Design recommendations for the creation of icons for the elderly

During employment of icons in order to represent system functions, specific user requirements from elderly people have not been scientifically gathered and thus will merely be considered during the process of system design. The survey, with explicit consideration of technology acceptance and experience of 120 elderly probands, looked into the comprehension of four different classes of non-animated graphical representations. It was shown that among elderly, the use of photos compared to pictograms or clip art leads to a significantly higher recognition rate. The mapping of actions rather than objects leads to a further reduction of the error probability and is thus, especially in the context of telemedicine, preferable for the target group.     

Adaptive information design for outdoor augmented reality

Augmented Reality focuses on the enrichment of the user's natural field of view by consistent integration of text, symbols and interactive three-dimensional objects in real time. Placing virtual objects directly into the user's view in a natural context empowers highly dynamic applications. On the other hand, this necessitates deliberate choice of information design and density, in particular for deployment in hazardous environments like military combat scenarios. As the amount of information needed is not foreseeable and strongly depends on the individual mission, an appropriate system must offer adequate adaptation capabilities. The paper presents a prototypical, vehicle-mountable Augmented Reality vision system, designed for enhancing situation awareness in stressful urban warfare scenarios. Tracking, as one of the most crucial challenges for outdoor Augmented Reality, is accomplished by means of a Differential-GPS approach while the type of display to attach can be modified, ranging from ocular displays to standard LCD mini-screens. The overall concept also includes envisioning of own troops (blue forces), for which a multi-sensor tracking approach has been chosen. As a main feature, the system allows switching between different information categories, focusing on friendly, hostile, unidentified or neutral data. Results of an empirical study on the superiority of an in-view navigation cue approach conclude the paper.     

The relevance of temporal iconicity with instruction manuals for elderly users

Gerontolinguistic obtains a growing importance with the increase of elderly users due to Demographic Change. Since acceptance and ease of use of supportive systems for elderly, such as "E-Nursing-Assistants", are highly dependent on the age suitable design of readable instructions, an age-appropriate linguistic concept is of high value for usability. There has been only little research on the relevance of foreign words, signal words, textual arrangement, optical accentuation of key terms and temporal iconicity concerning older users. Thus, an efficient design of age suitable manual instructions within a medical context still remains to be done. The objective of this research was to evaluate the relevance of the previously mentioned factors in the context of written instructions. For this, an empirical survey was designed which was given to 45 study participants. The subjects of the experiment were given 4x3 instructions after a pretest questionnaire. The aim was to execute these instructions as correctly and quickly as possible. Furthermore the instructions were rated regarding comprehensibility with a retrospective questionnaire.     

Labor Unions and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from New Data

While a growing literature demonstrates the impact of socio-political factors on citizens’ quality of life, scholars have paid comparatively little attention to the role political organizations such as labor unions play in this regard. We examine labor organization as a determinant of cross-national variation in life satisfaction across a sample of advanced industrial polities. Our findings strongly suggest that unions increase the life satisfaction of citizens, and that that this effect holds for non-union members as well. Moreover, we also find that labor organization has the strongest impact on the subjective well-being of citizens with lower incomes. We confirm these hypotheses using both individual and aggregate-level data from fourteen nations. We show these relationships to have an independent and separable impact from other economic, political, and cultural determinants. The implications for the study of life satisfaction and of labor unions as political actors in general are discussed.     

Diglossia and identity in Northeast Thailand: Linguistic,social, and political hierarchy

The paper explores diglossic relations between Central Thai and phasa isan, a variety officially known as a dialect of Thai, but linguistically close to Lao. Phasa isan is spoken by almost one‐third of Thailand's population but its speakers in the Northeast are often stigmatized as uneducated and backward. We conducted field research mainly among university students in Ubon Ratchathani, a northeastern border province, by drawing upon data from survey questionnaires, reflective essays, interviews, and field observations. The findings suggest a transitional diglossic relationship in which Central Thai is the High and phasa isan the Low variety. These relationships are discussed in terms of nationalism, social hierarchy, and language maintenance and shift.     

Wer ist in Deutschland willkommen?Who is welcome in Germany?

Germany is currently experiencing a huge inflow of migrants. In this vignette study, we analyze how much different kinds of migrants are accepted in Germany. We investigate three different rights for migrants: the right to stay in Germany, the right to work in Germany and the right to receive social benefits. Our results show that people who flee from political persecution are much more accepted compared to migrants who come because of economic reasons. This is particularly true for the right to receive social benefits. On the other hand, our results suggest that there is a strong preference for high-skilled and culturally non-distant migrants. Concerns regarding individual competition on the job market seem to play only a minor role.     

Identifying Mental Disorder from the Faces of Women with Borderline Personality Disorder

Although appearance-based cues can help to diagnose physical illness, visual manifestations of mental disorder may be more elusive. Here, we investigated whether individuals could distinguish women with a serious mental disorder (borderline personality disorder) from demographically- and IQ-matched non-psychiatric controls. Participants rated mentally ill targets as more likely to have a mental disorder from photos more accurately than chance, despite not believing that such judgments were possible. The configuration of facial cues played an important role in these judgments, as interfering with the spatial relationships between facial features reduced participants’ accuracy to chance guessing. Further investigation showed similar results when participants rated the targets for specific mental disorders (borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder) and rated the mentally ill targets as more depressed, angry, anxious, disgusted, emotionally unstable, distressed, and less happy. Moreover, the depression ratings significantly correlated with the targets’ actual depressive symptoms. Thus, individuals may be able to infer aspects of mental disorder from minimal facial cues.     

COMBAT EXPOSURE,CIGARETTE CONSUMPTION,AND SUBSTANCE USE

This study estimates the relationship between combat exposure and several risky health behaviors: cigarette consumption, binge drinking, and drug use. We find that the U.S. active duty military personnel deployed to combat zones with enemy firefight are more likely to subsequently smoke cigarettes, consume alcohol, and use illicit drugs than their counterparts deployed to noncombat operations. Our results suggest that the mental health effects of combat can explain up to two‐thirds of the estimated association between combat exposure and risky health behaviors. (JEL H56, I12)     

Abuse of disabled children in Ghana

Even though disabled children are targets of various forms of abuse, such issues remain mostly undocumented open secrets in many countries including Ghana. The article is based on a qualitative data provided by three key informants. Six stories emerged from the data and are discussed in terms of four main forms of abuse. Labelling theories are employed to strengthen the discussions. The article is aimed at increasing awareness on the various forms of abuse experienced by disabled children in Ghana. The study is also meant to capture the attentions of stakeholders that have the responsibility to end abusive practices against disabled children in Ghana.