Exploring Out-of-turn Interactions with Websites

Hierarchies are ubiquitous on the web for structuring online catalogs and indexing multidimensional attributed data sets. They are a natural metaphor for information seeking if their levelwise structure mirrors the user\u27s conception of the underlying domain. In other cases, they can be frustrating, especially if multiple drill‐downs are necessary to arrive at information of interest. To support a broad range of users, site designers often expose multiple faceted classifications or provide within‐page pruning mechanisms. We present a new technique, called out-of-turn interaction, that increases the richness of user interaction at hierarchical sites, without enumerating all possible completion paths in the site design. Using out‐of‐turn interaction, the user has the option to circumvent any navigation order imposed by the site and flexibly supply partial input that is otherwise relevant to the task. We conducted a user study to determine if and how users employ out‐of‐turn interaction, through a user interface we built called Extempore, for information-finding tasks. Extempore accepts out‐of‐turn input through voice or text, and we employed it in a U.S. congressional website for this study. Think‐aloud protocols and questionnaires were utilized to understand users\u27 rationale for choosing out‐of‐turn interaction. The results indicate that users are adept at discerning when out‐of‐turn interaction is necessary in a particular task and actively interleaved it with browsing. However, users found cascading information across information‐finding subtasks challenging. By empowering the user to supply unsolicited information while browsing, out‐of‐turn interaction bridges any mental mismatch between the user and the site. Our study not only improves our understanding of out‐of‐turn interaction, but also suggests further opportunities to enrich browsing experiences for users

Investigation of Relationships between Urinary Biomarkers of Phytoestrogens, Phthalates, and Phenols and Pubertal Stages in Girls

BackgroundHormonally active environmental agents may alter the course of pubertal development in girls, which is controlled by steroids and gonadotropins.ObjectivesWe investigated associations of concurrent exposures from three chemical classes (phenols, phthalates, and phytoestrogens) with pubertal stages in a multiethnic longitudinal study of 1,151 girls from New York City, New York, greater Cincinnati, Ohio, and northern California who were 6-8 years of age at enrollment (2004-2007).MethodsWe measured urinary exposure biomarkers at visit 1 and examined associations with breast and pubic hair development (present or absent, assessed 1 year later) using multivariate adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Modification of biomarker associations by age-specific body mass index percentile (BMI%) was investigated, because adipose tissue is a source of peripubertal hormones.ResultsBreast development was present in 30% of girls, and 22% had pubic hair. High-molecular-weight phthalate (high MWP) metabolites were weakly associated with pubic hair development [adjusted PR, 0.94 (95% CI, 0.88-1.00), fifth vs. first quintile]. Small inverse associations were seen for daidzein with breast stage and for triclosan and high MWP with pubic hair stage; a positive trend was observed for low-molecular-weight phthalate biomarkers with breast and pubic hair development. Enterolactone attenuated BMI associations with breast development. In the first enterolactone quintile, for the association of high BMI with any development, the PR was 1.34 (95% CI, 1.23-1.45 vs. low BMI). There was no BMI association in the fifth, highest quintile of enterolactone.ConclusionsWeak hormonally active xenobiotic agents investigated in this study had small associations with pubertal development, mainly among those agents detected at highest concentrations

The impact of trained patient educators on musculoskeletal clinical skills attainment in pre-clerkship medical students

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite the high burden of musculoskeletal (MSK) diseases, few generalists are comfortable teaching MSK physical examination (PE) skills. Patient Partners^®in Arthritis (PP^®IA) is a standardized patient educator program that could potentially supplement current MSK PE teaching. This study aims to determine if differences exist in MSK PE skills between non-MSK specialist physician and PP^®IA taught students.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Pre-clerkship medical students attended 2-hour small group MSK PE teaching by either non-MSK specialist physician tutors or by PP^®IA. All students underwent an MSK OSCE and completed retrospective pre-post questionnaires regarding comfort with MSK PE and interest in MSK.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>83 students completed the OSCE (42 PP^®IA, 41 physician taught) and 82 completed the questionnaire (42 PP^®IA, 40 physician taught). There were no significant differences between groups in OSCE scores. For all questionnaire items, post-session ratings were significantly higher than pre-session ratings for both groups. In exploratory analysis PP^®IA students showed significantly greater improvement in 12 of 22 questions including three of five patient-centred learning questions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>PP^®IA MSK PE teaching is as good as non-MSK specialist physician tutor teaching when measured by a five station OSCE and provide an excellent complementary resource to address current deficits in MSK PE teaching.</p

Exploring Out-of-turn Interactions with Websites

Hierarchies are ubiquitous on the web, for structuring online catalogs and indexing multi-dimensional attributed datasets. They are a natural metaphor for information seeking if their levelwise structure mirrors the user's conception of the underlying domain. In other cases, they can be frustrating, especially if multiple drill-downs are necessary to arrive at information of interest. To support a broad range of users, site designers often expose multiple faceted classifications or provide within-page pruning mechanisms. We present a new technique, called out-of-turn interaction, that increases the richness of user interaction at hierarchical sites, without enumerating all possible completion paths in the site design. Using out-of-turn interaction, the user has the option to circumvent any navigation order imposed by the site and flexibly supply partial input that is otherwise relevant to the task. We conducted a user study to determine if and how users employ out-of-turn interaction, through a user interface we built called Extempore, for information-finding tasks. Extempore accepts out-of-turn input through voice or text and we employed it in a US congressional website for this study. Think-aloud protocols and questionnaires were utilized to understand users' rationale for choosing out-of-turn interaction. The results indicate that users are adept at discerning when out-of-turn interaction is necessary in a particular task, and actively interleaved it with browsing. However, users found cascading information across information-finding subtasks challenging. By empowering the user to supply unsolicited information while browsing, out-of-turn interaction bridges any mental mismatch between the user and the site. Our study not only improves our understanding of out-of-turn interaction, but also suggests further opportunities to enrich browsing experiences for users

As we embark on a second year

No abstract available

Evaluation of tumor ischemia in response to an indole-based vascular disrupting agent using BLI and (19)F MRI.

Vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) have been proposed as an effective broad spectrum approach to cancer therapy, by inducing ischemia leading to hypoxia and cell death. A novel VDA (OXi8007) was recently reported to show rapid acute selective shutdown of tumor vasculature based on color-Doppler ultrasound. We have now expanded investigations to noninvasively assess perfusion and hypoxiation of orthotopic human MDA-MB-231/luc breast tumor xenografts following the administration of OXi8007 based on dynamic bioluminescence imaging (BLI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). BLI showed significantly lower signal four hours after the administration of OXi8007, which was very similar to the response to combretastatin A-4P (CA4P), but the effect lasted considerably longer, with the BLI signal remaining depressed at 72 hrs. Meanwhile, control tumors exhibited minimal change. Oximetry used (19)F MRI of the reporter molecule hexafluorobenzene and FREDOM (Fluorocarbon Relaxometry using Echo Planar Imaging for Dynamic Oxygen Mapping) to assess pO2 distributions during air and oxygen breathing. pO2 decreased significantly upon the administration of OXi8007 during oxygen breathing (from 122 ± 64 to 34 ± 20 Torr), with further decrease upon switching the gas to air (pO2 = 17 ± 9 Torr). pO2 maps indicated intra-tumor heterogeneity in response to OXi8007, though ultimately all tumor regions became hypoxic. Both BLI and FREDOM showed the efficacy of OXi8007. The pO2 changes measured by FREDOM may be crucial for future study of combined therapy