An analysis of VDT monitor placement and daily hours of use for female bifocal users

A population of 72 bifocal wearers was studied to determine the relationship between VDT (video display terminal) placement for those who reported musculoskeletal pain and those who did not. The mean hours worked was 50.4 minutes (p=0.003) greater for those who reported head/neck pain versus those who did not and 48.6 minutes (p=0.004) greater for those who reported shoulder/arm pain that those who did not. There was no statistically significant difference between the means of monitor height, distance, or angle for those who reported pain symptoms versus those who did not. This study indicates that, self reported pain symptoms are correlated with hours of VDT work and that there appears to be a threshold at approximately five hours for pain symptoms among bifocal wearers. No such correlation can be made for monitor placement     

The value of information concept applied to data systems

Cost-benefit analysis has a considerable literature in which information systems have been patently ignored. This reflects the considerable difficulties of applying the theory to information systems, and the state-of-the art remains relatively as Koopmans described it some 19 years ago (1957). A bar to further development would appear to be the lack of an applicable value-of-information concept. This paper seeks to clarify the issues and provide a robust theoretical and data analysis framework that will cover most situations. The approach here is to separate explicitly the dimensions of cost from those of information benefit, and examine the implications. The Null Information Benefit condition emerges as a special theoretical case, but potentially a most important one in applications. This case together with the Pareto optimum defines a large class of such problems that can be handled by the decision criteria and data analysis techniques tabulated and discussed here. The selection of input data techniques defines the limits of later project justification and may be crucial to the political viability of the projects throughout its life. Finally, the general management vs information systems management relationships are discussed in terms of this situation.     

A Trivariate Distribution for the Height,Weight, and Fat of Adult Men*

Using exploratory data analysis, probability plots, scatterplots, and computer animations to rotate and visualize the data, we fit a trivariate Normal distribution to data for the height, the natural logarithm of body weight, and the body fat for 646 men between the ages of 50 and 80 years as reported by the medical staff of the U.S. Veterans Administration's “Normative Aging Study” in Boston, MA. Although these data do not include any children, women, or young men, the measurements represent the best data that we could find through a 4-year search. We believe that these data are well measured and reliable for men in the specified age range and that these data reveal an interesting statistical pattern for use in probabilistic PBPK models.     

Appraising companies for acquisition

The author was involved in the 1973–1974 acquisition chase in the U.K. and in the Pacific Basin while working for a British company noted for its acquisitiveness. A mystique has grown up around those people who buy companies and individuals who surround themselves with secrecy and charisma are hiding one essential fact; appraising target companies is not very different from appraising any other direct investment. In fact the task lends itself to a combination of simple economics and plenty of common sense.     

Cellular telephones and motor-vehicle collisions: Some variations on matched-pairs analysis

We describe the analysis of some matched-pair binary data arising from a study designed to investigate whether cellular-telephone use is associated with motor-vehicle collisions. Conditional and random effects approaches to the problem are derived and compared. Driving intermittency is a potential confounder whose effect is assessed by strategic choices of the control period and by application of the bootstrap. The marked discrepancy between the conditional and random approaches merits further study.