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Biomedical subjects

L A Watts

Publications and source records attributed to L A Watts.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Telemedicine. What happens in remote consultation.

The results of a field study of three sites that used video to link primary care medical centers to hospitals are reported. The analysis was concerned with identifying the people involved, the tasks carried out in collaboration at each end of the link, and how the different communications facilities helped or hindered. The results are summarized as six task characteristics and their design implications for this model of telemedical consultation are discussed.

Communication↗

Reasoning about tasks, activities and technology to support collaboration.

An aspect of collaboration described as 'semi-synchronized activity' is discussed as a particular challenge for the task analysis (TA) of collaborative work. TA typically involves the decomposition of work systems into essentially independent component processes between which commodities (information or materials) pass. In collaborative work, people routinely violate the condition of independence by moving seemlessly in and out of synchronization with one another, allowing for both independent and varying levels of conjoint activity. The shift between joint and independent projects is not fixed but managed through more or less explicit awareness of the other people over time. A number of case studies of the effect of communication technologies in telemedical consultation are drawn upon to illustrate the relationship between awareness and synchronization in collaborative work. They show that an analysis of collaborative activity requires a consideration of: (1) the activities constituting work; (2) the interactions between participants required to carry out the activities; (3) who else has access to these activities besides the primary participants in the ongoing work; (4) the contemporaneity of activities; (5) the locations/environments in which the activities are carried out; and (6) the constraints that apply to accessibility and participation within and between these environments. The Comms Usage Diagram is described as a framing notation incorporating these characteristics for a broad, communications-level analysis of collaborative activity. It shows how particular technologies relate to particular phases of work, indexing their effects to collaborative activities in those contexts.

Humans↗

Molecular weights of aggregation states of Busycon hemocyanin.

Molecular weights of all hemocyanin aggregates which can be homogeneously isolated have been measured by sedimentation equilibrium. The larger aggregates, which are the ones present under physiological conditions, are, to a very close approximation, integral multiples of a 4.4 x 10(6)-dalton, 60 S species. Dissociation of the 60 S species at high pH gives heterogeneous samples in which the smallest species has a molecular weight of 300,000. The smallest subunit which can be produced in denaturing solvents also has a molecular weight of 300,000.

Animals↗