Assessing the accessibility of everyday products

If a product is being designed to be genuinely inclusive, then the designers need to be able to assess the level of exclusion of the product that they are working on and to identify possible areas of improvement. To be of practical use, the assessments need to be quick, consistent and repeatable. The aim of this workshop is to invite attendees to participate in the evaluation of a number of everyday objects using an assessment technique being considered by the workshop organisers. The objectives of the workshop include evaluating the effectiveness of the assessment method, evaluating the accessibility of the products being assessed and to suggest revisions to the assessment scales being used. The assessment technique is to be based on the ONS capability measures [1]. This source recognises fourteen capability scales of which seven are particularly pertinent to product evaluation, namely: motion, dexterity, reach and stretch, vision, hearing, communication, and intellectual functioning. Each of these scales ranges from 0 (fully able) through 1 (minimal impairment) to 10 (severe impairment). The attendees will be asked to rate the products on these scales. Clearly the assessed accessibility of the product depends on the assumptions made about the context of use. The attendees will be asked to clearly note the assumptions that they are making about the context in which the product is being assessed. For instance, with a hot water bottle, assumptions have to be made about the availability of hot water and these can affect the overall accessibility rating. The workshop organisers will not specify the context of use as the aim is to identify how assessors would use the assessment method in the real world. The objects being assessed will include items such as remote controls, pill bottles, food packaging, hot water bottles and mobile telephones. the attendees will be encouraged to assess two or more products in detail. Helpers will be on hand to assist and observe the assessments. The assessments will be collated and compared and feedback about the assessment method sought from the attendees. Drawing on a preliminary review of the assessment results, initial conclusions will be presented at the end of the workshop. More detailed analyses will be made available in subsequent proceedings. It is intended that the workshop will provide workshop attendees with an opportunity to perform hands-on assessment of a number everyday products and identify features which are inclusive and those that are not. It is also intended to encourage an appreciation of the capabilities to be considered when evaluating accessibility.

Response of multiple simultaneously recorded macaque area LIP neurons in a memory saccade task

Cells in the lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP) of rhesus macaques respond vigorously and in spatially-tuned fashion to briefly memorized visual stimuli. Responses to stimulus presentation, memory maintenance, and task completion are seen, in varying combination from neuron to neuron. To help elucidate this functional segmentation a new system for simultaneous recording from multiple neighboring neurons was developed. The two parts of this dissertation discuss the technical achievements and scientific discoveries, respectively.

Technology. Simultanous recordings from multiple neighboring neurons were made with four-wire bundle electrodes, or tetrodes, which were adapted to the awake behaving primate preparation. Signals from these electrodes were partitionable into a background process with a 1/f-like spectrum and foreground spiking activity spanning 300-6000 Hz. Continuous voltage recordings were sorted into spike trains using a state-of-the-art clustering algorithm, producing a mean of 3 cells per site. The algorithm classified 96% of spikes correctly when tetrode recordings were confirmed with simultaneous intracellular signals. Recording locations were verified with a new technique that creates electrolytic lesions visible in magnetic resonance imaging, eliminating the need for histological processing. In anticipation of future multi-tetrode work, the chronic chamber microdrive, a device for long-term tetrode delivery, was developed.

Science. Simultaneously recorded neighboring LIP neurons were found to have similar preferred targets in the memory saccade paradigm, but dissimilar peristimulus time histograms, PSTH). A majority of neighboring cell pairs had a difference in preferred directions of under 45° while the trial time of maximal response showed a broader distribution, suggesting homogeneity of tuning with het erogeneity of function. A continuum of response characteristics was present, rather than a set of specific response types; however, a mapping experiment suggests this may be because a given cell's PSTH changes shape as well as amplitude through the response field. Spike train autocovariance was tuned over target and changed through trial epoch, suggesting different mechanisms during memory versus background periods. Mean frequency-domain spike-to-spike coherence was concentrated below 50 Hz with a significant maximum of 0.08; mean time-domain coherence had a narrow peak in the range ±10 ms with a significant maximum of 0.03. Time-domain coherence was found to be untuned for short lags (10 ms), but significantly tuned at larger lags (50 ms).

The Role of Fucose in Learning and Memory: The Identification of a Fucosylprotein, Synapsin I, in the Rat Brain and the Characterization of its Fucosylation

Previous studies have shown that the glycoproteins containing the fucose moiety are involved in neuronal communication phenomena such as long-term potentiation and memory formation. These results imply that fucose containing glycoproteins might play an important role in learning and memory. To understand the role of fucose in neuronal communication, and the mechanisms by which fucose may be involved in information storage, the identification of fucosylproteins is essential. This report describes the identification and characterization of fucosylproteins in the brain, which will provide new insights into the role of the fucose involved molecular interactions.

Rewriting Schemes for Flash Memory

Flash memory is a leading storage media with excellent features such as random access and high storage density. However, it also faces significant reliability and endurance challenges. In flash memory, the charge level in the cells can be easily increased, but removing charge requires an expensive erasure operation. In this thesis we study rewriting schemes that enable the data stored in a set of cells to be rewritten by only increasing the charge level in the cells. We consider two types of modulation scheme; a convectional modulation based on the absolute levels of the cells, and a recently-proposed scheme based on the relative cell levels, called rank modulation. The contributions of this thesis to the study of rewriting schemes for rank modulation include the following: we

•propose a new method of rewriting in rank modulation, beyond the previously proposed method of “push-to-the-top”;

•study the limits of rewriting with the newly proposed method, and derive a tight upper bound of 1 bit per cell;

•extend the rank-modulation scheme to support rankings with repetitions, in order to improve the storage density;

•derive a tight upper bound of 2 bits per cell for rewriting in rank modulation with repetitions;

•construct an efficient rewriting scheme that asymptotically approaches the upper bound of 2 bit per cell.

The next part of this thesis studies rewriting schemes for a conventional absolute-levels modulation. The considered model is called “write-once memory” (WOM). We focus on WOM schemes that achieve the capacity of the model. In recent years several capacity-achieving WOM schemes were proposed, based on polar codes and randomness extractors. The contributions of this thesis to the study of WOM scheme include the following: we

•propose a new capacity-achievingWOM scheme based on sparse-graph codes, and show its attractive properties for practical implementation;

•improve the design of polarWOMschemes to remove the reliance on shared randomness and include an error-correction capability.

The last part of the thesis studies the local rank-modulation (LRM) scheme, in which a sliding window going over a sequence of real-valued variables induces a sequence of permutations. The LRM scheme is used to simulate a single conventional multi-level flash cell. The simulated cell is realized by a Gray code traversing all the relative-value states where, physically, the transition between two adjacent states in the Gray code is achieved by using a single “push-to-the-top” operation. The main results of the last part of the thesis are two constructions of Gray codes with asymptotically-optimal rate.

One-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit adder using an incoherent correlator based on a shared content-addressable memory

An efficient one-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit (MSD) adder based on symbolic substitution is presented. In this technique, carry propagation is avoided by introducing reference digits to restrict the intermediate carry and sum digits to {1,0} and {0,1}, respectively. The proposed technique requires significantly fewer minterms and simplifies system complexity compared to the reported one-step MSD addition techniques. An incoherent correlator based on an optoelectronic shared content-addressable memory processor is suggested to perform the addition operation. In this technique, only one set of minterms needs to be stored, independent of the operand length. (C) 2002 society or Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Efficient two-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit algorithm based on optoelectronic shared content-addressable memory

A two-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit (MSD) adder based on symbolic substitution is presented. In the proposed addition algorithm, carry propagation is avoided by using reference digits to restrict the intermediate MSD carry and sum digits into {(1) over bar ,0} and {0, 1}, respectively. The algorithm requires only 12 minterms to generate the final results, and no complementarity operations for nonzero outputs are involved, which simplifies the system complexity significantly. An optoelectronic shared content-addressable memory based on an incoherent correlator is used for experimental demonstration. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Efficient two-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit algorithm based on optoelectronic shared content-addressable memory

A two-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit (MSD) adder based on symbolic substitution is presented. In the proposed addition algorithm, carry propagation is avoided by using reference digits to restrict the intermediate MSD carry and sum digits into {(1) over bar ,0} and {0, 1}, respectively. The algorithm requires only 12 minterms to generate the final results, and no complementarity operations for nonzero outputs are involved, which simplifies the system complexity significantly. An optoelectronic shared content-addressable memory based on an incoherent correlator is used for experimental demonstration. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Tratamento Homeopático: buscando estratégias para avaliação de seus resultados e efetividade

Face à crescente procura por outras modalidades terapêuticas que abordam o ser humano de forma holística e a introdução das mesmas no SUS, torna-se muito importante a avaliação da efetividade e segurança dessas formas de cuidado. A Homeopatia faz parte deste conjunto de terapêuticas e, para sua avaliação, pode existir a necessidade de se valer de múltiplos instrumentos para abarcar os vários aspectos de uma resposta integral ao tratamento. Este trabalho teve como objetivo identificar e elaborar categorias de análises e instrumentos que permitam avaliar e mensurar a efetividade deste tratamento, bem como testá-los, considerando-se as características desta racionalidade. Foram levantados, na literatura nacional e internacional, trabalhos sobre efetividade do tratamento homeopático, em busca da definição do estado da arte mas também dos principais problemas, limitações e possibilidades dessas avaliações tendo em vista seu resultado integral. Finda esta etapa, a pesquisa destinou-se a elaboração, proposição e testagem de uma metodologia considerada mais adequada a avaliar o tratamento homeopático nesta perspectiva. Um estudo observacional foi realizado em serviço público homeopático no município de Juiz de Fora, com tratamento individualizado, no qual foi utilizada uma estratégia de avaliação composta por três componentes: (1) avaliação de qualidade de vida pelo instrumento SF-36; (2) análises em busca de objetivar e quantificar queixas clínicas e outros atributos de natureza subjetiva (sensação de bem-estar, sono, estado cognitivo e memória, vida sexual, sensação de felicidade) por meio da utilização de uma escala visual analógica (EVA), na mensuração da intensidade e de opções fechadas, a exemplo do SF-36, na estimativa da frequência desses aspectos e (3) entrevistas qualitativas por intermédio de questionário semiestruturado, com a finalidade de abordar questões relacionadas a biopatografia e mudança da atitude vital (como pacientes enfrentam os problemas do cotidiano, fatores deflagradores das queixas, como se sentem e como reagem, além de indagar seus projetos de vida e felicidade). A aplicação do questionário SF-36 apresentou algumas dificuldades de compreensão pelos participantes, talvez devido à baixa escolaridade dos entrevistados, mas mostrou-se útil à pesquisa, embora demonstre limitações na avaliação do aspecto integral do resultado da terapêutica analisada. O acompanhamento das queixas clínicas, sensação de bem-estar, sono e estado cognitivo e memória foram captados e mensurados de forma satisfatória tanto pela EVA (intensidade dos sintomas) quanto pelas respostas fechadas para medir a frequência. Situações como as avaliações da biopatografia e da sexualidade foram insuficientes para serem adequadamente avaliadas pelo pesquisador e o paciente somente. A participação do médico assistente poderia contribuir nestes casos. Questões mais abrangentes na avaliação da mudança na atitude vital, como reação diante de fatores desequilibrantes e projeto de vida e felicidade, necessitam de metodologia qualitativa até que se possa avançar nas pesquisas à espera de soluções futuras. A combinação dessas estratégias em estudos controlados, randomizados, com amostras de magnitude satisfatória, preferencialmente em rede e que explicitem as condições nas quais o atendimento homeopático ocorreu e como se chegou a cada prescrição, podem ter utilidade para a avaliação da efetividade da dimensão integral do tratamento homeopático.

Glossário Bilíngue de Termos Institucionais Universitários para a Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Este trabalho de dissertação tem como objetivo central a criação de um glossário bilíngue (português-inglês) de termos institucionais da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Sua construção é de extrema importância para a tradução dos materiais institucionais que apresentam a universidade e permite que ela se comunique com o mundo globalizado. Ressalta-se, ainda, o valor do trabalho para a construção da identidade universitária e de sua memória institucional, pois apresenta os termos correspondentes aos utilizados pela UERJ para denominar suas estruturas e cargos, compreendendo sua Administração Central e Unidades Acadêmicas e Administrativas, Para chegar ao glossário, dividimos nosso trabalho em capítulos. O primeiro trata do processo de globalização e seu impacto na universidade: a internacionalização. Utilizamos como exemplo do processo a internacionalização da UERJ não esquecendo de analisar a importância do uso da língua inglesa como língua franca e, consequentemente a relevância da tradução nesse contexto. No segundo capítulo, resumimos as teorias terminológicas, enfatizando a Teoria Comunicativa da Terminologia, de Maria Tereza Cabré e as características do bom glossário apontadas por Anna Julia Perrotti-Garcia, privilegiando o termo e seu contexto real de uso como ponto de partida. No terceiro capítulo, revelamos a macroestrura e a microestrutura do glossário, apresentado logo em seguida. O glossário reúne, então, cerca de setenta termos em língua portuguesa, com exemplos acompanhados dos termos em língua inglesa, com seus exemplos de uso real. Nas considerações finais, comentam-se os resultados da pesquisa, as adaptações necessárias e a contribuição do trabalho para a universidade e para a tradução e a terminologia. É um trabalho que pretende tratar da terminologia a serviço da tradução de textos institucionais, produzindo uma ferramenta importante para tal tarefa