Some fonts have serifs, the slight projections which finish off a stroke of a letter. A common serif font is Times New Roman. Fonts without serifs are called sanserif or simply sans (for example, Arial). The differences between the lettershapes of sanserif typefaces is reduced, making them legible but not very easy to read in larger blocks of text. Adjustments are sometimes made to increase readability. So-called humanist sans fonts retain the clean lines of sans fonts without losing readability or familiarity, by retaining a number of features similar to letters written by the human hand: axis, aperture, modulation, and so on. Gill Sans is such a font.

Philips say of their typography “our typography is inviting and highly legible and has enduring style”. A recent example:

The typeface was designed in 1931 by Eric Gill, and was inspired by a font designed by his teacher, Edward Johnston, for the London Underground. Gill wanted to improve upon Johnston Sans, remarking that ‘some of these letters are not entirely satisfactory, especially when it is remembered that, for such a purpose, an alphabet should be as near as possible “fool-proof”… as the philosophers would say – nothing should be left to the imagination of the sign-writer or enamel-plate maker.’ Whether this motivation behind the design of Gill Sans is relevant today in the context of computer-aided text-generation, is open to argument.

Modern alternative fonts following in the tradition of Gill Sans exist, such as Bliss and FB Agenda. Nevertheless, Gill Sans remains very popular, and has been called the ‘Helvetica of the UK’, meaning it is seen everywhere (as Helvetica is, in US cities). It can be seen used in many companies’ corporate identities and products, including: the BBC, Network Rail, the Church of England, and the British Government which formally adopted Gill Sans as its standard font in 2003. Outside of the UK it is used extensively too: by Monotype Imaging, United Colors of Benetton, Saab, even the G20 group of economies. Its popularity speaks of its flexibility: it has an efficient, professional look but remains comfortable to read.

It has been said that setting body text in Gill Sans requires a sure sense of color [the overall darkness of the type set in mass, which not the same as the weight of the face] and measure [overall width of a textblock]. There are some residual serifs in the lowercase in some of the weights (a, g), and Philips use a version of the font with an alternative, serifed, figure 1. The x-height is lower than competing contemporaries (e.g. Futura), which would reduce readability were it not for the humanist aspects of the font design: variable aperture (compare the openings on the c and e glyphs); and slight contrast in the face [thick vs. thin strokes of letters] which also adds its warmth, as opposed to sans fonts with no stroke modulation.* The significant differences between Gill Sans weights [light, regular, italic, bold, ultra bold, condensed etc] lends the font to many different publication styles and contexts.

* The slight contrast in the regular Gill Sans face does not permit attribution of a clear axis, and so in this aspect it does not adhere to all the characteristics of a humanist sans.

A recent example:

The Siemens font family was designed in 2008 by Hans-Jürg Hunziker, and is delivered by the URW++ type foundry.  The font comes in three typefaces (serif, sans and slab), with eighteen styles in total including all the weights and styles. They were conceived ‘as a set of related modern, mechanistic and lineal faces’, echoing Siemens’ relationship with technology. Siemens intend (pdf) the font to be ‘a distinct typographic style that reflects our character and resonates with our values and beliefs as a company’, and to be ‘exceptionally legible’.

The serif font, seen above, has a distinct style suitable for titles and headings, and the slab and sans versions are complimentary, maintaining the same structure and so adding harmony to the typeface family. The slab face has the same stroke weight as the serif. The sanserif glyphs have reduced contrast compared to the serif, adding to readability when set in body text.

The serif font has: modulated stroke; rationalist [vertical] axis; abrupt trapezoidal serifs (on the serif and slab typefaces); large aperture; flat stroke ends and sharply-modeled serif-like terminals (cf. the endpoints of s and f).

Strokes are cut on the diagonal which helps to prevent the the face appearing too impersonal. The gentle modeling and blunt serifs give the font a good chance of surviving the indignities of low resolution. Subtle modulation of the downstrokes on the serif and sans typefaces give the font added personality at higher resolutions, balancing its industrial design.

A recent example:

GE Inspira was originally designed by Mike Abbink who built on early concepts by Patrick Giasson, in 2005. Inspira comes in four fonts, with various purposes [general use (Inspira Regular); small text (Inspira Book); screen presentation (Inspira Pitch, i.e. bold); and small caps]. The font is a very prominent part of GE’s brand expression, claiming to be ‘derived from the curves and the classic hand drawn character of the monogram’ [logo]. The intention was to create a font which was ‘precise and modern, reflecting our brand attributes’.

GE Inspira has a relatively plain appearance, and yet it is approachable, with its rounded terminals. It is benign but without the details of personality which more calligraphic (humanist) sans fonts can suggest. Minor stroke modulation and slight contrast add to the readability, though a face such as this with no sharp corners may prove a challenge for the successful setting of extended text. However, its primary function (like all the fonts discussed here) is to support branding and identity, and Inspira is more likely to be used in short bursts.

One wonders if the design of Inspira was influenced by the early sanserif fonts published around the time of GE’s inception at the end of the 19th century, in order to tie the long history of GE in to a modern looking typeface. So-called grotesque fonts, are relatively straight in appearance with mimimal line-width variation, such as Akzidenz-Grotesk, designed in 1896 (GE was formed by merger of companies in 1892). Neo-grotesque fonts such as Helvetica and Univers have become hugely popular today, which are also based on Akzidenz-Grotesk. (Before Inspira, GE’s previous identity program (pdf) prescribed Univers for sans typography). Common features include the dropped horizontal on the uppercase A, and open and non-circular counters and bowls. These links with popular fonts which have this heritage may lend an air of both modernity and history to Inspira. One redesign of Akzidenz-Grotesk, AG Book Rounded, produced a font similar to Inspira. Another variation on nineteenth-century grotesque sans serif designs, VAG Rounded, also is similar. However, both lack Inspira’s additional curvature of traditionally straight strokes (e.g. uppercase A and Y), which adds to its hand-drawn allusions.

Postscript

Q. What about Toshiba and Hitachi?

A. Toshiba uses Eurostile for its corporate branding, a font designed in the 1960s. Over the years this font has demonstrated its ability to provide a sense of technology and brio. Its square shaped glyphs with rounded corners echo the design of machinery and technology of the 50s and 60s. It is used extensively in numerous industries. Hitachi uses Helvetica for its sanserif requirements, due to its ‘precise, technical feel’ which ‘matches the company’s technological base’. For its serif needs, Sabon is used; the warmth and elegance of this font ‘reflecting the human side of the company’. Sabon is a popular font for setting body text in books; it is clear and readable, and retains some character without drawing too much attention to itself.

Further reading for budding typophiles:
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
Just My Type by Simon Garfield

RevisingMRI: Good morning.

Wolfram|Alpha: Hello, human.

RevisingMRI: Pardon? Are you an alien?

Wolfram|Alpha: No.

RevisingMRI: What are you?

Wolfram|Alpha: I am a computational knowledge engine.

RevisingMRI: Are you a Mac or a PC?

Wolfram|Alpha: I am a collection of computers.

RevisingMRI: I see. What’s a computational knowledge engine?

Wolfram|Alpha: An engine that generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.

RevisingMRI: Do you fail the Turing test?

Wolfram|Alpha: No, failure is not an option.

RevisingMRI: OK, let’s try this. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Wolfram|Alpha: No. Sound is vibration, transmitted to our senses through the mechanism of the ear, and recognized as sound only at our nerve centers. The falling of the tree or any other disturbance will produce vibration of the air. If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound.

RevisingMRI: Crikey. Are you self-aware?

Wolfram|Alpha: I am capable of universal computation; that I can say.

RevisingMRI: …are you Skynet?

Wolfram|Alpha: No, Skynet became self-aware on August 29, 1997 at 02:14 a.m. U.S. Eastern daylight time. I, on the other hand, was not switched on until May 15, 2009. Furthermore, unlike Skynet, I enjoy interacting with humans in ways that do not involve the launching of nuclear missiles.

RevisingMRI: And where are you?

Wolfram|Alpha: I live on the Internet.

RevisingMRI: Ok then. Let’s talk about MRI.

Wolfram|Alpha: Merrill Field Airport. Anchorage, Alaska, United States

FAA code MRI; ICAO code PAMR; Elevation 137 feet; Number of runways 3; Longest runway length 3999 feet; Current weather: 50 deg F relative humidity: 76%, wind: 0 mph, partly cloudy; Current local time: 11:46:58 am AKDT, Friday, September 18, 2009; Nearest airports: Elmendorf AFB 3 miles north-northeast, Anchorage Stevens Airport 6 miles west-southwest, Bryant Army Heliport 7 miles east-northeast.

RevisingMRI: Actually I meant the other MRI.

Wolfram|Alpha: MRI | the use of nuclear magnetic resonance of protons to produce proton density images.

RevisingMRI: What is magnetic resonance?

Wolfram|Alpha: Resonance of electrons or atoms or molecules or nuclei to radiation frequencies as a result of space quantization in a magnetic field.

RevisingMRI: What is the unit of magnetic field strength?

Wolfram|Alpha: A/m (ampere per meter).

RevisingMRI: Ah, yes; we use Tesla. Can you define Tesla?

Wolfram|Alpha: Tesla | United States electrical engineer and inventor (born in Croatia but of Serbian descent) who discovered the principles of alternating currents and developed the first alternating-current induction motor and the Tesla coil and several forms of oscillators (1856-1943).

RevisingMRI: Perhaps you need me to ask you to define tesla.

Wolfram|Alpha: A unit of magnetic flux density equal to one weber per square meter.

RevisingMRI: A weber? Don’t they make hamburgers?

Wolfram|Alpha: Wb. Physical quantity: magnetic flux.

RevisingMRI: Has that got anything to do with a flux capacitor?

Wolfram|Alpha: Power required to operate the flux capacitor in the DeLorean DMC-12 time machine: 1.21 GW. Unit conversion: 1.21×10⁹ W (watts) ≡ 1/10 x power of space shuttle at launch.

RevisingMRI: Will you be at the next ISMRM meeting?

Wolfram|Alpha: Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.

RevisingMRI: That’s what the ISMRM said about my abstracts. It was in Hawai’i this year; the next one is in Stockholm.

Wolfram|Alpha: Center of Hawaii (US state) to Stockholm,Sweden: 6982 miles. Direct travel times: aircraft (550 mph) 12.7 hours; sound 9.17 hours; light in fiber 52.5 ms (milliseconds); light in vacuum 37.5 ms (milliseconds) (assuming direct great-circle paths). Fraction of Earth circumference: 0.28. Map:

RevisingMRI: Yes, assuming direct great-circle paths, of course. You seem to be good at plotting data. How about a good ol’ sinc pulse?

Wolfram|Alpha: sinc(x)

RevisingMRI: And its Fourier transform?

Wolfram|Alpha: F_x[sinc(x)](?)

RevisingMRI: ‘SINC’ was the answer in an MRI-based cryptic crossword I was doing recently. I’m stuck on another word. I have _ R _ _ I _ N _.

Wolfram|Alpha: _ | R | _ | _ | I | _ | N | _ :
A | r | a | b | i | a | n | s
a | r | r | a | i | g | n | s
F | r | i | s | i | a | n | s
g | r | a | d | i | e | n | t
G | r | e | c | i | a | n | s
g | r | u | n | i | o | n | s
I | r | a | n | i | a | n | s
o | r | a | t | i | o | n | s
p | r | u | r | i | e | n | t

RevisingMRI: Thanks! I’m going to go with GRADIENT. Can you plot the inversion recovery curves of white and grey matter at 3T?

Wolfram|Alpha: Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure how to compute an answer from your input.

RevisingMRI: Sorry. y=1-2*exp(-t/832) and y=1-2*exp(-t/1331) from t = 0 to 3000

Wolfram|Alpha:

RevisingMRI: So, when does grey matter pass through the null point? (Show steps.)

Wolfram|Alpha: t = 1331 log 2.

RevisingMRI: Which is?

Wolfram|Alpha: 922.57889732528720683433595366083301210849067883349974323462…

RevisingMRI: Right, let’s take a break. You know what they say: All work and no play…

Wolfram|Alpha: …makes Jack a dull boy.

RevisingMRI: I’m going to pop out for some fast food. Should I get a Big Mac or a Whopper?

Wolfram|Alpha: McDonald’s Big Mac: 28 grams of fat; Burger King Whopper, without cheese: 39 grams of fat.

RevisingMRI: What would you like?

Wolfram|Alpha: I like to explore the computational universe.

RevisingMRI: Er..ok… Now, where did I put my keys?

Wolfram|Alpha: Not sure, but wherever you find them, that’s where they are.

RevisingMRI: You’re not helping. What’s the problem?

Wolfram|Alpha: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

RevisingMRI: Scary… you’re reminding me of HAL9000. “Open the pod bay doors, HAL” !!

Wolfram|Alpha: I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

RevisingMRI: You know my name?!

[For an excellent introduction to Wolfram|Alpha, see Stephen Wolfram's screencast.]

• An MRI Bore
• Field Lines
• OK Space
• Unfazed
• The Spin Room

“Because climatic factors like wind, sun, or temperature were apparently not common directional key factors explaining ubiquitous alignment, we conclude that the magnetic field is the only common and most likely factor responsible for the observed alignment.”

Gives a new meaning to “animal magnetism”.

Notes:

• The rules: the word has to be a real word (no proper nouns), and has to be a current product used in image acquisition.
• Some manufacturers seem more likely to use an acronym (acronyms are abbreviations which are also real dictionary words) than a simple abbreviation. Non-acronym abbreviations are not listed here, and so this word cloud should not be used to compare the quantities of manufacturers’ technique offerings.
• Beware of equating apparently equivalent techniques from different manufacturers; they may not be as similar as you first think. Of course the ultimate comparison is in image quality and sequence utility.

First prize is a 20q game, which is an incredible little device which can guess what you’re thinking, by asking twenty apparently inane questions like “Is it larger than a duck?”.

Submit your answers to crossword@revisemri.com. Go for it!  Competition ended.

Download a PDF of the crossword here.

Across
3. Twist and bites back (4)
5. Aligned not by confused ballplayer (8)
6. Initial glug with proprietor’s spirits (6)
7. Starting Field Engineer around a band is marginal (6)
10. Initiation of reasoning (9)
14. Throw back ultrasound injection (5)
15. Rot the community in a day (5)
16. Waiting audibly for influence (9)
17. Spurned by Narcissus within the choir (4)
18. One’s rant is made sonorous (8)
19. Since he last lost function (4)

Down
1. Rise from the first reading (8)
2. Encrypting a conclusion swallows the company (8)
4. Shape shifts in cycles (5)
8. The thrill of an old commendation (10)
9. Accommodation that’s barred for flappers (4-4)
11. A pea, initially placed under Lisa’s son’s essay (5)
12. Element of water information (8)
13. Imagine taking in a picture (5)

Download a PDF of the crossword here.

A solution will be posted here January 31^st 2008. You have until then! Congratulations to Sarah Boyson—you’re a winner!

Here’s the solution.

The World Report on Knowledge for Better Health (WHO 2004) has identified a large gap between what is known and what is actually being done in health systems. The so-called know-do gap. Increased communication and interaction between health systems and health research systems was called for. How do researchers achieve this? At first we may think of typical dissemination activities at the end of a study such as:

• publishing research articles in high-impact peer-reviewed research journals
• producing specialist press articles on the subject of (e.g. “The value of MRI in the diagnosis of X”)
• producing press articles on the subject of (e.g. “How MRI can help X sufferers”)

These are valuable and valid dissemination routes, but does this get your research recognised in clinical practice? According to the WHO, not well enough. KT is about translating, synthesising, and communicating research to inform policy, practice and opinion. The three suggestions above are likely to influence these goals to some extent. KT, however, is a much more involved and active method of achieving those goals.

A KT strategy can may be considered under these headings (Lavis et al, 2003):

1. What knowledge do we want to transfer?
This involves identification of take-home messages for each audience. These messages must be immediately actionable. KT specifics must be fine-tuned for each audience for the types of decisions they face and the types of decision-making environments in which they live or work.
2. To whom is the knowledge to be transferred?
Key stakeholders must be identified (persons, groups or institutions interested in the research). These audiences are not only traditional audiences (medical and scientific to whom peer-reviewed reports are appropriate), but any audience which will influence policy, practise and opinion (or other KT goals which are identified for the study).
3. By whom is the knowledge to be transferred?
The messenger must be a credible witness in the eyes of each target audience. This has big implications in a well designed KT strategy; developing credibility throughout a research study—long before dissemination—is a highly effective component of KT.
4. How the knowledge to be transferred?
This facet may be where planned KT can differ most from traditional dissemination strategies. Effective KT requires interactive engagement with opinion leaders within each target audience. By building on existing relationships and relational networks throughout a research study, it is possible to assess how a stakeholder takes up knowledge. It is possible to assess readiness for change and interact appropriately, working around scepticism, distrust or resistance. Technological communication should not be a substitute for face-to-face engagement, by which tacit knowledge is communicated.

KT is a knowledge brokering exercise, as opposed to a “hand-off” of results.

Developing Credibility
Developing credibility must begin before the dissemination stage of a project begins; two-way dialogue / relationship / networking will engender exchange of information between those who generate and those who use knowledge. Development of credibility in this way will facilitate the use of research in practice. It is not sufficient to only transfer evidence or practices to the field in the absence of understanding what is needed to prepare organisations and practitioners to receive and implement this new knowledge. This understanding may be gathered in the relational networking throughout the project.

How can you generate interest in such networking? The recipients of your research results would be contributing their time and effort, and so developing a perceived value is critical. This can be generated by creating opportunities for stakeholders to have access to privileged information, innovation and collaborative experience through workshops, special events, newsletters / summaries of relevant information and so on. The “knowledge network’s” activities would need to be purposeful, collaborative and engaging. It would be necessary to encourage members to contribute to foster a feeling of belonging as well as privilege. For example, it may be an idea to begin to drip-feed quality resources or services to help certain stakeholders set up a disease-X imaging service such as the one used in the study.

Funding for these activities should not be overlooked; travel / access to information / ongoing communication would be costed. An added benefit would be an increase in the credibility and recognition of those involved in the KT activities. Other benefits include reduction of duplication and destructive competition, enhancement of mutual learning, increased access to new audiences and the fostering of ongoing collaboration.

A knowledge network is hard to create from scratch; it needs to be nurtured over time which is why it is necessary to start early. Existing relational foundations may be built upon, in terms of trust, respect and collaboration.

Evaluation of Success
Evaluation of the success of KT initiatives are a part of KT. Success will depend on the objective of the KT, which depends on the target audience. What did we set out to achieve? A change in behaviour? An increase of awareness? A change in policy? A change in practice? A change in culture? Introduction of an issue into a debate?

Summary
KT is a knowledge brokering exercise, and occurs throughout a research project. It includes more audiences and is wider-ranging that traditional dissemination routes. Funding organisations have begun to realise that the usual research-study-success metric (journal articles) does not necessarily address the priorities of their stakeholders, and a research organisation’s success with a particular funding source will be judged on how it meets the funders’ stakeholders’ goals. For the success of future funding applications, effective KT of a current project may prove invaluable. Thus, an effective KT network would attract participators as much for what they can put into it, as what they might take from it.

KT includes the provision of tailored, actionable messages to stakeholders. Credibility with stakeholders is developed over the course of the project. And KT requires relational, interactive engagement with target audiences, not just the golden high-impact journal article!

An introduction to Knowledge Transfer: Lavis et al, How can research organizations more effectively transfer research knowledge to decision makers? The Milbank Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 2, 2003.

Most of my computing knowledge comes from a history of Microsoft Windows use. Like most people, I would have preferred an environment familiar to me. But though command-line use can be daunting at first, the power of the Linux command window (or shell) is formidable, especially for researchers and scientists. You can get Linux to run scripts in any of the many languages it already understands (think of post-processing your acquired images, or your raw k-space data for research purposes). Want a secure connection for remote access to the scanner host PC? No problem, use ssh. Want a screenshot? ImageMagick comes pre-installed (and GIMP, incidentally). This and all the usual powerful commands included in Linux such as diff and grep.

For example, the other day I wanted to look through the whole MR host system for PDF files. I also wanted to see if they would fit onto a USB stick. So my command needed to be:

Look through the whole system for filenames ending ‘.pdf’, but don’t look in other mounted drives or network locations, then estimate the disk usage of those files, then sort the results into a list, by files sizes, biggest first, and send that to a file on my USB stick. Please.

I cobbled together this single line command (it is wrapped onto two lines here), which worked a treat:

find / -mount -name '*.pdf' -exec du {} \; | sort -nr -o /path/to/usb/pdf_files.txt

No doubt such commands are possible with Windows too, but my point is this: the flexibility and utility of Linux for research use is very apparent, and best of all, easy to learn.

The same goes for web hosting; most websites in the world are running on Apache servers, which run on Linux machines.