Age and gender user differences of a touch-screen kiosk: a study of kiosk transaction log files

More and more health information is provided to the consumer in a digital form but research on who actually accesses and uses this information is unclear. This research identifies age and gender user differences of a touch-screen health kiosk. In a departure from previous research, extensive use is made of electronically recorded user transaction files. In all 1378 user sessions covering 17 039 page views were analysed for this study. This research forms part of a research project funded by the Department of Health. Men accounted for about 53% of use but this hides an important gender difference: additionally women under 15 are significant under-users of such facilities. Qualitative research is needed to clarify the relationship. Further, it was found that those aged over 75 were not making use of kiosk content pages when compared to other age groups

Pregnancy information and advice on Sky television: an evaluation

This paper is one of a series produced as part of an evaluation of a number of digital interactive television (DiTV) health pilots funded by the Department of Health during 2001/2002. This paper is concerned with two pregnancy health services produced by Channel Health and hosted on Sky television. The study aimed to discover the success or otherwise of health information on pregnancy in this form and on this medium or ‘platform’. In particular we were interested in what kinds of people on the broader national stage viewed the Bush Babies programme. Data were obtained through a telephone questionnaire of Channel Health users. More than 250 people took part. More than 175 000 households watched the programmes, a large audience for this type of programme. Bush Babies attracted a sizeable audience with over a quarter of Channel Health viewers in this study having seen it. There proved to be marked differences between the types of people using the service and in the patterns of their use – and not always in the ways one might have expected. As expected, people who were single, older or male were less likely to view Bush Babies, while younger, married or cohabitants and females were more likely to watch the programme. More unexpectedly, perhaps, the fact that the person was pregnant was not a predictor of whether they saw a Bush Babies programme or the number of the programmes watched

Comparing the use of health information/advice in Birmingham and Hull: a case study of digital health information delivered via the television

Postal questionnaire surveys were carried out with users of two digital interactive television (DiTV) providers of health content to investigate the use made of each service and the users' reactions to service content and its usefulness to them. The research indicated that health information on DiTV was used and, on the whole, rated favourably. There was some evidence also that such information might be used by some people as a substitute for going to the doctor, though information from their general practitioner (GP) or practice nurse still carries more weight for most people than any other health information source. This study forms part of an ongoing research project which has, as part of its aim, the task of identifying particular users with the information sources that may be most appropriate for them

Comparing two digital consumer health television services using transaction log analysis

Use is an important characteristic in determining the success or otherwise of any digital information service, and in making comparisons between services. The source of most use data is the server logs that record user activity on a real-time and continuous basis. There is much demand from sponsors, channel owners and marketing departments for this information. The authors evaluate the performance of use metrics, including reach, in order to make comparisons between two services and discuss the methodological problems associated with making such comparisons. The two services were: Living Health, managed by Flextech and distributed by Telewest, and NHS Direct Digital, managed by Communicopia Data and distributed by Kingston Interactive Television. The data were collected over the period August 2001 to February 2002. During this period, the two sites were visited by approximately 20 000 people who recorded more than three-quarters of a million page views

Mechanisms of Acute Eosinophil Mobilization from the Bone Marrow Stimulated by Interleukin 5: The Role of Specific Adhesion Molecules and Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase

Mobilization of bone marrow eosinophils is a critical early step in their trafficking to the lung during allergic inflammatory reactions. We have shown previously that the cytokine interleukin (IL)-5, generated during an allergic inflammatory reaction in the guinea pig, acts systemically to mobilize eosinophils from the bone marrow. Here, we have investigated the mechanisms underlying this release process. Examination by light and electron microscopy revealed the rapid migration of eosinophils from the hematopoietic compartment and across the bone marrow sinus endothelium in response to IL-5. Using an in situ perfusion system of the guinea pig hind limb, we showed that IL-5 stimulated a dose-dependent selective release of eosinophils from the bone marrow. Eosinophils released from the bone marrow in response to IL-5 expressed increased levels of β2 integrin and a decrease in L-selectin, but no change in α4 integrin levels. A β2 integrin–blocking antibody markedly inhibited the mobilization of eosinophils from the bone marrow stimulated by IL-5. In contrast, an α4 integrin blocking antibody increased the rate of eosinophil mobilization induced by IL-5. In vitro we demonstrated that IL-5 stimulates the selective chemokinesis of bone marrow eosinophils, a process markedly inhibited by two structurally distinct inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, wortmannin and LY294002. Wortmannin was also shown to block eosinophil release induced by IL-5 in the perfused bone marrow system. The parallel observations on the bone marrow eosinophil release process and responses in isolated eosinophils in vitro suggest that eosinophil chemokinesis is the driving force for release in vivo and that this release process is regulated by α4 and β2 integrins acting in opposite directions

Effects on Task Performance and Psychophysiological Measures of Performance During Normobaric Hypoxia Exposure

Human-autonomous systems have the potential to mitigate pilot cognitive impairment and improve aviation safety. A research team at NASA Langley conducted an experiment to study the impact of mild normobaric hypoxia induction on aircraft pilot performance and psychophysiological state. A within-subjects design involved non-hypoxic and hypoxic exposures while performing three 10-minute tasks. Results indicated the effect of 15,000 feet simulated altitude did not induce significant performance decrement but did produce increase in perceived workload. Analyses of psychophysiological responses evince the potential of biomarkers for hypoxia onset. This study represents on-going work at NASA intending to add to the current knowledge of psychophysiologically-based input to automation to increase aviation safety. Analyses involving coupling across physiological systems and wavelet transforms of cortical activity revealed patterns that can discern between the simulated altitude conditions. Specifically, multivariate entropy of ECG/Respiration components were found to be significant predictors (p< 0.02) of hypoxia. Furthermore, in EEG, there was a significant decrease in mid-level beta (15.19-18.37Hz) during the hypoxic condition in thirteen of sixteen sites across the scalp. Task performance was not appreciably impacted by the effect of 15,000 feet simulated altitude. Analyses of psychophysiological responses evince the potential of biomarkers for mild hypoxia onset.The potential for identifying shifts in underlying cortical and physiological systems could serve as a means to identify the onset of deteriorated cognitive state. Enabling such assessment in future flightdecks could permit increasingly autonomous systems-supported operations. Augmenting human operator through assessment of cognitive impairment has the potential to further improve operator performance and mitigate human error in safety critical contexts. This study represents ongoing work at NASA intending to add to the current knowledge of psychophysiologically-based input to automation to increase aviation safety

SXP214, an X-ray Pulsar in the Small Magellanic Cloud, Crossing the Circumstellar Disk of the Companion

Located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), SXP214 is an X-ray pulsar in a high mass X-ray binary system with a Be-star companion. A recent survey of the SMC under a Chandra X-ray Visionary program found the source in a transition when the X-ray flux was on a steady rise. The Lomb-Scargle periodogram revealed a pulse period of 211.49 +/- 0.42 s, which is significantly (>5sigma) shorter than the previous measurements with XMM-Newton and RXTE. This implies that the system has gone through sudden spin-up episodes recently. The pulse profile shows a sharp eclipse-like feature with a modulation amplitude of >95%. The linear rise of the observed X-ray luminosity from <~2x to 7x10^35 erg s^-1 is correlated with steady softening of the X-ray spectrum, which can be described by the changes in the local absorption from N_H ~ 10^24 to <~10^20 cm^-2 for an absorbed power-law model. The soft X-ray emission below 2 keV was absent in the early part of the observation when only the pulsating hard X-ray component was observed, whereas at later times both soft and hard X-ray components were observed pulsating. A likely explanation is that the neutron star was initially hidden in the circumstellar disk of the companion, and later came out of the disk with the accreted material that continued fueling the observed pulsation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Ap

The characteristics of users and non-users of a digital interactive television service - case study: the Living Health channel

In the Birmingham area, 35 000 households were provided with access to the Living Health television channel for a pilot period of six months. The transactional logs showed that over the period 13 718 people used the system and that an estimated third of subscribers (34%) chose to view the channel. A questionnaire survey (n = 723) in the third month of service showed that nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents had used the service.a The analysis seeks to reveal what types of people used the service during this period and why

Color perception and attentional load in dynamic, time-constrained environments

The capacity to perceive color in the peripheral field has attracted research interest for more than a decade. There is evidence that sensitivity to red-green color variations is lower than for yellow-blue in peripheral vision. Whether, and to what extent, color vision affects the visual focus of attention, which is normally much smaller than the visual field, has not yet been examined. We used a sport-specific decision-making task to assess whether the color of the jersey worn by players appearing in the periphery influences decision making by affecting the attentional and perceptual capabilities. Pairs of players wearing chromatic (blue, yellow, red, and green) and achromatic (black, white) colored jerseys were briefly presented across a range of visual angles on a 6 m concave immersive screen. Participants were required to decide to whom to pass and recall relevant information. Findings indicate that color perception changes vary with increasing visual angle, but that the focus of attention is too small to be influenced by jersey color sensitivity. Decision-making performance decreases with increasing visual angle, but is not influenced by color. The implications for decision-making processes in sport and other professional domains are discussed