More than Words: The Impact of Memory on How Undergraduates with Dyslexia Interact with Information

Despite the prevalence of dyslexia and the challenges it poses for seeking, assessing and using information, there has been relatively little research on the challenges people with dyslexia face when interacting with information. What existing research there is has mostly focused on the impact on information comprehension and spelling. However, people with dyslexia often face considerable memory impairment that can affect their learning. This paper reports findings from retrospective think-aloud (RTA) observations with 13 undergraduates with dyslexia, focusing on the memory-related barriers they face and the workarounds they use to overcome these barriers. An enhanced understanding of the full range of barriers faced by information-seekers with dyslexia can inform the design of dyslexia-aware digital information environments and information literacy programs. These can ‘level the information playing field’ by helping to break down barriers to information and, in turn, to knowledge creation

Dismantling the signposts to public health? NHS data under the Health and Social Care Act 2012

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 will replace the administrative structure of the NHS in England, currently based on the resident populations of defined geographical areas, with one that relates instead to the shifting populations of individuals registered with specific general practices at given points in time.1 This will radically change the longstanding basis for collecting data routinely about the health needs of local populations, making it difficult to monitor the effect of new legislation on the health of the population locally or nationally.2 3 We discuss some of the implications of the act for existing routine data systems and the production of routine statistics that underpin essential NHS functions, including monitoring healthcare provision and ensuring equity of access, allocation of resources, and measurement of outcomes

Optimally defined Racah-Casimir operators for su(n) and their eigenvalues for various classes of representations

This paper deals with the striking fact that there is an essentially canonical path from the $i$-th Lie algebra cohomology cocycle, $i=1,2,... l$, of a simple compact Lie algebra \g of rank $l$ to the definition of its primitive Casimir operators $C^{(i)}$ of order $m_i$. Thus one obtains a complete set of Racah-Casimir operators $C^{(i)}$ for each \g and nothing else. The paper then goes on to develop a general formula for the eigenvalue $c^{(i)}$ of each $C^{(i)}$ valid for any representation of \g, and thereby to relate $c^{(i)}$ to a suitably defined generalised Dynkin index. The form of the formula for $c^{(i)}$ for $su(n)$ is known sufficiently explicitly to make clear some interesting and important features. For the purposes of illustration, detailed results are displayed for some classes of representation of $su(n)$, including all the fundamental ones and the adjoint representation.Comment: Latex, 16 page

Observationally-Motivated Analysis of Simulated Galaxies

The spatial and temporal relationships between stellar age, kinematics, and chemistry are a fundamental tool for uncovering the physics driving galaxy formation and evolution. Observationally, these trends are derived using carefully selected samples isolated via the application of appropriate magnitude, colour, and gravity selection functions of individual stars; conversely, the analysis of chemodynamical simulations of galaxies has traditionally been restricted to the age, metallicity, and kinematics of `composite' stellar particles comprised of open cluster-mass simple stellar populations. As we enter the Gaia era, it is crucial that this approach changes, with simulations confronting data in a manner which better mimics the methodology employed by observers. Here, we use the \textsc{SynCMD} synthetic stellar populations tool to analyse the metallicity distribution function of a Milky Way-like simulated galaxy, employing an apparent magnitude plus gravity selection function similar to that employed by the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE); we compare such an observationally-motivated approach with that traditionally adopted - i.e., spatial cuts alone - in order to illustrate the point that how one analyses a simulation can be, in some cases, just as important as the underlying sub-grid physics employed.Comment: Accepted for publication in PoS (Proceedings of Science): Nuclei in the Cosmos XIII (Debrecen, Jul 2014); 6 pages; 3 figure

Symmetries of N=4 supersymmetric CP(n) mechanics

We explicitly constructed the generators of $SU(n+1)$ group which commute with the supercharges of N=4 supersymmetric $\mathbb{CP}^n$ mechanics in the background U(n) gauge fields. The corresponding Hamiltonian can be represented as a direct sum of two Casimir operators: one Casimir operator on $SU(n+1)$ group contains our bosonic and fermionic coordinates and momenta, while the second one, on the SU(1,n) group, is constructed from isospin degrees of freedom only.Comment: 10 pages, PACS numbers: 11.30.Pb, 03.65.-w; minor changes in Introduction, references adde

The effect of dyslexia on information retrieval: A pilot study

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to resolve a gap in our knowledge of how people with dyslexia interact with Information Retrieval (IR) systems, specifically an understanding of their information searching behaviour. Very little research has been undertaken with this particular user group, and given the size of the group (an estimated 10% of the population) this lack of knowledge needs to be addressed. Design/Methodology/Approach - We use elements of the dyslexia cognitive profile to design a logging system recording the difference between two sets of participants: dyslexic and control users. We use a standard Okapi interface together with two standard TREC topics in order to record the information searching behaviour of these users. We gather evidence from various sources, including quantitative information on search logs, together with qualitative information from interviews and questionnaires. We record variables on queries, documents, relevance assessments and sessions in the search logs. We use this evidence to examine the difference in searching between the two sets of users, in order to understand the effect of dyslexia on the information searching behaviour. A topic analysis is also conducted on the quantitative data to show any effect on the results from the information need. Research limitations/implications – As this is a pilot study, only 10 participants were recruited for the study, 5 for each user group. Due to ethical issues, the number of topics per search was restricted to one topic only. The study shows that the methodology applied is useful for distinguishing between the two user groups, taking into account differences between topic. We outline further research on the back of this pilot study in four main areas. A different approach from the proposed methodology is needed to measure the effect on query variables, which takes account of topic variation. More details on users are needed such as reading abilities, speed of language processing and working memory to distinguish the user groups. Effect of topic on search interaction must be measured in order to record the potential impact on the dyslexic user group. Work is needed on relevance assessment and effect on precision and recall for users who may not read many documents. Findings – Using the log data, we establish the differences in information searching behaviour of control and dyslexic users i.e. in the way the two groups interact with Okapi, and that qualitative information collected (such as experience etc) may not be able to account for these differences. Evidence from query variables was unable to distinguish between groups, but differences on topic for the same variables were recorded. Users who view more documents tended to judge more documents as being relevant, either in terms of the user group or topic. Session data indicated that there may be an important difference between the number of iterations used in a search between the user groups, as there may be little effect from the topic on this variable. Originality/Value – This is the first study of the effect of dyslexia on information search behaviour, and provides some evidence to take the field forward

Geometrical foundations of fractional supersymmetry

A deformed $q$-calculus is developed on the basis of an algebraic structure involving graded brackets. A number operator and left and right shift operators are constructed for this algebra, and the whole structure is related to the algebra of a $q$-deformed boson. The limit of this algebra when $q$ is a $n$-th root of unity is also studied in detail. By means of a chain rule expansion, the left and right derivatives are identified with the charge $Q$ and covariant derivative $D$ encountered in ordinary/fractional supersymmetry and this leads to new results for these operators. A generalized Berezin integral and fractional superspace measure arise as a natural part of our formalism. When $q$ is a root of unity the algebra is found to have a non-trivial Hopf structure, extending that associated with the anyonic line. One-dimensional ordinary/fractional superspace is identified with the braided line when $q$ is a root of unity, so that one-dimensional ordinary/fractional supersymmetry can be viewed as invariance under translation along this line. In our construction of fractional supersymmetry the $q$-deformed bosons play a role exactly analogous to that of the fermions in the familiar supersymmetric case.Comment: 42 pages, LaTeX. To appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Music Information Retrieval systems: why do individuals use them and what are their needs?

To date there has been very little research conducted on the behaviour of music information retrieval (MIR) users, in spite of the immense popularity of free music retrieval systems available on the Internet. In this study we examine the issue of music seeking behaviour through the examination of users life style effect of three different age groups using questionnaires. It was found that lifestyles had a significant impact on users need for music and hence their music seeking behaviour. The importance of social networks in music information seeking was reinforced in this study. An experiment was conducted with three different types of search on the Kazaa MIR system and the participants interviewed in order to collect data. Users found the Kazaa system intuitive and easy to use. Searchers used both song titles and lyrics for finding relevant music items. The insights provided by this study can be of assistance in the development of user focused Internet MIR systems