Automated vision screening of children using a mobile graphic device

Background/Objective Can measuring interocular brightness disparity, acuity, and colour vision classify children with amblyopia? Subjects/Methods Two hundred eight subjects (3–14 years) were recruited for a prospective, observational protocol to measure interocular brightness disparity, uniocular acuities with and without a pinhole, and colour vision using an iPad. Subjects looked through polarizing filters and chose the brighter of two spaceships to measure interocular brightness disparity. The differential brightness of image pairs was varied through a staircase algorithm until equal brightness was perceived. Acuities and colour vision were tested with tumbling Es and AO-HRR colour plates, respectively. Unilateral amblyopia was later confirmed in two subjects. Results Binocular brightness balance on the iPad detected amblyopes with 100% sensitivity and specificity. Using 20/30 as cutoff for normal acuity, 1 of the amblyopes was detected, and non-amblyopes were excluded by visual acuity pinhole testing. The mean difference between iPad and E-Chart visual acuities with pinhole was 0.02 logMAR with limits of agreement from −0.08 to +0.11 logMAR. iPad and printed plates Colour vision testing produced identical results. Testing times were brief and exit pleasure responses were positive. Mean and range testing times for Brightness Sense, Colour vision, and Visual Acuity were 32.7 s (range = 12–63 s), 52.8 min (range = 17–95 s), and 88.75 s (range = 41–188 s), respectively. Conclusions Interocular brightness disparity, acuity, and colour vision can be measured in children as young as 3 years old solely through playing a game on a mobile device. Interocular brightness disparity is a sensitive and specific method to detect unilateral amblyopia.

Speech-Breath: Mapping the Multisensory Experience in Pecos River Style Pictography

Archaic period hunter-gatherers of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, created complex rock art murals containing elaborately painted anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures. These figures are frequently portrayed with dots or lines emanating out of or into their open mouths. In this article, we discuss patterns in shape, color, and arrangement of this pictographic element and propose that artists used this graphic device to denote speech, breath, and the soul. They communicated meaning through the image-making process, alternating brushstroke direction to indicate inhalation versus exhalation or using different paint application techniques to reflect measured versus forceful speech. The choices made by artists in the production of the imagery reflect their cosmology and the framework of ideas and beliefs through which they interpreted and interacted with the world. Bridging the iconographic data with ethnohistoric and ethnographic texts from Mesoamerica, we suggest that speech and breath expressed in the rock art of the Lower Pecos was tied to concepts of the soul, creation, and human origins.

Hardware-Based Adaptive Terrain Mesh Using Temporal Coherence for Real-Time Landscape Visualization

In general, changes in society or the environment are expected depending on changes in terrain. The faster and more accurately these terrain changes can be observed, the faster and more accurately predictions can be made. Recently, three-dimensional (3D) terrain visualization programs, such as flight simulation, allow for interaction with various datasets to predict ecosystem influences in real time. Elaborate terrain data require a very large capacity. To render these large terrain data, the computing power of graphics devices cannot always satisfy the real-time conditions. Consequently, a large number of graphics devices in computing systems need to be replaced on a periodic basis. As the industry evolves, the replacement cycle of graphic devices shortens. To solve this problem, we present a novel acceleration approach for generating an adaptive terrain mesh using temporal coherence. By using our method, it is possible to prevent artifacts such as frame drop or screen flickering due to lack of computing power of the GPU in a specific viewing condition. Instead of generating the new terrain mesh on every frame, our method reuses the detail level of terrain mesh that was used in a previous frame. Therefore, it can maintain the frame coherency and improve the rendering speed. This allows the proposed method to more quickly provide more detailed information about the terrain to predict environmental changes more accurately on existing equipment. Thus, the proposed method can reduce the need to frequently replace GPUs. The proposed method can guarantee sufficient performance even with a resilient graphic device and can effectively slow down the replacement period of existing equipment.

CONCEPT MAPPING IN TEACHING SCIENCE AMONG IX STD STUDENTS

Concept Map is a graphic device in which the concepts are linked by propositions leading to the precision and enhancement of meaning of the concept.” It is a schematic device for representing a set of concept meanings embedded in a hierarchy from most general concept to specific concepts of a learning unit. The study aimed to examine the concept mapping in teaching science among IX std students. The investigator adopted experimental method to study the concept mapping in teaching science among ix std students. For this study a sample of 60 IX std students from schools which are situated in Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu. The findings reveal that is inferred that there is a difference in concept mapping in teaching science among ix std students.

The six-sphere framework: A practical tool for assessing monitoring and evaluation systems

Background: Successful evaluation capacity development (ECD) at regional, national and institutional levels has been built on a sound understanding of the opportunities and constraints in establishing and sustaining a monitoring and evaluation system. Diagnostics are one of the tools that ECD agents can use to better understand the nature of the ECD environment. Conventional diagnostics have typically focused on issues related to technical capacity and the ‘bridging of the gap’ between evaluation supply and demand. In so doing, they risk overlooking the more subtle organisational and environmental factors that lie outside the conventional diagnostic lens.Method: As a result of programming and dialogue carried out by the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results Anglophone Africa engaging with government planners, evaluators, civil society groups and voluntary organisations, the author has developed a modified diagnostic tool that extends the scope of conventional analysis.Results: This article outlines the six-sphere framework that can be used to extend the scope of such diagnostics to include considerations of the political environment, trust and collaboration between key stakeholders and the principles and values that underpin the whole system. The framework employs a graphic device that allows the capture and organisation of structural knowledge relating to the ECD environment.Conclusion: The article describes the framework in relation to other organisational development tools and gives some examples of how it can be used to make sense of the ECD environment. It highlights the potential of the framework to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the ECD environment using a structured diagnostic approach and to move beyond conventional supply and demand models.

Illustrating cerebral function: the iconography of arrows

For over a century the arrow has appeared in illustrations of cerebral function, yet the implications of using such symbols have not been previously considered. This review seeks to outline the nature, evolution, applications and limitations of this deceptively simple graphic device when it is used to picture functions of the brain. The arrow is found to have been used in several different ways: as a means of endowing anatomical structures with functional properties; as a method of displaying neural function either in free–standing form or in a structural or spatial framework; as a device for correlating functional data with underlying brain topography; and as a technique for linking functions of the brain with the world outside and with various philosophical concepts. For many of these uses the essential feature of the arrow is its directional characteristic. In contrast to the line, it is direction that enables the arrow to display information about time, which in turn can be exploited to depict functional rather than structural data. However, the use of the arrow is fraught with difficulties. It is often unclear whether an arrow has been used to illustrate fact, hypothesis, impression or possibility, or merely to provide a decorative flourish. Furthermore, the powerful symbolic nature of the arrow can so easily confer a spurious validity on the conjectural. Increasingly now there are insuperable difficulties when attempting to illustrate complex mechanisms of brain function. In the iconography of cerebral function, therefore, arrows with all their ambiguities may in certain circumstances become superseded by more non–representational symbols such as the abstract devices of the computational neuroscientist.