Visualizing for the Non‐Visual: Enabling the Visually Impaired to Use Visualization

The majority of visualizations on the web are still stored as raster images, making them inaccessible to visually impaired users. We propose a deep‐neural‐network‐based approach that automatically recognizes key elements in a visualization, including a visualization type, graphical elements, labels, legends, and most importantly, the original data conveyed in the visualization. We leverage such extracted information to provide visually impaired people with the reading of the extracted information. Based on interviews with visually impaired users, we built a Google Chrome extension designed to work with screen reader software to automatically decode charts on a webpage using our pipeline. We compared the performance of the back‐end algorithm with existing methods and evaluated the utility using qualitative feedback from visually impaired users.     

A new mumps virus lineage found in the 1995 mumps outbreak in western Switzerland identified by nucleotide sequence analysis of the SH gene

We determined the nucleotide sequence of the SH gene its flanking regions over a range of 380 nucleotides for three distinct mumps virus (MUV) isolates. Two isolates from the 1992 mumps epidemic in Western Switzerland and one MUV isolated in 1995 in the same geographic area have been analyzed and compared to 16 recently published SH nucleotide sequences and their presumed amino acid sequences. The nucleotide sequences from the 1992 MUV isolates were identical and closely related to two MUV strains from Eastern Switzerland and strains from the U.K. The MUV isolated in 1995 is clearly different from all other strains.     

Performance-Analyse und -Optimierung in der Softwareentwicklung

Nicht-funktionale Anforderungen an ein Softwaresystem beschreiben Aspekte, die nicht direkt die Funktionalit?t, wie sie der Benutzer sieht, betreffen.     

Comparative fate of 1,1-diphenylethylene (DPE), 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-Chlorophenyl)-ethylene (DDE), and pentachlorophenol (PCP) under alternating aerobic and anaerobic conditions

First, annual cost of electronic filing of medical images were calculated and compared with that of film storage in two hospitals under different conditions. Storage of medical images using a pixel size of 100 microns x 100 microns and 2-byte depth on the 130 mm, 650 MB magneto-optical disks costs with four times as much as the cost for film storage. However, 175 microns x 175 microns 12 bits combined with implementation of lossless compression would reduce the cost to a level equal to that for films storage. Doubled or tripled densities of MOD will improve the cost ever further. Second, the effectiveness of Hospital Information System/Radiological Information System (HIS/RIS) was evaluated. Examination time, film delivery time and the total turn-around time was markedly shortened by more than 23 hours on average. Our measurement method employing IC cards in pre-post HIS/RIS/PACS procedures is generally applicable to other hospitals. Third, to determine the optimal method of maximizing the efficacy of diagnostic imaging, 260 questionnaires were sent to the staff of 13 university hospitals. Every situation was described by both a radiologist and the physician who ordered the examination and received the reports and images. The level of technical efficacy and diagnostic accuracy of radiology strongly influenced the diagnostic thought processes of the physician.     

Suboptimal Exposure to Facial Expressions When Viewing Video Messages From a Small Screen: Effects on Emotion, Attention, and Memory.

The authors examined the effects of suboptimally presented facial expressions on emotional and attentional responses and memory among 39 young adults viewing video (business news) messages from a small screen. Facial electromyography (EMG) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia were used as physiological measures of emotion and attention, respectively. Several congruency priming effects were found. In particular, happy facial primes prompted increased (a) pleasure ratings, (b) orbicularis oculi EMG activity, (c) perceived trustworthiness, and (d) recognition memory for video messages with a positive emotional tone. Emotional and other responses to video messages presented on a small screen can be modified with suboptimal affective primes, but even small differences in the emotional tone of the messages should be allowed for. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Laplace spectra as fingerprints for image recognition

In the area of image retrieval from data bases and for copyright protection of large image collections there is a growing demand for unique but easily computable fingerprints for images. These fingerprints can be used to quickly identify every image within a larger set of possibly similar images. This paper introduces a novel method to automatically obtain such fingerprints from an image. It is based on a reinterpretation of an image as a Riemannian manifold. This representation is feasible for gray value images and color images. We discuss the use of the spectrum of eigenvalues of different variants of the Laplace operator as a fingerprint and show the usability of this approach in several use cases. Contrary to existing works in this area we do not only use the discrete Laplacian, but also with a particular emphasis the underlying continuous operator. This allows better results in comparing the resulting spectra and deeper insights in the problems arising. We show how the well known discrete Laplacian is related to the continuous Laplace-Beltrami operator. Furthermore, we introduce the new concept of solid height functions to overcome some potential limitations of the method.