Towards a Theory of Analytical Behaviour: A Model of Decision-Making in Visual Analytics

This paper introduces a descriptive model of the human-computer processes that lead to decision-making in visual analytics. A survey of nine models from the visual analytics and HCI literature are presented to account for different perspectives such as sense-making, reasoning, and low-level human-computer interactions. The survey examines the people and computers (entities) presented in the models, the divisions of labour between entities (both physical and role-based), the behaviour of both people and machines as constrained by their roles and agency, and finally the elements and processes which define the flow of data both within and between entities. The survey informs the identification of four observations that characterise analytical behaviour - defined as decision-making facilitated by visual analytics: bilateral discourse, divisions of labour, mixed-synchronicity information flows, and bounded behaviour. Based on these principles, a descriptive model is presented as a contribution towards a theory of analytical behaviour. The future intention is to apply prospect theory, a economic model of decision-making under uncertainty, to the study of analytical behaviour. It is our assertion that to apply prospect theory first requires a descriptive model of the processes that facilitate decision-making in visual analytics. We conclude it necessary to measure the perception of risk in future work in order to apply prospect theory to the study of analytical behaviour using our proposed model

Representation Effects and Loss Aversion in Analytical Behaviour: An Experimental Study into Decision Making Facilitated by Visual Analytics

This paper presents the results of an experiment into the relationship between the representation of data and decision-making. Three hundred participants online, were asked to choose between a series of financial investment opportunities using data presented in line charts. A single dependent variable of investment choice was examined over four levels of varying display conditions and randomised data. Three variations to line chart visualisations provided a controlled factor between subjects divided into three groups; -˜standard’ line charts, -˜tall’ line charts, and one dual-series line chart. The final results revealed a consistent main effect and two other interactions between certain display conditions and decision-making. The findings of this paper are significant to the study visualisation and to the field of visual analytics. This experiment was devised as part of a study into Analytical Behaviour, defined as decision-making facilitated by visual analytics - a new topic that encompasses existing research and real-world applications

Design Spaces in Visual Analytics Based on Goals: Analytical Behaviour, Exploratory Investigation, Information Design & Perceptual Tasks

This paper considers a number of perspectives on design spaces in visual analytics and proposes a new set of four design spaces, based on user goals. Three of the user goals are derived from the literature and are categorised under the terms exploratory investigation, perceptual tasks, and information design. The fourth goal is categorised as analytical behaviour; a recently defined term referring to the study of decision-making facilitated by visual analytics. This paper contributes to the literature on decision-making in visual analytics with a survey of real-world applications within the analytical behaviour design space and by providing a new perspective on design spaces. Central to our analysis is the introduction of decision concepts and theories from economics into a visual analytics context. Given the recent interest in decision-making we wanted to understand the emerging topic of analytical behaviour as a design space and found it necessary to look at more than just decision-making to make a valuable contribution. The result is an initial framework suitable for use in the analysis or design of analytical behaviour applications

Heat flow in southernmost California and the origin of the Salton Trough

Heat flow in the Imperial Valley and adjacent crystalline rocks is very high (∼140 mW m−2). Gravity and seismic studies suggest the crust is about 23.5 km thick with the lower half composed of gabbro and the upper fourth composed of low-density sediments. Conduction through such a crust resting directly on asthenosphere would give the observed heat flow if there were no extension or sedimentation. However, both processes must have been active, as the Imperial Valley is part of the Salton Trough, a pull-apart sedimentary basin that evolved over the past 4 or 5 m.y. To investigate the interrelations of these factors, we consider a one-dimensional model of basin formation in which the lower crustal gabbro and upper crustal sediments accumulated simultaneously as the crust extended and sedimentation kept pace with isostatic subsidence. For parameters appropriate for the Salton Trough, increasing the extension rate has little effect on surface heat flow because it increases effects of heating by intrusion and cooling by sedimentation in a compensating manner; it does, however, result in progressively increasing lower crustal temperatures. Analytical results suggest that the average extensional strain rate during formation of the trough was ∼20–50%/m.y. (∼1014 s−1); slower rates are inadequate to account for the present composition of the crust, and faster rates would probably cause massive crustal melting. To achieve the differential velocities of the Pacific plate at one end of the trough and North American plate at the other with this strain rate, extension must have, on the average, been distributed (or shifted about) over a spreading region ∼150 km wide. This is about 10 times wider than the present zone of active seismicity, suggesting that the seismic pattern is ephemeral on the time scale for the trough's formation. Narrow spreading zones are typical where sustained spreading is compensated by basaltic intrusion to form the thin oceanic crust, but where such spreading occurs in thicker continental crust, broader zones of distributed extension (with smaller strain rates) may be required for heat balance. The Salton Trough model suggests that distributed extension can be associated with substantial magmatic additions to the crust; their effect on crustal buoyancy has important implications for the relation between crustal extension and subsidence

Lee-yang zeros and the complexity of the ferromagnetic ising model on bounded-degree graphs

We study the computational complexity of approximating the partition function of the ferromagnetic Ising model in the Lee-Yang circle of zeros given by |λ| = 1, where λ is the external field of the model. Complex-valued parameters for the Ising model are relevant for quantum circuit computations and phase transitions in statistical physics, but have also been key in the recent deterministic approximation scheme for all |λ| ≠ 1 by Liu, Sinclair, and Srivastava. Here, we focus on the unresolved complexity picture on the unit circle, and on the tantalising question of what happens in the circular arc around λ = 1, where on one hand the classical algorithm of Jerrum and Sinclair gives a randomised approximation scheme on the real axis suggesting tractability, and on the other hand the presence of Lee-Yang zeros alludes to computational hardness. Our main result establishes a sharp computational transition at the point λ = 1; in fact, our techniques apply more generally to the whole unit circle |λ| = 1. We show #P-hardness for approximating the partition function on graphs of maximum degree Δ when b, the edge-interaction parameter, is in the interval [EQUATION] and λ is a non-real on the unit circle. This result contrasts with known approximation algorithms when |λ| ≠ 1 or [EQUATION], and shows that the Lee-Yang circle of zeros is computationally intractable, even on bounded-degree graphs. Our inapproximability result is based on constructing rooted tree gadgets via a detailed understanding of the underlying dynamical systems, which are further parameterised by the degree of the root. The ferromagnetic Ising model has radically different behaviour than previously considered anti-ferromagnetic models, and showing our #P-hardness results in the whole Lee-Yang circle requires a new high-level strategy to construct the gadgets. To this end, we devise an elaborate inductive procedure to construct the required gadgets by taking into account the dependence between the degree of the root of the tree and the magnitude of the derivative at the fixpoint of the corresponding dynamical system

Translation and Validation of the Greek Version of the Antipsychotics and Sexual Functioning Questionnaire (ASFQ)

Introduction Sexual dysfunction in patients with psychoses may be associated with the psychiatric illness itself (negative symptoms, such as apathy, and avolition), comorbid somatic health, psychosocial factors (stigmatization, discrimination), and the use of psychotropic drugs. In Greece, research into the study of antipsychotic-induced sexual dysfunction is not sufficient. Aim This study was conducted to translate and validate the Greek version of the Antipsychotics and Sexual Functioning Questionnaire (ASFQ) in a sample of patients receiving antipsychotic treatment. Methods A “forward-backward translation” method was applied. A pilot study was conducted with 15 outpatients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder under antipsychotics treatment. Patients also completed the “Subjects’ Response to Antipsychotics (SRA)” questionnaire in order to assess the validity of the ASFQ. The ASFQ and the SRA questionnaire were completed twice within 2 weeks. Main outcome measures Reliability (internal consistency and test-retest) and validity were assessed. Results The Greek translation of ASFQ was reliable, with excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's a = 0.90 for men and 0.95 for women in both measurements). In addition, the Spearman correlation coefficient was 1 (P< .001) in all Likert-type questions in both assessments. Finally, Spearman correlation coefficients between ASFQ and SRA were moderately positive to strongly positive (between 0.25 and 1) in both assessments, demonstrating moderate to high validity. Conclusions The Greek version of the ASFQ has proved to be a reliable and valid clinical instrument, hence it can be used in further studies in the Greek population. Angelaki M, Galanis P, Igoumenou A, et al. Translation and Validation of the Greek Version of the Antipsychotics and Sexual Functioning Questionnaire (ASFQ). J Sex Med 2021;9:100334