A method for visualising possible contexts

This paper presents a method for visualising possible sequences of information. Possible sequences of information segments, called contexts, scenarios, narratives, or story tellings, have been used as a tool for exploring and stimulating thinking about possible events, assumptions relating to these events, and courses of actions, i.e. chances for a broad range of information designers from public audiences searching on the internet to analysts and policy makers. Thanks to the search technology, it has become easier to obtain information that a person is looking for, however, it is a laborious task to grab an overview of information space so that an information designer can find contextually relevant information pieces and sequence them into contextually meaningful ways. In this research, we design and develop a series of generative systems that visualises possible contexts. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007

Understanding the experience of interactive art: Iamascope in Beta_space

This paper describes a study into the situated experience of interactive art. The study was conducted with audiences of the artwork Iamascope and is framed by the four categories of embodied experience that have been proposed by its artist Sidney Fels. The video-cued recall method we employed was shown to reveal rich detail about situated interactive art experience. The results provide a detailed account of how the categories of embodiment manifest themselves in audience experience and lead to the proposal of a blueprint for the trajectory of interaction produced by Iamascope which may be generalisable to other interactive artworks

Clinical efficacy and safety of micafungin in Japanese patients with chronic pulmonary aspergillosis: a prospective observational study.

Aspergillosis has been the prevailing deep-seated mycosis in Japan since the 1990s. Although micafungin (MCFG) has been approved in Japan for the management of patients with such infections caused by Candida and Aspergillus species, there are relatively few reports on its use in patients with chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA). Therefore, we conducted a prospective observational study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the use of MCFG in Japanese patients with CPA. The efficacy of the antifungal was assessed on the basis of improvements in clinical symptoms and radiological findings. In addition, adverse events, including abnormal laboratory findings were determined. The overall clinical efficacy rate was 68.4% (26/38 patients), which is comparable to the results obtained in clinical trials for marketing approval conducted in Japan. Although adverse drug reactions were observed in six patients (15.8%), they were not serious. The most common of these reactions was abnormal liver functions. No relationship between the incidence of adverse drug reactions and age of the patients, MCFG dose, or duration of treatment was observed. Consequently, MCFG has favorable efficacy and safety profiles in Japanese CPA patients with various backgrounds

Impact of Aspergillus fumigatus in allergic airway diseases

For decades, fungi have been recognized as associated with asthma and other reactive airway diseases. In contrast to type I-mediated allergies caused by pollen, fungi cause a large number of allergic diseases such as allergic bronchopulmonary mycoses, rhinitis, allergic sinusitis and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Amongst the fungi, Aspergillus fumigatus is the most prevalent cause of severe pulmonary allergic disease, including allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), known to be associated with chronic lung injury and deterioration in pulmonary function in people with chronic asthma and cystic fibrosis (CF). The goal of this review is to discuss new understandings of host-pathogen interactions in the genesis of allergic airway diseases caused by A. fumigatus. Host and pathogen related factors that participate in triggering the inflammatory cycle leading to pulmonary exacerbations in ABPA are discussed

Hypermedia for portable video players (PVP)

In this paper we propose the exploitation of high mobility portable battery operated Video Players (PVP) for the retrieval of video associated with the location in which it may be used. Reporting on an earlier interactive multimedia location-based prototype, we assess the possibilities for specific ontologies of a taxonomy of indexing procedure which avoids text-based retrieval methods, using instead the mnemonics of image association. We outline the proposed development of PVP firmware and a related user application enabling users to construct indexing procedures appropriate to their needs, using a metadesign approach

Designing a System for Supporting the Process of Making a Video Sequence

The aim of this research is to develop a system to support video artists. We have analysed the process of making a video sequence in collaboration with an experienced video artist so that design rationales of the system for artists can be obtained through artists' practices. Based on this analysis we identified design rationales for a system to support the process of making a video sequence, then a prototype system called ``Knowledge Nebula Crystallizer for Time-based Information (KNC4TI)'' has been developed accordingly. Further development towards a generative system is also discussed

Knowledge nebula crystallizer for time-based information

In this paper, we are going to describe a system for managing and authoring time-based information artefact, as an implementation of Knowledge Nebula Crystallizer [9]. The design rationale of the system and its implementation are described. Copyright 2005 ACM