Comparing two types of navigational interfaces for Virtual Reality

Previous studies suggest significant differences between navigating virtual environments in a life-like walking manner (i.e., using treadmills or walk-in-place techniques) and virtual navigation (i.e., flying while really standing). The latter option, which usually involves hand-centric devices (e.g., joysticks), is the most common in Virtual Reality-based studies, mostly due to low costs, less space and technology demands. However, recently, new interaction devices, originally conceived for videogames have become available offering interesting potentialities for research. This study aimed to explore the potentialities of the Nintendo Wii Balance Board as a navigation interface in a Virtual Environment presented in an immersive Virtual Reality system. Comparing participants' performance while engaged in a simulated emergency egress allows determining the adequacy of such alternative navigation interface on the basis of empirical results. Forty university students participated in this study. Results show that participants were more efficient when performing navigation tasks using the Joystick than with the Balance Board. However there were no significantly differences in the behavioral compliance with exit signs. Therefore, this study suggests that, at least for tasks similar to the studied, the Balance Board have good potentiality to be used as a navigation interface for Virtual Reality systems.     

Staff & client perceptions of unit quality: a pilot study

This pilot study compared psychiatric health care team members' perceptions of unit quality with discharged clients' perceptions of quality of care received on the unit. The staff members were from four different service units in one acute care psychiatric facility. The study used the Perceptions of Unit Quality (PUQ) scale, a valid and reliable outcome measurement instrument, developed by Cronenwett. Most quality assurance instruments that exist have focused on individual caregivers' or service-specific views of quality, but the PUQ scale allows quality assurance data that represent team performance to be described through team perceptions of quality. Results of this pilot study suggest that use of the PUQ scale, in conjunction with clients' perceptions of unit quality, may be a legitimate approach in continuous quality improvement efforts in psychiatric-mental health care centers.     

Application of commercial software to the classification of suicide cases: a brief report

Mosaic Profiler software was used to classify suicide and open verdict cases during 1996 to 1998 in England and within England, for the London and the North West regions. The classification system was based on the socioeconomic characteristics of the last place of residence of the cases at the level of postcode. The results highlighted that deprived areas and areas that contain elderly population or those areas that suffer from lack of social cohesion are overrepresented, whereas affluent areas are underrepresented. All of these, although in the larger scale, seem to support the results of other studies. Nevertheless, more studies would be required before one can fully evaluate the application of the Mosaic Profiler in the field of spatial epidemiology.     

A tobacco and alcohol use profile of San Francisco's Chinese community

Relatively little is known about Asian American tobacco and alcohol use patterns. This is particularly true of Chinese living in the United States--either U.S.-born or non-U.S.-born Chinese. This article presents data from a research project studying tobacco and alcohol use patterns in San Francisco's Chinese community. Data were secured both from focus groups and a self-report telephone survey of a random sample of 1,808 Chinese residents in San Francisco. This results indicate that the prevalence of both tobacco and alcohol use is lower for San Francisco's Chinese population than for the general population. Moreover, those persons who report smoking tend to be different from those who report consuming alcohol. The study concludes that specific, culturally relevant tobacco and alcohol prevention programs should be designed to better reach this target population.     

Physician career development: toward building a model

Virtually no managed care organization provides a comprehensive and integrated program for physician career development. That's the principal finding of a survey we carried out in Spring 1994 in which we interviewed several individuals who have proven instrumental in the creation of career development programs at their managed care organizations. We started our research with the hypothesis that career development programs for physicians--frequently the most highly paid category of employees and the ones often most directly involved in the delivery of health care--should parallel the mission of the organization. In many of the organizations we surveyed, the mission included clinical excellence, managerial competence, research, teaching, community service, and building shareholder equity. While each organization offered some component of career development--usually clinical improvement and management development--very few offered programs that fostered the continued professional development of physicians in other aspects of their missions. In most cases, even in organizations with stronger career development agendas, the programs were passive and were rarely linked to the overall "corporate" goal of the managed care institution. This critical disconnect makes it extremely difficult for health care organizations to develop a workable system of accountability for their career development programs.     

在执行拉萨荣赫鹏使团任务期间搜集到的藏文手抄本和书籍的情况

编者按:英国发动第二次侵藏战争期间,华达尔从我国西藏地区掠走大量藏文珍贵书籍和手抄本,数量之大,令人震惊.本文是这一事件的自供状,也是近代帝国主义列强对中国进行文化掠夺的最好诠释.需要说明的是,此译文原附有一份被华达尔掠去的藏文文献清单,共计464号.因数量较大,加之专有名词较多,需进一步校订,故未能同时刊登,请读者见谅.本刊将尽快予以刊发.至于作者在表述西藏与中国关系时使用的分裂主义语言,相信读者是会不言自明的.     

离婚的决定因素:80年代研究述评

这篇述评汇总了美国80年代发表的探讨有关离婚原因的文章。所有这些研究成果可归纳为三个方面:宏观结构,人口统计和生活经历,以及家庭过程。作者对研究方法、抽样调查和理论的发展趋势也作了回顾。