The design and evaluation of a sonically enhanced tool palette

This paper describes an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of adding sound to tool palettes. Palettes have usability problems because users need to see the information they present, but they are often outside the area of visual focus. We used nonspeech sounds called earcons to indicate the current tool and when tool changes occurred so that users could tell what tool they were in wherever they were looking. Results showed a significant reduction in the number of tasks performed with the wrong tool. Therefore, users knew what the current tool was and did not try to perform tasks with the wrong one. All of this was not at the expense of making the tool palettes any more annoying to use

Food-induced fatal anaphylaxis: from epidemiological data to general prevention strategies

BACKGROUND: Anaphylaxis hospitalisations are increasing in many countries, in particular for medication and food triggers in young children. Food-related anaphylaxis remains an uncommon cause of death, but a significant proportion of these are preventable. AIM: To review published epidemiological data relating to food-induced anaphylaxis and potential risk factors of fatal and/or near-fatal anaphylaxis cases, in order to provide strategies to reduce the risk of severe adverse outcomes in food anaphylaxis. METHODS: We identified 32 published studies available in MEDLINE (1966-2017), EMBASE (1980-2017), CINAHL (1982-2017), using known terms and synonyms suggested by librarians and allergy specialists. RESULTS: Young adults with a history of asthma, previously known food allergy particularly to peanut/tree nuts are at higher risk of fatal anaphylaxis reactions. In some countries, cow's milk and seafood/fish are also becoming common triggers of fatal reactions. Delayed adrenaline injection is associated with fatal outcomes, but timely adrenaline alone may be insufficient. There is still a lack of evidence regarding the real impact of these risk factors and co-factors (medications and/or alcohol consumption, physical activities, and mast cell disorders). CONCLUSIONS: General strategies should include optimization of the classification and coding for anaphylaxis (new ICD 11 anaphylaxis codes), dissemination of international recommendations on the treatment of anaphylaxis, improvement of the prevention in food and catering areas and, dissemination of specific policies for allergic children in schools. Implementation of these strategies will involve national and international support for ongoing local efforts in relationship with networks of centres of excellence to provide personalized management (which might include immunotherapy) for the most at-risk patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Hypophosphorylated SR splicing factors transiently localize around active nucleolar organizing regions in telophase daughter nuclei

Upon completion of mitosis, daughter nuclei assemble all of the organelles necessary for the implementation of nuclear functions. We found that upon entry into daughter nuclei, snRNPs and SR proteins do not immediately colocalize in nuclear speckles. SR proteins accumulated in patches around active nucleolar organizing regions (NORs) that we refer to as NOR-associated patches (NAPs), whereas snRNPs were enriched at other nuclear regions. NAPs formed transiently, persisting for 15–20 min before dissipating as nuclear speckles began to form in G1. In the absence of RNA polymerase II transcription, NAPs increased in size and persisted for at least 2 h, with delayed localization of SR proteins to nuclear speckles. In addition, SR proteins in NAPs are hypophosphorylated, and the SR protein kinase Clk/STY colocalizes with SR proteins in NAPs, suggesting that phosphorylation releases SR proteins from NAPs and their initial target is transcription sites. This work demonstrates a previously unrecognized role of NAPs in splicing factor trafficking and nuclear speckle biogenesis

Sonically-enhanced widgets: comments on Brewster and Clarke, ICAD 1997

This paper presents a review of the research surrounding the paper “The Design and Evaluation of a Sonically Enhanced Tool Palette” by Brewster and Clarke from ICAD 1997. A historical perspective is given followed by a discussion of how this work has fed into current developments in the area

Wearable Haptic Devices for Gait Re-education by Rhythmic Haptic Cueing

This research explores the development and evaluation of wearable haptic devices for gait sensing and rhythmic haptic cueing in the context of gait re-education for people with neurological and neurodegenerative conditions. Many people with long-term neurological and neurodegenerative conditions such as Stroke, Brain Injury, Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease suffer from impaired walking gait pattern. Gait improvement can lead to better fluidity in walking, improved health outcomes, greater independence, and enhanced quality of life. Existing lab-based studies with wearable devices have shown that rhythmic haptic cueing can cause immediate improvements to gait features such as temporal symmetry, stride length, and walking speed. However, current wearable systems are unsuitable for self-managed use for in-the-wild applications with people having such conditions. This work aims to investigate the research question of how wearable haptic devices can help in long-term gait re-education using rhythmic haptic cueing. A longitudinal pilot study has been conducted with a brain trauma survivor, providing rhythmic haptic cueing using a wearable haptic device as a therapeutic intervention for a two-week period. Preliminary results comparing pre and post-intervention gait measurements have shown improvements in walking speed, temporal asymmetry, and stride length. The pilot study has raised an array of issues that require further study. This work aims to develop and evaluate prototype systems through an iterative design process to make possible the self-managed use of such devices in-the-wild. These systems will directly provide therapeutic intervention for gait re-education, offer enhanced information for therapists, remotely monitor dosage adherence and inform treatment and prognoses over the long-term. This research will evaluate the use of technology from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, including clinicians, carers and patients. This work has the potential to impact clinical practice nationwide and worldwide in neuro-physiotherapy

The Different Function of Single Phosphorylation Sites of Drosophila melanogaster Lamin Dm and Lamin C

Lamins' functions are regulated by phosphorylation at specific sites but our understanding of the role of such modifications is practically limited to the function of cdc 2 (cdk1) kinase sites in depolymerization of the nuclear lamina during mitosis. In our study we used Drosophila lamin Dm (B-type) to examine the function of particular phosphorylation sites using pseudophosphorylated mutants mimicking single phosphorylation at experimentally confirmed in vivo phosphosites (S25E, S45E, T435E, S595E). We also analyzed lamin C (A-type) and its mutant S37E representing the N-terminal cdc2 (mitotic) site as well as lamin Dm R64H mutant as a control, non-polymerizing lamin. In the polymerization assay we could observe different effects of N-terminal cdc2 site pseudophosphorylation on A- and B-type lamins: lamin Dm S45E mutant was insoluble, in contrast to lamin C S37E. Lamin Dm T435E (C-terminal cdc2 site) and R64H were soluble in vitro. We also confirmed that none of the single phosphorylation site modifications affected the chromatin binding of lamin Dm, in contrast to the lamin C N-terminal cdc2 site. In vivo, all lamin Dm mutants were incorporated efficiently into the nuclear lamina in transfected Drosophila S2 and HeLa cells, although significant amounts of S45E and T435E were also located in cytoplasm. When farnesylation incompetent mutants were expressed in HeLa cells, lamin Dm T435E was cytoplasmic and showed higher mobility in FRAP assay

Can visco-elastic phase separation, macromolecular crowding and colloidal physics explain nuclear organisation?

BACKGROUND: The cell nucleus is highly compartmentalized with well-defined domains, it is not well understood how this nuclear order is maintained. Many scientists are fascinated by the different set of structures observed in the nucleus to attribute functions to them. In order to distinguish functional compartments from non-functional aggregates, I believe is important to investigate the biophysical nature of nuclear organisation. RESULTS: The various nuclear compartments can be divided broadly as chromatin or protein and/or RNA based, and they have very different dynamic properties. The chromatin compartment displays a slow, constrained diffusional motion. On the other hand, the protein/RNA compartment is very dynamic. Physical systems with dynamical asymmetry go to viscoelastic phase separation. This phase separation phenomenon leads to the formation of a long-lived interaction network of slow components (chromatin) scattered within domains rich in fast components (protein/RNA). Moreover, the nucleus is packed with macromolecules in the order of 300 mg/ml. This high concentration of macromolecules produces volume exclusion effects that enhance attractive interactions between macromolecules, known as macromolecular crowding, which favours the formation of compartments. In this paper I hypothesise that nuclear compartmentalization can be explained by viscoelastic phase separation of the dynamically different nuclear components, in combination with macromolecular crowding and the properties of colloidal particles. CONCLUSION: I demonstrate that nuclear structure can satisfy the predictions of this hypothesis. I discuss the functional implications of this phenomenon

Conception participative et évaluation d'un serious game pour les enfants asthmatiques

International audienceThe study described in this paper highlighted the participatory design process (PD) in the context of asthma e-learning. First, we described global process to design this tool named KidBreath. Second, we evaluated in two Year 4 classes its efficacy in a motivation way, usability, disease knowledge and interests of children by their system. Results showed, in acceptance with behaviors, high level of intrinsic motivation when using KidBreath, usability and enjoyment of edutainment activities. This pilot study tends to confirm to continue with this approach with asthma kids at home.L'étude décrite dans cet article met en exergue l'intérêt d'une approche de conception participative (CP) dans le cadre d'un apprentissage en ligne sur l'asthme pour les enfants. Après avoir décrit l'ensemble de la démarche pour la conception de cet e-learning nommé KidBreath, nous évaluons dans 2 classes de CE2 son efficacité au niveau motivationnel, utilisabilité, connaissance sur la maladie et émergence de l'intérêt que les enfants y portent à travers la curiosité qui en émerge. Les résultats, probants aux comportements observés, montrent un haut niveau de motivation intrinsèque pour utiliser l'outil, un fort taux d'utilisabilité et une grande satisfaction des activités ludo-éducatives. Cette étude pilote nous confirme de continuer dans cette approche en testant le système notamment auprès des enfants asthmatiques sur du moyen terme