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Objective: Assess the effects of long-duration microgravity and gravitational transitions on fine motor skills using a tablet-based test battery of four fine motor tasks: Pointing, Dragging, Shape Tracing, and Pinch-Rotate. Background: While there have been some studies on fine motor skills in microgravity, few have measured the fine motor skills that are core components of interaction with computer-based devices, and none have measured performance systematically, to include preflight, inflight, and postflight space mission time periods. Methods: Seven astronauts completed the Fine Motor Skills test battery 30–40 times before, during, and up to 30 days after standard duration International Space Station missions, while a matching set of seven ground-based control participants also completed the battery over a comparable period of time. Response time and accuracy were the primary outcome measures. Results: Relative to controls, astronauts experienced fine motor skill decrements at gravitational transitions (first week on orbit, and first month post landing). No decrements were found inflight after the first week of adaptation. Conclusion: Gravitational transitions appear to negatively impact fine motor skills needed to operate small controls with accuracy, such as those on touchscreen interfaces. This raises concerns for future long-duration crewmembers who will land on a planetary surface and need to perform critical tasks accurately, such as configuring spacesuits, powering up a habitat, or teleoperating rovers. Application: Results from this study highlight the need for confirmatory research, and the possible need for countermeasure development. The Fine Motor Skills test battery may have application outside of NASA as a fine motor skills diagnostic screening, rehabilitation, or readiness-to-perform tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In future deep space exploration missions, crew will have to work more autonomously from Earth. Greater crew autonomy will increase dependence on automated systems. This study investigates the performance effects of different strategies to automate procedural work for space exploration operations. Background: The following strategies are investigated for performing procedural work: • Manual Work uses no procedure automation and crew performs all actions. • Shared Work uses procedure automation to perform some actions within a procedure while crew performs other actions. • Supervised Work uses procedure automation to perform procedure actions while crew supervises the automation. Method: Twenty-seven participants participated in a planetary habitat scenario-based simulation using electronic procedures with automatable actions to investigate the effect of these strategies on situation awareness (SA) and workload. This study used a modification of the Situation Presence Assessment Method to measure SA and the Bedford Workload Scale to measure subjective workload. Results: Mean response times and accuracy for SA queries show no significant difference among the three strategies. Bedford Workload ratings compared across the three strategies indicate that participants rated their workload as highest in the Manual Work condition, followed by the Shared Work condition, and lowest in the Supervised Work condition. Conclusion: The study hypothesized that increased levels of automation would lead to lower subjective workload and decreased SA. Although no significant difference in SA was observed, subjective workload was lower in automation strategies. Based on subjective ratings, 93% of participants preferred some form of automation, with 56% preferring the Shared Work automation condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses accelerated mental aging in alcoholic patients. Discriminant function and polynomial regression methods were used to define a mental age function from scale score profile patterns found in the (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) WAIS manual. Values on the mental age function then were calculated from WAIS scale score profiles for 164 alcoholics in the age range 35 to 74. Validity of the mental age function was evident in clear discrimination between chronological age groups in the alcoholic sample. As compared with WAIS normative values for the mental age function, the mean mental age for patients in the alcoholic sample was advanced approximately 7 years over age-matched normals.

Counts of rare events tend to have Poisson or J-shaped distributions that render parametric assumptions questionable. Six different methods for testing the significance of the difference between location parameters for two such distributions are evaluated in this article. A binomial test for the difference between means is known to be the most powerful unbiased test when population distributions are truly Poisson; however, it appears extremely non-robust against departures from the distributional assumption. Robust enough to provide appropriate protection against Type I error, Student's t test was among the most powerful of the tests when applied to counts of rare events in two treatment groups. The Mann-Whitney sum of ranks test also provided superior alpha protection and power even where a large number of tied ranks occurred in the zero-count category of a J-shaped distribution. Finally, a 1 df chi-square test for linear shift in proportional representation across frequency categories of one group as opposed to the other was the most powerful of three chi-square tests that were evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This scientific research paper analyzes the link between space technology and space law through specifically designed Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) systems applied in manned spacecraft missions, notably by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The risk of inadequate HCI systems may lead to a wide range of undesired consequences, including risks of error or failure of mission objectives, wrongly displayed information, unavailable data and confusion of the data presented, this potentially putting astronauts aboard the spacecraft in life-threatening circumstanced within their extraterrestrial working environment. Consequently, the blame is put on the lack of appropriate policies addressing the regulation of space-related HCI systems. Hence, an international public policy framework is proposed in order to ultimately ensure astronauts' safety in space exploration, as well as minimizing the risk of space-related accidents occurring during manned spacecraft missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Posters of the Art of Resistance Festival are one of the fields of formation of symbols and signs affected by the Islamic Revolution. The juxtaposition of the two factors, "image" and "text", is important in the design of these announcements. Symbolic relations appear in the design of the mentioned announcements in two ways: the axis of paradigmatic and the axis of syntagmatic. In the axis of paradigmatic, one element replaces another element. In the axis of syntagmatic, two or more elements are placed next to each other these relationships in some posters implicitly and in others explicitly convey the desired concept to the audience. In this research, the structural relations of signs in the posters of the resistance art festival will be identified. Emamifar, Sajoudi, and Khazaei (2010) in an article entitled "Semiological examination of announcements from the emergence of the Islamic Revolution of Iran until 2001" investigated how meaning is produced in the design of posters from the Islamic Revolution of Iran until 2001. In an article entitled "The Art of the Islamic Revolution", Rahnavard (2000) investigated and analyzed the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979 and its influence and expression on the culture and art of Iran. Talebi (2017) in his article entitled "Reflection of Islamic components and values in the art of resistance" examined the posters of the first decade of the Islamic Revolution of Iran. This research aims to investigate the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes of signs structurally and the types of relationships related to them in some posters of the resistance art festival, as well as analyzing the explicit and implicit meanings of visual and written signs in them. Accordingly the two following questions will be investigated: 1. Based on what relationships do visual and written signs in the posters of the resistance art festival form the meaning transfer process? 2. What roles do these relationships play in the meaning of the poster? Methodology: The research method is descriptive-analytical. Collection of library and documentary information was through note-taking and image reading. Data analysis is qualitative. Statistical population is a collection of posters from the 5th Resistance Art Festival that was held in 2018. The sampling method is selective. Discussion: The semiotic relationships in the resistance posters can be classified into two axes syntagmatic and paradigmatic signs. In the analysis based on the paradigmatic axis, relationships are based on 3 factors, which are: contrasting relationships, analogical relationships, and comparative relationships. Conclusion: The poster "We come from the grandson of Abel of the Sun, who stand against the Cain of Darkness", is placed in the category of contrasting relationships. This relationship means the difference between the elements in the work in terms of position, orientation, and attraction of the elements to each other. This poster conveys to the audience the concept of good and evil in the confrontation between Iran and its enemies. The poster "I am a revolutionary" belongs to the category of analogical relations. Analogical relations compare the relationship between the elements in the text or narrate the artwork that in this announcement, due to the replacement of the fisted hands form on parts of the letters, an analogical connection arises in the mind. In the poster "The ax was from our family, we didn't know", comparative relations are strengthened due to the relations of paradigmatic of the ax instead of one of the branches of the tree and also the existence of conflict between the two. In the analysis based on the syntagmatic axis, relationships are divided into three categories: spatial relationships, sequential relationships, and conceptual relationships. The "Happy the 40th Spring of the Revolution" poster is placed in the axis of syntagmatic signs due to the juxtaposition of visual elements, and due to the placement of different components and elements in the image, it is placed in the category of spatial relations in the axis of spatial syntagmatic of signs, because spatial relationships mean the placement of the components and elements of the work in different axes of the image. The "Unity is the Code of Victory" poster is also placed in the axis of syntagmatic due to the juxtaposition of different components of the image in the poster, and according to the definition of sequential relationships, due to the placement of elements based on the alternation of the theme of the work and the creation of meaningful relationships with each other, it is in the category of sequential relationships. The poster "Iranian lion spills the blood of every hyena of disbelief", due to the juxtaposition of two images of lion and hyena, as well as the way the elements are placed and their proximity and the type of reading, is placed in the category of conceptual relations in the axis of syntagmatic of signs; conceptual relationships mean the reading of images and elements in them as well as the type of their relationship with each other. In all the works, when a visual sign metaphorically expresses the concept of revolution and Iran, understanding the meaning of the sign occurs on the axis of paradigmatic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape architecture has been transformed in recent decades by technological applications which have displaced a long-established tradition of manual graphic expression. Although advantageous for private enterprise, this development has not been entirely salutary in academia, as the discarding of manual graphics also eliminated an invaluable medium of teaching design thinking, creative exploration and ideological values. This article summarizes the results of an experimental course on advanced hand graphics taught within a technology-dominated landscape curriculum. Intended to cultivate cognitive and analytical abilities vital for successful design practice, it was simultaneously foreseen as a template for future applications to reinforce design education's connection to manual graphics. An overview of philosophical objectives, structure and implementation is supplemented with student feedback and work specimens, parameters which were collectively evaluated to assess course performance, success and future viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As tourism’s intangibility leads tourism marketers to rely heavily on visuals such as photographic images, the selection of visual stimuli that attract the target audience’s attention is critical. This study used a triangulated approach that included both self-reports and observational eye-tracking data. Australian and Chinese participants were recruited to view a series of photographic tourism images that depicted either high or low arousal activities and natural or built environments. Australian participants fixated more frequently, and for longer durations, than Chinese. Fixation also varied with the image conditions, with the Chinese group having particularly low fixation durations and counts for the low arousal or natural condition. This study fills the void in visual attention research in tourism and presents a novel approach to understanding the appeal of tourism images to potential tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor communication in health is a persistent problem. Transient conversations, extreme time constraints, stress, trauma, clinical factors and the restrictive environment make effective communication between health professionals and patients difficult to achieve. Children, especially, are often positioned as passive participants in the healthcare paradigm. It is hypothesized that providing children with visual health information (well-designed, accurate, age appropriate, and presented in a way that they can understand,) can empower them to take charge of their health and well-being. For visual health education materials to be effective, accurate, and engaging, they need to be designed with input from design practitioners, health experts, and the target audience. However, constraints within the health field, such as restricted access to patients, make this difficult. Furthermore, when children are involved, ethical and practical obstacles can hinder the process. The research presented in this paper navigates the complexities of the health field and presents a realistic participatory design model that responds to the specific challenges associated with designing in a healthcare environment. The efficacy of the approach is demonstrated through successful designs and positive health professional feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of No Solo Usabilidad Journal is the property of No Solo Usabilidad and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)