SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “User experiences”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 649 records · Page 36Linked to original sources

PubMed1992

The effects of time delays on a telepathology user interface.

Telepathology enables a pathologist to examine physically distant tissue samples by microscope operation over a communication link. Communication links can impose time delays which cause difficulties in controlling the remote device. Such difficulties were found in a microscope teleoperation system. Since the user interface is critical to pathologist's acceptance of telepathology, we redesigned the user interface for this system, built two different versions (a keypad whose movement commands operated by specifying a start command followed by a stop command and a trackball interface whose movement commands were incremental and directly proportional to the rotation of the trackball). We then conducted a pilot study to determine the effect of time delays on the new user interfaces. In our experiment, the keypad was the faster interface when the time delay is short. There was no evidence to favor either the keypad or trackball when the time delay was longer. Inexperienced participants benefitted by allowing them to move long distances over the microscope slide by dragging the field-of-view indicator on the touchscreen control panel. The experiment suggests that changes could be made to the trackball interface which would improve its performance.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

PubMed2006

Text similarity: an alternative way to search MEDLINE.

MOTIVATION: The most widely used literature search techniques, such as those offered by NCBI's PubMed system, require significant effort on the part of the searcher, and inexperienced searchers do not use these systems as effectively as experienced users. Improved literature search engines can save researchers time and effort by making it easier to locate the most important and relevant literature. RESULTS: We have created and optimized a new, hybrid search system for Medline that takes natural text as input and then delivers results with high precision and recall. The combination of a fast, low-sensitivity weighted keyword-based first pass algorithm to cast a wide net to gather an initial set of literature, followed by a unique sentence-alignment based similarity algorithm to rank order those results was developed that is sensitive, fast and easy to use. Several text similarity search algorithms, both standard and novel, were implemented and tested in order to determine which obtained the best results in information retrieval exercises. AVAILABILITY: Literature searching algorithms are implemented in a system called eTBLAST, freely accessible over the web at http://invention.swmed.edu. A variety of other derivative systems and visualization tools provides the user with an enhanced experience and additional capabilities. CONTACT: Harold.Garner@UTSouthwestern.edu.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

PubMed2006

A qualitative study of an integrated maternity, drugs and social care service for drug-using women.

BACKGROUND: The care of drug-using pregnant women is a growing health and social care concern in many countries. A specialist clinic was established offering multidisciplinary care and advice to pregnant drug users in and around Aberdeen (UK) in 1997. The majority of women stabilise and reduce their drug use. By determining the needs and views of the women more appropriate services and prevention strategies may be developed. There has been little research conducted in this area and none in Scotland. METHODS: This is a qualitative study that aimed to gain an understanding of the experiences of women drug users, seeking and receiving prenatal care and drug services from a specialist clinic. Twelve women participated in semi-structured one-to-one interviews. RESULTS: The women preferred the multidisciplinary clinic (one-stop shop) to traditional prenatal care centred within General Practice. The relationships of the clients to the range of Clinic professionals and in hospital were explored as well as attitudes to Clinic care. The study participants attributed success in reducing their drug use to the combination of different aspects of care of the multi-agency clinic, especially the high level prenatal support. It is this arrangement of all aspects of care together that seem to produce better outcomes for mother and child than single care elements delivered separately. Some women reported that their pregnancy encouraged them to rapidly detoxify due to the guilt experienced. The most important aspects of the Clinic care were found to be non-judgemental attitude of staff, consistent staff, high level of support, reliable information and multi-agency integrated care. CONCLUSION: There is an impetus for women drug users to change lifestyle during pregnancy. The study highlighted a need for women to have access to reliable information on the effects of drugs on the baby. Further research is required to determine whether positive outcomes related to clinic attendance in the prenatal period are sustained in the postnatal period. Early referral to a specialist clinic is of benefit to the women, as they reported to receive more appropriate care, especially in relation to their drug use. A greater awareness of needs of the pregnant drug user could help the design of more effective prevention strategies.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Audiovisual Speech Web-Lab: an Internet teaching and research laboratory.

Internet resources now enable laboratories to make full-length experiments available on line. A handful of existing web sites offer users the ability to participate in experiments and generate usable data. We have integrated this technology into a web site that also provides full discussion of the theoretical and methodological aspects of the experiments using text and simple interactive demonstrations. The content of the web site (http://www.psych.ucr.edu/avspeech/lab) concerns audiovisual speech perception and its relation to face perception. The site is designed to be useful for users of multiple interests and levels of expertise.

Audiovisual Aids↗

PubMed1999

A voice-controlled robotic assistant for neuroendoscopy.

This paper describes experiments with a voice-controlled robot system to be used in endoscopic neurosurgery. The robot was a modified version of the robot described in previous publications of the group at Fraunhofer IPA and HSK. To control the robot a voice-controlled user interface was developed. The experiments were conducted on cadavers for three standard approaches in neuroendoscopy. The goal was to gain experience with a voice-controlled user interface and also with the set-up and use of the robotic system under clinical conditions. The results indicate that modifications to the robot and user interface are necessary. However the overall feasibility of the application was demonstrated.

Endoscopy↗

PubMed2005

Simulation system of arrhythmia using ActiveX control.

A simulation system for arrhythmias has been developed using Windows-based software technology, ActiveX control. The cardiac module consists of six cells, the sinus, atrium, AV node, ventricle, and ectopic foci. The physiological properties of the cells, the automaticity and conduction delay, were modelled, respectively, by the phase response curve and the excitability recovery curve. Cell functions were implemented in the ActiveX control and incorporated into the cardiac module. The system draws the ECG sequence as a ladder diagram in real time. The system interactively shows diverse arrhythmias for various user settings of the cell function and bidirectional conduction between the cells. Users are able to experiment virtually by setting up a so-called electrophysiological stimulation. This system is useful for learning and for teaching the interaction between the cells and arrhythmias.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗

PubMed2001

Street-level drug law enforcement and entry into methadone maintenance treatment.

AIMS: To test the hypothesis that drug law enforcement encourages entry into methadone maintenance treatment. DESIGN: Survey conducted as face-to-face interviews in methadone clinics, at needle exchange centres and on the street, in areas of widespread heroin dealing and use. SETTING: Sydney, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Heroin users. MEASUREMENTS: Self-reported data on personal characteristics, and experience of drug law enforcement and methadone maintenance treatment. FINDINGS: Although keeping their relationship/family together emerged as the most important reason given by respondents for entering treatment, avoiding more trouble with police/courts was also rated by the majority of respondents as an important or very important reason for entering treatment. The results of logistic regression analysis show that, after controlling for other factors, heroin users who have had a friend or family member imprisoned are more likely to have tried methadone maintenance treatment. A heroin user's own experience of arrest and imprisonment was also found to increase the likelihood of having tried treatment but only when age and length of time as a regular user (which were related to the user's experience of arrest and imprisonment) were excluded from the set of control variables. Despite having extensive histories of contact with the police and criminal justice system, however, Asian, Middle Eastern and Aboriginal respondents showed less proclivity to enter treatment than Caucasian respondents. CONCLUSION: Drug law enforcement may have a role to play in heroin demand reduction but its effects are not evident for all ethnic groups and the separate effects of contact with police, age and time spent in the heroin market remain unclear.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

Deployment of human-machine dialogue systems.

The deployment of systems for human-to-machine communication by voice requires overcoming a variety of obstacles that affect the speech-processing technologies. Problems encountered in the field might include variation in speaking style, acoustic noise, ambiguity of language, or confusion on the part of the speaker. The diversity of these practical problems encountered in the "real world" leads to the perceived gap between laboratory and "real-world" performance. To answer the question "What applications can speech technology support today?" the concept of the "degree of difficulty" of an application is introduced. The degree of difficulty depends not only on the demands placed on the speech recognition and speech synthesis technologies but also on the expectations of the user of the system. Experience has shown that deployment of effective speech communication systems requires an iterative process. This paper discusses general deployment principles, which are illustrated by several examples of human-machine communication systems.

Communication↗

PubMed2005

Analyzing and mining image databases.

Image mining is the application of computer-based techniques that extract and exploit information from large image sets to support human users in generating knowledge from these sources. This review focuses on biomedical applications, in particular automated imaging at the cellular level. An image database is an interactive software application that combines data management, image analysis and visual data mining. The main characteristic of such a system is a layer that represents objects within an image, and that represents a large spectrum of quantitative and semantic object features. The image analysis needs to be adapted to each particular experiment, so 'end-user programming' will be desirable to make the technology more widely applicable.

Humans↗

PubMed2006

pKD: re-designing protein pKa values.

The pK(a) values in proteins govern the pH-dependence of protein stability and enzymatic activity. A large number of mutagenesis experiments have been carried out in the last three decades to re-engineer the pH-activity and pH-stability profile of enzymes and proteins. We have developed the pKD webserver (http://polymerase.ucd.ie/pKa_Design), which predicts sets of point mutations that will change the pK(a) values of a set of target residues in a given direction, thus allowing for targeted re-design of the pH-dependent characteristics of proteins. The server provides the user with an interactive experience for re-designing pK(a) values by pre-calculating DeltapK(a) values from all feasible point mutations. Design solutions are found in less than 10 min for a typical design job for a medium-sized protein. Mutant DeltapK(a) values calculated by the pKD web server are in close agreement with those produced by comparing results from full-fledged pK(a) calculation methods.

Computer Graphics↗

PubMed1995

[Oral hormonal contraception: more or less estrogens?].

The availability of desogestrel with two doses of estrogen, makes a more elastic use in a number of situations in different users. In the author's experience, some preferences are mentioned. Use 20 mcg: a) in adolescents without acne; b) in thin users, less than 60 Kg. weight; c) in those with a large bosom and heavy cyclic bleedings; d) in obese patients, who have reached their ideal weight; e) in those women over 35 years or close to menopause and in those soon after menopause, if they are asymptomatic. Use 30 mcg: a) in adolescents with acne; b) in patients with a small or flat bosom and with scanty cyclic bleedings; c) in those heavier than 60 Kg. d) in obese patients on reducing treatment until they reach their ideal weight.

Contraceptives, Oral, Hormonal↗

PubMed2005

Bridging the information gap between hospitals and home care services: experience with a patient admission and discharge form.

Hospital care and ambulatory care are institutionally and financially so deeply separated in Germany that discontinuity of individual treatment and, hence, losses in both the quality and efficiency of care are all too often the consequences of this widely deplored systemic defect. In order to improve the communication between home care services and hospitals during admission or discharge of patients in need of long-term nursing care, the research project 'aski' has developed an innovative instrument and procedure for the reciprocal transfer of information between these institutions. After successful testing, the Patient Accompanying Form was offered for public use. Two years later, a written and telephone survey was conducted among the somewhat disappointingly small number of its users. Based on their experience, issues surrounding the implementation of such instruments in the health care system are discussed as well as the chances of enhancing integrative care by promoting coordinated communication between the providers.

Aftercare↗

PubMed2002

Alternative medicine in allergies - prevalence, patterns of use, and costs.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that the use of alternative medicine (AM) for allergies has increased. However, little is known from population-based studies about what determines its use. The objective of this study was to evaluate the patterns of use of AM for allergies. METHODS: A population-based nested case-control study was conducted in 2000-01 using computer-assisted telephone interviews. Three hundred and fifty-one adults participated (median age 46 years) with allergies including hay fever, asthma, atopic eczema, and food hypersensitivity. Information was obtained on demographics, prevalence, motivation, information, type of AM, provider, costs, willingness to pay, and subjective assessment of AM. RESULTS: 26.5% of participants used AM because of their allergies. Compared to nonusers, this group of users was significantly younger (median age 43 vs 47; p=0.004) and better educated (school education > 8 year vs<or= 8 year; odds ratio (OR) 2.17, 1.28-3.67) and was mostly motivated by the assumption of few side-effects (78.3%), by a wish to try everything (71.7%), and by unsatisfying results from conventional therapy (66.3%). Users also had more experience with conventional therapy than nonusers (94.6% vs 63.6%; OR 10.10, 4.00-25.72). Four procedures accounted for almost the entire usage: homeopathy (35.3%), autologous blood injection (28.1%), acupuncture (16.6%), and bioresonance (10.0%). The AM were mostly promoted (40.2%) and provided (60.9%) by medical doctors, and produced median costs for single and entire treatment of 4 (15-205) and 205 (15-1278) euros. Reimbursement from insurance companies was received by 52.3%, in full (37.8%) or partial (14.5%). Most subjects (55.4%) admitted that they would pay more (median 153 euros) for the achieved result. Users scored the efficacy of conventional therapy significantly lower (p<0.001) than nonusers, and assessed the results of AM as very good (28.6%) or rather good (53.8%). CONCLUSIONS: AM is used widely for allergies by the general population and is associated with considerable costs. This has implications for the health care system and health policy.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

VU-flow: a visualization tool for analyzing navigation in virtual environments.

This paper presents a tool for the visual analysis of navigation patterns of moving entities, such as users, virtual characters, or vehicles in 3D Virtual Environments (VEs). The tool, called VU-Flow, provides a set of interactive visualizations that highlight interesting navigation behaviors of single or groups of moving entities that were the VE together or separately. The visualizations help to improve the design of VEs and to study the navigation behavior of users, e.g., during controlled experiments. Besides VEs, the proposed techniques could also be applied to visualize real-world data recorded by positioning systems, allowing one to employ VU-Flow in domains such as urban planning, transportation, and emergency response.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2006

Consumer opinions of a stance control knee orthosis.

Stance control knee orthoses (SCOs) have become very popular recently. However, there is little information regarding opinions of actual orthosis users. The purpose of this study was to quantify the users' opinions of a SCO, and see whether factors found important for knee orthoses in past studies hold true for a stance control orthosis as well. A standardized survey was employed as part of a larger field trial study of the Dynamic Knee Brace System, a SCO developed by the authors. The Dynamic Knee Brace System scored well in areas of effectiveness, operability, and dependability, but areas in need of improvement included weight, cosmesis, and donning and doffing. These findings match well with previous knee orthosis studies. This study shows that wearing a stance control knee orthosis can be a positive experience for an orthosis user.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Effect of current level on electrode discrimination in electrical stimulation.

The effect of the stimulation intensity (current amplitude) on the ability to discriminate electrodes was tested in an experiment with four adult users of the Nucleus-22 cochlear implant. A total of 12 adjacent pairs of electrodes were used in the four-interval forced-choice discrimination task with random current variation. Tests were carried out at three average stimulation levels: 40 and 70% of the dynamic range and close to maximum comfortable loudness. Analysis of variance revealed a significant (P<0.0001) deterioration in electrode discrimination with a decreasing level. However, the overall effect was very small, representing a deterioration in the discrimination score of only 18% correct from the highest to lowest levels tested. The reason for the small deterioration in discriminability with a decreasing level is difficult to determine from this experiment, however, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that changes in the 'peak' or 'edge' of the excitation pattern are more important for discrimination tasks than the relative amount of non-overlap of the excitation areas from the two electrodes.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2001

LiveBench-2: large-scale automated evaluation of protein structure prediction servers.

The aim of LiveBench is to provide a continuous evaluation of structure prediction servers to inform developers and users about the current state-of-the-art structure prediction tools. LiveBench differs from other evaluation experiments because it is a large-scale and a fully automated procedure. Since LiveBench-1, which finished in April 2000, and related but independent CASP3 and CAFASP1 experiments, significant progress in the field has occurred. Some of the new developments have already been assessed at the recent CASP4 and CAFASP2 experiments (both independently of LiveBench), but others have not been observed yet because they entail developments carried out only recently. These include the availability of new servers (Pcons, FUGUE, and Coblath) and the enhancement of previously existing tools (mGenThreader, Sam-T, and 3D-PSSM), which illustrate the fast rate at which the field is advancing. Consequently, to keep in pace with the development, we present the results of the second large-scale evaluation of protein structure prediction servers. Of the 11 fold recognition servers evaluated, two servers appear to be most sensitive. One of these is 3D-PSSM, a server significantly improved after LiveBench-1. The other top performer is the new consensus server Pcons, which significantly outperformed other servers in the specificity of predictions. LiveBench-2 shows that the top performing servers are able to accurately recognize a fold for about one third of the "difficult" targets, a clear improvement over LiveBench-1 results. Given that automated structure prediction is increasingly becoming a biologists companion, the guidelines drawn from the LiveBench experiments are likely to provide users with valuable and timely information for their prediction needs.

Automation↗

PubMed1996

Factors related to choosing oral contraception at age 15.

This report aims to identify factors which are related to use of oral contraceptives at an early age. A self-administered questionnaire was completed at schools in 1988 and 1992 in southern and western Finland (N = 1339). Sexually experienced girls (mean age 15.8 years) who had answered the question concerning their oral contraceptive use were included (N = 389). Logistic regression analysis was used to compare oral contraceptive users (N = 121) with the group of non-users. Total number of coital experiences was associated with oral contraceptive use: the odds ratio for those having at least 10 coital experiences was 6.30 compared with those with only one intercourse. The proportion was 73% among oral contraceptive users and 30% among non-users. Girls using oral contraceptives perceived more often (67%) that parents accept their sexual relationship (30% among non-users). Oral contraceptive users were less afraid of getting pregnant (9% compared with 31% among non-users) and felt more often that sex was very important in their life (31 and 13%, respectively). Other factors that entered the model were age at menarche, having a steady partner and frequency of disco visits. When a young girl asks for oral contraceptives, she is probably at true risk of pregnancy, and regular contraception should be considered both in view of effective prevention of pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Adolescent↗