User profiling and classification for fraud detection in mobile communications networks

OpenAIRE

Hollmén, Jaakko

2000-01-01

The topic of this thesis is fraud detection in mobile communications networks by means of user profiling and classification techniques. The goal is to first identify relevant user groups based on call data and then to assign a user to a relevant group. Fraud may be defined as a dishonest or illegal use of services, with the intention to avoid service charges. Fraud detection is an important application, since network operators lose a relevant portion of their revenue to fraud. Whereas the int...

The role of users group in the IFMIF project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsui, H.; Sugimoto, M.; Mdslang, A.; Garin, R.

2007-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Experts of materials and fusion technology areas are the major 'users' of the IFMIF, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility. Now that IFMIF-EVEDA (Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities) Project is implemented under the Broader Approach framework as an EU-JP bilateral collaboration, the Users' Group under IEA does not have a formal interface with the IFMIF-EVEDA project. This lack of interface may cause serious problems since this situation may lead to designing, and eventually, constructing an expensive facility that does not fulfill the users' requirements in an optimal manner. Direct connection of IEA Users group and IFMIF would face a serious difficulty since the participating parties are different to each other. The Broader Approach agreement foresees the creation of a Project Committee in particular to advise IFMIF-EVEDA Project Leader on its implementation. It would be recommendable to appoint fusion-materials and -technology experts from BA participating parties as Project Committee members and let them function as interface between the Users and IFMIF-EVEDA Project. Periodic exchange of opinion involving members of this Committee with Users group members would function as an interface with scientists from all over the world. Roles of users, i.e. fusion-materials and technology experts are identified as follows: - Contribute to the reviews all along the IFMIF-EVEDA progress - Recommendations for further improvement of irradiation and test conditions - Support performance assessments of IFMIF (if needed) - Exchange of information on: - reference materials to be used for IFMIF construction - test matrices, and PIE programs for mechanical testing (at IFMIF site) - advanced microstructural analysis at suitable international laboratories - Ensure the link with DEMO design criteria experts as well as breeding blanket expert group - Support establishment of 'materials design limit data' for IFMIF

Relevance and feasibility of Social Life Cycle Assessment from a Company Perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Andreas; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Jørgensen, Michael Søgaard

2009-01-01

Methodology development should reflect demands from the intended users: what are the needs of the user group and what is feasible in terms of requirements involving data and work? Mapping these questions of relevance and feasibility is thus a way to facilitate a higher degree of relevance...... of the developed methodology. For the emerging area of social life cycle assessment (SLCA), several different potential user groups may be identified. This article addresses the issues of relevance and feasibility of SLCA from a company perspective through a series of interviews among potential company users....... The empirical basis for the survey is a series of eight semi-structured interviews with larger Danish companies, all of which potentially have the capacity and will to use comprehensive social assessment methodologies. SLCA is not yet a well-defined methodology, but still it is possible to outline several...

Aligning Technology with the Organisation Using Focus and User Groups

Science.gov (United States)

Owens, Simeon

As an IT Manager of nine years in a small healthcare organisation, which has transitioned from a minimal base of IT to fully fledged systems in place, I have discovered two structures which have helped enormously in this transition. These structures are firstly, the focus group, which looks at the IT requirements of the business, and secondly the user group, or a group of super users, which help in the day to day running of the systems. I have put together a number of lessons, which I have learnt over the years through experience of the workings of these groups, the benefits of them and the value they bring to the organisation.

User and Document Group Approach of Clustering in Tagging Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pan, Rong; Xu, Guandong; Dolog, Peter

2010-01-01

In this paper, we propose a spectral clustering approach for users and documents group modeling in order to capture the common preference and relatedness of users and documents, and to reduce the time complexity of similarity calculations. In experiments, we investigate the selection of the optim...... amount of clusters. We also show a reduction of the time consuming in calculating the similarity for the recommender systems by selecting a centroid first, and then compare the inside item on behalf of each group....

Minimal groups increase young children's motivation and learning on group-relevant tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Master, Allison; Walton, Gregory M

2013-01-01

Three experiments (N = 130) used a minimal group manipulation to show that just perceived membership in a social group boosts young children's motivation for and learning from group-relevant tasks. In Experiment 1, 4-year-old children assigned to a minimal "puzzles group" persisted longer on a challenging puzzle than children identified as the "puzzles child" or children in a control condition. Experiment 2 showed that this boost in motivation occurred only when the group was associated with the task. In Experiment 3, children assigned to a minimal group associated with word learning learned more words than children assigned an analogous individual identity. The studies demonstrate that fostering shared motivations may be a powerful means by which to shape young children's academic outcomes. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

LDA-Based Unified Topic Modeling for Similar TV User Grouping and TV Program Recommendation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pyo, Shinjee; Kim, Eunhui; Kim, Munchurl

2015-08-01

Social TV is a social media service via TV and social networks through which TV users exchange their experiences about TV programs that they are viewing. For social TV service, two technical aspects are envisioned: grouping of similar TV users to create social TV communities and recommending TV programs based on group and personal interests for personalizing TV. In this paper, we propose a unified topic model based on grouping of similar TV users and recommending TV programs as a social TV service. The proposed unified topic model employs two latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) models. One is a topic model of TV users, and the other is a topic model of the description words for viewed TV programs. The two LDA models are then integrated via a topic proportion parameter for TV programs, which enforces the grouping of similar TV users and associated description words for watched TV programs at the same time in a unified topic modeling framework. The unified model identifies the semantic relation between TV user groups and TV program description word groups so that more meaningful TV program recommendations can be made. The unified topic model also overcomes an item ramp-up problem such that new TV programs can be reliably recommended to TV users. Furthermore, from the topic model of TV users, TV users with similar tastes can be grouped as topics, which can then be recommended as social TV communities. To verify our proposed method of unified topic-modeling-based TV user grouping and TV program recommendation for social TV services, in our experiments, we used real TV viewing history data and electronic program guide data from a seven-month period collected by a TV poll agency. The experimental results show that the proposed unified topic model yields an average 81.4% precision for 50 topics in TV program recommendation and its performance is an average of 6.5% higher than that of the topic model of TV users only. For TV user prediction with new TV programs, the average

GroupFinder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bøgh, Kenneth Sejdenfaden; Skovsgaard, Anders; Jensen, Christian S.

2013-01-01

. Such groups are relevant to users who wish to conveniently explore several options before making a decision such as to purchase a specific product. Specifically, we demonstrate a practical proposal for finding top-k PoI groups in response to a query. We show how problem parameter settings can be mapped...

VALUE RELEVANCE OF GROUP FINANCIAL STATEMENTS BASED ON ENTITY VERSUS PARENT COMPANY THEORY: EVIDENCE FROM THE LARGEST THREE EUROPEAN CAPITAL MARKETS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Müller Victor-Octavian

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Financial statementsn#8217; main objective is to give information on the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of the reporting entity, which is useful to investors and other users in making economic decisions. In order to be useful, financial information needs to be relevant to the decision-making process of users in general, and investors in particular. Regarding consolidated financial statements, the accounting theory knows four perspectives (theories on which the preparation of those statements is based, namely, the proprietary theory, the parent company theory, the parent company extension theory and the entity theory (Baxter and Spinney, 1975. Of practical importance are especially the parent company extension perspective and the entity perspective. The IASB and FASB decided (within an ED regarding the Improvement of the Conceptual Framework that consolidated financial statements should be presented from the perspective of the group entity, and not from the perspective of the parent-company. However, this support for the entity theory is to our knowledge not backed by empirical findings in the academic literature. Therefore, in our paper we set to contribute with empirical arguments to finding an actual answer to the question about the superior market value relevance of one of the two concurrent perspectives (theories. We set to carry out an empirical association study on the problem of market value relevance of consolidated financial statements based on the entity theory respectively on the parent company (extension theory, searching for an answer to the above question. In this sense, we pursued an analysis of market value relevance of consolidated accounting information (based on the two perspectives of listed entities between 2003-2008 on the largest three European Stock Exchanges (London, Paris and Frankfurt. The obtained results showed that a n#8222;restrainedn#8221; entity perspective, which would combine

Proceedings of the twentieth LAMPF users group meeting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marinuzzi, R. (comp.)

1987-04-01

The Twentieth Annual LAMPF Users Group Meeting was held October 27-28, 1986, at the Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility. The program included a number of invited talks on various aspects of nuclear and particle physics as well as status reports on LAMPF and discussions of upgrade options. The LAMPF working groups met and discussed plans for the secondary beam lines, experimental programs, and computing facilities. Individual papers have been cataloged separately.

Proceedings of the twentieth LAMPF users group meeting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marinuzzi, R.

1987-04-01

The Twentieth Annual LAMPF Users Group Meeting was held October 27-28, 1986, at the Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility. The program included a number of invited talks on various aspects of nuclear and particle physics as well as status reports on LAMPF and discussions of upgrade options. The LAMPF working groups met and discussed plans for the secondary beam lines, experimental programs, and computing facilities. Individual papers have been cataloged separately

Drugs and personality: comparison of drug users, nonusers, and other clinical groups on the 16PF.

Science.gov (United States)

Spotts, J V; Shontz, F C

1991-10-01

This article reviews published 16PF research on drug users. It also compares the 16PF scores of a new sample of nonusers with scores of matched groups of heavy, chronic users of cocaine, amphetamine, opiates, and barbiturates/sedative hypnotics, as well as combined groups of stimulant users, depressant users, and a combined group of users of all substances. No significant differences were found among drug user groups, but the profile of the nonuser group was distinctive. K-Means Cluster Analyses, as well as Cattell's Similarity and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients, were used to compare profiles of these new samples with the 19 groups described in an earlier meta-analysis of published 16PF studies. Data from the new samples did not cluster with data from other published research, although certain specific similarities appeared in more detailed correlational analyses. Methodological problems are discussed, and it is recommended that in future studies drug user groups be more carefully selected and defined, sample descriptions be more thorough and complete, complete profile information be routinely provided, and efforts be made to explore the utility of the Cattell CAQ in studies of drug users/misusers.

User and group storage management the CMS CERN T2 centre

Science.gov (United States)

Cerminara, G.; Franzoni, G.; Pfeiffer, A.

2015-12-01

A wide range of detector commissioning, calibration and data analysis tasks is carried out by CMS using dedicated storage resources available at the CMS CERN Tier-2 centre. Relying on the functionalities of the EOS disk-only storage technology, the optimal exploitation of the CMS user/group resources has required the introduction of policies for data access management, data protection, cleanup campaigns based on access pattern, and long term tape archival. The resource management has been organised around the definition of working groups and the delegation to an identified responsible of each group composition. In this paper we illustrate the user/group storage management, and the development and operational experience at the CMS CERN Tier-2 centre in the 2012-2015 period.

User and group storage management the CMS CERN T2 centre

CERN Document Server

Cerminara, G; Pfeiffer, A

2015-01-01

A wide range of detector commissioning, calibration and data analysis tasks is carried out by CMS using dedicated storage resources available at the CMS CERN Tier-2 centre. Relying on the functionalities of the EOS disk-only storage technology, the optimal exploitation of the CMS user/group resources has required the introduction of policies for data access management, data protection, cleanup campaigns based on access pattern, and long term tape archival. The resource management has been organised around the definition of working groups and the delegation to an identified responsible of each group composition. In this paper we illustrate the user/group storage management, and the development and operational experience at the CMS CERN Tier-2 centre in the 2012-2015 period.

Proceedings of the twenty-first LAMPF users group meeting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-04-01

The Twenty-First Annual LAMPF Users Group Meeting was held November 9-10, 1987, at the Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility. The program included a number of invited talks on various aspects of nuclear and particle physics as well as status reports on LAMPF and discussions of upgrade options. The LAMPF working groups met and discussed plans for the secondary beam lines, experimental programs, and computing facilities

Identifying Differences Between Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) and Non-OHV User Groups for Recreation Resource Planning

Science.gov (United States)

Kil, Namyun; Holland, Stephen M.; Stein, Taylor V.

2012-09-01

Off-highway vehicle (OHV) riding is among the fastest growing recreational activities in the United States. However, little research exists about the central components of outcomes-focused management (OFM) as it relates to motorized recreation. Utilizing a two-activity dichotomy, OHV and non-OHV centric user groups were compared on several key concepts associated with OFM, including desired experiences, perceived and desired recreation opportunity spectrum-type settings, and intentional behaviors (i.e., place-protective behavior, spending-time intentions) toward potential changes in settings. Results indicated that the two groups were different in terms of intensity and relative rankings of their perceived experiences and settings. Although both groups preferred social bonding, stress relief, nostalgia and learning experiences, the OHV user group ranked using equipment and achieving physical fitness experiences as more important than the non-OHV group. The non-OHV user group preferred enjoying nature and solitude/tranquility experiences more strongly than the OHV user group. Further analysis found that both groups perceived settings that they recreated in to be pristine and preferred such conditions, and both groups preferred moderate levels of rules and regulations. Finally, the OHV user group was more reactive to rules and regulations, while the non-OHV user group expressed stronger intentions to protect the environmental quality of recreation areas. The results suggest that planners and managers who understand OHV user's perceptions and behaviors could provide enhanced recreation opportunities potentially providing additional beneficial outcomes for motorized and non-motorized groups in spatially different zones. Additional implications for planners and managers and future studies are discussed.

Brain responses to language-relevant musical features in adolescent cochlear implant users before and after an intensive music training program

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Bjørn; Weed, Ethan; Hansen, Mads

Brain responses to language-relevant musical features in adolescent cochlear implant users before and after an intensive music training program Petersen B.1,2, Weed E.1,3, Hansen M.1,4, Sørensen S.D.3 , Sandmann P.5 , Vuust P.1,2 1Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University......, rhythm and intensity). Difference waves for the rhythm deviant were analyzed in the time window between 300 and 320 ms. Separate mixed-model ANOVAs were performed for left and right fronto-central electrodes. Paired t-tests were used to analyze the behavioral data. Here we present preliminary analyses...... of ERP responses to the rhythm deviant stimuli and results from a behavioral rhythm discrimination test. For both left and right electrode sites we found a main effect of group, driven by higher mean amplitude in the NH group. There was no main effect of training. Left hemisphere sites showed...

Identifying relevant group of miRNAs in cancer using fuzzy mutual information.

Science.gov (United States)

Pal, Jayanta Kumar; Ray, Shubhra Sankar; Pal, Sankar K

2016-04-01

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) act as a major biomarker of cancer. All miRNAs in human body are not equally important for cancer identification. We propose a methodology, called FMIMS, which automatically selects the most relevant miRNAs for a particular type of cancer. In FMIMS, miRNAs are initially grouped by using a SVM-based algorithm; then the group with highest relevance is determined and the miRNAs in that group are finally ranked for selection according to their redundancy. Fuzzy mutual information is used in computing the relevance of a group and the redundancy of miRNAs within it. Superiority of the most relevant group to all others, in deciding normal or cancer, is demonstrated on breast, renal, colorectal, lung, melanoma and prostate data. The merit of FMIMS as compared to several existing methods is established. While 12 out of 15 selected miRNAs by FMIMS corroborate with those of biological investigations, three of them viz., "hsa-miR-519," "hsa-miR-431" and "hsa-miR-320c" are possible novel predictions for renal cancer, lung cancer and melanoma, respectively. The selected miRNAs are found to be involved in disease-specific pathways by targeting various genes. The method is also able to detect the responsible miRNAs even at the primary stage of cancer. The related code is available at http://www.jayanta.droppages.com/FMIMS.html .

RODOS User's Group: Final project report. Contract number: F14P- CT98-0075

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sinkko, K.; Ammann, M.

2001-03-01

Prior to 1998, the development of RODOS, a decision support system designed for the management of nuclear emergencies, had been carried out almost entirely by research scientists and engineers. The end-users/operators had little or no input into this development. To redress this situation, the RODOS Users Group (RUG) was established in 1998 under a Concerted Action Contract between the European Commission and STUK. The main objectives of this group were to encourage the emergency management community to use such a system, to provide a forum for end-users to share their experience in the use of such systems and to provide feedback from the end-users to the model and system developers in regard to operational problems and required improvements. The contract, which commenced on 1st September 1998, was for a period of two years. During this period, RUG established a www homepage, planned and performed two nuclear accident exercises and held four meetings. Technically the Web page operated very well. State-of-the-art Internet technology provided an efficient communication channel at low cost. The membership of the RUG was, however, too low to maintain a lively and ongoing discussion in parallel with the RODOS project Web page. This experience would suggest that it might have been better to have operated a Web page for RUG on the RODOS project Web-site rather than an independent RUG Web-site. Exercises based on fixed accident scenarios proved to be an appropriate means of highlighting issues that needed to be discussed between users and developers and to stimulate and motivate the end-users to maintain and further develop the system. Such exercises also promoted further activity in the field of emergency management. The organisation and administration of realistic exercises are time consuming, laborious and expensive. It is therefore very important that the maximum benefit is achieved from such exercises. The use of analytical evaluation methods could be better employed

Determining the frequency of dry eye in computer users and comparing with control group

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Hossein Davari

2017-08-01

Full Text Available AIM: To determine the frequency of dry eye in computer users and to compare them with control group. METHODS: This study was a case control research conducted in 2015 in the city of Birjand. Sample size of study was estimated to be 304 subjects(152 subjects in each group, computer user group and control group. Non-randomized method of sampling was used in both groups. Schirmer test was used to evaluate dry eye of subjects. Then, subjects completed questionnaire. This questionnaire was developed based on objectives and reviewing the literature. After collecting the data, they were entered to SPSS Software and they were analyzed using Chi-square test or Fisher's test at the alpha level of 0.05.RESULTS: In total, 304 subjects(152 subjects in each groupwere included in the study. Frequency of dry eyes in the control group was 3.3%(5 subjectsand it was 61.8% in computer users group(94 subjects. Significant difference was observed between two groups in this regard(Pn=12, and it was 34.2% in computer users group(n=52, which significant difference was observed between two groups in this regard(PP=0.8. The mean working hour with computer per day in patients with dry eye was 6.65±3.52h, while it was 1.62±2.54h in healthy group(T=13.25, PCONCLUSION: This study showed a significant relationship between using computer and dry eye and ocular symptoms. Thus, it is necessary that officials need to pay particular attention to working hours with computer by employees. They should also develop appropriate plans to divide the working hours with computer among computer users. However, due to various confounding factors, it is recommended that these factors to be controlled in future studies.

A Topic Space Oriented User Group Discovering Scheme in Social Network: A Trust Chain Based Interest Measuring Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Dong

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Currently, user group has become an effective platform for information sharing and communicating among users in social network sites. In present work, we propose a single topic user group discovering scheme, which includes three phases: topic impact evaluation, interest degree measurement, and trust chain based discovering, to enable selecting influential topic and discovering users into a topic oriented group. Our main works include (1 an overview of proposed scheme and its related definitions; (2 topic space construction method based on topic relatedness clustering and its impact (influence degree and popularity degree evaluation; (3 a trust chain model to take user relation network topological information into account with a strength classification perspective; (4 an interest degree (user explicit and implicit interest degree evaluation method based on trust chain among users; and (5 a topic space oriented user group discovering method to group core users according to their explicit interest degrees and to predict ordinary users under implicit interest and user trust chain. Finally, experimental results are given to explain effectiveness and feasibility of our scheme.

Treating first episode psychosis--the service users' perspective: a focus group evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Toole, M S; Ohlsen, R I; Taylor, T M; Purvis, R; Walters, J; Pilowsky, L S

2004-06-01

UK national guidance has prioritized developing specialist services for first episode psychosis. Such services are in the early stages of development and a definitive treatment model has yet to be established. The aim of this study was to explore service users' experiences of a first episode intervention designed along evidence-based 'best practice' guidelines and to establish specific elements seen as effective to help inform future service planning and provision. Twelve users of a specialist first episode service participated in focus groups. These were then analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a specialized form of content analysis. Key elements identified by the service users included the 'human' approach as a key to the recovery process, being involved in treatment decisions, flexibility of appointments, high nurse to patient ratio, reduction in psychotic symptoms, increased confidence and independence and the provision of daily structure. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic qualitative evaluation of users' experience of a specialist first episode treatment intervention. Our findings indicate that adherence to best practice guidelines was appreciated. Regular focus groups provide a continuous audit cycle incorporating service improvements in line with government recommendations, centrally informed by the service users' and caregivers' perspective.

Mining and Utilizing Dataset Relevancy from Oceanographic Dataset Metadata, Usage Metrics, and User Feedback to Improve Data Discovery and Access

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We propose to mine and utilize the combination of Earth Science dataset, metadata with usage metrics and user feedback to objectively extract relevance for improved...

Who Uses Earth Observations? User Types in Group on Earth Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Fontaine, K. S.

2011-12-01

How can we communicate concepts in the physical sciences unless we know our audience? The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) User Interface Committee (UIC) has a responsibility within GEO to support and advocate for the user community in the development of Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS) and related work. As part of its efforts, the UIC has been working on developing a taxonomy that can be used to characterize the broad spectrum of users of GEOSS and its data, services, and applications. The user type taxonomy is designed to be broad and flexible but aims at describing the needs of the users GEOSS is going to serve. These user types represent a continuum of users of Earth observations from research through to decision support activities, and it includes organizations that use GEOSS as a tool to provide data and services for customers and consumers of the information. The classification scheme includes factors about skills and capacity for using Earth observations, sophistication level, spatial resolution, latency, and frequency of data. As part of the effort to develop a set of User Types, the GEO UIC foresees that those inside and outside GEO can use the typologies to understand how to engage users at a more effective level. This talk presents the GEOSS User Type taxonomy, explaining the development and highlights of key feedback. The talk will highlight possible ways to use the User Type taxonomy to communicate concepts and promote the use of Earth observations to a wide variety of users.

Pharmaceutical Cognitive Enhancement in Greek University Students: Differences Between Users and Non-Users in Social Cognitive Variables, Burnout, and Engagement.

Science.gov (United States)

Lazuras, Lambros; Ypsilanti, Antonia; Lamprou, Efthymios; Kontogiorgis, Christos

2017-06-07

Pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement (PCE) represents the non-medical use of prescribed medication for the improvement of cognitive functioning and academic performance. Although there are some studies about PCE prevalence, it is less clear how users and non-users of PCE substances differ with respect to their positive and negative student experiences (e.g. academic burnout and engagement with studies) and in social cognitive variables that relate to decision-making and self-regulation of PCE use. The present study assessed whether students with different experiences of PCE substance use displayed differences in academic burnout, study engagement, and social cognitive variables relevant to PCE use. Three hundred and forty-seven university students (mean age (M) = 22.15 years, SD = 1.69; 54% females) completed a battery of anonymous questionnaires on academic burnout, engagement with studies, social cognitive variables relevant to PCE use, and self-reported use of PCE substances and non-prescribed nutritional supplements. Three user groups emerged, namely non-users (51.9%, n = 180), single users of non-prescribed dietary supplements (25.4%, n = 88), and dual users of both non-prescribed dietary supplements and PCE (22.8%, n = 79). Multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant differences among the three user groups in intentions, attitudes, social norms, and anticipated regret toward PCE use. No significant differences were observed with respect to academic burnout and work engagement. The findings show that university students may engage in PCE use independent of their student experiences. Rather, a chemically assisted performance enhancement mindset seems to differentiate users from non-users of PCE substances.

Information Needs/Relevance

OpenAIRE

Wildemuth, Barbara M.

2009-01-01

A user's interaction with a DL is often initiated as the result of the user experiencing an information need of some kind. Aspects of that experience and how it might affect the user's interactions with the DL are discussed in this module. In addition, users continuously make decisions about and evaluations of the materials retrieved from a DL, relative to their information needs. Relevance judgments, and their relationship to the user's information needs, are discussed in this module. Draft

VCFtoTree: a user-friendly tool to construct locus-specific alignments and phylogenies from thousands of anthropologically relevant genome sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Duo; Jaber, Yousef; Pavlidis, Pavlos; Gokcumen, Omer

2017-09-26

Constructing alignments and phylogenies for a given locus from large genome sequencing studies with relevant outgroups allow novel evolutionary and anthropological insights. However, no user-friendly tool has been developed to integrate thousands of recently available and anthropologically relevant genome sequences to construct complete sequence alignments and phylogenies. Here, we provide VCFtoTree, a user friendly tool with a graphical user interface that directly accesses online databases to download, parse and analyze genome variation data for regions of interest. Our pipeline combines popular sequence datasets and tree building algorithms with custom data parsing to generate accurate alignments and phylogenies using all the individuals from the 1000 Genomes Project, Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes, as well as reference genomes of Chimpanzee and Rhesus Macaque. It can also be applied to other phased human genomes, as well as genomes from other species. The output of our pipeline includes an alignment in FASTA format and a tree file in newick format. VCFtoTree fulfills the increasing demand for constructing alignments and phylogenies for a given loci from thousands of available genomes. Our software provides a user friendly interface for a wider audience without prerequisite knowledge in programming. VCFtoTree can be accessed from https://github.com/duoduoo/VCFtoTree_3.0.0 .

User and stakeholder involvement for relevant, reliable and robust local-scale climate projections in Norway

Science.gov (United States)

Neby, Simon; Sobolowski, Stefan

2017-04-01

How can users and stakeholders be actively involved with providing input to and using output from local-scale climate projections? How can the scientific community better understand the needs of local actors? And how should communication and cooperation efforts be organized? These are critical questions we aim to answer in a climate services project funded by the Norwegian Research Council (R3: Relevant, Reliable and Robust local-scale climate projections for Norway). The project takes into consideration not only the scientific issues in establishing useful local-scale climate projections, but also addresses the "usability gap" between climate information and decision-making. The lack of effective communication between scientists and user communities often result in outputs and products that are not matched with decision-relevant climate information. In the R3 project, the scientific participants actively engage with a range of users that have quite different information needs: municipalities, infrastructure developers, agriculture, energy producers, insurance companies, and more. In this particular presentation, we present our experiences concerning three specific issues that relate to the stakeholder-science interface: 1) Preferences are not clear-cut and pre-defined. In practice, this means that stakeholders often do not have precise information about their needs, nor precise information about how, where and whether their needs can be voiced. Similarly, science communities tend to presuppose that stakeholders are interested and have well-articulated needs, which is hardly the case. Collectively, that means that there is a need for an approach that guides the articulation and prioritization of preferences in a manner that integrates both scientific and stakeholder perspectives and takes the integrity of both perspectives seriously. 2) Technologies are unclear. Although information may be produced and used, past experiences, trial and error processes and pragmatic

Technologies for physical activity self-monitoring: a study of differences between users and non-users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Åkerberg A

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Anna Åkerberg,1,2 Anne Söderlund,2 Maria Lindén1 1School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, 2School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden Background: Different kinds of physical activity (PA self-monitoring technologies are used today to monitor and motivate PA behavior change. The user focus is essential in the development process of this technology, including potential future users such as representatives from the group of non-users. There is also a need to study whether there are differences between the groups of users and non-users. The aims of this study were to investigate possible differences between users and non-users regarding their opinions about PA self-monitoring technologies and to investigate differences in demographic variables between the groups. Materials and methods: Participants were randomly selected from seven municipalities in central Sweden. In total, 107 adults responded to the Physical Activity Products Questionnaire, which consisted of 22 questions. Results: Significant differences between the users and non-users were shown for six of the 20 measurement-related items: measures accurately (p=0.007, measures with high precision (p=0.024, measures distance (p=0.020, measures speed (p=0.003, shows minutes of activity (p=0.004, and shows geographical position (p=0.000. Significant differences between the users and non-users were also found for two of the 29 encouragement items: measures accurately (p=0.001 and has long-term memory (p=0.019. Significant differences between the groups were also shown for level of education (p=0.030 and level of physical exercise (p=0.037. Conclusion: With a few exceptions, the users and the non-users in this study had similar opinions about PA self-monitoring technologies. Because this study showed significant differences regarding level of education and level of physical exercise, these demographic variables seemed more relevant to investigate

ANALYSIS OF RAILWAY USER TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takamasa AKIYAMA

2009-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, there have been requirments for a transport environment that will foster the development of safe, comfortable townships. The study of urban activities amid an aging society and effective use of public transport modes in addressing environmental problems have become particularly important issues. This study analyzes travel behaviour patterns of varying age groups using urban railways in order to examine the relationship between urban public transport use and urban activities. specifically, it analyzes the composition of urban activity and travel behaviour patterns among urban railway users in the Keihanshin (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area. This paper looks at urban activities within aging societies and identifies the differences in travel behaviour of railway users by separating them into young, middle aged and senior citizen age groups. Analysis makes particular use of the Railway station Database, which is a compilation of existing studies into attributes of railway stations and their surroundings, and results of person trip surveys. Rail use behaviour characteristics have been sorted by age group because mobility via urban railway systems is varied by age group. As a result, differences in railway usage patterns (travel objectives, distance and time, and number of transfers, etc. have been identified and so too have differences in urban activity patterns related to free activities (shopping, recreation. Furthermore, the study developed a travel behaviour pattern estimation model which is capable of categorizing specific transport behaviour patterns and estimating rail users and transport behaviour patterns from the relationship with areas surrounding railway stations to ensure future mobility by public transport for older age groups. The results make it possible to put forward proposals for urban rail services that will facilitate urban activities for the different age groups. Eventually, it will be possible to understand

[Test Reviews in Child Psychology: Test Users Wish to Obtain Practical Information Relevant to their Respective Field of Work].

Science.gov (United States)

Renner, Gerolf; Irblich, Dieter

2016-11-01

Test Reviews in Child Psychology: Test Users Wish to Obtain Practical Information Relevant to their Respective Field of Work This study investigated to what extent diagnosticians use reviews of psychometric tests for children and adolescents, how they evaluate their quality, and what they expect concerning content. Test users (n = 323) from different areas of work (notably social pediatrics, early intervention, special education, speech and language therapy) rated test reviews as one of the most important sources of information. Readers of test reviews value practically oriented descriptions and evaluations of tests that are relevant to their respective field of work. They expect independent reviews that critically discuss opportunities and limits of the tests under scrutiny. The results show that authors of test reviews should not only have a background in test theory but should also be familiar with the practical application of tests in various settings.

PWR Users Group 10 CFR 61 Waste Form Requirements Compliance Test Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosenlof, R.C.

1985-01-01

In January of 1984, a PWR Users Group was formed to initiate a 10 CFR 61 Waste Form Requirements Compliance Test Program on a shared cost basis. The original Radwaste Solidification Systems sold by ATCOR ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, INC. to the utilities were required to produce a free-standing monolith with no free water. None of the other requirements of 10 CFR 61 had to be met. Current regulations, however, have substantially expanded the scope of the waste form acceptance criteria. These new criteria required that generators of radioactive waste demonstrate the ability to produce waste forms which meet certain chemical and physical requirements. This paper will present the test program used and the results obtained to insure 10 CFR 61 compliance of the three (3) typical waste streams generated by the ATCOR PWR Users Group's plants. The primary objective of the PWR Users Group was not to maximize waste loading within the masonry cement solidification media, but to insure that the users Radwaste Solidification System is capable of producing waste forms which meet the waste form criteria of 10 CFR 61. A description of the laboratory small sample certification program and the actual full scale pilot plant verification approach used is included in this paper. Also included is a discussion of the development of a Process Control Program to ensure the reproducibility of the test results with actual waste

A Compositional Relevance Model for Adaptive Information Retrieval

Science.gov (United States)

Mathe, Nathalie; Chen, James; Lu, Henry, Jr. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

There is a growing need for rapid and effective access to information in large electronic documentation systems. Access can be facilitated if information relevant in the current problem solving context can be automatically supplied to the user. This includes information relevant to particular user profiles, tasks being performed, and problems being solved. However most of this knowledge on contextual relevance is not found within the contents of documents, and current hypermedia tools do not provide any easy mechanism to let users add this knowledge to their documents. We propose a compositional relevance network to automatically acquire the context in which previous information was found relevant. The model records information on the relevance of references based on user feedback for specific queries and contexts. It also generalizes such information to derive relevant references for similar queries and contexts. This model lets users filter information by context of relevance, build personalized views of documents over time, and share their views with other users. It also applies to any type of multimedia information. Compared to other approaches, it is less costly and doesn't require any a priori statistical computation, nor an extended training period. It is currently being implemented into the Computer Integrated Documentation system which enables integration of various technical documents in a hypertext framework.

Deep learning relevance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lioma, Christina; Larsen, Birger; Petersen, Casper

2016-01-01

train a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) on existing relevant information to that query. We then use the RNN to "deep learn" a single, synthetic, and we assume, relevant document for that query. We design a crowdsourcing experiment to assess how relevant the "deep learned" document is, compared...... to existing relevant documents. Users are shown a query and four wordclouds (of three existing relevant documents and our deep learned synthetic document). The synthetic document is ranked on average most relevant of all....

Climate Change and Water Working Group - User Needs to Manage Hydrclimatic Risk from Days to Decades

Science.gov (United States)

Raff, D. A.; Brekke, L. D.; Werner, K.; Wood, A.; White, K. D.

2012-12-01

The Federal Climate Change Water Working Group (CCAWWG) provides engineering and scientific collaborations in support of water management. CCAWWG objectives include building working relationships across federal science and water management agencies, provide a forum to share expertise and leverage resources, develop education and training forums, to work with water managers to understand scientific needs and to foster collaborative efforts across the Federal and non-Federal water management and science communities to address those needs. Identifying and addressing water management needs has been categorized across two major time scales: days to a decade and multi-decadal, respectively. These two time periods are termed "Short-Term" and "Long-Term" in terms of the types of water management decisions they support where Short-Term roughly correlates to water management operations and Long-Term roughly correlates to planning activities. This presentation will focus on portraying the identified water management user needs across these two time periods. User Needs for Long-Term planning were identified in the 2011 Reclamation and USACE "Addressing Climate Change in Long-Term Water Resources Planning and Management: User Needs for Improving Tools and Information." User needs for Long-Term planning are identified across eight major categories: Summarize Relevant Literature, Obtain Climate Change Information, Make Decisions About How to Use the Climate Change Information, Assess Natural Systems Response, Assess Socioeconomic and Institutional Response, Assess System Risks and Evaluate Alternatives, Assess and Characterize Uncertainties, and Communicating Results and Uncertainties to Decisionmakers. User Needs for Short-Term operations are focused on needs relative to available or desired monitoring and forecast products from the hydroclimatic community. These needs are presenting in the 2012 USACE, Reclamation, and NOAA - NWS "Short-Term Water Management Decisions: User

ImageGrouper: a group-oriented user interface for content-based image retrieval and digital image arrangement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nakazato, Munehiro; Manola, L.; Huang, Thomas S.

In content-based image retrieval (CBIR), experimental (trial-and-error) query with relevance feedback is essential for successful retrieval. Unfortunately, the traditional user interfaces are not suitable for trying different combinations of query examples. This is because first, these systems

Predicting age groups of Twitter users based on language and metadata features.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio A Morgan-Lopez

Full Text Available Health organizations are increasingly using social media, such as Twitter, to disseminate health messages to target audiences. Determining the extent to which the target audience (e.g., age groups was reached is critical to evaluating the impact of social media education campaigns. The main objective of this study was to examine the separate and joint predictive validity of linguistic and metadata features in predicting the age of Twitter users. We created a labeled dataset of Twitter users across different age groups (youth, young adults, adults by collecting publicly available birthday announcement tweets using the Twitter Search application programming interface. We manually reviewed results and, for each age-labeled handle, collected the 200 most recent publicly available tweets and user handles' metadata. The labeled data were split into training and test datasets. We created separate models to examine the predictive validity of language features only, metadata features only, language and metadata features, and words/phrases from another age-validated dataset. We estimated accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 metrics for each model. An L1-regularized logistic regression model was conducted for each age group, and predicted probabilities between the training and test sets were compared for each age group. Cohen's d effect sizes were calculated to examine the relative importance of significant features. Models containing both Tweet language features and metadata features performed the best (74% precision, 74% recall, 74% F1 while the model containing only Twitter metadata features were least accurate (58% precision, 60% recall, and 57% F1 score. Top predictive features included use of terms such as "school" for youth and "college" for young adults. Overall, it was more challenging to predict older adults accurately. These results suggest that examining linguistic and Twitter metadata features to predict youth and young adult Twitter users may

Good practices for user effect reduction - Status Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashley, R.; El-Shanawany, M.; Eltawila, F.; D'Auria, F.

1999-01-01

User effect has been identified in previous CSNI activities since 1991. The present report has as objectives to outline the consideration given to the user effect problem by various concerned organisations, and to present a consensus about recommended practices for user effect reduction. A survey of relevant literature is summarised, together with the answers collected through the Task Group on Thermal Hydraulics Applications members about characteristics of overall safety analysis process including validation, safety culture, staffing levels, staff competencies and responsibilities, on the job training, required documentation, and quality assurance. An outline is given of the adequacy demonstration process to be undertaken by a code user, when the code is being used in new situations for which assessment has not been performed by the code developers or by other user groups. A list of fifteen recommendations is set up, dealing with organisation and responsibilities, build up of competence, checks and assessments, and uncertainties. In summary: this report provides a review and discussion of earlier work relevant to the user effect on the results of system codes transient analyses; responses to a questionnaire proposed by the OECD/CSNI Task Group on Thermal-Hydraulic Applications are considered, together with results of activities started in 1991 in the same CSNI context. Some recommendations aim at reducing the user effect. These recommendations are generally based on good common practices adopted by organisations involved in safety analyses. Some of the reasons for the user effect are mentioned in the report. Code deficiencies may be to blame in a number of cases; however, here the attention is focussed on the application of the code and not on improving of the code models. A critical aspect is the internal organisation of institutions performing system code applications; the engagement of permanent and hired staff has a role in the quality and reliability of

EURANOS. The Handbook Users Group (HUG)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nisbet, A.F.; Andersson, Kasper Grann; Carlé, B.

Three handbooks to assist in the management of contaminated food production systems, inhabited areas and drinking water supplies have been developed in conjunction with a wide range of stakeholders in Europe. These handbooks are living documents that will require updating from time to time.......eu-neris.net) to facilitate information exchange. Emergency centres in Member States not involved in the development of the handbooks were invited to take part in demonstration activities to establish whether the handbooks were useful for the purposes of contingency planning and accident management. Results from...... to remain state-of-the-art. To address this need, a handbook users’ group (HUG) was established in 2007 to provide a platform for maintaining the handbooks and to build a network of users for both the generic handbooks and any subsequently customised versions. A web site was set up (www...

RODOS User's Group: Final project report. Contract number: F14P- CT98-0075

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sinkko, K.; Ammann, M. (eds.)

2001-03-01

Prior to 1998, the development of RODOS, a decision support system designed for the management of nuclear emergencies, had been carried out almost entirely by research scientists and engineers. The end-users/operators had little or no input into this development. To redress this situation, the RODOS Users Group (RUG) was established in 1998 under a Concerted Action Contract between the European Commission and STUK. The main objectives of this group were to encourage the emergency management community to use such a system, to provide a forum for end-users to share their experience in the use of such systems and to provide feedback from the end-users to the model and system developers in regard to operational problems and required improvements. The contract, which commenced on 1st September 1998, was for a period of two years. During this period, RUG established a www homepage, planned and performed two nuclear accident exercises and held four meetings. Technically the Web page operated very well. State-of-the-art Internet technology provided an efficient communication channel at low cost. The membership of the RUG was, however, too low to maintain a lively and ongoing discussion in parallel with the RODOS project Web page. This experience would suggest that it might have been better to have operated a Web page for RUG on the RODOS project Web-site rather than an independent RUG Web-site. Exercises based on fixed accident scenarios proved to be an appropriate means of highlighting issues that needed to be discussed between users and developers and to stimulate and motivate the end-users to maintain and further develop the system. Such exercises also promoted further activity in the field of emergency management. The organisation and administration of realistic exercises are time consuming, laborious and expensive. It is therefore very important that the maximum benefit is achieved from such exercises. The use of analytical evaluation methods could be better employed

Analysis of PubMed User Sessions Using a Full-Day PubMed Query Log: A Comparison of Experienced and Nonexperienced PubMed Users

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Background PubMed is the largest biomedical bibliographic information source on the Internet. PubMed has been considered one of the most important and reliable sources of up-to-date health care evidence. Previous studies examined the effects of domain expertise/knowledge on search performance using PubMed. However, very little is known about PubMed users’ knowledge of information retrieval (IR) functions and their usage in query formulation. Objective The purpose of this study was to shed light on how experienced/nonexperienced PubMed users perform their search queries by analyzing a full-day query log. Our hypotheses were that (1) experienced PubMed users who use system functions quickly retrieve relevant documents and (2) nonexperienced PubMed users who do not use them have longer search sessions than experienced users. Methods To test these hypotheses, we analyzed PubMed query log data containing nearly 3 million queries. User sessions were divided into two categories: experienced and nonexperienced. We compared experienced and nonexperienced users per number of sessions, and experienced and nonexperienced user sessions per session length, with a focus on how fast they completed their sessions. Results To test our hypotheses, we measured how successful information retrieval was (at retrieving relevant documents), represented as the decrease rates of experienced and nonexperienced users from a session length of 1 to 2, 3, 4, and 5. The decrease rate (from a session length of 1 to 2) of the experienced users was significantly larger than that of the nonexperienced groups. Conclusions Experienced PubMed users retrieve relevant documents more quickly than nonexperienced PubMed users in terms of session length. PMID:26139516

The Criteria People Use in Relevance Decisions on Health Information: An Analysis of User Eye Movements When Browsing a Health Discussion Forum.

Science.gov (United States)

Pian, Wenjing; Khoo, Christopher Sg; Chang, Yun-Ke

2016-06-20

People are increasingly accessing health-related social media sites, such as health discussion forums, to post and read user-generated health information. It is important to know what criteria people use when deciding the relevance of information found on health social media websites, in different situations. The study attempted to identify the relevance criteria that people use when browsing a health discussion forum, in 3 types of use contexts: when seeking information for their own health issue, when seeking for other people's health issue, and when browsing without a particular health issue in mind. A total of 58 study participants were self-assigned to 1 of the 3 use contexts or information needs and were asked to browse a health discussion forum, HealthBoards.com. In the analysis, browsing a discussion forum was divided into 2 stages: scanning a set of post surrogates (mainly post titles) in the summary result screen and reading a detailed post content (including comments by other users). An eye tracker system was used to capture participants' eye movement behavior and the text they skim over and focus (ie, fixate) on during browsing. By analyzing the text that people's eyes fixated on, the types of health information used in the relevance judgment were determined. Post-experiment interviews elicited participants' comments on the relevance of the information and criteria used. It was found that participants seeking health information for their own health issue focused significantly more on the poster's symptoms, personal history of the disease, and description of the disease (P=.01, .001, and .02). Participants seeking for other people's health issue focused significantly more on cause of disease, disease terminology, and description of treatments and procedures (P=.01, .01, and .02). In contrast, participants browsing with no particular issue in mind focused significantly more on general health topics, hot topics, and rare health issues (P=.01, .01, and .01

The Criteria People Use in Relevance Decisions on Health Information: An Analysis of User Eye Movements When Browsing a Health Discussion Forum

Science.gov (United States)

Khoo, Christopher SG; Chang, Yun-Ke

2016-01-01

Background People are increasingly accessing health-related social media sites, such as health discussion forums, to post and read user-generated health information. It is important to know what criteria people use when deciding the relevance of information found on health social media websites, in different situations. Objective The study attempted to identify the relevance criteria that people use when browsing a health discussion forum, in 3 types of use contexts: when seeking information for their own health issue, when seeking for other people’s health issue, and when browsing without a particular health issue in mind. Methods A total of 58 study participants were self-assigned to 1 of the 3 use contexts or information needs and were asked to browse a health discussion forum, HealthBoards.com. In the analysis, browsing a discussion forum was divided into 2 stages: scanning a set of post surrogates (mainly post titles) in the summary result screen and reading a detailed post content (including comments by other users). An eye tracker system was used to capture participants’ eye movement behavior and the text they skim over and focus (ie, fixate) on during browsing. By analyzing the text that people’s eyes fixated on, the types of health information used in the relevance judgment were determined. Post-experiment interviews elicited participants’ comments on the relevance of the information and criteria used. Results It was found that participants seeking health information for their own health issue focused significantly more on the poster’s symptoms, personal history of the disease, and description of the disease (P=.01, .001, and .02). Participants seeking for other people’s health issue focused significantly more on cause of disease, disease terminology, and description of treatments and procedures (P=.01, .01, and .02). In contrast, participants browsing with no particular issue in mind focused significantly more on general health topics, hot

Let´s go to the cinema! A movie recommender system for ephemeral groups of users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guillermo Fernández

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Going to the cinema or watching television are social activities that generally take place in groups. In these cases, a recommender system for ephemeral groups of users is more suitable than (well-studied recommender systems for individuals. In this paper we present a recommendation system for groups of users that go to the cinema. The system uses the Slope One algorithm for computing individual predictions and the Multiplicative Utilitarian Strategy as a model to make a recommendation to an entire group. We show how we solved all practical aspects of the system; including its architecture and a mobile application for the service, the lack of user data (ramp-up and cold-start problems, the scaling fit of the group model strategy, and other improvements in order to reduce the response time. Finally, we validate the performance of the system with a set of experiments with 57 ephemeral groups.

A bilingual dictionary for a specific user group: Supporting Setswana ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The aim of this article is to discuss the design of a new English to Setswana dictionary for two narrowlydefined target user groups of Setswana learners, i.e. Upper Primary (10 to 12 years old); and JuniorSecondary (13 to 15 years old). The dictionary is intended to be a guide to text and speech productionin the foreign ...

User Evaluation of Neonatology Ward Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Trujillo, Juan Luis Higuera; Aviñó, Antoni Montañana I; Millán, Carmen Llinares

2017-01-01

The object of this article is to identify the set of affective and emotional factors behind users' assessments of a space in a neonatology unit and to propose design guidelines based on these. The importance of the neonatology service and the variety of users place great demands on the space at all levels. Despite the repercussions, the emotional aspects of the environment have received less attention. To avoid incurring limitations in the user mental scheme, this study uses two complementary methodologies: focus group and semantic differential. The (qualitative) focus group methodology provides exploratory information and concepts. The (quantitative) semantic differential methodology then uses these concepts to extract the conceptual structures that users employ in their assessment of the space. Of the total 175 subjects, 31 took part in focus groups and 144 in semantic differential. Five independent concepts were identified: privacy, functionality and professional nature, spaciousness, lighting, and cleanliness. In relation to the importance of the overall positive assessment of the space, the perception of privacy and sensations of dominance and pleasure are fundamental. Six relevant design aspects were also identified: provide spacious surroundings, facilitate sufficient separation between the different posts or cots, use different colors from those usually found in health-care centers, as some aversion was found to white and especially green, design areas with childhood themes, use warm artificial light, and choose user-friendly equipment. Results provide design recommendations of interest and show the possibilities offered by combining both systems to analyze user response.

Shilling attack detection for recommender systems based on credibility of group users and rating time series.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Wei; Wen, Junhao; Qu, Qiang; Zeng, Jun; Cheng, Tian

2018-01-01

Recommender systems are vulnerable to shilling attacks. Forged user-generated content data, such as user ratings and reviews, are used by attackers to manipulate recommendation rankings. Shilling attack detection in recommender systems is of great significance to maintain the fairness and sustainability of recommender systems. The current studies have problems in terms of the poor universality of algorithms, difficulty in selection of user profile attributes, and lack of an optimization mechanism. In this paper, a shilling behaviour detection structure based on abnormal group user findings and rating time series analysis is proposed. This paper adds to the current understanding in the field by studying the credibility evaluation model in-depth based on the rating prediction model to derive proximity-based predictions. A method for detecting suspicious ratings based on suspicious time windows and target item analysis is proposed. Suspicious rating time segments are determined by constructing a time series, and data streams of the rating items are examined and suspicious rating segments are checked. To analyse features of shilling attacks by a group user's credibility, an abnormal group user discovery method based on time series and time window is proposed. Standard testing datasets are used to verify the effect of the proposed method.

Non-professional user`s understanding of Geographic Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arleth, Mette

2003-01-01

of digital media, including online access to a variety of GI-based services; maps, online Geographic information systems, interactive 3D models etc. However, can we expect that a citizen, who has no relevant professional basis for understanding the concept geographic information, be able to use GI......-based online services and comprehend the information contents? Using the Gi-based online services qualitatively in the participatory process obviously requires knowledge of the non-professional user`s understanding and use of GI. This paper discusses the needs for research into this field as well as relevant...

Attentional bias in snus users: an experimental study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rune Aune Mentzoni

Full Text Available The use of nicotine in the form of "snus" is substantial and increasing in some geographic areas, in particular among young people. It has previously been suggested that addictions may operate through a mechanism of attentional bias, in which stimuli representative of the dependent substance increase in salience, thus increasing the addictive behavior. However, this hypothesis has not been tested for the case of snus. The current experiment used a modified Stroop task and a dot-probe task to investigate whether 40 snus users show an attentional bias towards snus-relevant stimuli, compared to 40 non-snus users. There were no significant differences between the two groups on reaction times or accuracy on either Stroop or dot-probe task, thus failing to show an attentional bias towards snus-relevant stimuli for snus users. This could imply that other mechanisms may contribute to maintenance of snus use than for other addictions. However, this is the first experimental study investigating attentional bias in snus users, and more research is warranted.

User Preferences for Content, Features, and Style for an App to Reduce Harmful Drinking in Young Adults: Analysis of User Feedback in App Stores and Focus Group Interviews.

Science.gov (United States)

Milward, Joanna; Khadjesari, Zarnie; Fincham-Campbell, Stephanie; Deluca, Paolo; Watson, Rod; Drummond, Colin

2016-05-24

crashing or freezing. Drinksmeter and Alcohol Units Calculator were the most highly praised apps overall (23/57 and 22/57; 39% of praise overall). In Phase 2, two main themes were identified. The meaningfulness theme reflected how young adults thought apps needed to be tailored to the interests and values of their age group, particularly emphasizing content and feedback around broader health and well-being factors such as exercise, diet, and image. The community theme suggested that young adults want to be able to engage with other app users, both in groups of friends and with online users for motivation and support. Targeted and relevant information and feedback, in addition to easy-to-use monitoring tools, were found to be important features of a mobile phone app to support a reduction in drinking. Future app development should consider tailoring all app aspects to the needs of young adults, considering broader well-being monitoring tools and online community functions.

Barriers and facilitators to implementing electronic prescription: a systematic review of user groups' perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Nsangou, Édith-Romy; Payne-Gagnon, Julie; Grenier, Sonya; Sicotte, Claude

2014-01-01

We conducted a systematic review identifying users groups' perceptions of barriers and facilitators to implementing electronic prescription (e-prescribing) in primary care. We included studies following these criteria: presence of an empirical design, focus on the users' experience of e-prescribing implementation, conducted in primary care, and providing data on barriers and facilitators to e-prescribing implementation. We used the Donabedian logical model of healthcare quality (adapted by Barber et al) to analyze our findings. We found 34 publications (related to 28 individual studies) eligible to be included in this review. These studies identified a total of 594 elements as barriers or facilitators to e-prescribing implementation. Most user groups perceived that e-prescribing was facilitated by design and technical concerns, interoperability, content appropriate for the users, attitude towards e-prescribing, productivity, and available resources. This review highlights the importance of technical and organizational support for the successful implementation of e-prescribing systems. It also shows that the same factor can be seen as a barrier or a facilitator depending on the project's own circumstances. Moreover, a factor can change in nature, from a barrier to a facilitator and vice versa, in the process of e-prescribing implementation. This review summarizes current knowledge on factors related to e-prescribing implementation in primary care that could support decision makers in their design of effective implementation strategies. Finally, future studies should emphasize on the perceptions of other user groups, such as pharmacists, managers, vendors, and patients, who remain neglected in the literature.

VALUE RELEVANCE OF GROUP FINANCIAL STATEMENTS BASED ON ENTITY VERSUS PARENT COMPANY THEORY: EVIDENCE FROM THE LARGEST THREE EUROPEAN CAPITAL MARKETS

OpenAIRE

Müller Victor-Octavian

2012-01-01

Financial statementsn#8217; main objective is to give information on the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of the reporting entity, which is useful to investors and other users in making economic decisions. In order to be useful, financial information needs to be relevant to the decision-making process of users in general, and investors in particular. Regarding consolidated financial statements, the accounting theory knows four perspectives (theories) on which ...

Identifying online user reputation in terms of user preference

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Lu; Guo, Qiang; Liu, Xiao-Lu; Liu, Jian-Guo; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2018-03-01

Identifying online user reputation is significant for online social systems. In this paper, taking into account the preference physics of online user collective behaviors, we present an improved group-based rating method for ranking online user reputation based on the user preference (PGR). All the ratings given by each specific user are mapped to the same rating criteria. By grouping users according to their mapped ratings, the online user reputation is calculated based on the corresponding group sizes. Results for MovieLens and Netflix data sets show that the AUC values of the PGR method can reach 0.9842 (0.9493) and 0.9995 (0.9987) for malicious (random) spammers, respectively, outperforming the results generated by the traditional group-based method, which indicates that the online preference plays an important role for measuring user reputation.

Extraction of Pluvial Flood Relevant Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI by Deep Learning from User Generated Texts and Photos

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Feng

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, pluvial floods caused by extreme rainfall events have occurred frequently. Especially in urban areas, they lead to serious damages and endanger the citizens’ safety. Therefore, real-time information about such events is desirable. With the increasing popularity of social media platforms, such as Twitter or Instagram, information provided by voluntary users becomes a valuable source for emergency response. Many applications have been built for disaster detection and flood mapping using crowdsourcing. Most of the applications so far have merely used keyword filtering or classical language processing methods to identify disaster relevant documents based on user generated texts. As the reliability of social media information is often under criticism, the precision of information retrieval plays a significant role for further analyses. Thus, in this paper, high quality eyewitnesses of rainfall and flooding events are retrieved from social media by applying deep learning approaches on user generated texts and photos. Subsequently, events are detected through spatiotemporal clustering and visualized together with these high quality eyewitnesses in a web map application. Analyses and case studies are conducted during flooding events in Paris, London and Berlin.

User-centered Design Groups to Engage Patients and Caregivers with a Personalized Health IT Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Maher, Molly; Kaziunas, Elizabeth; Ackerman, Mark; Derry, Holly; Forringer, Rachel; Miller, Kristen; O’Reilly, Dennis; An, Larry C.; Tewari, Muneesh; Hanauer, David A.; Choi, Sung Won

2015-01-01

Health information technology (IT) has opened exciting avenues for capturing, delivering and sharing data, and offers the potential to develop cost-effective, patient-focused applications. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of health IT applications such as outpatient portals. Rigorous evaluation is fundamental to ensure effectiveness and sustainability, as resistance to more widespread adoption of outpatient portals may be due to lack of user friendliness. Health IT applications that integrate with the existing electronic health record and present information in a condensed, user-friendly format could improve coordination of care and communication. Importantly, these applications should be developed systematically with appropriate methodological design and testing to ensure usefulness, adoption, and sustainability. Based on our prior work that identified numerous information needs and challenges of HCT, we developed an experimental prototype of a health IT tool, the BMT Roadmap. Our goal was to develop a tool that could be used in the real-world, daily practice of HCT patients and caregivers (users) in the inpatient setting. In the current study, we examined the views, needs, and wants of patients and caregivers in the design and development process of the BMT Roadmap through two user-centered Design Groups, conducted in March 2015 and April 2015, respectively: Design Group I utilized a low-fidelity paper-based prototype and Design Group II utilized a high-fidelity prototype presented to users as a web-app on Apple® iPads. There were 11 caregivers (median age 44, range 34–69 years) and 8 patients (median age 18 years, range 11–24 years) in the study population. The qualitative analyses revealed a wide range of responses helpful in guiding the iterative development of the system. Three important themes emerged from the Design Groups: 1) perception of core features as beneficial (views), 2) alerting the design team to potential issues with the user

Decentralization can help reduce deforestation when user groups engage with local government

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Glenn D.; Gibson, Clark C.; Evans, Tom P.

2016-01-01

Policy makers around the world tout decentralization as an effective tool in the governance of natural resources. Despite the popularity of these reforms, there is limited scientific evidence on the environmental effects of decentralization, especially in tropical biomes. This study presents evidence on the institutional conditions under which decentralization is likely to be successful in sustaining forests. We draw on common-pool resource theory to argue that the environmental impact of decentralization hinges on the ability of reforms to engage local forest users in the governance of forests. Using matching techniques, we analyze longitudinal field observations on both social and biophysical characteristics in a large number of local government territories in Bolivia (a country with a decentralized forestry policy) and Peru (a country with a much more centralized forestry policy). We find that territories with a decentralized forest governance structure have more stable forest cover, but only when local forest user groups actively engage with the local government officials. We provide evidence in support of a possible causal process behind these results: When user groups engage with the decentralized units, it creates a more enabling environment for effective local governance of forests, including more local government-led forest governance activities, fora for the resolution of forest-related conflicts, intermunicipal cooperation in the forestry sector, and stronger technical capabilities of the local government staff. PMID:27956644

Decentralization can help reduce deforestation when user groups engage with local government.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Glenn D; Andersson, Krister P; Gibson, Clark C; Evans, Tom P

2016-12-27

Policy makers around the world tout decentralization as an effective tool in the governance of natural resources. Despite the popularity of these reforms, there is limited scientific evidence on the environmental effects of decentralization, especially in tropical biomes. This study presents evidence on the institutional conditions under which decentralization is likely to be successful in sustaining forests. We draw on common-pool resource theory to argue that the environmental impact of decentralization hinges on the ability of reforms to engage local forest users in the governance of forests. Using matching techniques, we analyze longitudinal field observations on both social and biophysical characteristics in a large number of local government territories in Bolivia (a country with a decentralized forestry policy) and Peru (a country with a much more centralized forestry policy). We find that territories with a decentralized forest governance structure have more stable forest cover, but only when local forest user groups actively engage with the local government officials. We provide evidence in support of a possible causal process behind these results: When user groups engage with the decentralized units, it creates a more enabling environment for effective local governance of forests, including more local government-led forest governance activities, fora for the resolution of forest-related conflicts, intermunicipal cooperation in the forestry sector, and stronger technical capabilities of the local government staff.

Explaining IT Implementation Through Group Learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bondarouk, Tatiana; Sikkel, Nicolaas

2005-01-01

Implementation of an IT system in an organization takes a certain amount of time. System usage becomes stable when users have appropriated the system and new work practices have been established. We propose a concept of group learning as a framework to highlight relevant aspects of such a process. A

Addiction, agency, and the politics of self-control: doing harm reduction in a heroin users' group.

Science.gov (United States)

Gowan, Teresa; Whetstone, Sarah; Andic, Tanja

2012-04-01

Our 2007-2009 ethnography describes and analyses the practice of harm reduction in a heroin users' group in the midwestern United States. While dominant addiction interventions conceptualize the addict as powerless - either through moral or physical weakness - this group contested such "commonsense," treating illicit drug use as one of many ways that modern individuals attempt to "fill the void." Insisting on the destigmatization of addiction and the normalization of illicit drug use, the group helped its members work on incremental steps toward self-management. Although "Connection Points" had very limited resources to improve the lives of its members, our work suggests that the users' group did much to restore self-respect, rational subjectivity, and autonomy to a group historically represented as incapable of reason and self-control. As the users cohered as a community, they developed a critique of the oppressions suffered by "junkies," discussed their rights and entitlements, and even planned the occasional political action. Engaging with literature on the cultural construction of agency and responsibility, we consider, but ultimately complicate, the conceptualization of needle exchange as a "neoliberal" form of population management. Within the context of the United States' War on Drugs, the group's work on destigmatization, health education, and the practice of incremental control showed the potential for reassertions of social citizenship within highly marginal spaces. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development and ITER relevant application of a user friendly interface (TEM) for use with the TMAP4 code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanaka, M.R.; Fong, C.; Kalyanam, K.M.; Sood, S.K.; Delisle, M.; Natalizio, A.

1995-01-01

The Tritium Enclosure Model (TEM) has been developed as a user friendly interface to facilitate the application of the previously validated, verified and ITER approved TMAP4 Code. TEM (and TMAP4) dynamically analyzes the movement of tritium through structures, between structures and adjoining enclosures. Credible ITER relevant accident scenarios were developed and analyzed. The analyses considered the scenario with the cleanup system active or inactive, with and without the surface interactions. For surface interaction cases, the epoxy characteristics reported in the TMAP4 User Manual were used. Typical applications for TEM are the estimation of time-dependent tritium inventories in enclosures, as well as emissions to the environment following an accidental spill into any set of enclosures connected to cleanup systems. This paper outlines the various features of TEM and reports on the application of TEM to determine environmental source terms for the ITER Fuel Cycle and Cooling Systems, under chronic and accidental tritium releases. 3 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab

A multicenter prospective cohort study on camera navigation training for key user groups in minimally invasive surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Graafland, Maurits; Bok, Kiki; Schreuder, Henk W R; Schijven, Marlies P

2014-06-01

Untrained laparoscopic camera assistants in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) may cause suboptimal view of the operating field, thereby increasing risk for errors. Camera navigation is often performed by the least experienced member of the operating team, such as inexperienced surgical residents, operating room nurses, and medical students. The operating room nurses and medical students are currently not included as key user groups in structured laparoscopic training programs. A new virtual reality laparoscopic camera navigation (LCN) module was specifically developed for these key user groups. This multicenter prospective cohort study assesses face validity and construct validity of the LCN module on the Simendo virtual reality simulator. Face validity was assessed through a questionnaire on resemblance to reality and perceived usability of the instrument among experts and trainees. Construct validity was assessed by comparing scores of groups with different levels of experience on outcome parameters of speed and movement proficiency. The results obtained show uniform and positive evaluation of the LCN module among expert users and trainees, signifying face validity. Experts and intermediate experience groups performed significantly better in task time and camera stability during three repetitions, compared to the less experienced user groups (P < .007). Comparison of learning curves showed significant improvement of proficiency in time and camera stability for all groups during three repetitions (P < .007). The results of this study show face validity and construct validity of the LCN module. The module is suitable for use in training curricula for operating room nurses and novice surgical trainees, aimed at improving team performance in minimally invasive surgery. © The Author(s) 2013.

Effects of Group Drumming Interventions on Anxiety, Depression, Social Resilience and Inflammatory Immune Response among Mental Health Service Users

OpenAIRE

Fancourt, Daisy; Perkins, Rosie; Ascenso, Sara; Carvalho, Livia A.; Steptoe, Andrew; Williamon, Aaron

2016-01-01

Growing numbers of mental health organizations are developing community music-making interventions for service users; however, to date there has been little research into their efficacy or mechanisms of effect. This study was an exploratory examination of whether 10 weeks of group drumming could improve depression, anxiety and social resilience among service users compared with a non-music control group (with participants allocated to group by geographical location.) Significant improvements ...

Perceptions and Reasons Regarding E-Cigarette Use among Users and Non-Users: A Narrative Literature Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim A. G. J. Romijnders

2018-06-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the attractiveness of e-cigarettes for several different groups. For this purpose, perceptions of and reasons for e-cigarette use were systematically reviewed as reported by e-cigarette users, cigarette smokers, dual users, and non-users, among both adults and youth. MEDLINE® and Scopus were used to search for relevant articles, and references of included studies were also investigated. Two reviewers screened all titles and abstracts independently, blinded to authors and journal titles (Cohen’s Kappa = 0.83, resulting in 72 eligible articles. Risk perceptions, perceived benefits, and reasons for e-cigarette use were categorized in themes and sub-themes. Risk perceptions included harmfulness in general, and specific health risks. Perceived benefits included improved taste and smell, and safety for bystanders. Reasons for use included (health benefits, curiosity, smoking cessation, and friends using e-cigarettes. The findings highlight that there is a variety of perceptions and reasons mentioned by adult and youth e-cigarette users, cigarette smokers, dual users, and non-users. As such, this overview provides valuable information for scientists, public health professionals, behavior change experts, and regulators to improve future research, risk communication, and possibilities to effectively regulate e-cigarettes.

e-Government Readiness, Strategy and Two Different User Groups - in Austria

Science.gov (United States)

Edelmann, Noella; Hoechtl, Johann; Parycek, Peter

This paper offers a description of the e-Government Strategy in Austria and its e-Government readiness, and looks at how two different user groups are experiencing e-Government in Austria. Studies conducted show that adolescent citizens are more optimistic and enthusiastic about the possibilities offered whilst the municipalities are more skeptical. The Austrian e-Government strategy, the decisionmakers and IT solution providers must understand the needs of all stakeholders and provide viable solutions accordingly.

Anxiety symptoms in crack cocaine and inhalant users admitted to a psychiatric hospital in southern Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Zubaran, Carlos; Foresti, Katia; Thorell, Mariana Rossi; Franceschini, Paulo Roberto

2013-01-01

The occurrence of psychiatric comorbidity among individuals with crack or inhalant dependence is frequently observed. The objective of this study was to investigate anxiety symptoms among crack cocaine and inhalant users in southern Brazil. The study investigated two groups of volunteers of equal size (n=50): one group consisted of crack cocaine users, and the other group consisted of inhalant users. Research volunteers completed the Portuguese versions of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), and Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ). Both crack and inhalant users experience significant symptoms of anxiety. Inhalant users presented significantly more anxiety symptoms than crack users according to the HAM-A questionnaire only. In contrast to the results of the HAM-A, the STAI failed to demonstrate a significant difference between the two groups of substance users. SRQ scores revealed that crack and inhalants users had significant degrees of morbidity. A significant difference regarding anxiety symptomatology, especially state anxiety, was observed among inhalant and crack users. Anxiety and overall mental psychopathology were significantly correlated in this sample. The results indicate that screening initiatives to detect anxiety and additional psychiatric comorbidities among crack and inhalant users are feasible and relevant. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

The LAILAPS Search Engine: Relevance Ranking in Life Science Databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lange Matthias

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Search engines and retrieval systems are popular tools at a life science desktop. The manual inspection of hundreds of database entries, that reflect a life science concept or fact, is a time intensive daily work. Hereby, not the number of query results matters, but the relevance does. In this paper, we present the LAILAPS search engine for life science databases. The concept is to combine a novel feature model for relevance ranking, a machine learning approach to model user relevance profiles, ranking improvement by user feedback tracking and an intuitive and slim web user interface, that estimates relevance rank by tracking user interactions. Queries are formulated as simple keyword lists and will be expanded by synonyms. Supporting a flexible text index and a simple data import format, LAILAPS can easily be used both as search engine for comprehensive integrated life science databases and for small in-house project databases.

Evaluating accessibility to Bangkok Metro Systems using multi-dimensional criteria across user groups

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duangporn Prasertsubpakij

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Metro systems act as fast and efficient transport systems for many modern metropolises; however, enhancing higher usage of such systems often conflicts with providing suitable accessibility options. The traditional approach of metro accessibility studies seems to be an ineffective measure to gage sustainable access in which the equal rights of all users are taken into account. Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR transportation has increasingly relied on the role of two mass rapid transport systems publicly called “BTS Skytrain” and “MRT Subway”, due to limited availability of land and massive road congestion; however, access to such transit arguably treats some vulnerable groups, especially women, the elderly and disabled people unfairly. This study constructs a multi-dimensional assessment of accessibility considerations to scrutinize how user groups access metro services based on BMR empirical case. 600 individual passengers at various stations were asked to rate the questionnaire that simultaneously considers accessibility aspects of spatial, feeder connectivity, temporal, comfort/safety, psychosocial and other dimensions. It was interestingly found by user disaggregated accessibility model that the lower the accessibility perceptions—related uncomfortable and unsafe environment conditions, the greater the equitable access to services, as illustrated by MRT — Hua Lumphong and MRT — Petchaburi stations. The study suggests that, to balance the access priorities of groups on services, policy actions should emphasize acceptably safe access for individuals, cost efficient feeder services connecting the metro lines, socioeconomic influences and time allocation. Insightful discussions on integrated approach balancing different dimensions of accessibility and recommendations would contribute to accessibility-based knowledge and potential propensity to use the public transits towards transport sustainability.

E-cigarette Dual Users, Exclusive Users and Perceptions of Tobacco Products.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Maria; Case, Kathleen R; Loukas, Alexandra; Creamer, Melisa R; Perry, Cheryl L

2016-01-01

We examined differences in the characteristics of youth non-users, cigarette-only, e-cigarette-only, and dual e-cigarette and cigarette users. Using weighted, representative data, logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine differences in demographic characteristics and tobacco use behaviors across tobacco usage groups. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine differences in harm perceptions of various tobacco products and perceived peer use of e-cigarettes by tobacco usage group. Compared to non-users, dual users were more likely to be white, male, and high school students. Dual users had significantly higher prevalence of current use of all products (except hookah) than e-cigarette-only users, and higher prevalence of current use of snus and hookah than the cigarette-only group. Dual users had significantly lower harm perceptions for all tobacco products except for e-cigarettes and hookah as compared to e-cigarette-only users. Dual users reported higher peer use of cigarettes as compared to both exclusive user groups. Findings highlight dual users' higher prevalence of use of most other tobacco products, their lower harm perceptions of most tobacco products compared to e-cigarette-only users, and their higher perceived peer use of cigarettes compared to exclusive users.

Designing a Facebook interface for senior users.

Science.gov (United States)

Gomes, Gonçalo; Duarte, Carlos; Coelho, José; Matos, Eduardo

2014-01-01

The adoption of social networks by older adults has increased in recent years. However, many still cannot make use of social networks as these are simply not adapted to them. Through a series of direct observations, interviews, and focus groups, we identified recommendations for the design of social networks targeting seniors. Based on these, we developed a prototype for tablet devices, supporting sharing and viewing Facebook content. We then conducted a user study comparing our prototype with Facebook's native mobile application. We have found that Facebook's native application does not meet senior users concerns, like privacy and family focus, while our prototype, designed in accordance with the collected recommendations, supported relevant use cases in a usable and accessible manner.

Learning User Preferences in Ubiquitous Systems: A User Study and a Reinforcement Learning Approach

OpenAIRE

Zaidenberg , Sofia; Reignier , Patrick; Mandran , Nadine

2010-01-01

International audience; Our study concerns a virtual assistant, proposing services to the user based on its current perceived activity and situation (ambient intelligence). Instead of asking the user to define his preferences, we acquire them automatically using a reinforcement learning approach. Experiments showed that our system succeeded the learning of user preferences. In order to validate the relevance and usability of such a system, we have first conducted a user study. 26 non-expert s...

Software support: Pre-empting the quick question. [User's support group at Fermilab

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Loebel, L.

1987-09-01

High energy physicists, researchers and graduate students, from universities all around the world come to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to do their experiments. They use our computer facilities to perform all phases of their data-analysis and presentation. We have a large turnover of users and a rather small support group, in a multi-vendor environment. We strive to make our users self-sufficient through the use of well-publicized maintenance procedures, documentation systems, and product support standards. By these pre-emptive measures we attempt to have quick answers at hand for the truly quick questions, leaving us time for the interesting problems.

"Recovery" in bipolar disorder: how can service users be supported through a self-management intervention? A qualitative focus group study.

Science.gov (United States)

Todd, Nicholas J; Jones, Steven H; Lobban, Fiona A

2012-04-01

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic and recurrent affective disorder. Recovery is defined as the process by which people can live fulfilling lives despite experiencing symptoms. To explore how an opportunistically recruited group of service users with BD experience recovery and self-management to understand more about how a service users' recovery may be supported. Twelve service users with BD took part in a series of focus groups. Service users' responses to questions about their personal experiences of self-management and recovery were analysed. Focus groups were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis ([ Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101]) was employed to identify common themes in the data. Four key themes were identified: (1) Recovery is not about being symptom free; (2) Recovery requires taking responsibility for your own wellness; (3) Self-management: building on existing techniques; (4) Overcoming barriers to recovery: negativity, stigma and taboo. Service users with BD have provided further support for the concept of recovery and have suggested a number of ways recovery can be supported. A self-management approach informed by the recovery literature has been proposed as a way to support service users' recovery.

Guiding Users to Sea Level Change Data Through Content

Science.gov (United States)

Quach, N.; Abercrombie, S. P.; Boening, C.; Brennan, H. P.; Gill, K. M.; Greguska, F. R., III; Huang, T.; Jackson, R.; Larour, E. Y.; Shaftel, H.; Tenenbaum, L. F.; Zlotnicki, V.; Boeck, A.; Moore, B.; Moore, J.

2017-12-01

The NASA Sea Level Change Portal (https://sealevel.nasa.gov) is an immersive and innovative web portal for sea level change research that addresses the needs of diverse audiences, from scientists across disparate disciplines to the general public to policy makers and businesses. Since sea level change research involves vast amounts of data from multiple fields, it becomes increasingly important to come up with novel and effective ways to guide users to the data they need. News articles published on the portal contains links to relevant data. The Missions section highlights missions and projects as well as provide a logical grouping of the data. Tools available on the portal, such as the Data Analysis Tool, a data visualization and high-performance environment for sea level analysis, and the Virtual Earth System Laboratory, a 3D simulation application, describes and links to the source data. With over 30K Facebook followers and over 23K Twitter follower, the portal outreach team also leverages social media to guide users to relevant data. This presentation focuses on how the portal uses news articles, mission and project pages, tools, and social media to connect users to the data.

Medium-sized Universities Connect to Their Libraries: Links on University Home Pages and User Group Pages

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pamela Harpel-Burk

2006-03-01

Full Text Available From major tasks—such as recruitment of new students and staff—to the more mundane but equally important tasks—such as providing directions to campus—college and university Web sites perform a wide range of tasks for a varied assortment of users. Overlapping functions and user needs meld to create the need for a Web site with three major functions: promotion and marketing, access to online services, and providing a means of communication between individuals and groups. In turn, college and university Web sites that provide links to their library home page can be valuable assets for recruitment, public relations, and for helping users locate online services.

BUGS at work : a bicycle user group guide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2002-07-01

This guide provides practical advice to cyclists on how start a Bicycle User Group (BUG) at their workplace. It offers tools to encourage employers to be proactive in improving facilities in support of cycle commuting. Several BUGs across Canada have worked towards getting better bicycle parking, lockers and shower facilities at their workplace. Other incentives include policies such as flexible work hours for cyclist commuters; casual dress on Friday; reimbursement for the subsidized cost of free parking provided by employers; and, use of a company car if needed for company business during the work day. The advantages to employers include: reduced health care costs because cyclists are physically fit; decreased absenteeism; increased productivity; reduced parking costs; lower company transportation bills; and, a greener corporate image. BUGs provide cycling information ranging from cycling maps to pamphlets and they raise cycle awareness. This guide includes cycling survey samples and examples of successful BUG activities across Canada. refs., tabs., figs.

Designing a Facebook Interface for Senior Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gonçalo Gomes

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The adoption of social networks by older adults has increased in recent years. However, many still cannot make use of social networks as these are simply not adapted to them. Through a series of direct observations, interviews, and focus groups, we identified recommendations for the design of social networks targeting seniors. Based on these, we developed a prototype for tablet devices, supporting sharing and viewing Facebook content. We then conducted a user study comparing our prototype with Facebook's native mobile application. We have found that Facebook's native application does not meet senior users concerns, like privacy and family focus, while our prototype, designed in accordance with the collected recommendations, supported relevant use cases in a usable and accessible manner.

Concurrent crack and powder cocaine users from Sao Paulo: Do they represent a different group?

Science.gov (United States)

Guindalini, Camila; Vallada, Homero; Breen, Gerome; Laranjeira, Ronaldo

2006-01-01

Background Cocaine abuse is a serious and socially damaging illegal drug problem. Different routes of administration are associated with a specific progression of use, different degrees of abuse liability, propensity for dependence and treatment response. There have been relatively few studies comparing different cocaine users groups and no studies into the characterization of the group of individuals reporting concurrent use of powder cocaine and crack cocaine. Methods Six hundred and ninety-nine cocaine users were assessed during the period August 1997 to October 1998 in one outpatient and six inpatient clinics located in the São Paulo, Brazil. Patients were interviewed using a structured questionnaire schedule in Portuguese, designed specifically for the Brazilian population. The statistical analyses were performed using either ANOVA or a chi-squared test and focusing on their preferred form of use/route of administration and other variables. Results For 83% of the variables tested in this study, the Dual Users subgroup (using both powder and crack cocaine) demonstrated statistical differences from the single drug user subgroups. Those differences include the initiation of cocaine, the abuse of other illicit drugs, and rates of criminal history. Conclusion These data suggest cocaine-dependent individuals who report use of both powder and crack cocaine are an at least partially, distinct subgroup. However, further studies will be necessary to confirm this and to determine if they also show a different treatment response. PMID:16426451

Concurrent crack and powder cocaine users from Sao Paulo: Do they represent a different group?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Breen Gerome

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Cocaine abuse is a serious and socially damaging illegal drug problem. Different routes of administration are associated with a specific progression of use, different degrees of abuse liability, propensity for dependence and treatment response. There have been relatively few studies comparing different cocaine users groups and no studies into the characterization of the group of individuals reporting concurrent use of powder cocaine and crack cocaine. Methods Six hundred and ninety-nine cocaine users were assessed during the period August 1997 to October 1998 in one outpatient and six inpatient clinics located in the São Paulo, Brazil. Patients were interviewed using a structured questionnaire schedule in Portuguese, designed specifically for the Brazilian population. The statistical analyses were performed using either ANOVA or a chi-squared test and focusing on their preferred form of use/route of administration and other variables. Results For 83% of the variables tested in this study, the Dual Users subgroup (using both powder and crack cocaine demonstrated statistical differences from the single drug user subgroups. Those differences include the initiation of cocaine, the abuse of other illicit drugs, and rates of criminal history. Conclusion These data suggest cocaine-dependent individuals who report use of both powder and crack cocaine are an at least partially, distinct subgroup. However, further studies will be necessary to confirm this and to determine if they also show a different treatment response.

Verbal Memory Impairment in Polydrug Ecstasy Users: A Clinical Perspective.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim P C Kuypers

Full Text Available Ecstasy use has been associated with short-term and long-term memory deficits on a standard Word Learning Task (WLT. The clinical relevance of this has been debated and is currently unknown. The present study aimed at evaluating the clinical relevance of verbal memory impairment in Ecstasy users. To that end, clinical memory impairment was defined as decrement in memory performance that exceeded the cut-off value of 1.5 times the standard deviation of the average score in the healthy control sample. The primary question was whether being an Ecstasy user (E-user was predictive of having clinically deficient memory performance compared to a healthy control group.WLT data were pooled from four experimental MDMA studies that compared memory performance during placebo and MDMA intoxication. Control data were taken from healthy volunteers with no drug use history who completed the WLT as part of a placebo-controlled clinical trial. This resulted in a sample size of 65 E-users and 65 age- and gender-matched healthy drug-naïve controls. All participants were recruited by similar means and were tested at the same testing facilities using identical standard operating procedures. Data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models, Bayes factor, and logistic regressions.Findings were that verbal memory performance of placebo-treated E-users did not differ from that of controls, and there was substantial evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. History of use was not predictive of memory impairment. During MDMA intoxication of E-users, verbal memory was impaired.The combination of the acute and long-term findings demonstrates that, while clinically relevant memory impairment is present during intoxication, it is absent during abstinence. This suggests that use of Ecstasy/MDMA does not lead to clinically deficient memory performance in the long term. Additionally, it has to be investigated whether the current findings apply to more complex cognitive

Verbal Memory Impairment in Polydrug Ecstasy Users: A Clinical Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuypers, Kim P C; Theunissen, Eef L; van Wel, Janelle H P; de Sousa Fernandes Perna, Elizabeth B; Linssen, Anke; Sambeth, Anke; Schultz, Benjamin G; Ramaekers, Johannes G

2016-01-01

Ecstasy use has been associated with short-term and long-term memory deficits on a standard Word Learning Task (WLT). The clinical relevance of this has been debated and is currently unknown. The present study aimed at evaluating the clinical relevance of verbal memory impairment in Ecstasy users. To that end, clinical memory impairment was defined as decrement in memory performance that exceeded the cut-off value of 1.5 times the standard deviation of the average score in the healthy control sample. The primary question was whether being an Ecstasy user (E-user) was predictive of having clinically deficient memory performance compared to a healthy control group. WLT data were pooled from four experimental MDMA studies that compared memory performance during placebo and MDMA intoxication. Control data were taken from healthy volunteers with no drug use history who completed the WLT as part of a placebo-controlled clinical trial. This resulted in a sample size of 65 E-users and 65 age- and gender-matched healthy drug-naïve controls. All participants were recruited by similar means and were tested at the same testing facilities using identical standard operating procedures. Data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models, Bayes factor, and logistic regressions. Findings were that verbal memory performance of placebo-treated E-users did not differ from that of controls, and there was substantial evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. History of use was not predictive of memory impairment. During MDMA intoxication of E-users, verbal memory was impaired. The combination of the acute and long-term findings demonstrates that, while clinically relevant memory impairment is present during intoxication, it is absent during abstinence. This suggests that use of Ecstasy/MDMA does not lead to clinically deficient memory performance in the long term. Additionally, it has to be investigated whether the current findings apply to more complex cognitive measures in diverse

Which aspects of functioning are relevant for patients with ankylosing spondylitis: results of focus group interviews.

Science.gov (United States)

Boonen, Annelies; van Berkel, Monique; Cieza, Alarcos; Stucki, Gerold; van der Heijde, Désirée

2009-11-01

To investigate whether concepts important to patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) are covered by disease-specific self-report health status instruments. A qualitative focus group study was conducted with AS patients on problems in daily functioning. Group sessions with 4 to 5 patients each were organized up to the point that no new information was brought forward. Group sessions were tape-recorded, transcribed, and divided into meaning units. Concepts contained in the meaning units were extracted. Self-report instruments on health status specific for AS were identified in a literature search. Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a common reference, it was determined whether the concepts identified in the focus groups were covered by the instruments. Nineteen patients participated in 4 focus group interviews. In total, 332 unique meaning units were linked to 90 second-level ICF categories, of which 25 referred to body functions, 10 to body structures, 35 to activities and participation and 30 to environmental factors. In addition, several concepts relating to personal factors were identified. Only 47 categories were also covered by one of the self-report instruments in AS. Only a minority of concepts addressed by the AS-specific questionnaires were not revealed as relevant in the interviews. Relevant aspects of the influence of AS are not covered by the classic disease-specific instruments. In particular, the influence of AS on socializing and leisure and the relevance of environmental and personal factors are not adequately assessed by available instruments.

User satisfaction with public and private dental services for different age groups in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aline Macarevich

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract: This article aimed to describe the levels of user satisfaction in different age groups and to study the association between user satisfaction and different types of dental services in a representative sample of Brazilians. This study is based on the Brazilian Oral Health Survey, which evaluated the dental health of adolescents, adults and older adults in 177 Brazilian cities. The outcome variable was user satisfaction, related to the last dental visit, evaluated in a five-level Likert-type scale. The main exposure variable was the type of dental service (public service, private service, health plan or insurance. The independent variables were DMFT (decay, missing and filled teeth; pain intensity in the past six months; reason for the last dental visit; perceived need for treatment; frequency of use of dental services; sex; equivalent income; and educational level. An ordered logistic regression analysis was performed separately for each age group. Few participants evaluated the services as bad or very bad (4.3% of adolescents, 6.1% of adults and 4.1% of older adults. In the crude model, the use of public services was associated with lower satisfaction than the use of private services and health plans between all groups. However, after adjusting by covariates, this association remained only in adolescents, who showed lower satisfaction with the public service compared to the private service and health plans. In general, Brazilians are satisfied with dental services, but, among adolescents, the use of public services was associated with lower satisfaction. Public services may be focused on issues related to children, adults and older adults, and not to the adolescent audience, which has specific demands.

A student-facilitated community-based support group initiative for Mental Health Care users in a Primary Health Care setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leana Meiring

2017-12-01

Methods: Qualitative research methods were applied. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a collage-making and storytelling method. Thematic analysis highlighted the main themes representing the meaning the five participants ascribed to the group. Results: The findings suggest that the group offered the participants a sense of belonging and a means of social and emotional support. The group also created opportunity for learning, encouraged mental and physical mobilisation and stimulation, and served as an additional link to professional services. Conclusion: The findings suggest that student-facilitated support groups could offer a viable supplement for offering support to service users in PHC settings. The group assisted MHC users to cope with symptoms, social integration, and participating in meaningful activities as part of rehabilitation services.

Revealing barriers and facilitators to use a new genetic test: comparison of three user involvement methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Rhebergen, Martijn D F; Visser, Maaike J; Verberk, Maarten M; Lenderink, Annet F; van Dijk, Frank J H; Kezic, Sanja; Hulshof, Carel T J

2012-10-01

We compared three common user involvement methods in revealing barriers and facilitators from intended users that might influence their use of a new genetic test. The study was part of the development of a new genetic test on the susceptibility to hand eczema for nurses. Eighty student nurses participated in five focus groups (n = 33), 15 interviews (n = 15) or questionnaires (n = 32). For each method, data were collected until saturation. We compared the mean number of items and relevant remarks that could influence the use of the genetic test obtained per method, divided by the number of participants in that method. Thematic content analysis was performed using MAXQDA software. The focus groups revealed 30 unique items compared to 29 in the interviews and 21 in the questionnaires. The interviews produced more items and relevant remarks per participant (1.9 and 8.4 pp) than focus groups (0.9 and 4.8 pp) or questionnaires (0.7 and 2.3 pp). All three involvement methods revealed relevant barriers and facilitators to use a new genetic test. Focus groups and interviews revealed substantially more items than questionnaires. Furthermore, this study suggests a preference for the use of interviews because the number of items per participant was higher than for focus groups and questionnaires. This conclusion may be valid for other genetic tests as well.

Openphone user engagement and requirements solicitation in low literacy users

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Ndwe, J

2008-09-01

Full Text Available stimulus of being singled out and made to feel important” (Franke and Kaul 1978). User engagement is particularly important for this targeted user group because of a cultural aspect, “where a questioner invariably gets positive answers as a matter... and specification is complex even when designing a ‘simple’ single user system because users often cannot properly articulate their needs (Pekkola et al. 2006). This complexity is amplified when designing applications that are to be used by a group of people...

Development of regional climate scenarios in the Netherlands - involvement of users

Science.gov (United States)

Bessembinder, Janette; Overbeek, Bernadet

2013-04-01

Climate scenarios are consistent and plausible pictures of possible future climates. They are intended for use in studies exploring the impacts of climate change, and to formulate possible adaptation strategies. To ensure that the developed climate scenarios are relevant to the intended users, interaction with the users is needed. As part of the research programmes "Climate changes Spatial Planning" and "Knowledge for Climate" several projects on climate services, tailoring of climate information and communication were conducted. Some of the important lessons learned about user interaction are: *) To be able to deliver relevant climate information in the right format, proper knowledge is required on who will be using the climate information and data, how it will be used and why they use it; *) Users' requirements can be very diverse and requirements may change over time. Therefore, sustained (personal) contact with users is required; *) Organising meetings with climate researchers and users of climate information together, and working together in projects results in mutual understanding on the requirements of users and the limitations to deliver certain types of climate information, which facilitates the communication and results in more widely accepted products; *) Information and communication should be adapted to the type of users (e.g. impact researchers or policy makers) and to the type of problem (unstructured problems require much more contact with the users). In 2001 KNMI developed climate scenarios for the National Commission on Water management in the 21st century (WB21 scenarios). In 2006 these were replaced by a the KNMI'06 scenarios, intended for a broader group of users. The above lessons are now taken into account during the development of the next generation of climate scenarios for the Netherlands, expected at the end of 2013, after the publication of the IPCC WG1 report: *) users' requirements are taken into account explicitly in the whole process

Evaluating a web-based health risk assessment with tailored feedback: what does an expert focus group yield compared to a web-based end-user survey?

Science.gov (United States)

Vosbergen, Sandra; Mahieu, Guy R; Laan, Eva K; Kraaijenhagen, Roderik A; Jaspers, Monique Wm; Peek, Niels

2014-01-02

Increasingly, Web-based health applications are developed for the prevention and management of chronic diseases. However, their reach and utilization is often disappointing. Qualitative evaluations post-implementation can be used to inform the optimization process and ultimately enhance their adoption. In current practice, such evaluations are mainly performed with end-user surveys. However, a review approach by experts in a focus group may be easier to administer and might provide similar results. The aim of this study was to assess whether industrial design engineers in a focus group would address the same issues as end users in a Web-based survey when evaluating a commercial Web-based health risk assessment (HRA) with tailored feedback. Seven Dutch companies used the HRA as part of their corporate health management strategy. Employees using the HRA (N=2289) and 10 independent industrial designers were invited to participate in the study. The HRA consisted of four components: (1) an electronic health questionnaire, (2) biometric measurements, (3) laboratory evaluation, and (4) individually tailored feedback generated by decision support software. After participating in the HRA as end users, both end users and designers evaluated the program. End users completed an evaluation questionnaire that included a free-text field. Designers participated in a focus group discussion. Constructs from user satisfaction and technology acceptance theories were used to categorize and compare the remarks from both evaluations. We assessed and qualitatively analyzed 294 remarks of 189 end users and 337 remarks of 6 industrial designers, pertaining to 295 issues in total. Of those, 137 issues were addressed in the end-user survey and 148 issues in the designer focus group. Only 7.3% (10/137) of the issues addressed in the survey were also addressed in the focus group. End users made more remarks about the usefulness of the HRA and prior expectations that were not met. Designers made

Influencing agent group behavior by adjusting cultural trait values.

Science.gov (United States)

Tuli, Gaurav; Hexmoor, Henry

2010-10-01

Social reasoning and norms among individuals that share cultural traits are largely fashioned by those traits. We have explored predominant sociological and cultural traits. We offer a methodology for parametrically adjusting relevant traits. This exploratory study heralds a capability to deliberately tune cultural group traits in order to produce a desired group behavior. To validate our methodology, we implemented a prototypical-agent-based simulated test bed for demonstrating an exemplar from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance scenario. A group of simulated agents traverses a hostile territory while a user adjusts their cultural group trait settings. Group and individual utilities are dynamically observed against parametric values for the selected traits. Uncertainty avoidance index and individualism are the cultural traits we examined in depth. Upon the user's training of the correspondence between cultural values and system utilities, users deliberately produce the desired system utilities by issuing changes to trait. Specific cultural traits are without meaning outside of their context. Efficacy and timely application of traits in a given context do yield desirable results. This paper heralds a path for the control of large systems via parametric cultural adjustments.

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF USER REQUIREMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga Gandziuk

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study is to investigate qualitative characteristics of financial reporting in the context of the interests of different groups of users. The subject of research is the financial statements of the enterprise. Methodology. The theoretical base of the study are the provisions of general scientific theory of knowledge studied phenomena and processes, in particular: the methods of induction and deduction (in determining the principles of formation of the financial statements; analysis and synthesis (in establishing the role and importance of reporting to the needs of users comparisons, associations and analogies (the justification of qualitative characteristics of financial statements. The information base for scientific research became scientific papers and publications of domestic and foreign scientists-economists, materials of scientific-practical conferences, legislative and normative documents, the World Bank materials and International Accounting Standards Board. Results of the research showed that in the present conditions of economic activities of Ukrainian enterprises, for the effective functioning of the company, is required to have them control system was adequate to the environment, and this is possible only if the relevant information systems. The financial statement plays a crucial role in the management of the company and is the main source of information about the firm’s financial condition. The basic groups of users of financial statements, depending on the interest that they show to the results of activity of the enterprise: external and internal. External users are classified into direct users and not a direct financial interest. It was determined that the financial statements should meet, first of all, the information needs of users with a direct financial interest, it is this group of users has the most leverage to influence the company. The influence of the quality characteristics of the formation of the real

INFORMATION FOR USERS OF NUTS, BOLTS, SCREWS, NAILS AND RIVETS (SCEM GROUP 47)

CERN Multimedia

Logistics Group

2002-01-01

We should like to remind users that, since the closure of the self-service stores, nuts, bolts, screws, nails and rivets (Group 47 of the Stores Catalogue) can be obtained, in smaller packages than via EDH, from the 'Emergency Counter' in the Central Stores (Building 73, R-002) upon presentation of a duly completed hard-copy Materials Request form. The 'Emergency Counter' is open Mondays to Fridays from 7.30 a.m. to 11.50 a.m. and from 1.00 p.m. to 4.20 p.m. Information concerning the available packages can be found under the appropriate SCEM reference number in the Stores Catalogue. Logistics Group SPL Division

Augmenting a TV Broadcast with Synchronised User Generated Video and Relevant Social Network Content

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stokking, H.M.; Veenhuizen, A.T.; Kaptein, A.M.; Niamut, O.A.

2014-01-01

As TNO, we have developed an Augmented Live Broadcast use case, using components from the FP7 STEER project. In this use case, a television broadcast of a live event is augmented with user generated content. This user generated content consists of videos made by users at the event, and also of

Customization of user interfaces to reduce errors and enhance user acceptance.

Science.gov (United States)

Burkolter, Dina; Weyers, Benjamin; Kluge, Annette; Luther, Wolfram

2014-03-01

Customization is assumed to reduce error and increase user acceptance in the human-machine relation. Reconfiguration gives the operator the option to customize a user interface according to his or her own preferences. An experimental study with 72 computer science students using a simulated process control task was conducted. The reconfiguration group (RG) interactively reconfigured their user interfaces and used the reconfigured user interface in the subsequent test whereas the control group (CG) used a default user interface. Results showed significantly lower error rates and higher acceptance of the RG compared to the CG while there were no significant differences between the groups regarding situation awareness and mental workload. Reconfiguration seems to be promising and therefore warrants further exploration. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Effects of accessible website design on nondisabled users: age and device as moderating factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmutz, Sven; Sonderegger, Andreas; Sauer, Juergen

2018-05-01

This study examined how implementing recommendations from Web accessibility guidelines affects nondisabled people in different age groups using different technical devices. While recent research showed positive effects of implementing such recommendations for nondisabled users, it remains unclear whether such effects would apply to different age groups and kind of devices. A 2 × 2 × 2 design was employed with website accessibility (high accessibility vs. very low accessibility), age (younger adults vs. older adults) and type of device (laptop vs. tablet) as independent variables. 110 nondisabled participants took part in a usability test, in which performance and satisfaction were measured as dependent variables. The results showed that higher accessibility increased task completion rate, task completion time and satisfaction ratings of nondisabled users. While user age did not have any effects, users showed faster task completion time under high accessibility when using a tablet rather than a laptop. The findings confirmed previous findings, which showed benefits of accessible websites for nondisabled users. These beneficial effects may now be generalised to a wide age range and across different devices. Practitioner Summary: This work is relevant to the design of websites since it emphasises the need to consider the characteristics of different user groups. Accessible website design (aimed at users with disabilities) leads to benefits for nondisabled users across different ages. These findings provide further encouragement for practitioners to apply WCAG 2.0.

Factors of electric vehicle adoption: A comparison of conventional and electric car users based on an extended theory of planned behavior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haustein, Sonja; Jensen, Anders Fjendbo

2018-01-01

and norms than CV users. The different profiles of these user groups suggest a separate analysis of potential factors of BEV adoption in both groups. In regression analyses, CV and BEV users' intention to use/purchase a BEV is modeled based on factors of the Theory of Planned Behavior extended by personal...... distance seems of particular relevance. In multiple car households, we found the percentage of actual BEV usage related to the type of other cars in the household, perceived functional barriers of BEVs as well as (successful) behavioral adaption to longer trips by BEVs. Based on the results, we discuss...

Rocchio-based relevance feedback in video event retrieval

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pingen, G.L.J.; de Boer, M.H.T.; Aly, Robin; Amsaleg, Laurent; Guðmundsson, Gylfi Þór; Gurrin, Cathal; Jónsson, Björn Þór; Satoh, Shin’ichi

This paper investigates methods for user and pseudo relevance feedback in video event retrieval. Existing feedback methods achieve strong performance but adjust the ranking based on few individual examples. We propose a relevance feedback algorithm (ARF) derived from the Rocchio method, which is a

Utility/Manufacturers Robots Users Group: a partnership promoting the applications of robots in all utility industries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meieran, H.B.; Roman, H.T.

1988-01-01

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the roles and the goals of the recently established Utility/Manufacturers Robots Users Group (U/M RUG), an organization which is dedicated to promoting the employment of robots in all utility facilities. This group is composed of volunteer representatives from the utilities, robot manufacturers, service organizations/consulting groups, academia, national and non-government funding agencies, and national laboratories. Although the Group primarily serves as a forum and a guide for technology transfer, exchanging ideas, and promoting philosophies of applications among its members, it also provides this type of assistance to external groups and agencies. (author)

Large Scale Management of Physicists Personal Analysis Data Without Employing User and Group Quotas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Norman, A.; Diesbug, M.; Gheith, M.; Illingworth, R.; Lyon, A.; Mengel, M.

2015-01-01

The ability of modern HEP experiments to acquire and process unprecedented amounts of data and simulation have lead to an explosion in the volume of information that individual scientists deal with on a daily basis. Explosion has resulted in a need for individuals to generate and keep large personal analysis data sets which represent the skimmed portions of official data collections, pertaining to their specific analysis. While a significant reduction in size compared to the original data, these personal analysis and simulation sets can be many terabytes or 10s of TB in size and consist of 10s of thousands of files. When this personal data is aggregated across the many physicists in a single analysis group or experiment it can represent data volumes on par or exceeding the official production samples which require special data handling techniques to deal with effectively.In this paper we explore the changes to the Fermilab computing infrastructure and computing models which have been developed to allow experimenters to effectively manage their personal analysis data and other data that falls outside of the typically centrally managed production chains. In particular we describe the models and tools that are being used to provide the modern neutrino experiments like NOvA with storage resources that are sufficient to meet their analysis needs, without imposing specific quotas on users or groups of users. We discuss the storage mechanisms and the caching algorithms that are being used as well as the toolkits are have been developed to allow the users to easily operate with terascale+ datasets. (paper)

Agreement among readers on what is relevant in self-help psychology books.

Science.gov (United States)

Forest, James J; Del Ben, Kevin; Toews, Stuart B

2003-12-01

It was hypothesized that text marking in self-help psychology books would indicate that readers agree on which pages and lines contain relevant information. Previously owned copies of two self-help book titles (n=48, n=38), all with marked text, were collected from second-hand book stores and scored for line and page marking. Chi-squares for goodness-of-fit yielded significant differences between observed and chance agreement in marking behavior. Intraclass and KR-20 correlations were significantly different from zero, suggesting that readers agreed on what information was relevant and irrelevant. Actual users of self-help books may have similar standards because of cultural values, social group relations, or common problem experiences.

Do recommender systems benefit users? a modeling approach

Science.gov (United States)

Yeung, Chi Ho

2016-04-01

Recommender systems are present in many web applications to guide purchase choices. They increase sales and benefit sellers, but whether they benefit customers by providing relevant products remains less explored. While in many cases the recommended products are relevant to users, in other cases customers may be tempted to purchase the products only because they are recommended. Here we introduce a model to examine the benefit of recommender systems for users, and find that recommendations from the system can be equivalent to random draws if one always follows the recommendations and seldom purchases according to his or her own preference. Nevertheless, with sufficient information about user preferences, recommendations become accurate and an abrupt transition to this accurate regime is observed for some of the studied algorithms. On the other hand, we find that high estimated accuracy indicated by common accuracy metrics is not necessarily equivalent to high real accuracy in matching users with products. This disagreement between estimated and real accuracy serves as an alarm for operators and researchers who evaluate recommender systems merely with accuracy metrics. We tested our model with a real dataset and observed similar behaviors. Finally, a recommendation approach with improved accuracy is suggested. These results imply that recommender systems can benefit users, but the more frequently a user purchases the recommended products, the less relevant the recommended products are in matching user taste.

Translating research into practice through user-centered design: An application for osteoarthritis healthcare planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Eloise Cj; Babione, Julie N; Marshall, Deborah

2017-08-01

To identify the needs and requirements of the end users, to inform the development of a user-interface to translate an existing evidence-based decision support tool into a practical and usable interface for health service planning for osteoarthritis (OA) care. We used a user-centered design (UCD) approach that emphasized the role of the end-users and is well-suited to knowledge translation (KT). The first phase used a needs assessment focus group (n=8) and interviews (n=5) with target users (health care planners) within a provincial health care organization. The second phase used a participatory design approach, with two small group sessions (n=6) to explore workflow, thought processes, and needs of intended users. The needs assessment identified five design recommendations: ensuring the user-interface supports the target user group, allowing for user-directed data explorations, input parameter flexibility, clear presentation, and provision of relevant definitions. The second phase identified workflow insights from a proposed scenario. Graphs, the need for a visual overview of the data, and interactivity were key considerations to aid in meaningful use of the model and knowledge translation. A UCD approach is well suited to identify health care planners' requirements when using a decision support tool to improve health service planning and management of OA. We believe this is one of the first applications to be used in planning for health service delivery. We identified specific design recommendations that will increase user acceptability and uptake of the user-interface and underlying decision support tool in practice. Our approach demonstrated how UCD can be used to enable knowledge translation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Android Smartphone Relevance to Military Weather Applications

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-01

lithium -ion battery that may be replaced by the user (unlike Apple iPod Touch devices), thus spare batteries can be carried. If there is only sporadic...Android Smartphone Relevance to Military Weather Applications by David Sauter ARL-TR-5793 October 2011...Android Smartphone Relevance to Military Weather Applications David Sauter Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, ARL

User perceptions of gaming interventions for improving upper extremity motor function in persons with chronic stroke.

Science.gov (United States)

Finley, Margaret; Combs, Stephanie

2013-04-01

Finding ways to engage patients with stroke in repetitive intervention protocols long-term is poorly understood, particularly from the patients' perspective. Limited information exists that combines clinical expertise as well as user feedback on improving gaming interaction. The purpose of this study was to utilize input from focus groups of gaming intervention users with chronic stroke to identify characteristics of gaming that influence user/patient engagement in the activity. Two focus groups (n = 10) were conducted with each group participant playing two different gaming systems. Following exposure to the two systems, guided group interview sessions occurred that consisted of open-ended questions encompassing areas of overall gaming system preference, aspects that were liked or disliked, background appearance, music options, feedback provided, as well as recommendations for change. Findings revealed that participants enjoyed playing the gaming systems. Three primary themes emerged differentiating the systems: (1) musical encouragement; (2) focus and attention; and (3) motivation provided by performance feedback. It was concluded that when selecting a gaming system for upper extremity rehabilitation, a clinician should select a system that provides user-relevant music options with a modifiable background appearance for progression from basic to more challenging, providing appropriate feedback in an effort to encompass to a variety of user performance levels.

GridICE: monitoring the user/application activities on the grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aiftimiei, C; Pra, S D; Andreozzi, S; Fattibene, E; Misurelli, G; Cuscela, G; Donvito, G; Dudhalkar, V; Maggi, G; Pierro, A; Fantinel, S

2008-01-01

The monitoring of the grid user activity and application performance is extremely useful to plan resource usage strategies particularly in cases of complex applications. Large VOs, such as the LHC VOs, do their monitoring by means of dashboards. Other VOs or communities, like for example the BioinfoGRID one, are characterized by a greater diversification of the application types: so the effort to provide a dashboard like monitor is particularly heavy. The main theme of this paper is to show the improvements introduced in GridICE, a web tool built to provides an almost complete grid monitoring. These recent improvements allows GridICE to provide new reports on the resources usage with details of the VOMS groups, roles and users. By accessing the GridICE web pages, the grid user can get all information that is relevant to keep track of his activity on the grid. In the same way, the activity of a VOMS group can be distinguished from the activity of the entire VO. In this paper we briefly talk about the features and advantages of this approach and, after discussing the requirements, we describe the software solutions, middleware and prerequisite to manage and retrieve the user's credentials

What do service users with bipolar disorder want from a web-based self-management intervention? A qualitative focus group study.

Science.gov (United States)

Todd, Nicholas J; Jones, Steven H; Lobban, Fiona A

2013-01-01

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic and recurrent severe mental health problem. A web-based self-management intervention provides the opportunity to widen access to psychological interventions. This qualitative study aims to identify what an ideal web-based intervention would look like for service users with BD. Twelve service users with BD were recruited in the UK and took part in a series of focus groups to inform and refine the development of a web-based self-management intervention. Reported here is a subset analysis of data gathered with the primary aim of identifying the needs and desires of service users for such an intervention for BD. We analysed service users' responses to questions about content, outcomes, format, barriers and support. Focus groups were transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis was employed. The data were ordered into four key themes: (1) gaining an awareness of and managing mood swings; (2) not just about managing mood swings: the importance of practical and interpersonal issues; (3) managing living within mood swings without losing the experience; (4) internet is the only format: freely accessible, instant and interactive; (5) professional and peer support to overcome low motivation and procrastination difficulties. The small group of participants are not representative of those living with BD. These findings have significantly enhanced our understanding of what service users with BD want from a web-based self-management intervention and have clear implications for the future development of such approaches. Service users desire a web-based self-management approach that gives them the techniques they need to not only manage their moods but also manage their lives alongside the disorder, including interpersonal and practical issues. Service users describe their primary outcome, not as a cure or reduction in their symptoms, but instead being able to live a fulfilling life alongside their condition. Service users see the internet as their

Renormalization group in the theory of fully developed turbulence. Problem of the infrared relevant corrections to the Navier-Stokes equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Antonov, N.V.; Borisenok, S.V.; Girina, V.I.

1996-01-01

Within the framework of the renormalization group approach to the theory of fully developed turbulence we consider the problem of possible IR relevant corrections to the Navier-Stokes equation. We formulate an exact criterion of the actual IR relevance of the corrections. In accordance with this criterion we verify the IR relevance for certain classes of composite operators. 17 refs., 2 tabs

Using archetypes to create user panels for usability studies: Streamlining focus groups and user studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Stavrakos, S-K; Ahmed-Kristensen, S; Goldman, T

2016-09-01

Designers at the conceptual phase of products such as headphones, stress the importance of comfort, e.g. executing comfort studies and the need for a reliable user panel. This paper proposes a methodology to issue a reliable user panel to represent large populations and validates the proposed framework to predict comfort factors, such as physical fit. Data of 200 heads was analyzed by forming clusters, 9 archetypal people were identified out of a 200 people's ear database. The archetypes were validated by comparing the archetypes' responses on physical fit against those of 20 participants interacting with 6 headsets. This paper suggests a new method of selecting representative user samples for prototype testing compared to costly and time consuming methods which relied on the analysis of human geometry of large populations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of music on the quality of life of cochlear implant users: a focus group study.

Science.gov (United States)

Dritsakis, Giorgos; van Besouw, Rachel M; O' Meara, Aoife

2017-07-01

To study the aspects of the quality of life (QoL) on which music has an impact in adult cochlear implant (CI) users. Thirty adult CI users aged between 18 and 81 years old with a wide range of patient characteristics and musical backgrounds participated in the study. Six focus group discussions about music in everyday life were conducted and data were analysed using template analysis based on the QoL model of the World Health Organisation Quality of Life BREF questionnaire. A theoretical framework of the impact of music on the QoL was developed. Music was reported to contribute to many aspects of physical, psychological, and social well-being in adult CI users. These positive effects of music on QoL were similar to what has been reported in the literature for normal-hearing adults. However, difficulties in music perception and enjoyment were found to have a negative impact on CI users' QoL, especially by causing unpleasant feelings and limited participation in music-related or routine daily activities. These findings suggest that an improvement in music experiences of CI users may lead to improvements in QoL and therefore support the need for music rehabilitation. However, the relative importance of music overall and of specific aspects of music for each individual should be measured for an accurate assessment of the impact of music on the QoL of CI users.

The dynamic evolution of social ties and user-generated content: a case study on a Douban group

Science.gov (United States)

Shan, Siqing; Ren, Jie; Li, Cangyan

2017-11-01

As platforms based on user-generated content (UGC), social media platforms emphasise the social ties between users and user participation, which promote the communication and propagation of ideas and help to build and maintain relationships. However, many researchers have studied only predefined social networks, such as academic social networks. We believe that there are certain characteristics associated with the network's UGC worth evaluating. We conducted research in communities in which content attracts discussion and new members and examined the evolution patterns of social and content networks in a topic-oriented Douban group. Datasets of user and content information in communities of interest were collected through web crawler software. Networks based on social and content ties were constructed and analysed. We chose scale, density, centrality, average path length and cluster coefficient as measures for exploring the evolution and correlation of both types of networks. These findings are valuable for social media marketing and helpful in directing and controlling public opinion.

The EGEE user support infrastructure

CERN Document Server

Antoni, T; Mills, A

2007-01-01

User support in a grid environment is a challenging task due to the distributed nature of the grid. The variety of users and VOs adds further to the challenge. One can find support requests by grid beginners, users with specific applications, site administrators, or grid monitoring operators. With the GGUS infrastructure, EGEE provides a portal where users can find support in their daily use of the grid. The current use of the system has shown that the goal has been achieved with success. The grid user support model in EGEE can be captioned ‘regional support with central coordination’. Users can submit a support request to the central GGUS service, or to their Regional Operations' Centre (ROC) or to their Virtual Organisation helpdesks. Within GGUS there are appropriate support groups for all support requests. The ROCs and VOs and the other project wide groups such as middleware groups (JRA), network groups (NA), service groups (SA) and other grid infrastructures (OSG, NorduGrid, etc.) are connected via a...

Knowledge transfer to clinicians and consumers by the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group.

Science.gov (United States)

Santesso, Nancy; Maxwell, Lara; Tugwell, Peter S; Wells, George A; O'connor, Annette M; Judd, Maria; Buchbinder, Rachelle

2006-11-01

The Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group (CMSG) is one of 50 groups of the Cochrane Collaboration that prepares, maintains, and disseminates systematic reviews of treatments for musculoskeletal diseases. Once systematic reviews are completed, the next challenge is presenting the results in useful formats to be integrated into the healthcare decisions of clinicians and consumers. The CMSG recommends 3 methods to aid knowledge translation and exchange between clinicians and patients: produce clinical relevance tables, create graphical displays using face figures, and write consumer summaries and patient decision aids. Accordingly, CMSG has developed specific guidelines to help researchers and authors convert the pooled estimates of metaanalyses in the systematic reviews to user-friendly numbers. First, clinical relevance tables are developed that include absolute and relative benefits or harms and the numbers needed to treat. Next, the numbers from the clinical relevance tables are presented graphically using faces. The faces represent a group of 100 people and are shaded according to how many people out of 100 benefited or were harmed by the interventions. The user-friendly numbers are also included in short summaries and decision aids written for patients. The different levels of detail in the summaries and decision aids provide patients with tools to prepare them to discuss treatment options with their clinicians. Methods to improve the effects and usability of systematic reviews by providing results in more clinically relevant formats are essential. Both clinicians and consumers can use these products to use evidence-based information in individual and shared decision-making.

User-Centered Data Management

CERN Document Server

Catarci, Tiziana; Kimani, Stephen

2010-01-01

This lecture covers several core issues in user-centered data management, including how to design usable interfaces that suitably support database tasks, and relevant approaches to visual querying, information visualization, and visual data mining. Novel interaction paradigms, e.g., mobile and interfaces that go beyond the visual dimension, are also discussed. Table of Contents: Why User-Centered / The Early Days: Visual Query Systems / Beyond Querying / More Advanced Applications / Non-Visual Interfaces / Conclusions

Uncertainty communication in the Environmental Balance 2005. Results of the User Group Policy Makers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wardekker, J.A.; Van der Sluijs, J.P.; Janssen, P.H.M.

2006-02-01

In 2003 recommendations were formulated how to deal with uncertainties in scientific studies. Currently a so-called 'Styleguide for Uncertainty Communication' is under development to report on information about uncertainties. The guide is based on literature survey and knowledge from experts in the field. A group of users of the Dutch Environmental Balance 2005 was set up to communicate and inform about uncertainties with respect to the Balance [nl

Heuristics for Relevancy Ranking of Earth Dataset Search Results

Science.gov (United States)

Lynnes, Christopher; Quinn, Patrick; Norton, James

2016-01-01

As the Variety of Earth science datasets increases, science researchers find it more challenging to discover and select the datasets that best fit their needs. The most common way of search providers to address this problem is to rank the datasets returned for a query by their likely relevance to the user. Large web page search engines typically use text matching supplemented with reverse link counts, semantic annotations and user intent modeling. However, this produces uneven results when applied to dataset metadata records simply externalized as a web page. Fortunately, data and search provides have decades of experience in serving data user communities, allowing them to form heuristics that leverage the structure in the metadata together with knowledge about the user community. Some of these heuristics include specific ways of matching the user input to the essential measurements in the dataset and determining overlaps of time range and spatial areas. Heuristics based on the novelty of the datasets can prioritize later, better versions of data over similar predecessors. And knowledge of how different user types and communities use data can be brought to bear in cases where characteristics of the user (discipline, expertise) or their intent (applications, research) can be divined. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System has begun implementing some of these heuristics in the relevancy algorithm of its Common Metadata Repository search engine.

Service user engagement: A co-created interview schedule exploring mental health recovery in young adults.

Science.gov (United States)

McCauley, Claire-Odile; McKenna, Hugh; Keeney, Sinead; McLaughlin, Derek

2017-10-01

The aim of this study was to co-create of an interview schedule exploring mental health recovery in collaboration with young adult service users. Service user involvement in research has been increasingly recognized as providing a vital authentic insight into mental health recovery. Engagement and collaboration with service users have facilitated the exploration of inaccessible or under-investigated aspects of the lived experience of mental health recovery, not only directing the trajectory of research, but making it relevant to their own contextual experience. A qualitative content analysis framework was employed in the co-creation of a semi-structured interview schedule through an engagement process with service users. Two separate engagement groups took place at the premises of the service user organizations, between January - February 2014. Miles and Huberman's analysis framework was chosen for this phase as it enabled the visual presentation of factors, concepts or variables and the established relationship between them. The lived experience of mental ill health in young adulthood and how this was understood by others was a particularly relevant theme for participants. Further themes were identified between the impact of painful experiences at this developmental life stage leading to a deeper understanding of others through finding meaning in their own mental health recovery journey. Our findings identified that suffering painful experiences is an integral aspect in the process of mental health recovery. This understanding has particular relevance to mental health nursing practice, ensuring the care delivered is cognizant of the suffering or painful experiences that young adults are encountering. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Reasons for not using ecstasy: a qualitative study of non-users, ex-light users and ex-moderate users

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Although ecstasy is often consumed in the electronic music scene, not everyone with the opportunity to use it chooses to do so. The objective of this study was to understand the reasons for non-use or the cessation of use, which could provide information for public health interventions. Methods A qualitative reference method was used. Our “snowball” sample group consisted of 53 people who were split into three subgroups: non-users (NU, n = 23), ex-light users (EX-L, n = 12) and ex-moderate users (EX-M, n = 18). Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed and subjected to content analysis with the aid of NVivo8. Results Adverse health effects and personal values were given as reasons for non-use in the three groups. Non-users (NU) and ex-light users (EX-L) provided reasons that included fear of possible effects as well as moral, family and religious objections. Ex-moderate users (EX-M) cited reasons related to health complications and concomitant withdrawal from the electronic music scene. However, most of the ex-moderate users did not rule out the possibility of future use. Conclusions Potential effects and undesirable consequences appear to guide the decisions within the different groups. Prevention might target these motivations. Individuals who have used ecstasy indicate that social and environmental factors are the most important factors. PMID:22583984

User interface inspection methods a user-centered design method

CERN Document Server

Wilson, Chauncey

2014-01-01

User Interface Inspection Methods succinctly covers five inspection methods: heuristic evaluation, perspective-based user interface inspection, cognitive walkthrough, pluralistic walkthrough, and formal usability inspections. Heuristic evaluation is perhaps the best-known inspection method, requiring a group of evaluators to review a product against a set of general principles. The perspective-based user interface inspection is based on the principle that different perspectives will find different problems in a user interface. In the related persona-based inspection, colleagues assume the

The user facility FELIX: Past, present and future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meer, A.F.G. van der; Amersfoort, P.W. van

1995-01-01

The performance over the past year and the current user-relevant characteristics of the User Facility FELIX will be discussed. Also the existing plans for improving and extending the capabilities and provisions will be presented

Trust and compactness in social network groups.

Science.gov (United States)

De Meo, Pasquale; Ferrara, Emilio; Rosaci, Domenico; Sarné, Giuseppe M L

2015-02-01

Understanding the dynamics behind group formation and evolution in social networks is considered an instrumental milestone to better describe how individuals gather and form communities, how they enjoy and share the platform contents, how they are driven by their preferences/tastes, and how their behaviors are influenced by peers. In this context, the notion of compactness of a social group is particularly relevant. While the literature usually refers to compactness as a measure to merely determine how much members of a group are similar among each other, we argue that the mutual trustworthiness between the members should be considered as an important factor in defining such a term. In fact, trust has profound effects on the dynamics of group formation and their evolution: individuals are more likely to join with and stay in a group if they can trust other group members. In this paper, we propose a quantitative measure of group compactness that takes into account both the similarity and the trustworthiness among users, and we present an algorithm to optimize such a measure. We provide empirical results, obtained from the real social networks EPINIONS and CIAO, that compare our notion of compactness versus the traditional notion of user similarity, clearly proving the advantages of our approach.

User-centered 3D geovisualisation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Anette Hougaard

2004-01-01

. In a broader perspective, the overall aim is to develop a language in 3D Geovisualisation gained through usability projects and the development of a theoretical background. A conceptual level of user-centered 3D Geovisualisation is introduced by applying a categorisation originating from Virtual Reality...... and shadowing effects or with weather phenomena serving a level of realism and providing depth cues. The rendered objects and scenes are graphically accessible through the interface where immersive or non-immersive monitors in different sizes and shapes are relevant. Through the user interface, users can...

User-Centered Design Groups to Engage Patients and Caregivers with a Personalized Health Information Technology Tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Maher, Molly; Kaziunas, Elizabeth; Ackerman, Mark; Derry, Holly; Forringer, Rachel; Miller, Kristen; O'Reilly, Dennis; An, Larry C; Tewari, Muneesh; Hanauer, David A; Choi, Sung Won

2016-02-01

Health information technology (IT) has opened exciting avenues for capturing, delivering and sharing data, and offers the potential to develop cost-effective, patient-focused applications. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of health IT applications such as outpatient portals. Rigorous evaluation is fundamental to ensure effectiveness and sustainability, as resistance to more widespread adoption of outpatient portals may be due to lack of user friendliness. Health IT applications that integrate with the existing electronic health record and present information in a condensed, user-friendly format could improve coordination of care and communication. Importantly, these applications should be developed systematically with appropriate methodological design and testing to ensure usefulness, adoption, and sustainability. Based on our prior work that identified numerous information needs and challenges of HCT, we developed an experimental prototype of a health IT tool, the BMT Roadmap. Our goal was to develop a tool that could be used in the real-world, daily practice of HCT patients and caregivers (users) in the inpatient setting. Herein, we examined the views, needs, and wants of users in the design and development process of the BMT Roadmap through user-centered Design Groups. Three important themes emerged: 1) perception of core features as beneficial (views), 2) alerting the design team to potential issues with the user interface (needs); and 3) providing a deeper understanding of the user experience in terms of wider psychosocial requirements (wants). These findings resulted in changes that led to an improved, functional BMT Roadmap product, which will be tested as an intervention in the pediatric HCT population in the fall of 2015 (ClinicalTrials.govNCT02409121). Copyright © 2016 American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

GammaSem Proceedings - A Nordic seminar for users of gamma spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nunez, P.; Klemola, S.; Nielsen, Sven P.; Palsson, S.E.; Israelson, C.

2010-03-01

The project GammaSem was proposed to provide a forum for discussions and sharing of information on practical issues concerning gamma spectrometry and to establish a network of users of gamma spectrometry in the Nordic countries, thereby strengthening the collaboration and improving all participants' competence in practical gamma spectrometry. The seminars' focus was practical challenges met by the users themselves, rather than theoretical matters. Scientists and users of gamma spectrometry from all five Nordic countries were invited to the seminar, as well as scientist from the Baltic countries. A total of 75 people participated; representing 34 different universities, commercial companies, research institutes and also all Nordic authorities. During the seminar several key issues for follow-up were identified and working groups for addressing the identified problems were established. The working groups were: 1) Uncertainties and detections of limits 2) True summing coincidence 3) Monte Carlo simulations and efficiency transfer 4) Absorption (density corrections and geometries) 5) Mobile gamma spectrometry systems 6) Nuclear forensics (on special samples and special parts of the spectra). The identified topics will form the basis for the agenda of the next seminar in 2010. There, the different working groups will be invited to present their ideas/solutions to the relevant problems. (author)

GammaSem Proceedings - A Nordic seminar for users of gamma spectrometry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nunez, P. (ed.) (Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) (Norway)); Klemola, S. (Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) (Finland)); Nielsen, Sven P. (Technical Univ. of Denmark, Risoe National Lab. for Sustainable Energy. Roskilde (Denmark)); Palsson, S.E. (Icelandic Radiation Safety Authority (IS)); Israelson, C. (National Institute of Radiation Protection (Denmark))

2010-03-15

The project GammaSem was proposed to provide a forum for discussions and sharing of information on practical issues concerning gamma spectrometry and to establish a network of users of gamma spectrometry in the Nordic countries, thereby strengthening the collaboration and improving all participants' competence in practical gamma spectrometry. The seminars' focus was practical challenges met by the users themselves, rather than theoretical matters. Scientists and users of gamma spectrometry from all five Nordic countries were invited to the seminar, as well as scientist from the Baltic countries. A total of 75 people participated; representing 34 different universities, commercial companies, research institutes and also all Nordic authorities. During the seminar several key issues for follow-up were identified and working groups for addressing the identified problems were established. The working groups were: 1) Uncertainties and detections of limits 2) True summing coincidence 3) Monte Carlo simulations and efficiency transfer 4) Absorption (density corrections and geometries) 5) Mobile gamma spectrometry systems 6) Nuclear forensics (on special samples and special parts of the spectra). The identified topics will form the basis for the agenda of the next seminar in 2010. There, the different working groups will be invited to present their ideas/solutions to the relevant problems. (author)

Echo Chambers: Emotional Contagion and Group Polarization on Facebook

Science.gov (United States)

Del Vicario, Michela; Vivaldo, Gianna; Bessi, Alessandro; Zollo, Fabiana; Scala, Antonio; Caldarelli, Guido; Quattrociocchi, Walter

2016-12-01

Recent findings showed that users on Facebook tend to select information that adhere to their system of beliefs and to form polarized groups - i.e., echo chambers. Such a tendency dominates information cascades and might affect public debates on social relevant issues. In this work we explore the structural evolution of communities of interest by accounting for users emotions and engagement. Focusing on the Facebook pages reporting on scientific and conspiracy content, we characterize the evolution of the size of the two communities by fitting daily resolution data with three growth models - i.e. the Gompertz model, the Logistic model, and the Log-logistic model. Although all the models appropriately describe the data structure, the Logistic one shows the best fit. Then, we explore the interplay between emotional state and engagement of users in the group dynamics. Our findings show that communities’ emotional behavior is affected by the users’ involvement inside the echo chamber. Indeed, to an higher involvement corresponds a more negative approach. Moreover, we observe that, on average, more active users show a faster shift towards the negativity than less active ones.

Peak experiences of psilocybin users and non-users.

Science.gov (United States)

Cummins, Christina; Lyke, Jennifer

2013-01-01

Maslow (1970) defined peak experiences as the most wonderful experiences of a person's life, which may include a sense of awe, well-being, or transcendence. Furthermore, recent research has suggested that psilocybin can produce experiences subjectively rated as uniquely meaningful and significant (Griffiths et al. 2006). It is therefore possible that psilocybin may facilitate or change the nature of peak experiences in users compared to non-users. This study was designed to compare the peak experiences of psilocybin users and non-users, to evaluate the frequency of peak experiences while under the influence of psilocybin, and to assess the perceived degree of alteration of consciousness during these experiences. Participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling from undergraduate classes and at a musical event. Participants were divided into three groups, those who reported a peak experience while under the influence of psilocybin (psilocybin peak experience: PPE), participants who had used psilocybin but reported their peak experiences did not occur while they were under the influence of psilocybin (non-psilocybin peak experience: NPPE), and participants who had never used psilocybin (non-user: NU). A total of 101 participants were asked to think about their peak experiences and complete a measure evaluating the degree of alteration of consciousness during that experience. Results indicated that 47% of psilocybin users reported their peak experience occurred while using psilocybin. In addition, there were significant differences among the three groups on all dimensions of alteration of consciousness. Future research is necessary to identify factors that influence the peak experiences of psilocybin users in naturalistic settings and contribute to the different characteristics of peak experiences of psilocybin users and non-users.

Fundamental Science with Pulsed Power: Research Opportunities and User Meeting.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mattsson, Thomas Kjell Rene [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Wootton, Alan James [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sinars, Daniel Brian [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Spaulding, Dylan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Winget, Don [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2014-10-01

The fifth Fundamental Science with Pulsed Power: Research Opportunities and User Meeting was held in Albuquerque, NM, July 20-­23, 2014. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together leading scientists in four research areas with active fundamental science research at Sandia’s Z facility: Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF), Planetary Science, Astrophysics, and Material Science. The workshop was focused on discussing opportunities for high-­impact research using Sandia’s Z machine, a future 100 GPa class facility, and possible topics for growing the academic (off-Z-campus) science relevant to the Z Fundamental Science Program (ZFSP) and related projects in astrophysics, planetary science, MagLIF- relevant magnetized HED science, and materials science. The user meeting was for Z collaborative users to: a) hear about the Z accelerator facility status and plans, b) present the status of their research, and c) be provided with a venue to meet and work as groups. Following presentations by Mark Herrmann and Joel Lash on the fundamental science program on Z and the status of the Z facility where plenary sessions for the four research areas. The third day of the workshop was devoted to breakout sessions in the four research areas. The plenary-­ and breakout sessions were for the four areas organized by Dan Sinars (MagLIF), Dylan Spaulding (Planetary Science), Don Winget and Jim Bailey (Astrophysics), and Thomas Mattsson (Material Science). Concluding the workshop were an outbrief session where the leads presented a summary of the discussions in each working group to the full workshop. A summary of discussions and conclusions from each of the research areas follows and the outbrief slides are included as appendices.

High energy accelerator and colliding beam user group. Progress report 1978/1979

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Snow, G.

1979-12-01

The High Energy Physics Group at the U. of Maryland engaged in a substantial number of different types of particle physics experiments. The largest and most important experiment is that on e + e - interactions. Three experiments were carried out to search for exotic particles or interactions: a heavy neutral lepton, muonium to antimuonium transitions, axions produced by an intense electron beam. No evidence for any of these phenomena was obtained, and the corresponding limitations on relevant parameters were deduced. 10 figures

How do users of different academic areas perceive user friendliness of IR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Polona Vilar

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents one part of a wider study,performed at the Department of LIS&BS at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. The study investigated the perceptions of user friendliness of information retrieval systems’ (IRSinterfaces and the role of individual characteristics of users in these perceptions. A user study with 61 postgraduate students of the University of Ljubljana was performed.Three interfaces were studied: Science Direct,Proquest Direct and Ebsco Host.Questionnaires and observation were used for data collection. The users’ perceptions of importance of auxiliary functions, interface preference and perceptions of user friendliness of certain interface elements were investigated.Also,the connections between these perceptions and the users’individual characteristics were identified. Three sets of individual characteristics were included:approaches to studying,thinking styles and hemisphere leanings. In connection with the dimensions of individual characteristics very different user perceptions were expressed. Some dimensions of individual characteristics were also found to be connected to the users’academic areas. It is shown that the participants from different academic areas have different requirements and perceptions of user friendliness. The results of the study are relevant for the design of the user interfaces of disciplinary IRS.They also have implications for other areas,e.g.user education and training,acquisition and marketing.

High Energy Accelerator and Colliding Beam User Group: Progress report, March 1, 1988--February 28, 1989

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-09-01

This report discusses work carried out by the High Energy Accelerator and Colliding Beam User Group at the University of Maryland. Particular topics discussed are: OPAL experiment at LEP; deep inelastic muon interactions; B physics with the CLEO detector at CESR; further results from JADE; and search for ''small'' violation of the Pauli principle

Ecological user interface for emergency management decision support systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, V.

2003-01-01

The user interface for decision support systems is normally structured for presenting relevant data for the skilled user in order to allow fast assessment and action of the hazardous situation, or for more complex situations to present the relevant rules and procedures to be followed in order to ...... of this paper is to discuss the possibility of using the same principles for emergency management with the aim of improved performance in complex and unanticipated situations....

User interface design considerations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Simon Engedal; Jakobsen, Arne; Rasmussen, Bjarne D.

1999-01-01

and output variables. This feature requires special attention when designing the user interface and a special approach for controlling the user selection of input and output variables are developed. To obtain a consistent system description the different input variables are grouped corresponding......When designing a user interface for a simulation model there are several important issues to consider: Who is the target user group, and which a priori information can be expected. What questions do the users want answers to and what questions are answered using a specific model?When developing...... the user interface of EESCoolTools these issues led to a series of simulation tools each with a specific purpose and a carefully selected set of input and output variables. To allow a more wide range of questions to be answered by the same model, the user can change between different sets of input...

EVIDENCE FROM THE GERMAN CAPITAL MARKET REGARDING THE VALUE RELEVANCE OF CONSOLIDATED VERSUS PARENT COMPANY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muller Victor - Octavian

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Financial statements main objective is to give information on the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of the reporting entity, which is useful to investors and other users in making economic decisions. In order to be useful, financial information needs to be relevant to the decision-making process of users in general, and investors in particular. Hence, the following question arises logically which of the two sets best serves the information needs of investors (and other categories of users, respectively which of the two sets is more relevant for investors? Of course, the possibility of both sets at the same time best serving the information needs should not be ruled out. In our scientific endeavor we conducted an empirical association study on the problem of market value relevance of consolidated financial statements and of individual financial statements of the parent company, searching for an answer to the above question. In this sense, we analyze the absolute and relative market value relevance of consolidated accounting information of listed companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (one of the largest three stock markets in the European Union between 2003 and 2008. Through this empirical study we intend to contribute to the relatively limited literature on this topic with a comparative time analysis of the absolute and incremental relevance of financial information supplied by the two categories of financial statements (group and individual. The results obtained indicate a statistically significant superiority of the relevance of consolidated statements (in detriment of individual ones. However, we could not statistically prove a superior value relevance of information provided together by consolidated and parent company financial statements as opposed to consolidated information. On the one hand, these results prove the importance (usefulness of consolidated financial statements especially for investors on

WIRELESS ADVERTISING: A STUDY OF MOBILE PHONE USERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gurau Calin

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Topic: Using a qualitative methodology, this study attempts to provide a general framework of the functions of mobile communication, and to identify the specific preferences of mobile phone users regarding the commercial messages received on their personal devices. Research objectives: (1 To identify the specific characteristics of mobile communication as perceived by mobile users; (2 to define and analyze the functions of wireless communication as perceived by mobile phone users; and (3 to investigate users preference regarding the content of commercial wireless communication. Previous research: Bauer et al. (2002 identified time, location, information and personalization as relevant acceptance factors for mobile advertising. Barwise and Strong (2002 developed a conceptual model, arguing that social norms, user's motives, mode, time, location and personal characteristics will affect the processing of mobile information by consumers. Tsang et al. (2004 evidenced the influence of entertainment, informativeness and irritation, while Bauer et al. (2005 argued that consumer attitudes are influenced by perceived information, entertainment, and social utility. In a similar study, Xu and Gutierrez (2006 tested the effect of entertainment, irritation, informativeness, credibility and personalization on the attitudes of Chinese consumers. Research methodology: First, a series of academic and practical articles and reports have been accessed in order to assess the existing knowledge on this topic. Second, five focus groups have been organized with six mobile phone users, aged between 20 and 40 years old. Each focus group comprised an equal number of male and female participants. The focus groups lasted between 45 and 60 minutes and addressed three main issues: the specific characteristics of the mobile phones as a commercial communication media, the functions of mobile phone communication, and the specific preferences of mobile phones users regarding the

A user-centred design process of new cold-protective clothing for offshore petroleum workers operating in the Barents Sea.

Science.gov (United States)

Naesgaard, Ole Petter; Storholmen, Tore Christian Bjørsvik; Wiggen, Øystein Nordrum; Reitan, Jarl

2017-12-07

Petroleum operations in the Barents Sea require personal protective clothing (PPC) to ensure the safety and performance of the workers. This paper describes the accomplishment of a user-centred design process of new PPC for offshore workers operating in this area. The user-centred design process was accomplished by mixed-methods. Insights into user needs and context of use were established by group interviews and on-the-job observations during a field-trip. The design was developed based on these insights, and refined by user feedback and participatory design. The new PPC was evaluated via field-tests and cold climate chamber tests. The insight into user needs and context of use provided useful input to the design process and contributed to tailored solutions. Providing users with clothing prototypes facilitated participatory design and iterations of design refinement. The group interviews following the final field test showed consensus of enhanced user satisfaction compared to PPC in current use. The final cold chamber test indicated that the new PPC provides sufficient thermal protection during the 60 min of simulated work in a wind-chill temperature of -25°C. Accomplishing a user-centred design process contributed to new PPC with enhanced user satisfaction and included relevant functional solutions.

Researchers and practitioners talk about users and each other: making user and audience studies matter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brenda Dervin

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. We report here on the research phase of a multi-stage dialogue examining convergences and divergences in how three fields (library and information science, human computer interaction and communication and media studies looked at users and each other. Focus was on what researchers and practitioners saw as the big unanswered questions in user studies and what they saw as the convergences and divergences across disciplinary and practice-research divides. Method. Eighty-three international experts in the three fields were interviewed by phone; thirty-one local experts, public and academic librarians serving universities and colleges in central Ohio, were interviewed using self-journals and focus group reports. Analysis. A thematic analysis was completed. Purpose was not to fix substantive differences but to tap ways in which convergences and divergences showed relevance to the communicative aspects of the research enterprise. A theory of dialogue was applied that purposively positioned this analysis as only one of potentially many. Results. All informants showed strong commitment to improving user studies and making them matter more to design, practice and society. At the same time, regardless of field or perspective, they struggled with the incoherencies of avalanches of user research. They decried the general inability to communicate across fields and between research and practice. They decried the ways in which structural conditions seemed to constrain possibilities. Yet, they hoped for making things better. Conclusion. . The traditional modes used for communication in the social science research enterprise are not doing the job for user studies. We need to reclaim some procedures lost in the current emphases on quantity over quality and invent other options. This is the theme of our second paper, in this same issue.

STAIRS User's Manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gadjokov, V.; Dragulev, V.; Gove, N.; Schmid, H.

1976-10-01

The STorage And Information Retrieval System (STAIRS) of IBM is described from the user's point of view. The description is based on the experimental use of STAIRS at the IAEA computer, with INIS and AGRIS data bases, from June 1975 to May 1976. Special attention is paid to what may be termed the hierarchical approach to retrieval in STAIRS. Such an approach allows for better use of the intrinsic data-base structure and, hence, contributes to higher recall and/or relevance ratios in retrieval. The functions carried out by STAIRS are explained and the communication language between the user and the system outlined. Details are given of the specific structure of the INIS and AGRIS data bases for STAIRS. The manual should enable an inexperienced user to start his first on-line dialogues by means of a CRT or teletype terminal. (author)

STAIRS User's Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gadjokov, V; Dragulev, V; Gove, N; Schmid, H

1976-10-15

The STorage And Information Retrieval System (STAIRS) of IBM is described from the user's point of view. The description is based on the experimental use of STAIRS at the IAEA computer, with INIS and AGRIS data bases, from June 1975 to May 1976. Special attention is paid to what may be termed the hierarchical approach to retrieval in STAIRS. Such an approach allows for better use of the intrinsic data-base structure and, hence, contributes to higher recall and/or relevance ratios in retrieval. The functions carried out by STAIRS are explained and the communication language between the user and the system outlined. Details are given of the specific structure of the INIS and AGRIS data bases for STAIRS. The manual should enable an inexperienced user to start his first on-line dialogues by means of a CRT or teletype terminal. (author)

A paper recommender system based on user's profile in big data ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

These systems present a personalized proposal to users who seek to find a special kind of relevant data or their priorities through the big number of data. Recommendersystem based on personalization uses the user profile and in view of the fact that the user profile encompass information pertaining to the user priorities; ...

Reflections on Andes' Goal-Free User Interface

Science.gov (United States)

VanLehn, Kurt

2016-01-01

Although the Andes project produced many results over its 18 years of activity, this commentary focuses on its contributions to understanding how a goal-free user interface impacts the overall design and performance of a step-based tutoring system. Whereas a goal-aligned user interface displays relevant goals as blank boxes or empty locations that…

Using social networking to understand social networks: analysis of a mobile phone closed user group used by a Ghanaian health team.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaonga, Nadi Nina; Labrique, Alain; Mechael, Patricia; Akosah, Eric; Ohemeng-Dapaah, Seth; Sakyi Baah, Joseph; Kodie, Richmond; Kanter, Andrew S; Levine, Orin

2013-04-03

The network structure of an organization influences how well or poorly an organization communicates and manages its resources. In the Millennium Villages Project site in Bonsaaso, Ghana, a mobile phone closed user group has been introduced for use by the Bonsaaso Millennium Villages Project Health Team and other key individuals. No assessment on the benefits or barriers of the use of the closed user group had been carried out. The purpose of this research was to make the case for the use of social network analysis methods to be applied in health systems research--specifically related to mobile health. This study used mobile phone voice records of, conducted interviews with, and reviewed call journals kept by a mobile phone closed user group consisting of the Bonsaaso Millennium Villages Project Health Team. Social network analysis methodology complemented by a qualitative component was used. Monthly voice data of the closed user group from Airtel Bharti Ghana were analyzed using UCINET and visual depictions of the network were created using NetDraw. Interviews and call journals kept by informants were analyzed using NVivo. The methodology was successful in helping identify effective organizational structure. Members of the Health Management Team were the more central players in the network, rather than the Community Health Nurses (who might have been expected to be central). Social network analysis methodology can be used to determine the most productive structure for an organization or team, identify gaps in communication, identify key actors with greatest influence, and more. In conclusion, this methodology can be a useful analytical tool, especially in the context of mobile health, health services, and operational and managerial research.

Balancing relevance criteria through multi-objective optimization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Doorn, J.; Odijk, D.; Roijers, D.M.; de Rijke, M.

2016-01-01

Offline evaluation of information retrieval systems typically focuses on a single effectiveness measure that models the utility for a typical user. Such a measure usually combines a behavior-based rank discount with a notion of document utility that captures the single relevance criterion of

Additional user needs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rorschach, H.E.; Hayter, J.B.

1986-01-01

This paper summarizes the conclusions of a discussion group on users' needs held at the Workshop on an Advanced Steady-State Neutron Facility. The discussion was devoted to reactor characteristics, special facilities and siting considerations suggested by user needs. (orig.)

Eye tracking in user experience design

CERN Document Server

Romano Bergstorm, Jennifer

2014-01-01

Eye Tracking for User Experience Design explores the many applications of eye tracking to better understand how users view and interact with technology. Ten leading experts in eye tracking discuss how they have taken advantage of this new technology to understand, design, and evaluate user experience. Real-world stories are included from these experts who have used eye tracking during the design and development of products ranging from information websites to immersive games. They also explore recent advances in the technology which tracks how users interact with mobile devices, large-screen displays and video game consoles. Methods for combining eye tracking with other research techniques for a more holistic understanding of the user experience are discussed. This is an invaluable resource to those who want to learn how eye tracking can be used to better understand and design for their users. * Includes highly relevant examples and information for those who perform user research and design interactive experi...

a mobile user interface for low-literacy users in rural south africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Information and Communication Technology services for socio-economic ... was conducted to design a mobile user interface to enable low-literacy users in Dwesa ..... common social and religious groups ... layout, buttons and menu.

Privacy and data security in E-health: requirements from the user's perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkowska, Wiktoria; Ziefle, Martina

2012-09-01

In this study two currently relevant aspects of using medical assistive technologies were addressed-security and privacy. In a two-step empirical approach that used focus groups (n = 19) and a survey (n = 104), users' requirements for the use of medical technologies were collected and evaluated. Specifically, we focused on the perceived importance of data security and privacy issues. Outcomes showed that both security and privacy aspects play an important role in the successful adoption of medical assistive technologies in the home environment. In particular, analysis of data with respect to gender, health-status and age (young, middle-aged and old users) revealed that females and healthy adults require, and insist on, the highest security and privacy standards compared with males and the ailing elderly.

The Healing Power of Poison: Helpful Non-relevant Documents in Feedback

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dehghani, M.; Abnar, S.; Kamps, J.

2016-01-01

The use of feedback information is an effective approach to address the vocabulary gap between a user's query and the relevant documents. It has been shown that some relevant documents act like "poison pills," i.e. they hurt the performance of feedback systems despite the fact that they are

From the Users' Perspective-The UCSD Libraries User Survey Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Talbot, Dawn E.; Lowell, Gerald R.; Martin, Kerry

1998-01-01

Discussion of a user-driven survey conducted at the University of California, San Diego libraries focuses on the methodology that resulted in a high response rate. Highlights goals for the survey, including acceptance of data by groups outside the library and for benchmarking data; planning; user population; and questionnaire development. (LRW)

Psacoin level 1A intercomparison probabilistic system assessment code (PSAC) user group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nies, A.; Laurens, J.M.; Galson, D.A.; Webster, S.

1990-01-01

This report describes an international code intercomparison exercise conducted by the NEA Probabilistic System Assessment Code (PSAC) User Group. The PSACOIN Level 1A exercise is the third of a series designed to contribute to the verification of probabilistic codes that may be used in assessing the safety of radioactive waste disposal systems or concepts. Level 1A is based on a more realistic system model than that used in the two previous exercises, and involves deep geological disposal concepts with a relatively complex structure of the repository vault. The report compares results and draws conclusions with regard to the use of different modelling approaches and the possible importance to safety of various processes within and around a deep geological repository. In particular, the relative significance of model uncertainty and data variability is discussed

An exploration of service user involvement in the assessment of students

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naylor, S.; Harcus, J.; Elkington, M.

2015-01-01

Introduction: This paper is an exploration of service user involvement in assessing first year diagnostic radiography students' ability to practise and interact with the public safely prior to attending placement. Service users took the role of patients during a simulation exercise undertaken in a general X-ray room. In recent years the importance of involving service users in all aspects of healthcare has been promoted; this includes being involved in the education of healthcare workers. The evaluation of service user involvement in the education of healthcare workers is limited, as is any literature about service user involvement outside nursing, mental health, and social work. Method: Feedback was obtained via email and face to face via a focus group from academic staff, service users and students using open questions. Results: The benefits of service user involvement were that it made the exercise more relevant and meaningful. It was perceived as a valuable exercise for the students to interact with service users in terms of developing, and for assessing, patient care, communication and positioning skills. The service users valued the experience. Issues highlighted include travel to the venue and the physical demands on the service user. Concerns highlighted by previous authors of preparation of the service users for their role, and remuneration had been addressed prior to the exercise. Conclusion: There is increasing diversity in the ways in which service users are involved in education. Service user involvement as patients in a simulation exercise for student assessment was deemed successful in this setting. - Highlights: • There is limited literature about service user involvement outside nursing, mental health and social work. • There are benefits to involving service users in the assessment of student diagnostic radiographers. • There are challenges to involving service users in the assessment of student diagnostic radiographers

Using the event analysis of systemic teamwork (EAST) to explore conflicts between different road user groups when making right hand turns at urban intersections.

Science.gov (United States)

Salmon, Paul M; Lenne, Michael G; Walker, Guy H; Stanton, Neville A; Filtness, Ashleigh

2014-01-01

Collisions between different types of road users at intersections form a substantial component of the road toll. This paper presents an analysis of driver, cyclist, motorcyclist and pedestrian behaviour at intersections that involved the application of an integrated suite of ergonomics methods, the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) framework, to on-road study data. EAST was used to analyse behaviour at three intersections using data derived from an on-road study of driver, cyclist, motorcyclist and pedestrian behaviour. The analysis shows the differences in behaviour and cognition across the different road user groups and pinpoints instances where this may be creating conflicts between different road users. The role of intersection design in creating these differences in behaviour and resulting conflicts is discussed. It is concluded that currently intersections are not designed in a way that supports behaviour across the four forms of road user studied. Interventions designed to improve intersection safety are discussed. Practitioner Summary: Intersection safety currently represents a key road safety issue worldwide. This paper presents a novel application of a framework of ergonomics methods for studying differences in road user behaviour at intersections. The findings support development of interventions that consider all road users as opposed to one group in isolation.

Identifying online user reputation of user-object bipartite networks

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiao-Lu; Liu, Jian-Guo; Yang, Kai; Guo, Qiang; Han, Jing-Ti

2017-02-01

Identifying online user reputation based on the rating information of the user-object bipartite networks is important for understanding online user collective behaviors. Based on the Bayesian analysis, we present a parameter-free algorithm for ranking online user reputation, where the user reputation is calculated based on the probability that their ratings are consistent with the main part of all user opinions. The experimental results show that the AUC values of the presented algorithm could reach 0.8929 and 0.8483 for the MovieLens and Netflix data sets, respectively, which is better than the results generated by the CR and IARR methods. Furthermore, the experimental results for different user groups indicate that the presented algorithm outperforms the iterative ranking methods in both ranking accuracy and computation complexity. Moreover, the results for the synthetic networks show that the computation complexity of the presented algorithm is a linear function of the network size, which suggests that the presented algorithm is very effective and efficient for the large scale dynamic online systems.

Enabling multi-level relevance feedback on PubMed by integrating rank learning into DBMS.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Hwanjo; Kim, Taehoon; Oh, Jinoh; Ko, Ilhwan; Kim, Sungchul; Han, Wook-Shin

2010-04-16

Finding relevant articles from PubMed is challenging because it is hard to express the user's specific intention in the given query interface, and a keyword query typically retrieves a large number of results. Researchers have applied machine learning techniques to find relevant articles by ranking the articles according to the learned relevance function. However, the process of learning and ranking is usually done offline without integrated with the keyword queries, and the users have to provide a large amount of training documents to get a reasonable learning accuracy. This paper proposes a novel multi-level relevance feedback system for PubMed, called RefMed, which supports both ad-hoc keyword queries and a multi-level relevance feedback in real time on PubMed. RefMed supports a multi-level relevance feedback by using the RankSVM as the learning method, and thus it achieves higher accuracy with less feedback. RefMed "tightly" integrates the RankSVM into RDBMS to support both keyword queries and the multi-level relevance feedback in real time; the tight coupling of the RankSVM and DBMS substantially improves the processing time. An efficient parameter selection method for the RankSVM is also proposed, which tunes the RankSVM parameter without performing validation. Thereby, RefMed achieves a high learning accuracy in real time without performing a validation process. RefMed is accessible at http://dm.postech.ac.kr/refmed. RefMed is the first multi-level relevance feedback system for PubMed, which achieves a high accuracy with less feedback. It effectively learns an accurate relevance function from the user's feedback and efficiently processes the function to return relevant articles in real time.

Taming Disruptive Technologies, or How To Remain Relevant in the Digital Age.

Science.gov (United States)

Blackwell, Philip

2001-01-01

Discusses electronic books as a disruptive technology, that is, a technology that has appeal to its users but upsets the traditional models. Highlights include a history of print technology; types of electronic books; reader devices; stakeholders, including users, librarians, and publishers; and how vendors can remain relevant. (LRW)

How Firms Can Get Ideas from Users for Sustainable Business Innovation

OpenAIRE

Cho, Chanwoo; Lee, Sungjoo

2015-01-01

The importance of user information and user participation for seeking business opportunities has been widely acknowledged in a variety of industries. Therefore, this study aims to suggest a typology for user innovation models as a strategy for sustainable development and to investigate the characteristics of different types user innovation to encourage and support improved utilization of user innovation in firms. For this purpose, we began by collecting 435 relevant papers from the most-cited...

The relevance of spirituality, religion and personal beliefs to health-related quality of life: themes from focus groups in Britain.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connell, Kathryn A; Skevington, Suzanne M

2005-09-01

Generic health-related quality of life (QoL) instruments have not routinely assessed spirituality, religion, and personal beliefs (SRPB) in their measurement. This research addresses the perceived importance of 18 facets (dimensions) of SRPB, for example, inner peace, to QoL that are not specific to a religion, but address the experience of having this belief, in relation to health. Adult focus groups were structured according to beliefs from UK surveys. Quotas targeted gender and health status. Nine focus groups (N = 55, age 51, 47% male) contained sick and well people who were religious, Christians, Buddhists, Quakers (50.1%), agnostic (27.4%), or atheist (21.8%) participants. Qualitative and quantitative analysis showed considerable variability in the importance attributed to some concepts, although spiritual strength, meaning in life and inner peace were relevant to all groups. Spiritual strength (4.42), the meaning of life (4.09), wholeness/integration (4.06), and inner peace (4.02) were most important. Divine love, freedom to practice beliefs, and attachment/detachment were less relevant, conceptually confusing or had religious bias; atheists rated them as unimportant and as less important (p religious people. SRPB is relevant to health-related QoL and consensually important facets should be included in generic health care assessments. Their inclusion permits a more holistic assessment and improves the case for a biopsychosociospiritual model of health.

Squidy : a Zoomable Design Environment for Natural User Interfaces

OpenAIRE

König, Werner A.; Rädle, Roman; Reiterer, Harald

2009-01-01

We introduce the interaction library Squidy, which eases the design of natural user interfaces by unifying relevant frameworks and toolkits in a common library. Squidy provides a central design environment based on high-level visual data flow programming combined with zoomable user interface concepts. The user interface offers a Simple visual language and a collection of ready-to-use devices, filters and interaction techniques. The concept of semantic zooming enables nevertheless access to mo...

Measuring the Interestingness of Articles in a Limited User Environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pon, Raymond K. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

2008-01-01

Search engines, such as Google, assign scores to news articles based on their relevancy to a query. However, not all relevant articles for the query may be interesting to a user. For example, if the article is old or yields little new information, the article would be uninteresting. Relevancy scores do not take into account what makes an article interesting, which varies from user to user. Although methods such as collaborative filtering have been shown to be effective in recommendation systems, in a limited user environment, there are not enough users that would make collaborative filtering effective. A general framework, called iScore, is presented for defining and measuring the 'interestingness' of articles, incorporating user-feedback. iScore addresses various aspects of what makes an article interesting, such as topic relevancy, uniqueness, freshness, source reputation, and writing style. It employs various methods to measure these features and uses a classifier operating on these features to recommend articles. The basic iScore configuration is shown to improve recommendation results by as much as 20%. In addition to the basic iScore features, additional features are presented to address the deficiencies of existing feature extractors, such as one that tracks multiple topics, called MTT, and a version of the Rocchio algorithm that learns its parameters online as it processes documents, called eRocchio. The inclusion of both MTT and eRocchio into iScore is shown to improve iScore recommendation results by as much as 3.1% and 5.6%, respectively. Additionally, in TREC11 Adaptive Filter Task, eRocchio is shown to be 10% better than the best filter in the last run of the task. In addition to these two major topic relevancy measures, other features are also introduced that employ language models, phrases, clustering, and changes in topics to improve recommendation results. These additional features are shown to improve recommendation results by iScore by

Online health information search: what struggles and empowers the users? Results of an online survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Pletneva, Natalia; Vargas, Alejandro; Kalogianni, Konstantina; Boyer, Célia

2012-01-01

The most popular mean of searching for online health content is a general search engine for all domains of interest. Being general implies on one hand that the search engine is not tailored to the needs which are particular to the medical and on another hand that health domain and health-specific queries may not always return adequate and adapted results. The aim of our study was to identify difficulties and preferences in online health information search encountered by members of the general public. The survey in four languages was online from the 9th of March until the 27th of April, 2011. 385 answers were collected, representing mostly the opinions of highly educated users, mostly from France and Spain. The most important characteristics of a search engine are relevance and trustworthiness of results. The results currently retrieved do not fulfil these requirements. The ideal representation of the information will be a categorization of the results into different groups. Medical dictionaries/thesauruses, suggested relevant topics, image searches and spelling corrections are regarded as helpful tools. There is a need to work towards better customized solutions which provide users with the trustworthy information of high quality specific to his/her case in a user-friendly environment which would eventually lead to making appropriate health decisions.

A user-centered model for designing consumer mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps).

Science.gov (United States)

Schnall, Rebecca; Rojas, Marlene; Bakken, Suzanne; Brown, William; Carballo-Dieguez, Alex; Carry, Monique; Gelaude, Deborah; Mosley, Jocelyn Patterson; Travers, Jasmine

2016-04-01

Mobile technologies are a useful platform for the delivery of health behavior interventions. Yet little work has been done to create a rigorous and standardized process for the design of mobile health (mHealth) apps. This project sought to explore the use of the Information Systems Research (ISR) framework as guide for the design of mHealth apps. Our work was guided by the ISR framework which is comprised of 3 cycles: Relevance, Rigor and Design. In the Relevance cycle, we conducted 5 focus groups with 33 targeted end-users. In the Rigor cycle, we performed a review to identify technology-based interventions for meeting the health prevention needs of our target population. In the Design Cycle, we employed usability evaluation methods to iteratively develop and refine mock-ups for a mHealth app. Through an iterative process, we identified barriers and facilitators to the use of mHealth technology for HIV prevention for high-risk MSM, developed 'use cases' and identified relevant functional content and features for inclusion in a design document to guide future app development. Findings from our work support the use of the ISR framework as a guide for designing future mHealth apps. Results from this work provide detailed descriptions of the user-centered design and system development and have heuristic value for those venturing into the area of technology-based intervention work. Findings from this study support the use of the ISR framework as a guide for future mHealth app development. Use of the ISR framework is a potentially useful approach for the design of a mobile app that incorporates end-users' design preferences. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An evidence perspective on topical relevance types and its implications for exploratory and task-based retrieval

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoli Huang

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. The concept of relevance lies at the heart of intellectual access and information retrieval, indeed of reasoning and communication in general; in turn, topical relevance lies at the heart of relevance. The common view of topical relevance is limited to topic matching, resulting in information retrieval systems' failure to detect more complex topical connections which are needed to respond to diversified user situations and tasks. Method. Based on the role a piece of information plays in the overall structure of an argument, we have identified four topical relevance types: Direct, Indirect (circumstantial, Context, and Comparison. In the process of creating a speech retrieval test collection, graduate history students made 27,000 topical relevance assessments between Holocaust survivor interview segments and real user topics, using the four relevance types, each on a scale of 0 to 4. They recorded justifications for their assessments and kept detailed Topic Notes. Analysis. We analysed these relevance assessments using a grounded theory approach to arrive at a finer classification of topical relevance types. Results. For example, indirect relevance(a piece of information is connected to the topic indirectly through inference, circumstantial evidence was refined to Generic Indirect Relevance, Backward Inference (abduction, Forward Inference (deduction, and Inference from Cases (induction, with each subtype being further illustrated and explicated by examples. Conclusion. Each of these refined types of topical relevance plays a special role in reasoning, making a conclusive argument, or performing a task. Incorporating them into information retrieval systems allows users more flexibility and a better focus on their tasks. They can also be used in teaching reasoning skills.

Recreational user attitudes towards management strategies of Allegany State Park

Science.gov (United States)

Michael Nisengard; Miklos Gratzer

1998-01-01

This project examines attitudes towards management strategies of four Allegany State Park recreational user groups: cabin users, recreational vehicle users, tent users, and day users. It investigates recreational user group attitude differences, and attitude change over a ten year time period, in regard to the following park management strategy categories: park...

Implementing Recommendations From Web Accessibility Guidelines: A Comparative Study of Nondisabled Users and Users With Visual Impairments.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmutz, Sven; Sonderegger, Andreas; Sauer, Juergen

2017-09-01

The present study examined whether implementing recommendations of Web accessibility guidelines would have different effects on nondisabled users than on users with visual impairments. The predominant approach for making Web sites accessible for users with disabilities is to apply accessibility guidelines. However, it has been hardly examined whether this approach has side effects for nondisabled users. A comparison of the effects on both user groups would contribute to a better understanding of possible advantages and drawbacks of applying accessibility guidelines. Participants from two matched samples, comprising 55 participants with visual impairments and 55 without impairments, took part in a synchronous remote testing of a Web site. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three Web sites, which differed in the level of accessibility (very low, low, and high) according to recommendations of the well-established Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0). Performance (i.e., task completion rate and task completion time) and a range of subjective variables (i.e., perceived usability, positive affect, negative affect, perceived aesthetics, perceived workload, and user experience) were measured. Higher conformance to Web accessibility guidelines resulted in increased performance and more positive user ratings (e.g., perceived usability or aesthetics) for both user groups. There was no interaction between user group and accessibility level. Higher conformance to WCAG 2.0 may result in benefits for nondisabled users and users with visual impairments alike. Practitioners may use the present findings as a basis for deciding on whether and how to implement accessibility best.

Factors affecting collective action for forest fire management: a comparative study of community forest user groups in central Siwalik, Nepal.

Science.gov (United States)

Sapkota, Lok Mani; Shrestha, Rajendra Prasad; Jourdain, Damien; Shivakoti, Ganesh P

2015-01-01

The attributes of social ecological systems affect the management of commons. Strengthening and enhancing social capital and the enforcement of rules and sanctions aid in the collective action of communities in forest fire management. Using a set of variables drawn from previous studies on the management of commons, we conducted a study across 20 community forest user groups in Central Siwalik, Nepal, by dividing the groups into two categories based on the type and level of their forest fire management response. Our study shows that the collective action in forest fire management is consistent with the collective actions in other community development activities. However, the effectiveness of collective action is primarily dependent on the complex interaction of various variables. We found that strong social capital, strong enforcement of rules and sanctions, and users' participation in crafting the rules were the major variables that strengthen collective action in forest fire management. Conversely, users' dependency on a daily wage and a lack of transparency were the variables that weaken collective action. In fire-prone forests such as the Siwalik, our results indicate that strengthening social capital and forming and enforcing forest fire management rules are important variables that encourage people to engage in collective action in fire management.

Capturing public opinion on public health topics: a comparison of experiences from a systematic review, focus group study, and analysis of online, user-generated content

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emma Louise Giles

2015-08-01

Full Text Available BackgroundCapturing public opinion towards public health topics is important to ensure that services, policy and research are aligned with the beliefs and priorities of the general public. A number of approaches can be used to capture public opinion. MethodsWe are conducting a programme of work on the effectiveness and acceptability of health promoting financial incentive interventions. We have captured public opinion on financial incentive interventions using three methods: a systematic review, focus group study, and analysis of online user-generated comments to news media reports. In this short, editorial-style, piece we compare and contrast our experiences with these three methods.ResultsEach of these methods had their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include tailoring of the research question for systematic reviews, probing of answers during focus groups, and the ability to aggregate a large data set using online user-generated content. However, disadvantages include needing to update systematic reviews, participants conforming to a dominant perspective in focus groups, and being unable to collect respondent characteristics during analysis of user-generated online content. That said, analysis of user-generated online content offers additional time and resource advantages, and we found it elicited similar findings to those obtained via more traditional methods, such as systematic reviews and focus groups. ConclusionsA number of methods for capturing public opinions on public health topics are available. Public health researchers, policy makers and practitioners should choose methods appropriate to their aims. Analysis user-generated online content, especially in the context of news media reports, may be a quicker and cheaper alternative to more traditional methods, without compromising on the breadth of opinions captured.

Capturing Public Opinion on Public Health Topics: A Comparison of Experiences from a Systematic Review, Focus Group Study, and Analysis of Online, User-Generated Content.

Science.gov (United States)

Giles, Emma Louise; Adams, Jean M

2015-01-01

Capturing public opinion toward public health topics is important to ensure that services, policy, and research are aligned with the beliefs and priorities of the general public. A number of approaches can be used to capture public opinion. We are conducting a program of work on the effectiveness and acceptability of health promoting financial incentive interventions. We have captured public opinion on financial incentive interventions using three methods: a systematic review, focus group study, and analysis of online user-generated comments to news media reports. In this short editorial-style piece, we compare and contrast our experiences with these three methods. Each of these methods had their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include tailoring of the research question for systematic reviews, probing of answers during focus groups, and the ability to aggregate a large data set using online user-generated content. However, disadvantages include needing to update systematic reviews, participants conforming to a dominant perspective in focus groups, and being unable to collect respondent characteristics during analysis of user-generated online content. That said, analysis of user-generated online content offers additional time and resource advantages, and we found it elicited similar findings to those obtained via more traditional methods, such as systematic reviews and focus groups. A number of methods for capturing public opinions on public health topics are available. Public health researchers, policy makers, and practitioners should choose methods appropriate to their aims. Analysis of user-generated online content, especially in the context of news media reports, may be a quicker and cheaper alternative to more traditional methods, without compromising on the breadth of opinions captured.

How do Framing Strategies Influence the User's Choice of Content on the Web?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Constantiou, Ioanna; Hoebel, Natascha; Zicari, Roberto V.

2012-01-01

A Web user is exposed to a large number of information services available from different sources. Online news is offered combined with relevant service attributes such as pictures, small text, users' recommendations, etc. We previously investigated the Web user's choice of online news, focusing...

Predicting user click behaviour in search engine advertisements

Science.gov (United States)

Daryaie Zanjani, Mohammad; Khadivi, Shahram

2015-10-01

According to the specific requirements and interests of users, search engines select and display advertisements that match user needs and have higher probability of attracting users' attention based on their previous search history. New objects such as user, advertisement or query cause a deterioration of precision in targeted advertising due to their lack of history. This article surveys this challenge. In the case of new objects, we first extract similar observed objects to the new object and then we use their history as the history of new object. Similarity between objects is measured based on correlation, which is a relation between user and advertisement when the advertisement is displayed to the user. This method is used for all objects, so it has helped us to accurately select relevant advertisements for users' queries. In our proposed model, we assume that similar users behave in a similar manner. We find that users with few queries are similar to new users. We will show that correlation between users and advertisements' keywords is high. Thus, users who pay attention to advertisements' keywords, click similar advertisements. In addition, users who pay attention to specific brand names might have similar behaviours too.

A process mining approach to analyse user behaviour

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maruster, Laura; Faber, Niels R.; Jorna, Rene J.; van Haren, Rob J. F.; Cordeiro, J; Filipe, J; Hammoudi, S

2008-01-01

Designing and personalising systems for specific user groups encompasses a lot of effort with respect to analysing and understanding user behaviour. The goal of our paper is to provide a new methodology for determining navigational patterns of behaviour of specific user groups. We consider

The importance of social media for patients and families affected by congenital anomalies: A Facebook cross-sectional analysis and user survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, Robyn; Boyd, Leanne; Brennan, Kirsty; Sinha, C K; Giuliani, Stefano

2016-11-01

We aimed to define characteristics and needs of Facebook users in relation to congenital anomalies. Cross-sectional analysis of Facebook related to four congenital anomalies: anorectal malformation (ARM), congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), congenital heart disease (CHD) and hypospadias/epispadias (HS/ES). A keyword search was performed to identify relevant Groups/Pages. An anonymous survey was posted to obtain quantitative/qualitative data on users and their healthcare needs. 54 Groups and 24 Pages were identified (ARM: 10 Groups; CDH: 9 Groups, 7 Pages; CHD: 32 Groups, 17 Pages; HS/ES: 3 Groups), with 16,191 Group members and 48,766 Page likes. 868/1103 (79%) of respondents were parents. Male:female ratio was 1:10.9. 65% of the users were 26-40years old. Common reasons for joining these Groups/Pages included: seeking support, education, making friends, and providing support to others. 932/1103 (84%) would like healthcare professionals (HCPs) to actively participate in their Group. 31% of the respondents felt that they did not receive enough support from their healthcare system. 97% of the respondents would like to join a Group linked to their primary hospital. Facebook Groups/Pages related to congenital anomalies are highly populated and active. There is a need for HCPs and policy makers to better understand and participate in social media to support families and improve patient care. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

User-Oriented and Cognitive Models of Information Retrieval

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skov, Mette; Järvelin, Kalervo; Ingwersen, Peter

2018-01-01

The domain of user-oriented and cognitive information retrieval (IR) is first discussed, followed by a discussion on the dimensions and types of models one may build for the domain. The focus of the present entry is on the models of user-oriented and cognitive IR, not on their empirical...... applications. Several models with different emphases on user-oriented and cognitive IR are presented—ranging from overall approaches and relevance models to procedural models, cognitive models, and task-based models. The present entry does not discuss empirical findings based on the models....

Presence of dual diagnosis between users and non-users of licit and illicit drugs in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Bandeira Formiga

2015-12-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective Investigate the occurrence of dual diagnosis in users of legal and illegal drugs. Methods It is an analytical, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, non-probabilistic intentional sampling, carried out in two centers for drug addiction treatment, by means of individual interviews. A sociodemographic questionnaire, the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI were used. Results One hundred and ten volunteers divided into abstinent users (group 1, alcoholics (group 2 and users of alcohol and illicit drugs (group 3. The substances were alcohol, tobacco, crack and marijuana. A higher presence of dual diagnosis in group 3 (71.8% was observed, which decreased in group 2 (60% and 37.1% of drug abstinent users had psychiatric disorder. Dual diagnosis was associated with the risk of suicide, suicide attempts and the practice of infractions. The crack consumption was associated with the occurrence of major depressive episode and antisocial personality disorder. Conclusion It was concluded that the illicit drug users had a higher presence of dual diagnosis showing the severity of this clinical condition. It is considered essential that this clinical reality is included in intervention strategies in order to decrease the negative effects of consumption of these substances and provide better quality of life for these people.

Outcomes of adult heroin users v. abstinent users four years after presenting for heroin detoxification treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zureida Khan

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Background. There are no studies in South Africa (SA on the outcomes following detoxification and psychosocial rehabilitation of heroin-dependent patients. Objective. To compare the demographic, clinical, forensic and treatment data of active heroin users v. users who were abstinent at the time of interview 4 years after attending the Opioid Detoxification Unit at Stikland Hospital in the Western Cape Province, SA.  Method. Participants included patients above the age of 16 years who had been admitted to the Opioid Detoxification Unit at Stikland Hospital for heroin detoxification between July 2006 and June 2007. Participants were individually interviewed (either in person or tele­phonically using a structured self-report questionnaire to collect demographic, clinical, forensic and treatment data 4 years following heroin detoxification treatment at this unit.  Results. Of the participants, 60% were abstinent and a large portion (34% attributed this to social support. Furthermore, there was a significant (p=0.04 difference in the longest period of abstinence between the past user group and active users, with more participants in the past user group being abstinent for 18 months or longer (n=24, 57% than in the active users group (n=8, 29%. Active users (n=18, 64% had significantly (p=0.03 more legal problems than abstinent users (n=14, 33%. Most participants (n=38, 54% relapsed within 3 months after index detoxification and rehabilitation.  Conclusion. Active users had more legal problems than abstinent users, with social support structures playing a pivotal role in abstinence. Future research should assess the impact of interventions such as post-discharge social support programmes on criminality and heroin use in those that relapse following treatment.

Implicit User Interest Profile

CERN Document Server

Chan, K

2002-01-01

User interest profile presents items that the users are interested in. Typically those items can be listed or grouped. Listing is good but it does not possess interests at different abstraction levels - the higher-level interests are more general, while the lower-level ones are more specific. Furthermore, more general interests, in some sense, correspond to longer-term interests, while more specific interests correspond to shorter-term interests. This hierarchical user interest profile has obvious advantages: specifying user's specific interests and general interests and representing their relationships. Current user interest profile structures mostly do not use implicit method, nor use an appropriate clustering algorithm especially for conceptually hierarchical structures. This research studies building a hierarchical user interest profile (HUIP) and the hierarchical divisive algorithm (HDC). Several users visit hundreds of web pages and each page is recorded in each users profile. These web pages are used t...

Get noticed and stay relevant to web users!

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tania Grove

2004-12-01

Full Text Available The study is based on the question why people visit some websites numerous times and other web sites only once. The problem for companies that decide to make use of the web as a marketing tool is not just how to get connected to the web, but getting noticed and staying relevant to its clients and potential clients. The main objective of this study was thus to investigate what influence people to return to a web site and what are their requirements from web sites. These answers will show how companies can ensure that people notice their websites, how they can be influenced to connect to their web sites and how these companies can retain the people connecting to their web sites as customers with diverse needs. This information will enable companies to develop and customise applicable strategies for their web sites to satisfy the needs of their target markets. The analysis of the responses showed that most of the respondents are not using the web to purchase items; that customer preferences vary and that the web is more effective than traditional media on certain variables.

Facebook Groups as a Powerful and Dynamic Tool in Medical Education: Mixed-Method Study

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidbauer, Moritz; Gradel, Maximilian; Ferch, Sabine; Antón, Sofía; Hoppe, Boj; Pander, Tanja; von der Borch, Philip; Pinilla, Severin; Fischer, Martin; Dimitriadis, Konstantinos

2017-01-01

Background Social networking sites, in particular Facebook, are not only predominant in students’ social life but are to varying degrees interwoven with the medical curriculum. Particularly, Facebook groups have been identified for their potential in higher education. However, there is a paucity of data on user types, content, and dynamics of study-related Facebook groups. Objective The aim of this study was to identify the role of study-related Facebook group use, characterize medical students that use or avoid using Facebook groups (demographics, participation pattern, and motivation), and analyze student posting behavior, covered topics, dynamics, and limitations in Facebook groups with regards to educational usage. Methods Using a multi-method approach (interviews, focus groups, and qualitative and quantitative analysis of Facebook posts), we analyzed two representative Facebook groups of medical preclinical semesters at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich. Facebook primary posts and replies over one semester were extracted and evaluated by using thematic content analysis. We developed and applied a coding scheme for studying the frequency and distribution of these posts. Additionally, we interviewed students with various degrees of involvement in the groups, as well as “new minorities,” students not registered on Facebook. Results Facebook groups seem to have evolved as the main tool for medical students at LMU to complement the curriculum and to discuss study-related content. These Facebook groups are self-organizing and quickly adapt to organizational or subject-related challenges posed by the curriculum. A wide range of topics is covered, with a dominance of organization-related posts (58.35% [6916/11,853] of overall posts). By measuring reply rates and comments per category, we were able to identify learning tips and strategies, material sharing, and course content discussions as the most relevant categories. Rates of adequate replies in these

Effects of Group Drumming Interventions on Anxiety, Depression, Social Resilience and Inflammatory Immune Response among Mental Health Service Users.

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Daisy Fancourt

Full Text Available Growing numbers of mental health organizations are developing community music-making interventions for service users; however, to date there has been little research into their efficacy or mechanisms of effect. This study was an exploratory examination of whether 10 weeks of group drumming could improve depression, anxiety and social resilience among service users compared with a non-music control group (with participants allocated to group by geographical location. Significant improvements were found in the drumming group but not the control group: by week 6 there were decreases in depression (-2.14 SE 0.50 CI -3.16 to -1.11 and increases in social resilience (7.69 SE 2.00 CI 3.60 to 11.78, and by week 10 these had further improved (depression: -3.41 SE 0.62 CI -4.68 to -2.15; social resilience: 10.59 SE 1.78 CI 6.94 to 14.24 alongside significant improvements in anxiety (-2.21 SE 0.50 CI -3.24 to -1.19 and mental wellbeing (6.14 SE 0.92 CI 4.25 to 8.04. All significant changes were maintained at 3 months follow-up. Furthermore, it is now recognised that many mental health conditions are characterised by underlying inflammatory immune responses. Consequently, participants in the drumming group also provided saliva samples to test for cortisol and the cytokines interleukin (IL 4, IL6, IL17, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα, and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP 1. Across the 10 weeks there was a shift away from a pro-inflammatory towards an anti-inflammatory immune profile. Consequently, this study demonstrates the psychological benefits of group drumming and also suggests underlying biological effects, supporting its therapeutic potential for mental health.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01906892.

Materiality of misstatements from the perspective of the users of the financial statements - Narrowing the expectation gap between users and auditors

OpenAIRE

Rooij, Doris

2009-01-01

textabstractMisstatements or omissions in the financial statements are considered material if they could influence the economic decisions of users based on the financial statements. This research presents an empirical research, which provides evidence that a relevant expectation gap regarding materiality of misstatements exists between users of the financial statements and auditors. This gap can mainly be explained by lack of communication. According to the respondents, the expectation gap ca...

The impact of an online Facebook support group for people with multiple sclerosis on non-active users

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Jacqui Steadman

2014-11-01

Objectives: This study therefore aimed to explore the experiences of non-active users of an online Facebook support group for PwMS. Emphasis was placed on the facilitators and the barriers that were associated with membership to this group. Method: An exploratory qualitative research design was implemented, whereby thematic analysis was utilised to examine the ten semi-structured interviews that were conducted. Results: Several facilitators were acquired through the online support group; namely emotional support (constant source of support, exposure to negative aspects of the disease,informational support (group as a source of knowledge, quality of information and social companionship (place of belonging. Some barriers were also identified; namely emotional support (emotions lost online, response to messages, exposure to negative aspects of the disease, informational support (information posted on the group, misuse of group and social companionship (non-active status. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that the non-active members of the online support group for PwMS have valid reasons for their non-active membership status. More important,the findings suggest that the online Facebook support group provided the group members with an important support network in the form of emotional support, informational support and social companionship, despite their non-active membership status or the barriers that have been identified.

Evaluation of agents and study of end-user needs and behaviour for e-commerce. COGITO focus group experiment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, V.; Hansen, C.B.; Andersen, H.H.K.

2001-01-01

-commerce in general and shopping at Internet bookstores in particular are outlined below. In this report user requirements for specification of web-sites meeting the overall wishes of the end- users have beenelicited. The needs are mainly based on experiments and discussions related to purchase of books......The process of buying products and services on the Internet often implies a high degree of complexity and uncertainty about the conditions of information seeking, about items for sale, the purchase of wanted products and the actual navigation on a site.Some important problems concerning e......, as this domain has been selected as the application domain for the e-commerce in COGITO, but the requirements are mostly common covering e-commerce ingeneral. One of the main features to consider, analyse and specify in COGITO was the use of .intelligent personalised agents. Therefore, a focus group experiment...

Brain response to a rhythm deviant in adolescent cochlear implant users before and after an intensive musical training program

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Bjørn; Weed, Ethan; Hansen, Mads

. This study aimed to investigate auditory brain processing of musical sounds relevant to prosody processing in adolescent CI-users who have received their implant in childhood. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate the potential impact of intensive musical training on adolescent CI-users’ discrimination...... studies have investigated perception of music, prosody, and speech in the growing population of adolescent CI users with a congenital HL. However, recent studies indicate that to keep pace with their normal hearing (NH) peers, supplementary measures of rehabilitation are important throughout adolescence...... of music and speech prosody. Here we present preliminary analyses of ERP responses to rhythmically deviant stimuli and present results from a behavioral rhythm discrimination test. Eleven adolescent CI users (M.age = 17 years) participated in a group-based music training program, consisting of active music...

Audiovisual segregation in cochlear implant users.

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Simon Landry

Full Text Available It has traditionally been assumed that cochlear implant users de facto perform atypically in audiovisual tasks. However, a recent study that combined an auditory task with visual distractors suggests that only those cochlear implant users that are not proficient at recognizing speech sounds might show abnormal audiovisual interactions. The present study aims at reinforcing this notion by investigating the audiovisual segregation abilities of cochlear implant users in a visual task with auditory distractors. Speechreading was assessed in two groups of cochlear implant users (proficient and non-proficient at sound recognition, as well as in normal controls. A visual speech recognition task (i.e. speechreading was administered either in silence or in combination with three types of auditory distractors: i noise ii reverse speech sound and iii non-altered speech sound. Cochlear implant users proficient at speech recognition performed like normal controls in all conditions, whereas non-proficient users showed significantly different audiovisual segregation patterns in both speech conditions. These results confirm that normal-like audiovisual segregation is possible in highly skilled cochlear implant users and, consequently, that proficient and non-proficient CI users cannot be lumped into a single group. This important feature must be taken into account in further studies of audiovisual interactions in cochlear implant users.

User-centred websites: the (ir)relevance of age

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Loos, E.F.

2009-01-01

Do elderly people really navigate websites in a different way than younger people do? Or are the differences within this group (such as those due to gender, education, computer experience and cultural background) bigger then differences between younger and older people? This paper first discusses

Self-expression, group affiliation, pleasure and memory as predictors of consumer product attachment and satisfaction among mobile phone users

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Kagiso Tlhabano

2013-03-01

Full Text Available In the post-purchase behaviour of a product, there are challenges with change in the degree of consumer product attachment, and these challenges affect consumer product satisfaction overtime. This study investigated how self-expression, group affiliation, memory, and demographic variables predicted consumer product attachment and satisfaction among mobile phone users in Ibadan. Three hundred students of the University of Ibadan were selected using convenient random selection. Their mean age was 20.7 and standard deviation of 2.52. A structured questionnaire consisting of the socio demographic section, measure of self-expression, group affiliation, memory, pleasure, consumer attachment and product satisfaction was used to collect the data. Using multiple regression analysis, the results showed that self-expression, group affiliation, memories and pleasure jointly predicted consumer attachment among mobile phone users, F (4,299 = 48.47; P<0.05 and they contributed 40% to the variance of consumer attachment. Self-expression (β = 0.26, t = 4.44, P<0.05, memory (β = 0.29, t = 4.97, P<0.05, and pleasure (β = 0.28, t =5.01, P<0.05 independently predicted consumer attachment while group affiliation did not. In addition, self- expression, group affiliation, memories and pleasure jointly predicted product satisfaction, F (4,299 =39.79; P<0.05 and they contributed 35% to the variance of product satisfaction. Pleasure (β=0.596, t =10.35, P<0.05 independently predicted product satisfaction while self-expression, group affiliation and memory did not. Furthermore, age, gender, mobile type, ethnicity and religion did not jointly and independently predict consumer product satisfaction. These findings have implication for mobile phone manufacturers in terms of product improvement and building a strategic marketing channel that would meet the needs of global consumers.

Can abstract screening workload be reduced using text mining? User experiences of the tool Rayyan.

Science.gov (United States)

Olofsson, Hanna; Brolund, Agneta; Hellberg, Christel; Silverstein, Rebecca; Stenström, Karin; Österberg, Marie; Dagerhamn, Jessica

2017-09-01

One time-consuming aspect of conducting systematic reviews is the task of sifting through abstracts to identify relevant studies. One promising approach for reducing this burden uses text mining technology to identify those abstracts that are potentially most relevant for a project, allowing those abstracts to be screened first. To examine the effectiveness of the text mining functionality of the abstract screening tool Rayyan. User experiences were collected. Rayyan was used to screen abstracts for 6 reviews in 2015. After screening 25%, 50%, and 75% of the abstracts, the screeners logged the relevant references identified. A survey was sent to users. After screening half of the search result with Rayyan, 86% to 99% of the references deemed relevant to the study were identified. Of those studies included in the final reports, 96% to 100% were already identified in the first half of the screening process. Users rated Rayyan 4.5 out of 5. The text mining function in Rayyan successfully helped reviewers identify relevant studies early in the screening process. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Creating adaptive web recommendation system based on user behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Walek, Bogdan

2018-01-01

The paper proposes adaptive web recommendation system based on user behavior. The proposed system uses expert system to evaluating and recommending suitable items of content. Relevant items are subsequently evaluated and filtered based on history of visited items and user´s preferred categories of items. Main parts of the proposed system are presented and described. The proposed recommendation system is verified on specific example.

Self-Reported and Judged Personality, Value, and Attitudinal Patterns: A Comparison of Users and Non Users of LSD-25.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Allan P.

This study is designed to assess the benefits of LSD use as well as to examine personality, value, and attitudinal variables in order to characterize users and non users. The main assessment tool used was the in-depth interview. Subjects were 31 male and 8 female users and a non user group matched for education and age. The user was characterized…

Assessing group differences in biodiversity by simultaneously testing a user-defined selection of diversity indices.

Science.gov (United States)

Pallmann, Philip; Schaarschmidt, Frank; Hothorn, Ludwig A; Fischer, Christiane; Nacke, Heiko; Priesnitz, Kai U; Schork, Nicholas J

2012-11-01

Comparing diversities between groups is a task biologists are frequently faced with, for example in ecological field trials or when dealing with metagenomics data. However, researchers often waver about which measure of diversity to choose as there is a multitude of approaches available. As Jost (2008, Molecular Ecology, 17, 4015) has pointed out, widely used measures such as the Shannon or Simpson index have undesirable properties which make them hard to compare and interpret. Many of the problems associated with the use of these 'raw' indices can be corrected by transforming them into 'true' diversity measures. We introduce a technique that allows the comparison of two or more groups of observations and simultaneously tests a user-defined selection of a number of 'true' diversity measures. This procedure yields multiplicity-adjusted P-values according to the method of Westfall and Young (1993, Resampling-Based Multiple Testing: Examples and Methods for p-Value Adjustment, 49, 941), which ensures that the rate of false positives (type I error) does not rise when the number of groups and/or diversity indices is extended. Software is available in the R package 'simboot'. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Integrating user profile in medical CBIR systems to answer perceptual similarity queries

Science.gov (United States)

Bugatti, Pedro H.; Kaster, Daniel S.; Ponciano-Silva, Marcelo; Traina, Agma J. M.; Traina, Caetano, Jr.

2011-03-01

Techniques for Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) have been intensively explored due to the increase in the amount of captured images and the need of fast retrieval of them. The medical field is a specific example that generates a large flow of information, especially digital images employed for diagnosing. One issue that still remains unsolved deals with how to reach the perceptual similarity. That is, to achieve an effective retrieval, one must characterize and quantify the perceptual similarity regarding the specialist in the field. Therefore, the present paper was conceived to fill in this gap creating a consistent support to perform similarity queries over medical images, maintaining the semantics of a given query desired by the user. CBIR systems relying in relevance feedback techniques usually request the users to label relevant images. In this paper, we present a simple but highly effective strategy to survey user profiles, taking advantage of such labeling to implicitly gather the user perceptual similarity. The user profiles maintain the settings desired for each user, allowing tuning the similarity assessment, which encompasses dynamically changing the distance function employed through an interactive process. Experiments using computed tomography lung images show that the proposed approach is effective in capturing the users' perception.

Perinatal Outcomes in Pregnant Women Users of Illegal Drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Tenilson Amaral; Bersusa, Ana Aparecida Sanches; Santos, Tatiana Fiorelli Dos; Aquino, Márcia Maria Auxiliadora de; Mariani Neto, Corintio

2016-04-01

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perinatal outcomes in pregnant women who use illicit drugs. Methods A retrospective observational study of patients who, at the time of delivery, were sent to or who spontaneously sought a public maternity hospital in the eastern area of São Paulo city. We compared the perinatal outcomes of two distinct groups of pregnant women - illicit drugs users and non-users - that gave birth in the same period and analyzed the obstetric and neonatal variables. We used Student's t-test to calculate the averages among the groups, and the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test to compare categorical data from each group. Results We analyzed 166 women (83 users and 83 non-users) in both groups with a mean of age of 26 years. Ninety-five percent of the drug users would use crack or pure cocaine alone or associated with other psychoactive substances during pregnancy. Approximately half of the users group made no prenatal visit, compared with 2.4% in the non-users group (p illicit drugs. Conclusions The use of illicit drugs, mainly crack cocaine, represents an important perinatal risk. Any medical intervention in this population should combine adherence to prenatal care with strategies for reducing maternal exposure to illicit drugs. Thieme Publicações Ltda Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Programming Graphical User Interfaces in R

CERN Document Server

Verzani, John

2012-01-01

Programming Graphical User Interfaces with R introduces each of the major R packages for GUI programming: RGtk2, qtbase, Tcl/Tk, and gWidgets. With examples woven through the text as well as stand-alone demonstrations of simple yet reasonably complete applications, the book features topics especially relevant to statisticians who aim to provide a practical interface to functionality implemented in R. The book offers: A how-to guide for developing GUIs within R The fundamentals for users with limited knowledge of programming within R and other languages GUI design for specific functions or as l

ON THE FORMATION OF AMIDE POLYMERS VIA CARBONYL–AMINO GROUP LINKAGES IN ENERGETICALLY PROCESSED ICES OF ASTROPHYSICAL RELEVANCE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Förstel, Marko; Maksyutenko, Pavlo; Jones, Brant M.; Kaiser, Ralf I. [Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii, 2545 McCarthy Mall, 96822 HI (United States); Sun, Bing J.; Lee, Huan C.; Chang, Agnes H. H., E-mail: ralfk@hawaii.edu, E-mail: hhchang@mail.ndhu.edu.tw [Department of Chemistry, National Dong Hwa University, Shoufeng, Hualien 974, Taiwan (China)

2016-04-01

We report on the formation of organic amide polymers via carbonyl–amino group linkages in carbon monoxide and ammonia bearing energetically processed ices of astrophysical relevance. The first group comprises molecules with one carboxyl group and an increasing number of amine moieties starting with formamide (45 u), urea (60 u), and hydrazine carboxamide (75 u). The second group consists of species with two carboxyl (58 u) and up to three amine groups (73 u, 88 u, and 103 u). The formation and polymerization of these linkages from simple inorganic molecules via formamide und urea toward amide polymers is discussed in an astrophysical and astrobiological context. Our results show that long chain molecules, which are closely related to polypeptides, easily form by energetically processing simple, inorganic ices at very low temperatures and can be released into the gas phase by sublimation of the ices in star-forming regions. Our experimental results were obtained by employing reflectron time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, coupled with soft, single photon vacuum ultraviolet photoionization; they are complemented by theoretical calculations.

ON THE FORMATION OF AMIDE POLYMERS VIA CARBONYL–AMINO GROUP LINKAGES IN ENERGETICALLY PROCESSED ICES OF ASTROPHYSICAL RELEVANCE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Förstel, Marko; Maksyutenko, Pavlo; Jones, Brant M.; Kaiser, Ralf I.; Sun, Bing J.; Lee, Huan C.; Chang, Agnes H. H.

2016-01-01

We report on the formation of organic amide polymers via carbonyl–amino group linkages in carbon monoxide and ammonia bearing energetically processed ices of astrophysical relevance. The first group comprises molecules with one carboxyl group and an increasing number of amine moieties starting with formamide (45 u), urea (60 u), and hydrazine carboxamide (75 u). The second group consists of species with two carboxyl (58 u) and up to three amine groups (73 u, 88 u, and 103 u). The formation and polymerization of these linkages from simple inorganic molecules via formamide und urea toward amide polymers is discussed in an astrophysical and astrobiological context. Our results show that long chain molecules, which are closely related to polypeptides, easily form by energetically processing simple, inorganic ices at very low temperatures and can be released into the gas phase by sublimation of the ices in star-forming regions. Our experimental results were obtained by employing reflectron time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, coupled with soft, single photon vacuum ultraviolet photoionization; they are complemented by theoretical calculations

An Approach to User Interface Design with Two Indigenous Groups in Namibia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rodil, Kasper; Winschiers-Theophilus, Heike; Stanley, Colin

2014-01-01

indigenous knowledge practices with digital object taxonomies. We present a method (picture card sorting) of discovering taxonomies that influence the users' interaction with a prototype system to preserve indigenous knowledge. Finally we describe the design implications, a new design approach based...... a user interface of a tablet based system aimed at preserving Indigenous Knowledge for rural Herero communities, we present findings from two sites in Namibia, complementing prior research. Participants who had little or no previous experience with technologies informed our endeavour of aligning local...

Using the Context of User Feedback in Recommender Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ladislav Peska

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Our work is generally focused on recommending for small or medium-sized e-commerce portals, where explicit feedback is absent and thus the usage of implicit feedback is necessary. Nonetheless, for some implicit feedback features, the presentation context may be of high importance. In this paper, we present a model of relevant contextual features affecting user feedback, propose methods leveraging those features, publish a dataset of real e-commerce users containing multiple user feedback indicators as well as its context and finally present results of purchase prediction and recommendation experiments. Off-line experiments with real users of a Czech travel agency website corroborated the importance of leveraging presentation context in both purchase prediction and recommendation tasks.

Typology of alcohol users based on longitudinal patterns of drinking.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrington, Magdalena; Velicer, Wayne F; Ramsey, Susan

2014-03-01

Worldwide, alcohol is the most commonly used psychoactive substance. However, heterogeneity among alcohol users has been widely recognized. This paper presents a typology of alcohol users based on an implementation of idiographic methodology to examine longitudinal daily and cyclic (weekly) patterns of alcohol use at the individual level. A secondary data analysis was performed on the pre-intervention data from a large randomized control trial. A time series analysis was performed at the individual level, and a dynamic cluster analysis was employed to identify homogenous longitudinal patterns of drinking behavior at the group level. The analysis employed 180 daily observations of alcohol use in a sample of 177 alcohol users. The first order autocorrelations ranged from -.76 to .72, and seventh order autocorrelations ranged from -.27 to .79. Eight distinct profiles of alcohol users were identified, each characterized by a unique configuration of first and seventh autoregressive terms and longitudinal trajectories of alcohol use. External validity of the profiles confirmed the theoretical relevance of different patterns of alcohol use. Significant differences among the eight subtypes were found on gender, marital status, frequency of drug use, lifetime alcohol dependence, family history of alcohol use and the Short Index of Problems. Our findings demonstrate that individuals can have very different temporal patterns of drinking behavior. The daily and cyclic patterns of alcohol use may be important for designing tailored interventions for problem drinkers. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Secure Three-Factor User Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for TMIS With User Anonymity.

Science.gov (United States)

Amin, Ruhul; Biswas, G P

2015-08-01

Telecare medical information system (TMIS) makes an efficient and convenient connection between patient(s)/user(s) and doctor(s) over the insecure internet. Therefore, data security, privacy and user authentication are enormously important for accessing important medical data over insecure communication. Recently, many user authentication protocols for TMIS have been proposed in the literature and it has been observed that most of the protocols cannot achieve complete security requirements. In this paper, we have scrutinized two (Mishra et al., Xu et al.) remote user authentication protocols using smart card and explained that both the protocols are suffering against several security weaknesses. We have then presented three-factor user authentication and key agreement protocol usable for TMIS, which fix the security pitfalls of the above mentioned schemes. The informal cryptanalysis makes certain that the proposed protocol provides well security protection on the relevant security attacks. Furthermore, the simulator AVISPA tool confirms that the protocol is secure against active and passive attacks including replay and man-in-the-middle attacks. The security functionalities and performance comparison analysis confirm that our protocol not only provide strong protection on security attacks, but it also achieves better complexities along with efficient login and password change phase as well as session key verification property.

User-Centered Agile Methods

CERN Document Server

Beyer, Hugh

2010-01-01

With the introduction and popularization of Agile methods of software development, existing relationships and working agreements between user experience groups and developers are being disrupted. Agile methods introduce new concepts: the Product Owner, the Customer (but not the user), short iterations, User Stories. Where do UX professionals fit in this new world? Agile methods also bring a new mindset -- no big design, no specifications, minimal planning -- which conflict with the needs of UX design. This lecture discusses the key elements of Agile for the UX community and describes strategie

Prognostic relevance of motor talent predictors in early adolescence: A group- and individual-based evaluation considering different levels of achievement in youth football.

Science.gov (United States)

Höner, Oliver; Votteler, Andreas

2016-12-01

In the debate about the usefulness of motor diagnostics in the talent identification process, the prognostic validity for tests conducted in early adolescence is of critical interest. Using a group- and individual-based statistical approach, this prospective cohort study evaluated a nationwide assessment of speed abilities and technical skills regarding its relevance for future achievement levels. The sample consisted of 22,843 U12-players belonging to the top 4% in German football. The U12-results in five tests served as predictors for players' selection levels in U16-U19 (youth national team, regional association, youth academy, not selected). Group-mean differences proved the prognostic relevance for all predictors. Low individual selection probabilities demonstrated limited predictive values, while excellent test results proved their particular prognostic relevance. Players scoring percentile ranks (PRs) ≥ 99 had a 12 times higher chance to become youth national team players than players scoring PR talents) but also led to lower sensitivity (loss of talents). Extending the current research, these different approaches revealed the ambiguity of the diagnostics' prognostic relevance, representing both the usefulness and several pitfalls of nationwide diagnostics. Therefore, the present diagnostics can support but not substitute for coaches' subjective decisions for talent identification, and multidisciplinary designs are required.

A Collaborative Location Based Travel Recommendation System through Enhanced Rating Prediction for the Group of Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Ravi, Logesh; Vairavasundaram, Subramaniyaswamy

2016-01-01

Rapid growth of web and its applications has created a colossal importance for recommender systems. Being applied in various domains, recommender systems were designed to generate suggestions such as items or services based on user interests. Basically, recommender systems experience many issues which reflects dwindled effectiveness. Integrating powerful data management techniques to recommender systems can address such issues and the recommendations quality can be increased significantly. Recent research on recommender systems reveals an idea of utilizing social network data to enhance traditional recommender system with better prediction and improved accuracy. This paper expresses views on social network data based recommender systems by considering usage of various recommendation algorithms, functionalities of systems, different types of interfaces, filtering techniques, and artificial intelligence techniques. After examining the depths of objectives, methodologies, and data sources of the existing models, the paper helps anyone interested in the development of travel recommendation systems and facilitates future research direction. We have also proposed a location recommendation system based on social pertinent trust walker (SPTW) and compared the results with the existing baseline random walk models. Later, we have enhanced the SPTW model for group of users recommendations. The results obtained from the experiments have been presented.

Photovoltaics information user study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marie, T.L.; Reinhardt, C.L.

1980-10-01

The results of a series of telephone interviews with groups of users of information on photovoltaics (PV) are described. These results, part of a larger study on many different solar technologies, identify types of information each group needed and the best ways to get information to each group. The report is 1 of 10 discussing study results. The overall study provides baseline data about information needs in the solar community. It covers these technological areas: photovoltaics, passive solar heating and cooling, active solar heating and cooling, biomass energy, solar thermal electric power, solar industrial and agricultural process heat, wind energy, ocean energy, and advanced energy storage. An earlier study identified the information user groups in the solar community and the priority (to accelerate solar energy commercialization) of getting information to each group. In the current study only high-priority groups were examined. Results from seven PV groups respondents are analyzed in this report: DOE-Funded Researchers, Non-DOE-Funded Researchers, Researchers Working for Manufacturers, Representatives of Other Manufacturers, Representatives of Utilities, Electric Power Engineers, and Educators.

A Prototype Graphical User Interface for Co-op: A Group Decision Support System.

Science.gov (United States)

1992-03-01

achieve their potential to communicate. Information-oriented, systematic graphic design is the use of typography , symbols, color, and other static and...apphcuittin by reducig Uber ellurt anid enhuncizig Iliteracti. ’Iliis thesis designs and de% elupht Itrututylle Graphical User Interface iGUl i fui Cu f...ORGANIZATION.... .. .. ............ II. INTERFACE DESIGN PRINCIPLES. .............. 7 A. GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES.............7 1. Design Principles

Facebook Groups as a Powerful and Dynamic Tool in Medical Education: Mixed-Method Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicolai, Leo; Schmidbauer, Moritz; Gradel, Maximilian; Ferch, Sabine; Antón, Sofía; Hoppe, Boj; Pander, Tanja; von der Borch, Philip; Pinilla, Severin; Fischer, Martin; Dimitriadis, Konstantinos

2017-12-22

Social networking sites, in particular Facebook, are not only predominant in students' social life but are to varying degrees interwoven with the medical curriculum. Particularly, Facebook groups have been identified for their potential in higher education. However, there is a paucity of data on user types, content, and dynamics of study-related Facebook groups. The aim of this study was to identify the role of study-related Facebook group use, characterize medical students that use or avoid using Facebook groups (demographics, participation pattern, and motivation), and analyze student posting behavior, covered topics, dynamics, and limitations in Facebook groups with regards to educational usage. Using a multi-method approach (interviews, focus groups, and qualitative and quantitative analysis of Facebook posts), we analyzed two representative Facebook groups of medical preclinical semesters at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich. Facebook primary posts and replies over one semester were extracted and evaluated by using thematic content analysis. We developed and applied a coding scheme for studying the frequency and distribution of these posts. Additionally, we interviewed students with various degrees of involvement in the groups, as well as "new minorities," students not registered on Facebook. Facebook groups seem to have evolved as the main tool for medical students at LMU to complement the curriculum and to discuss study-related content. These Facebook groups are self-organizing and quickly adapt to organizational or subject-related challenges posed by the curriculum. A wide range of topics is covered, with a dominance of organization-related posts (58.35% [6916/11,853] of overall posts). By measuring reply rates and comments per category, we were able to identify learning tips and strategies, material sharing, and course content discussions as the most relevant categories. Rates of adequate replies in these categories ranged between 78% (11/14) and

User prototypes as partly unconscious communication

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glasemann, Marie; Kanstrup, Anne Marie

2010-01-01

In this paper, we introduce user prototypes as a technique that supports users’ articulation of emotions relevant for design: dreams, fears, motivations – their feelings and aspirations. Following Bateson’s writings about communication through art, we consider user prototypes as “partly unconscious...... communication” and propose to analyze them by focusing on the emotional articulations integrated in the users’ design language. We illustrate this with an example from a design research project on designing learning technology for young diabetics. The example shows how young people with diabetes can express...... emotional themes related to youth identity, the burden of being young with a chronic illness, and the need to be connected and feel safe through design of prototypes. The new conceptual space that arises from user prototypes shows potential for addressing emotions when designing for health and for further...

User needs for climate change scenarios in Switzerland

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Andreas; Liniger, Mark; Flückiger Knutti, Jacqueline

2017-04-01

In the framework of the recently founded National Center for Climate Services (NCCS) new climate change scenarios for Switzerland are currently under development that will be released in 2018 ("CH2018 scenarios"). An important component herein is the consideration of user needs in order to ensure that the new scenarios are user tailored and hence find a wide applicability in different sectors in Switzerland. A comprehensive market research was conducted to get a better overview of who the users of climate scenarios are and what they need. The survey targeted the most climate relevant sectors, and involved representatives from administration, research and private companies across Switzerland. The survey comprised several qualitative group interviews with key stakeholders, a written questionaire, answered by more than one hundred users and two specific workshops gathering the needs in dissemination. Additionally, the survey results were consolidated at a national symposium with around 150 participants from research, administration and practice. The results of the survey show the necessity to classify the users of climate scenarios according to their level of usage and according to the different sectors. It turns out that the less intensive the usage of the climate scenarios is, the more important becomes the need of comprehensibility, clarity and support when disseminating new climate scenarios. According to the survey it is especially the non-experts that should be better addressed in the new cycle of national climate scenarios. In terms of content, the survey reveals strongest needs for quantitative information on changes in extremes, an aspect that was handled in a qualitative way only in the predecessor climate scenario suite CH2011. Another cross-sectoral need are physically consistent data in time, space and between several variables. For instance, in agriculture the combination of heat and dryness is an important aspect, while the same is true in the energy

The impact of an online Facebook support group for people with multiple sclerosis on non-active users.

Science.gov (United States)

Steadman, Jacqui; Pretorius, Chrisma

2014-01-01

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease and there is little research on support networks for people with MS (PwMS). More specifically, most studies on online support groups focus on those who actively participate in the group, whereas the majority of those who utilise online support groups do so in a passive way. This study therefore aimed to explore the experiences of non-active users of an online Facebook support group for PwMS. Emphasis was placed on the facilitators and the barriers that were associated with membership to this group. An exploratory qualitative research design was implemented, whereby thematic analysis was utilised to examine the ten semi-structured interviews that were conducted. Several facilitators were acquired through the online support group; namely emotional support (constant source of support, exposure to negative aspects of the disease), informational support (group as a source of knowledge, quality of information) and social companionship (place of belonging). Some barriers were also identified; namely emotional support (emotions lost online, response to messages, exposure to negative aspects of the disease), informational support (information posted on the group, misuse of group) and social companionship (non-active status). These findings demonstrate that the non-active members of the online support group for PwMS have valid reasons for their non-active membership status. More important, the findings suggest that the online Facebook support group provided the group members with an important support network in the form of emotional support, informational support and social companionship, despite their non-active membership status or the barriers that have been identified.

Barriers and facilitators to using NHS Direct: a qualitative study of 'users' and 'non-users'.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Erica J; Randhawa, Gurch; Large, Shirley; Guppy, Andy; Chater, Angel M; Ali, Nasreen

2014-10-25

NHS Direct, introduced in 1998, has provided 24/7 telephone-based healthcare advice and information to the public in England and Wales. National studies have suggested variation in the uptake of this service amongst the UK's diverse population. This study provides the first exploration of the barriers and facilitators that impact upon the uptake of this service from the perspectives of both 'users' and 'non- users'. Focus groups were held with NHS Direct 'users' (N = 2) from Bedfordshire alongside 'non-users' from Manchester (N = 3) and Mendip, Somerset (N = 4). Each focus group had between five to eight participants. A total of eighty one people aged between 21 and 94 years old (M: 58.90, SD: 22.70) took part in this research. Each focus group discussion lasted approximately 90 minutes and was audiotape-recorded with participants' permission. The recordings were transcribed verbatim. A framework approach was used to analyse the transcripts. The findings from this research uncovered a range of barriers and facilitators that impact upon the uptake of NHS Direct. 'Non-users' were unaware of the range of services that NHS Direct provided. Furthermore, 'non-users' highlighted a preference for face-to face communication, identifying a lack of confidence in discussing healthcare over the telephone. This was particularly evident among older people with cognitive difficulties. The cost to telephone a '0845' number from a mobile was also viewed to be a barrier to access NHS Direct, expressed more often by 'non-users' from deprived communities. NHS Direct 'users' identified that awareness, ease of use and convenience were facilitators which influenced their decision to use the service. An understanding of the barriers and facilitators which impact on the access and uptake of telephone-based healthcare is essential to move patients towards the self-care model. This research has highlighted the need for telephone-based healthcare services to increase public awareness; through

Using Focus Group Interviews to Analyze the Behavior of Users of New Types of Tobacco Products.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jinyoung; Lee, Sungkyu

2017-09-01

To characterize the usage patterns of new types of tobacco products (NTTPs) to develop effective strategies for the regulation of NTTPs in Korea. We conducted focus group interviews to identify the NTTP usage patterns of research subjects. The NTTPs were limited to electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), waterpipe tobacco, and rolling tobacco. We categorized 30 research subjects into 4 groups. The e-cigarette group was divided into adult and adolescent groups. Each group contained 7-8 subjects. An interview lasting approximately 2 hours was conducted with each group. Ninety percent of NTTP users used an NTTP in combination with conventional cigarettes. Subjects mostly bought NTTPs online, unlike how they bought cigarettes. Additionally, a great deal of information, such as how to use NTTPs and descriptions of NTTP products, was exchanged through online or offline societies. The primary reason why the subjects used NTTPs was that NTTPs offer a greater range of flavors and aromas than cigarettes. Moreover, NTTPs were felt to be less repulsive than cigarettes. NTTPs were not used as a cigarette substitute; rather, they were mostly used in places and situations where traditional cigarette smoking was not allowed. Based on the results of this study, the government should conduct studies on the effects of the combined use of NTTPs and cigarettes on the human body, obtain and provide accurate data regarding NTTP use, and develop and implement polices to ban NTTP advertising, which may arouse adolescents' curiosity, and the addition of flavoring substances to tobacco products.

Iterative Filtering of Retrieved Information to Increase Relevance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Zeidman

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Efforts have been underway for years to find more effective ways to retrieve information from large knowledge domains. This effort is now being driven particularly by the Internet and the vast amount of information that is available to unsophisticated users. In the early days of the Internet, some effort involved allowing users to enter Boolean equations of search terms into search engines, for example, rather than just a list of keywords. More recently, effort has focused on understanding a user's desires from past search histories in order to narrow searches. Also there has been much effort to improve the ranking of results based on some measure of relevancy. This paper discusses using iterative filtering of retrieved information to focus in on useful information. This work was done for finding source code correlation and the author extends his findings to Internet searching and e-commerce. The paper presents specific information about a particular filtering application and then generalizes it to other forms of information retrieval.

Waste treatability guidance program. User`s guide. Revision 0

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Toth, C.

1995-12-21

DOE sites across the country generate and manage radioactive, hazardous, mixed, and sanitary wastes. It is necessary for each site to find the technologies and associated capacities required to manage its waste. One role of DOE HQ Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management is to facilitate the integration of the site- specific plans into coherent national plans. DOE has developed a standard methodology for defining and categorizing waste streams into treatability groups based on characteristic parameters that influence waste management technology needs. This Waste Treatability Guidance Program automates the Guidance Document for the categorization of waste information into treatability groups; this application provides a consistent implementation of the methodology across the National TRU Program. This User`s Guide provides instructions on how to use the program, including installations instructions and program operation. This document satisfies the requirements of the Software Quality Assurance Plan.

The role of organizational strategy in the user-centered design of mobile applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eshet, Eyal; de Reuver, G.A.; Bouwman, W.A.G.A.

2017-01-01

Gathering insights on users and the contexts they use mobile applications is at the core of the user-centered design (UCD). Organizations find it strategically important to efficiently and effectively use these insights. With the proliferation of mobile applications, gaining timely and relevant

Wind energy systems information user study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marle, T.L.; Reinhardt, C.L.

1981-01-01

This report describes the results of a series of telephone interviews with potential users of information on wind energy conversion. These interviews, part of a larger study covering nine different solar technologies, attempted to identify: the type of information each distinctive group of information users needed, and the best way of getting information to that group. Groups studied include: wind energy conversion system researchers; wind energy conversion system manufacturer representatives; wind energy conversion system distributors; wind turbine engineers; utility representatives; educators; county agents and extension service agents; and wind turbine owners.

Materiality of misstatements from the perspective of the users of the financial statements - Narrowing the expectation gap between users and auditors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D. de Rooij (Doris)

2009-01-01

textabstractMisstatements or omissions in the financial statements are considered material if they could influence the economic decisions of users based on the financial statements. This research presents an empirical research, which provides evidence that a relevant expectation gap regarding

Assessement of user needs for climate change scenarios in Switzerland

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Andreas; Liniger, Mark; Flückiger-Knutti, Jacqueline

2016-04-01

There is a growing demand to assess and inform about future climate change and its impacts on society and ecosystems and to deduce appropriate adaptation strategies. The basis for such assessments are reliable and up-to-date climate change scenarios on the local to regional scale. In Switzerland, an important step has been accomplished by the release of the climate scenarios in 2011 ("CH2011"). New climate model simulations, an improved scientific understanding and new statistical downscaling tools make an update of these scenarios necessary. An important component toward the new national scenarios "CH2018" are the consideration of user needs in order to ensure that the new scenarios are user-tailored and hence find a wide applicability. The new CH2018 scenarios are developed in the framework of the recently founded National Center for Climate Services (NCCS). To get a better overview of who the users of climate scenarios are and what they need, a comprehensive market research was undertaken. The survey targeted the most climate-relevant sectors, and considered representatives from administration, research and private companies across Switzerland. The survey comprised several qualitative group interviews with key stakeholders, as well as a written questionaire, answered by more than one hundred users. Additionally, two workshops were organized to gather the needs in dissemination of climate scenarios. The results of the survey show the necessity to classify the user needs according to the level of usage: "intensive users" are mainly researchers who handle large climate scenario data for further use in subsequent impact studies; "extensive users" are usually from administrations or consulting companies and perform simple calculations for specific questions or use provided graphics and tables; "facilitators" are usually from media, NGOs or schools and process and disseminate scenario information for a specific target group. The less intensive the usage of climate

Thus Spake the OPAC User.

Science.gov (United States)

Markey, Karen

1983-01-01

Findings of focused-group interviews conducted for OCLC study of library users and online public access catalogs (OPACs) indicate users like OPACs, have problems finding right subject heading, envision features to improve subject access, want access to more than books, and want OPACs to provide new services. Eight references are listed. (EJS)

Gender moderates the impact of stereotype threat on cognitive function in cannabis users.

Science.gov (United States)

Looby, Alison; Earleywine, Mitch

2010-09-01

Research reveals mixed results for the effects of cannabis on cognitive functioning. These divergent results might stem from stereotype threat (ST), which occurs when individuals believe that a group to which they belong is inferior, resulting in poor test performance. Widespread media coverage of purported cannabis-related deficits in cognitive functioning may elicit ST among cannabis users, particularly among men, who may be more likely than women to identify with the cannabis-user stereotype. To investigate this hypothesis, cannabis users (30 male, 27 female) read a summary of research indicating either that cannabis produced deficits (ST condition), or that cannabis actually created no changes in cognitive functions. Participants then completed cognitive tests. Examination of the gender x condition interaction revealed significant results on 4 tests: the California Verbal Learning Test-II immediate recall task, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test for number of words generated and number of switches between clusters, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Task. Males exposed to ST performed worse on all tests compared to men not exposed to ST, while women exposed to ST performed better than women not exposed. These results suggest that cognitive deficits observed in male cannabis users may be attributed to ST rather than decreased functioning. Surprisingly, women in the ST condition scored higher than controls. Perhaps female users do not identify with the typical cannabis stereotype. This study highlights the importance of disconfirming relevant stereotypes prior to examination of the cognitive abilities of cannabis users. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Relevance of Learning Processes for IT Implementation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bondarouk, Tatiana; Sikkel, Nicolaas; Khosrow-Pour, M.

2007-01-01

The starting point of this paper is the belief that it is neither the quality of the technology, nor that of the individual users, but the interactions among people in groups of users concerning a new system that determines the success or failure of IT implementation. Aiming at conceptualization of

User illusion: ideological construction of ‘user-generated content’ in the EC consultation on copyright

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristofer Erickson

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Recent policy consultations by the UK Intellectual Property Office, the US Patent and Trademark Office and the European Commission (EC have highlighted the importance of user-generated content in debates to reform copyright. User-generated content (UGC – often combining existing copyright material with transformative creativity – remains a contested terrain, with no clear or widely accepted definition. This paper examines how various stakeholders in the 2014 EC consultation on copyright attempted to shape the definition of UGC in order to suit their interests, sometimes aligning or conflicting with other stakeholder groups. Data from 203 written responses by registered stakeholders (authors, platform intermediaries and users were subjected to a discourse analysis methodology. Key arguments and policy preferences from each stakeholder group are identified and discussed.

Exploring Programming Paradigms with IoT and Tiles for End-Users

OpenAIRE

Satcher, Daniel Alexander

2017-01-01

This work explores visual, textual, and physical programming paradigms in order to create software that allows non-technical users to create applications using a rule-based engine. This rule-based engine prototype, Tiles Recorder, has been implemented and tested with initial users. Future research will have the possibly of expanding the current prototype or continue testing to assess further relevance.

The underlying reasons for very high levels of bed net use, and higher malaria infection prevalence among bed net users than non-users in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Msellemu, Daniel; Shemdoe, Aloysia; Makungu, Christina; Mlacha, Yeromini; Kannady, Khadija; Dongus, Stefan; Killeen, Gerry F; Dillip, Angel

2017-10-23

Bed nets reduce malaria-related illness and deaths, by forming a protective barrier around people sleeping under them. When impregnated with long-lasting insecticide formulations they also repel or kill mosquitoes attempting to feed upon sleeping humans, and can even suppress entire populations of malaria vectors that feed predominantly upon humans. Nevertheless, an epidemiological study in 2012 demonstrated higher malaria prevalence among bed net users than non-users in urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Focus group discussions were conducted with women from four selected wards of Dar es Salaam city, focusing on four major themes relating to bed net use behaviours: (1) reasons for bed net use, (2) reasons for not using bed nets, (3) stimuli or reminders for people to use a bed net (4) perceived reasons for catching malaria while using a bed net. An analytical method by framework grouping of relevant themes was used address key issues of relevance to the study objectives. Codes were reviewed and grouped into categories and themes. All groups said the main reason for bed net use was protection against malaria. Houses with well-screened windows, with doors that shut properly, and that use insecticidal sprays against mosquitoes, were said not to use bed nets, while frequent attacks from malaria was the main stimulus for people to use bed nets. Various reasons were mentioned as potential reasons that compromise bed net efficacy, the most common of which were: (1) bed net sharing by two or more people, especially if one occupant tends to come to bed late at night, and does not tuck in the net 71%; (2) one person shares the bed but does not use the net, moving it away from the side on which s/he sleeps 68%; (3) ineffective usage habits, called ulalavi, in which a sprawling sleeper either touches the net while sleeping up against it or leaves a limb hanging outside of it 68%. Less common reasons mentioned included: (1) Small bed nets which become un-tucked at night (31%); (2

Improving Requirements Generation Thoroughness in User-Centered Workshops: The Role of Prompting and Shared User Stories

Science.gov (United States)

Read, Aaron

2013-01-01

The rise of stakeholder centered software development has led to organizations engaging users early in the development process to help define system requirements. To facilitate user involvement in the requirements elicitation process, companies can use Group Support Systems (GSS) to conduct requirements elicitation workshops. The effectiveness of…

A Collaborative Location Based Travel Recommendation System through Enhanced Rating Prediction for the Group of Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Logesh Ravi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Rapid growth of web and its applications has created a colossal importance for recommender systems. Being applied in various domains, recommender systems were designed to generate suggestions such as items or services based on user interests. Basically, recommender systems experience many issues which reflects dwindled effectiveness. Integrating powerful data management techniques to recommender systems can address such issues and the recommendations quality can be increased significantly. Recent research on recommender systems reveals an idea of utilizing social network data to enhance traditional recommender system with better prediction and improved accuracy. This paper expresses views on social network data based recommender systems by considering usage of various recommendation algorithms, functionalities of systems, different types of interfaces, filtering techniques, and artificial intelligence techniques. After examining the depths of objectives, methodologies, and data sources of the existing models, the paper helps anyone interested in the development of travel recommendation systems and facilitates future research direction. We have also proposed a location recommendation system based on social pertinent trust walker (SPTW and compared the results with the existing baseline random walk models. Later, we have enhanced the SPTW model for group of users recommendations. The results obtained from the experiments have been presented.

A Collaborative Location Based Travel Recommendation System through Enhanced Rating Prediction for the Group of Users

Science.gov (United States)

Ravi, Logesh; Vairavasundaram, Subramaniyaswamy

2016-01-01

Rapid growth of web and its applications has created a colossal importance for recommender systems. Being applied in various domains, recommender systems were designed to generate suggestions such as items or services based on user interests. Basically, recommender systems experience many issues which reflects dwindled effectiveness. Integrating powerful data management techniques to recommender systems can address such issues and the recommendations quality can be increased significantly. Recent research on recommender systems reveals an idea of utilizing social network data to enhance traditional recommender system with better prediction and improved accuracy. This paper expresses views on social network data based recommender systems by considering usage of various recommendation algorithms, functionalities of systems, different types of interfaces, filtering techniques, and artificial intelligence techniques. After examining the depths of objectives, methodologies, and data sources of the existing models, the paper helps anyone interested in the development of travel recommendation systems and facilitates future research direction. We have also proposed a location recommendation system based on social pertinent trust walker (SPTW) and compared the results with the existing baseline random walk models. Later, we have enhanced the SPTW model for group of users recommendations. The results obtained from the experiments have been presented. PMID:27069468

The online age and the agricultural user education

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yousif-Aballi, A F [Scientific Research Council, Baghdad (Iraq). Scientific Affairs Office

1990-05-01

Accelerated developments in the computer and telecommunication technologies have been well exploited in production and provision of information to meet needs of different groups of agricultural user population; however, in developing countries topmost computerized agricultural scientific and technical services available serve groups who by profession are scientists and academics. User education became of crucial importance for optimum utilization of information. General user educational requirement, particular user response and problems, information resources, services, and available facilities were taken into consideration in designing an information service training course for agricultural researchers, a detailed outline of the course is given in this paper as well as trainees and trainers evaluation. (author). 6 refs.

The online age and the agricultural user education

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yousif-Aballi, A.F.

1990-05-01

Accelerated developments in the computer and telecommunication technologies have been well exploited in production and provision of information to meet needs of different groups of agricultural user population; however, in developing countries topmost computerized agricultural scientific and technical services available serve groups who by profession are scientists and academics. User education became of crucial importance for optimum utilization of information. General user educational requirement, particular user response and problems, information resources, services, and available facilities were taken into consideration in designing an information service training course for agricultural researchers, a detailed outline of the course is given in this paper as well as trainees and trainers evaluation. (author). 6 refs

User interaction concept for plasma discharge control on WENDELSTEIN 7-X

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spring, Anett; Laqua, Heike; Niedermeyer, Helmut

2006-01-01

The requirements to the user interfaces arising from the concept of segmented discharges allowing short pulses and steady state operation and from the distributed hierarchical structure of the experiment are discussed. The modular design of the user interfaces is presented including specialised tools for preparation, manipulating, and monitoring the discharge operation. The user guidance and the mapping of complex control procedures onto a physically relevant view on the plasma discharge process will be vitally important. The feasibility of the user interaction concept could already be validated on a prototype installation and during commissioning of the first technical WENDELSTEIN 7-X (W7-X) components

Support for Quality Assurance in End-User Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Klepper, Robert; McKenna, Edward G.

1989-01-01

Suggests an approach that organizations can take to provide centralized support services for quality assurance in end-user information systems, based on the experiences of a support group at Citicorp Mortgage, Inc. The functions of the support group include user education, software selection, and assistance in testing, implementation, and support…

Using Focus Group Interviews to Analyze the Behavior of Users of New Types of Tobacco Products

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Objectives To characterize the usage patterns of new types of tobacco products (NTTPs) to develop effective strategies for the regulation of NTTPs in Korea. Methods We conducted focus group interviews to identify the NTTP usage patterns of research subjects. The NTTPs were limited to electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), waterpipe tobacco, and rolling tobacco. We categorized 30 research subjects into 4 groups. The e-cigarette group was divided into adult and adolescent groups. Each group contained 7-8 subjects. An interview lasting approximately 2 hours was conducted with each group. Results Ninety percent of NTTP users used an NTTP in combination with conventional cigarettes. Subjects mostly bought NTTPs online, unlike how they bought cigarettes. Additionally, a great deal of information, such as how to use NTTPs and descriptions of NTTP products, was exchanged through online or offline societies. The primary reason why the subjects used NTTPs was that NTTPs offer a greater range of flavors and aromas than cigarettes. Moreover, NTTPs were felt to be less repulsive than cigarettes. NTTPs were not used as a cigarette substitute; rather, they were mostly used in places and situations where traditional cigarette smoking was not allowed. Conclusions Based on the results of this study, the government should conduct studies on the effects of the combined use of NTTPs and cigarettes on the human body, obtain and provide accurate data regarding NTTP use, and develop and implement polices to ban NTTP advertising, which may arouse adolescents’ curiosity, and the addition of flavoring substances to tobacco products. PMID:29020756

Using Focus Group Interviews to Analyze the Behavior of Users of New Types of Tobacco Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinyoung Kim

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Objectives To characterize the usage patterns of new types of tobacco products (NTTPs to develop effective strategies for the regulation of NTTPs in Korea. Methods We conducted focus group interviews to identify the NTTP usage patterns of research subjects. The NTTPs were limited to electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes, waterpipe tobacco, and rolling tobacco. We categorized 30 research subjects into 4 groups. The e-cigarette group was divided into adult and adolescent groups. Each group contained 7-8 subjects. An interview lasting approximately 2 hours was conducted with each group. Results Ninety percent of NTTP users used an NTTP in combination with conventional cigarettes. Subjects mostly bought NTTPs online, unlike how they bought cigarettes. Additionally, a great deal of information, such as how to use NTTPs and descriptions of NTTP products, was exchanged through online or offline societies. The primary reason why the subjects used NTTPs was that NTTPs offer a greater range of flavors and aromas than cigarettes. Moreover, NTTPs were felt to be less repulsive than cigarettes. NTTPs were not used as a cigarette substitute; rather, they were mostly used in places and situations where traditional cigarette smoking was not allowed. Conclusions Based on the results of this study, the government should conduct studies on the effects of the combined use of NTTPs and cigarettes on the human body, obtain and provide accurate data regarding NTTP use, and develop and implement polices to ban NTTP advertising, which may arouse adolescents’ curiosity, and the addition of flavoring substances to tobacco products.

Managing user queries using cloud services: KAUST library experience

KAUST Repository

Ramli, Rindra M.; Ba-Rayyan, Faten A.

2017-01-01

The provision of reference and information services are one of the major activities for academic libraries. Answering questions and providing relevant and timely answers for library users are just one of such services. Questions come in many format

Substance Use and Depression Symptomatology: Measurement Invariance of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II among Non-Users and Frequent-Users of Alcohol, Nicotine and Cannabis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ashlee A Moore

Full Text Available Depression is a highly heterogeneous condition, and identifying how symptoms present in various groups may greatly increase our understanding of its etiology. Importantly, Major Depressive Disorder is strongly linked with Substance Use Disorders, which may ameliorate or exacerbate specific depression symptoms. It is therefore quite plausible that depression may present with different symptom profiles depending on an individual's substance use status. Given these observations, it is important to examine the underlying construct of depression in groups of substance users compared to non-users. In this study we use a non-clinical sample to examine the measurement structure of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II in non-users and frequent-users of various substances. Specifically, measurement invariance was examined across those who do vs. do not use alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis. Results indicate strict factorial invariance across non-users and frequent-users of alcohol and cannabis, and metric invariance across non-users and frequent-users of nicotine. This implies that the factor structure of the BDI-II is similar across all substance use groups.

Substance Use and Depression Symptomatology: Measurement Invariance of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) among Non-Users and Frequent-Users of Alcohol, Nicotine and Cannabis.

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Ashlee A; Neale, Michael C; Silberg, Judy L; Verhulst, Brad

2016-01-01

Depression is a highly heterogeneous condition, and identifying how symptoms present in various groups may greatly increase our understanding of its etiology. Importantly, Major Depressive Disorder is strongly linked with Substance Use Disorders, which may ameliorate or exacerbate specific depression symptoms. It is therefore quite plausible that depression may present with different symptom profiles depending on an individual's substance use status. Given these observations, it is important to examine the underlying construct of depression in groups of substance users compared to non-users. In this study we use a non-clinical sample to examine the measurement structure of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) in non-users and frequent-users of various substances. Specifically, measurement invariance was examined across those who do vs. do not use alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis. Results indicate strict factorial invariance across non-users and frequent-users of alcohol and cannabis, and metric invariance across non-users and frequent-users of nicotine. This implies that the factor structure of the BDI-II is similar across all substance use groups.

User-driven sampling strategies in image exploitation

Science.gov (United States)

Harvey, Neal; Porter, Reid

2013-12-01

Visual analytics and interactive machine learning both try to leverage the complementary strengths of humans and machines to solve complex data exploitation tasks. These fields overlap most significantly when training is involved: the visualization or machine learning tool improves over time by exploiting observations of the human-computer interaction. This paper focuses on one aspect of the human-computer interaction that we call user-driven sampling strategies. Unlike relevance feedback and active learning sampling strategies, where the computer selects which data to label at each iteration, we investigate situations where the user selects which data is to be labeled at each iteration. User-driven sampling strategies can emerge in many visual analytics applications but they have not been fully developed in machine learning. User-driven sampling strategies suggest new theoretical and practical research questions for both visualization science and machine learning. In this paper we identify and quantify the potential benefits of these strategies in a practical image analysis application. We find user-driven sampling strategies can sometimes provide significant performance gains by steering tools towards local minima that have lower error than tools trained with all of the data. In preliminary experiments we find these performance gains are particularly pronounced when the user is experienced with the tool and application domain.

How Firms Can Get Ideas from Users for Sustainable Business Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chanwoo Cho

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The importance of user information and user participation for seeking business opportunities has been widely acknowledged in a variety of industries. Therefore, this study aims to suggest a typology for user innovation models as a strategy for sustainable development and to investigate the characteristics of different types user innovation to encourage and support improved utilization of user innovation in firms. For this purpose, we began by collecting 435 relevant papers from the most-cited academic journals. Then, we developed a typology of user innovation models, which consist of four types including workshop-based, consortium-based, crowdsourcing-based and platform-based, and we investigated the characteristics of the suggested types in terms of applications and research trends. The analysis results reveal that each type has different characteristics and that there exist some research gaps in the user innovation field. Our results are expected to foster understanding of user innovation for guiding sustainable business development and provide useful information for both researchers and innovation mangers.

Exploring personalized searches using tag-based user profiles and resource profiles in folksonomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Yi; Li, Qing; Xie, Haoran; Min, Huaqin

2014-10-01

With the increase in resource-sharing websites such as YouTube and Flickr, many shared resources have arisen on the Web. Personalized searches have become more important and challenging since users demand higher retrieval quality. To achieve this goal, personalized searches need to take users' personalized profiles and information needs into consideration. Collaborative tagging (also known as folksonomy) systems allow users to annotate resources with their own tags, which provides a simple but powerful way for organizing, retrieving and sharing different types of social resources. In this article, we examine the limitations of previous tag-based personalized searches. To handle these limitations, we propose a new method to model user profiles and resource profiles in collaborative tagging systems. We use a normalized term frequency to indicate the preference degree of a user on a tag. A novel search method using such profiles of users and resources is proposed to facilitate the desired personalization in resource searches. In our framework, instead of the keyword matching or similarity measurement used in previous works, the relevance measurement between a resource and a user query (termed the query relevance) is treated as a fuzzy satisfaction problem of a user's query requirements. We implement a prototype system called the Folksonomy-based Multimedia Retrieval System (FMRS). Experiments using the FMRS data set and the MovieLens data set show that our proposed method outperforms baseline methods. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A user-oriented model for global enterprise portal design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Feng, X.; Ehrenhard, Michel Léon; Hicks, Jeff; Maathuis, Stephanus Johannes; Maathuis, S.J.; Hou, Y.

2010-01-01

Enterprise portals collect and synthesise information from various systems to deliver personalised and highly relevant information to users. Enterprise portals' design and applications are widely discussed in the literature; however, the implications of portal design in a global networked

Abnormal maximal finger tapping in abstinent cannabis users.

Science.gov (United States)

Flavel, Stanley C; White, Jason M; Todd, Gabrielle

2013-11-01

To investigate movement speed and rhythmicity in abstinent cannabis users, we hypothesized that abstinent cannabis users exhibit decreased maximal finger tapping frequency and increased variability of tapping compared with non-drug users. The study involved 10 healthy adult cannabis users and 10 age-matched and gender-matched controls with no history of illicit drug use. Subjects underwent a series of screening tests prior to participation. Subjects were then asked to tap a strain gauge as fast as possible with the index finger of their dominant hand (duration 5 s). The average intertap interval did not significantly differ between groups, but the coefficient of variation of the intertap interval was significantly greater in the cannabis group than in controls (p=0.011). The cannabis group also exhibited a slow tapping frequency at the beginning of the task. Rhythmicity of finger tapping is abnormal in individuals with a history of cannabis use. The abnormality appears to be long lasting and adds to the list of functional changes present in abstinent cannabis users. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Monitoring User-System Performance in Interactive Retrieval Tasks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boldareva, L.; de Vries, A.P.; Hiemstra, Djoerd

Monitoring user-system performance in interactive search is a challenging task. Traditional measures of retrieval evaluation, based on recall and precision, are not of any use in real time, for they require a priori knowledge of relevant documents. This paper shows how a Shannon entropy-based

User clustering in smartphone applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Schaefers, Klaus; Ribeiro, David

2012-01-01

In the context of mobile health applications usability is a crucial factor to achieve user acceptance. The successful user interface (UI) design requires a deep understanding of the needs and requirements of the targeted audience. This paper explores the application of the K-Means algorithm on smartphone usage data in order to offer Human Computer Interaction (HCI) specialists a better insight into their user group. Two different feature space representations are introduced and used to identify persona like stereotypes in a real world data set, which was obtained from a public available smartphone application.

Impaired Arterial Smooth Muscle Cell Vasodilatory Function In Methamphetamine Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ghaemeh Nabaei

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Methamphetamine use is a strong risk factor for stroke. This study was designed to evaluate arterial function and structure in methamphetamine users ultrasonographically. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 20 methamphetamine users and 21 controls, aged between 20 and 40years, were enrolled. Common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT marker of early atherogenesis, flow-mediated dilatation (FMD determinants of endothelium-dependent vasodilation, and nitroglycerine-mediated dilatation (NMD independent marker of vasodilation were measured in two groups. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding demographic and metabolic characteristics. The mean (±SD CCA-IMT in methamphetamine users was 0.58±0.09mm, versus 0.59±0.07mm in the controls (p=0.84. Likewise, FMD% was not significantly different between the two groups [7.6±6.1% in methamphetamine users vs. 8.2±5.1% in the controls; p=0.72], nor were peak flow and shear rate after hyperemia. However, NMD% was considerably decreased in the methamphetamine users [8.5±7.8% in methamphetamine users vs. 13.4±6.2% in controls; p=0.03]. Conclusion: According to our results, NMD is reduced among otherwise healthy methamphetamine users, which represents smooth muscle dysfunction in this group. This may contribute to the high risk of stroke among methamphetamine users.

Climate-relevant monitorings in Germany

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Metternich, P.

1993-01-01

This catalogue contains so-called meta-data; i.e. information on data. For each measuring programme or set of data, users find the address (postal address, telephone, fax-number) of the respective contact person at the beginning of the entry. The catalogue has three parts: Part A is a compilation of monitoring programmes using conventional methods adopted on the ground. Part B contains research programmes or sets of data from the field of remote sensing. In part C, data sets from time series of climate-relevant parameters are described. Section A was additionally structured according so the compartments of the climate system: Atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere. (orig./KW) [de

Development and usability testing of a web-based decision support for users and health professionals in psychiatric services.

Science.gov (United States)

Grim, Katarina; Rosenberg, David; Svedberg, Petra; Schön, Ulla-Karin

2017-09-01

Shared decision making (SMD) related to treatment and rehabilitation is considered a central component in recovery-oriented practice. Although decision aids are regarded as an essential component for successfully implementing SDM, these aids are often lacking within psychiatric services. The aim of this study was to use a participatory design to facilitate the development of a user-generated, web-based decision aid for individuals receiving psychiatric services. The results of this effort as well as the lessons learned during the development and usability processes are reported. The participatory design included 4 iterative cycles of development. Various qualitative methods for data collection were used with potential end users participating as informants in focus group and individual interviews and as usability and pilot testers. Interviewing and testing identified usability problems that then led to refinements and making the subsequent prototypes increasingly user-friendly and relevant. In each phase of the process, feedback from potential end-users provided guidance in developing the formation of the web-based decision aid that strengthens the position of users by integrating access to information regarding alternative supports, interactivity between staff and users, and user preferences as a continual focus in the tool. This web-based decision aid has the potential to strengthen service users' experience of self-efficacy and control as well as provide staff access to user knowledge and preferences. Studies employing participatory models focusing on usability have potential to significantly contribute to the development and implementation of tools that reflect user perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Detailed Report on the Behaviour of the User Entrepreneur as a Key 'System Changer' in Future Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Varga, Liz; Adams, Gemma; Verbong, Geert

This document synthesizes the outputs of work packages 1, 2, 5 and 6 relating to the behaviour of the user entrepreneur. It identifies the key roles of the user entrepreneur in user innovation which have an impact on system change and how these changes are relevant in future scenarios....

User-centred websites :Tthe (ir)relevance of age. Paper

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Loos, E.F.

2009-01-01

Do elderly people really navigate websites in a different way than younger people do? Or are the differences within this group (such as those due to gender, education, computer experience and cultural background) bigger then differences between younger and older people? This paper first discusses

Research on the nutrition and cognition of high-risk stroke groups in community and the relevant factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, N-N; Zeng, K-X; Wang, Y-L; Sheng, P-J; Tang, C-Z; Xiao, P; Liu, X-W

2017-12-01

To investigate the prevalence rate of nutritional risk in high-risk stroke groups in community, analyze its influencing factors, and analyze and compare the relationship between nutritional risk or malnutrition assessed by different nutritional evaluation methods and cognitive function, so as to provide the basis and guidance for clinical nutritional assessment and support. A cross-sectional survey was performed for 1196 cases in high-risk stroke groups in community from December 2015 to January 2017. At the same time, the nutritional status of patients was evaluated using the mini nutritional assessment (MNA) and MNA-short form (MNA-SF), and the cognitive status of patients was evaluated using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE). Moreover, the relevant influencing factors of nutritional risk and MMSE score were analyzed and compared. High-risk stroke groups in community suffered from a high risk of malnutrition. MNA-SF had a higher specificity and lower false positive rate than MNA. Nutritional risk occurred more easily in high-risk stroke groups in community with a history of diabetes mellitus, less physical exercise or light manual labor, daily use of multiple drugs, and higher age. Those with a higher nutritional risk were more prone to cognitive impairment. High-risk stroke groups in community, complicated with hyperhomocysteinemia, daily use of three or more kinds of prescription drugs, and a previous history of stroke, were accompanied by cognitive impairment easily. MNA-SF can be used for the nutritional screening of high-risk stroke groups in community. For the high-risk stroke groups in community, the rational nutritional diet should be publicized, blood sugar should be controlled in a scientific manner and physical exercise should be moderately increased.

Challenges in Cultivating EOSDIS User Survey Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Boquist, C. L.; Sofinowski, E. J.; Walter, S.

2011-12-01

Since 2004 NASA has surveyed users of its Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) to determine user satisfaction with its services. The surveys have been conducted by CFI Group under contract with the Federal Consulting Group, Executive Agent in government for the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The purpose of these annual surveys is to help EOSDIS and the data centers assess current status and improve future services. The survey questions include demographic and experiential questions in addition to the ACSI and EOSDIS specific rating questions. In addition to customer satisfaction, analysis of each year's results has provided insight into the survey process. Although specific questions have been added, modified, or deleted to reflect changes to the EOSDIS system and processes, the model rating questions have remained the same to ensure consistency for evaluating cross year trends. Working with the CFI Group, we have refined the invitation and questions to increase clarity and address the different ways diverse groups of users access services at EOSDIS data centers. We present challenges in preparing a single set of questions that go to users with backgrounds in many Earth science disciplines. These users may have contacted any of the 12 EOSDIS data centers for information or may have accessed data or data products from many kinds of aircraft and satellite instruments. We discuss lessons learned in preparing the invitation and survey questions and the steps taken to make the survey easier to complete and to encourage increased participation.

User profiles of internet addicts in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hinić Darko

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This work was a part of a broader empirical study of Internet users with excessive and dysfunctional Internet use symptoms. The aim of this particular article was to describe user profiles of Internet addicts in Serbia. The study recruited 100 subjects in total, 50 in both the clinical and control group. The clinical group included the Internet users who asked for professional help due to the symptoms of the excessive Internet use and fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for Internet behavior disorder proposed by the American Psychology Association. The results have shown that population with Internet addiction symptoms equally included both males and females, mostly adolescent and younger population, teenagers and university students, persons with higher income and users from economically more developed areas of Serbia. The user profile of this group is characterized by frequent logging on with intervals of several hours online at one time, mainly in the evening or at night, and also intensive negative reactions to any form of Internet access deprivation. By means of factor analysis, three dimensions of pathological use have been established: mixed type with particular need for up-to-date information, social interaction addiction and need for fun-seeking, namely pursuing hobbies online (cyberpornography, online games, music, art and so on.

Information for the user in design of intelligent systems

Science.gov (United States)

Malin, Jane T.; Schreckenghost, Debra L.

1993-01-01

Recommendations are made for improving intelligent system reliability and usability based on the use of information requirements in system development. Information requirements define the task-relevant messages exchanged between the intelligent system and the user by means of the user interface medium. Thus, these requirements affect the design of both the intelligent system and its user interface. Many difficulties that users have in interacting with intelligent systems are caused by information problems. These information problems result from the following: (1) not providing the right information to support domain tasks; and (2) not recognizing that using an intelligent system introduces new user supervisory tasks that require new types of information. These problems are especially prevalent in intelligent systems used for real-time space operations, where data problems and unexpected situations are common. Information problems can be solved by deriving information requirements from a description of user tasks. Using information requirements embeds human-computer interaction design into intelligent system prototyping, resulting in intelligent systems that are more robust and easier to use.

Public Libraries, Museums and User Participation - An outline of a research projeckt

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochumsen, Henrik; Rasmussen, Casper Hvenegaard

2013-01-01

The aim of this paper is to sketch a research project on user participation in public libraries and museums. For several years’ user participation, participatory culture and user driven innovation have been “buzzwords” in the ongoing development of cultural institutions in general and in museums...... of the research project. The case of Roskilde is particularly illustrative as it not only contains user participation, libraries and museums but also illustrate how the development of user participation actually blurs the borders of the two institutions. After a definition of the concept of user participation...... and a brief discussion of the institutional and political relevance of doing research into the field, we will pinpoint some challenges that both libraries and museums are facing so as to emphasize the importance of studying how the increasing focus on user development is expressed in both institutions...

Why is the center of evidence - based dermatology relevant to Indian dermatology ?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Williams Hywel

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Evidence-based dermatology is the application of high-quality evidence to the care of individual patients with skin diseases. The Centre of Evidence-Based Dermatology in the UK promotes activities in this field through its three interlinking cogs, composed of the international Cochrane Skin Group, the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Network (UKDCTN, and the UK national electronic library for skin disorders. The Cochrane Skin Group summarises what is already known about health care interventions by supporting systematic reviews of relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs. The UKDCTN then addresses the key research gaps identified in systematic reviews by coordinating and carrying out well-designed RCTs. The Skin Disorders specialist library then plays a key role in disseminating new knowledge from systematic reviews and RCTs to a community of clinical users. The electronic resources at the Centre of Evidence-Based Dermatology are all freely available to Indian Dermatologists who can use the resources in a way that could benefit their patients. Such new knoweldge only has value if it is shared and used.

Questionnaires for eliciting evaluation data from users of interactive question answering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kelly, Diane; Kantor, Paul B.; Morse, Emile; Scholtz, Jean; Sun, Y.

2009-01-01

Evaluating interactive question answering (QA) systems with real users can be challenging because traditional evaluation measures based on the relevance of items returned are difficult to employ since relevance judgments can be unstable in multi-user evaluations. The work reported in this paper evaluates, in distinguishing among a set of interactive QA systems, the effectiveness of three questionnaires: a Cognitive Workload Questionnaire (NASA TLX), and Task and System Questionnaires customized to a specific interactive QA application. These Questionnaires were evaluated with four systems, seven analysts, and eight scenarios during a 2-week workshop. Overall, results demonstrate that all three Questionnaires are effective at distinguishing among systems, with the Task Questionnaire being the most sensitive. Results also provide initial support for the validity and reliability of the Questionnaires.

Challenges with social media for user involvement

OpenAIRE

Ståhlbröst, Anna

2012-01-01

Integrating social media into the innovation process can offer great opportunities for organizations striving for user involvement. Due to the spread of social media in all types of user groups it is, today, possible to engage users all around the world in innovation activities simultaneously. But even if social media usage in innovation activities offers great opportunities, it can be challenging to know how to use it to engage users in these processes. In this paper, the purpose is to discu...

OASIS User Manual

CERN Document Server

Bojtar, L

2009-01-01

The OASIS system has been operational for years now. After a long development the project has reached a state where the number of features it provides exceeds largely what most of its users knows about. The author felt it was time to write a user manual explaining all the functionality of the viewer application. This document is a user manual, concentrating on the functionality of the viewer from the user’s point of view. There are already documents available on the project’s web site about the technical aspects at http://project-oasis.web.cern.ch/project-oasis/presentations.htm . There was an attempt to produce a tutorial on the viewer, but it didn’t get much further than the table of contents, that however is well thought. The structure of this user manual follows the same principle, the basic and most often used features are grouped together. Advanced or less often used features are described in a separate chapter. There is a second organizational principle, features belong to different levels: chann...

Issues in educating health professionals to meet the diverse needs of patients and other service users from ethnic minority groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Chevannes, Mel

2002-08-01

The main aim of the study was to undertake training needs analysis among a multi-professional group for the purpose of improving care for ethnic minority patients and other service users. Evidence from the literature identifies that some of the explanations advanced for the failure of health professionals to meet the needs of ethnic minorities include lack of understanding of cultural diversities, racism, racial stereotyping, lack of knowledge, exclusivity, and ethnocentrism. While these issues have been addressed in different countries, little work has been carried out to examine these from the perspective of health professionals caring for ethnic minorities. This study is therefore an attempt to find out what health professionals know about caring for patients and other service users from minority ethnic groups and their perception of training needs in this area of work. A pre- and post-training design phase structured the qualitative approach. A purposive sample of individuals working across five health service organizations located in a multi-racial city yielded a multi-professional group of participants. Views of 22 participants were obtained by semi-structured interviews at a pretraining phase. Training needs of health professionals drew on Walklin's (1992) six stages used to structure data collection, data analysis and delivery of training. The post-training phase used questionnaires to evaluate immediate learning that based on a 4-week period of reflection and applied to practice. The questionnaires were complemented by a facilitator-lead focus group. The majority of the participants confirmed that no attention was given in their initial education to the health care needs of minority ethnic groups. Instead, participants engaged in self-initiated learning to improve their knowledge and understanding. The issue of communication was viewed with dissatisfaction and seen as affecting the sufficiency of caring for these patients. All participants rated meeting

Demonstrating the use of web analytics and an online survey to understand user groups of a national network of river level data

Science.gov (United States)

Macleod, Christopher Kit; Braga, Joao; Arts, Koen; Ioris, Antonio; Han, Xiwu; Sripada, Yaji; van der Wal, Rene

2016-04-01

The number of local, national and international networks of online environmental sensors are rapidly increasing. Where environmental data are made available online for public consumption, there is a need to advance our understanding of the relationships between the supply of and the different demands for such information. Understanding how individuals and groups of users are using online information resources may provide valuable insights into their activities and decision making. As part of the 'dot.rural wikiRivers' project we investigated the potential of web analytics and an online survey to generate insights into the use of a national network of river level data from across Scotland. These sources of online information were collected alongside phone interviews with volunteers sampled from the online survey, and interviews with providers of online river level data; as part of a larger project that set out to help improve the communication of Scotland's online river data. Our web analytics analysis was based on over 100 online sensors which are maintained by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Through use of Google Analytics data accessed via the R Ganalytics package we assessed: if the quality of data provided by Google Analytics free service is good enough for research purposes; if we could demonstrate what sensors were being used, when and where; how the nature and pattern of sensor data may affect web traffic; and whether we can identify and profile these users based on information from traffic sources. Web analytics data consists of a series of quantitative metrics which capture and summarize various dimensions of the traffic to a certain web page or set of pages. Examples of commonly used metrics include the number of total visits to a site and the number of total page views. Our analyses of the traffic sources from 2009 to 2011 identified several different major user groups. To improve our understanding of how the use of this national

Pragmatic, consensus-based minimum standards and structured interview to guide the selection and development of cancer support group leaders: a protocol paper.

Science.gov (United States)

Pomery, Amanda; Schofield, Penelope; Xhilaga, Miranda; Gough, Karla

2017-06-30

Across the globe, peer support groups have emerged as a community-led approach to accessing support and connecting with others with cancer experiences. Little is known about qualities required to lead a peer support group or how to determine suitability for the role. Organisations providing assistance to cancer support groups and their leaders are currently operating independently, without a standard national framework or published guidelines. This protocol describes the methods that will be used to generate pragmatic consensus-based minimum standards and an accessible structured interview with user manual to guide the selection and development of cancer support group leaders. We will: (A) identify and collate peer-reviewed literature that describes qualities of support group leaders through a systematic review; (B) content analyse eligible documents for information relevant to requisite knowledge, skills and attributes of group leaders generally and specifically to cancer support groups; (C) use an online reactive Delphi method with an interdisciplinary panel of experts to produce a clear, suitable, relevant and appropriate structured interview comprising a set of agreed questions with behaviourally anchored rating scales; (D) produce a user manual to facilitate standard delivery of the structured interview; (E) pilot the structured interview to improve clinical utility; and (F) field test the structured interview to develop a rational scoring model and provide a summary of existing group leader qualities. The study is approved by the Department Human Ethics Advisory Group of The University of Melbourne. The study is based on voluntary participation and informed written consent, with participants able to withdraw at any time. The results will be disseminated at research conferences and peer review journals. Presentations and free access to the developed structured interview and user manual will be available to cancer agencies. © Article author(s) (or their

9th Annual CMMI Technology Conference and User Group-Tuesday

Science.gov (United States)

2009-11-19

ISO /IEC 27001 ISO /IEC 20000 DAILY RELEASE INTERATION Concept Deployment Close Out Close Out Planning Planning Design Develop Testing Analysis User...River Track 7 Wind Star 8:00 am - 9:45 am Session A 1A1 - Tutorial 9377 - CMMI®, ISO , Six Sigma and ANSI 748: Soulmates that Should to be...Session B 1B1 - Tutorial 9377 - CMMI®, ISO , Six Sigma and ANSI 748: Soulmates that Should to be Together – Quite Easily! Ms. Nishi

Connecting Mobile Users Through Mobile Social Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faisal Alkhateeb

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, social networks become popular with the emerging of web-based social networking services. Recently, several mobile services are developed to connect users to their favourite social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. However, these services depends upon the existing web-based social networks. In this paper, we present a mobile service for joining groups across communities. The originality of the work is that the framework of the service allows creating and joining social networks that are self-contained for mobile company servers. The service consists of several sub-services such as users invitation, group finding and others. Users, regardless of their disability, can use the service and its sub-services without the need to create their own accounts on social web sites and thus their own groups. We also propose a privacy control policy for mobile social networks.

the effect of current and relevant information sources on the use

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Admin

reported similar findings at Yaba College of. Technology, Lagos. However, in a ... values. In other words, current information sources resulted in the use of the library. Jam (1992) identified lack of relevant information sources to be one of the problems facing library users and has ... Bachelor's degree holders. That those with.

[A pilot study of differences in behavioral and linguistic characteristics between Sina suicide microblog users and Sina microblog users without suicide idea].

Science.gov (United States)

Guan, Li; Hao, Bibo; Liu, Tianli; Cheng, Qijin; Yip, Paul Siu Fai; Zhu, Tingshao

2015-05-01

To investigate how suicide microblog users in China "act" and "speak" differently from other microblog users without suicide idea. The suicide group consisted of 31 Chinese microblog users identified as suicide via online information provided by a Sina microblog user, and the control group consisted of 30 active microblog users without suicide idea screened by using suicide-related psychological scales. The differences in 10 microblog use behavioral characteristics and 88 linguistic characteristics between the suicide group and the control group were compared with normality test and rank sum test respectively. In the behavioral characteristics, the suicide group used hyperlinks and "@" less frequently than the control group [0.04 (0.04) vs. 0.06 (0.04), P=0.029; 0.60 (0.27) vs. 0.69 (0.18), P=0.028], and was more self-focused [0.47 (0.25) vs. 0.30 (0.10), P=0.010]. In the linguistic characteristics, the suicide group showed less frequency in using measure word, work related word and apostrophe than the control group (P<0.05), and showed more frequency in using pronoun, personal pronoun, third person singular, non-specific pronoun, word expressing social experience, word expressing anxiety, word expressing exclusion, sexual word, religious word, second person singular, human being related word, negative emotion related word, anger related word, sadness or death related word (P<0.05). Suicides seemed to interact less with others, showed more self-concern and more negative expressions, use more cognitively exclusive, death-related, religion-related words, and use less work-related words. The results of this study might be helpful for the research on suicide among netizen.

Passive solar energy information user study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marle, T.L.; Reinhardt, C.L.

1980-11-01

The results of a series of telephone interviews with groups of users of information on passive solar heating and cooling are described. These results, part of a larger study on many different solar technologies, identify types of information each group needed and the best ways to get information to each group. The overall study provides baseline data about information needs in the solar community. An earlier study identified the information user groups in the solar community and the priority (to accelerate solar energy commercialization) of getting information to each group. In the current study only high-priority groups were examined. Results from seven passive groups respondents are analyzed in this report: Federally Funded Researchers, Manufacturer Representatives, Architects, Builders, Educators, Cooperative Extension Service County Agents, and Homeowners. The data will be used as input to the determination of information products and services the Solar Energy Research Institute, the Solar Energy Information Data Bank Network, and the entire information outreach community should be preparing and disseminating.

User Driven Development of Software Tools for Open Data Discovery and Exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Schlobinski, Sascha; Keppel, Frank; Dihe, Pascal; Boot, Gerben; Falkenroth, Esa

2016-04-01

The use of open data in research faces challenges not restricted to inherent properties such as data quality, resolution of open data sets. Often Open data is catalogued insufficiently or fragmented. Software tools that support the effective discovery including the assessment of the data's appropriateness for research have shortcomings such as the lack of essential functionalities like support for data provenance. We believe that one of the reasons is the neglect of real end users requirements in the development process of aforementioned software tools. In the context of the FP7 Switch-On project we have pro-actively engaged the relevant user user community to collaboratively develop a means to publish, find and bind open data relevant for hydrologic research. Implementing key concepts of data discovery and exploration we have used state of the art web technologies to provide an interactive software tool that is easy to use yet powerful enough to satisfy the data discovery and access requirements of the hydrological research community.

Reflections on Lexicographical User Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sven Tarp

2011-10-01

Full Text Available

Abstract: The last decades have seen a growing interest in theoretical and practical problems related to lexicographical user research. Starting with a discussion of the concept of lexicographically relevant user needs, this contribution analyses, utilising the lexicographical function theory, various types of needs to be taken into account when doing this kind of research. It then discusses the positive and negative aspects of the various methods applied, i.e. questionnaires, interviews, observation, protocols, experiments, tests, and log files. With reference to both lexicographical and sociological literature, it raises a number of problems com-mon to most of the lexicographical user research conducted until now and recommends the application of scientific methods in future research. Finally, it proposes a number of alternative methods in order to obtain more knowledge about the real user needs.

Keywords: LEXICOGRAPHY, FUNCTION THEORY, DICTIONARY USAGE, USER NEEDS, USER TYPOLOGY, USER SITUATIONS, USER RESEARCH, RESEARCH METHODS, QUES-TIONNAIRES, INTERVIEWS, OBSERVATION, EXPERIMENTS, TESTS, LOG FILES

Opsomming: Gedagtes oor leksikografiese gebruikersnavorsing. Die laaste dekades het 'n groeiende belangstelling in teoretiese en praktiese probleme betreffende leksikogra-fiese gebruikersnavorsing gesien. Deur met 'n bespreking van die konsep van leksikografies ter-saaklike gebruikersbehoeftes te begin, ontleed hierdie bydrae, met gebruikmaking van die leksiko-grafiese funksieteorie, verskillende soorte behoeftes wat in aanmerking geneem moet word wan-neer hierdie soort navorsing gedoen word. Dit bespreek dan die positiewe en negatiewe aspekte van die verskillende metodes wat benut word, d.w.s. vraelyste, onderhoude, waarneming, proto-kolle, eksperimente, toetse, en loglêers. Met verwysing na sowel leksikografiese as sosiologiese literatuur, bring dit 'n aantal probleme ter sprake tipies van die meeste leksikografiese gebruikers

The power and the pain: Mammographic compression research from the service-users' perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robinson, Leslie; Hogg, Peter; Newton-Hughes, Ann

2013-01-01

Purpose: to explore the value service-users can add to our understanding of inter-practitioner compression variability in mammography. Imaging of the breast for the screening and detection of breast carcinoma is generally carried out by mammographic examination the technique for which includes compression of the breast. Evolving research calls into question compression practice in terms of practitioner consistency thus raising the possibility that strong compression may not be required. We were interested to know whether this was important to service-users and if such knowledge might influence their behaviour. Methods: and sample: A qualitative study involving 3 focus groups interviews (n = 4, 6 and 5). Participants were first asked to reflect on their own experiences of breast compression within the context of a breast screening examination, then interpret the results of the evolving research detailed above. We then explored whether these participants might behave differently during future mammography in light being appraised of these research findings. Results: A grounded approach was used to analyse the data into themes. The two overarching themes were i) Service-User Empowerment, which illustrates the difficulties participants believe women would encounter in exercising power in the breast screening mammographic examination; and ii) Service User Experience of Mammography, which unearthed unanticipated aspects of the examination, other than compression, that contribute to pain and discomfort and which therefore need investigation. Conclusion: Involving service-users more collaboratively in research can help investigators understand the impact of their work and highlight patient-relevant areas for further investigation

Users' requirements for IFMIF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noda, K.; Jitsukawa, S.; Ehrlich, K.; Moeslang, A.

1998-01-01

The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) is a high energy neutron irradiation facility which generates an intense neutron flux with D-Li stripping reactions for fusion materials testing. The role of IFMIF is (1) development of various fusion reactor materials, (2) determination of design-relevant engineering databases for the DEMO fusion reactor, (3) calibration and validation of data generated from fission reactor irradiations and the other simulation experiments, etc. The conceptual design activity (CDA) of IFMIF was initiated in February 1995 as an IEA collaborative activity to complete a reference conceptual design of IFMIF in December 1996. Users' requirements for the conceptual design of IFMIF were developed for materials to be tested, types of experiments, small specimen test technology and irradiation conditions. Furthermore, the neutron irradiation field characteristics (spectrum, flux/volume, etc.) of IFMIF were evaluated for the conceptual design parameters and were shown to meet the essential requirements of the users. (orig.)

ERP evidence suggests executive dysfunction in ecstasy polydrug users.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, C A; Fairclough, S H; Fisk, J E; Tames, F; Montgomery, C

2013-08-01

Deficits in executive functions such as access to semantic/long-term memory have been shown in ecstasy users in previous research. Equally, there have been many reports of equivocal findings in this area. The current study sought to further investigate behavioural and electro-physiological measures of this executive function in ecstasy users. Twenty ecstasy-polydrug users, 20 non-ecstasy-polydrug users and 20 drug-naïve controls were recruited. Participants completed background questionnaires about their drug use, sleep quality, fluid intelligence and mood state. Each individual also completed a semantic retrieval task whilst 64 channel Electroencephalography (EEG) measures were recorded. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed no between-group differences in behavioural performance on the task. Mixed ANOVA on event-related potential (ERP) components P2, N2 and P3 revealed significant between-group differences in the N2 component. Subsequent exploratory univariate ANOVAs on the N2 component revealed marginally significant between-group differences, generally showing greater negativity at occipito-parietal electrodes in ecstasy users compared to drug-naïve controls. Despite absence of behavioural differences, differences in N2 magnitude are evidence of abnormal executive functioning in ecstasy-polydrug users.

The Ethics of User Experience Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vistisen, Peter; Jensen, Thessa

Design has in recent years been an increasing area in focus when developing digital interactive systems and services (Kolko 2010). Given the specific nature of material involved in designing digital media as ‘the material without qualities’ (Lowgreen & Stolterman 2007), and namely its total lack...... that the chosen point-of-view corresponds with the users, and thus ensures that the designed user experience actually is preferable for the user (Schauer & Merholz 2009). However, there has been a lack of discussions surrounding the ethical dimension of creating and maintaining an empathic point......-centered design process. Exemplifying the differences and ethical implications for the designer in the interaction with the user through the design of interactive digital systems. Finally the article discusses the need to understand design as a development of empathy for a given user or group of users by giving...

The Ethics of User Experience Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vistisen, Peter; Jensen, Thessa

2013-01-01

Design has in recent years been an increasing area in focus when developing digital interactive systems and services (Kolko 2010). Given the specific nature of material involved in designing digital media as ‘the material without qualities’ (Lowgreen & Stolterman 2007), and namely its total lack...... that the chosen point-of-view corresponds with the users, and thus ensures that the designed user experience actually is preferable for the user (Schauer & Merholz 2009). However, there has been a lack of discussions surrounding the ethical dimension of creating and maintaining an empathic point......-centered design process. Exemplifying the differences and ethical implications for the designer in the interaction with the user through the design of interactive digital systems. Finally the article discusses the need to understand design as a development of empathy for a given user or group of users by giving...

Service user experiences of specialist mental health supported accommodation: A systematic review of qualitative studies and narrative synthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Krotofil, Joanna; McPherson, Peter; Killaspy, Helen

2018-04-02

Specialist supported accommodation services have become a key component of most community-based mental healthcare systems. While mental health policies highlight the importance of service user involvement in service development and care planning, there are no comprehensive literature reviews synthesising services users' perspectives on, or experiences of, supported accommodation services. This systematic review was undertaken to fill this gap. We searched electronic databases (January 2015, updated June 2017), conducted hand searches and used forward-backward snowballing to identify 13,678 papers. We inspected the full-text of 110 papers and included 50 of these in the final review. Data extraction and quality assessments were conducted. We used narrative synthesis to develop a conceptual model of service users' experiences that included structural, process, relational and contextual factors, such as the characteristics of the service, relationships with staff and other service users, the intensity and nature of support, the physical environment, and social and community integration. The review highlights the complex interplay of individual, service-level and community factors in shaping the lived experience of service users and their impact on personal identity and recovery. Our approach addressed some of the widely reported limitations of the quantitative research in this field, providing a conceptual model relevant to service user experiences across supported accommodation service types, population groups and countries. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Tag-Based Social Image Search: Toward Relevant and Diverse Results

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Kuiyuan; Wang, Meng; Hua, Xian-Sheng; Zhang, Hong-Jiang

Recent years have witnessed a great success of social media websites. Tag-based image search is an important approach to access the image content of interest on these websites. However, the existing ranking methods for tag-based image search frequently return results that are irrelevant or lack of diversity. This chapter presents a diverse relevance ranking scheme which simultaneously takes relevance and diversity into account by exploring the content of images and their associated tags. First, it estimates the relevance scores of images with respect to the query term based on both visual information of images and semantic information of associated tags. Then semantic similarities of social images are estimated based on their tags. Based on the relevance scores and the similarities, the ranking list is generated by a greedy ordering algorithm which optimizes Average Diverse Precision (ADP), a novel measure that is extended from the conventional Average Precision (AP). Comprehensive experiments and user studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

Value Relevance of Investment Properties: Evidence from the Brazilian Capital Market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ketlyn Alves Gonçalves

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the relevance to the capital market of the assets recognized as investment properties of companies listed on the BM&F BOVESPA, in the period from 2011 to 2014. The research conducted was based on the Ohlson model (1995 and panel analysis was carried out using linear regression with POLS and Fixed and Random Effects estimators. Two hypothesis were made: (i that Earning and Equity generate accounting information relevant to investors; and (2 that Earning, Equity and Investment Property generate accounting information relevant to investors, assuming that investment properties have incremental effect on the relevance of this information relative only to earning and to equity. Both hypotheses were rejected, so it is concluded that Investment Property assets are not of value relevance in the determination of share price and do not influence the decision making of users of accounting information. The study adds to the limited literature on the value relevance of Investment Property, permitting a better understanding of the impact of accounting disclosures used by companies on their market value.

A Privacy-Preserving Platform for User-Centric Quantitative Benchmarking

Science.gov (United States)

Herrmann, Dominik; Scheuer, Florian; Feustel, Philipp; Nowey, Thomas; Federrath, Hannes

We propose a centralised platform for quantitative benchmarking of key performance indicators (KPI) among mutually distrustful organisations. Our platform offers users the opportunity to request an ad-hoc benchmarking for a specific KPI within a peer group of their choice. Architecture and protocol are designed to provide anonymity to its users and to hide the sensitive KPI values from other clients and the central server. To this end, we integrate user-centric peer group formation, exchangeable secure multi-party computation protocols, short-lived ephemeral key pairs as pseudonyms, and attribute certificates. We show by empirical evaluation of a prototype that the performance is acceptable for reasonably sized peer groups.

A Group Recommender System for Tourist Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Inma; Sebastia, Laura; Onaindia, Eva; Guzman, Cesar

This paper introduces a method for giving recommendations of tourist activities to a group of users. This method makes recommendations based on the group tastes, their demographic classification and the places visited by the users in former trips. The group recommendation is computed from individual personal recommendations through the use of techniques such as aggregation, intersection or incremental intersection. This method is implemented as an extension of the e-Tourism tool, which is a user-adapted tourism and leisure application, whose main component is the Generalist Recommender System Kernel (GRSK), a domain-independent taxonomy-driven search engine that manages the group recommendation.

Incidence of tinnitus in mp3 player users.

Science.gov (United States)

Figueiredo, Ricardo Rodrigues; Azevedo, Andreia Aparecida de; Oliveira, Patrícia Mello de; Amorim, Sandro Pereira Vasconcellos; Rios, Artur Guedes; Baptista, Vanderlei

2011-06-01

Exposure to loud noise is one of the main causes of tinnitus. To analyze the incidence of tinnitus in mp3 player users and non-users. One hundred subjects aged from 15 to 30 years were enrolled, 54 of them were regular mp3 player users and 46 were not. Patients with continuous tinnitus for at least 6 months completed the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and were tested with high frequency audiometry and transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TAOE). A cross-sectional cohort study. The incidence of tinnitus in non-users was about 8 %; in mp3 player users it was about 28 %, a statistically significant difference. Hearing thresholds at 8 kHz were significantly higher in tinnitus patients that used mp3 portable players.TAOE were reduced at 2 kHz in the users group. No statistically significant difference was found in the THI scores between the two groups. Tinnitus was more frequent in teenagers and young adults who regularly listen to mp3 music in players. Moreover, the incidence of tinnitus among mp3 player users was associated with higher hearing thresholds at 8 kHz and lower TOAE at 2 kHz.

Comparison between users of a new methodology for heart sound auscultation.

Science.gov (United States)

Castro, Ana; Gomes, Pedro; Mattos, Sandra S; Coimbra, Miguel T

2016-08-01

Auscultation is a routine exam and the first line of screening in heart pathologies. The objective of this study was to assess if using a new data collection system, the DigiScope Collector, with a guided and automatic annotation of heart auscultation, different levels of expertise/experience users could collect similar digital auscultations. Data were collected within the Heart Caravan Initiative (Paraíba, Brasil). Patients were divided into two study groups: Group 1 evaluated by a third year medical student (User 1), and an experienced nurse (User 2); Group 2 evaluated by User 2 and an Information Technology professional (User 3). Patients were auscultated sequentially by the two users, according to the randomization. Features extracted from each data set included the length (HR) of the audio files, the number of repetitions per auscultation area, heart rate, first (S1) and second (S2) heart sound amplitudes, S2/S1, and aortic (A2) and pulmonary (P2) components of the second heart sound and relative amplitudes (P2/A2). Features extracted were compared between users using paired-sample test Wilcoxon test, and Spearman correlations (Pauscultation (User 2 consistently presented longer auscultation time). Correlation analysis showed significant correlations between extracted features from both groups: S2/S1 in Group 1, and S1, S2, A2, P2, P2/A2 amplitudes, and HR in Group 2. Using the DigiScope Collector, we were able to collect similar digital auscultations, according to the features evaluated. This may indicate that in sites with limited access to specialized clinical care, auscultation files may be acquired and used in telemedicine for an expert evaluation.

Auditory verbal learning in drug-free Ecstasy polydrug users.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, H. C.; Toplis, A. S.; Turner, J. J. D.; Parrott, A. C.

2001-12-01

Drug-free Ecstasy polydrug users have shown impairment on tasks of verbal working memory and memory span. Current research aims to investigate how these deficits may affect the learning of verbal material by administration of the Auditory Verbal Learning Task (AVLT) (Rey, 1964). The task provides a learning curve by assessing immediate memory span over multiple trials. Learning strategies are further analysed by tendencies to confabulate as well as demonstrate either proactive or retroactive interference elicited by a novel 'distractor' list. Three groups completed the task: two groups of 14 Ecstasy users (short- and long-term) and one group of 14 polydrug controls. Compared with controls both Ecstasy groups recalled significantly fewer words and made more confabulation errors on the initial three recall trials as well as a delayed recall trial. Long-term users demonstrated increased confabulation on the initial trials and the novel 'distractor7' trial, compared with short-term users. Only following repeated presentations were both short- and long-term users shown to perform at control levels. As such, deficits in verbal learning may be more related to storage and/or retrieval problems than problems associated with capacity per se. No interference errors were demonstrated by either of the Ecstasy groups. However, a high level of intrusion errors may indicate selective working memory problems associated with longer-term use of the drug. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Important wheelchair skills for new manual wheelchair users: health care professional and wheelchair user perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Kerri A; Engsberg, Jack R; Gray, David B

2017-01-01

The purpose of this project was to identify wheelchair skills currently being taught to new manual wheelchair users, identify areas of importance for manual wheelchair skills' training during initial rehabilitation, identify similarities and differences between the perspectives of health care professionals and manual wheelchair users and use the ICF to organize themes related to rehabilitation and learning how to use a manual wheelchair. Focus groups were conducted with health care professionals and experienced manual wheelchair users. ICF codes were used to identify focus group themes. The Activities and Participation codes were more frequently used than Structure, Function and Environment codes. Wheelchair skills identified as important for new manual wheelchair users included propulsion techniques, transfers in an out of the wheelchair, providing maintenance to the wheelchair and navigating barriers such as curbs, ramps and rough terrain. Health care professionals and manual wheelchair users identified the need to incorporate the environment (home and community) into the wheelchair training program. Identifying essential components for training the proper propulsion mechanics and wheelchair skills in new manual wheelchair users is an important step in preventing future health and participation restrictions. Implications for Rehabilitation Wheelchair skills are being addressed frequently during rehabilitation at the activity-dependent level. Propulsion techniques, transfers in an out of the wheelchair, providing maintenance to the wheelchair and navigating barriers such as curbs, ramps and rough terrain are important skills to address during wheelchair training. Environment factors (in the home and community) are important to incorporate into wheelchair training to maximize safe and multiple-environmental-setting uses of manual wheelchairs. The ICF has application to understanding manual wheelchair rehabilitation for wheelchair users and therapists for improving

Gas priority users consultation : government response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

This consultation document presents the results of an updated analysis of gas priority users comments on the UK government's proposals for updating the current priority lists, amending the eligibility criteria for priority user status, and simplifying the administration of the scheme. The extension of Category C priority users to include sites where interruption of gas supplies would lead to damage exceeding fifty million pounds to a plant at another site is discussed. It is acknowledged that there is a preference for a reduction of gas demand as opposed to a cessation in the case of an emergency gas supply deficit and details are given of a Task Group set up to examine options for reducing demand rather than cessation for large industrial gas users. The role of the Network Emergency Co-ordinator, support for a more flexible approach, pre-agreed rota interruption, a long-duration emergency, demand reduction, and the establishment of a Government/Industry Gas/Electricity Task Group are discussed, and the raising of the load shedding threshold of 25,000 therms/yr is considered

Understanding user intents in online health forums.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Thomas; Cho, Jason H D; Zhai, Chengxiang

2015-07-01

Online health forums provide a convenient way for patients to obtain medical information and connect with physicians and peers outside of clinical settings. However, large quantities of unstructured and diversified content generated on these forums make it difficult for users to digest and extract useful information. Understanding user intents would enable forums to find and recommend relevant information to users by filtering out threads that do not match particular intents. In this paper, we derive a taxonomy of intents to capture user information needs in online health forums and propose novel pattern-based features for use with a multiclass support vector machine (SVM) classifier to classify original thread posts according to their underlying intents. Since no dataset existed for this task, we employ three annotators to manually label a dataset of 1192 HealthBoards posts spanning four forum topics. Experimental results show that a SVM using pattern-based features is highly capable of identifying user intents in forum posts, reaching a maximum precision of 75%, and that a SVM-based hierarchical classifier using both pattern and word features outperforms its SVM counterpart that uses only word features. Furthermore, comparable classification performance can be achieved by training and testing on posts from different forum topics.

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Benefits of a Multimedia Educational Program for First-Time Hearing Aid Users

Science.gov (United States)

Brandreth, Marian; Brassington, William; Leighton, Paul; Wharrad, Heather

2016-01-01

Objectives: The aims of this study were to (1) develop a series of short interactive videos (or reusable learning objects [RLOs]) covering a broad range of practical and psychosocial issues relevant to the auditory rehabilitation for first-time hearing aid users; (2) establish the accessibility, take-up, acceptability and adherence of the RLOs; and (3) assess the benefits and cost-effectiveness of the RLOs. Design: The study was a single-center, prospective, randomized controlled trial with two arms. The intervention group (RLO+, n = 103) received the RLOs plus standard clinical service including hearing aid(s) and counseling, and the waitlist control group (RLO−, n = 100) received standard clinical service only. The effectiveness of the RLOs was assessed 6-weeks posthearing aid fitting. Seven RLOs (total duration 1 hr) were developed using a participatory, community of practice approach involving hearing aid users and audiologists. RLOs included video clips, illustrations, animations, photos, sounds and testimonials, and all were subtitled. RLOs were delivered through DVD for TV (50.6%) and PC (15.2%), or via the internet (32.9%). Results: RLO take-up was 78%. Adherence overall was at least 67%, and 97% in those who attended the 6-week follow-up. Half the participants watched the RLOs two or more times, suggesting self-management of their hearing loss, hearing aids, and communication. The RLOs were rated as highly useful and the majority of participants agreed the RLOs were enjoyable, improved their confidence and were preferable to written information. Postfitting, there was no significant between-group difference in the primary outcome measure, overall hearing aid use. However, there was significantly greater hearing aid use in the RLO+ group for suboptimal users. Furthermore, the RLO+ group had significantly better knowledge of practical and psychosocial issues, and significantly better practical hearing aid skills than the RLO− group. Conclusions: The RLOs

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Benefits of a Multimedia Educational Program for First-Time Hearing Aid Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferguson, Melanie; Brandreth, Marian; Brassington, William; Leighton, Paul; Wharrad, Heather

2016-01-01

The aims of this study were to (1) develop a series of short interactive videos (or reusable learning objects [RLOs]) covering a broad range of practical and psychosocial issues relevant to the auditory rehabilitation for first-time hearing aid users; (2) establish the accessibility, take-up, acceptability and adherence of the RLOs; and (3) assess the benefits and cost-effectiveness of the RLOs. The study was a single-center, prospective, randomized controlled trial with two arms. The intervention group (RLO+, n = 103) received the RLOs plus standard clinical service including hearing aid(s) and counseling, and the waitlist control group (RLO-, n = 100) received standard clinical service only. The effectiveness of the RLOs was assessed 6-weeks posthearing aid fitting. Seven RLOs (total duration 1 hr) were developed using a participatory, community of practice approach involving hearing aid users and audiologists. RLOs included video clips, illustrations, animations, photos, sounds and testimonials, and all were subtitled. RLOs were delivered through DVD for TV (50.6%) and PC (15.2%), or via the internet (32.9%). RLO take-up was 78%. Adherence overall was at least 67%, and 97% in those who attended the 6-week follow-up. Half the participants watched the RLOs two or more times, suggesting self-management of their hearing loss, hearing aids, and communication. The RLOs were rated as highly useful and the majority of participants agreed the RLOs were enjoyable, improved their confidence and were preferable to written information. Postfitting, there was no significant between-group difference in the primary outcome measure, overall hearing aid use. However, there was significantly greater hearing aid use in the RLO+ group for suboptimal users. Furthermore, the RLO+ group had significantly better knowledge of practical and psychosocial issues, and significantly better practical hearing aid skills than the RLO- group. The RLOs were shown to be beneficial to first

Graphical user interface concepts for tactical augmented reality

Science.gov (United States)

Argenta, Chris; Murphy, Anne; Hinton, Jeremy; Cook, James; Sherrill, Todd; Snarski, Steve

2010-04-01

Applied Research Associates and BAE Systems are working together to develop a wearable augmented reality system under the DARPA ULTRA-Vis program†. Our approach to achieve the objectives of ULTRAVis, called iLeader, incorporates a full color 40° field of view (FOV) see-thru holographic waveguide integrated with sensors for full position and head tracking to provide an unobtrusive information system for operational maneuvers. iLeader will enable warfighters to mark-up the 3D battle-space with symbologic identification of graphical control measures, friendly force positions and enemy/target locations. Our augmented reality display provides dynamic real-time painting of symbols on real objects, a pose-sensitive 360° representation of relevant object positions, and visual feedback for a variety of system activities. The iLeader user interface and situational awareness graphical representations are highly intuitive, nondisruptive, and always tactically relevant. We used best human-factors practices, system engineering expertise, and cognitive task analysis to design effective strategies for presenting real-time situational awareness to the military user without distorting their natural senses and perception. We present requirements identified for presenting information within a see-through display in combat environments, challenges in designing suitable visualization capabilities, and solutions that enable us to bring real-time iconic command and control to the tactical user community.

Report to users of ATLAS, January 1998

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmad, I.; Hofman, D.

1998-01-01

This report is aimed at informing users about the operating schedule, user policies, and recent changes in research capabilities. It covers the following subjects: (1) status of the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) accelerator; (2) the move of Gammasphere from LBNL to ANL; (3) commissioning of the CPT mass spectrometer at ATLAS; (4) highlights of recent research at ATLAS; (5) Program Advisory Committee; and (6) ATLAS User Group Executive Committee

Usability Operations on Touch Mobile Devices for Users with Autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Quezada, Angeles; Juárez-Ramírez, Reyes; Jiménez, Samantha; Noriega, Alan Ramírez; Inzunza, Sergio; Garza, Arnulfo Alanis

2017-10-14

The Autistic Spectrum Disorder is a cognitive disorder that affects the cognitive and motor skills; due that, users cannot perform digital and fine motor tasks. It is necessary to create software applications that adapt to the abilities of these users. In recent years has been an increase in the research of the use of technology to support autistic users to develop their communication skills and to improve learning. However, the applications' usability for disable users is not assessed objectively as the existing models do not consider interaction operators for disable users. This article focuses on identifying the operations that can easily be performed by autistic users following the metrics of KML-GOMS, TLM and FLM. In addition, users of typical development were included in order to do a comparison between both types of users. The experiment was carried out using four applications designed for autistic users. Participants were subjects divided in two groups: level 1 and level 2 autistic users, and a group of users of typical development. During the experimentation, users performed a use case for each application; the time needed to perform each task was measured. Results show that the easiest operations for autistic users are K (Keystroke), D (Drag), Initial Act (I) and Tapping (T).

User-generated online health content: a survey of Internet users in the United Kingdom.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neill, Braden; Ziebland, Sue; Valderas, Jose; Lupiáñez-Villanueva, Francisco

2014-04-30

The production of health information has begun to shift from commercial organizations to health care users themselves. People increasingly go online to share their own health and illness experiences and to access information others have posted, but this behavior has not been investigated at a population level in the United Kingdom. This study aims to explore access and production of user-generated health content among UK Internet users and to investigate relationships between frequency of use and other variables. We undertook an online survey of 1000 UK Internet users. Descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses were used to interpret the data. Nearly one-quarter of respondents (23.7%, 237/1000) reported accessing and sharing user-generated health content online, whereas more than 20% (22.2%, 222/1000) were unaware that it was possible to do this. Respondents could be divided into 3 groups based on frequency of use: rare users (78.7%, 612/778) who accessed and shared content less than weekly, users (13.9%, 108/778) who did so weekly, and superusers (7.5%, 58/778) who did so on a daily basis. Superusers were more likely to be male (Puser-generated online health content, only a minority of respondents reported doing so frequently. As this type of content proliferates, superusers are likely to shape the health information that others access. Further research should assess the effect of user-generated online content on health outcomes and use of health services by Internet users.

Natural brain-information interfaces: Recommending information by relevance inferred from human brain signals

Science.gov (United States)

Eugster, Manuel J. A.; Ruotsalo, Tuukka; Spapé, Michiel M.; Barral, Oswald; Ravaja, Niklas; Jacucci, Giulio; Kaski, Samuel

2016-01-01

Finding relevant information from large document collections such as the World Wide Web is a common task in our daily lives. Estimation of a user’s interest or search intention is necessary to recommend and retrieve relevant information from these collections. We introduce a brain-information interface used for recommending information by relevance inferred directly from brain signals. In experiments, participants were asked to read Wikipedia documents about a selection of topics while their EEG was recorded. Based on the prediction of word relevance, the individual’s search intent was modeled and successfully used for retrieving new relevant documents from the whole English Wikipedia corpus. The results show that the users’ interests toward digital content can be modeled from the brain signals evoked by reading. The introduced brain-relevance paradigm enables the recommendation of information without any explicit user interaction and may be applied across diverse information-intensive applications. PMID:27929077

The Impact of User Comments on Consumer Brand Attitude : An Empirical Study of Different Facebook User Groups

OpenAIRE

Weerd, Jana; Gebhardt, Anne

2016-01-01

Social Media has become an increasingly important part of people’s everyday life. With the rise of social networks, brands have discovered ways to use this phenomenon to their advantage. Providing a novel two-way communication between a brand and consumers, Social Media networks are a tremendously powerful tool to build strong and sustainable consumer-brand relationships. With Firm Generated Content (FGC) and User Generated Content (UGC) alike the interaction between these two entities is str...

Social media in communicating health information: an analysis of Facebook groups related to hypertension.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Mamun, Mohammad; Ibrahim, Hamza M; Turin, Tanvir Chowdhury

2015-01-29

We studied Facebook groups related to hypertension to characterize their objectives, subject matter, member sizes, geographical boundaries, level of activity, and user-generated content. We performed a systematic search among open Facebook groups using the keywords "hypertension," "high blood pressure," "raised blood pressure," and "blood pressure." We extracted relevant data from each group's content and developed a coding and categorizing scheme for the whole data set. Stepwise logistic regression was used to explore factors independently associated with each group's level of activity. We found 187 hypertension-related Facebook groups containing 8,966 members. The main objective of most (59.9%) Facebook groups was to create hypertension awareness, and 11.2% were created primarily to support patients and caregivers. Among the top-displayed, most recent posts (n = 164), 21.3% were focused on product or service promotion, whereas one-fifth of posts were related to hypertension-awareness information. Each Facebook group's level of activity was independently associated with group size (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.03), presence of "likes" on the most recent wall post (AOR, 3.55, 95% CI, 1.41-8.92), and presence of attached files on the group wall (AOR, 5.01, 95% CI, 1.25-20.1). The primary objective of most of the hypertension-related Facebook groups observed in this study was awareness creation. Compared with the whole Facebook community, the total number of hypertension-related Facebook groups and their users was small and the groups were less active.

Study of some physiological parameters among mobile phone users

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anwar, S.M.; Gabr, S.A.

2002-01-01

Forty male mobile users in additional to twenty males as control group similar in age and socio economically matched were chosen for this study. Blood pressure, complete blood picture, five parameters of semen quality and four sex hormones (LH, FSH, prolactin and testosterone)were measured. Elevated significant differences for blood pressure (P<0.01) for the exposed group and some changes in mean values of haematologic parameters, although all values were within the normal range. Minor semen quality and hormonal levels changes between the two groups, including a higher mean follicle-stimulating hormone level; for mobile users (8.10 vs 6.00 mIU/mL), and a slightly higher mean luteinizing hormone level (11.73 vs 10.16 mLU/mL) were noted in the user group

The effect of heterogeneous dynamics of online users on information filtering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Bo-Lun; Zeng, An; Chen, Ling

2015-01-01

The rapid expansion of the Internet requires effective information filtering techniques to extract the most essential and relevant information for online users. Many recommendation algorithms have been proposed to predict the future items that a given user might be interested in. However, there is an important issue that has always been ignored so far in related works, namely the heterogeneous dynamics of online users. The interest of active users changes more often than that of less active users, which asks for different update frequency of their recommendation lists. In this paper, we develop a framework to study the effect of heterogeneous dynamics of users on the recommendation performance. We find that the personalized application of recommendation algorithms results in remarkable improvement in the recommendation accuracy and diversity. Our findings may help online retailers make better use of the existing recommendation methods. - Highlights: • We study the effect of heterogeneous dynamics of users on recommendation. • Due to the user heterogeneity, their amount of links in the probe set is different. • The personalized algorithm implementation improves the recommendation performance. • Our results suggest different update frequency for users – recommendation list.

The effect of heterogeneous dynamics of online users on information filtering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Bo-Lun [Department of Computer Science, Yangzhou University of China, Yangzhou 225127 (China); Department of Computer Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics of China, Nanjing 210016 (China); Department of Physics, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musee 3, CH-1700 Fribourg (Switzerland); Zeng, An, E-mail: anzeng@bnu.edu.cn [School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China); Chen, Ling [Department of Computer Science, Yangzhou University of China, Yangzhou 225127 (China); Department of Computer Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics of China, Nanjing 210016 (China)

2015-11-06

The rapid expansion of the Internet requires effective information filtering techniques to extract the most essential and relevant information for online users. Many recommendation algorithms have been proposed to predict the future items that a given user might be interested in. However, there is an important issue that has always been ignored so far in related works, namely the heterogeneous dynamics of online users. The interest of active users changes more often than that of less active users, which asks for different update frequency of their recommendation lists. In this paper, we develop a framework to study the effect of heterogeneous dynamics of users on the recommendation performance. We find that the personalized application of recommendation algorithms results in remarkable improvement in the recommendation accuracy and diversity. Our findings may help online retailers make better use of the existing recommendation methods. - Highlights: • We study the effect of heterogeneous dynamics of users on recommendation. • Due to the user heterogeneity, their amount of links in the probe set is different. • The personalized algorithm implementation improves the recommendation performance. • Our results suggest different update frequency for users – recommendation list.

User rights management of the CSNS control system client

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Zhuoyu; Liu Minqian; Chu Yuanping; Zhuang Jian; Hu Lei; Jin Dapeng

2012-01-01

The China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) will become the first pulsed spallation neutron source owned by China, CSS (Control System Studio), used as the the target station and spectrometer control system client, is mainly responsible for equipment controlling and parameter monitoring. In order to ensure the safety of the control system, the advanced GUI and important operating parameters must be restricted to ordinary users, only senior experts have the rights to view and modify them, so we must divide CSS users into different groups and give different rights to different groups. Based on user roles, CSS can implicit workbench contents and widgets, to ensure that users can seamlessly log into different clients. This article mainly talk about the JAAS authentication and authorization services in CSS, and deploy user information and master-slave synchronization information on the LDAP server, and use the Eclipse activity extension points to accomplish GUI explicit-implicit control according to the logged in user. (authors)

Proactive Support of Internet Browsing when Searching for Relevant Health Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Rurik, Clas; Zowalla, Richard; Wiesner, Martin; Pfeifer, Daniel

2015-01-01

Many people use the Internet as one of the primary sources of health information. This is due to the high volume and easy access of freely available information regarding diseases, diagnoses and treatments. However, users may find it difficult to retrieve information which is easily understandable and does not require a deep medical background. In this paper, we present a new kind of Web browser add-on, in order to proactively support users when searching for relevant health information. Our add-on not only visualizes the understandability of displayed medical text but also provides further recommendations of Web pages which hold similar content but are potentially easier to comprehend.

User-driven Innovation in a Supply and Value Network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cankaya, Alev; Lassen, Astrid Heidemann; Wandahl, Søren

This article serves to conduct a systematic literary review upon the subject of user driven innovation in a supply and value network. The methodology behind the review is strict, organised, and controlled by peers in order to ensure that most of the relevant theory behind the subject is covered...

A social network perspective of lead users and creativity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kratzer, Jan; Lettl, Christopher

2008-01-01

closely correlates to individual creativity, and both, in turn, to the provision of information in social networks. This study, guided by lead user theory, creativity research and network theory, investigates 16 school-groups of children examining the relationship between the children's social networks...... and their resulting creativity and lead userness. In addition, the interplay between lead userness and creativity is discussed and empirically tested. The main result of this study is that children who are positioned as bridging links between different groups in social networks reveal both a high degree of lead...

End-user centeredness in antiretroviral therapy services in Nigerian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective: To describe the perception of end users with regard to end-user centeredness in antiretroviral therapy (ART) service provision in Nigerian public health facilities. Design: A qualitative design was followed. Subjects and setting: Unstructured focus group discussions were conducted with end users (n = 64) in six ...

Former substance users working as counselors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hecksher, Dorte

2007-01-01

All helping professionals risk participation in "dual relationships". But in the case of former substance users working as counselors, specific dilemmas and problems are accentuated. A qualitative analysis highlights some of the ethical and personal dilemmas faced by these counselors. The data...... is derived from an interview study initiated in 2000 in Denmark on former substance users with 4 -8 years of abstinence. Through an analysis of interview data from a larger group of former substance users, it became evident that those working as counselors experienced specific dilemmas and problems...

In abstinent MDMA users the cortisol awakening response is off-set but associated with prefrontal serotonin transporter binding as in non-users

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frokjaer, Vibe Gedsoe; Erritzoe, David; Holst, Klaus Kähler

2014-01-01

awakening response (CAR). Here, we tested (1) if such a correlation persists in a human model of chronic serotonin depletion, namely in 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or 'Ecstasy') users, and (2) if CAR differed between MDMA users (N = 18) and non-using healthy volunteers (N = 32). Participants...... underwent SERT brain imaging with [11C]DASB-PET, and performed home-sampling of CAR, defined as the area under curve with respect to cortisol increase from awakening level. When adjusting for age and group, CAR was positively coupled to prefrontal SERT binding (p = 0.006) and MDMA users showed significantly...... higher CAR than the control group (p = 0.0003). In conclusion, our data confirm the recently described positive association between prefrontal SERT binding and CAR, this time in a human model of serotonin deficiency. Also, we find that CAR was higher in MDMA users relative to non-users. We suggest...

Spatial issues in user interface design from a graphic design perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Marcus, Aaron

1989-01-01

The user interface of a computer system is a visual display that provides information about the status of operations on data within the computer and control options to the user that enable adjustments to these operations. From the very beginning of computer technology the user interface was a spatial display, although its spatial features were not necessarily complex or explicitly recognized by the users. All text and nonverbal signs appeared in a virtual space generally thought of as a single flat plane of symbols. Current technology of high performance workstations permits any element of the display to appear as dynamic, multicolor, 3-D signs in a virtual 3-D space. The complexity of appearance and the user's interaction with the display provide significant challenges to the graphic designer of current and future user interfaces. In particular, spatial depiction provides many opportunities for effective communication of objects, structures, processes, navigation, selection, and manipulation. Issues are presented that are relevant to the graphic designer seeking to optimize the user interface's spatial attributes for effective visual communication.

Users Polarization on Facebook and Youtube.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandro Bessi

Full Text Available Users online tend to select information that support and adhere their beliefs, and to form polarized groups sharing the same view-e.g. echo chambers. Algorithms for content promotion may favour this phenomenon, by accounting for users preferences and thus limiting the exposure to unsolicited contents. To shade light on this question, we perform a comparative study on how same contents (videos are consumed on different online social media-i.e. Facebook and YouTube-over a sample of 12M of users. Our findings show that content drives the emergence of echo chambers on both platforms. Moreover, we show that the users' commenting patterns are accurate predictors for the formation of echo-chambers.

“Fruit fight”: Schadenfreude and “Word-of-Mouth” among consumer groups

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vonkeman, C.C.; Ouwerkerk, J.W.; Van Dijk, Wilco W.

2011-01-01

The present study investigates when young BlackBerry-users experience schadenfreude and engage in Word-of-Mouth after reading negative news about Apple’s iPhone. The results show that social identification with other BlackBerry-users and domain relevance interactively predict schadenfreude; the more

Which Users Should Be the Focus of Mobile Personal Health Records? Analysis of User Characteristics Influencing Usage of a Tethered Mobile Personal Health Record.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Guna; Park, Joong Yeol; Shin, Soo-Yong; Hwang, Jong Su; Ryu, Hyeon Jeong; Lee, Jae Ho; Bates, David W

2016-05-01

This study was conducted to analyze the usage pattern of a hospital-tethered mobile personal health records (m-PHRs) application named My Chart in My Hand (MCMH) and to identify user characteristics that influence m-PHR usage. Access logs to MCMH and its menus were collected for a total of 18 months, from August 2011 to January 2013. Usage patterns between users without a patient identification number (ID) and users with a patient ID were compared. Users with a patient ID were divided into light and heavy user groups by the median number of monthly access. Multiple linear regression models were used to assess MCMH usage pattern by characteristics of MCMH user with a patient ID. The total number of MCMH logins was 105,603, and the median number of accesses was 15 times. Users (n = 7,096) mostly accessed the "My Chart" menu, but "OPD [outpatient department] Service Support" and "Health Management" menus were also frequently used. Patients with chronic diseases, experience of hospital visits including emergency room and OPD, and age group of 0-19 years were more frequently found among users with a patient ID (n = 2,186) (p < 0.001). A similar trend was found in the heavy user group (n = 1,123). Submenus of laboratory result, online appointment, and medication lists that were accessed mostly by users with a patient ID were associated with OPD visit and chronic diseases. This study showed that focuses on patients with chronic disease and more hospital visits and empowerment functions in a tethered m-PHR would be helpful to pursue the extensive use.

The Relevance of Causal Social Construction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marques Teresa

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Social constructionist claims are surprising and interesting when they entail that presumably natural kinds are in fact socially constructed. The claims are interesting because of their theoretical and political importance. Authors like Díaz-León argue that constitutive social construction is more relevant for achieving social justice than causal social construction. This paper challenges this claim. Assuming there are socially salient groups that are discriminated against, the paper presents a dilemma: if there were no constitutively constructed social kinds, the causes of the discrimination of existing social groups would have to be addressed, and understanding causal social construction would be relevant to achieve social justice. On the other hand, not all possible constitutively socially constructed kinds are actual social kinds. If an existing social group is constitutively constructed as a social kind K, the fact that it actually exists as a K has social causes. Again, causal social construction is relevant. The paper argues that (i for any actual social kind X, if X is constitutively socially constructed as K, then it is also causally socially constructed; and (ii causal social construction is at least as relevant as constitutive social construction for concerns of social justice. For illustration, I draw upon two phenomena that are presumed to contribute towards the discrimination of women: (i the poor performance effects of stereotype threat, and (ii the silencing effects of gendered language use.

IT Department User Survey PDF Usage Report

CERN Document Server

Jones, Pete

2017-01-01

During 2016 the IT-CDA group carried out a study of IT users and their working environments and habits with the aim of understanding the user community better. This project involved interviews with users from different working backgrounds and an online survey containing questions of user devices and software preferences. A section of the questions was aimed at understanding how people handle PDF documents and this note analyses the responses to these. This analysis will help IT-CDA to better understand the PDF requirements and so help us to improve the services that rely on these documents.

Common diagnoses and treatments in professional voice users.

Science.gov (United States)

Franco, Ramon A; Andrus, Jennifer G

2007-10-01

Common problems among all patients seen by the laryngologist are also common among professional voice users. These include laryngopharyngeal reflux, muscle tension dysphonia, fibrovascular vocal fold lesions (eg, nodules and polyps), cysts, vocal fold scarring, changes in vocal fold mobility, and age-related changes. Microvascular lesions and their associated sequelae of vocal fold hemorrhage and laryngitis due to voice overuse are more common among professional voice users. Much more common among professional voice users is the negative impact that voice problems have on their ability to work, on their overall sense of well-being, and sometimes on their very sense of self. This article reviews the diagnosis and treatment options for these and other problems among professional voice users, describing the relevant roles of medical treatment, voice therapy, and surgery. The common scenario of multiple concomitant entities contributing to a symptom complex is underscored. Emphasis is placed on gaining insight into the "whole" patient so that individualized management plans can be developed. Videos of select diagnoses accompany this content online.

General solar energy information user study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marle, T.L.; Reinhardt, C.L.

1981-03-01

This report describes the results of a series of telephone interviews with groups of users of information on general solar energy. These results, part of a larger study on many different solar technologies, identify types of information each group needed and the best ways to get information to each group. The report is 1 of 10 discussing study results. The overall study provides baseline data about information needs in the solar community. An earlier study identified the information user groups in the solar community and the priority (to accelerate solar energy commercialization) of getting information to each group. In the current study only high-priority groups were examined. Results from 13 groups of respondents are analyzed in this report: Loan Officers, Real Estate Appraisers, Tax Assessors, Insurers, Lawyers, Utility Representatives, Public Interest Group Representatives, Information and Agricultural Representatives, Public Interest Group Representatives, Information and Agricultural Specialists at State Cooperative Extension Service Offices, and State Energy Office Representatives. The data will be used as input to the determination of information products and services the Solar Energy Research Institute, the Solar Energy Information Data Bank Network, and the entire information outreach community should be preparing and disseminating.

Personalization for Specific Users : Designing Decision Support Systems to Support Stimulating Learning Environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maruster, Laura; Faber, Niels R.; van Haren, Rob J.; Salvendy, G; Smith, MJ

2009-01-01

Creating adaptive systems becomes increasingly attractive in the context of specific groups of users, such as agricultural users. This group of users seems to differ with respect to information processing, knowledge management and learning styles. In this work we aim to offer directions toward

What Do Our Users Want? Perspectives on Understanding and Meeting User Needs for Multi-Mission Data Services

Science.gov (United States)

McGuire, Robert E.; Candey, Robert M.; Bilitza, D.

2006-01-01

The Sun-Earth Connection Active Archive (SECAA) project of NASA's Space Physics Data Facility operates a range of unique and heavily used multi-mission data services in support of the large-scale science objectives of the Great Observatory, including services such as CDAWeb, the CDAWeb Plus client, SSCWeb, OMNIweb and the CDF data format. In developing and operating these services, we have encountered and continue to struggle with a wide range of issues such as balancing scope and functionality with simplicity and ease of use, understanding the effectiveness of our choices and identifying areas most important for further improvement. In this paper, we will review our key services and then discuss some of our observations and new approaches to understanding and meeting user data service requirements. Some observations are obvious but may still have substantial implications; e.g. functionality without information content is of little user interest, which has led to our recent emphasis on development of web services interfaces, so the content and functionality we already serve is readily and fully available as a building block for new services. Some observations require careful design and tradeoffs; e.g. users will complain when they are offered interfaces with limited options but users are also easily intimidated and become lost when offered extensive options for customization. Some observations remain highly challenging; e.g. a comprehensive multi-mission, multi-source view of all data and services available easily produces a daunting list, but a more selective view can easily lead users to overlook available and relevant data. It is often difficult to obtain and meaningfully interpret measures of true productive usage and overall user satisfaction, even with a variety of techniques including statistics, citations, case studies, user feedback and advisory committees. Most of these issues will apply to and may even be more acute for distributed implementation

Beyond the Usability Lab Conducting Large-scale Online User Experience Studies

CERN Document Server

Albert, William; Tullis, Thomas

2010-01-01

Usability testing and user experience research typically take place in a controlled lab with small groups. While this type of testing is essential to user experience design, more companies are also looking to test large sample sizes to be able compare data according to specific user populations and see how their experiences differ across user groups. But few usability professionals have experience in setting up these studies, analyzing the data, and presenting it in effective ways.  Online usability testing offers the solution by allowing testers to elicit feedback simultaneously from 1,0

Navigating the massive world of reddit: using backbone networks to map user interests in social media

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Randal S. Olson

2015-05-01

Full Text Available In the massive online worlds of social media, users frequently rely on organizing themselves around specific topics of interest to find and engage with like-minded people. However, navigating these massive worlds and finding topics of specific interest often proves difficult because the worlds are mostly organized haphazardly, leaving users to find relevant interests by word of mouth or using a basic search feature. Here, we report on a method using the backbone of a network to create a map of the primary topics of interest in any social network. To demonstrate the method, we build an interest map for the social news web site reddit and show how such a map could be used to navigate a social media world. Moreover, we analyze the network properties of the reddit social network and find that it has a scale-free, small-world, and modular community structure, much like other online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. We suggest that the integration of interest maps into popular social media platforms will assist users in organizing themselves into more specific interest groups, which will help alleviate the overcrowding effect often observed in large online communities.

Quantitative Decision Support Requires Quantitative User Guidance

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, L. A.

2009-12-01

Is it conceivable that models run on 2007 computer hardware could provide robust and credible probabilistic information for decision support and user guidance at the ZIP code level for sub-daily meteorological events in 2060? In 2090? Retrospectively, how informative would output from today’s models have proven in 2003? or the 1930’s? Consultancies in the United Kingdom, including the Met Office, are offering services to “future-proof” their customers from climate change. How is a US or European based user or policy maker to determine the extent to which exciting new Bayesian methods are relevant here? or when a commercial supplier is vastly overselling the insights of today’s climate science? How are policy makers and academic economists to make the closely related decisions facing them? How can we communicate deep uncertainty in the future at small length-scales without undermining the firm foundation established by climate science regarding global trends? Three distinct aspects of the communication of the uses of climate model output targeting users and policy makers, as well as other specialist adaptation scientists, are discussed. First, a brief scientific evaluation of the length and time scales at which climate model output is likely to become uninformative is provided, including a note on the applicability the latest Bayesian methodology to current state-of-the-art general circulation models output. Second, a critical evaluation of the language often employed in communication of climate model output, a language which accurately states that models are “better”, have “improved” and now “include” and “simulate” relevant meteorological processed, without clearly identifying where the current information is thought to be uninformative and misleads, both for the current climate and as a function of the state of the (each) climate simulation. And thirdly, a general approach for evaluating the relevance of quantitative climate model output

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) as a User Facility

Science.gov (United States)

Keane, Christopher; NIF Team

2013-10-01

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) has made significant progress towards operation as a user facility. Through June 2013, NIF conducted over 1200 experiments in support of ICF, HED science, and development of facility capabilities. The NIF laser has met or achieved all specifications and a wide variety of diagnostic and target fabrication capabilities are in place. A NIF User Group and associated Executive Board have been formed. Two User Group meetings have been conducted since formation of the User Group. NIF experiments in fundamental science have provided important new results. NIF ramp compression experiments have been conducted using diamond and iron, with EOS results obtained at pressures up to approximately 50 Mbar and 8 Mbar, respectively. Initial experiments in supernova hydrodynamics, the fundamental physics of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, and equation of state in the Gbar pressure regime have also been conducted. This presentation will discuss the fundamental science program at NIF, including the proposal solicitation and scientific review processes and other aspects of user facility operation. This work was performed under the auspices of the Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, (LLNS) under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Subgrouping the users of a specialized app for eating disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadeh-Sharvit, Shiri; Kim, Jane Paik; Darcy, Alison M; Neri, Eric; Vierhile, Molly; Robinson, Athena; Tregarthen, Jenna; Lock, James D

2018-02-16

Although mobile technologies for eating disorders (EDs) are burgeoning, there is limited data about the clinical characteristics of individuals using specialized smartphone applications (apps) without accompanying traditional forms of treatment. This study evaluated whether the users of an ED app cluster in clinically meaningful groups. Participants were 1,280 app users (91.3% female; mean age 27) who reported not being in a weekly treatment for their ED. A hierarchical cluster analysis distinguished five groups of participants, all approximating DSM-5 ED categories. One cluster comprised of non-female, ethnically diverse users with Bulimia Nervosa features. Findings suggest that app users resemble known patient classifications.

Report to users of ATLAS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmad, I.; Glagola, B.

1997-03-01

This report covers the following topics: (1) status of the ATLAS accelerator; (2) progress in R and D towards a proposal for a National ISOL Facility; (3) highlights of recent research at ATLAS; (4) the move of gammasphere from LBNL to ANL; (5) Accelerator Target Development laboratory; (6) Program Advisory Committee; (7) ATLAS User Group Executive Committee; and (8) ATLAS user handbook available in the World Wide Web. A brief summary is given for each topic

Active solar heating and cooling information user study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marle, T.L.; Reinhardt, C.L.

1981-01-01

The results of a series of telephone interviews with groups of users of information on active solar heating and cooling (SHAC). An earlier study identified the information user groups in the solar community and the priority (to accelerate solar energy commercialization) of getting information to each group. In the current study only high-priority groups were examined. Results from 19 SHAC groups respondents are analyzed in this report: DOE-Funded Researchers, Non-DOE-Funded Researchers, Representatives of Manufacturers (4 groups), Distributors, Installers, Architects, Builders, Planners, Engineers (2 groups), Representatives of Utilities, Educators, Cooperative Extension Service County Agents, Building Owners/Managers, and Homeowners (2 groups). The data will be used as input to the determination of information products and services the Solar Energy Research Institute, the Solar Energy Information Data Bank Network, and the entire information outreach community should be preparing and disseminating.

Decision-making in chronic ecstasy users: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Betzler, Felix; Viohl, Leonard; Romanczuk-Seiferth, Nina

2017-01-01

Different cognitive impairments have been reported as a result of long-term MDMA/ecstasy use. Increased impulsivity and altered decision-making have been shown to be associated with the development and maintenance of addictive disorders pointing toward the necessity to understand a potential impairment of decision-making due to MDMA use. Thus, assessing the long-term effects of MDMA is crucial in order to evaluate its controversially discussed therapeutic use. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the scientific literature on potential effects of chronic MDMA use on higher order decision-making processes in humans. Therefore, a systematic search for controlled trials relevant to the topic has been performed. Only studies using specific tasks on decision-making were included that involved subjects in the drug-free interval with drug-naïve, and/or polydrug control groups. A total of 12 studies could be identified that met the inclusion criteria, all of which were cross-sectional studies. The findings on decision-making disturbances in MDMA users were heterogeneous. Seven studies reported increased risky decisions, whereas five studies did not find MDMA-specific influences on decision-making. Increased impulsivity was observed both in MDMA groups and in (poly)drug control groups in almost all studies. Thus, the current state of research does not allow for the conclusion that long-term use of MDMA affects decision-making behavior in general. More detailed specifications as well as further investigations of the relevant processes are needed. Significant tendencies toward risky decision-making among long-term MDMA use have been observed, but need to be confirmed by studies using a longitudinal design. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center Toolsets for Airborne Data (TAD): User Interface Design and Development

Science.gov (United States)

Beach, A. L., III; Early, A. B.; Chen, G.; Parker, L.

2014-12-01

NASA has conducted airborne tropospheric chemistry studies for about three decades. These field campaigns have generated a great wealth of observations, which are characterized by a wide range of trace gases and aerosol properties. The airborne observational data have often been used in assessment and validation of models and satellite instruments. The ASDC Toolset for Airborne Data (TAD) is being designed to meet the user community needs for manipulating aircraft data for scientific research on climate change and air quality relevant issues. Given the sheer volume of data variables across field campaigns and instruments reporting data on different time scales, this data is often difficult and time-intensive for researchers to analyze. The TAD web application is designed to provide an intuitive user interface (UI) to facilitate quick and efficient discovery from a vast number of airborne variables and data. Users are given the option to search based on high-level parameter groups, individual common names, mission and platform, as well as date ranges. Experienced users can immediately filter by keyword using the global search option. Once the user has chosen their required variables, they are given the option to either request PI data files based on their search criteria or create merged data, i.e. geo-located data from one or more measurement PIs. The purpose of the merged data feature is to allow users to compare data from one flight, as not all data from each flight is taken on the same time scale. Time bases can be continuous or based on the time base from one of the measurement time scales and intervals. After an order is submitted and processed, an ASDC email is sent to the user with a link for data download. The TAD user interface design, application architecture, and proposed future enhancements will be presented.

Improving Climate Literacy of NOAA Staff and Users

Science.gov (United States)

Timofeyeva, M. M.; Bair, A.; Staudenmaier, M.; Meyers, J. C.; Mayes, B.; Zdrojewski, J.

2010-12-01

Since 2002, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Climate Services Division (CSD) has offered numerous training opportunities to NWS staff. After eight-years of development, the training program offers three instructor-led courses and roughly 25 online (distance learning) modules covering various climate topics, such as: climate data and observations, climate variability and change, and NWS national / local climate products (tools, skill, and interpretation). Leveraging climate information and expertise available at all NOAA line offices and partners allows for the delivery of the most advanced knowledge and is a very critical aspect of the training program. The emerging NOAA Climate Service (NCS) requires a well-trained, climate-literate workforce at the local level capable of delivering NOAA’s climate products and services as well as providing climate-sensitive decision support. NWS Weather Forecast Offices and River Forecast Centers presently serve as local outlets for the NCS climate services. Trained NWS climate service personnel use proactive and reactive approaches and professional education methods in communicating climate variability and change information to local users. Both scientifically-sound messages and amiable communication techniques are important in developing an engaged dialog between the climate service providers and users. Several pilot projects have been conducted by the NWS CSD this past year that apply the program’s training lessons and expertise to specialized external user group training. The technical user groups included natural resources managers, engineers, hydrologists, and planners for transportation infrastructure. Training of professional user groups required tailoring instructions to the potential applications for each group of users. Training technical users identified the following critical issues: (1) knowledge of target audience expectations, initial knowledge status, and potential use of climate information; (2

Decision-making, somatic markers and emotion processing in opiate users.

Science.gov (United States)

Biernacki, Kathryn; Terrett, Gill; McLennan, Skye N; Labuschagne, Izelle; Morton, Phoebe; Rendell, Peter G

2018-01-01

Opiate use is associated with deficits in decision-making. A possible explanation for these deficits is provided by the somatic marker hypothesis, which suggests that substance users may experience abnormal emotional responses during decision-making involving reward and punishment. This in turn may interfere with the brief physiological arousal, i.e. somatic markers that normally occur in anticipation of risky decisions. To date, the applicability of the somatic marker hypothesis to explain decision-making deficits has not been investigated in opiate users. This study assessed whether decision-making deficits in opiate users were related to abnormal emotional responses and reduced somatic markers. Opiate users enrolled in an opiate substitute treatment program (n = 28) and healthy controls (n = 32) completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) while their skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. Participants' emotional responses to emotion-eliciting videos were also recorded using SCRs and subjective ratings. Opiate users displayed poorer decision-making on the IGT than did controls. However, there were no differences between the groups in SCRs; both groups displayed stronger SCRs following punishment than following reward, and both groups displayed stronger anticipatory SCRs prior to disadvantageous decisions than advantageous decisions. There were no group differences in objective or subjective measures of emotional responses to the videos. The results suggest that deficits in emotional responsiveness are not apparent in opiate users who are receiving pharmacological treatment. Thus, the somatic marker hypothesis does not provide a good explanation for the decision-making deficits in this group.

Users and unicorns: a discussion of mythical beasts in interactive science

OpenAIRE

Elizabeth Shove; Arie Rip

2000-01-01

The UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has placed considerable emphasis on the users of the research it supports. Researchers have in turn pointed to the potential uses of the work they do as a means of demonstrating relevance. However, to date, researchers and research funders have succumbed to the temptation of constructing and then believing in users of their own making. The over-reliance on an embodied notion of use and uncritical acceptance of associated pathways of influence...

Effect of Mental State on the Rate of Identifying the Relevancy of Documents Retrieved in a Search

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faezeh Farhoudi

2009-07-01

Full Text Available The present study investigates the link between various users’ mental state while searching information systems with the outcome of the resulting documents retrieved. Various factors such as user knowledge, search skills, motivation and aims influence the decisions and evaluation of users regarding documents retrieved. MMPI instrument was used to identify users’ mental states. The sample was drawn from female senior students of librarianship, using systematic random sampling. The findings indicated that anxiety and depression have significant inverse relationship to the rate of relevancy identification of the documents retrieved by the users.

Selecting users for participation in IT projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Rasmus; Christensen, Anders S.; Fjeldsted, Tobias

2011-01-01

The selection of users for participation in IT projects involves trade-offs between multiple criteria, one of which is selecting a representative cross-section of users. This criterion is basic because trading it for other criteria means basing designs on information biased toward some user groups...... at the expense of others. Based on interviews in development and customer organizations we find that their criteria for user selection favour persons who can contribute to the progress of the IT project over persons who are representative of the full range of users. A highly valued contribution from...... participating users is the ability to advocate a vision for the system and champion its organizational implementation. A survey in one customer organization shows that respondents’ personal traits explain up to 31% of the variation in their experience of aspects of the usability of a recently introduced system...

Individual and Group-Based Engagement in an Online Physical Activity Monitoring Program in Georgia.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Matthew Lee; Durrett, Nicholas K; Bowie, Maria; Berg, Alison; McCullick, Bryan A; LoPilato, Alexander C; Murray, Deborah

2018-06-07

Given the rising prevalence of obesity in the United States, innovative methods are needed to increase physical activity (PA) in community settings. Evidence suggests that individuals are more likely to engage in PA if they are given a choice of activities and have support from others (for encouragement, motivation, and accountability). The objective of this study was to describe the use of the online Walk Georgia PA tracking platform according to whether the user was an individual user or group user. Walk Georgia is a free, interactive online tracking platform that enables users to log PA by duration, activity, and perceived difficulty, and then converts these data into points based on metabolic equivalents. Users join individually or in groups and are encouraged to set weekly PA goals. Data were examined for 6,639 users (65.8% were group users) over 28 months. We used independent sample t tests and Mann-Whitney U tests to compare means between individual and group users. Two linear regression models were fitted to identify factors associated with activity logging. Users logged 218,766 activities (15,119,249 minutes of PA spanning 592,714 miles [41,858,446 points]). On average, group users had created accounts more recently than individual users (P < .001); however, group users logged more activities (P < .001). On average, group users logged more minutes of PA (P < .001) and earned more points (P < .001). Being in a group was associated with a larger proportion of weeks in which 150 minutes or more of weekly PA was logged (B = 20.47, P < .001). Use of Walk Georgia was significantly higher among group users than among individual users. To expand use and dissemination of online tracking of PA, programs should target naturally occurring groups (eg, workplaces, schools, faith-based groups).

Users Requirements in Audiovisual Search: A Quantitative Approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nadeem, Danish; Ordelman, Roeland J.F.; Aly, Robin; Verbruggen, Erwin; Aalberg, Trond; Papatheodorou, Christos; Dobreva, Milena; Tsakonas, Giannis; Farrugia, Charles J.

2013-01-01

This paper reports on the results of a quantitative analysis of user requirements for audiovisual search that allow the categorisation of requirements and to compare requirements across user groups. The categorisation provides clear directions with respect to the prioritisation of system features

Comparing the characteristics of users of an online service for STI self-sampling with clinic service users: a cross-sectional analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnard, Sharmani; Free, Caroline; Bakolis, Ioannis; Turner, Katy M E; Looker, Katharine J; Baraitser, Paula

2018-02-07

Online services for self-sampling at home could improve access to STI testing; however, little is known about those using this new modality of care. This study describes the characteristics of users of online services and compares them with users of clinic services. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of routinely collected data on STI testing activity from online and clinic sexual health services in Lambeth and Southwark between 1January 2016 and 31March 2016. Activity was included for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, HIV and syphilis testing for residents of the boroughs aged 16 years and older. Logistic regression models were used to explore potential associations between type of service use with age group, gender, ethnic group, sexual orientation, positivity and Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintiles. We used the same methods to explore potential associations between return of complete samples for testing with age group, gender, ethnic group, sexual orientation and IMD quintiles among online users. 6456 STI tests were carried out by residents in the boroughs. Of these, 3582 (55.5%) were performed using clinic services and 2874 (44.5%) using the online service. In multivariate analysis, online users were more likely than clinic users to be aged between 20 and 30 years, female, white British, homosexual or bisexual, test negative for chlamydia or gonorrhoea and live in less deprived areas. Of the individuals that ordered a kit from the online service, 72.5% returned sufficient samples. In multivariate analysis, returners were more likely than non-returners to be aged >20 years and white British. Nearly half (44.5%) of all basic STI testing was done online, although the characteristics of users of clinic and online services differed and positivity rates for those using the online service for testing were lower. Clinics remain an important point of access for some groups. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article

Unscrambling The "Average User" Of Habbo Hotel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikael Johnson

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The “user” is an ambiguous concept in human-computer interaction and information systems. Analyses of users as social actors, participants, or configured users delineate approaches to studying design-use relationships. Here, a developer’s reference to a figure of speech, termed the “average user,” is contrasted with design guidelines. The aim is to create an understanding about categorization practices in design through a case study about the virtual community, Habbo Hotel. A qualitative analysis highlighted not only the meaning of the “average user,” but also the work that both the developer and the category contribute to this meaning. The average user a represents the unknown, b influences the boundaries of the target user groups, c legitimizes the designer to disregard marginal user feedback, and d keeps the design space open, thus allowing for creativity. The analysis shows how design and use are intertwined and highlights the developers’ role in governing different users’ interests.

Drug users in contact with general practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, J R

1985-01-05

A group of heroin users who are in contact with a general practice in north west Edinburgh are described. The study group was younger and included more women than previous studies. These people used a large variety of drugs and mainly purchased them locally. Frequent and often prolonged abstinent periods occurred with no prescribed opiate treatment. The group had experienced a high rate of drug related medical disorders. All these points raise the possibility that opiate users who are known to general practitioners may be a distinctly different population from those who attend drug dependency clinics. The frequency of remission and the prevalence of polydrug use have profound implications for planning and evaluating an effective medical response.

Information visualization to user-friendly interface construction for information retrieval systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessica Monique de Lira Vieira

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The information presented through visualization help the Information Retrieval System (IRS to reach its main goal: to retrieve relevant information that meets the informational needs of its users. The objective of this article is to describe and analyze techniques proposed by the Information Visualization area and interface models discussed in Information Science Literature, which applied to graphical interface construction would facilitate the appropriation of information by the users of IRS and would help them to search, browse and retrieve information. The methodology consists of a literature review focusing on the potential contribution of the visual representation of information in the development of user-friendly interfaces to IRS, as well as identification and analyses of visualizations used as interfaces by IRS. The use of visualizations is of great importance in the communication between SRI and users, because the information presented through visual representation are better understood by user and allow the discovery of new knowledge.

FACTORS RELATED TO ORAL CANDIDIASIS IN ELDERLY USERS AND NON-USERS OF REMOVABLE DENTAL PROSTHESES.

Science.gov (United States)

Bianchi, Cyra Maria Pires de Carvalho; Bianchi, Hélcio Aparecido; Tadano, Tomoko; Paula, Claudete Rodrigues de; Hoffmann-Santos, Hugo Dias; Leite, Diniz Pereira; Hahn, Rosane Christine

2016-01-01

This study examined the association between oral candidiasis in elderly users and nonusers of prosthesis and its predisposing factors. To this end, we performed a cross-sectional study where saliva samples from 48 patients were collected they used prosthesis and 43 patients (control group) who did not use. Among the 91 patients, Candida spp were isolated in 40 (83.3%) who used prosthesis and in 23 (53.5%) in the control group. A statistically significant association was determined between the two groups, the isolation of yeasts and dental prosthesis (p oral candidiasis (n = 24), 83.3% (n = 20) belonged to the group that wore dentures, while only 16.7% (n = 4) belonged to the control group. Elderly patients with diabetes had 4.4 times higher estimated risk of developing oral candidiasis when compared with individuals without this condition. There was no statistically significant association between being user prostheses and have diabetes with the onset of candidiasis. No statistically significant association was determined between xerostomia, use of prosthesis and oral candidiasis. The use of prosthetics and poor oral hygiene in elderly patients predisposes to the development of oral candidiasis.

Distress intolerance moderation of motivated attention to cannabis and negative stimuli after induced stress among cannabis users: an ERP study.

Science.gov (United States)

Macatee, Richard J; Okey, Sarah A; Albanese, Brian J; Schmidt, Norman B; Cougle, Jesse R

2018-05-07

Prevalence of cannabis use is increasing, but many regular users do not develop cannabis use disorder (CUD); thus, CUD risk identification among current users is vital for targeted intervention development. Existing data suggest that high distress intolerance (DI), an individual difference reflective of the ability to tolerate negative affect, may be linked to CUD, but no studies have tested possible neurophysiological mechanisms. Increased motivated attentional processing of cannabis and negative emotional stimuli as indexed by neurophysiology [i.e. the late positive potential (LPP)], particularly during acute stress, may contribute to CUD among high DI users. Frequent cannabis users with high (n = 61) and low DI (n = 44) viewed cannabis, negative, and matched neutral images during electroencephalography (EEG) recording before and after a laboratory stressor. Cannabis cue-elicited modulation of the 1000- to 3000-milliseconds LPP was larger in high DI users at post-stressor only, although the effect was only robust in the 1000- to 2000-milliseconds window. Further, modulation magnitude in the high DI group covaried with stress-relief craving and some CUD indices in the 400- to 1000-milliseconds and 1000- to 3000-milliseconds windows, respectively. No significant effects of DI on negative stimuli-elicited LPP modulation were found, although inverse associations with some CUD indices were observed. Finally, exploratory analyses revealed some evidence for DI moderation of the relation between subjective stressor reactivity and negative stimuli-elicited LPP modulation such that greater stressor reactivity was associated with blunted versus enhanced modulation in the high and low DI groups, respectively. Negative and cannabis stimuli-elicited LPP modulation appear to index distinct, CUD-relevant neural processes in high DI cannabis users. © 2018 Society for the Study of Addiction.

User Interaction Modeling and Profile Extraction in Interactive Systems: A Groupware Application Case Study †

Science.gov (United States)

Tîrnăucă, Cristina; Duque, Rafael; Montaña, José L.

2017-01-01

A relevant goal in human–computer interaction is to produce applications that are easy to use and well-adjusted to their users’ needs. To address this problem it is important to know how users interact with the system. This work constitutes a methodological contribution capable of identifying the context of use in which users perform interactions with a groupware application (synchronous or asynchronous) and provides, using machine learning techniques, generative models of how users behave. Additionally, these models are transformed into a text that describes in natural language the main characteristics of the interaction of the users with the system. PMID:28726762

SAFARI, an On-Line Text-Processing System User's Manual.

Science.gov (United States)

Chapin, P.G.; And Others.

This report describes for the potential user a set of procedures for processing textual materials on-line. In this preliminary model an information analyst can scan through messages, reports, and other documents on a display scope and select relevant facts, which are processed linguistically and then stored in the computer in the form of logical…

Comparing Facebook Users and Facebook Non-Users: Relationship between Personality Traits and Mental Health Variables - An Exploratory Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Brailovskaia, Julia; Margraf, Jürgen

2016-01-01

Over one billion people use Facebook as a platform for social interaction and self-presentation making it one of the most popular online sites. The aim of the present study was to investigate differences in various personality traits and mental health variables between Facebook users and people who do not use this platform. The data of 945 participants (790 Facebook users, 155 Facebook non-users) were collected. Results indicate that Facebook users score significantly higher on narcissism, self-esteem and extraversion than Facebook non-users. Furthermore, they have significantly higher values of social support, life satisfaction and subjective happiness. Facebook non-users have (marginally) significantly higher values of depression symptoms than Facebook users. In both groups, extraversion, self-esteem, happiness, life satisfaction, resilience and social support, on the one hand, and depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, on the other hand, are negatively correlated. Neuroticism is positively associated with depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. However, significant differences exist between Facebook users and Facebook non-users regarding some associations of personality traits and mental health variables. Compared to Facebook non-users, the present results indicate that Facebook users have higher values of certain personality traits and positive variables protecting mental health. These findings are of particular interest considering the high importance of social online-platforms in the daily life of many people.

Comparing Facebook Users and Facebook Non-Users: Relationship between Personality Traits and Mental Health Variables - An Exploratory Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia Brailovskaia

Full Text Available Over one billion people use Facebook as a platform for social interaction and self-presentation making it one of the most popular online sites. The aim of the present study was to investigate differences in various personality traits and mental health variables between Facebook users and people who do not use this platform. The data of 945 participants (790 Facebook users, 155 Facebook non-users were collected. Results indicate that Facebook users score significantly higher on narcissism, self-esteem and extraversion than Facebook non-users. Furthermore, they have significantly higher values of social support, life satisfaction and subjective happiness. Facebook non-users have (marginally significantly higher values of depression symptoms than Facebook users. In both groups, extraversion, self-esteem, happiness, life satisfaction, resilience and social support, on the one hand, and depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, on the other hand, are negatively correlated. Neuroticism is positively associated with depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. However, significant differences exist between Facebook users and Facebook non-users regarding some associations of personality traits and mental health variables. Compared to Facebook non-users, the present results indicate that Facebook users have higher values of certain personality traits and positive variables protecting mental health. These findings are of particular interest considering the high importance of social online-platforms in the daily life of many people.

A user-friendly phytoremediation database: creating the searchable database, the users, and the broader implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Famulari, Stevie; Witz, Kyla

2015-01-01

Designers, students, teachers, gardeners, farmers, landscape architects, architects, engineers, homeowners, and others have uses for the practice of phytoremediation. This research looks at the creation of a phytoremediation database which is designed for ease of use for a non-scientific user, as well as for students in an educational setting ( http://www.steviefamulari.net/phytoremediation ). During 2012, Environmental Artist & Professor of Landscape Architecture Stevie Famulari, with assistance from Kyla Witz, a landscape architecture student, created an online searchable database designed for high public accessibility. The database is a record of research of plant species that aid in the uptake of contaminants, including metals, organic materials, biodiesels & oils, and radionuclides. The database consists of multiple interconnected indexes categorized into common and scientific plant name, contaminant name, and contaminant type. It includes photographs, hardiness zones, specific plant qualities, full citations to the original research, and other relevant information intended to aid those designing with phytoremediation search for potential plants which may be used to address their site's need. The objective of the terminology section is to remove uncertainty for more inexperienced users, and to clarify terms for a more user-friendly experience. Implications of the work, including education and ease of browsing, as well as use of the database in teaching, are discussed.

Privacy-preserving user clustering in a social network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erkin, Z.; Veugen, P.J.M.; Toft, T.; Lagendijk, R.L.

2009-01-01

In a ubiquitously connected world, social networks are playing an important role on the Internet by allowing users to find groups of people with similar interests. The data needed to construct such networks may be considered sensitive personal information by the users, which raises privacy concerns.

Developmental Psychopathology in a Racial/Ethnic Minority Group: Are Cultural Risks Relevant?

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Chiaying; Eisenberg, Ruth E; Ramos-Olazagasti, María A; Wall, Melanie; Chen, Chen; Bird, Héctor R; Canino, Glorisa; Duarte, Cristiane S

2017-12-01

The current study examined (a) the mediating role of parenting behaviors in the relationship between parental risks and youth antisocial behaviors (YASB), and (b) the role of youth cultural stress in a racial/ethnic minority group (i.e., Puerto Rican [PR] youth). This longitudinal study consisted of 3 annual interviews of PR youth (N = 1,150; aged 10-14 years at wave 1) and their caretakers from the South Bronx (SB) in New York City and from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Parents reported on parental risks, parenting behaviors, and YASB. Youth also self-reported on YASB and youth cultural stress. A lagged structural equation model examined the relationship between these variables across 3 yearly waves, with youth cultural stress as a moderator of the association between effective parenting behaviors and YASB. Findings supported the positive influence of effective parenting on YASB, independently of past parental risks and past YASB: higher effective parenting significantly predicted lower YASB at the following wave. Parenting also accounted for (mediated) the association between the composite of parental risks and YASB. Youth cultural stress at wave 1 was cross-sectionally associated with higher YASB and moderated the prospective associations between effective parenting and YASB, such that for youth who perceived higher cultural stress, the positive effect of effective parenting on YASB was weakened compared to those with lower/average cultural stress. Among PR families, both parental and cultural risk factors influence YASB. Such findings should be considered when treating racial/ethnic minority youth for whom cultural factors may be a relevant influence on determining behaviors. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

User localization during human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Martín, F; Gorostiza, Javi F; Malfaz, María; Salichs, Miguel A

2012-01-01

This paper presents a user localization system based on the fusion of visual information and sound source localization, implemented on a social robot called Maggie. One of the main requisites to obtain a natural interaction between human-human and human-robot is an adequate spatial situation between the interlocutors, that is, to be orientated and situated at the right distance during the conversation in order to have a satisfactory communicative process. Our social robot uses a complete multimodal dialog system which manages the user-robot interaction during the communicative process. One of its main components is the presented user localization system. To determine the most suitable allocation of the robot in relation to the user, a proxemic study of the human-robot interaction is required, which is described in this paper. The study has been made with two groups of users: children, aged between 8 and 17, and adults. Finally, at the end of the paper, experimental results with the proposed multimodal dialog system are presented.

Progress Report Phase I: Use, access, and fire/fuels management attitudes and preferences of user groups concerning the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) and adjacent areas

Science.gov (United States)

Kurt F. Anschuetz; Carol B. Raish

2010-01-01

This document represents a progress report of activities completed during Phase I of the study titled, Use, Access, and Fire/Fuels Management Attitudes and Preferences of User Groups Concerning the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) and Adjacent Areas, and the preliminary findings of this work.

Experimental Studies of Wheelchair and Walker Users Passing Through Doors with Different Opening Force.

Science.gov (United States)

Nersveen, Jonny

2016-01-01

Users of walkers and users of different categories of wheelchairs tested doors with different opening force, aiming to reveal the limit that these groups of people could manage on an everyday basis. 94.7% of the wheelchair users reported that a door opening force of 30 N was acceptable, while as 92.1% of this group described 40 N as acceptable. Similarly, 100% of the walker users reported that a door opening force of 30 N was acceptable, while as 87,5% of this group described 40 N as acceptable.

Audit result and its users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shalimova Nataliya S.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article identifies essence of the “audit result” and “users of audit result” notions and characteristics of the key audit results user. It shows that in order to give a wide characteristic of users it is expedient to unite all objects, which could be used (audit report, fact of refusal to conduct audit and information that is submitted to managers in the process of audit with the term “audit result” and classify it depending on the terms of submission by final and intermediate result. The article offers to define audit results user as a person, persons or category of persons for whom the auditor prepares the audit report and, in cases, envisaged by international standards of the audit and domestic legislative and regulatory acts, provides other additional information concerning audit issues. In order to identify the key audit results user the article distributes all audit tasks into two groups depending on possibilities of identification of users. The article proves that the key user should be identified especially in cases of a mandatory audit and this process should go in interconnection with the mechanism of allocation of a key user of financial reports. It offers to consider external users with direct financial interests, who cannot request economic subjects directly to provide information and who should rely on general financial reports and audit report when receiving significant portion of information they need, as the key user. The article makes proposals on specification of the categorical mechanism in the sphere of audit, which are the basis for audit quality assessment, identification of possibilities and conditions of appearance of the necessary and sufficient trust to the auditor opinion.

Qualification Users' Perceptions and Experiences of Assessment Reliability

Science.gov (United States)

Chamberlain, Suzanne

2013-01-01

This paper presents the findings of a study designed to explore qualification users' perceptions and experiences of reliability in the context of national assessment outcomes in England. The study consisted of 17 focus groups conducted across six sectors of qualification users: students, teachers, trainee teachers, job-seekers, employers and…

Solar thermal electric power information user study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marle, T.L.; Reinhardt, C.L.

1981-02-01

The results of a series of telephone interviews with groups of users of information on solar thermal electric power are described. These results, part of a larger study on many different solar technologies, identify types of information each group needed and the best ways to get information to each group. The report is 1 of 10 discussing study results. The overall study provides baseline data about information needs in the solar community. An earlier study identified the information user groups in the solar community and the priority (to accelerate solar energy commercialization) of getting information to each group. In the current study only high-priority groups were examined. Results from five solar thermal electric power groups of respondents are analyzed: DOE-Funded Researchers, Non-DOE-Funded Researchers, Representatives of Utilities, Electric Power Engineers, and Educators. The data will be used as input to the determination of information products and services the Solar Energy Research Institute, the Solar Energy Information Data Bank Network, and the entire information outreach community should be preparing and disseminating.

mCell: Facilitating Mobile Communication of Small Groups

OpenAIRE

Mikko T. Tarkiainen; Jonna Häkkilä; Jan Blom; Merja Haveri; Jyri Virtanen

2008-01-01

Mobile communication technology offers a potential platform for new types of communication applications. Here, we describe the development and experiences with a mobile group communication application, mCell, that runs on a mobile phone. We present the underlying design implications, the application implementation, and a user study, where three groups used the application for one month. The findings of the user study reveal general user experiences with the application and show different patt...

Focus Group in Community Mental Health Research: Need for Adaption.

Science.gov (United States)

Zupančič, Vesna; Pahor, Majda; Kogovšek, Tina

2018-04-27

The article presents an analysis of the use of focus groups in researching community mental health users, starting with the reasons for using them, their implementation in mental health service users' research, and the adaptations of focus group use when researching the experiences of users. Based on personal research experience and a review of scientific publications in the Google Scholar, Web of Science, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, and Scopus databases, 20 articles published between 2010 and 2016 were selected for targeted content analysis. A checklist for reporting on the use of focus groups with community mental health service users, aiming to improve the comparability, verifiability and validity was developed. Adaptations of the implementation of focus groups in relation to participants' characteristics were suggested. Focus groups are not only useful as a scientific research technique, but also for ensuring service users' participation in decision-making in community mental health and evaluating the quality of the mental health system and services .

Security Analysis of Accountable Anonymous Group Communication in Dissent

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-31

instance, group discussion forums or instant messaging. Misbehaving users may abuse this anonymity to disrupt communication, however, and existing...Abstract Users often wish to communicate anonymously on the Internet using, for instance, group discussion forums or instant messaging. Misbehaving users may...personal reprisal (Stein 2003). Yet anonymity makes it difficult to trace or exclude misbehaving participants (Davenport 2002). Online proto- cols

TO ALL USERS OF GAS FROM STORES

CERN Multimedia

SPL Division

2002-01-01

Users of gas from stores are requested to return empty gas containers (cylinders, etc.) as soon as possible after use. These containers belong to the supplier and are therefore subject to a hire charge. Gas users are invited to place the empty containers at the official delivery points, where they will be collected by the supplier. Thank you. SPL Division Logistics Group

Identifying factors relevant in the assessment of return-to-work efforts in employees on long-term sickness absence due to chronic low back pain: a focus group study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muijzer Anna

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Efforts undertaken during the return to work (RTW process need to be sufficient to prevent unnecessary applications for disability benefits. The purpose of this study was to identify factors relevant to RTW Effort Sufficiency (RTW-ES in cases of sick-listed employees with chronic low back pain (CLBP. Methods Using focus groups consisting of Labor Experts (LE's working at the Dutch Social Insurance Institute, arguments and underlying grounds relevant to the assessment of RTW-ES were investigated. Factors were collected and categorized using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF model. Results Two focus groups yielded 19 factors, of which 12 are categorized in the ICF model under activities (e.g. functional capacity and in the personal (e.g. age, tenure and environmental domain (e.g. employer-employee relationship. The remaining 7 factors are categorized under intervention, job accommodation and measures. Conclusions This focus group study shows that 19 factors may be relevant to RTW-ES in sick-listed employees with CLBP. Providing these results to professionals assessing RTW-ES might contribute to a more transparent and systematic approach. Considering the importance of the quality of the RTW process, optimizing the RTW-ES assessment is essential.

Evaluating and Quantifying User and Carer Involvement in Mental Health Care Planning (EQUIP: Co-Development of a New Patient-Reported Outcome Measure.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Penny Bee

Full Text Available International and national health policy seeks to increase service user and carer involvement in mental health care planning, but suitable user-centred tools to assess the success of these initiatives are not yet available. The current study describes the development of a new reliable and valid, interval-scaled service-user and carer reported outcome measure for quantifying user/carer involvement in mental health care planning. Psychometric development reduced a 70-item item bank to a short form questionnaire using a combination of Classical Test, Mokken and Rasch Analyses. Test-retest reliability was calculated using t-tests of interval level scores between baseline and 2-4 week follow-up. Items were worded to be relevant to both service users and carers. Nine items were removed following cognitive debriefing with a service user and carer advisory group. An iterative process of item removal reduced the remaining 61 items to a final 14-item scale. The final scale has acceptable scalability (Ho = .69, reliability (alpha = .92, fit to the Rasch model (χ2(70 = 97.25, p = .02, and no differential item functioning or locally dependent items. Scores remained stable over the 4 week follow-up period, indicating good test-retest reliability. The 'Evaluating the Quality of User and Carer Involvement in Care Planning (EQUIP' scale displays excellent psychometric properties and is capable of unidimensional linear measurement. The scale is short, user and carer-centred and will be of direct benefit to clinicians, services, auditors and researchers wishing to quantify levels of user and carer involvement in care planning.

Easing Internet access of health information for elderly users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alpay, L.L.; Toussaint, P.J.; Ezendam, N.P.M.; Rövekamp, T.A.J.M.; Graafmans, W.C.; Westendorp, R.G.J.

2004-01-01

Elderly users are increasingly becoming active consumers of Internet technologies. Developing websites dedicated to this user group presents several design issues (such as that of 'design for all', participatory design, patient empowerment and cognitive usability assessment methods). SeniorGezond is

An Evaluation of the Interactive Query Expansion in an Online Library Catalogue with a Graphical User Interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Hancock-Beaulieu, Micheline; And Others

1995-01-01

An online library catalog was used to evaluate an interactive query expansion facility based on relevance feedback for the Okapi, probabilistic, term weighting, retrieval system. A graphical user interface allowed searchers to select candidate terms extracted from relevant retrieved items to reformulate queries. Results suggested that the…

Comparing Facebook Users and Facebook Non-Users: Relationship between Personality Traits and Mental Health Variables – An Exploratory Study

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

Over one billion people use Facebook as a platform for social interaction and self-presentation making it one of the most popular online sites. The aim of the present study was to investigate differences in various personality traits and mental health variables between Facebook users and people who do not use this platform. The data of 945 participants (790 Facebook users, 155 Facebook non-users) were collected. Results indicate that Facebook users score significantly higher on narcissism, self-esteem and extraversion than Facebook non-users. Furthermore, they have significantly higher values of social support, life satisfaction and subjective happiness. Facebook non-users have (marginally) significantly higher values of depression symptoms than Facebook users. In both groups, extraversion, self-esteem, happiness, life satisfaction, resilience and social support, on the one hand, and depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, on the other hand, are negatively correlated. Neuroticism is positively associated with depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. However, significant differences exist between Facebook users and Facebook non-users regarding some associations of personality traits and mental health variables. Compared to Facebook non-users, the present results indicate that Facebook users have higher values of certain personality traits and positive variables protecting mental health. These findings are of particular interest considering the high importance of social online-platforms in the daily life of many people. PMID:27907020

Kidnapping by Terrorist Groups, 1970-2010: Is Ideological Orientation Relevant?

Science.gov (United States)

Forest, James J. F.

2012-01-01

This article examines whether a terrorist group's ideology has a meaningful impact on its involvement in kidnapping. On a global level, incident data (1970-2010) indicate that in the past decade the number of kidnappings by terrorist groups has increased, while Muslim extremists have replaced left-wing/Marxist revolutionaries as the world's…

Felt Stigma in Injection Drug Users and Sex Workers: Focus Group Research with HIV-Risk Populations in Puerto Rico.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiménez, Julio; Puig, Marieva; Sala, Ana Cecilia; Ramos, Juan Carlos; Castro, Eida; Morales, Marangelie; Santiago, Lydia; Zorrilla, Carmen

Though many studies have conclusively linked felt stigma and HIV, few have focused on the experiences of rejection felt by members of such socially marginalized groups as intravenous drug users (IDU) and sex workers (SW). Using focus groups, our study explored these experiences in 34 individuals (17 male UDUs and 17 female SWs) at risk of becoming infected with HIV, the objective being to discover why they engaged in maladaptive behaviors as a way of coping with felt stigma. We used deductive and inductive analysis to codify the resulting data. Concepts associated with the word stigma, emotional reactions to felt stigma, and the impact of felt stigma on self-schema helped elucidate how the internalization of felt stigma can lead to negative affective states and self-destructive behaviors (e.g., drug use and syringe exchange). Results underline the importance of developing intervention models that reduce stigma as a means of HIV prevention in vulnerable populations.

Getting to Know Library Users' Needs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harbo, Karen; Hansen, Thomas Erlandson V.

2012-01-01

'Meeting the User' is a programme committee under the Danish Electronic Research Library. As a development group at a national level we see our role as facilitating an innovative culture within academic libraries, focusing on users' needs and the way libraries meet them. In collaboration...... a description of the above-mentioned methods, valuable experiences from the workshop, a presentation of the concept and concrete tools, discussion of the concept of user logic and library services, and the seven principles for human-centered innovation in relation to libraries, a short list of studies carried...... with a consultancy firm, the commitee organized a travelling workshop in four cities in 2010. The workshop introduced practical ways for library staff to get to know their users' needs for services and was based on anthropological methods. The travelling workshop was part of a larger project called 'A Journey...

A rank-based Prediction Algorithm of Learning User's Intention

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Jie; Gao, Ying; Chen, Cang; Gong, HaiPing

Internet search has become an important part in people's daily life. People can find many types of information to meet different needs through search engines on the Internet. There are two issues for the current search engines: first, the users should predetermine the types of information they want and then change to the appropriate types of search engine interfaces. Second, most search engines can support multiple kinds of search functions, each function has its own separate search interface. While users need different types of information, they must switch between different interfaces. In practice, most queries are corresponding to various types of information results. These queries can search the relevant results in various search engines, such as query "Palace" contains the websites about the introduction of the National Palace Museum, blog, Wikipedia, some pictures and video information. This paper presents a new aggregative algorithm for all kinds of search results. It can filter and sort the search results by learning three aspects about the query words, search results and search history logs to achieve the purpose of detecting user's intention. Experiments demonstrate that this rank-based method for multi-types of search results is effective. It can meet the user's search needs well, enhance user's satisfaction, provide an effective and rational model for optimizing search engines and improve user's search experience.

Why relevance theory is relevant for lexicography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bothma, Theo; Tarp, Sven

2014-01-01

This article starts by providing a brief summary of relevance theory in information science in relation to the function theory of lexicography, explaining the different types of relevance, viz. objective system relevance and the subjective types of relevance, i.e. topical, cognitive, situational...... that is very important for lexicography as well as for information science, viz. functional relevance. Since all lexicographic work is ultimately aimed at satisfying users’ information needs, the article then discusses why the lexicographer should take note of all these types of relevance when planning a new...... dictionary project, identifying new tasks and responsibilities of the modern lexicographer. The article furthermore discusses how relevance theory impacts on teaching dictionary culture and reference skills. By integrating insights from lexicography and information science, the article contributes to new...

Preliminary evidence of hippocampal damage in chronic users of ecstasy.

Science.gov (United States)

den Hollander, Bjørnar; Schouw, Marieke; Groot, Paul; Huisman, Henk; Caan, Matthan; Barkhof, Frederik; Reneman, Liesbeth

2012-01-01

Various studies have shown that ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) users display significant memory impairments, whereas their performance on other cognitive tests is generally normal. The hippocampus plays an essential role in short-term memory. There are, however, no structural human data on the effects of ecstasy on the hippocampus. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the hippocampal volume of chronic ecstasy users is reduced when compared with healthy polydrug-using controls, as an indicator of hippocampal damage. The hippocampus was manually outlined in volumetric MRI scans in 10 male ecstasy users (mean age 25.4 years) and seven healthy age- and gender-matched control subjects (21.3 years). Other than the use of ecstasy, there were no statistically significant differences between both groups in exposure to other drugs of abuse and alcohol. The ecstasy users were on average drug-free for more than 2 months and had used on average 281 tablets over the past six and a half years. The hippocampal volume in the ecstasy using group was on average 10.5% smaller than the hippocampal volume in the control group (p=0.032). These data provide preliminary evidence that ecstasy users may be prone to incurring hippocampal damage, in line with previous reports of acute hippocampal sclerosis and subsequent atrophy in chronic users of this drug.

[Substance use and risk behaviors of out-of-treatment cocaine base paste and cocaine hydrochloride users].

Science.gov (United States)

Santis B, Rodrigo; Hidalgo C, Carmen Gloria; Hayden C, Viviana; Anselmo M, Enzo; Rodríguez T, Jorge; Cartajena de la M, Fernando; Dreyse D, Jorge; Torres B, Rafael

2007-01-01

In Chile, cocaine base paste (CBP) is the illegal substance that produces the highest rate of addiction. Nonetheless, a marginal number of users receive treatment each year. To compare the consumption patterns and risk behavior of CBP and cocaine hydrochloride (CH) users who do not attend rehabilitation services. In a prospective research design, through a study methodology called Privileged Access Interview of hidden populations, 28 surveyors recruited 231 CBP users (group 1) and 236 CH users (group 2). The Risk Behavior Questionnaire was applied in four communities of Metropolitan Santiago, that have the highest prevalence of PBC and CH use. CBP users showed higher schools drop-out and unemployment rates. Subjects of both groups were predominantly polysubstance and polyaddicted users. The severity of addiction to CBP of group 1 was significantly higher than the severity of addiction to CH of group 2 (5.5 versus 5.1: psexual risk behaviors, antisocial behavior, self infliction of injuries, suicide attempt and child neglect. A higher vulnerability was shown for users of CBP than those of CH. Attention is drawn to the need for developing community interventions in order to alter substance abuse and the risk behavior of these vulnerable groups.

A User-Centric View of Intelligent Environments: User Expectations, User Experience and User Role in Building Intelligent Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eija Kaasinen

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Our everyday environments are gradually becoming intelligent, facilitated both by technological development and user activities. Although large-scale intelligent environments are still rare in actual everyday use, they have been studied for quite a long time, and several user studies have been carried out. In this paper, we present a user-centric view of intelligent environments based on published research results and our own experiences from user studies with concepts and prototypes. We analyze user acceptance and users’ expectations that affect users’ willingness to start using intelligent environments and to continue using them. We discuss user experience of interacting with intelligent environments where physical and virtual elements are intertwined. Finally, we touch on the role of users in shaping their own intelligent environments instead of just using ready-made environments. People are not merely “using” the intelligent environments but they live in them, and they experience the environments via embedded services and new interaction tools as well as the physical and social environment. Intelligent environments should provide emotional as well as instrumental value to the people who live in them, and the environments should be trustworthy and controllable both by regular users and occasional visitors. Understanding user expectations and user experience in intelligent environments, and providing users with tools to influence the environments can help to shape the vision of intelligent environments into meaningful, acceptable and appealing service entities for all those who live and act in them.

Depressive symptoms and web user experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Thielsch, Meinald T; Thielsch, Carolin

2018-01-01

crucial, especially as it facilitates revisiting a website and thus might be relevant in avoiding drop-out in online interventions. Thus, the biased impression of persons affected by symptoms of depression and resulting needs of those users should be considered when designing and evaluating E-(Mental)-Health-platforms. The high prevalence of some mental disorders such as depression in the general population stresses the need for further investigations of the found effects.

Improving self-help e-therapy for depression and anxiety among sexual minorities: an analysis of focus groups with lesbians and gay men.

Science.gov (United States)

Rozbroj, Tomas; Lyons, Anthony; Pitts, Marian; Mitchell, Anne; Christensen, Helen

2015-03-11

E-therapies for depression and anxiety rarely account for lesbian and gay users. This is despite lesbians and gay men being at heightened risk of mood disorders and likely to benefit from having access to tailored self-help resources. We sought to determine how e-therapies for depression and anxiety could be improved to address the therapeutic needs of lesbians and gay men. We conducted eight focus groups with lesbians and gay men aged 18 years and older. Focus groups were presented with key modules from the popular e-therapy "MoodGYM". They were asked to evaluate the inclusiveness and relevance of these modules for lesbians and gay men and to think about ways that e-therapies in general could be modified. The focus groups were analyzed qualitatively using a thematic analysis approach to identify major themes. The focus groups indicated that some but not all aspects of MoodGYM were suitable, and suggested ways of improving e-therapies for lesbian and gay users. Suggestions included avoiding language or examples that assumed or implied users were heterosexual, improving inclusiveness by representing non-heterosexual relationships, providing referrals to specialized support services and addressing stigma-related stress, such as "coming out" and experiences of discrimination and harassment. Focus group participants suggested that dedicated e-therapies for lesbians and gay men should be developed or general e-therapies be made more inclusive by using adaptive logic to deliver content appropriate for a user's sexual identity. Findings from this study offer in-depth guidance for developing e-therapies that more effectively address mental health problems among lesbians and gay men.

Verbal learning and memory in adolescent cannabis users, alcohol users and non-users.

Science.gov (United States)

Solowij, Nadia; Jones, Katy A; Rozman, Megan E; Davis, Sasha M; Ciarrochi, Joseph; Heaven, Patrick C L; Lubman, Dan I; Yücel, Murat

2011-07-01

Long-term heavy cannabis use can result in memory impairment. Adolescent users may be especially vulnerable to the adverse neurocognitive effects of cannabis. In a cross-sectional and prospective neuropsychological study of 181 adolescents aged 16-20 (mean 18.3 years), we compared performance indices from one of the most widely used measures of learning and memory--the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test--between cannabis users (n=52; mean 2.4 years of use, 14 days/month, median abstinence 20.3 h), alcohol users (n=67) and non-user controls (n=62) matched for age, education and premorbid intellectual ability (assessed prospectively), and alcohol consumption for cannabis and alcohol users. Cannabis users performed significantly worse than alcohol users and non-users on all performance indices. They recalled significantly fewer words overall (pmemory performance after controlling for extent of exposure to cannabis. Despite relatively brief exposure, adolescent cannabis users relative to their age-matched counterparts demonstrated similar memory deficits to those reported in adult long-term heavy users. The results indicate that cannabis adversely affects the developing brain and reinforce concerns regarding the impact of early exposure.

Users Polarization on Facebook and Youtube

Science.gov (United States)

Bessi, Alessandro; Zollo, Fabiana; Del Vicario, Michela; Puliga, Michelangelo; Scala, Antonio; Caldarelli, Guido; Uzzi, Brian; Quattrociocchi, Walter

2016-01-01

Users online tend to select information that support and adhere their beliefs, and to form polarized groups sharing the same view—e.g. echo chambers. Algorithms for content promotion may favour this phenomenon, by accounting for users preferences and thus limiting the exposure to unsolicited contents. To shade light on this question, we perform a comparative study on how same contents (videos) are consumed on different online social media—i.e. Facebook and YouTube—over a sample of 12M of users. Our findings show that content drives the emergence of echo chambers on both platforms. Moreover, we show that the users’ commenting patterns are accurate predictors for the formation of echo-chambers. PMID:27551783

The USEtox story: A survey of model developer visions and user requirements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Westh, Torbjørn Bochsen; Hauschild, Michael Zwicky; Birkved, Morten

2015-01-01

into LCA software and methods, (4) improve update/testing procedures, (5) strengthen communication between developers and users, and (6) extend model scope. By generalizing our recommendations to guide scientific model development in a broader context, we emphasize to acknowledge different levels of user...... expertise to integrate sound revision and update procedures and to facilitate modularity, data import/export, and incorporation into relevant software and databases during model design and development. Our fully documented approach can inspire performing similar surveys on other LCA-related tools...

Interrogative suggestibility in opiate users.

Science.gov (United States)

Murakami, A; Edelmann, R J; Davis, P E

1996-09-01

The present study investigated interrogative suggestibility in opiate users. A group of patients undergoing a methadone detoxification programme in an in-patient drug treatment unit (Detox group, n = 21), and a group of residents who had come off drugs and were no longer suffering from withdrawal syndrome (Rehab group, n = 19) were compared on interrogative suggestibility and various other psychological factors. Significant differences were found between the two groups, with the Detox group having more physical and psychological problems, and a higher total suggestibility score in comparison with the Rehab group. These findings are discussed in relation to the context of police interrogations and the reliability of confessions made by suspects and witnesses dependent on opiates.

Reliability Considerations for the Operation of Large Accelerator User Facilities

CERN Document Server

Willeke, F.J.

2016-01-01

The lecture provides an overview of considerations relevant for achieving highly reliable operation of accelerator based user facilities. The article starts with an overview of statistical reliability formalism which is followed by high reliability design considerations with examples. The article closes with operational aspects of high reliability such as preventive maintenance and spares inventory.

Users and unicorns: a discussion of mythical beasts in interactive science

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shove, Elizabeth; Rip, Arie

2000-01-01

The UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has placed considerable emphasis on the users of the research it supports. Researchers have in turn pointed to the potential uses of the work they do as a means of demonstrating relevance. However, to date, researchers and research funders have

The health-disease process and the family health strategy: the user's perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Débora de Souza; Tenório, Elainey de Albuquerque; Brêda, Mércia Zeviane; Mishima, Silvana Martins

2014-01-01

to analyze the meanings Primary Health Care users attribute to their health-disease process and the services used. this qualitative research uses the focus group technique to interview two groups of users the service monitors. The first is a group of elderly people and the second of pregnant women. To analyze the meanings, the discourse analysis technique and the reference framework of health promotion are used. the group of elderly, being mostly female arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus patients, visualizes the health-disease process as the evolution of human existence controlled by divine power, signifying the health service as a blessing in the control of the disease. The Group of young pregnant women signified health as the ability for self-care and disease as the disability for that purposes, considering the Primary Health Care service as responsible for the recovery of individual and family health. the users demonstrated dissatisfaction with bureaucratic and vertical relations present at the health services. In each group, it was observed that the meanings for health and disease and meanings of the health service the users elaborated can be related.

An Ambient Intelligence Framework for the Provision of Geographically Distributed Multimedia Content to Mobility Impaired Users

Science.gov (United States)

Kehagias, Dionysios D.; Giakoumis, Dimitris; Tzovaras, Dimitrios; Bekiaris, Evangelos; Wiethoff, Marion

This chapter presents an ambient intelligence framework whose goal is to facilitate the information needs of mobility impaired users on the move. This framework couples users with geographically distributed services and the corresponding multimedia content, enabling access to context-sensitive information based on user geographic location and the use case under consideration. It provides a multi-modal facility that is realized through a set of mobile devices and user interfaces that address the needs of ten different types of user impairments. The overall ambient intelligence framework enables users who are equipped with mobile devices to access multimedia content in order to undertake activities relevant to one or more of the following domains: transportation, tourism and leisure, personal support services, work, business, education, social relations and community building. User experience is being explored against those activities through a specific usage scenario.

User centered and ontology based information retrieval system for life sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Sy, Mohameth-François; Ranwez, Sylvie; Montmain, Jacky; Regnault, Armelle; Crampes, Michel; Ranwez, Vincent

2012-01-25

Because of the increasing number of electronic resources, designing efficient tools to retrieve and exploit them is a major challenge. Some improvements have been offered by semantic Web technologies and applications based on domain ontologies. In life science, for instance, the Gene Ontology is widely exploited in genomic applications and the Medical Subject Headings is the basis of biomedical publications indexation and information retrieval process proposed by PubMed. However current search engines suffer from two main drawbacks: there is limited user interaction with the list of retrieved resources and no explanation for their adequacy to the query is provided. Users may thus be confused by the selection and have no idea on how to adapt their queries so that the results match their expectations. This paper describes an information retrieval system that relies on domain ontology to widen the set of relevant documents that is retrieved and that uses a graphical rendering of query results to favor user interactions. Semantic proximities between ontology concepts and aggregating models are used to assess documents adequacy with respect to a query. The selection of documents is displayed in a semantic map to provide graphical indications that make explicit to what extent they match the user's query; this man/machine interface favors a more interactive and iterative exploration of data corpus, by facilitating query concepts weighting and visual explanation. We illustrate the benefit of using this information retrieval system on two case studies one of which aiming at collecting human genes related to transcription factors involved in hemopoiesis pathway. The ontology based information retrieval system described in this paper (OBIRS) is freely available at: http://www.ontotoolkit.mines-ales.fr/ObirsClient/. This environment is a first step towards a user centred application in which the system enlightens relevant information to provide decision help.

User centered and ontology based information retrieval system for life sciences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sy Mohameth-François

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Because of the increasing number of electronic resources, designing efficient tools to retrieve and exploit them is a major challenge. Some improvements have been offered by semantic Web technologies and applications based on domain ontologies. In life science, for instance, the Gene Ontology is widely exploited in genomic applications and the Medical Subject Headings is the basis of biomedical publications indexation and information retrieval process proposed by PubMed. However current search engines suffer from two main drawbacks: there is limited user interaction with the list of retrieved resources and no explanation for their adequacy to the query is provided. Users may thus be confused by the selection and have no idea on how to adapt their queries so that the results match their expectations. Results This paper describes an information retrieval system that relies on domain ontology to widen the set of relevant documents that is retrieved and that uses a graphical rendering of query results to favor user interactions. Semantic proximities between ontology concepts and aggregating models are used to assess documents adequacy with respect to a query. The selection of documents is displayed in a semantic map to provide graphical indications that make explicit to what extent they match the user's query; this man/machine interface favors a more interactive and iterative exploration of data corpus, by facilitating query concepts weighting and visual explanation. We illustrate the benefit of using this information retrieval system on two case studies one of which aiming at collecting human genes related to transcription factors involved in hemopoiesis pathway. Conclusions The ontology based information retrieval system described in this paper (OBIRS is freely available at: http://www.ontotoolkit.mines-ales.fr/ObirsClient/. This environment is a first step towards a user centred application in which the system enlightens

On relevant boundary perturbations of unitary minimal models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Recknagel, A.; Roggenkamp, D.; Schomerus, V.

2000-01-01

We consider unitary Virasoro minimal models on the disk with Cardy boundary conditions and discuss deformations by certain relevant boundary operators, analogous to tachyon condensation in string theory. Concentrating on the least relevant boundary field, we can perform a perturbative analysis of renormalization group fixed points. We find that the systems always flow towards stable fixed points which admit no further (non-trivial) relevant perturbations. The new conformal boundary conditions are in general given by superpositions of 'pure' Cardy boundary conditions

DART 7.0 User Guide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Enders, Alexander L. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Lousteau, Angela L. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2016-06-01

The Desktop Analysis Reporting Tool (DART) is a software package that allows users to easily view and analyze daily files that span long periods. DART gives users the capability to quickly determine the state of health of a radiation portal monitor (RPM), troubleshoot and diagnose problems, and view data in various time frames to perform trend analysis. In short, it converts the data strings written in the daily files into meaningful tables and plots. The standalone version of DART (“soloDART”) utilizes a database engine that is included with the application; no additional installations are necessary. There is also a networked version of DART (“polyDART”) that is designed to maximize the benefit of a centralized data repository while distributing the workload to individual desktop machines. This networked approach requires a more complex database manager Structured Query Language (SQL) Server; however, SQL Server is not currently provided with DART. Regardless of which version is used, DART will import daily files from RPMs, store the relevant data in its database, and it can produce reports for status, trend analysis, and reporting purposes.

DART 7.0 User Guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Enders, Alexander L.; Lousteau, Angela L.

2016-01-01

The Desktop Analysis Reporting Tool (DART) is a software package that allows users to easily view and analyze daily files that span long periods. DART gives users the capability to quickly determine the state of health of a radiation portal monitor (RPM), troubleshoot and diagnose problems, and view data in various time frames to perform trend analysis. In short, it converts the data strings written in the daily files into meaningful tables and plots. The standalone version of DART (''soloDART'') utilizes a database engine that is included with the application; no additional installations are necessary. There is also a networked version of DART (''polyDART'') that is designed to maximize the benefit of a centralized data repository while distributing the workload to individual desktop machines. This networked approach requires a more complex database manager Structured Query Language (SQL) Server; however, SQL Server is not currently provided with DART. Regardless of which version is used, DART will import daily files from RPMs, store the relevant data in its database, and it can produce reports for status, trend analysis, and reporting purposes.

Ethical perspectives on emerging assistive technologies: insights from focus groups with stakeholders in long-term care facilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Dorsten, Aimee-Marie; Sifford, K Susan; Bharucha, Ashok; Mecca, Laurel Person; Wactlar, Howard

2009-03-01

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES ARE RELATIVELY novel tools for research and daily care in long-term care (LTC) facilities that are faced with the burgeoning of the older adult population and dwindling staffing resources. The degree to which stakeholders in LTC facilities are receptive to the use of these technologies is poorly understood. Eighteen semi-structured focus groups and one interview were conducted with relevant groups of stakeholders at seven LTC facilities in southwestern Pennsylvania. Common themes identified across all focus groups centered on concerns for privacy, autonomy, cost, and safety associated with implementation of novel technologies. The relative importance of each theme varied by stakeholder group as well as the perceived severity of cognitive and/or physical disability. Our findings suggest that ethical issues are critical to acceptance of novel technologies by their end users, and that stakeholder groups are interdependent and require shared communication about the acceptance of these emerging technologies.

Assessing users satisfaction with service quality in Slovenian public library

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Igor Podbrežnik

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Purpose: A research was made into user satisfaction with regard to the quality of library services in one of the Slovenian public libraries. The aim was to establish the type of service quality level actually expected by the users, and to determine their satisfaction with the current quality level of available library services.Methodology: The research was performed by means of the SERVQUAL measuring tool which was used to determine the size and direction of the gap between the detected and the expected quality of library services among public library users.Results: Different groups of users provide different assessments of specific quality factors, and a library cannot satisfy the expectations of each and every user if most quality factors display discrepancies between the estimated perception and expectations. The users expect more reliable services and more qualified library staff members who would understand and allocate time for each user’s individual needs. The largest discrepancies from the expectations are detected among users in the under-35 age group and among the more experienced and skilled library users. The results of factor analysis confirm the fact that a higher number of quality factors can be explained by three common factors affecting the satisfaction of library users. A strong connection between user satisfaction and their assessment of the integral quality of services and loyalty has been established.Research restrictions: The research results should not be generalised and applied to all Slovenian public libraries since they differ in many important aspects. In addition, a non-random sampling method was used.Research originality/Applicability: The conducted research illustrates the use of a measuring tool that was developed with the aim of determining the satisfaction of users with the quality of library services in Slovenian public libraries. Keywords: public library, user satisfaction, quality of library services, user

IT User Community Survey

CERN Document Server

Peter Jones (IT-CDA-WF)

2016-01-01

IT-CDA is gathering information to more accurately form a snapshot of the CERN IT user community and we would appreciate you taking time to complete the following survey.   We want to use this survey to better understand how the user community uses their devices and our services, and how the delivery of those services could be improved. You will need to authenticate to complete the survey. However please note that your responses are confidential and will be compiled together and analysed as a group. You can also volunteer to offer additional information if you so wish. This survey should take no longer than 5 minutes. Thanks in advance for your collaboration.

Term Relevance Feedback and Mediated Database Searching: Implications for Information Retrieval Practice and Systems Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Spink, Amanda

1995-01-01

This study uses the human approach to examine the sources and effectiveness of search terms selected during 40 mediated interactive database searches and focuses on determining the retrieval effectiveness of search terms identified by users and intermediaries from retrieved items during term relevance feedback. (Author/JKP)

Electrophysiological evidence of atypical processing underlying mental set shifting in ecstasy polydrug and polydrug users.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Carl A; Fairclough, Stephen H; McGlone, Francis P; Fisk, John E; Montgomery, Catharine

2013-12-01

Executive functioning deficits are reported in ecstasy users. However research into mental set switching has been equivocal, with behavioral studies suggesting the function is preserved. The current study sought to address the issue of switching deficits in ecstasy users by combining behavioral performance with electrophysiological correlates (electroencephalography; EEG). Twenty ecstasy polydrug users, 20 nonecstasy polydrug users, and 20 drug naive controls were recruited. Participants completed questionnaires about their drug use, sleep quality, fluid intelligence, and current mood state. Each participant completed a mental set switching task (the number-letter task) while EEG measures were recorded. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no between-group differences on performance of the task; however a regression suggested that ecstasy use was a significant predictor for performance, after controlling for cannabis use. Mixed ANOVA revealed a significant effect of group on the P3, with significant differences between both drug groups and naives. There was also an interaction between electrode and group on the P2 component, with ecstasy users differing from both other groups. On the P3 component the results suggest a reduction in positivity at parieto-occipital electrodes for drug users compared to controls. Furthermore a significant increase in negativity in ecstasy users compared to control groups could be observed in several occipito-parietal electrodes at an N2 component as well as observable atypicalities in early processing (P2) displayed by ecstasy users and polydrug controls. The present study provides evidence of atypical processing of attentional shifting in ecstasy and polydrug users. Deficits in this executive function could reflect cognitive inflexibility and paucity of rapid behavioral adjustment, which may be problematic in real world situations.

Activity Monitors as Support for Older Persons' Physical Activity in Daily Life: Qualitative Study of the Users' Experiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Ehn, Maria; Eriksson, Lennie Carlén; Åkerberg, Nina; Johansson, Ann-Christin

2018-02-01

Falls are a major threat to the health and independence of seniors. Regular physical activity (PA) can prevent 40% of all fall injuries. The challenge is to motivate and support seniors to be physically active. Persuasive systems can constitute valuable support for persons aiming at establishing and maintaining healthy habits. However, these systems need to support effective behavior change techniques (BCTs) for increasing older adults' PA and meet the senior users' requirements and preferences. Therefore, involving users as codesigners of new systems can be fruitful. Prestudies of the user's experience with similar solutions can facilitate future user-centered design of novel persuasive systems. The aim of this study was to investigate how seniors experience using activity monitors (AMs) as support for PA in daily life. The addressed research questions are as follows: (1) What are the overall experiences of senior persons, of different age and balance function, in using wearable AMs in daily life?; (2) Which aspects did the users perceive relevant to make the measurements as meaningful and useful in the long-term perspective?; and (3) What needs and requirements did the users perceive as more relevant for the activity monitors to be useful in a long-term perspective? This qualitative interview study included 8 community-dwelling older adults (median age: 83 years). The participants' experiences in using two commercial AMs together with tablet-based apps for 9 days were investigated. Activity diaries during the usage and interviews after the usage were exploited to gather user experience. Comments in diaries were summarized, and interviews were analyzed by inductive content analysis. The users (n=8) perceived that, by using the AMs, their awareness of own PA had increased. However, the AMs' impact on the users' motivation for PA and activity behavior varied between participants. The diaries showed that self-estimated physical effort varied between participants and

[E-learning in orthopedics and traumatology. A comparative pilot study on acceptance and knowledge acquisition among users and non-users].

Science.gov (United States)

Hoff, E; Haberstroh, N; Sostmann, K; Perka, C; Putzier, M; Schmidmaier, G; Back, D A

2014-07-01

Additional internet-based learning tools (e-learning) are successfully used in the curricula of many disciplines and are highly accepted among students. However, in orthopedics and traumatology e-learning is underrepresented and scientific papers are rare. The aim of the present pilot study was to evaluate the acceptance of the e-learning module network for students in traumatology and orthopedics (NESTOR) among users and non-users and to analyze the effect of this additional learning tool on knowledge acquisition. A total of 544 students were asked to complete evaluation questionnaires at the end of two semesters using different ones for NESTOR users and non-users. The gain of knowledge was analyzed by two written knowledge tests (pre-post test, 20 multiple choice questions) at the beginning and end of the semester comparing these two groups. A total of 191 students took part in the evaluation and 152 completed both written tests. The NESTOR users showed a high acceptance of the e-learning system and non-users considered e-learning beneficial as well. Reasons given for not using NESTOR were lack of time, lack of information about the existence of NESTOR and a lack of interest in this discipline and e-learning in general. Both groups significantly increased their level of knowledge during the course of the semester (p e-learning project NESTOR in teaching students in orthopedics and traumatology. Based on experience and these results the permanent implementation of an additional e-learning module in the curriculum can be recommended for other faculties. In this process the critical comments of the non-users determined in the present study should be addressed.

Exploratory analysis of user-generated photos and indicators that influence their appeal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Urban Sedlar

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper we analyze if simple indicators related to photo quality (brightness, sharpness, color palette and established content detection techniques (face detection can predict the success of photos in obtaining more “likes” from other users of photo-sharing social networks. This provides a unique look into the habits of users of such networks. The analysis was performed on 394.000 images downloaded from the social photo-sharing site Instagram, paired with a de-identified dataset of user liking activity, provided by a seller of a social-media mobile app. Two user groups were analyzed: all users in a two month period (N = 122.260 and a highly selective group (N = 3.982 of users that only like <10% of what they view. No correlation was found with any of the indicators using the whole (non-selective population, likely due to their bias towards earning virtual currency in exchange for liking. However, in selective group, small positive correlation was found between like ratio and image sharpness (r=0.09, p<0.0001 and small negative correlation between like ratio and the number of faces (r=-0.10, p<0.0001.

The older adult road user : recommendations for driver assistance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wilschut, E.S.; Kroon, E.C.M.; Goede, M. de; Cremers, A.H.M.; Hoedemaeker, D.M.

2014-01-01

The number of older road users is getting increasingly larger in Europe. Therefore policy makers pay more attention to the abilities and limitations of this group of road users. Providing accessible and comfortable assistance and safety functions for mobility is a key challenge in the objective of

Comparative Analysis of Tear Film Levels of Inflammatory Mediators in Contact Lens Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Yüksel Elgin, Cansu; İskeleli, Güzin; Talaz, Serap; Akyol, Sibel

2016-04-01

To compare tear films levels of various inflammatory cytokines in asymptomatic contact lens (CL) users. CL users of rigid gas-permeable CLs (RGPCL) (group 1) or silicone hydrogel CLs (SiHCL) (group 2) were compared with non-CL-using healthy subjects (group 3). Tear samples were collected from subjects in each group after ensuring that there were no complications secondary to CL wear in the CL-wearing participants. Tear-film levels of interleukins (ILs)-1β, -6, and -8; granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (using the Luminex method); and leukotriene B4 (LTB4) (using the ELISA method) were determined. Cytokine levels were compared among the three groups using analysis-of-variance (ANOVA) and Kruskall-Wallis tests. There were significant differences in concentrations of IL-1β, GM-CSF and LTB4 among the three groups (p = 0.002, p = 0.021 and p = 0.009, respectively), as shown by the Kruskall-Wallis test comparing all three groups for the three cytokines. There were no significant differences for IL-6 and IL-8 (p = 0.079 and 0.094, respectively) when all three groups were compared. There were substantial statistically significant differences between RGPCL users, SiHCL users and control subjects in levels of tear film cytokines. Although CL users were asymptomatic, changes in tear-film levels of several important inflammatory mediators revealed that a chronic inflammatory process occurs during CL wear.

ACCU: a committee that addresses Users' needs

CERN Multimedia

Anaïs Schaeffer

2013-01-01

This year, the Advisory Committee of CERN Users (ACCU) celebrates its 25th anniversary. Created in its modern form in December 1988 - at a time when the number of users was about 1,500 - the committee still defends the interests of today’s users, now numbering around 11,000.   Actually, the first ACCU was established in 1977. Demanded by the rising number of Users, the need for such a committee arose during the 127th Meeting of Committee of Council (as stated in this official document): “In view of the large number and diversity of CERN Users, it has become apparent for some time that it would be useful to have an organised channel of consultation between the CERN direction and a representative group of CERN Users.” Michael Hauschild, ACCU Secretary since 2010, explains: “At that time, there were fewer ACCU members, and not all the countries were represented. With the birth of the modern form of the committee, in 1988, the decision to have representatives ...

PubstractHelper: A Web-based Text-Mining Tool for Marking Sentences in Abstracts from PubMed Using Multiple User-Defined Keywords.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chou-Cheng; Ho, Chung-Liang

2014-01-01

While a huge amount of information about biological literature can be obtained by searching the PubMed database, reading through all the titles and abstracts resulting from such a search for useful information is inefficient. Text mining makes it possible to increase this efficiency. Some websites use text mining to gather information from the PubMed database; however, they are database-oriented, using pre-defined search keywords while lacking a query interface for user-defined search inputs. We present the PubMed Abstract Reading Helper (PubstractHelper) website which combines text mining and reading assistance for an efficient PubMed search. PubstractHelper can accept a maximum of ten groups of keywords, within each group containing up to ten keywords. The principle behind the text-mining function of PubstractHelper is that keywords contained in the same sentence are likely to be related. PubstractHelper highlights sentences with co-occurring keywords in different colors. The user can download the PMID and the abstracts with color markings to be reviewed later. The PubstractHelper website can help users to identify relevant publications based on the presence of related keywords, which should be a handy tool for their research. http://bio.yungyun.com.tw/ATM/PubstractHelper.aspx and http://holab.med.ncku.edu.tw/ATM/PubstractHelper.aspx.

Temporal differences in gamma-hydroxybutyrate overdoses involving injecting drug users versus recreational drug users in Helsinki: a retrospective study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boyd James J

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL have been profiled as 'party drugs' used mainly at dance parties and in nightclubs on weekend nights. The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency of injecting drug use among GHB/GBL overdose patients and whether there are temporal differences in the occurrence of GHB/GBL overdoses of injecting drug and recreational drug users. Methods In this retrospective study, the ambulance and hospital records of suspected GHB- and GBL overdose patients treated by the Helsinki Emergency Medical Service from January 1st 2006 to December 31st 2007 were reviewed. According to the temporal occurrence of the overdose, patients were divided in two groups. In group A, the overdose occurred on a Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday night between 11 pm-6 am. Group B consisted of overdoses occurring on outside this time frame. Results Group A consisted of 39 patient contacts and the remaining 61 patient contacts were in group B. There were statistically significant differences between the two groups in (group A vs. B, respectively: history of injecting drug abuse (33% vs. 59%, p = 0.012, reported polydrug and ethanol use (80% vs. 62%, p = 0.028, the location where the patients were encountered (private or public indoors or outdoors, 10%, 41%, 41% vs. 25%, 18%, 53%, p = 0.019 and how the knowledge of GHB/GBL use was obtained (reported by patient/bystanders or clinical suspicion, 72%, 28% vs. 85%, 10%, p = 0.023. Practically all (99% patients were transported to emergency department after prehospital care. Conclusion There appears to be at least two distinct groups of GHB/GBL users. Injecting drug users represent the majority of GHB/GBL overdose patients outside weekend nights.

An Improved User Selection Algorithm in Multiuser MIMO Broadcast with Channel Prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Min, Zhi; Ohtsuki, Tomoaki

In multiuser MIMO-BC (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Broadcasting) systems, user selection is important to achieve multiuser diversity. The optimal user selection algorithm is to try all the combinations of users to find the user group that can achieve the multiuser diversity. Unfortunately, the high calculation cost of the optimal algorithm prevents its implementation. Thus, instead of the optimal algorithm, some suboptimal user selection algorithms were proposed based on semiorthogonality of user channel vectors. The purpose of this paper is to achieve multiuser diversity with a small amount of calculation. For this purpose, we propose a user selection algorithm that can improve the orthogonality of a selected user group. We also apply a channel prediction technique to a MIMO-BC system to get more accurate channel information at the transmitter. Simulation results show that the channel prediction can improve the accuracy of channel information for user selections, and the proposed user selection algorithm achieves higher sum rate capacity than the SUS (Semiorthogonal User Selection) algorithm. Also we discuss the setting of the algorithm threshold. As the result of a discussion on the calculation complexity, which uses the number of complex multiplications as the parameter, the proposed algorithm is shown to have a calculation complexity almost equal to that of the SUS algorithm, and they are much lower than that of the optimal user selection algorithm.

User interface user's guide for HYPGEN

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Ing-Tsau

1992-01-01

The user interface (UI) of HYPGEN is developed using Panel Library to shorten the learning curve for new users and provide easier ways to run HYPGEN for casual users as well as for advanced users. Menus, buttons, sliders, and type-in fields are used extensively in UI to allow users to point and click with a mouse to choose various available options or to change values of parameters. On-line help is provided to give users information on using UI without consulting the manual. Default values are set for most parameters and boundary conditions are determined by UI to further reduce the effort needed to run HYPGEN; however, users are free to make any changes and save it in a file for later use. A hook to PLOT3D is built in to allow graphics manipulation. The viewpoint and min/max box for PLOT3D windows are computed by UI and saved in a PLOT3D journal file. For large grids which take a long time to generate on workstations, the grid generator (HYPGEN) can be run on faster computers such as Crays, while UI stays at the workstation.

The informational practice of the users of an information system from a comprehensive perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Luisa de Vasconcelos Terto

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Objective. This research is characterized as a study of users of the Sistema de Informação da Extensão da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (SIEX/UFMG. The general objective of the study is to investigate the information practices of users of the system, covering both the behavioral aspects of their users and the operational aspects of the system. Method. The theory is based on (i information behavior - approaching this research studies the social approach -, (ii social phenomenology - seeking to understand users informational practices - and (iii usability - to verify users perception in relation to the system. Instead of assigning reasons for the users information behavior of users, we search to understand their motivations and perceptions. Therefore, we tried to enter the universe of users by writing in-depth semi-structured interviews to collect data. Results. The research generated good comprehensive and descriptive results, bringing relevant considerations about SIEX/UFMG and extension at the University. Conclusions. The survey revealed that the use of SIEX / UFMG goes beyond its basic functions and allows us to understand the users' perception regarding the university extension.

User recommendation in healthcare social media by assessing user similarity in heterogeneous network.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Ling; Yang, Christopher C

2017-09-01

The rapid growth of online health social websites has captured a vast amount of healthcare information and made the information easy to access for health consumers. E-patients often use these social websites for informational and emotional support. However, health consumers could be easily overwhelmed by the overloaded information. Healthcare information searching can be very difficult for consumers, not to mention most of them are not skilled information searcher. In this work, we investigate the approaches for measuring user similarity in online health social websites. By recommending similar users to consumers, we can help them to seek informational and emotional support in a more efficient way. We propose to represent the healthcare social media data as a heterogeneous healthcare information network and introduce the local and global structural approaches for measuring user similarity in a heterogeneous network. We compare the proposed structural approaches with the content-based approach. Experiments were conducted on a dataset collected from a popular online health social website, and the results showed that content-based approach performed better for inactive users, while structural approaches performed better for active users. Moreover, global structural approach outperformed local structural approach for all user groups. In addition, we conducted experiments on local and global structural approaches using different weight schemas for the edges in the network. Leverage performed the best for both local and global approaches. Finally, we integrated different approaches and demonstrated that hybrid method yielded better performance than the individual approach. The results indicate that content-based methods can effectively capture the similarity of inactive users who usually have focused interests, while structural methods can achieve better performance when rich structural information is available. Local structural approach only considers direct connections

Iterative group splitting algorithm for opportunistic scheduling systems

KAUST Repository

Nam, Haewoon

2014-05-01

An efficient feedback algorithm for opportunistic scheduling systems based on iterative group splitting is proposed in this paper. Similar to the opportunistic splitting algorithm, the proposed algorithm adjusts (or lowers) the feedback threshold during a guard period if no user sends a feedback. However, when a feedback collision occurs at any point of time, the proposed algorithm no longer updates the threshold but narrows down the user search space by dividing the users into multiple groups iteratively, whereas the opportunistic splitting algorithm keeps adjusting the threshold until a single user is found. Since the threshold is only updated when no user sends a feedback, it is shown that the proposed algorithm significantly alleviates the signaling overhead for the threshold distribution to the users by the scheduler. More importantly, the proposed algorithm requires a less number of mini-slots than the opportunistic splitting algorithm to make a user selection with a given level of scheduling outage probability or provides a higher ergodic capacity given a certain number of mini-slots. © 2013 IEEE.

Quality of antiretroviral therapy in public health facilities in Nigeria and perceptions of end users.