The Vanderbilt University fast track to IAIMS: transition from planning to implementation

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is implementing an Integrated Advanced Information Management System (IAIMS) using a fast-track approach. The elapsed time between start-up and completion of implementation will be 7.5 years. The Start-Up and Planning phases of the project are complete. The Implementation phase asks one question: How does an organization create an environment that redirects and coordinates a variety of individual activities so that they come together to provide an IAIMS? Four answers to this question are being tested. First, design resources to be "scalable"--i.e., capable of supporting enterprise-wide use. Second, provide information technology planning activities as ongoing core functions that direct local efforts. Third, design core infrastructure resources to be both reusable and expandable at the local level. Fourth, use milestones to measure progress toward selected endpoints to permit early refinement of plans and strategies.     

Improving memory after interruption: Exploiting soft constraints and manipulating information access cost.

Forgetting what one was doing prior to interruption is an everyday problem. The recent soft constraints hypothesis (Gray, Sims, Fu, & Schoelles, 2006) emphasizes the strategic adaptation of information processing strategy to the task environment. It predicts that increasing information access cost (IAC: the time, and physical and mental effort involved in accessing information) encourages a more memory-intensive strategy. Like interruptions, access costs are also intrinsic to most work environments, such as when opening documents and e-mails. Three experiments investigated whether increasing IAC during a simple copying task can be an effective method for reducing forgetting following interruption. IAC was designated Low (all information permanently visible), Medium (a mouse movement to uncover target information), or High (an additional few seconds to uncover such information). Experiment 1 found that recall improved across all three levels of IAC. Subsequent experiments found that High IAC facilitated resumption after interruption, particularly when interruption occurred on half of all trials (Experiment 2), and improved prospective memory following two different interrupting tasks, even when one involved the disruptive effect of using the same type of resource as the primary task (Experiment 3). The improvement of memory after interruption with increased IAC supports the prediction of the soft constraints hypothesis. The main disadvantage of a high access cost was a reduction in speed of task completion. The practicality of manipulating IAC as a design method for inducing a memory-intensive strategy to protect against forgetting is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Graduate Record Examination : Testing :: Yale University : Academics.

Comments on the article by R. J. Sternberg and W. M. Williams (see record 1997-04591-002) regarding the empirical validity of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in predicting graduate student performance in psychology. It is contended that Sternberg and Williams attempted to show that the GRE is not valid for important criteria. As their work indicated, the prediction and measurement of professional-level attainment is an extremely difficult problem, and institutional validity studies are indeed useful. However, studies at the single-school of single-program level are commonly plagued with small sample sizes, severe restrictions of range of talent, and several criterion measurement problems, all of which combine to produce low and erratic validity coefficients. Such is the case with Sternberg and Williams's study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scientific information of health personnel: an approach to the sources, access, costs and research

OBJECTIVE: To study the appropriateness of minimally invasive surgical treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism. DESIGN: Prospective. SETTING: University Hospital Utrecht, the Netherlands. METHOD: In patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, parathyroid adenomas were located preoperatively by means of Doppler assisted ultrasonography and spiral computer tomography. If the results were positive, minimally invasive surgery was performed. RESULTS: Minimally invasive surgery was carried out in 13 out of 15 successive patients with good results (the serum calcium and parathyroid hormone levels returned to normal). Two patients were subjected to conventional neck exploration, also with good results (preoperatively several adenomas were suspected in one, while no adenoma was seen in the other). CONCLUSION: It can be calculated that minimally invasive surgery will probably suffice in 60-70% of the patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, so that conventional neck exploration can be avoided.     

Online access by adolescents in Accra: Ghanaian teens' use of the internet for health information.

In developed countries, adolescents go online to find information about health; however, little is known about the online practices of youth from developing countries. This study's purpose was to explore and provide current information, drawn from adolescents living in Ghana's capital city of Accra, on the use of the Internet as a health information source. Using a representative sample of in-school adolescents and a convenience sample of out-of-school adolescents, 778 15- to 18-year-olds completed a detailed media and health information survey. Two-thirds (66%) of the in-school youth and approximately half (54%) of the out-of-school youth had previously gone online. Of all these Internet users, 53% had sought online health information, and this percentage did not differ significantly by gender, age, ethnicity, or even school status. Youth reported great interest, high levels of efficacy, and positive perceptions of online health information. Although more research should be conducted, this study offers exciting data on the potential to deliver, via the Internet, health information to youth in developing countries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic access of semantic information by phonological codes in visual word recognition.

An important issue in reading research is the role of phonology in visual word recognition. This experiment demonstrated that naming time of a target word (e.g., nut) is facilitated more by a homophone of a semantic associate (e.g., beach) than by a visually similar control (e.g., bench). However, this priming effect from the homophone obtained only when the prime word was exposed for 50 msec and was followed by a pattern mask and not when it was exposed for 200 msec before the pattern mask. In contrast, the "appropriate" prime (e.g., beech) provided facilitation at both exposure durations. Because the priming was obtained with a stimulus onset asynchrony of 250 msec, these data provide support for G. C. Van Orden's (1987) verification model, which posits that meaning is accessed through the automatic activation of phonological information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interhemispheric interaction when both hemispheres have access to the same stimulus information.

Right-handed Ss identified consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense syllables presented tachistoscopically. The CVC on each trial was presented to the left visual field-right hemisphere (LVF-RH), to the right visual field-left hemisphere (RVF-LH), or the same CVC was presented to both visual fields ( bilateral presentation). When recognition was incorrect, the pattern of errors was qualitatively different on LVF-RH and RVF-LH trials, suggesting that each cerebral hemisphere has its own preferred mode of processing the CVC stimuli. The qualitative pattern of errors on bilateral trials was identical to that obtained on LVF-RH trials. The bilateral results are described well by a model that assumes the mode of processing characteristic of the RH dominates on bilateral trials but is applied to both the LVF-RH and RVF-LH stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating models of working memory through the effects of concurrent irrelevant information.

Working memory is believed to play a central role in almost all domains of higher cognition, yet the specific mechanisms involved in working memory are still fiercely debated. We describe a neuroimaging experiment with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a companion behavioral experiment, and in both we seek to adjudicate between alternative theoretical models of working memory on the basis of the effects of interference from articulatory suppression, irrelevant speech, and irrelevant nonspeech. In Experiment 1 we examined fMRI signal changes induced by each type of irrelevant information while subjects performed a probed recall task. Within a principally frontal and left-lateralized network of brain regions, articulatory suppression caused an increase in activity during item presentation, whereas both irrelevant speech and nonspeech caused relative activity reductions during the subsequent delay interval. In Experiment 2, the specific timing of interference was manipulated in a delayed serial recall task. Articulatory suppression was found to be most consequential when it coincided with item presentation, whereas both irrelevant speech and irrelevant nonspeech effects were strongest when limited to the subsequent delay period. Taken together, these experiments provide convergent evidence for a dissociation of articulatory suppression from the 2 irrelevant sound conditions. Implications of these findings are considered for 4 prominent theories of working memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

包钢质量信息管理系统

本文对包钢（集团）公司质量信息管理系统的现状、程序开发、技术方面进行了介绍，着重说明了该系统的功能。     

Evaluating hardening laws at large tensile strains in sheet specimens

In the finite element modeling of sheet metal formability, the strains in the sheet are calculated from a hardening law which is normally derived from a tensile test. These laws are known to be accurate only up to the maximum uniform strain in tension. However, they are extrapolated during modeling to strains three to five times greater than the uniform strain. In assessing the applicability of these hardening laws at large strains, tensile specimens of 1008 AK steel and commercial purity titanium and zinc were gridded with a fine mesh and slowly pulled to failure. During the test, photographs were taken of the deforming grid in order to develop a complete strain and strain-rate history for each element across the minimum cross section. These data were combined with a hardening law for each material to calculate the total axial load on the specimen. Good agreement between the calculated and measured loads suggests that hardening laws for these materials can be extrapolated to large strains.     

加快包钢白云鄂博铁矿信息管理技术的升级

本文阐述了包钢白云鄂博铁矿信息管理的现状，深刻地剖析了制约和阻碍包钢白云鄂博铁矿信息技术发展的原因，并提出了加快包钢白云鄂博铁矿信息管理技术升级的具体措施和方法。