Interfacing the Collection

The digital age has led to the advent of electronic collections with millions or even billions of items. This paper examines the types of interfaces that are emerging for large-scale collections, specifically addressing what a large collection looks like online and how it can be managed by users.  In examining these questions, we propose some features that we feel are universally desirable in interfaces to collections.  Overall, there appear to be two sets of features that help users effectively use and sort online content: tools to view, organize and navigate collections; and tools to customize and manage user-created sub-collections

A Short History and Demonstration of the Dynamic Table of Contexts

This paper presents a brief account of the form and function of the “table of contents” to establish a theoretical framework for understanding the form and function of this common element of book architecture with the aim of informing the development of a dynamic table of contexts for books and reading in the digital medium. This paper will thus theorize the relationship between textual studies and interface design in INKE, a project for Implementing New Knowledge Environments

From Crud to Cream: Imagining a Rich Scholarly Repository Interface

  This article addresses the design of a dynamic repository interface to support numerous scholarly activities. Starting with the four fundamental functions associated with persistent storage — create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) — we tested, as an organizing rubric for the interface, the acronym CREAM: Create (represent, illustrate); Read (sample, read); Enhance (refer, annotate, process); Analyze (search, select, visualize, mine, cluster); and Manage (track, label, transform). Based on a card-sorting exercise conducted with researchers, we conclude that a slightly modified rubric of CREAMS offers a useful starting point that emphasizes the enriched functionality a scholarly repository or similarly complex digital environment requires, as well as the immense challenge of designing conceptually clear interfaces, even for a relatively homogenous community of researchers

Drilling for Papers in INKE

In this article, we discuss the first year research plan for the INKE interface design team, which focuses on a prototype for chaining. Interpretable as a subclass of Unsworths scholarly primitive of discovering, chaining is the process of beginning with an exemplary article, then finding the articles that it cites, the articles they cite, and so on until the reader begins to get a feel for the terrain. The chaining strategy is of particular utility for scholars working in new areas, either through doing background work for interdisciplinary interests or else by pursuing a subtopic in a domain that generates a paper storm of publications every year. In our prototype project, we plan to produce a system that accepts a seed article, tunnels through a number of levels of citation, and generates a summary report listing the most frequent authors and articles. One of the innovative features of this prototype is its use of the experimental oil and water interface effect, which uses text animation to provide the user with a sense of the underlying process

Experimental Interface Design

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This exercise is about bringing aspects of research prototyping into the classroom. In the example, students could choose between two experiments. The first was in structured surfaces, where a data visualization (for example, a map) is used as the basis for an argument that is made by superimposing additional information (such as pins on the map). The second was in attempting to accommodate big data on a wall-sized display. As a classroom activity, this exercise does not require that the students have some skill in normal forms of interface design, since those skills may help with the technical aspects but may interfere with the imaginative activity of representing data. What is important is that the students are proficient in some form of representation, whether through sketching by hand, using tools like those in the Adobe Creative Cloud, or using online tools for prototyping

Leukocyte redistribution as immunological biomarker of corticosteroid resistance in severe asthma

Background: Earlier studies have suggested that the leukocyte redistribution can be considered as an immunological marker of the clinical response to corticosteroids (CS), representing an easy measurable potential biomarker in severe asthma. Objective: The aim of this study was to determinate the utility of the leukocyte redistribution as a biomarker of disease heterogeneity in patients with severe asthma and as a bioindicator of potential CS resistance. Methods: We developed an unbiased clustering approach based on the clinical data and the flow cytometry results of peripheral blood leukocyte phenotypes of 142 patients with severe asthma before and after systemic CS administration. Results: Based on the differences in the blood count eosinophils, neutrophils and lymphocytes, together with the flow cytometry measurements of basic T cell, B cell and NK cell subpopulations before and after systemic CS administration, we identified two severe asthma clusters, which differed in the cell frequencies, response to CS and atopy status. Patients in cluster 1 had higher frequency of blood eosinophils at baseline, were sensitized to less allergens and had better steroid responsiveness, measured as the pronounced leukocyte redistribution after the administration of systemic CS. Patients in cluster 2 were determined by the higher frequency of B-cells and stronger IgE sensitization status to the multiple allergens. They also displayed higher steroid resistance, as the clinical correlate for the lower leukocyte redistribution after administration of systemic CS. Conclusion: The flow cytometry-based profiling of the basic populations of immune cells in the blood and its analysis before and after systemic corticosteroid administration could improve personalized treatment approaches in patients with severe asthma. Keywords: asthma phenotypes; biological therapy; corticosteroids resistance; leukocyte redistribution; severe asthma; treatment asthm

Speculating with Voyant: Designs for Data Walls

In recent years, there has been an explosion of data. One approach to big data is visualization. Data can be transformed in aesthetic ways to reveal its truths and to make it appear accessible to humans. What often gets ignored in visualization is the context of consumption of visualizations. Increasingly visualizations are showing up on data walls in public spaces. The scale of data walls and the types of spaces where they are installed change the interpretation and rhetorical affordances of visualization, and that is what this paper is about: exploring the new visual space of data walls through speculative design prototypes

Gut epithelial barrier damage caused by dishwasher detergents and rinse aids

Background: The increased prevalence of many chronic inflammatory diseases linked to gut epithelial barrier leakiness has prompted us to investigate the role of extensive use of dishwasher detergents, among other factors. Objective: We sought to investigate the effects of professional and household dishwashers, and rinse agents, on cytotoxicity, barrier function, transcriptome, and protein expression in gastrointestinal epithelial cells. Methods: Enterocytic liquid-liquid interfaces were established on permeable supports, and direct cellular cytotoxicity, transepithelial electrical resistance, paracellular flux, immunofluorescence staining, RNA-sequencing transcriptome, and targeted proteomics were performed. Results: The observed detergent toxicity was attributed to exposure to rinse aid in a dose-dependent manner up to 1:20,000 v/v dilution. A disrupted epithelial barrier, particularly by rinse aid, was observed in liquid-liquid interface cultures, organoids, and gut-on-a-chip, demonstrating decreased transepithelial electrical resistance, increased paracellular flux, and irregular and heterogeneous tight junction immunostaining. When individual components of the rinse aid were investigated separately, alcohol ethoxylates elicited a strong toxic and barrier-damaging effect. RNA-sequencing transcriptome and proteomics data revealed upregulation in cell death, signaling and communication, development, metabolism, proliferation, and immune and inflammatory responses of epithelial cells. Interestingly, detergent residue from professional dishwashers demonstrated the remnant of a significant amount of cytotoxic and epithelial barrier-damaging rinse aid remaining on washed and ready-to-use dishware. Conclusions: The expression of genes involved in cell survival, epithelial barrier, cytokine signaling, and metabolism was altered by rinse aid in concentrations used in professional dishwashers. The alcohol ethoxylates present in the rinse aid were identified as the culprit component causing the epithelial inflammation and barrier damage. Keywords: Alcohol ethoxylates; Caco-2; cytotoxicity; dishwasher detergents; epithelial barrier; inflammation; rinse aid