Background:The One Health approach involves collaboration across several sectors,including public health,veterinary and environmental sectors in an integrated manner.These sectors may be disparate and unrelated,howeve...Background:The One Health approach involves collaboration across several sectors,including public health,veterinary and environmental sectors in an integrated manner.These sectors may be disparate and unrelated,however to succeed,all stakeholders need to understand what the other stakeholders are communicating.Likewise,it is important that there is public acceptance and support of One Health approaches,which requires effective communication between professional and institutional organisations and the public.To help aid and facilitate such communication,written materials need to be readable by all stakeholders,in order to communicate effectively.There has been an exponential increase in the publication of papers involving One Health,with<5 per year,in the 2000s,to nearly 500 published in 2023.To date,readability of One Health information has not been scrutinised,nor has it been considered as an integral intervention of One Health policy communication.The aim of this study was therefore to examine readability of public-facing One Health information prepared by 24 global organisations.Methods:Readability was calculated using Readable software,to obtain four readability scores[(i)Flesch Reading Ease(FRE),(ii)Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level(FKGL),(iii)Gunning Fog Index and(iv)SMOG Index]and two text metrics[words/sentence,syllables/word]for 100 sources of One Health information,from four categories[One Health public information;PubMed abstracts;Science in One Health(SOH)abstracts(articles);SOH abstracts(reviews)].Results:Readability of One Health information for the public is poor,not reaching readability reference standards.No information was found that had a readability of less than 9th grade(around 14 years old).Mean values for the FRE and FKGL were(19.4±1.4)(target>60)and(15.6±0.3)(target<8),respectively,with mean words per sentence and syllables per word of 20.5 and 2.0,respectively.Abstracts with“One Health”in the title were more difficult to read than those without“One Health”in the title(FRE:P=0.0337;FKGL:P=0.0087).Comparison of FRE and FKGL readability scores for the four categories of One Health information[One Health public information;PubMed abstracts;SOH abstracts(articles);SOH abstracts(reviews)]showed that SOH abstracts from articles were easier to read than those from SOH reviews.No One Health public-facing information from the 100 sources examined met the FKGL target of8.The most easily read One Health information required a Grade Level of 9th grade(14-15 years old),with a mean Grade Level of 15.5(university/college level).Conclusion:Considerable work is required in making One Health written materials more readable,particularly for children and adolescents(<14 years of age).It is important that any interventions or mitigations taken to support better public understanding of the One Health approach are not ephemeral,but have longer lasting and legacy value.Authors of One Health information should consider using readability calculators when preparing One Health information for their stakeholders,to check the readability of their work,so that the final material is within recommended readability reference parameters,to support the health literacy and stakeholder-directed knowledge of their readers.展开更多
Background: As much as 80% of US adults search online for health related information. The value of the information is limited by the patients’ ability to comprehend it. Despite the recommendation by the American Medi...Background: As much as 80% of US adults search online for health related information. The value of the information is limited by the patients’ ability to comprehend it. Despite the recommendation by the American Medical Association (AMA) to provide all patient education materials (PEMs) at a 6th grade reading level, many online sources do not conform. This study aims to evaluate the readability of PEMs from major online sources for anesthesiology. Methods: We determined the readability of PEMs from five major anesthesiology organizations and twelve brochures from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) using ten validated readability scales. PEMs from the various anesthesiology websites were compiled into a single word document for analysis. The twelve patient education brochures from the ASA were downloaded and analyzed separately. We then grouped the twelve documents into one sample and compared it to the other anesthesiology association websites. Results: All of the PEMs provided by the ASA were determined to be higher than a 6th grade reading level with nine being at a 12th grade reading level or above. The PEMs of the five major anesthesiology association websites were beyond the 6th grade reading level with four out of five at greater than the 12th grade reading level. Conclusion: The results showed that the readability of PEMs provided by five major anesthesiology associations and the ASA was beyond the 6th grade. Therefore, the PEMs with improved readability in anesthesiology are needed.展开更多
Readability is a fundamental problem in textbooks assessment.For low resources languages(LRL),however,little investigation has been done on the readability of textbook.In this paper,we proposed a readability assessmen...Readability is a fundamental problem in textbooks assessment.For low resources languages(LRL),however,little investigation has been done on the readability of textbook.In this paper,we proposed a readability assessment method for Tibetan textbook(a low resource language).We extract features based on the information that are gotten by Tibetan segmentation and named entity recognition.Then,we calculate the correlation of different features using Pearson Correlation Coefficient and select some feature sets to design the readability formula.Fit detection,F test and T test are applied on these selected features to generate a new readability assessment formula.Experiment shows that this new formula is capable of assessing the readability of Tibetan textbooks.展开更多
Online reviews significantly influence decision-making in many aspects of society.The integrity of internet evaluations is crucial for both consumers and vendors.This concern necessitates the development of effective ...Online reviews significantly influence decision-making in many aspects of society.The integrity of internet evaluations is crucial for both consumers and vendors.This concern necessitates the development of effective fake review detection techniques.The goal of this study is to identify fraudulent text reviews.A comparison is made on shill reviews vs.genuine reviews over sentiment and readability features using semi-supervised language processing methods with a labeled and balanced Deceptive Opinion dataset.We analyze textual features accessible in internet reviews by merging sentiment mining approaches with readability.Overall,the research improves fake review screening by using various transformer models such as Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers(BERT),Robustly Optimized BERT(Roberta),XLNET(Transformer-XL)and XLM-Roberta(Cross-lingual Language model–Roberta).This proposed research extracts and classifies features from product reviews to increase the effectiveness of review filtering.As evidenced by the investigation,the application of transformer models improves the performance of spam review filtering when related to existing machine learning and deep learning models.展开更多
This paper presents an investigation to evaluate the reading speed and reading comprehension of non-native English speaking students by presenting a simple analytical model. For this purpose, various readability softw...This paper presents an investigation to evaluate the reading speed and reading comprehension of non-native English speaking students by presenting a simple analytical model. For this purpose, various readability softwares were used to estimate the average grade level of the given texts. The relationship between the score obtained by the students and their reading speed under average grade level 9 and 14 using font size 12 and 14 is presented. The experimental results show that the reading speed and the score versus the students may be explained by a linear regression. Reading speed decreases as the score decreases. The students with a higher magnitude of reading speed scored better marks. More importantly, we find that the reading speed of our students is lower than the native English speakers. This approach of modeling the readability in linear form significantly simplifies the readability analysis.展开更多
The demand for revision total hip arthroplasty(THA)is increasing.Information quality on the internet has been extensively analysed in relation to primary THA but no such analysis has ever been performed for revision T...The demand for revision total hip arthroplasty(THA)is increasing.Information quality on the internet has been extensively analysed in relation to primary THA but no such analysis has ever been performed for revision THA.Our aim was to assess the quality and readability of this information.Three major internet search engines were searched for information on revision THA.All websites were assessed for quality of information using the DISCERN score,the Journal of the American Medical Association benchmark criteria and a novel scoring system specific to revision THA[Vancouver Revision Arthroplasty Information(VRAI)score].Website readability was assessed,as was presence of the Health On the Net Foundation(HON)seal.The majority of websites(52%)were academic with a post-graduate reading level.Only 6.5%of websites had the HON seal.Twentyeight percent of websites had a‘good’DISCERN score and only 28%had a‘good’score with the novel VRAI scoring system.Health information websites had significantly higher rates of‘good’VRAI scores(P=0.008).Websites with the HON seal had significantly higher DISCERN scores(P=0.01).All governmental websites were at a reading level suitable for patient review.Information on the internet relating to revision THA is of low quality,much lower than the quality of information on primary THA.We recommend governmental websites for their readability and health information websites for their quality of information specific to revision THA.Websites with the HON seal provide higher quality information and should be recommended to patients as reading material regarding revision THA.展开更多
The readability means the extent to which the readers can read and understand the text without obstacles. With the review of research on readability both at home and abroad, the thesis finds the research on the readab...The readability means the extent to which the readers can read and understand the text without obstacles. With the review of research on readability both at home and abroad, the thesis finds the research on the readability mainly includes three aspects, the definition, the readability formula, and the application of readability formulas to test some written texts.. Then, the author points out the deficiencies of the present study, such as the limited research on the readability of non-profit organizations' documents and the ignorance of the effect of the reader and environment on the readability.展开更多
BACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)is a global health burden that affects millions of individuals worldwide,necessitating extensive patient education.Large language models(LLMs)hold promise for addressing patie...BACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)is a global health burden that affects millions of individuals worldwide,necessitating extensive patient education.Large language models(LLMs)hold promise for addressing patient information needs.However,LLM use to deliver accurate and comprehensible IBD-related medical information has yet to be thoroughly investigated.AIM To assess the utility of three LLMs(ChatGPT-4.0,Claude-3-Opus,and Gemini-1.5-Pro)as a reference point for patients with IBD.METHODS In this comparative study,two gastroenterology experts generated 15 IBD-related questions that reflected common patient concerns.These questions were used to evaluate the performance of the three LLMs.The answers provided by each model were independently assessed by three IBD-related medical experts using a Likert scale focusing on accuracy,comprehensibility,and correlation.Simultaneously,three patients were invited to evaluate the comprehensibility of their answers.Finally,a readability assessment was performed.RESULTS Overall,each of the LLMs achieved satisfactory levels of accuracy,comprehensibility,and completeness when answering IBD-related questions,although their performance varies.All of the investigated models demonstrated strengths in providing basic disease information such as IBD definition as well as its common symptoms and diagnostic methods.Nevertheless,when dealing with more complex medical advice,such as medication side effects,dietary adjustments,and complication risks,the quality of answers was inconsistent between the LLMs.Notably,Claude-3-Opus generated answers with better readability than the other two models.CONCLUSION LLMs have the potential as educational tools for patients with IBD;however,there are discrepancies between the models.Further optimization and the development of specialized models are necessary to ensure the accuracy and safety of the information provided.展开更多
Annual reports are the main sources of information for outside investors' investment decisions and enable shareholders to supervise the management.Difficulties with the readability of these reports may therefore h...Annual reports are the main sources of information for outside investors' investment decisions and enable shareholders to supervise the management.Difficulties with the readability of these reports may therefore have serious consequences. Using 19,221 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2001 to 2015, we investigate the association between annual report readability and corporate agency costs, where readability is proxied by report file length and/or file size. We find that firms with better annual report readability experience lower agency costs, and the negative association between readability and agency costs is more pronounced in firms with higher external audit quality, internal control quality or analyst coverage. These results hold after several robustness checks. The positive effect of annual report readability is stronger in private firms than in state-owned enterprises, and becomes stronger after the implementation of new accounting standards in 2007. Readable annual reports can help in monitoring corporate insiders' opportunistic behavior and thus reduce agency costs.展开更多
The internet is a major source for health information. An increasing number of people, including patients with insomnia, search for remedies online; however, little is known about the quality of such information. This...The internet is a major source for health information. An increasing number of people, including patients with insomnia, search for remedies online; however, little is known about the quality of such information. This study aimed to evaluate the quality and readability of insomnia-related online information. Google was used as the search engine, and the top websites on insomnia that met the inclusion criteria were evaluated for quality and readability. The analyzed websites belonged to nonprofit, commercial, or academic organizations and institutions such as hospitals and universities. Insomnia-related websites typically included definitions （85%）, causes and risk factors （100%）, symptoms （95%）, and treatment options （90%）. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia （CBT-I） was the most commonly recommended approach for insomnia treatment, and sleep drugs are frequently mentioned. The overall quality of the websites on insomnia is moderate, but all the content exceeded the recommended reading ease levels. Concerns that must be addressed to increase the quality and trustworthiness of online health information include sharing metadata, such as authorship, time of creation and last update, and conflicts of interest; providing evidence for reliability; and increasing the readability for a layman audience.展开更多
Textbook writers,Chinese language teachers,and test designers need to ensure readability of the texts they use or intended to use.They often resort to“expert judgements”based on professional experience rather than a...Textbook writers,Chinese language teachers,and test designers need to ensure readability of the texts they use or intended to use.They often resort to“expert judgements”based on professional experience rather than apply objective measures.This happens because there is a lack of suitable readability formulas like those established for English.Moreover,in the Singaporean context where Chinese language is taught at a lower level(referred to as a Second Language or Mother Tongue Language),readability formulas developed for Chinese as a First Language for use in,for example,the Chinese mainland and Taiwan,are not suitable for use in Singapore(and other places where Chinese is learned as a heritage language).The present study made use of extant Chinese language textbooks as the source of data and created three readability formulas for Chinese as a Second Language.Predicted grade levels were then compared with the original grade levels of 100 selected texts at Primary 1 to Secondary 4 levels.The formula for the full text was found to be most effective when compared with the two for shorter versions of the texts.Prediction was more accurate when applied to the texts for Primary 1-6 students than to the texts for Secondary 1-4 students.The formula was found to be convenient to use as it entailed just three language features which could be easily hand-calculated,i.e.,the number of Chinese characters,the number of words,and the average sentence length.Practical use and limitations of the formula are discussed.展开更多
Objective:Patients are increasingly turning to the Internet as a source of healthcare information.Given that neck dissection is a common procedure within the field of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery,the aim of th...Objective:Patients are increasingly turning to the Internet as a source of healthcare information.Given that neck dissection is a common procedure within the field of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery,the aim of this study was to evaluate the quality and readability of online patient education materials on neck dissection.Methods:A Google search was performed using the term"neck dissection."The first 10 pages of a Google search using the term"neck dissection"were analyzed.The DISCERN instrument was used to assess quality of information.Readability was calculated using the Flesch-Reading Ease,Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level,Gunning-Fog Index,Coleman-Liau Index,and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index.Results:Thirty-one online patient education materials were included.Fifty-five percent(n=17)of results originated from academic institutions or hospitals.The mean Flesch-Reading Ease score was 61.2±11.9.Fifty-two percent(n=16)of patient education materials had Flesch-Reading Ease scores above the recommended score of 65.The average reading grade level was 10.5±2.1.The average total DISCERN score was 43.6±10.1.Only 26%of patient education materials(PEMs)had DISCERN scores corresponding to a"good quality"rating.There was a significant positive correlation between DISCERN scores and both Flesch-Reading Ease scores and average reading grade level.Conclusions:The majority of patient education materials were written above the recommended sixth-grade reading level and the quality of online information pertaining to neck dissections was found to be suboptimal.This research highlights the need for patient education materials regarding neck dissection that are high quality and easily understandable by patients.展开更多
Health communication is critical component of effective health delivery. While there are studies on the readability Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) around the world, so far, there is only one Ghanaian study that e...Health communication is critical component of effective health delivery. While there are studies on the readability Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) around the world, so far, there is only one Ghanaian study that explored the language of patient information leaflets for malaria. The present study explores the language of PILs of seven common ailments in Ghana. In all, 68 leaflets were purposely sampled for the study. Using SMOG and Flesch Kincaid grade level readability formulae, the researcher measured the readability of PILs and discovered that the readability of all the PILs was difficult to read except the dewormer leaflets that scored standard reading score. Further statistical analysis reveal that the lexical and syntactic complexity of the leaflets were not statistically different. Finally, an interview with 20 patients confirmed that the leaflets are difficult to read due to the complex words and long sentence structures. It is recommended that the PILs be revised to make the leaflets readable.展开更多
Statistics of languages are usually calculated by counting characters, words, sentences, word rankings. Some of these random variables are also the main “ingredients” of classical readability formulae. Revisiting th...Statistics of languages are usually calculated by counting characters, words, sentences, word rankings. Some of these random variables are also the main “ingredients” of classical readability formulae. Revisiting the readability formula of Italian, known as GULPEASE, shows that of the two terms that determine the readability index G—the semantic index , proportional to the number of characters per word, and the syntactic index GF, proportional to the reciprocal of the number of words per sentence—GF is dominant because GC is, in practice, constant for any author throughout seven centuries of Italian Literature. Each author can modulate the length of sentences more freely than he can do with the length of words, and in different ways from author to author. For any author, any couple of text variables can be modelled by a linear relationship y = mx, but with different slope m from author to author, except for the relationship between characters and words, which is unique for all. The most important relationship found in the paper is that between the short-term memory capacity, described by Miller’s “7 ? 2 law” (i.e., the number of “chunks” that an average person can hold in the short-term memory ranges from 5 to 9), and the word interval, a new random variable defined as the average number of words between two successive punctuation marks. The word interval can be converted into a time interval through the average reading speed. The word interval spreads in the same range as Miller’s law, and the time interval is spread in the same range of short-term memory response times. The connection between the word interval (and time interval) and short-term memory appears, at least empirically, justified and natural, however, to be further investigated. Technical and scientific writings (papers, essays, etc.) ask more to their readers because words are on the average longer, the readability index G is lower, word and time intervals are longer. Future work done on ancient languages, such as the classical Greek and Latin Literatures (or modern languages Literatures), could bring us an insight into the short-term memory required to their well-educated ancient readers.展开更多
We propose the first statistical theory of language translation based on communication theory. The theory is based on New Testament translations from Greek to Latin and to other 35 modern languages. In a text translat...We propose the first statistical theory of language translation based on communication theory. The theory is based on New Testament translations from Greek to Latin and to other 35 modern languages. In a text translated into another language</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">,</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> all linguistic variables do numerically change. To study the chaotic data that emerge, we model any translation as a complex communication channel affected by “noise”, studied according to Communication Theory applied for the first time to this channel. This theory deals with aspects of languages more complex than those currently considered in machine translations. The input language is the “signal”, the output language is a “replica” of the input language, but largely perturbed by noise, indispensable, however, for conveying the meaning of the input language to its readers</span></span></span><span><span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;" cambria="" math","serif";"="">.</span></b></span></span><span style="font-family:""></span><span><span><span style="font-family:""><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">We have defined a noise-to-signal power ratio and found that channels are differently affected by translation noise. Communication channels are also characterized by channel capacity. The translation of novels has more constraints than the New Testament translations. We propose a global readability formula for alphabetical languages, not available for most of them, and conclude with a general theory of language translation which shows that direct and reverse channels are not symmetric. The general theory can also be applied to channels of texts belonging to the same language both to study how texts of the same author may have changed over time, or to compare texts of different authors. In conclusion, a common underlying mathematical structure governing human textual/verbal communication channels seems to emerge. Language does not play the only role in translation;this role is shared with reader’s reading ability and short-term</span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family:""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">memory capacity. Different versions of New Testament within the same language can even seem, mathematically, to belong to different languages. These conclusions are everlasting because valid also for ancient Roman and Greek readers.展开更多
文摘Background:The One Health approach involves collaboration across several sectors,including public health,veterinary and environmental sectors in an integrated manner.These sectors may be disparate and unrelated,however to succeed,all stakeholders need to understand what the other stakeholders are communicating.Likewise,it is important that there is public acceptance and support of One Health approaches,which requires effective communication between professional and institutional organisations and the public.To help aid and facilitate such communication,written materials need to be readable by all stakeholders,in order to communicate effectively.There has been an exponential increase in the publication of papers involving One Health,with<5 per year,in the 2000s,to nearly 500 published in 2023.To date,readability of One Health information has not been scrutinised,nor has it been considered as an integral intervention of One Health policy communication.The aim of this study was therefore to examine readability of public-facing One Health information prepared by 24 global organisations.Methods:Readability was calculated using Readable software,to obtain four readability scores[(i)Flesch Reading Ease(FRE),(ii)Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level(FKGL),(iii)Gunning Fog Index and(iv)SMOG Index]and two text metrics[words/sentence,syllables/word]for 100 sources of One Health information,from four categories[One Health public information;PubMed abstracts;Science in One Health(SOH)abstracts(articles);SOH abstracts(reviews)].Results:Readability of One Health information for the public is poor,not reaching readability reference standards.No information was found that had a readability of less than 9th grade(around 14 years old).Mean values for the FRE and FKGL were(19.4±1.4)(target>60)and(15.6±0.3)(target<8),respectively,with mean words per sentence and syllables per word of 20.5 and 2.0,respectively.Abstracts with“One Health”in the title were more difficult to read than those without“One Health”in the title(FRE:P=0.0337;FKGL:P=0.0087).Comparison of FRE and FKGL readability scores for the four categories of One Health information[One Health public information;PubMed abstracts;SOH abstracts(articles);SOH abstracts(reviews)]showed that SOH abstracts from articles were easier to read than those from SOH reviews.No One Health public-facing information from the 100 sources examined met the FKGL target of8.The most easily read One Health information required a Grade Level of 9th grade(14-15 years old),with a mean Grade Level of 15.5(university/college level).Conclusion:Considerable work is required in making One Health written materials more readable,particularly for children and adolescents(<14 years of age).It is important that any interventions or mitigations taken to support better public understanding of the One Health approach are not ephemeral,but have longer lasting and legacy value.Authors of One Health information should consider using readability calculators when preparing One Health information for their stakeholders,to check the readability of their work,so that the final material is within recommended readability reference parameters,to support the health literacy and stakeholder-directed knowledge of their readers.
文摘Background: As much as 80% of US adults search online for health related information. The value of the information is limited by the patients’ ability to comprehend it. Despite the recommendation by the American Medical Association (AMA) to provide all patient education materials (PEMs) at a 6th grade reading level, many online sources do not conform. This study aims to evaluate the readability of PEMs from major online sources for anesthesiology. Methods: We determined the readability of PEMs from five major anesthesiology organizations and twelve brochures from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) using ten validated readability scales. PEMs from the various anesthesiology websites were compiled into a single word document for analysis. The twelve patient education brochures from the ASA were downloaded and analyzed separately. We then grouped the twelve documents into one sample and compared it to the other anesthesiology association websites. Results: All of the PEMs provided by the ASA were determined to be higher than a 6th grade reading level with nine being at a 12th grade reading level or above. The PEMs of the five major anesthesiology association websites were beyond the 6th grade reading level with four out of five at greater than the 12th grade reading level. Conclusion: The results showed that the readability of PEMs provided by five major anesthesiology associations and the ASA was beyond the 6th grade. Therefore, the PEMs with improved readability in anesthesiology are needed.
基金This work was supported by the China National Natural Science Foundation No.(61331013)the Young faculty scientific research ability promotion program of Minzu University of China.
文摘Readability is a fundamental problem in textbooks assessment.For low resources languages(LRL),however,little investigation has been done on the readability of textbook.In this paper,we proposed a readability assessment method for Tibetan textbook(a low resource language).We extract features based on the information that are gotten by Tibetan segmentation and named entity recognition.Then,we calculate the correlation of different features using Pearson Correlation Coefficient and select some feature sets to design the readability formula.Fit detection,F test and T test are applied on these selected features to generate a new readability assessment formula.Experiment shows that this new formula is capable of assessing the readability of Tibetan textbooks.
文摘Online reviews significantly influence decision-making in many aspects of society.The integrity of internet evaluations is crucial for both consumers and vendors.This concern necessitates the development of effective fake review detection techniques.The goal of this study is to identify fraudulent text reviews.A comparison is made on shill reviews vs.genuine reviews over sentiment and readability features using semi-supervised language processing methods with a labeled and balanced Deceptive Opinion dataset.We analyze textual features accessible in internet reviews by merging sentiment mining approaches with readability.Overall,the research improves fake review screening by using various transformer models such as Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers(BERT),Robustly Optimized BERT(Roberta),XLNET(Transformer-XL)and XLM-Roberta(Cross-lingual Language model–Roberta).This proposed research extracts and classifies features from product reviews to increase the effectiveness of review filtering.As evidenced by the investigation,the application of transformer models improves the performance of spam review filtering when related to existing machine learning and deep learning models.
文摘This paper presents an investigation to evaluate the reading speed and reading comprehension of non-native English speaking students by presenting a simple analytical model. For this purpose, various readability softwares were used to estimate the average grade level of the given texts. The relationship between the score obtained by the students and their reading speed under average grade level 9 and 14 using font size 12 and 14 is presented. The experimental results show that the reading speed and the score versus the students may be explained by a linear regression. Reading speed decreases as the score decreases. The students with a higher magnitude of reading speed scored better marks. More importantly, we find that the reading speed of our students is lower than the native English speakers. This approach of modeling the readability in linear form significantly simplifies the readability analysis.
文摘The demand for revision total hip arthroplasty(THA)is increasing.Information quality on the internet has been extensively analysed in relation to primary THA but no such analysis has ever been performed for revision THA.Our aim was to assess the quality and readability of this information.Three major internet search engines were searched for information on revision THA.All websites were assessed for quality of information using the DISCERN score,the Journal of the American Medical Association benchmark criteria and a novel scoring system specific to revision THA[Vancouver Revision Arthroplasty Information(VRAI)score].Website readability was assessed,as was presence of the Health On the Net Foundation(HON)seal.The majority of websites(52%)were academic with a post-graduate reading level.Only 6.5%of websites had the HON seal.Twentyeight percent of websites had a‘good’DISCERN score and only 28%had a‘good’score with the novel VRAI scoring system.Health information websites had significantly higher rates of‘good’VRAI scores(P=0.008).Websites with the HON seal had significantly higher DISCERN scores(P=0.01).All governmental websites were at a reading level suitable for patient review.Information on the internet relating to revision THA is of low quality,much lower than the quality of information on primary THA.We recommend governmental websites for their readability and health information websites for their quality of information specific to revision THA.Websites with the HON seal provide higher quality information and should be recommended to patients as reading material regarding revision THA.
文摘The readability means the extent to which the readers can read and understand the text without obstacles. With the review of research on readability both at home and abroad, the thesis finds the research on the readability mainly includes three aspects, the definition, the readability formula, and the application of readability formulas to test some written texts.. Then, the author points out the deficiencies of the present study, such as the limited research on the readability of non-profit organizations' documents and the ignorance of the effect of the reader and environment on the readability.
基金Supported by the China Health Promotion Foundation Young Doctors'Research Foundation for Inflammatory Bowel Disease,the Taishan Scholars Program of Shandong Province,China,No.tsqn202306343National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.82270578.
文摘BACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)is a global health burden that affects millions of individuals worldwide,necessitating extensive patient education.Large language models(LLMs)hold promise for addressing patient information needs.However,LLM use to deliver accurate and comprehensible IBD-related medical information has yet to be thoroughly investigated.AIM To assess the utility of three LLMs(ChatGPT-4.0,Claude-3-Opus,and Gemini-1.5-Pro)as a reference point for patients with IBD.METHODS In this comparative study,two gastroenterology experts generated 15 IBD-related questions that reflected common patient concerns.These questions were used to evaluate the performance of the three LLMs.The answers provided by each model were independently assessed by three IBD-related medical experts using a Likert scale focusing on accuracy,comprehensibility,and correlation.Simultaneously,three patients were invited to evaluate the comprehensibility of their answers.Finally,a readability assessment was performed.RESULTS Overall,each of the LLMs achieved satisfactory levels of accuracy,comprehensibility,and completeness when answering IBD-related questions,although their performance varies.All of the investigated models demonstrated strengths in providing basic disease information such as IBD definition as well as its common symptoms and diagnostic methods.Nevertheless,when dealing with more complex medical advice,such as medication side effects,dietary adjustments,and complication risks,the quality of answers was inconsistent between the LLMs.Notably,Claude-3-Opus generated answers with better readability than the other two models.CONCLUSION LLMs have the potential as educational tools for patients with IBD;however,there are discrepancies between the models.Further optimization and the development of specialized models are necessary to ensure the accuracy and safety of the information provided.
基金support from the Chinese National Science Funds(Grant Nos.71790602 and 71572160)
文摘Annual reports are the main sources of information for outside investors' investment decisions and enable shareholders to supervise the management.Difficulties with the readability of these reports may therefore have serious consequences. Using 19,221 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2001 to 2015, we investigate the association between annual report readability and corporate agency costs, where readability is proxied by report file length and/or file size. We find that firms with better annual report readability experience lower agency costs, and the negative association between readability and agency costs is more pronounced in firms with higher external audit quality, internal control quality or analyst coverage. These results hold after several robustness checks. The positive effect of annual report readability is stronger in private firms than in state-owned enterprises, and becomes stronger after the implementation of new accounting standards in 2007. Readable annual reports can help in monitoring corporate insiders' opportunistic behavior and thus reduce agency costs.
文摘The internet is a major source for health information. An increasing number of people, including patients with insomnia, search for remedies online; however, little is known about the quality of such information. This study aimed to evaluate the quality and readability of insomnia-related online information. Google was used as the search engine, and the top websites on insomnia that met the inclusion criteria were evaluated for quality and readability. The analyzed websites belonged to nonprofit, commercial, or academic organizations and institutions such as hospitals and universities. Insomnia-related websites typically included definitions （85%）, causes and risk factors （100%）, symptoms （95%）, and treatment options （90%）. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia （CBT-I） was the most commonly recommended approach for insomnia treatment, and sleep drugs are frequently mentioned. The overall quality of the websites on insomnia is moderate, but all the content exceeded the recommended reading ease levels. Concerns that must be addressed to increase the quality and trustworthiness of online health information include sharing metadata, such as authorship, time of creation and last update, and conflicts of interest; providing evidence for reliability; and increasing the readability for a layman audience.
文摘Textbook writers,Chinese language teachers,and test designers need to ensure readability of the texts they use or intended to use.They often resort to“expert judgements”based on professional experience rather than apply objective measures.This happens because there is a lack of suitable readability formulas like those established for English.Moreover,in the Singaporean context where Chinese language is taught at a lower level(referred to as a Second Language or Mother Tongue Language),readability formulas developed for Chinese as a First Language for use in,for example,the Chinese mainland and Taiwan,are not suitable for use in Singapore(and other places where Chinese is learned as a heritage language).The present study made use of extant Chinese language textbooks as the source of data and created three readability formulas for Chinese as a Second Language.Predicted grade levels were then compared with the original grade levels of 100 selected texts at Primary 1 to Secondary 4 levels.The formula for the full text was found to be most effective when compared with the two for shorter versions of the texts.Prediction was more accurate when applied to the texts for Primary 1-6 students than to the texts for Secondary 1-4 students.The formula was found to be convenient to use as it entailed just three language features which could be easily hand-calculated,i.e.,the number of Chinese characters,the number of words,and the average sentence length.Practical use and limitations of the formula are discussed.
文摘Objective:Patients are increasingly turning to the Internet as a source of healthcare information.Given that neck dissection is a common procedure within the field of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery,the aim of this study was to evaluate the quality and readability of online patient education materials on neck dissection.Methods:A Google search was performed using the term"neck dissection."The first 10 pages of a Google search using the term"neck dissection"were analyzed.The DISCERN instrument was used to assess quality of information.Readability was calculated using the Flesch-Reading Ease,Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level,Gunning-Fog Index,Coleman-Liau Index,and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index.Results:Thirty-one online patient education materials were included.Fifty-five percent(n=17)of results originated from academic institutions or hospitals.The mean Flesch-Reading Ease score was 61.2±11.9.Fifty-two percent(n=16)of patient education materials had Flesch-Reading Ease scores above the recommended score of 65.The average reading grade level was 10.5±2.1.The average total DISCERN score was 43.6±10.1.Only 26%of patient education materials(PEMs)had DISCERN scores corresponding to a"good quality"rating.There was a significant positive correlation between DISCERN scores and both Flesch-Reading Ease scores and average reading grade level.Conclusions:The majority of patient education materials were written above the recommended sixth-grade reading level and the quality of online information pertaining to neck dissections was found to be suboptimal.This research highlights the need for patient education materials regarding neck dissection that are high quality and easily understandable by patients.
文摘Health communication is critical component of effective health delivery. While there are studies on the readability Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) around the world, so far, there is only one Ghanaian study that explored the language of patient information leaflets for malaria. The present study explores the language of PILs of seven common ailments in Ghana. In all, 68 leaflets were purposely sampled for the study. Using SMOG and Flesch Kincaid grade level readability formulae, the researcher measured the readability of PILs and discovered that the readability of all the PILs was difficult to read except the dewormer leaflets that scored standard reading score. Further statistical analysis reveal that the lexical and syntactic complexity of the leaflets were not statistically different. Finally, an interview with 20 patients confirmed that the leaflets are difficult to read due to the complex words and long sentence structures. It is recommended that the PILs be revised to make the leaflets readable.
文摘Statistics of languages are usually calculated by counting characters, words, sentences, word rankings. Some of these random variables are also the main “ingredients” of classical readability formulae. Revisiting the readability formula of Italian, known as GULPEASE, shows that of the two terms that determine the readability index G—the semantic index , proportional to the number of characters per word, and the syntactic index GF, proportional to the reciprocal of the number of words per sentence—GF is dominant because GC is, in practice, constant for any author throughout seven centuries of Italian Literature. Each author can modulate the length of sentences more freely than he can do with the length of words, and in different ways from author to author. For any author, any couple of text variables can be modelled by a linear relationship y = mx, but with different slope m from author to author, except for the relationship between characters and words, which is unique for all. The most important relationship found in the paper is that between the short-term memory capacity, described by Miller’s “7 ? 2 law” (i.e., the number of “chunks” that an average person can hold in the short-term memory ranges from 5 to 9), and the word interval, a new random variable defined as the average number of words between two successive punctuation marks. The word interval can be converted into a time interval through the average reading speed. The word interval spreads in the same range as Miller’s law, and the time interval is spread in the same range of short-term memory response times. The connection between the word interval (and time interval) and short-term memory appears, at least empirically, justified and natural, however, to be further investigated. Technical and scientific writings (papers, essays, etc.) ask more to their readers because words are on the average longer, the readability index G is lower, word and time intervals are longer. Future work done on ancient languages, such as the classical Greek and Latin Literatures (or modern languages Literatures), could bring us an insight into the short-term memory required to their well-educated ancient readers.
文摘We propose the first statistical theory of language translation based on communication theory. The theory is based on New Testament translations from Greek to Latin and to other 35 modern languages. In a text translated into another language</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">,</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> all linguistic variables do numerically change. To study the chaotic data that emerge, we model any translation as a complex communication channel affected by “noise”, studied according to Communication Theory applied for the first time to this channel. This theory deals with aspects of languages more complex than those currently considered in machine translations. The input language is the “signal”, the output language is a “replica” of the input language, but largely perturbed by noise, indispensable, however, for conveying the meaning of the input language to its readers</span></span></span><span><span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;" cambria="" math","serif";"="">.</span></b></span></span><span style="font-family:""></span><span><span><span style="font-family:""><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">We have defined a noise-to-signal power ratio and found that channels are differently affected by translation noise. Communication channels are also characterized by channel capacity. The translation of novels has more constraints than the New Testament translations. We propose a global readability formula for alphabetical languages, not available for most of them, and conclude with a general theory of language translation which shows that direct and reverse channels are not symmetric. The general theory can also be applied to channels of texts belonging to the same language both to study how texts of the same author may have changed over time, or to compare texts of different authors. In conclusion, a common underlying mathematical structure governing human textual/verbal communication channels seems to emerge. Language does not play the only role in translation;this role is shared with reader’s reading ability and short-term</span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family:""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">memory capacity. Different versions of New Testament within the same language can even seem, mathematically, to belong to different languages. These conclusions are everlasting because valid also for ancient Roman and Greek readers.
