Spearcons (speech-based earcons) improve navigation performance in advanced auditory menus.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this project is to evaluate a new auditory cue, which the authors call spearcons, in comparison to other auditory cues with the aim of improving auditory menu navigation. BACKGROUND: With the shrinking displays of mobile devices and increasing technology use by visually impaired users, it becomes important to improve usability of non-graphical user interface (GUI) interfaces such as auditory menus. Using nonspeech sounds called auditory icons (i.e., representative real sounds of objects or events) or earcons (i.e., brief musical melody patterns) has been proposed to enhance menu navigation. To compensate for the weaknesses of traditional nonspeech auditory cues, the authors developed spearcons by speeding up a spoken phrase, even to the point where it is no longer recognized as speech. METHOD: The authors conducted five empirical experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, they measured menu navigation efficiency and accuracy among cues. In Experiments 3 and 4, they evaluated learning rate of cues and speech itself. In Experiment 5, they assessed spearcon enhancements compared to plain TTS (text to speech: speak out written menu items) in a two-dimensional auditory menu. RESULTS: Spearcons outperformed traditional and newer hybrid auditory cues in navigation efficiency, accuracy, and learning rate. Moreover, spearcons showed comparable learnability as normal speech and led to better performance than speech-only auditory cues in two-dimensional menu navigation. CONCLUSION: These results show that spearcons can be more effective than previous auditory cues in menu-based interfaces. APPLICATION: Spearcons have broadened the taxonomy of nonspeech auditory cues. Users can benefit from the application of spearcons in real devices.

Light stimulation triggered expression of genes coding for vacuolar proton-pump enzymes V-ATPase and V-PPase in buckwheat.

Although coloration in plants is ascribable to both the accumulation of anthocyanin pigments in vacuoles and to the acidification of vacuolar pH, the environmental factors causing the decrease in vacuolar pH are unknown. We found that blue-light irradiation of buckwheat seedlings using light-emitting diodes caused reddening on the surface of the hypocotyls. It has also been reported that light stimulation induces an accumulation of anthocyanin pigments. However, here we confirmed for the first time on the basis of real-time PCR analysis that light stimulation simultaneously triggers expression of the genes coding for subunit A of vacuolar H+-ATPase (V-ATPase) and vacuolar H(+)-pyrophosphatase (V-PPase).

Effectiveness of a clinical pathway for the diagnosis and treatment of dementia and for the education of families.

AIMS: Clinical pathways (CPs) are rarely used in the treatment of dementia. We established a CP for a series of medical practices (diagnosis, treatment, establishment of a care system, and caregiver education) for patients with dementia hospitalized for a three-week period, and evaluated its usefulness. METHODS: The length of hospital stay and hospital costs were compared between 23 consecutive patients with dementia hospitalized and treated using a CP and 20 controls treated by conventional medical practice without using a CP in a special ward for dementia patients. In the CP group, at the time of discharge, primary caregivers, physicians, and nurses were given a questionnaire to obtain their comments about the impression of treatment with the CP. RESULTS: The questionnaire survey indicated that the CP deepened the caregiver's understanding of the sequence of medical practices for the inpatient, the disorders of the inpatient, the treatment methods, and the methods for coping with the disorder. The CP was also useful for facilitating inpatient medical practice and promoting the establishment of a care system after discharge. The use of the CP significantly shortened the length of hospital stay and decreased hospital costs during hospitalization but increased the amount of work per day and made the medical staff feel that their freedom to choose medical procedures had been restricted. CONCLUSIONS: The CP was useful for execution of inpatient medical practices for patients with dementia.