Photosensitive epilepsy and image safety

Photosensitive epilepsy came to prominence in the 1950s with the advent of television. Photosensitive epilepsy occurs in 1 in 4000 of the population. The incidence is 1.1 per 100,000 per annum, however amongst 7-19 year-olds the incidence is more than five times as common. Photosensitive epilepsy is twice as common in females as in males. The onset is around puberty, but less than 25 per cent of patients lose their photosensitivity in their twenties. Patients are investigated in the EEG laboratory using intermittent photic stimulation. Peak sensitivity is between 16 and 20 flashes/s but 49 per cent of patients are sensitive to 50 flashes/s, explaining the sensitivity to PAL television systems. From 1993 the development of broadcast guidelines was developed restricting both flash rates and the areas of screen involved, as well as the use of long-wavelength red. Automatic analysis systems can now test material for compliance with guidelines in real time.     

Combining open‐source natural language processing tools to parse clinical practice guidelines

Natural language processing (NLP) has been used to process text pertaining to patient records and narratives. However, most of the methods used were developed for specific systems, so new research is necessary to assess whether such methods can be easily retargeted for new applications and goals, with the same performance. In this paper, open‐source tools are reused as building blocks on which a new system is built. The aim of our work is to evaluate the applicability of the current NLP technology to a new domain: automatic knowledge acquisition of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures from clinical practice guideline free‐text documents. In order to do this, two publicly available syntactic parsers, several terminology resources and a tool oriented to identify semantic predications were tailored to increase the performance of each tool individually. We apply this new approach to 171 sentences selected by the experts from a clinical guideline, and compare the results with those of the tools applied with no tailoring. The results of this paper show that with some adaptation, open‐source NLP tools can be retargeted for new tasks, providing an accuracy that is equivalent to the methods designed for specific tasks.     

Clinical Issues in Working With Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients.

This article discusses some of the key clinical issues for therapists to consider when working with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients. After a discussion of the biases that can influence psychotherapy, guidelines are given for conducting LGB-affirmative therapy that avoids these biases. Issues that therapists need to be familiar with in working with LGB clients include LGB identity development; couple relationships and parenting; LGB individuals as members of families; the unique stressors faced by individuals who are underrepresented in the LGB research literature (e.g., older LGB individuals, ethnic minorities, religious LGB individuals, bisexual individuals); and legal and workplace issues. An examination of the published literature is offered with particular emphasis given to the available empirical research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Putting the ‘theory’ back into grounded theory: guidelines for grounded theory studies in information systems

Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in the use of grounded theory in information systems research. Grounded theory is a qualitative research method that seeks to develop theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered and analysed. The purpose of this paper is to suggest guidelines for grounded theory studies in information systems. Our guidelines are based on a framework for theorizing in grounded theory studies that focuses on conceptualization and theory scope. Our hope is that the guidelines will help to raise the quality and aspirations of grounded theory studies in information systems.     

汉英词语对齐规范

该文介绍了一个新的汉英词语对齐规范。该规范以现有的LDC汉英词语对齐规范为基础,对其进行了较大的改进和扩展,特别是提出了一种全新的对齐标注方法 —— 将词语对齐区分为真对齐和伪对齐,真对齐又分为强对齐和弱对齐。这种细化的标注方法能够更好地刻画词语对齐的特点。该规范已经实际应用于大规模的人工词语对齐标注中。我们对对齐标注的一致性进行了评价。结果表明,在该规范的指导下,标注者内部和标注者间的对齐都取得了比较理想的一致性,两组强、弱、伪三种对齐的Kappa值分别为0.99、0.98、0.93 和0.96、0.83、0.68。最后,一个简单的实验初步证实了该规范在统计机器翻译中的有效性。     

A comparison of posture and muscle activity during tablet computer,desktop computer and paper use by young children

Computers are now widely used by children. Tablet computers are becoming widely available and promoted for use by school children. The primary objective of this study was to compare the posture and muscle activity of children using a tablet computer to the posture and muscle activity of children using a desktop computer and paper technology. Eighteen children (mean age 5.6 years) performed a colouring-in task in tablet, desktop and paper conditions. 3-D posture and muscle activity around the neck and shoulder was assessed. Tablet computer use was similar to paper use, with less neutral spinal posture, more elevated scapular posture and greater upper trapezius and cervical erector spinae activity. This was offset by greater variability of posture and muscle activity. Tablet computer use clearly results in different musculoskeletal stresses than desktop computer use. Computer use guidelines need to be appropriate to traditional and emerging technologies. Tablet computers are being promoted for use by adults and children. However, the physical impact of using this type of technology is not known. The findings of this study provide the first tablet-specific evidence to inform guidelines on wise use of tablet computers by children.     

Achieving quality assurance functionality in the food industry using a hybrid case-based reasoning and fuzzy logic approach

Quality control of food inventories in the warehouse is complex as well as challenging due to the fact that food can easily deteriorate. Currently, this difficult storage problem is managed mostly by using a human dependent quality assurance and decision making process. This has however, occasionally led to unimaginative, arduous and inconsistent decisions due to the injection of subjective human intervention into the process. Therefore, it could be said that current practice is not powerful enough to support high-quality inventory management. In this paper, the development of an integrative prototype decision support system, namely, Intelligent Food Quality Assurance System (IFQAS) is described which will assist the process by automating the human based decision making process in the quality control of food storage. The system, which is composed of a Case-based Reasoning (CBR) engine and a Fuzzy rule-based Reasoning (FBR) engine, starts with the receipt of incoming food inventory. With the CBR engine, certain quality assurance operations can be suggested based on the attributes of the food received. Further of this, the FBR engine can make suggestions on the optimal storage conditions of inventory by systematically evaluating the food conditions when the food is receiving. With the assistance of the system, a holistic monitoring in quality control of the receiving operations and the storage conditions of the food in the warehouse can be performed. It provides consistent and systematic Quality Assurance Guidelines for quality control which leads to improvement in the level of customer satisfaction and minimization of the defective rate.     

街道景观照明设计导则编制方法探索——以北京中心城区为例

本文在借鉴多个国内外城市街道设计导则的价值导向和技术手法后,总结北京中心城市街道景观照明现状问题及需求,建立目标导向,提出“功能类型+风貌分区”新的街道分类方式,并提炼出每种类型及分区最具代表性的引导要素,给予引导策略,最终形成设计导则,为后续街道景观照明设计提供相关技术指导。     

Judicial Application of Daubert to Psychological Syndrome and Profile Evidence: A Research Note.

The authors present previously unreported results from a nationwide survey (N=325) of state trial judges (S. I. Gatowski et al., 2001) that was conducted pre-Kumho. The authors report how the 1993 Daubert guidelines were applied to psychological syndrome and profile evidence, and the impact of the decision on the admissibility of such evidence. They found that judges' views of and experience with psychological testimony varied widely and that most judges neither understood nor applied the more technical Daubert guidelines, such as falsifiability and error rate, when assessing psychological evidence. Overall, the findings suggest that Daubert's impact on the admissibility of psychological syndrome and profile testimony is negligible and that most judges are more comfortable with pre-Daubert standards when this type of testimony is proffered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

火电厂热工自动化安全技术配置若干指导思想

过程工业领域的安全问题正在国际上引起普遍的高度关注，安全仪表系统标准、产品及其应用均有了快速发展。为更好地总结火电厂热工自动化安全技术和经验，必须首先统一安全技术指导思想。讨论了火电厂热工保护设计、分散控制系统（DCS）及其后备监控设备配置和以“开放”的思想引进电控安全技术等3个方面的具体安全技术问题，以期在统一指导思想基础上，对长期以来积累的具体安全技术和经验取得共识。