Sonically-enhanced widgets: comments on Brewster and Clarke, ICAD 1997

This paper presents a review of the research surrounding the paper “The Design and Evaluation of a Sonically Enhanced Tool Palette” by Brewster and Clarke from ICAD 1997. A historical perspective is given followed by a discussion of how this work has fed into current developments in the area

A toolkit of mechanism and context independent widgets

Most human-computer interfaces are designed to run on a static platform (e.g. a workstation with a monitor) in a static environment (e.g. an office). However, with mobile devices becoming ubiquitous and capable of running applications similar to those found on static devices, it is no longer valid to design static interfaces. This paper describes a user-interface architecture which allows interactors to be flexible about the way they are presented. This flexibility is defined by the different input and output mechanisms used. An interactor may use different mechanisms depending upon their suitability in the current context, user preference and the resources available for presentation using that mechanism

Cardiovascular disease and air pollution in Scotland: no association or insufficient data and study design?

<p><b>Background:</b> Coronary heart disease and stroke are leading causes of mortality and ill health in Scotland, and clear associations have been found in previous studies between air pollution and cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to use routinely available data to examine whether there is any evidence of an association between short-term exposure to particulate matter (measured as PM10, particles less than 10 micrograms per cubic metre) and hospital admissions due to cardiovascular disease, in the two largest cities in Scotland during the years 2000 to 2006.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> The study utilised an ecological time series design, and the analysis was based on overdispersed Poisson log-linear models.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> No consistent associations were found between PM10 concentrations and cardiovascular hospital admissions in either of the cities studied, as all of the estimated relative risks were close to one, and all but one of the associated 95% confidence intervals contained the null risk of one.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> This study suggests that in small cities, where air quality is relatively good, then either PM10 concentrations have no effect on cardiovascular ill health, or that the routinely available data and the corresponding study design are not sufficient to detect an association.</p&gt

Risk of cancer following primary total hip replacement or primary resurfacing arthroplasty of the hip : A retrospective cohort study in Scotland

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Lee Barnsdale, Doug Clark, and Richard Dobbie for advice and assistance with data preparation before analysis, and to the three anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Difficulties in Laboratory Studies and Astronomical Observations of Organic Molecules: Hydroxyacetone and Lactic Acid

For the past 35 years, radio astronomy has revealed a rich organic chemistry in the interstellar gas, which is exceptionally complex towards active star-forming regions. New solar systems condense out of this gas and may influence the evolution of life on newly formed planets. Much of the biologically important functionality is present among the some 130 gas-phase molecules found to date, including alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, amines, amides and even the simplest sugar - glycolaldehyde. Still, many unidentified interstellar radio signals remain, and their identification relies on further laboratory study. The molecules hydroxyacetone and lactic acid are relatively small organic molecules, but possess rather complex rotational spectra owing to their high asymmetry. Hydroxyacetone is particularly problematic because it possess a very low barrier to internal rotation, and exhibits strong coupling of the free-rotor states with the overall rotation of the molecule. As in the case of acetamide, a full decomposition method was employed to order the resultant eigenstates onto normal asymmetric top eigenvectors

Examining the use of telehealth in community nursing: identifying the factors affecting frontline staff acceptance and telehealth adoption

Aims: To examine frontline staff acceptance of telehealth and identify barriers to and enablers of successful adoption of remote monitoring for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Chronic Heart Failure. Background: The use of telehealth in the UK has not developed at the pace and scale anticipated by policy. Many existing studies report frontline staff acceptance as a key barrier, however data are limited and there is little evidence of the adoption of telehealth in routine practice. Design: Case studies of four community health services in England that use telehealth to monitor patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Chronic Heart Failure. Methods: Thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with 84 nursing and other frontline staff; and 21 managers and key stakeholders; data collected May 2012-June 2013. Findings: Staff attitudes ranged from resistance to enthusiasm, with varied opinions about the motives for investing in telehealth and the potential impact on nursing roles. Having reliable and flexible technology and dedicated resources for telehealth work were identified as essential in helping to overcome early barriers to acceptance, along with appropriate staff training and a partnership approach to implementation. Early successes were also important, encouraging staff to use telehealth and facilitating clinical learning and increased adoption. Conclusions: The mainstreaming of telehealth hinges on clinical 'buy-in'. Where barriers to successful implementation exist, clinicians can lose faith in using technology to perform tasks traditionally delivered in person. Addressing barriers is therefore crucial if clinicians are to adopt telehealth into routine practice

Adolescents’ Sexual Initiation: The Interaction of Race/Ethnicity and Immigrant Status

This paper provides an in-depth examination of the joint effects of race/ethnicity and immigrant status on adolescents’ intercourse risk. We employ a sample of 4,535 females and 3,759 males from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS 88/94) who were followed for 6 years beginning in the eighth grade. We use discrete-time logistic regression models to estimate the associations of race/ethnicity and immigrant generational status with first intercourse hazard, and to evaluate the statistical interactions between race/ethnicity and immigrant status. Overall, Asian and Hispanic girls had lower and non-Hispanic Black girls had higher estimated risks relative to non-Hispanic White girls. Hispanic boys and White non-Hispanic boys had similar intercourse risks, but Black boys had higher and Asian boys lower relative risks. However, these patterns are contingent on immigrant status. Among girls, the protective effects of Asian or Hispanic identity are found only among second generation youth. Risk profiles for boys are more complex: being a third-plus generation Hispanic is associated with a higher risk while an Asian identity is associated with a lower risk only among first- and second-generation youth. These findings confirm the importance of accounting for the overlap between race/ethnicity and immigrant status in models of adolescent behavior. As the demographic diversity of the US population grows, researchers must include both race/ethnicity and immigrant status in their models of adolescent behavior

The impact of population-based faecal occult blood test screening on colorectal cancer mortality:a matched cohort study

BACKGROUND: Randomised trials show reduced colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality with faecal occult blood testing (FOBT). This outcome is now examined in a routine, population-based, screening programme. METHODS: Three biennial rounds of the UK CRC screening pilot were completed in Scotland (2000–2007) before the roll out of a national programme. All residents (50–69 years) in the three pilot Health Boards were invited for screening. They received a FOBT test by post to complete at home and return for analysis. Positive tests were followed up with colonoscopy. Controls, selected from non-pilot Health Boards, were matched by age, gender, and deprivation and assigned the invitation date of matched invitee. Follow-up was from invitation date to 31 December 2009 or date of death if earlier. RESULTS: There were 379 655 people in each group (median age 55.6 years, 51.6% male). Participation was 60.6%. There were 961 (0.25%) CRC deaths in invitees, 1056 (0.28%) in controls, rate ratio (RR) 0.90 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.83–0.99) overall and 0.73 (95% CI 0.65–0.82) for participants. Non-participants had increased CRC mortality compared with controls, RR 1.21 (95% CI 1.06–1.38). CONCLUSION: There was a 10% relative reduction in CRC mortality in a routine screening programme, rising to 27% in participants

Second primary cancer risk - the impact of applying different definitions of multiple primaries: results from a retrospective population-based cancer registry study

Background: There is evidence that cancer survivors are at increased risk of second primary cancers. Changes in the prevalence of risk factors and diagnostic techniques may have affected more recent risks.<p></p> Methods: We examined the incidence of second primary cancer among adults in the West of Scotland, UK, diagnosed with cancer between 2000 and 2004 (n = 57,393). We used National Cancer Institute Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results and International Agency for Research on Cancer definitions of multiple primary cancers and estimated indirectly standardised incidence ratios (SIR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).<p></p> Results: There was a high incidence of cancer during the first 60 days following diagnosis (SIR = 2.36, 95% CI = 2.12 to 2.63). When this period was excluded the risk was not raised, but it was high for some patient groups; in particular women aged <50 years with breast cancer (SIR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.58 to 2.78), patients with bladder (SIR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.19 to 1.67) and head & neck (SIR = 1.93, 95% CI = 1.67 to 2.21) cancer. Head & neck cancer patients had increased risks of lung cancer (SIR = 3.75, 95% CI = 3.01 to 4.62), oesophageal (SIR = 4.62, 95% CI = 2.73 to 7.29) and other head & neck tumours (SIR = 6.10, 95% CI = 4.17 to 8.61). Patients with bladder cancer had raised risks of lung (SIR = 2.18, 95% CI = 1.62 to 2.88) and prostate (SIR = 2.41, 95% CI = 1.72 to 3.30) cancer.<p></p> Conclusions: Relative risks of second primary cancers may be smaller than previously reported. Premenopausal women with breast cancer and patients with malignant melanomas, bladder and head & neck cancers may benefit from increased surveillance and advice to avoid known risk factors

Counting matrices over finite fields with support on skew Young diagrams and complements of Rothe diagrams

We consider the problem of finding the number of matrices over a finite field with a certain rank and with support that avoids a subset of the entries. These matrices are a q-analogue of permutations with restricted positions (i.e., rook placements). For general sets of entries these numbers of matrices are not polynomials in q (Stembridge 98); however, when the set of entries is a Young diagram, the numbers, up to a power of q-1, are polynomials with nonnegative coefficients (Haglund 98). In this paper, we give a number of conditions under which these numbers are polynomials in q, or even polynomials with nonnegative integer coefficients. We extend Haglund's result to complements of skew Young diagrams, and we apply this result to the case when the set of entries is the Rothe diagram of a permutation. In particular, we give a necessary and sufficient condition on the permutation for its Rothe diagram to be the complement of a skew Young diagram up to rearrangement of rows and columns. We end by giving conjectures connecting invertible matrices whose support avoids a Rothe diagram and Poincar\'e polynomials of the strong Bruhat order.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl