A key goal of software engineering research is to improve the environments, tools, languages, and techniques programmers use to efficiently create quality software. Successfully designing these tools and demonstrating their effectiveness involves engaging with tool users — software engineers. Researchers often want to conduct user studies of software engineers to collect direct evidence. However, running user studies can be difficult, and researchers may lack solution strategies to overcome the barriers, so they may avoid user studies. To understand the challenges researchers face when conducting programmer user studies, we interviewed 26 researchers. Based on the analysis of interview data we contribute: (i) a taxonomy of 18 barriers researchers encounter; (ii) 23 solution strategies some researchers use to address 8 of the 18 barriers in their own studies; and (iii) 4 design ideas, which we adapted from the behavioral science community, that may lower 8 additional barriers. To validate the design ideas, we held an in-person all-day focus group with 16 researchers.
The use of frequencies above 5 MHz for medical imaging is now commonplace and one example is in the context of routine breast screening. No satisfactory quality assurance (QA) procedures have been agreed for these systems hitherto but it is clear that techniques developed for lower frequencies are not necessarily relevant. The National Breast Screening Programme therefore commissioned the production of a new protocol for this purpose and this is described here. The work is divided between an experienced tester, equipped with a commercial test object (RMI 414B) and the routine user who is provided with a specified perspex block to provide routine measurements of certain parameters in a relative manner.
Radiation therapy is useful in the palliative treatment of large, unresectable abdominal and pelvic malignancies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of B mode ultrasound scanning as an adjunct in radiation treatment planning of these patients. Fifty-one patients with large abdominal or pelvic masses had radiation therapy ports established using findings from surgery, radiographs, and physical examination. All the patients then had B mode ultrasound examinations. The position of the therapy ports was marked on the echogram. Thirty-one of the 51 patients studied (61%) had evidence of extension of tumor beyond the therapy ports. This was often due to "iceberging", i.e. when the deep portion of the tumor was considerably larger than the palpable margins of the superficial portion. B mode ultrasound scanning is a valuable adjunct in planning palliative radiation therapy of patients with large, unresectable, abdominal and pelvic malignancies.
Excluded from the study were those with asthma, allergic rhinitis, recent lower respiratory tract infection, any exacerbation in the previous six months, regular use of oxygen therapy, or the use of oral or inhaled steroids within the previous three months. The primary end point was the change in FEV 1 from a predose to two hours postdose from baseline to 12 weeks. Health-related quality-of-life outcomes were measured by the baseline dyspnea index (BDI) score (0-4; 0 very severe impairment, 4 no impairment) and the MRC dyspnea score. Results showed that the changes in FEV 1 from baseline to 12 weeks were significantly improved with tiotropium compared with placebo (157 vs -9 mL; difference, 166 mL; P,.0001). No significant differences were seen in health-related quality of life scores as assessed by the BDI and MRC scores. Quality-of-life assessments were limited by the short duration of this study and the lack of disease-specific instruments for assessment.
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