ScanGraph: A Novel Scanpath Comparison Method Using Visualisation of Graph Cliques

The article describes a new tool for analyses of eye-movement data. Many different approaches to scanpath comparison exist. One of the most frequently used approaches is String Edit Distance, where the gaze trajectories are replaced by the sequences of visited Areas of Interest. In cartographic literature, the most commonly used software for scanpath comparison is eyePatterns. During the analysis of eyePatterns functionality, we have found that tree-graph visualization of its results is not reliable. Thus, we decided to develop a new tool called ScanGraph. Its computational algorithms are modified to work better with the sequences with different lengths. The output is visualized as a simple graph, and similar groups of sequences are displayed as cliques of this graph. The article describes ScanGraph’s functionality on the example of a simple cartographic eye-tracking study. Differences of the reading strategy of a simple map between cartographic experts and novices were investigated. The paper should serve to the researchers who would like to analyze differences between groups of participants, and who would like to use our tool - ScanGraph, available at www.eyetracking.upol.cz/scangraph

Web users with autism: eye tracking evidence for differences

Anecdotal evidence suggests that people with autism may have different processing strategies when accessing the web. However, limited empirical evidence is available to support this. This paper presents an eye tracking study with 18 participants with high-functioning autism and 18 neurotypical participants to investigate the similarities and differences between these two groups in terms of how they search for information within web pages. According to our analysis, people with autism are likely to be less successful in completing their searching tasks. They also have a tendency to look at more elements on web pages and make more transitions between the elements in comparison to neurotypical people. In addition, they tend to make shorter but more frequent fixations on elements which are not directly related to a given search task. Therefore, this paper presents the first empirical study to investigate how people with autism differ from neurotypical people when they search for information within web pages based on an in-depth statistical analysis of their gaze patterns

Star and polyline glyphs in a grid plot and on a map display: which perform better?

Glyphs are small geometric shapes that in geovisualization are often used to represent multidimensional spatial data. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of their two 10 types – star and polyline glyphs, as they can encode the same message and can provide similar functionality. Thus, if the two glyph types are similar and can be used for the same data, the question arises as to which of them better facilitates various user tasks. To address this question, an empirical study of 26 individual users is conducted to investigate differences in user performance for polyline and star glyphs shown either in a grid plot or on a map display. In this study, a 15 task-based approach with eye-tracking is applied, as well as a subjective questionnaire and a psychological test of cognitive style. The finding is that polyline glyphs better facilitate tasks when datapoint values in glyphs are to be read, whereas star glyphs are better when a visual search among glyphs is to be done. Moreover, the results reveal that the map display works better than the grid plot. If star glyphs are to be used, the key (legend) needs to be better 20 incorporated into a visual interface

An interactive web-based visual analytics tool for detecting strategic eye movement patterns

\u3cp\u3eIn this paper we describe an interactive and web-based visual analytics tool combining linked visualization techniques and algorithmic approaches for exploring the hierarchical visual scanning behavior of a group of people when solving tasks in a static stimulus. This has the benefit that the recorded eye movement data can be observed in a more structured way with the goal to find patterns in the common scanning behavior of a group of eye tracked people. To reach this goal we first preprocess and aggregate the scanpaths based on formerly defined areas of interest (AOIs) which generates a weighted directed graph. We visually represent the resulting AOI graph as a modified hierarchical graph layout. This can be used to filter and navigate in the eye movement data shown in a separate view overplotted on the stimulus for preserving the mental map and for providing an intuitive view on the semantics of the original stimulus. Several interaction techniques and complementary views with visualizations are implemented. Moreover, due to the web-based nature of the tool, users can upload, share, and explore data with others. To illustrate the usefulness of our concept we apply it to real-world eye movement data from a formerly conducted eye tracking experiment.\u3c/p\u3

Rationale, design and baseline characteristics of the effect of ticagrelor on health outcomes in diabetes mellitus patients Intervention study

In the setting of prior myocardial infarction, the oral antiplatelet ticagrelor added to aspirin reduced the risk of recurrent ischemic events, especially, in those with diabetes mellitus. Patients with stable coronary disease and diabetes are also at elevated risk and might benefit from dual antiplatelet therapy. The Effect of Ticagrelor on Health Outcomes in diabEtes Mellitus patients Intervention Study (THEMIS, NCT01991795) is a Phase 3b randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of ticagrelor vs placebo, on top of low dose aspirin. Patients >= 50 years with type 2 diabetes receiving anti-diabetic medications for at least 6 months with stable coronary artery disease as determined by a history of previous percutaneous coronary intervention, bypass grafting, or angiographic stenosis of >= 50% of at least one coronary artery were enrolled. Patients with known prior myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke were excluded. The primary efficacy endpoint is a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. The primary safety endpoint is Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction major bleeding. A total of 19 220 patients worldwide have been randomized and at least 1385 adjudicated primary efficacy endpoint events are expected to be available for analysis, with an expected average follow-up of 40 months (maximum 58 months). Most of the exposure is on a 60 mg twice daily dose, as the dose was lowered from 90 mg twice daily partway into the study. The results may revise the boundaries of efficacy for dual antiplatelet therapy and whether it has a role outside acute coronary syndromes, prior myocardial infarction, or percutaneous coronary intervention