Use Of Visual Technologies Research Articles

Критерії та показники компонентів готовності майбутніх учителів природничо-математичних дисциплін до використання технологій візуалізації у освітньому процесі

The article highlights the components of the future teacher of natural and mathematical subjects' readiness for the use of visualization technologies in the educational process of the secondary school (motivational-value, cognitive, operational-activity, practical-activity, reflexive-evaluation). According to the components outlined, criteria are set and indicators through which the relevant criteria are reflected. Indicators of motivational value criterion include the desire to: realize the importance of using visualization technologies in the educational process; overcoming difficulties and volitional efforts in the process of introducing visualization technologies in the educational process; interest in acquiring knowledge, skills and skills in mastering new tools of visualization technologies and mastering new forms of learning using these technologies; display of creativity in solving professional problems. The cognitive criterion is represented by indicators of knowledge: psychological and age characteristics of pupils' perception of visual materials; didactic potential of imaging technologies; methods and rules of structuring, compaction and principles of distribution of educational material; the basics of design (rules and techniques of composition and color); classification of online visualization tools for use in the learning process; the system of requirements that the visualization used in the educational process must meet. The indicators of the operational-instrumental criterion include the following skills: effective presentation of educational material by creating cognitive visual anchors and visual metaphors; store received and processed visual information in an appropriate form; to transmit information for collective use in a clear visual way and in different visual formats; create your own visuals; apply a system of requirements for the creation of visual content; possess a wide range of tools. The practical-activity criterion is represented by the ability to: use visualization technologies in the process of lesson design, to adapt the ready didactic visual aids to the content and purpose of the lesson, the contingent of students; create objective tasks on ready-made visual materials, etc .; to justify the pedagogical expediency of using visualization technologies in the lesson; organize educational, research, reflexive and other activities of students with their use; to provide students with assistance appropriate to their needs. The last criterion is a reflexive evaluation, which requires a critical assessment of: the feasibility of forms and methods of teaching based on visualization technologies for their use in the educational process; the quality of their own preparation for the use of visualization technologies in the educational process and identifying ways to improve this training; monitoring of new methods and tools for creating visual materials; systematic correction of their own preparation for the use of visualization technologies in subject learning.

Model of Future Teachers of the Sciences Training to Use Visualization Technologies at Practice

The necessity of organizing the preparation of pre-service teacher of natural-mathematical disciplines for the use and creation of high-quality didactic visual aids in future professional activities is substantiated. This article proposes a structurally-functional model of pre-service teacher for the use of visualization technologies in the educational process, which is justified from the standpoint of systemic, synergetic, activity, acmeological, axiological, contextual and technological approaches. The developed model contains target, substantive-procedural, and resultative-evaluative blocks. The target block covers the goals, objectives and components of the pre-service teacher’s readiness to use visualization technologies in professional activities. The content-procedural block reveals conceptual provisions (normative documents, methodological approaches, training principles), preparation stages (basic, productive and corrective), relevant educational disciplines and modules, as well as the necessary educational and methodological support, methods and forms for organizing the learning process for the pre-service teachers. The productive and evaluation unit contains the criteria, levels and the result of the preparation of pre-service teachers of natural-mathematical disciplines for the use of visualization technologies in the educational process. Each of the proposed stages has a specific goal and objectives that can be adjusted in the process of testing this model. The article describes the characteristics of educational and methodological support necessary for the implementation of the specified training.

ANALYSIS OF THE STATE OF PREPARATION OF FUTURE TEACHERS OF NATURAL AND MATHEMATICAL DISCIPLINES TO APPLY VISUALIZATION IN THE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

The main idea behind the Concept of Contemporary Ukrainian Education is to ensure its quality in accordance with the demands of consumers of educational services, the requirements of the state, international standards and society. One of the leading tendencies in the development of today's professional education is to increase the attention to the issues of training of a qualitatively new level, which are capable of professional self-realization, self-development, creative search, and ability to use new pedagogical technologies in future activity. The starting point in the proper preparation of the future teacher is to ensure their own readiness for the didactically conditioned and pedagogically effective use of information and communication technologies in professional pedagogical activity. Today, the leading educational trend is to integrate visualization technologies into educational practice. Accordingly, the purpose of the article is to analyze the state of preparation of future teachers of the disciplines of the natural and mathematical cycle for the introduction of imaging technologies in their own professional activity. According to the purpose, the tasks, which consist in the analysis of curricula, other providing and corresponding documentation on the outlined direction of preparation for preparation of future teachers of natural and mathematical direction in higher pedagogical educational establishments in the course of preparation of the course, are being singled out. , as well as an analysis of the syllabuses of the disciplines that exist in this area, to ensure that students are prepared to create copyright and adaptations of existing digital visual didactic tools. The article used general scientific methods of research, such as, analysis of scientific, pedagogical and psychological works, information sources on the problem of research, systematization of the views and achievements of scientists, synthesis and generalization of theoretical positions. Higher education institutions have been reviewed for such training for future educators. The research conducted by the authors gave grounds to consider it necessary to make certain changes to the process of preparing future teachers of natural and mathematical disciplines for the use of visualization technologies in their professional activity.

COMPONENTS OF READINESS OF PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS TO VISUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES IMPLEMENTATION INTO THE SUBJECT AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

The use of visualization technologies in the process of learning of natural science and mathematical disciplines is a recognized necessity due to a number of objective factors such as the specifics of the objects being studied, the growth of the amount of educational content, changes in the cognitive sphere of the younger generation etc. The article reveals the essence of readiness of pre-service Science and Mathematics teachers to implement visualization technologies in educational practice. The five-component structure of the said readiness is offered, the components are specified, and their interconnection and interdependence is explained. The future teachers’ professional interest in mastering visualization technologies is characterized by the motivational-value component, their awareness of the value of using visual didactic tools and the desire to acquire the skills to create and apply them to their own educational practice; the cognitive component reflects the formed system of knowledge on the pedagogical, psychological, methodological principles of the use of visualization technologies in the educational process; the operational-instrumental component displays the level of practical skills for creating visual content, the ability to rationally select and effectively apply modern high-tech tools to create visual content; the pedagogically expedient use of visual materials in the educational process is characterised by practical activity component, selecting the efficient visualization tools or creating your own, evaluating their effectiveness, adapting them to the specific conditions of the educational process, to solving the set pedagogical tasks; the reflexive-evaluative component reflects the ability to analyze and evaluate their own professional activities in the use of visualization technologies in the educational process, to determine ways and methods of self-improvement in the pedagogical, methodological, technological aspects. The assignment and specification of the structural components of readiness are the basis for substantiation and development of the practical model for the readiness of pre-service science and mathematics teachers to implement visualization technologies in subject and professional activity.

Ethical challenges experienced by public health nurses related to adolescents' use of visual technologies.

Visual technologies are central to youth culture and are often the preferred communication means of adolescents. Although these tools can be beneficial in fostering relations, adolescents' use of visual technologies and social media also raises ethical concerns. We explored how school public health nurses identify and resolve the ethical challenges involved in the use of visual technologies in health dialogues with adolescents. This is a qualitative study utilizing data from focus group discussions. We conducted focus group discussions using two semi-structured discussion guides with seven groups of public health nurses (n = 40) working in Norwegian school health services. The data were collected during January and October 2016. Discussions were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded into themes and subthemes using systematic text condensation. The leader of the public health nursing service who agreed to provide access for the study and the Norwegian Center for Research Data that reviewed and approved the study. All participants gave informed consent. In adolescents' use of visual materials with public health nurses, ethical concerns were raised regarding suicide ideations, socially unacceptable content, violation of privacy, and presentations of possible child neglect. The nurses utilized their professional knowledge and experience when identifying and navigating these ethical dilemmas; they resolved ethical uncertainties through peer discussion and collaboration with fellow nurses and other professionals. We discussed the findings in light of Annemarie Mol's interpretation of the ethics of care. Mol expands the notion of ethical care to include the action of technologies. Although the increasing use of visual technologies offered benefits, school nurses faced ethical challenges in health dialogues with adolescents. To address and navigate these ethical issues, they relied on their experience and caring practices based on their professional ethics. Uncertainties were resolved through peer dialogue and guidance.

Потенціал технологій візуалізації в навчанні шкільного курсу математики

The article deals with the main problems of mathematical education at school, which primarily relate to the lack of motivation in students to achieve success in learning, interest in learning activities in the whole. The aspects of the use of visualization technologies as a powerful tool for optimizing the educational process and an effective factor for raising pupils' motivation and activating cognitive interest are highlighted. The outlined issues are revealed within the framework of the importance of mathematical sciences, which play a significant role in the country's scientific and technological development and are important for life in the modern information society. However, there has recently been a tendency to decrease interest in the study of mathematics due to many factors, the main of which is the complexity of understanding abstract concepts and the lack of awareness of the students of the practical significance of knowledge. The article states that one of the directions of solving this problem is the use of visualization in the learning process. The importance of the use of visual materials in the professional activity of the teacher during the study of the school course of mathematics in the transition of pupils from junior high school to senior is revealed. As a software tool for creating visual resources aimed at supporting the study of the mathematics course, the authors selected the Anime Studio environment, which has a powerful toolkit and allows the teacher to fully realize the creative idea in order to achieve the set educational purpose. The program of the course is analyzed, in order to identify the most difficult to understand the topics of the fifth grade mathematics course. Examples of application of the Anime Studio environment for solving tasks for calculation of speed, distance between objects, calculation of time intervals, tasks for joint work and tasks on interest calculations, which are the most complex in this course, are offered.

At the Edge of Safety: Moral Experimentation in the Case of Family Therapy.

"At the Edge of Safety" argues for thinking of structural family therapy as a "moral laboratory." Borrowing a trope from Cheryl Mattingly's recent book Moral Laboratories, the article reconsiders a therapeutic style that was once controversial by analyzing personal stories of supervision-i.e. professional training-in light of Mattingly's suggestion that a social space in which people conduct experiments on themselves and their lives may be considered a moral laboratory. Family therapy is especially good to think with, because it is simultaneously a real and a metaphorical laboratory, physically lab-like in its use of visual technologies, yet moral in the way it puts the possibility for situational change in the hands of human actors. The technological apparatus stages evidence for sub-visible, interpersonal dynamics, while the provocative quality of not only therapeutic actions, but also of supervision, points to an ethos of experimentation. Stories of supervision reveal how personal of an experience being supervised can be. Trainees are pushed to become something otherwise, in learning to "expand" their styles. Sometimes the push is just right. Sometimes it goes too far. Whatever the case may be, the stories analyzed speak to anthropological questions concerning the uncertainty of human action and the many ways people can unknowingly injure one another with small hurts.

Role of Visualization Technologies in Safety Planning and Management at Construction Jobsites

Workplace safety is significant to the construction industry throughout the world. Despite rigorous efforts of safety professionals and strong governmental enforcement of safety laws and regulations, there has not been a significant decline in fatalities, injuries and illnesses in the construction industry. Extensive research on this topic has indicated that the dynamic nature of the construction industry is one of the main reasons. Each construction project is unique and identifying all possible hazards and safety risks is always challenging. In recent years there has been a significant increase in the use of visualization technologies in different phases of the construction project life cycle. Visualization technologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), 4D simulations, and 3D Immersive Virtual Reality Environments can result in improved occupational safety by allowing architects, engineers, and contractors to visually assess jobsite conditions and recognize possible hazards before the construction proceeds. This paper presents three case studies that investigated the effectiveness of above-mentioned visualization technologies in developing, communicating and implementing construction site safety plans. The case studies results indicated that 3D/4D dynamic tools are more effective in safety planning and management as compared to the 2D static drawings because they closely simulate the actual jobsite conditions. In addition, the visualization technologies are found to be very effective in construction safety education and training in both formal and informal settings.

Visualization technology-based construction safety management: A review

Construction safety management has been a popular issue in research and practice in recent years due to the high accident and death rates in the construction industry. The complexity and variability of construction sites makes safety management more difficult to implement than in other industries. As a promising technology, visualization has been extensively explored to aid construction safety management. However, a comprehensive critical review of the visualization technology in construction safety management is absent in the literature. This paper provides a comprehensive review to investigate research and development, application methods, achievements and barriers to the use of visualization technology in safety management, and suggests possible future research directions to extend its application. To achieve this, 78 relevant papers from 2000 to 2015 are reviewed. It is found that visualization technology can improve safety management by aiding safety training, job hazard area (JHA) identification and on-site safety monitoring and warnings, but there are barriers or limitations involved. Existing location technologies, for instance, can perform well only in relatively small areas due to their generally poor penetrating performance. Finally, possible future research directions are proposed to benefit the extensive application of visualization technology for construction safety management in both theory and practice.

Learning Difficulties and Use of Visual Technologies in Learning to Program

In recent years, programming has been seen as a promising career with great earning potential. Rapid growth and use of computer technology give further emphasis to programming. Therefore, faculties open programming courses ranging from introductory to advanced levels. Primary and secondary schools also started to include programming courses in their curriculum. However, in the literature, it has been widely accepted that learning to program is a challenging task for students. Studies conducted on programming education show that significant number of students fail the programming course or get low grades. Of the reasons why students have problems in programming, necessity to possess variety of knowledge while dealing with the programming exercises is mentioned most in the research. These are syntactic, conceptual and strategic knowledge. Other reasons involve lack of motivation, lack of skills required for the programming, lack of mathematical knowledge and unfamiliarity with the programming courses. This is a literature review study that discusses learning difficulties of students and visual technologies used in programming courses to overcome problems mentioned above. This study examines technologies such as Scratch, Alice, Blockly, Jeliot and Ville. The properties of these technologies, how they can be used in programming and results of research studying the effectiveness of these technologies are also discussed

A case study of student teachers' learning and perceptions when using tablet applications teaching physical education

Despite developments in information and communications technology (ICT), current research on the use of ICT in physical education (PE) is limited; research has been confined to investigating the use of visual technology, particularly digital cameras. Student teachers (participants) often use each other as learning resources and the purpose of this research was two-fold: first to examine the perceptions of 50 participants when using a range of self-selected 25 tablet applications (tab-apps) when completing micro-teaching (MT) and teaching practice (TP) in the school-based setting: Second to examine what participants learnt from each other during the process and the potential impact of using tab-apps. Third, to determine the potential challenges and future advantages. This qualitative case study considered the participants who were completing their school-based training to be apprentice learners. The author took the lead in guiding participants through the journey of employing tab-apps (computer tab-apps) to teach PE. This study reports, with the author having insider status, on data generated to allow for understanding through rational discourse and critique employing semi-structured questionnaires, MT and TP journals as well as interviews on participants' perceptions when learning and using tab-apps. Data were analysed using social learning theory as the study's theoretic framework. The evolving themes from the study include: student teachers' background and personal experience (individual technological biography), perceived preparation for using ITC in teaching PE. Perceptions related to challenges and advantages are discussed with a view to their implications for using tab-apps in teaching PE. Results showed that prior to, during, and after TP participants as a result of using tab-apps developed a community of learners as they became each other's resource for learning and shared uses of tab-apps in their teaching. Participants were confident about the value of, and were likely to use, tab-apps in their future PE teaching. There was recognition and awareness of several ‘challenges’ which needed addressing if the ‘advantages’ of using tab-apps were to be realised when teaching. Participants suggested that employing tab-apps resulted in advantageous impact as they interacted with each other and they appeared to be receptive towards adopting tab-apps when teaching PE.

Continuous Auditing and Monitoring in Practice: Lessons from Metcash's Business Assurance Group

ABSTRACTAdvances in information technologies, multiple and diverse risks, complex and changing regulatory environments, antifraud measures, budget constraints, and the volume, velocity, and variety of data being created have renewed attention in continuous auditing (CA) and continuous monitoring (CM). Notwithstanding the growing interest, there is currently limited guidance and empirical evidence available about the practicalities of implementing CA and CM and the differences (or not) between them. In this paper, we describe a case study of how CA and CM has been interpreted and implemented at Metcash, a wholesale distribution and marketing company in Australia. The results for this organization so far are notable: over 100 automated tests performed daily, a fully integrated exception management system, advancement from data to predictive analytics, and the use of visualization technologies for enhancing reporting. However, this outcome has not been without challenges. Our aim in presenting this case is to assist senior audit and business executives with assessing the viability of adopting CA and CM by reflecting on the implementation at Metcash and to offer lessons from this organization's experiences for theory and practice.

Anatomy of a Dead Heat: Visual Evidence at the 2012 US Olympic Trials

The adoption and use of visual technologies as decision aids in professional sport is increasing at a rapid rate, yet the study of such practice is virtually non-existent. Beyond the specific play or call in question, images used as decision aids in sport have immediate and far-reaching material and cultural impacts including athlete sponsorship packages, the professional reputation and expertise of athletes and officials, and lucrative contracts for imaging and technology companies. This paper borrows Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison's work on objectivity to examine one such case: the dead heat between Jeneba Tarmoh and Allyson Felix at the 2012 US Olympic Trials. The Tarmoh/Felix dead heat involved a complex assemblage of human and machine vision, and contains within it many of the issues involved in the use of sports decision aids. The paper argues that analyses of images used as decision aids in sport have much to offer academic and non-academic audiences interested in sport and visual culture.

An epidemiological study of sleep quality in adolescents in South China: a school‐based study

This study explored the prevalence of disturbed sleep and investigated its distribution characteristics and associated factors in adolescents in South China. Junior middle school and senior high school students (n = 1221) were recruited from schools in Shanghai, China. Students completed a questionnaire using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and factors associated with disturbed sleep. The prevalence of a tendency towards poor sleep was 34.32% [95% confidence interval (CI): 31.66-36.98] with no significant difference between genders. This tendency increased with age, yielding a significant group effect (P < 0.01). In middle school and high school, the propensity towards poor sleep was 31.34% (95% CI: 28.29-34.39) and 42.22% (95% CI: 36.92-47.52) respectively. The factors associated with poor sleep were more television viewing during weekdays [odds ratio (OR): 1.56, CI: 1.36-1.71], more frequent computer/Internet use (OR: 1.25, CI: 1.08-1.39), earlier school starting time (OR: 1.12, CI: 1.07-1.28), and more time on homework during weekdays (OR: 1.78, CI: 1.51-1.98) and weekends (OR: 1.35, CI: 1.21-1.52) A tendency towards poor sleep is common in adolescents in South China and its incidence increases with age. The factors associated with this phenomenon indicate that poor sleep in adolescents could be improved, at least partly, by reducing the use of visual technologies and by changing school timetables.

Of Cameras and Balaclavas: Violence, Myth, and the Convulsive Kettle

In the midst of an important protest one often feels like an actor, or a convict. You find yourself so persistently under the silent gaze of one, two, a hundred cameras that you cannot avoid recalling the image of the Foucauldian Panopticon with its ‘multiple separations’ and ‘individualizing distributions’; with ‘an effect of backlighting’ we are constantly reduced to captive shadows in the cells of the photographic machine. There is a certain ambiguity in the effects produced by this gaze. One feels somehow protected by her visibility and yet also threatened and substantially isolated by the constant individualizing surveillance of the camera. What relationship of power is produced in these exceptional circumstances by the use of visual technologies? And what relation can we establish between the use of visual technologies and the struggle for visibility expressed by our performative act of protesting? Finally, what are the truth-claims and the mythopoeic effects of the vast archives of images produced during protests? How are these truth-claims discursively produced? These are some of the questions through which we intend to investigate the space of the ‘kettle’, as it appeared during the last G20 protests investing the City of London, and the opposing fantasies of power and resistance which struggled over the bodies of those that were contained in it. The convulsive body of the ‘kettle’ is shaken and animated by a visual struggle made of cameras and bodies, film and blood. All these elements are at once forces of domination and forces of resistance investing both police and protesters. En medio de una importante manifestación, frecuentemente se siente uno como un actor o un convicto. Se encuentra a sí mismo bajo la mirada fija y silenciosa de una, dos, o un centenar de cámaras, que uno no puede evitar el recuerdo de la imagen del Panóptico Foucaultiano, con sus ‘múltiples separaciones’ y ‘distribuciones individualizadas’; con ‘un efecto de iluminación a contraluz’, donde estamos reducidos constantemente a las sombras captivas en las células de la máquina fotográfica. Existe una cierta ambigüedad en los efectos producidos por esta mirada fija. Uno se siente protegido de alguna manera por su visibilidad, aunque también amenazado y esencialmente aislado por la constante vigilancia individualizada de la cámara. ¿Qué relación de poder se produce en estas circunstancias excepcionales con el uso de las tecnologías visuales? ¿Y qué relación podemos establecer entre las tecnologías visuales y la lucha por la visibilidad expresada por nuestro acto escénico de protesta? Finalmente, ¿cuáles son las verdaderas declaraciones y los efectos que producen mitos de los vastos archivos de imágenes producidas durante las manifestaciones? ¿Cómo se producen discursivamente estas verdaderas declaraciones? Estas son algunas de las preguntas a través de las cuales tratamos de investigar el espacio de la ‘tetera’, como apareció durante las últimas protestas de la reunión del G20 conferida a la ciudad de Londres, y las fantasías de oposición del poder y resistencia que lucharon sobre los cuerpos de aquellos que estuvieron contenidos dentro de ese espacio. El cuerpo convulsivo de la ‘tetera’ se sacude y anima por una lucha visual producida por cámaras y cuerpos, película y sangre. Todos estos elementos son al mismo tiempo fuerzas de dominio y fuerzas de resistencia, conferidas tanto a la policía como a los manifestantes. 在一场重大的抗议活动中，人们往往感觉自己就像一个演员或囚犯。你发现自己一直被一个、两个乃至一百个摄像机默默监视着，以至于你不得不想起有着“多元分割”和“个体化分布”的福柯式敞视监狱的画面。在“逆光效应”下，我们逐渐被缩成这监视机器的囚室中被俘获的小人影。这种注视的效果存在某种不确定性。人们一定程度上感到被其可见性所保护，然而也感到一直被摄像机单独监视所带来的威胁和完全孤立。在这些特殊场合，运用可视化技术产生了什么权力关系？在运用可视化技术和我们的抗议表述行为所表达的可见度斗争之间，我们可建立什么样的关系？最后，抗议活动所产生的大量画面资料背后的真实企图和神奇效果是什么？这些真实企图是如何松散地呈现的？通过这些问题，我们准备研究“水壶”的空间（正如其上次出现在包围伦敦金融城的G20示威抗议中），以及权力与抵抗这对争夺容纳于水壶中人的相互对立的幻象。“水壶”身体的震动被镜头和身体、胶片和鲜血所组成的可见的斗争场面所震撼和刺激。所有这些元素顷刻间既成为控制的力量也成为反抗的力量，把警察和抗议者都包围了起来。

Video Activism and the ambiguities of counter-surveillance

This paper examines the use of visual technologies by political activists in protest situations to monitor police conduct. Using interview data with Australian video activists this paper seeks to understand the motivations, techniques and outcomes of video activism, and its relationship to counter-surveillance and police accountability. Our data also indicated that there have been significant transformations in the organization and deployment of counter-surveillance methods since 2000, when there were large-scale protests against the World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne accompanied by a coordinated campaign that sought to document police misconduct. The paper identifies and examines two inter-related aspects of this; the act of filming and the process of dissemination of this footage. It is noted that technological changes in the last decade have led to a proliferation of visual recording technologies, particularly mobile phone cameras, which have stimulated a corresponding proliferation of images. Analogous innovations in internet communications have stimulated a coterminous proliferation of potential outlets for images.. Video footage provides activists with valuable tools for safety and publicity. Nevertheless, we argue, video activism can have unintended consequences, including exposure to legal risks and the amplification of official surveillance. Activists are also often unable to control the political effects of their footage or the purposes to which it is used. We conclude by assessing the impact that transformations in both protest organization and media technologies might have for counter-surveillance techniques based on visual surveillance.

Risk factors associated with short sleep duration among Chinese school-aged children

Objectives To examine risk factors regarding short sleep duration among Chinese school-aged children. Methods A random sample of 20,778 children aged around 5–11 years participated in a cross-sectional survey, which was conducted in eight cities of China in 2005. A parent-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on children’s sleep duration and possible related factors from eight domains. Short sleep duration was defined as total sleep duration <9 h per day. Results In all, 28.3% of the sampled children slept <9 h per day. The multivariate logistic regression identified, after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic variables, factors associated with short sleep duration: more television viewing during weekdays (OR = 1.21, p = 0.004), more frequent computer/internet using (OR = 1.17, p = 0.006), earlier school starting time (OR = 1.10, p = 0.020), more time on homework during weekdays (OR = 1.66, p < 0.001) and weekends (OR = 1.14, p = 0.001), poor bedtime hygiene (e.g., having drinks with caffeine after 6:00PM [OR = 1.22, p < 0.001], doing exciting activities during bedtime [OR = 1.16, p < 0.001], and irregular bedtime [OR = 1.55, p < 0.001]), and shorter sleep duration of parents (mother: OR = 1.31, p < 0.001 for sleep duration <6 h and OR = 1.24, p = 0.006 for 6–8 h; father: OR = 1.52, p < 0.001 for <6 h and OR = 1.19, p < 0.001 for 6–8 h). Conclusions Factors associated with sleep duration covered multidimensional domains among school-aged children. Compared to sleep environments and chronic health problems, school schedules, lifestyle patterns, and parents’ sleep habits had greater impact on children’s sleep duration, indicating the existing chronic sleep loss in school children could be, at least partly, intervened by reducing the use of visual technologies, by changing the school schedules, by improving the sleep hygiene routine, and by regulating parents’ sleep habits.

Defending Place in the Google Earth Age

Virtual globes, like Google Earth, are increasingly being used by experts and lay publics in the process of ‘defending place’ against rapidly shifting energy geographies. Drawing upon the fields of visual studies, landscape architecture and geography, this article examines the use of geospatial tools by conservation campaigns challenging new developments. With a focus on wind energy, the article describes the strategic advantages and risks associated with using virtual globes in campaign work. The article suggests that conservation campaigns need to make more judicious use of visualization technologies. While Google Earth may enable distant viewers to ‘witness’ change, it may add limited value to how local citizens experience their own topographies.

Situated cognition in clinical visualization: The role of transparency in GammaKnife neurosurgery planning

The aim of this study was to investigate how the clinical use of visualization technology can be advanced by the application of a situated cognition perspective. The data were collected in the GammaKnife radiosurgery setting and analyzed using qualitative methods. Observations and in-depth interviews with neurosurgeons and physicists were performed at three clinics using the Leksell GammaKnife. The users' ability to perform cognitive tasks was found to be reduced each time visualizations incongruent with the particular user's perception of clinical reality were used. The main issue here was a lack of transparency, i.e. a black box problem where machine representations "stood between" users and the cognitive tasks they wanted to perform. For neurosurgeons, transparency meant their previous experience from traditional surgery could be applied, i.e. that they were not forced to perform additional cognitive work. From the view of the physicists, on the other hand, the concept of transparency was associated with mathematical precision and avoiding creating a cognitive distance between basic patient data and what is experienced as clinical reality. The physicists approached clinical visualization technology as though it was a laboratory apparatus--one that required continual adjustment and assessment in order to "capture" a quantitative clinical reality. Designers of visualization technology need to compare the cognitive interpretations generated by the new visualization systems to conceptions generated during "traditional" clinical work. This means that the viewpoint of different clinical user groups involved in a given clinical task would have to be taken into account as well. A way forward would be to acknowledge that visualization is a socio-cognitive function that has practice-based antecedents and consequences, and to reconsider what analytical and scientific challenges this presents us with.

Théâtre et intermédialité

This essay investigates three different uses of visual technology (integration, differential and simulation) in three North-American productions: the solo Elseneur (1997) by Robert Lepage, Hamlet (2006) by The Wooster Group and Les Aveugles (2002) by Denis Marleau. It demonstrates how, in these cases, the use of visual technology stimulates the spectator’s imagination, moving its perception and reinventing theatrical dynamism.