Citizen advisory groups for the creation and improvement of decision aids: experience from two Swiss centers for primary care.

Guidelines for patient decision aids (DA) recommend target population involvement throughout the development process, but developers may struggle because of limited resources. We sought to develop a feasible means of getting repeated feedback from users. Between 2017 and 2020, two Swiss centers for primary care (Lausanne and Bern) created citizen advisory groups to contribute to multiple improvement cycles for colorectal, prostate and lung cancer screening DAs. Following Community Based Participatory Research principles, we collaborated with local organizations to recruit citizens aged 50 to 75 without previous cancer diagnoses. We remunerated incidental costs and participant time. One center supplemented in-person meetings by mailed paper questionnaires, while the other supplemented meetings using small-group workshops and analyses of meeting transcripts. In Lausanne, we received input from 49 participants for three DAs between 2017 and 2020. For each topic, participants gave feedback on the initial draft and 2 subsequent versions during in-person meetings with ~ 8 participants and one round of mailed questionnaires. In Bern, 10 participants were recruited among standardized patients from the university, all of whom attended in-person meetings every three months between 2017 and 2020. At both sites, numerous changes were made to the content, appearance, language, and tone of DAs and outreach materials. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the participative process. Citizen advisory groups are a feasible means of repeatedly incorporating end-user feedback during the creation of multiple DAs. Methodological differences between the two centers underline the need for a flexible model adapted to local needs

IMPACT OF GEOLOCATION DATA ON AUGMENTED REALITY USABILITY: A COMPARATIVE USER TEST

While the use of location-based augmented reality (AR) for education has demonstrated benefits on participants’ motivation, engagement, and on their physical activity, geolocation data inaccuracy causes augmented objects to jitter or drift, which is a factor in downgrading user experience. We developed a free and open source web AR application and conducted a comparative user test (n = 54) in order to assess the impact of geolocation data on usability, exploration, and focus. A control group explored biodiversity in nature using the system in combination with embedded GNSS data, and an experimental group used an external module for RTK data. During the test, eye tracking data, geolocated traces, and in-app user-triggered events were recorded. Participants answered usability questionnaires (SUS, UEQ, HARUS).We found that the geolocation data the RTK group was exposed to was less accurate in average than that of the control group. The RTK group reported lower usability scores on all scales, of which 5 out of 9 were significant, indicating that inaccurate data negatively predicts usability. The GNSS group walked more than the RTK group, indicating a partial effect on exploration. We found no significant effect on interaction time with the screen, indicating no specific relation between data accuracy and focus. While RTK data did not allow us to better the usability of location-based AR interfaces, results allow us to assess our system’s overall usability as excellent, and to define optimal operating conditions for future use with pupils

Prediction of second neurological attack in patients with clinically isolated syndrome using support vector machines

The aim of this study is to predict the conversion from clinically isolated syndrome to clinically definite multiple sclerosis using support vector machines. The two groups of converters and non-converters are classified using features that were calculated from baseline data of 73 patients. The data consists of standard magnetic resonance images, binary lesion masks, and clinical and demographic information. 15 features were calculated and all combinations of them were iteratively tested for their predictive capacity using polynomial kernels and radial basis functions with leave-one-out cross-validation. The accuracy of this prediction is up to 86.4% with a sensitivity and specificity in the same range indicating that this is a feasible approach for the prediction of a second clinical attack in patients with clinically isolated syndromes, and that the chosen features are appropriate. The two features gender and location of onset lesions have been used in all feature combinations leading to a high accuracy suggesting that they are highly predictive. However, it is necessary to add supporting features to maximise the accuracy. © 2013 IEEE

Hot Electrons in Amorphous Silicon

At extremely high electric fields (F≤0.55 MV/cm) and high temperatures (300Ta-Si:H) is obtained and therefore the shallow trapping is substantially reduced. New data clearly demonstrate that the free electron (band) mobility in a-Si:H decreases when the electric field increases, contrary to other disordered materials (e.g., amorphous selenium). In this sense the free carrier transport in a-Si:H is similar to the hot carriers in crystals when phonon scattering prevails

A Low-Power Programmable Dynamic Frequency Divider

In this paper, a solution to realize a low-power programmable frequency divider using dynamic logic is proposed. By cascading compact dual-modulus divider slice with recursive feedback mechanisms, any dividing ratio is easily implemented. A 5-stages 0.18 mum CMOS implementation demonstrates a power consumption factor as low as 235 nW/MHz under 1.2 V supply for high dividing ratios

Dependence of intrinsic stress in hydrogenated amorphous silicon on excitation frequency in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process

Intrinsic stress measurements were carried out on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films deposited with different excitation frequencies (13.56–70 MHz), by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. It was observed that films deposited at 70 MHz have one order of magnitude smaller intrinsic stress than those deposited at 13.56 MHz. These results have been linked to the estimated variation of the ion impact energy as a function of excitation frequency, deduced from the measured variation of the peak-to-peak voltage between the electrodes. The observation of diminished ion energy at higher excitation frequencies has been interpreted as the cause, both of the decrease in intrinsic stress as well as of the measured increase in surface roughness, of films prepared at higher frequencies