ZOOM Lite: next-generation sequencing data mapping and visualization software

PubMed Central

Zhang, Zefeng; Lin, Hao; Ma, Bin

2010-01-01

High-throughput next-generation sequencing technologies pose increasing demands on the efficiency, accuracy and usability of data analysis software. In this article, we present ZOOM Lite, a software for efficient reads mapping and result visualization. With a kernel capable of mapping tens of millions of Illumina or AB SOLiD sequencing reads efficiently and accurately, and an intuitive graphical user interface, ZOOM Lite integrates reads mapping and result visualization into a easy to use pipeline on desktop PC. The software handles both single-end and paired-end reads, and can output both the unique mapping result or the top N mapping results for each read. Additionally, the software takes a variety of input file formats and outputs to several commonly used result formats. The software is freely available at http://bioinfor.com/zoom/lite/. PMID:20530531

Evaluation of the benefits of assistive reading software: perceptions of high school students with learning disabilities.

PubMed

Chiang, Hsin-Yu; Liu, Chien-Hsiou

2011-01-01

Using assistive reading software may be a cost-effective way to increase the opportunity for independent learning in students with learning disabilities. However, the effectiveness and perception of assistive reading software has seldom been explored in English-as-a-second language students with learning disabilities. This research was designed to explore the perception and effect of using assistive reading software in high school students with dyslexia (one subtype of learning disability) to improve their English reading and other school performance. The Kurzweil 3000 software was used as the intervention tool in this study. Fifteen students with learning disabilities were recruited, and instruction in the usage of the Kurzweil 3000 was given. Then after 2 weeks, when they were familiarized with the use of Kurzweil 3000, interviews were used to determine the perception and potential benefit of using the software. The results suggested that the Kurzweil 3000 had an immediate impact on students' English word recognition. The students reported that the software made reading, writing, spelling, and pronouncing easier. They also comprehended more during their English class. Further study is needed to determine under which conditions certain hardware/software might be helpful for individuals with special learning needs.

The Accutension Stetho, an automated auscultatory device to validate automated sphygmomanometer readings in individual patients.

PubMed

Alpert, Bruce S

2018-04-06

The aim of this report is to describe a new device that can validate, by automated auscultation, individual blood pressure (BP) readings taken by automated sphygmomanometers.The Accutension Stetho utilizes a smartphone application in conjunction with a specially designed stethoscope that interfaces directly into the smartphone via the earphone jack. The Korotkoff sounds are recorded by the application and are analyzed by the operator on the screen of the smartphone simultaneously with the images from the sphygmomanometer screen during BP estimation. Current auscultatory validation standards require at least 85 subjects and strict statistical criteria for passage. A device that passes can make no guarantee of accuracy on individual patients. The Accutension Stetho is an inexpensive smartphone/stethoscope kit combination that estimates precise BP values by auscultation to confirm the accuracy of an automated sphygmomanometer's readings on individual patients. This should be of great value for both professional and, in certain circumstances, self-measurement BP. Patients will avoid both unnecessary treatment and errors of underestimation of BP, in which the patient requires therapy. The Stetho's software has been validated in an independent ANSI/AAMI/ISO standard study. The Stetho has been shown to perform without difficulty in multiple deflation-based devices by many manufacturers.

Reading Touch Screen Storybooks with Mothers Negatively Affects 7-Year-Old Readers’ Comprehension but Enriches Emotional Engagement

PubMed Central

Ross, Kirsty M.; Pye, Rachel E.; Randell, Jordan

2016-01-01

Touch screen storybooks turn reading into an interactive multimedia experience, with hotspot-activated animations, sound effects, and games. Positive and negative effects of reading multimedia stories have been reported, but the underlying mechanisms which explain how children’s learning is affected remain uncertain. The present study examined the effect of storybook format (touch screen and print) on story comprehension, and considered how level of touch screen interactivity (high and low) and shared reading behaviors (cognitive and emotional scaffolding, emotional engagement) might contribute to comprehension. Seven-year-olds (n = 22) were observed reading one touch screen storybook and one print storybook with their mothers. Story comprehension was inferior for the touch screen storybooks compared to the print formats. Touch screen interactivity level had no significant effect on comprehension but did affect shared reading behaviors. The mother–child dyads spent less time talking about the story in the highly interactive touch screen condition, despite longer shared reading sessions because of touch screen interactions. Positive emotional engagement was greater for children and mothers in the highly interactive touch screen condition, due to additional positive emotions expressed during touch screen interactions. Negative emotional engagement was greater for children when reading and talking about the story in the highly interactive condition, and some mothers demonstrated negative emotional engagement with the touch screen activities. The less interactive touch screen storybook had little effect on shared reading behaviors, but mothers controlling behaviors were more frequent. Storybook format had no effect on the frequency of mothers’ cognitive scaffolding behaviors (comprehension questions, word help). Relationships between comprehension and shared reading behaviors were examined for each storybook, and although length of the shared reading session and controlling behaviors had significant effects on comprehension, the mechanisms driving comprehension were not fully explained by the data. The potential for touch screen storybooks to contribute to cognitive overload in 7-year-old developing readers is discussed, as is the complex relationship between cognitive and emotional scaffolding behaviors, emotional engagement, and comprehension. Sample characteristics and methodological limitations are also discussed to help inform future research. PMID:27899903

The current status and portability of our sequence handling software.

PubMed Central

Staden, R

1986-01-01

I describe the current status of our sequence analysis software. The package contains a comprehensive suite of programs for managing large shotgun sequencing projects, a program containing 61 functions for analysing single sequences and a program for comparing pairs of sequences for similarity. The programs that have been described before have been improved by the addition of new functions and by being made very much easier to use. The major interactive programs have 125 pages of online help available from within them. Several new programs are described including screen editing of aligned gel readings for shotgun sequencing projects; a method to highlight errors in aligned gel readings, new methods for searching for putative signals in sequences. We use the programs on a VAX computer but the whole package has been rewritten to make it easy to transport it to other machines. I believe the programs will now run on any machine with a FORTRAN77 compiler and sufficient memory. We are currently putting the programs onto an IBM PC XT/AT and another micro running under UNIX. PMID:3511446

Curling Up With a Good E-Book: Mother-Child Shared Story Reading on Screen or Paper Affects Embodied Interaction and Warmth

PubMed Central

Yuill, Nicola; Martin, Alex F.

2016-01-01

This study compared changes in cognitive, affective, and postural aspects of interaction during shared mother and child book reading on screen and on paper. Readers commonly express strong preferences for reading on paper, but several studies have shown marginal, if any, effects of text medium on cognitive outcomes such as recall. Shared reading with a parent is an engaging, affective and embodied experience across time, as well as a cognitive task, so it is important to understand how paper vs. screen affects broader aspects of these shared experiences. Mid-childhood sees a steep rise in screen use alongside a shift from shared to independent reading. We assessed how the medium of paper or screen might alter children’s shared reading experiences at this transitional age. Twenty-four 7- to 9-year-old children and their mothers were videotaped sharing a story book for 8 min in each of four conditions: mother or child as reader, paper, or tablet screen as medium. We rated videotapes for interaction warmth and child engagement by minute and analyzed dyadic postural synchrony, mothers’ commentaries and quality of children’s recall, also interviewing participants about their experiences of reading and technology. We found no differences in recall quality but interaction warmth was lower for screen than for paper, and dropped over time, notably when children read on screen. Interactions also differed between mother-led and child-led reading. We propose that mother - child posture for paper reading supported more shared activity and argue that cultural affordances of screens, together with physical differences between devices, support different behaviors that affect shared engagement, with implications for the design and use of digital technology at home and at school. We advocate studying embodied and affective aspects of shared reading to understand the overall implications of screens in children’s transition to independent reading. PMID:28018283

Curling Up With a Good E-Book: Mother-Child Shared Story Reading on Screen or Paper Affects Embodied Interaction and Warmth.

PubMed

Yuill, Nicola; Martin, Alex F

2016-01-01

This study compared changes in cognitive, affective, and postural aspects of interaction during shared mother and child book reading on screen and on paper. Readers commonly express strong preferences for reading on paper, but several studies have shown marginal, if any, effects of text medium on cognitive outcomes such as recall. Shared reading with a parent is an engaging, affective and embodied experience across time, as well as a cognitive task, so it is important to understand how paper vs. screen affects broader aspects of these shared experiences. Mid-childhood sees a steep rise in screen use alongside a shift from shared to independent reading. We assessed how the medium of paper or screen might alter children's shared reading experiences at this transitional age. Twenty-four 7- to 9-year-old children and their mothers were videotaped sharing a story book for 8 min in each of four conditions: mother or child as reader, paper, or tablet screen as medium. We rated videotapes for interaction warmth and child engagement by minute and analyzed dyadic postural synchrony, mothers' commentaries and quality of children's recall, also interviewing participants about their experiences of reading and technology. We found no differences in recall quality but interaction warmth was lower for screen than for paper, and dropped over time, notably when children read on screen. Interactions also differed between mother-led and child-led reading. We propose that mother - child posture for paper reading supported more shared activity and argue that cultural affordances of screens, together with physical differences between devices, support different behaviors that affect shared engagement, with implications for the design and use of digital technology at home and at school. We advocate studying embodied and affective aspects of shared reading to understand the overall implications of screens in children's transition to independent reading.

Efficient radiologic reading environment by using an open-source macro program as connection software.

PubMed

Lee, Young Han

2012-01-01

The objectives are (1) to introduce an easy open-source macro program as connection software and (2) to illustrate the practical usages in radiologic reading environment by simulating the radiologic reading process. The simulation is a set of radiologic reading process to do a practical task in the radiologic reading room. The principal processes are: (1) to view radiologic images on the Picture Archiving and Communicating System (PACS), (2) to connect the HIS/EMR (Hospital Information System/Electronic Medical Record) system, (3) to make an automatic radiologic reporting system, and (4) to record and recall information of interesting cases. This simulation environment was designed by using open-source macro program as connection software. The simulation performed well on the Window-based PACS workstation. Radiologists practiced the steps of the simulation comfortably by utilizing the macro-powered radiologic environment. This macro program could automate several manual cumbersome steps in the radiologic reading process. This program successfully acts as connection software for the PACS software, EMR/HIS, spreadsheet, and other various input devices in the radiologic reading environment. A user-friendly efficient radiologic reading environment could be established by utilizing open-source macro program as connection software. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma revealed by RNA‑sequencing.

PubMed

Liu, Yao; Yang, Zhe; Du, Feng; Yang, Qiao; Hou, Jie; Yan, Xiaohong; Geng, Yi; Zhao, Yaning; Wang, Hua

2017-11-01

The present study aimed to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). RNA‑sequencing profiles GSM629264 and GSM629265, from the GSE25599 data set, were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and processed by quality evaluation. GSM629264 and GSM629265 were from HCC and adjacent non‑cancerous tissues, respectively. TopHat software was used for alignment analysis, followed by the detection of novel splicing sites. In addition, the Cufflinks software package was used to analyze gene expressions, and the Cuffdiff program was used to screen for differently expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed splicing variants. Gene ontology functional enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses of DEGs were also performed. Transcription factors (TFs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) that regulate DEGs were identified, and a protein‑protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed. The hub node in the PPI network was obtained, and the TFs and miRNAs that regulated the hub node were further predicted. The quality of the sequencing data met the standards for analysis, and the clean reads were ~65%. Most sequencing reads mapped into coding sequence exons (CDS_exons), whereas other reads mapped into exon 3' untranslated regions (UTR_Exons), 5'UTR_Exons and Introns. Upregulated and downregulated DEGs between HCC and adjacent non‑cancerous tissues were screened. Genes of differentially expressed splicing variants were identified, including vesicle‑associated membrane protein 4, phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis class C, protein disulfide isomerase family A member 4 and growth arrest specific 5. Screened DEGs were enriched in the complement pathway. In the PPI network, ubiquitin C (UBC) was the hub node. UBC was predicted to be regulated by several TFs, including specificity protein 1 (SP1), FBJ murine osteosarcoma viral oncogene homolog (FOS), proto‑oncogene c‑JUN (JUN), FOS‑like antigen 2 (FOSL2) and SWI/SNF‑related, matrix‑associated, actin‑dependent regulator of chromatin, subfamily A, member 4 (SMARCA4), and several miRNAs, including miR‑30 and miR‑181. Results from the present study demonstrated that UBC, SP1, FOS, JUN, FOSL2, SMARCA4, miR‑30 and miR‑181 may participate in the development of HCC.

The Effect of Screen Size on Mobile Phone User Comprehension of Health Information and Application Structure: An Experimental Approach.

PubMed

Al Ghamdi, Ebtisam; Yunus, Faisal; Da'ar, Omar; El-Metwally, Ashraf; Khalifa, Mohamed; Aldossari, Bakheet; Househ, Mowafa

2016-01-01

This research analyzes the impact of mobile phone screen size on user comprehension of health information and application structure. Applying experimental approach, we asked randomly selected users to read content and conduct tasks on a commonly used diabetes mobile application using three different mobile phone screen sizes. We timed and tracked a number of parameters, including correctness, effectiveness of completing tasks, content ease of reading, clarity of information organization, and comprehension. The impact of screen size on user comprehension/retention, clarity of information organization, and reading time were mixed. It is assumed on first glance that mobile screen size would affect all qualities of information reading and comprehension, including clarity of displayed information organization, reading time and user comprehension/retention of displayed information, but actually the screen size, in this experimental research, did not have significant impact on user comprehension/retention of the content or on understanding the application structure. However, it did have significant impact on clarity of information organization and reading time. Participants with larger screen size took shorter time reading the content with a significant difference in the ease of reading. While there was no significant difference in the comprehension of information or the application structures, there were a higher task completion rate and a lower number of errors with the bigger screen size. Screen size does not directly affect user comprehension of health information. However, it does affect clarity of information organization, reading time and user's ability to recall information.

Double versus single reading of mammograms in a breast cancer screening programme: a cost-consequence analysis.

PubMed

Posso, Margarita C; Puig, Teresa; Quintana, Ma Jesus; Solà-Roca, Judit; Bonfill, Xavier

2016-09-01

To assess the costs and health-related outcomes of double versus single reading of digital mammograms in a breast cancer screening programme. Based on data from 57,157 digital screening mammograms from women aged 50-69 years, we compared costs, false-positive results, positive predictive value and cancer detection rate using four reading strategies: double reading with and without consensus and arbitration, and single reading with first reader only and second reader only. Four highly trained radiologists read the mammograms. Double reading with consensus and arbitration was 15 % (Euro 334,341) more expensive than single reading with first reader only. False-positive results were more frequent at double reading with consensus and arbitration than at single reading with first reader only (4.5 % and 4.2 %, respectively; p < 0.001). The positive predictive value (9.3 % and 9.1 %; p = 0.812) and cancer detection rate were similar for both reading strategies (4.6 and 4.2 per 1000 screens; p = 0.283). Our results suggest that changing to single reading of mammograms could produce savings in breast cancer screening. Single reading could reduce the frequency of false-positive results without changing the cancer detection rate. These results are not conclusive and cannot be generalized to other contexts with less trained radiologists. • Double reading of digital mammograms is more expensive than single reading. • Compared to single reading, double reading yields a higher proportion of false-positive results. • The cancer detection rate was similar for double and single readings. • Single reading may be a cost-effective strategy in breast cancer screening programmes.

An experience of qualified preventive screening: shiraz smart screening software.

PubMed

Islami Parkoohi, Parisa; Zare, Hashem; Abdollahifard, Gholamreza

2015-01-01

Computerized preventive screening software is a cost effective intervention tool to address non-communicable chronic diseases. Shiraz Smart Screening Software (SSSS) was developed as an innovative tool for qualified screening. It allows simultaneous smart screening of several high-burden chronic diseases and supports reminder notification functionality. The extent in which SSSS affects screening quality is also described. Following software development, preventive screening and annual health examinations of 261 school staff (Medical School of Shiraz, Iran) was carried out in a software-assisted manner. To evaluate the quality of the software-assisted screening, we used quasi-experimental study design and determined coverage, irregular attendance and inappropriateness proportions in relation with the manual and software-assisted screening as well as the corresponding number of requested tests. In manual screening method, 27% of employees were covered (with 94% irregular attendance) while by software-assisted screening, the coverage proportion was 79% (attendance status will clear after the specified time). The frequency of inappropriate screening test requests, before the software implementation, was 41.37% for fasting plasma glucose, 41.37% for lipid profile, 0.84% for occult blood, 0.19% for flexible sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy, 35.29% for Pap smear, 19.20% for mammography and 11.2% for prostate specific antigen. All of the above were corrected by the software application. In total, 366 manual screening and 334 software-assisted screening tests were requested. SSSS is an innovative tool to improve the quality of preventive screening plans in terms of increased screening coverage, reduction in inappropriateness and the total number of requested tests.

Sensitivity and specificity of automated analysis of single-field non-mydriatic fundus photographs by Bosch DR Algorithm—Comparison with mydriatic fundus photography (ETDRS) for screening in undiagnosed diabetic retinopathy

PubMed Central

Bawankar, Pritam; Shanbhag, Nita; K., S. Smitha; Dhawan, Bodhraj; Palsule, Aratee; Kumar, Devesh; Chandel, Shailja

2017-01-01

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness among working-age adults. Early diagnosis through effective screening programs is likely to improve vision outcomes. The ETDRS seven-standard-field 35-mm stereoscopic color retinal imaging (ETDRS) of the dilated eye is elaborate and requires mydriasis, and is unsuitable for screening. We evaluated an image analysis application for the automated diagnosis of DR from non-mydriatic single-field images. Patients suffering from diabetes for at least 5 years were included if they were 18 years or older. Patients already diagnosed with DR were excluded. Physiologic mydriasis was achieved by placing the subjects in a dark room. Images were captured using a Bosch Mobile Eye Care fundus camera. The images were analyzed by the Retinal Imaging Bosch DR Algorithm for the diagnosis of DR. All subjects also subsequently underwent pharmacological mydriasis and ETDRS imaging. Non-mydriatic and mydriatic images were read by ophthalmologists. The ETDRS readings were used as the gold standard for calculating the sensitivity and specificity for the software. 564 consecutive subjects (1128 eyes) were recruited from six centers in India. Each subject was evaluated at a single outpatient visit. Forty-four of 1128 images (3.9%) could not be read by the algorithm, and were categorized as inconclusive. In four subjects, neither eye provided an acceptable image: these four subjects were excluded from the analysis. This left 560 subjects for analysis (1084 eyes). The algorithm correctly diagnosed 531 of 560 cases. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 91%, 97%, 94%, and 95% respectively. The Bosch DR Algorithm shows favorable sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing DR from non-mydriatic images, and can greatly simplify screening for DR. This also has major implications for telemedicine in the use of screening for retinopathy in patients with diabetes mellitus. PMID:29281690

Sensitivity and specificity of automated analysis of single-field non-mydriatic fundus photographs by Bosch DR Algorithm-Comparison with mydriatic fundus photography (ETDRS) for screening in undiagnosed diabetic retinopathy.

PubMed

Bawankar, Pritam; Shanbhag, Nita; K, S Smitha; Dhawan, Bodhraj; Palsule, Aratee; Kumar, Devesh; Chandel, Shailja; Sood, Suneet

2017-01-01

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness among working-age adults. Early diagnosis through effective screening programs is likely to improve vision outcomes. The ETDRS seven-standard-field 35-mm stereoscopic color retinal imaging (ETDRS) of the dilated eye is elaborate and requires mydriasis, and is unsuitable for screening. We evaluated an image analysis application for the automated diagnosis of DR from non-mydriatic single-field images. Patients suffering from diabetes for at least 5 years were included if they were 18 years or older. Patients already diagnosed with DR were excluded. Physiologic mydriasis was achieved by placing the subjects in a dark room. Images were captured using a Bosch Mobile Eye Care fundus camera. The images were analyzed by the Retinal Imaging Bosch DR Algorithm for the diagnosis of DR. All subjects also subsequently underwent pharmacological mydriasis and ETDRS imaging. Non-mydriatic and mydriatic images were read by ophthalmologists. The ETDRS readings were used as the gold standard for calculating the sensitivity and specificity for the software. 564 consecutive subjects (1128 eyes) were recruited from six centers in India. Each subject was evaluated at a single outpatient visit. Forty-four of 1128 images (3.9%) could not be read by the algorithm, and were categorized as inconclusive. In four subjects, neither eye provided an acceptable image: these four subjects were excluded from the analysis. This left 560 subjects for analysis (1084 eyes). The algorithm correctly diagnosed 531 of 560 cases. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 91%, 97%, 94%, and 95% respectively. The Bosch DR Algorithm shows favorable sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing DR from non-mydriatic images, and can greatly simplify screening for DR. This also has major implications for telemedicine in the use of screening for retinopathy in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Breast screening using 2D-mammography or integrating digital breast tomosynthesis (3D-mammography) for single-reading or double-reading--evidence to guide future screening strategies.

PubMed

Houssami, Nehmat; Macaskill, Petra; Bernardi, Daniela; Caumo, Francesca; Pellegrini, Marco; Brunelli, Silvia; Tuttobene, Paola; Bricolo, Paola; Fantò, Carmine; Valentini, Marvi; Ciatto, Stefano

2014-07-01

We compared detection measures for breast screening strategies comprising single-reading or double-reading using standard 2D-mammography or 2D/3D-mammography, based on the 'screening with tomosynthesis or standard mammography' (STORM) trial. STORM prospectively examined screen-reading in two sequential phases, 2D-mammography alone and integrated 2D/3D-mammography, in asymptomatic women participating in Trento and Verona (Northern Italy) population-based screening services. Outcomes were ascertained from assessment and/or excision histology or follow-up. For each screen-reading strategy we calculated the number of detected and non-detected (including interval) cancers, cancer detection rates (CDRs), false positive recall (FPR) measures and incremental CDR relative to a comparator strategy. We estimated the false:true positive (FP:TP) ratio and sensitivity of each mammography screening strategy. Paired binary data were compared using McNemar's test. Amongst 7292 screening participants, there were 65 (including six interval) breast cancers; estimated first-year interval cancer rate was 0.82/1000 screens (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.30-1.79/1000). For single-reading, 35 cancers were detected at both 2D and 2D/3D-mammography, 20 cancers were detected only with 2D/3D-mammography compared with none at 2D-mammography alone (p<0.001) and 10 cancers were not detected. For double-reading, 39 cancers were detected at 2D-mammography and 2D/3D-mammography, 20 were detected only with 2D/3D-mammography compared with none detected at 2D-mammography alone (p<0.001) and six cancers were not detected. The incremental CDR attributable to 2D/3D-mammography (versus 2D-mammography) of 2.7/1000 screens (95% CI: 1.6-4.2) was evident for single and for double-reading. Incremental CDR attributable to double-reading (versus single-reading) of 0.55/1000 screens (95% CI: -0.02-1.4) was evident for 2D-mammography and for 2D/3D-mammography. Estimated FP:TP ratios showed that 2D/3D-mammography screening strategies had more favourable FP to TP trade-off and higher sensitivity, applying single-reading or double-reading, relative to 2D-mammography screening. The evidence we report warrants rethinking of breast screening strategies and should be used to inform future evaluations of 2D/3D-mammography that assess whether or not the estimated incremental detection translates into improved screening outcomes such as a reduction in interval cancer rates. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Comprehensive automatic assessment of retinal vascular abnormalities for computer-assisted retinopathy grading.

PubMed

Joshi, Vinayak; Agurto, Carla; VanNess, Richard; Nemeth, Sheila; Soliz, Peter; Barriga, Simon

2014-01-01

One of the most important signs of systemic disease that presents on the retina is vascular abnormalities such as in hypertensive retinopathy. Manual analysis of fundus images by human readers is qualitative and lacks in accuracy, consistency and repeatability. Present semi-automatic methods for vascular evaluation are reported to increase accuracy and reduce reader variability, but require extensive reader interaction; thus limiting the software-aided efficiency. Automation thus holds a twofold promise. First, decrease variability while increasing accuracy, and second, increasing the efficiency. In this paper we propose fully automated software as a second reader system for comprehensive assessment of retinal vasculature; which aids the readers in the quantitative characterization of vessel abnormalities in fundus images. This system provides the reader with objective measures of vascular morphology such as tortuosity, branching angles, as well as highlights of areas with abnormalities such as artery-venous nicking, copper and silver wiring, and retinal emboli; in order for the reader to make a final screening decision. To test the efficacy of our system, we evaluated the change in performance of a newly certified retinal reader when grading a set of 40 color fundus images with and without the assistance of the software. The results demonstrated an improvement in reader's performance with the software assistance, in terms of accuracy of detection of vessel abnormalities, determination of retinopathy, and reading time. This system enables the reader in making computer-assisted vasculature assessment with high accuracy and consistency, at a reduced reading time.

An interactive, multi-touch videowall for scientific data exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blower, Jon; Griffiths, Guy; van Meersbergen, Maarten; Lusher, Scott; Styles, Jon

2014-05-01

The use of videowalls for scientific data exploration is rising as hardware becomes cheaper and the availability of software and multimedia content grows. Most videowalls are used primarily for outreach and communication purposes, but there is increasing interest in using large display screens to support exploratory visualization as an integral part of scientific research. In this PICO presentation we will present a brief overview of a new videowall system at the University of Reading, which is designed specifically to support interactive, exploratory visualization activities in climate science and Earth Observation. The videowall consists of eight 42-inch full-HD screens (in 4x2 formation), giving a total resolution of about 16 megapixels. The display is managed by a videowall controller, which can direct video to the screen from up to four external laptops, a purpose-built graphics workstation, or any combination thereof. A multi-touch overlay provides the capability for the user to interact directly with the data. There are many ways to use the videowall, and a key technical challenge is to make the most of the touch capabilities - touch has the potential to greatly reduce the learning curve in interactive data exploration, but most software is not yet designed for this purpose. In the PICO we will present an overview of some ways in which the wall can be employed in science, seeking feedback and discussion from the community. The system was inspired by an existing and highly-successful system (known as the "Collaboratorium") at the Netherlands e-Science Center (NLeSC). We will demonstrate how we have adapted NLeSC's visualization software to our system for touch-enabled multi-screen climate data exploration.

Is computer aided detection (CAD) cost effective in screening mammography? A model based on the CADET II study

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Single reading with computer aided detection (CAD) is an alternative to double reading for detecting cancer in screening mammograms. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the use of a single reader with CAD is more cost-effective than double reading. Methods Based on data from the CADET II study, the cost-effectiveness of single reading with CAD versus double reading was measured in terms of cost per cancer detected. Cost (Pound (£), year 2007/08) of single reading with CAD versus double reading was estimated assuming a health and social service perspective and a 7 year time horizon. As the equipment cost varies according to the unit size a separate analysis was conducted for high, average and low volume screening units. One-way sensitivity analyses were performed by varying the reading time, equipment and assessment cost, recall rate and reader qualification. Results CAD is cost increasing for all sizes of screening unit. The introduction of CAD is cost-increasing compared to double reading because the cost of CAD equipment, staff training and the higher assessment cost associated with CAD are greater than the saving in reading costs. The introduction of single reading with CAD, in place of double reading, would produce an additional cost of £227 and £253 per 1,000 women screened in high and average volume units respectively. In low volume screening units, the high cost of purchasing the equipment will results in an additional cost of £590 per 1,000 women screened. One-way sensitivity analysis showed that the factors having the greatest effect on the cost-effectiveness of CAD with single reading compared with double reading were the reading time and the reader's professional qualification (radiologist versus advanced practitioner). Conclusions Without improvements in CAD effectiveness (e.g. a decrease in the recall rate) CAD is unlikely to be a cost effective alternative to double reading for mammography screening in UK. This study provides updated estimates of CAD costs in a full-field digital system and assessment cost for women who are re-called after initial screening. However, the model is highly sensitive to various parameters e.g. reading time, reader qualification, and equipment cost. PMID:21241473

The Effect of Reading from Screen on the 5th Grade Elementary Students' Level of Reading Comprehension on Informative and Narrative Type of Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydemir, Zeynep; Öztürk, Ergün; Horzum, M. Baris

2013-01-01

Digital medias that become popular through the development of technology have given a different functionality to read write experiences. The new conceptions such as reading from screen, e-literacy, digital text etc. have gained currency. The aim of the research was determined as the effect of reading from screen upon the levels of reading…

Screen Color and Reading Performance on Closed-Circuit Television.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, R. J.

1990-01-01

To investigate whether screen color is an important variable in the prescription of closed circuit television (CCTV) systems, 16 adults with low vision were assessed on reading performance on white, green, and amber screens. When the screen luminance and contrast were equated for each CCTV, subjects' reading performance was unaffected by screen…

Reading Diagnosis via the Microcomputer (The Printout).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weisberg, Renee; Balajthy, Ernest

1989-01-01

Examines and evaluates microcomputer software designed to assist in diagnosing students' reading abilities and making instructional decisions. Claims that existing software shows valuable potential when used sensibly and critically by trained reading clinicians. (MM)

Is More Screening Better? The Relationship between Frequent Screening, Accurate Decisions, and Reading Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

VanDerHeyden, Amanda M.; Burns, Matthew K.; Bonifay, Wesley

2018-01-01

Screening is necessary to detect risk and prevent reading failure. Yet the amount of screening that commonly occurs in U.S. schools may undermine its value, creating more error in decision making and lost instructional opportunity. This 2-year longitudinal study examined the decision accuracy associated with collecting concurrent reading screening…

Automated Processing and Evaluation of Anti-Nuclear Antibody Indirect Immunofluorescence Testing.

PubMed

Ricchiuti, Vincent; Adams, Joseph; Hardy, Donna J; Katayev, Alexander; Fleming, James K

2018-01-01

Indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) is considered by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the international consensus on ANA patterns (ICAP) the gold standard for the screening of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA). As conventional IIF is labor intensive, time-consuming, subjective, and poorly standardized, there have been ongoing efforts to improve the standardization of reagents and to develop automated platforms for assay incubation, microscopy, and evaluation. In this study, the workflow and performance characteristics of a fully automated ANA IIF system (Sprinter XL, EUROPattern Suite, IFA 40: HEp-20-10 cells) were compared to a manual approach using visual microscopy with a filter device for single-well titration and to technologist reading. The Sprinter/EUROPattern system enabled the processing of large daily workload cohorts in less than 8 h and the reduction of labor hands-on time by more than 4 h. Regarding the discrimination of positive from negative samples, the overall agreement of the EUROPattern software with technologist reading was higher (95.6%) than when compared to the current method (89.4%). Moreover, the software was consistent with technologist reading in 80.6-97.5% of patterns and 71.0-93.8% of titers. In conclusion, the Sprinter/EUROPattern system provides substantial labor savings and good concordance with technologist ANA IIF microscopy, thus increasing standardization, laboratory efficiency, and removing subjectivity.

Automated Processing and Evaluation of Anti-Nuclear Antibody Indirect Immunofluorescence Testing

PubMed Central

Ricchiuti, Vincent; Adams, Joseph; Hardy, Donna J.; Katayev, Alexander; Fleming, James K.

2018-01-01

Indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) is considered by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the international consensus on ANA patterns (ICAP) the gold standard for the screening of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA). As conventional IIF is labor intensive, time-consuming, subjective, and poorly standardized, there have been ongoing efforts to improve the standardization of reagents and to develop automated platforms for assay incubation, microscopy, and evaluation. In this study, the workflow and performance characteristics of a fully automated ANA IIF system (Sprinter XL, EUROPattern Suite, IFA 40: HEp-20-10 cells) were compared to a manual approach using visual microscopy with a filter device for single-well titration and to technologist reading. The Sprinter/EUROPattern system enabled the processing of large daily workload cohorts in less than 8 h and the reduction of labor hands-on time by more than 4 h. Regarding the discrimination of positive from negative samples, the overall agreement of the EUROPattern software with technologist reading was higher (95.6%) than when compared to the current method (89.4%). Moreover, the software was consistent with technologist reading in 80.6–97.5% of patterns and 71.0–93.8% of titers. In conclusion, the Sprinter/EUROPattern system provides substantial labor savings and good concordance with technologist ANA IIF microscopy, thus increasing standardization, laboratory efficiency, and removing subjectivity. PMID:29780386

Cost-Effectiveness of Double Reading versus Single Reading of Mammograms in a Breast Cancer Screening Programme

PubMed Central

Posso, Margarita; Carles, Misericòrdia; Rué, Montserrat; Puig, Teresa; Bonfill, Xavier

2016-01-01

Objectives The usual practice in breast cancer screening programmes for mammogram interpretation is to perform double reading. However, little is known about its cost-effectiveness in the context of digital mammography. Our purpose was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of double reading versus single reading of digital mammograms in a population-based breast cancer screening programme. Methods Data from 28,636 screened women was used to establish a decision-tree model and to compare three strategies: 1) double reading; 2) double reading for women in their first participation and single reading for women in their subsequent participations; and 3) single reading. We calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER), which was defined as the expected cost per one additionally detected cancer. We performed a deterministic sensitivity analysis to test the robustness of the ICER. Results The detection rate of double reading (5.17‰) was similar to that of single reading (4.78‰; P = .768). The mean cost of each detected cancer was €8,912 for double reading and €8,287 for single reading. The ICER of double reading versus single reading was €16,684. The sensitivity analysis showed variations in the ICER according to the sensitivity of reading strategies. The strategy that combines double reading in first participation with single reading in subsequent participations was ruled out due to extended dominance. Conclusions From our results, double reading appears not to be a cost-effective strategy in the context of digital mammography. Double reading would eventually be challenged in screening programmes, as single reading might entail important net savings without significantly changing the cancer detection rate. These results are not conclusive and should be confirmed in prospective studies that investigate long-term outcomes like quality adjusted life years (QALYs). PMID:27459663

Equivalence of Screen versus Print Reading Comprehension Depends on Task Complexity and Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenhard, Wolfgang; Schroeders, Ulrich; Lenhard, Alexandra

2017-01-01

As reading and reading assessment become increasingly implemented on electronic devices, the question arises whether reading on screen is comparable with reading on paper. To examine potential differences, we studied reading processes on different proficiency and complexity levels. Specifically, we used data from the standardization sample of the…

Student Reading Achievement on the Rise: Integration of Classworks Software with Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Janice L.

2014-01-01

The purpose of the study was to test the theoretical perspective that related Classworks (2008) technology to reading achievement of fourth grade students to determine if a significant difference existed in student reading achievement between the supplemental uses of Classworks software reading program to that of standard classroom instruction.…

Enhanced Recognition of Written Words and Enjoyment of Reading in Struggling Beginner Readers through Whole-Word Multimedia Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karemaker, Arjette; Pitchford, Nicola J.; O'Malley, Claire

2010-01-01

The effectiveness of a reading intervention using the whole-word multimedia software "Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) for Clicker" was compared to a reading intervention using traditional ORT Big Books. Developing literacy skills and attitudes towards learning to read were assessed in a group of 17 struggling beginner readers aged 5-6 years. Each child…

An Evaluation of the Merit Reading Software Program in the Calhoun County (WV) Middle/High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Jerry D.; Staats, William D.; Bowling, Noel; Bickel, Robert D.; Cunningham, Michael L.; Cadle, Connie

2005-01-01

We were asked by Merit Software to conduct a quasi-experimental research study to evaluate the effects of its reading software on middle school students. Because the No Child Left Behind Act emphasizes the importance of evidence-based interventions and has set improving students reading comprehension as a goal, we agreed to take on this project.…

The Effect of All-Capital vs. Regular Mixed Print, as Presented on a Computer Screen, on Reading Rate and Accuracy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henney, Maribeth

Two related studies were conducted to determine whether students read all-capital text and mixed text displayed on a computer screen with the same speed and accuracy. Seventy-seven college students read M. A. Tinker's "Basic Reading Rate Test" displayed on a PLATO computer screen. One treatment consisted of paragraphs in all-capital type…

The time course of cancer detection performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor-Phillips, Sian; Clarke, Aileen; Wallis, Matthew; Wheaton, Margot; Duncan, Alison; Gale, Alastair G.

2011-03-01

The purpose of this study was to measure how mammography readers' performance varies with time of day and time spent reading. This was investigated in screening practice and when reading an enriched case set. In screening practice records of time and date that each case was read, along with outcome (whether the woman was recalled for further tests, and biopsy results where performed) was extracted from records from one breast screening centre in UK (4 readers). Patterns of performance with time spent reading was also measured using an enriched test set (160 cases, 41% malignant, read three times by eight radiologists). Recall rates varied with time of day, with different patterns for each reader. Recall rates decreased as the reading session progressed both when reading the enriched test set and in screening practice. Further work is needed to expand this work to a greater number of breast screening centres, and to determine whether these patterns of performance over time can be used to optimize overall performance.

A parallel and sensitive software tool for methylation analysis on multicore platforms.

PubMed

Tárraga, Joaquín; Pérez, Mariano; Orduña, Juan M; Duato, José; Medina, Ignacio; Dopazo, Joaquín

2015-10-01

DNA methylation analysis suffers from very long processing time, as the advent of Next-Generation Sequencers has shifted the bottleneck of genomic studies from the sequencers that obtain the DNA samples to the software that performs the analysis of these samples. The existing software for methylation analysis does not seem to scale efficiently neither with the size of the dataset nor with the length of the reads to be analyzed. As it is expected that the sequencers will provide longer and longer reads in the near future, efficient and scalable methylation software should be developed. We present a new software tool, called HPG-Methyl, which efficiently maps bisulphite sequencing reads on DNA, analyzing DNA methylation. The strategy used by this software consists of leveraging the speed of the Burrows-Wheeler Transform to map a large number of DNA fragments (reads) rapidly, as well as the accuracy of the Smith-Waterman algorithm, which is exclusively employed to deal with the most ambiguous and shortest reads. Experimental results on platforms with Intel multicore processors show that HPG-Methyl significantly outperforms in both execution time and sensitivity state-of-the-art software such as Bismark, BS-Seeker or BSMAP, particularly for long bisulphite reads. Software in the form of C libraries and functions, together with instructions to compile and execute this software. Available by sftp to anonymous@clariano.uv.es (password 'anonymous'). juan.orduna@uv.es or jdopazo@cipf.es. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

CALIPSO Data Read Software

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2018-06-14

  CALIPSO Data Read Software Callable routines in Interactive Data Language (IDL) provide basic read access to CALIPSO science data files. ... Release 4.30  (PDF) Standard Data Sets: LIDAR L1:  CAL_LID_L1-Standard-V4-10 LIDAR L2: ...

Portable Electromyograph

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

De Luca, Gianluca; De Luca, Carlo J.; Bergman, Per

2004-01-01

A portable electronic apparatus records electromyographic (EMG) signals in as many as 16 channels at a sampling rate of 1,024 Hz in each channel. The apparatus (see figure) includes 16 differential EMG electrodes (each electrode corresponding to one channel) with cables and attachment hardware, reference electrodes, an input/output-and-power-adapter unit, a 16-bit analog-to-digital converter, and a hand-held computer that contains a removable 256-MB flash memory card. When all 16 EMG electrodes are in use, full-bandwidth data can be recorded in each channel for as long as 8 hours. The apparatus is powered by a battery and is small enough that it can be carried in a waist pouch. The computer is equipped with a small screen that can be used to display the incoming signals on each channel. Amplitude and time adjustments of this display can be made easily by use of touch buttons on the screen. The user can also set up a data-acquisition schedule to conform to experimental protocols or to manage battery energy and memory efficiently. Once the EMG data have been recorded, the flash memory card is removed from the EMG apparatus and placed in a flash-memory- card-reading external drive unit connected to a personal computer (PC). The PC can then read the data recorded in the 16 channels. Preferably, before further analysis, the data should be stored in the hard drive of the PC. The data files are opened and viewed on the PC by use of special- purpose software. The software for operation of the apparatus resides in a random-access memory (RAM), with backup power supplied by a small internal lithium cell. A backup copy of this software resides on the flash memory card. In the event of loss of both main and backup battery power and consequent loss of this software, the backup copy can be used to restore the RAM copy after power has been restored. Accessories for this device are also available. These include goniometers, accelerometers, foot switches, and force gauges.

The social disutility of software ownership.

PubMed

Douglas, David M

2011-09-01

Software ownership allows the owner to restrict the distribution of software and to prevent others from reading the software's source code and building upon it. However, free software is released to users under software licenses that give them the right to read the source code, modify it, reuse it, and distribute the software to others. Proponents of free software such as Richard M. Stallman and Eben Moglen argue that the social disutility of software ownership is a sufficient justification for prohibiting it. This social disutility includes the social instability of disregarding laws and agreements covering software use and distribution, inequality of software access, and the inability to help others by sharing software with them. Here I consider these and other social disutility claims against withholding specific software rights from users, in particular, the rights to read the source code, duplicate, distribute, modify, imitate, and reuse portions of the software within new programs. I find that generally while withholding these rights from software users does cause some degree of social disutility, only the rights to duplicate, modify and imitate cannot legitimately be denied to users on this basis. The social disutility of withholding the rights to distribute the software, read its source code and reuse portions of it in new programs is insufficient to prohibit software owners from denying them to users. A compromise between the software owner and user can minimise the social disutility of withholding these particular rights from users. However, the social disutility caused by software patents is sufficient for rejecting such patents as they restrict the methods of reducing social disutility possible with other forms of software ownership.

Automatic Digital Analysis of Chromogenic Media for Vancomycin-Resistant-Enterococcus Screens Using Copan WASPLab

PubMed Central

Faron, Matthew L.; Coon, Christopher; Liebregts, Theo; van Bree, Anita; Jansz, Arjan R.; Soucy, Genevieve; Korver, John

2016-01-01

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are an important cause of health care-acquired infections (HAIs). Studies have shown that active surveillance of high-risk patients for VRE colonization can aid in reducing HAIs; however, these screens generate a significant cost to the laboratory and health care system. Digital imaging capable of differentiating negative and “nonnegative” chromogenic agar can reduce the labor cost of these screens and potentially improve patient care. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the WASPLab Chromogenic Detection Module (CDM) (Copan, Brescia, Italy) software to analyze VRE chromogenic agar and compared the results to technologist plate reading. Specimens collected at 3 laboratories were cultured using the WASPLab CDM and plated to each site's standard-of-care chromogenic media, which included Colorex VRE (BioMed Diagnostics, White City, OR) or Oxoid VRE (Oxoid, Basingstoke, United Kingdom). Digital images were scored using the CDM software after 24 or 40 h of growth, and all manual reading was performed using digital images on a high-definition (HD) monitor. In total, 104,730 specimens were enrolled and automation agreed with manual analysis for 90.1% of all specimens tested, with sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 89.5%, respectively. Automation results were discordant for 10,348 specimens, and all discordant images were reviewed by a laboratory supervisor or director. After a second review, 499 specimens were identified as representing missed positive cultures falsely called negative by the technologist, 1,616 were identified as containing borderline color results (negative result but with no package insert color visible), and 8,234 specimens were identified as containing colorimetric pigmentation due to residual matrix from the specimen or yeast (Candida). Overall, the CDM was accurate at identifying negative VRE plates, which comprised 84% (87,973) of the specimens in this study. PMID:27413193

Tests Screening Reading Difficulty in Malayalam among Upper Primary School Boys

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gafoor, K. Abdul

2014-01-01

Design of a screening test for identifying reading difficult students in Malayalam and validation thereof among boys is made to help schools proactively intervene with such students. A battery of tests developed based on extant literature on screening tests, reviewed difficulties in reading Malayalam, and discrimination power of the draft tests is…

Benefits of double reading of screening mammograms: retrospective study on a consecutive series.

PubMed

Caumo, F; Brunelli, S; Zorzi, M; Baglio, I; Ciatto, S; Montemezzi, S

2011-06-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the performance of delayed second reading of screening mammograms when added to real-time reading plus immediate assessment. The study setting was the mammography screening programme of an Italian Local Health Unit. Recall rate and cancer detection rate at first reading or informed second reading only were assessed in a cohort of 23,629 women aged 50-69 years screened during 2007-2008. Incremental recall rate, incremental cancer detection rate and incremental cost of second reading were determined. Recall rate was 13.0% at first and 2.7% at second reading (incremental recall rate +21.1%). Overall, recalls were more frequent in the younger decade and in the presence of denser breasts. Cancer detection rate was 7.06‰ (n=167) at first and 0.93‰ (n=22) at second reading (incremental cancer detection rate +13.1%). Compared with first reading, second reading detected more cancers depicted as isolated microcalcifications and distortions (40.9% vs. 16.2%, p=0.02) and at a lower stage (stage 0-I 81.8% vs. 69.5%, p=0.34). The cost of adding delayed second reading was + 3.65 per screened individual or 3,926.61 per incremental cancer detected. The study confirms the efficacy of second reading, even as an adjunct to real-time single reading plus immediate assessment. Incremental recall rate is acceptable in view of the incremental cancer detection rate, and both figures are within the range of literature reports on double-reading performance.

Comparing the Impact of Rates of Text-to-Speech Software on Reading Fluency and Comprehension for Adults with Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coleman, Mari Beth; Killdare, Laura K.; Bell, Sherry Mee; Carter, Amanda M.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of text-to-speech software on reading fluency and comprehension for four postsecondary students with below average reading fluency and comprehension including three students diagnosed with learning disabilities and concomitant conditions (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, seizure…

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of double reading in digital mammography screening: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Posso, Margarita; Puig, Teresa; Carles, Misericòrdia; Rué, Montserrat; Canelo-Aybar, Carlos; Bonfill, Xavier

2017-11-01

Double reading is the strategy of choice for mammogram interpretation in screening programmes. It remains, however, unknown whether double reading is still the strategy of choice in the context of digital mammography. Our aim was to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of double reading versus single reading of digital mammograms in screening programmes. We performed a systematic review by searching the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases up to April 2017. We used the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies) tool and CHEERS (Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards) checklist to assess the methodological quality of the diagnostic studies and economic evaluations, respectively. A proportion's meta-analysis approach, 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) and test of heterogeneity (P values) were used for pooled results. Costs are expressed US$ PPP (United States Dollar purchasing power parities). The PROSPERO ID of this Systematic Review's protocol is CRD42014013804. Of 1473 potentially relevant hits, four high-quality studies were included. The pooled cancer detection rate of double reading was 6.01 per 1000 screens (CI: 4.47‰-7.77‰), and it was 5.65 per 1000 screens (CI: 3.95‰-7.65‰) for single reading (P=0.76). The pooled proportion of false-positives of double reading was 47.03 per 1000 screens (CI: 39.13‰-55.62‰) and it was 40.60 per 1000 screens (CI: 38.58‰-42.67‰) for single reading (P=0.12). One study reported, for double reading, an ICER (Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio) of 16,684 Euros (24,717 US$ PPP; 2015 value) per detected cancer. Single reading+CAD (computer-aided-detection) was cost-effective in Japan. The evidence of benefit for double reading compared to single reading for digital mammography interpretation is scarce. Double reading seems to increase operational costs, have a not significantly higher false-positive rate, and a similar cancer detection rate. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

31 CFR 560.538 - Authorized transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to publishing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... publication in electronic format, the addition of embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching the written publication; (ii) Exporting embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching a written publication in electronic format, provided that the software...

31 CFR 560.538 - Authorized transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to publishing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... publication in electronic format, the addition of embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching the written publication; (ii) Exporting embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching a written publication in electronic format, provided that the software...

Microcomputers in the Curriculum: Micros and the First R.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest; Reinking, David

1985-01-01

Introduces the range of computer software currently available to aid in developing children's basic skills in reading, including programs for reading readiness, word recognition, vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and learning motivation. Additional information on software and computer use is provided in sidebars by Gwen Solomon and…

Teaching with Technology: Literature and Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Denise

1994-01-01

Reviews five computer programs and compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) products designed to improve students' reading and problem-solving skills: (1) "Reading Realities" (Teacher Support Software); (2) "Kid Rhymes" (Creative Pursuits); (3) "First-Start Biographies" (Troll Associates); (4) "My Silly CD of ABCs" (Discis Classroom Editions); and…

Reading and Studying on the Screen: An Overview of Literature towards Good Learning Design Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nichols, Mark

2016-01-01

As distance education moves increasingly towards online provision, and because of the benefits provided by online approaches, students will be expected to engage with more resources available on screen. Contemporary forms of reading from the screen include reading from tablet devices, LCD monitors, and smartphones. However, print remains the…

Identifying At-Risk Students for Early Reading Intervention: Challenges and Possible Solutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McAlenney, Athena Lentini; Coyne, Michael D.

2011-01-01

Accurate identification of at-risk kindergarten and 1st-grade students through early reading screening is an essential element of responsiveness to intervention models of reading instruction. The authors consider predictive validity and classification accuracy of early reading screening assessments with attention to sensitivity and specificity.…

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Debono, Josephine C, E-mail: josephine.debono@bci.org.au; Poulos, Ann E; Houssami, Nehmat

This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of radiographers’ screen-reading mammograms. Currently, radiologist workforce shortages may be compromising the BreastScreen Australia screening program goal to detect early breast cancer. The solution to a similar problem in the United Kingdom has successfully encouraged radiographers to take on the role as one of two screen-readers. Prior to consideration of this strategy in Australia, educational and experiential differences between radiographers in the United Kingdom and Australia emphasise the need for an investigation of Australian radiographers’ screen-reading accuracy. Ten radiographers employed by the Westmead Breast Cancer Institute with a range of radiographic (median =more » 28 years), mammographic (median = 13 years) and BreastScreen (median = 8 years) experience were recruited to blindly and independently screen-read an image test set of 500 mammograms, without formal training. The radiographers indicated the presence of an abnormality using BI-RADS®. Accuracy was determined by comparison with the gold standard of known outcomes of pathology results, interval matching and client 6-year follow-up. Individual sensitivity and specificity levels ranged between 76.0% and 92.0%, and 74.8% and 96.2% respectively. Pooled screen-reader accuracy across the radiographers estimated sensitivity as 82.2% and specificity as 89.5%. Areas under the reading operating characteristic curve ranged between 0.842 and 0.923. This sample of radiographers in an Australian setting have adequate accuracy levels when screen-reading mammograms. It is expected that with formal screen-reading training, accuracy levels will improve, and with support, radiographers have the potential to be one of the two screen-readers in the BreastScreen Australia program, contributing to timeliness and improved program outcomes.« less

Digitized molecular diagnostics: reading disk-based bioassays with standard computer drives.

PubMed

Li, Yunchao; Ou, Lily M L; Yu, Hua-Zhong

2008-11-01

We report herein a digital signal readout protocol for screening disk-based bioassays with standard optical drives of ordinary desktop/notebook computers. Three different types of biochemical recognition reactions (biotin-streptavidin binding, DNA hybridization, and protein-protein interaction) were performed directly on a compact disk in a line array format with the help of microfluidic channel plates. Being well-correlated with the optical darkness of the binding sites (after signal enhancement by gold nanoparticle-promoted autometallography), the reading error levels of prerecorded audio files can serve as a quantitative measure of biochemical interaction. This novel readout protocol is about 1 order of magnitude more sensitive than fluorescence labeling/scanning and has the capability of examining multiplex microassays on the same disk. Because no modification to either hardware or software is needed, it promises a platform technology for rapid, low-cost, and high-throughput point-of-care biomedical diagnostics.

ABMapper: a suffix array-based tool for multi-location searching and splice-junction mapping.

PubMed

Lou, Shao-Ke; Ni, Bing; Lo, Leung-Yau; Tsui, Stephen Kwok-Wing; Chan, Ting-Fung; Leung, Kwong-Sak

2011-02-01

Sequencing reads generated by RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) must first be mapped back to the genome through alignment before they can be further analyzed. Current fast and memory-saving short-read mappers could give us a quick view of the transcriptome. However, they are neither designed for reads that span across splice junctions nor for repetitive reads, which can be mapped to multiple locations in the genome (multi-reads). Here, we describe a new software package: ABMapper, which is specifically designed for exploring all putative locations of reads that are mapped to splice junctions or repetitive in nature. The software is freely available at: http://abmapper.sourceforge.net/. The software is written in C++ and PERL. It runs on all major platforms and operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X and LINUX.

Computerized trainings in four groups of struggling readers: Specific effects on word reading and comprehension.

PubMed

Potocki, Anna; Magnan, Annie; Ecalle, Jean

2015-01-01

Four groups of poor readers were identified among a population of students with learning disabilities attending a special class in secondary school: normal readers; specific poor decoders; specific poor comprehenders, and general poor readers (deficits in both decoding and comprehension). These students were then trained with a software program designed to encourage either their word decoding skills or their text comprehension skills. After 5 weeks of training, we observed that the students experiencing word reading deficits and trained with the decoding software improved primarily in the reading fluency task while those exhibiting comprehension deficits and trained with the comprehension software showed improved performance in listening and reading comprehension. But interestingly, the latter software also led to improved performance on the word recognition task. This result suggests that, for these students, training interventions focused at the text level and its comprehension might be more beneficial for reading in general (i.e., for the two components of reading) than word-level decoding trainings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reading on Paper and Screen among Senior Adults: Cognitive Map and Technophobia

PubMed Central

Hou, Jinghui; Wu, Yijie; Harrell, Erin

2017-01-01

While the senior population has been increasingly engaged with reading on mobile technologies, research that specifically documents the impact of technologies on reading for this age group has still been lacking. The present study investigated how different reading media (screen versus paper) might result in different reading outcomes among older adults due to both cognitive and psychological factors. Using a laboratory experiment with 81participants aged 57 to 85, our results supported past research and showed the influence of cognitive map formation on readers’ feelings of fatigue. We contributed empirical evidence to the contention that reading on a screen could match that of reading from paper if the presentation of the text on screen resemble that of the print. Our findings also suggested that individual levels of technophobia was an important barrier to older adults’ effective use of mobile technologies for reading. In the post hoc analyses, we further showed that technophobia was correlated with technology experience, certain personality traits, and age. The present study highlights the importance of providing tailored support that helps older adults overcome psychological obstacles in using technologies. PMID:29312073

Mammography screening using independent double reading with consensus: is there a potential benefit for computer-aided detection?

PubMed

Skaane, Per; Kshirsagar, Ashwini; Hofvind, Solveig; Jahr, Gunnar; Castellino, Ronald A

2012-04-01

Double reading improves the cancer detection rate in mammography screening. Single reading with computer-aided detection (CAD) has been considered to be an alternative to double reading. Little is known about the potential benefit of CAD in breast cancer screening with double reading. To compare prospective independent double reading of screen-film (SFM) and full-field digital (FFDM) mammography in population-based screening with retrospective standalone CAD performance on the baseline mammograms of the screen-detected cancers and subsequent cancers diagnosed during the follow-up period. The study had ethics committee approval. A 5-point rating scale for probability of cancer was used for 23,923 (SFM = 16,983; FFDM = 6940) screening mammograms. Of 208 evaluable cancers, 104 were screen-detected and 104 were subsequent (44 interval and 60 next screening round) cancers. Baseline mammograms of subsequent cancers were retrospectively classified in consensus without information about cancer location, histology, or CAD prompting as normal, non-specific minimal signs, significant minimal signs, and false-negatives. The baseline mammograms of the screen-detected cancers and subsequent cancers were evaluated by CAD. Significant minimal signs and false-negatives were considered 'actionable' and potentially diagnosable if correctly prompted by CAD. CAD correctly marked 94% (98/104) of the baseline mammograms of the screen-detected cancers (SFM = 95% [61/64]; FFDM = 93% [37/40]), including 96% (23/24) of those with discordant interpretations. Considering only those baseline examinations of subsequent cancers prospectively interpreted as normal and retrospectively categorized as 'actionable', CAD input at baseline screening had the potential to increase the cancer detection rate from 0.43% to 0.51% (P = 0.13); and to increase cancer detection by 16% ([104 + 17]/104) and decrease interval cancers by 20% (from 44 to 35). CAD may have the potential to increase cancer detection by up to 16%, and to reduce the number of interval cancers by up to 20% in SFM and FFDM screening programs using independent double reading with consensus review. The influence of true- and false-positive CAD marks on decision-making can, however, only be evaluated in a prospective clinical study.

Development of an automated film-reading system for ballistic ranges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yates, Leslie A.

1992-01-01

Software for an automated film-reading system that uses personal computers and digitized shadowgraphs is described. The software identifies pixels associated with fiducial-line and model images, and least-squares procedures are used to calculate the positions and orientations of the images. Automated position and orientation readings for sphere and cone models are compared to those obtained using a manual film reader. When facility calibration errors are removed from these readings, the accuracy of the automated readings is better than the pixel resolution, and it is equal to, or better than, the manual readings. The effects of film-reading and facility-calibration errors on calculated aerodynamic coefficients is discussed.

Effect of Screen Reading and Reading from Printed Out Material on Student Success and Permanency in Introduction to Computer Lesson

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuncer, Murat; Bahadir, Ferdi

2014-01-01

In this study, the effect of screen reading and reading from printed out material on student success and permanency in Introduction to Computer Lesson is investigated. Study group of the research consists of 78 freshman students registered in Erzincan University Refahiye Vocational School Post Service department. Study groups of research consist…

Improved accuracy in ground-based facilities - Development of an automated film-reading system for ballistic ranges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yates, Leslie A.

1992-01-01

Software for an automated film-reading system that uses personal computers and digitized shadowgraphs is described. The software identifies pixels associated with fiducial-line and model images, and least-squares procedures are used to calculate the positions and orientations of the images. Automated position and orientation readings for sphere and cone models are compared to those obtained using a manual film reader. When facility calibration errors are removed from these readings, the accuracy of the automated readings is better than the pixel resolution, and it is equal to, or better than, the manual readings. The effects of film-reading and facility-calibration errors on calculated aerodynamic coefficients is discussed.

The Stickybear Reading Comprehension Series: Science. School Version with Lesson Plans for Ages 7-10. Volume 1. Stickybear Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

1996

This software product presents multi-level stories to capture the interest of children in grades two through five, while teaching them crucial reading comprehension skills. With stories touching on everything from the invention of velcro to the journey of food through the digestive system, the open-ended reading comprehension program is versatile…

Paired split-plot designs of multireader multicase studies.

PubMed

Chen, Weijie; Gong, Qi; Gallas, Brandon D

2018-07-01

The widely used multireader multicase ROC study design for comparing imaging modalities is the fully crossed (FC) design: every reader reads every case of both modalities. We investigate paired split-plot (PSP) designs that may allow for reduced cost and increased flexibility compared with the FC design. In the PSP design, case images from two modalities are read by the same readers, thereby the readings are paired across modalities. However, within each modality, not every reader reads every case. Instead, both the readers and the cases are partitioned into a fixed number of groups and each group of readers reads its own group of cases-a split-plot design. Using a [Formula: see text]-statistic based variance analysis for AUC (i.e., area under the ROC curve), we show analytically that precision can be gained by the PSP design as compared with the FC design with the same number of readers and readings. Equivalently, we show that the PSP design can achieve the same statistical power as the FC design with a reduced number of readings. The trade-off for the increased precision in the PSP design is the cost of collecting a larger number of truth-verified patient cases than the FC design. This means that one can trade-off between different sources of cost and choose a least burdensome design. We provide a validation study to show the iMRMC software can be reliably used for analyzing data from both FC and PSP designs. Finally, we demonstrate the advantages of the PSP design with a reader study comparing full-field digital mammography with screen-film mammography.

The Effects of Reading from the Screen on the Reading Motivation Levels of Elementary 5th Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydemir, Zeynep; Ozturk, Ergun

2012-01-01

This study aims to explore the effects of reading from the screen on elementary 5th grade students' reading motivation levels. It used the randomized control-group pretest-posttest model, which is a true experimental design. The study group consisted of 60 students, 30 experimental and 30 control, who were attending the 5th grade of a public…

The Kindergarten Auditory Screening Test as a Predictor of Reading Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Margolis, Howard

1976-01-01

Correlation coefficients were obtained between the Kindergarten Auditory Screening Test (KAST), the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT), and the Gates MacGinitie Reading Tests, Primary Form (GMRT). Neither the coefficients obtained nor an examination of extreme groups indicated that the KAST was an effective predictor of reading disability. (Author)

The Stickybear Reading Comprehension Series: Sports. School Version with Lesson Plans. For Ages 7-10. Volume 2. Stickybear Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

1996

This software product presents multi-level stories to capture the interest of children in grades two through five, while teaching them crucial reading comprehension skills. With stories touching on everything from superstars to sports facts, the open-ended reading comprehension program is versatile and easy to use for educators and children alike.…

Assessment of replicate bias in 454 pyrosequencing and a multi-purpose read-filtering tool.

PubMed

Jérôme, Mariette; Noirot, Céline; Klopp, Christophe

2011-05-26

Roche 454 pyrosequencing platform is often considered the most versatile of the Next Generation Sequencing technology platforms, permitting the sequencing of large genomes, the analysis of variations or the study of transcriptomes. A recent reported bias leads to the production of multiple reads for a unique DNA fragment in a random manner within a run. This bias has a direct impact on the quality of the measurement of the representation of the fragments using the reads. Other cleaning steps are usually performed on the reads before assembly or alignment. PyroCleaner is a software module intended to clean 454 pyrosequencing reads in order to ease the assembly process. This program is a free software and is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. It implements several filters using criteria such as read duplication, length, complexity, base-pair quality and number of undetermined bases. It also permits to clean flowgram files (.sff) of paired-end sequences generating on one hand validated paired-ends file and the other hand single read file. Read cleaning has always been an important step in sequence analysis. The pyrocleaner python module is a Swiss knife dedicated to 454 reads cleaning. It includes commonly used filters as well as specialised ones such as duplicated read removal and paired-end read verification.

The role of sustained attention and display medium in reading comprehension among adolescents with ADHD and without it.

PubMed

Stern, Pnina; Shalev, Lilach

2013-01-01

Difficulties in reading comprehension are common in children and adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The current study aimed at investigating the relation between sustained attention and reading comprehension among adolescents with and without ADHD. Another goal was to examine the impact of two manipulations of the text on the efficiency of reading comprehension: Spacing (standard- vs. double-spacing) and Type of presentation (computer screen vs. hard copy). Reading comprehension of two groups of adolescents (participants with ADHD and normal controls) was assessed and compared in four different conditions (standard printed, spaced printed, standard on computer screen, spaced on computer screen). In addition, participants completed a visual sustained attention task. Significant differences in reading comprehension and in sustained attention were obtained between the two groups. Also, a significant correlation was obtained between sustained attention and reading comprehension. Moreover, a significant interaction was revealed between presentation-type, spacing and level of sustained attention on reading comprehension. Implications for reading intervention and the importance of early assessment of attention functioning are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How Well Do They Read? Brief English and French Screening Tools for College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fichten, Catherine S.; Nguyen, Mai N.; King, Laura; Havel, Alice; Mimouni, Zohra; Barile, Maria; Budd, Jillian; Jorgensen, Shirley; Chauvin, Alexandre; Gutberg, Jennifer

2014-01-01

We translated and report on the psychometric properties of English and French versions of two reading difficulties screening tools for junior/community college students. We administered the Adult Reading History Questionnaire-Revised (ARHQ-R) (Parrila, Georgiou, & Corkett, 2007) to 1889 students enrolled in compulsory language courses in…

Read Naturally[R]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2010

2010-01-01

"Read Naturally"[R] is an elementary and middle school supplemental reading program designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audiotapes, and computer software. The program has three main strategies: repeated reading of text for developing oral reading fluency, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic…

Assessing the Content and Quality of Commercially Available Reading Software Programs: Do They Have the Fundamental Structures to Promote the Development of Early Reading Skills in Children?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grant, Amy; Wood, Eileen; Gottardo, Alexandra; Evans, Mary Ann; Phillips, Linda; Savage, Robert

2012-01-01

The current study developed a taxonomy of reading skills and compared this taxonomy with skills being trained in 30 commercially available software programs designed to teach emergent literacy or literacy-specific skills for children in preschool, kindergarten, and Grade 1. Outcomes suggest that, although some skills are being trained in a…

Changing case Order to Optimise patterns of Performance in mammography Screening (CO-OPS): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background X-ray mammography remains the predominant test for screening for breast cancer, with the aim of reducing breast cancer mortality. In the English NHS Breast Screening Programme each woman’s mammograms are examined separately by two expert readers. The two readers read each batch in the same order and each indicates if there should be recall for further tests. This is a highly skilled, pressurised, repetitive and frequently intellectually unchallenging activity where readers examine one or more batches of 30–50 women’s mammograms in each session. A vigilance decrement or performance decrease over time has been observed in similar repetitive visual tasks such as radar operation. Methods/Design The CO-OPS study is a pragmatic, multi-centre, two-arm, double blind cluster randomised controlled trial of a computer software intervention designed to reduce the effects of a vigilance decrement in breast cancer screening. The unit of randomisation is the batch. Intervention batches will be examined in the opposite order by the two readers (one forwards, one backwards). Control batches will be read in the same order as one another, as is current standard practice. The hypothesis is that cancer detection rates will be higher in the intervention group because each readers’ peak performance will occur when examining different women’s mammograms. The trial will take place in 44 English breast screening centres for 1 year and 4 months. The primary outcome is cancer detection rate, which will be extracted from computer records after 1 year of the trial. The secondary outcomes include rate of disagreement between readers (a more statistically powerful surrogate for cancer detection rate), recall rate, positive predictive value, and interval cancer rate (cancers found between screening rounds which will be measured three years after the end of the trial). Discussion This is the first trial of an intervention to ameliorate a vigilance decrement in breast cancer screening. Trial registration ISRCTN46603370 (submitted: 24 October 2012, date of registration: 26 March 2013). PMID:24411004

Technology in the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gladhart, Marsha A.

1994-01-01

Reviews two computer software programs for children: (1) "Ready, Set, Read with Bananas and Jack" (Sierra Discovery Series), available for Windows or Macintosh systems, which uses animation and sound to teach early reading skills; and (2) "Word Connection" (Action Software), a Macintosh program that creates word puzzles. (MDM)

Teaching with Technology. Software That's Right for You.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Denise

1995-01-01

Recommends software to help teachers plan curriculum in the areas of comprehensive language arts ("Cornerstone"); writing and information ("Keroppi Day Hopper"); creative writing and imagination ("Imagination Express"); reading ("Jo-Jo's Reading Circus"); math ("Careers in Math: From Architects to Astronauts") and nature ("Eyewitness"). Provides…

[Confirming the Utility of RAISUS Antifungal Susceptibility Testing by New-Software].

PubMed

Ono, Tomoko; Suematsu, Hiroyuki; Sawamura, Haruki; Yamagishi, Yuka; Mikamo, Hiroshige

2017-08-15

Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) methods for susceptibility tests of yeast are used in Japan. On the other hand, the methods have some disadvantage; 1) reading at 24 and 48 h, 2) using unclear scale, approximately 50% inhibition, to determine MICs, 3) calculating trailing growth and paradoxical effects. These makes it difficult to test the susuceptibility for yeasts. Old software of RAISUS, Ver. 6.0 series, resolved problem 1) and 2) but did not resolve problem 3). Recently, new software of RAISUS, Ver. 7.0 series, resolved problem 3). We confirmed that using the new software made it clear whether all these issue were settled or not. Eighty-four Candida isolated from Aichi Medical University was used in this study. We compared the MICs obtained by using RAISUS antifungal susceptibility testing of yeasts RSMY1, RSMY1, with those obtained by using ASTY. The concordance rates (±four-fold of MICs) between the MICs obtained by using ASTY and RSMY1 with the new software were more than 90%, except for miconazole (MCZ). The rate of MCZ was low, but MICs obtained by using CLSI methods and Yeast-like Fungus DP 'EIKEN' methods, E-DP, showed equivalent MICs of RSMY1 using the new software. The frequency of skip effects on RSMY1 using the new software markedly decreased relative to RSMY1 using the old software. In case of showing trailing growth, the new software of RAISUS made it possible to choice the correct MICs and to put up the sign of trailing growth on the result screen. New software of RAISUS enhances its usability and the accuracy of MICs. Using automatic instrument to determine MICs is useful to obtain objective results easily.

Read Naturally. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2007

2007-01-01

"Read Naturally" is designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audiotapes, and computer software. According to the developer's web site, this program has three main strategies: repeated reading of text for developing oral reading fluency, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student…

Using Spelling to Screen Bilingual Kindergarteners at Risk for Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chua, Shi Min; Rickard Liow, Susan J.; Yeong, Stephanie H. M.

2016-01-01

For bilingual children, the results of language and literacy screening tools are often hard to interpret. This leads to late referral for specialized assessment or inappropriate interventions. To facilitate the early identification of reading difficulties in English, we developed a method of screening that is theory-driven yet suitable for…

Ub-ISAP: a streamlined UNIX pipeline for mining unique viral vector integration sites from next generation sequencing data.

PubMed

Kamboj, Atul; Hallwirth, Claus V; Alexander, Ian E; McCowage, Geoffrey B; Kramer, Belinda

2017-06-17

The analysis of viral vector genomic integration sites is an important component in assessing the safety and efficiency of patient treatment using gene therapy. Alongside this clinical application, integration site identification is a key step in the genetic mapping of viral elements in mutagenesis screens that aim to elucidate gene function. We have developed a UNIX-based vector integration site analysis pipeline (Ub-ISAP) that utilises a UNIX-based workflow for automated integration site identification and annotation of both single and paired-end sequencing reads. Reads that contain viral sequences of interest are selected and aligned to the host genome, and unique integration sites are then classified as transcription start site-proximal, intragenic or intergenic. Ub-ISAP provides a reliable and efficient pipeline to generate large datasets for assessing the safety and efficiency of integrating vectors in clinical settings, with broader applications in cancer research. Ub-ISAP is available as an open source software package at https://sourceforge.net/projects/ub-isap/ .

Evaluating the Screening Accuracy of the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR). REL 2013-008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foorman, Barbara R.; Kershaw, Sarah; Petscher, Yaacov

2013-01-01

Florida requires that students who do not meet grade-level reading proficiency standards on the end-of-year state assessment (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, FCAT) receive intensive reading intervention. With the stakes so high, teachers and principals are interested in using screening or diagnostic assessments to identify students with a…

Read Naturally. Revised. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2007

2007-01-01

"Read Naturally" is designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audio-tapes, and computer software. This program includes three main strategies: repeated reading of English text for oral reading fluency development, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student progress by teachers.…

Read Naturally. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2006

2006-01-01

"Read Naturally" is designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audio-tapes, and computer software. This program includes three main strategies: (1) repeated reading of English text for oral reading fluency development; (2) teacher modeling of story reading; and (3) systematic monitoring of student progress by…

Evaluating the Quantitative Capabilities of Metagenomic Analysis Software.

PubMed

Kerepesi, Csaba; Grolmusz, Vince

2016-05-01

DNA sequencing technologies are applied widely and frequently today to describe metagenomes, i.e., microbial communities in environmental or clinical samples, without the need for culturing them. These technologies usually return short (100-300 base-pairs long) DNA reads, and these reads are processed by metagenomic analysis software that assign phylogenetic composition-information to the dataset. Here we evaluate three metagenomic analysis software (AmphoraNet--a webserver implementation of AMPHORA2--, MG-RAST, and MEGAN5) for their capabilities of assigning quantitative phylogenetic information for the data, describing the frequency of appearance of the microorganisms of the same taxa in the sample. The difficulties of the task arise from the fact that longer genomes produce more reads from the same organism than shorter genomes, and some software assign higher frequencies to species with longer genomes than to those with shorter ones. This phenomenon is called the "genome length bias." Dozens of complex artificial metagenome benchmarks can be found in the literature. Because of the complexity of those benchmarks, it is usually difficult to judge the resistance of a metagenomic software to this "genome length bias." Therefore, we have made a simple benchmark for the evaluation of the "taxon-counting" in a metagenomic sample: we have taken the same number of copies of three full bacterial genomes of different lengths, break them up randomly to short reads of average length of 150 bp, and mixed the reads, creating our simple benchmark. Because of its simplicity, the benchmark is not supposed to serve as a mock metagenome, but if a software fails on that simple task, it will surely fail on most real metagenomes. We applied three software for the benchmark. The ideal quantitative solution would assign the same proportion to the three bacterial taxa. We have found that AMPHORA2/AmphoraNet gave the most accurate results and the other two software were under-performers: they counted quite reliably each short read to their respective taxon, producing the typical genome length bias. The benchmark dataset is available at http://pitgroup.org/static/3RandomGenome-100kavg150bps.fna.

Aerospace Ground Equipment for model 4080 sequence programmer. A standard computer terminal is adapted to provide convenient operator to device interface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nissley, L. E.

1979-01-01

The Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) provides an interface between a human operator and a complete spaceborne sequence timing device with a memory storage program. The AGE provides a means for composing, editing, syntax checking, and storing timing device programs. The AGE is implemented with a standard Hewlett-Packard 2649A terminal system and a minimum of special hardware. The terminal's dual tape interface is used to store timing device programs and to read in special AGE operating system software. To compose a new program for the timing device the keyboard is used to fill in a form displayed on the screen.

Reading Computer Programs: Instructor’s Guide to Exercises

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-08-01

activities that underlie effective writing, many of which are similar to those underlying software development . The module draws on related work in a number...Instructor’s Guide and Exercises Abstract: The ability to read and understand a computer program is a criti- cal skill for the software developer , yet this...skill is seldom developed in any systematic way in the education or training of software professionals. These materials discuss the importance of

Diagnostic Accuracy of Multivariate Universal Screening Procedures for Reading in Upper Elementary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klingbeil, David A.; Nelson, Peter M.; Van Norman, Ethan R.; Birr, Chris

2017-01-01

We examined the diagnostic accuracy and efficiency of three approaches to universal screening for reading difficulties using retrospective data from 1,307 students in Grades 3 through 5. School staff collected screening data using the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), a curriculum-based measure (CBM), and running records (RR). The criterion…

Screen Design Principles of Computer-Aided Instructional Software for Elementary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berrin, Atiker; Turan, Bülent Onur

2017-01-01

This study aims to present primary school students' views about current educational software interfaces, and to propose principles for educational software screens. The study was carried out with a general screening model. Sample group of the study consisted of sixth grade students in Sehit Ögretmen Hasan Akan Elementary School. In this context,…

Identifying Children in Middle Childhood Who Are at Risk for Reading Problems.

PubMed

Speece, Deborah L; Ritchey, Kristen D; Silverman, Rebecca; Schatschneider, Christopher; Walker, Caroline Y; Andrusik, Katryna N

2010-06-01

The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate a universal screening battery for reading that is appropriate for older elementary students in a response to intervention model. Multiple measures of reading and reading correlates were administered to 230 fourth-grade children. Teachers rated children's reading skills, academic competence, and attention. Children were classified as not-at-risk or at-risk readers based on a three-factor model reflecting reading comprehension, word recognition/decoding, and word fluency. Predictors of reading status included group-administered tests of reading comprehension, silent word reading fluency, and teacher ratings of reading problems. Inclusion of individually administered tests and growth estimates did not add substantial variance. The receiver-operator characteristic curve analysis yielded an area under the curve index of 0.90, suggesting this model may both accurately and efficiently screen older elementary students with reading problems.

READ 180. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2009

2009-01-01

"READ 180" is a reading program designed for students in elementary through high school whose reading achievement is below the proficient level. The goal of "READ 180" is to address gaps in students' skills through the use of a computer program, literature, and direct instruction in reading skills. The software component of the…

Revisiting the impact of mobile phone screen size on user comprehension of health information.

PubMed

Alghamdi, Ebtisam; Yunus, Faisel; Househ, Mowafa

2014-01-01

Abstract goes here. This is completion of the research and update of the previous work that was published in 2013[1]. The paper describes our recent experimental study of the impact of mobile screen size on the user comprehension of health information and application structures. An experiment was conducted to measure the impact of screen size on user comprehension and retention. Participants were given the same simple scenario, which consisted of searching from different menus, navigating and reading some contents. They were timed and tracked for correctness. Also, a follow-up survey was given to each participant that consisted of a rating scale to assess usability features, comprehension and retention abilities of the participants based on different mobile screen sizes. Results showed that there was a significant difference between mobile phone screen size and the time taken to read the contents, which was at its highest on small screens (p-value=0.02). Also, reading characters was hardest on a small screen (p-value=0.003). In addition, there was a significant difference between the three screen sizes regarding the organization of the application's information, showing that the smaller the screen size, the more organized the information. On the other hand, there was no significant impact of screen size on user comprehension, retention scores, number of errors or effective task completion but it was generally better if a large screen size was used. This study concludes that the screen size is not the main concern in comprehension of the contents or application structure. However, reading speed improves with the larger screen size and positively influences the task completion and understanding of the application elements.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

The system is developed to collect, process, store and present the information provided by the radio frequency identification (RFID) devices. The system contains three parts, the application software, the database and the web page. The application software manages multiple RFID devices, such as readers and portals, simultaneously. It communicates with the devices through application programming interface (API) provided by the device vendor. The application software converts data collected by the RFID readers and portals to readable information. It is capable of encrypting data using 256 bits advanced encryption standard (AES). The application software has a graphical user interface (GUI). Themore » GUI mimics the configurations of the nucler material storage sites or transport vehicles. The GUI gives the user and system administrator an intuitive way to read the information and/or configure the devices. The application software is capable of sending the information to a remote, dedicated and secured web and database server. Two captured screen samples, one for storage and transport, are attached. The database is constructed to handle a large number of RFID tag readers and portals. A SQL server is employed for this purpose. An XML script is used to update the database once the information is sent from the application software. The design of the web page imitates the design of the application software. The web page retrieves data from the database and presents it in different panels. The user needs a user name combined with a password to access the web page. The web page is capable of sending e-mail and text messages based on preset criteria, such as when alarm thresholds are excceeded. A captured screen sample is attached. The application software is designed to be installed on a local computer. The local computer is directly connected to the RFID devices and can be controlled locally or remotely. There are multiple local computers managing different sites or transport vehicles. The control from remote sites and information transmitted to a central database server is through secured internet. The information stored in the central databaser server is shown on the web page. The users can view the web page on the internet. A dedicated and secured web and database server (https) is used to provide information security.« less

Predicting Math Outcomes from a Reading Screening Assessment in Grades 3-8. REL 2016-180

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Truckenmiller, Adrea J.; Petscher, Yaacov; Gaughan, Linda; Dwyer, Ted

2016-01-01

District and state education leaders frequently use screening assessments to identify students who are at risk of performing poorly on end-of-year achievement tests. This study examines the use of a universal screening assessment of reading skills for early identification of students at risk of low achievement on nationally normed tests of reading…

Computer-Assisted Instruction in Early Literacy for African American, Economically Disadvantaged Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shamir, Haya; Feehan, Kathryn; Yoder, Erik

2017-01-01

This study explores the efficacy of the Waterford Early Reading program (ERP) for teaching kindergarten and first grade students' early reading concepts. Students attended 3 elementary schools in Alabama. The treatment group used the software program whereas the control group did not use the software. Analyses revealed a significant treatment…

Computer Software: Does It Support a New View of Reading?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Case, Carolyn J.

A study examined commercially available computer software to ascertain its degree of congruency with current methods of reading instruction (the Interactive model) at the first and second grade levels. A survey was conducted of public school educators in Connecticut and experts in the field to determine their level of satisfaction with available…

Proofreading using an assistive software homophone tool: compensatory and remedial effects on the literacy skills of students with reading difficulties.

PubMed

Lange, Alissa A; Mulhern, Gerry; Wylie, Judith

2009-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of using an assistive software homophone tool on the assisted proofreading performance and unassisted basic skills of secondary-level students with reading difficulties. Students aged 13 to 15 years proofread passages for homophonic errors under three conditions: with the homophone tool, with homophones highlighted only, or with no help. The group using the homophone tool significantly outperformed the other two groups on assisted proofreading and outperformed the others on unassisted spelling, although not significantly. Remedial (unassisted) improvements in automaticity of word recognition, homophone proofreading, and basic reading were found over all groups. Results elucidate the differential contributions of each function of the homophone tool and suggest that with the proper training, assistive software can help not only students with diagnosed disabilities but also those with generally weak reading skills.

Analysis of quality raw data of second generation sequencers with Quality Assessment Software.

PubMed

Ramos, Rommel Tj; Carneiro, Adriana R; Baumbach, Jan; Azevedo, Vasco; Schneider, Maria Pc; Silva, Artur

2011-04-18

Second generation technologies have advantages over Sanger; however, they have resulted in new challenges for the genome construction process, especially because of the small size of the reads, despite the high degree of coverage. Independent of the program chosen for the construction process, DNA sequences are superimposed, based on identity, to extend the reads, generating contigs; mismatches indicate a lack of homology and are not included. This process improves our confidence in the sequences that are generated. We developed Quality Assessment Software, with which one can review graphs showing the distribution of quality values from the sequencing reads. This software allow us to adopt more stringent quality standards for sequence data, based on quality-graph analysis and estimated coverage after applying the quality filter, providing acceptable sequence coverage for genome construction from short reads. Quality filtering is a fundamental step in the process of constructing genomes, as it reduces the frequency of incorrect alignments that are caused by measuring errors, which can occur during the construction process due to the size of the reads, provoking misassemblies. Application of quality filters to sequence data, using the software Quality Assessment, along with graphing analyses, provided greater precision in the definition of cutoff parameters, which increased the accuracy of genome construction.

Using Noldus Observer XT for research on deaf signers learning to read: an innovative methodology.

PubMed

Ducharme, Daphne A; Arcand, Isabelle

2009-08-01

Despite years of research on the reading problems of deaf students, we still do not know how deaf signers who read well actually crack the code of print. How connections are made between sign language and written language is still an open question. In this article, we show how the Noldus Observer XT software can be used to conduct an in-depth analysis of the online behavior of deaf readers. First, we examine factors that may have an impact on reading behavior. Then, we describe how we videotaped teachers with their deaf student signers of langue des signes québécoise during a reading task, how we conducted a recall activity to better understand the students' reading behavior, and how we used this innovative software to analyze the taped footage. Finally, we discuss the contribution this type of research can have on the future reading behavior of deaf students.

The Optimum Font Size and Type for Students Aged 9-12 Reading Arabic Characters on Screen: A Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abubaker, A. A.; Lu, J.

2012-05-01

More and more, interest in the way data is displayed on screen has increased, especially with the increase in the number of people using e-text for learning purposes. So, this requires more focus on factors that affect screen legibility. Text display factors, such as font size, line length and font type, have an impact on reading online. Two font types [Arabic Traditional and Simplified Arabic] in four different sizes [10, 14, 16 and 18] are measured using Arabic text. On-line processes were measured using reading-aloud technique. Accuracy of reading was also measured by the average of errors that students made when reading the text, while reading speed was tested by the time it took students to read the text. However, results indicated that Arabic text in font size 10 is not readable to students aged 10 to 12. On the other hand, font sizes sixteen and eighteen are more readable than any smaller-sized font, the averages of error size 18 improve in all font types, while age has a significant impact on reading speed. Simplified Arabic font is reported as readable to students aged 10-12, especially in sizes 14 and 18.

[Prenatal risk calculation: comparison between Fast Screen pre I plus software and ViewPoint software. Evaluation of the risk calculation algorithms].

PubMed

Morin, Jean-François; Botton, Eléonore; Jacquemard, François; Richard-Gireme, Anouk

2013-01-01

The Fetal medicine foundation (FMF) has developed a new algorithm called Prenatal Risk Calculation (PRC) to evaluate Down syndrome screening based on free hCGβ, PAPP-A and nuchal translucency. The peculiarity of this algorithm is to use the degree of extremeness (DoE) instead of the multiple of the median (MoM). The biologists measuring maternal seric markers on Kryptor™ machines (Thermo Fisher Scientific) use Fast Screen pre I plus software for the prenatal risk calculation. This software integrates the PRC algorithm. Our study evaluates the data of 2.092 patient files of which 19 show a fœtal abnormality. These files have been first evaluated with the ViewPoint software based on MoM. The link between DoE and MoM has been analyzed and the different calculated risks compared. The study shows that Fast Screen pre I plus software gives the same risk results as ViewPoint software, but yields significantly fewer false positive results.

Network-based reading system for lung cancer screening CT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujino, Yuichi; Fujimura, Kaori; Nomura, Shin-ichiro; Kawashima, Harumi; Tsuchikawa, Megumu; Matsumoto, Toru; Nagao, Kei-ichi; Uruma, Takahiro; Yamamoto, Shinji; Takizawa, Hotaka; Kuroda, Chikazumi; Nakayama, Tomio

2006-03-01

This research aims to support chest computed tomography (CT) medical checkups to decrease the death rate by lung cancer. We have developed a remote cooperative reading system for lung cancer screening over the Internet, a secure transmission function, and a cooperative reading environment. It is called the Network-based Reading System. A telemedicine system involves many issues, such as network costs and data security if we use it over the Internet, which is an open network. In Japan, broadband access is widespread and its cost is the lowest in the world. We developed our system considering human machine interface and security. It consists of data entry terminals, a database server, a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) system, and some reading terminals. It uses a secure Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) encrypting method and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) based secure DICOM image data distribution. We carried out an experimental trial over the Japan Gigabit Network (JGN), which is the testbed for the Japanese next-generation network, and conducted verification experiments of secure screening image distribution, some kinds of data addition, and remote cooperative reading. We found that network bandwidth of about 1.5 Mbps enabled distribution of screening images and cooperative reading and that the encryption and image distribution methods we proposed were applicable to the encryption and distribution of general DICOM images via the Internet.

Population-based mammography screening: comparison of screen-film and full-field digital mammography with soft-copy reading--Oslo I study.

PubMed

Skaane, Per; Young, Kari; Skjennald, Arnulf

2003-12-01

To compare screen-film and full-field digital mammography with soft-copy reading in a population-based screening program. Full-field digital and screen-film mammography were performed in 3,683 women aged 50-69 years. Two standard views of each breast were acquired with each modality. Images underwent independent double reading with use of a five-point rating scale for probability of cancer. Recall rates and positive predictive values were calculated. Cancer detection rates determined with both modalities were compared by using the McNemar test for paired proportions. Retrospective side-by-side analysis for conspicuity of cancers was performed by an external independent radiologist group with experience in both modalities. In 3,683 cases, 31 cancers were detected. Screen-film mammography depicted 28 (0.76%) malignancies, and full-field digital mammography depicted 23 (0.62%) malignancies. The difference between cancer detection rates was not significant (P =.23). The recall rate for full-field digital mammography (4.6%; 168 of 3,683 cases) was slightly higher than that for screen-film mammography (3.5%; 128 of 3,683 cases). The positive predictive value based on needle biopsy results was 46% for screen-film mammography and 39% for full-field digital mammography. Side-by-side image comparison for cancer conspicuity led to classification of 19 cancers as equal for probability of malignancy, six cancers as slightly better demonstrated at screen-film mammography, and six cancers as slightly better demonstrated at full-field digital mammography. There was no statistically significant difference in cancer detection rate between screen-film and full-field digital mammography. Cancer conspicuity was equal with both modalities. Full-field digital mammography with soft-copy reading is comparable to screen-film mammography in population-based screening.

Building a virtual ligand screening pipeline using free software: a survey.

PubMed

Glaab, Enrico

2016-03-01

Virtual screening, the search for bioactive compounds via computational methods, provides a wide range of opportunities to speed up drug development and reduce the associated risks and costs. While virtual screening is already a standard practice in pharmaceutical companies, its applications in preclinical academic research still remain under-exploited, in spite of an increasing availability of dedicated free databases and software tools. In this survey, an overview of recent developments in this field is presented, focusing on free software and data repositories for screening as alternatives to their commercial counterparts, and outlining how available resources can be interlinked into a comprehensive virtual screening pipeline using typical academic computing facilities. Finally, to facilitate the set-up of corresponding pipelines, a downloadable software system is provided, using platform virtualization to integrate pre-installed screening tools and scripts for reproducible application across different operating systems. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

Building a virtual ligand screening pipeline using free software: a survey

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Virtual screening, the search for bioactive compounds via computational methods, provides a wide range of opportunities to speed up drug development and reduce the associated risks and costs. While virtual screening is already a standard practice in pharmaceutical companies, its applications in preclinical academic research still remain under-exploited, in spite of an increasing availability of dedicated free databases and software tools. In this survey, an overview of recent developments in this field is presented, focusing on free software and data repositories for screening as alternatives to their commercial counterparts, and outlining how available resources can be interlinked into a comprehensive virtual screening pipeline using typical academic computing facilities. Finally, to facilitate the set-up of corresponding pipelines, a downloadable software system is provided, using platform virtualization to integrate pre-installed screening tools and scripts for reproducible application across different operating systems. PMID:26094053

Medium Fidelity Simulation of Oxygen Tank Venting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sweet, Adam; Kurien, James; Lau, Sonie (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The item to he cleared is a medium-fidelity software simulation model of a vented cryogenic tank. Such tanks are commonly used to transport cryogenic liquids such as liquid oxygen via truck, and have appeared on liquid-fueled rockets for decades. This simulation model works with the HCC simulation system that was developed by Xerox PARC and NASA Ames Research Center. HCC has been previously cleared for distribution. When used with the HCC software, the model generates simulated readings for the tank pressure and temperature as the simulated cryogenic liquid boils off and is vented. Failures (such as a broken vent valve) can be injected into the simulation to produce readings corresponding to the failure. Release of this simulation will allow researchers to test their software diagnosis systems by attempting to diagnose the simulated failure from the simulated readings. This model does not contain any encryption software nor can it perform any control tasks that might be export controlled.

RADAR: A novel fast-screening method for reading difficulties with special focus on dyslexia.

PubMed

Smyrnakis, Ioannis; Andreadakis, Vassilios; Selimis, Vassilios; Kalaitzakis, Michail; Bachourou, Theodora; Kaloutsakis, Georgios; Kymionis, George D; Smirnakis, Stelios; Aslanides, Ioannis M

2017-01-01

Dyslexia is a developmental learning disorder of single word reading accuracy and/or fluency, with compelling research directed towards understanding the contributions of the visual system. While dyslexia is not an oculomotor disease, readers with dyslexia have shown different eye movements than typically developing students during text reading. Readers with dyslexia exhibit longer and more frequent fixations, shorter saccade lengths, more backward refixations than typical readers. Furthermore, readers with dyslexia are known to have difficulty in reading long words, lower skipping rate of short words, and high gaze duration on many words. It is an open question whether it is possible to harness these distinctive oculomotor scanning patterns observed during reading in order to develop a screening tool that can reliably identify struggling readers, who may be candidates for dyslexia. Here, we introduce a novel, fast, objective, non-invasive method, named Rapid Assessment of Difficulties and Abnormalities in Reading (RADAR) that screens for features associated with the aberrant visual scanning of reading text seen in dyslexia. Eye tracking parameter measurements that are stable under retest and have high discriminative power, as indicated by their ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves, were obtained during silent text reading. These parameters were combined to derive a total reading score (TRS) that can reliably separate readers with dyslexia from typical readers. We tested TRS in a group of school-age children ranging from 8.5 to 12.5 years of age. TRS achieved 94.2% correct classification of children tested. Specifically, 35 out of 37 control (specificity 94.6%) and 30 out of 32 readers with dyslexia (sensitivity 93.8%) were classified correctly using RADAR, under a circular validation condition (see section Results/Total Reading Score) where the individual evaluated was not included in the test construction group. In conclusion, RADAR is a novel, automated, fast and reliable way to identify children at high risk of dyslexia that is amenable to large-scale screening. Moreover, analysis of eye movement parameters obtained with RADAR during reading will likely be useful for implementing individualized treatment strategies and for monitoring objectively the success of chosen interventions. We envision that it will be possible to use RADAR as a sensitive, objective, and quantitative first pass screen to identify individuals with reading disorders that manifest with abnormal oculomotor reading strategies, like dyslexia.

RADAR: A novel fast-screening method for reading difficulties with special focus on dyslexia

PubMed Central

Smyrnakis, Ioannis; Andreadakis, Vassilios; Selimis, Vassilios; Kalaitzakis, Michail; Bachourou, Theodora; Kaloutsakis, Georgios; Kymionis, George D.; Smirnakis, Stelios; Aslanides, Ioannis M.

2017-01-01

Dyslexia is a developmental learning disorder of single word reading accuracy and/or fluency, with compelling research directed towards understanding the contributions of the visual system. While dyslexia is not an oculomotor disease, readers with dyslexia have shown different eye movements than typically developing students during text reading. Readers with dyslexia exhibit longer and more frequent fixations, shorter saccade lengths, more backward refixations than typical readers. Furthermore, readers with dyslexia are known to have difficulty in reading long words, lower skipping rate of short words, and high gaze duration on many words. It is an open question whether it is possible to harness these distinctive oculomotor scanning patterns observed during reading in order to develop a screening tool that can reliably identify struggling readers, who may be candidates for dyslexia. Here, we introduce a novel, fast, objective, non-invasive method, named Rapid Assessment of Difficulties and Abnormalities in Reading (RADAR) that screens for features associated with the aberrant visual scanning of reading text seen in dyslexia. Eye tracking parameter measurements that are stable under retest and have high discriminative power, as indicated by their ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves, were obtained during silent text reading. These parameters were combined to derive a total reading score (TRS) that can reliably separate readers with dyslexia from typical readers. We tested TRS in a group of school-age children ranging from 8.5 to 12.5 years of age. TRS achieved 94.2% correct classification of children tested. Specifically, 35 out of 37 control (specificity 94.6%) and 30 out of 32 readers with dyslexia (sensitivity 93.8%) were classified correctly using RADAR, under a circular validation condition (see section Results/Total Reading Score) where the individual evaluated was not included in the test construction group. In conclusion, RADAR is a novel, automated, fast and reliable way to identify children at high risk of dyslexia that is amenable to large-scale screening. Moreover, analysis of eye movement parameters obtained with RADAR during reading will likely be useful for implementing individualized treatment strategies and for monitoring objectively the success of chosen interventions. We envision that it will be possible to use RADAR as a sensitive, objective, and quantitative first pass screen to identify individuals with reading disorders that manifest with abnormal oculomotor reading strategies, like dyslexia. PMID:28800632

Assessment of newborn screening parent education materials.

PubMed

Arnold, Connie L; Davis, Terry C; Frempong, Janet Ohene; Humiston, Sharon G; Bocchini, Anna; Kennen, Estela M; Lloyd-Puryear, Michele

2006-05-01

The purpose of this study was to measure the readability and user-friendliness (clarity, complexity, organization, appearance, and cultural appropriateness of materials) of parent education brochures on newborn screening. We studied English-language versions of the brochures that state newborn screening programs prepare and distribute. We obtained brochures from 48 states and Puerto Rico. We evaluated each brochure for readability with the Flesch reading ease formula. User-friendliness of the brochures was assessed with an instrument we created that contained 22 specific criteria grouped into 5 categories, ie, layout, illustrations, message, manageable information, and cultural appropriateness. Most current newborn screening brochures should be revised to make them more readable and user-friendly for parents. Ninety-two percent of brochures were written at a reading level that is higher than the average reading level of US adults (eighth-grade level). In most brochures, the essential information for parents was buried. Although all brochures were brief and focused on the newborn screening tests being performed, 81% needed improvement in getting to the point quickly and making it easy for parents to identify what they needed to know or to do. None of the brochures scored high in all 22 criteria on the user-friendliness checklist. Parent education materials about newborn screening should be revised to be easier to read and more user-friendly, by lowering the reading difficulty to eighth-grade level and focusing on issues such as layout, illustrations, message, information, and cultural appropriateness. It is important that state newborn screening programs and organizations work with parents to develop and to evaluate materials to ensure that they are user-friendly.

Electronic Publication: Writing for the Screen.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharples, Mike

1999-01-01

Addresses paper versus electronic publication, discussing the implications for reading and writing, and whether it is as easy to read from a screen as from a book. Notes that the computer medium arose from a research project to design the perfect book, the Dynabook. (SR)

Investigating Deaf Students' Use of Visual Multimedia Resources in Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikolaraizi, Magda; Vekiri, Ioanna; Easterbrooks, Susan R.

2013-01-01

A mixed research design was used to examine how deaf students used the visual resources of a multimedia software package that was designed to support reading comprehension. The viewing behavior of 8 deaf students, ages 8-12 years, was recorded during their interaction with multimedia software that included narrative texts enriched with Greek Sign…

Metadata management for high content screening in OMERO

PubMed Central

Li, Simon; Besson, Sébastien; Blackburn, Colin; Carroll, Mark; Ferguson, Richard K.; Flynn, Helen; Gillen, Kenneth; Leigh, Roger; Lindner, Dominik; Linkert, Melissa; Moore, William J.; Ramalingam, Balaji; Rozbicki, Emil; Rustici, Gabriella; Tarkowska, Aleksandra; Walczysko, Petr; Williams, Eleanor; Allan, Chris; Burel, Jean-Marie; Moore, Josh; Swedlow, Jason R.

2016-01-01

High content screening (HCS) experiments create a classic data management challenge—multiple, large sets of heterogeneous structured and unstructured data, that must be integrated and linked to produce a set of “final” results. These different data include images, reagents, protocols, analytic output, and phenotypes, all of which must be stored, linked and made accessible for users, scientists, collaborators and where appropriate the wider community. The OME Consortium has built several open source tools for managing, linking and sharing these different types of data. The OME Data Model is a metadata specification that supports the image data and metadata recorded in HCS experiments. Bio-Formats is a Java library that reads recorded image data and metadata and includes support for several HCS screening systems. OMERO is an enterprise data management application that integrates image data, experimental and analytic metadata and makes them accessible for visualization, mining, sharing and downstream analysis. We discuss how Bio-Formats and OMERO handle these different data types, and how they can be used to integrate, link and share HCS experiments in facilities and public data repositories. OME specifications and software are open source and are available at https://www.openmicroscopy.org. PMID:26476368

Metadata management for high content screening in OMERO.

PubMed

Li, Simon; Besson, Sébastien; Blackburn, Colin; Carroll, Mark; Ferguson, Richard K; Flynn, Helen; Gillen, Kenneth; Leigh, Roger; Lindner, Dominik; Linkert, Melissa; Moore, William J; Ramalingam, Balaji; Rozbicki, Emil; Rustici, Gabriella; Tarkowska, Aleksandra; Walczysko, Petr; Williams, Eleanor; Allan, Chris; Burel, Jean-Marie; Moore, Josh; Swedlow, Jason R

2016-03-01

High content screening (HCS) experiments create a classic data management challenge-multiple, large sets of heterogeneous structured and unstructured data, that must be integrated and linked to produce a set of "final" results. These different data include images, reagents, protocols, analytic output, and phenotypes, all of which must be stored, linked and made accessible for users, scientists, collaborators and where appropriate the wider community. The OME Consortium has built several open source tools for managing, linking and sharing these different types of data. The OME Data Model is a metadata specification that supports the image data and metadata recorded in HCS experiments. Bio-Formats is a Java library that reads recorded image data and metadata and includes support for several HCS screening systems. OMERO is an enterprise data management application that integrates image data, experimental and analytic metadata and makes them accessible for visualization, mining, sharing and downstream analysis. We discuss how Bio-Formats and OMERO handle these different data types, and how they can be used to integrate, link and share HCS experiments in facilities and public data repositories. OME specifications and software are open source and are available at https://www.openmicroscopy.org. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reading the lesson: eliciting requirements for a mammography training application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartswood, M.; Blot, L.; Taylor, P.; Anderson, S.; Procter, R.; Wilkinson, L.; Smart, L.

2009-02-01

Demonstrations of a prototype training tool were used to elicit requirements for an intelligent training system for screening mammography. The prototype allowed senior radiologists (mentors) to select cases from a distributed database of images to meet the specific training requirements of junior colleagues (trainees) and then provided automated feedback in response to trainees' attempts at interpretation. The tool was demonstrated to radiologists and radiographers working in the breast screening service at four evaluation sessions. Participants highlighted ease of selecting cases that can deliver specific learning objectives as important for delivering effective training. To usefully structure a large data set of training images we undertook a classification exercise of mentor authored free text 'learning points' attached to training case obtained from two screening centres (n=333, n=129 respectively). We were able to adduce a hierarchy of abstract categories representing classes of lesson that groups of cases were intended to convey (e.g. Temporal change, Misleading juxtapositions, Position of lesion, Typical/Atypical presentation, and so on). In this paper we present the method used to devise this classification, the classification scheme itself, initial user-feedback, and our plans to incorporated it into a software tool to aid case selection.

Effects of Different Text Display Types on Reading Comprehension, Sustained Attention and Cognitive Load in Mobile Reading Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chih-Ming; Lin, Yu-Ju

2016-01-01

Despite the popularity of mobile reading devices, many studies have indicated that small screens restrict information transmission, adversely affecting reading performance on mobile devices. Moreover, mobile reading typically occurs in different reading contexts. Therefore, suitable text display type for mobile reading in different reading…

Test set readings predict clinical performance to a limited extent: preliminary findings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soh, BaoLin P.; Lee, Warwick M.; Kench, Peter L.; Reed, Warren M.; McEntee, Mark F.; Brennan, Patrick C.

2013-03-01

Aim: To investigate the level of agreement between test sets and actual clinical reading Background: The performance of screen readers in detecting breast cancer is being assessed in some countries by using mammographic test sets. However, previous studies have provided little evidence that performance assessed by test sets strongly correlate to performance in clinical reading. Methods: Five clinicians from BreastScreen New South Wales participated in this study. Each clinician was asked to read 200 de-identified mammographic examinations gathered from their own case history within the BreastScreen NSW Digital Imaging Library. All test sets were designed with specific proportions of true positive, true negative, false positive and false negative examinations from the previous actual clinical reads of each reader. A prior mammogram examination for comparison (when available) was also provided for each case. Results: Preliminary analyses have shown that there is a moderate level of agreement (Kappa 0.42-0.56, p < 0.001) between laboratory test sets and actual clinical reading. In addition, a mean increase of 38% in sensitivity in the laboratory test sets as compared to their actual clinical readings was demonstrated. Specificity is similar between the laboratory test sets and actual clinical reading. Conclusion: This study demonstrated a moderate level of agreement between actual clinical reading and test set reading, which suggests that test sets have a role in reflecting clinical performance.

Incorporation of the technologist's opinion for arbitration of discrepant assessments among radiologists at screening mammography.

PubMed

Coolen, Angela M P; Lameijer, Joost R C; Voogd, Adri C; Strobbe, Luc J; Louwman, Marieke W J; Tjan-Heijnen, Vivianne C G; Duijm, Lucien E M

2018-05-05

We determined whether the addition of the technologist's opinion may be helpful in deciding if discordant readings at blinded double reading should be recalled. A consecutive series of 99,013 digital screening mammograms, obtained between July 2013 and January 2015, were included. All mammograms were first interpreted by a technologist and then double read in a blinded fashion by a team of 13 screening radiologists. All concordant and discordant positive readings among radiologists were recalled. Out of 3562 recalls, 998 women were recalled after a discordant reading. Of these women, 337 (33.8%) had a positive technologist assessment, of which 40 (11.9%) were diagnosed with breast cancer. Sixty women with a negative technologist assessment (60/661, 9.1%) were diagnosed with breast cancer (p = 0.16). Recall rate would have decreased with technologist arbitration (3.6% vs. 2.9%, p < 0.001). Cancer detection rate decreased with 8.5%, from 7.1/1000 screens to 6.5/1000 screens (p = 0.10). Among women with a positive technologist assessment, the probability of breast cancer was highest in case of suspicious microcalcifications and lowest for suspicious masses (30.4% (17/56) versus 7.0% (16/212), p < 0.001). Breast cancers were diagnosed in all groups of mammographic abnormalities, except in women with a suspicious asymmetry and a negative technologist assessment. Assessment by a technologist does not provide a significant discriminating ability in case of a discordant radiologist reading and, taking into account the decrease in cancer detection rate, does not appear to be a suitable arbitration strategy for discordant recalls at blinded double reading.

Encouraging Recreational Reading (The Printout).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

1988-01-01

Describes computer software, including "The Electronic Bookshelf" and "Return to Reading," which provides motivation for recreational reading in various ways, including: quizzes, games based on books, and whole language activities for children's literature and young adult fiction. (MM)

Microcomputer Activities Which Encourage the Reading-Writing Connection.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

Many reading teachers, cognizant of the creative opportunities for skill development allowed by new reading-writing software, are choosing to use microcomputers in their classrooms full-time. Adventure story creation programs capitalize on reading-writing integration by allowing children, with appropriate assistance, to create their own…

Navigating through the minefield of read-across: from research to practical tools (WC10)

EPA Science Inventory

Read-across is used for regulatory purposes as a data gap filling technique. Research efforts have focused on the scientific justification and documentation challenges involved in read-across predictions. Software tools have also been developed to facilitate read-across predictio...

Validity of Single-Item Screening for Limited Health Literacy in English and Spanish Speakers.

PubMed

Bishop, Wendy Pechero; Craddock Lee, Simon J; Skinner, Celette Sugg; Jones, Tiffany M; McCallister, Katharine; Tiro, Jasmin A

2016-05-01

To evaluate 3 single-item screening measures for limited health literacy in a community-based population of English and Spanish speakers. We recruited 324 English and 314 Spanish speakers from a community research registry in Dallas, Texas, enrolled between 2009 and 2012. We used 3 screening measures: (1) How would you rate your ability to read?; (2) How confident are you filling out medical forms by yourself?; and (3) How often do you have someone help you read hospital materials? In analyses stratified by language, we used area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves to compare each item with the validated 40-item Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. For English speakers, no difference was seen among the items. For Spanish speakers, "ability to read" identified inadequate literacy better than "help reading hospital materials" (AUROC curve = 0.76 vs 0.65; P = .019). The "ability to read" item performed the best, supporting use as a screening tool in safety-net systems caring for diverse populations. Future studies should investigate how to implement brief measures in safety-net settings and whether highlighting health literacy level influences providers' communication practices and patient outcomes.

Investigating the Effects of the Academy of Reading Program on Middle School Reading Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, Brenda Gail

2016-01-01

Using a quantitative ex post facto causal comparative research design, this study analyzed the effects of the Academy of Reading software program on students' reading achievement. Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) reading scale scores of students in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades from 2013-2014 were utilized in this study. The…

Enhancing Japanese College Students' English Reading and Vocabulary Skills by Using CALL Innovations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loucky, John Paul

This article summarizes software which can help to enhance both local and specific reading skills (often done through what is known as intensive reading) and global or general reading skills (known as extensive reading). Although the use of computerized bilingual dictionaries (CBDs) and translation websites of various types does not appear to…

Experimental Evaluation of Computer Assisted Self-Assessment of Reading Comprehension: Effects on Reading Achievement and Attitude.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vollands, Stacy R.; And Others

A study evaluated the effect software for self-assessment and management of reading practice had on reading achievement and motivation in two primary schools in Aberdeen, Scotland. The program utilized was The Accelerated Reader (AR) which was designed to enable curriculum based assessment of reading comprehension within the classroom. Students…

Read Naturally [R]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report. Updated

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2013

2013-01-01

The “Read Naturally[R]” program is a supplemental reading program that aims to improve reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension of elementary and middle school students using a combination of texts, audio CDs, and computer software. The program uses one of four products that share a common fluency-building strategy: “Read Naturally[R] Masters…

Commercial Literacy Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

1997-01-01

Presents the first year's results of a continuing project to monitor the availability of software of relevance for literacy education purposes. Concludes there is an enormous amount of software available for use by teachers of reading and literacy--whereas drill-and-practice software is the largest category of software available, large numbers of…

ReadXplorer—visualization and analysis of mapped sequences

PubMed Central

Hilker, Rolf; Stadermann, Kai Bernd; Doppmeier, Daniel; Kalinowski, Jörn; Stoye, Jens; Straube, Jasmin; Winnebald, Jörn; Goesmann, Alexander

2014-01-01

Motivation: Fast algorithms and well-arranged visualizations are required for the comprehensive analysis of the ever-growing size of genomic and transcriptomic next-generation sequencing data. Results: ReadXplorer is a software offering straightforward visualization and extensive analysis functions for genomic and transcriptomic DNA sequences mapped on a reference. A unique specialty of ReadXplorer is the quality classification of the read mappings. It is incorporated in all analysis functions and displayed in ReadXplorer's various synchronized data viewers for (i) the reference sequence, its base coverage as (ii) normalizable plot and (iii) histogram, (iv) read alignments and (v) read pairs. ReadXplorer's analysis capability covers RNA secondary structure prediction, single nucleotide polymorphism and deletion–insertion polymorphism detection, genomic feature and general coverage analysis. Especially for RNA-Seq data, it offers differential gene expression analysis, transcription start site and operon detection as well as RPKM value and read count calculations. Furthermore, ReadXplorer can combine or superimpose coverage of different datasets. Availability and implementation: ReadXplorer is available as open-source software at http://www.readxplorer.org along with a detailed manual. Contact: rhilker@mikrobio.med.uni-giessen.de Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:24790157

An Integrated System for Wildlife Sensing

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-14

design requirement. “Sensor Controller” software. A custom Sensor Controller application was developed for the Android device in order to collect...and log readings from that device’s sensors. “Camera Controller” software. A custom Camera Controller application was developed for the Android device...into 2 separate Android applications (Figure 4). The Sensor Controller logs readings periodically from the Android device’s organic sensors, and

Pilot Study of an Open-source Image Analysis Software for Automated Screening of Conventional Cervical Smears.

PubMed

Sanyal, Parikshit; Ganguli, Prosenjit; Barui, Sanghita; Deb, Prabal

2018-01-01

The Pap stained cervical smear is a screening tool for cervical cancer. Commercial systems are used for automated screening of liquid based cervical smears. However, there is no image analysis software used for conventional cervical smears. The aim of this study was to develop and test the diagnostic accuracy of a software for analysis of conventional smears. The software was developed using Python programming language and open source libraries. It was standardized with images from Bethesda Interobserver Reproducibility Project. One hundred and thirty images from smears which were reported Negative for Intraepithelial Lesion or Malignancy (NILM), and 45 images where some abnormality has been reported, were collected from the archives of the hospital. The software was then tested on the images. The software was able to segregate images based on overall nuclear: cytoplasmic ratio, coefficient of variation (CV) in nuclear size, nuclear membrane irregularity, and clustering. 68.88% of abnormal images were flagged by the software, as well as 19.23% of NILM images. The major difficulties faced were segmentation of overlapping cell clusters and separation of neutrophils. The software shows potential as a screening tool for conventional cervical smears; however, further refinement in technique is required.

The Relationship between Good Readers' Attention, Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildiz, Mustafa; Çetinkaya, Ezgi

2017-01-01

This study aimed to examine the relationship between fourth-graders' reading fluency, reading comprehension and attention. It was conducted using the relational screening model and included 132 fourth-graders with grade level adequate reading skills. The study results showed that good readers' attention had significant effects on reading speed,…

The Use of a Dynamic Screening of Phonological Awareness to Predict Risk for Reading Disabilities in Kindergarten Children

PubMed Central

Bridges, Mindy Sittner; Catts, Hugh W.

2013-01-01

This study examined the usefulness and predictive validity of a dynamic screening of phonological awareness in two samples of kindergarten children. In one sample (n = 90), the predictive validity of the dynamic assessment was compared to a static version of the same screening measure. In the second sample (n = 96), the dynamic screening measure was compared to a commonly used screening tool, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Initial Sound Fluency. Results showed that the dynamic screening measure uniquely predicted end-of-year reading achievement and outcomes in both samples. These results provide preliminary support for the usefulness of a dynamic screening measure of phonological awareness for kindergarten students. PMID:21571700

Diagnosing Dyslexia: The Screening of Auditory Laterality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johansen, Kjeld

A study investigated whether a correlation exists between the degree and nature of left-brain laterality and specific reading and spelling difficulties. Subjects, 50 normal readers and 50 reading disabled persons native to the island of Bornholm, had their auditory laterality screened using pure-tone audiometry and dichotic listening. Results…

Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension for Students with Reading Disabilities? A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Sarah G.; Moxley, Jerad H.; Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Wagner, Richard K.

2018-01-01

Text-to-speech and related read-aloud tools are being widely implemented in an attempt to assist students' reading comprehension skills. Read-aloud software, including text-to-speech, is used to translate written text into spoken text, enabling one to listen to written text while reading along. It is not clear how effective text-to-speech is at…

Utility of optical facial feature and arm movement tracking systems to enable text communication in critically ill patients who cannot otherwise communicate.

PubMed

Muthuswamy, M B; Thomas, B N; Williams, D; Dingley, J

2014-09-01

Patients recovering from critical illness especially those with critical illness related neuropathy, myopathy, or burns to face, arms and hands are often unable to communicate by writing, speech (due to tracheostomy) or lip reading. This may frustrate both patient and staff. Two low cost movement tracking systems based around a laptop webcam and a laser/optical gaming system sensor were utilised as control inputs for on-screen text creation software and both were evaluated as communication tools in volunteers. Two methods were used to control an on-screen cursor to create short sentences via an on-screen keyboard: (i) webcam-based facial feature tracking, (ii) arm movement tracking by laser/camera gaming sensor and modified software. 16 volunteers with simulated tracheostomy and bandaged arms to simulate communication via gross movements of a burned limb, communicated 3 standard messages using each system (total 48 per system) in random sequence. Ten and 13 minor typographical errors occurred with each system respectively, however all messages were comprehensible. Speed of sentence formation ranged from 58 to 120s with the facial feature tracking system, and 60-160s with the arm movement tracking system. The average speed of sentence formation was 81s (range 58-120) and 104s (range 60-160) for facial feature and arm tracking systems respectively, (P<0.001, 2-tailed independent sample t-test). Both devices may be potentially useful communication aids in patients in general and burns critical care units who cannot communicate by conventional means, due to the nature of their injuries. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

The Effects of a Supplementary Computerized Fluency Intervention on the Generalization of the Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension of First-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Lenwood, Jr.; Cartledge, Gwendolyn; Keyes, Starr E.; Yawn, Christopher D.

2014-01-01

The current study investigated the effects of a repeated reading intervention on the oral reading fluency (ORF) and comprehension on generalization passages for eight, first-grade students with reading risk. The intervention involved a commercial computerized program (Read Naturally Software Edition [RNSE], 2009) and a generalization principle…

A hybrid short read mapping accelerator

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The rapid growth of short read datasets poses a new challenge to the short read mapping problem in terms of sensitivity and execution speed. Existing methods often use a restrictive error model for computing the alignments to improve speed, whereas more flexible error models are generally too slow for large-scale applications. A number of short read mapping software tools have been proposed. However, designs based on hardware are relatively rare. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have been successfully used in a number of specific application areas, such as the DSP and communications domains due to their outstanding parallel data processing capabilities, making them a competitive platform to solve problems that are “inherently parallel”. Results We present a hybrid system for short read mapping utilizing both FPGA-based hardware and CPU-based software. The computation intensive alignment and the seed generation operations are mapped onto an FPGA. We present a computationally efficient, parallel block-wise alignment structure (Align Core) to approximate the conventional dynamic programming algorithm. The performance is compared to the multi-threaded CPU-based GASSST and BWA software implementations. For single-end alignment, our hybrid system achieves faster processing speed than GASSST (with a similar sensitivity) and BWA (with a higher sensitivity); for pair-end alignment, our design achieves a slightly worse sensitivity than that of BWA but has a higher processing speed. Conclusions This paper shows that our hybrid system can effectively accelerate the mapping of short reads to a reference genome based on the seed-and-extend approach. The performance comparison to the GASSST and BWA software implementations under different conditions shows that our hybrid design achieves a high degree of sensitivity and requires less overall execution time with only modest FPGA resource utilization. Our hybrid system design also shows that the performance bottleneck for the short read mapping problem can be changed from the alignment stage to the seed generation stage, which provides an additional requirement for the future development of short read aligners. PMID:23441908

Facilitating text reading in posterior cortical atrophy.

PubMed

Yong, Keir X X; Rajdev, Kishan; Shakespeare, Timothy J; Leff, Alexander P; Crutch, Sebastian J

2015-07-28

We report (1) the quantitative investigation of text reading in posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), and (2) the effects of 2 novel software-based reading aids that result in dramatic improvements in the reading ability of patients with PCA. Reading performance, eye movements, and fixations were assessed in patients with PCA and typical Alzheimer disease and in healthy controls (experiment 1). Two reading aids (single- and double-word) were evaluated based on the notion that reducing the spatial and oculomotor demands of text reading might support reading in PCA (experiment 2). Mean reading accuracy in patients with PCA was significantly worse (57%) compared with both patients with typical Alzheimer disease (98%) and healthy controls (99%); spatial aspects of passages were the primary determinants of text reading ability in PCA. Both aids led to considerable gains in reading accuracy (PCA mean reading accuracy: single-word reading aid = 96%; individual patient improvement range: 6%-270%) and self-rated measures of reading. Data suggest a greater efficiency of fixations and eye movements under the single-word reading aid in patients with PCA. These findings demonstrate how neurologic characterization of a neurodegenerative syndrome (PCA) and detailed cognitive analysis of an important everyday skill (reading) can combine to yield aids capable of supporting important everyday functional abilities. This study provides Class III evidence that for patients with PCA, 2 software-based reading aids (single-word and double-word) improve reading accuracy. © 2015 American Academy of Neurology.

Facilitating text reading in posterior cortical atrophy

PubMed Central

Rajdev, Kishan; Shakespeare, Timothy J.; Leff, Alexander P.; Crutch, Sebastian J.

2015-01-01

Objective: We report (1) the quantitative investigation of text reading in posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), and (2) the effects of 2 novel software-based reading aids that result in dramatic improvements in the reading ability of patients with PCA. Methods: Reading performance, eye movements, and fixations were assessed in patients with PCA and typical Alzheimer disease and in healthy controls (experiment 1). Two reading aids (single- and double-word) were evaluated based on the notion that reducing the spatial and oculomotor demands of text reading might support reading in PCA (experiment 2). Results: Mean reading accuracy in patients with PCA was significantly worse (57%) compared with both patients with typical Alzheimer disease (98%) and healthy controls (99%); spatial aspects of passages were the primary determinants of text reading ability in PCA. Both aids led to considerable gains in reading accuracy (PCA mean reading accuracy: single-word reading aid = 96%; individual patient improvement range: 6%–270%) and self-rated measures of reading. Data suggest a greater efficiency of fixations and eye movements under the single-word reading aid in patients with PCA. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate how neurologic characterization of a neurodegenerative syndrome (PCA) and detailed cognitive analysis of an important everyday skill (reading) can combine to yield aids capable of supporting important everyday functional abilities. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class III evidence that for patients with PCA, 2 software-based reading aids (single-word and double-word) improve reading accuracy. PMID:26138948

Use of Kidspiration[C] Software to Enhance the Reading Comprehension of Story Grammar Components for Elementary-Age Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wade, Erin; Boon, Richard T.; Spencer, Vicky G.

2010-01-01

The aim of this research brief was to explore the efficacy of story mapping, with the integration of Kidspiration[C] software, to enhance the reading comprehension skills of story grammar components for elementary-age students. Three students served as the participants, two in third grade and one in fourth, with specific learning disabilities…

Developing Tools for Assessing and Using Commercially Available Reading Software Programs to Promote the Development of Early Reading Skills in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Eileen; Gottardo, Alexandra; Grant, Amy; Evans, Mary Ann; Phillips, Linda; Savage, Robert

2012-01-01

As computers become an increasingly ubiquitous part of young children's lives there is a need to examine how best to harness digital technologies to promote learning in early childhood education contexts. The development of emergent literacy skills is 1 domain for which numerous software programs are available for young learners. In this study, we…

Second-Grade Urban Learners: Preliminary Findings for a Computer-Assisted, Culturally Relevant, Repeated Reading Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Jessica G.; Gardner, Ralph, III; Cartledge, Gwendolyn; Ramnath, Rajiv; Council, Morris R., III

2017-01-01

This study investigated the effects of a multicomponent, supplemental intervention on the reading fluency of second-grade African-American urban students who showed reading and special education risk. The packaged intervention combined repeated readings and culturally relevant stories, delivered through a novel computer software program to enhance…

A cross-sectional survey assessing factors associated with reading cancer screening information: previous screening behaviour, demographics and decision-making style.

PubMed

Ghanouni, Alex; Renzi, Cristina; Waller, Jo

2017-04-18

There is broad agreement that cancer screening invitees should know the risks and benefits of testing before deciding whether to participate. In organised screening programmes, a primary method of relaying this information is via leaflets provided at the time of invitation. Little is known about why individuals do not engage with this information. This study assessed factors associated with reading information leaflets provided by the three cancer screening programmes in England. A cross-sectional survey asked screening-eligible members of the general population in England about the following predictor variables: uptake of previous screening invitations, demographic characteristics, and 'decision-making styles' (i.e. the extent to which participants tended to make decisions in a way that was avoidant, rational, intuitive, spontaneous, or dependent). The primary outcome measures were the amount of the leaflet that participants reported having read at their most recent invitation, for any of the three programmes for which they were eligible. Associations between these outcomes and predictor variables were assessed using binary or ordinal logistic regression. After exclusions, data from 275, 309, and 556 participants were analysed in relation to the breast, cervical, and bowel screening programmes, respectively. Notable relationships included associations between regularity of screening uptake and reading (more of) the information leaflets for all programmes (e.g. odds ratio: 0.16 for participants who never/very rarely attended breast screening vs. those who always attended previously; p = .009). Higher rational decision-making scores were associated with reading more of the cervical and bowel screening leaflets (OR: 1.13, p < .0005 and OR: 1.11, p = .045, respectively). Information engagement was also higher for White British participants compared with other ethnic groups for breast (OR: 3.28, p = .008) and bowel (OR: 2.58, p = .015) information; an opposite relationship was observed for older participants (OR: 0.96, p = .048; OR: 0.92, p = .029). Interventions that increase screening uptake may also increase subsequent engagement with information. Future research could investigate how to improve engagement at initial invitations. There may also be scope to reduce barriers to accessing non-English information and alternative communication strategies may benefit participants who are less inclined to weigh up advantages and disadvantages as part of their decision-making.

Automated chest-radiography as a triage for Xpert testing in resource-constrained settings: a prospective study of diagnostic accuracy and costs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Philipsen, R. H. H. M.; Sánchez, C. I.; Maduskar, P.; Melendez, J.; Peters-Bax, L.; Peter, J. G.; Dawson, R.; Theron, G.; Dheda, K.; van Ginneken, B.

2015-07-01

Molecular tests hold great potential for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis, but are costly, time consuming, and HIV-infected patients are often sputum scarce. Therefore, alternative approaches are needed. We evaluated automated digital chest radiography (ACR) as a rapid and cheap pre-screen test prior to Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert). 388 suspected TB subjects underwent chest radiography, Xpert and sputum culture testing. Radiographs were analysed by computer software (CAD4TB) and specialist readers, and abnormality scores were allocated. A triage algorithm was simulated in which subjects with a score above a threshold underwent Xpert. We computed sensitivity, specificity, cost per screened subject (CSS), cost per notified TB case (CNTBC) and throughput for different diagnostic thresholds. 18.3% of subjects had culture positive TB. For Xpert alone, sensitivity was 78.9%, specificity 98.1%, CSS $13.09 and CNTBC $90.70. In a pre-screening setting where 40% of subjects would undergo Xpert, CSS decreased to $6.72 and CNTBC to $54.34, with eight TB cases missed and throughput increased from 45 to 113 patients/day. Specialists, on average, read 57% of radiographs as abnormal, reducing CSS ($8.95) and CNTBC ($64.84). ACR pre-screening could substantially reduce costs, and increase daily throughput with few TB cases missed. These data inform public health policy in resource-constrained settings.

Nine Easy Steps to Avoiding Software Copyright Infringement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gamble, Lanny R.; Anderson, Larry S.

1989-01-01

To avoid microcomputer software copyright infringement, administrators must be aware of the law, read the software agreements, maintain good records, submit all software registration cards, provide secure storage, post warnings, be consistent when establishing and enforcing policies, consider a site license, and ensure the legality of currently…

Bimodal Reading: Benefits of a Talking Computer for Average and Less Skilled Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montali, Julie; Lewandowski, Lawrence

1996-01-01

Eighteen average readers and 18 less-skilled readers (grades 8 and 9) were presented with social studies and science passages via a computer either visually (on screen), auditorily (read by digitized voice), or bimodally (on screen, highlighted while being voiced). Less-skilled readers demonstrated comprehension in the bimodal condition equivalent…

An Evaluation of Two Emergent Literacy Screening Tools for Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Shauna B.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2009-01-01

Children's reading success in early elementary school can be predicted from their emergent literacy skills. Consequently, there has been an increased focus on early childhood education as a means of identifying children at risk for later reading difficulty. Because diagnostic measures are impractical for this use, emergent literacy screening tools…

Readability Comparison of Pro- and Anti-Cancer Screening Online Messages in Japan

PubMed Central

Okuhara, Tsuyoshi; Ishikawa, Hirono; Okada, Masahumi; Kato, Mio; Kiuchi, Takahiro

2016-01-01

Background: Cancer screening rates are lower in Japan than those in western countries. Health professionals publish pro-cancer screening messages on the internet to encourage audiences to undergo cancer screening. However, the information provided is often difficult to read for lay persons. Further, anti-cancer screening activists warn against cancer screening with messages on the Internet. We aimed to assess and compare the readability of pro- and anti-cancer screening online messages in Japan using a measure of readability. Methods: We conducted web searches at the beginning of September 2016 using two major Japanese search engines (Google.jp and Yahoo!.jp). The included websites were classified as “anti”, “pro”, or “neutral” depending on the claims, and “health professional” or “non-health professional” depending on the writers. Readability was determined using a validated measure of Japanese readability. Statistical analysis was conducted using two-way ANOVA. Results: In the total 159 websites analyzed, anti-cancer screening online messages were generally easier to read than pro-cancer screening online messages, Messages written by health professionals were more difficult to read than those written by non-health professionals. Claim × writer interaction was not significant. Conclusion: When health professionals prepare pro-cancer screening materials for publication online, we recommend they check for readability using readability assessment tools and improve text for easy comprehension when necessary. PMID:28125867

Screening for Dyslexia in French-Speaking University Students: An Evaluation of the Detection Accuracy of the Alouette Test.

PubMed

Cavalli, Eddy; Colé, Pascale; Leloup, Gilles; Poracchia-George, Florence; Sprenger-Charolles, Liliane; El Ahmadi, Abdessadek

Developmental dyslexia is a lifelong impairment affecting 5% to 10% of the population. In French-speaking countries, although a number of standardized tests for dyslexia in children are available, tools suitable to screen for dyslexia in adults are lacking. In this study, we administered the Alouette reading test to a normative sample of 164 French university students without dyslexia and a validation sample of 83 students with dyslexia. The Alouette reading test is designed to screen for dyslexia in children, since it taps skills that are typically deficient in dyslexia (i.e., phonological skills). However, the test's psychometric properties have not previously been available, and it is not standardized for adults. The results showed that, on the Alouette test, dyslexic readers were impaired on measures of accuracy, speed, and efficiency (accuracy/reading time). We also found significant correlations between the Alouette reading efficiency and phonological efficiency scores. Finally, in terms of the Alouette test, speed-accuracy trade-offs were found in both groups, and optimal cutoff scores were determined with receiver operator characteristic curves analysis, yielding excellent discriminatory power, with 83.1% sensitivity and 100% specificity for reading efficiency. Thus, this study supports the Alouette test as a sensitive and specific screening tool for adults with dyslexia.

Tracking Positions and Attitudes of Mars Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ali, Khaled; vanelli, Charles; Biesiadecki, Jeffrey; Martin, Alejandro San; Maimone, Mark; Cheng, Yang; Alexander, James

2006-01-01

The Surface Attitude Position and Pointing (SAPP) software, which runs on computers aboard the Mars Exploration Rovers, tracks the positions and attitudes of the rovers on the surface of Mars. Each rover acquires data on attitude from a combination of accelerometer readings and images of the Sun acquired autonomously, using a pointable camera to search the sky for the Sun. Depending on the nature of movement commanded remotely by operators on Earth, the software propagates attitude and position by use of either (1) accelerometer and gyroscope readings or (2) gyroscope readings and wheel odometry. Where necessary, visual odometry is performed on images to fine-tune the position updates, particularly on high-wheel-slip terrain. The attitude data are used by other software and ground-based personnel for pointing a high-gain antenna, planning and execution of driving, and positioning and aiming scientific instruments.

Prediction of Learning and Comprehension when Adolescents Read Multiple Texts: The Roles of Word-Level Processing, Strategic Approach, and Reading Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braten, Ivar; Ferguson, Leila E.; Anmarkrud, Oistein; Stromso, Helge I.

2013-01-01

Sixty-five Norwegian 10th graders used the software Read&Answer 2.0 (Vidal-Abarca et al., 2011) to read five different texts presenting conflicting views on the controversial scientific issue of sun exposure and health. Participants were administered a multiple-choice topic-knowledge measure before and after reading, a word recognition task,…

Screening for asymptomatic atrial fibrillation while monitoring the blood pressure at home: trial of regular versus irregular pulse for prevention of stroke (TRIPPS 2.0).

PubMed

Wiesel, Joseph; Abraham, Saji; Messineo, Frank C

2013-06-01

Asymptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cause of strokes. Physician screening for AF has been recommended. Home screening for AF may increase the likelihood of detecting asymptomatic AF in patients at risk for stroke because of AF. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and accuracy of screening for AF when taking home blood pressure (BP) measurements using an automatic AF-detecting BP monitor. Subjects aged >64 years or those with hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, or previous stroke were enrolled by their primary physicians and given the AF-BP monitor and an electrocardiographic event monitor to use at home for 30 days. The AF-BP monitor reading was compared with the electrocardiographic reading to calculate the sensitivity and specificity of the device for detecting AF. A total of 160 subjects were enrolled, with 10 withdrawing, 1 excluded, and 10 with no AF-BP monitor logs or electrocardiographic recordings. Of the 139 subjects included, 14 had known AF. There was a total of 3,316 days with AF-BP monitor readings and electrocardiographic readings. On the basis of the initial daily AF-BP monitor readings, the AF-BP monitor demonstrated sensitivity of 99.2% and specificity of 92.9% for detecting AF. Two subjects with no histories of AF had AF-BP monitor readings of AF that were confirmed by the electrocardiographic monitor. One of these subjects was started on warfarin. In conclusion, home screening for asymptomatic AF while taking BP measurements can be performed accurately. This can be used to detect new AF, allowing treatment with anticoagulation to reduce the future risk for stroke. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescents' Out-of-School Digital Reading Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zucker, Lauren

2018-01-01

Adolescents spend a significant portion of the day on digital devices, yet we know very little about their out-of-school reading practices. While screen recording technology allows researchers to record and view videos of digital reading, the majority of studies exploring digital reading limit participants' reading to researcher-selected texts and…

Computer Software Configuration Item-Specific Flight Software Image Transfer Script Generator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolen, Kenny; Greenlaw, Ronald

2010-01-01

A K-shell UNIX script enables the International Space Station (ISS) Flight Control Team (FCT) operators in NASA s Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston to transfer an entire or partial computer software configuration item (CSCI) from a flight software compact disk (CD) to the onboard Portable Computer System (PCS). The tool is designed to read the content stored on a flight software CD and generate individual CSCI transfer scripts that are capable of transferring the flight software content in a given subdirectory on the CD to the scratch directory on the PCS. The flight control team can then transfer the flight software from the PCS scratch directory to the Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) of an ISS Multiplexer/ Demultiplexer (MDM) via the Indirect File Transfer capability. The individual CSCI scripts and the CSCI Specific Flight Software Image Transfer Script Generator (CFITSG), when executed a second time, will remove all components from their original execution. The tool will identify errors in the transfer process and create logs of the transferred software for the purposes of configuration management.

An optimized protocol for generation and analysis of Ion Proton sequencing reads for RNA-Seq.

PubMed

Yuan, Yongxian; Xu, Huaiqian; Leung, Ross Ka-Kit

2016-05-26

Previous studies compared running cost, time and other performance measures of popular sequencing platforms. However, comprehensive assessment of library construction and analysis protocols for Proton sequencing platform remains unexplored. Unlike Illumina sequencing platforms, Proton reads are heterogeneous in length and quality. When sequencing data from different platforms are combined, this can result in reads with various read length. Whether the performance of the commonly used software for handling such kind of data is satisfactory is unknown. By using universal human reference RNA as the initial material, RNaseIII and chemical fragmentation methods in library construction showed similar result in gene and junction discovery number and expression level estimated accuracy. In contrast, sequencing quality, read length and the choice of software affected mapping rate to a much larger extent. Unspliced aligner TMAP attained the highest mapping rate (97.27 % to genome, 86.46 % to transcriptome), though 47.83 % of mapped reads were clipped. Long reads could paradoxically reduce mapping in junctions. With reference annotation guide, the mapping rate of TopHat2 significantly increased from 75.79 to 92.09 %, especially for long (>150 bp) reads. Sailfish, a k-mer based gene expression quantifier attained highly consistent results with that of TaqMan array and highest sensitivity. We provided for the first time, the reference statistics of library preparation methods, gene detection and quantification and junction discovery for RNA-Seq by the Ion Proton platform. Chemical fragmentation performed equally well with the enzyme-based one. The optimal Ion Proton sequencing options and analysis software have been evaluated.

Computer-Assisted Language Learning for Japanese on the Macintosh: An Update of What's Available.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darnall, Cliff; And Others

This paper outlines a presentation on available Macintosh computer software for learning Japanese. The software systems described are categorized by their emphasis on speaking, writing, or reading, with a special section on software for young learners. Software that emphasizes spoken language includes "Berlitz for Business…

Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) Reading Assessment (FRA): Kindergarten to Grade 2. Technical Manual

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foorman, Barbara R.; Petscher, Yaacov; Schatschneider, Chris

2015-01-01

The grades K-2 Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) Reading Assessment (FRA) consists of computer-adaptive alphabetic and oral language screening tasks that provide a Probability of Literacy Success (PLS) linked to grade-level performance (i.e., the 40th percentile) on the word reading (in kindergarten) or reading comprehension (in grades…

Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) Reading Assessment (FRA): Grades 3 through 12. Technical Manual

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foorman, Barbara R.; Petscher, Yaacov; Schatschneider, Chris

2015-01-01

The Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) Reading Assessment (FRA) consists of computer-adaptive reading comprehension and oral language screening tasks that provide measures to track growth over time, as well as a Probability of Literacy Success (PLS) linked to grade-level performance (i.e., the 50th percentile) on the reading comprehension…

The Role and Design of Screen Images in Software Documentation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Meij, Hans

2000-01-01

Discussion of learning a new computer software program focuses on how to support the joint handling of a manual, input devices, and screen display. Describes a study that examined three design styles for manuals that included screen images to reduce split-attention problems and discusses theory versus practice and cognitive load theory.…

A Massively Parallel Computational Method of Reading Index Files for SOAPsnv.

PubMed

Zhu, Xiaoqian; Peng, Shaoliang; Liu, Shaojie; Cui, Yingbo; Gu, Xiang; Gao, Ming; Fang, Lin; Fang, Xiaodong

2015-12-01

SOAPsnv is the software used for identifying the single nucleotide variation in cancer genes. However, its performance is yet to match the massive amount of data to be processed. Experiments reveal that the main performance bottleneck of SOAPsnv software is the pileup algorithm. The original pileup algorithm's I/O process is time-consuming and inefficient to read input files. Moreover, the scalability of the pileup algorithm is also poor. Therefore, we designed a new algorithm, named BamPileup, aiming to improve the performance of sequential read, and the new pileup algorithm implemented a parallel read mode based on index. Using this method, each thread can directly read the data start from a specific position. The results of experiments on the Tianhe-2 supercomputer show that, when reading data in a multi-threaded parallel I/O way, the processing time of algorithm is reduced to 3.9 s and the application program can achieve a speedup up to 100×. Moreover, the scalability of the new algorithm is also satisfying.

Concurrent and Accurate Short Read Mapping on Multicore Processors.

PubMed

Martínez, Héctor; Tárraga, Joaquín; Medina, Ignacio; Barrachina, Sergio; Castillo, Maribel; Dopazo, Joaquín; Quintana-Ortí, Enrique S

2015-01-01

We introduce a parallel aligner with a work-flow organization for fast and accurate mapping of RNA sequences on servers equipped with multicore processors. Our software, HPG Aligner SA (HPG Aligner SA is an open-source application. The software is available at http://www.opencb.org, exploits a suffix array to rapidly map a large fraction of the RNA fragments (reads), as well as leverages the accuracy of the Smith-Waterman algorithm to deal with conflictive reads. The aligner is enhanced with a careful strategy to detect splice junctions based on an adaptive division of RNA reads into small segments (or seeds), which are then mapped onto a number of candidate alignment locations, providing crucial information for the successful alignment of the complete reads. The experimental results on a platform with Intel multicore technology report the parallel performance of HPG Aligner SA, on RNA reads of 100-400 nucleotides, which excels in execution time/sensitivity to state-of-the-art aligners such as TopHat 2+Bowtie 2, MapSplice, and STAR.

Analysis of read-out heating rate effects on the glow peaks of TLD-100 using WinGCF software

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bauk, Sabar, E-mail: sabar@usm.my; Hussin, Siti Fatimah; Alam, Md. Shah

This study was done to analyze the effects of the read-out heating rate on the LiF:Mg,Ti (TLD-100) thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) glow peaks using WinGCF computer software. The TLDs were exposed to X-ray photons with a potential difference of 72 kVp and 200 mAs in air and were read-out using a Harshaw 3500 TLD reader. The TLDs were read-out using four read-out heating rates at 10, 7, 4 and 1 °C s{sup −1}. It was observed that lowering the heating rate could separate more glow peaks. The activation energy for peak 5 was found to be lower than that for peakmore » 4. The peak maximum temperature and the integral value of the main peak decreased as the heating rate decreases.« less

Parallax Player: a stereoscopic format converter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feldman, Mark H.; Lipton, Lenny

2003-05-01

The Parallax Player is a software application that is, in essence, a stereoscopic format converter. Various formats may be inputted and outputted. In addition to being able to take any one of a wide variety of different formats and play them back on many different kinds of PCs and display screens. The Parallax Player has built into it the capability to produce ersatz stereo from a planar still or movie image. The player handles two basic forms of digital content - still images, and movies. It is assumed that all data is digital, either created by means of a photographic film process and later digitized, or directly captured or authored in a digital form. In its current implementation, running on a number of Windows Operating Systems, The Parallax Player reads in a broad selection of contemporary file formats.

Factors Affecting the Reading Media Used by Visually Impaired Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goudiras, Dimitrios B.; Papadopoulos, Konstantinos S.; Koutsoklenis, Athanasios Ch.; Papageorgiou, Virginia E.; Stergiou, Maria S.

2009-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine reading media (braille, cassettes, screen-reader, screen-magnifier, large print, low vision aids, CCTV) used by visually impaired adults. This article reports the results of a research project involving 100 people with visual impairment. The participants were interviewed and asked to fill in a questionnaire to…

Validity Evidence for the Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Evelyn S.; Pool, Juli L.; Carter, Deborah R.

2011-01-01

An essential component of a response to intervention (RTI) framework is a screening process that is both accurate and efficient. The purpose of this study was to analyze the validity evidence for the "Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension" (TOSREC) to determine its potential for use within a screening process. Participants included…

Validation of Unsupervised Computer-Based Screening for Reading Disability in Greek Elementary Grades 3 and 4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Protopapas, Athanassios; Skaloumbakas, Christos; Bali, Persefoni

2008-01-01

After reviewing past efforts related to computer-based reading disability (RD) assessment, we present a fully automated screening battery that evaluates critical skills relevant for RD diagnosis designed for unsupervised application in the Greek educational system. Psychometric validation in 301 children, 8-10 years old (grades 3 and 4; including…

Modification of infant hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria screening program using electronic tools.

PubMed

Taheri, Behjat; Haddadpoor, Asefeh; Mirkhalafzadeh, Mahmood; Mazroei, Fariba; Aghdak, Pezhman; Nasri, Mehran; Bahrami, Gholamreza

2017-01-01

Congenital hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria (PKU) are the most common cause for preventable mental retardation in infants worldwide. Timely diagnosis and treatment of these disorders can have lasting effects on the mental development of newborns. However, there are several problems at different stages of screening programs that along with imposing heavy costs can reduce the precision of the screening, increasing the chance of undiagnosed cases which in turn can have damaging consequences for the society. Therefore, given these problems and the importance of information systems in facilitating the management and improving the quality of health care the aim of this study was to improve the screening process of hypothyroidism and PKU in infants with the help of electronic resources. The current study is a qualitative, action research designed to improve the quality of screening, services, performance, implementation effectiveness, and management of hypothyroidism and PKU screening program in Isfahan province. To this end, web-based software was designed. Programming was carried out using Delphi.net software and used SQL Server 2008 for database management. Given the weaknesses, problems, and limitations of hypothyroidism and PKU screening program, and the importance of these diseases in a national scale, this study resulted in design of hypothyroidism and PKU screening software for infants in Isfahan province. The inputs and outputs of the software were designed in three levels including Health Care Centers in charge of the screening program, provincial reference lab, and health and treatment network of Isfahan province. Immediate registration of sample data at the time and location of sampling, providing the provincial reference Laboratory and Health Centers of different eparchies with the ability to instantly observe, monitor, and follow-up on the samples at any moment, online verification of samples by reference lab, creating a daily schedule for reference lab, and receiving of the results from analysis equipment; and entering the results into the database without the need for user input are among the features of this software. The implementation of hypothyroidism screening software led to an increase in the quality and efficiency of the screening program; minimized the risk of human error in the process and solved many of the previous limitations of the screening program which were the main goals for implementation of this software. The implementation of this software also resulted in improvement in precision and quality of services provided for these two diseases and better accuracy and precision for data inputs by providing the possibility of entering the sample data at the place and time of sampling which then resulted in the possibility of management based on precise data and also helped develop a comprehensive database and improved the satisfaction of service recipients.

Computers and Reading: 1984-1989. Selections from "Micro Missive," the Newsletter of MicroSIG, The Special Interest Group for Microcomputers in Reading of the International Reading Association.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

This publication is a collection of eight articles and ten software reviews written by the author for "Micro Missive" since 1984. "Micro Missive" is a quarterly newsletter that has regularly informed International Reading Association members of new developments in computer-based instruction and reading/language arts through articles, software…

Atropos: specific, sensitive, and speedy trimming of sequencing reads.

PubMed

Didion, John P; Martin, Marcel; Collins, Francis S

2017-01-01

A key step in the transformation of raw sequencing reads into biological insights is the trimming of adapter sequences and low-quality bases. Read trimming has been shown to increase the quality and reliability while decreasing the computational requirements of downstream analyses. Many read trimming software tools are available; however, no tool simultaneously provides the accuracy, computational efficiency, and feature set required to handle the types and volumes of data generated in modern sequencing-based experiments. Here we introduce Atropos and show that it trims reads with high sensitivity and specificity while maintaining leading-edge speed. Compared to other state-of-the-art read trimming tools, Atropos achieves significant increases in trimming accuracy while remaining competitive in execution times. Furthermore, Atropos maintains high accuracy even when trimming data with elevated rates of sequencing errors. The accuracy, high performance, and broad feature set offered by Atropos makes it an appropriate choice for the pre-processing of Illumina, ABI SOLiD, and other current-generation short-read sequencing datasets. Atropos is open source and free software written in Python (3.3+) and available at https://github.com/jdidion/atropos.

Atropos: specific, sensitive, and speedy trimming of sequencing reads

PubMed Central

Collins, Francis S.

2017-01-01

A key step in the transformation of raw sequencing reads into biological insights is the trimming of adapter sequences and low-quality bases. Read trimming has been shown to increase the quality and reliability while decreasing the computational requirements of downstream analyses. Many read trimming software tools are available; however, no tool simultaneously provides the accuracy, computational efficiency, and feature set required to handle the types and volumes of data generated in modern sequencing-based experiments. Here we introduce Atropos and show that it trims reads with high sensitivity and specificity while maintaining leading-edge speed. Compared to other state-of-the-art read trimming tools, Atropos achieves significant increases in trimming accuracy while remaining competitive in execution times. Furthermore, Atropos maintains high accuracy even when trimming data with elevated rates of sequencing errors. The accuracy, high performance, and broad feature set offered by Atropos makes it an appropriate choice for the pre-processing of Illumina, ABI SOLiD, and other current-generation short-read sequencing datasets. Atropos is open source and free software written in Python (3.3+) and available at https://github.com/jdidion/atropos. PMID:28875074

Computer Vision Syndrome for Non-Native Speaking Students: What Are the Problems with Online Reading?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tseng, Min-chen

2014-01-01

This study investigated the online reading performances and the level of visual fatigue from the perspectives of non-native speaking students (NNSs). Reading on a computer screen is more visually more demanding than reading printed text. Online reading requires frequent saccadic eye movements and imposes continuous focusing and alignment demand.…

The Effects of Computer Usage on Computer Screen Reading Rate.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clausing, Carolyn S.; Schmitt, Dorren Rafael

This study investigated the differences in the reading rate of eighth grade students on a cloze reading exercise involving the reading of text from a computer monitor. Several different modes of presentation were used in order to determine the effect of prior experience with computers on the students' reading rate. Subjects were 240 eighth grade…

Reading Linear Texts on Paper versus Computer Screen: Effects on Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mangen, Anne; Walgermo, Bente R.; Bronnick, Kolbjorn

2013-01-01

Objective: To explore effects of the technological interface on reading comprehension in a Norwegian school context. Participants: 72 tenth graders from two different primary schools in Norway. Method: The students were randomized into two groups, where the first group read two texts (1400-2000 words) in print, and the other group read the same…

Don't Throw out Paper and Pens Yet: On the Reading Habits of Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidovitch, Nitza; Yavich, Roman; Druckman, Eran

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on students' reading habits--whether traditional reading habits (print books) or modern reading habits (using a computer screen). We review the changes in students' reading habits over time, as part of other global changes, and explore whether corresponding digital pedagogies have evolved to address these changes. We examine…

The Relationship between Computer Games and Reading Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reed, Tammy Dotson

2010-01-01

Illiteracy rates are increasing. The negative social and economic effects caused by weak reading skills include political unrest, social and health service inequality, poverty, and employment challenges. This quantitative study explored the proposition that the use of computer software games would increase reading achievement in second grade…

Advanced planning surveys using automatic license plate reading equipment and evaluation of automatic license plate reading equipment for advanced planning

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-05-01

Recent technological advances in computer hardware, software, and image processing have led to the development of automated license plate reading equipment. This equipment has primarily been developed for enforcement and security applications, such a...

Quick and Easy: Use Screen Capture Software to Train and Communicate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schuster, Ellen

2011-01-01

Screen capture (screen cast) software can be used to develop short videos for training purposes. Developing videos is quick and easy. This article describes how these videos are used as tools to reinforce face-to-face and interactive TV curriculum training in a nutrition education program. Advantages of developing these videos are shared.…

Lights, Camera, Read! Arizona Reading Program Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arizona State Dept. of Library, Archives and Public Records, Phoenix.

This document is the manual for the Arizona Reading Program (ARP) 2003 entitled "Lights, Camera, Read!" This theme spotlights books that were made into movies, and allows readers to appreciate favorite novels and stories that have progressed to the movie screen. The manual consists of eight sections. The Introduction includes welcome…

A Randomised Controlled Trial of the Use of a Piece of Commercial Software for the Acquisition of Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khan, Muhammad Ahmad; Gorard, Stephen

2012-01-01

We report here the overall results of a cluster randomised controlled trial of the use of computer-aided instruction with 672 Year 7 pupils in 23 secondary school classes in the north of England. A new piece of commercial software, claimed on the basis of publisher testing to be effective in improving reading after just six weeks of use in the…

Multiple definitions of reading disability: implications for preschool screening.

PubMed

Colligan, R C; Bajuniemi, L E

1984-10-01

A preschool screening battery was evaluated for effectiveness in identifying children who later would be found to have reading disabilities. The battery was used to evaluate 165 preschool children; 95 of these children were available for 3-yr. follow-up assessment. The battery was effective in identifying children at risk for later reading disability by using four different diagnostic criteria. The data suggest that intervention should be directed toward the immature or young boy who shows weaknesses in the preschool acquisition of number concepts and symbol recognition.

Smartphones, tablets and mobile applications for radiology.

PubMed

Székely, András; Talanow, Roland; Bágyi, Péter

2013-05-01

Smartphones are phone devices that may also be used for browsing, navigation and running smaller computer programs called applications. One may consider them as compact personal computers which are primarily to be used for making phone calls. Tablets or "tablet PCs" are fully functioning standalone computers the size of a thin LCD monitor that use the screen itself for control and data input. Both of these devices may be categorized based on the mobile operating system that they use. The aim of this study is to illustrate how smartphones and tablets can be used by diagnostic imaging professionals, radiographers and residents, and to introduce relevant applications that are available for their field. A search was performed on iTunes, Android Market, Blackberry App World, and Windows Phone Marketplace for mobile applications pertinent to the field of diagnostic imaging. The following terms were applied for the search strategy: (1) radiology, (2) X-ray, (3) ultrasound, (4) MRI, (5) CT, (6) radiographer, (7) nuclear medicine. Two radiologists and one radiology resident reviewed the results. Our review was limited to english-language software. Additional applications were identified by reviewing the list of similar software provided in the description of each application. We downloaded and installed all applications that appeared relevant to an appropriate mobile phone or tablet device. We identified and reviewed a total of 102 applications. We ruled out 1 non-English application and 20 other applications that were created for entertainment purposes. Thus our final list includes 81 applications in the following five categories: diagnostic reading, decision support applications, medical books, interactive encyclopedias, and journal reading programs. Smartphones and tablets offer new opportunities for diagnostic imaging practitioners; these easy-to-use devices equipped with excellent display may be used for diagnostic reading, reference, learning, consultation, and for communication with patients. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Empirical Investigation of Perspective-Based Reading

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basili, Victor R.; Green, Scott; Laitenberger, Oliver; Shull, Forrest; Sorumgard, Sivert; Zelkowitz, Marvin V.

1995-01-01

We consider reading techniques a fundamental means of achieving high quality software. Due to lack of research in this area, we are experimenting with the application and comparison of various reading techniques. This paper deals with our experiences with Perspective Based Reading (PBR) a particular reading technique for requirement documents. The goal of PBR is to provide operation scenarios where members of a review team read a document from a particular perspective (eg., tester, developer, user). Our assumption is that the combination of different perspective provides better coverage of the document than the same number of readers using their usual technique. To test the efficacy of PBR, we conducted two runs of a controlled experiment in the environment of NASA GSFC Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL), using developers from the environment. The subjects read two types of documents, one generic in nature and the other from the NASA Domain, using two reading techniques, PBR and their usual technique. The results from these experiment as well as the experimental design, are presented and analyzed. When there is a statistically significant distinction, PBR performs better than the subjects' usual technique. However, PBR appears to be more effective on the generic documents than on the NASA documents.

Technical Advances and Fifth Grade Reading Comprehension: Do Students Benefit?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fountaine, Drew

This paper takes a look at some recent studies on utilization of technical tools, primarily personal computers and software, for improving fifth-grade students' reading comprehension. Specifically, the paper asks what benefits an educator can expect students to derive from closed-captioning and computer-assisted reading comprehension products. It…

Computational Fluids Domain Reduction to a Simplified Fluid Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-19

readily available read/ write software library. Code components from the open source projects OpenFoam and Paraview were explored for their adaptability...to the project. Both Paraview and OpenFoam read polyhedral mesh. OpenFoam does not read results data. Paraview actually allows for user “filters

Supporting Struggling Readers in Secondary School Science Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Kelly D.; Takahashi, Kiriko; Park, Hye-Jin; Stodden, Robert A.

2012-01-01

Many secondary school students struggle to read complex expository text such as science textbooks. This article provides step-by-step guidance on how to foster expository reading for struggling readers in secondary school science classes. Two strategies are introduced: Text-to-Speech (TTS) Software as a reading compensatory strategy and the…

A Summary Report of Iowa's Review of PreK-6 Reading Assessments for Universal Screening and Progress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iowa Department of Education, 2013

2013-01-01

This document contains summary information for the Iowa Department of Education's review of PreK-6th grade reading assessments for the purposes of Universal Screening and Progress Monitoring. It is intended to provide general information to help inform decisions about selecting assessments for use as a part of Iowa's Response to Intervention…

Emerging Concerns in Reading; Highlights of the 21st Annual Reading Conference of Lehigh University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kender, Joseph P., Ed.

Addressing the question, "How can we teach all educable children to read effectively?" the papers in the first part of this volume look at several topical concerns in reading: "On Relocating the Reading Program: Finding a Better Barn for Our Sacred Cow,""The Transitional Open Classroom,""A Computer Program for Initial Screening of Problem…

Generalizing Screen Inferiority--Does the Medium, Screen versus Paper, Affect Performance Even with Brief Tasks?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sidi, Yael; Ophir, Yael; Ackerman, Rakefet

2016-01-01

Screen inferiority in performance and metacognitive processes has been repeatedly found with text learning. Common explanations for screen inferiority relate to technological and physiological disadvantages associated with extensive reading on screen. However, recent studies point to lesser recruitment of mental effort on screen than on paper.…

Medical radiologic technologist review: effects on a population-based breast cancer screening program.

PubMed

Tonita, J M; Hillis, J P; Lim, C H

1999-05-01

To evaluate the effects of medical radiologic technologist review of mammograms in a population-based breast cancer screening program. A technologist review pilot project was incorporated into the Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, reading center. Technologists received special training in mammographic interpretation. They reviewed all 27,863 mammograms obtained at the center from July 1995 to September 1996 that were reviewed by a radiologist and selected cases for second blind reading by another radiologist. When the two radiologists' readings were in agreement, the report was sent. When the readings differed, a third opinion was obtained from the program's consulting radiologist. Changes in the number of mammograms interpreted as abnormal and the number of cancers detected were assessed. The technologist review was responsible for the detection of nine cancers missed at the first radiologist's interpretation. Technologists were very discriminating; only 391 cases (1.4%) were sent for double reading. The positive predictive value of screening did not change significantly (7.5% without review, 8.1% with review; P > .20). A substantial number of cancers were found with the technologist review. The number of mammograms interpreted as abnormal was reduced slightly. The technologist review proved to be a cost-effective alternative to double reading by two radiologists.

Tablet-Based eBooks for Young Children: What Does the Research Say?

PubMed

Reich, Stephanie M; Yau, Joanna C; Warschauer, Mark

2016-09-01

Young children's use of electronic books (eBooks) is increasing as handheld touch screen devices, such as tablets, become increasingly available. Although older children's reading on tablets has been more broadly investigated, less is known about the impacts of digital reading for infant, toddlers, and preschoolers. This review compares the educational affordances of reading on tablets versus print books for young children's learning. A qualitative synthesis of research on tablet-based eReading and young children's learning from screens was conducted. When eBooks are designed well, preschool-aged children learn equally well and sometimes more than from print books. However, enhanced eBooks with sounds, animations, and games can distract children and reduce learning. When book-sharing with an adult, conversations during eBook reading are often about the platform while print book conversations are more often about the book content. For young children (0-2 yr), there is a paucity of research, but broader studies on learning from screens suggest limited educational benefits of tablet use for this age group. The authors recommend that (1) the selection of eBooks (especially enhanced eBooks) be thoughtful as games or animations that are not related to the story content can be distracting for young children, (2) adults share in the reading experience as discussions of the story, text, and characters have been found to enhance comprehension, language development, and print awareness, and (3) tablet eBook use be restricted for infants and toddlers, as they benefit more from face-to-face interaction with caregivers than from interactive screens alone.

Sensitivity to Stroke Emerges in Kindergartners Reading Chinese Script

PubMed Central

Li, Su; Yin, Li

2017-01-01

To what extent are young children sensitive to individual stroke, the smallest unit of writing in Chinese that carries no phonological or semantic information? The present study examined Chinese kindergartners’ sensitivity to stroke and the contribution of reading ability and age to stroke sensitivity. Fifty five children from Beijing, including 28 4-year-olds (Mage = 4.55 years, SD = 0.28, 16 males) and 29 5-year-olds (Mage = 5.58 years, SD = 0.30, 14 males), were administered an orthographic matching task and assessed on non-verbal IQ and Chinese word reading. In the orthographic matching task, children were asked to decide whether two items were exactly the same or different in three conditions, with stimuli being correctly written characters (e.g., “”), stroke-missing or redundant characters (e.g., “”), and Tibetan alphabets (e.g., “”), respectively. The stimuli were presented with E-prime 2.0 software and were displayed on a Surface Pro. Children responded by touching the screen and reaction time was used as a measure of processing efficiency. The 5-year-olds but not the 4-year-olds processed correctly written characters more efficiently than stroke-missing/redundant characters, suggesting emergence of stroke sensitivity from age 5. The 4- and 5-year-olds both processed correctly written characters more efficiently than Tibetan alphabets, ruling out the possibility that the 5 year olds’ sensitivity to stroke was due to the unusual look of the stimuli. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that Chinese word reading explained 10% additional variance in stroke sensitivity after having statistically controlled for age. Age did not account for additional variance in stroke sensitivity after having considered Chinese word reading. Taken together, findings of this study revealed that despite the visually highly complex nature of Chinese and the fact that individual stroke carries no phonological or semantic information, children develop sensitivity to stroke from age 5 and such sensitivity is significantly associated with reading experience. PMID:28626438

Sensitivity to Stroke Emerges in Kindergartners Reading Chinese Script.

PubMed

Li, Su; Yin, Li

2017-01-01

To what extent are young children sensitive to individual stroke, the smallest unit of writing in Chinese that carries no phonological or semantic information? The present study examined Chinese kindergartners' sensitivity to stroke and the contribution of reading ability and age to stroke sensitivity. Fifty five children from Beijing, including 28 4-year-olds ( M age = 4.55 years, SD = 0.28, 16 males) and 29 5-year-olds ( M age = 5.58 years, SD = 0.30, 14 males), were administered an orthographic matching task and assessed on non-verbal IQ and Chinese word reading. In the orthographic matching task, children were asked to decide whether two items were exactly the same or different in three conditions, with stimuli being correctly written characters (e.g., "), stroke-missing or redundant characters (e.g., "), and Tibetan alphabets (e.g., "), respectively. The stimuli were presented with E-prime 2.0 software and were displayed on a Surface Pro. Children responded by touching the screen and reaction time was used as a measure of processing efficiency. The 5-year-olds but not the 4-year-olds processed correctly written characters more efficiently than stroke-missing/redundant characters, suggesting emergence of stroke sensitivity from age 5. The 4- and 5-year-olds both processed correctly written characters more efficiently than Tibetan alphabets, ruling out the possibility that the 5 year olds' sensitivity to stroke was due to the unusual look of the stimuli. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that Chinese word reading explained 10% additional variance in stroke sensitivity after having statistically controlled for age. Age did not account for additional variance in stroke sensitivity after having considered Chinese word reading. Taken together, findings of this study revealed that despite the visually highly complex nature of Chinese and the fact that individual stroke carries no phonological or semantic information, children develop sensitivity to stroke from age 5 and such sensitivity is significantly associated with reading experience.

Internet Usage by Low-Literacy Adults Seeking Health Information: An Observational Analysis

PubMed Central

Birru, Mehret S; Monaco, Valerie M; Charles, Lonelyss; Drew, Hadiya; Njie, Valerie; Bierria, Timothy; Detlefsen, Ellen

2004-01-01

Background Adults with low literacy may encounter informational obstacles on the Internet when searching for health information, in part because most health Web sites require at least a high-school reading proficiency for optimal access. Objective The purpose of this study was to 1) determine how low-literacy adults independently access and evaluate health information on the Internet, 2) identify challenges and areas of proficiency in the Internet-searching skills of low-literacy adults. Methods Subjects (n=8) were enrolled in a reading assistance program at Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh, PA, and read at a 3rd to 8th grade level. Subjects conducted self-directed Internet searches for designated health topics while utilizing a think-aloud protocol. Subjects' keystrokes and comments were recorded using Camtasia Studio screen-capture software. The search terms used to find health information, the amount of time spent on each Web site, the number of Web sites accessed, the reading level of Web sites accessed, and the responses of subjects to questionnaires were assessed. Results Subjects collectively answered 8 out of 24 questions correctly. Seven out of 8 subjects selected "sponsored sites"-paid Web advertisements-over search engine-generated links when answering health questions. On average, subjects accessed health Web sites written at or above a 10th grade reading level. Standard methodologies used for measuring health literacy and for promoting subjects to verbalize responses to Web-site form and content had limited utility in this population. Conclusion This study demonstrates that Web health information requires a reading level that prohibits optimal access by some low-literacy adults. These results highlight the low-literacy adult population as a potential audience for Web health information, and indicate some areas of difficulty that these individuals face when using the Internet and health Web sites to find information on specific health topics. PMID:15471751

Does Whole-Word Multimedia Software Support Literacy Acquisition?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karemaker, Arjette M.; Pitchford, Nicola J.; O'Malley, Claire

2010-01-01

This study examined the extent to which multimedia features of typical literacy learning software provide added benefits for developing literacy skills compared with typical whole-class teaching methods. The effectiveness of the multimedia software Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) for Clicker in supporting early literacy acquisition was investigated…

What Could Replace the Phonics Screening Check during the Early Years of Reading Development?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glazzard, Jonathan

2017-01-01

This article argues that the phonics screening check, introduced in England in 2012, is not fit for purpose. It is a test of children's ability to decode words rather than an assessment of their reading skills. Whilst this assessment may, to some extent, support the needs of children who rely on phonemic decoding as a route to word recognition, it…

Evaluating the Interpretations and Use of Curriculum-Based Measurement in Reading and Word Lists for Universal Screening in First and Second Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

January, Stacy-Ann A.; Ardoin, Scott P.; Christ, Theodore J.; Eckert, Tanya L.; White, Mary Jane

2016-01-01

Universal screening in elementary schools often includes administering curriculum-based measurement in reading (CBM-R); but in first grade, nonsense word fluency (NWF) and, to a lesser extent, word identification fluency (WIF) are used because of concerns that CBM-R is too difficult for emerging readers. This study used Kane's argument-based…

Investigation on Views and Attitudes of Students in Faculty of Education about Reading and Writing on Screen

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duran, Erol

2013-01-01

The purpose of this research is to determine points of view and attitudes of students of Faculty of Education about reading and writing on screen. In this research, descriptive survey model is used. The working group includes 254 students of Usak University, Faculty of Education. A new measurement tool developed by the researcher was used in this…

The Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation: An Integrative Framework for Reading Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mangen, Anne; Weel, Adriaan

2016-01-01

In the course of digitisation, the range of substrates for textual reading is being expanded to include a number of screen-based technologies and reading devices, such as e-readers (e.g. Kindle) and tablets (e.g. iPad). These technologies have distinctly different affordances than paper has. Given that textual reading is at the same time likely to…

Fiction and Non-Fiction Reading and Comprehension in Preferred Books

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Topping, Keith J.

2015-01-01

Are the books preferred and most enjoyed by children harder than other books they read? Are non-fiction books read and understood at the same level of difficulty as fiction books? The Accelerated Reader software offers computerized comprehension quizzes of real books individually chosen by children, giving children (and teachers, librarians, and…

Early reading performance: a comparison of teacher-based and test-based assessments.

PubMed

Kenny, D T; Chekaluk, E

1993-04-01

An unresolved question in early screening is whether test-based or teacher-based assessments should form the basis of the classification of children at risk of educational failure. Available structured teacher rating scales are lacking in predictive validity, and teacher predictions of students likely to experience reading difficulties have yielded disappointing true positive rates, with teachers failing to identify the majority of severely disabled readers. For this study, three educational screening instruments were developed: (a) a single teacher rating, categorizing children into three levels of reading ability (advanced, average, poor); (b) a 15-item teacher questionnaire designed to measure students' cognitive and language ability, attentional and behavioral characteristics, and academic performance; and (c) a battery of language and reading tests that are predictive of, or correlate with, reading failure. The concurrent validity of each instrument was assessed in a sample of 312 Australian schoolchildren from kindergarten, Year 1, and Year 2. Students were assessed at the end of the 1989 school year after having completed 1, 2, or 3 years of schooling. The results suggest that the nature of the skills required for success in reading changes in the first 3 years of schooling. Both teachers and tests concur more closely as children progress through the elementary years and as the risk behavior (reading) becomes more accessible to direct measurement. Carefully focused teacher rating scales may be a cost-effective means of identifying children at risk of reading failure. Improved teacher rating scales should be developed and used to assist in the early screening process.

"Seeing It on the Screen Isn't Really Seeing It": Reading Problems of Writers Using Word Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haas, Christina

An observational study examined computer writers' use of hard copy for reading. The study begins with a description, based on interviews, of four kinds of reading problems encountered by writers using word processing; formatting, proofreading, reorganizing, and critical reading ("getting a sense of the text"). Subjects, six freshmen…

The Development of the easyCBM CCSS Reading Assessments: Grade 3. Technical Report #1221

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alonzo, Julie; Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Tindal, Gerald

2012-01-01

In this technical report, we document the development and piloting of easyCBM reading measures aligned to the Common Core State Standards, designed for use in screening students at risk for reading difficulty and monitoring their progress as they develop reading skills. The measures, which assess students' ability to respond to…

Project SYNERGY: Software Support for Underprepared Students. Software Implementation Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anandam, Kamala; And Others

Miami-Dade Community College's (MDCC's) implementation and assessment of computer software as a part of Project SYNERGY, a multi-institutional project funded by the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation designed to seek technological solutions for helping students underprepared in reading, writing and mathematics, is described in this…

31 CFR 560.538 - Authorized transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to publishing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... written publication in electronic format, the addition of embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching the written publication; and (ii) Exporting embedded software necessary... that the software is designated as “EAR99” under the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR parts...

31 CFR 538.529 - Authorized transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to publishing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... written publication in electronic format, the addition of embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching the written publication; (ii) Exporting embedded software necessary for... software is classified as “EAR 99” under the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR parts 730-774 (the...

31 CFR 560.538 - Authorized transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to publishing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... written publication in electronic format, the addition of embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching the written publication; and (ii) Exporting embedded software necessary... that the software is designated as “EAR99” under the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR parts...

31 CFR 538.529 - Authorized transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to publishing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... written publication in electronic format, the addition of embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching the written publication; (ii) Exporting embedded software necessary for... software is classified as “EAR 99” under the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR parts 730-774 (the...

31 CFR 538.529 - Authorized transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to publishing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... written publication in electronic format, the addition of embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching the written publication; (ii) Exporting embedded software necessary for... software is classified as “EAR 99” under the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR parts 730-774 (the...

31 CFR 538.529 - Authorized transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to publishing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... written publication in electronic format, the addition of embedded software necessary for reading, browsing, navigating, or searching the written publication; (ii) Exporting embedded software necessary for... software is classified as “EAR 99” under the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR parts 730-774 (the...

Assistive Software Tools for Secondary-Level Students with Literacy Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lange, Alissa A.; McPhillips, Martin; Mulhern, Gerry; Wylie, Judith

2006-01-01

The present study assessed the compensatory effectiveness of four assistive software tools (speech synthesis, spellchecker, homophone tool, and dictionary) on literacy. Secondary-level students (N = 93) with reading difficulties completed computer-based tests of literacy skills. Training on their respective software followed for those assigned to…

Accuracy and reading time for six strategies using digital breast tomosynthesis in women with mammographically negative dense breasts.

PubMed

Tagliafico, Alberto Stefano; Calabrese, Massimo; Bignotti, Bianca; Signori, Alessio; Fisci, Erica; Rossi, Federica; Valdora, Francesca; Houssami, Nehmat

2017-12-01

To compare six strategies using digital breast tomosynthesis in women with mammographically negative dense breasts. This is a substudy of the 'ASTOUND' trial. 163 women who underwent tomosynthesis with synthetically reconstructed projection images (S-2D) inclusive of 13 (7.9%) cases diagnosed with breast cancer at histopathology after surgery were evaluated. Accuracy measures and screen-reading time of six reading strategies were assessed: (A) Single reading of S-2D alone, (B) single reading of tomosynthesis alone, (C) single reading of joint interpretation of tomosynthesis + S-2D, (D) double-reading of S-2D alone, (E) double reading of tomosynthesis alone, (F) double reading of joint interpretation of tomosynthesis + S-2D. The median age of the patients was 53 years (range, 36-88 years). The highest global accuracy was obtained with double reading of tomosynthesis + S2D (F) with an AUC of 0.979 (p<0.001) and a mean reading time of 154 s versus 34 s for the fastest strategy (single reading of S-2D alone). The AUCs for the other five strategies did not differ from each other. Double reading of tomosynthesis+ S2D had the best accuracy of six screen-reading strategies although it had the longest reading time. • Tomosynthesis acquisitions are progressively implemented with reconstructed synthesized 2D images • Double reading using S-2D plus tomosynthesis had the highest global accuracy (p<0.001). • Double reading of S-2D plus tomosynthesis increased reading time.

Unlocking Short Read Sequencing for Metagenomics

DOE PAGES

Rodrigue, Sébastien; Materna, Arne C.; Timberlake, Sonia C.; ...

2010-07-28

We describe an experimental and computational pipeline yielding millions of reads that can exceed 200 bp with quality scores approaching that of traditional Sanger sequencing. The method combines an automatable gel-less library construction step with paired-end sequencing on a short-read instrument. With appropriately sized library inserts, mate-pair sequences can overlap, and we describe the SHERA software package that joins them to form a longer composite read.

Health literacy and pap testing in insured women.

PubMed

Mazor, K M; Williams, A E; Roblin, D W; Gaglio, B; Cutrona, S L; Costanza, M E; Han, P K J; Wagner, J L; Fouayzi, H; Field, T S

2014-12-01

Several studies have found a link between health literacy and participation in cancer screening. Most, however, have relied on self-report to determine screening status. Further, until now, health literacy measures have assessed print literacy only. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between participation in cervical cancer screening (Papanicolaou [Pap] testing) and two forms of health literacy-reading and listening. A demographically diverse sample was recruited from a pool of insured women in Georgia, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Colorado between June 2009 and April 2010. Health literacy was assessed using the Cancer Message Literacy Test-Listening and the Cancer Message Literacy Test-Reading. Adherence to cervical cancer screening was ascertained through electronic administrative data on Pap test utilization. The relationship between health literacy and adherence to evidence-based recommendations for Pap testing was examined using multivariate logistic regression models. Data from 527 women aged 40 to 65 were analyzed and are reported here. Of these 527 women, 397 (75 %) were up to date with Pap testing. Higher health literacy scores for listening but not reading predicted being up to date. The fact that health literacy listening was associated with screening behavior even in this insured population suggests that it has independent effects beyond those of access to care. Patients who have difficulty understanding spoken recommendations about cancer screening may be at risk for underutilizing screening as a result.

Spinoff 2013

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2014-01-01

Topics covered include: Innovative Software Tools Measure Behavioral Alertness; Miniaturized, Portable Sensors Monitor Metabolic Health; Patient Simulators Train Emergency Caregivers; Solar Refrigerators Store Life-Saving Vaccines; Monitors Enable Medication Management in Patients' Homes; Handheld Diagnostic Device Delivers Quick Medical Readings; Experiments Result in Safer, Spin-Resistant Aircraft; Interfaces Visualize Data for Airline Safety, Efficiency; Data Mining Tools Make Flights Safer, More Efficient; NASA Standards Inform Comfortable Car Seats; Heat Shield Paves the Way for Commercial Space; Air Systems Provide Life Support to Miners; Coatings Preserve Metal, Stone, Tile, and Concrete; Robots Spur Software That Lends a Hand; Cloud-Based Data Sharing Connects Emergency Managers; Catalytic Converters Maintain Air Quality in Mines; NASA-Enhanced Water Bottles Filter Water on the Go; Brainwave Monitoring Software Improves Distracted Minds; Thermal Materials Protect Priceless, Personal Keepsakes; Home Air Purifiers Eradicate Harmful Pathogens; Thermal Materials Drive Professional Apparel Line; Radiant Barriers Save Energy in Buildings; Open Source Initiative Powers Real-Time Data Streams; Shuttle Engine Designs Revolutionize Solar Power; Procedure-Authoring Tool Improves Safety on Oil Rigs; Satellite Data Aid Monitoring of Nation's Forests; Mars Technologies Spawn Durable Wind Turbines; Programs Visualize Earth and Space for Interactive Education; Processor Units Reduce Satellite Construction Costs; Software Accelerates Computing Time for Complex Math; Simulation Tools Prevent Signal Interference on Spacecraft; Software Simplifies the Sharing of Numerical Models; Virtual Machine Language Controls Remote Devices; Micro-Accelerometers Monitor Equipment Health; Reactors Save Energy, Costs for Hydrogen Production; Cameras Monitor Spacecraft Integrity to Prevent Failures; Testing Devices Garner Data on Insulation Performance; Smart Sensors Gather Information for Machine Diagnostics; Oxygen Sensors Monitor Bioreactors and Ensure Health and Safety; Vision Algorithms Catch Defects in Screen Displays; and Deformable Mirrors Capture Exoplanet Data, Reflect Lasers.

Predictors of Reading in Urdu: Does Deep Orthography Have an Impact?

PubMed Central

Farukh, Ammara; Vulchanova, Mila

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to establish the extent to which rapid automatized naming (RAN) and non-word repetition (NWR) tasks predict reading fluency and reading accuracy in Urdu. One hundred sixty (8–9 years) children attending two types of schools (Urdu and English medium schools) were distributed into two groups, a control and a reading disability group on the basis of teacher’s report. The results confirmed the role of RAN in predicting reading fluency in both groups. The role of NWR as a predictor of accuracy was also confirmed, although the strength of the relationship was modulated by RAN in the reading disability group. There are no tests available to identify children with reading problems in Urdu. Our study supports the validity of NWR and RAN tasks for the purposes of screening for reading deficits. The performance results also confirm the original grouping based on teacher reports. The study further highlights the importance of medium of instruction and increased oral language input in learning to read. © 2014 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Key Messages Reliability of teacher reports in screening for reading difficulties in the classroom. Appropriateness of non-word repetition and rapid automatized naming tasks for establishing reading problems in Urdu. School type and exposure to instruction influences reading skills. PMID:24664499

TopHat: discovering splice junctions with RNA-Seq

PubMed Central

Trapnell, Cole; Pachter, Lior; Salzberg, Steven L.

2009-01-01

Motivation: A new protocol for sequencing the messenger RNA in a cell, known as RNA-Seq, generates millions of short sequence fragments in a single run. These fragments, or ‘reads’, can be used to measure levels of gene expression and to identify novel splice variants of genes. However, current software for aligning RNA-Seq data to a genome relies on known splice junctions and cannot identify novel ones. TopHat is an efficient read-mapping algorithm designed to align reads from an RNA-Seq experiment to a reference genome without relying on known splice sites. Results: We mapped the RNA-Seq reads from a recent mammalian RNA-Seq experiment and recovered more than 72% of the splice junctions reported by the annotation-based software from that study, along with nearly 20 000 previously unreported junctions. The TopHat pipeline is much faster than previous systems, mapping nearly 2.2 million reads per CPU hour, which is sufficient to process an entire RNA-Seq experiment in less than a day on a standard desktop computer. We describe several challenges unique to ab initio splice site discovery from RNA-Seq reads that will require further algorithm development. Availability: TopHat is free, open-source software available from http://tophat.cbcb.umd.edu Contact: cole@cs.umd.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:19289445

A Sign Language Screen Reader for Deaf

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El Ghoul, Oussama; Jemni, Mohamed

Screen reader technology has appeared first to allow blind and people with reading difficulties to use computer and to access to the digital information. Until now, this technology is exploited mainly to help blind community. During our work with deaf people, we noticed that a screen reader can facilitate the manipulation of computers and the reading of textual information. In this paper, we propose a novel screen reader dedicated to deaf. The output of the reader is a visual translation of the text to sign language. The screen reader is composed by two essential modules: the first one is designed to capture the activities of users (mouse and keyboard events). For this purpose, we adopted Microsoft MSAA application programming interfaces. The second module, which is in classical screen readers a text to speech engine (TTS), is replaced by a novel text to sign (TTSign) engine. This module converts text into sign language animation based on avatar technology.

Television screen time, but not computer use and reading time, is associated with cardio-metabolic biomarkers in a multiethnic Asian population: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Nang, Ei Ei Khaing; Salim, Agus; Wu, Yi; Tai, E Shyong; Lee, Jeannette; Van Dam, Rob M

2013-05-30

Recent evidence shows that sedentary behaviour may be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and all-cause mortality. However, results are not consistent and different types of sedentary behaviour might have different effects on health. Thus the aim of this study was to evaluate the association between television screen time, computer/reading time and cardio-metabolic biomarkers in a multiethnic urban Asian population. We also sought to understand the potential mediators of this association. The Singapore Prospective Study Program (2004-2007), was a cross-sectional population-based study in a multiethnic population in Singapore. We studied 3305 Singaporean adults of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity who did not have pre-existing diseases and conditions that could affect their physical activity. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to assess the association of television screen time and computer/reading time with cardio-metabolic biomarkers [blood pressure, lipids, glucose, adiponectin, C reactive protein and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR)]. Path analysis was used to examine the role of mediators of the observed association. Longer television screen time was significantly associated with higher systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, C reactive protein, HOMA-IR, and lower adiponectin after adjustment for potential socio-demographic and lifestyle confounders. Dietary factors and body mass index, but not physical activity, were potential mediators that explained most of these associations between television screen time and cardio-metabolic biomarkers. The associations of television screen time with triglycerides and HOMA-IR were only partly explained by dietary factors and body mass index. No association was observed between computer/ reading time and worse levels of cardio-metabolic biomarkers. In this urban Asian population, television screen time was associated with worse levels of various cardio-metabolic risk factors. This may reflect detrimental effects of television screen time on dietary habits rather than replacement of physical activity.

Shared Reading and Television Across the Perinatal Period in Low-SES Households.

PubMed

Hutton, John S; Lin, Li; Gruber, Rachel; Berndsen, Jennifer; DeWitt, Thomas; Van Ginkel, Judith B; Ammerman, Robert T

2017-10-01

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that shared reading commence as soon as possible after birth and screen-based media be discouraged for those less than 18 months old. Early routines can predict long-term use and health outcomes. This longitudinal study involved low-socioeconomic status mothers (n = 282) enrolled in home visiting. Surveys were administered prenatally and at 2 months old regarding shared reading and infant television viewing, and health literacy was screened prenatally. Planned age to initiate reading decreased from 2.8 to 1.8 months old, 80% reading by 2 months old, averaging 1 to 3 days per week, with "too busy" being the major barrier. Planned age for infant TV decreased from 13.2 to 4.3 months old, 68% viewing by 2 months old and more than half daily. TV was observed in 70% of infant sleep environments. Health literacy was correlated with perceived developmental benefits of shared reading (positively) and TV viewing (negatively), 43% of mothers scoring at risk for inadequate levels. A majority cited the prenatal period as opportune to discuss reading and TV.

Radiographers supporting radiologists in the interpretation of screening mammography: a viable strategy to meet the shortage in the number of radiologists.

PubMed

Torres-Mejía, Gabriela; Smith, Robert A; Carranza-Flores, María de la Luz; Bogart, Andy; Martínez-Matsushita, Louis; Miglioretti, Diana L; Kerlikowske, Karla; Ortega-Olvera, Carolina; Montemayor-Varela, Ernesto; Angeles-Llerenas, Angélica; Bautista-Arredondo, Sergio; Sánchez-González, Gilberto; Martínez-Montañez, Olga G; Uscanga-Sánchez, Santos R; Lazcano-Ponce, Eduardo; Hernández-Ávila, Mauricio

2015-05-16

An alternative approach to the traditional model of radiologists interpreting screening mammography is necessary due to the shortage of radiologists to interpret screening mammograms in many countries. We evaluated the performance of 15 Mexican radiographers, also known as radiologic technologists, in the interpretation of screening mammography after a 6 months training period in a screening setting. Fifteen radiographers received 6 months standardized training with radiologists in the interpretation of screening mammography using the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) system. A challenging test set of 110 cases developed by the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium was used to evaluate their performance. We estimated sensitivity, specificity, false positive rates, likelihood ratio of a positive test (LR+) and the area under the subject-specific Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) for diagnostic accuracy. A mathematical model simulating the consequences in costs and performance of two hypothetical scenarios compared to the status quo in which a radiologist reads all screening mammograms was also performed. Radiographer's sensitivity was comparable to the sensitivity scores achieved by U.S. radiologists who took the test but their false-positive rate was higher. Median sensitivity was 73.3 % (Interquartile range, IQR: 46.7-86.7 %) and the median false positive rate was 49.5 % (IQR: 34.7-57.9 %). The median LR+ was 1.4 (IQR: 1.3-1.7 %) and the median AUC was 0.6 (IQR: 0.6-0.7). A scenario in which a radiographer reads all mammograms first, and a radiologist reads only those that were difficult for the radiographer, was more cost-effective than a scenario in which either the radiographer or radiologist reads all mammograms. Given the comparable sensitivity achieved by Mexican radiographers and U.S. radiologists on a test set, screening mammography interpretation by radiographers appears to be a possible adjunct to radiologists in countries with shortages of radiologists. Further studies are required to assess the effectiveness of different training programs in order to obtain acceptable screening accuracy, as well as the best approaches for the use of non-physician readers to interpret screening mammography.

[Comparision of Different Methods of Area Measurement in Irregular Scar].

PubMed

Ran, D; Li, W J; Sun, Q G; Li, J Q; Xia, Q

2016-10-01

To determine a measurement standard of irregular scar area by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of different measurement methods in measuring same irregular scar area. Irregular scar area was scanned by digital scanning and measured by coordinate reading method, AutoCAD pixel method, Photoshop lasso pixel method, Photoshop magic bar filled pixel method and Foxit PDF reading software, and some aspects of these methods such as measurement time, repeatability, whether could be recorded and whether could be traced were compared and analyzed. There was no significant difference in the scar areas by the measurement methods above. However, there was statistical difference in the measurement time and repeatability by one or multi performers and only Foxit PDF reading software could be traced back. The methods above can be used for measuring scar area, but each one has its advantages and disadvantages. It is necessary to develop new measurement software for forensic identification. Copyright© by the Editorial Department of Journal of Forensic Medicine

Using ICT to Foster (Pre) Reading and Writing Skills in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Voogt, Joke; McKenney, Susan

2008-01-01

This study examines how technology can support the development of emergent reading and writing skills in four- to five-year-old children. The research was conducted with PictoPal, an intervention which features a software package that uses images and text in three main activity areas: reading, writing, and authentic applications. This article…

Computer Assisted Reading Instruction for the Adult Learner. A 353 Special Demonstration Project #99-6011.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawk, Kim; And Others

This document contains a project report and tutor manual from a demonstration project conducted by the Fayette County Community Action Agency (FCCAA) of Fayette County, Pennsylvania to evaluate the effectiveness of using computers and selected reading software in conjunction with traditional one-on-one tutoring to teach reading skills to…

Extending Research on a Computer-Based Flashcard Reading Intervention to Postsecondary Students with Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cazzell, Samantha; Browarnik, Brooke; Skinner, Amy; Skinner, Christopher; Cihak, David; Ciancio, Dennis; McCurdy, Merilee; Forbes, Bethany

2016-01-01

A multiple-baseline across-students design was used to evaluate the effects of a computer-based flashcard reading (CFR) intervention, developed using Microsoft PowerPoint software, on students' ability to read health-related words within 3 seconds. The students were three adults with intellectual disabilities enrolled in a postsecondary college…

Eye vs. Text Movement: Which Technique Leads to Faster Reading Comprehension?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdellah, Antar Solhy

2009-01-01

Eye fixation is a frequent problem that faces foreign language learners and hinders the flow of their reading comprehension. Although students are usually advised to read fast/skim to overcome this problem, eye fixation persists. The present study investigates the effect of using a paper-based program as compared to a computer-based software in…

An Interactive Software Program to Develop Pianists' Sight-Reading Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsangari, Victoria

2010-01-01

Musical sight-reading, or sight-playing, is defined as "the ability to play music from a printed score or part for the first time without benefit of practice." While this is the most strict definition of the term, also known as "prima vista" (at first sight), some use the term "sight-reading" even if some rehearsal…

Electronic Storybooks: A Constructivist Approach to Improving Reading Motivation in Grade 1 Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ciampa, Katia

2012-01-01

This study stemmed from a concern of the perceived decline in students' reading motivation after the early years of schooling. This research investigated the effectiveness of online eBooks on eight grade 1 students' reading motivation. Eight students were given ten 25-minute sessions with the software programs over 15 weeks. Qualitative data were…

Evaluating radiographers' diagnostic accuracy in screen-reading mammograms: what constitutes a quality study?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Debono, Josephine C, E-mail: josephine.debono@bci.org.au; Poulos, Ann E; Westmead Breast Cancer Institute, Westmead, New South Wales

The aim of this study was to first evaluate the quality of studies investigating the diagnostic accuracy of radiographers as mammogram screen-readers and then to develop an adapted tool for determining the quality of screen-reading studies. A literature search was used to identify relevant studies and a quality evaluation tool constructed by combining the criteria for quality of Whiting, Rutjes, Dinnes et al. and Brealey and Westwood. This constructed tool was then applied to the studies and subsequently adapted specifically for use in evaluating quality in studies investigating diagnostic accuracy of screen-readers. Eleven studies were identified and the constructed toolmore » applied to evaluate quality. This evaluation resulted in the identification of quality issues with the studies such as potential for bias, applicability of results, study conduct, reporting of the study and observer characteristics. An assessment of the applicability and relevance of the tool for this area of research resulted in adaptations to the criteria and the development of a tool specifically for evaluating diagnostic accuracy in screen-reading. This tool, with further refinement and rigorous validation can make a significant contribution to promoting well-designed studies in this important area of research and practice.« less

What Hands May Tell Us about Reading and Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mangen, Anne

2016-01-01

Reading and writing are increasingly performed with digital, screen-based technologies rather than with analogue technologies such as paper and pen(cil). The current digitization is an occasion to "unpack," theoretically and conceptually, what is entailed in reading and writing as embodied, multisensory processes involving audiovisual…

Predicting Math Outcomes: Reading Predictors and Comorbidity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, Jack M.

2005-01-01

This commentary addresses issues concerning (a) the measurement of numbers, letters, and words versus cognitive processes in early screening batteries, and (b) comorbid associations of reading, math, and attention disorders. Based on reading prediction studies, assessments that include numbers should be most predictive of math outcomes. However,…

Differences in perceived difficulty in print and online patient education materials.

PubMed

Farnsworth, Michael

2014-01-01

Written patient education materials frequently exceed the reading ability of the general public. Patients are often intimidated by the task of reading patient education materials, perceiving the materials’ difficulty levels as prohibitive, even when they do not exceed the patients’ reading abilities. It is unclear how the delivery mechanism--print or a computer screen--affects a patient’s reading experience through his/her perception of its difficulty. To determine whether first-year college students perceived online or print-based patient education materials as more difficult to read. Convenience sampling of first-year college students. Some first-year college students perceived online patient education materials to be more difficult to read than print-based ones--even when the reading level of the patient education materials was similar. Demographic information about this sample’s high levels of digital literacy suggests that other populations might also perceive online patient education materials as more difficult to read than print-based equivalents. Patients’ perceptions of the difficulty of patient education materials influenced their ability to effectively learn from those materials. This article concludes with a call for more research into patients’ perceptions of difficulty of patient education materials in print vs on a screen.

WebPrInSeS: automated full-length clone sequence identification and verification using high-throughput sequencing data.

PubMed

Massouras, Andreas; Decouttere, Frederik; Hens, Korneel; Deplancke, Bart

2010-07-01

High-throughput sequencing (HTS) is revolutionizing our ability to obtain cheap, fast and reliable sequence information. Many experimental approaches are expected to benefit from the incorporation of such sequencing features in their pipeline. Consequently, software tools that facilitate such an incorporation should be of great interest. In this context, we developed WebPrInSeS, a web server tool allowing automated full-length clone sequence identification and verification using HTS data. WebPrInSeS encompasses two separate software applications. The first is WebPrInSeS-C which performs automated sequence verification of user-defined open-reading frame (ORF) clone libraries. The second is WebPrInSeS-E, which identifies positive hits in cDNA or ORF-based library screening experiments such as yeast one- or two-hybrid assays. Both tools perform de novo assembly using HTS data from any of the three major sequencing platforms. Thus, WebPrInSeS provides a highly integrated, cost-effective and efficient way to sequence-verify or identify clones of interest. WebPrInSeS is available at http://webprinses.epfl.ch/ and is open to all users.

WebPrInSeS: automated full-length clone sequence identification and verification using high-throughput sequencing data

PubMed Central

Massouras, Andreas; Decouttere, Frederik; Hens, Korneel; Deplancke, Bart

2010-01-01

High-throughput sequencing (HTS) is revolutionizing our ability to obtain cheap, fast and reliable sequence information. Many experimental approaches are expected to benefit from the incorporation of such sequencing features in their pipeline. Consequently, software tools that facilitate such an incorporation should be of great interest. In this context, we developed WebPrInSeS, a web server tool allowing automated full-length clone sequence identification and verification using HTS data. WebPrInSeS encompasses two separate software applications. The first is WebPrInSeS-C which performs automated sequence verification of user-defined open-reading frame (ORF) clone libraries. The second is WebPrInSeS-E, which identifies positive hits in cDNA or ORF-based library screening experiments such as yeast one- or two-hybrid assays. Both tools perform de novo assembly using HTS data from any of the three major sequencing platforms. Thus, WebPrInSeS provides a highly integrated, cost-effective and efficient way to sequence-verify or identify clones of interest. WebPrInSeS is available at http://webprinses.epfl.ch/ and is open to all users. PMID:20501601

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Busbey, A.B.

A number of methods and products, both hardware and software, to allow data exchange between Apple Macintosh computers and MS-DOS based systems. These included serial null modem connections, MS-DOS hardware and/or software emulation, MS-DOS disk-reading hardware and networking.

Analytical Design of Evolvable Software for High-Assurance Computing

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-02-14

Mathematical expression for the Total Sum of Squares which measures the variability that results when all values are treated as a combined sample coming from...primarily interested in background on software design and high-assurance computing, research in software architecture generation or evaluation...respectively. Those readers solely interested in the validation of a software design approach should at the minimum read Chapter 6 followed by Chapter

Software Reporting Metrics. Revision 2.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-11-01

MITRE Corporation and ESD. Some of the data has been obtained from Dr. Barry Boehm’s Software Engineering Economics (Ref. 1). Thanks are also given to...data level control management " SP = structured programming Barry W. Boehm, Software Engineering Economics, &©1981, p. 122. Reprinted by permission of...investigated and implemented in future prototypes. 43 REFERENCES For further reading: " 1. Boehm, Barry W. Software Engineering Economics; Englewood

Boiler: lossy compression of RNA-seq alignments using coverage vectors

PubMed Central

Pritt, Jacob; Langmead, Ben

2016-01-01

We describe Boiler, a new software tool for compressing and querying large collections of RNA-seq alignments. Boiler discards most per-read data, keeping only a genomic coverage vector plus a few empirical distributions summarizing the alignments. Since most per-read data is discarded, storage footprint is often much smaller than that achieved by other compression tools. Despite this, the most relevant per-read data can be recovered; we show that Boiler compression has only a slight negative impact on results given by downstream tools for isoform assembly and quantification. Boiler also allows the user to pose fast and useful queries without decompressing the entire file. Boiler is free open source software available from github.com/jpritt/boiler. PMID:27298258

ENCoRE: an efficient software for CRISPR screens identifies new players in extrinsic apoptosis.

PubMed

Trümbach, Dietrich; Pfeiffer, Susanne; Poppe, Manuel; Scherb, Hagen; Doll, Sebastian; Wurst, Wolfgang; Schick, Joel A

2017-11-25

As CRISPR/Cas9 mediated screens with pooled guide libraries in somatic cells become increasingly established, an unmet need for rapid and accurate companion informatics tools has emerged. We have developed a lightweight and efficient software to easily manipulate large raw next generation sequencing datasets derived from such screens into informative relational context with graphical support. The advantages of the software entitled ENCoRE (Easy NGS-to-Gene CRISPR REsults) include a simple graphical workflow, platform independence, local and fast multithreaded processing, data pre-processing and gene mapping with custom library import. We demonstrate the capabilities of ENCoRE to interrogate results from a pooled CRISPR cellular viability screen following Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha challenge. The results not only identified stereotypical players in extrinsic apoptotic signaling but two as yet uncharacterized members of the extrinsic apoptotic cascade, Smg7 and Ces2a. We further validated and characterized cell lines containing mutations in these genes against a panel of cell death stimuli and involvement in p53 signaling. In summary, this software enables bench scientists with sensitive data or without access to informatic cores to rapidly interpret results from large scale experiments resulting from pooled CRISPR/Cas9 library screens.

Attending Behaviors of ADHD Children in Math and Reading Using Various Types of Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Mary Jane; And Others

1993-01-01

Compared the effects of using various computer software programs on the attending behavior of children with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). Found that the attention of ADHD children increased while they used software with a game format when animation was not excessive. Other factors affecting nonattending behaviors included the…

The impact of mobile phone screen size on user comprehension of health information.

PubMed

Alghamdi, Ebtisam; Yunus, Faisel; Househ, Mowafa

2013-01-01

Within the field of mobile health, there is little research conducted on the impacts of mobile health technologies and applications on user comprehension of health content. In this study, we examine the difference between small, medium and large screen mobile phone that affect the user comprehension of health content. We designed an experimental study where 33 users read the contents of a health application on different mobile phone screen sizes. Each participant was timed, tracked for correctness, and gave ratings for both readability and satisfaction on each task. In addition, they were asked some questions about the contents. Results show that there was no significant impact of the screen size on user comprehension of the contents. However, it was found that participants with small screen size took longer to read the health contents.

The use of lower resolution viewing devices for mammographic interpretation: implications for education and training.

PubMed

Chen, Yan; James, Jonathan J; Turnbull, Anne E; Gale, Alastair G

2015-10-01

To establish whether lower resolution, lower cost viewing devices have the potential to deliver mammographic interpretation training. On three occasions over eight months, fourteen consultant radiologists and reporting radiographers read forty challenging digital mammography screening cases on three different displays: a digital mammography workstation, a standard LCD monitor, and a smartphone. Standard image manipulation software was available for use on all three devices. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) were used to determine the significance of differences in performance between the viewing devices with/without the application of image manipulation software. The effect of reader's experience was also assessed. Performance was significantly higher (p < .05) on the mammography workstation compared to the other two viewing devices. When image manipulation software was applied to images viewed on the standard LCD monitor, performance improved to mirror levels seen on the mammography workstation with no significant difference between the two. Image interpretation on the smartphone was uniformly poor. Film reader experience had no significant effect on performance across all three viewing devices. Lower resolution standard LCD monitors combined with appropriate image manipulation software are capable of displaying mammographic pathology, and are potentially suitable for delivering mammographic interpretation training. • This study investigates potential devices for training in mammography interpretation. • Lower resolution standard LCD monitors are potentially suitable for mammographic interpretation training. • The effect of image manipulation tools on mammography workstation viewing is insignificant. • Reader experience had no significant effect on performance in all viewing devices. • Smart phones are not suitable for displaying mammograms.

Legato: Personal Computer Software for Analyzing Pressure-Sensitive Paint Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schairer, Edward T.

2001-01-01

'Legato' is personal computer software for analyzing radiometric pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) data. The software is written in the C programming language and executes under Windows 95/98/NT operating systems. It includes all operations normally required to convert pressure-paint image intensities to normalized pressure distributions mapped to physical coordinates of the test article. The program can analyze data from both single- and bi-luminophore paints and provides for both in situ and a priori paint calibration. In addition, there are functions for determining paint calibration coefficients from calibration-chamber data. The software is designed as a self-contained, interactive research tool that requires as input only the bare minimum of information needed to accomplish each function, e.g., images, model geometry, and paint calibration coefficients (for a priori calibration) or pressure-tap data (for in situ calibration). The program includes functions that can be used to generate needed model geometry files for simple model geometries (e.g., airfoils, trapezoidal wings, rotor blades) based on the model planform and airfoil section. All data files except images are in ASCII format and thus are easily created, read, and edited. The program does not use database files. This simplifies setup but makes the program inappropriate for analyzing massive amounts of data from production wind tunnels. Program output consists of Cartesian plots, false-colored real and virtual images, pressure distributions mapped to the surface of the model, assorted ASCII data files, and a text file of tabulated results. Graphical output is displayed on the computer screen and can be saved as publication-quality (PostScript) files.

Automated Scoring of Chromogenic Media for Detection of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus by Use of WASPLab Image Analysis Software.

PubMed

Faron, Matthew L; Buchan, Blake W; Vismara, Chiara; Lacchini, Carla; Bielli, Alessandra; Gesu, Giovanni; Liebregts, Theo; van Bree, Anita; Jansz, Arjan; Soucy, Genevieve; Korver, John; Ledeboer, Nathan A

2016-03-01

Recently, systems have been developed to create total laboratory automation for clinical microbiology. These systems allow for the automation of specimen processing, specimen incubation, and imaging of bacterial growth. In this study, we used the WASPLab to validate software that discriminates and segregates positive and negative chromogenic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) plates by recognition of pigmented colonies. A total of 57,690 swabs submitted for MRSA screening were enrolled in the study. Four sites enrolled specimens following their standard of care. Chromogenic agar used at these sites included MRSASelect (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Redmond, WA), chromID MRSA (bioMérieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France), and CHROMagar MRSA (BD Diagnostics, Sparks, MD). Specimens were plated and incubated using the WASPLab. The digital camera took images at 0 and 16 to 24 h and the WASPLab software determined the presence of positive colonies based on a hue, saturation, and value (HSV) score. If the HSV score fell within a defined threshold, the plate was called positive. The performance of the digital analysis was compared to manual reading. Overall, the digital software had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 90.7% with the specificity ranging between 90.0 and 96.0 across all sites. The results were similar using the three different agars with a sensitivity of 100% and specificity ranging between 90.7 and 92.4%. These data demonstrate that automated digital analysis can be used to accurately sort positive from negative chromogenic agar cultures regardless of the pigmentation produced. Copyright © 2016 Faron et al.

Training system for digital mammographic diagnoses of breast cancer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomaz, R. L.; Nirschl Crozara, M. G.; Patrocinio, A. C.

2013-03-01

As the technology evolves, the analog mammography systems are being replaced by digital systems. The digital system uses video monitors as the display of mammographic images instead of the previously used screen-film and negatoscope for analog images. The change in the way of visualizing mammographic images may require a different approach for training the health care professionals in diagnosing the breast cancer with digital mammography. Thus, this paper presents a computational approach to train the health care professionals providing a smooth transition between analog and digital technology also training to use the advantages of digital image processing tools to diagnose the breast cancer. This computational approach consists of a software where is possible to open, process and diagnose a full mammogram case from a database, which has the digital images of each of the mammographic views. The software communicates with a gold standard digital mammogram cases database. This database contains the digital images in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) and the respective diagnoses according to BI-RADSTM, these files are read by software and shown to the user as needed. There are also some digital image processing tools that can be used to provide better visualization of each single image. The software was built based on a minimalist and a user-friendly interface concept that might help in the smooth transition. It also has an interface for inputting diagnoses from the professional being trained, providing a result feedback. This system has been already completed, but hasn't been applied to any professional training yet.

Unplanned Nutrition Education in the Schools: Sugar in Elementary Reading Texts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Onofrio, Carol N.; Singer, Rosalind

1983-01-01

Analysis of the foods described or pictured in over 1,600 readers, prereaders, and reading workbooks for the primary grades revealed an undue emphasis on sweets. Reading texts should be screened for unintentional messages about nutrition and sugary foods, and revised to reflect national dietary goals. (Author/PP)

Screen Miniatures as Icons for Backward Navigation in Content-Based Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boling, Elizabeth; Ma, Guoping; Tao, Chia-Wen; Askun, Cengiz; Green, Tim; Frick, Theodore; Schaumburg, Heike

Users of content-based software programs, including hypertexts and instructional multimedia, rely on the navigation functions provided by the designers of those program. Typical navigation schemes use abstract symbols (arrows) to label basic navigational functions like moving forward or backward through screen displays. In a previous study, the…

Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire:Validation of a parent-report screening measure

PubMed Central

Willcutt, Erik G.; Boada, Richard; Riddle, Margaret W.; Chhabildas, Nomita; DeFries, John C.; Pennington, Bruce F.

2011-01-01

This study evaluated the internal structure and convergent and discriminant evidence for the Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (CLDQ), a 20-item parent-report rating scale that was developed to provide a brief screening measure for learning difficulties. CLDQ ratings were obtained from parents of children in two large community samples and two samples from clinics that specialize in the assessment of learning disabilities and related disorders (total N = 8,004). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed five correlated but separable dimensions that were labeled reading, math, social cognition, social anxiety, and spatial difficulties. Results revealed strong convergent and discriminant evidence for the CLDQ Reading scale, suggesting that this scale may provide a useful method to screen for reading difficulties in both research studies and clinical settings. Results are also promising for the other four CLDQ scales, but additional research is needed to refine each of these measures. PMID:21574721

The Empirical Investigation of Perspective-Based Reading

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basili, Victor R.; Green, Scott; Laitenberger, Oliver; Shull, Forrest; Sorumgard, Sivert; Zelkowitz, Marvin V.

1996-01-01

We consider reading techniques a fundamental means of achieving high quality software. Due to the lack of research in this area, we are experimenting with the application and comparison of various reading techniques. This paper deals with our experiences with Perspective-Based Reading (PBR), a particular reading technique for requirements documents. The goal of PBR is to provide operational scenarios where members of a review team read a document from a particular perspective (e.g., tester, developer, user). Our assumption is that the combination of different perspectives provides better coverage of the document than the same number of readers using their usual technique.

Software Reviews.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Science and Children, 1988

1988-01-01

Reviews six software packages for use with school age children ranging from grade 3 to grade 12. Includes "The Microcomputer Based Lab Project: Motion, Sound"; "Genetics"; "Geologic History"; "The Microscope Simulator"; and "Wiz Works" all for Apple II and "Reading for Information: Level…

What's New in Software? Computer Programs for Unobtrusive, Informal Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedley, Carolyn

1985-01-01

Teachers can use microcomputers in informal assessment of learning disabled students' academic achievement, math and science progress, reading comprehension, cognitive processes, motivation and social interaction. Selected software for unobtrusive, informal assessment is listed. (CL)

hdfscan

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2013-04-01

... free of charge from JPL, upon completion of a license agreement. hdfscan software consists of two components - a core hdf file ... at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To obtain the license agreement, go to the  MISR Science Software web page , read the introductory ...

Reading Guided by Automated Graphical Representations: How Model-Based Text Visualizations Facilitate Learning in Reading Comprehension Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pirnay-Dummer, Pablo; Ifenthaler, Dirk

2011-01-01

Our study integrates automated natural language-oriented assessment and analysis methodologies into feasible reading comprehension tasks. With the newly developed T-MITOCAR toolset, prose text can be automatically converted into an association net which has similarities to a concept map. The "text to graph" feature of the software is based on…

My Virtual Reading Coach: "An Analysis of Usage and Impact," 2013-14. Technical Note. Volume 3, Number 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Urdegar, Steven M.

2014-01-01

My Virtual Reading Coach (MVRC) is an online program for students who have been identified as struggling readers. It is used as an intervention within the Response to Intervention (RtI) framework, as well as for students with disabilities. The software addresses reading sub-skills (i.e., comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, and…

Supporting Middle School Students' Online Reading of Scientific Resources: Moving beyond Cursory, Fragmented, and Opportunistic Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, M.

2013-01-01

The abundant scientific resources on the Web provide great opportunities for students to expand their science learning, yet easy access to information does not ensure learning. Prior research has found that middle school students tend to read Web-based scientific resources in a shallow, superficial manner. A software tool was designed to support…

"Do I Have to Leave?" Beyond Linear Text: Struggling Readers' Motivation with an Innovative Musical Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Susan V.; Calderone, Cynthia; Dedrick, Robert F.; Gunn, AnnMarie Alberton

2015-01-01

In this mixed method research, we examined the effects of reading and singing software program (RSSP) as a reading intervention on struggling readers' reading achievement as measured by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the high stakes state test administered in the state of Florida, at one elementary school. Our team defined struggling…

The classification of normal screening mammograms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ang, Zoey Z. Y.; Rawashdeh, Mohammad A.; Heard, Robert; Brennan, Patrick C.; Lee, Warwick; Lewis, Sarah J.

2016-03-01

Rationale and objectives: To understand how breast screen readers classify the difficulty of normal screening mammograms using common lexicon describing normal appearances. Cases were also assessed on their suitability for a single reader strategy. Materials and Methods: 15 breast readers were asked to interpret a test set of 29 normal screening mammogram cases and classify them by rating the difficulty of the case on a five-point Likert scale, identifying the salient features and assessing their suitability for single reading. Using the False Positive Fractions from a previous study, the 29 cases were classified into 10 "low", 10 "medium" and nine "high" difficulties. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics. Spearman's correlation was used to test the strength of association between the difficulty of the cases and the readers' recommendation for single reading strategy. Results: The ratings from readers in this study corresponded to the known difficulty level of cases for the 'low' and 'high' difficulty cases. Uniform ductal pattern and density, symmetrical mammographic features and the absence of micro-calcifications were the main reasons associated with 'low' difficulty cases. The 'high' difficulty cases were described as having `dense breasts'. There was a statistically significant negative correlation between the difficulty of the cases and readers' recommendation for single reading (r = -0.475, P = 0.009). Conclusion: The findings demonstrated potential relationships between certain mammographic features and the difficulty for readers to classify mammograms as 'normal'. The standard Australian practice of double reading was deemed more suitable for most cases. There was an inverse moderate association between the difficulty of the cases and the recommendations for single reading.

How do I resolve problems reading the binary data?

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2014-12-08

... affecting compilation would be differing versions of the operating system and compilers the read software are being run on. Big ... Unix machines are Big Endian architecture while Linux systems are Little Endian architecture. Data generated on a Unix machine are ...

Enhancing Literacy Skills through Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sistek-Chandler, Cynthia

2003-01-01

Discusses how to use technology to enhance literacy skills. Highlights include defining literacy, including information literacy; research to support reading and writing instruction; literacy software; thinking skills; organizational strategies for writing and reading; how technology can individualize literacy instruction; and a new genre of…

Capturing User Reading Behaviors for Personalized Document Summarization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Songhua; Jiang, Hao; Lau, Francis

2011-01-01

We propose a new personalized document summarization method that observes a user's personal reading preferences. These preferences are inferred from the user's reading behaviors, including facial expressions, gaze positions, and reading durations that were captured during the user's past reading activities. We compare the performance of our algorithm with that of a few peer algorithms and software packages. The results of our comparative study show that our algorithm can produce more superior personalized document summaries than all the other methods in that the summaries generated by our algorithm can better satisfy a user's personal preferences.

Mining collections of compounds with Screening Assistant 2

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background High-throughput screening assays have become the starting point of many drug discovery programs for large pharmaceutical companies as well as academic organisations. Despite the increasing throughput of screening technologies, the almost infinite chemical space remains out of reach, calling for tools dedicated to the analysis and selection of the compound collections intended to be screened. Results We present Screening Assistant 2 (SA2), an open-source JAVA software dedicated to the storage and analysis of small to very large chemical libraries. SA2 stores unique molecules in a MySQL database, and encapsulates several chemoinformatics methods, among which: providers management, interactive visualisation, scaffold analysis, diverse subset creation, descriptors calculation, sub-structure / SMART search, similarity search and filtering. We illustrate the use of SA2 by analysing the composition of a database of 15 million compounds collected from 73 providers, in terms of scaffolds, frameworks, and undesired properties as defined by recently proposed HTS SMARTS filters. We also show how the software can be used to create diverse libraries based on existing ones. Conclusions Screening Assistant 2 is a user-friendly, open-source software that can be used to manage collections of compounds and perform simple to advanced chemoinformatics analyses. Its modular design and growing documentation facilitate the addition of new functionalities, calling for contributions from the community. The software can be downloaded at http://sa2.sourceforge.net/. PMID:23327565

Mining collections of compounds with Screening Assistant 2.

PubMed

Guilloux, Vincent Le; Arrault, Alban; Colliandre, Lionel; Bourg, Stéphane; Vayer, Philippe; Morin-Allory, Luc

2012-08-31

High-throughput screening assays have become the starting point of many drug discovery programs for large pharmaceutical companies as well as academic organisations. Despite the increasing throughput of screening technologies, the almost infinite chemical space remains out of reach, calling for tools dedicated to the analysis and selection of the compound collections intended to be screened. We present Screening Assistant 2 (SA2), an open-source JAVA software dedicated to the storage and analysis of small to very large chemical libraries. SA2 stores unique molecules in a MySQL database, and encapsulates several chemoinformatics methods, among which: providers management, interactive visualisation, scaffold analysis, diverse subset creation, descriptors calculation, sub-structure / SMART search, similarity search and filtering. We illustrate the use of SA2 by analysing the composition of a database of 15 million compounds collected from 73 providers, in terms of scaffolds, frameworks, and undesired properties as defined by recently proposed HTS SMARTS filters. We also show how the software can be used to create diverse libraries based on existing ones. Screening Assistant 2 is a user-friendly, open-source software that can be used to manage collections of compounds and perform simple to advanced chemoinformatics analyses. Its modular design and growing documentation facilitate the addition of new functionalities, calling for contributions from the community. The software can be downloaded at http://sa2.sourceforge.net/.

Earthquake Analysis (EA) Software for The Earthquake Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yanik, K.; Tezel, T.

2009-04-01

There are many software that can used for observe the seismic signals and locate the earthquakes, but some of them commercial and has technical support. For this reason, many seismological observatories developed and use their own seismological software packets which are convenient with their seismological network. In this study, we introduce our software which has some capabilities that it can read seismic signals and process and locate the earthquakes. This software is used by the General Directorate of Disaster Affairs Earthquake Research Department Seismology Division (here after ERD) and will improve according to the new requirements. ERD network consist of 87 seismic stations that 63 of them were equipped with 24 bite digital Guralp CMG-3T, 16 of them with analogue short period S-13-Geometrics and 8 of them 24 bite digital short period S-13j-DR-24 Geometrics seismometers. Data is transmitted with satellite from broadband stations, whereas leased line used from short period stations. Daily data archive capacity is 4 GB. In big networks, it is very important that observe the seismic signals and locate the earthquakes as soon as possible. This is possible, if they use software which was developed considering their network properties. When we started to develop a software for big networks as our, we recognized some realities that all known seismic format data should be read without any convert process, observing of the only selected stations and do this on the map directly, add seismic files with import command, establishing relation between P and S phase readings and location solutions, store in database and entering to the program with user name and password. In this way, we can prevent data disorder and repeated phase readings. There are many advantages, when data store on the database proxies. These advantages are easy access to data from anywhere using ethernet, publish the bulletin and catalogues using website, easily sending of short message (sms) and e-mail, data reading from anywhere that has ethernet connection and store the results in same centre. The Earthqukae Analysis (EA) program was developed considering above facilities. Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 and Microsoft GDI tools were used as a basement for program development. EA program can image five different seismic formats (gcf, suds, seisan, sac, nanometrics-y) without any conversion and use all seismic process facilities that are filtering (band-pass, low-pass, high-pass), fast fourier transform, offset adjustment etc.

Impact of the Introduction of Digital Mammography in an Organized Screening Program on the Recall and Detection Rate.

PubMed

Campari, Cinzia; Giorgi Rossi, Paolo; Mori, Carlo Alberto; Ravaioli, Sara; Nitrosi, Andrea; Vacondio, Rita; Mancuso, Pamela; Cattani, Antonella; Pattacini, Pierpaolo

2016-04-01

In 2012, the Reggio Emilia Breast Cancer Screening Program introduced digital mammography in all its facilities at the same time. The aim of this work is to analyze the impact of digital mammography introduction on the recall rate, detection rate, and positive predictive value. The program actively invites women aged 45-74 years. We included women screened in 2011, all of whom underwent film-screen mammography, and all women screened in 2012, all of whom underwent digital mammography. Double reading was used for all mammograms, with arbitration in the event of disagreement. A total of 42,240 women underwent screen-film mammography and 45,196 underwent digital mammography. The recall rate increased from 3.3 to 4.4% in the first year of digital mammography (relative recall adjusted by age and round 1.46, 95% CI = 1.37-1.56); the positivity rate for each individual reading, before arbitration, rose from 3 to 5.7%. The digital mammography recall rate decreased during 2012: after 12 months, it was similar to the recall rate with screen-film mammography. The detection rate was similar: 5.9/1000 and 5.2/1000 with screen-film and digital mammography, respectively (adjusted relative detection rate 0.95, 95% CI = 0.79-1.13). The relative detection rate for ductal carcinoma in situ remained the same. The introduction of digital mammography to our organized screening program had a negative impact on specificity, thereby increasing the recall rate. The effect was limited to the first 12 months after introduction and was attenuated by the double reading with arbitration. We did not observe any relevant effects on the detection rate.

Identifying Preschool Children At-Risk of Later Reading Difficulties: Evaluation of two Emergent Literacy Screening Tools

PubMed Central

Wilson, Shauna B.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2012-01-01

Emergent literacy skills are predictive of children’s early reading success, and literacy achievement in early schooling declines more rapidly for children who are below-average readers. It is therefore important for teachers to identify accurately children at risk for later reading difficulty so children can be exposed to good emergent literacy interventions. In this study, 176 preschoolers were administered two screening tools, the Revised Get Ready to Read! (GRTR-R) and the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs), and a diagnostic measure at two time points. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed that at optimal cut scores, GRTR-R provided more accurate classification of children’s overall emergent literacy skills than did IGDIs. However, neither measure was particularly good at classifying specific emergent literacy skills. PMID:19822699

Screening for Atrial Fibrillation in Patients ≥65 Years Using an Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor in a Skilled Nursing Facility.

PubMed

Wiesel, Joseph; Salomone, Thomas J

2017-10-15

Early detection of asymptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) provides an opportunity to treat patients to reduce their risk of stroke. Long-term residents of skilled nursing facilities frequently have multiple risk factors for strokes due to AF and may benefit from screening for AF. Patients in a skilled nursing facility 65 years and older, without a history of AF and without a pacemaker or defibrillator, were evaluated using a Microlife WatchBP Home A automatic blood pressure monitor that can detect AF when set to a triple reading mode. Those with readings positive for AF were evaluated with a standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) or a 30-second single-channel ECG to confirm the presence of AF. A total of 101 patients were screened with an average age of 78 years, and 48 (48%) were female. Nine automatic blood pressure monitor readings were positive for possible AF. Of those, 7 (6.9%, 95% confidence intervals 3.0% to 14.2%) had AF confirmed with ECG. Only 2 (2%, 95% confidence interval 0.3% to 7.7%) were false-positive readings. One-time screening for AF using an automatic blood pressure monitor in a skilled nursing facility resulted in a high number of patients with newly diagnosed AF. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Application of Plagiarism Screening Software in the Chemical Engineering Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Matthew E.; Bullard, Lisa G.

2014-01-01

Plagiarism is an area of increasing concern for written ChE assignments, such as laboratory and design reports, due to ease of access to text and other materials via the internet. This study examines the application of plagiarism screening software to four courses in a university chemical engineering curriculum. The effectiveness of plagiarism…

Anti-nuclear antibody screening using HEp-2 cells.

PubMed

Buchner, Carol; Bryant, Cassandra; Eslami, Anna; Lakos, Gabriella

2014-06-23

The American College of Rheumatology position statement on ANA testing stipulates the use of IIF as the gold standard method for ANA screening(1). Although IIF is an excellent screening test in expert hands, the technical difficulties of processing and reading IIF slides--such as the labor intensive slide processing, manual reading, the need for experienced, trained technologists and the use of dark room--make the IIF method difficult to fit in the workflow of modern, automated laboratories. The first and crucial step towards high quality ANA screening is careful slide processing. This procedure is labor intensive, and requires full understanding of the process, as well as attention to details and experience. Slide reading is performed by fluorescent microscopy in dark rooms, and is done by trained technologists who are familiar with the various patterns, in the context of cell cycle and the morphology of interphase and dividing cells. Provided that IIF is the first line screening tool for SARD, understanding the steps to correctly perform this technique is critical. Recently, digital imaging systems have been developed for the automated reading of IIF slides. These systems, such as the NOVA View Automated Fluorescent Microscope, are designed to streamline the routine IIF workflow. NOVA View acquires and stores high resolution digital images of the wells, thereby separating image acquisition from interpretation; images are viewed an interpreted on high resolution computer monitors. It stores images for future reference and supports the operator's interpretation by providing fluorescent light intensity data on the images. It also preliminarily categorizes results as positive or negative, and provides pattern recognition for positive samples. In summary, it eliminates the need for darkroom, and automates and streamlines the IIF reading/interpretation workflow. Most importantly, it increases consistency between readers and readings. Moreover, with the use of barcoded slides, transcription errors are eliminated by providing sample traceability and positive patient identification. This results in increased patient data integrity and safety. The overall goal of this video is to demonstrate the IIF procedure, including slide processing, identification of common IIF patterns, and the introduction of new advancements to simplify and harmonize this technique.

Understanding the Nature and Impact of Young Readers' Literacy Interactions with Talking Books and during Adult Reading Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Clare; Pillinger, Claire; Jackson, Emma

2010-01-01

This paper reports an extended analysis of the study reported in [Wood, C. (2005). "Beginning readers' use of 'talking books' software can affect their reading strategies." "Journal of Research in Reading, 28," 170-182.], in which five and six-year-old children received either six sessions using specially designed talking books or six sessions of…

Investigating the Relationships among Metacognitive Strategy Training, Willingness to Read English Medical Texts, and Reading Comprehension Ability Using Structural Equation Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hassanpour, Masoumeh; Ghonsooly, Behzad; Nooghabi, Mehdi Jabbari; Shafiee, Mohammad Naser

2017-01-01

This quasi-experimental study examined the relationship between students' metacognitive awareness and willingness to read English medical texts. So, a model was proposed and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with R software. Participants included 98 medical students of two classes. One class was assigned as the control group and the…

Neuropsychological Assessment and Training of Cognitive Processing Strategies for Reading Recognition and Comprehension: A Computer Assisted Program for Learning Disabled Students. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teeter, Phyllis Anne; Smith, Philip L.

The final report of the 2-year project describes the development and validation of microcomputer software to help assess reading disabled elementary grade children and to provide basic reading instruction. Accomplishments of the first year included: design of the STAR Neuro-Cognitive Assessment Program which includes a reproduction of…

Prospective study aiming to compare 2D mammography and tomosynthesis + synthesized mammography in terms of cancer detection and recall. From double reading of 2D mammography to single reading of tomosynthesis.

PubMed

Romero Martín, Sara; Raya Povedano, Jose Luis; Cara García, María; Santos Romero, Ana Luz; Pedrosa Garriguet, Margarita; Álvarez Benito, Marina

2018-06-01

To evaluate tomosynthesis compared with 2D-mammography in cancer detection and recalls in a screening-programme, and assess performing synthesized instead of 2D, and compare double reading of 2D with single reading of tomosynthesis. Women (age 50-69 years) participating in the screening-programme were included. 2D-mammography and tomosynthesis were performed. There were four reading models: 2D-mammography (first); 2D-mammography (second); tomosynthesis + synthesized (third); tomosynthesis + synthesized + 2D (fourth reading). Paired double reading of 2D (first+second) and tomosynthesis (third+fourth) were analysed. In 16,067 participants, there were 98 cancers and 1,196 recalls. Comparing double reading of 2D with single reading of tomosynthesis, there was an increase of 12.6 % in cancer detection with the third reading (p= 0.043) and 6.9 % with the fourth reading (p=0.210), and a decrease in recalls of 40.5 % (p<0.001) and 44.4 % (p<0.001), respectively. With double reading of both techniques, there was an increase in cancer detection of 17.4 % (p = 0.004) and a decrease in recalls of 12.5 % (p = 0.001) with tomosynthesis. Single reading of tomosynthesis plus synthesized increased cancer detection and decreased recalls compared with double reading 2D. 2D did not improve results when added to tomosynthesis. • Tomosynthesis increases cancer detection and decreases recall rates versus 2D mammography. • Synthesized-mammography avoids performing 2D, showing higher cancer detection. • Single reading of tomosynthesis + synthesized is feasible as a new practice.

Can the heartscan be used for diagnosis and monitoring of emergencies in general practice?

PubMed

Renier, Walter; Geelen, Mieke; Steverlynck, Lucas; Wauters, Joost; Aertgeerts, Bert; Verbakel, Jan; Vanbrabant, Peter; Gillet, Jean-Bernard; Sabbe, Marc; Buntinx, Frank

2012-10-01

Mostly, it is impossible to establish the type of arrhythmias, based on signs and symptoms only. An ECG device is not always within reach. We presumed the heartscan, a handheld wireless device, to be of value to a GP in emergency situations. We therefore studied inter- and intra-observer variability and the accuracy of the screen readings. All consecutive patients visiting the emergency department (ED) of the Gasthuisberg University Hospital in Leuven, Belgium, as well as patients hospitalised in three hospital wards on one day, were included. Immediately after the heartscan recording, a standard 12-lead ECG was recorded and read by an experienced hospital-based cardiologist. The recordings were read on the device screen by two general practitioners. All readers were blinded to the 12-lead ECG readings and vice versa, and for each other's ones. We compared both the heartscan reading of the first reader and the automatic reading of the device with the readings of the second GP and to the 12-lead ECG results, used as the gold standard. Intra- and inter-observer agreement was studied using total accuracy and kappa values with their 95% confidence interval (CI). Full data of 177 (73%) patients, 80 men (45%) and 97 women (55%), with a mean age of 55 years (range 18-94 y) were recorded. The specificity of the heartscan reading by a clinician was 88%, the sensitivity between 60 and 69%, PPV < 50% and NPV > 95%. Comparing codes of the heartscan with the ECG readings was difficult but sensitivity for atrial fibrillation was 92.3%. Inter- and intra-observer accuracy were high (> 0.86 and > or = 0.95, respectively), with low kappa values. The detection of rhythm disorders by the device is incomplete. However, the heartscan can be a help for the GP. The performance of the heartscan could probably be improved by increasing screen resolution, but, in the future, more sophisticated heart monitors should become available. They should be small, light and affordable.

The mission events graphic generator software: A small tool with big results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lupisella, Mark; Leibee, Jack; Scaffidi, Charles

1993-01-01

Utilization of graphics has long been a useful methodology for many aspects of spacecraft operations. A personal computer based software tool that implements straight-forward graphics and greatly enhances spacecraft operations is presented. This unique software tool is the Mission Events Graphic Generator (MEGG) software which is used in support of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Project. MEGG reads the HST mission schedule and generates a graphical timeline.

Process Tailoring and the Software Capability Maturity Model(sm).

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-11-01

A Discipline For Software Engineering, Addison-Wesley, 1995; Humphrey . This book summarizes the costs and benefits of a Personal Software Process ( PSP ...1994. [Humphrey95] Humphrey , Watts S . A Discipline For Software Engineering. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1995. CMUISEI-94-TR-24 43...practiced and institutionalized. 8 CMU/SEI-94-TR-24 . Leveraging mo n o s I cDocument" IRevise & Analyze Organizational LessonsApproach ’"- Define Processes

The Personal Software Process (PSPSM): An Empirical Study of the Impact of PSP on Individual Engineers.

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-12-01

Watts Humphrey and is described in his book A Discipline for Software Engineering [ Humphrey 95]. Its intended use is to guide the planning and...Pat; Humphrey , Watts S .; Khajenoori, Soheil; Macke, Susan; & Matvya, Annette. "Introducing the Personal Software Process: Three Industry Case... Humphrey 95] Humphrey , Watts S . A Discipline for Software Engineering. Reading, Ma.: Addison-Wesley, 1995. [Mauchly 40] Mauchly, J.W. "Significance

A new development on measurement and control software of SANS BATAN spectrometer (SMARTer) in Serpong, Indonesia

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bharoto,; Suparno, Nadi; Putra, Edy Giri Rachman

In 2005, the main computer for data acquisition and control system of Small-angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) BATAN Spectrometer (SMARTer) was replaced since it halted to operate the spectrometer. According to this replacement, the new software for data acquisition and control system has been developed in-house. Visual Basic programming language is used in developing the software. In the last two years, many developments have been made both in the hardware and also the software to conduct the experiment is more effective and efficient. Lately, the previous motor controller card (ISA Card) was replaced with the programmable motor controller card (PCI Card)more » for driving one motor of position sensitive detector (PSD), eight motors of four collimators, and six motors of six pinhole discs. This new control system software makes all motors can be moved simultaneously, then it reduces significantly the consuming time of setting up the instrument before running the experiment. Along with that development, the new data acquisition software under MS Windows operating system is also developed to drive a beam stopper in X-Y directions as well as to read the equipment status such as position of the collimators and PSD, to acquire neutron counts on monitor and PSD detectors, and also to manage 12 samples position automatically. A timer object which is set in one second to read the equipment status via serial port of the computer (RS232C), and general purpose interface board (GPIB) for reading the total counts of each pixel of the PSD from histogram memory was used in this new software. The experiment result displayed in real time on the main window, and the data is saved in the special format for further data reduction and analysis. The new software has been implemented and performed for experiment using a preset count or preset time mode for absolute scattering intensity method.« less

A new development on measurement and control software of SANS BATAN spectrometer (SMARTer) in Serpong, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bharoto, Suparno, Nadi; Putra, Edy Giri Rachman

2015-04-01

In 2005, the main computer for data acquisition and control system of Small-angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) BATAN Spectrometer (SMARTer) was replaced since it halted to operate the spectrometer. According to this replacement, the new software for data acquisition and control system has been developed in-house. Visual Basic programming language is used in developing the software. In the last two years, many developments have been made both in the hardware and also the software to conduct the experiment is more effective and efficient. Lately, the previous motor controller card (ISA Card) was replaced with the programmable motor controller card (PCI Card) for driving one motor of position sensitive detector (PSD), eight motors of four collimators, and six motors of six pinhole discs. This new control system software makes all motors can be moved simultaneously, then it reduces significantly the consuming time of setting up the instrument before running the experiment. Along with that development, the new data acquisition software under MS Windows operating system is also developed to drive a beam stopper in X-Y directions as well as to read the equipment status such as position of the collimators and PSD, to acquire neutron counts on monitor and PSD detectors, and also to manage 12 samples position automatically. A timer object which is set in one second to read the equipment status via serial port of the computer (RS232C), and general purpose interface board (GPIB) for reading the total counts of each pixel of the PSD from histogram memory was used in this new software. The experiment result displayed in real time on the main window, and the data is saved in the special format for further data reduction and analysis. The new software has been implemented and performed for experiment using a preset count or preset time mode for absolute scattering intensity method.

Readability, suitability, and health content assessment of web-based patient education materials on colorectal cancer screening.

PubMed

Tian, Chenlu; Champlin, Sara; Mackert, Michael; Lazard, Allison; Agrawal, Deepak

2014-08-01

Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates in the Unites States are still below target level. Web-based patient education materials are used by patients and providers to provide supplemental information on CRC screening. Low literacy levels and patient perceptions are significant barriers to screening. There are little data on the quality of these online materials from a health literacy standpoint or whether they address patients' perceptions. To evaluate the readability, suitability, and health content of web-based patient education materials on colon cancer screening. Descriptive study. Web-based patient materials. Twelve reputable and popular online patient education materials were evaluated. Readability was measured by using the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level, and suitability was determined by the Suitability Assessment of Materials, a scale that considers characteristics such as content, graphics, layout/typography, and learning stimulation. Health content was evaluated within the framework of the Health Belief Model, a behavioral model that relates patients' perceptions of susceptibility to disease, severity, and benefits and barriers to their medical decisions. Each material was scored independently by 3 reviewers. Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level score, Suitability Assessment of Materials score, health content score. Readability for 10 of 12 materials surpassed the maximum recommended sixth-grade reading level. Five were 10th grade level and above. Only 1 of 12 materials received a superior suitability score; 3 materials received inadequate scores. Health content analysis revealed that only 50% of the resources discussed CRC risk in the general population and <25% specifically addressed patients at high risk, such as African Americans, smokers, patients with diabetes, and obese patients. For perceived barriers to screening, only 8.3% of resources discussed embarrassment, 25% discussed pain with colonoscopy, 25% addressed cost of colonoscopy, and none specifically mentioned the need to get colonoscopy when no symptoms are present. No material discussed the social benefits of screening. Descriptive design. Most online patient education materials for CRC screening are written beyond the recommended sixth-grade reading level, with suboptimal suitability. Health content is lacking in addressing key perceived risks, barriers, and benefits to CRC screening. Developing more appropriate and targeted patient education resources on CRC may improve patient understanding and promote screening. Copyright © 2014 American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Can computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) help radiologists find mammographically missed screening cancers?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishikawa, Robert M.; Giger, Maryellen L.; Schmidt, Robert A.; Papaioannou, John

2001-06-01

We present data from a pilot observer study whose goal is design a study to test the hypothesis that computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) can improve radiologists' performance in reading screening mammograms. In a prospective evaluation of our computer detection schemes, we have analyzed over 12,000 clinical exams. Retrospective review of the negative screening mammograms for all cancer cases found an indication of the cancer in 23 of these negative cases. The computer found 54% of these in our prospective testing. We added to these cases normal exams to create a dataset of 75 cases. Four radiologists experienced in mammography read the cases and gave their BI-RADS assessment and their confidence that the patient should be called back for diagnostic mammography. They did so once reading the films only and a second time reading with the computer aid. Three radiologists had no change in area under the ROC curve (mean Az of 0.73) and one improved from 0.73 to 0.78, but this difference failed to reach statistical significance (p equals 0.23). These data are being used to plan a larger more powerful study.

Software to Promote Young Children's Growth in Literacy: A Comparison of Online and Offline Formats

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Eileen; Grant, Amy K.; Gottardo, Alexandra; Savage, Robert; Evans, Mary Ann

2017-01-01

The primary goal of this research was to extend our understanding of the strengths and weaknesses inherent in online and offline early literacy software programs designed for young learners. A taxonomy of reading skills was used to contrast online software with offline closed system (compact disc) based programs with respect to number of skills…

Using an Interactive Singing Software Program: A Comparative Study of Struggling Middle School Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biggs, Marie C.; Homan, Susan P.; Dedrick, Robert; Minick, Vanessa; Rasinski, Timothy

2008-01-01

Software that teaches users to sing in tune and in rhythm while providing real-time pitch tracking was used in a study of struggling middle school readers. The software, Carry-a-Tune (CAT) was originally developed to improve singing; however, since it involves a repeated reading format, we used it to determine its effect on comprehension and…

Software for Alignment of Segments of a Telescope Mirror

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Drew P.; Howard, Richard T.; Ly, William C.; Rakoczy, John M.; Weir, John M.

2006-01-01

The Segment Alignment Maintenance System (SAMS) software is designed to maintain the overall focus and figure of the large segmented primary mirror of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. This software reads measurements made by sensors attached to the segments of the primary mirror and from these measurements computes optimal control values to send to actuators that move the mirror segments.

That's Infotainment!: How to Create Your Own Screencasts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kroski, Ellyssa

2009-01-01

Screencasts are videos that record the actions that take place on the computer screen, most often including a narrative audio track, in order to demonstrate various computer-related tasks, such as how to use a software program or navigate a certain Web site. All that is needed is a standard microphone and screen recording software, which can be…

Captivating Open University Students with Online Literature Search Tutorials Created Using Screen Capture Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wales, Tim; Robertson, Penny

2008-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to share the experiences and challenges faced by the Open University Library (OUL) in using screen capture software to develop online literature search tutorials. Design/methodology/approach: A summary of information literacy support at the OUL is provided as background information to explain the decision to…

Automated Diabetic Retinopathy Image Assessment Software: Diagnostic Accuracy and Cost-Effectiveness Compared with Human Graders.

PubMed

Tufail, Adnan; Rudisill, Caroline; Egan, Catherine; Kapetanakis, Venediktos V; Salas-Vega, Sebastian; Owen, Christopher G; Lee, Aaron; Louw, Vern; Anderson, John; Liew, Gerald; Bolter, Louis; Srinivas, Sowmya; Nittala, Muneeswar; Sadda, SriniVas; Taylor, Paul; Rudnicka, Alicja R

2017-03-01

With the increasing prevalence of diabetes, annual screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR) by expert human grading of retinal images is challenging. Automated DR image assessment systems (ARIAS) may provide clinically effective and cost-effective detection of retinopathy. We aimed to determine whether ARIAS can be safely introduced into DR screening pathways to replace human graders. Observational measurement comparison study of human graders following a national screening program for DR versus ARIAS. Retinal images from 20 258 consecutive patients attending routine annual diabetic eye screening between June 1, 2012, and November 4, 2013. Retinal images were manually graded following a standard national protocol for DR screening and were processed by 3 ARIAS: iGradingM, Retmarker, and EyeArt. Discrepancies between manual grades and ARIAS results were sent to a reading center for arbitration. Screening performance (sensitivity, false-positive rate) and diagnostic accuracy (95% confidence intervals of screening-performance measures) were determined. Economic analysis estimated the cost per appropriate screening outcome. Sensitivity point estimates (95% confidence intervals) of the ARIAS were as follows: EyeArt 94.7% (94.2%-95.2%) for any retinopathy, 93.8% (92.9%-94.6%) for referable retinopathy (human graded as either ungradable, maculopathy, preproliferative, or proliferative), 99.6% (97.0%-99.9%) for proliferative retinopathy; Retmarker 73.0% (72.0 %-74.0%) for any retinopathy, 85.0% (83.6%-86.2%) for referable retinopathy, 97.9% (94.9%-99.1%) for proliferative retinopathy. iGradingM classified all images as either having disease or being ungradable. EyeArt and Retmarker saved costs compared with manual grading both as a replacement for initial human grading and as a filter prior to primary human grading, although the latter approach was less cost-effective. Retmarker and EyeArt systems achieved acceptable sensitivity for referable retinopathy when compared with that of human graders and had sufficient specificity to make them cost-effective alternatives to manual grading alone. ARIAS have the potential to reduce costs in developed-world health care economies and to aid delivery of DR screening in developing or remote health care settings. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Ophthalmology. All rights reserved.

Identifying Preschool Children at Risk of Later Reading Difficulties: Evaluation of Two Emergent Literacy Screening Tools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Shauna B.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2010-01-01

Emergent literacy skills are predictive of children's early reading success, and literacy achievement in early schooling declines more rapidly for children who are below-average readers. It is therefore important for teachers to identify accurately children at risk for later reading difficulty so children can be exposed to effective emergent…

Double Reading in Breast Cancer Screening: Cohort Evaluation in the CO-OPS Trial.

PubMed

Taylor-Phillips, Sian; Jenkinson, David; Stinton, Chris; Wallis, Matthew G; Dunn, Janet; Clarke, Aileen

2018-04-10

Purpose To investigate the effect of double readings by a second radiologist on recall rates, cancer detection, and characteristics of cancers detected in the National Health Service Breast Screening Program in England. Materials and Methods In this retrospective analysis, 805 206 women were evaluated through screening and diagnostic test results by extracting 1 year of routine data from 33 English breast screening centers. Centers used double reading of digital mammograms, with arbitration if there were discrepant interpretations. Information on reader decisions, with results of follow-up tests, were used to explore the effect of the second reader. The statistical tests used were the test for equality of proportions, the χ 2 test for independence, and the t test. Results The first reader recalled 4.76% of women (38 295 of 805 206 women; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.71%, 4.80%). Two readers recalled 6.19% of women in total (49 857 of 805 206 women; 95% CI: 6.14%, 6.24%), but arbitration of discordant readings reduced the recall rate to 4.08% (32 863 of 805 206 women; 95% CI: 4.04%, 4.12%; P < .001). A total of 7055 cancers were detected, of which 627 (8.89%; 95% CI: 8.22%, 9.55%; P < .001) were detected by the second reader only. These additional cancers were more likely to be ductal carcinoma in situ (30.5% [183 of 600] vs 22.0% [1344 of 6114]; P < .001), and additional invasive cancers were smaller (mean size, 14.2 vs 16.7 mm; P < .001), had fewer involved nodes, and were likely to be lower grade. Conclusion Double reading with arbitration reduces recall and increases cancer detection compared with single reading. Cancers detected only by the second reader were smaller, of lower grade, and had less nodal involvement. © RSNA, 2018.

Digital Equipment Corporation's CRDOM Software and Database Publications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Michael Q.

1986-01-01

Acquaints information professionals with Digital Equipment Corporation's compact optical disk read-only-memory (CDROM) search and retrieval software and growing library of CDROM database publications (COMPENDEX, Chemical Abstracts Services). Highlights include MicroBASIS, boolean operators, range operators, word and phrase searching, proximity…

Development of a vision-based pH reading system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hur, Min Goo; Kong, Young Bae; Lee, Eun Je; Park, Jeong Hoon; Yang, Seung Dae; Moon, Ha Jung; Lee, Dong Hoon

2015-10-01

pH paper is generally used for pH interpretation in the QC (quality control) process of radiopharmaceuticals. pH paper is easy to handle and useful for small samples such as radio-isotopes and radioisotope (RI)-labeled compounds for positron emission tomography (PET). However, pHpaper-based detecting methods may have some errors due limitations of eye sight and inaccurate readings. In this paper, we report a new device for pH reading and related software. The proposed pH reading system is developed with a vision algorithm based on the RGB library. The pH reading system is divided into two parts. First is the reading device that consists of a light source, a CCD camera and a data acquisition (DAQ) board. To improve the accuracy of the sensitivity, we utilize the three primary colors of the LED (light emission diode) in the reading device. The use of three colors is better than the use of a single color for a white LED because of wavelength. The other is a graph user interface (GUI) program for a vision interface and report generation. The GUI program inserts the color codes of the pH paper into the database; then, the CCD camera captures the pH paper and compares its color with the RGB database image in the reading mode. The software captures and reports information on the samples, such as pH results, capture images, and library images, and saves them as excel files.

Pilot study on the use of data mining to identify cochlear implant candidates.

PubMed

Grisel, Jedidiah J; Schafer, Erin; Lam, Anne; Griffin, Terry

2018-05-01

The goal of this pilot study was to determine the clinical utility of data-mining software that screens for cochlear implant (CI) candidacy. The Auditory Implant Initiative developed a software module that screens for CI candidates via integration with a software system (Noah 4) that serves as a depository for hearing test data. To identify candidates, patient audiograms from one practice were exported into the screening module. Candidates were tracked to determine if any eventually underwent implantation. After loading 4836 audiograms from the Noah 4 system, the screening module identified 558 potential CI candidates. After reviewing the data for the potential candidates, 117 were targeted and invited to an educational event. Following the event, a total of six candidates were evaluated, and two were implanted. This objective approach to identifying candidates has the potential to address the gross underutilization of CIs by removing any bias or lack of knowledge regarding the management of severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss with CIs. The screening module was an effective tool for identifying potential CI candidates at one ENT practice. On a larger scale, the screening module has the potential to impact thousands of CI candidates worldwide.

Software for Automated Reading of STEP Files by I-DEAS(trademark)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pinedo, John

2003-01-01

A program called "readstep" enables the I-DEAS(tm) computer-aided-design (CAD) software to automatically read Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) files. (The STEP format is one of several used to transfer data between dissimilar CAD programs.) Prior to the development of "readstep," it was necessary to read STEP files into I-DEAS(tm) one at a time in a slow process that required repeated intervention by the user. In operation, "readstep" prompts the user for the location of the desired STEP files and the names of the I-DEAS(tm) project and model file, then generates an I-DEAS(tm) program file called "readstep.prg" and two Unix shell programs called "runner" and "controller." The program "runner" runs I-DEAS(tm) sessions that execute readstep.prg, while "controller" controls the execution of "runner" and edits readstep.prg if necessary. The user sets "runner" and "controller" into execution simultaneously, and then no further intervention by the user is required. When "runner" has finished, the user should see only parts from successfully read STEP files present in the model file. STEP files that could not be read successfully (e.g., because of format errors) should be regenerated before attempting to read them again.

20180312 - Evaluating the applicability of read-across tools and high throughput screening data for food relevant chemicals (SOT)

EPA Science Inventory

Alternative toxicity assessment methods to characterize the hazards of chemical substances have been proposed to reduce animal testing and screen thousands of chemicals in an efficient manner. Resources to accomplish these goals include utilizing large in vitro chemical screening...

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Genome-wide shRNA Screens with DEMETER Inferred Gene Effects | Office of Cancer Genomics

Cancer.gov

In this study RNA interference (RNAi) screens were performed on 285 cell lines and combined with 216 lines previously screened, which were then analyzed together with DEMETER to discover genetic dependencies across the entire pool of cell lines. Read the abstract

Boiler: lossy compression of RNA-seq alignments using coverage vectors.

PubMed

Pritt, Jacob; Langmead, Ben

2016-09-19

We describe Boiler, a new software tool for compressing and querying large collections of RNA-seq alignments. Boiler discards most per-read data, keeping only a genomic coverage vector plus a few empirical distributions summarizing the alignments. Since most per-read data is discarded, storage footprint is often much smaller than that achieved by other compression tools. Despite this, the most relevant per-read data can be recovered; we show that Boiler compression has only a slight negative impact on results given by downstream tools for isoform assembly and quantification. Boiler also allows the user to pose fast and useful queries without decompressing the entire file. Boiler is free open source software available from github.com/jpritt/boiler. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Influences of Radiology Trainees on Screening Mammography Interpretation.

PubMed

Hawley, Jeffrey R; Taylor, Clayton R; Cubbison, Alyssa M; Erdal, B Selnur; Yildiz, Vedat O; Carkaci, Selin

2016-05-01

Participation of radiology trainees in screening mammographic interpretation is a critical component of radiology residency and fellowship training. The aim of this study was to investigate and quantify the effects of trainee involvement on screening mammographic interpretation and diagnostic outcomes. Screening mammograms interpreted at an academic medical center by six dedicated breast imagers over a three-year period were identified, with cases interpreted by an attending radiologist alone or in conjunction with a trainee. Trainees included radiology residents, breast imaging fellows, and fellows from other radiology subspecialties during breast imaging rotations. Trainee participation, patient variables, results of diagnostic evaluations, and pathology were recorded. A total of 47,914 mammograms from 34,867 patients were included, with an overall recall rate for attending radiologists reading alone of 14.7% compared with 18.0% when involving a trainee (P < .0001). Overall cancer detection rate for attending radiologists reading alone was 5.7 per 1,000 compared with 5.2 per 1,000 when reading with a trainee (P = .517). When reading with a trainee, dense breasts represented a greater portion of recalls (P = .0001), and more frequently, greater than one abnormality was described in the breast (P = .013). Detection of ductal carcinoma in situ versus invasive carcinoma or invasive cancer type was not significantly different. The mean size of cancers in patients recalled by attending radiologists alone was smaller, and nodal involvement was less frequent, though not statistically significantly. These results demonstrate a significant overall increase in recall rate when interpreting screening mammograms with radiology trainees, with no change in cancer detection rate. Radiology faculty members should be aware of this potentiality and mitigate tendencies toward greater false positives. Copyright © 2016 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Variable Quality and Readability of Patient-oriented Websites on Colorectal Cancer Screening.

PubMed

Schreuders, Eline H; Grobbee, Esmée J; Kuipers, Ernst J; Spaander, Manon C W; Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Sander J O

2017-01-01

The efficacy of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is dependent on participation and subsequent adherence to surveillance. The internet increasingly is used for health information and is important to support decision making. We evaluated the accuracy, quality, and readability of online information on CRC screening and surveillance. A Website Accuracy Score and Polyp Score were developed, which awarded points for various aspects of CRC screening and surveillance. Websites also were evaluated using validated internet quality instruments (Global Quality Score, LIDA, and DISCERN), and reading scores. Two raters independently assessed the top 30 websites appearing on Google.com. Portals, duplicates, and news articles were excluded. Twenty websites were included. The mean website accuracy score was 26 of 44 (range, 9-41). Websites with the highest scores were www.cancer.org, www.bowelcanceraustralia.org, and www.uptodate.com. The median polyp score was 3 of 10. The median global quality score was 3 of 5 (range, 2-5). The median overall LIDA score was 74% and the median DISCERN score was 45, both indicating moderate quality. The mean Flesch-Kincaid grade level was 11th grade, rating the websites as difficult to read, 30% had a reading level acceptable for the general public (Flesch Reading Ease > 60). There was no correlation between the Google rank and the website accuracy score (r s  = -0.31; P = .18). There is marked variation in quality and readability of websites on CRC screening. Most websites do not address polyp surveillance. The poor correlation between quality and Google ranking suggests that screenees will miss out on high-quality websites using standard search strategies. Copyright © 2017 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Real-Time Monitoring of Scada Based Control System for Filling Process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soe, Aung Kyaw; Myint, Aung Naing; Latt, Maung Maung; Theingi

2008-10-01

This paper is a design of real-time monitoring for filling system using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). The monitoring of production process is described in real-time using Visual Basic.Net programming under Visual Studio 2005 software without SCADA software. The software integrators are programmed to get the required information for the configuration screens. Simulation of components is expressed on the computer screen using parallel port between computers and filling devices. The programs of real-time simulation for the filling process from the pure drinking water industry are provided.

Video Screen Capture Basics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunbar, Laura

2014-01-01

This article is an introduction to video screen capture. Basic information of two software programs, QuickTime for Mac and BlueBerry Flashback Express for PC, are also discussed. Practical applications for video screen capture are given.

Graph Visualization for RDF Graphs with SPARQL-EndPoints

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sukumar, Sreenivas R; Bond, Nathaniel

2014-07-11

RDF graphs are hard to visualize as triples. This software module is a web interface that connects to a SPARQL endpoint and retrieves graph data that the user can explore interactively and seamlessly. The software written in python and JavaScript has been tested to work on screens as little as the smart phones to large screens such as EVEREST.

The Effect of Interactive CD-ROM/Digitized Audio Courseware on Reading among Low-Literate Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gretes, John A.; Green, Michael

1994-01-01

Compares a multimedia adult literacy instructional course, Reading to Educate and Develop Yourself (READY), to traditional classroom instruction by studying effects of replacing conventional learning tools with computer-assisted instruction (CD-ROMs and audio software). Results reveal that READY surpassed traditional instruction for virtually…

Learning, Change, and the Utopia of Play

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moulthrop, Stuart

2007-01-01

This article looks at some of the rhetoric surrounding video games and other forms of interactive software as additions or alternatives to school curricula. It focuses particularly on the need to articulate ways to "read" videogames in order to achieve significant cultural impact. Noting that reading, even as metaphor, tends to invoke…

Impact of confidence number on accuracy of the SureSight Vision Screener.

PubMed

2010-02-01

To assess the relation between the confidence number provided by the Welch Allyn SureSight Vision Screener and screening accuracy, and to determine whether repeated testing to achieve a higher confidence number improves screening accuracy in pre-school children. Lay and nurse screeners screened 1452 children enrolled in the Vision in Preschoolers (VIP) Phase II Study. All children also underwent a comprehensive eye examination. By using statistical comparison of proportions, we examined sensitivity and specificity for detecting any ocular condition targeted for detection in the VIP study and conditions grouped by severity and by type (amblyopia, strabismus, significant refractive error, and unexplained decreased visual acuity) among children who had confidence numbers < or =4 (retest necessary), 5 (retest if possible), > or =6 (acceptable). Among the 687 (47.3%) children who had repeated testing by either lay or nurse screeners because of a low confidence number (<6) for one or both eyes in the initial testing, the same analyses were also conducted to compare results between the initial reading and repeated test reading with the highest confidence number in the same child. These analyses were based on the failure criteria associated with 90% specificity for detecting any VIP condition in VIP Phase II. A lower confidence number category were associated with higher sensitivity (0.71, 0.65, and 0.59 for < or =4, 5, and > or =6, respectively, p = 0.04) but no statistical difference in specificity (0.85, 0.85, and 0.91, p = 0.07) of detecting any VIP-targeted condition. Children with any VIP-targeted condition were as likely to be detected using the initial confidence number reading as using the higher confidence number reading from repeated testing. A higher confidence number obtained during screening with the SureSight Vision Screener is not associated with better screening accuracy. Repeated testing to reach the manufacturer's recommended minimum value is not helpful in pre-school vision screening.

Eye Movement Control during Reading: II. Frequency of Refixating a Word. Technical Report No. 469.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McConkie, G. W.; And Others

As part of a series of studies describing the oculomotor behavior of skilled readers, a study investigated whether a word refixation curve exists. Subjects, 66 college students fixating over 40,000 times, read lines of text from a computer screen and were instructed to read for meaning without regard to errors. Results of eye movement control…

The Role of University Students' Attitude towards Turkish Language Lesson in Interpreting Reading Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aytan, Necmi

2015-01-01

In this study, the aim is to measure the effect of students' reading strategies and attitudes towards Turkish language on reading habits. 323 first grade students receiving education in 2014-2015 semester in International Antalya University located at the center of Antalya were involved in the study. As the method, relational screening model was…

Effects of Typographic Variables on Eye-Movement Measures in Reading Chinese from a Screen

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yen, Nai-Shing; Tsai, Jie-Li; Chen, Pei-Ling; Lin, Hsuan-Yu; Chen, Arbee L. P.

2011-01-01

To investigate the most efficient way to represent text in reading Chinese on computer displays, three typographic variables, character size (41[feet] arc/24 pixels and 60[feet] arc/32 pixels), character spacing (1/4 and 1/8 character width) and font type (Kai and Ming), were manipulated. Results showed that the reading speed for Chinese…

Effects of text cohesion on comprehension and retention of colorectal cancer screening information: a preliminary study.

PubMed

Liu, Chiung-Ju; Rawl, Susan M

2012-01-01

Increasing readability of written cancer prevention information is a fundamental step to increasing awareness and knowledge of cancer screening. Instead of readability formulas, the present study focused on text cohesion, which is the degree to which the text content ties together. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of text cohesion on reading times, comprehension, and retention of colorectal cancer prevention information. English-speaking adults (50 years of age or older) were recruited from local communities. Participants were randomly assigned to read colorectal cancer prevention subtopics presented at 2 levels of text cohesion: from higher cohesion to lower cohesion, or vice versa. Reading times, word recognition, text comprehension, and recall were assessed after reading. Two weeks later, text comprehension and recall were reassessed. Forty-two adults completed the study, but five were lost to follow up. Higher text cohesion showed a significant effect on reading times and text comprehension but not on word recognition and recall. The effect of text cohesion was not found on text comprehension and recall after 2 weeks. Increasing text cohesion facilitates reading speed and comprehension of colorectal cancer prevention information. Further research on the effect of text cohesion is warranted.

New bone post-processing tools in forensic imaging: a multi-reader feasibility study to evaluate detection time and diagnostic accuracy in rib fracture assessment.

PubMed

Glemser, Philip A; Pfleiderer, Michael; Heger, Anna; Tremper, Jan; Krauskopf, Astrid; Schlemmer, Heinz-Peter; Yen, Kathrin; Simons, David

2017-03-01

The aim of this multi-reader feasibility study was to evaluate new post-processing CT imaging tools in rib fracture assessment of forensic cases by analyzing detection time and diagnostic accuracy. Thirty autopsy cases (20 with and 10 without rib fractures in autopsy) were randomly selected and included in this study. All cases received a native whole body CT scan prior to the autopsy procedure, which included dissection and careful evaluation of each rib. In addition to standard transverse sections (modality A), CT images were subjected to a reconstruction algorithm to compute axial labelling of the ribs (modality B) as well as "unfolding" visualizations of the rib cage (modality C, "eagle tool"). Three radiologists with different clinical and forensic experience who were blinded to autopsy results evaluated all cases in a random manner of modality and case. Rib fracture assessment of each reader was evaluated compared to autopsy and a CT consensus read as radiologic reference. A detailed evaluation of relevant test parameters revealed a better accordance to the CT consensus read as to the autopsy. Modality C was the significantly quickest rib fracture detection modality despite slightly reduced statistic test parameters compared to modalities A and B. Modern CT post-processing software is able to shorten reading time and to increase sensitivity and specificity compared to standard autopsy alone. The eagle tool as an easy to use tool is suited for an initial rib fracture screening prior to autopsy and can therefore be beneficial for forensic pathologists.

In silico serotyping of E. coli from short read data identifies limited novel O-loci but extensive diversity of O:H serotype combinations within and between pathogenic lineages.

PubMed

Ingle, Danielle J; Valcanis, Mary; Kuzevski, Alex; Tauschek, Marija; Inouye, Michael; Stinear, Tim; Levine, Myron M; Robins-Browne, Roy M; Holt, Kathryn E

2016-07-01

The lipopolysaccharide (O) and flagellar (H) surface antigens of Escherichia coli are targets for serotyping that have traditionally been used to identify pathogenic lineages. These surface antigens are important for the survival of E. coli within mammalian hosts. However, traditional serotyping has several limitations, and public health reference laboratories are increasingly moving towards whole genome sequencing (WGS) to characterize bacterial isolates. Here we present a method to rapidly and accurately serotype E. coli isolates from raw, short read WGS data. Our approach bypasses the need for de novo genome assembly by directly screening WGS reads against a curated database of alleles linked to known and novel E. coli O-groups and H-types (the EcOH database) using the software package srst2. We validated the approach by comparing in silico results for 197 enteropathogenic E. coli isolates with those obtained by serological phenotyping in an independent laboratory. We then demonstrated the utility of our method to characterize isolates in public health and clinical settings, and to explore the genetic diversity of >1500 E. coli genomes from multiple sources. Importantly, we showed that transfer of O- and H-antigen loci between E. coli chromosomal backbones is common, with little evidence of constraints by host or pathotype, suggesting that E. coli ' strain space' may be virtually unlimited, even within specific pathotypes. Our findings show that serotyping is most useful when used in combination with strain genotyping to characterize microevolution events within an inferred population structure.

Does sensitivity measured from screening test-sets predict clinical performance?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soh, BaoLin P.; Lee, Warwick B.; Mello-Thoms, Claudia R.; Tapia, Kriscia A.; Ryan, John; Hung, Wai Tak; Thompson, Graham J.; Heard, Rob; Brennan, Patrick C.

2014-03-01

Aim: To examine the relationship between sensitivity measured from the BREAST test-set and clinical performance. Background: Although the UK and Australia national breast screening programs have regarded PERFORMS and BREAST test-set strategies as possible methods of estimating readers' clinical efficacy, the relationship between test-set and real life performance results has never been satisfactorily understood. Methods: Forty-one radiologists from BreastScreen New South Wales participated in this study. Each reader interpreted a BREAST test-set which comprised sixty de-identified mammographic examinations sourced from the BreastScreen Digital Imaging Library. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to compare the sensitivity measured from the BREAST test-set with screen readers' clinical audit data. Results: Results shown statistically significant positive moderate correlations between test-set sensitivity and each of the following metrics: rate of invasive cancer per 10 000 reads (r=0.495; p < 0.01); rate of small invasive cancer per 10 000 reads (r=0.546; p < 0.001); detection rate of all invasive cancers and DCIS per 10 000 reads (r=0.444; p < 0.01). Conclusion: Comparison between sensitivity measured from the BREAST test-set and real life detection rate demonstrated statistically significant positive moderate correlations which validated that such test-set strategies can reflect readers' clinical performance and be used as a quality assurance tool. The strength of correlation demonstrated in this study was higher than previously found by others.

Prevalence and Patterns of Learning Disabilities in School Children.

PubMed

Padhy, Susanta Kumar; Goel, Sonu; Das, Shyam Sinder; Sarkar, Siddharth; Sharma, Vijaylaxmi; Panigrahi, Mahima

2016-04-01

To assess the prevalence and patterns of learning disabilities (LD) in school going children in a northern city of India. The present cross-sectional study comprised of three-staged screening procedure for assessing learning disabilities of 3rd and 4th grade students studying in government schools. The first stage comprised of the teacher identifying at-risk student. In the second stage, teachers assessed at-risk students using Specific Learning Disability-Screening Questionnaire (SLD-SQ). The third stage comprised of assessment of the screen positive students using Brigance Diagnostic Inventory (BDI) part of NIMHANS Index of Specific Learning Disabilities for identifying the cases of LD. A total of 1211 (33.6%) children out of the total screened (n = 3600) were identified as at-risk by the teachers at the first stage. Of them, 360 were found to screen positive on the second stage using SLD-SQ. The most common deficits were missing out words or sentences while reading, misplacing letters or words while reading or writing, and making frequent mistake in spelling while writing or reading. Of these, 108 children were confirmed to have learning disability on the third stage using BDI, which represented 3.08% of the total population. Learning disability is an important concern in young school aged children. Early identification of such students can help in early institution of intervention and suitable modifications in teaching techniques.

Orthographic learning and the role of text-to-speech software in Dutch disabled readers.

PubMed

Staels, Eva; Van den Broeck, Wim

2015-01-01

In this study, we examined whether orthographic learning can be demonstrated in disabled readers learning to read in a transparent orthography (Dutch). In addition, we tested the effect of the use of text-to-speech software, a new form of direct instruction, on orthographic learning. Both research goals were investigated by replicating Share's self-teaching paradigm. A total of 65 disabled Dutch readers were asked to read eight stories containing embedded homophonic pseudoword targets (e.g., Blot/Blod), with or without the support of text-to-speech software. The amount of orthographic learning was assessed 3 or 7 days later by three measures of orthographic learning. First, the results supported the presence of orthographic learning during independent silent reading by demonstrating that target spellings were correctly identified more often, named more quickly, and spelled more accurately than their homophone foils. Our results support the hypothesis that all readers, even poor readers of transparent orthographies, are capable of developing word-specific knowledge. Second, a negative effect of text-to-speech software on orthographic learning was demonstrated in this study. This negative effect was interpreted as the consequence of passively listening to the auditory presentation of the text. We clarify how these results can be interpreted within current theoretical accounts of orthographic learning and briefly discuss implications for remedial interventions. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

The professional quality criteria of Italian breast screening radiologists: results from a national survey comparing the programmes started in 2000-2012 versus the ones started in 1990-1999.

PubMed

Morrone, Doralba; Giordano, Livia; Artuso, Franca; Bernardi, Daniela; Fedato, Chiara; Frigerio, Alfonso; Giorgi, Daniela; Naldoni, Carlo; Saguatti, Gianni; Severi, Daniela; Taffurelli, Mario; Terribile, Daniela; Ventura, Leonardo; Bucchi, Lauro

2017-01-01

In Italy, due to increasing healthcare budget and staff shortages, the recently created regional mammography screening programmes were established under worse radiology practice quality criteria than the previously created programmes. Using available data from a national questionnaire survey conducted at the end of 2013 and involving 222 responder radiologists, we compared the main professional quality standards of radiologists working in the screening programmes established during the period 2000-2012 with those working in the screening programmes created from 1990 to 1999. The former reported more years of clinical experience in breast imaging and a greater clinical mammogram reading volume than the latter. Conversely, they dedicated less working time to breast imaging, were less likely to participate in the diagnostic assessment of screen-detected lesions, to work in large-staffed screening centres, and to have a screening and a total mammogram reading volume (SMRV and TMRV) ≥ 5000 per year. The level of most professional quality criteria of Italian mammography screening radiologists has decreased over time. As SMRV and TMRV are important predictors of diagnostic accuracy, we can expect a lower interpretation performance of radiologists working in the recently created screening programmes.

Software Requirements for the A-7E Aircraft.

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-08-31

DIWI(a) 14 ASCU SSU-20 (1,2) READ 8 DIWI(a) 15 BITE FAIL SAFE (2) READ 2 DIW3(a) 0 TACAN PARITY VALID (3) READ 2 DIW3(a) 10-14 AGE TEST EQUIPMENT (2...69 2.1.5: Arm am ent Station Control Unit ( ASCU ...times. 69 I Chapter 2 ALSPAUGH, FAULK. BRITTON, PARKER. PARNAS, AND SHORE 3 2.1.5. Armament Station Control Unit ( ASCU ) The Armament Station Control

What's New in Software? Hot New Tool: The Hypertext.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedley, Carolyn N.

1989-01-01

This article surveys recent developments in hypertext software, a highly interactive nonsequential reading/writing/database approach to research and teaching that allows paths to be created through related materials including text, graphics, video, and animation sources. Described are uses, advantages, and problems of hypertext. (PB)

Perspectives Do Matter: "Joint Screen", a Promising Methodology for Multimodal Interaction Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arend, Béatrice; Sunnen, Patrick; Fixmer, Pierre; Sujbert, Monika

2014-01-01

This paper discusses theoretical and methodological issues arising from a video-based research design and the emergent tool "Joint Screen'"when grasping joint activity. We share our reflections regarding the combined reading of four synchronised camera perspectives combined in one screen. By these means we reconstruct and analyse…

Effect of Direct Glare on Orbicularis Oculi and Trapezius During Computer Reading.

PubMed

Mork, Randi; Bruenech, Jan Richard; Thorud, Hanne Mari Schiøtz

2016-07-01

Unfavorable visual conditions during computer work may affect development of both eyestrain and musculoskeletal pain in the neck and shoulder area. The aim of the study was to investigate how direct glare affects symptom development, muscle activity, and muscle blood flow in m. orbicularis oculi and m. trapezius during reading on a computer screen. Fifteen healthy young adults with normal binocular vision read text on a computer screen at an optimized computer workplace, 30 minutes with glare exposure and 30 minutes with appropriate lighting. Postural angles were continuously registered. Development of eye symptoms and musculoskeletal pain in the neck and shoulder area were recorded using VAS scales. Muscle activity and muscle blood flow were measured continuously using electromyography and photoplethysmography, respectively. Glare exposure resulted in significantly more pronounced eye pain, increased orbicularis muscle activity, and increased trapezius blood flow compared to reading with appropriate lighting. There were no significant differences in posture between the two light conditions. There were also significant associations between orbicularis oculi activity and both trapezius blood flow and neck pain during both conditions. Results from the current study show that direct glare conditions cause increased eyestrain and orbicularis oculi contraction during reading on a computer screen. This study also indicates that exposure to direct glare affects the trapezius muscle, possibly by an interaction between the visual system, sympathetic nervous system, and head-stabilizing muscles. In addition, there were associations between the use of orbicularis oculi, trapezius blood flow, and development of neck pain independent of the lighting.

Benefits of the quality assured double and arbitration reading of mammograms in the early diagnosis of breast cancer in symptomatic women.

PubMed

Waldmann, Annika; Kapsimalakou, Smaragda; Katalinic, Alexander; Grande-Nagel, Isabell; Stoeckelhuber, Beate M; Fischer, Dorothea; Barkhausen, Joerg; Vogt, Florian M

2012-05-01

To address the benefits of double and arbitration reading regarding tumour detection rates, percentage of in situ tumours, and number (of patients) needed to send for expert reading (number needed to treat; NNT) for one additional tumour finding. QuaMaDi is a quality assured breast cancer diagnosis programme; with two-view mammography (craniocaudal, mediolateral oblique) and, in case of breast density ACR 3 or 4, routine ultrasound imaging; and with independent double reading of all images. A consecutive sample of symptomatic women, i.e. women at risk for breast cancer, women aged 70 and above, and/or women with preceding BI-RADS III findings, was analysed. 28,558 mammograms were performed (mean age of women: 57.3 [standard deviation: 12.3] years). Discordant findings were present in 3,837 double readings and were sent for arbitration reading. After histopathological assessment, 52 carcinomas were found (thereof 32% in situ). These carcinomas accounted for 1.8 tumours per 1,000 examinations in the total cohort and increased the tumour detection rate up to 16.4/1,000. The NNT in discordant cases was 74. Double and arbitration reading appears to be a useful tool to ensure the quality of early detection of breast lesions in symptomatic women during indication-based, standardised mammography. • Quality assured breast cancer diagnosis is feasible outside organised screening structures. • Double and arbitration reading is beneficial for populations ineligible for screening. • Double and arbitration reading increases the tumour detection rate. • Double and arbitration reading increases the percentage of in situ cancers.

How quickly do breast screeners learn their skills?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nevisi, Hossein; Dong, Leng; Chen, Yan; Gale, Alastair G.

2017-03-01

The UK's Breast Screening Programme is 27 years old and many experienced breast radiologists are now retiring, coupled with an influx of new screening personnel. It is important to the ongoing Programme that new mammography readers are quickly up to the skill level of experienced readers. This raises the question of how quickly the necessary cancer detection skills are learnt. All breast screening radiologists in the UK read educational training sets of challenging FFDM images (the PERFORMS® scheme) yearly to maintain and improve their performance in real life screening. Data were examined from the PERFORMS® annual scheme for 54 new screeners, 55 screeners who have been screening for one year and also for more experienced screeners (597 screeners). Not surprisingly, significant differences in cancer detection rate were found between new readers and both of the other groups. Additionally, the performance of 48 new readers who have now been screening for about a year and have taken part twice in the PERFORMS® scheme were further examined where again a significant difference in cancer detection was found. These data imply that cancer detection skills are learnt quickly in the first year of screening. Information was also examined concerning the volume of cases participants read and other factors.

Artificial Intelligence Software for Assessing Postural Stability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lieberman, Erez; Forth, Katharine; Paloski, William

2013-01-01

A software package reads and analyzes pressure distributions from sensors mounted under a person's feet. Pressure data from sensors mounted in shoes, or in a platform, can be used to provide a description of postural stability (assessing competence to deficiency) and enables the determination of the person's present activity (running, walking, squatting, falling). This package has three parts: a preprocessing algorithm for reading input from pressure sensors; a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), which is used to determine the person's present activity and level of sensing-motor competence; and a suite of graphical algorithms, which allows visual representation of the person's activity and vestibular function over time.

A User's Guide to the Meta-Analysis of Research Studies. Meta-Stat: Software To Aid in the Meta-Analysis of Research Findings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudner, Lawrence M.; Glass Gene V.; Evartt, David L.; Emery, Patrick J.

This manual and the accompanying software are intended to provide a step-by-step guide to conducting a meta-analytic study along with references for further reading and free high-quality software, "Meta-Stat.""Meta-Stat" is a comprehensive package designed to help in the meta-analysis of research studies in the social and behavioral sciences.…

The Source to S2K Conversion System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-12-01

mandgement system Provides. As for all software production, the cost of writing this program is high, particularily considering it may be executed only...research, and 3 findlly, implement the system using disciplined, structured software engineering principles. In order to properly document how these...complete read step is required (as done by the Michigan System and EXPRESS) or software support outside the conversion system (as in CODS) is required

Software Engineering Education Directory. Software Engineering Curriculum Project

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-05-01

1986 with a questionnaire mailed to schools selected from Peterson’s Graduate Programs in Engineering and Applied Sciences 1986. We contacted schools...the publi- cation more complete. To discuss any issues related to this report, please contact: Education Program Software Engineering Institute...considered to be required course reading. How to Use This Section This portion of the directory is organized by state (in the U.S.), province (in

Alview: Portable Software for Viewing Sequence Reads in BAM Formatted Files.

PubMed

Finney, Richard P; Chen, Qing-Rong; Nguyen, Cu V; Hsu, Chih Hao; Yan, Chunhua; Hu, Ying; Abawi, Massih; Bian, Xiaopeng; Meerzaman, Daoud M

2015-01-01

The name Alview is a contraction of the term Alignment Viewer. Alview is a compiled to native architecture software tool for visualizing the alignment of sequencing data. Inputs are files of short-read sequences aligned to a reference genome in the SAM/BAM format and files containing reference genome data. Outputs are visualizations of these aligned short reads. Alview is written in portable C with optional graphical user interface (GUI) code written in C, C++, and Objective-C. The application can run in three different ways: as a web server, as a command line tool, or as a native, GUI program. Alview is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Apple OS X. It is available as a web demo at https://cgwb.nci.nih.gov/cgi-bin/alview. The source code and Windows/Mac/Linux executables are available via https://github.com/NCIP/alview.

Engaging New Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Denise

1994-01-01

Reviews three educational computer software products: (1) a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) bundle of five mathematics programs from the Apple Education Series; (2) "Sammy's Science House," with science activities for preschool through second grade (Edmark); and (3) "The Cat Came Back," an interactive CD-ROM game designed to build language…

No-Fail Software Gifts for Kids.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buckleitner, Warren

1996-01-01

Reviews children's software packages: (1) "Fun 'N Games"--nonviolent games and activities; (2) "Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo"--matching, logic games, and animal facts; (3) "Big Job"--12 logic games with video from job sites; (4) "JumpStart First Grade"--15 activities introducing typical school lessons; and (5) "Read, Write, & Type!"--progressively…

Voice Recognition Software Accuracy with Second Language Speakers of English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coniam, D.

1999-01-01

Explores the potential of the use of voice-recognition technology with second-language speakers of English. Involves the analysis of the output produced by a small group of very competent second-language subjects reading a text into the voice recognition software Dragon Systems "Dragon NaturallySpeaking." (Author/VWL)

Trends in Literacy Software Publication and Marketing: Multicultural Themes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

This article provides data and discussion of multicultural theme-related issues arising from analysis of a detailed database of commercial software products targeted to reading and literacy education. The database consisted of 1152 titles, representing the offerings of 104 publishers and distributors. Of the titles, 62 were identified as having…

Nonfiction Reading Comprehension in Middle School: Exploring in Interactive Software Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolff, Evelyn S.; Isecke, Harriet; Rhoads, Christopher; Madura, John P.

2013-01-01

The struggles of students in the United States to comprehend non-fiction science text are well documented. Middle school students, in particular, have minimal instruction in comprehending nonfiction and flounder on assessments. This article describes the development process of the Readorium software, an interactive web-based program being…

How do I obtain read software for data?

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2015-11-30

... product-landing page. Simply locate and select the project link from the Projects Supported page for the project that you would ... page where you can access it if it is available, note that a missing tab on the product page indicates that there is no software specific to ...

A Comparison of Subjects' Reading and Writing Performance and Preference While Using Various Portable Electronic Magnifiers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matchinski, Tracy L.; Winters, Janis E.

2016-01-01

The ability to read print to help maintain independence and quality of life is a primary concern of people with visual impairments. One option for reading is a CCTV (closed-circuit television) or, using a more specific term, electronic magnifier. An electronic magnifier uses a camera to enlarge images onto a screen. The aim of this study was to…

The Nelson-Denny Reading Test as a Predictor of Academic Success in Selected Classes in a Specific Community College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gudan, Sirkka

A review of the literature indicates that the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT) may be a viable instrument for screening students and predicting their academic success in particular circumstances. In 1981, a study was conducted at Schoolcraft College to determine the extent of the relationship between the reading abilities of entering students and…

The Future of Reading: Don't Worry. It Might Be Better than You Think

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, John

2010-01-01

It is a fun parlor game to speculate about what the future of books will look like. The author wonders whether stories will be read on screens and supplemented with gaming, illustration, video, and multimedia riddles. In this essay, the author shares his vision of the future of reading and describes what he learned from writing a story based on…

Breaking off Engagement: Readers' Disengagement as a Function of Reader and Text Characteristics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goedecke, Patricia J.; Dong, Daqi; Shi, Genghu; Feng, Shi; Risko, Evan; Olney, Andrew M.; D'Mello, Sidney K.; Graesser, Arthur C.

2015-01-01

Engagement during reading can be measured by the amount of time readers invest in the reading process. It is hypothesized that disengagement is marked by a decrease in time investment as compared with the demands made on the reader by the text. In this study, self-paced reading times for screens of text were predicted by a text complexity score…

Personalized Outreach to University Students with a History of Reading Difficulties: Early Screening and Outreach to Support Academically At-Risk Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deacon, S. Hélène; Tucker, Rebecca; Bergey, Bradley W.; Laroche, Annie; Parrila, Rauno

2017-01-01

We examined whether identification of and personalized outreach to a group of students with a history of reading difficulties would impact their use of support services and academic outcomes. Using a brief self-report questionnaire, we identified students with a history of reading difficulties (n = 175) and a comparison group of university…

Understanding On-Screen Reading Behaviors in Academic Contexts: A Case Study of Five Graduate English-as-a-Second-Language Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, I-Chia

2012-01-01

Undoubtedly, new areas of functionality for electronic texts will come to the fore and create new reading habits and expectations for dealing and interacting with text as electronic texts become dominant in the academic world. These new forms of reading will gradually become as natural as the different activities readers now take for granted, such…

Local Normative Data on easyCBM[R] Reading and Mathematics: Fall 2009. Technical Report # 0918

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tindal, Gerald; Alonzo, Julie; Anderson, Daniel

2009-01-01

We developed equivalent, alternate forms of easyCBM[R] in reading (n=20 forms) and mathematics (n=13 forms) with different skills reflective of the National Reading Panel (NRP) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), respectively. We then took three forms to use as screening measures in the fall, winter, and spring so educators…

Design of Customizable Automated Low Cost Eye Testing System

PubMed Central

K, Ganesan; D, Shalini

2014-01-01

Background and Objectives: In many underdeveloped and third world countries, eye care is often neglected due to illiteracy. Particularly people in rural areas suffer with eye problems due to mal nutrition. The government is spending lot of money and efforts in screening the people at periodic intervals. One of the challenges faced by the doctors is screening the school children. Materials and Methods: The standard Snellen letter chart based diagnostic system does not work always. There are instances where the first few students who undergo this diagnostic system, memorize the letter sequence of the Snellen letter chart and convey the same to other fellow students. Hence other students simply read out the Snellen letter sequence from their memory, not by looking at the Snellen letter chart. Thus there is a need of randomizing the sequence of letters being displayed on the Snellen letter chart for every student to be diagnosed for eye testing. Conclusion: In the present paper we are proposing a customizable, software based, cost effective solution which involves a standard personal computer (PC) fitted with a camera, headphone and speaker system. The envisaged system can be administered even by the trained persons. The proposed system is also suitable for remote diagnosis of patients, particularly in the field of telemedicine. PMID:24783089

CT colonography: investigation of the optimum reader paradigm by using computer-aided detection software.

PubMed

Taylor, Stuart A; Charman, Susan C; Lefere, Philippe; McFarland, Elizabeth G; Paulson, Erik K; Yee, Judy; Aslam, Rizwan; Barlow, John M; Gupta, Arun; Kim, David H; Miller, Chad M; Halligan, Steve

2008-02-01

To prospectively compare the diagnostic performance and time efficiency of both second and concurrent computer-aided detection (CAD) reading paradigms for retrospectively obtained computed tomographic (CT) colonography data sets by using consensus reading (three radiologists) of colonoscopic findings as a reference standard. Ethical permission, HIPAA compliance (for U.S. institutions), and patient consent were obtained from all institutions for use of CT colonography data sets in this study. Ten radiologists each read 25 CT colonography data sets (12 men, 13 women; mean age, 61 years) containing 69 polyps (28 were 1-5 mm, 41 were >or=6 mm) by using workstations integrated with CAD software. Reading was randomized to either "second read" CAD (applied only after initial unassisted assessment) or "concurrent read" CAD (applied at the start of assessment). Data sets were reread 6 weeks later by using the opposing paradigm. Polyp sensitivity and reading times were compared by using multilevel logistic and linear regression, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated. Compared with the unassisted read, odds of improved polyp (>or=6 mm) detection were 1.5 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.0, 2.2) and 1.3 (95% CI: 0.9, 1.9) by using CAD as second and concurrent reader, respectively. Detection odds by using CAD concurrently were 0.87 (95% CI: 0.59, 1.3) and 0.76 (95% CI: 0.57, 1.01) those of second read CAD, excluding and including polyps 1-5 mm, respectively. The concurrent read took 2.9 minutes (95% CI: -3.8, -1.9) less than did second read. The mean areas under the ROC curve (95% CI) for the unassisted read, second read CAD, and concurrent read CAD were 0.83 (95% CI: 0.78, 0.87), 0.86 (95% CI: 0.82, 0.90), and 0.88 (95% CI: 0.83, 0.92), respectively. CAD is more time efficient when used concurrently than when used as a second reader, with similar sensitivity for polyps 6 mm or larger. However, use of second read CAD maximizes sensitivity, particularly for smaller lesions. (c) RSNA, 2007.

Adolescents and "Autographics": Reading and Writing Coming-of-Age Graphic Novels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Janette Michelle; King, Alyson; Perkins, Peggy; Fuke, Victor

2011-01-01

Students at two different sites (a 12th-grade English class focused on workplace preparation and an alternative program for students who had been expelled from school) read graphic novels and, using ComicLife software, created their own graphic sequences called "autographics" based on their personal experiences. The authors explore how…

Reading, Writing, and Documentation and Managing the Development of User Documentation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindberg, Wayne; Hoffman, Terrye

1987-01-01

The first of two articles addressing the issue of user documentation for computer software discusses the need to teach users how to read documentation. The second presents a guide for writing documentation that is based on the instructional systems design model, and makes suggestions for the desktop publishing of user manuals. (CLB)

Making English Accessible: Using ELECTRONIC NETWORKS FOR INTERACTION (ENFI) in the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peyton, Joy Kreeft; French, Martha

Electronic Networks for Interaction (ENFI), an instructional tool for teaching reading and writing using computer technology, improves the English reading and writing of deaf students at all educational levels. Chapters address these topics: (1) the origins of the technique; (2) how ENFI works in the classroom and laboratory (software, lab…

Using Computers for Intervention and Remediation of Severely Reading-Impaired Children in a University Literacy Clinic.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest; Reuber, Kristin; Damon, Corrine J.

A study investigated software choices of graduate-level clinicians in a university reading clinic to determine computer use and effectiveness in literacy instruction. The clinic involved students of varying ability, ages 7-12, using 24 Power Macintosh computers equipped with "ClarisWorks,""Kid Pix,""Student Writing…

Expert Systems: A Challenge for the Reading Profession.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

The expert systems are designed to imitate the reasoning of a human expert in a content area field. Designed to be advisors, these software systems combine the content area knowledge and decision-making ability of an expert with the user's understanding and knowledge of particular circumstances. The reading diagnosis system, the RD2P System…

What's New in Software? Mastery of the Computer through Desktop Publishing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedley, Carolyn N.; Ellsworth, Nancy J.

1993-01-01

Offers thoughts on the phenomenon of the underuse of classroom computers. Argues that desktop publishing is one way of overcoming the computer malaise occurring in schools, using the incentive of classroom reading and writing for mastery of many aspects of computer production, including writing, illustrating, reading, and publishing. (RS)

Addressing the English Language Arts Technology Standard in a Secondary Reading Methodology Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merkley, Donna J.; Schmidt, Denise A.; Allen, Gayle

2001-01-01

Describes efforts to integrate technology into a reading methodology course for secondary English majors. Discusses the use of e-mail, multimedia, distance education for videoconferences, online discussion technology, subject-specific software, desktop publishing, a database management system, a concept mapping program, and the use of the World…

The Effects of ABRACADABRA on Reading Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis of Applied Field Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abrami, Philip; Borohkovski, Eugene; Lysenko, Larysa

2015-01-01

This meta-analysis summarizes research on the effects of a comprehensive, interactive web-based software (AXXX) on the development of reading competencies among kindergarteners and elementary students. Findings from seven randomized control trials and quasi-experimental studies undertaken in a variety of contexts across Canada, Australia and Kenya…

R-WISE: A Computerized Environment for Tutoring Critical Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, P.; Crevoisier, M.

This paper describes a computerized environment for teaching the conceptual patterns of critical literacy. While the full implementation of the software covers both reading and writing, this paper covers only the writing aspects of R-WISE (Reading and Writing in a Supportive Environment). R-WISE consists of a suite of computerized…

RNA-Seq Alignment to Individualized Genomes Improves Transcript Abundance Estimates in Multiparent Populations

PubMed Central

Munger, Steven C.; Raghupathy, Narayanan; Choi, Kwangbom; Simons, Allen K.; Gatti, Daniel M.; Hinerfeld, Douglas A.; Svenson, Karen L.; Keller, Mark P.; Attie, Alan D.; Hibbs, Matthew A.; Graber, Joel H.; Chesler, Elissa J.; Churchill, Gary A.

2014-01-01

Massively parallel RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has yielded a wealth of new insights into transcriptional regulation. A first step in the analysis of RNA-seq data is the alignment of short sequence reads to a common reference genome or transcriptome. Genetic variants that distinguish individual genomes from the reference sequence can cause reads to be misaligned, resulting in biased estimates of transcript abundance. Fine-tuning of read alignment algorithms does not correct this problem. We have developed Seqnature software to construct individualized diploid genomes and transcriptomes for multiparent populations and have implemented a complete analysis pipeline that incorporates other existing software tools. We demonstrate in simulated and real data sets that alignment to individualized transcriptomes increases read mapping accuracy, improves estimation of transcript abundance, and enables the direct estimation of allele-specific expression. Moreover, when applied to expression QTL mapping we find that our individualized alignment strategy corrects false-positive linkage signals and unmasks hidden associations. We recommend the use of individualized diploid genomes over reference sequence alignment for all applications of high-throughput sequencing technology in genetically diverse populations. PMID:25236449

Software Compensates Electronic-Nose Readings for Humidity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhou, Hanying

2007-01-01

A computer program corrects for the effects of humidity on the readouts of an array of chemical sensors (an "electronic nose"). To enable the use of this program, the array must incorporate an independent humidity sensor in addition to sensors designed to detect analytes other than water vapor. The basic principle of the program was described in "Compensating for Effects of Humidity on Electronic Noses" (NPO-30615), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 28, No. 6 (June 2004), page 63. To recapitulate: The output of the humidity sensor is used to generate values that are subtracted from the outputs of the other sensors to correct for contributions of humidity to those readings. Hence, in principle, what remains after corrections are the contributions of the analytes only. The outputs of the non-humidity sensors are then deconvolved to obtain the concentrations of the analytes. In addition, the humidity reading is retained as an analyte reading in its own right. This subtraction of the humidity background increases the ability of the software to identify such events as spills in which contaminants may be present in small concentrations and accompanied by large changes in humidity.

Prediction and stability of reading problems in middle childhood.

PubMed

Ritchey, Kristen D; Silverman, Rebecca D; Schatschneider, Christopher; Speece, Deborah L

2015-01-01

The longitudinal prediction of reading problems from fourth grade to sixth grade was investigated with a sample of 173 students. Reading problems at the end of sixth grade were defined by significantly below average performance (≤ 15th percentile) on reading factors defining word reading, fluency, and reading comprehension. Sixth grade poor reader status was predicted by fall of fourth grade passage reading fluency, spelling fluency, and the number of reading problems identified by teachers. Reading fluency and spelling fluency were significant predictors in logistic regression equation that combined to yield a screening battery with an area under the curve of .91. These results suggest that brief assessments of reading and spelling fluency in fourth grade may be able to identify students in middle childhood who have a reading problem or who are at risk for experiencing reading problems in sixth grade. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

DIVA V2.0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

CHEN, JOANNA; SIMIRENKO, LISA; TAPASWI, MANJIRI

The DIVA software interfaces a process in which researchers design their DNA with a web-based graphical user interface, submit their designs to a central queue, and a few weeks later receive their sequence-verified clonal constructs. Each researcher independently designs the DNA to be constructed with a web-based BioCAD tool, and presses a button to submit their designs to a central queue. Researchers have web-based access to their DNA design queues, and can track the progress of their submitted designs as they progress from "evaluation", to "waiting for reagents", to "in progress", to "complete". Researchers access their completed constructs through themore » central DNA repository. Along the way, all DNA construction success/failure rates are captured in a central database. Once a design has been submitted to the queue, a small number of dedicated staff evaluate the design for feasibility and provide feedback to the responsible researcher if the design is either unreasonable (e.g., encompasses a combinatorial library of a billion constructs) or small design changes could significantly facilitate the downstream implementation process. The dedicated staff then use DNA assembly design automation software to optimize the DNA construction process for the design, leveraging existing parts from the DNA repository where possible and ordering synthetic DNA where necessary. SynTrack software manages the physical locations and availability of the various requisite reagents and process inputs (e.g., DNA templates). Once all requisite process inputs are available, the design progresses from "waiting for reagents" to "in progress" in the design queue. Human-readable and machine-parseable DNA construction protocols output by the DNA assembly design automation software are then executed by the dedicated staff exploiting lab automation devices wherever possible. Since the all employed DNA construction methods are sequence-agnostic, standardized (utilize the same enzymatic master mixes and reaction conditions), completely independent DNA construction tasks can be aggregated into the same multi-well plates and pursued in parallel. The resulting sets of cloned constructs can then be screened by high-throughput next-gen sequencing platforms for sequence correctness. A combination of long read-length (e.g., PacBio) and paired-end read platforms (e.g., Illumina) would be exploited depending the particular task at hand (e.g., PacBio might be sufficient to screen a set of pooled constructs with significant gene divergence). Post sequence verification, designs for which at least one correct clone was identified will progress to a "complete" status, while designs for which no correct clones wereidentified will progress to a "failure" status. Depending on the failure mode (e.g., no transformants), and how many prior attempts/variations of assembly protocol have been already made for a given design, subsequent attempts may be made or the design can progress to a "permanent failure" state. All success and failure rate information will be captured during the process, including at which stage a given clonal construction procedure failed (e.g., no PCR product) and what the exact failure was (e.g. assembly piece 2 missing). This success/failure rate data can be leveraged to refine the DNA assembly design process.« less

Computerized Bone Age Estimation Using Deep Learning Based Program: Evaluation of the Accuracy and Efficiency.

PubMed

Kim, Jeong Rye; Shim, Woo Hyun; Yoon, Hee Mang; Hong, Sang Hyup; Lee, Jin Seong; Cho, Young Ah; Kim, Sangki

2017-12-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of a new automatic software system for bone age assessment and to validate its feasibility in clinical practice. A Greulich-Pyle method-based deep-learning technique was used to develop the automatic software system for bone age determination. Using this software, bone age was estimated from left-hand radiographs of 200 patients (3-17 years old) using first-rank bone age (software only), computer-assisted bone age (two radiologists with software assistance), and Greulich-Pyle atlas-assisted bone age (two radiologists with Greulich-Pyle atlas assistance only). The reference bone age was determined by the consensus of two experienced radiologists. First-rank bone ages determined by the automatic software system showed a 69.5% concordance rate and significant correlations with the reference bone age (r = 0.992; p < 0.001). Concordance rates increased with the use of the automatic software system for both reviewer 1 (63.0% for Greulich-Pyle atlas-assisted bone age vs 72.5% for computer-assisted bone age) and reviewer 2 (49.5% for Greulich-Pyle atlas-assisted bone age vs 57.5% for computer-assisted bone age). Reading times were reduced by 18.0% and 40.0% for reviewers 1 and 2, respectively. Automatic software system showed reliably accurate bone age estimations and appeared to enhance efficiency by reducing reading times without compromising the diagnostic accuracy.

A Decision Model for Selection of Microcomputers and Operating Systems.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-06-01

is resilting in application software (for microccmputers) being developed almost exclu- sively tor the IBM PC and compatiole systems. NAVDAC ielt that...location can be indepen- dently accessed. RAN memory is also often called read/ write memory, hecause new information can be written into and read from...when power is lost; this is also read/ write memory. Bubble memory, however, has significantly slower access times than RAM or RON and also is not preva

TagDigger: user-friendly extraction of read counts from GBS and RAD-seq data.

PubMed

Clark, Lindsay V; Sacks, Erik J

2016-01-01

In genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) and restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq), read depth is important for assessing the quality of genotype calls and estimating allele dosage in polyploids. However, existing pipelines for GBS and RAD-seq do not provide read counts in formats that are both accurate and easy to access. Additionally, although existing pipelines allow previously-mined SNPs to be genotyped on new samples, they do not allow the user to manually specify a subset of loci to examine. Pipelines that do not use a reference genome assign arbitrary names to SNPs, making meta-analysis across projects difficult. We created the software TagDigger, which includes three programs for analyzing GBS and RAD-seq data. The first script, tagdigger_interactive.py, rapidly extracts read counts and genotypes from FASTQ files using user-supplied sets of barcodes and tags. Input and output is in CSV format so that it can be opened by spreadsheet software. Tag sequences can also be imported from the Stacks, TASSEL-GBSv2, TASSEL-UNEAK, or pyRAD pipelines, and a separate file can be imported listing the names of markers to retain. A second script, tag_manager.py, consolidates marker names and sequences across multiple projects. A third script, barcode_splitter.py, assists with preparing FASTQ data for deposit in a public archive by splitting FASTQ files by barcode and generating MD5 checksums for the resulting files. TagDigger is open-source and freely available software written in Python 3. It uses a scalable, rapid search algorithm that can process over 100 million FASTQ reads per hour. TagDigger will run on a laptop with any operating system, does not consume hard drive space with intermediate files, and does not require programming skill to use.

BarraCUDA - a fast short read sequence aligner using graphics processing units

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background With the maturation of next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) technologies, the throughput of DNA sequencing reads has soared to over 600 gigabases from a single instrument run. General purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU), extracts the computing power from hundreds of parallel stream processors within graphics processing cores and provides a cost-effective and energy efficient alternative to traditional high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. In this article, we describe the implementation of BarraCUDA, a GPGPU sequence alignment software that is based on BWA, to accelerate the alignment of sequencing reads generated by these instruments to a reference DNA sequence. Findings Using the NVIDIA Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) software development environment, we ported the most computational-intensive alignment component of BWA to GPU to take advantage of the massive parallelism. As a result, BarraCUDA offers a magnitude of performance boost in alignment throughput when compared to a CPU core while delivering the same level of alignment fidelity. The software is also capable of supporting multiple CUDA devices in parallel to further accelerate the alignment throughput. Conclusions BarraCUDA is designed to take advantage of the parallelism of GPU to accelerate the alignment of millions of sequencing reads generated by NGS instruments. By doing this, we could, at least in part streamline the current bioinformatics pipeline such that the wider scientific community could benefit from the sequencing technology. BarraCUDA is currently available from http://seqbarracuda.sf.net PMID:22244497

The utility of kindergarten teacher ratings for predicting low academic achievement in first grade.

PubMed

Teisl, J T; Mazzocco, M M; Myers, G F

2001-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the predictive value of kindergarten teachers' ratings of pupils for later first-grade academic achievement. Kindergarten students were rated by their teachers on a variety of variables, including math and reading performance, teacher concerns, and amount of learning relative to peers. These variables were then analyzed with respect to outcome measures for math and reading ability administered in the first grade. The teachers' ratings of academic performance were significantly correlated with scores on the outcome measures. Analyses were also carried out to determine sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of the different teacher ratings. The results indicated high overall accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value for the ratings. Positive predictive value tended to be lower. A recommendation to follow from these results is that teacher ratings of this sort be used to determine which children should receive cognitive screening measures to further enhance identification of children at risk for learning disability. However, this recommendation is limited by the lack of empirically supported screening measures for math disability versus well-supported screening tools for reading disability.

Comparison of the Microlife blood pressure monitor with the Omron blood pressure monitor for detecting atrial fibrillation.

PubMed

Wiesel, Joseph; Arbesfeld, Benjamin; Schechter, David

2014-10-01

Screening for atrial fibrillation (AF) by assessing the pulse is recommended in high-risk patients. Some clinical trials demonstrated that the Microlife blood pressure monitor (BPM) with AF detection is more accurate than pulse palpation. This led to a change in practice guidelines in the United Kingdom where AF screening with the Microlife device is recommended instead of pulse palpation. Many BPMs have irregular heart beat detection, but they have not been shown to detect AF reliably. Recently, one study, in a highly select population, suggested that the Omron BPM with irregular heart beat detection has a higher sensitivity for AF than the Microlife BPM. We compared the Microlife and Omron BPMs to electrocardiographic readings for AF detection in general cardiology patients. Inclusion criteria were age≥50 years without a pacemaker or defibrillator. A total of 199 subjects were enrolled, 30 with AF. Each subject had a 12-lead electrocardiography, 1 Omron BPM reading, and 3 Microlife BPM readings as per device instructions. The Omron device had a sensitivity of 30% (95% confidence interval [CI] 15.4% to 49.1%) with the sensitivity for the first Microlife reading of 97% (95% CI 81.4% to 100%) and the Microlife readings using the majority rule (AF positive if at least 2 of 3 individual readings were positive for AF) of 100% (95% CI 85.9% to 100%). Specificity for the Omron device was 97% (95% CI 92.5% to 99.2%) and for the first Microlife reading of 90% (95% CI 83.8% to 94.2%) and for the majority rule Microlife device of 92% (95% CI 86.2% to 95.7%; p<0.0001). The specificity of both devices is acceptable, but only the Microlife BPM has a sensitivity value that is high enough to be used for AF screening in clinical practice. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Validation of the custo screen 400 ambulatory blood pressure-monitoring device according to the European Society of Hypertension International Protocol revision 2010.

PubMed

Bramlage, Peter; Deutsch, Cornelia; Krüger, Ralf; Wolf, Andreas; Müller, Peter; Zwingers, Thomas; Beime, Beate; Mengden, Thomas

2014-01-01

The aim of the present study was to validate the custo screen 400 ambulatory blood pressure-monitoring (ABPM) device according to the 2010 International Protocol revision of the European Society of Hypertension (ESH-IP). The device can be used for ABPM for up to 72 hours. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively) were sequentially measured in 33 adult subjects (13 males and 20 females) and compared with a standard mercury sphygmomanometer (two observers). A total of 99 comparison pairs were obtained. The custo screen 400 met the requirements of parts 1 and 2 of the ESH-IP revision 2010. The mean difference between the device and reference sphygmomanometer readings was -0.5±4.5 mmHg for SBP and -0.1±3.3 mmHg for DBP. All but one measurement were within the absolute difference of 10 mmHg between the device and the observers for SBP and DBP. The number of absolute differences between the device and the observers within a range of 5 mmHg was 84 of 99 readings for SBP, and 93 of 99 readings for DBP. The custo screen 400 ABPM device met the requirements of the 2010 ESH-IP revision, and hence can be recommended for ABPM in adults. To our knowledge, the custo screen 400 is the first device to pass the revised ESH-IP 2010.

Validation of the custo screen 400 ambulatory blood pressure-monitoring device according to the European Society of Hypertension International Protocol revision 2010

PubMed Central

Bramlage, Peter; Deutsch, Cornelia; Krüger, Ralf; Wolf, Andreas; Müller, Peter; Zwingers, Thomas; Beime, Beate; Mengden, Thomas

2014-01-01

Objective The aim of the present study was to validate the custo screen 400 ambulatory blood pressure-monitoring (ABPM) device according to the 2010 International Protocol revision of the European Society of Hypertension (ESH-IP). The device can be used for ABPM for up to 72 hours. Materials and methods Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively) were sequentially measured in 33 adult subjects (13 males and 20 females) and compared with a standard mercury sphygmomanometer (two observers). A total of 99 comparison pairs were obtained. Results The custo screen 400 met the requirements of parts 1 and 2 of the ESH-IP revision 2010. The mean difference between the device and reference sphygmomanometer readings was −0.5±4.5 mmHg for SBP and −0.1±3.3 mmHg for DBP. All but one measurement were within the absolute difference of 10 mmHg between the device and the observers for SBP and DBP. The number of absolute differences between the device and the observers within a range of 5 mmHg was 84 of 99 readings for SBP, and 93 of 99 readings for DBP. Conclusion The custo screen 400 ABPM device met the requirements of the 2010 ESH-IP revision, and hence can be recommended for ABPM in adults. To our knowledge, the custo screen 400 is the first device to pass the revised ESH-IP 2010. PMID:24868162

Basic Reading Skills in Swedish Children with Late Developing Language and with or without Autism Spectrum Disorder or ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miniscalco, Carmela; Sandberg, Annika Dahlgren

2010-01-01

Reading skills at age 7-8 years were examined in a community-representative sample of 21 screened and clinically examined children with language delay (LD) followed prospectively from 2.5 years of age. The present study aimed to (1) determine whether these children with a history of LD had deficits in basic reading skills, i.e. decoding and…

Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading, Aligned to the Language Arts Florida Standards, FAIR-FS, Grades 3 through 12. Technical Manual

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foorman, Barbara R.; Petscher, Yaacov; Schatschneider, Chris

2015-01-01

The FAIR-FS consists of computer-adaptive reading comprehension and oral language screening tasks that provide measures to track growth over time, as well as a Probability of Literacy Success (PLS) linked to grade-level performance (i.e., the 40th percentile) on the reading comprehension subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT-10) in the…

Wallops Ship Surveillance System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Donna C.

2011-01-01

Approved as a Wallops control center backup system, the Wallops Ship Surveillance Software is a day-of-launch risk analysis tool for spaceport activities. The system calculates impact probabilities and displays ship locations relative to boundary lines. It enables rapid analysis of possible flight paths to preclude the need to cancel launches and allow execution of launches in a timely manner. Its design is based on low-cost, large-customer- base elements including personal computers, the Windows operating system, C/C++ object-oriented software, and network interfaces. In conformance with the NASA software safety standard, the system is designed to ensure that it does not falsely report a safe-for-launch condition. To improve the current ship surveillance method, the system is designed to prevent delay of launch under a safe-for-launch condition. A single workstation is designated the controller of the official ship information and the official risk analysis. Copies of this information are shared with other networked workstations. The program design is divided into five subsystems areas: 1. Communication Link -- threads that control the networking of workstations; 2. Contact List -- a thread that controls a list of protected item (ocean vessel) information; 3. Hazard List -- threads that control a list of hazardous item (debris) information and associated risk calculation information; 4. Display -- threads that control operator inputs and screen display outputs; and 5. Archive -- a thread that controls archive file read and write access. Currently, most of the hazard list thread and parts of other threads are being reused as part of a new ship surveillance system, under the SureTrak project.

34 CFR 464.3 - What kinds of activities may be assisted?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... literacy instructors in reading instruction and in— (i) Selecting and making the most effective use of... instruction; (B) Video tapes; (C) Interactive systems; and (D) Data link systems; or (ii) Assessing learning style, screening for learning disabilities, and providing individualized remedial reading instruction...

34 CFR 464.3 - What kinds of activities may be assisted?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... literacy instructors in reading instruction and in— (i) Selecting and making the most effective use of... instruction; (B) Video tapes; (C) Interactive systems; and (D) Data link systems; or (ii) Assessing learning style, screening for learning disabilities, and providing individualized remedial reading instruction...

34 CFR 464.3 - What kinds of activities may be assisted?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... literacy instructors in reading instruction and in— (i) Selecting and making the most effective use of... instruction; (B) Video tapes; (C) Interactive systems; and (D) Data link systems; or (ii) Assessing learning style, screening for learning disabilities, and providing individualized remedial reading instruction...

34 CFR 464.3 - What kinds of activities may be assisted?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... literacy instructors in reading instruction and in— (i) Selecting and making the most effective use of... instruction; (B) Video tapes; (C) Interactive systems; and (D) Data link systems; or (ii) Assessing learning style, screening for learning disabilities, and providing individualized remedial reading instruction...

CycloPs: generating virtual libraries of cyclized and constrained peptides including nonnatural amino acids.

PubMed

Duffy, Fergal J; Verniere, Mélanie; Devocelle, Marc; Bernard, Elise; Shields, Denis C; Chubb, Anthony J

2011-04-25

We introduce CycloPs, software for the generation of virtual libraries of constrained peptides including natural and nonnatural commercially available amino acids. The software is written in the cross-platform Python programming language, and features include generating virtual libraries in one-dimensional SMILES and three-dimensional SDF formats, suitable for virtual screening. The stand-alone software is capable of filtering the virtual libraries using empirical measurements, including peptide synthesizability by standard peptide synthesis techniques, stability, and the druglike properties of the peptide. The software and accompanying Web interface is designed to enable the rapid generation of large, structurally diverse, synthesizable virtual libraries of constrained peptides quickly and conveniently, for use in virtual screening experiments. The stand-alone software, and the Web interface for evaluating these empirical properties of a single peptide, are available at http://bioware.ucd.ie .

Implementation of a 5-Minute Magnetic Resonance Imaging Screening Protocol for Prostate Cancer in Men With Elevated Prostate-Specific Antigen Before Biopsy.

PubMed

Weiss, Jakob; Martirosian, Petros; Notohamiprodjo, Mike; Kaufmann, Sascha; Othman, Ahmed E; Grosse, Ulrich; Nikolaou, Konstantin; Gatidis, Sergios

2018-03-01

The aims of this study were to establish a 5-minute magnetic resonance (MR) screening protocol for prostate cancer in men before biopsy and to evaluate effects on Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) V2 scoring in comparison to a conventional, fully diagnostic multiparametric MR imaging (mpMRI) approach. Fifty-two patients with elevated prostate-specific antigen levels and without prior biopsy were prospectively included in this institutional review board-approved study. In all patients, an mpMRI protocol according to the PI-RADS recommendations was acquired on a 3 T MRI system. In addition, an accelerated diffusion-weighted imaging sequence was acquired using simultaneous multislice technique (DW-EPISMS). Two readers independently evaluated the images for the presence/absence of prostate cancer according to the PI-RADS criteria and for additional findings. In a first reading session, only the screening protocol consisting of axial T2-weighted and DW-EPISMS images was made available. In a subsequent reading session, the mpMRI protocol was assessed blinded to the results of the first reading, serving as reference standard. Both readers successfully established a final diagnosis according to the PI-RADS criteria in the screening and mpMRI protocol. Mean lesion size was 1.2 cm in the screening and 1.4 cm in the mpMRI protocol (P = 0.4) with 35% (18/52) of PI-RADS IV/V lesions. Diagnostic performance of the screening protocol was excellent with a sensitivity and specificity of 100% for both readers with no significant differences in comparison to the mpMRI standard (P = 1.0). In 3 patients, suspicious lymph nodes were reported as additional finding, which were equally detectable in the screening and mpMRI protocol. A 5-minute MR screening protocol for prostate cancer in men with elevated prostate-specific antigen levels before biopsy is applicable for clinical routine with similar diagnostic performance as the full diagnostic mpMRI approach.

List processing software for the LeCroy 1821 Segment Manager Interface

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dorries, T.; Moore, C.; Pordes, R.

1987-05-01

Many experiments at Fermilab now include some FASTBUS electronics in their data readout. The software reported in this paper provides general support for the LeCroy 1821 interface. The list processing device drivers allow FASTBUS data to be read out efficiently into the Fermilab Computing Department supported data acquisition systems.

Technology-Based Literature Plans for Elementary Students (Technology Links to Literacy).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wepner, Shelley B.

1991-01-01

Presents ideas for incorporating software into each guided reading phase for two realistic fiction books: Lois Lowry's "Anastasia on Her Own" and Barthe DeClements's "The Fourth Grade Wizards." Discusses how each skeletal plan uses three pieces of software to enliven students' oral and written thoughts about the books'…

Polisher (conflicting versions 2.0.8 on IM Form, 1.0 on abstract)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

2008-09-18

Polisher is a software package designed to facilitate the error correction of an assembled genome using Illumia read data. The software addresses substandard regions by automatically correcting consensus errors and/or suggesting primer walking reactions to improve the quality of the bases. This is done by performing the following:...........

Injecting Errors for Testing Built-In Test Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gender, Thomas K.; Chow, James

2010-01-01

Two algorithms have been conceived to enable automated, thorough testing of Built-in test (BIT) software. The first algorithm applies to BIT routines that define pass/fail criteria based on values of data read from such hardware devices as memories, input ports, or registers. This algorithm simulates effects of errors in a device under test by (1) intercepting data from the device and (2) performing AND operations between the data and the data mask specific to the device. This operation yields values not expected by the BIT routine. This algorithm entails very small, permanent instrumentation of the software under test (SUT) for performing the AND operations. The second algorithm applies to BIT programs that provide services to users application programs via commands or callable interfaces and requires a capability for test-driver software to read and write the memory used in execution of the SUT. This algorithm identifies all SUT code execution addresses where errors are to be injected, then temporarily replaces the code at those addresses with small test code sequences to inject latent severe errors, then determines whether, as desired, the SUT detects the errors and recovers

Screening for Dyslexia Using Eye Tracking during Reading.

PubMed

Nilsson Benfatto, Mattias; Öqvist Seimyr, Gustaf; Ygge, Jan; Pansell, Tony; Rydberg, Agneta; Jacobson, Christer

2016-01-01

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental reading disability estimated to affect 5-10% of the population. While there is yet no full understanding of the cause of dyslexia, or agreement on its precise definition, it is certain that many individuals suffer persistent problems in learning to read for no apparent reason. Although it is generally agreed that early intervention is the best form of support for children with dyslexia, there is still a lack of efficient and objective means to help identify those at risk during the early years of school. Here we show that it is possible to identify 9-10 year old individuals at risk of persistent reading difficulties by using eye tracking during reading to probe the processes that underlie reading ability. In contrast to current screening methods, which rely on oral or written tests, eye tracking does not depend on the subject to produce some overt verbal response and thus provides a natural means to objectively assess the reading process as it unfolds in real-time. Our study is based on a sample of 97 high-risk subjects with early identified word decoding difficulties and a control group of 88 low-risk subjects. These subjects were selected from a larger population of 2165 school children attending second grade. Using predictive modeling and statistical resampling techniques, we develop classification models from eye tracking records less than one minute in duration and show that the models are able to differentiate high-risk subjects from low-risk subjects with high accuracy. Although dyslexia is fundamentally a language-based learning disability, our results suggest that eye movements in reading can be highly predictive of individual reading ability and that eye tracking can be an efficient means to identify children at risk of long-term reading difficulties.

Reading disc-based bioassays with standard computer drives.

PubMed

Yu, Hua-Zhong; Li, Yunchao; Ou, Lily M-L

2013-02-19

Traditional methods of disease diagnosis are both time-consuming and labor-intensive, and many tests require expensive instrumentation and trained professionals, which restricts their use to biomedical laboratories. Because patients can wait several days (even weeks) for the results, the consequences of delayed treatment could be disastrous. Therefore, affordable and simple point-of-care (POC) biosensor devices could fill a diagnostic niche in the clinic or even at home, as personal glucose meters do for diabetics. These devices would allow patients to check their own health conditions and enable physicians to make prompt treatment decisions, which could improve the chances for rapid recovery and cure. Compact discs (CDs) provide inexpensive substrate materials for the preparation of microarray biochips, and conventional computer drives/disc players can be adapted as precise optical reading devices for signal processing. Researchers can employ the polycarbonate (PC) base of a CD as an alternative substrate to glass slides or silicon wafers for the preparation of microanalytical devices. Using the characteristic optical phenomena occurring on the metal layer of a CD, researchers can develop biosensors based on advanced spectroscopic readout (interferometry or surface plasmon resonance). If researchers integrate microfluidic functions with CD mechanics, they can control fluid transfer through the spinning motion of the disc, leading to "lab-on-a-CD" devices. Over the last decade, our laboratory has focused on the construction of POC biosensor devices from off-the-shelf CDs or DVDs and standard computer drives. Besides the initial studies of the suitability of CDs for surface and materials chemistry research (fabrication of self-assembled monolayers and oxide nanostructures), we have demonstrated that an ordinary optical drive, without modification of either the hardware or the software driver, can function as the signal transducing element for reading disc-based bioassays quantitatively. In this Account, we first provide a brief introduction to CD-related materials chemistry and microfluidics research. Then we describe the mild chemistry developed in our laboratory for the preparation of computer-readable biomolecular screening assays: photochemical activation of the polycarbonate (PC) disc surface and immobilization and delivery of probe and target biomolecules. We thoroughly discuss the analysis of the molecular recognition events: researchers can "read" these devices quantitatively with an unmodified optical drive of any personal computer. Finally, and critically, we illustrate our digitized molecular diagnosis approach with three trial systems: DNA hybridization, antibody-antigen binding, and ultrasensitive lead detection with a DNAzyme assay. These examples demonstrate the broad potential of this new analytical/diagnostic tool for medical screening, on-site food/water safety testing, and remote environmental monitoring.

Design and Construction of Computer-Assisted Instructional Material: A Handbook for Reading/Language Arts Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

Intended for reading and language arts teachers at all educational levels, this guide presents information to be used by teachers in constructing their own computer assisted educational software using the BASIC programming language and Apple computers. Part 1 provides an overview of the components of traditional tutorial and drill-and-practice…

Using ClassDojo to Help with Classroom Management during Guided Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiarelli, MaryAnne; Szabo, Susan; Williams, Susan

2015-01-01

This study examined the use of a free behavioral management software program to see if it was successful to help first grade students recognize and self-monitor their behaviors while working in centers during teacher directed guided reading time. The study found that ClassDojo had a positive impact on these first grade students' behaviors and…

An evaluation of the Intel 2920 digital signal processing integrated circuit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heller, J.

1981-01-01

The circuit consists of a digital to analog converter, accumulator, read write memory and UV erasable read only memory. The circuit can convert an analog signal to a digital representation, perform mathematical operations on the digital signal and subsequently convert the digital signal to an analog output. Development software tailored for programming the 2920 is presented.

EBooks and Accommodations: Is This the Future of Print Accommodation?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavanaugh, Terence

2002-01-01

This article explains the three components of eBooks: an eBook file, software to read the eBook, and a hardware device to read it on. The use of eBooks for students with special needs, the advantages of eBooks, built in accommodations, and creating accommodations are discussed. EBook resources are included. (Contains references.) (CR)

How Will the Ed-Tech Industry Shape Student Reading?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watters, Audrey

2014-01-01

The promise is that education technologies will reshape the ways in which we teach and learn, the ways in which we read and write and communicate. Indeed, new hardware and new software are often marketed to schools and libraries with language that stresses their transformative and innovative potential, even when, upon closer inspection, it may…

Technology's Impact on Graduate Level Reading: Using Technology to Improve Student Assignment Completion Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diamantes, Thomas

2007-01-01

This paper discusses the critical relation between professor, student and technology in the process of encouraging graduate students to read required textbook sections. It discusses how using online management software, graduate students are required to submit weekly chapter summaries to the professor by 5:00 pm on Fridays. In addition to the…

Response variability in rapid automatized naming predicts reading comprehension

PubMed Central

Li, James J.; Cutting, Laurie E.; Ryan, Matthew; Zilioli, Monica; Denckla, Martha B.; Mahone, E. Mark

2009-01-01

A total of 37 children ages 8 to 14 years, screened for word-reading difficulties (23 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ADHD; 14 controls) completed oral reading and rapid automatized naming (RAN) tests. RAN trials were segmented into pause and articulation time and intraindividual variability. There were no group differences on reading or RAN variables. Color- and letter-naming pause times and number-naming articulation time were significant predictors of reading fluency. In contrast, number and letter pause variability were predictors of comprehension. Results support analysis of subcomponents of RAN and add to literature emphasizing intraindividual variability as a marker for response preparation, which has relevance to reading comprehension. PMID:19221923

Bias in dyslexia screening in a Dutch multicultural population.

PubMed

Verpalen, Anick; Van de Vijver, Fons; Backus, Ad

2018-04-01

We set out to address the adequacy of dyslexia screening in Dutch and non-western immigrant children, using the Dutch Dyslexia Screening Test (DST-NL) and outcomes of the Dutch dyslexia protocol, both of which are susceptible to cultural bias. Using the protocol as standard, we conducted an ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) analysis in Dutch and immigrant third, fifth, and seventh graders, combining a cross-sectional and longitudinal design. Sensitivity and specificity increased with grade, but were non-significant for various subtests in the lowest grade, suggesting considerable non-convergence between the two measures. Effective subtests in all grades, presumably not strongly influenced by Cultural Background or Word Lexicon, were One-Minute Reading, Non-Word Reading, and Nonsense Passage Reading. In a multilevel analysis, cultural background, dyslexia diagnosis, parental education, and grade of first assessment were predictors of subtest performance. In a second analysis, Word Lexicon was added as a proxy of knowledge of the Dutch language and culture. After controlling for Word Lexicon, cultural background became significant for most subtests, suggesting the presence of cultural bias. Subtests assessing technical literacy, such as One-Minute-Reading, Non-Word-Reading, One-Minute-Writing, or Two-Minutes-Spelling, showed more convergence between the two assessments. Less-effective subtests were Naming Pictures, Backward Digit Span, and Verbal and Semantic Fluency. It is concluded that the DST-NL and the standard protocol do not show complete convergence, notably in the lower grades in the multilingual pupil group of our cohort, mainly because dyslexia and literacy difficulties are hard to disentangle.

The Relationship of Eye Anomalies and Reading Ability, and an Analysis of Vision-Screening Programs. (Volumes I and II).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Francis, Leslie John

The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth analysis of vision-screening programs in relation to their efficacy, appropriateness, and feasibility for public school use. Twenty-two vision-screening programs were analyzed for reliability, validity, efficiency of identification and referral cost, and required testing time. Findings are that…

Using a Health Message with a Testimonial to Motivate Colon Cancer Screening: Associations with Perceived Identification and Vividness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dillard, Amanda J.; Main, Jackie L.

2013-01-01

Research suggests that testimonials, or first-person narratives, influence health behavior and health-related decision making, but few studies have examined conceptual factors that may be responsible for these effects. In the current study, older adults who were due for colorectal cancer screening read a message about screening that included a…

High-throughput image analysis of tumor spheroids: a user-friendly software application to measure the size of spheroids automatically and accurately.

PubMed

Chen, Wenjin; Wong, Chung; Vosburgh, Evan; Levine, Arnold J; Foran, David J; Xu, Eugenia Y

2014-07-08

The increasing number of applications of three-dimensional (3D) tumor spheroids as an in vitro model for drug discovery requires their adaptation to large-scale screening formats in every step of a drug screen, including large-scale image analysis. Currently there is no ready-to-use and free image analysis software to meet this large-scale format. Most existing methods involve manually drawing the length and width of the imaged 3D spheroids, which is a tedious and time-consuming process. This study presents a high-throughput image analysis software application - SpheroidSizer, which measures the major and minor axial length of the imaged 3D tumor spheroids automatically and accurately; calculates the volume of each individual 3D tumor spheroid; then outputs the results in two different forms in spreadsheets for easy manipulations in the subsequent data analysis. The main advantage of this software is its powerful image analysis application that is adapted for large numbers of images. It provides high-throughput computation and quality-control workflow. The estimated time to process 1,000 images is about 15 min on a minimally configured laptop, or around 1 min on a multi-core performance workstation. The graphical user interface (GUI) is also designed for easy quality control, and users can manually override the computer results. The key method used in this software is adapted from the active contour algorithm, also known as Snakes, which is especially suitable for images with uneven illumination and noisy background that often plagues automated imaging processing in high-throughput screens. The complimentary "Manual Initialize" and "Hand Draw" tools provide the flexibility to SpheroidSizer in dealing with various types of spheroids and diverse quality images. This high-throughput image analysis software remarkably reduces labor and speeds up the analysis process. Implementing this software is beneficial for 3D tumor spheroids to become a routine in vitro model for drug screens in industry and academia.

SSP: an interval integer linear programming for de novo transcriptome assembly and isoform discovery of RNA-seq reads.

PubMed

Safikhani, Zhaleh; Sadeghi, Mehdi; Pezeshk, Hamid; Eslahchi, Changiz

2013-01-01

Recent advances in the sequencing technologies have provided a handful of RNA-seq datasets for transcriptome analysis. However, reconstruction of full-length isoforms and estimation of the expression level of transcripts with a low cost are challenging tasks. We propose a novel de novo method named SSP that incorporates interval integer linear programming to resolve alternatively spliced isoforms and reconstruct the whole transcriptome from short reads. Experimental results show that SSP is fast and precise in determining different alternatively spliced isoforms along with the estimation of reconstructed transcript abundances. The SSP software package is available at http://www.bioinf.cs.ipm.ir/software/ssp. © 2013.

The function of report components in the screening and reading of technical reports

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pinelli, T. E.; Cordle, V. M.; Vondran, R. F.

1984-01-01

A reader preference survey of engineers and scientists at the NASA Langley Research Center and in three professional/technical societies was conducted to determine the opinions of report users and producers concerning the format (organization) of NASA technical reports and the usage of technical report components. The survey questionnaire contained fourteen questions covering twelve survey topics. This article reports the findings of two survey topics: the components initially reviewed or read to determine whether to read a report in its entirety and the order in which report components are read.

"Txt"-induced seizures indicating reading epilepsy in the mobile phone age.

PubMed

Watson, Eloise; Lewis, Jill; Cutfield, Nick

2012-07-01

Reading epilepsy is a rare type of reflex epilepsy. The seizures often comprise facial twitching and alexia, but can be difficult to recognise and mistaken for non-epileptic events. Previous reports have identified reading of printed text, television and computer screens as inducing seizures, but hand-held digital media have not been implicated. We report a 44-year-old woman with difficulty using the text message function of her mobile phone with a long background of unrecognised reading-induced seizures. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ATLAS software configuration and build tool optimisation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rybkin, Grigory; Atlas Collaboration

2014-06-01

ATLAS software code base is over 6 million lines organised in about 2000 packages. It makes use of some 100 external software packages, is developed by more than 400 developers and used by more than 2500 physicists from over 200 universities and laboratories in 6 continents. To meet the challenge of configuration and building of this software, the Configuration Management Tool (CMT) is used. CMT expects each package to describe its build targets, build and environment setup parameters, dependencies on other packages in a text file called requirements, and each project (group of packages) to describe its policies and dependencies on other projects in a text project file. Based on the effective set of configuration parameters read from the requirements files of dependent packages and project files, CMT commands build the packages, generate the environment for their use, or query the packages. The main focus was on build time performance that was optimised within several approaches: reduction of the number of reads of requirements files that are now read once per package by a CMT build command that generates cached requirements files for subsequent CMT build commands; introduction of more fine-grained build parallelism at package task level, i.e., dependent applications and libraries are compiled in parallel; code optimisation of CMT commands used for build; introduction of package level build parallelism, i. e., parallelise the build of independent packages. By default, CMT launches NUMBER-OF-PROCESSORS build commands in parallel. The other focus was on CMT commands optimisation in general that made them approximately 2 times faster. CMT can generate a cached requirements file for the environment setup command, which is especially useful for deployment on distributed file systems like AFS or CERN VMFS. The use of parallelism, caching and code optimisation significantly-by several times-reduced software build time, environment setup time, increased the efficiency of multi-core computing resources utilisation, and considerably improved software developer and user experience.

UPF1 silenced cellular model systems for screening of read-through agents active on β039 thalassemia point mutation.

PubMed

Salvatori, Francesca; Pappadà, Mariangela; Breveglieri, Giulia; D'Aversa, Elisabetta; Finotti, Alessia; Lampronti, Ilaria; Gambari, Roberto; Borgatti, Monica

2018-05-15

Nonsense mutations promote premature translational termination, introducing stop codons within the coding region of mRNAs and causing inherited diseases, including thalassemia. For instance, in β 0 39 thalassemia the CAG (glutamine) codon is mutated to the UAG stop codon, leading to premature translation termination and to mRNA destabilization through the well described NMD (nonsense-mediated mRNA decay). In order to develop an approach facilitating translation and, therefore, protection from NMD, ribosomal read-through molecules, such as aminoglycoside antibiotics, have been tested on mRNAs carrying premature stop codons. These findings have introduced new hopes for the development of a pharmacological approach to the β 0 39 thalassemia therapy. While several strategies, designed to enhance translational read-through, have been reported to inhibit NMD efficiency concomitantly, experimental tools for systematic analysis of mammalian NMD inhibition by translational read-through are lacking. We developed a human cellular model of the β 0 39 thalassemia mutation with UPF-1 suppressed and showing a partial NMD suppression. This novel cellular model could be used for the screening of molecules exhibiting preferential read-through activity allowing a great rescue of the mutated transcripts.

An ontology based trust verification of software license agreement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Wenhuan; Li, Xiaoqing; Gan, Zengqin; Wei, Jianguo

2017-08-01

When we install software or download software, there will show up so big mass document to state the rights and obligations, for which lots of person are not patient to read it or understand it. That would may make users feel distrust for the software. In this paper, we propose an ontology based verification for Software License Agreement. First of all, this work proposed an ontology model for domain of Software License Agreement. The domain ontology is constructed by proposed methodology according to copyright laws and 30 software license agreements. The License Ontology can act as a part of generalized copyright law knowledge model, and also can work as visualization of software licenses. Based on this proposed ontology, a software license oriented text summarization approach is proposed which performances showing that it can improve the accuracy of software licenses summarizing. Based on the summarization, the underline purpose of the software license can be explicitly explored for trust verification.

OBGYN screening for environmental exposures: A call for action.

PubMed

Grindler, N M; Allshouse, A A; Jungheim, E; Powell, T L; Jansson, T; Polotsky, A J

2018-01-01

Prenatal exposures have known adverse effects on maternal and neonatal outcomes. Professional societies recommend routine screening for environmental, occupational, and dietary exposures to reduce exposures and their associated sequelae. Our objective was to determine the frequency of environmental exposure screening by obstetricians and gynecologists (OBGYNs) at initial patient visits. Practicing OBGYNs were approached at the University of Colorado and by social media. The survey instrument queried demographics, environmental literacy, and screening practices. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square and two-sample t-test. We received 312 online survey responses (response rate of 12%). Responding OBGYNs were predominantly female (96%), board-certified (78%), generalists (65%) with a mean age of 37.1 years. Fewer than half of physicians screened for the following factors: occupational exposures, environmental chemicals, air pollution, pesticide use, personal care products, household cleaners, water source, use of plastics for food storage, and lead and mercury exposure. Eighty five percent of respondents reported that they did not feel comfortable obtaining an environmental history and 58% respondents reported that they performed no regular screening of environmental exposures. A higher frequency of screening was associated with > 4 years of practice (p = 0.001), and having read the environmental committee opinion (p = <0.001). The majority of OBGYNs did not incorporate screening for known environmental exposures into routine practice. Reading the environmental committee opinions was strongly and significantly associated with a higher rate of screening. Improving physician comfort in counseling patients may enhance screening for exposures that affect reproductive health.

Limitations of Sensory-Motor Screening for Reading Problems in the First Grade.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sautter, Scott W.; Barth, Jeffrey T.

1991-01-01

Several assessment procedures were analyzed to determine their ability to discriminate below-average from above-average readers among 50 first graders. Results indicated that language tests were more successful in classifying reading skills than were sensory-motor and perceptual procedures. Clear cut asymmetrical hemispheric specializations,…

CRT Monitors: Do They Interfere with Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garland, Kate J.; Noyes, Jan M.

2004-01-01

Research suggests screen reading is slower and possibly less accurate than reading from paper. Six study and test sessions over 10 months examined correct scores and retrieval responses for learning material presented via these two media. Correct scores did not differ suggesting that close matching of material can eliminate any decrement in…

Reading through Films

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raman, Madhavi Gayathri; Vijaya

2016-01-01

This paper captures the design of a comprehensive curriculum incorporating the four skills based exclusively on the use of parallel audio-visual and written texts. We discuss the use of authentic materials to teach English to Indian undergraduates aged 18 to 20 years. Specifically, we talk about the use of parallel reading (screen-play) and…

Responsiveness to Intervention in Reading: Architecture and Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Joseph R.; Schiller, Ellen; Blackorby, Jose; Thayer, Sara Kalb; Tilly, W. David

2013-01-01

This article describes how a purposeful sample of 62 elementary schools from 17 states implemented a Response to Intervention (RtI) framework for reading. School informants answered surveys and were interviewed about differentiated instruction in Tier 1, screening/benchmarking, where Tier 2 interventions were located, typical group size and the…

The Role of RtI in a Kindergarten Enrichment Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamm, Ellen M.; Harper, Kelly A.

2014-01-01

Researchers used a kindergarten screening to identify kindergarten students at risk for difficulties in reading (phonological awareness) and writing (fine motor and perceptual skills) prior to beginning the school year. Of the 102 incoming kindergarten students, 54 showed signs of reading or writing difficulties. These 54 children participated in…

Comparison of sensitivity of lung nodule detection between radiologists and technologists on low-dose CT lung cancer screening images

PubMed Central

Kakinuma, R; Ashizawa, K; Kobayashi, T; Fukushima, A; Hayashi, H; Kondo, T; Machida, M; Matsusako, M; Minami, K; Oikado, K; Okuda, M; Takamatsu, S; Sugawara, M; Gomi, S; Muramatsu, Y; Hanai, K; Muramatsu, Y; Kaneko, M; Tsuchiya, R; Moriyama, N

2012-01-01

Objectives The objective of this study was to compare the sensitivity of detection of lung nodules on low-dose screening CT images between radiologists and technologists. Methods 11 radiologists and 10 technologists read the low-dose screening CT images of 78 subjects. On images with a slice thickness of 5 mm, there were 60 lung nodules that were ≥5 mm in diameter: 26 nodules with pure ground-glass opacity (GGO), 7 nodules with mixed ground-glass opacity (GGO with a solid component) and 27 solid nodules. On images with a slice thickness of 2 mm, 69 lung nodules were ≥5 mm in diameter: 35 pure GGOs, 7 mixed GGOs and 27 solid nodules. The 21 observers read screening CT images of 5-mm slice thickness at first; then, 6 months later, they read screening CT images of 2-mm slice thickness from the 78 subjects. Results The differences in the mean sensitivities of detection of the pure GGOs, mixed GGOs and solid nodules between radiologists and technologists were not statistically significant, except for the case of solid nodules; the p-values of the differences for pure GGOs, mixed GGOs and solid nodules on the CT images with 5-mm slice thickness were 0.095, 0.461 and 0.005, respectively, and the corresponding p-values on CT images of 2-mm slice thickness were 0.971, 0.722 and 0.0037, respectively. Conclusion Well-trained technologists may contribute to the detection of pure and mixed GGOs ≥5 mm in diameter on low-dose screening CT images. PMID:22919013

Usability Evaluation of Multimedia Courseware (MEL-SindD)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yussof, Rahmah Lob; Badioze Zaman, Halimah

Constructive evaluations on any software are needed to ensure the effectiveness and usability of the software. This assesment on the multimedia courseware is part of the researcher's study towards the development and usability of the early reading software for students with Down Syndrome (MEL-SindD). This paper will discuss the usability assesment of this courseware, the methods used for the evaluation as well as suitable approaches that can be deployed to evaluate the courseware effectiveness to disabled children.

PrimerSuite: A High-Throughput Web-Based Primer Design Program for Multiplex Bisulfite PCR.

PubMed

Lu, Jennifer; Johnston, Andrew; Berichon, Philippe; Ru, Ke-Lin; Korbie, Darren; Trau, Matt

2017-01-24

The analysis of DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides has become a major research focus due to its regulatory role in numerous biological processes, but the requisite need for assays which amplify bisulfite-converted DNA represents a major bottleneck due to the unique design constraints imposed on bisulfite-PCR primers. Moreover, a review of the literature indicated no available software solutions which accommodated both high-throughput primer design, support for multiplex amplification assays, and primer-dimer prediction. In response, the tri-modular software package PrimerSuite was developed to support bisulfite multiplex PCR applications. This software was constructed to (i) design bisulfite primers against multiple regions simultaneously (PrimerSuite), (ii) screen for primer-primer dimerizing artefacts (PrimerDimer), and (iii) support multiplex PCR assays (PrimerPlex). Moreover, a major focus in the development of this software package was the emphasis on extensive empirical validation, and over 1300 unique primer pairs have been successfully designed and screened, with over 94% of them producing amplicons of the expected size, and an average mapping efficiency of 93% when screened using bisulfite multiplex resequencing. The potential use of the software in other bisulfite-based applications such as methylation-specific PCR is under consideration for future updates. This resource is freely available for use at PrimerSuite website (www.primer-suite.com).

HPV DNA testing with cytology triage in cervical cancer screening: Influence of revealing HPV infection status.

PubMed

Richardson, Lyndsay Ann; El-Zein, Mariam; Ramanakumar, Agnihotram V; Ratnam, Samuel; Sangwa-Lugoma, Ghislain; Longatto-Filho, Adhemar; Cardoso, Marly Augusto; Coutlée, Francois; Franco, Eduardo L

2015-12-01

Knowledge of cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) status might influence a cytotechnician's assessment of cellular abnormalities. The authors compared original cytotechnicians' Papanicolaou (Pap) readings for which HPV status was concealed with Pap rereads for which HPV status was revealed separately for 3 screening populations. Previously collected cervical Pap smears and clinical data were obtained from the Canadian Cervical Cancer Screening Trial (study A), the Democratic Republic of Congo Community-Based Screening Study (study B), and the Brazilian Investigation into Nutrition and Cervical Cancer Prevention (study C). Smears were reread with knowledge of HPV status for all HPV-positive women as well as a sample of HPV-negative women. Diagnostic performance of Pap cytology was compared between original readings and rereads. A total of 1767 Pap tests were reread. Among 915 rereads for HPV-positive women, the contrast between "revealed" and "concealed" Pap readings demonstrated revisions from negative to positive results for 109 women (cutoff was atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance or worse) and 124 women (cutoff was low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions [LSIL] or worse). For a disease threshold of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or worse, specificity significantly declined at the atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance cutoff for studies A (86.6% to 75.3%) and C (42.5% to 15.5%), and at the LSIL cutoff for study C (61.9% to 37.6%). Sensitivity remained nearly unchanged between readings, except in study C, in which reread performance was superior (91.3% vs 71.9% for the LSIL cutoff). A reduction in the diagnostic accuracy of Pap cytology was observed when revealing patients' cervical HPV status, possibly due to a heightened awareness of potential abnormalities, which led to more false-positive results. © 2015 American Cancer Society.

Visual Screening: A Procedure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Robert T.

Vision is a complex process involving three phases: physical (acuity), physiological (integrative), and psychological (perceptual). Although these phases cannot be considered discrete, they provide the basis for the visual screening procedure used by the Reading Services of Colorado State University and described in this document. Ten tests are…

The Software Design Document: More than a User's Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowers, Dennis

1989-01-01

Discusses the value of creating design documentation for computer software so that it may serve as a model for similar design efforts. Components of the software design document are described, including program flowcharts, graphic representation of screen displays, storyboards, and evaluation procedures. An example is given using HyperCard. (three…

Comparison of Screening Dilution and Automated Reading for Antinuclear Antibody Detection on HEP2 Cells in the Monitoring of Connective Tissue Diseases.

PubMed

Depincé-Berger, Anne E; Moreau, Amelie; Bossy, Virginie; Genin, Christian; Rinaudo, Melanie; Paul, Stephane

2016-09-01

Indirect immunofluorescence plays a major role in the detection of antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) and follow-up of their titers in the context of connective tissue diseases. Given the numerous unfavorable features of the conventional manual reading of HEP2 slides (need of time and expert morphologists for the reading, lack of standardization, subjectivity of the interpretation), the biomedical industry has developed automated techniques of slide preparation and microscope reading. We collected 49 sera beforehand analyzed by the conventional reading of slides. They were prepared again by QUANTA-Lyser(®) and reanalyzed in four different conditions: two dilutions of screening (1/40 and 1/80), two different systems of analysis, NOVA View(®) automated reading (INOVA Diagnostics), then confirmation by the operator, and conventional manual reading by two different qualified operators. The analysis was realized in blind of the first interpretation and clinical diagnosis. The sera were classified in four groups, on the basis of the results of the first analysis: negative sera (titer < 1/160; 11 patients), low positives (titer at 1/160; 18 patients), moderated positives (titers between 1/320 and 1/640; 10 patients), and strong positives (titers between 1/1,280 and 1/2,560; 10 patients). Among the 49 patients, 13 presented a connective tissue disease including 4 systemic scleroderma (SS), 3 rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 2 Goujerot-Sjogren (GS), 2 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 1 polymyositis (PM), 1 Raynaud's syndrome (RS), and 1 CREST syndrome. One patient presented both an SLE and an SS. Regarding the screening dilution, the 1/40 dilution is less specific than the 1/80 dilution for both the systems of analysis (5.6% vs. 16.7% for the manual reading, and 27.8% vs. 50% for the automated reading). It also generates statistically more false positives (P = 0.037 for the conventional analysis and P = 0.003 for the automated system). The automated NOVA View(®) reading of slides allows a gain in specificity for both dilutions, and also statistically less false positives (P = 0.002 at the 1/40 and P = 0.0006 at the 1/80), and detriment of the sensitivity at the highest dilution (84.6% vs. 92.3% with manual reading). Thus, according to our analysis of 49 sera, the automated NOVA View(®) system of reading of slides at the dilution 1/80 seems to be a successful condition for the detection of ANAs on HEP2 cells, close to the significance (P = 0.067). The automated NOVA View(®) reading of slides allows saving time, and an improvement in the standardization. Nevertheless, it requires a confirmation by a qualified operator, to interpret mixed patterns in particular. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Significance of screening electrocardiogram before the initiation of amitriptyline therapy in children with functional abdominal pain.

PubMed

Patra, Kamakshya P; Sankararaman, Senthilkumar; Jackson, Robert; Hussain, Sunny Z

2012-09-01

Amitriptyline (AMT) is commonly used in the management of children with irritable bowel syndrome. AMT is pro-arrhythmogenic and increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. However, there is not enough data regarding the cardiac toxicity in therapeutic doses of AMT in children and the need for screening electrocardiogram (EKG). Errors in computer EKG interpretation are not uncommon. In a risk-prevention study, the authors sought to identify the true incidence of prolonged corrected QT (QTc) interval and other arrhythmias in children with irritable bowel syndrome before the initiation of AMT. Out of the 760 EKGs screened, 3 EKGs demonstrated a true prolonged QTc after the careful manual reading by a pediatric cardiologist and they were not picked by computer-generated reading. The authors conclude that screening EKG should always be performed on children before initiating AMT therapy. Also, the computer-generated EKG needs to be verified by a pediatric cardiologist to avoid serious misinterpretations.

Remediation of Deficits in Recognition of Facial Emotions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weinger, Paige M.; Depue, Richard A.

2011-01-01

This study evaluated the efficacy of the Mind Reading interactive computer software to remediate emotion recognition deficits in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Six unmedicated children with ASD and 11 unmedicated non-clinical control subjects participated in the study. The clinical sample used the software for five sessions. The…

VCFR: A package to manipulate and visualize variant call format data in R

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Software to call single nucleotide polymorphisms or related genetic variants has converged on the variant call format (vcf) as their output format of choice. This has created a need for tools to work with vcf files. While an increasing number of software exists to read vcf data, many of them only ex...

Development and Evaluation of Game-Like Phonological Awareness Software for Kindergarteners: "JerenAli"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kartal, Günizi; Terziyan, Treysi

2016-01-01

The major goal of this study was to develop a game-like software application for phonological awareness training and to evaluate its role in improving phonological awareness skills at the kindergarten level, with the intention to eventually help reading acquisition in Turkish. The participants of the study came from two kindergarten classrooms in…

How To Use the SilverPlatter Software To Search the ERIC CD ROM.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merrill, Paul F.

This manual provides detailed instructions for using SilverPlatter software to search the ERIC CD ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory), a large bibliographic database relating to education which contains reference information on numerous journal articles from over 750 journals cited in the "Current Index to Journals in Education" (CIJE),…

Generalized Nuclear Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Conlin, Jeremy

2017-03-15

This software is code related to reading/writing/manipulating nuclear data in the Generalized Nuclear Data (GND) format, a new format for sharing nuclear data among institutions. In addition to the software and its documentation, notes and documentation from the WPEC Subgroup 43 will be included. WPEC Subgroup 43 is an international committee charged with creating the API for the GND format.

Hammond Workforce 2000: A Three-Year Project. October 1989 to September 1992.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyers, Arthur S.; Somerville, Deborah J.

A 3-year Library Services and Construction Act grant project from 1989-1992 provided for adult learning centers, equipped with Apple IIGS computers and software at each location of the Hammond Public Library (Indiana). User-friendly, job-based software to strengthen reading, writing, mathematics, spelling, and grammar skills, as well as video and…

The Impact of Assistive Technology on Curriculum Accommodation for a Braille-Reading Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farnsworth, Charles R.; Luckner, John L.

2008-01-01

Over 5 months, the authors evaluated the efficacy of electronic assistive technology (the BrailleNote mPower BT-32 notetaker and Tiger Cub Jr. embosser) and associated software components in creating curriculum materials for a middle school Braille-reading student. The authors collected data at the beginning and end of the study from parents,…

Promoting Reading: Using eBooks with Gifted and Advanced Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Christine L.; Cavanaugh, Terence W.

2006-01-01

eBooks are textual documents that have been converted and "published" in an electronic format and are displayed on eBook readers, devices, or computers using eBook software programs. This new form of book is a relatively recent addition to book styles and offers students, teachers, and schools an additional tool for the teaching of reading and the…

Randomized Controlled Trial of "Mind Reading" and In Vivo Rehearsal for High-Functioning Children with ASD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomeer, Marcus L.; Smith, Rachael A.; Lopata, Christopher; Volker, Martin A.; Lipinski, Alanna M.; Rodgers, Jonathan D.; McDonald, Christin A.; Lee, Gloria K.

2015-01-01

This randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of a computer software (i.e., "Mind Reading") and in vivo rehearsal treatment on the emotion decoding and encoding skills, autism symptoms, and social skills of 43 children, ages 7-12 years with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Children in treatment (n = 22)…

Screening Protocol for Early Identification of Brazilian Children at Risk for Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Germano, Giseli D.; César, Alexandra B. P. de C.; Capellini, Simone A.

2017-01-01

Early identification of students at risk of dyslexia has been an educational challenge in the past years. This research had two main goals. First, we aimed to develop a screening protocol for early identification of Brazilian children at risk for dyslexia; second, we aimed to identify the predictive variables of this protocol using Principal Component Analysis. The major step involved in developing this protocol was the selection of variables, which were chosen based on the literature review and linguistic criteria. The screening protocol was composed of seven cognitive-linguistic skills: Letter naming; Phonological Awareness (which comprises the following subtests: Rhyme production, Rhyme identification, Syllabic segmentation, Production of words from a given phoneme, Phonemic Synthesis, and Phonemic analysis); Phonological Working memory, Rapid naming Speed; Silent reading; Reading of words and non-words; and Auditory Comprehension of sentences from pictures. A total of 149 children, aged from 6 years to 6 and 11, of both genders who were enrolled in the 1st grade of elementary public schools were submitted to the screening protocol. Principal Component Analysis revealed four factors, accounting for 64.45% of the variance of the Protocol variables: first factor (“pre-reading”), second factor (“decoding”), third factor (“Reading”), and fourth factor “Auditory processing.” The factors found corroborate those reported in the National and International literature and have been described as early signs of dyslexia and reading problems. PMID:29163246

Predictive validity of curriculum-based measurement and teacher ratings of academic achievement.

PubMed

Kettler, Ryan J; Albers, Craig A

2013-08-01

Two alternative universal screening approaches to identify students with early learning difficulties were examined, along with a combination of these approaches. These approaches, consisting of (a) curriculum-based measurement (CBM) and (b) teacher ratings using Performance Screening Guides (PSGs), served as predictors of achievement tests in reading and mathematics. Participants included 413 students in grades 1, 2, and 3 in Tennessee (n=118) and Wisconsin (n=295) who were divided into six subsamples defined by grade and state. Reading and mathematics achievement tests with established psychometric properties were used as criteria within a concurrent and predictive validity framework. Across both achievement areas, CBM probes shared more variance with criterion measures than did teacher ratings, although teacher ratings added incremental validity among most subsamples. PSGs tended to be more accurate for identifying students in need of assistance at a 1-month interval, whereas CBM probes were more accurate at a 6-month interval. Teachers indicated that (a) false negatives are more problematic than are false positives, (b) both screening methods are useful for identifying early learning difficulties, and (c) both screening methods are useful for identifying students in need of interventions. Collectively, these findings suggest that the two types of measures, when used together, yield valuable information about students who need assistance in reading and mathematics. Copyright © 2013 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Some Improvements in Utilization of Flash Memory Devices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gender, Thomas K.; Chow, James; Ott, William E.

2009-01-01

Two developments improve the utilization of flash memory devices in the face of the following limitations: (1) a flash write element (page) differs in size from a flash erase element (block), (2) a block must be erased before its is rewritten, (3) lifetime of a flash memory is typically limited to about 1,000,000 erases, (4) as many as 2 percent of the blocks of a given device may fail before the expected end of its life, and (5) to ensure reliability of reading and writing, power must not be interrupted during minimum specified reading and writing times. The first development comprises interrelated software components that regulate reading, writing, and erasure operations to minimize migration of data and unevenness in wear; perform erasures during idle times; quickly make erased blocks available for writing; detect and report failed blocks; maintain the overall state of a flash memory to satisfy real-time performance requirements; and detect and initialize a new flash memory device. The second development is a combination of hardware and software that senses the failure of a main power supply and draws power from a capacitive storage circuit designed to hold enough energy to sustain operation until reading or writing is completed.

Estimating the Overdiagnosis Fraction in Cancer Screening | Division of Cancer Prevention

Cancer.gov

By Stuart G. Baker, 2017 Introduction This software supports the mathematical investigation into estimating the fraction of cancers detected on screening that are overdiagnosed. References Baker SG and Prorok PC. Estimating the overdiagnosis fraction in cancer screening. Requirement Mathematica Version 11 or later. |

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Based Employee Attendance Management System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maramis, G. D. P.; Rompas, P. T. D.

2018-02-01

Manually recorded attendance of all the employees has produced some problems such as the data accuracy and staff performance efficiency. The objective of this research is to design and develop a software of RFID attendance system which is integrated with database system. This RFID attendance system was developed using several main components such as tags that will be used as a replacement of ID cards and a reader device that will read the information related to the employee attendance. The result of this project is a software of RFID attendance system that is integrated with the database and has a function to store the data or information of every single employee. This system has a maximum reading range of 2 cm with success probability of 1 and requires a minimum interval between readings of 2 seconds in order to achieve an optimal functionality. By using the system, the discipline attitude of the employees and also the performance of the staff will be improved instantly.

A bill to require security screening of passengers at airports to be carried out by private screening companies, and for other purposes.

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Sen. Paul, Rand [R-KY

2012-06-14

Senate - 06/14/2012 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Automatic Generation of Overlays and Offset Values Based on Visiting Vehicle Telemetry and RWS Visuals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dunne, Matthew J.

2011-01-01

The development of computer software as a tool to generate visual displays has led to an overall expansion of automated computer generated images in the aerospace industry. These visual overlays are generated by combining raw data with pre-existing data on the object or objects being analyzed on the screen. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses this computer software to generate on-screen overlays when a Visiting Vehicle (VV) is berthing with the International Space Station (ISS). In order for Mission Control Center personnel to be a contributing factor in the VV berthing process, computer software similar to that on the ISS must be readily available on the ground to be used for analysis. In addition, this software must perform engineering calculations and save data for further analysis.

Adult Basic Education Materials Evaluation Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, David

This guide is intended for use by adult basic education practitioners in the screening of basic reading textbooks prior to their adoption for classroom use. The guide is in the form of a questionnaire and consists of dichotomous-choice questions arranged into three sections that relate to the product design, adult learning, and reading instruction…

An Analysis of the Relationship between Phonological and Nonphonological Language and Early Reading Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Batson-Magnuson, LuAnn

2017-01-01

This study explores the relationship between preschool phonological and nonphonological language performance and first-grade reading performance. Data were gathered from the files of 149 students who had completed a universal kindergarten screening program in the spring prior to enrollment. Bivariate correlation analyses, Steiger's Z comparisons,…

Longitudinal Stability of Pre-Reading Skill Profiles of Kindergarten Children: Implications for Early Screening and Theories of Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozernov-Palchik, Ola; Norton, Elizabeth S.; Sideridis, Georgios; Beach, Sara D.; Wolf, Maryanne; Gabrieli, John D. E.; Gaab, Nadine

2017-01-01

Research suggests that early identification of developmental dyslexia is important for mitigating the negative effects of dyslexia, including reduced educational attainment and increased socioemotional difficulties. The strongest pre-literacy predictors of dyslexia are rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonological awareness (PA), letter knowledge,…

Desktop Publishing: The Effects of Computerized Formats on Reading Speed and Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knupfer, Nancy Nelson; McIsaac, Marina Stock

1989-01-01

Describes study that was conducted to determine the effects of two electronic text variables used in desktop publishing on undergraduate students' reading speed and comprehension. Research on text variables, graphic design, instructional text design, and computer screen design is discussed, and further studies are suggested. (22 references) (LRW)

Predicting First Grade Reading Achievement for Spanish-Speaking Kindergartners: Is Early Literacy Screening in English Valid?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Karen L.; Invernizzi, Marcia A.; Huang, Francis

2014-01-01

This study explored the viability of using kindergarten measures of phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and orthographic knowledge, administered in English, to predict first grade reading achievement of Spanish-speaking English language learners. The primary research question was: Do kindergarten measures of early literacy skills in…

Some Thermophysical Properties of Blood Components and Coolants for Frozen Blood Shipping Containers

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-09-01

SP number by sending a DP reading. Subroutine : AutoControl Automatic control to set temperature. : Autodisplay Get ilL Thermocouple readings and...RETURN 133 AutoControl : Auto control Mode ON TIMER(ReportTime) GOSUB Autodisplay Update Screen in constant interval TIMER ON WHILE Success a 0 Turn off

Approaches to virtual screening and screening library selection.

PubMed

Wildman, Scott A

2013-01-01

The ease of access to virtual screening (VS) software in recent years has resulted in a large increase in literature reports. Over 300 publications in the last year report the use of virtual screening techniques to identify new chemical matter or present the development of new virtual screening techniques. The increased use is accompanied by a corresponding increase in misuse and misinterpretation of virtual screening results. This review aims to identify many of the common difficulties associated with virtual screening and allow researchers to better assess the reliability of their virtual screening effort.

Metavisitor, a Suite of Galaxy Tools for Simple and Rapid Detection and Discovery of Viruses in Deep Sequence Data

PubMed Central

Vernick, Kenneth D.

2017-01-01

Metavisitor is a software package that allows biologists and clinicians without specialized bioinformatics expertise to detect and assemble viral genomes from deep sequence datasets. The package is composed of a set of modular bioinformatic tools and workflows that are implemented in the Galaxy framework. Using the graphical Galaxy workflow editor, users with minimal computational skills can use existing Metavisitor workflows or adapt them to suit specific needs by adding or modifying analysis modules. Metavisitor works with DNA, RNA or small RNA sequencing data over a range of read lengths and can use a combination of de novo and guided approaches to assemble genomes from sequencing reads. We show that the software has the potential for quick diagnosis as well as discovery of viruses from a vast array of organisms. Importantly, we provide here executable Metavisitor use cases, which increase the accessibility and transparency of the software, ultimately enabling biologists or clinicians to focus on biological or medical questions. PMID:28045932

AirShow 1.0 CFD Software Users' Guide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mohler, Stanley R., Jr.

2005-01-01

AirShow is visualization post-processing software for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Upon reading binary PLOT3D grid and solution files into AirShow, the engineer can quickly see how hundreds of complex 3-D structured blocks are arranged and numbered. Additionally, chosen grid planes can be displayed and colored according to various aerodynamic flow quantities such as Mach number and pressure. The user may interactively rotate and translate the graphical objects using the mouse. The software source code was written in cross-platform Java, C++, and OpenGL, and runs on Unix, Linux, and Windows. The graphical user interface (GUI) was written using Java Swing. Java also provides multiple synchronized threads. The Java Native Interface (JNI) provides a bridge between the Java code and the C++ code where the PLOT3D files are read, the OpenGL graphics are rendered, and numerical calculations are performed. AirShow is easy to learn and simple to use. The source code is available for free from the NASA Technology Transfer and Partnership Office.

OBGYN screening for environmental exposures: A call for action

PubMed Central

Allshouse, A. A.; Jungheim, E.; Powell, T. L.; Jansson, T.; Polotsky, A. J.

2018-01-01

Background Prenatal exposures have known adverse effects on maternal and neonatal outcomes. Professional societies recommend routine screening for environmental, occupational, and dietary exposures to reduce exposures and their associated sequelae. Objective Our objective was to determine the frequency of environmental exposure screening by obstetricians and gynecologists (OBGYNs) at initial patient visits. Study design Practicing OBGYNs were approached at the University of Colorado and by social media. The survey instrument queried demographics, environmental literacy, and screening practices. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square and two-sample t-test. Results We received 312 online survey responses (response rate of 12%). Responding OBGYNs were predominantly female (96%), board-certified (78%), generalists (65%) with a mean age of 37.1 years. Fewer than half of physicians screened for the following factors: occupational exposures, environmental chemicals, air pollution, pesticide use, personal care products, household cleaners, water source, use of plastics for food storage, and lead and mercury exposure. Eighty five percent of respondents reported that they did not feel comfortable obtaining an environmental history and 58% respondents reported that they performed no regular screening of environmental exposures. A higher frequency of screening was associated with > 4 years of practice (p = 0.001), and having read the environmental committee opinion (p = <0.001). Conclusion The majority of OBGYNs did not incorporate screening for known environmental exposures into routine practice. Reading the environmental committee opinions was strongly and significantly associated with a higher rate of screening. Improving physician comfort in counseling patients may enhance screening for exposures that affect reproductive health. PMID:29768418

Cost analysis of colorectal cancer screening with CT colonography in Italy.

PubMed

Mantellini, Paola; Lippi, Giuseppe; Sali, Lapo; Grazzini, Grazia; Delsanto, Silvia; Mallardi, Beatrice; Falchini, Massimo; Castiglione, Guido; Carozzi, Francesca Maria; Mascalchi, Mario; Milani, Stefano; Ventura, Leonardo; Zappa, Marco

2018-06-01

Unit costs of screening CT colonography (CTC) can be useful for cost-effectiveness analyses and for health care decision-making. We evaluated the unit costs of CTC as a primary screening test for colorectal cancer in the setting of a randomized trial in Italy. Data were collected within the randomized SAVE trial. Subjects were invited to screening CTC by mail and requested to have a pre-examination consultation. CTCs were performed with 64- and 128-slice CT scanners after reduced or full bowel preparation. Activity-based costing was used to determine unit costs per-process, per-participant to screening CTC, and per-subject with advanced neoplasia. Among 5242 subjects invited to undergo screening CTC, 1312 had pre-examination consultation and 1286 ultimately underwent CTC. Among 129 subjects with a positive CTC, 126 underwent assessment colonoscopy and 67 were ultimately diagnosed with advanced neoplasia (i.e., cancer or advanced adenoma). Cost per-participant of the entire screening CTC pathway was €196.80. Average cost per-participant for the screening invitation process was €17.04 and €9.45 for the pre-examination consultation process. Average cost per-participant of the CTC execution and reading process was €146.08 and of the diagnostic assessment colonoscopy process was €24.23. Average cost per-subject with advanced neoplasia was €3777.30. Cost of screening CTC was €196.80 per-participant. Our data suggest that the more relevant cost of screening CTC, amenable of intervention, is related to CTC execution and reading process.

Using Docker Compose for the Simple Deployment of an Integrated Drug Target Screening Platform.

PubMed

List, Markus

2017-06-10

Docker virtualization allows for software tools to be executed in an isolated and controlled environment referred to as a container. In Docker containers, dependencies are provided exactly as intended by the developer and, consequently, they simplify the distribution of scientific software and foster reproducible research. The Docker paradigm is that each container encapsulates one particular software tool. However, to analyze complex biomedical data sets, it is often necessary to combine several software tools into elaborate workflows. To address this challenge, several Docker containers need to be instantiated and properly integrated, which complicates the software deployment process unnecessarily. Here, we demonstrate how an extension to Docker, Docker compose, can be used to mitigate these problems by providing a unified setup routine that deploys several tools in an integrated fashion. We demonstrate the power of this approach by example of a Docker compose setup for a drug target screening platform consisting of five integrated web applications and shared infrastructure, deployable in just two lines of codes.

Accurate estimation of short read mapping quality for next-generation genome sequencing

PubMed Central

Ruffalo, Matthew; Koyutürk, Mehmet; Ray, Soumya; LaFramboise, Thomas

2012-01-01

Motivation: Several software tools specialize in the alignment of short next-generation sequencing reads to a reference sequence. Some of these tools report a mapping quality score for each alignment—in principle, this quality score tells researchers the likelihood that the alignment is correct. However, the reported mapping quality often correlates weakly with actual accuracy and the qualities of many mappings are underestimated, encouraging the researchers to discard correct mappings. Further, these low-quality mappings tend to correlate with variations in the genome (both single nucleotide and structural), and such mappings are important in accurately identifying genomic variants. Approach: We develop a machine learning tool, LoQuM (LOgistic regression tool for calibrating the Quality of short read mappings, to assign reliable mapping quality scores to mappings of Illumina reads returned by any alignment tool. LoQuM uses statistics on the read (base quality scores reported by the sequencer) and the alignment (number of matches, mismatches and deletions, mapping quality score returned by the alignment tool, if available, and number of mappings) as features for classification and uses simulated reads to learn a logistic regression model that relates these features to actual mapping quality. Results: We test the predictions of LoQuM on an independent dataset generated by the ART short read simulation software and observe that LoQuM can ‘resurrect’ many mappings that are assigned zero quality scores by the alignment tools and are therefore likely to be discarded by researchers. We also observe that the recalibration of mapping quality scores greatly enhances the precision of called single nucleotide polymorphisms. Availability: LoQuM is available as open source at http://compbio.case.edu/loqum/. Contact: matthew.ruffalo@case.edu. PMID:22962451

Diagnostic Utility of the Social Skills Improvement System Performance Screening Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krach, S. Kathleen; McCreery, Michael P.; Wang, Ye; Mohammadiamin, Houra; Cirks, Christen K.

2017-01-01

Researchers investigated the diagnostic utility of the Social Skills Improvement System: Performance Screening Guide (SSIS-PSG). Correlational, regression, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and conditional probability analyses were run to compare ratings on the SSIS-PSG subscales of Prosocial Behavior, Reading Skills, and Math Skills, to…

Informative priors on fetal fraction increase power of the noninvasive prenatal screen

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS) sequences a mixture of the maternal and fetal cell-free DNA. Fetal trisomy can be detected by examining chromosomal dosages estimated from sequencing reads. The traditional method uses the Z-test, which compares a subject against a set of euploid controls, where...

Predicting English Word Reading Skills for Spanish-Speaking Students in First Grade.

PubMed

Páez, Mariela; Rinaldi, Claudia

2006-10-01

This article describes the word reading skills in English and Spanish for a sample of 244 Spanish-speaking, English-learning (hence, bilingual) students in first grade and presents a predictive model for English word reading skills. The children in the study were assessed at the end of kindergarten and first grade, respectively. Data were gathered with 3 subtests of the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery and a researcher-developed phonological awareness task. Results showed that, on average, children's English word reading skills were similar to monolingual norms whereas their Spanish word reading skills averaged 1 SD below the mean. English vocabulary, English phonological awareness, and Spanish word reading skills in kindergarten were found to be significant predictors of English word reading skills in first grade. Educational implications for screening language and reading skills and promising areas for targeted instruction for this population are discussed.

The Toxicity Estimation Software Tool (T.E.S.T.)

EPA Science Inventory

The Toxicity Estimation Software Tool (T.E.S.T.) has been developed to estimate toxicological values for aquatic and mammalian species considering acute and chronic endpoints for screening purposes within TSCA and REACH programs.

Extracting the Data From the LCM vk4 Formatted Output File

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wendelberger, James G.

These are slides about extracting the data from the LCM vk4 formatted output file. The following is covered: vk4 file produced by Keyence VK Software, custom analysis, no off the shelf way to read the file, reading the binary data in a vk4 file, various offsets in decimal lines, finding the height image data, directly in MATLAB, binary output beginning of height image data, color image information, color image binary data, color image decimal and binary data, MATLAB code to read vk4 file (choose a file, read the file, compute offsets, read optical image, laser optical image, read and computemore » laser intensity image, read height image, timing, display height image, display laser intensity image, display RGB laser optical images, display RGB optical images, display beginning data and save images to workspace, gamma correction subroutine), reading intensity form the vk4 file, linear in the low range, linear in the high range, gamma correction for vk4 files, computing the gamma intensity correction, observations.« less

Getting Down to Business: Software Design Company, Module 20. [Student Guide]. Entrepreneurship Training Components.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shapiro, Norma

This module on owning and operating a software design company is one of 36 in a series on entrepreneurship. The introduction tells the student what topics will be covered and suggests other modules to read in related occupations. Each unit includes student goals, a case study, and a discussion of the unit subject matter. Learning activities are…

Impact of the Thinking Reader[R] Software Program on Grade 6 Reading Vocabulary, Comprehension, Strategies, and Motivation: Final Report. NCEE 2010-4035

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drummond, Kathryn; Chinen, Marjorie; Duncan, Teresa Garcia; Miller, H. Ray; Fryer, Lindsay; Zmach, Courtney; Culp, Katherine

2011-01-01

"Thinking Reader" is a software program for students in Grades 5-8 that incorporates elements commonly identified in policy reports as being key components of effective adolescent literacy instruction. This evaluation of the impact of "Thinking Reader" use by Grade 6 students focused on two confirmatory research questions about…

A Single Case Design Evaluation of a Software and Tutor Intervention Addressing Emotion Recognition and Social Interaction in Four Boys with ASD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lacava, Paul G.; Rankin, Ana; Mahlios, Emily; Cook, Katie; Simpson, Richard L.

2010-01-01

Many students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have delays learning to recognize emotions. Social behavior is also challenging, including initiating interactions, responding to others, developing peer relationships, and so forth. In this single case design study we investigated the relationship between use of computer software ("Mind Reading:…

Orthographic Learning and the Role of Text-to-Speech Software in Dutch Disabled Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Staels, Eva; Van den Broeck, Wim

2015-01-01

In this study, we examined whether orthographic learning can be demonstrated in disabled readers learning to read in a transparent orthography (Dutch). In addition, we tested the effect of the use of text-to-speech software, a new form of direct instruction, on orthographic learning. Both research goals were investigated by replicating Share's…

The Accelerated Reader: An Analysis of the Software's Strengths and Weaknesses and How It Can Be Used to Its Best Potential.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poock, Melanie M.

1998-01-01

Describes Accelerated Reader (AR), a computer software program that promotes reading; discusses AR hardware requirements; explains how it is used for book selection and testing in schools; assesses the program's strengths and weaknesses; and describes how Grant and Madison Elementary Schools (Muscatine, Iowa) have used the program effectively.…

Arithmetic Skills in Using Algorithms

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-06-01

that this bulb is really defective? (table continues) 3 Table 1 (continued) Dyslexia Dyslexia is a disorder characterized by an impaired ability to...read. Two percent (2%) of all first graders have dyslexia . A screen4ng test for dyslexia has recently been devised that can be used with first graders...whether the child has dyslexia . The screening test is not completely accurate. For children who really have dyslexia , the screening test is positive

Theory of Mind Skills in Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Investigating the Influence of Peer Coaches and Mind Reading Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Mary Murphy

2012-01-01

The current study investigated Theory of Mind in young adults with autism. The young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) consisted of four students between the ages of 18 and 19 from an on-campus program for students with autism located at Marywood University in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It was hypothesized that "Mind Reading",…

The Impact of Providing Vision Screening and Free Eyeglasses on Academic Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Title I Elementary Schools in Florida

PubMed Central

West, Kristine L.; Lee, Jongwook

2018-01-01

More than 20 percent of all school-aged children in the United States have vision problems, and low-income and minority children are disproportionately likely to have unmet vision care needs. Vision screening is common in U.S. schools, but it remains an open question whether screening alone is sufficient to improve student outcomes. We implemented a multi-armed randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of vision screening, and of vision screening accompanied by eye exams and eyeglasses, provided by a non-profit organization to Title I elementary schools in three large central Florida school districts. We find that providing additional/enhanced screening alone is generally insufficient to improve student achievement in math and reading. In contrast, providing screening along with free eye exams and free eyeglasses to students with vision problems improved student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. We find, averaging over all students (including those without vision problems), that this more comprehensive intervention increased the probability of passing the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Tests (FCAT) in reading and math by approximately 2.0 percentage points. We also present evidence that indicates that this impact fades out over time, indicating that follow-up actions after the intervention may be necessary to sustain these estimated achievement gains. PMID:29693366

Academic and Social Functioning Associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Latent Class Analyses of Trajectories from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade.

PubMed

DuPaul, George J; Morgan, Paul L; Farkas, George; Hillemeier, Marianne M; Maczuga, Steve

2016-10-01

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are known to exhibit significantly lower academic and social functioning than other children. Yet the field currently lacks knowledge about specific impairment trajectories experienced by children with ADHD, which may constrain early screening and intervention effectiveness. Data were analyzed from a nationally representative U.S. cohort in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) for 590 children (72.7 % male) whose parents reported a formal diagnosis of ADHD. Children's math, reading, and interpersonal skills were assessed at 5 time points between kindergarten and fifth grade. Growth mixture model analyses indicated 4 latent trajectory classes for reading, 8 classes for math, and 4 classes for interpersonal skills. Membership in reading and math trajectory classes was strongly related; overlaps with interpersonal skills classes were weaker. Trajectory class membership was correlated with demographic characteristics and behavioral functioning. Children with ADHD display substantial heterogeneity in their reading, math, and interpersonal growth trajectories, with some groups of children especially likely to display relatively severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. Early screening and intervention to address impairment, particularly reading difficulties, among kindergarten students with ADHD is warranted.

Virtual screening using MTiOpenScreen and PyRx 0,8 revealed ZINC95486216 as a human acetylcholinesterase inhibitor candidate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulistyo Dwi K., P.; Arindra Trisna, W.; Vindri Catur P., W.; Wijayanti, Erna; Ichsan, Mochammad

2016-03-01

One of the efforts to prevent Alzheimer's disease becomes more severe is by inhibiting the activity of Human acetylcholinesterase enzyme (PDB ID: 4BDT). In this study, virtual screening againts 885 natural compounds from AfroDB has been done using MTIOpenScreen and this step has been successful in identifying ZINC15121024 (-12,9) and ZINC95486216 (-12,7) as the top rank compounds. This data then strengthened by the results of second docking step using Autodock software that has been integrated in PyRx 0.8 software. From this stage, ZINC95486216 (-11,3 kcal/mol) is a compound with the most negative binding affinity compared with four Alzheimer's drugs that have been officially used to date including Rivastigmine (-6,3 Kcal/mol), Donepenzil (-7.9 kcal/mol), Galantamine (-8.4 kcal/mol), and Huprine W (-7.3 kcal/mol). In addition, based on the results of the 2D and 3D visualization using LigPlus and PyMol softwares, respectively, known that the five compounds above are equally capable of binding to several amino acids (Trp 286, Phe295, and Tyr341) located in the active site of Human Acetylcholinesterase enzyme.

Sensitivity and specificity of mammographic screening as practised in Vermont and Norway

PubMed Central

Hofvind, S; Geller, B M; Skelly, J; Vacek, P M

2012-01-01

Objective The aim of this study was to examine the sensitivity and specificity of screening mammography as performed in Vermont, USA, and Norway. Methods Incident screening data from 1997 to 2003 for female patients aged 50–69 years from the Vermont Breast Cancer Surveillance System (116 996 subsequent screening examinations) and the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program (360 872 subsequent screening examinations) were compared. Sensitivity and specificity estimates for the initial (based on screening mammogram only) and final (screening mammogram plus any further diagnostic imaging) interpretations were directly adjusted for age using 5-year age intervals for the combined Vermont and Norway population, and computed for 1 and 2 years of follow-up, which ended at the time of the next screening mammogram. Results For the 1-year follow-up, sensitivities for initial assessments were 82.0%, 88.2% and 92.5% for 1-, 2- and >2-year screening intervals, respectively, in Vermont (p=0.022). For final assessments, the values were 73.6%, 83.3% and 81.2% (p=0.047), respectively. For Norway, sensitivities for initial assessments were 91.0% and 91.3% (p=0.529) for 2- and >2-year intervals, and 90.7% and 91.3%, respectively, for final assessments (p=0.630). Specificity was lower in Vermont than in Norway for each screening interval and for all screening intervals combined, for both initial (90.6% vs 97.8% for all intervals; p<0.001) and final (98.8% vs 99.5% for all intervals; p<0.001) assessments. Conclusion Our study showed higher sensitivity and specificity in a biennial screening programme with an independent double reading than in a predominantly annual screening program with a single reading. Advances in knowledge This study demonstrates that higher recall rates and lower specificity are not always associated with higher sensitivity of screening mammography. Differences in the screening processes in Norway and Vermont suggest potential areas for improvement in the latter. PMID:22993383

The influence of film-screen color sensitivity and type of measurement device on kVp measurements.

PubMed

Lam, R W; Price, S C

1989-01-01

Three methods for evaluating radiographic kVp were studied: the Wisconsin Test Cassette, the Noninvasive Evaluator of Radiation Outputs (NERO), and the Dynalyzer. The Dynalyzer kVp readings were the highest and were followed by NERO and cassette readings in descending order. By film type, the cassette readings ranged from Kodak OG (green sensitive), TMG (green sensitive), XK (blue sensitive), and XRP (blue sensitive) in descending order. The results show that there is significant variation between the methods.

Generic Space Science Visualization in 2D/3D using SDDAS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mukherjee, J.; Murphy, Z. B.; Gonzalez, C. A.; Muller, M.; Ybarra, S.

2017-12-01

The Southwest Data Display and Analysis System (SDDAS) is a flexible multi-mission / multi-instrument software system intended to support space physics data analysis, and has been in active development for over 20 years. For the Magnetospheric Multi-Scale (MMS), Juno, Cluster, and Mars Express missions, we have modified these generic tools for visualizing data in two and three dimensions. The SDDAS software is open source and makes use of various other open source packages, including VTK and Qwt. The software offers interactive plotting as well as a Python and Lua module to modify the data before plotting. In theory, by writing a Lua or Python module to read the data, any data could be used. Currently, the software can natively read data in IDFS, CEF, CDF, FITS, SEG-Y, ASCII, and XLS formats. We have integrated the software with other Python packages such as SPICE and SpacePy. Included with the visualization software is a database application and other utilities for managing data that can retrieve data from the Cluster Active Archive and Space Physics Data Facility at Goddard, as well as other local archives. Line plots, spectrograms, geographic, volume plots, strip charts, etc. are just some of the types of plots one can generate with SDDAS. Furthermore, due to the design, output is not limited to strictly visualization as SDDAS can also be used to generate stand-alone IDL or Python visualization code.. Lastly, SDDAS has been successfully used as a backend for several web based analysis systems as well.

Detecting SNPs and estimating allele frequencies in clonal bacterial populations by sequencing pooled DNA.

PubMed

Holt, Kathryn E; Teo, Yik Y; Li, Heng; Nair, Satheesh; Dougan, Gordon; Wain, John; Parkhill, Julian

2009-08-15

Here, we present a method for estimating the frequencies of SNP alleles present within pooled samples of DNA using high-throughput short-read sequencing. The method was tested on real data from six strains of the highly monomorphic pathogen Salmonella Paratyphi A, sequenced individually and in a pool. A variety of read mapping and quality-weighting procedures were tested to determine the optimal parameters, which afforded > or =80% sensitivity of SNP detection and strong correlation with true SNP frequency at poolwide read depth of 40x, declining only slightly at read depths 20-40x. The method was implemented in Perl and relies on the opensource software Maq for read mapping and SNP calling. The Perl script is freely available from ftp://ftp.sanger.ac.uk/pub/pathogens/pools/.

DOVIS 2.0: an efficient and easy to use parallel virtual screening tool based on AutoDock 4.0.

PubMed

Jiang, Xiaohui; Kumar, Kamal; Hu, Xin; Wallqvist, Anders; Reifman, Jaques

2008-09-08

Small-molecule docking is an important tool in studying receptor-ligand interactions and in identifying potential drug candidates. Previously, we developed a software tool (DOVIS) to perform large-scale virtual screening of small molecules in parallel on Linux clusters, using AutoDock 3.05 as the docking engine. DOVIS enables the seamless screening of millions of compounds on high-performance computing platforms. In this paper, we report significant advances in the software implementation of DOVIS 2.0, including enhanced screening capability, improved file system efficiency, and extended usability. To keep DOVIS up-to-date, we upgraded the software's docking engine to the more accurate AutoDock 4.0 code. We developed a new parallelization scheme to improve runtime efficiency and modified the AutoDock code to reduce excessive file operations during large-scale virtual screening jobs. We also implemented an algorithm to output docked ligands in an industry standard format, sd-file format, which can be easily interfaced with other modeling programs. Finally, we constructed a wrapper-script interface to enable automatic rescoring of docked ligands by arbitrarily selected third-party scoring programs. The significance of the new DOVIS 2.0 software compared with the previous version lies in its improved performance and usability. The new version makes the computation highly efficient by automating load balancing, significantly reducing excessive file operations by more than 95%, providing outputs that conform to industry standard sd-file format, and providing a general wrapper-script interface for rescoring of docked ligands. The new DOVIS 2.0 package is freely available to the public under the GNU General Public License.

AlignerBoost: A Generalized Software Toolkit for Boosting Next-Gen Sequencing Mapping Accuracy Using a Bayesian-Based Mapping Quality Framework.

PubMed

Zheng, Qi; Grice, Elizabeth A

2016-10-01

Accurate mapping of next-generation sequencing (NGS) reads to reference genomes is crucial for almost all NGS applications and downstream analyses. Various repetitive elements in human and other higher eukaryotic genomes contribute in large part to ambiguously (non-uniquely) mapped reads. Most available NGS aligners attempt to address this by either removing all non-uniquely mapping reads, or reporting one random or "best" hit based on simple heuristics. Accurate estimation of the mapping quality of NGS reads is therefore critical albeit completely lacking at present. Here we developed a generalized software toolkit "AlignerBoost", which utilizes a Bayesian-based framework to accurately estimate mapping quality of ambiguously mapped NGS reads. We tested AlignerBoost with both simulated and real DNA-seq and RNA-seq datasets at various thresholds. In most cases, but especially for reads falling within repetitive regions, AlignerBoost dramatically increases the mapping precision of modern NGS aligners without significantly compromising the sensitivity even without mapping quality filters. When using higher mapping quality cutoffs, AlignerBoost achieves a much lower false mapping rate while exhibiting comparable or higher sensitivity compared to the aligner default modes, therefore significantly boosting the detection power of NGS aligners even using extreme thresholds. AlignerBoost is also SNP-aware, and higher quality alignments can be achieved if provided with known SNPs. AlignerBoost's algorithm is computationally efficient, and can process one million alignments within 30 seconds on a typical desktop computer. AlignerBoost is implemented as a uniform Java application and is freely available at https://github.com/Grice-Lab/AlignerBoost.

Analysis of small-bowel capsule endoscopy reading by using Quickview mode: training assistants for reading may produce a high diagnostic yield and save time for physicians.

PubMed

Shiotani, Akiko; Honda, Keisuke; Kawakami, Makiko; Kimura, Yoshiki; Yamanaka, Yoshiyuki; Fujita, Minoru; Matsumoto, Hiroshi; Tarumi, Ken-ichi; Manabe, Noriaki; Haruma, Ken

2012-01-01

The aim was to investigate the clinical utility of RAPID Access 6.5 Quickview software and to evaluate whether preview of the capsule endoscopy video by a trained nurse could detect significant lesions accurately compared with endoscopists. As reading capsule endoscopy is time consuming, one possible cost-effective strategy could be the use of trained nonphysicians or newly available software to preread and identify potentially important capsule images. The 100 capsule images of a variety of significant lesions from 87 patients were investigated. The minimum percentages for settings of sensitivity that could pick up the selected images and the detection rate for significant lesions by a well-trained nurse, two endoscopists with limited experience in reading, and one well-trained physician were examined. The frequency of the selected lesions picked up by Quickview mode using percentages for sensitivity settings of 5%, 15%, 25%, and 35% were 61%, 74%, 93%, and 98%, respectively. The percentages for sensitivity significantly correlated (r=0.78, P<0.001) with the reading time. The detection rate by the nurse or the well-trained physician was significantly higher than that by the physician with limited capsule experience (87% and 84.1% vs. 62.7%; P<0.01). The clinical use of Quickview at 25% did not significantly improve the detection rate. Quickview mode can reduce reading time but has an unacceptably miss rate for potentially important lesions. Use of a trained nonphysician assistant can reduce physician's time and improve diagnostic yield.

MISBR

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2016-08-22

MISBR MISR Browse Data: Color browse image of the Ellipsoid product for each camera resampled to 2.2 km resolution. ... Tool:  Order Data Readme Files:  Processing Status Production Report Read Software ...

MIL3DAE

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2018-04-19

... Earthdata Search   Parameters:  Average aerosol optical depth Order Data:  MISR Order Tool:  Order ... Readme Files:  Processing Status:  Aerosol/Land Production Report:  Daily Read Software ...

Pilot study analyzing automated ECG screening of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

PubMed

Campbell, Matthew J; Zhou, Xuefu; Han, Chia; Abrishami, Hedayat; Webster, Gregory; Miyake, Christina Y; Sower, Christopher T; Anderson, Jeffrey B; Knilans, Timothy K; Czosek, Richard J

2017-06-01

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is one of the leading causes of sudden cardiac death in athletes. However, preparticipation ECG screening has often been criticized for failing to meet cost-effectiveness thresholds, in part because of high false-positive rates and the cost of ECG screening itself. The purpose of this study was to assess the testing characteristics of an automated ECG algorithm designed to screen for HCM in a multi-institutional pediatric cohort. ECGs from patients with HCM aged 12 to 20 years from 3 pediatric institutions were screened for ECG criteria for HCM using a previously described automated computer algorithm developed specifically for HCM ECG screening. The results were compared to a known healthy pediatric cohort. The studies then were read by trained electrophysiologists using standard ECG criteria and compared to the results of automated screening. One hundred twenty-eight ECGs from unique patients with phenotypic HCM were obtained and compared with 256 studies from healthy control patients matched in 2:1 fashion. When presented with the ECGs, the non-voltage-based algorithm resulted in 81.2% sensitivity and 90.7% specificity. A trained electrophysiologist read the same data according to the Seattle Criteria, with 71% sensitivity with 95.7% specificity. The sensitivity of screening as well as the components of the ECG screening itself varied by institution. This pilot study demonstrates a potential for automated ECG screening algorithms to detect HCM with testing characteristics similar to that of a trained electrophysiologist. In addition, there appear to be differences in ECG characteristics between patient populations, which may account for the difficulties in universal screening. Copyright © 2017 Heart Rhythm Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early Identification of Reading Comprehension Difficulties.

PubMed

Catts, Hugh W; Nielsen, Diane Corcoran; Bridges, Mindy Sittner; Liu, Yi-Syuan

2016-09-01

Most research on early identification of reading disabilities has focused on word reading problems and little attention has been given to reading comprehension difficulties. In this study, we investigated whether measures of language ability and/or response to language intervention in kindergarten uniquely predicted reading comprehension difficulties in third grade. A total of 366 children were administered a battery of screening measures at the beginning of kindergarten and progress monitoring probes across the school year. A subset of children also received a 26-week Tier 2 language intervention. Participants' achievement in word reading was assessed at the end of second grade, and their performance in reading comprehension was measured as the end of third grade. Results showed that measures of language ability in kindergarten significantly added to the prediction of reading comprehension difficulties over and above kindergarten word reading predictors and direct measures of word reading in second grade. Response to language intervention also proved to be a unique predictor of reading comprehension outcomes. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the early identification of reading disabilities. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Research on Learners' Preferences for Reading from a Printed Text or from a Computer Screen

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Carrie

2006-01-01

In this study, 254 Royal Roads University School of Business learners (graduates and undergraduates) were surveyed on their online course-related reading habits and choices. Based on their responses and anecdotal comments and the data from follow-up interviews with six of the participants, learners preferred print copies of text materials for…

Using Word Identification Fluency to Monitor First-Grade Reading Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zumeta, Rebecca O.; Compton, Donald L.; Fuchs, Lynn S.

2012-01-01

This study assessed the effects of sampling breadth on technical features of word identification fluency (WIF), a tool for screening and monitoring the reading development of first graders. From a potential pool of 704 first-grade students, the authors measured both a representative sample (n = 284) and 2 other subgroups: those with low reading…

An Evaluation of Project iRead: A Program Created to Improve Sight Word Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marshall, Theresa Meade

2014-01-01

This program evaluation was undertaken to examine the relationship between participation in Project iRead and student gains in word recognition, fluency, and comprehension as measured by the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) Test. Linear regressions compared the 2012-13 PALS results from 5,140 first and second grade students at…

Early Literacy Measures for Improving Student Reading Achievement: Translating Research into Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marston, Doug; Pickart, Mary; Reschly, Amy; Heistad, David; Muyskens, Paul; Tindal, Gerald

2007-01-01

The importance of early literacy instruction and its role in later reading proficiency is well established; however, measures and procedures to screen and monitor proficiency in the area of early literacy are less well researched. The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the technical adequacy and validity of early curriculum-based literacy…

Construction of Cognitive Maps to Improve E-Book Reading and Navigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Liang-Yi; Chen, Gwo-Dong; Yang, Sheng-Jie

2013-01-01

People have greater difficulty reading academic textbooks on screen than on paper. One notable problem is that they cannot construct an effective cognitive map because of the lack of contextual information cues and ineffective navigational mechanisms in e-books. To support the construction of cognitive maps, this paper proposes the visual cue map,…

Identification of Reading Problems in First Grade within a Response-to-Intervention Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Speece, Deborah L.; Schatschneider, Christopher; Silverman, Rebecca; Case, Lisa Pericola; Cooper, David H.; Jacobs, Dawn M.

2011-01-01

Models of Response to Intervention (RTI) include parameters of assessment and instruction. This study focuses on assessment with the purpose of developing a screening battery that validly and efficiently identifies first-grade children at risk for reading problems. In an RTI model, these children would be candidates for early intervention. We…

The Potential Impact of Undiagnosed Vision Impairment on Reading Development in the Early Years of School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thurston, Allen

2014-01-01

This article presents a critical review of the literature surrounding the potential impact of undiagnosed and untreated vision impairment on reading development in the early years of primary school. Despite pre-school screening programmes, it is still possible for children to enter school with undiagnosed, uncorrected vision impairments. This can…

Young Children and E-Reading: Research to Date and Questions for the Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Elizabeth B.; Warschauer, Mark

2014-01-01

The practice of reading is rapidly moving from print to screen. Young children are not immune from this trend; indeed, many children's principal literacy experiences occur using iPads and other handheld digital devices. This transition raises important questions about how the emergence and development of literacy might change in these new…

Assessment without Testing: Using Performance Measures Embedded in a Technology-Based Instructional Program as Indicators of Reading Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Alison; Baron, Lauren; Macaruso, Paul

2018-01-01

Screening and monitoring student reading progress can be costly and time consuming. Assessment embedded within the context of online instructional programs can capture ongoing student performance data while limiting testing time outside of instruction. This paper presents two studies that examined the validity of using performance measures from a…

Predictive Validity of Curriculum-Based Measures for English Learners at Varying English Proficiency Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Jennifer Sun; Vanderwood, Michael L.; Lee, Catherine Y.

2016-01-01

This study examined the predictive validity of curriculum-based measures in reading for Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) at various levels of English proficiency. Third-grade Spanish-speaking EL students were screened during the fall using DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) and Daze. Predictive validity was examined in relation to spring…

Applying Minimal Manual Principles for Documentation of Graphical User Interfaces.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nowaczyk, Ronald H.; James, E. Christopher

1993-01-01

Investigates the need to include computer screens in documentation for software using a graphical user interface. Describes the uses and purposes of "minimal manuals" and their principles. Studies student reaction to their use of one of three on-screen manuals: screens, icon, and button. Finds some benefit for including icon and button…

Designing a Visual Factors-Based Screen Display Interface: The New Role of the Graphic Technologist.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faiola, Tony; DeBloois, Michael L.

1988-01-01

Discusses the role of the graphic technologist in preparing computer screen displays for interactive videodisc systems, and suggests screen design guidelines. Topics discussed include the grid system; typography; visual factors research; color; course mobility through branching and software menus; and a model of course integration. (22 references)…

Towards understanding software: 15 years in the SEL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcgarry, Frank; Pajerski, Rose

1990-01-01

For 15 years, the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) at GSFC has been carrying out studies and experiments for the purpose of understanding, assessing, and improving software, and software processes within a production software environment. The SEL comprises three major organizations: (1) the GSFC Flight Dynamics Division; (2) the University of Maryland Computer Science Department; and (3) the Computer Sciences Corporation Flight Dynamics Technology Group. These organizations have jointly carried out several hundred software studies, producing hundreds of reports, papers, and documents: all describing some aspect of the software engineering technology that has undergone analysis in the flight dynamics environment. The studies range from small controlled experiments (such as analyzing the effectiveness of code reading versus functional testing) to large, multiple-project studies (such as assessing the impacts of Ada on a production environment). The key findings that NASA feels have laid the foundation for ongoing and future software development and research activities are summarized.

Reading and communication skills after universal newborn screening for permanent childhood hearing impairment.

PubMed

McCann, D C; Worsfold, S; Law, C M; Mullee, M; Petrou, S; Stevenson, J; Yuen, H M; Kennedy, C R

2009-04-01

Birth in periods with universal newborn screening (UNS) for permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) and early confirmation of PCHI have been associated with superior subsequent language ability in children with PCHI. However their effects on reading and communication skills have not been addressed in a population-based study. In a follow-up study of a large birth cohort in southern England, we measured reading by direct assessment and communication skills by parent report in 120 children with bilateral moderate, severe or profound PCHI aged 5.4-11.7 years, of whom 61 had been born in periods with UNS, and in a comparison group of 63 children with normal hearing. Compared with birth during periods without UNS, birth during periods with UNS was associated with better reading scores (inter-group difference 0.39 SDs, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.76, p = 0.042) and communication skills scores (difference 0.51 SDs, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.95, p = 0.026). Compared with later confirmation, confirmation of PCHI by age 9 months was also associated with better reading (difference 0.51 SDs, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.87, p = 0.006) and communication skills (difference 0.56 SDs, 95% CI 0.12 to 1.00, p = 0.013). In the children with PCHI, reading, communication and language ability were highly correlated (r = 0.62-0.84, p<0.001). Birth during periods with UNS and early confirmation of PCHI predict better reading and communication abilities at primary school age. These benefits represent functional gains of sufficient magnitude to be important in children with PCHI.

The XBabelPhish MAGE-ML and XML translator.

PubMed

Maier, Don; Wymore, Farrell; Sherlock, Gavin; Ball, Catherine A

2008-01-18

MAGE-ML has been promoted as a standard format for describing microarray experiments and the data they produce. Two characteristics of the MAGE-ML format compromise its use as a universal standard: First, MAGE-ML files are exceptionally large - too large to be easily read by most people, and often too large to be read by most software programs. Second, the MAGE-ML standard permits many ways of representing the same information. As a result, different producers of MAGE-ML create different documents describing the same experiment and its data. Recognizing all the variants is an unwieldy software engineering task, resulting in software packages that can read and process MAGE-ML from some, but not all producers. This Tower of MAGE-ML Babel bars the unencumbered exchange of microarray experiment descriptions couched in MAGE-ML. We have developed XBabelPhish - an XQuery-based technology for translating one MAGE-ML variant into another. XBabelPhish's use is not restricted to translating MAGE-ML documents. It can transform XML files independent of their DTD, XML schema, or semantic content. Moreover, it is designed to work on very large (> 200 Mb.) files, which are common in the world of MAGE-ML. XBabelPhish provides a way to inter-translate MAGE-ML variants for improved interchange of microarray experiment information. More generally, it can be used to transform most XML files, including very large ones that exceed the capacity of most XML tools.

UK Naval Dockyards Asbestosis Study: radiological methods in the surveillance of workers exposed to asbestos

PubMed Central

Sheers, G.; Rossiter, C. E.; Gilson, J. C.; Mackenzie, F. A. F.

1978-01-01

ABSTRACT In a survey of the effects of exposure to asbestos in the UK Naval Dockyards, small- and large-film chest radiographs of 674 men have been examined. These films have been read under survey conditions by two readers using a simple screening classification, and also in a controlled trial by five readers using the full ILO U/C classification. Comparison between the reading methods showed a deficiency, independent of the size of film, of at least 30% in the detection of asbestos-related radiographic abnormalities when the screening classification was used. For adequate diagnostic sensitivity the ILO U/C classification appears to be essential. There was a deficiency of 43% in significant abnormalities observed by a majority of readers in the small films when directly compared with large film readings. This deficiency could be reduced to 7% by using readings of the small films at any level of abnormality by any of the five readers. When the ILO U/C readings were related to the clinical diagnoses, the only abnormality missed was a small pleural plaque. Films with previously agreed coding were inserted at intervals during the reading trial and helped to maintain the consistency of reading. Right oblique views were taken for 1884 men, in addition to the full-sized postero-anterior view, but the contribution provided by this view proved insufficient to justify its use in large surveys. The cost of a survey when small films are used as a screening method is reduced to between one-third and one-half of the cost when large films are used, assuming that the abnormality rate is not more than 5%. However, this cost advantage for small films is likely to be overtaken by the development of automatic large-film units. The radiation dose when small films are used is increased by a factor of about 20, but is within the prescribed safety level. It is concluded that at least three readers should be involved, using the full ILO U/C classification. Small films may be of particular use in a large-scale survey, in which the abnormality rate is expected to be low, and which might otherwise be too expensive. A sensitive reading method and a high standard of film quality are essential factors in the use of this technique. PMID:698132

Variation in false-positive rates of mammography reading among 1067 radiologists: a population-based assessment.

PubMed

Tan, Alai; Freeman, Daniel H; Goodwin, James S; Freeman, Jean L

2006-12-01

The accuracy of mammography reading varies among radiologists. We conducted a population-based assessment on radiologist variation in false- positive rates of screening mammography and its associated radiologist characteristics. About 27,394 screening mammograms interpreted by 1067 radiologists were identified from a 5% non-cancer sample of Medicare claims during 1998-1999. The data were linked to the American Medical Association Masterfile to obtain radiologist characteristics. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to examine the radiologist variation in false-positive rates of screening mammography and the associated radiologist characteristics. Radiologists varied substantially in the false-positive rates of screening mammography (ranging from 1.5 to 24.1%, adjusting for patient characteristics). A longer time period since graduation is associated with lower false-positive rates (odds ratio [OR] for every 10 years increase: 0.87, 95% Confidence Interval [CI], 0.81-0.94) and female radiologists had higher false-positive rates than male radiologists (OR = 1.25, 95% CI, 1.05-1.49), adjusting for patient and other radiologist characteristics. The unmeasured factors contributed to about 90% of the between-radiologist variance. Radiologists varied greatly in accuracy of mammography reading. Female and more recently trained radiologists had higher false-positive rates. The variation among radiologists was largely due to unmeasured factors, especially unmeasured radiologist factors. If our results are confirmed in further studies, they suggest that system-level interventions would be required to reduce variation in mammography interpretation.

Donor's understanding of the definition of sex as applied to predonation screening questions.

PubMed

O'Brien, S F; Ram, S S; Yi, Q-L; Goldman, M

2008-05-01

Predonation screening questions about sexual risk factors should provide an extra layer of safety from recently acquired infections that may be too early to be detected by testing. Donors are required to read a definition of sex as it applies to predonation screening questions each time they come to donate, but how well donors apply such definitions has not been evaluated. We aimed to determine how donors define sex when answering screening questions. In total, 1297 whole blood donors were asked in a private interview to select from a list of sexual activities which ones they believed were being asked about in sexual background questions. Donors' definitions were coded as under-inclusive, correct or over-inclusive in relation to the blood services' definition. Qualitative interviews were carried out with 21 donors to understand reasoning behind definitions. Most donors had an over-inclusive definition (58.7%) or the correct definition (31.9%). Of the 9.4% of donors who had an under-inclusive definition, 95% included both vaginal and anal sex, but not oral sex. About 9% in each group were first-time donors (P > 0.05) who had never read the definition. The qualitative interviews indicated that donors reason their definition based on their own concept of transmissible disease risk. Donors apply a range of definitions of sex when answering questions about their sexual background. This may be due to different concepts of risk activities, and required reading of the definition has little impact.

Holistic Approaches to Reading (The Printout).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balajthy, Ernest

1989-01-01

Presents eight guidelines to consider when using computers for language instruction, emphasizing computer use in a social and purposeful context. Suggests computer software which adheres to these guidelines. (MM)

Understanding Dyslexia

MedlinePlus

... recorded versions of any book, even textbooks. Computer software is also available that "reads" printed material aloud. Ask your parent, teacher, or learning disability services coordinator how to get these services if you ...

Effects of transient blur and VDT screen luminance changes on eyeblink rate.

PubMed

Cardona, Genís; Gómez, Marcelo; Quevedo, Lluïsa; Gispets, Joan

2014-10-01

A study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of three different strategies aiming at increasing spontaneous eyeblink rate (SEBR) during computer use. A total of 12 subjects (5 female) with a mean age of 28.7 years were instructed to read a text presented on a computer display terminal during 15min. Four reading sessions (reference and three "blinking events" [BE]) were programmed in which SEBR was digitally recorded. "Blinking events" were based on either a slight distortion of the text characters or on the presentation of a white screen instead of the text, with or without accompanying blinking instructions. All BE had a duration of 20ms and occurred every 15s. Participants graded the intrusiveness of each BE configuration, and the number of lines participants read in each session was recorded. Data from 11 subjects was analysed. A statistically significant difference in SEBR was encountered between the experimental configuration consisting on a white screen plus blinking instructions (7.8 blinks/min) and both reference (5.2 blinks/min; p=0.049) and white screen without blinking instructions (4.8 blinks/min; p=0.038). All three BE had superior levels of intrusiveness than reference conditions, although the performance of participants (line count) was not compromised. The joint contribution of white screen and blinking instructions has been shown to result in a short term improvement in blinking rate in the present sample of non-dry eye computer users. Further work is necessary to improve the acceptance of any BE aiming at influencing SEBR. Copyright © 2014 British Contact Lens Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

iPads in Breast Imaging – A Phantom Study

PubMed Central

Hammon, M.; Schlechtweg, P. M.; Schulz-Wendtland, R.; Uder, M.; Schwab, S. A.

2014-01-01

Introduction: Modern tablet PCs as the iPad are becoming more and more integrated into medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the display quality of iPads regarding digital mammography. Materials and Methods: Three experienced readers compared the display quality of the iPad 2 and 3 with a dedicated 10 megapixel (MP) mammography liquid crystal display (LCD) screen in consensus using the standardized Contrast Detail Mammography (CDMAM) phantom. Phantom fields without agreement between the readers were classified as “uncertain”, correct 2 : 1 decisions were classified as “uncertain/readable”. In a second step display quality of the three reading devices was judged subjectively in a side by side comparison. Results: The 10 MP screen was superior to both iPads in 4 (phantom-)fields and inferior in 2 fields. Comparing the iPads, version 3 was superior in 4 fields and version 2 was superior in 1 field. However these differences were not significant. Total number of “uncertain” fields did not show significant differences. The number of “uncertain” fields was 15 with the 10 MP screen, 16 with the iPad 2 and 17 with the iPad 3 (p > 0.05), the number of “uncertain/readable” fields was 4, 7 and 8, respectively. Subjective image quality of the iPad 3 and the 10 MP screen was rated superior to the iPad 2. Conclusion: The evaluated iPads, especially in version 3, seem to be adequate to display mammograms in a diagnostic quality and thus could be useful e.g. for patient consultation, clinical demonstration or educational and teaching purposes. However primary mammogram reading should still be performed on dedicated large sized reading screens. PMID:24741126

Development of the Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test to assess key markers of specific language and literacy difficulties in young children.

PubMed

Gardner, Hilary; Froud, Karen; McClelland, Alastair; van der Lely, Heather K J

2006-01-01

Despite a large body of evidence regarding reliable indicators of language deficits in young children, there has not been a standardized, quick screen for language impairment. The Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test was therefore designed as a short, reliable assessment of young children's language abilities. GAPS was designed to provide a quick screening test to assess whether pre- and early school entry children have the necessary grammar and pre-reading phonological skills needed for education and social development. This paper reports the theoretical background to the test, the pilot study and reliability, and the standardization. This 10-min test comprises 11 test sentences and eight test nonsense words for direct imitation and is designed to highlight significant markers of language impairment and reading difficulties. To standardize the GAPS, 668 children aged 3.4-6.6 were tested across the UK, taking into account population distribution and socio-economic status. The test was carried out by a range of health and education professionals as well as by students and carers using only simple, written instructions. GAPS is effective in detecting a range of children in need of further in-depth assessment or monitoring for language difficulties. The results concur with those from much larger epidemiological studies using lengthy testing procedures. The GAPS test (1) provides a successful screening tool; (2) is designed to be administered by professionals and non-professionals alike; and (3) facilitates identification of language impairment or at-risk factors of reading impairment in the early educational years. Thus, the test affords a first step in a process of assessment and targeted intervention to enable children to reach their potential.

An Investigation of the Effects of Reader Characteristics on Reading Comprehension Of a General Chemistry Text

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neiles, Kelly Y.

There is great concern in the scientific community that students in the United States, when compared with other countries, are falling behind in their scientific achievement. Increasing students' reading comprehension of scientific text may be one of the components involved in students' science achievement. To investigate students' reading comprehension this quantitative study examined the effects of different reader characteristics, namely, students' logical reasoning ability, factual chemistry knowledge, working memory capacity, and schema of the chemistry concepts, on reading comprehension of a chemistry text. Students' reading comprehension was measured through their ability to encode the text, access the meanings of words (lexical access), make bridging and elaborative inferences, and integrate the text with their existing schemas to make a lasting mental representation of the text (situational model). Students completed a series of tasks that measured the reader characteristic and reading comprehension variables. Some of the variables were measured using new technologies and software to investigate different cognitive processes. These technologies and software included eye tracking to investigate students' lexical accessing and a Pathfinder program to investigate students' schema of the chemistry concepts. The results from this study were analyzed using canonical correlation and regression analysis. The canonical correlation analysis allows for the ten variables described previously to be included in one multivariate analysis. Results indicate that the relationship between the reader characteristic variables and the reading comprehension variables is significant. The resulting canonical function accounts for a greater amount of variance in students' responses then any individual variable. Regression analysis was used to further investigate which reader characteristic variables accounted for the differences in students' responses for each reading comprehension variable. The results from this regression analysis indicated that the two schema measures (measured by the Pathfinder program) accounted for the greatest amount of variance in four of the reading comprehension variables (encoding the text, bridging and elaborative inferences, and delayed recall of a general summary). This research suggest that providing students with background information on chemistry concepts prior to having them read the text may result in better understanding and more effective incorporation of the chemistry concepts into their schema.

Effects of Task Training on Kindergarten Students' Performance on Early Literacy Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackiewicz, Sara Moore

2010-01-01

The use of early literacy screening measures helps determine which students are at risk for future reading difficulties. However, there has been some recent concern related to the classification validity of screening measures (Hintze, Ryan, & Stoner, 2003; Nelson, 2008). Low classification validity results in the identification of a large number…

Annotations and the Collaborative Digital Library: Effects of an Aligned Annotation Interface on Student Argumentation and Reading Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolfe, Joanna

2008-01-01

Recent research on annotation interfaces provides provocative evidence that anchored, annotation-based discussion environments may lead to better conversations about a text. However, annotation interfaces raise complicated tradeoffs regarding screen real estate and positioning. It is argued that solving this screen real estate problem requires…

A Longitudinal Study of the Predictive Validity of a Kindergarten Screening Battery.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kilgallon, Mary K.; Mueller, Richard J.

Test validity was studied in nine subtests of a kindergarten screening battery used to predict reading comprehension for children up to five years after entering kindergarten. The independent variables were kindergarteners' scores on the: (1) Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test; (2) Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test; (3) Detroit Tests of Learning…

Why Can't Johnny Read? The Abell Report. Volume 23, No.7

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobson, Joan

2010-01-01

Baltimore's school-based vision-screening program may be leaving thousands of children with uncorrected eyesight problems. Vision screening in public schools is essential for students to learn, especially when low-income children face a high rate of eyesight problems and have poor access to health care. Left undetected and uncorrected, vision…

Correlations between Developmental Kindergarten Screenings and Early Reading Indicators One Year Later

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coughlan-Mainard, Kelly A.

2012-01-01

School districts in the U.S. are mandated to identify young children with disabilities. Developmental screeners are typically used to screen for such skill deficits. Academic tests are used in older students. A significant challenge is identifying children with potential learning disabilities early in their school career. This study identifies a…

Screen Design for Children's Reading: Some Key Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Sue; Reynolds, Linda

2000-01-01

Draws attention to design issues that are likely to affect the way that children interact with screen-based information texts. Presents information based on the findings of the Interactive Multimedia in Primary Schools (IMPS) project funded by the British Library. Summarizes the design-related aspects of the project, highlighting those issues that…