Reader Acceptance Research Articles

Validating Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System (BT-RADS) as a Diagnostic Tool for Glioma Follow-Up after Surgery.

Gliomas are a type of brain tumor that requires accurate monitoring for progression following surgery. The Brain Tumor Reporting and Data System (BT-RADS) has emerged as a potential tool for improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing the need for repeated operations. This prospective multicenter study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and reliability of BT-RADS in predicting tumor progression (TP) in postoperative glioma patients and evaluate its acceptance in clinical practice. The study enrolled patients with a history of partial or complete resection of high-grade glioma. All patients underwent two consecutive follow-up brain MRI examinations. Five neuroradiologists independently evaluated the MRI examinations using the BT-RADS. The diagnostic accuracy of the BT-RADS for predicting TP was calculated using histopathology after reoperation and clinical and imaging follow-up as reference standards. Reliability based on inter-reader agreement (IRA) was assessed using kappa statistics. Reader acceptance was evaluated using a short survey. The final analysis included 73 patients (male, 67.1%; female, 32.9%; mean age, 43.2 ± 12.9 years; age range, 31-67 years); 47.9% showed TP, and 52.1% showed no TP. According to readers, TP was observed in 25-41.7% of BT-3a, 61.5-88.9% of BT-3b, 75-90.9% of BT-3c, and 91.7-100% of BT-RADS-4. Considering >BT-RADS-3a as a cutoff value for TP, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the BT-RADS were 68.6-85.7%, 84.2-92.1%, and 78.1-86.3%, respectively, according to the reader. The overall IRA was good (κ = 0.75) for the final BT-RADS classification and very good for detecting new lesions (κ = 0.89). The readers completely agreed with the statement "the application of the BT-RADS should be encouraged" (score = 25). The BT-RADS has good diagnostic accuracy and reliability for predicting TP in postoperative glioma patients. However, BT-RADS 3 needs further improvements to increase its diagnostic accuracy.

The influence of the Chinese Cinderella (“Yeh-Shen”) on the evolving image of Cinderella in the West

Taking Cinderella as an evolving image across cultures, this article compares the image of Yeh-Shen in major English translations to those of Cinderella in the Western classics of Giambattista Basile, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Disney. The study incorporates a comparison of the story types and the protagonists’ family backgrounds, social statuses, and personalities in constructing the evolving image of Cinderella. It is argued that the widely acknowledged story genealogy of “Basile–Perrault–the Brothers Grimm–Disney” is questionable in terms of the phenomenon of Cinderella “becoming of the people’s princess”. Evidence found in both reader acceptance and postmodernist rewritings supports the hypothesis that the story of Yeh-Shen has had a substantial influence on the evolving image of Cinderella. The analysis of its English translation and acceptance from a comparative perspective brings to light the continued legacy of the literary image of Yeh-Shen, illustrates the esthetic complexity and possibilities of image translation, and most importantly, reveals the rich roots of postmodernist themes contained in the Chinese tale that has long influenced the West.

The Relationship between Literati Livelihoods and the Development of Novels and Operas in the Canal Region during the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Abstract Along the Grand Canal and in adjacent areas, where the pursuit of livelihoods among literati was most concentrated and visible, were important centers for the creation and dissemination of Ming and Qing dynasty novels and operas. To a large extent, the pursuit of livelihoods among literati brought about the birth of a large number of literary works, particularly Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty novels and operas. On the one hand, literati earned a wage through their livelihoods, improved their living environments, and laid a certain economic backdrop for later Ming and Qing novels and operas; on the other hand, through reader acceptance and market feedback, the literati put forward requirements for literary creation that closely aligned with readers and the market, and to a certain degree brought about changes in the subject matter and artistry of novels and operas. It can be said that the fertile Jiangnan region and the Grand Canal gave birth to literary and artistic giants and works that have been passed down through the centuries. The present article is an analysis of the relationship between literati livelihoods and the development of Ming and Qing novels and operas in the Grand Canal region.

Makna Semiotik Kisah Mimpi Raja dalam Surat Yusuf ayat 43 – 49

The purpose of this study was to find out the interpretation of the story of the King's dream in Yusuf verses 43 - 49 with Charles Sander Pierce's semiotic analysis. This study used a literary reception research method, namely reader acceptance. The problem that would be examined about the Qashas al-Qur'an/story, was the preaching of the Qur'an about matters of the past people, previous prophecies (prophecy) and events that had occurred. Data collection techniques used literature study. The results showed that the study of the king's dream interpretation in Yusuf verses 43-49 with Charles Sander Pierce's semiotic analysis was as follows. Sign was a king dreamed about seven fat cows being eaten by seven skinny cows and also seven green and dry stalks. The object was that Prophet Yusuf gave the interpretation of the king's dream and the sign user (interpreter) was the reader's interpretation of the dream interpretation by presenting images for easy understanding. About the sentence "Wa Sab'a Sunbulatin Khudrin." It mean seven green grains (wheat), seven green stalks, mayang, stalks (rice), that the word Sunbulatin was in the form of a general sentence, and not ma'rifat. While the sentence khudrin was the nature/na'at of Sunbulatin. So Sunbulatin Khudrin was the green stalk means staple food.

BPSS Award

BPSS Award

The Development and Testing of Balanced Communication Material for a Population-Based Breast Cancer Screening Program

Organized breast cancer screening (BCS) programs rely on written communication materials for achieving participation and informing women about screening-related benefits and limits. In order to achieve informed decisions and to maximize reader acceptance, the Agency for Health Protection of the metropolitan area of Milan aimed at improving the communication materials of the local BCS program through a multiphase, mixed-method process. Multidisciplinary working groups drafted three sets of materials: postal letters, an informative leaflet, and a question-and-answer online set. Readability was assessed using the Italian language-tailored Gulpease index. Suitability and Comprehensibility were assessed using the SAM + CAM instrument. User perception was investigated through “think aloud” interviews in two consecutive purposive samples. Participants’ intention to participate in the program was also assessed. After each phase was completed, materials were readapted, and previous phases were repeated, to maintain the pre-defined Gulpease and SAM + CAM targets. During the quality improvement process, the overall mean Gulpease and SAM + CAM scores increased from 65.5 (s. d. 10.4) to 67.7 (s. d. 8.2) and from 78 (s. d. 5.6) to 83 (s. d. 4.1), respectively. In light of the results of the first round of interviews, materials underwent rewriting and layout revision, which was generally appreciated during the second round, with a non-significant increase in the intention to participate in the program. However, negative emotions and miscomprehension concerning overdiagnosis were frequently reported, although less frequent in the second round, after rewording of the text. The mixed-method multistep process involving all the relevant key players allowed a balance among the multifaceted aspects of communication.

An exploration of poetological manipulation on Howard Goldblatt’s translation of Mo Yan’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out

Abstract Drawing on André Lefevere’s rewriting theory, this paper explores how Howard Goldblatt translates Mo Yan’s novel Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (hereafter referred to as L&D) with regard to poetological manipulation. The paper analyses in detail how the translator rewrites the novel’s poetological features, including its unique linguistic, stylistic and narrative features, to produce a translation which is accessible to the intended audience. On the basis of this analysis, the paper identifies three characteristics of Goldblatt’s poetological rewriting: (1) macro-stylistic consistency with the source text, i.e. overall stylistic conformity to the original work; (2) simplification principle; (3) typical features of authentic English writing. The analysis reveals poetological manipulation in the translation process, from which we infer that rewriting in favour of the target poetological currents is the best way to achieve reader acceptance.

One way to produce beauty and poetry: my experiences in teaching Yang Shuo’s prose

ABSTRACTYang Shuo’s prose was once a model of contemporary Chinese middle school literature teaching. He broke through the classical writings of Chinese landscape travelogues, and actively carried out the spirit of “people’s nature” in contemporary literature. He conveyed the distinctive aesthetic tendency of contemporary literature through the brushwork of “sacrifice chapters show true meaning.” However, in today’s university literature education system, Yang’s prose is almost impossible to find a foothold. Regardless of ideological or literary nature, Yang’s prose shows a huge rift in Chinese education and literary education. Through the accumulation of experience in the teaching practice of contemporary literature courses in ten years, this paper attempts to explore the new perspective of literary criticism by examining the comparison between the middle school experience of literature education and the university experience from the perspective of reader acceptance.

An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 by Benjamin Madley

Reviewed by: An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 by Benjamin Madley Brendan Lindsay (bio) An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873. By Benjamin Madley. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016. Pp. 712. Cloth, $38.00.) Benjamin Madley's impressive An American Genocide advances genocide studies and California history significantly. In this chronologically organized, painstakingly researched, impeccably documented monograph, Madley sets goals he achieves admirably. Key among these is making the case that genocide was committed against California Indian peoples by the state of California and the United States government through direct [End Page 195] and indirect policies and laws, financial sponsorship, neglect, and massacres committed by state militia and U.S. Army units. The core of Madley's argument focuses on the intentionality of government-sponsored genocide in California. Madley assembled a massive data set of the violent killings taking place in California using letters, government reports, newspaper articles, and other archival sources, which he then organized chronologically, and set about looking for patterns. This method applied to a mass of evidence clearly produced results. Most important among them is what timing in policy decisions can tell us about genocidal intent. Madley shows a vicious cycle of state and federal action and inaction intended to bring about genocide. California created laws removing legal protections and denying rights to Indians, prevented them from sustaining themselves as cohesive groups, and sanctioned militia and volunteer campaigns to physically exterminate Native peoples or deliver them into conditions producing similarly mortal results. The timing and context of these genocidal policies and actions encouraged non-Native Californians to commit acts of unsanctioned genocide. By the 1860s, non-Native Californians were killing Indian people with impunity, adding to the violent death tolls Madley estimates at 9,000–16,000 murdered between 1846 and 1873. Madley's method reveals another important conclusion: Over time, operations designed to annihilate California Indians became smaller, yet more effective in terms of body counts and expense. The patterns also reveal how vigilante, state militia, and army units destroyed village sites and resources stores, oftentimes as Native communities were about to face the brutal winters of the mountains into which they had been driven. The state then billed the national government. The United States repaid much of the cost incurred, meanwhile adopting federal policies best described as malevolent neglect. Lawmakers cut funding for Indian affairs when needed most, refused to ratify treaties, directed federal agents and army officers not to interfere in stemming violence, ignored public and intragovernmental reports of atrocities and unlivable reservation conditions, ceded Native land bases to the state, and ordered troops to carry out the murder or removal of Indian peoples. The consequence of state and federal action and inaction, Madley argues, was the creation of a "killing machine" (173) clearly intended—in whole or in part—to exterminate California Indians as a group. Madley employs the definitions set forth in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. As with other scholars adopting this standard, much [End Page 196] depends on a reader's acceptance or rejection of this document as defining authority. It is a third-party standard, conceived neither by Native peoples nor the United States government, and serves perhaps as the most neutral arbiter possible in such a debate. Nonetheless, it is an attractive target for naysayers; it is relatively broad in its categorizations, open to interpretation, and seems to favor the rights of victims rather than err on the side of perpetrators. It seems an appropriate choice, given the hesitancy of many Americans to even consider the possibility of an American genocidal past. The work is not without some weaknesses and potential disappointments. Madley well places himself in the historiography of American Indian genocide in the text, but is less successful when it comes to California history. There is a rich literature on atrocities committed against Native people in California—dozens of books and articles have commented on the slaughter of California Indians—yet one must consult the endnotes to really get such a sense. Indeed, Madley's front cover flap claims that he is the "first historian to uncover the full extent...

Logos, Pathos, Ethos, Caninus: Rhetorical Strategies in Steinbeck/Steinbeckian Dog/Travel Memoir

Abstract Drawing on the traditional Aristotelian rhetorical appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos, this article examines John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley in Search of America along with selected subsequent memoir/travel writing inspired by the 1962 best seller. The predominant argumentative strategies implemented in Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, Benoit Denizet-Lewis's Travels with Casey, Bill Steigerwald's Dogging Steinbeck, and Gregory Zeigler's Travels with Max will be identified and assessed from the standpoints of overall execution and potential for reader acceptance.

Reliability, Validity, and Reader Acceptance of LI-RADS—An In-depth Analysis

This study aimed to analyze interreader agreement and diagnostic accuracy of Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) in comparison to a nonstandardized 5-point scale and to assess reader acceptance of LI-RADS for clinical routine. Eighty-four consecutive patients at risk for hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent liver magnetic resonance imaging were included in this Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant retrospective study. Four readers rated the likelihood of hepatocellular carcinoma for 104 liver observations using LI-RADS criteria and a 5-point Likert scale (LIKERT) based on subjective impression in two separate reading sessions. Interreader agreement was assessed using kappa statistics (κ). Diagnostic accuracy was assessed with receiver operating characteristic analysis. Reader acceptance was evaluated with a questionnaire. A sub-analysis of LI-RADS's major features (arterial phase hyper-enhancement, washout, capsule appearance, and threshold growth) and scores for lesions </>1.5 cm was performed. LI-RADS showed similar overall interreader agreement compared to LIKERT (κ, 0.44 [95%CI: 0.37, 0.52] and 0.35 [95%CI: 0.27, 0.43]) with a tendency toward higher interreader agreement for LI-RADS. Interreader agreement (κ) was 0.51 (95%CI: 0.38, 0.65) for arterial phase hyper-enhancement, 0.52 (95%CI: 0.39, 0.65) for washout, 0.37 (95%CI: 0.23, 0.52) for capsule appearance, and 0.50 (95%CI: 0.38, 0.61) for threshold growth. Overall interreader agreement for LI-RADS categories was similar between observations <1.5 cm and observations >1.5 cm. Overall diagnostic accuracy for LIKERT and LI-RADS was comparable (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.86 and 0.87). Readers fully agreed with the statement "A short version of LI-RADS would facilitate the use in clinical routine" (median, 5.0; interquartile range, 2.25). LI-RADS showed similar interreader agreement and diagnostic accuracy compared to nonstandardized reporting. However, further reduction of complexity and refinement of imaging features may be needed.

Monitoring Reader Metrics in Blinded Independent Central Review of Oncology Studies

Purpose: Blinded independent central review (BICR) is advocated by regulatory authorities as a means of minimizing bias and independently verifying endpoints based on medical imaging when the data is intended to support pivotal trials. However, discordance between reviewers at the BICR raises concern with regulators. There are few published metrics related to discordance rates at the BICR and there is currently no standard metric which can be used to monitor reviewer performance in the BICR setting. Methods: We analyzed BICR data from 29 oncology clinical trials including interpretations by 24 different radiologist reviewers of over 12,000 subject cases. Results: The average reader acceptance rate was 48% and the rejection rate was 52%. Conclusion: Based on our analysis, we propose the use of p-charts to monitor reviewer performance in oncology clinical trials employing BICR.

DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED: FICTION FORMING FACT IN CICERO'S DIALOGUES

This paper analyzes Cicero's citations of the not-always-historical past in his theoretical corpus. Examining both the Marian oak in the prologue of De Legibus and Cicero's overall use of historical references, I suggest that Cicero explicitly employs unhistorical (or at least not certifiably true) exempla, with a view to the internal consistency of the dialogues' fictional world. By encouraging the reader's acceptance of such fictional examples, Cicero establishes an intersubjective and empathetic relationship with his audience. Ultimately, Cicero seeks to uphold and use others to confirm his internal world as an alternative to the tense world of Roman politics.

The State of Speech

The State of Speech

Perceived Convenience, Compatibility, and Media Richness Contribute Significantly to Dedicated E-book Reader Acceptance

Objective – Investigates the effects of perceived convenience, compatibility and media richness on users’ attitudes toward dedicated e-book readers.&#x0D; &#x0D; Design – Convenience sample survey.&#x0D; &#x0D; Setting – Taiwanese university.&#x0D; &#x0D; Subjects – A total of 288 students at the senior secondary (5%), four-year university (78%), and graduate student (17%) levels. Male-female participation was approximately equal.&#x0D; &#x0D; Methods – Students completed a 23-item survey on dedicated e-book readers, with &#x0D; questions on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, intention to use, convenience, compatibility, and media richness. Data was analyzed using the partial least squares statistical technique.&#x0D; &#x0D; Main Results – Users state an increased intention to use dedicated e-book readers if they perceive the technology to be compatible with what they desire in a “book,” if the device delivers rich media content, and if the device is convenient. Compatibility was found to significantly affect perceived ease of use, and was found to be the strongest influence on intent to use a dedicated e-book reader. Compatibility, media richness and convenience also increased the perceived usefulness of dedicated e-book readers.&#x0D; &#x0D; Conclusion – Users will prefer dedicated e-book readers that are compatible with their preferences in a “book,” that deliver media-rich content, and that they find convenient. The study has implications for the design and development of e-book reading devices.

Electronic books: To “E” or not to “E”? A strategic analysis of distribution channel choices of publishers

The advent of electronic books (e-books) has significantly impacted the publishing industry in recent years. The prevalence of e-books has prompted many publishers to reconsider their distribution channels for new titles. They need to decide whether to sell the e-book version of new titles. We derive the conditions under which a publisher should sell only printed books (p-books), only e-books, and both of them simultaneously. We analyze the impact of reader acceptance of e-book and the wholesale price of the counterpart p-book on the distribution channel choice of the publisher under stochastic demand. We find that only if wholesale price of p-book is high and reader acceptance of e-book is low should the publisher sell only p-books; otherwise, he should sell e-books, even when reader acceptance of e-book is low, i.e., in most cases the publisher should sell e-books (perhaps selling p-books simultaneously). In general, the higher the reader acceptance of e-book is, the more the publisher tends to sell the e-book to readers directly. However, our analysis also shows that even when reader acceptance of e-book is very high, the publisher does not necessarily sell only e-books. The wholesale price reflects the publisher's power of negotiation over bookstores. The higher the publisher's power of negotiation over bookstores is, the more he is inclined to sell p-books; and when reader acceptance of e-book is relatively high, the lower the publisher's power of negotiation is, the more he tends to sell only e-books.

Why a Journal of Hand Surgery? II

Why a Journal of Hand Surgery? II

The Somewhat Exaggerated Death of Primitive Art

The Somewhat Exaggerated Death of Primitive Art Denis Dutton The status and treatment of so-called primitive art is an important topic, and caused me to pick up Shelly Errington’s The Death of Authentic Primitive Art and Other Tales of Progress (University of California Press, $48.00 cloth, $19.95 paper) with some excitement. There are elements to admire in the book, not the least of which is a clear and unpretentious writing style. This probably owes little to her copy editor who, as she explains in the preface, tried to get her to change the phrase “Freud’s construction of the primitive” to “Freud’s construction of indigenous people.” Errington says that although she, like her copy editor, does not want to offend, she does not want to be anachronistic either. We can applaud that intention, but I fear anachronism remains one of the incidental faults of a book which fails more seriously to mount anything resembling an argument, replete though it is with feelings and opinions. It doesn’t adduce evidence for its central sentiments so much as assemble reminders of what Correct Thinking People agree about the generally deplorable attitude of Western Civilization toward primitive art: the book frequently employs ironizing capitals, especially for such apparently delusional entities as “Reason” and “Objectivity.” Conditions for reader acceptance are set out conveniently at the beginning. An introductory page informs us that the book begins from the “Foucault-friendly premise” that primitive art is not a “timeless category existing in the abstract world of ideas and essences” but rather “a constructed category that appeared at a certain moment.” This category has remained unstable ever since it was “invented,” depending on “the [End Page 243] semantic field in which the term exists” and the objects to which it refers. So Errington naturally treats with predictable quotation marks the “discovery” of primitive art by Picasso and Co. around the turn of the century. This art, she explains, “reached the peak of its rise to fame” in 1982 with the opening of the Rockefeller Wing of Primitive Art at the Metropolitan Museum. There was also an Amazonian art show at Macy’s that winter which Errington “rushed to see,” camera in hand, presumably to record a more commercial manifestation of primitive-art construction. Since these glory days, however, primitive art has fallen on hard times. First it suffered the condemnation occasioned by the “‘Primitivism’ in 20th Century Art” exhibition in 1984. This show “marked the fact that authentic primitive art had died, or at least had become moribund.” Moreover, in the aftermath of the “Primitivism” exhibition, the concept of “authentic primitive art” had been attacked “head-on by a pack of cultural critics, leaving it bloody and for dead. (Well, at least deconstructed.)” Why, the increasingly confused reader might ask, was authentic primitive art dead—or moribund? Or was it bloodied and left for dead? Or was it “deconstructed”? Just disputing an idea doesn’t murder it. Before we can get an answer, Errington jumps to a second sense in which authentic primitive art had died: authentic primitive artifacts “were disappearing at an alarming rate.” In 1984? Complaints by collectors and dealers that artifacts were disappearing in New Guinea were heard as far back as the late nineteenth century and were encountered even earlier in New Zealand. To report such alarm in the early 1980s is peculiar indeed. And who exactly was “alarmed”? Here is Errington’s elaboration: This second type of “death” of primitive art—the limiting of its supply— does not kill the concept of primitive art, of course. Quite the contrary. The concept of authentic primitive art is alive and well among collectors, primitive art galleries, and the art market generally. But the supply is more limited than ever, just at the point when the art has achieved mass appeal. As a consequence, a new generation of artifacts claiming to be “art” or art-like, “authentic” and “ethnic” if not “primitive,” in various permutations of the terms, has rushed in to expand its market share. But wait: now we are told that the putative death of primitive art did not affect the concept of authentic primitive art, because dealers...

Reader Identification and Alienation in the Legal Rhetoric of the Pentateuch

AbstractThree voices dominate Pentateuchal discourse in turn: the omniscient narrator relates the stories of Genesis and Exodus, YHWH delivers the laws of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and Moses combines narrative and law in the rhetoric of Deuteronomy. These three dominant voices of the Pentateuch are interdependent and almost interchangeable: the anonymous narrator, like Moses the scribe, requires both divine inspiration and reader acceptance for authorization of the story; the divine lawgiver requires reader acceptance of human mediation of the commandments; the prophetic scribe depends on authority delegated by both God and readers to interpret the stories, the laws, and the sanctions. The Pentateuch leaves the unification of speaking voices incomplete, however, and as a result divides the audience in two. God and Moses (or, at least, God through Moses) address the people in the wilderness and also the readers who overhear their speeches. Their audience comprises Israel throughout time, from Sinai to the present, as Deuteronomy makes explicitly clear. The narrator, by contrast, addresses only the readers through a discourse lying outside the story being narrated. Thus the Pentateuch's use of a third-person omniscient and impersonal narrator resists the unifying rhetoric of the divine and human speeches which it contains. By providing knowledge unavailable to the Israelites in the story, the narrator persuades readers to both identify with and to alienate themselves from aspects of wilderness Israel.

Talking to the Academy

Hedging refers to linguistic strategies that qualify categorical commitment to express possibility rather than certainty. In scientific writing, hedging is central to effective argument: Hedging is a rhetorical means of gaining reader acceptance of claims, allowing writers to convey their attitude to the truth of their statements and to anticipate possible objections. Because hedges allow writers to express claims with precision, caution, and modesty, they are a significant resource for academics. However, little is known about the way hedging is typically expressed in particular domains or the particular functions it serves in different genres. This article identifies the major forms, functions, and distribution of hedges in a corpus of 26 molecular biology research articles and describes the importance of hedging in this genre.