Asynchronous Remote Medical Consultation for Ghana

Computer-mediated communication systems can be used to bridge the gap between doctors in underserved regions with local shortages of medical expertise and medical specialists worldwide. To this end, we describe the design of a prototype remote consultation system intended to provide the social, institutional and infrastructural context for sustained, self-organizing growth of a globally-distributed Ghanaian medical community. The design is grounded in an iterative design process that included two rounds of extended design fieldwork throughout Ghana and draws on three key design principles (social networks as a framework on which to build incentives within a self-organizing network; optional and incremental integration with existing referral mechanisms; and a weakly-connected, distributed architecture that allows for a highly interactive, responsive system despite failures in connectivity). We discuss initial experiences from an ongoing trial deployment in southern Ghana.Comment: 10 page

The influence of advertisement familiarity and originality on visual attention and brand memory.

Based on Mandler's theory of schema organization and previous visual attention research, we formulate and test hypotheses about the impact of ad familiarity and ad originality on attention and memory for print advertisements. To that end, one hundred and nineteen consumers browsed through two consumer magazines containing 68 print advertisements. Attention to the ads and their brand, picture and text components was assessed through infrared eye tracking. Trained judges rated the ads independently for familiarity and originality. In support of the hypotheses we find a sharp attention decline with ad familiarity, which is largely due to a reduction in attention to text. Originality of ad execution serves as a buffer against the negative influence of ad familiarity on attention, but only for the brand and picture components. The reduction of attention to the text is even larger for original than for unoriginal ads. Moreover, over and above their indirect influence through visual attention patterns, ad familiarity, ad originality and their interaction had a direct influence on brand memory.Advertising;

Preference in the harried eye of the beholder: the effect of time pressure and task motivation.

We report a study in which eye tracking data were gathered to examine the impact of time-pressure and task motivation on the flow of visual attention during choice processing from a naturalistic stimulus-based product display. We find patterns of adaptation of visual attention to time pressure in terms of acceleration, filtration, and strategy shift that have not been reported previously. In addition we find, regardless of condition, strong correlation's between visual attention to the brands in the choice set and preference for the brands. Results are discussed in terms of strategic and non-strategic information acquisition during stimulus-based choice, and implications for attention theory are offered.

Optically controlled orbital angular momentum generation in a polaritonic quantum fluid

Applications of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light range from the next generation of optical communication systems to optical imaging and optical manipulation of particles. Here we propose a micron-sized semiconductor source which emits light with pre-defined OAM components. This source is based on a polaritonic quantum fluid. We show how in this system modulational instabilities can be controlled and harnessed for the spontaneous formation of OAM components not present in the pump laser source. Once created, the OAM states exhibit exotic flow patterns in the quantum fluid, characterized by generation-annihilation pairs. These can only occur in open systems, not in equilibrium condensates, in contrast to well-established vortex-antivortex pairs

Search for Fourth Generation Quarks at CMS

We summarise the analyses that search for fourth generation quarks at the Central Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. Such particles provide a natural extension to the Standard Model (SM) and are still consistent with precision electroweak measurements. Our searches are not limited to fourth generation chiral quarks and are relevant to many Beyond the Standard Model theories. No excess over the expected SM background is observed in any of these analyses and limits are set on the masses of the $b^\prime$ and $t^\prime$ quarks at 95% confidence level at 361 GeV/$c^2$ and 450 GeV/$c^2$, respectively.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the DPF-2011 Conference, Providence, RI, August 8-13, 201

Inhibition of the multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein: Time for a change of strategy?

P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is a key player in the multidrug-resistant phenotype in cancer. The protein confers resistance by mediating the ATP-dependent efflux of an astonishing array of anticancer drugs. Its broad specificity has been the subject of numerous attempts to inhibit the protein and restore the efficacy of anticancer drugs. The general strategy has been to develop compounds that either compete with anticancer drugs for transport or act as direct inhibitors of P-gp. Despite considerable in vitro success, there are no compounds currently available to "block" P-gp-mediated resistance in the clinic. The failure may be attributed to toxicity, adverse drug interaction, and numerous pharmacokinetic issues. This review provides a description of several alternative approaches to overcome the activity of P-gp in drug-resistant cells. These include 1) drugs that specifically target resistant cells, 2) novel nanotechnologies to provide high-dose, targeted delivery of anticancer drugs, 3) compounds that interfere with nongenomic transfer of resistance, and 4) approaches to reduce the expression of P-gp within tumors. Such approaches have been developed through the pursuit of greater understanding of resistance mediators such as P-gp, and they show considerable potential for further application. Copyright © 2014 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics