An Exploratory Study into the Accessibility of a Multi-User Virtual World for Young People with Aphasia

This paper describes an exploratory study into the accessibility of the virtual world Second Life for two young people with aphasia. Aphasia is a communicative disorder most commonly caused by a stroke. It affects both written and spoken language, is frequently accompanied by right-sided paralysis and people with aphasia can experience isolation and social exclusion. Multi-user virtual worlds are a potential source of fun and contact with others, but how accessible are such worlds to those with communication issues? We report an investigation into the accessibility and potential of Second Life for people with aphasia. This was accomplished through a critique and an empirical study involving two young people: Ann was in her mid twenties and Bob in his early thirties. They were selected because both were comfortable with computer technologies before their strokes and each continues to use them, albeit in a more limited capacity. We discuss implications of the results for people with aphasia interacting with multi-user virtual worlds

Thermal tides in an assimilation of three years of Thermal Emission Spectromenter data from Mars Global Surveyor

Introduction. Thermal tides are particularly prominent in the Mars atmosphere with the result that temperature and wind fields have a strong dependence on local solar time (LT). Tides include westward propagating migrating (sun-synchronous) waves driven in response to solar heating and additional nonmigrating waves resulting from zonal variations in the thermotidal forcing. Zonal modulation of forcing can arise from longitudinal variations of the boundary (topography and surface thermal inertia) and radiatively active aerosols (dust and water ice clouds). Nonmigrating tides appear as diurnally varying upslope/ downslope circulations within the near-surface boundary layer that, like their migrating counterparts, are also able to propagate vertically to aerobraking altitudes in the lower thermosphere. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) has yielded atmospheric temperature profiles with unprecedented latitude and longitude coverage that has provided the basis for characterizing the seasonal evolution of tides and stationary waves [1]. However, the twice-daily observations (2 am and 2 pm LT) are insufficient to unambiguously resolve the sunsynchronous tides. Recently the technique of data assimilation has been sufficiently developed for Mars to yield a dynamically consistent set of thermal and dynamic fields suitable for detailed investigations of various aspects of the martian circulations system [2,3,4,5]. We will refer to this data set an the TES Reanalysis, which represents the current best estimate of the evolving state of the martian atmosphere during the MGS mission. The assimilated thermal and dynamical fields provide a means of assessing circulation variability and transport capability reflecting the variability of the actual Mars atmosphere

Reconceptualising clinical handover: Information sharing for situation awareness

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A pragmatics' view of patient identification

Patient identification is a central safety critical aspect of healthcare work. Most healthcare activities require identification of patients by healthcare staff, often in connection with the use of patient records. Indeed, the increasing reliance on electronic systems makes the correct matching of patients with their records a keystone for patient safety. Most research on patient identification has been carried out in hospital settings. The aim was to investigate the process of identification of patients and their records in the context of a primary healthcare clinic

Public yet private: the status, durability and visibility of handover sheets

Drawing on data from a multi-site case study of a range of clinical settings, this paper explores the form of nursing handover sheets and the processes through which they are created and updated. We argue that these documents function as both public and private documents, having relevance for the whole ward while also acting as a personal workspace. Such dual functionality needs to be supported by any technology that seeks to provide for the work of handover, if the handover sheet is to continue to act as a space for work, rather than just a repository of information

Atmospheric structure and variability in areas of convective storms determined from 3-h rawinsonde data

The structure and variability of the atmosphere in areas of radar-observed convection were established by using 3-h rawinsonde and surface data from NASA's second Atmospheric Variability Experiment. Convective activity was shown to exist in areas where the low and middle troposphere is moist and the air is potentially and convectively unstable and has upward motion, in combination with positive moisture advection, at either the surface or within the boundary layer. The large variability of the parameters associated with convective storms over time intervals less than 12 h was also demonstrated so as to possibly produce a change in the probability of convective activity by a factor of 8 or more in 3 h. Between 30 and 60 percent of the total changes in parameters associated with convective activity over a 12-h period were shown to take place during a 3-h period. These large changes in parameters are related to subsynoptic-scale systems that often produce convective storms

Automated mesoscale winds derived from GOES multispectral imagery

An automated technique for extracting mesoscale winds from sequences of GOES VISSR image pairs was developed, tested and configured for quasi-real time/research applications on a computing system which gives mesoscale wind estimates at the highest spatial/temporal resolution possible from the VISSR imagery down to a wind vector separation of 10 km. Preprocessing of imagery using IR resampling, VIS edge preserving filtering, and reduced VIS resolution averaging improved height assignments and vector extraction for 10, 15, and 30 min imagery. An objective quality control system provides much greater than 99% accuracy in eliminating questionable wind estimates. Automated winds generally have better spatial coverage and density, and have random error estimates half as large as the manual winds. Dynamical analysis of cloud wind divergence revealed temporally consistent convergence centers on the meso beta scale that are highly correlated with on going and future developing convective storms. The entire system of computer codes was successfully vectorized for execution on an array processor resulting in job turnaround in less than one hour

Compressed gas handbook

Handbook includes thermodynamic and related fluid flow data required to analyze high pressure compressible and incompressible fluid systems. Some theory and applications include thermodynamic fundamentals, gas behavior, adiabatic and isentropic flow, shock waves, flow measurement, and adiabatic and isothermal friction flow in pipes