Producing computer-generated tailored written information for stroke patients and their carers: System development and preliminary evaluation

Purpose: The aim of this project was to design and evaluate a system that would produce tailored information for stroke patients and their carers, customised according to their informational needs, and facilitate communication between the patient and, health professional. Method: A human factors development approach was used to develop a computer system, which dynamically compiles stroke education booklets for patients and carers. Patients and carers are able to select the topics about which they wish to receive information, the amount of information they want, and the font size of the printed booklet. The system is designed so that the health professional interacts with it, thereby providing opportunities for communication between the health professional and patient/carer at a number of points in time. Results: Preliminary evaluation of the system by health professionals, patients and carers was positive. A randomised controlled trial that examines the effect of the system on patient and carer outcomes is underway. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gap-junction communication between subtypes of direction-selective ganglion cells in the developing retina

The On-Off direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) in the rabbit retina comprise four distinct subtypes that respond preferentially to image motion in four orthogonal directions; each subtype forms a regular territorial array, which is overlapped by the other three arrays. In this study, ganglion cells in the developing retina were injected with Neurobiotin, a gap-junction-permeable tracer, and the DSGCs were identified by their characteristic type 1 bistratified (BiS1) morphology. The complex patterns of tracer coupling shown by the BiSl ganglion cells changed systematically during the course of postnatal development. BiSl cells appear to be coupled together around the time of birth, but, over the next 10 days, BiSl cells decouple from each other, leading to the mature pattern in which only one subtype is coupled. At about postnatal day 5, before the ganglion cells become visually responsive, each of the BiSl cells commonly showed tracer coupling both to a regular array of neighboring BiSl cells, presumably destined to be DSGCs of the same subtype, and to a regular array of overlapping BiSl cells, presumably destined to be DSGCs of a different subtype. The gap-junction intercellular communication between subtypes of DSGCs with different preferred directions may play an important role in the differentiation of their synaptic connectivity, with respect to either the inputs that DSGCs receive from retinal interneurons or the outputs that DSGCs make to geniculate neurons. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Theory-of-mind development in oral deaf children with cochlear implants or conventional hearing aids

Background: In the context of the established finding that theory-of-mind (ToM) growth is seriously delayed in late-signing deaf children, and some evidence of equivalent delays in those learning speech with conventional hearing aids, this study's novel contribution was to explore ToM development in deaf children with cochlear implants. Implants can substantially boost auditory acuity and rates of language growth. Despite the implant, there are often problems socialising with hearing peers and some language difficulties, lending special theoretical interest to the present comparative design. Methods: A total of 52 children aged 4 to 12 years took a battery of false belief tests of ToM. There were 26 oral deaf children, half with implants and half with hearing aids, evenly divided between oral-only versus sign-plus-oral schools. Comparison groups of age-matched high-functioning children with autism and younger hearing children were also included. Results: No significant ToM differences emerged between deaf children with implants and those with hearing aids, nor between those in oral-only versus sign-plus-oral schools. Nor did the deaf children perform any better on the ToM tasks than their age peers with autism. Hearing preschoolers scored significantly higher than all other groups. For the deaf and the autistic children, as well as the preschoolers, rate of language development and verbal maturity significantly predicted variability in ToM, over and above chronological age. Conclusions: The finding that deaf children with cochlear implants are as delayed in ToM development as children with autism and their deaf peers with hearing aids or late sign language highlights the likely significance of peer interaction and early fluent communication with peers and family, whether in sign or in speech, in order to optimally facilitate the growth of social cognition and language.

Business communication in interactions between mainland Chinese and western firms through Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries

Purpose-The paper aims to analyse the nature of business communication and its influence on relationships development between Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries sourcing from Mainland Chinese sellers involved in manufacturing for sale to Western buyer firms. Design/methodology/approach-A case study-driven methodology with purposeful sampling is applied to yield maximum variation in the sampling to elicit underlying tendencies and generative mechanisms that exist within and across the multiple cases of relationships. Findings-The paper finds that Mainland Chinese sellers and Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries tend not to have the close ties that might be expected. Mainland Chinese sellers constrained their use of social information, requiring Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries to use commercial information transfers to evaluate the trustworthiness of their Mainland Chinese partners. An ingroup/outgroup bias exacerbates the modesty bias of the Mainland Chinese and also hinders learning through the transfer of technical information within these Chinese interactions. On the other hand, Western buyers tend not to prefer social information interactions with their Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries, requiring these intermediaries to emphasise commercial information interactions to evaluate the trustworthiness of their Western buyers. Research limitations/implications-This research uses a restricted sample of case study respondents. Representative sampling across multiple contexts will assist in testing the generality of the findings. Practical implications-For the West to source increasingly attractive manufactures from Mainland China, Hong Kong intermediaries will remain fundamentally important even though this creates further interactions. The aggregate of these multiple exchange arrangements is less problematic than would be the case if Western business were to deal directly with the Mainland Chinese. Originality/value-This article sheds light on the nature of business communication interactions in a group of relationships between Hong Kong Chinese intermediaries and Mainland sellers, and buyers from the West. Implications for relationships development among the Chinese and Western actors are identified with propositions framed to guide further investigation.

PBG-assisted shared-aperture dual-band aperture-coupled patch antenna for satellite communication

Design and development of a photonic bandgap (PBG)-assisted shared-aperture dual-band orthogonal aperture-fed rectangular microstrip patch antenna element, which is suitable for a portable very small aperture terminal (VSAT), are presented in this paper. The dual-band dual-polarized antenna element achieves 21% input impedance bandwidth at the S- and C-bands. A comparison of the antenna with and without 2D PBG grids shows that the inclusion of PBG structures (PBGSs) improves the antenna performances. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Communicative practices in online communication: A case of agreeing to disagree

Online communities have evolved beyond the realm of social phenomenon to become important knowledge-sharing media with real economic consequences. However, the sharing of knowledge and the communication of meaning through Internet technology presents many difficulties. This is particularly so for online finance forums where market-sensitive information and disinformation about exchange-traded stocks is regularly disseminated. The development of trust and the effect of misinformation in this environment are important in the growth of this communication medium. Forum administrators need to better understand and handle the development of trust. In this article, we analyze and discuss the communicative practices of a group of investors and members of an online community of interest. We found that conflict as a driver of knowledge sharing is an important consideration for forum administrators and designers.

Delipidation of a hepadnavirus: Viral inactivation and vaccine development

Many viruses including HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B, have an outer lipid envelope which maintains inserted viral peptides in the “correct” functional conformation and orientation. Disruption of the lipid envelope by most solvents destroys infectivity and often results in a loss of antigenicity. This communication outlines a novel approach to viral inactivation by specific solvent delipidation which modifies the whole virion rendering it non-infective, but antigenic. Duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) was delipidated using a diisopropylether (DIPE) and butanol mixture and residual infectivity tested by inoculation into day-old ducks. Delipidation completely inactivated the DHBV (p < 0.001). Delipidated DHBV was then used to vaccinate ducks. Three doses of delipidated DHBV induced anti-DHBs antibody production and prevented high dose challenge infection in five out of six ducks. In comparison, five of six ducks vaccinated with undelipidated DHBV and four of four ducks vaccinated with glutaraldehyde inactivated DHBV were unprotected (p < 0.05). Although this solvent system completely inactivated DHBV, viral antigens were retained in an appropriate form to induce immunity. Delipidation of enveloped viruses with specific organic solvents has potential as the basis for development of vaccines.

Expressed sequence tag analysis of genes expressed during development of the tropical abalone Haliotis asinina

The tropical abalone. Haliotis asinina. is,in ideal species to investigate the molecular mechanisms that control development. growth, reproduction and shell formation in all cultured haliotids. Here we describe the analysis of 232 expressed sequence tags (EST) obtained front a developmental H. asinina cDNA library intended for future microarray studies. From this data set we identified 183 unique gene Clusters. Of these, 90 clusters showed significant homology with sequences lodged in GenBank, ranging in function from general housekeeping to signal transduction, gene regulation and cell-cell communication. Seventy-one clusters possessed completely novel ORFs greater than 50 codons in length, highlighting the paucity of sequence data from molluscs and other lophotrochozoans. This study of developmental gene expression in H. asinina provides the foundation for further detailed analyses of abalone growth, development and reproduction.

The role of the learning community in the development of discipline knowledge and generic graduate outcomes

In this paper we describe a study of learning outcomes at a research-intensive Australian university. Three graduate outcome variables (discipline knowledge and skills, communication and problem solving, and ethical and social sensitivity) are analysed separately using OLS regression and comparisons are made of the patterns of unique contributions from four independent variables (the CEQ Good Teaching and Learning Communities Scales, and two new, independent, scales for measuring Teaching and Program Quality). Further comparisons of these patterns are made across the Schools of the university. Results support the view that teaching and program quality are not the only important determinants of students' learning outcomes. It is concluded that, whilst it continues to be appropriate for universities to be concerned with the quality of their teaching and programs, the interactive, social and collaborative aspects of students' learning experiences, captured in the notion of the Learning Community, are also very important determinants of graduate outcomes, and so should be included in the focus of attempts at enhancing the quality of student learning.

Virtual teams and group member dissimilarity - Consequences for the development of trust

The consequences of demographic dissimilarity for group trust in work teams was examined in a virtual (computer-mediated) and a face-to-face (FTF) environment. Demographic dissimilarity (based on age, gender, country of birth, enrolled degree) was predicted to be negatively associated with group trust in the FTF environment but not in the computer-mediated environment. Participants worked in small groups on a creative task for 3 consecutive days. In the computer-mediated environment, participants worked on the task for an hour per day. In the FTF environment, participants worked on the task for 20 minutes per day. Partial support was found for the effectiveness of computer-mediated groups in reducing the negative consequences of dissimilarity. Age dissimilarity was negatively related to trust in FTF groups but not in computer-mediated groups. Birthplace dissimilarity was positively related to trust in computer-mediated groups. Implications for the successful management of virtual teams are discussed.