Mobile Devices at the Cinema Theatre

The pre-show experience is a significant part of the movie industry. Moviegoers, on average arrive 24 min before when the previews start. Previews have been a part of the movie experience for more than a hundred years and are a culturally significant aspect of the whole experience. Over the last decade, the premovie in-theatre experience has grown to a $600 million industry. This growth continues to accelerate. Since 2012, this industry has increased by 150%. Consequently, there is an industry-wide demand for innovation in the pre-movie area. In this paper, we describe Paths, an innovative multiplayer real-time socially engaging game that we designed, developed and evaluated. An iterative refinement application development methodology was used to create the game. The game may be played on any smartphone and group interactions are viewed on the large theatre screen. This paper also reports on the quasiexperimental mixed method study with repeated measures that was conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of this new game. The results show that Paths is very engaging with elements of suspense, pleasant unpredictability and effective team building and crowd-pleasing characteristics

Presentation, diagnostic assessment and surgical outcomes in primary hyperparathyroidism:a single centre's experience

Objective: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common reason for referral to endocrinology but the evidence base guiding assessment is limited. We evaluated the clinical presentation, assessment and subsequent management in PHPT. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Patients: PHPT assessed between 2006 and 2014 (n = 611) in a university hospital. Measurements: Symptoms, clinical features, biochemistry, neck radiology and surgical outcomes. Results: Fatigue (23.8%), polyuria (15.6%) and polydipsia (14.9%) were associated with PHPT biochemistry. Bone fracture was present in 16.4% but was not associated with biochemistry. A history of nephrolithiasis (10.0%) was associated only with younger age (P = 0.006) and male gender (P = 0.037). Thiazide diuretic discontinuation was not associated with any subsequent change in calcium (P = 0.514). Urine calcium creatinine clearance ratio (CCCR) was <0.01 in 18.2% of patients with confirmed PHPT. Older age (P < 0.001) and lower PTH (P = 0.043) were associated with failure to locate an adenoma on ultrasound (44.0% of scans). When an adenoma was identified on ultrasound the lateralisation was correct in 94.5%. Non-curative surgery occurred in 8.2% and was greater in those requiring more than one neck imaging modality (OR 2.42, P = 0.035). Conclusions: Clinical features associated with PHPT are not strongly related to biochemistry. Thiazide cessation does not appear to attenuate hypercalcaemia. PHPT remains the likeliest diagnosis in the presence of low CCCR. Ultrasound is highly discriminant when an adenoma is identified but surgical failure is more likely when more than one imaging modality is required

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material

Data from: Predictors of nephrolithiasis, osteoporosis and mortality in primary hyperparathyroidism

Context: Primary Hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) has a prevalence of 0.86% and is associated with increased risk of nephrolithiasis and osteoporosis. PHPT may also be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. Objective: To identify risk factors for nephrolithiasis, osteoporosis and mortality in PHPT. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: University teaching hospital. Patients: PHPT presenting between 2006 – 2014 (n = 611). Main outcome measures: Assessment of nephrolithiasis, osteoporosis and mortality. Results: 13.9% of PHPT patients had nephrolithiasis. Most had already documented stone disease and only 4.7% of asymptomatic patients screened for renal stones had calculi identified, not very dissimilar to the rate in the non-PHPT population. Younger age (P < 0.001) and male gender (P = 0.003) were the only independent predictors of nephrolithiasis. 48.4% of patients with DXA data had osteoporosis (223/461). Older age (P < 0.001), lower BMI (P = 0.002) and lower creatinine (P = 0.006) were independently associated with a diagnosis of osteoporosis. Higher PTH was independently associated with lower Z-score at the hip (P = 0.009), but otherwise calcium and PTH were not associated with lower Z-score. Mortality in PHPT was associated with older age (P < 0.008), social deprivation (P = 0.028) and adjusted calcium (P = 0.009) but not independently with PTH at diagnosis. Conclusions: Screening for nephrolithiasis has a low yield, particularly in lower risk patients. Osteoporosis is only minimally associated with biochemical indices of PHPT. Mortality is associated with higher calcium (and possibly vitamin D deficiency) but not PTH

Empirical formula for the prediction of off axis ratios and isodose curves for a treatment planning system

A mathematical model has been developed for prediction of off axis ratio (OAR), using Wood - Saxon term used to represent nuclear potential. This method has been satisfactorily applied for predicting OAR in case of 60Co γ-rays and high energy X-rays. Investigations are considered upto a depth of 25 cm in the case of 4MV LINAC for which measurements were carried out in our laboratory using indigenously developed Radiation Field Analyzer. For 60Co γ-rays as well as 6 and 18MV LINAC beams we could get off-axis profiles only upto 20 cm. The shift δ between measured and predicted OAR is within ±2 mm except for 20 cm depth near the falling edge of the penumbra, where it is 2.80 mm. Software has been developed in Visual Basic 6 on Windows platform to plot Isodose curves, which is based on the mathematical modeling of OAR and central axis percentage depth dose