourse effectively aligns individuals’ personal development/self-actualisation with the realisation of business goals. Reconceptualised in the context of business organisations (Fleming, 2014), this study contends that such a position presents Working Out Loud as an expression of what Foucault calls biopower, wherein the everyday life qualities of individuals are increasingly indexed to the needs of the organisation

Development and implementation of clinical guidelines : an artificial intelligence perspective

Clinical practice guidelines in paper format are still the preferred form of delivery of medical knowledge and recommendations to healthcare professionals. Their current support and development process have well identified limitations to which the healthcare community has been continuously searching solutions. Artificial intelligence may create the conditions and provide the tools to address many, if not all, of these limitations.. This paper presents a comprehensive and up to date review of computer-interpretable guideline approaches, namely Arden Syntax, GLIF, PROforma, Asbru, GLARE and SAGE. It also provides an assessment of how well these approaches respond to the challenges posed by paper-based guidelines and addresses topics of Artificial intelligence that could provide a solution to the shortcomings of clinical guidelines. Among the topics addressed by this paper are expert systems, case-based reasoning, medical ontologies and reasoning under uncertainty, with a special focus on methodologies for assessing quality of information when managing incomplete information. Finally, an analysis is made of the fundamental requirements of a guideline model and the importance that standard terminologies and models for clinical data have in the semantic and syntactic interoperability between a guideline execution engine and the software tools used in clinical settings. It is also proposed a line of research that includes the development of an ontology for clinical practice guidelines and a decision model for a guideline-based expert system that manages non-compliance with clinical guidelines and uncertainty.This work is funded by national funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project PEst-OE/EEI/UI0752/2011"

“Following the SWP Uniform”: A Play with ‘Bleeding’ Humans

“Following the SWP Uniform” is a PhD thesis in the form of a Live-Action Role-Play (LARP). It manifests a multimedia digital Sensory Ethnography with the South Wales Police (SWP) in an engaging, playful invitation to ‘Explorers’ to join the research process: In pursuit of the Researcher’s research trajectory of patrolling along with SWP in the streets and following SWP uniforms on social media, Explorers co-experience ethnographic ‘places’ that emerge. Conceptualising place as experiential, contingent and interactive expresses the thesis’ more-than-representational methodological embeddedness and aligns with how LARPs function through (rule-based) improvisation. The thesis also materialises an aesthetic, experimental appeal to being ‘effective’ by being ‘affective’: What Explorers know through their experience of “Following the SWP Uniform” is equivalent but uniquely embodied and unpredictable. The same is true for what the Researcher learns from SWP, and what SWP know. Orientation is provided by focusing the LARP on ‘making Swansea a safe place’. Thus, this play empirically highlights notions of safe-place-making through online and offline police interactions, in the urban, devolved setting of Swansea whose policy-agenda changes the police’s ‘professional responsibilities’ and lived realities. By highlighting the emotional labour involved in policing as a ‘friendly Welsh community service’, this play elucidates contesting interpretations and feelings of ‘safety’, ‘belonging’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘community’. Most importantly, “Following the SWP Uniform” shares the SWP’s take on what it means to be (and act as a) Human, and why such is a valuable resource that needs protection

Supporting students' construction of hypermedia

This thesis considers the proposition that hypermedia may be employed effectively in higher education. More specifically, the question of its use by undergraduate music students to assist in writing essays and dissertations is investigated. The work begins with a review of general issues relating to educational hypermedia, such as its history, application, design and architecture. A user-centred approach to hypermedia development is advocated, and after critique and analysis of the literature, a framework for human-computer interaction for educational hypermedia is proposed. A case study is reported which serves to facilitate the undertaking of original research, as well as to evaluate the proposed framework. Other environments are also selected to carry out more generic research. Both reading strategies and writing strategies are investigated, and the results from these studies are used to conduct a repertory grid analysis of students' approaches to and perceptions of essay and dissertation development. The outcome of this experiment concludes with a proposal for a structural model of essay and dissertation development. Analysis of the model suggests the need for further survey analysis of taskartefact usage in specific educational domains, and experimental studies into electronic document manipulation and the reading of music from computer screens are investigated with respect to the case study environment. The implications of the research carried out in this thesis have assisted in and helped to justify the design of the prototype system HECTOR (Hypermedia, from Essay Conception TO Realisation). It aims to support students in their research, planning and writing of essays and dissertations. HECTOR has been evaluated in the field, and the results of this go some way to supporting the hypothesis of the thesis - that hypermedia can be employed effectively in higher education

Novel Intraoperative Imaging of Gastric Tube Perfusion during Oncologic Esophagectomy—A Pilot Study Comparing Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) and Fluorescence Imaging (FI) with Indocyanine Green (ICG)

Background: Novel intraoperative imaging techniques, namely, hyperspectral (HSI) and fluorescence imaging (FI), are promising with respect to reducing severe postoperative complications, thus increasing patient safety. Both tools have already been used to evaluate perfusion of the gastric conduit after esophagectomy and before anastomosis. To our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating both modalities simultaneously during esophagectomy. Methods: In our pilot study, 13 patients, who underwent Ivor Lewis esophagectomy and gastric conduit reconstruction, were analyzed prospectively. HSI and FI were recorded before establishing the anastomosis in order to determine its optimum position. Results: No anastomotic leak occurred during this pilot study. In five patients, the imaging methods resulted in a more peripheral adaptation of the anastomosis. There were no significant differences between the two imaging tools, and no adverse events due to the imaging methods or indocyanine green (ICG) injection occurred. Conclusions: Simultaneous intraoperative application of both modalities was feasible and not time consuming. They are complementary with regard to the ideal anastomotic position and may contribute to better surgical outcomes. The impact of their simultaneous application will be proven in consecutive prospective trials with a large patient cohort

Designing Museums for Participation, Collaboration and Social Interaction

This thesis documents the design and development of novel interactive experiences that explored concepts aimed to enhance the visitor experience to Cork Butter Museum, Cork, Ireland. The context to the work is that in recent years, museums and cultural institutions are increasingly motivated to apply creative strategies to engage visitors who come for recreational, social and sometimes educative purposes. Novel museum exhibits designed to cater for such needs often involves the integration of new media technologies in response to rising expectations visitors have with regards to being actively engaged during their visit. This often requires a higher level of participation than reading text or looking at artefacts from a controlled distance. Researchers have explored transforming the visitor experience through a wide range of projects in the fields of embodied interaction and experience design, which might be regarded as emerging subfields of research practice in HCI. Recent approaches to the design of public exhibition spaces have often made use of widely available input/output sensing technologies which support alternative strategies for the creation of novel interfaces and delivery of dynamic content. In light of such developments, the aim of this work was to explore the design of engaging experiences that would facilitate participation, collaboration and social interaction in a museum through the creation of technologically augmented artefacts. From the outset, a principle of the research was to ensure that any interventions were sensitive to and respected the natural aesthetic of the museum environment. Aims and objectives that were suitable for the research were first identified through design research, out of which a set of design principles that were specific to the museum emerged.Authentic artefacts which were suitable for the creation of novel experiences were identified and transformed over the course of an iterative design and development cycle. They were then brought into the museum for a case study, and their effects were analysed and discussed. The process, methods, and findings that were uncovered over the course of the research will be described in the thesis

Subtitling the Visual: A Relevance Theory Perspective on Translating Visual Narrative Elements in Breaking Bad

The purpose of this thesis was to explore what types of narrative information are communicated visually in film and television and when the information requires translation or explanation for viewers of another culture to understand. These questions were approached from the perspective of Sperber and Wilson’s (1995) Relevance Theory, according to which communication is guided by principles of relevance and human cognition is instinctively geared towards maximizing relevance. The data for this research was collected from seven episodes across the first season of Breaking Bad and its Finnish subtitles on the streaming service Netflix. The collection of data consists of visual narrative elements that are shown on the screen to advance the show’s story. The data was then categorized based on the implied purpose types of the visual elements. Examples from the data were transcribed using Taylor’s (2016) multimodal transcription method. Five main categories of visual narrative elements were identified. The visual elements in these categories communicate information about scenes, characters and their thoughts and personal histories, twists in the narrative, and comic relief. Individual visual narrative elements from the main categories were also considered realia – culture-specific items that require previous knowledge or explanation. The visual narrative elements in the data were translated in the subtitles over half the time. Omissions were often (but not always) considered to be due to redundancy in the storytelling or the constraints of the subtitle medium. The results suggest a need for further research into the topic, as Relevance Theory proves to be an effective tool of multimodal analysis and thus translation, and the effect of the omission of visual narrative elements on relevance in a story was outside the scope of this thesis.Tämän tutkielman tarkoitus oli selvittää, millaista kerronnallista tietoa elokuvat ja televisio-ohjelmat välittävät visuaalisesti ja milloin tiedon ymmärtäminen toisessa kohdekulttuurissa vaatii kääntämistä tai selittämistä. Näitä kysymyksiä lähestyttiin Sperberin ja Wilsonin (1995) relevanssiteorian näkökulmasta. Teorian mukaan kommunikaatiota ohjaavat relevanssin periaatteet ja ihmiskognitio pyrkii vaistomaisesti maksimoimaan relevanssin. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin Breaking Bad -ohjelman ensimmäisen tuotantokauden seitsemästä jaksosta sekä niiden suomenkielisistä tekstityksistä Netflix-suoratoistopalvelussa. Aineisto koostuu visuaalisen kerronnan elementeistä, joita näytetään ohjelmassa ruudulla tarinan edistämiseksi. Aineisto kategorisoitiin visuaalisten elementtien implikoitujen tarkoitustyyppien perusteella. Yksittäisiä esimerkkejä aineistosta litteroitiin Taylorin (2016) multimodaalisen transkription menetelmällä. Visuaalisen kerronnan elementeistä tunnistettiin viisi pääkategoriaa. Näiden kategorioiden visuaaliset elementit välittävät katsojille tietoa kohtauksista, hahmoista ja heidän ajatuksistaan ja historiastaan sekä juonenkäänteistä ja koomisista kevennyksistä kohtauksissa. Yksittäiset pääkategorioihin kuuluvat visuaalisen kerronnan elementit tunnistettiin myös reaalioiksi – kulttuurisidonnaisiksi asioiksi, joiden ymmärtäminen vaatii niiden aiempaa tuntemusta tai selittämistä. Yli puolet aineiston visuaalisen kerronnan elementeistä on tekstitetty. Useissa tapauksista (muttei aina) kääntämättä jättämisen syyksi pääteltiin tarinankerronnassa tapahtuva toisto tai tekstitysten rajallisuus kommunikaatiomuotona. Tutkielman tulokset osoittavat lisätutkimustyön olevan tarpeellista, sillä relevanssiteorian huomattiin olevan toimiva multimodaalisen analyysin ja täten kääntämisen työkalu. Lisäksi visuaalisten elementtien kääntämättä jättäminen ja sen vaikutus relevanssiin kerronnassa jouduttiin rajaamaan tämän tutkielman ulkopuolelle

Development of Open Source Software and Hardware Tool-Chains for Novel Electronics

3-D printing technologies have become widely adopted and have spurred innovation and efficiency across many markets. A large contributor to the success of 3-D printing are open source, low cost electronics. On-site circuit manufacturing, however, has not become as widely utilized as 3-D printing. This project attempts to address this problem by proposing and demonstrating an open source circuit board milling machine which is inexpensive, easily manufactured, and accurate. In three interdependent sub-projects, this thesis defines a standard method for designing open source hardware, the design of the bespoke circuit mill, and explores an application of the mill for novel circuit manufacturing. The first sub-project develops a standardized process for designing, prototyping, and distributing open source hardware. Following these steps can help ensure success for each individual part of the project. In order to validate the procedure, a case study is explored of designing low cost parametric glass slide driers. The second sub-project details the design and construction of a circuit prototyping machine. The open source design procedure is implemented to assure maximum effectiveness. A software interface is also designed to control and carry out processing steps on the milling machine. The mill minimizes lead time and production costs of experimental circuitry. The mill also stands as a strong open source tool that can help foster growth in distributed manufacturing of electronics for a wide array of applications. The third and final sub-project explores a flexible and scalable power monitoring system. The electronics are designed according to the open source design procedure and are manufacturable with the circuit milling machine. The power meter can be used to monitor and log power consumption of a wide range of loads, including both AC and DC