Set Of Tools Research Articles

Improved flood quantile estimation for South Africa

The performance of the most frequently used flood frequency probability distributions in South Africa (Log-Normal, Log Pearson3 and Generalised Extreme Value) were reviewed and all tend to perform poorly when lower exceedance probability frequency events are estimated, especially where outliers are present in the dataset. This can be attributed to the challenge when analysing very limited ‘samples’ of annual flood peak populations, which are an unknown. At present outliers are inadequately 'managed' by attempting to 'normalise' the flood peak dataset, which conceals the significance of the observed data. Thus, to adequately consider the outliers, this study was undertaken with the aim to improve the current statistical approach by developing a more stable and consistent methodology to estimate flood quantiles. The approach followed in the development of the new methodology, called IPZA, might be considered as unconventional, given that a multiple regression approach was used to accommodate the strongly skewed data, which are often associated with annual flood peak series. The main advantages of IPZA are consistency, the simplicity of application (only one set of frequency factors for every parameter, regardless of the skewness), the integrated handling of outliers and the use of conventional method of moments, thereby eliminating the need to adjust any moments. The performance of IPZA exceeded initial expectations. The results are more consistent and, by taking outliers into account, appear to be more sensible than existing probability distributions. It is recommended that IPZA should be used as a valuable addition to the existing set of decision-making tools for hydrologists/engineers performing flood frequency analyses.

The LINUX Operating System: An Introduction

Linux is a Unix-like operating system for Intel 386/486/ Pentium based IBM-PCs and compatibles. The kernel of this operating system was written from scratch by Linus Torvalds and, although copyright by the author, may be freely distributed. A world-wide group of enthusiastic volunteers has collaborated in developing many aspects of Linux on the Internet. Linux can run the powerful set of compilers and programming tools (the 'GNU' corpus) of the Free Software Foundation, and XFree86, a port of the X Window System from MIT. Most capabilities associated with high performance workstations, such as networking, shared file systems, electronic mail, TEX, I*TE.X, etc. are freely available for Linux. It can thus transform cheap IBM-PC compatible machines into Unix workstations with considerable capabilities. The author explains how Linux may be obtained, installed and networked. He also describes some interesting applications for Linux that are freely available. One useful feature of Linux is its ability to coexist with other operating systems. Thus a user who has made an investment in DOS/ MS Windows software, may continue running these applications on his machine and install Linux on a separate partition on his existing hard disk. If needed, files from DOS/ MS Windows partitions can be accessed by Linux. The enormous consumer market for IBM-PC compatible machines continually drives down prices of CPU chips, memory, hard disks, CDROMs etc. Linux can convert such machines into powerful workstations that can be used for teaching, research and software development. For professionals who use Unix based workstations at work, Linux permits virtually identical working environments on their personal home machines. For cost conscious educational institutions (especially in developing nations), Linux can create world-class computing environments from cheap, easily maintained, PC clones. Finally, for university students, especially in science and engineering, Linux provides an essentially cost-free path away from DOS into the world of Unix and X Windows

Asynchronous and Slow-Wave Oscillatory States in Connectome-Based Models of Mouse, Monkey and Human Cerebral Cortex

Thanks to the availability of connectome data that map connectivity between multiple brain areas, it is now possible to build models of whole-brain activity. At the same time, advances in mean-field techniques have led to biologically based population models that integrate biophysical features such as membrane conductances or synaptic conductances. In this paper, we show that this approach can be used in brain-wide models of mice, macaques, and humans.We illustrate this approach by showing the transition from wakefulness to sleep, simulated using multi-scale models, in the three species. We compare the level of synchrony between the three species and find that the mouse brain displays a higher overall synchrony of slow waves compared to monkey and human brains. We show that these differences are due to the different delays in axonal signal propagation between regions associated with brain size differences between the species. We also make the program code—which provides a set of open-source tools for simulating large-scale activity in the cerebral cortex of mice, monkeys, and humans—publicly available.

Exploring pathways to optimise care in malignant bowel obstruction (EPOC): Protocol for a three-phase critical realist approach to theory-led intervention development for shared decision-making.

Malignant bowel obstruction is a distressing complication of cancer, causing pain, nausea and vomiting, and often has a poor prognosis. Severe and rapidly developing symptoms, a lack of robust clinical guidelines and the need for multidisciplinary input make treatment decision-making challenging. Sharing decision-making with people with malignant bowel obstruction and their caregivers can be difficult, and inconsistent communication creates serious deficiencies in care by amplifying patients' distress and uncertainty. Little attention has been paid to the implicit influences on this process-for example, the role of discipline-related norms and the beliefs of decision-makers. This study will explore how these processes work and develop interventions to improve shared decision-making. Exploring Pathways to Optimise Care (EPOC) is a three-phase study set within a critical realist framework: (i) realist review, to develop explanatory theory describing collaborative decision-making in the management of malignant bowel obstruction; (ii) an in-depth interview study using modified grounded theory to explore the active ingredients of this collaboration in practice settings; and (iii) the presentation to stakeholders (practitioners, patients and caregivers) of integrated results from Phase I (theory developed from the literature) and Phase II (theory developed from current practice) as a basis for intervention mapping. We aim to produce recommendations to address the challenges, and to develop a set of tools to (i) aid interaction around shared decision-making and (ii) aid interprofessional interaction around the management of this condition. Registration details: The realist review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022308251).

The Promise and Perils of Artificial Intelligence in Health Professions Education Practice and Scholarship.

Artificial intelligence (AI) methods, especially machine learning and natural language processing, are increasingly affecting health professions education (HPE), including the medical school application and selection processes, assessment, and scholarship production. The rise of large language models over the past 18 months, such as ChatGPT, has raised questions about how best to incorporate these methods into HPE. The lack of training in AI among most HPE faculty and scholars poses an important challenge in facilitating such discussions. In this commentary, the authors provide a primer on the AI methods most often used in the practice and scholarship of HPE, discuss the most pressing challenges and opportunities these tools afford, and underscore that these methods should be understood as part of the larger set of statistical tools available.Despite their ability to process huge amounts of data and their high performance completing some tasks, AI methods are only as good as the data on which they are trained. Of particular importance is that these models can perpetuate the biases that are present in those training datasets, and they can be applied in a biased manner by human users. A minimum set of expectations for the application of AI methods in HPE practice and scholarship is discussed in this commentary, including the interpretability of the models developed and the transparency needed into the use and characteristics of such methods.The rise of AI methods is affecting multiple aspects of HPE including raising questions about how best to incorporate these models into HPE practice and scholarship. In this commentary, we provide a primer on the AI methods most often used in HPE and discuss the most pressing challenges and opportunities these tools afford.

THE USE OF A DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INCLUSIVE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

The article reviews with the issues of digitalization of inclusive educational environment, improvement of inclusive educational practices, development of digital platforms for children with special educational needs. To article aim: to analyze the current state, existing global practices, foreign and Kazakhstani digital resources and concluded that digital platforms are convenient to use, provide inexpensive access to technologies, and have a set of tools for inclusive online education and others. The experience of different countries can be used to create a custom flexible model, but it is necessary to develop its own digital platform for teachers and support specialists, students and the parent community. The article presents various approaches to the development of E-inclusion and specific objectives for its implementation are identified. The digital platform being developed opens up wide opportunities for the development of inclusive education in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Keywords: inclusive educational environment; digital platform; online learning; inclusive educational practices; children with special educational needs.

Predicting microbial interactions with approaches based on flux balance analysis: an evaluation

BackgroundGiven a genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) of a microorganism and criteria for optimization, flux balance analysis (FBA) predicts the optimal growth rate and its corresponding flux distribution for a specific medium. FBA has been extended to microbial consortia and thus can be used to predict interactions by comparing in-silico growth rates for co- and monocultures. Although FBA-based methods for microbial interaction prediction are becoming popular, a systematic evaluation of their accuracy has not yet been performed.ResultsHere, we evaluate the accuracy of FBA-based predictions of human and mouse gut bacterial interactions using growth data from the literature. For this, we collected 26 GEMs from the semi-curated AGORA database as well as four previously published curated GEMs. We tested the accuracy of three tools (COMETS, Microbiome Modeling Toolbox and MICOM) by comparing growth rates predicted in mono- and co-culture to growth rates extracted from the literature and also investigated the impact of different tool settings and media. We found that except for curated GEMs, predicted growth rates and their ratios (i.e. interaction strengths) do not correlate with growth rates and interaction strengths obtained from in vitro data.ConclusionsPrediction of growth rates with FBA using semi-curated GEMs is currently not sufficiently accurate to predict interaction strengths reliably.

Internet of Underwater Things: A Survey on Simulation Tools and 5G-Based Underwater Networks

The term “Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT)” refers to a network of intelligent interconnected underwater devices designed to monitor various underwater activities. The IoUT allows for a network of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to communicate with each other, sense their surroundings, collect data, and transmit them to control centers on the surface at typical Internet speeds. These data serve as a valuable resource for various tasks, including conducting crash surveys, discovering shipwrecks, detecting early signs of tsunamis, monitoring animal health, obtaining real-time aquatic information, and conducting archaeological expeditions. This paper introduces an additional set of alternative simulation tools for underwater networks. We categorize these tools into open-source and licensed simulator options and recommend that students consider using open-source simulators for monitoring underwater networks. There has not been widespread deployment or extensive research on underwater 5G-based networks. However, simulation tools provide some general insights into the challenges and potential issues associated with evaluating such networks, based on the characteristics of underwater communication and 5G, by surveying 5G-based underwater networks and 5G key aspects addressed by the research community in underwater network systems. Through an extensive review of the literature, we discuss the architecture of both Internet of Underwater application-assisted AUVs and Internet of Underwater Things communications in the 5G-based system.

General studies, information and communication technology and contemporary mission in Africa

This study examines the relationship between general studies, information and communication technology (ICT), and contemporary evangelism in Nigeria. Information and communication technology (is defined as a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information. These technological tools and resources include computers, the Internet (websites, blogs and emails), live broadcasting technologies (radio, television and webcasting), recorded broadcasting technologies (podcasting, audio and video players, and storage devices) and telephony (fixed or mobile, satellite, visio/video conferencing, etc.). Contemporary evangelism and mission in Africa is a radical approach embarked upon by agents of modern religious thoughts and practices to expand the horizons of the mission of religion to mankind in the present dispensation through general studies (GS) and ICT programmes. Through the medium of ICT, Christian evangelism has received a boost in television, radio broadcasts, computers, and the Internet across cities and nations. This work is an attempt to examine the methods adopted by early missionaries in evangelising Africa vis-à-vis the modern techniques of GS and ICT, the challenges of mission, the concept of ICT and its various forms such as phones, television, radio, computers, and the Internet, and their relevance to mission. This work therefore adopted historical, missiological, and phenomenological approaches in the analysis of data.Contribution: This work discovers that radical development in communication across the globe has influenced and affected Christian methods and practices of carrying out ‘the mission of religion’ and its evangelical perspective, among others.

PelaSIG, a QGIS plugin for marine megafauna census: application to the aerial ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative dataset

The distribution of wild animals and their monitoring over large areas raises many logistical and technical difficulties that hinder the collection of observation data. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has increased significantly in recent years. QGIS, an open-source GIS software dedicated to the processing of geospatial data, enables the development of dedicated plugins for specific workflows. The open-source PelaSIG plugin has been developed in Python for QGIS 3 to facilitate and standardise the different steps before and after distance sampling surveys. It brings together a set of tools for survey preparation, automatic data checking, visualisation and presentation of survey effort and sightings to provide an adapted workflow. This plugin is currently designed to process dedicated aerial datasets collected with the SAMMOA software during marine megafauna surveys (i.e., marine mammals, seabirds, elasmobranchs, sea turtles, etc.). Here, we first describe the different tools already available, and then, we present an application with the dataset from the aerial survey of the ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative (ASI) conducted in 2018 over the Mediterranean Sea and using a multi-target protocol.

Insights into the genome of the ‘Loco’ Concholepas concholepas (Gastropoda: Muricidae) from low-coverage short-read sequencing: genome size, ploidy, transposable elements, nuclear RNA gene operon, mitochondrial genome, and phylogenetic placement in the family Muricidae

BackgroundThe Peruvian ‘chanque’ or Chilean ‘loco’ Concholepas concholepas is an economically, ecologically, and culturally important muricid gastropod heavily exploited by artisanal fisheries in the temperate southeastern Pacific Ocean. In this study, we have profited from a set of bioinformatics tools to recover important biological information of C. concholepas from low-coverage short-read NGS datasets. Specifically, we calculated the size of the nuclear genome, ploidy, and estimated transposable elements content using an in silico k-mer approach, we discovered, annotated, and quantified those transposable elements, we assembled and annotated the 45S rDNA RNA operon and mitochondrial genome, and we confirmed the phylogenetic position of C. concholepas within the muricid subfamily Rapaninae based on translated protein coding genes.ResultsUsing a k-mer approach, the haploid genome size estimated for the predicted diploid genome of C. concholepas varied between 1.83 Gbp (with kmer = 24) and 2.32 Gbp (with kmer = 36). Between half and two thirds of the nuclear genome of C. concholepas was composed of transposable elements. The most common transposable elements were classified as Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements and Short Interspersed Nuclear Elements, which were more abundant than DNA transposons, simple repeats, and Long Terminal Repeats. Less abundant repeat elements included Helitron mobile elements, 45S rRNA DNA, and Satellite DNA, among a few others.The 45S rRNA DNA operon of C. concholepas that encodes for the ssrRNA, 5.8S rRNA, and lsrRNA genes was assembled into a single contig 8,090 bp long. The assembled mitochondrial genome of C. concholepas is 15,449 bp long and encodes 13 protein coding genes, two ribosomal genes, and 22 transfer RNAs.ConclusionThe information gained by this study will inform the assembly of a high quality nuclear genome for C. concholepas and will support bioprospecting and biomonitoring using environmental DNA to advance development of conservation and management plans in this overexploited marine snail.

PyMoosh: a comprehensive numerical toolkit for computing the optical properties of multilayered structures

We present PyMoosh, a Python-based simulation library designed to provide a comprehensive set of numerical tools allowing the computation of essentially all optical characteristics of multilayered structures, ranging from reflectance and transmittance to guided modes and photovoltaic efficiency. PyMoosh is designed not just for research purposes, but also for use cases in education. To this end, we have invested significant effort in ensuring the user-friendliness and simplicity of the interface. PyMoosh has been developed in line with the principles of open science and considering the fact that multilayered structures are increasingly being used as a testing ground for optimization and deep learning approaches. We provide in this paper the theoretical basis at the core of PyMoosh, an overview of its capabilities, as well as a comparison between the different numerical methods implemented in terms of speed and stability. We are convinced such a versatile tool will be useful for the community in many ways.

Ubiquitination, SUMOylation, and NEDDylation related genes serve as prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers for oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Ubiquitination, small ubiquitin-related modifiers, and NEDDylation are now found to function in cancer biology; however, its role in the oral cancer patients remains unclear. A set of bioinformatic tools was integrated to analyze the expression and prognostic significance of ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like (UB/UBL) genes. A UB/UBL-related risk score was developed via correlation analyses, univariate Cox regression, and multivariate Cox regression. Nomogram analysis evaluates the model's prediction performance. The drug sensitivity analysis, immune profiles of UB/UBL-classified oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients, and their related function pathway were investigated, and the role of UB/UBL-related genes in drug therapy was analyzed. A total of six prognostic UB/UBL-related genes were obtained. PSMD3, PCGF2, and H2BC10 were significantly downregulated in OSCC tissue and associated with longer survival time. OSCC patients in the high-risk group showed a significantly lower overall survival and enriched in cancer-related pathways. The prognostic potential of genes associated with UB/UBL was discovered, and patients with high-risk scores showed an increase of protumor immune infiltrates and a high expression of immune checkpoints. Moreover, the area under the curve of the annual survival rate was 0.616, 0.671, and 0.673, respectively. Besides, patients in the high-risk group are more sensitive to docetaxel, doxorubicin, and methotrexate therapy. We construct a prognosis model for OSCC patients with UB/UBL-related genes and try to find a new approach to treating oral cancer patients. The UB/UBL-related signature is helpful in developing new tumor markers, prognostic prediction, and in guiding treatment for OSCC patients.

Biomechanics in anthropology.

Biomechanics is the set of tools that explain organismal movement and mechanical behavior and links the organism to the physicality of the world. As such, biomechanics can relate behaviors and culture to the physicality of the organism. Scale is critical to biomechanical analyses, as the constitutive equations that matter differ depending on the scale of the question. Within anthropology, biomechanics has had a wide range of applications, from understanding how we and other primates evolved to understanding the effects of technologies, such as the atlatl, and the relationship between identity, society, culture, and medical interventions, such as prosthetics. Like any other model, there is great utility in biomechanical models, but models should be used primarily for hypothesis testing and not data generation except in the rare case where models can be robustly validated. The application of biomechanics within anthropology has been extensive, and holds great potential for the future.

Clarifying “personal data” and the role of anonymisation in data protection law: Including and excluding data from the scope of the GDPR (more clearly) through refining the concept of data protection

In a data-driven society, the collection and processing of data is essential to the operation of existing technologies and the development of new ones. Data protection law protects individuals against risks associated with the processing of “personal data”. However, despite an intensive legal debate, there is still considerable uncertainty as to when data is personal data and when it is not. The reason for this is that data such as technical data or geo-location data usually is not “personal” per se but only when it is used for a specific purpose and in a specific way, or to be more precise, when the data processing causes a specific risk to a fundamental right of an individual. In our paper, we demonstrate that by focusing on these risks when assessing the scope of application, the question whether data falls into the scope of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or not becomes much clearer. The about, purpose, and result elements, introduced by the Art. 29 Working Party, thereby turn out to be a powerful set of analytical tools to determine which rights are specifically affected by data processing and, thus, to what extent a data subject is identified or identifiable in the processing context. While the about element addresses different risks to the right to privacy, the purpose element specifically reveals risks to the autonomy status of an individual. Finally, the result element focuses on the negative effect data processing can have on any other fundamental rights of the individual. On this basis, it is also possible to define more precisely the legal requirements for anonymising personal data. First of all, we illustrate that anonymisation mainly affects the about element and can do little “against” the purpose and result element. At least, however, by assessing which sphere of privacy is specifically concerned, it is possible to more precisely define when an individual is identified in a dataset and, thus, what the requirements for anonymization are.

Eğitim Politikaları Konseptinde Kurumsal Değişim Yönetimi

The phenomenon of change is largely accepted as inevitable by today's institutions. Due to the constantly changing conditions of today's social, cultural and economic environment and the high level of competition, institutions that are considered as open systems are forced to create sustainable competitive advantages in order to realize their future goals. Undoubtedly, education is one of the most important pillars of this change. In the concept of education policies, the implementation phase of policies is evaluated as the most important and critical process in the literature. He defines the policy implementation process as the stage of converting policy objectives into action in general. Many of the researchers in public policy have focused their attention on the stage when policies turn into action and have tried to understand the deviations that occur during the implementation of policy goals. Education policies are Decriminalized by going through a certain process, and there is a possibility that there will be a gap between the goals stipulated by the laws and the outputs resulting from the implementation. Because there are many factors that affect efficiency and effectiveness during the implementation phase of policies. No matter how predictable the policy implementation is, it is always open to surprises. These give shape to policy outcomes and are sometimes very important. One way to use such surprises to improve policy outcomes is to design them at policy stages. If unpredictable problems arise at these stages and then a re-evaluation of the implementation plans is made, the policy decision probably occurs on its own. Of course, a theoretical phase should be established before the implementation of educational policies. No matter how well-intentioned the policy process in education is at the adoption stage, or whether the policy is well formulated, or no matter how much universal support it finds, public policy cannot begin to change the behavior of the target population or solve a specific public problem until someone or some institution implements the policy. Ideally, every policy involves the design of how to solve a public problem. This design will identify the changing details, the objectives of the policy, a number of instruments to be used, the institutions responsible for implementation, possible timelines and the target population. The point of policy design is to match the right set of tools with the identified problem and ultimately solve this problem. Key Words: Education Policy, Educational Concept, Corporate Change Management

Investigating the Functional Mock-up Interface as a Coupling Framework for the multi-fidelity analysis of nuclear reactors

This paper investigates the use of the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) for code coupling in nuclear engineering. The FMI is a standard that defines a container and an interface to exchange dynamic simulation models. It has been developed and refined by several actors over the past two decades. This coupling standard allows seamless integrations of independent objects called Functional Mock-up Units (FMU). Since communication among FMUs is standardized, encapsulating a simulation tool and model within an FMU allows this tool and model to be coupled with any other FMU. This approach is opposed to creating dedicated code-to-code coupling interfaces and enables a more sustainable approach to code coupling in nuclear engineering. The paper showcases the utilization of the FMI standard for the simulation of an operational load-follow scenario in a Lead-cooled Fast Reactor. The primary circuit and balance of the plant are modeled using higher and lower-fidelity codes, respectively, with a third tool employed to model a simplified control system. The paper investigates the pros and cons of the proposed approach by exercising it throughout the following workflow: incorporation of the FMI standard into an existing code; setting up of models using different codes; coupling of these codes based on different architectures; simulation and post-processing of results. As an outcome, implementing an FMI interface presents itself as a judicious long-term investment for simulation software. However, users and developers should be aware of the limited FMI capabilities for the coupling of partial differential equations. In addition, a coupling standard by itself cannot address some difficulties, such as simulation restart, that are associated with the handling of a heterogeneous set of tools.

An Emergency Management Building Resilience Using IBM SPSS Statistics

Emergency Management, Introduction: You will learn about emergency management throughout this four-week course, which will help you better plan for, handle, and recover from crises.You will be given examples of risk and disaster response throughout the course to assist you acquire familiar with the underlying ideas. Moreover, Massey University-affiliated emergency management professionals with an international reputation will teach you. Several of the specialists you may encounter have experience with crises like the 2011 Canterbury earthquake. Research significance: Despite its name, emergency management does not actually concentrate on managing crises, which are generally thought of as minor incidents with minimal effects that are handled through routine community activities. The management of catastrophes, that are events that have more effects than what a society can manage on its own, is the primary focus of emergency management. It is common for disaster management to involve efforts from a variety of groups, including households, organizations, local governments, and/or higher governments. Although there are numerous terminology used in the emergency management field, the operations can generally be divided into preparation, response, mitigation, and recovery. Other phrases like risk reduction for disasters and prevention are also. Methodology: The brand name for the most recent versions is IBM SPSS statistics. The "statistical package for the social sciences" (SPSS), a set of software tools for changing, analyzing, and displaying data, is commonly used. Multiple formats are available for SPSS. Evaluation parameters: Hazard Analysis, Capability Assessment, Emergency Planning, Emergency Response, Capability Management, Recovery Efforts Results: The Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability result. The overall Cronbach’s Alpha value for the model is .529 which indicates 52% reliability. From the literature review, the above 50% Cronbach’s Alpha value model can be considered for analysis. Conclusion: the outcome of Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability. The model’s total Cronbach’s Alpha score is.529, which denotes a 52% dependability level. The 50% Cronbach’s Alpha value model mentioned above from the literature review may be used for analysis.

Applying Human-Centred Design Tools in Social Work Research: A Desire-Centred Approach

ABSTRACT This article describes an exploration of the application of human-centred design (HCD) tools in social work research. Drawing on Tuck’s [2009. Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409–428] definition of “desire-centered” research (DCR), we describe the development of a set of HCD research tools based on DCR principles in a community support setting, focused on participants with experience of marginalisation and vulnerability. We present the design tools including “Show and Tell”, a “Card Sort”, a mapping tool called “The Circle of Support”, Aspiration Trees and a Generative Toolkit activity using craft materials, and demonstrate how the application of these design tools enabled participant-led recommendations regarding their support experiences and needs to be foregrounded in research. We conclude that desire-centred research and human-centred design tools may provide beneficial methodological pathways to account for the complexity of human experience of individuals experiencing marginalisation and vulnerability. IMPLICATIONS Human-centred design tools enable research participants to have greater agency over how they are represented in research. A desire-centred research method could be of benefit to individuals, families, and communities who experience structural oppression through their marginalised or at-risk status.

Eye tracking-based evaluation of accessible and usable interactive systems: tool set of guidelines and methodological issues

AbstractThis paper describes some fundamentals and challenges in using eye tracking for the assessment of usability and accessibility in the fields in Human–Computer Interaction and Educational Computing. This technique has great potential since it allows considering human factors and individual differences in these areas. This non-invasive method, of physiological nature, allows to know, in an objective way, the visual behavior of the users when facing a user interface or educational material, allowing to infer conclusions related to psychological processes, such as attention or cognitive load. The purpose of this work is to propose a tool set of guidelines and measures, as well as a methodological approach, to be used in eye tracking assessments. This proposal is based on and validated by the authors’ previous experience and results in the application of this technique.