Develop Design Components

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Cognitive networks: brains, internet, and civilizations

In this short essay, we discuss some basic features of cognitive activity at several different space-time scales: from neural networks in the brain to civilizations. One motivation for such comparative study is its heuristic value. Attempts to better understand the functioning of "wetware" involved in cognitive activities of central nervous system by comparing it with a computing device have a long tradition. We suggest that comparison with Internet might be more adequate. We briefly touch upon such subjects as encoding, compression, and Saussurean trichotomy langue/langage/parole in various environments.Comment: 16 page

Giving a voice to personas in the design of e-government identity processes

Identity processes, such as enrolment and authentication, can have a negative impact on the user’s experience. By using personas designers get a better understanding of the end-user during the design process. Personas represent a user archetype to assist in the development of [digital] products. However this technique involves a measure of subjective interpretation. Following a qualitative empirical exercise we extend the persona concept to include statistical capabilities in order to inform the decision making process through measurable and comparable feedback. This feedback indicates how acceptable an identity mechanism is for a specific group of users. For this purpose we propose calibrated personas, an extension of the persona design tool that encapsulates the necessary regression coefficients which can help us predict perceived workload and users’ willingness to complete a task given specific design decisions.peer-reviewe

Thermal hadron production in high energy collisions

It is shown that hadron abundances in high energy e+e-, pp and p{\bar p} collisions, calculated by assuming that particles originate in hadron gas fireballs at thermal and partial chemical equilibrium, are in very good agreement with the data. The freeze-out temperature of the hadron gas fireballs turns out to be nearly constant over a large center of mass energy range and not dependent on the initial colliding system. The only deviation from chemical equilibrium resides in the incomplete strangeness phase space saturation. Preliminary results of an analysis of hadron abundances in S+S and S+Ag heavy ion collisions are presented.Comment: 10 pages, 1 .eps figure, talk given at the Strangeness and Quark Matter 97 conferenc

Safety and Efficacy of Vinorelbine in the Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer remains the most frequently diagnosed cancer in the United States, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) constitutes the majority (more than 80%) of lung cancer diagnoses. Systemic therapy, with either cytotoxic chemotherapy and/or targeted therapies, has been established to provide benefit to patients with NSCLC in both the adjuvant and advanced disease settings. Vinorelbine, a semi-synthetic vinca-alkaloid has been extensively tested alone and in combination with other cytotoxic or targeted agents in the treatment of NSCLC. Its safety has been well established with neutropenia, anemia, nausea, and vomiting being the most frequently encountered toxicities. The data defining the risks and benefits of vinorelbine in the treatment of NSCLC will be summarized

Gemcitabine: Efficacy in the Treatment of Advanced Stage Nonsquamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in many countries. Approximately half of the patients with non-small cell lung cancer have advanced disease and systemic chemotherapy, especially platinum-based doublets, is currently the standard treatment. Several trials have recently indicated the importance of histological subtype for treatment with molecular target chemotherapy and pemetrexed. Over the last decade, gemcitabine, a pyrimidine nucleoside antimetabolite, has been one of the most effective agents for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. It is unknown whether histological type is a predictor of the outcome of treatment with this agent. This is a review of the past trials and reviews of first-line treatment for advanced NSCLC, focusing on efficacy and safety of treatment with gemcitabine according to histological subtype

Adjustment for survey non‐representativeness using record‐linkage: refined estimates of alcohol consumption by deprivation in Scotland

Background and aims Analytical approaches to addressing survey non‐participation bias typically use only demographic information to improve estimates. We applied a novel methodology which uses health information from data linkage to adjust for non‐representativeness. We illustrate the method by presenting adjusted alcohol consumption estimates for Scotland. Design Data on consenting respondents to the Scottish Health Surveys (SHeSs) 1995–2010 were linked confidentially to routinely collected hospital admission and mortality records. Synthetic observations representing non‐respondents were created using general population data. Multiple imputation was performed to compute adjusted alcohol estimates given a range of assumptions about the missing data. Adjusted estimates of mean weekly consumption were additionally calibrated to per‐capita alcohol sales data. Setting Scotland. Participants 13 936 male and 18 021 female respondents to the SHeSs 1995–2010, aged 20–64 years. Measurements Weekly alcohol consumption, non‐, binge‐ and problem‐drinking. Findings Initial adjustment for non‐response resulted in estimates of mean weekly consumption that were elevated by up to 17.8% [26.5 units (18.6–34.4)] compared with corrections based solely on socio‐demographic data [22.5 (17.7–27.3)]; other drinking behaviour estimates were little changed. Under more extreme assumptions the overall difference was up to 53%, and calibrating to sales estimates resulted in up to 88% difference. Increases were especially pronounced among males in deprived areas. Conclusions The use of routinely collected health data to reduce bias arising from survey non‐response resulted in higher alcohol consumption estimates among working‐age males in Scotland, with less impact for females. This new method of bias reduction can be generalized to other surveys to improve estimates of alternative harmful behaviours