Finding “Appeal” Factors in Local Animation Character Design: Formalistic and Visual Semiotic Analysis (FVSA)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui faktor ‘daya tarik’ dalam desain karakter animasi lokal. ‘Daya tarik’ adalah salah satu dari 12 prinsip desain animasi dan sering dianggap ambigu. Untuk mencapai ‘daya tarik’, salah satu metode yang digunakan adalah Viewer’s Impression Words (VIW) yang merupakan modifikasi dari Kansei Words (KW). Metode ini menggabungkan teori formalistik dan semiotik visual untuk mencapai Viewer’s Impression Words (VIW), bagian penting dari Kansei Engineering. Hasil penelitian daripada ujikaji ini, dapat disimpulkan bahawa metod ini mampu untuk membantu peserta ujikaji memilih kata VIW yang sesuai seterusnya ke arah aktiviti selanjutnya iaitu proses prinsip longgar. Metode ini dilihat sebagai teknik baru untuk memperbaiki proses dalam memperoleh VIW atau Kansei Words untuk digunakan dalam latihan pengukuran untuk menemukan pengaruh (emosi) dalam memahami ‘daya tarik.’ Ini untuk mencapai prinsip longgar dalam desain karakter animasi lokal.Kata kunci: Kata Impressi Penonton, Desain Berasaskan Pengguna, Desain Karakte

The study of correlation between affective and cognitive response on educational video mobile-learning

This paper studies the correlation between affective and cognitive response from students toward educational video mobile-learning. In theory, the engagement experience on educational video can be heightened with the avail-ability of time point feature on YouTube because of user control and the benefits of flexibility in learning. However, the time point feature is only accessible for desktop and laptop users, whereas the feature is inoperative for smartphone users. Hence, a prototype of interactive video mobile-learning, Pocket IVML apps, was developed as an alternative video mobile-learning with cue point feature to examine the possibility of a correlation between the affective and cognitive response among students. Three different production styles of educational video mobile-learning were involved in the experiment; non-linear video with visual effects (interactive video mobile-learning), linear video with visual effects (green screen) and linear video with no visual effects (screencast). The data extracted from affective and cognitive response was then analyzed using Pearson's r and Scatter Plots to measure the bonding between affective and cognitive variables. The study results show the possibility of a relationship between the affective and cognitive responses elicited from video production style

The study of affective value in educational video production style using kansei engineering method

ABSTRACT This paper presents the emotional responses among higher institution learners towards the production style of an educational video. The video design concepts for each production style were categorized into three sections, non-linear video with visual effects (interactive video mobile-learning), linear video with visual effects (green screen) and linear video with no visual effects (screencast). The Kansei Engineering approach was used to measure the learners’ emotion reaction on each of the production style. Through Kansei Engineering method, the outcomes presented variance of active and passive emotion reaction towards the production style, difference feelings responses caused by the video design, whereas at the end most learners agreed that the inclusion of interactivity and aesthetics in video design will increase their motivation to learn from the educational video

“Non-functioning” Kidneys in Excretory Urography: Caution is the word!

Significant loss of renal function is objectively diagnosed with radioisotope renal scintigraphy. In many developing countries radioisotope study is notreadily available and the diagnosis of non-functioning kidney is often based on intravenous urography. We retrospectively reviewed the case notes of three patients that were diagnosed with ‘non-functioning’ kidneys based on intravenous contrast renal imaging but had salvage procedure for the renalmoiety. In the absence of radioisotope study, some restrain is advocated for nephrectomy, for ‘non-functioning kidney’, based solely on the result ofintravenous urography

Bilateral pelvi.ureteric junction obstruction: Our experience in a developing country

Background: Bilateral pelvi.ureteric junction (PUJ) obstruction is rare and causes high morbidity and mortality. Recent advances have led to its diagnosis and management in the perinatal period. However, open surgery is still the mainstay of treatment in less endowed nations where late presentation is the norm.Materials and Methods: All patients with PUJ obstruction diagnosed and managed at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital between January 2006 and December 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. All had open  surgery and all repairs were stented with double J stents or appropriate size feeding tube.Results: A total of 18 patients were analyzed, 11 males and 7 females with a ratio of 1.57:1 and mean age of 27.5 years (age range 2.38). The main clinical features were loin pain (72.22%) and fever (72.22%); while the main complications at presentation were hydronephrosis (55.56%),  impaired renal function (61.11%) and pyelonephritis (50%). The causes of obstruction were mainly congenital (50.0%) and due to schistosomal fibrosis/stricture (22.2%). Preliminary double J stents, tube nephrostomies and hemodialysis were used to recover renal function before surgery. Anderson.Hynes (41.7%) and Heineke.Mirhulicz (19.4%) pyeloplasty were the main procedures performed. The main post.operative complications were urinary tract infections (67.67%) and leakage (11.11%). The mean duration of symptoms was 23.72 months and the mean hospital stay was 13 days. The mortality rate was 5.56%.Conclusion: Bilateral PUJ obstruction is uncommon in Maiduguri, with  congenital causes and schistosomal fibrosis as the most common  etiologies. Aggressive treatment aimed at recovering renal function is necessary before open pyeloplasty if morbidity and mortality is to be reduced. Open pyeloplasty remained the best treatment option with favorable outcome.Key words: Bilateral pelviureteric junction obstruction, causes,  management, outcom

Usability inspection for sonification applications

Bonification is the representation of data using mainly non-speech sound for the purpose of communication and interpretation. The process and technique of converting the data into sound is called the sonification technique. One or more techniques might be required by a sonification application. However, sonification techniques are not generally suitable for all kinds of data, and often custom techniques are used - where the design is tailored to the domain and nature of the data as well as the users' required tasks within the application. Therefore, it is important to assure the usability of the technique for the specific domain application being developed. In previously reported research, most designers of sonification applications have needed to develop at least a prototype for user testing. The result are interpreted and analysed to look for potential problems and solutions to improve the design. This dissertation has developed a new systematic usability inspection approach called the Task Interpretation Walkthrough (TIW) for the design of sonification application before they go to the initial development phase. It is hypothesized that designers of sonification applications will be able to detect significantly more important potential usability problems before the implementation phase by analysing the interaction between the user and the application as well as paying attention to the different stages of how the data is transformed into sound. It uses two new models - the Sonification Application (SA) model and the User Interpretation Construction (UIC) model. Four experiments with human subjects were carried out to study the feasibility and effectiveness of Task Interpretation Walkthrough inspection by comparing it against two widely used techniques; Heuristic Evaluation and Cognitive Walkthrough. The sonification designs being inspected were a Mobile Phone Joystick Text-Entry with Sound (Experiments I and II), a Diagnosis Tool for Analysis of The Motion and Usage of a Patient's Arm (Experiment III); and an Audio-Visual Analysis Tool of Cervical Sample Slides (Experiment IV). The participants included sound researchers (Experiment II); and students with a background in music technology and software engineering (Experiments I, III and IV), acting either individually or in 2-person groups. The results have shown that the research hypothesis is supported, where the significantly important usability problems were able to be detected before the implementation phase. From the inspection method comparison study, results showed the Task Interpretation Walkthrough to be more effective than the existing techniques (Heuristic Evaluation and Cognitive Walkthrough)

Visual Analytics: Design Study for Exploratory Analytics on Peer Profiles, Activity and Learning Performance for MOOC Forum Activity Assessment

The massively open online course (MOOC) has become an increasingly popular alternative platform for education due to its open concept and free features. Due to its features that allow enrolment on a massive scale and participation across the globe, it presented new analytic challenges. The vast amount and variety of data generated pose challenges for the learning analytics community to analyse especially concerning peer presence and peer learning. Forum activity data offers the opportunity to assess the relationship between forum activities and user backgrounds with the learner’s progression and retention rate. Furthermore, there are several challenges in implementing data visualization in real-world scenarios such as different task characterisation compared to the existing analytics, along with varied factors on the usability of visualization among the domain analysts. Despite many research on learning analytics, most of the approaches were data-driven and there were only a handful of studies that were focused on interactive visualization design to facilitate MOOC forum user activity assessment using real-world scenarios and educational theories-driven. Our design study aims to investigate and formulate a visual analytic design to facilitate enriched visual analysis towards assessing forum activity in Malaysian MOOC, particularly in pattern and relationship exploration on the user diverse background and activities with the learning performance. This paper presents our review on visual learning analytics and current MOOC practice in Malaysia, our design study methodology and proposed conceptual visual analytics design on visualizing forum activity data

Tuberculous Ileal Perforation In A HiV Positive Patient A Case Report And Review Of Literature

Tuberculosis is prevalent worldwide. Even in developed countries there is a resurgence of tuberculosis mainly due to increasing HIV infection. Tuberculous ileal perforation is uncommon. It is, however, a potentially fatal complication of intestinal tuberculosis especially inHIV/AIDS patient. To highlight tuberculous ileal perforation as an underestimated complication of intestinal tuberculosis in anHIVpatient presentingwith acute abdomen. A 42 year old HIV positive long distance truck driver with tuberculous ileal perforation is presented and related literatures reviewed. Intestinal perforation due to abdominal tuberculosis is an aetiological factor in acute HIV abdomen.High index of suspicion remains the key to diagnosis.Keywords: Tuberculosis, Ileal Perforation,HIV Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 11 (4) 2008: pp. 386-38

Full term abdominal pregnancy with live fetus, still an occurrence in contemporary obstetrics practice: a case report

Abdominal pregnancy is an ectopic pregnancy in which the fetus develops in the peritoneal cavity. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Advanced abdominal pregnancyis a rarity and difficult to diagnose pre-operatively. The diagnosis of such condition can be missed pre-operatively despite the use of prenatal ultrasound scan. We present an advanced case of abdominal pregnancy A 38-year-old G4 P30+ A3 was referred to us on 10th June 2015 with history of 9 months amenorrhea and intermittent abdominal pain. She gave a history of vaginal bleeding, severe abdominal pain and fainting attack in the first trimester for which she was managed conservatively in a private hospital. Abdominal examination revealed a uterine size of 38 weeks with the fetus in breech presentation. On pelvic examination the cervix was closed, posterior and un-effaced. Abdominal ultrasound scan revealed a live singleton pregnancy with an average gestational age of 40 weeks in breech presentation. In view of the breech she was planned for lower segmentcaesarean section during which she was found to have an advanced abdominal pregnancy. Conclusion: Advanced abdominal pregnancy is rare and difficult to diagnose pre-operatively. High levelsof suspicion are required to diagnose this entity