Just a beta....

Traditional implementation of clinical information systems follows a predictable project management process'. The selection, development, implementation, and evaluation of the system and the project management aspects of those phases require considerable time and effort. The purpose of this paper is to describe the beta site implementation of a knowledge-based clinical information system in a specialty area of a southeastern hospital that followed a less than traditional approach to implementation. Highlighted are brief descriptions of the hospital's traditional process, the nontraditional process, and key findings from the experience. Preliminary analysis suggests that selection of an implementation process is contextual. Selection of elements from each of these methods may provide a more useful process. The non-traditional process approached the elements of communication, areas of responsibility, training, follow-up and leadership differently. These elements are common to both processes and provide a focal point for future research

Enhanced blind decoding of Tardos codes with new map-based functions

This paper presents a new decoder for probabilistic binary traitor tracing codes under the marking assumption. It is based on a binary hypothesis testing rule which integrates a collusion channel relaxation so as to obtain numerical and simple accusation functions. This decoder is blind as no estimation of the collusion channel prior to the accusation is required. Experimentations show that using the proposed decoder gives better performance than the well-known symmetric version of the Tardos decoder for common attack channels

Spin Multiplicities

The number of times spin s appears in the Kronecker product of n spin j representations is computed, and the large n asymptotic behavior of the result is obtained. Applications are briefly sketched.Comment: Formatted into sections; references update

Genetic composition of an exponentially growing cell population

We study a simple model of DNA evolution in a growing population of cells. Each cell contains a nucleotide sequence which randomly mutates at cell division. Cells divide according to a branching process. Following typical parameter values in bacteria and cancer cell populations, we take the mutation rate to zero and the final number of cells to infinity. We prove that almost every site (entry of the nucleotide sequence) is mutated in only a finite number of cells, and these numbers are independent across sites. However independence breaks down for the rare sites which are mutated in a positive fraction of the population. The model is free from the popular but disputed infinite sites assumption. Violations of the infinite sites assumption are widespread while their impact on mutation frequencies is negligible at the scale of population fractions. Some results are generalised to allow for cell death, selection, and site-specific mutation rates. For illustration we estimate mutation rates in a lung adenocarcinoma

The 3-Loop Pure Singlet Heavy Flavor Contributions to the Structure Function F2(x,Q2)F_2(x,Q^2) and the Anomalous Dimension

The pure singlet asymptotic heavy flavor corrections to 3-loop order for the deep-inelastic scattering structure function $F_2(x,Q^2)$ and the corresponding transition matrix element $A_{Qq}^{(3), \sf PS}$ in the variable flavor number scheme are computed. In Mellin-$N$ space these inclusive quantities depend on generalized harmonic sums. We also recalculate the complete 3-loop pure singlet anomalous dimension for the first time. Numerical results for the Wilson coefficients, the operator matrix element and the contribution to the structure function $F_2(x,Q^2)$ are presented.Comment: 85 pages Latex, 14 Figures, 2 style file

Differential associations between actual and expected GP practice prescribing rates for statins, ACE inhibitors, and beta-blockers: a cross-sectional study in England

AIM: To explore the relationship between actual and expected general medical practitioner (GP) practice prescribing rates for statins, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and beta-blockers. BACKGROUND: There is a growing body of literature highlighting inequities in GP practice prescribing rates for many drug therapies. The equity of prescribing is of central importance in the area of therapeutics since it explores the interface between those patients who should and those who actually do receive a drug therapy. SETTING: Four primary care trusts (PCTs 1–4) in the North West of England, including 132 GP practices. METHODS: Actual and expected prescribing rates for statins, beta-blockers, and ACE inhibitors were specifically developed for each GP practice. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant correlations between actual and expected prescribing rates in PCT2 and PCT3, although in PCT1 there were statistically significant correlations for statins (0.286, p < 0.05) and ACE inhibitors (0.381, p < 0.01). In PCT4, correlations were moderate to high for beta-blockers (0.693, p < 0.01), and moderate for statins (0.541, p < 0.05) and ACE inhibitors (0.585, p < 0.01). Scatterplots highlighted large variations between individual GP practices (both within and between PCTs) in terms of the relationship between actual and expected prescribing rates. CONCLUSION: This paper highlights variability between PCTs and GP practices in terms of the relationship between actual and expected prescribing rates. The findings from this paper may further advance the suggestion of inequities in prescribing rates for coronary heart disease (CHD) drugs, and studies such as this may be repeated in different therapeutic areas, healthcare settings, and countries

Modelling three-dimensional trajectories by using BÉzier curves with application to hand motion

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72561/1/j.1467-9876.2007.00592.x.pd

Sustainable printing activities: design and initial approach of a print energy life-cycle decision tool

Information technology holds tremendous potential to help consumers and firms make more sustainable choices by providing information at key decision points. As one example, there are a number of software programs that help calculate and summarize environmental metrics for various products and processes. Surprisingly, while many printers are moving into the IT arena, the technology has not been fully utilized. For the most part, there is a lack of knowledge on the part of the consumer on the sustainability impacts of their communication decisions. Thus, this paper outlines a decision tool, presented to the consumer as they make a print decision, which estimates the energy consumption of printing a given document by analyzing the user’s requirements for the print job, the printer selected and the corresponding life-cycle criteria for these elements

A Density for a Generalized Likelihood-Ratio Test When the Sample Size is a Random Varible

The main objective of this work will be to examine the hypothesis that all the treatment means are the same and equal to some unknown quantity, when we know that the variance is the same for each sample, and to determine if the conventional method for making this test (the F-test) applicable when the sample sizes are assumed to be random variables. This hypothesis can be tested by using a likelihood-ration test. To do this, a density function or distribution has to be found for this ratio, thus permitting us to make probability statements about the occurrence of this ration under the null hypothesis