Programming by Example: Efficient, but Not "Helpful"

Programming by example (PBE) is a powerful programming paradigm based on example driven synthesis. Users can provide examples, and a tool automatically constructs a program that satisfies the examples. To investigate the impact of PBE on real-world users, we built a study around StriSynth, a tool for shell scripting by example, and recruited 27 working IT professionals to participate. In our study we asked the users to complete three tasks with StriSynth, and the same three tasks with PowerShell, a traditional scripting language. We found that, although our participants completed the tasks more quickly with StriSynth, they reported that they believed PowerShell to be a more helpful tool

Relationships between Oncologist Gender, Participatory Decision Making, Anxiety and Breast Cancer Care

The discovery that adjuvant treatment (chemotherapy and radiotherapy) after lumpectomy contributes to high survival rates has been a groundbreaking development in modern breast cancer care. Participatory decision-making (PDM) is a communication style that involves active interactions and discourse between doctors and patients. Although the receipt of adjuvant therapy for various types of cancers has been found to be linked to differences in patient-physician communication, few studies have explored whether this relationship exists in breast cancer treatment. The present study, one of the first explicitly to examine demographic and psychosocial factors that may be related to adjuvant treatment rates, surveyed a sample of inner-city breast cancer patients (N = 105) about the type of care they received, assessing concomitant levels of participatory decision making (PDM), and anxiety. The results demonstrated that patients who indicated higher PDM tended to have lower levels of anxiety (p < .01). Breast cancer patients who saw female oncologists were more likely to receive adjuvant treatment than breast cancer patients who saw male oncologists (p < .05). Contrary to popular belief, patients reported equivalent levels of PDM and anxiety regardless of their physician’s gender or their receipt of adjuvant treatment. The surprisingly low adjuvant treatment rates (45%) in this sample suggest possible system failures in breast cancer care and indicate that more attention needs to be given to public education on the importance of receiving follow-up treatment in breast cancer care