Pictorial Representation Research Articles

Establishing disease models for the Belgian national burden of disease study: challenges and perspectives

Abstract The Belgian national burden of disease study (BeBOD) was launched in 2022, and currently provides disease burden estimates for 38 key diseases. The calculation of the non-fatal component of the disease burden, the Years Lived with Disability (YLD), follows a stepwise approach that aims to establish priority outcomes; quantify prevalence “best estimates”; establish disease models; and perform expert evaluation of methods and results. The disease models visualize the relationship between the different health states associated with a given outcome. Health states include the different acute and chronic stages of the outcome (including complications), which may be stratified in different severity levels (e.g., mild, moderate, severe). Disease models used in burden of disease studies primarily aim to document the considered health states, and do not aim at a representation of the complete clinical picture of the condition. The disease models instead help in understanding how the number of cases for each health state is calculated. Models typically start with one “parent node”, which contains all cases. This parent node then gives rise to multiple “child nodes”, with the terminal child nodes representing the individual health states. In BeBOD, disease models and severity distributions are adapted from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, and complemented with local data where possible. This process ensures consistency with available disability weights, while still allowing for local data to feed into the calculations. In this presentation, we will demonstrate the BeBOD process for establishing disease models based on a number of archetypical examples, which represent varying challenges linked to disease model complexity, clarity and completeness of the GBD disease model documentation, and availability of local data. Future perspectives will be discussed, including the improved leveraging of local clinical data, and the implementation of tailored active data collection.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Representation in a Cameroonian ESL Textbook

This paper examines a Cameroonian ESL textbook – Mastering English: Student’s Book for Form 1, with the aim of investigating gender representation in this textbook. The study employed a document analysis design because data for the study was collected exclusively from the textbook. Data was collected by observing the images and by reading through the passages, dialogues and sentences in the textbook, and noting the various representations of the male and female genders. The study adopted the Critical Discourse Analysis approach to analyse data related to visibility, occupational roles and firstness in presentation in order to unveil the inequalities and power imbalance between the representation of the male and female genders in the textbook. The findings revealed that the male gender is given more visibility above the female in terms of pictorial and lexical representations. Besides, more occupational roles are assigned to males than to females in the textbook. Males equally dominate the first position in dialogues, common noun, proper noun and pronoun pairs. The study concludes that the dominance of the male over the female gender observed in the textbook is a replication of the gender imbalance that exists in the Cameroonian society. This study therefore brings to the limelight these gender imbalances in Cameroonian textbooks, and recommends that curriculum developers should always endeavour to strike a balance between the representation of the male and the female genders when designing educational materials.

Going Underground: The Author’s Body and the Mining Workplace in the Writing about Miners in Modern China

Abstract This article highlights the author’s body and its physical experience in labor history, by a focus on their historical implication for the emergence of writings about miners in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth century China. Miners and their workplace entered Chinese textual and pictorial representations at the turn of the twentieth century, as a result of the growing importance of the mining industry, the dissemination of new mining knowledge, and the formation of new social groups. Later in the 1920s, literary movements tied up with the revolutionary agenda under the influence of Marxism brought new conceptualizations of miners’ position in society and their relationship with intellectuals. When authors turned to write about miners in the late 1920s and early 1930s, they chose to legitimize their writing by descending into mine shafts to acquire the experience in the underground mining workplace and to incorporate the bodily experience into their writings. The mining lamp in texts and images from this period provides a prime example to illustrate how the author’s experience in the underground mine was embodied in the author’s and the miner’s corporeal visions and contributed a new way of seeing and representing miners. Drawing upon materials about miners of various genres, this article reveals the formulation of Chinese visual modernity within Chinese social interactions and brings the author’s body into labor history by calling attention to both its material presence in the workplace and its agentic power to inscribe workers.

Development of a culturally informed tool to assess chronic pain for Māori: the Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure-Aotearoa (PRISM-A)

Chronic pain is one of the most common long-term conditions in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and there is a higher prevalence and greater impact of pain for Māori (Indigenous People of New Zealand). Māori tend to have a more holistic interpretation of pain compared with western views; therefore, current assessments may not capture the full meaning and impact of pain for Māori. This study developed a holistic assessment tool for chronic pain in collaboration with Māori clinicians and Māori with chronic pain. The Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure–Aotearoa (PRISM-A) is a verbal and visual assessment tool that is based on Te Ao Māori (Māori world), imbeds whakawhanaungatanga (relationship formation) between the patient and clinician, and incorporates Te Whare Tapa Whā, a Māori model of health. The tool is likely to provide a more meaningful assessment of pain and facilitate better outcomes for Māori with chronic pain.

Humanizing climate change education using a Freirian perspective

This paper acknowledges the importance of introducing climate change education in Latin American classrooms. To address this need, we developed an online course for teachers from six Latin-American countries, aiming to integrate climate change education with a critical humanizing perspective. Within this paper, we present findings from 25 participants who engaged in the “Discussing our Abode” activity. Employing a mixed-methods approach, we conducted both content analysis to dissect participants’ discourses and an analysis of the pictorial representations they provided. This esthetic experience revealed that participants, and humans in general, are shaped by social conditions and remain unfinished in terms of education. We conclude that it is feasible to create a climate change education proposal based on Freire’s principles of dialogue, criticality, creativity, hope, and love. The Freirean perspective extends beyond discussing human impacts on nature to recognizing the emotional dimension in all relationships.

Mastery of the Concept of Percentage and Its Representations in Finnish Comprehensive School Grades 7–9

This research was conducted in 2019 in collaboration with Japanese colleagues, with the research tasks translated from the original Japanese. In Finland, a total of 1112 students from grades 7–9 in primary school participated in the study. In our article, we examine Finnish students’ mastery of the concept of percentages and how they express their mathematical thinking about percentages in a multimodal way. A multimodal expression of mathematical thinking can typically take the form of natural language, written mathematics, pictorial representations, mathematical symbolic language, or combinations of these, which can be used to manage information, such as through tables. Our focus is on Finnish primary-school students’ mastery of the concept of percentages, and we then narrow our analysis to tasks where students have used a multimodal approach. We analyze the representations of the concept of percentages and the related thought processes. The concept of percentages was best mastered in grade 9 and weakest in grade 7. Students mostly used a combination of pictorial language, natural language, and mathematical symbolic language to describe their solution processes. However, describing their thinking in different ways did not necessarily highlight possible errors in their reasoning.

Content-Based Image Retrieval and Feature Extraction: Analysing the Literature

A significant amount of multimedia data consists of digital images, and multimedia content analysis is used in many real-world computer vision applications. Multimedia information, especially photos, has become much more complicated in the last several years. Every day, millions of photos are posted to various websites, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Finding a suitable image in an archive is a difficult research subject for the field of computer vision. Most search engines use standard text-based techniques that depend on metadata and captions in order to fetch photos. Over the past 20 years, a great deal of research has been conducted on content-based image retrieval (CBIR), picture categorization, and analysis. In image classification models and CBIR, high-level picture representations are represented as feature vectors made up of numerical values. Empirical evidence indicates a considerable disparity between picture feature representation and human visual understanding. Reducing the semantic gap between human visual understanding and picture feature representation is the aim of this study. This study aims to do a thorough analysis of the latest advancements in the domains of Content-Based picture Retrieval and picture representation. We performed a comprehensive analysis of many models for image retrieval and picture representation, encompassing the most recent advancements in semantic deep-learning methods and feature extraction. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the key ideas and important studies related to image representation and content-based picture retrieval. In an effort to stimulate more research in this field, it also offers a preview of potential future study topics.

Emotionality in Task-Oriented Chatbots – The Effect of Emotion Expression on Chatbot Perception

ABSTRACT Since interactive communication is generally better received than static one, chatbots are widely used in virtually all domains – ranging from business to education and healthcare. Nevertheless, there are still numerous questions concerning user experience that have not been adequately answered. Therefore, we study the effect of emotion expression on chatbot perception. In an experiment we manipulated a task-oriented chatbot by using short positively valenced emotional expressions and emotional pictorial representations (emojis) and investigated the effect of emotionality on trust, satisfaction, enjoyment, and authenticity as perceived by the user. The emotional chatbot was found to be perceived as more trustworthy than the neutral one. Moreover, users were more satisfied and had longer interactions with this chatbot. These results indicate that even slight variations in emotionality lead to significant difference in chatbot perception.

IMAGE CAPTION GENERATOR USING CNN AND LSTM

Machine learning is now all the rage in the AI world. We have recently used AI to construct very clever devices with exceptional performance. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that produces very accurate findings, which in turn indicates very good performance. Apps for picture description make use of deep learning in our study. Providing a description of a picture's content is what image description is all about. Object and action detection in the input picture is the foundation of the notion. When describing images, there are primarily two methods: bottom-up and top-down. Bottom-up methods create captions by combining the information of an input picture. Using different architectures, such as recurrent neural networks, top-down methods provide a semantic representation of an input picture, which is then translated into a caption. One potential advantage of picture description is that it might aid those with visual impairments in comprehending what is shown in online images. What follows is an explanation of the specifics. Looking at the image below, what can you make out?

AI-Driven Patient Education in Chronic Kidney Disease: Evaluating Chatbot Responses against Clinical Guidelines.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients can benefit from personalized education on lifestyle and nutrition management strategies to enhance healthcare outcomes. The potential use of chatbots, introduced in 2022, as a tool for educating CKD patients has been explored. A set of 15 questions on lifestyle modification and nutrition, derived from a thorough review of three specific KDIGO guidelines, were developed and posed in various formats, including original, paraphrased with different adverbs, incomplete sentences, and misspellings. Four versions of AI were used to answer these questions: ChatGPT 3.5 (March and September 2023 versions), ChatGPT 4, and Bard AI. Additionally, 20 questions on lifestyle modification and nutrition were derived from the NKF KDOQI guidelines for nutrition in CKD (2020 Update) and answered by four versions of chatbots. Nephrologists reviewed all answers for accuracy. ChatGPT 3.5 produced largely accurate responses across the different question complexities, with occasional misleading statements from the March version. The September 2023 version frequently cited its last update as September 2021 and did not provide specific references, while the November 2023 version did not provide any misleading information. ChatGPT 4 presented answers similar to 3.5 but with improved reference citations, though not always directly relevant. Bard AI, while largely accurate with pictorial representation at times, occasionally produced misleading statements and had inconsistent reference quality, although an improvement was noted over time. Bing AI from November 2023 had short answers without detailed elaboration and sometimes just answered "YES". Chatbots demonstrate potential as personalized educational tools for CKD that utilize layman's terms, deliver timely and rapid responses in multiple languages, and offer a conversational pattern advantageous for patient engagement. Despite improvements observed from March to November 2023, some answers remained potentially misleading. ChatGPT 4 offers some advantages over 3.5, although the differences are limited. Collaboration between healthcare professionals and AI developers is essential to improve healthcare delivery and ensure the safe incorporation of chatbots into patient care.

Freedom of pictorial representation in books

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Self-assessment and Teacher-Assessment During an OSCE in Undergraduate Dental Students-Application of a Visual Metaphor

Background: Reflection on both student and teacher perspectives is crucial for effective communication and professional relationships during education. Objectives: This observational cohort study aimed to compare students' self-assessment with teacher assessments, as well as with estimated self-assessment and estimated teacher-assessment, using the pictorial representation of illness and self-measure (PRISM) during an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Additionally, it sought to compare self-assessment and teacher-assessment with OSCE scores. Methods: Fourth-year dental students (n = 44) were included at the beginning of their clinical course. Three tasks were selected for the OSCE exams: Oral examination on a model (task 1), matrix placement (task 2), and endodontic radiograph evaluation (task 3). Objective structured clinical examination scores were rated by an independent rater. Students and one of three calibrated teachers used PRISM to evaluate their respective assessments independently and blinded from each other. The relationships between the different assessments were determined using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: For task 1, a moderate correlation was found between students' self-assessment and estimated self-assessment (r = 0.44, P < 0.01). For task 2, moderate correlations were observed between self-assessment and teacher-assessment, estimated teacher-assessment and teacher-assessment, as well as between self-assessment and estimated self-assessment (P ≤ 0.01). For task 3, moderate correlations were found between self-assessment and teacher-assessment, and between self-assessment and estimated self-assessment (P < 0.01). A moderate negative correlation between self-assessment and the OSCE score was observed only for task 2 (r = -0.41, P = 0.01). Moderate negative correlations between teacher-assessment in PRISM and the OSCE score were found for all three tasks (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Self-assessment and teacher-assessment using PRISM exhibited task-dependent correlations, while results for estimated assessments varied. PRISM may serve as a promising tool for feedback and discussion in the future, as it seems capable of highlighting different views and expectations in the teaching context. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Augmented reality for chemistry education to promote the use of chemical terminology in teacher training.

Chemistry as a whole is divided into three levels. The macroscopic level describes real, observable phenomena of the material world. The submicroscopic level focuses on particles. The representative level includes pictorial and symbolic representations to visualize substance in its nature. Students often have problems separating these levels and conceptually transfer each of the three levels to the other. Therefore, teachers need to use chemical terminology correctly when teaching the substance-particle concept. Augmented Reality (AR) connects real and virtual world. The observer physically moves in a real environment that integrates virtual elements. The AR technology has great potential for learning in the subject chemistry, especially when it comes to making the "invisible" visible and illustrating scientific phenomena at particle level. The simultaneous presentation should avoid split-attention and offers new possibilities to interactively deal with (M)ER. The question arises whether AR has a positive effect on the use of technical language and the associated understanding of the concept of dealing with (M)ER at the substance and particle levels. With an AR app on the tablet and the AR glasses, the chemical processes of a real experiment are represented by AR visualizations. Therefore, the AR app was piloted. This study captured the chemistry handling with (M)ER of chemistry teachers (N = 30) using a pre-post survey. The participating preservice teachers are described below. Each test includes five tasks elaborated by thinking aloud. The thinking-aloud protocols to acquire the use of the chemical terminology are evaluated in MAXQDA.

Pictorial depth cues elicit the perception of tridimensionality in dogs

The perception of tridimensionality is elicited by binocular disparity, motion parallax, and monocular or pictorial cues. The perception of tridimensionality arising from pictorial cues has been investigated in several non-human animal species. Although dogs can use and discriminate bidimensional images, to date there is no evidence of dogs’ ability to perceive tridimensionality in pictures and/or through pictorial cues. The aim of the present study was to assess the perception of tridimensionality in dogs elicited by two pictorial cues: linear perspective and shading. Thirty-two dogs were presented with a tridimensional stimulus (i.e., a ball) rolling onto a planar surface until eventually falling into a hole (control condition) or until reaching and rolling over an illusory hole (test condition). The illusory hole corresponded to the bidimensional pictorial representation of the real hole, in which the pictorial cues of shading and linear perspective created the impression of tridimensionality. In a violation of expectation paradigm, dogs showed a longer looking time at the scene in which the unexpected situation of a ball rolling over an illusory hole occurred. The surprise reaction observed in the test condition suggests that the pictorial cues of shading and linear perspective in the bidimensional image of the hole were able to elicit the perception of tridimensionality in dogs.

Leave no stone unturned: Exploring the metaproteome of beerstone for the identification of archaeological beer production

In archaeological contexts, identifying processes of beer production and consumption has contributed to our understanding of agriculture, labor mobilization, economic surplus, feasting, gender dynamics, social structure, tribute, community, identity and politics. Nevertheless, in the absence of pictorial representations and characteristic objects, beer brewing is difficult to identify in the archaeological record, and molecular methods are often limited by constraints of preservation and specificity. A potential target for studies of ancient beer production are residues formed during brewing activity, including beerstone, a calcium oxalate residue. Here, we apply shotgun proteomics analyses to a sample of modern beerstone to explore this residue's capacity as a marker for beer in archaeological contexts. The beerstone proteome was compared to the protein profiles of ungerminated and germinated barley to identify key proteins indicative of malted grains which may be encased by the residue. Proteins matching to barley grain (Hordeum vulgare) and Baker's/Brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) were successfully identified in the beerstone. In particular, we identified hordeins, lipid transfer proteins, trypsin/α-amylase inhibitors, and protein Z, which are barley proteins abundant in proteomic characterisations of beer. In comparison to ungerminated and germinated barley grains, we find that beerstone preserves only a subset of the barley proteome, with the residue being more reflective of the final brewing product than of earlier brewing steps such as malting. Overall, we demonstrate that beerstone has potential to entrap and preserve proteins reflective of the beer-making process and identify proteins that we might anticipate in future archaeological analyses.

Development and Implementation of a Novel Approach to Dietary Education for People With Inadequate Health Literacy and Advanced Kidney Disease

To describe the process of developing and implementing a novel approach to renal diet education by changing from a nutrient-based food list to a pictorial meal compilation approach through the skill steps: plan, select, cook, eat. The skill-based teaching method accommodates low literacy levels and respects cultural values. This teaching style aligns the complex renal diet guidelines with family living. Each meal plan is based on a balanced diet and includes family preferences. Appropriate cooking methods and food swaps that match renal diet specifications are included. The accompanying Cook for Life cookbook demonstrates how to prepare the new kidney-friendly family meal. Recipes were supplied by a local Māori elder and his whānau and tested by the dietitian. The cookbook is provided to all patients receiving renal dietetic education. The teaching method has undergone several iterations to accommodate feedback from dietitians, nurses, doctors, and patients. This included patient engagement to develop the Storybook, a pictorial representation of typical meals consumed in the community with a corresponding food substitution to illustrate how to compile kidney-friendly meals. Analysis of feedback regarding this approach indicates high levels of acceptance and engagement with this new teaching style. This practical skill-based dietary education teaching style appears to be a feasible, acceptable, culturally sensitive, and appropriate approach to dietary education for people who live with kidney disease. Patient engagement in the design of this approach supports effective learning and behavior change.

Observations on the Clinical Effects of Music Therapy on Premature Infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

This study aimed to explore the clinical effects of music therapy (MT) on premature infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). A total of 78 premature infants in NICUs admitted from January 2021 to January 2022 in Wuhan Children's Hospital, Tongji Medical College, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology were selected as the reference group and received routine management. Wuhan Children's Hospital implemented MT from February 2022 to February 2023, and 74 premature infants in NICUs admitted during the same period were selected as the observation group. The corresponding management mode was implemented on the second day of NICU admission for premature infants. Amplitude-integrated electroencephalogram (aEEG) and neonatal behavioral neurological assessment (NBNA) were adopted to evaluate the brain function, specifically the neurological function of neonates, after the end of management. The degree of parent-child attachment was measured using the pictorial representation of attachment measure (PRAM) in a nonverbal (visual) manner. The temperature, pulse, respiratory rate (RR), the number and duration of crying, and incidence of complications were all compared between the two groups. SPSS showed that no difference existed in the aEEG and NBNA scores between the two groups (P > 0.05). The distance of PRAM self-baby-distance was smaller in the observation group compared with the reference group (P < 0.05). Furthermore, there was no significant difference in temperature between the two groups (P > 0.05). The observation group had significantly lower pulse and RR values than the reference group (P < 0.05). Finally, no significant difference existed in the incidence of complications between the two groups (P > 0.05). MT has a certain application value for premature infants in NICUs and can thus be applied to newborns in other NICUs. However, further studies are required to completely verify the research results.

Development of a Pictorial representation measurement tool specifically for blind students in junior high school

Development of a Pictorial representation measurement tool specifically for blind students in junior high school

Flame retardant characteristics of natural fibre reinforced polymer composites: A thematic review

AbstractGlobally, with the advancement of industrialization and globalization, the automotive sector has drastically increased for transportation and commercial purposes. Hence, to maximize efficiency and minimize the weight of automobiles, the automotive and aerospace industries have welcomed synthetic fibre‐reinforced composites, vastly replacing conventional metals. Despite the superior performance, the usage of synthetic fibre composites has led to the massive dumping of automotive waste in landfills, making the land unfit for future purposes. Therefore, natural fibre‐reinforced composites (NFRCs) quickly replace synthetic fibres with their unique features, such as being lightweight, biodegradable, and non‐toxic, en routing a new path towards a sustainable environment. Though NFRCs are finding new applications in various industries, researchers are trying to enhance their thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties to make them synergic composites. However, with the presence of cellulose, lignin, and wax, natural fibres become highly responsive toward flammability, limiting their use in various emerging applications. As the subject of the flammability of NFRCs has a limited amount of literature, the current review article aims to address the current flammability studies and strategies adopted to improve the flame‐retardant characteristics of NFRCs exclusively. Also, this review covers the factors and influence of different types of flame‐retardant fillers adopted to improve the flame retreatant characteristic of NFRCs and their mechanism. Additionally, this review article summarises various official and laboratory flame‐testing techniques such as radial panel test (RPT), cone calorimetry, and limited oxygen index (LOI) adopted to characterize the flammable properties of NFRCs.Highlights Natural fiber biocomposites are becoming a potential candidate for structural and interior applications in the automotive and aircraft industries. Flammability becomes a major alarm as it concerns with the safety of passengers. The flammability behavior of natural fiber composites is extensively discussed. Mechanisms, factors, and selection of flame‐retardant materials are reviewed to improve the flame‐retardant characteristics. The influence of surface treatments, fiber content, and flame‐retardant nanofillers are also elaborately discussed. Advanced flame testing techniques were conversed with pictorial representation.

Do people need guidance to estimate a food portion size? Evidence from an exploratory eye-tracker study

A promising strategy to encourage portion control involves clear guidance and portion information on product packaging alongside nutrition details. However, literature on the impact of this information on serving sizes is conflicting. To gather more objective evidence about how consumers interact with on-pack portion guidance, we conducted a laboratory-based eye-tracker study with 66 participants completing two portion-size estimation tasks. In the first, participants estimated serving sizes indirectly by gauging how many people a product pack could serve. The second task involved direct portion size selection using pictorial representations of the food portion on a virtual plate. Additionally, we explored how participants’ familiarity with products affected their portion estimations. Results: when portion guidance was presented, errors in portion estimation significantly decreased only in the indirect task, where 85% of participants showed an improved accuracy. This suggests that the way individuals are prompted to estimate portion sizes influences their approach and their reliance on the provided guidance. Higher error rates occurred when participants were more familiar with the products. For less familiar products, the lower portion estimation errors were associated with the longer fixations on the portion graphic in the indirect task. In addition, participants who quickly noticed the portion graphic provided more accurate portion size estimates. This emphasizes the practical importance of swiftly locating portion information on-pack to enhance estimation accuracy.