Quantitative Measurement of Intuitiveness of Visualization Techniques

More and more visualizations and infographics are being adopted as a part of data communication (e.g., news articles and personal blogs) because they can not only present more details succinctly but also allow viewers explore data by themselves. However, when an information provider needs to decide which type of graphs, there is not much reliable information out there. For example, we do not know what portion of general public understands how to comprehend a type of graph, such as a scatter plot, without any explanation. Thus, the aim of this project is to quantify the level of intuitiveness of different visualization techniques. First, we selected representative visualization techniques and standardize them in terms of style and color to make them more comparable. Second, in order to collect data from a massive general public, we developed a website, which enabled us to conduct a series of experiments online. Third, we developed questionnaires to measure the intuitiveness by employing massive data from crowdsourcing workers. Fourth, we measured the intuitiveness of the eight selected visualizations by recruiting 100 participants via crowdsourcing. We found that different visualization techniques have different level of intuitiveness. Generally, lesser portion of the participants tends hard to understand the techniques representing more than two different data. This study will lead to more fundamental understanding of both visualization techniques and what makes them intuitive. The results of this study will help to make decisions on which visualization techniques will fit to targeted audiences

How User\u27s Visualization Literacy Relates to Their Cognitive Traits

Researchers in the field of Information Visualization have suggested that users’ cognitive abilities would likely to affect their understanding of data visualizations and deeper exploration in the visualizations. However, the evidence is still scant to link between user’s visualization literacy and their cognitive traits. Thus, the research goal of this study is to explore how user’s visualization literacy and their cognitive traits are related. In particular, we focused on two cognitive traits: numeracy and need-for-cognition. In order to achieve the goal, first, we measured visualization literacy, numeracy, and need-for-cognition using existing instruments with 46 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers, and the scores of the tree instruments were analyzed. The results showed that a moderate positive relationship between visualization literacy and numeracy (Spearman rho correlation coefficient = 0.571, P-Value=0.000); a moderate positive relationship between visualization literacy and need-for-cognition (Spearman rho correlation coefficient = 0.403, P-Value=0.006). In short, this study provides researchers of visualization literacy understanding of how users’ ability to interpret visualization relate their cognitive traits

The effect of ephedrine on intraoperative hypothermia

BACKGROUND: Prevention of intraoperative hypothermia has become a standard of operative care. Since ephedrine has a thermogenic effect and it is frequently used to treat hypotension during anesthesia, this study was designed to determine the effect of ephedrine on intraoperative hypothermia of patients who are undergoing spine surgery. METHODS: Twenty-four patients were randomly divided to receive an ephedrine (the ephedrine group, n = 12) or normal saline (the control group, n = 12) infusion for 2 h. The esophageal temperature (the core temperature), the index finger temperature (the peripheral temperature) and the hemodynamic variables such as the mean blood pressure and heart rate were measured every 15 minutes after the intubation. RESULTS: At the end of the study period, the esophageal temperature and hemodynamic variables were significantly decreased in the control group, whereas those in the ephedrine group were stably maintained. The index finger temperature was significantly lower in the ephedrine group compared to that in the control group, suggesting the prevention of core-to-peripheral redistribution of the heat as the cause of temperature maintenance. CONCLUSIONS: An intraoperative infusion of ephedrine minimized the decrease of the core temperature and it stably maintained the hemodynamic variables during spine surgery with the patient under general anesthesia.ope

Approximation of most penetrating particle size for fibrous filters considering Cunningham slip correction factor

In the estimation of the aerosol single fiber efficiency using fibrous filters, there is a size range, where the particles penetrate most effectively through the fibrous collectors, and corresponding minimum single fiber efficiency. For small particles in which the diffusion mechanism is dominant, the Cunningham slip correction factor (Cc) affects the single fiber efficiency and the most penetrating particle size (MPPS). Therefore, for accurate estimation, Cc is essential to be considered. However, many previous studies have neglected this factor because of its complexity and the associated difficulty in deriving the appropriate parameterization particularly for the MPPS. In this study, the expression for the MPPS, and the corresponding expression for the minimum single fiber efficiency are analytically derived, and the effects of Cc are determined. In order to accommodate the slip factor for all particle-size ranges, Cc is simplified and modified. Overall, the obtained analytical expression for the MPPS is in a good agreement with the exact solution

Does an Eye Tracker Tell the Truth About Visualizations?: Findings While Investigating Visualizations for Decision Making

For information visualization researchers, eye tracking has been a useful tool to investigate research participants’ underlying cognitive processes by tracking their eye movements while they interact with visual techniques. We used an eye tracker to better understand why participants with a variant of a tabular visualization called ‘SimulSort’ outperformed ones with a conventional table and typical one-column sorting feature (i.e., Typical Sorting). The collected eye-tracking data certainly shed light on the detailed cognitive processes of the participants; SimulSort helped with decision-making tasks by promoting efficient browsing behavior and compensatory decision-making strategies. However, more interestingly, we also found unexpected eye-tracking patterns with Simul- Sort. We investigated the cause of the unexpected patterns through a crowdsourcing-based study (i.e., Experiment 2), which elicited an important limitation of the eye tracking method: incapability of capturing peripheral vision. This particular result would be a caveat for other visualization researchers who plan to use an eye tracker in their studies. In addition, the method to use a testing stimulus (i.e., influential column) in Experiment 2 to verify the existence of such limitations would be useful for researchers who would like to verify their eye tracking results

Genetic evaluation of domestic walnut cultivars trading on Korean tree markets using microsatellite markers

Walnut (Juglans regia L.) is regarded as a healthy food because of its high nutritional composition and various health benefits. Although several walnut cultivars are being actively traded for domestic plantation or ornament in Korea, no particular effort has been made to evaluate genetic quality management of walnut cultivars in domestic tree markets. In this study, as an effort to evaluate the status of walnut seedling trade, we collected walnut seedlings of diverse cultivars from domestic tree markets and several locations in Korea and performed genotype analysis for the collections using microsatellite markers (76 individuals belonging to eight domestic cultivars). We used 12 markers that were previously reported to be informative and polymorphic in walnuts. The number of alleles that was detected from the collections using these markers ranged from 6 to 16, with heterozygosity values ranging from 0.03 to 0.75. Dendrogram revealed that the domestic walnut cultivars trading on tree markets could be genotypically distinguished from various foreign cultivars. However, genotyping data also showed that individual plants belonging to identical cultivars were sporadically distributed on the dendrogram, indicating that walnut cultivars trading on domestic tree markets seem to be poorly managed.Keywords: Walnut (Juglans regia L.), microsatellite markers, tree market, seedling trade, domestic cultivars, foreign cultivars, cultivar managementAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7366-7374, 10 April, 201

Intraoperative acute brain swelling when performing indirect anastomosis in a patient with moyamoya disease -A case report-

A 6-year-old male patient who was suffering from a cold and a transient ischemic attack was scheduled to undergo encephalo-duro-arterio-synangiosis for treating his moyamoya disease. Acute brain edema occurred just after opening the dura mater. Head elevation, reduction of the head rotation and hyperventilation were done. The inhalational agents were discontinued and total intravenous anesthesia was started. The swelling was reduced after intravenously infusing mannitol. An abrupt return from hypocapnia to normocapnea during the induction of general anesthesia was thought to be the cause of the acute brain swelling. In conclusion, correction of hypocapnea needs to be performed gradually during the induction of anesthesia and when performing an operation for treating a patient with moyamoya disease

Baseline Sensitivity of Echinochloa crus-gall and E. oryzicola to Florpyrauxifen-Benzyl, a New Synthetic Auxin Herbicide, in Korea

Echinochloa species is one of the most problematic weed species due to its high competitiveness and increasing herbicide resistance. Florpyrauxifen-benzyl, a new auxin herbicide, was recently introduced for Echinochloa management; however, the potential risk for the development of herbicide resistance in Echinochloa species has not been well-investigated. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the baseline sensitivity of Echinochloa species to florpyrauxifen-benzyl to estimate the risk of future resistance development. A total of 70 and 71 accessions of Echinochloa crus-galli and Echinochloa oryzicola were collected from paddy fields in Korea, respectively. These two Echinochloa species were grown in plastic pots up to the 5-leaf stage, and treated with florpyrauxifen-benzyl at a range of doses from 2.2 g to 70.0 g a.i. ha–1. Nonlinear regression analyses revealed that GR50 values for E. oryzicola ranged from 4.54 g to 29.66 g a.i. ha–1, giving a baseline sensitivity index (BSI) of 6.53, while those for E. crus-galli ranged from 6.15 g to 16.06 g a.i. ha–1, giving a BSI of 2.61. Our findings suggest that E. oryzicola has a greater potential risk than E. crus-galli for the development of metabolism-based resistance to florpyrauxifen-benzyl