Active progress bars : aiding the switch to temporary activities

International audienceCan we design an interface to help people make use of the idle time spent looking at progress bars? We propose to augment progress bars with user-controlled functionalities facilitating the switch to temporary activities. We propose a taxonomy of waiting period contexts and possible temporary tasks, then report on participatory design sessions, and a follow-up survey. Finally we describe an early prototype of active progress bar and report a small controlled experiment used to identify the impact of the tool on primary task satisfaction. The findings suggest that Active Progress Bars lead to significantly higher satisfaction when compared to a control condition

Hanstreamer: an Open-source Webcam-based Live Data Presentation System

We present Hanstreamer, a free and open-source system for webcam-based data presentation. The system performs real-time gesture recognition on the user's webcam video stream to provide interactive data visuals. Apart from the standard chart and map visuals, Hanstreamer is the first such video data presentation system to support network visualisation and interactive DimpVis-style time-series data exploration. The system is ready for use with popular online meeting software such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.Comment: 3 pages, 5 figure

Функції реалій в інтертекстах американських гумористичних новел

Актуальность работы связана с изучением текста в "диалоге" с другими текстами, т.е. в рамках теории интертекстуальности. Реалия рассматривается как элемент интертекста, где она функционируюет в составе аллюзии, цитаты, заголовочного комплекса и является составным элементом американских юмористических новелл 19-20 вв.Актуальність роботи пов'язана з вивченням тексту у "діалозі" з іншими текстами, тобто в рамках теорії інтертекстуальності. Реалія розглядається як елемент інтертексту, де вона функціонує у складі алюзії, цитати, заголовкового комплексу, і є складовим елементом американських гумористичних новел 19-20 ст.The actuality of the work is connected with the study of the text in "in dialogue" with other texts, i.e. within the limits of the intertextuality theory. A piece of realia is examined as an element of intertext where it functions in the structure of allusion, quotation, headline complex, and is a constituent part of the 19th-20th c. American humour short stories

Toxoplasma seroprevalence in a rural population in France: detection of a household effect

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Toxoplasma gondii</it>, the agent of toxoplasmosis, has a complex life cycle. In humans, the parasite may be acquired either through ingestion of contaminated meat or through oocysts present in the environment. The importance of each source of contamination varies locally according to the environment characteristics and to differences concerning human eating habits and the presence of cats; thus, the risk factors may be determined through fine-scale studies. Here, we searched for factors associated with seropositivity in the population of two adjacent villages in Lorraine region, France.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>All voluntary inhabitants filled out a questionnaire and gave a blood sample. The seroprevalence was estimated globally and according to the inhabitants' ages using a cubic spline regression. A mixed logistic regression model was used to quantify the effect of individual and household factors on the probability of seropositivity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on serological results from 273 persons, we estimated seroprevalence to be 47% (95% confidence interval: 41 to 53%). That seroprevalence increased with age: the slope was the steepest up to the age of 40 years (OR = 2.48 per 10-year increment, 95% credibility interval: [1.29 to 5.09]), but that increase was not significant afterwards. The probability of seropositivity tended to be higher in men than in women (OR = 2.01, 95% credibility interval: [0.92 to 4.72]) and in subjects eating raw vegetables at least once a week than in the others (OR = 8.4, 95% credibility interval: [0.93 to 72.1]). These effects were close to statistical significance. The multivariable analysis highlighted a significant seroprevalence heterogeneity among households. That seroprevalence varied between 6 and 91% (5^thand 95^thpercentile of the household seropositivity distribution).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The major finding is the household effect, with a strong heterogeneity of seroprevalence among households. This effect may be explained by common exposures of household members to local risk factors. Future work will quantify the link between the presence of oocysts in the soil and the seroprevalence of exposed households using a spatial analysis.</p

Relationship between haemagglutination-inhibiting antibody titres and clinical protection against influenza: development and application of a bayesian random-effects model

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Antibodies directed against haemagglutinin, measured by the haemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay are essential to protective immunity against influenza infection. An HI titre of 1:40 is generally accepted to correspond to a 50% reduction in the risk of contracting influenza in a susceptible population, but limited attempts have been made to further quantify the association between HI titre and protective efficacy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We present a model, using a meta-analytical approach, that estimates the level of clinical protection against influenza at any HI titre level. Source data were derived from a systematic literature review that identified 15 studies, representing a total of 5899 adult subjects and 1304 influenza cases with interval-censored information on HI titre. The parameters of the relationship between HI titre and clinical protection were estimated using Bayesian inference with a consideration of random effects and censorship in the available information.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A significant and positive relationship between HI titre and clinical protection against influenza was observed in all tested models. This relationship was found to be similar irrespective of the type of viral strain (A or B) and the vaccination status of the individuals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although limitations in the data used should not be overlooked, the relationship derived in this analysis provides a means to predict the efficacy of inactivated influenza vaccines when only immunogenicity data are available. This relationship can also be useful for comparing the efficacy of different influenza vaccines based on their immunological profile.</p

Evaluation de résolution de problèmes mal définis en éthique clinique : variation des scores selon les méthodes de correction et les caractéristiques des jurys

Contexte : La formation médicale évalue facilement les problèmes bien définis posés par la pratique. Les problèmes mal définis sont souvent écartés du fait de leur difficulté d'évaluation. But : Étudier les variations liées aux méthodes d'établissement des scores, aux experts et au niveau des étudiants, en matière d'évaluation de la décision médicale. Matériel et Méthode : à partir d'une situation clinique aboutissant à une décision complexe, les réponses de 50 étudiants en début d'apprentissage clinique et de 11 internes sont évaluées par 4 jurys différents et un évaluateur isolé. Les 4 jurys ont été constitués par 139 seniors médicaux habitués à la décision complexe. Les tendances des différents jurys, les notations obtenues par deux différents modes de correction (par test de concordance de script ou TCS, et par questions à choix multiples ou QCM) ainsi que leurs corrélations sont comparées. Résultats : les professionnels émettent des jugements décisionnels proches. Les jugements des internes sont voisins de ceux des seniors. Les jugements des étudiants débutants sont significativement différents. Les différentes notations sont corrélées, mais celles obtenues par TCS sont plus homogènes. Les notes obtenues par les internes sont significativement plus élevées que celles obtenues par les étudiants, quel que soit le jury. Conclusions : le TCS, dans l'évaluation de décisions complexes, comme c'est le cas en matière d'éthique clinique, représente un instrument plus valide qu'une évaluation conduite par un expert isolé, pour mettre en évidence la composante professionnelle des savoirs