Randomized trial of a DVD intervention to improve readiness to self-manage joint pain

Report of a randomized controlled trial of a motivational intervention to promote self-management of joint painA DVD (digital video disk) intervention to increase readiness to self-manage joint pain secondary to hemophilia was informed by a 2-phase, motivational-volitional model of readiness to self-manage pain, and featured the personal experiences of individuals with hemophilia. The DVD was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial in which 108 men with hemophilia completed measures of readiness to self-manage pain (Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire) before and 6 months after receiving the DVD plus information booklet (n = 57) or just the booklet (n = 51). The effect of the DVD was assessed by comparing changes in Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire scores (precontemplation, contemplation, and action/maintenance) between groups. The impact on pain coping, pain acceptance, and health-related quality of life was tested in secondary analyses. Repeated-measures analysis of variance, including all those with complete baseline and follow-up data regardless of use of the intervention, showed a significant, medium- sized, group time effect on precontemplation, with reductions among the DVD group but not the booklet group. Significant use time effects showed that benefits in terms of contemplation and action/maintenance were restricted to those who used the interventions at least once. The results show that low-intensity interventions in DVD format can improve the motivational impact of written information, and could be used to help prepare people with chronic pain for more intensive self-management interventions. The findings are consistent with a 2-phase, motivational-volitional model of pain self-management, and provide the first insights to our knowledge of readiness to self-manage pain in hemophilia.Haemophilia Society, U

The DVD vs. DIVX Standard War: Empirical Evidence of Vaporware

In this paper, we empirically measure the effect of the DIVX preannouncement in the DVD market. We do this by measuring the effect of potential (incompatible) competition on a network undergoing growth. We find that there are network effects in the DVD market and that the preannouncement of DIVX slowed down the adoption of DVD technology. This suggests that strategic preannouncements can indeed affect the outcome of a standards competition.

From screen to shelf : perspectives on independent distribution

Of the three broadly defined sectors which make up the British film industry, the academy has tended to focus its attention on production and exhibition, giving comparatively short shrift to matters of distribution. Certainly, the current role of the independent distributor in the UK is, to say the least, under-examined. Academic interest in the work of the distributor tends to stop at their marketing campaigns and, as an extension, their attempts to connect with and sell a film to the public. The relationship between the distributor and the exhibitor, and the process of negotiation which takes place between them, have been largely ignored. Since around 1999, with the burgeoning of the DVD market, UK distributors have gradually expanded their home entertainment divisions, becoming as invested in the retail sector as is the music industry and devoting as much energy (if not as much money) to a film’s release on DVD as to its theatrical launch. Again, academic material on the video and DVD industries is scant, with those studies which do exist, such as Paul McDonald’s Video and DVD Industries (2007), focusing primarily on the US and the major studios

The second life of a product placement in movies: the DVD

Product placement in movies seems to develop at the same pace than media fragmentation expands. Many studies have shown the potential of its impact according to the placement modalities. Rather than focusing on the way the placement is made, this exploratory research offers new insights about the second life of the placement through DVD. A sample of 3,532 DVD French viewers has been used to study the visibility of brand placements, when the film is watched on DVDbranded-entertainment, product placement, DVD, movie, spontaneous day after recall

The use of virtual reality technology in teaching environmental engineering

The Open University (OU) provides a Diploma in Pollution control as part of its undergraduate degree programme. The courses that make up the Diploma are presented in distance learning format using the OU's supported open learning system that has been developed over several decades. Teaching environmental engineering by distance learning presents several challenges in terms of ensuring that students gain an appreciation of the technology in action and receive the motivation and support more-readily available to students taught in a campus setting. The OU has developed a multi-media resources DVD to help meet these challenges for students undertaking an environmental impact assessment project. The DVD contains virtual reality views of the proposed site, maps of the region, supporting technical data, interviews with experts and advice from a virtual tutor. A survey of students using the DVD found that the overwhelming majority found the DVD to be 'very useful' or 'useful'. Understandably, the material that is essential for completing the project received the highest rating, but the background material was still considered to be useful by most students. Similar resources could benefit all students in many areas of engineering and technology

DVD Review: Move it

DVD review of Move it (Dance class choreographed and taught by Anita Hutchins)

Integrated Photodiodes in Standard CMOS Technology for CD and DVD Applications

The influence of two different geometries (layouts) and two structures of high-speed photodiodes in fully standard 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS technology on their intrinsic (physical) and electrical bandwidths is analyzed. In addition, a possible application of the integrated photodiodes for the CD and DVD optical pick-up units is discussed. Two photodiode structures with a highest responsivity are studied: nwell/p-substrate and p+/nwell/p-substrate (double photodiode). The photodiode bandwidths are compared for /spl lambda/=780 nm and /spl lambda/=650 nm wavelength, corresponding to the lasers for CD and DVD, respectively. Slow substrate current component limits the intrinsic bandwidth of nwell/p-substrate and p+/nwell/p-substrate photodiodes to 6MHz and 7MHz, for a CD application as well as 70MHz and 100MHz for a DVD application. The electrical bandwidth of these diodes in combination with typical transimpedance amplifiers, will be always larger than the calculated intrinsic bandwidths meaning that the diode capacitance is not critical in total photoreceiver design

Percussion in an electronic environment

This essay is an account of the process of making work for a new percussion/software performance environment built using Max/Msp, with an electronic drum kit as control interface. Each of the works are Audio-visual responses to a number of key stimuli - the experience of urbanness, representations and accounts of mental illness, childhood and memory, and physicality - which are recurring concerns in my work. Submitted along with the supporting text are DVD documents ofthe four main pieces of work, which are presented here as medium-specific 'versions' of the pieces- i.e. edited specifically for for DVD replay rather than as 'neutral' documentation. Also submitted are the materials needed to perform each of the pieces, including written performance instructions and the Max/Msp patches (containing the relevant media) for each piece. *[N.B.: A DVD was attached to this thesis at the time of its submission. Please refer to the author for further details.]

Price Discrimination, Copyright Law, and Technological Innovation: Evidence from the Introduction of DVDs

This paper examines the welfare effects of intellectual property protection, accounting for firms' optimal responses to legal environments and technological innovation. I examine firms' use of indirect price discrimination in response to U.S. copyright law, which effectively prevents direct price discrimination. Using data covering VHS and DVD movie distribution, I explain studios' optimal pricing strategies under U.S. copyright law, and determine optimal pricing strategies under E.U. copyright law, which allows for direct price discrimination. I analyze these optimal pricing strategies for both the existing VHS technology and the new digital DVD technology. I find that studios' use of indirect price discrimination under US copyright law benefits consumers and harms retailers. Optimal pricing under E.U. copyright law also tends to benefit studios and consumers. I also reanalyze these issues assuming continued DVD adoption.