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mordormr · 1 day

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Exploring the Bladder Scanners Industry: Trends, Growth Drivers, and Market Outlook

The bladder scanners market size is witnessing significant growth due to the increasing prevalence of urological diseases, technological advancements, and the rising demand for non-invasive diagnostic tools. Bladder scanners, used primarily to measure the amount of urine in the bladder, have become essential in healthcare settings for diagnosing and managing conditions such as urinary retention, bladder dysfunction, and post-operative care. According to recent market research, The bladder scanners market is projected to be valued at USD 159.66 million in 2024 and is expected to grow to USD 214.67 million by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.10% over the forecast period (2024-2029).

Key Growth Drivers

Rising Prevalence of Urological Disorders: The increasing incidence of urinary tract infections (UTIs), bladder dysfunctions, and other urological disorders is driving the demand for bladder scanners. As the global population ages, conditions such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and incontinence are becoming more common, further propelling market growth. Bladder scanners provide a non-invasive solution to accurately assess bladder volume, helping clinicians in early diagnosis and timely intervention.

Technological Advancements: Recent technological innovations in bladder scanner devices have improved their accuracy, ease of use, and portability. Ultrasound-based bladder scanners are increasingly favored for their ability to provide real-time imaging without causing discomfort to the patient. The development of wireless, hand-held bladder scanners with user-friendly interfaces has enhanced their adoption across hospitals, outpatient clinics, and home healthcare settings. These advancements are significantly boosting the market's expansion.

Increasing Awareness and Training in Non-Invasive Procedures: The medical community’s focus on reducing invasive procedures is growing, and bladder scanners are an important part of this shift. With rising awareness about the risks associated with catheterization, healthcare professionals are increasingly adopting bladder scanners as a safer alternative for diagnosing urinary retention. Training initiatives are being conducted to familiarize clinicians with the benefits and usage of bladder scanners, further driving demand.

Rising Demand in Geriatric Care: The aging population is one of the critical growth factors in the bladder scanner market. Older adults are more likely to suffer from conditions such as urinary retention, which requires frequent monitoring. Bladder scanners, which provide quick and accurate readings without the need for invasive procedures, are becoming essential tools in managing geriatric care in both hospital and home-care settings.

Government Support and Healthcare Investments: Governments and healthcare organizations worldwide are investing in improving diagnostic infrastructure, especially in developing countries. Increased healthcare spending and initiatives aimed at improving patient outcomes are likely to contribute to the widespread adoption of bladder scanners. Moreover, regulatory agencies are increasingly focusing on ensuring that diagnostic tools are safe, reliable, and accessible, which is positively impacting the bladder scanner market.

Market Challenges

High Initial Costs: One of the key challenges in the bladder scanner industry is the high initial cost of these devices. While they provide long-term savings by reducing the need for invasive procedures, the upfront expense can be a barrier for smaller clinics and healthcare facilities, particularly in developing regions.

Limited Awareness in Developing Regions: Although bladder scanners offer significant advantages, there is still a lack of awareness in certain regions, especially in rural and underdeveloped areas. Efforts to educate healthcare providers about the benefits of non-invasive diagnostic tools are necessary to expand market penetration in these areas.

Regional Market Dynamics

North America and Europe: Leading the Market North America and Europe are the dominant players in the bladder scanner market, driven by advanced healthcare infrastructure, high prevalence of urological diseases, and strong adoption of innovative medical devices. The presence of leading manufacturers and extensive research and development activities further contribute to the region’s market leadership.

Asia-Pacific: A Rapidly Growing Market: The Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness significant growth in the bladder scanner industry due to the rising aging population, increasing healthcare investments, and growing awareness of bladder health. Countries like China, India, and Japan are experiencing an uptick in demand as healthcare facilities expand their diagnostic capabilities and adopt more advanced technologies.

Conclusion

The bladder scanner market is poised for substantial growth in the coming years, driven by technological advancements, the growing need for non-invasive diagnostic tools, and the rising incidence of urological disorders. As healthcare providers seek more efficient, patient-friendly solutions, bladder scanners are set to play a critical role in improving patient outcomes. With increasing awareness, government support, and ongoing innovation, the bladder scanner industry is expected to expand, creating new opportunities for manufacturers and healthcare institutions alike.

For a detailed overview and more insights, you can refer to the full market research report by Mordor Intelligence https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/bladder-scanners-market

#bladder scanners market #bladder scanners market size #bladder scanners market share #bladder scanners market trends #bladder scanners market analysis #bladder scanners market forecast

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hazrafixx · 11 months

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Tech and the Future of Fitness: Wearable Health Tech

Tech and the Future of Fitness: Wearable Health Tech From workouts that are more akin to group exercise classes than treadmill-teeming gym facilities to wearable technology that collects physiological data for athletes or patients recovering from medical procedures, these innovations offer a glimpse into the next phase of the fitness industry. While the industry may be reminiscent of past fads, new technology is paving the way for digital disruption that will make fitness more community-oriented, hyper-personalized and accessible than ever before.

The most common type of fitness tech is the wearable tracker, which is worn around the wrist and connects to various smartphone apps that provide users with valuable fitness-related information. These include monitoring blood pressure and heart rate, counting calories and managing training regimens. Trackers that can also detect and respond to certain environmental factors, like weather or a nearby COVID-19 outbreak, can help people take more precautions in their everyday lives to avoid infections.

Despite being one technology viewer website of the most common types of wearable devices, trackers can still have their drawbacks, especially in terms of design and accuracy. Many are secured with straps that can rub against the skin or irritate it, and moisture or even sweat can affect their results. This is why manufacturers are working to develop more discreet, less invasive technologies that can gather accurate data without being too visible or uncomfortable for the user.

Companies, such as the personal technology ring maker Motiv and bio-sensing apparel company Omsignal, are designing rings, sports bras, tank tops and shorts that are embedded with sensors to track data like physical activity, heart rate and sleep patterns. Some even feature a haptic feedback system to let the wearer know when it's time to hit the gym.

While a few of these smart pieces are already on the market, some are still in development and are set to hit the streets within the next couple years. Stretchable artificial skin is on the verge of being developed, which could be used in clothing to monitor data points such as temperature, strain and movement. It's not only expected to revolutionize the fashion and textiles industries, but could be used for more specialized applications such as monitoring heart rates in patients during surgery or in virtual reality simulation exercises that can prepare military personnel for the stresses of combat.

While these technologies technology website can be beneficial to consumers, the fitness industry's biggest benefit may come from how they foster community and accountability. By encouraging users to share their progress on social media, these technologies can inspire a sense of competition and support in people trying to achieve similar goals. They can also encourage users to get more active by allowing them to see how they stack up against their friends and the fitness pros who create workout videos and challenges on popular platforms, such as Peloton and Strava. These tools are a great way to inspire people to keep up with their fitness journey, and it's a trend that will likely continue well into the future.

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leroylawpa · 1 year

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Understanding DUI Tests in West Palm Beach

When facing a DUI charge in West Palm Beach, understanding the testing methods and their accuracy is crucial. Before making any decisions, here are some essential tips related to DUI tests:

Act quickly: Time is of the essence when considering how to challenge a DUI charge based on test results.

Know your rights: Familiarize yourself with your rights regarding testing procedures.

Hire an attorney: Seeking guidance from a knowledgeable attorney can significantly influence your case's outcome.

Read more about DUI Laws on Wikipedia

Breathalyzer Tests: Are They Always Right?

Breathalyzer tests are the most common method used to determine a person's blood alcohol concentration (BAC). These devices measure the amount of alcohol in one's breath to estimate BAC. However, several factors can affect the accuracy of breathalyzer tests:

Device Calibration: If the device isn't calibrated correctly, it can produce inaccurate results.

Medications and Mouthwash: Some substances, like certain mouthwashes or medications, contain alcohol, which can affect the results.

Certain physical conditions and environmental factors can also influence the outcome. It's essential to remember that while breathalyzers can provide evidence, they aren't infallible.

Blood Tests: The Gold Standard?

Blood tests are considered more accurate than breath tests. However, there are still potential issues to consider:

Chain of Custody: If the blood sample isn't handled or stored correctly, it can be compromised.

Laboratory Errors: Mistakes during the analysis can lead to inaccurate BAC readings.

It's crucial to understand these potential pitfalls when evaluating blood test results in a DUI case.

Field Sobriety Tests: Subjective by Nature

Field sobriety tests are a series of physical and cognitive tasks that officers ask suspected impaired drivers to perform. These might include:

Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) Test: Checking the eyes' movement.

Walk and Turn Test: Assessing balance and coordination.

Because these tests rely on officer observation, they can be subjective, and results can vary based on the individual's physical condition or the environment.

Urine Tests: Less Common but Still Used

Urine tests are less commonly used for DUIs due to their less reliable nature. Factors affecting accuracy include:

Time Delay: Alcohol concentration in urine can differ from blood alcohol levels.

Diet and Hydration: The individual's hydration level can dilute or concentrate the urine sample.

Despite their limitations, urine tests can still provide evidence in DUI cases, especially when other tests are inconclusive.

Hair Testing: Checking for Long-Term Use

Though not typically used for DUI cases, hair tests can detect drug or alcohol use over more extended periods. They're not ideal for determining recent impairment but can provide information on long-term substance use.

Saliva Testing: Emerging Method

Saliva tests are becoming more popular due to their non-invasive nature. However, their reliability is still being studied, and they might not be as accurate as blood tests.

Passive Alcohol Sensors: Detecting Alcohol in the Air

These sensors are often incorporated into police flashlights or clipboards and can detect alcohol in the air around a person's mouth. While they can't provide exact BAC readings, they give officers probable cause for further testing.

Hypothetical Case

Imagine you're driving home from a gathering in West Palm Beach. A police officer stops you for a minor traffic violation. The officer suspects you've been drinking due to the smell of alcohol. You're subjected to a breathalyzer test, which indicates a BAC above the legal limit. However, you're confident you weren't impaired.

Upon hiring a skilled attorney from LeRoy Law, they uncovered that the breathalyzer used during your stop wasn't calibrated correctly. Additionally, you'd used mouthwash shortly before driving, which contained alcohol. These factors combined led to the inaccurate high reading. With this information, your attorney successfully challenges the DUI charge.

Key Takeaways on DUI Tests

No test is 100% accurate: Every DUI testing method has its limitations.

Knowing your rights can be a game-changer: Understand what you're required to submit to and what you can decline.

An experienced attorney is invaluable: A skilled DUI attorney can critically assess test results and challenge their validity.

How LeRoy Law Can Support You

Facing a DUI charge in West Palm Beach can be a daunting experience. At LeRoy Law, we pride ourselves on our deep understanding of the nuances of DUI tests. Our dedicated team will meticulously analyze every detail of your case, ensuring that any test inaccuracies or rights violations are promptly identified. Let us stand by your side, advocating for your rights and providing the legal experience you need.

FAQs

Can medical conditions affect DUI tests? Yes, some medical conditions like diabetes or GERD can affect breathalyzer results.

Is it possible to refuse a DUI test in Florida? Yes, but refusal can come with penalties, such as license suspension.

How often are breathalyzers calibrated? Ideally, regular calibration ensures accuracy, but the frequency can vary.

Can diet or eating patterns influence breath tests? Yes, consuming certain foods or fasting can produce substances that mimic alcohol in some tests.

What's the difference between a DUI and a DWI? Generally, a DUI is driving under the influence of alcohol, while a DWI can include other substances. However, the terms are used interchangeably in many jurisdictions.

Disclaimer

LeRoy Law tries to ensure the accuracy of this article. However, Florida Statutes change, case law changes, and as such, errors may occur. LeRoy Law assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions in this article. LeRoy Law encourages you to utilize our links to relevant Florida Statutes. Contact my office at [561.290.2730] if you have any questions or require legal assistance.

#LeRoyLaw #JoshLeRoy #WestPalmBeach #WestPalmBeachDUILawyer #KnowYourRights

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exelahrsolutions · 1 year

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Reasons to make HR and payroll data available for employees

HR and payroll data – every salaried professional is well aware of these terms, but how many of these professionals have access to it? It might vary from enterprise to enterprise. But isn’t the employee data supposed to be shared transparently with employees? Of course, yes! Yet, many organizations hide HR and payroll data from employees.

It can be problematic for employees when they are kept in the dark about their own data. There are many instances where employees get stuck into unnecessary jams or get stranded by payroll errors or HR management mistakes – just because they don’t have access to their personal employment data. Picture this – your employees are getting into critical medical situations and have no idea about insurance policies or deductions. Or, they have to chase HR professionals to correct some information; or even worse, employees find out they have been shorted on their check without knowing deductions.

An ineffective knowledge-sharing culture can cost large companies over $47 million in lost productivity annually.

All of this can be sorted with just one solution – let your employees access, update, and manage their own HR and payroll processing data. Built-up communication and transparency are perhaps the most valuable features of a successful work environment.

Companies with a high-trust environment gain two to three times higher stock returns and have 50% lower turnover rates than competitors.

The high-trust environment is where employees can collaboratively and transparently share knowledge. But, as simple as it sounds, many firms aren’t still on board. Here’s why organizations try to keep HR and payroll processing data from employees and how they can stop information from withholding.

The numbers

These numbers are everything you need to see and understand why it’s crucial to effectively and transparently share HR and payroll processing data with employees:

· Delayed salaries can adversely affect the job satisfaction and personal financial outlook of 70% of people.

· Allowing employees to verify payroll processing data before it gets credited helps employees (35%) plan finances more efficiently, (28%) trust their employer even more, and (24%) better plan for changes in wages.

· 30% of employees wish to review the accuracy of their pay before it hits their salary accounts.

· 90% of employees find it beneficial to have 24/7 access to their HR data, including payroll, in one place.

· 77% of employees are frustrated with the outdated technologies they use at work, and 67% would instead take a pay cut for something twice as good.

Also Read: Employee Engagement Starts with Accurate Payroll Outsourcing

Why do organizations keep HR and payroll data from employees

After going through all the numbers showing how adversely hiding employee data can affect both the organization and employees, the most obvious question that arises is why do most organizations hide employee information? According to a survey, the reason could be the fear of losing power or having the leverage to know unique information.

Other reasons might also include the following:

· Identifying knowledge as our own property.

· Worrying that we will be judged on the basis of what we know.

· Disliking or distrusting those who ask us.

In a nutshell, organizations hide information because they fear the potential costs of sharing it. But does information hiding really benefit organizations? Of course not!

According to a survey, people who engage in knowledge hiding are over 17% less likely to thrive at work or experience growth and learning.

Knowledge or information withholding from peers does not actually result in a competitive advantage. It instead makes employees feel psychologically unsafe. It is evident that without psychological safety, employees find it challenging to focus on work, develop meaningful relationships, or explore new working styles without worrying about failures or mistakes. Under such circumstances, employees often struggle to maintain a positive attitude and engage in learning opportunities.

How can organizations stop withholding HR and payroll data from employees?

The HR department has one unique mission to work toward employees’ needs and wants. On top of that, some companies solely work to simplify your HR processes by providing best-in-class HR services – including payroll. Hiding employment data from employees with a negative attitude is only going to harm. Organizations must establish cultures where employees feel comfortable expressing their concerns. Addressing employee issues that are making them feel cynical can help you gain back their trust and help alleviate that cynicism.

Third-party, anonymous surveys can also do wonders in helping you figure out why your HR and payroll management professionals hold cynical attitudes. The results will help you design and implement targeted practices to ensure the workplace is fair, hopeful, and trustworthy for everyone. Moreover, you can also arrange workshops or training for HR management and payroll management teams on understanding employee behavior.

Lastly, HR and payroll outsourcing can essentially turn out to be beneficial. You wouldn’t have to worry about sensitive employee data getting lost or stolen and still can effectively and transparently share with employees. HR outsourcing services ensure that all the records are secure and provide best-in-class platforms where employees can easily access, maintain, or change their HR or payroll data.

Though all of these changes seem easy, implementing those won’t be. Withholding HR and payroll data from employees is widely prevalent in the workplace, which will take time to fix. However, being patient and acknowledging reality can be your first step toward developing an ideal workplace.

Conclusion

Most organizations that provide HR services or payroll processing services are aware of the fact that they are dealing with the most sensitive part of an organization – people. Employees are the most valuable asset that companies can have; thus, it is incredibly critical to help them feel satisfied and happy – which directly affects employee productivity and engagement. While all of this is well communicated, most organizations still make the common mistake of hiding HR and payroll data from employees. This makes your employees feel insecure and less satisfied with the work culture.

Exela HR Solutions is a leader in HR outsourcing and payroll outsourcing services that can help simplify all your HR processes, manage data securely, and implement practices to make your workplace ideal. Our experts provide the best-in-class, unified platform where your employees can easily access and manage all their data. Talk to our experts to discuss your requirements and solution for the same. Get Exela HR Solutions today!

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

Source & to read more: https://bit.ly/3X1p3VC

#GlobalPayrollProcessing #HROutsourcing #hr #human resources #payroll #payrollprocessing #payroll outsourcing #global payroll outsourcing #hr otusourcing #HRO #HR Srevices #HR Solutions

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hlhproto · 1 year

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Vacuum Casting: Advancements in Technology and Applications

If you're still utilizing production tooling to produce low-volume, production-quality parts, you're likely aware of the time and cost involved. It's time to consider vacuum casting, a more advanced method that can produce parts of equal quality regardless of size.

Vacuum casting, also referred to as cast urethanes, involves creating a custom mold to produce small quantities of high-quality plastic or rubber-like parts. Liquefied material is then injected into the mold while under a vacuum, resulting in a precise and detailed piece with an exceptional surface finish.

Vacuum casting has come a long way in terms of application and technology. Still, low-volume part production remains beneficial to anyone looking to save time and money. Here are some of its most significant applications and technological advancements.

Where is it useful?

Cast urethanes have many useful applications today. One of its most common uses is rapid prototyping since it produces production-grade parts quickly and cost-effectively. Plus, it requires a low, upfront investment to help you save money during product development.

Given its versatility, molding can meet low-volume end-use manufacturing requirements. It delivers self-colored identical parts from a wide range of materials, like transparent soft rubber, PC, ABS, PA, PMMA, or PP. Vacuum casting lets you recreate the same part using production-quality materials for a range of industries, including industrial electronics, consumer products, and FMCG manufacturing.

Better technologies

Product designers, manufacturers, and engineers trust cast urethane molding to make high-quality precision parts with intricate details. With evolving technology, the applications of this molding technique continue to grow. Here are some important examples:

· Medical implants: The medical industry uses cast urethanes to make complex custom components like prosthetics and implants.

· Food packaging: Vacuum casting can produce custom packaging components and molding tools for food production.

· Automotive: Vacuum-cast automotive parts are highly detailed and accurate, making them in high demand for body panels, exhaust systems, and intake manifolds.

· Aerospace: Repeatability, accuracy, and ability to produce intricate details make cast urethanes ideal for fuel systems, air ducts, and exterior parts for aircraft.

Get cast urethanes from the experts!

Save time and get high-quality parts cost-effectively with our

vacuum casting

services here at HLH Proto! Get a quote or request a free project review, so we can tell you more about our process

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pathologyucgconference · 2 years

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Digital Pathology's Function And How Can It Help With Healthcare? To Learn More, Join us at the 10DIGIPATH202

Digital pathology exemplifies innovation and a dedication to excellence in healthcare, with a focus on supporting pathology training, clinical research, informatics, and the global practice of human pathology.

Through the digitalization of conventional analogue procedures, technology has significantly altered the pathology landscape. The following criteria can all be improved by the use of digital pathology, including patient safety, pathology workflow, service quality, and workforce factors:

accuracy of diagnosis Digital pathology minimises classification and diagnostic pathology errors and creates techniques for individualised medical care:

For the pathologist, high definition digital slides offer higher image clarity and more detail.

The ability for comparisons with digital slides from prior cases and a variety of viewing choices allow for far more precise and rapid findings for patients.

speedier and more effective procedures. Digital pathology reduces monotonous, repetitive, and mind-numbing work:

It enables doctors to concentrate on providing effective medical care for disorders that have been correctly diagnosed.

It enhances workflow, increasing productivity and scalability in the laboratory setting. With a dashboard view of data and annotations, pathologists can quickly review previous cases. This shortens the time it takes to retrieve, match, and organise data.

The benefits of digital pathology

There are several benefits associated with using digital pathology, and these benefits are assisting in the practice's widespread adoption and widespread application in lab settings.

enhanced analysis

To start, digital pathology provides better analysis. It offers automatic slide analysis methods that are unbiased, quick, and precise. Additionally, it gives researchers immediate access to earlier comparable cases, serving as data storage for long-term predictive analytics.

decrease in errors

Additionally, because digital photos are saved, breakages do not pose a threat to data due to the use of digital pathology, which reduces mistakes like misidentification.

improving imaging

Additionally, the procedure allows scientists to magnify the slides and see them from various perspectives, providing greater views of the materials. Additionally, it enables the annotation and measurement of numerous places of interest.

better results for patients

One of the key responsibilities of pathologists is to provide a diagnosis for a patient using tissue samples, leaving a crucial choice to one person or a small number of people. Even if the person assessing the samples is an expert, they are still susceptible to human error when diagnosing in this fashion.

Digital pathology can produce accurate diagnosis results quickly while also minimizing human error. Digital pathology's techniques enable it to expedite typical tasks without compromising the effectiveness of each task's execution.

Thank You For Visit My Blog.

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Reference Digital Pathology UCGConferences press releases and blogs

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obviouslygenuinely · 4 years

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Free Resources For Writers & Creators

This is a quick post of free resources that may help fandom creators (or creators in general). I’m sure many of these have been shared before. However, it doesn’t hurt to spread the word. A few quick points:

As a professional writer, I think this post will cater mostly towards writers.

I’m also a freelance photographer, so digital photography/editing/art sources are included, too.

I chose not to use any affiliate links in my post. I don’t want to profit from this, and I’m not sure that’s allowed on Tumblr anyways.

If I’ve listed a resource I haven’t used myself, I’ve made sure to state it.

Masterlists and/or huge resource compilations are marked with asterisks.

Alright, here we go! I hope you all find this post helpful. Happy writing/creating!

Research

All of these are free resources for research. I use most of them for my writing jobs because they are extremely credible. These are great for making accurate references in your fics/creations.

1. ***Research Resources For Writers***

Writer’s Write has an enormous database of research resources for writers. They are divided into 20+ categories such as:

careers

historical research

crimes and forensics

religion

Each category contains 10+ resources like websites, articles, tips, databases, and so much more. It’s the most comprehensive and organized free research tool I use.

2. PubMed

My go-to source for citing medical studies. You’ll find 30 million citations related to numerous physical and mental health issues.

3. BioMed Central

I don’t use this website as often, but I keep it in my bookmarks. It’s similar to PubMed - great for discovering current and former medical research.

4. Drugs.com

If you need to name a medication and/or refer to medication side effects, Drugs.com is a straightforward resource. It’s easy to navigate and understand.

It also has a tool that lists potential medication interactions. This is really useful for accurate descriptions of med combinations.

5. Merck Manuals Consumer Version

Merck Manuals started out in 1899 as a medical reference guide for professionals. This consumer version is really comprehensive and updated regularly. It includes definitions, studies, and more.

6. FindLaw

If you’re writing about legal topics, FindLaw is useful for learning about laws/procedures in reader-friendly language. Categories include:

accidents/injuries

criminal law

family law (divorce, custody, etc.)

Keep in mind that laws vary based on location! You’ll often find additional links to state-related laws within articles. I do recommend double-checking state/location-based legal resources for accuracy.

7. APA Dictionary of Psychology

This psychology dictionary is provided by the American Psychological Association. It covers 90+ areas of psychology and 25,000+ terms/definitions.

You’ll also find links to additional psychology databases, resources, and so on. The website is updated frequently to provide updated information.

8. U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics

If you’re writing about a character’s job/career in the United States, this is a great source for accuracy. For any job sector, you’ll find details about

education requirements

positions in the sector

average salary for positions

what the positions entail

I imagine there are alternatives for other countries, too!

9. Investopedia Financial Term Dictionary

My area of expertise is personal finance; all of my writing published under my name is in this niche. I still refer to Investopedia’s dictionary for help. It’s excellent for understanding/explaining financial terms in a way that your reader can understand.

10. MedTerms Medical Dictionary

This is the medical version of Investopedia’s dictionary. I use this source less frequently, but I find that it’s accurate and helpful. There are many similar references online if you search for “medical glossaries” or “medical dictionaries”.

11. Domain Authority Checker

I’m not sure if this one is too helpful for fic writers, but it’s one of my most used tools. Domain authority “a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engine result pages (SERPs)”.

The Wikipedia page for domain authority (DA) explains it clearly and simply. To sum it up, websites with good DA scores are considered reliable and accurate. If I cite sources in my work. I always link to sources with good DA scores.

Writing/Editing

This section is the most thorough one. All of these are completely free tools for writing and editing any type of content. I currently use or have used all of these at some point in my career.

1. ***List Of Free And Open-Source Software Packages***

This Wikipedia page applies to multiple categories in my post. It’s a masterpost of free and open-source software for anything and everything. Software is divided up into categories and sub-categories. Some relevant examples include:

media

networking/Internet

image editing

file management

There are hundreds of free software links on the page, so you’ll need to do a bit of browsing. Start with the categories above to find software geared towards writers/creators.

2. OpenOffice

This is a free alternative to Microsoft Office. I’ve used it for nine years and love it. OpenOffice software includes free applications for:

text documents

spreadsheets

presentations

drawing

templates

There are many more tools with OpenOffice that I haven’t used. If you write offline, I cannot recommend it enough. Tutorials are readily available online, and the software is pretty user-friendly.

3. Evernote

I briefly used Evernote and found that it’s very user-friendly and helpful. Most of my colleagues use Evernote and recommend it for taking notes/staying organized.

(I’m personally not a fan of note-taking software or apps. My method is messy text documents with bullet point lists.)

4. Google Drive

This might seem like an obvious one, but Google Drive/Docs is my writing haven. It has the tools included with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice and then some. It’s great for collaborative writing/sharing documents, too.

5. Grammarly

I use the Premium (paid) version of Grammarly, but I also used the free version for years. It’s helpful for detecting simple spelling, style, and grammatical errors.

There are numerous ways to use it - desktop, copy/paste documents, and so on. I’m not a huge fan of how well it works with Google Docs, but they’re improving it/it’s moved out of beta mode.

If you’re interested in the paid version - which I highly recommend - wait to buy until a holiday pops up. They offer a major discount on the software for almost every holiday/special occasion.

6. Plagiarism Detector

This website is handy for scanning for plagiarism. You can scan your own work to ensure uniqueness, too. My clients are big fans of this tool.

(I no longer use this resource; I use a paid tool called Copyscape Premium. The low cost has a big return on investment for me.)

7. TitleCase

The name says it all. It’s free and simple! I’ll be honest - I’m terrible with proper title case. You’d think after a decade of writing I’d nail it. However, I use this tool pretty often.

8. Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is an online and desktop editor. It’s excellent for scanning your writing to check for:

readability (a grade-level score is listed)

adverb usage

passive voice usage

complex phrase usage

estimated reading time

This tool is color-coded to make editing easy. For example, adverbs are highlighted in blue. I don’t use this as often as I used to, but it was essential for my early writing career.

9. Polish My Writing

This tool is very straightforward. You paste your writing into the text box. Spelling errors, grammar suggestions, and style suggestions are highlighted in red, blue, and green.

It’s great for double-checking your work alongside Grammarly or Hemingway. When using free editors, I recommend using at least two for higher accuracy.

10. OneLook Reverse Dictionary And Thesaurus

I’m going to use the definition directly from the website:

“This tool lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept. Your description can be anything at all: a single word, a few words, or even a whole sentence. Type in your description and hit Enter (or select a word that shows up in the autocomplete preview) to see the related words.”

To put it simply, you can use the reverse dictionary/thesaurus to find those words/thoughts that are on the tip of your tongue. Use the tool to:

find a word based on the word’s definition (i.e. search for “inability to feel pain”)

find synonyms and related concepts

generate a list of category-specific words (i.e. search for “cat breeds”)

answer basic questions (i.e. search for “what is the capital of France?”)

The results can be hit or miss, but I usually find the information I’m looking for. It’s a solid resource any writer regardless of genre.

11. Word Frequency Counter + Phrase Frequency Counter

I cannot emphasize how much I love these tools. Repetition is the bane of a writer’s existence; it’s simply inevitable at times.

These two tools count the number of times you use a single word or phrase in a text document. Just copy/paste your document, hit submit, and you’re all set!

For the phrase frequency counter, you can scan for two-word to ten-word phrases.

12. Thesaurus.com

This is another tool that might seem painfully obvious. Combined with the word frequency counter, it’s such an essential resource for me.

It’s especially useful if you’re writing about the same topic multiple times (i.e. love, getting drunk, sex, etc.). I always use this combo of tools to ensure uniqueness.

13. Lists Of Colors

Are you stumped when trying to come up with unique shades of blue? Is describing your character’s hair or skin color difficult? This Wikipedia page has you covered. It contains:

lists of colors (alphabetically)

lists of colors by shade

lists of Crayola crayon colors

lists of color palettes

I typically use this resource for product descriptions, but I also used it for creative writing many times. It’s a lifesaver for all things color-related.

Free Photos/Images

Tons of creators need free photos/images for numerous reasons. All of these sources provide 100% free photos, illustrations, etc. that have a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means there’s no copyright whatsoever on them.

You can edit the images however you’d like, too. All of the images in my post are from the first source listed below. I made them black and white and added text.

(A lot of these sites have donate buttons for contributors. Donating a dollar here and there goes a long way!)

1. Unsplash

Unsplash is my personal favorite for high-resolution photos. It’s easy to navigate and has over 2,000,000 free images. Downloading an image is a one-click process, and you don’t need to create an account.

2. Pixabay

Pixabay is my go-to site for illustrations and vector graphics (they have photos, too). There are 1.9 million free images to choose from. You don’t need an account to download images, but I recommend creating one. It’s free and with an account:

you don’t have to complete a CAPTCHA every time you download an image

you can access higher-quality/larger/etc. versions of images

I often use graphics from Pixabay to create overlays and masks for mixed media art pieces.

3. PxHere

I’ve never used PxHere, but one of my writing clients recommends it. It seems very similar to Pixabay, and the interface is user-friendly.

4. Pexels

In my limited experience, Pexels seems to focus on “artsy” stock images/content. I found great high-quality images the few times I’ve used it.

5. Burst by Shopify

I haven’t used Burst, but it’s another free image site that a writing client recommended to me. It seems a little limited compared to the other sites, but it never hurts to add it to your toolbox!

Digital Art/Photo Editing/Etc.

This section seems brief, but the tools listed are pretty comprehensive and diverse. They are geared towards many creative needs/projects like:

Creating manips of people/etc.

Adding text to images.

Creating collages.

Digital illustration.

Advanced photo editing.

There’s something for everyone. In my experience, finding your favorites among these will take some trial and error.

1. Pixlr X and Pixlr E (app available)

Pixlr X and Pixlr E are both versatile free editing tools. Pixlr X is ideal for less experienced creators. Pixlr E is comparable to Adobe PhotoShop.

I’ve used both software formats for personal and professional art projects.

The Pixlr app is handy for making collages, adding filters/overlays, adding text, and so on. I’ve used it for creating fanfiction collages and similar projects. It’s super easy to use.

2. Remove Background by Pixlr

This is one of the easiest/fastest tools I’ve found for removing backgrounds from images. It’s perfect for creators who make manips using photos of people.

It takes literal seconds to use. The tool automatically removes the background. If you spot any mistakes, you can refine the results with brush/erase tools. Then you download the cutout and you’re all set!

Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available on the Pixlr app. There are a lot of smartphone apps for removing photo backgrounds.

3. GIMP

If you need a full-fledged Photoshop alternative, GIMP is excellent software. It’s not an online tool like most I’ve suggested; you’ll need to download it to your computer.

There’s quite a learning curve for it, unless you’re familiar with Photoshop already. Fortunately, the free video/text GIMP tutorials online are endless. I no longer use/need GIMP, but it’s a personal favorite of mine.

4. Paint.NET

Admittedly, I haven’t used Paint.NET, but my art/photography colleagues commonly mention it. It’s comparable to Photoshop and GIMP. It’s a web-based tool, and a quick Google search returns several tutorials for it.

5. Photopea

This is more or less a Photoshop clone, but it’s free and web-based. If you watch Photoshop tutorials, you can usually follow the same steps in PhotoPea.

I’ve only used it a few times; I have Photoshop so I don’t need it. Still, it’s very impressive - especially for a free tool.

6. PicsArt (app available)

PicsArt is a photo editing website and app; the app is much easier to use in my opinion. It’s a “fun” editing tool for photo manips, collages, and fan art in general. A lot of users post their art in the app, and I’ve noticed tons of cool fandom edits.

Some of the features are Premium (AKA cost money), but I don’t think they’re worth the extra cost. PicsArt also has a digital drawing app. I haven’t personally used it but it may be worth checking out!

7. Adobe Photoshop Express (app available)

(I’ll preface this by saying I have an Adobe subscription, so I have access to the “locked” features. I’ve used the free versions, but my memory of it is a bit hazy.)

Photoshop Express is a free web-based tool and smartphone app. The app is very user-friendly and can be used for detailed editing, adding filters, adding text, and so on.

I’m less familiar with the browser version; I only use it for the cutout tool when I’m feeling lazy. It seems to be a good fit for quick edits - filters, cropping, and so on.

8. Make PNG Transparent by Online PNG Tools

This tool is awesome for removing solid colored backgrounds. I use it to create graphics for mixed media art pieces. Here’s how it works:

upload an image

type the color your want to remove (name or hex code)

type the percentage of similar color tones you want to match (for example, 25% will remove your chosen color plus similar warm/cool tones)

the removed color is replaced with transparent pixels

If you want to make a JPG transparent, start with the website’s JPG to PNG Converter. There are a ton of useful free tools offered, but I haven’t tried out most of the others.

Wrap Up

That’s all I’ve got for now! If I think of additional free tools, I’ll add them to this post. Feel free to reblog with your own recommendations or message me if you’d like me to add anything.

I hope my fellow creatives find these too

#writer resources #writing #writblr #fanfiction #fanfic #creative writing #writing reference #writing resources #writer reference #obviouslygenuinely #creators #artists on tumblr #fandom #fan art

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a-dragons-journal · 3 years

Note

my friend made a carrd on kin terms and wants to make sure terms are correct as they aren't that interactive with the community yet being in it for years, the url is kinform. carrd. co ( I am not sure if links work )

- and in case my tumblr messes up again I wanna stay anon

A’ight, let’s go through this!

First off, I want to say: I really appreciate the effort your friend is putting into this, including going to the effort to have other people check their work! It’s a well-organized carrd, and I appreciate that they included a lot of less well-known labels! That being said, there’s definitely quite a bit of misinformation here - which is totally understandable, the misinformation has spread unfortunately far at this point. But hey, that’s why I’m here!

Incorrect info:

- “alterhuman: a general term for anyone who identifies as non-human, whether it be 'kin or 'link” (on Terms) “Alterhuman” is a much broader term than that - “Having an identity that is alternative to the common societal idea of 'human'; a person who identifies as such.” It covers anyone who has an alternative experience to humanity, or who experiences humanity in an alternative way from “normal”. It’s intentionally an extremely vague and broad term - it covers ‘kin, ‘links, ‘heartedness/kith/synpaths, plurality, daemonism, furry lifestylers, real vampires, endels, probably voidpunk, etc.

(There’s a whole conversation to be had here about how the alterhuman community was supposed to get away from centralizing the otherkin narrative but somehow ended up with that being a huge problem anyway, with it often feeling like it’s about nonhuman identity even though it’s not - but that’s a pretty long conversation, so we won’t go there xD)

- “astral limbs: the sensation of a body part that is not there in real life ; not to be confused with phantom limbs which is used by amputees” (on Terms) Astral limbs =/= supernumerary phantom limbs =/= phantom limb syndrome. What you’re defining is supernumerary phantom limbs, not astral limbs/shifts - astral limbs/shifts are where your astral body changes to match that of your kintype, which a) doesn’t always coincide with phantom shifts, and b) requires belief in astral bodies/the astral plane in the first place, which many ‘kin don’t hold.

Supernumerary phantom limbs is the sensation of having a body part that is not and never has been physically present, as opposed to phantom limb syndrome which is referring to limbs that have been amputated. It’s not “appropriating” language from amputees or anything like that like some people have tried to claim - supernumerary phantom limbs is a medical term. Astral limbs isn’t an accurate, adequate, or necessary replacement.

- copingkin: identifying with or as anything under fictionkin or otherkin for comfort and/or coping ; also referred to as comfortkin ~ also see copinglink (from Kin) I would strongly suggest removing this; it’s not an accepted term and pretty much never has been as far as I’m aware. You’re either copinglink, someone who chose their identity for coping purposes, or otherkin who happens to have a psychological explanation, if your identity came about as an unconscious/involuntary coping mechanism.

- fictionkin: identifying with or as a fictional character or race. (from Kin) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as. If you don’t identify as them, you’re not ‘kin. Identifying strongly with, but not as, is ‘heartedness, not ‘kin. I would also suggest swapping “race” for “species,” if that’s what you meant, since that’s a pretty loaded term out of context.

- otherkin: identifying with or as non-animal/non-human and mythical creatures ; some have their own label such as songkin. (from Kin) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as, as above^.

- kin is often involuntarily & spiritual, if you consider yourself kin but don't do these, see hearted or synpath (from Kin) ‘Kin is involuntary, full stop, but it’s not necessarily spiritual. Nor is the distinction between ‘kin and ‘heartedness/synpaths the voluntary/involuntary aspect; it’s that ‘kin is identify-as and ‘heartedness/synpath isn’t.

- aeslink relating to anything for aesthetic reasons ~ "i am angel & palace aeslink" copinglink strongly relating with a fictional character for comfort and/or coping. (from Other) ‘Links are voluntarily choosing to cultivate an identity as something else - character, species, or otherwise. It’s still identify-as, not “relating to,” it’s just voluntary where otherkinity is involuntary. It’s not any less serious or any less identify-as. 'Linking or otherlinking is defined as “voluntarily choosing to identify as nonhuman/a fictional character or species”.

- synpaths: strongly relating to a fictional character or race that you see a lot of yourself in, but not as strong as kin. (from Other) Remove “not as strong as ‘kin”; ‘kin isn’t “relating to” something in the first place, it’s identifying as that thing. I would also suggest swapping “race” for “species,” if that’s what you meant, since that’s a pretty loaded term out of context.

- therian: identifying with or as an animal or other living thing. (from Other) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as, as with fictionkin and otherkin.

Suggested edits:

Things that aren’t necessarily wrong, but which I would suggest edits to anyway for clarity/accuracy.

- awakening: the moment one realizes they identify as a kintype/theriantype (from Terms) I would posit that an awakening isn’t necessarily a single moment in time; much more often it’s an extended process that can take weeks, months, or even years. There’s some overlap between “awakening” and “questioning” that way, imo.

- They also said “theriantype” multiple times where it should be “theriotype,” but that’s more of a typo thing than a content error.

- otherkin: identifying with or as non-animal/non-human and mythical creatures ; some have their own label such as songkin. (from Kin) Songkin is probably not a great example if this is intended for outsiders who are new to the terminology, since conceptkin is kind of hard to explain to begin with, but that’s my personal opinion.

- Cladotherian, therian, theriomythic, and phytanthrope should all be on the ‘Kin page, as they all technically fall under ‘kin.

- identity/ID, kinnie & kinning won't be added as they are terms created by the more newer kin community and aren't recognized/accepted terms for older kin, though some older kin may be okay with these terms. (from Terms) Personally, I don’t like calling them “the newer kin community” - the “kin for fun” people aren’t ‘kin, they’re misusing our language, that’s the entire point. “The “kin-for-fun” community” or just “terms being warped as part of misinformation” would probably be more accurate.

- Synpath can probably be included on the ‘hearted page, since synpath, kith, and otherhearted are basically all synonymous.

Suggested additions:

- A resources list may be worthwhile! Things like personal websites and perhaps a few trustworthy blogs/posts could be worth adding to that list (I have a kin resources tag here that may be useful to them if they want to do that!) This gives people a place to go if they want to learn more.

- The term otherlinker is probably a good one to add, given that copinglinker and a specific type of ‘link (aeslink) are both present but the larger umbrella term presently isn’t.

Out of curiosity:

not edits at all, I’m just curious, ha

- kintrope: a trait found in most of ones kintypes. (from Terms) I’m really curious where they found this term, it’s not one I’ve heard before!

I think that’s about all I can find - like I said, I really appreciate the effort being put into this carrd! There’s a lot of good terms on here, just some definition fixes that need to be made - it’s well-organized and very aesthetically pleasing, which is more than I can honestly say for a lot of carrds xD

Hopefully that’s all clear enough to be helpful - I’m more than happy to chat further about this or provide clearer definitions/suggested resources, if your friend wants! :3

#oh this def should've gone under a cut shouldn't it #oh well too late now it doesn't work very well in edits #asked and answered #anonymous #rani talks #side note if anyone is thinking about being mean to anon or carrd maker on this post: don't #they're clearly putting in a lot of effort and i appreciate that #i know this got kind of long with all the corrections and edit suggestions but y'all gremlins behave #we ain't jumpin people for making mistakes a'ight? we don't do that in this house

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stitch-n-time · 4 years

Note

Can you explain how the US housing laws work? You have me interested

Short answer: they don’t.

Longer answer (because I have to work tonight and truly don’t have like 8 hours to write the thesis, because you bet your ass I could):

There is actually an internal structure that the low income housing system has been built around that makes it nearly impossible to navigate, difficult to get into, and specifically works against the people that it was supposedly built to help.

I’m actually not quite sure where to start with this, so it’s going to be all over the place and bouncing back and forth, but that’s also kind of on brand for the low income housing system.

The system as we know it is very much a post WWII thing, so the info here will be from after that point. A lot of this will be in kind of broad, sweeping terms. But since the US is like 60 different states in a trenchcoat trying to sneak into an R-rated movie, very little of it actually covers the entirety of the country. There are also state and city levels of bullshit that people have to wade through. Most people don’t make it.

I’m going to use my own experiences as an example. But know that my experiences are NOT typical. When I started down this rabbit hole, I was a 30-ish year old white woman, a part time student, presented as a professional female on a daily basis, had a fairly stable income from a job I had held for years, and a vehicle (though making payments). All of this put together meant I had it pretty easy.

Some of that caused problems, though. The vehicle was a problem. It was a newer model gently used vehicle. According to the dealership, the previous owner had traded it in because it was a manual transmission and they wanted an automatic. When I bought it, it had less than 60k miles on it and was in excellent condition. In the eyes of the people who approve the paperwork and rubber stamp applicants for low income housing, I could get rid of that vehicle, and the moneys spent on the payments and insurance could go toward housing. Which would be reasonable, except most of the US doesn’t have public transportation at all. What public transport does exist is sketchy, rarely runs on schedule, and often does not go into residential areas. I COULD have gotten rid of the car, but that would have meant a 2 mile hike to the nearest bus station, 4 hours on a bus to get to class and 5 hours on the return trip twice a week, then a 2 mile hike home OR a 2 mile hike to the nearest bus station, 4.5 hours on a bus, another 2 mile hike to get to work, and the same on the return. At that point, I would have been spending more time on the bus than either at work or school, and might as well just live on the damned thing, since all I would have time to do at home is shower and MAYBE eat a sandwich?

But that’s also typical. Part of the laws as they are written specifically state that a person or household can not own physical properties that are over a certain value, because those properties could be sold in order to elevate the person/family’s lifestyle. That also makes household absolutely reliant on public transportation, which is simply not available in many poor areas.

Which goes into redlining, and systemic racism, which is a huge part of this, but is a whole ‘nother essay.

The fact that I was a student also worked against me. If a person can afford to go to school, they can afford housing. So why would you want/need help from the government? I’m just thankful that I was a part time student when the need for low income housing arose… If you’re a full time student, you are automatically denied on any application for low income housing. There are different legal designations for “low income housing” and “student housing”. They can not exist in the same housing complex for legal reasons. So if I had been taking one more class that semester, I would have been denied, and would have been homeless.

That in itself doesn’t sound terrible. And there’s reasons for the legal differences. But think about it… What if I had been in the last semester of school and something had happened? What about the people who are both enrolled in school and are working, trying to make ends meet, trying to be able to do something better, and either their lease is up or they get evicted or… I don’t know… their house burns down or a tornado hits or suddenly medical bills? If a person fills out that paperwork while still a student, even if they say “I’m graduating next month and want to move in the month after that” they still count as a full time student and would get denied. Which means leaving school and being spit out into the post graduate world probably without a job, while being denied help with keeping a roof over their head, when it’s absolutely necessary to have a physical address while searching for a job.

Which goes into the anti-homeless way of thinking, which is a huge part of this, but is a whole ‘nother essay.

I’m going to lump the “fairly stable income from a job I had held for years” and “presented as a professional female on a daily basis” into one, because they are directly related. I had worked my way through a trade school, and had been working in the medical field for nearly 4 years. The practice was open 4 days a week. I was there 2 days, the male counterpoint was there the other 2 days. If a client preferred one of us over the other, either they scheduled appropriately, or the doctor asked us to come in for that client’s appointment time. Because a large portion of the clientele were middle aged and older, as well as conservative, the dress code reflected accordingly. Since I actually REALLY liked the job, and the doctor and his family were pretty awesome people, I dressed and styled accordingly, on a daily basis. But because the number of hours on the clock varied with the number of clients scheduled for therapy appointments, there were times when those paychecks got mighty thin. There were absolutely trends of busy seasons and light seasons. Sometimes during that light season there were days when I would go to work for a couple of hours, go home until about 3PM, then go back for 2 or 3 hours. It was hard to pin that down.

Having to explain that I could not pinpoint an amount of annual income with any accuracy while filling out the application worked against me. And just about anybody who works in retail, food service, etc. - all the jobs that people with low incomes tend to have – will tell you that they suffer the same thing. Go into work, put in a couple of hours, and have the manager come tell you to go home because it’s not busy enough to justify having people on the clock. But without having an accurate estimation of annual income (that could be verified by their calling your employer) means that the application is denied. The general consensus is that if you can’t pinpoint your annual income, then you’re lieing on the application, which means you’re untrustworthy, and therefore don’t deserve to get the help you need to keep a roof over your head.

That conservative professional look helped me here, though. I went into the office dressed well, in khakis and a nice blouse, to fill out the application and speak to the people. While I was there, another lady came in to fill out an application. This is somebody who I happened to know personally. She was also a professional, who was arguably in a slightly better place than I was because her income did not fluctuate (though it was low, as she was recovering from a divorce and most of the family income had come from her ex husband), but she was “dressed down” in shorts and a t shirt. We made the same arguments. I ended up in an apartment, and she did not.

Honestly, I was actually lucky to get into an apartment. A lot of people don’t realize it, but even with things being classified as low income housing, it takes a LOT of money to get into places. Just like every other rental in the US, before you move in, you have to pay the first month’s rent. And a deposit. And if you have pets, another deposit. And the cost of having the electricity and water turned on. And depending on the specific details of the contract you have to sign, possibly trash pickup. And if you want internet, either you pay for that and get a modem through the ISP, or you pay extra on signing the lease. And if you want to do your laundry in your home (if there’s even a hookup), there’s an extra rental fee for a washer and dryer, unless you bring your own.

I got lucky. When I applied and was approved, this particular housing development was running a “special” - if you sign a lease, you get one month rent free to use within 12 months of signing. I had to use it immediately. With all the extra fees and everything else, I could either pay for the rent OR the deposit, but not both – so I paid the deposit and laughingly told them I’d like to use that free month on the first month, immediately, right now, please and thank you, now where’s my key? They almost turned me away at that point.

I honestly believe that if it hadn’t been for my professional clothing and the fact that I could point to a couple of scabs on my face, that I would have been denied at that point. (The scabs were from a dog. I had been renting a room from a “friend” who is no longer a friend. Her dog bit my face, and instead of punishing the dog, she decided I needed to move out that weekend. Note: this is literally the ONLY time I’ve had a dog bite me, despite having been around them most of my life, and this particular dog had snapped at multiple people before.)

Which goes into classism, which is a huge part of this, but is a whole ‘nother essay.

Now the thing that has been on my last nerve for a few years now is a good one. The laws state that if your household changes in any way, you have to fill out the application again. Doesn’t matter if you literally got approved the day before: you fill it out again. Because there have been household changes. It doesn’t sound terrible at all, but I know somebody who got evicted from low income housing and ended up homeless because his wife left. Suddenly the household size was smaller, but had the same income, and it was over the limit for the household size. Sorry not sorry you have to go. I know somebody who was evicted for “falsified paperwork” because she had a baby and was in the hospital for 2 weeks, so didn’t get the paperwork in on time. They ended up in a homeless shelter (in this city, homeless shelters are more expensive than a lot of low income housing). Now she’s in debt that she’ll probably never get out of, due to that.

What’s more is that the eligibility requirements to be able to pass those income thresholds change constantly. Out of curiosity, I tracked the changes over the course of a year. Just checking on the first of the month. In a single year, the income requirements changed 10 times. It’s not easy to keep track of, and there’s not much reason to track it unless it’s literally part of your job, in order to keep in compliance with the laws.

My own personal gripe is much less severe than that. I can’t get married. Technically, my fiance can’t live with me. On paper, he lives with his parents, miles away. But he spends most of his time in my apartment, which is under my name only, because I’m disabled (but ineligible for disability) and need his help. We’ve been together for a decade. We’ve been engaged for over 5 years. But if we get married, then the household changes, and we have to fill out the paperwork and get approved again. The thing is: if we put together our incomes into one “household” income, we would never be eligible for low income housing. Which means we would have to move out.

Moving out comes with it’s own difficulties. Because of the paperwork you have to sign to lease low income housing – and depending on where you are because 60 states in a trenchcoat – there are hoops to jump through. The lease in this particular development, you get a choice. If you break the lease you either a) pay the full amount of rent on the apartment through the end of the lease term or b) pay two months’ rent on the apartment after termination of the lease. So not only would we have to find other housing that we could afford (with all of the move in fees, deposits, transfer of service fees for utilities, bla bla bla), we would also have to pay 2 months’ rent on top of everything else. Which means either borrowing literally thousands of dollars from an individual – banks won’t do loans for this – or having to decide which bills get paid and which don’t while surviving off of ramen noodles for months at a time. Which… uh… would not work well with the man-thing’s diabetes.

Which all goes into respectability politics, and deciding whether or not poor people deserve to have stability and emotional fulfillment, which is a huge part of this, but is a whole ‘nother essay.

Now this may sound like a whole lot of personal whining. And it kind of is. But I can’t speak for anybody else. This is my personal interactions with these people and with the laws behind their behavior. But it’s the laws themselves that are written to be exclusive of the people that need help the most.

Homeless people can not apply, because they don’t have a current address.

Unemployed people can not apply, because they don’t have an income.

Full time students can not apply, because of the legal definitions of the different types of housing.

People with “disposable” property (such as cars) are often denied because they could turn those assets into monies.

People who rely on that “disposable” property for work are unable to take advantage of low income housing due to the above.

People of color who have been relegated to specific neighborhoods where public transportation is not available due to the redlining of the last century are unable to take advantage of low income housing due to the above.

People who do not have thousands of dollars readily available are denied because they can not pay both the deposit and rent.

People who face employment discrimination (even though it’s illegal) are denied because they can not provide proof of steady income.

People who have bounced from employer to employer are often denied for the same reason.

People who have successfully gained low income housing are often unable to change anything about their household.

People who have successfully gained low income housing are often unable to get out of it if their situation improves.

All of it is written into the laws surrounding the housing itself.

So…. Yeah. It doesn’t work. But if you want me to actually get into the nitty gritty, I can start actually researching. But somebody’s gotta pay me for it.

#long post is long #hey nonny nonny #what was that?

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elsarah · 5 years

Text

Hearing loss and the world of the d/Deaf

First of all, many thanks to @thelouistiti for your question about resources on hearing loss. I decided it would be better to write everything myself rather than sharing a compilation of links.

Deafness/hearing loss is huge topic and it's two-fold: there's the medical aspect and the cultural one. When talking about Deaf culture and community, I'll capitalize the "d" as is customary to make the distinction. I'll talk from a French perspective, and as a person with severe acquired hearing loss, who is currently learning sign language and making her first steps into the Deaf community.

If you feel I'm too vague, that I need to amend things, or if you just would like to chime in and talk about your experience, my ask box is open and I'll share your input.

For the Frenchies and French speakers here, I also suggest this episode of "C'est pas sorcier" which is about the d/Deaf world. It's old as balls (late 90s) and many things have evolved since (FSL is now considered an official language in France), but they talk about the different types of hearing loss (conductive and sensorineural), how the ear works, hearings aids, and they tackle a bit Deaf History in France. It's a good introduction.

Now let’s begin if you’re ready!

What's hearing loss, how is it measured and what are the different thresholds?

Hearing loss generally refers to the loss of acuity in one or both ears. A person with hearing loss will have difficulties singling out sounds in a noisy environment, understanding speech and pinpointing where a sound originates, hearing a TV and making phone calls. There are a number of factors that can cause hearing loss such as: exposure to noise, ageing, genetics, medication, infections, ear trauma, etc.

Hearing loss is measured by the number of decibels necessary to perceive a sound on a scale of 0 to 8000 Hz (low to high frequencies). One will be considered hearing impaired when unable to perceive a sound under 25 dB. There are 4 thresholds, or degrees of hearing impairment: mild (25 to 40 dB), moderate (41 to 70 dB), severe (71 to 90 dB) and profound (greater than 90 dB). At 120 dB, the loss is considered total.

Hearing loss isn't necessary uniform across all frequencies: some people will have no trouble hearing low frequencies without being able to perceive anything higher-pitched than 1000 Hz.

Someone shared this great picture showing where the sounds of everyday life fall on an audiogram:

Other than severity, hearing loss is also categorized in 3 main types: conductive, sensorineural and mixed (the latter being a combination of conductive and sensorineural).

Conductive hearing loss: the sound doesn’t reach the cochlea (the inner ear). The causes can be infections, a damaged eardrum, malformations, impacted earwax among others.

Sensorineural hearing loss: dysfunction of the inner ear. The sound is able to reach the cochlea, but isn't handled properly. The most common cause is the destruction of the hair cells in the cochlea.

There is another auditory disability that isn't exactly hearing loss but hinders one's ability to understand sounds: auditory processing disorder. People with APD have normal hearing and no damage to the inner ear, but the sound isn't processed properly by the brain.

I'm keeping this short, but the corresponding Wikipedia pages are quite exhaustive, with statistics and all.

How to tell if one is deaf or hard of hearing (HOH)?

Well, it's actually complicated and depends on the person. I've noticed everyone has their own definition of deaf and HOH. According to some people, only people with profound to total hearing loss should be called deaf. Medically, it seems that people with severe hearing loss can also be considered deaf. I've seen people say that you have to be born deaf to call yourself so. And I guess that among hearing people, many think deaf people are simply the ones communicating in sign language.

And there's my personal take: you call yourself what you feel best describes your hearing abilities and problems. I feel that if hearing loss severely hinders your social and professional life, you may call yourself deaf. The degree of your loss doesn't matter that much if you feel isolated by your disability.

And to hearing people: you don't get to have a say if one is deaf or HOH. Period.

What are hearing aids?

There are actually 2 kinds of hearing devices: hearing aids and cochlear implants.

Hearing aids:

They improve hearing by making sounds audible, for example by amplification. Their settings are custom-made for the wearer by an audiologist. They come in all shapes and sizes but there are 2 main families: Behind the ear (BTE) and In the ear (ITE) hearing aids. The former are composed of a case attached to an earpiece that fits inside the ear. The case rests behind the ear and contains the electronics, controls, battery, and microphone, while the loudspeaker, or receiver, may be housed either in the case or in the earpiece These are particularly recommended for more severe hearing losses, but they're very versatile. In the ear hearing aids devices fit completely in the ear bowl (no case behind the ear) and are more discrete. They're usually recommended for mild to some severe hearing losses

Hearing aids can't completely correct hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss reduces the sensitivity to sound and aids can only partially compensate by amplifying sounds. Conductive hearing losses tend to be better treated by hearing aids; the amplified sound is able to reach the cochlea, and the signals are transmitted normally to the brain.

Cochlear implants:

You know how I said sensorineural hearing loss was generally caused by the destruction of hair cells inside the cochlea? These hair cells are sensory receptors that trigger nerve signals when detecting sound waves. The cochlea then converts those sound waves into electric signals that travel to the brain through the auditory nerve. So with damaged hair cells, the signals can't properly reach the brain and the information will be incomplete.

A cochlear implant bypasses the outer, middle and inner ear and generates the electric signals. It doesn't produce noise and unlike hearing aids, it doesn't amplify it. The outer part is composed of a microphone, a sound processor and a coil. The mic takes in sound, then passes it to the processor that crunches the data into electric signals called "channels", which correspond to different sound frequencies. The data is transmitted to the coil, placed on the scalp. The signals are then transmitted as wireless signals to a receiver and electrode array surgically implanted into the cochlea. The receiver converts the waves into electric impulses and when the signals reach the electrodes, they trigger the hearing nerve connected to the brain.

(source: Blausen.com staff, 2014)

What an implanted person hears is what the brain interprets from the combination of these signals. The limited number of channels in a cochlear implant means the sounds are very different from natural hearing and it is necessary to teach the brain to hear after the surgery. It typically takes months of auditory training. The implant doesn't replace hair cells and can't relay pitch and timbre. Implantation is also irreversible. But it allows people with a very low level of hearing to hear speech and pick up different types of sound. When one doesn’t benefit enough from hearing aids, it’s often the last alternative.

It is believed that implanting congenitally deaf children at a young age gives better results, but this is a very controversial topic and I'll get back to it later.

In France, hearing aids are expensive and cochlear implants even more so, but partially reimbursed (fully for children) by social security.

Are deaf people mute?

It’s a common misconception. When you have hearing loss, your vocal cords aren’t impacted. Deaf people can speak, and some really well; they sometimes just choose not to because it can be difficult to regulate volume and pitch. Some deaf people get discriminated for their accent.

So please, ditch the word deaf mute (”sourd-muet” in French).

Can deaf people listen to music?

Yes, but not with the same accuracy. People with profound to total hearing loss will mostly feel the beat and vibrations. There are backpacks and vibrating floors specifically designed for this purpose. People with hearing aids can link them to their music devices with Bluetooth or just wear headphones. The only exception, I believe, is cochlear implants. As they can’t relay pitch and timbre, music isn’t perceived as accurately. It gets better once the ear is trained.

By the way, try to be mindful with deaf people about music and don't imply we miss out on something great. Some don't care, some are perfectly content with what little they can hear and feel. And those who lost their hearing later in life don't need reminding.

How do you manage in your daily life with hearing loss?

Firstly, I would like to stress that most of the issues faced by deaf and hard-of-hearing people are social, not medical, we don’t usually suffer physically from our condition.

Regarding adjustment, it's different for everyone. How the person copes depends on lots of factors, including early vs. late hearing loss, gradual vs. sudden, as well as the severity, the communication needs and the personality (acceptance vs. aversion to change). Hearing loss is also linked to feelings of depression, anxiety, frustration, social isolation and fatigue.

Hearing loss hinders access to education and job opportunities due to impaired communication. In France, the unemployment rate of people with severe hearing loss is almost 4 times the national average. There are extremely few universities which offer proper higher education in sign language. Much of the available higher education adapted to the deaf and hard-of-hearing is short-termed and still very oriented towards manual jobs. And it's not necessarily easier for mainstreamed oralist deaf/hard-of-hearing people who attend universities. As a consequence, deaf people have lower levels of education, with only 10% getting a higher education diploma compared to 30% of the general population.

Access to services, infrastructure and culture is also still a problem. A very important law was passed in France in 2005 in favor of people with disabilities. It guaranteed, among other things, access to all areas of social life: education, employment, housing, transportation and culture. But progress has been very slow. In France, in 2020 for instance, it's next to impossible to find French movies with French captions in cinemas. However, almost all foreign productions in theaters here are available in their original version with French subtitles. Close captions are subtitles specifically designed for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. They supplement the dialog with all the other audio cues: ringtones, music, languages, and so on. They're also more expensive and there are few sessions offering them. Regarding telecommunications, we had to wait until October 2018 for a national telecommunications relay service that allows us to make phone calls with communications operators (FSL interpreters) and speech recognition.

Social integration is extremely important to our well-being. A lack of accessibility may be the cause of a drop in self-esteem and confidence, as well as social withdrawal. Hearing loss has been linked to Alzheimer's disease and dementia, especially among isolated individuals. Prejudice and discrimination are also a problem, probably more towards signing deaf people because both “slurred” speech and the inability to speak are perceived as alien.

Look, lack of accessibility is a pain, but it really shouldn’t prevent us from living our lives to the fullest. The important thing is to not stay alone, even though it's sometimes easier said than done. There is a lot of systemic pressure to make hearing loss invisible. Invisibility is even a selling point for hearing aids, while implanting children at an early age is encouraged to raise them in the hearing world… Many HOH people don't get access to the community simply because they don't know it exists!

Do you have to learn sign language when you become deaf?

No, you don't have to. The later you become deaf, the more you'll tend to continue using speech. But in my opinion, it's worth considering learning sign language for people with acquired hearing loss, especially children, even if they are fitted with hearing aids. Why? Because hearing aids can't do everything and their performance is very limited in noisy environments. It's great to have another ace up your sleeve to communicate. Also, and it's my personal experience, it's comforting to be in touch with the deaf community and people who share your joys and problems alike.

This is a very sensitive and controversial topic within the Deaf community, which is why I choose to give my opinion on acquired and not prelingual hearing loss. Prelingual hearing loss refers to people who were born deaf or became deaf in their infancy, before the acquisition of language. It means parents must choose how they will educate their children, if they will have them fitted with hearing aids or implanted, follow a mainstream education or go to a deaf school…

Deaf and hard-of-hearing people may also use cued speech (”Langue Parlée Complétée” or “LPC” in French). Cued speech is a visual rendering of spoken words. Some phonemes like "t" and "d" or "p" and "b" can't be differentiated when reading lips (which deaf and HOH people often do automatically). Cued speech renders all phonemes visible through handshapes, known as cues. They are 8 handshapes to represent consonants and 5 positions around the face to represent vowels. Associating one handshape with one position will cue a whole syllable.

Why is there a Deaf culture? What does it entail?

Now, it gets complicated. And fascinating. I won't dwell too much on the subject because I'm basically a baby Deaf gal and I'm not qualified. But my ask box is open if you would like to chime in.

From the moment people share a language and a history, they'll also share a set of experiences and issues, values, good practices, and basically a mindset. So naturally, with sign language being a real language, taught from generation to generation - as well as surviving a century-long ban from schools in France - a whole culture emerged.

And I should even say cultures… every country has its own Deaf culture because it's also tightly connected to the host country's culture and local sign language. The word "house" isn't signed the same way in French and Chinese sign language for instance because architecture isn't the same.

Deaf culture is very militant as Deaf people don't think of hearing loss as a disability. Deaf people typically don't speak of hearing loss but of "Deaf gain". I mentioned that there is systemic pressure to make hearing loss disappear. For instance by implanting deaf children at a young age to teach them to speak and integrate them into the hearing community. Deaf people see this as the death of their culture and language. For many people with hearing loss, Deaf culture means comfort, pride and community. From the Deaf perspective, hearing societies often fail to understand Deaf people's abilities and culture. From this point of view, the lack of communication stems as much from the inability of most hearing people to use sign language as from deaf people's inability to hear.

Deaf culture is however an open culture, you can join at any point in your life, you don't need to be born into it. It usually starts when you learn sign language and get acquainted to other d/Deaf people. A lot of people with late hearing loss are unaware such a culture exists and it often results in a lower self-esteem, as they don't find support in the hearing world. Some hearing people, especially relatives who learned sign language or interpreters, may be considered part of the Deaf community.

I'm not enough of an expert to write a full paragraph on the subject, but just know that just as in any culture, the arts are also very important in Deaf culture, especially visual performances, like drama and sign singing (chansigne in French).

For instance:

youtube

Where can you learn sign language in France? Where can you practice? Do you have any online resources?

First things first, sign language isn't universal. There are almost as many sign languages as countries in the world, though some are more closely related than others. American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) differ widely as they use different basic signing systems. There is something called International Sign Language (ISL), but it is only used when Deaf people from different cultures meet, for instance during international competitions.

Regarding French Sign Language (FSL), there are a lot of organizations and associations which offer lessons such as l'Académie de la Langue des Signes Française, International Visual Theatre, 2LPE, Visuel-LSF, etc. Unfortunately, many (especially cultural ones) are located in Paris, and more sparsely in big cities like Lyon or Toulouse. If you're lucky, some high schools offer sign language as a third language, which allows you to gain extra credit for your baccalauréat.

Learning French Sign Language is very expensive, around 220€ for 30 hours. Financing for sign language can be hard to find and there are hardly any discounts or reimbursement schemes for people with hearing loss. Obviously, you may learn sign language through less expensive options, such as meetings at Cafés signes, which are small gatherings in a bar and welcome hearing people as well as deaf and HOH people. It's best to know at least the basics and to avoid Signed French (sign language has a different syntax) and several Cafés are limited to people with a certain level, but several associations like La Parole aux Sourds welcome everyone.

Some libraries in Paris have a dedicated section for sign language and Deaf culture such as Bibliothèque Louise Walser-Gaillard (next to the International Visual Theatre), Bibliothèque Saint-Eloi, La Canopée, Bibliothèque André Malraux and Bibliothèque Fessart. Books are great and may include a lot of signs, but they don't render movements very well.

There are plenty of online resources. I personally use Elix when I need to find a sign. It's a participative dictionary and still a work in progress, so all signs aren't referenced. What I find nice is that they provide variations of the same word. For instance, the word "mom" has a lot of “synonym” signs, depending on the area you live in.

Youtubers are an option BUT make sure you choose channels managed by a member of the Deaf community, a certified teacher and not a student learning sign language. It's important. I like Mélanie Lemaistre who has 2 channels. Her main one is MélanieDeaf, where she raises awareness on culture and sign language. On Signe2mains, she teaches a lot of vocabulary. You may also be interested in Lucas Wild's videos in which he signs and provides captions. It's good for training. And finally, I discovered this channel when typing this post and found it really, really good. It teaches idiomatic expressions in FSL.

But the most important thing when you want to learn sign language, like any living language, is to meet actual deaf people to practice. You have to learn to express yourself with your body and your face, and it's not easy for everyone. When you take lessons, the first hours are usually dedicated to mimes. Sign language is different than mimes as the frame is limited to your upper body but you still need to work on it at first. Signing people typically don't appreciate when you finger spell a word to learn its sign, it's more respectful to mime it.

Where can I meet Deaf people and learn more about their culture?

You may learn more about Deaf history and culture during Open Door Days, when organizations like the INJS (Institut National des Jeunes Sourds, one of the oldest schools for the d/Deaf in Paris) organize guided tours.

In Paris, there is also an amazing center called International Visual Theatre, which is dedicated to visual arts. I take sign language lessons there (they're excellent) and often go and see their plays, which are in both French and FSL.

Every two years, the city of Reims holds a huge international Deaf culture festival named Clin d'Oeil. Thousands of d/Deaf people come from all around the world to meet during 3-4 days (usually in July). It’s dedicated to sign language and visual arts: drama, dance, sign singing (chansigne in French), cinema, mimes, street performances… The next edition will be held in 2021.

Deaf people also organize gatherings, for instance during the World Day of the Deaf, every year in September, when we march for our rights.

Regarding the media, France Télévisions has a program called "L'Œil et la Main". It's in FSL and subtitled in French. They address current news (#MeToo, Youtubers, gene therapy, etc.) from a deaf perspective. There's also a news website entirely designed for signing deaf people called Media'Pi. In FSL, "Pi" means everything that's typical or related to a situation or a person and there's no exact translation in French. If you understand French, this subtitled video explains what "Pi" means.

Do you have any movies, series, books, etc. to recommend?

To be perfectly honest, I have yet to find entertainment media about deafness and hearing loss that I like. But I do like when movies or series include deaf characters and d/Deaf actors into their ensemble. I haven't watched Switched at Birth, but I liked Sean Berdy in what I've seen of The Society so far. There's another young deaf actress, Millicent Simmonds, who was recently in 2 movies: A Quiet Place and Wonderstruck (I'd like to see the latter one). Marvel's The Eternals will also feature the first deaf superhero, played by Lauren Ridloff. But none of them really address deafness and Deaf culture. Which is also totally valid, it's nice to have characters where aren't defined by their disability. It's just that yes, sign language is nice, aesthetic through the roof, but what about the culture?

I didn't like Children of a Lesser God (a movie based on a play), which is supposedly one of the most famous representation of deaf people in movies. I think it didn't age well. But it made Marlee Matlin famous and allowed her to talk about Deaf issues and to give the community visibility. It's a must-see, basically, but you might not enjoy it.

In France, we have hardly any representation in the mainstream media, which is why I have high hopes about Skam France and I hope I can soon add it to the list. I however recommend this documentary: J'avancerai vers toi avec les yeux d'un sourd, which the director dedicated to the friend who had taught her sign language and who sadly passed. I don't think this was distributed in English but I could be wrong! There's also Marie Heurtin, a movie about a young deafblind girl who is sent to a convent, where Sister Sainte-Marguerite decides to take care of her.

The only popular movie with deaf characters that came out in theatres recently in our country was La Famille Bélier. It's quite infamous within the Deaf community as hearing actors who were specially trained in FSL for the movie played two out of the three main deaf characters. We're used to having our roles played by hearing actors, the same happened to the recent theatre production of Children of a Lesser God where two hearies played the main characters.

I know that many people think cinema and drama are all about the performance and that it's ok when hearing people play minority roles. It's not. Have you ever seen a deaf actor play a hearing character?

I'm short on fiction works about hearing loss and Deaf culture though; feel free to chime in if you have recs. In France, Emmanuel Laborit, a French Deaf icon who won a Molière in the 90s for her performance as Sarah Norman (the main character of Children of a Lesser God), wrote an autobiography, le Cri de la Mouette where she addresses her childhood memories and the shaping of her identity though sign language.

What would help d/Deaf people?

First and foremost: visibility! Let d/Deaf people speak for themselves, demand from production companies that they cast deaf people for deaf roles. If you are not seen, you are not known. Invisibility plays a big role in the negative perception hearing people have of hearing loss. I've seen people here saying that becoming deaf was their worst fear in the world. How sad.

Many people with hearing loss will spend their whole life with it. We have a long road before us and we don't want to fight it through. Give us positive representation, people to admire and to support. Give us good stories. Giving us visibility will also shine a light on our issues and our needs regarding accessibility. Keep that in mind and be proactive. You don't realize how tiring it is, when you are deaf, to organize your own accessibility at an event because nobody thought about it. Equal opportunities don't mean you have to treat us like you would treat abled people and just let us be (you know we are already aware we have the right to exist?). It means giving us the tools we need to thrive because we start with a pretty big impediment.

Don't let deaf people bear the brunt of the lack of communication, especially if they choose not to talk. You wouldn't do it with a foreigner. Use voice recognition or type your sentence on your smartphone, use mimes, but just try. A conversation goes both ways and we are the disabled ones, not you.

So that's it. That's the post. If you have questions, I beg you to ask them, my ask box will ALWAYS be open for his purpose. I had to keep this as short as possible and left many things aside, but I hope this will give you a good insight into hearing loss and the d/Deaf world.

#many thanks to my boyfriend for reviewing this #ilu honey #and many thanks to Gaëlle for explaining how this goddamn site works #Manon rambles

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biostudyblog · 4 years

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Testing and Individual Differences

Francis Golton was one of the first to study human intelligence and testing, and initiated the use of surveys to collect data, along with creating and applying statistics towards its analysis.

Standardisation and Norms

A test that is standardised is a test that has been piloted on a group of people similar to the population that is supposed to take the test, where achievement norms have been established. An easy one for many students planning on studying in the US is the SAT. At the end of the SAT, students take an extra set of questions that aren’t graded. These questions are developed so the Educational Testing Service can continue to standardise coming exams. Since the students taking the SAT are representative of the groups taking the SAT as a whole, they are known as the standardisation sample. People who make tests (known as psychometricians) at ETS use the achievement of students on the experimental section of the exam to decide how the next exam will be formulated. Questions nearly everyone gets right or wrong are discarded as they aren’t useful for differentiating between students.

Reliability and Validity

In order for a test to be taken seriously, it needs reliability and validity.

Reliability is the consistency of the test as a means of measurement. For instance, if you take an IQ test and score 99 the first time, 115 the next time, and 160 the third time, the test isn’t very reliable. There are many ways to measure a tests reliability. Split-half reliability involves randomly splitting a test into two different sections and correlating someone’s performance on the two halves. The closer the correlation coefficient is to +1, the greater the split-half reliability. Equivalent-form reliability is the correlation between someone’s performance on two different but equivalent forms of the same test. Finally, test-retest reliability is the correlation between 2 different administrations of the same test.

A test is valid if it measures what it’s supposed to measure. If Albert Einstein took an IQ test and got 99 all 3 times, you can say the test is reliable, but it’s clearly not very valid. A test cannot be valid if it is not reliable, however it can be reliable without being valid. There are multiple different kinds of validity, for example, face validity is a superficial measure of accuracy- it is the degree to which a test appears effective. If you’re looking for a chef, a cake baking test has high face validity. Face validity is considered a type of content validity- This is how well a measure reflects the entire range of material is is supposed to be testing. The cake baking test doesn’t have great content validity if the chef needs to cook things other than cake. There is also criterion-related validity- the extent to which a measure is related to an outcome. There are two kinds of criterion-related validity: Concurrent validity which measures how much of a characteristic a person has now, and predictive validity which is a measure of future performance. Finally, construct validity, which is a measure of whether a test measures a construct accurately.

Types of Tests

Two common types of tests are aptitude tests and achievement tests. Aptitude tests measure potential while achievement tests measure what someone has learnt. Making a test that exclusively measures one of these qualities is nearly impossible. For example, take a Math Aptitude test- you can have two people, each with equal potential to do well in the subject, but one of the test-takers has spent years studying math, while the other has barely done it at all- it’s obvious who will score better. On a Chemistry Achievement exam, you can have two students who studied an equal amount, however one may have a higher test-taking aptitude and score better than the other.

There are also speed and power tests. Speed tests consist of a large number of questions asked in a short amount of time- typically time that is insufficient to complete the problems, and power tests typically gauge the difficulty level of problems that someone can solve.

Finally, there are group and individual tests. Group tests are given to groups of people at one time and have little to no interaction between the examiner and test-takers. Individual tests involve more interaction with the examiner and study one person at a time.

Theories of Intelligence

Intelligence is another one of those words that get thrown around constantly but are surprisingly difficult to define. A medical doctor would look like an idiot when talking to a group of quantum physicists about string theory, but logically we would still call him intelligent. Many psychologists draw a distinction between fluid intelligence and crystallised intelligence. Fluid intelligence is our ability to solve abstract problems and learn new things while crystallised intelligence involves using the knowledge we accrue over time.

Charles Spearman- Charles Spearman argued that intelligence can be expressed as a single factor. He used factor analysis to conclude that underlying the many different specific abilities (s) that people regard as types of intelligence is actually a single factor that he named g.

Howard Gardner- Howard Gardner subscribed to the idea of multiple intelligences. What made his theory unique was that the intelligences that he named encompass a much larger range of human activities than most other psychologists. For example, he named linguistic, mathematical, and spatial intelligence which line up with what most psychologists use, however, added: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist intelligence.

Daniel Goleman: Daniel Goleman is one of the main proponents of EQ, or emotional intelligence. These are related to Gardner’s intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence.

Robert Sternberg- Sternberg has offered a nontraditional definition of intelligence. His triarchic theory defines 3 types of intelligences. Componential or analytic intelligence describes our ability to compare, contrast, explain, and analyse. Experiential, or creative intelligence observes how people use their knowledge in innovative ways. Thirdly, is contextual or practical intelligence. These are people who are able to apply their knowledge to the real world. Sternberg’s theory also raises another question- does intelligence depend on context? Sternberg would say yes. Most intelligence tests however view intelligence as ability based rather than context based.

Intelligence Tests

There are two widely used individual tests- the Stanford Binet and Wechsler, however there are as many different types of intelligence tests as there are theories for what intelligence actually is.

Alfred Binet wanted to make a test to identify the children who needed extra help in school. His test was based on the idea of mental age, supposing that intelligence increases as someone ages. A normal 10 year old has the mental age of a 10 year old. Louis Terman, a professor at Stanford university used this system to measure IQ (intelligence quotient), and create the Stanford-Binet IQ test. A score on this test is formulated by dividing their mental age by their chronological age and multiplying by 100. The 10 year old would have an IQ of 100- (10/10 x 100). This test gets a bit weirder with adults. To rectify this, Terman assigned all adults an arbitrary age of 20.

David Wechsler took a bit of a different approach. There are 3 different Wechsler tests- there is the Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS), the Wechsler intelligence scale for children (WISC), which is given to children from ages 6 to 16, and the Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence (WPPSI). These tests yield an IQ score based on deviation IQ. The tests are standardised so that the mean is 100, and the standard deviation is 15. Scores are found based on how many standard deviations they fall away from the mean. Someone who scores at the 15.87th percentile falls one standard deviation below the mean, and would receive a score of 85. Someone who scores at the 97.72nd percentile scored 2 standard deviations above the mean and would get a 130. Wechsler’s tests also provides scores on a number of sub-scales along with a total IQ score. The WAIS has 11 sub-scales. 6 produce a verbal IQ score, 5 produce a performance IQ score.

Bias

The accusation that tests like the SAT are biased is not a new one. Researchers looking into the SAT say that although different races and sexes score differently on these tests, they have the same predictive validity for all groups. Other researchers argue that both the tests and college grades are significantly biased due to the advantages white middle and upper class students benefit from.

Nature Versus Nurture

Here we are, back again on this debate which seems to appear everywhere throughout Psychology. Research suggests that both genetics and environment contribute to molding intelligence. When discussing the effects of nature and nurture, researchers use the term heritability- this is a measure of how much of a trait’s variation is explained by genetic factors. Heritability of 0 implies that the environment is completely in control of differences in the trait, while 1 implies that genetics is totally responsible. So how heritable is intelligence? Answering this question is extremely difficult as effectively studying this question would require studying a controlled population, rather than an individual which would bring up serious ethical questions. There have been some interesting findings, however.

The Flynn Effect is a finding that suggests environmental factors like nutrition, education, and even entertainment like TV can play a role in intelligence

Monozygotic/identical twins score much more similarly on intelligence tests than dizygotic/fraternal twins, however, bias may play a role in this as monozygotic twins tend to be treated more similarly than dizygotic twins.

To avoid this bias, researchers look to monozygotic twins separated at birth. There have been strong correlations in intelligence, however, bias may still be present as the twins may be placed in similar environments.

Some people (including the bloke who made the SAT) point to racial differences to prove that intelligence is genetically based. Carl Brigham used his test to “prove” that white people were superior to people of colour, while ignoring factors like poverty and lack of education, and English fluency when scoring his exams.

#Psychologyy #AP Psychology #Human psychology #psychology studyblr #psychology study blog #psych study blog #psych studyblr #biology studyblr #biology study blog #bio studyblr #bio study blog #testing #IQ tests #SAT #ACT #iq #studyblr #study skills #study blog

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irispublishersengineeringscience · 3 years

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Iris Publishers - Global Journal of Engineering Sciences (GJES)

Some Thoughts on Reliability of Diagnoses by Human Versus by Machine

Authored by Ildikó Ziegler

Opinion

Not long ago the Comment by Tessa S Cook [1] appeared in Digital Health following the informative article Xiaoxuan Liu & colleagues [2]. The question of whether deep learning is more reliable/ accurate than human health-care professionals in detecting diseases from medical imaging was in the focus of the papers.

The Comment [1] added much to the discussion since the author listed several factors those influence the accuracy of diagnosis made by A.I. or a human.

The actual discussion speaks about diagnoses based on medical imaging techniques [1,2]. I believe the consideration of these factors can be continued by estimating the tendencies of these factors in the long run and actually, it may bring some inspiring thoughts, not only in connection with medical imaging, but in general, regarding the learning capabilities of artificial intelligence.

Theoretically the following error types could be identified (see e.g. [3,4]):

• Deviation occurring due to the lack of expert consensus.

• False positive diagnoses

• False negative diagnoses

• Other accidental errors

• Other systematic errors

We may make an estimation about the tendency of these errors in time one by one based on the statistical nature of these types of errors (see e.g. [5,6]). Supposing that the capacity of A.I. to handle data and to conduct repetitive calculations/ decisions is always kept greater than the capacity requirements of actual tasks, that means no technical limitation of processing the growing data set occur in time during the development of A.I.

Moreover, a single person, theoretically, cannot grow her/ his knowledge in an unlimited manner, partly, because we, humans, forget things, partly, because other circumstances, e.g. sickness or death may prevent us from continuing our learning process. However, the human being as a society also can be considered as a continuous learner group and as such the achievable total knowledge of human kind seems to be unlimited.

Based on the assumptions above, let’s take a look at the mentioned influencing factors one by one:

Systematic errors, others the mentioned in the earlier groups are the characteristics of the given A.I., and the way it functions. It cannot change during the learning process, however it may step wise decrease if it is detected and more or less handled, for instance by upgrading the software, developing the algorithm, etc. In case of a given A.I. it is constant during the learning process, but it will decrease during the development of A.I. technology over time.

Accidental errors (others than the mentioned in the earlier groups) are characterized by Gaussian distribution [3-6]. It means that with the elapsed time the standard deviation characterizing of the learning process of a given A.I. will decrease during the learning period.

False negative and false positive results mean that the decision about the diagnosis is not true.

In those cases when results (diagnoses) are not independent from each other - and e.g. biostatistics or clinical decisions are this kind – the deviations are characterized by Bayesian distribution [7,8]. The situation with this type of error is similar to the previous one: as the number of items in the data set on which the learning is based increases, the probability of the error decreases. With the elapsed time the A.I. is still expected to improve its effectiveness in the long run.

The most complex problem is to estimate the tendency of those diagnoses which medical doctors and specialist have different opinions without consensus. It has to be taken into account that a human solves problems in a different way compared to A.I. Deep learning is based on a super computer programmed with sophisticated algorithms, thus, it always uses linear deductions based on large dataset and mathematical logic, while we, humans tend to use our creative, associative thinking as well as checking the associative ideas based on professional rational. It is mainly expressed – as T. Cook [1] also pointed out – by striving for a holistic approach: “medical practitioners begin with the history of the present illness, the review of systems”.

The use of creative thinking may shorten the time requirement of problem solving and also make serendipitous results possible. As long most studies take the approach of evaluating diagnostic accuracy in isolation without reflecting to clinical practice, development of the accuracy cannot be expected. Conversely, if diagnoses are combined with subsequent experience in the underlying data set, and this data set contains a sufficiently large number of cases, deep learning may provide a better approach to issues that have previously aroused professional debate.

At this point, A.I. may start to make more accurate diagnoses than human health-care professionals. This approach may be true until some rare disease appears for which there is little experience. In this case, however, the human professionals are also quite likely to misdiagnose, without owning the basis for comparison. It seems the theoretical approach led to the opposite conclusion than Liu et al [2], but it is not the case.

The reason lies in the fact that our theoretical estimate was made long-term, assuming a large amount of initial data and ample storage capacity. However, the size of the currently available dataset is not close to the desired size, for instance, in the present case [1] it meant 25 studies. Consequently, nor did we achieve the reliably large amount of data from which artificial intelligence could statistically infer uncertainty in case of lack of expert consensus.

At the present state of the art, deep learning functions as a kind of secondary measurement method that is calibrated to human experience, as “primary method”. As such, a secondary “measurement method” cannot be more accurate than the primary “measurement method” for which it was calibrated.

The commentator [1] also mentions that deep learning acts as a black box: one cannot see the algorithm’s decision-making mechanism, “it still cannot tell us why the end result is produced”. It is suspected that the everyday practice of the medical profession and the science of programming are so far apart from each other that the intensive team work of good communication, as usual with medical devices, will result in sufficiently reliable futuristic technologies.

Just as the driver does not see how the fuel burns in the cylinder head under the piston, but he believes in the service of car mechanic when his car is deemed suitable, the medical professional will not have a chance to look into the details of the algorithm. It is necessary to trust the multi disciplinary development team who validates the machine learning system they have developed.

It is also interesting to consider Moore’s and Kynder’s laws. Moor’s law [9,10] is an experimental law stating hat the number of transistors on a chip would double every two years / 18 months. According to Kynder’s law [10,11] the density / capability of hard drive storage media would double every 18 months. It will be interesting to see in the long run if the size of the data set used for machine learning – analogously to the afore mentioned laws – will follow an exponential curve as a result of technological advances. I am voting in favor.

To read more about this article https://irispublishers.com/gjes/fulltext/some-thoughts-on-reliability-of-diagnoses-by-human-versus-by-machine.ID.000611.php

Indexing List of Iris Publishers: https://medium.com/@irispublishers/what-is-the-indexing-list-of-iris-publishers-4ace353e4eee

Iris publishers google scholar citations: https://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=irispublishers&btnG=

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exelahrsolutions · 2 years

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This blog talks about why organizations withhold HR and payroll data from employees and how they can avoid that.

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scripttorture · 5 years

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In the last posts I have been seeing a lot of things about stress positions. What are those positions exactly? How are they definied, I mean. (For the purpose of my story) is hanging upside down for a long time such a position?

I’ve still not found a definitive definition for stress positions that’s used consistently throughout the literature. So any definition within the blog is mine, based on my own reading.

Generally? A stress position is when someone is forced to stay in a pose that puts their muscles under heavy strain without any movement that will provide relief.

That’s an accurate description but I don’t feel like it really gives an idea of what these positions look like.

So, let’s have an example in a safe context. Stand against the wall, if you can and gradually bend your knees until you feel a strain in your legs.

A stress position is being forced to hold something like that for about two days. There are a lot of variations and different positions that are used around the world, but the basics are taking that sort of stretching of muscles and enforcing it to the point of abuse and massive internal injury.

Suspension with the character being kept off the floor is something different. The injury patterns are different and causes of death are different.

If your character is being hung upside down then: no that isn’t a stress position. It’s suspension. I know less about suspension because it isn’t used as often now.

Suspension upside down is also not as common as suspension the right way up. I’m going to try and make it clear when an injury is known in suspension by the hands or suspension by the feet. I think all of the effects I’m going to list are likely to occur in suspension by the feet as well as by the hands, but the extent and time frame may be different.

The first thing I’d say about suspension is that it’s a scarring torture. It causes obvious, long term physical injury very very quickly.

It’s also… likely that a ‘long time’ for suspension is much much shorter then you think.

Suspension by the hands causes nerve damage in about 20 minutes. This is permanent. It can effect sensation and mobility. It happens more quickly if the victim is heavier.

Now I think that similar damage would occur in suspension by the feet, because like the hands the feet have some major nerves close to the skin and relatively unprotected.

If a victim is dropped and suspended by the hands this can cause nerve, joint and ligament damage throughout the arms, effecting long term mobility for both limbs. Some researchers reported victims being unable to raise their arms above their heads but so far as I can tell this only happens when a victim is suspended for a very long time and dropped repeatedly.

Dislocation of the shoulders can occur when a victim is dropped.

I’m not a medic. My understanding is that it’s easier to dislocate the shoulder then the hip. But dropping is still likely to cause nerve, ligament and joint damage in the legs. It might cause dislocation at other joints. I would guess it would also cause long term mobility problems, but I’m not sure what those problems would look like.

Lack of circulation, caused by the restraints digging into the wrists has also been known to cause serious problems: particularly gangrene and uh- basically death and rotting of the bone tissue in a localised area.

Circulation problems are more likely if a character is suspended for a longer period, ie several hours.

As in the hands the blood vessels which supply the feet are relatively unprotected. I believe that similar damage could occur. But because I’m not a medic I actually don’t know much about gangrene or uh localised bone death. I don’t know if there are specific effects on the feet or knock on effects on the rest of the body.

The big thing with upside down suspension though is that it’s much much more likely to just kill someone.

I’ve seen a couple of suggestions that blood supply to the brain can be reduced, leading to serious brain damage. I am- unsure of the accuracy of these suggestions because brain damage during torture can be due to a lot of different things.

Victims are much more likely to pass out. They’re also much more likely to suffocate.

I’m not sure why but it is more difficult for people to breath when they’re kept upside down for several hours. This can lead to death by suffocation. It could also be the cause of those reports of brain damage.

Generally the character is more likely to live (and not get brain damage or end up in a coma) if they’re suspended for short periods repeatedly rather then for one much longer period. Multiple incidents of suspension for 30 minutes would still cause obvious injuries and long term physical disability. One incident of suspension, upside down, for 12-24 hours is much more likely to result in a mild case of death.

Either way suspension upside down would lead to long term mobility problems. This character wouldn’t be able to walk unaided and would lack any fine motor control in their legs.

I’m not sure if a walker or a wheelchair would be a better mobility aid for a character like this. I’m not sure how much of their own weight they’d be able to support or for how long.

Amputation of one or both feet is a possible but rare outcome. Doctors will try to avoid this whenever they can.

You might also want to consider whether/how surviving with obvious scars effects your character. Survivors without scars tend to report being doubted, side lined and denied treatment. In contrast survivors with scars are more likely to report feeling as if their body is a constant reminder of what they endured.

Beyond that, take a look at the long term psychological symptoms of torture if you haven’t already and pick 3-5 for your character.

I hope that helps. :)

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#writing advice #tw torture #tw scars #scarring torture #disabling torture #suspension tortures #stress positions #suspension by ankles #nerve damage #mobility problems

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