Dynamic Design Documents for supporting applied visualization

A common characteristic of applied visualization is collaboration between visualization researcher and domain expert – where the vi- sualization researcher attempts to assimilate sufficient detail around data, task and requirements to design a visualization tool that is manifestly useful. We report on a method for enabling such a col- laboration that can be used throughout the design process to gather and develop requirements and continually evaluate and support iter- ative design. We do so using highly interactive web-pages that we term dynamic design documents. Applied during a four-year visual data analysis project for crime research, these documents enabled a series of data mappings to be explored by our collaborators (crime analysts) remotely – in a flexible and continuous way. We argue that they engendered a level of engagement that is qualitatively dis- tinct from more traditional methods of feedback elicitation, offered a solution to limited and intermittent contact between analyst and visualization researcher and speculate that they provided a means of partially addressing certain intractable deficiencies, such as so- cial desirability-bias, that are common to evaluation in applied data visualization

INVISQUE: Technology and methodologies for interactive information visualization and analytics in large library collections

When a user knows exactly what they are looking for most library systems are adequate for their needs. However, when the user’s information needs are ill-defined - traditional library systems prove inadequate. This is because traditional library systems are not designed to support sense making rather for information retrieval. Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visualizations and visual analytics systems can support both sense making and information retrieval. In this paper, we present INVISQUE - an approach and experimental software for interactive visual search and query. INVISQUE uses an index card metaphor to display library content, organized in a way that visually integrates attributes such citations and date published, making it easy to pick out the most recent and most cited paper. It uses design techniques such as focus+context to reveal relationships between documents, while avoiding the “what-was-I-looking-for?” problem

INVISQUE: Intuitive information exploration through interactive visualization

In this paper we present INVISQUE, a novel system designed for interactive information exploration. Instead of a conventional list-style arrangement, in INVISQUE information is represented by a two-dimensional spatial canvas, with each dimension representing user-defined semantics. Search results are presented as index cards, ordered in both dimensions. Intuitive interactions are used to perform tasks such as keyword searching, results browsing, categorizing, and linking to online resources such as Google and Twitter. The interaction-based query style also naturally lends the system to different types of user input such as multi-touch gestures. As a result, INVISQUE gives users a much more intuitive and smooth experience of exploring large information spaces

How do people with chronic pain choose their music for pain management? Examining the external validity of the cognitive vitality model

Music interventions for pain are more successful when patients choose the music themselves. But little is known about the attentional strategies used by chronic pain patients when choosing or using music for pain management, and the degree to which these attentional strategies align with the cognitive mechanisms outlines in the cognitive vitality model (CVM, a recently developed theoretical framework that outlines five cognitive mechanisms that mediate the analgesic effects of music for pain management). To investigate this question, we used a sequential explanatory mixed method approach, which included a survey, online music listening experiment, and qualitative data collection, with chronic pain patients (n=70). First, we asked chronic pain patients to name a piece of music that they would use to manage their chronic pain, and answer 19 questions about why they chose that particular piece of music using a questionnaire based on the CVM. Next, we asked chronic pain patients to listen to high energy and low energy pieces of music, to understand aesthetic music preferences and emotional responses at the group level. Finally, participants were asked to qualitatively tell us how they used music to manage their pain. Factor Analysis was completed on the survey data, and identified a five-factor structure in participant responses that was consistent with five mechanisms identified in the CVM. Regression analysis indicated that chronic pain patients choose music for pain management if they think it will facilitate Musical Integration and Cognitive Agency. Musical Integration refers to the degree to which the music can provide an immersive and absorbing experience. Cognitive Agency refers to having an increased feeling of control. At the group level, participants reported a preference for low energy music, and reported that they found high energy music more irritating. However, is it important to note that individual people had different music preferences. Thematic synthesis of patient responses highlighted how these processes mediate the analgesic benefits of music listening from the perspective of chronic pain patients, and highlighted the wide range of music used by participants for chronic pain management including electronic dance music, heavy metal and Beethoven. These findings demonstrate that chronic pain patients use specific attentional strategies when using music for pain management, and these strategies align with the cognitive vitality model

Design Exposition Discussion Documents for Rich Design Discourse in Applied Visualization

We present and report on Design Exposition Discussion Documents (DExDs), a new means of fostering collaboration between visualization designers and domain experts in applied visualization research. DExDs are a collection of semi-interactive web-based documents used to promote design discourse: to communicate new visualization designs, and their underlying rationale, and to elicit feedback and new design ideas. Developed and applied during a four-year visual data analysis project in criminal intelligence, these documents enabled a series of visualization re-designs to be explored by crime analysts remotely – in a flexible and authentic way. The DExDs were found to engender a level of engagement that is qualitatively distinct from more traditional methods of feedback elicitation, supporting the kind of informed, iterative and design-led feedback that is core to applied visualization research. They also offered a solution to limited and intermittent contact between analyst and visualization researcher and began to address more intractable deficiencies, such as social desirability-bias, common to applied visualization projects. Crucially, DExDs conferred to domain experts greater agency over the design process – collaborators proposed design suggestions, justified with design knowledge, that directly influenced the re-redesigns. We provide context that allows the contributions to be transferred to a range of settings

A Simple But Highly Selective Electrochemical Sensor for Dopamine

A modified platinum electrode was fabricated by the electropolymerization of pyrrole using a sodium p-sulphonatocalix[6]arene as the supporting electrolyte. The modified electrode acts as a reasonably sensitive electrochemical sensor for dopamine giving a linear calibration curve in the range 0.075 – 1.00 mM dopamine. The sensor shows no ability to sense the common interferent ascorbic acid, therefore the concentration for dopamine can be directly sensed in a large excess of ascorbic acid with no need to make adjustments for the signal for ascorbic acid. Investigations are included to study the mode of sensing of the modified electrode

Middlesex University’s Invisque visual analytics tool: supported by text analytics techniques from the University of Leeds

This report describes the joint entry from Middlesex University and the University of Leeds for Mini Challenge 3 for the VAST Challenge 2011. In order to address the challenge question, the primary tool we used was Middlesex University’s Interactive Visual Search and Query Environment (INVISQUE), which served as the user interface to the Mini-Challenge 3 news corpus. INVISQUE was supported by corpus text analytics from the University of Leeds, which provided additional information that was visualised on the INVISQUE user interface

Multi-Perspective Synopsis with Faceted Views of Varying Emphasis

Many datasets have multiple perspectives – e.g. time, space and description – and often summaries are required for these multiple perspectives concurrently. A design challenge is to provide such a concurrent summary of perspectives in ways that neither clutter nor visually overload. We report on a framework that helps us do this. We demonstrate its use with an implementation based on a Crime Pattern Analysis case study that produces synoptic summarises of spatial, temporal and descriptive information in crime reports. Our work with crime analysts suggests that the framework offers some potential for Crime Pattern Analysis

Human limbal mesenchymal stem cells express ABCB5 and can grow on amniotic membrane

Aim: To isolate and characterize limbal mesenchymal stem cells (LMSCs) from human corneoscleral rings. Materials & methods: Cells were isolated from corneoscleral rings and cultured in a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-selective media and examined for differentiation, phenotyping and characterization. Results: LMSCs were capable of trilineage differentiation, adhered to tissue culture plastic, expressed HLA class I and cell surface antigens associated with human MSC while having no/low expression of HLA class II and negative hematopoietic lineage markers. They were capable for CXCL12-mediated cellular migration. LMSCs adhered, proliferated on amniotic membrane and expressed the common putative limbal stem cell markers. Conclusion: Limbal-derived MSC exhibited plasticity, could maintain limbal markers expression and demonstrated viable growth on amniotic membrane