Designing multi-sensory displays for abstract data

The rapid increase in available information has lead to many attempts to automatically locate patterns in large, abstract, multi-attributed information spaces. These techniques are often called data mining and have met with varying degrees of success. An alternative approach to automatic pattern detection is to keep the user in the exploration loop by developing displays for perceptual data mining. This approach allows a domain expert to search the data for useful relationships and can be effective when automated rules are hard to define. However, designing models of the abstract data and defining appropriate displays are critical tasks in building a useful system. Designing displays of abstract data is especially difficult when multi-sensory interaction is considered. New technology, such as Virtual Environments, enables such multi-sensory interaction. For example, interfaces can be designed that immerse the user in a 3D space and provide visual, auditory and haptic (tactile) feedback. It has been a goal of Virtual Environments to use multi-sensory interaction in an attempt to increase the human-to-computer bandwidth. This approach may assist the user to understand large information spaces and find patterns in them. However, while the motivation is simple enough, actually designing appropriate mappings between the abstract information and the human sensory channels is quite difficult. Designing intuitive multi-sensory displays of abstract data is complex and needs to carefully consider human perceptual capabilities, yet we interact with the real world everyday in a multi-sensory way. Metaphors can describe mappings between the natural world and an abstract information space. This thesis develops a division of the multi-sensory design space called the MS-Taxonomy. The MS-Taxonomy provides a concept map of the design space based on temporal, spatial and direct metaphors. The detailed concepts within the taxonomy allow for discussion of low level design issues. Furthermore the concepts abstract to higher levels, allowing general design issues to be compared and discussed across the different senses. The MS-Taxonomy provides a categorisation of multi-sensory design options. However, to design effective multi-sensory displays requires more than a thorough understanding of design options. It is also useful to have guidelines to follow, and a process to describe the design steps. This thesis uses the structure of the MS-Taxonomy to develop the MS-Guidelines and the MS-Process. The MS-Guidelines capture design recommendations and the problems associated with different design choices. The MS-Process integrates the MS-Guidelines into a methodology for developing and evaluating multi-sensory displays. A detailed case study is used to validate the MS-Taxonomy, the MS-Guidelines and the MS-Process. The case study explores the design of multi-sensory displays within a domain where users wish to explore abstract data for patterns. This area is called Technical Analysis and involves the interpretation of patterns in stock market data. Following the MS-Process and using the MS-Guidelines some new multi-sensory displays are designed for pattern detection in stock market data. The outcome from the case study includes some novel haptic-visual and auditory-visual designs that are prototyped and evaluated

Movement-based interfaces for problem solving in dynamics

Humans have a natural ability to cope with the problems of moving in a changing environment. The motivation for our work is to engage our natural ability to move in the understanding of more abstract problems associated with dynamical systems. The question we address is: “Can human movement be coupled to simulations of arbitrary dynamical systems to help understand these more abstract mathematical problems?” In this paper we present a case study where users perform multiple trials to try to find a solution to a well known predator-prey problem by using a simple movement-based interface. Indeed users are able to find a number of different solutions without prior expertise in this domain. While these solutions fall short of being strictly optimal the results provide a convincing proof of concept as well as raising new questions to direct our further enquiries in this area

Focusing on Cultural Design Features for an Indigenous Website

This paper reports on part of a user-centred study examining the design of a website for an Indigenous Australian community. It focuses on the capture of culturally relevant design features and describes the outcomes from a focus group undertaken with 12 members of the community stakeholders. Key cultural themes to emerge from the focus group were the need for visually relevant imagery, support for kinship and community, as well as fun, local language and traditional forms of music, dance and oral history. These themes were mapped into design features such as a virtual tour of the building and grounds, video messages from community members, a facility for feedback and interactive games. Many existing guidelines for cultural design were affirmed in the study, including the use of simple language, local imagery and the provision of an interaction style appropriate to the Indigenous group

Evaluating Player Strategies in the Design of a Hot Hand Game

The user’s strategy and their approach to decisionmakingare two important concerns when designing user-centricsoftware. While decision-making and strategy are key factors in awide range of business systems from stock market trading tomedical diagnosis, in this paper we focus on the role these factorsplay in a serious computer game. Players may adopt individualstrategies when playing a computer game. Furthermore, differentapproaches to playing the game may impact on the effectivenessof the core mechanics designed into the game play. In this paperwe investigate player strategy in relation to two serious gamesdesigned for studying the ‘hot hand’. The ‘hot hand’ is aninteresting psychological phenomenon originally studied in sportssuch as basketball. The study of ‘hot hand’ promises to shedfurther light on cognitive decision-making tasks applicable todomains beyond sport. The ‘hot hand’ suggests that playerssometimes display above average performance, get on a hotstreak, or develop ‘hot hands’. Although this is a widely heldbelief, analysis of data in a number of sports has produced mixedfindings. While this lack of evidence may indicate belief in the hothand is a cognitive fallacy, alternate views have suggested thatthe player’s strategy, confidence, and risk-taking may accountfor the difficulty of measuring the hot hand. Unfortunately, it isdifficult to objectively measure and quantify the amount of risktaking in a sporting contest. Therefore to investigate thisphenomenon more closely we developed novel, tailor-madecomputer games that allow rigorous empirical study of ‘hothands’. The design of such games has some specific designrequirements. The gameplay needs to allow players to perform asequence of repeated challenges, where they either fail or succeedwith about equal likelihood. Importantly the design also needs toallow players to choose a strategy entailing more or less risk inresponse to their current performance. In this paper we comparetwo hot hand game designs by collecting empirical data thatcaptures player performance in terms of success and level ofdifficulty (as gauged by response time). We then use a variety ofanalytical and visualization techniques to study player strategiesin these games. This allows us to detect a key design flaw the firstgame and validate the design of the second game for use infurther studies of the hot hand phenomenon

The Expanded City - Stage One

The Expanded City is a three-stage project, which investigates the changing nature of cities. During the last decade, urban development was largely concerned with transforming post-industrial city centres into retail and residential developments. However, projects such as Preston’s City Deal scheme – part of a national initiative to encourage economic growth in key cities across England – increasingly involve building cities from the outside in. For 10 years In Certain Places has focused on and shaped developments within the city centre of Preston. The Expanded City extends the methods and approaches refined over the last decade to new contexts and locations; the city’s edges. What are the contributions artists can make to the external perceptions and internal experiences of inner city and suburban places? How can that inform debate about the imminent future of these places in terms of urban planning and cultural provision? Following an invitation by Preston City Council, In Certain Places has been working with commissioned artists Olivia Keith, Gavin Renshaw, Emily Speed and duo Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene, and The Decorators. The artists have investigated the physical and cultural topography of the outskirts of Preston, ‘deep mapping’ the areas marked for growth. Through a focus on the practical and political aspects of issues such as housing, play and leisure provision, transport infrastructure, emotional connections to the land, and environmental stewardship, the artists have developed projects which raise questions about and offer suggestions for the future of Preston and other expanding cities. All the artists share an interest in boundaries, routes, edges and the urban/rural binary, and work across a range of media, including film, photography and performance. The commissions will explore the social and physical aspects of the places, their relationships with the city centre and the potential implications of planned developments. Writer and curator Lauren Velvick contextualised and provided a critical narrative for the development of the work of the artists in a regular Expanded City blog. Stage one beginning in 2016 saw the beginning of research and development. The work of this first phase is summarised in the 2016 publication produced by Lauren Velvick, the project's ‘writer in residence’. The publication contextualised and provided a critical narrative for the development of the artists’ work. This phase also saw the Expanded City Symposium. The symposium which took place in Woodplumpton and District Club in the north of Preston, presented the first stage of research in the Expanded City project. Alongside presentations about urban demographics by economist Paul Swinney, the production of community spaces by design collective The Decorators, and a performance lecture by Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene, the day included a bus trip around the City Deal areas, where Gavin Renshaw, Olivia Keith and Lauren Velvick presented their work-in-progress

THE EXPANDED CITY - STAGE TWO

For 10 years In Certain Places has focused on and shaped developments within the city centre of Preston. The Expanded City is a three-stage programme of artistic research, interventions and events, designed to inform a series of planned infrastructure projects on the outskirts of Preston. Part of Preston’s ‘City Deal’ – a central government initiative which aims to encourage economic growth by addressing strategic infrastructure challenges – the scheme includes the creation of over 17,000 houses as well as new roads and amenities. In the first stage of The Expanded City project (2015-2016) commissioned artists Olivia Keith, Gavin Renshaw, Emily Speed and duo Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene investigated the physical and cultural topography of the outskirts of Preston, ‘deep mapping’ the areas marked for growth. The artists share an interest in boundaries, routes, edges and the urban/rural binary, and work across a range of media, including film, photography and performance. This second phase running from 2017 until 2018 was a continuation of the artists' active research and saw the project expand with a series of Network events which brought external perspectives from experts and local communities directly into the development of the artists’ work. These included; Ruth Levene and Ian Nesbitt's 'Precarious Landscape Bus Tour' with archaeologist Bob Johnston; Gavin Renshaw's 'Routes in, Routes Out' in conversation event with cycling journalist Jack Thurston; Olivia Keith two week residency at the Final Whistle Cafe in Cottam culminating in a workshop 'Traces of Place'; Emily Speed's in conversation event with architect Lee Ivett on the topic of playspace 'What do we need in a Space for Play?'; and Lauren Velvick's 'Open House' event, an informal evening of music and discussion about the politics and practicalities of housing, leading to the creation of an 'Open House' publication. The second phase featured the 'Lie of the Land' symposium, a day of artworks, presentations and conversations, which drew on research undertaken by the artists to explore how our everyday lives are shaped by the ownership, management and development of land. The symposium featured talks by Peter Hetherington – journalist and author of the book 'Whose Land is Our Land: The use and abuse of Britain’s forgotten acres', and Julia Heslop – a Newcastle-based artist whose self-build housing project, 'Protohome' (2016), examined participatory alternatives to mainstream housing provision. The event also included a bus tour to sites in and around Preston, during which The Expanded City artists presented their research into issues of housing, cycling infrastructure and the changing landscape. The symposium was accompanied by 'The Expanded City Map' created by artist Claire Tindale. The map geographically locates and gives details of the main research insights generated through the projects by the commissioned artists This phase saw the finalisation by The Decorators of two pieces emerging from their research the 'Learning from Preston' report and the 'Garstang Road Stories' audio artwork. (https://podtail.com/en/podcast/the-decorators-on-air/garstang-road-stories/) Ruth Levene and Ian Nesbitt's research culminated in May 2018 with them curating 'Notes from a Precarious Landscape' – a community exhibition curated by in a vacant house in a new development in Cottam, North Preston, which included contributions from residents of Preston and its surrounding villages. The exhibition explored the ways in which the land around the city is changing or has changed in the past. Emily Speed’s research in phase two of The Expanded City culminated in the project ‘Model Village?’ in June 2018, during which she worked with members of the public, including local residents and school pupils of all ages to construct a temporary model village on the site of a housing development. Participants were asked ‘What would your dream place to live or play in look like?’ and had the opportunity to use coloured clay to build their ideal home, and make a mark on the village by creating, extending, squashing or customising its buildings, trees, parks and streets. Gavin Renshaw's research in this phase concluded with the production of a cycling map for Preston which collates routes, information relevant to cyclists, such as storage, topography and traffic black spots, and existing cycle infrastructure within a single, visual inventory. Olivia Keith's project 'Traces of Place' involved a two-week residency at the Final Whistle Café in Cottam during the summer of 2017, in which she collated memories and contributions from local people.. As a direct result of her work and the conversations hosted, Olivia was invited to contribute to the 'Streets of Change: Beattie’s Preston and Beyond' exhibition at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, where she created 'Setting in Place: The Making of a Jellied Map of Nether Bartle' a performance installation in two separate venues, Bartle Hall and Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston. Another outcome from her research was the creation of a linocut 'Nether Bartle map' as a prompt for discussions around naming and place. The Expanded City has been developed in response to an invitation from Preston City Council, to inform a programme of infrastructure projects on the outskirts of the city proposed by a £430m City Deal scheme. The City Deal scheme aims to deliver new jobs and housing, by addressing strategic transport, environmental, community and cultural infrastructure challenges

Comparison of Indirect Calorimetry- and Accelerometry-Based Energy Expenditure During Children‘s Discrete Skill Performance

To compare children’s energy expenditure (EE) levels during object projection skill performance (OPSP; e.g., kicking, throwing, striking) as assessed by hip- and wrist-worn accelerometers. Method: Forty-two children (female n = 20, Mage = 8.1 ± 0.8 years) performed three, nine-minute sessions of kicking, over-arm throwing, and striking at performance intervals of 6, 12, and 30 seconds. EE was estimated using indirect calorimetry (COSMED k4b2) and accelerometers (ActiGraph GT3X+) worn on three different locations (hip, dominant-wrist, and non-dominant-wrist) using four commonly used cut-points. Bland-Altman plots were used to analyze the agreement in EE estimations between accelerometry and indirect calorimetry (METS). Chi-square goodness of fit tests were used to examine the agreement between accelerometry and indirect calorimetry. Results: Hip- and wrist-worn accelerometers underestimated EE, compared to indirect calorimetry, during all performance conditions. Skill practice at a rate of two trials per minute resulted in the equivalent of moderate PA and five trials per minute resulted in vigorous PA (as measured by indirect calorimetry), yet was only categorized as light and/or moderate activity by all measured forms of accelerometry. Conclusion: This is one of the first studies to evaluate the ability of hip- and wrist-worn accelerometers to predict PA intensity levels during OPSP in children. These data may significantly impact PA intervention measurement strategies by revealing the lack of validity in accelerometers to accurately predict PA levels during OPSP in children

Nanotechnology-augmented sonodynamic therapy and associated immune-mediated effects for the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

PURPOSE: Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is emerging as a cancer treatment alternative with significant advantages over conventional therapies, including its minimally invasive and site-specific nature, its radical antitumour efficacy with minimal side effects, and its capacity to raise an antitumour immune response. The study explores the efficacy of SDT in combination with nanotechnology against pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. METHODS: A nanoparticulate formulation (HPNP) based on a cathepsin B-degradable glutamate-tyrosine co-polymer that carries hematoporphyrin was used in this study for the SDT-based treatment of PDAC. Cathepsin B levels in BxPC-3 and PANC-1 cells were correlated to cellular uptake of HPNP. The HPNP efficiency to induce a sonodynamic effect at varying ultrasound parameters, and at different oxygenation and pH conditions, was investigated. The biodistribution, tumour accumulation profile, and antitumour efficacy of HPNP in SDT were examined in immunocompetent mice carrying bilateral ectopic murine pancreatic tumours. The immune response profile of excised tumour tissues was also examined. RESULTS: The HPNP formulation significantly improved cellular uptake of hematoporphyrin for both BxPC-3 and PANC-1 cells, while increase of cellular uptake was positively correlated in PANC-1 cells. There was a clear SDT-induced cytotoxicity at the ultrasound conditions tested, and the treatment impaired the capacity of both BxPC-3 and PANC-1 cells to form colonies. The overall acoustic energy and pulse length, rather than the power density, were key in eliciting the effects observed in vitro. The SDT treatment in combination with HPNP resulted in 21% and 27% reduction of the target and off-target tumour volumes, respectively, within 24 h. A single SDT treatment elicited an antitumour effect that was characterized by an SDT-induced decrease in immunosuppressive T cell phenotypes. CONCLUSION: SDT has significant potential to serve as a monotherapy or adjunctive treatment for inoperable or borderline resectable PDAC