Research into automatic text simplification aims to promote access to information for all members of society. To facilitate generalizability, simplification research often abstracts away from specific use cases, and targets a prototypical reader and an underspecified content creator. In this paper, we consider a real-world use case – simplification technology for use in Dutch municipalities – and identify the needs of the content creators and the target audiences in this scenario. The stakeholders envision a system that (a) assists the human writer without taking over the task; (b) provides diverse outputs, tailored for specific target audiences; and (c) explains the suggestions that it outputs. These requirements call for technology that is characterized by modularity, explainability, and variability. We argue that these are important research directions that require further exploration
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In een eerder uitgevoerd onderzoek naar werken op afstand bij de reclassering (Henskens et al., 2021) bleek dat reclasseringswerkers behoefte hadden aan handvatten bij het structureren van hun online gesprekken met cliënten. Ook wilden zij basisvaardigheden leren om deze online gesprekken meer verdieping te geven. In het huidige project zijn vier leerinterventies verkend omwerken op afstand bij reclasseringswerkers te versterken: een handreiking, training, ‘goede praktijken’ en instructiefilmpjes. Uiteindelijk is alleen de handreiking ontwikkeld. In dit project is een internationale literatuurverkenning gedaan naar de geschiktheid van een handreiking voor reclasseringswerkers: hoe ziet deze eruit qua vorm en inhoud? Hierna is de handreiking in nauwe afstemming met de praktijk ontwikkeld. In een pilot hebben zes reclasseringswerkers de conceptversie van de handreiking uitgetest op respectievelijk leesbaarheid, bruikbaarheid, doelmatigheid en geschiktheid. Uit deze pilot bleek dat werkers de handreiking aantrekkelijk vonden in gebruik en als ondersteunend ervaarden bij het voeren van online gesprekken. Zij vonden de tekst goed leesbaar en overzichtelijk. Ook vonden zij dat er voldoende technische tips in stonden. Ze adviseerden de handreiking goed vindbaar te maken op intranet. Uit de probleemanalyse bleek dat een training geen geschikte leerinterventie zou zijn omdat de reclasseringswerkers geen leervragen hadden. De andere leerinterventies zijn door een combinatie van terugtrekking van de reclassering uit KFZ en een verminderde behoefte aan online interventies niet meer uitgevoerd. Uiteindelijk heeft dit project een product opgeleverd dat positief is geëvalueerd in de pilot. Op het Reclasseringscongres van 11 november jl. reageerde een groep reclasseringswerkers die deelnam aan de workshop ‘Werken op afstand’ positief op de handreiking: zij vonden het prettig om concrete handvatten aangereikt te krijgen om online te kunnen werken.
OBJECTIVE: Patients diagnosed with advanced larynx cancer face a decisional process in which they can choose between radiotherapy, chemoradiotherapy, or a total laryngectomy with adjuvant radiotherapy. Clinicians do not always agree on the best clinical treatment, making the decisional process for patients a complex problem.METHODS: Guided by the International Patient Decision Aid (PDA) Standards, we followed three developmental phases for which we held semi-structured in-depth interviews with patients and physicians, thinking-out-loud sessions, and a study-specific questionnaire. Audio-recorded interviews were verbatim transcribed, thematically coded, and analyzed. Phase 1 consisted of an evaluation of the decisional needs and the regular counseling process; phase 2 tested the comprehensibility and usability of the PDA; and phase 3 beta tested the feasibility of the PDA.RESULTS: Patients and doctors agreed on the need for development of a PDA. Major revisions were conducted after phase 1 to improve the readability and replace the majority of text with video animations. Patients and physicians considered the PDA to be a major improvement to the current counseling process.CONCLUSION: This study describes the development of a comprehensible and easy-to-use online patient decision aid for advanced larynx cancer, which was found satisfactory by patients and physicians (available on www.treatmentchoice.info). The outcome of the interviews underscores the need for better patient counseling. The feasibility and satisfaction among newly diagnosed patients as well as doctors will need to be proven. To this end, we started a multicenter trial evaluating the PDA in clinical practice (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03292341).LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA Laryngoscope, 129:2733-2739, 2019.
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The livability of the cities and attractiveness of our environment can be improved by smarter choices for mobility products and travel modes. A change from current car-dependent lifestyles towards the use of healthier and less polluted transport modes, such as cycling, is needed. With awareness campaigns, cycling facilities and cycle infrastructure, the use of the bicycle will be stimulated. But which campaigns are effective? Can we stimulate cycling by adding cycling facilities along the cycle path? How can we design the best cycle infrastructure for a region? And what impact does good cycle infrastructure have on the increase of cycling?To find answers for these questions and come up with a future approach to stimulate bicycle use, BUas is participating in the InterReg V NWE-project CHIPS; Cycle Highways Innovation for smarter People transport and Spatial planning. Together with the city of Tilburg and other partners from The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and United Kingdom we explore and demonstrate infrastructural improvements and tackle crucial elements related to engaging users and successful promotion of cycle highways. BUas is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the project. To measure the impact and effectiveness of cycle highway innovations we use Cyclespex and Cycleprint.With Cyclespex a virtual living lab is created which we will use to test several readability and wayfinding measures for cycle infrastructure. Cyclespex gives us the opportunity to test different scenario’s in virtual reality that will help us to make decisions about the final solution that will be realized on the cycle highway. Cycleprint will be used to develop a monitoring dashboard where municipalities of cities can easily monitor and evaluate the local bicycle use.
A research theme encompassing educational collaborations, external collaborations, publications, and conference talks on the general topics of UI, UX, interface design, and world readability in video games.Beyond addressing interfaces as only menus and icons ('UI'), the research approaches all contents of a video game as an interface, examining how whole systems are read by, and communicate with, players.
Electrohydrodynamic Atomization (EHDA), also known as Electrospray (ES), is a technology which uses strong electric fields to manipulate liquid atomization. Among many other areas, electrospray is used as an important tool for biomedical application (droplet encapsulation), water technology (thermal desalination and metal recovery) and material sciences (nanofibers and nano spheres fabrication, metal recovery, selective membranes and batteries). A complete review about the particularities of this tool and its application was recently published (2018), as an especial edition of the Journal of Aerosol Sciences. One of the main known bottlenecks of this technique, it is the fact that the necessary strong electric fields create a risk for electric discharges. Such discharges destabilize the process but can also be an explosion risk depending on the application. The goal of this project is to develop a reliable tool to prevent discharges in electrospray applications.
