Effects of User Age on Smartphone and Tablet Use, Measured with an Eye-Tracker via Fixation Duration, Scan-Path Duration, and Saccades Proportion

The design of user interfaces plays an important role in human computer interaction, especially for smartphones and tablet devices. It is very important to consider the interface design of smartphones for elderly people in order for them to benefit from the variety applications on such devices. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of user age as well as screen size on smartphone/tablet use. We evaluated the usability of smartphone interfaces for three different age groups: elderly age group (60+ years), middle age group (40-59 years) and younger age group (20-39 years). The evaluation is performed using three different screen sizes of smartphone and tablet devices: 3.2", 7", and 10.1" respectively. An eye-tracker device was employed to obtain three metrics: fixation duration, scan-path duration, and saccades amplitude. Two hypothesis were considered. First, elderly users will have both local and global processing difficulties on smartphone/tablet use than other age groups. Second, all user age groups will be influenced by screen sizes; small screen size will have smaller saccades proportion indicating uneasy interface browsing compared to large screen size. All these results have been statistically evaluated using 2-way ANOVA

Consumption of alcohol, cigarettes and illegal substances among physicians and medical students in Brandenburg and Saxony (Germany)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients regard health care professionals as role models for leading a healthy lifestyle. Health care professionals' own behaviour and attitudes concerning healthy lifestyle have an influence in counselling patients. The aim of this study was to assess consumption of alcohol, cigarettes and illegal substances among physicians and medical students in two German states: Brandenburg and Saxony.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Socio-demographic data and individual risk behaviour was collected by an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Physicians were approached via mail and students were recruited during tutorials or lectures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>41.6% of physicians and 60.9% of medical students responded to the questionnaire; more than 50% of the respondents in both groups were females. The majority of respondents consumed alcohol at least once per week; median daily alcohol consumption ranged from 3.88 g/d (female medical students) to 12.6 g/d (male physicians). A significantly higher percentage of men (p < 0.05) reported hazardous or harmful drinking compared to women. A quarter of all participating physicians and one third of all students indicated unhealthy alcohol-drinking behaviour. The majority of physicians (85.7%) and medical students (78.5%) were non-smokers. Both groups contained significantly more female non-smokers (p < 0.05). Use of illegal substances was considerably lower in physicians (5.1%) than medical students (33.0%). Male students indicated a significantly (p < 0.001) higher level of illegal drug-use compared to female students.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>More than one third of the medical students and health care professionals showed problematic alcohol-drinking behaviour. Although the proportion of non-smokers in the investigated sample was higher than in the general population, when compared to the general population, medical students between 18-24 reported higher consumption of illegal substances.</p> <p>These results indicate that methods for educating and promoting healthy lifestyle, particularly with respect to excessive alcohol consumption, tobacco use and abuse of illegal drugs should be considered.</p

The experimental power of FR900359 to study Gq-regulated biological processes.

Despite the discovery of heterotrimeric αβγ G proteins ∼25 years ago, their selective perturbation by cell-permeable inhibitors remains a fundamental challenge. Here we report that the plant-derived depsipeptide FR900359 (FR) is ideally suited to this task. Using a multifaceted approach we systematically characterize FR as a selective inhibitor of Gq/11/14 over all other mammalian Gα isoforms and elaborate its molecular mechanism of action. We also use FR to investigate whether inhibition of Gq proteins is an effective post-receptor strategy to target oncogenic signalling, using melanoma as a model system. FR suppresses many of the hallmark features that are central to the malignancy of melanoma cells, thereby providing new opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Just as pertussis toxin is used extensively to probe and inhibit the signalling of Gi/o proteins, we anticipate that FR will at least be its equivalent for investigating the biological relevance of Gq

concepts, rationals and results of the teaching projekt MESOP*

The MESOP-project - Intredisciplinary cooperation in the health care system (Medicne, Social work, Nursery), which was funded by the ministery for science, research and arts of the Land Baden-Wuerttemberg for the years 1997-2000 aimed amongst others at the development and proving of new teaching and learning modules for health care and social professions.Based on an analysis of comparable former teaching efforts and giving some disambiguation for the terms interdisciplinarity and multiproessionality, this article describes a teaching project which was designed across the borders of the participating universities. Together students from medical faculty of the university of Freiburg (n=59) and students from the university of applied sciences for social work of Esslingen (n=61) took part in several weekend seminaries, which focussed the topic of interdisciplinary cooperation in the health care and social welfare system. The contribution describes the development of this teaching concept during several years of proving and the design of the evaluation process and instruments, which mainly was based on standardised questionnaires and an additional open discussion. The detailed report about the results of the evaluation and their interpretation do not allow to jump to conclusions concerning the transfer into regular teaching practice. But it gets obvious that students from both faculty claim for the integration of this topic into their education. Therefore it seems to be necessary to strengthen the knowledge about other health professionals and to give the possibility of practical exercises for cooperationDas Projekt MESOP - Interdisziplinäre Kooperation im Gesundheitswesen (Medizin, Soziale Arbeit, Pflege), das vom Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg von 1997-2000 gefördert wurde, diente u.a. der Entwicklung und Erprobung neuer Lehr- und Lernformen für Gesundheits- und Sozialberufe. Anknüpfend an eine Analyse bisheriger vergleichbarer Unterrichtsvorhaben und begriffliche Klärungen, die angesichts der Vielzahl der Begriffsverwendungen notwendig erscheinen, beschreibt der Beitrag ein hochschulübergreifend angelegtes Unterrichtskonzept, in dem Studierende der Humanmedizin aus der Universität Freiburg (n=59)gemeinsam mit Studierenden der Sozialen Arbeit aus der Hochschule Esslingen, Fachhochhochschule für Sozialwesen (n=61) in mehreren Unterrichtsveranstaltungen zusammengeführt wurden, in denen das Thema der interdisziplinären Kooperation in den Gesundheitsberufen behandelt wurde.Der Beitrag beschreibt die über mehrere Jahre entwickelte Unterrichtskonzeption und das Design der Evaluation dieser Veranstaltungen, das sich wesentlich auf eine standardisierte Erhebung mittels Fragebogen stützte. Ergänzend wurde am Ende der Blockveranstaltungen zunächst eine getrennt nach Studiengruppen, dann gemeinsame diskursive Abschlußevaluation durchgeführt. Die ausführliche Beschreibung und Interpretation der Ergebnisse lassen wegen der besonderen Rahmenbedingungen der Veranstaltung noch keine vorschnellen Verallgemeinerungen zur Übertragbarkeit des Konzepts in die Routine zu. Sie liefern gleichwohl die Erkenntnis, dass auch aus Sicht der Studierenden ein erkennbarer Bedarf an unterrichtlicher Beschäftigung mit dem Thema der interdisziplinären Kooperation der Gesundheitsberufe gewünscht wird. Dazu erscheint es unerlässlich, dass die jeweiligen Berufs- bzw. Studierendengruppen mehr Wissen über das professionelle Feld des anderen erfahren und in gemeinsamen Übungen Formen der Kooperation praktisch erproben

Vorurteile, Diskriminierung und Toleranz aus der Sicht der Persönlichkeitspsychologie

Stößel K, Cohrs JC, Riemann R. Vorurteile, Diskriminierung und Toleranz aus der Sicht der Persönlichkeitspsychologie. In: Beelmann A, ed. Diskriminierung und Toleranz. Psychologische Grundlagen und Anwendungsperspektiven. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag; 2009: 95-111