The Michigan Aging Services System, a World Wide Web-based information system, was developed for practicing gerontologists in the state of Michigan. A participatory design framework adapted from the software development literature guided the development process. Users from Michigan's aging network participated in the development process. Design data were collected using ...

The natural gradient descent method is applied to train an n-m-1 multilayer perceptron. Based on an efficient scheme to represent the Fisher information matrix for an n-m-1 stochastic multilayer perceptron, a new algorithm is proposed to calculate the natural gradient without inverting the Fisher information matrix explicitly. When the input ...

The optimality of multidimensional perceptual categorization performance with unequal base rates and payoffs was examined. In Experiment 1, observers learned simultaneously the category structures and base rates or payoffs. Observers showed conservative cutoff placement when payoffs were unequal and extreme cutoff placement when base rates were unequal. In Experiment 2, ...

The amount of information on the Internet is growing by the nanosecond. It is no longer expeditious to "surf" site to site now that automated convenient-to-use search tools can find the information you are looking for swiftly. Unfortunately, no one tool covers the entire worldwide web (www), much less the ...

This article analyzes the extent to which different policy instruments explain toxic reductions among the states. Data from the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and other sources are used to assess the effect of various policy instruments, while holding economic factors constant. State TRI information programs, enforcement action, and direct regulation ...

Information is a dynamic, potentially high-value resource that institutions can use to achieve superior performance. The myriad of advanced information technology projects, however, delivers to the institution's clinical and business processes unpredictable deluges of information objects, both paper and electronic, that may add little value to the processes. Also, because ...

The adoption of any information system should be justified by an economic analysis demonstrating that its projected benefits outweigh its projected costs. Analysis differ, however, on which methods to employ for such a justification. Accountants prefer cost-volume-profit analysis, and economists prefer net present value analysis. The article explains the strengths ...

OBJECTIVE: To develop a prototype program for surveillance of causes of death of dogs, using resources developed for the World Wide Web, to enable collection of data from veterinarians in small animal practice and dissemination of results in a timely manner at minimal expense. DESIGN: Epidemiologic survey. SAMPLE POPULATION: Small ...

Decision makers often pursue noninstrumental information--information that appears relevant but, if simply available, would have no impact on choice. Once they pursue such information, people then use it to make their decision. Consequently, the pursuit of information that would have had no impact on choice leads people to make choices ...

Veterinary medical students at Iowa State University were surveyed in January of 1997 to determine their general use of the Veterinary Medical Library and how they sought information in an electronic environment. Comparisons were made between this study and one conducted a decade ago to determine the effect of the ...

The use of information technology in a peritoneal dialysis service, as in any facility, poses the problem of the choice of the data to be stored. It is important to define the whole range of information which may be of use and to assess the costs and benefits involved. These ...

A pedagogical network has been developed at University Hospital of Rennes from 1996. The challenge is to give medical information and informatics tools to all medical students in the clinical wards of the University Hospital. At first, nine wards were connected to the medical school server which is linked to ...

At Hinsdale (IL) Hospital, health information specialists and case managers have created an innovative training and orientation program to get new case managers up to speed on the latest tools and techniques in information management. Established to help clinical case managers better comes to terms with complicated financial data, the ...

Five persons with severe amnesia were trained to use a device containing items of information relevant to daily activities. The training consisted of a procedure in which requests for information were paired with a tone, and the subject was required to access the device and respond with the answer to ...

The aim of this study was to assess the availability and use of information technology in accident and emergency departments (A&E) in the UK. A postal questionnaire was sent to every general A&E department in the UK which sees more than 25,000 new attendances/year (n = 217). Responses were obtained ...

Medical students in Germany have to study the basics of medical information processing within a special curriculum which is part of the ecological course. This curriculum offers an introduction to principles of medical informatics. Starting with a conventional textbook, a computer-based training (CBT) program has been developed using the technologies ...

"This article demonstrates how Portugal, despite appearing to be a country which would be [an] unattractive country to immigrants, is rapidly becoming a country of immigration. The existence and extent of opportunities for immigrants in Portugal is assessed with this objective in mind. On the basis of an analysis of ...

During the past 30 years, there has been an explosion in the volume of published medical information. As this volume has increased, so has the need for efficient methods for searching the data. MEDLINE, the primary medical database, is currently limited to abstracts of the medical literature. MEDLINE searches use ...

College students read chapters from a novel written by Alan Lightman (Einstein's Dreams) and later provided verification judgments on the truth/falsity of test statements. Each chapter described a different fictional village that incorporated assumptions about time that deviate from our normal TIME schema, e.g., citizens knowing exactly when the world ...

The present paper summarizes future needs in information and tools, technology, infrastructure, training, funding, and bioinformatics, to provide the genomic knowledge and tools for breeding and biotechnological goals in maize. The National Corn Genome Initiative (NCGA) has developed through actions taken by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and participation ...

In October of 1995 the dialysis program at Oshawa General Hospital initiated a survey that was sent out to all dialysis units across Canada listed in the 1995 Canadian Organ Replacement Registry. The survey was designed to gather a broad range of information on dialysis programs across the country. The ...

A famous historian, Toynbee, wrote that history was based on challenge and response. Certainly the development of our understanding of osteochondrosis dissecans in the dog fits this description. From the first indications of the disease to our present understanding took about 60 years. The times were right, for during this ...

Information is usually available in heterogeneous data format and various legacy sources. Interoperability appears to be a major approach for applications to access information. The project ARIANE is devoted to provide end-users with an easy to use and natural access to information databases. In this frame we defined actors able ...

The Cancer Information Service's (CIS) nationally coordinated, regionally focused outreach program establishes partnerships with government, nonprofit, and private organizations to reach underserved and minority populations. A national random sample telephone survey, conducted with 867 partner organizations who had contact with the CIS in early 1996, assessed the types of CIS ...

BACKGROUND: This article provides a consultant's account of a 250-bed community hospital's experience in implementing the Clinical Resource Management (CRM) program, a four-stage process of using information to identify opportunities for improvement, developing an effective resource management team, implementing process improvement activities, and measuring the impact on outcomes of care. ...

Two studies tested the hypothesis that self-rated unhappy individuals would be more sensitive to social comparison information than would happy ones. Study 1 showed that whereas unhappy students' affect and self-assessments were heavily affected by a peer who solved anagrams either faster or slower, happy students' responses were affected by ...

NEXUS is a file format designed to contain systematic data for use by computer programs. The goals of the format are to allow future expansion, to include diverse kinds of information, to be independent of particular computer operating systems, and to be easily processed by a program. To this end, ...

Making presentations creates fear in most people. If at all possible, they avoid having to get up in front of an audience. But how many people think about the fact that we are constantly making informal presentations and that many of the same skills can be applied? Every team meeting, ...

The idea of digital libraries is not new, but recent developments have made the realisation of this idea more of a practical possibility than ever before. In particular, the availability of tools for easy access to information and for easy production of new information has encouraged traditional publishers to make ...

The Medical Library Association (MLA) has provided its members with a credentialing program since 1949. This article reports on a five-year review of the current program, the Academy of Health Information Professionals. The review included an analysis of the financial basis of the academy and the use of three different ...

A unique indicator of change in our culture's openness to and interest in death, dying, and bereavement is the availability of "thanatechnology": technological mechanisms such as interactive videodiscs and computer programs that are used to access information or aid in learning about thanatology topics. This article describes resources available through ...

By knowing how students process information, educators can get them to notice what is being taught so that they learn as much as possible. Teachers can use this information to change their lessons from lecture and note-taking instruction to active involvement that enhances students' comprehension. The purpose of this article ...

We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in the economics of information--a shift that will precipitate changes in the structure of entire industries and in the ways companies compete. This shift is made possible by the widespread adoption of Internet technologies, but it is less about technology than ...

Bibliographic databases such as RNdex, CINAHL, and MEDLINE help you find current clinical practice information beyond what is available in textbooks and reference manuals. There are many options for accessing these information resources, including some that are convenient and affordable for students. By learning basic search principles and techniques for ...

Mastering the retrieval of valid information from the Internet can be challenging, especially for busy professionals with little time for learning the necessary techniques. This article provides a conceptual framework for browsing and searching for clinically relevant, valid information on the Web. Part 1 provides an overview of the Web ...

In the traditional model of communicating information, a general practitioner receives information from his or her teacher (when they choose to give it) and from print media (books and journals) and in turn can pass on the information didactically to patients (whether they asked for it or not). The arrival ...

It is often assumed that automatic teller machines (ATMs) are inherently easy to use and require no training. However, there is evidence to suggest that ATM users do experience difficulty when learning to use the system. The purpose of the present study was to conduct an in-depth analysis of ATM ...

This article reviews several of the key tools and protocols that physicians use to access information on the internet. They include the World Wide Web, electronic mail, newsgroups, Gopher, and file transfer protocol. A general description of these tools, and some tips and nuances in their application, are discussed. This ...

BACKGROUND: In 1993, the American Medical Association (AMA) requested its Council on Scientific Affairs to investigate issues and concerns related to (1) improving public notification of pesticide applications and (2) improving educational programs for commercial and farm pesticide applicators and increasing enforcement of licensing examination requirements. This report was presented ...

The Internet provides a rapid facility for accessing a large amount of information which, once found, can be manipulated in a variety of ways. For example, with the authors' permission, Web pages can be retrieved, converted into text files and edited to produce patient leaflets of sexually-transmitted conditions, prescribing information ...

Information management training has been neglected in family practice in the UK in the past. An adult learning model for such training is introduced. A pilot study using the adult learning approach showed improvements in information management processes over the six-month study period. The research project described in this paper ...

Information management training has been neglected in family practice in the UK in the past. An adult learning model for such training is introduced. A pilot study using the adult learning approach showed improvements in information management processes over the six-month study period. The research project described in this paper ...

Thirty-five current therapy clients, 47 former clients, and 42 college students with no therapy experience rated 27 items in terms of importance for inclusion in informed consent discussions. The current and former client samples rated information about inappropriate therapeutic techniques, confidentiality, and the risks of alternative treatments as most important, ...

There is rapid technological transformation occurring in both work and social life. The results of information technology, such as mobile telephones, computers, and electronic networks, have been looked upon as the key to solving several of the most pressing problems of the Western world. At the same time, numerous studies ...

Using personal experience and recommendations from other users in compiling a selection of reviews, provides a taste of the diversity of resources available on the World Wide Web, looking at sites to visit and detailing what each site has to offer. Covers information sources, journals, management development, networking, skills and ...

Companies collect information about customers to target valuable prospects more effectively, tailor their offerings to individual needs, improve customer satisfaction, and identify opportunities for new products or services. But managers' efforts to capture such information may soon be thwarted. The authors believe that consumers are going to take ownership of ...

Hispanics are facing a number of problems, such as poverty, hunger, and a high dropout rate at school. Health-care reform and changes in Medicaid and Medicare are bound to further challenge the resiliency of minority families. To strengthen families from within, relevant programming should be implemented. Information regarding the strengths ...

The meaning of hereditary information is not simple. It includes not only what a system receives and transmits but particularly what it makes. The syntactic basis to hereditary information is also not straightforward. For example, is DNA instructions, or data, or both? The answer to this question requires an appreciation ...

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of the New York University (NYU) neurosurgery Web resource are the following: 1) to educate patients and families of patients who have neurosurgical problems, 2) to provide a forum for communication among neurosurgeons and other physicians, 3) to educate neurosurgeons, and 4) to provide neurosurgeons with resources ...

The popular use of computer generated slides for presentations during plastic surgery scientific meetings has opened a fresh chapter in audiovisual techniques. Although the profusion of colours seen during presentations is a visual treat, the information imparted by these slides leaves much to be desired and raises the question of ...