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Background The Grading Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) framework is widely applied in clinical guidelines to facilitate transparent evidence evaluation. While developing Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines on the management of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), panel members suggested developing and implementing a visual aid to enable quicker identification of key information by providers at bedside seeking guidance. Methods We conducted a mixed-methods study evaluating the usability of a newly designed infographic/icon using a survey and focus groups. The survey incorporated a simulated COVID-19 IDSA guideline with and without the icon, followed by comprehension questions. Focus group discussions provided qualitative feedback on the GRADE methodology and icon usability. Results The survey was returned by 289 health care providers. There was no statistical difference in the correct response rates between icon-aided and non-icon-aided guideline questions (McNemar's chi-square test, P >.1 for both questions). Interactions with the icon notably increased the time taken and number of clicks required to respond to the first question (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, P <.01). In contrast, response time did not differ between versions for the second question (P =.38). Most subjects (85%) indicated that the icon improved the readability of the guidelines. A focus group follow-up suggested alternative designs for the icon. Conclusions This study highlights the promise of iconography in clinical guidelines, although the specific icons tested did not measurably improve usability metrics. Future research should focus on icon design and testing within a formal usability framework, considering the impact of GRADE language on user experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study 51 jellyfish galaxy candidates in the Fornax, Antlia, and Hydra clusters. These candidates are identified using the JClass scheme based on the visual classification of wide-field, twelve-band optical images obtained from the Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey. A comprehensive astrophysical analysis of the jellyfish (JClass > 0), non-jellyfish (JClass = 0), and independently organized control samples is undertaken. We develop a semi-automated pipeline using self-supervised learning and similarity search to detect jellyfish galaxies. The proposed framework is designed to assist visual classifiers by providing more reliable JClasses for galaxies. We find that jellyfish candidates exhibit a lower Gini coefficient, higher entropy, and a lower 2D Sérsic index as the jellyfish features in these galaxies become more pronounced. Jellyfish candidates show elevated star formation rates (including contributions from the main body and tails) by |$\sim$| 1.75 dex, suggesting a significant increase in the SFR caused by the ram-pressure stripping phenomenon. Galaxies in the Antlia and Fornax clusters preferentially fall towards the cluster's centre, whereas only a mild preference is observed for Hydra galaxies. Our self-supervised pipeline, applied in visually challenging cases, offers two main advantages: it reduces human visual biases and scales effectively for large data sets. This versatile framework promises substantial enhancements in morphology studies for future galaxy image surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Surgical site infections complicate 2%-5% of surgeries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half of all surgical site infections are preventable. Adherence to published recommendations regarding perioperative antibiotic administration decreases the incidence of surgical site infections. Members of the Department of Anesthesia noticed casual observations of inaccurate prescribing of antibiotics at our institution, Brooke Army Medical Center, and approached the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program to collaborate on this issue. Materials and Methods: A team of anesthesiologists, clinical pharmacists, and infectious disease specialists collaborated with the Department of Surgery to improve this effort as part of a multiyear project from 2018 to 2021. We first assessed adherence to recommended perioperative antibiotic use to establish a baseline and next, noticing gaps, created a project with the goal to improve compliance to >90% across surveyed measures. Our key interventions included educational initiatives, creation of facility-specific guidelines, peer benchmarking, updating order sets, interdisciplinary collaboration, creation of intraoperative reminders and visual aids, and tailored presentations to selected services. Results: Of 292 charts (2.3% of cases from January to October 2018) reviewed pre-intervention, compliance rates were 84% for antibiotic choice, 92% for dose, 65% for redosing, and 71% for postoperative administration. Of doses, 100% were timed correctly, and thus, this variable was not targeted. Post-intervention, our review of 387 charts (10% of cases from May to November 2020) showed no change in correct antibiotic choice (84%) and statistical improvement to 96% for correct dose, 95% for correct redosing, and 85% for correct postoperative administration (P < .05 for all). Conclusions: Our multidisciplinary approach of collaboration with multiple departments, creating guidelines and providing feedback, improved compliance with perioperative antibiotic administration recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the work of the gynecologist Włodzimierz Fijałkowski, the key promoter of preparation for childbirth in Communist and early democratic Poland. From the late 1950s until the 1990s, Fijałkowski developed a childbirth preparation training protocol that served as an inspiration for childbirth preparation schools across the country. Through analysis of Fijałkowski's publications in medical journals, books aimed at both professional and lay readers, visual aids for childbirth training, and archival material, we demonstrate that a specific vision of gender roles and relationships lay at the core of Fijałkowski's psychoprophylactic project. This vision represented a re-definition and re-essentialization of femininity and masculinity, and motherhood and fatherhood, while simultaneously advocating for radical change in the relationship between women in labor and obstetric professionals. Fijałkowski's ideas and advocacy were intimately connected with a humanization of the embryo and fetus from the earliest stages of pregnancy, and we show how his work became an important transmission medium for the gradual mainstreaming of anti-abortion ideas within public discourse in late-Communist Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction presents China's legalist turn in international relations against the background of the Trump administration's backlash against international law and international organizations. The next section retraces the origins and evolution of the Community of Shared Future for Mankind (CSFM) up to its incorporation in the preamble to the Chinese Constitution. Section 3 examines the main tenets of the CSFM on the basis of XI Jinping's writings with the visual aid of a "paifang" ("牌坊"). In this representation of a Chinese architectural arch or gateway structure, the "foundation" of the CSFM is, first, assimilated to China's acknowledgement of the centrality of "interdependence" in the international community. Second, the "pillars" of the CSFM are identified as the goals of global peace, international common security, inclusive international development and international ecological civilization. Third, the "wooden beams" that bind the CSFM together are assimilated into the principles of sovereign equality, inter-civilizational dialogue and multilateralism, while the principle of "win-win" cooperation is represented as the CSFM's "frontispiece". The concluding section points to the benefits of China deepening its legalist approach to international relations as the most fitting companion to its grand strategy of "peaceful/development rise". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the representation and use of Victorian visual aids, specifically focusing on how the design of spectacle and eyeglass frames shaped ideas of the 'normal' and 'abnormal' body. It contributes to our understanding of assistive technologies in the Victorian period by showcasing the usefulness of material evidence for exploring how an object was produced and perceived. By placing visual aids in their medical and cultural context for the first time, it will show how the study of spectacle and eyeglass frames develops our understanding of Victorian society more broadly. Contemporaries drew upon industrialization, increasing education, and the proliferation of print to explain a rise in refractive vision 'errors'. Through exploring the design of three spectacle frames from the London Science Museum's collections, this study will show how the representations and manufacture of visual aids transformed in response to these wider changes. The material evidence, as well as contemporary newspapers, periodicals, and medical texts, reveal that visual aids evolved from an unusual to a more mainstream device. It argues that visual aids are a unique assistive technology, one that is able to inform our understanding of how Victorians measured the body and constructed ideas of 'normalcy' and 'abnormalcy'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, past consumer research dealing with advertising images is analyzed and critiqued for its underlying assumption: that pictures are reflections of reality. The case against this assumption is presented, and an alternative view, in which visuals are a convention-based symbolic system, is formulated. In this alternative view, pictures must be cognitively processed, rather than absorbed peripherally or automatically. The author argues that current conceptualizations of advertising images are incommensurate with what ads are really like, and that many images currently dismissed as affect laden or information devoid are, in fact, complex figurative arguments. A new theoretical framework for the study of images is advanced in which advertising images are a sophisticated form of visual rhetoric. The process of consumer response implied by the new framework differs radically from past concepts in many ways, but also suggests new ways to approach questions currently open in the literature on the nature and processing of imagery. A pluralistic program for studying advertising pictures as persuasion is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research addresses the question of when children use visuals to improve their memory performance. In two studies, preschoolers and school-age children were found to encode information most effectively when the visual information was complete and overlapped the audio message. School-age children (seven and eight years old) were also found to recall target information in response to partial visuals paired with audio tracks. However, preschoolers (three, four, and five years old) succeeded in their recall only when complete visuals overlapped the audio information. The findings suggest that younger children's difficulties in encoding partial information can be traced to common types of processing deficits. In addition, the second study tested whether a "visual superiority effect" would be evidenced. Children who only heard and children who only saw the information (auditory or visual) performed equally well. This suggests that the critical element in children's processing is the comprehensibility of the information presented, rather than the modality per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need for medical journal-related data analysis displays, illustrations, and other visual aids to be accurate, and it mentions how display items in scientific studies should be able to stand alone from the text and communicate study results in a clear manner. Unbiased scientific research is examined, along with longitudinal follow-up data and examples involving paravalvular leakage after transcatheter aortic valve replacement and echocardiographic data.

Although most experts agree that vaccines do not cause autism, a considerable portion of the American public believes in a link. In an experiment ( N = 371), we identified journalistic balance as a source of misperception about this issue and examined ways to attenuate misperceptions. In particular, by including weight-of-evidence information (i.e., stating that only one view is supported by evidence and a scientific consensus), we explored whether an article can present conflicting views without causing misperceptions. Including weight-of-evidence information fostered more accurate beliefs about an autism-vaccine link, but only for people with favorable pre-existing scientific views. However, this conditional effect disappeared when visual exemplars accompanied weight-of-evidence information. The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications for science communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain simple thoughts about pictures suggest that the contents of pictures are closely bound to vision. But how far can the striking features of depiction be accounted for merely in terms of the especially visual contents which belong to pictures, without considering, for example, any issues concerning the nature of the visual experiences with which pictures provide us? This article addresses that question by providing an account of the distinctively visual contents belonging to pictures, and by using that account to explain many notable general facts about depiction. Some implications of the resulting framework for the main stream of current theorizing about pictorial representation are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the variation in pictures and its interpretation of realism. Pictures are sometimes realistic and sometimes not. Pictorial variety also affects an individual's experience of pictorial realism. There are numerous kinds of pictures and they could all suit in a small group of interpretative system. Moreover, an assortment of pictures has an equivalent diversity of interpretive systems.

This essay documents the main currents of visual studies in communication. After a brief history of the emergence of the field, we review the record of published research in books and journals during the past 5 years, identifying major strains of theory, key issues, and topical categories. We then apply the strains of thought to classify papers presented at the ICA conferences, noting patterns and shifts across and within ICA divisions and interest groups. Based on these patterns, as well as on informal input from colleagues, we map the discipline formation of visual studies and identify trends in institutional development. We conclude by exploring future directions for the field now that the visual interest group has grown to become the Visual Studies Division of ICA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pictures are principally descriptive. Advertising images highlight features of potential purchases; cartoons open portals to scenes in fictional worlds; snapshots in the family photo album remind us of our past selves and landmark events in our personal histories; works of pictorial art express thoughts or feelings about depicted scenes. In addition, pictures serve a directive or action-guiding function that, though not taken into account by theorists, deserves no less attention than their descriptive one. Theories of depiction and the appreciation of pictures stand to benefit by taking “directive pictures” into account, as do theories of representation in general and mental representation in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the importance of photographs as a tool used to convey information. Proposal of Kendall Walton that photographs are special because they are transparent because its enable the viewer to see their depicta; Belief of Walton on similarities between the way that photographs provide visual experiences and the way an ordinary vision provides visual experiences; Arguments against the proposal of Walton regarding the transparency of photographs.

The article presents a study conducted to assess the relative effectiveness of visually-aided lectures and Videotapes approach for orthodontic auxiliary training. It informs that the study was a prospective, randomised trial. It is stated that video teaching and lecturing are equally effective at teaching bracket placement but according to the standard deviation of angular bracket placements, video instruction is little better than lecturing.

SUMMARY The graphical device described is suggested as a useful compromise between purely visual fitting of linear curves and the full computation of slopes using "least-squares" methods. A brief derivation is given followed by some experimental determinations of accuracy and sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the issue of determining a national policy for television in the U.S. and the extent to which radio should be regulated by the government. This problem is faced by the U.S. because television's broad educational significance deserves the attention of educators. Television has tremendous educational possibilities as a teaching aid. It represents one more highly effective tool, added to the kit of the time-honored tools, which include discourse by a teacher with his students, blackboards and chalk, all manner of visual aids, and more recently, radio and motion pictures. Educators, however are too prone to slough off the heavy responsibility for the standards of culture. Ironic paradox is that teaching in the humanities is so heavily and worthily weighted with critical evaluation of literature and drama that the real literature and drama of culture, as measured by the proportion of resources which go into them, consist almost entirely of the content of radio, movies, magazines, newspapers and now television.

The problem of illustrating statistical data is a perennial one. The article presents pictures which are illustrative of experimental efforts in an attempt towards creating simplified statistics. Experiments, of which these pictures form a sample, were conducted early in 1911 by researcher Ralph Graeter. Researchers first tried to design models that could be photographed and in doing they achieved not only a freshness that stimulates the reader's curiosity about what is going on but they also gave body to a basic point which survey statistics too often obscure that survey findings are responses of people confronted by some sort of mental image. In these experiments the mental image evoked by the survey question is put into a picture form and put across to the respondent. Sometimes, as in the first and the last pictures shown here, the image is thrown on a screen and the survey respondents are treated as an audience reacting to what they see there for example the first step was to set up an "alphabet" of gestures reflecting attitudes.

Motivation The rapid advances in metabolomics pose a significant challenge in presentation and interpretation of results. Development of new, engaging visual aids is crucial to advancing our understanding of new findings. Results We have developed MetaboCraft, a Minecraft plugin which creates immersive visualizations of metabolic networks and pathways in a 3D environment and allows the results of user experiments to be viewed in this context, presenting a novel approach to exploring the metabolome. Availability and implementation https://github.com/argymeg/MetaboCraft/ ; https://hub.docker.com/r/ronandaly/metabocraft/ Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]