Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. Degradation of inferential reading comprehension as a function of speed

There is increasing interest in the readability of text presented on small digital screens. Designers have come up with novel text presentation methods, such as moving text from right to left, line-stepping, or showing successive text segments such as phrases or single words in a RSVP format. Comparative studies have indicated that RSVP is perhaps the best method of presenting text in a limited space. We tested the method using 209 participants divided into six groups. The groups included traditional reading, and RSVP reading at rates of 250, 300, 350, 400, and 450 wpm. No significant differences were found in comprehension for normal reading and RSVP reading at rates of 250, 300 and 350 wpm. However, higher rates produced significantly lower comprehension scores. It remains to be determined if, with additional practice and improved methods, good levels of reading comprehension at high rates can be achieved with RSV

Does the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met human polymorphism in influence procrastination?

Genetic studies are enlightening how the expression of several genes influences neuronal activity and all facets of human normal and abnormal behaviour. Among these, a growing body of information shows that a few key genes regulating activity of central neurotransmitters have specific roles in cognitive and/or emotional processes, as ‘procrastination’. We investigated the association of the 5-HTTLPR and COMT Val158Met polymorphisms with students’ procrastination in an academic writing task. Results: showed no relationship between procrastination and the 5-HTT polymorphism but they revealed an association with the COMT Val158Met one. Particularly, the presence of the Met158 allele was found to be significantly associated with the tendency to initiate and complete the assigned task. We hypothesize that the role of central monoamines and of dopamine already identified in impulsive behaviour, extends to procrastination. Since the 158Met allele provides neurons with significantly higher basal dopamine levels when compared to the 158Val allele, our observation suggests that under normal conditions the 158Met allele provides carriers with increased inhibitory control, resulting in an increased tendency to adhere to a planned schedule and therefore reducing procrastination. On the other hand, the Val158 allele may result more effective in increasing carriers’ performances under stress conditions, namely when the schedule deadline is approaching, and dopamine release is increased. This would result in a higher tendency to procrastinate. This hypothesis can readily be tested by applying the experimental approach here employed to various samples of subjects belonging to different categories and extending the analysis to other putative neuron-expressed gene

Ocular-based automatic summarization of documents: is re-reading informative about the importance of a sentence?

Automatic document summarization (ADS) has been introduced as a viable solution for reducing the time and the effort needed to read the ever-increasing textual content that is disseminated. However, a successful universal ADS algorithm has not yet been developed. Also, despite progress in the field, many ADS techniques do not take into account the needs of different readers, providing a summary without internal consistency and the consequent need to re-read the original document. The present study was aimed at investigating the usefulness of using eye tracking for increasing the quality of ADS. The general idea was of that of finding ocular behavioural indicators that could be easily implemented in ADS algorithms. For instance, the time spent in re-reading a sentence might reflect the relative importance of that sentence, thus providing a hint for the selection of text contributing to the summary. We have tested this hypothesis by comparing metrics based on the analysis of eye movements of 30 readers with the highlights they made afterward. Results showed that the time spent reading a sentence was not significantly related to its subjective value, thus frustrating our attempt. Results also showed that the length of a sentence is an unavoidable confounding because longer sentences have both the highest probability of containing units of text judged as important, and receive more fixations and re-fixations

Observing the Evolution of the Universe

How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass. We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in the planning stages.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Full list of 177 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed

Planck intermediate results. XXIII. Galactic plane emission components derived from Planck with ancillary data

Planck data when combined with ancillary data provide a unique opportunity to separate the diffuse emission components of the inner Galaxy. The purpose of the paper is to elucidate the morphology of the various emission components in the strong star-formation region lying inside the solar radius and to clarify the relationship between the various components. The region of the Galactic plane covered is l = 300\ub0 \u2192 0\ub0 \u2192 60\ub0 wherestar-formation is highest and the emission is strong enough to make meaningful component separation. The latitude widths in this longitude range lie between 1 and 2, which correspond to FWHM z-widths of 100-200 pc at a typical distance of 6 kpc. The four emission components studied here are synchrotron, free-free, anomalous microwave emission (AME), and thermal (vibrational) dust emission. These components are identified by constructing spectral energy distributions (SEDs) at positions along the Galactic plane using the wide frequency coverage of Planck (28.4-857GHz) in combination with low-frequency radio data at 0.408-2.3 GHz plus WMAP data at 23-94 GHz, along with far-infrared (FIR) data from COBE-DIRBE and IRAS. The free-free component is determined from radio recombination line (RRL) data. AME is found to be comparable in brightness to the free-free emission on the Galactic plane in the frequency range 20-40 GHz with a width in latitude similar to that of the thermal dust; it comprises 45 \ub1 1% of the total 28.4 GHz emission in the longitude range l = 300\ub0 \u2192 0\ub0 \u2192 60\ub0. The free-free component is the narrowest, reflecting the fact that it is produced by current star-formation as traced by the narrow distribution of OB stars. It is the dominant emission on the plane between 60 and 100 GHz. RRLs from this ionized gas are used to assess its distance, leading to a free-free z-width of FWHM 48 100 pc. The narrow synchrotron component has a low-frequency brightness spectral index \u3b2synch 48 -2.7 that is similar to the broad synchrotron component indicating that they are both populated by the cosmic ray electrons of the same spectral index. The width of this narrow synchrotron component is significantly larger than that of the other three components, suggesting that it is generated in an assembly of older supernova remnants that have expanded to sizes of order 150 pc in 3 7 105 yr; pulsars of a similar age have a similar spread in latitude. The thermal dust is identified in the SEDs with average parameters of Tdust = 20.4 \ub1 0.4 K, \u3b2FIR = 1.94 \ub1 0.03 (> 353 GHz), and \u3b2mm = 1.67 \ub1 0.02 (< 353 GHz). The latitude distributions of gamma-rays, CO, and the emission in high-frequency Planck bands have similar widths, showing that they are all indicators of the total gaseous matter on the plane in the inner Galaxy. \ua9 ESO, 2015

Association of kidney disease measures with risk of renal function worsening in patients with type 1 diabetes

Background: Albuminuria has been classically considered a marker of kidney damage progression in diabetic patients and it is routinely assessed to monitor kidney function. However, the role of a mild GFR reduction on the development of stage 653 CKD has been less explored in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic role of kidney disease measures, namely albuminuria and reduced GFR, on the development of stage 653 CKD in a large cohort of patients affected by T1DM. Methods: A total of 4284 patients affected by T1DM followed-up at 76 diabetes centers participating to the Italian Association of Clinical Diabetologists (Associazione Medici Diabetologi, AMD) initiative constitutes the study population. Urinary albumin excretion (ACR) and estimated GFR (eGFR) were retrieved and analyzed. The incidence of stage 653 CKD (eGFR &lt; 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) or eGFR reduction &gt; 30% from baseline was evaluated. Results: The mean estimated GFR was 98 \ub1 17 mL/min/1.73m2 and the proportion of patients with albuminuria was 15.3% (n = 654) at baseline. About 8% (n = 337) of patients developed one of the two renal endpoints during the 4-year follow-up period. Age, albuminuria (micro or macro) and baseline eGFR &lt; 90 ml/min/m2 were independent risk factors for stage 653 CKD and renal function worsening. When compared to patients with eGFR &gt; 90 ml/min/1.73m2 and normoalbuminuria, those with albuminuria at baseline had a 1.69 greater risk of reaching stage 3 CKD, while patients with mild eGFR reduction (i.e. eGFR between 90 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) show a 3.81 greater risk that rose to 8.24 for those patients with albuminuria and mild eGFR reduction at baseline. Conclusions: Albuminuria and eGFR reduction represent independent risk factors for incident stage 653 CKD in T1DM patients. The simultaneous occurrence of reduced eGFR and albuminuria have a synergistic effect on renal function worsening

Reading without saccades using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

The complex behaviour that allows processing of information present in a text in order to extract its meaning is what we usually call reading (Rayner, Schotter, Masson, Potter &amp; Treiman, 2016). The objective of the reading may differ depending on the type of text: understanding the instructions in a manual will require different learning than understanding the content in an article or in a story magazine from a novel. In any case, it is implausible that reading occurs without the need to understand the meaning of a text, thus implying understanding the relationship between words and sentences and inferring their meaning. Like any behaviour, reading can also be analyzed at a molecular level. Information is acquired by the sensory organ responsible for the sight, the eye, and conveyed to the occipital region of the brain through fixations and saccades. Further ballistic adjustment movements allow proper placement of the necessary information in the fovea, the region of the retina with the greatest visual acuity able to cover only 2° of the field of view. Through a continuous repositioning, necessary to focus on the target letter, the meaning of a text is processed and stored. This process is time-consuming and is conditioned by various processes. The anatomy of the visual system is one of them. Deficits in the visual system require more time to read, imposing a greater number of repositions on the word. On the other hand, morphological and syntactic properties of the text can make easier or harder deducing the meaning of the text. Some examples are characterized by the type and size of the font, the language of the text, the length, and frequency of use of words in the text and the distance at which it is read. These characteristics have been studied exhaustively by cognitive psychology, and it is not the subject of this work to reconsider the produced results. Instead, the aim is to understand how technology has influenced the study of reading. This influence refers to a methodological aspect and an application aspect. The structure of the manuscript consists of four parts. In the first, the main characteristics of the visual system are briefly described, with particular reference to the anatomy of the eye, the eye movements and the muscles that allow its movement. Besides, there is a brief presentation of the relationship between eye movements and reading. In this part, we will present the main results obtained in the field of cognitive psychology and the interpretations provided to explain its role in understanding a text. The second part concerns how technological developments have changed the way to study reading. This part begins with a description of the technological developments which have created new possibilities for studying the eye movements involved in reading, with particular reference to eye-tracking techniques. The second part of this section analyses new reading possibilities. The displays dimension, for example, can vary from a regular monitor to a smartwatch. It implies the opportunities to read in much more spaces. Similarly, the hyper connection and spread wearability of technological devices created the opportunity to read in much more times. Very often, the reading of short messages, notifications, emails or short newspaper articles takes place in a short time, which can represent the waiting of a bus or a trip on the metro. The third part of the paper focuses on alternative ways of presenting text than the classical one, defining its aims and the main aspects that characterize it. Particular emphasis will be devoted to the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP), which will be the subject of the successive chapter. The fourth part will describe the studies conducted on RSVP to compare it with the traditional mode of presentation. This section will deal with some research questions accompanied by the results of the relative experimental analyses. It is evident that to answer to all questions would be too much ambitious and goes beyond the ambitions of this chapter. Thus, the discussion is mainly oriented to the presentation of problems and the proposition of possible experimental analyses. In many cases, a single experiment will be described, which therefore cannot be exhaustive, not even accompanied by an analysis of the literature, in order to give a decisive answer to the question. It is important to emphasise from the beginning that the studies described had a particular objective. Subjects were not required to read a text containing instructions, not even a text written in scientific language or even a manual or a book. Results refer to comprehension in reading magazine articles, with the aim of short reading time. This choice is consistent with the opportunity to read anywhere and even for short time segments through small (smartphones, smartwatches), portable and always-connected devices. Finally, the conclusions of the results of all studies will be described, with suggestions for the use of RSVP regarding specific reading objectives and texts

Not so fast. A reply to Benedetto et al. (2015)

Benedetto et al. (2015) compared regular reading and Rapid Serial Visual Presentation for comprehension, visual fatigue, performance, mental workload, and ocular behavior. We further investigated the relation between RSVP and comprehension in two studies involving a total of 172 participants. We used two presentation speed conditions: one that was close to regular reading (as in the target article) and a faster one. Results of the two studies reported here clearly and consistently shown a loss in comprehension when speed presentation increased over the normal reading speed. Mental workload was also assessed (using both subjective and behavioral measures) and results indicated that the effect on comprehension was not due to the attention devoted to the reading task, but most probably to difficulties in encoding

Rostering in Air Traffic Control: A Narrative Review

Most Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) must cover uninterrupted work shifts for 24 h a day, seven days a week. The proper planning of a shift schedule requires consideration of at least three elements: the specific characteristics of the controller task, the physiological needs of the operator, and the definition of rest periods within rostering. We reviewed the literature for providing comprehensive guidance on the main requirements for the construction of a shift schedule for ATCOs. Our considerations are organized according to a rationale reflecting the most important criteria for the construction of the schedule: namely, the organization of rest periods conceptualized as intervals between cycles of shifts, intervals between individual shifts, and breaks within the shift. The suggested parameters could be used to construct shift schedules within a variation margin that depends on individual contexts of application

Speed reading using Spritz has a cost: Limits when reading a short text

Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) can be used to present text one or a few words at a time to a central position on a display. Recent studies using Spritz, a recent application of RSVP, seem to indicate a speed-comprehension trade-off beginning at about a 250 word per minute (wpm) rate when reading a text for more than five minutes. The objective of the present experimental study is to compare inferential comprehension when subjects read in a traditional way or using Spritz at different nominal frequency rates (250, 350, and 450 wpm). Results confirm a comprehension difficulty even in a very short text when the presentation rate exceeds 250 wpm. This result should be considered as a guideline to set the optimal presentation rate when reading a short text on a personal device (such as a smartphone or smartwatch) using Spritz