Measuring Cognitive Load Using Linguistic Features: Implications for Usability Evaluation and Adaptive Interaction Design

An intelligent adaptable system, aware of a user’s experienced cognitive load, may help improve performance in complex, time-critical situations by dynamically deploying more appropriate output strategies to reduce cognitive load. However, measuring a user’s cognitive load robustly, in real-time is not a trivial task. Many research studies have attempted to assess users’ cognitive load using different measurements, but these are often unsuitable for deployment in real-life applications due to high intrusiveness. Relatively novel linguistic behavioral features as potential indices of user’s cognitive load is proposed. These features may be collected implicitly and nonintrusively supporting real-time assessment of users’ cognitive load and accordingly allowing adaptive usability evaluation and interaction. Results from a laboratory experiment show significantly different linguistic patterns under different task complexities and cognitive load levels. Implications of the research for adaptive interaction are also discussed, that is, how the cognitive load measurement-based approach could be used for user interface evaluation and interaction design improvement.     

Understanding post‐adoption IS usage stages: an empirical assessment of self‐service information systems

Organisations have invested in self‐service information systems (IS) to provide a direct interface for service delivery. Enriching the usage of these systems can provide organisations with immense benefits. However, limited research has been directed towards understanding post‐adoption IS usage behaviour in general and specifically in the context of self‐service IS. This study proposes post‐adoption IS usage behaviour as a broader concept constituting feature level usage of IS, integration of IS in the work system and exploration of new uses of IS. We evaluate how the new conceptualisation can be used to classify users at different stages of self‐service IS usage. Further, we examine user perceptions that differentiate among the users situated at different self‐service IS usage stages. Data were collected in the context of a self‐service Web‐based IS to validate the post‐adoption IS usage constructs and to examine the proposed thesis. The newly developed conceptual structure and measures for post‐adoption IS usage behaviour exhibit strong psychometric properties. The analysis shows three distinct post‐adoption IS usage stages and highlights that usefulness, user‐initiated learning, ease of use, satisfaction and voluntariness of use differentiate users at the different stages of post‐adoption IS usage. The results show that these variables aggregate into value confirmation and learning orientation as two higher‐level concepts. Further, we evaluate the predictive efficacy of the research model in classifying users into different post‐adoption self‐service IS usage stages. Implications are drawn for future research.     

Silicon Seed Priming Combined with Foliar Spray of Sulfur Regulates Photosynthetic and Antioxidant Systems to Confer Drought Tolerance in Maize (Zea mays L.)

Silicon - The present study evaluated the effect of silicon (Si) seed priming and sulfur (S) foliar spray on drought tolerance of two contrasting maize hybrids viz. drought tolerant Hi-Corn 11 and...     

Plasmodium species aware based quantification of malaria parasitemia in light microscopy thin blood smear

Malaria is a serious worldwide disease, caused by a bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. The parasite transferred into complex life round in which it is grown and reproduces into the human body. The detection and recognition of Plasmodium species are possible and efficient through a process called staining (Giemsa). The staining process slightly colorizes the red blood cells (RBCs) but highlights Plasmodium parasites, white blood cells and artifacts. Giemsa stains nuclei, chromatin in blue tone and RBCs in pink color. It has been reported in numerous studies that manual microscopy is not a trustworthy screening technique when performed by nonexperts. Malaria parasites host in RBCs when it enters the bloodstream. This paper presents segmentation of Plasmodium parasite from the thin blood smear points on region growing and dynamic convolution based filtering algorithm. After segmentation, malaria parasite classified into four Plasmodium species: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium vivax, and Plasmodium malaria. The random forest and K‐nearest neighbor are used for classification base on local binary pattern and hue saturation value features. The sensitivity for malaria parasitemia (MP) is 96.75% on training and testing of the proposed approach while specificity is 94.59%. Beside these, the comparisons of the two features are added to the proposed work for classification having sensitivity is 83.60% while having specificity is 94.90% through random forest classifier based on local binary pattern feature.     

Observation of transient disorder during myosin subfragment-1 binding to actin by stopped-flow fluorescence and millisecond time resolution electron cryomicroscopy: evidence that the start of the crossbridge power stroke in muscle has variable geometry

The mechanism of binding of myosin subfragment-1 (S1) to actin in the absence of nucleotides was studied by a combination of stopped-flow fluorescence and ms time resolution electron microscopy. The fluorescence data were obtained by using pyrene-labeled actin and exhibit a lag phase. This demonstrates the presence of a transient intermediate after the collision complex and before the formation of the stable "rigor" complex. The transient intermediate predominates 2-15 ms after mixing, whereas the rigor complex predominates at time >50 ms. Electron microscopy of acto-S1 frozen 10 ms after mixing revealed disordered binding. Acto-S1 frozen at 50 ms or longer showed the "arrowhead" appearance characteristic of rigor. The most likely explanation of the disorder of the transient intermediate is that the binding is through one or more flexible loops on the surfaces of the proteins. The transition from disordered to ordered binding is likely to be part of the force-generating step in muscle.     

A study on expression of the heat shock suppressed gene in distal organs of rats after scalding

In order to address the question whether stress in intact higher animals may induce cellular heat shock response in distal organs, the inhibition of normal gene expression was studied on the basis of our previous findings about the induction of heat shock proteins in liver and brain of rats after scalding. Male SD rats were scalded on the back, 10-240 min thereafter decapitated, and the heat shock suppressed gene-1 was quantitated by dot blotting. The results showed that gene-1 decreased rapidly after scalding in both the organs, and did not recover to control levels even 240 min after scalding. The decrease of gene-1 went parallell with the severity of scalding. Thus it may be concluded that stress may induce heat shock response of distant organs in intact animals. Possible pathological significance of these findings was discussed.     

Mechanical and Microstructural Evaluation of Squeeze Cast Al-4%Cu Alloy Using a Full-Factorial Experimental Design

A full factorial design was employed to investigate the effect of squeeze pressure in conjunction with thermal parameters, i.e., melt and die temperatures, on the mechanical properties of a squeeze cast Al-4%Cu alloy. Considerable variations in mechanical properties existed between different test runs, and these were discussed based on cooling rates previously quantified for a squeeze-cast Al-4%Cu alloy. The completeness of a full factorial design not only identified a combination of process parameters for optimum results but also facilitated an evaluation of the minimum pressure required to eliminate porosity and influence the die temperature on the microstructure of the squeeze-cast alloy. In addition to the optimum run, particular importance was given to those runs that had more desirable levels of control factors with respect to energy consumption or tooling life. A microstructural analysis of these runs indicated the possibility of precipitation hardening that can open up further investigations toward the opportunities associated with in situ heat treatment of age-hardening, squeeze cast aluminum alloys.     

Performance evaluation of shortest multipath source routing scheme

Multipath routing in mobile ad-hoc networks allows the establishment of multiple paths for routing between a source-destination pair. It exploits the resource redundancy and diversity in the underlying network to provide benefits such as fault tolerance, load balancing, bandwidth aggregation and the improvement in quality-of-service metrics such as delay. Previous work shows that on-demand multipath routing schemes achieve better performance under certain scenarios with respect to a number of key performance metrics when compared with traditional single-path routing mechanisms. A multipath routing scheme, referred to as shortest multipath source (SMS) routing based on dynamic source routing (DSR) is proposed here. The mechanism has two novel aspects compared with other on-demand multipath routing schemes: it achieves shorter multiple partial-disjoint paths and allows more rapid recovery from route breaks. The performance differentials are investigated using NS-2 under conditions of varying mobility, offered load and network size. Results reveal that SMS provides a better solution than existing source-based approaches in a truly mobile ad-hoc environment.     

The effect of superoxide dismutase on the recovery of human bone marrow hemopoietic stem cells stored at 4 degreesC

Epidemiological research during the past 40 years has demonstrated with increasing clarity that amphibole asbestos fibres--crocidolite, amosite and tremolite--are more carcinogenic than chrysotile. A smaller number of well-controlled studies using lung burden analyses, while adding to the specificity of this conclusion, have shown that amphibole fibres also differ from chrysotile in being far more durable and biopersistent in lung tissue. Analyses of mesothelioma and lung cancer in a large cohort of Canadian chrysotile miners and millers have recently shown that the low-level presence of fibrous tremolite in these mines, rather than the chrysotile, may well be responsible. The high risk of lung cancer, but not of mesothelioma, in the chrysotile textile industry remains anomalous and cannot be explained in this way. These various findings are directly relevant to the choice of the experimental methods which should be used for screening man-made fibres for industrial use. Although it is clear that biopersistence is a major determinant of cancer risk in animals, and perhaps also in man, other factors affecting the biological activity of mineral fibres may also be important.