BACKGROUND Readmissions in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common and costly. We examined the effect of early follow-up visit with patient's primary care physician (PCP) or pulmonologist following acute hospitalization on the 30-day risk of an emergency department (ER) visit and readmission. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of fee-for-service Me...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether delivering acne follow-up care via an asynchronous, remote online visit (e-visit) platform produces equivalent clinical outcomes to office care. DESIGN A prospective, randomized controlled study. SETTING Two teaching hospitals in Boston between September 2005 and May 2007. PARTICIPANTS A total of 151 patients with mild to moderate facial acne. INTERVENTIONS...

We describe a novel system that automatically generates a personalized post-visit video summary of a museum visit, based on detailed personal visit log data captured by a museum visitors’ guide system during the visit. Based on the exhibits visited, time spent at the various locations and interaction with a mobile visitor’s guide used during the visit, the system infers the visitor’s focus and ...

Recently, several online social networking sites (OSNs; e.g., FourSquare) have emerged that allow people to record and broadcast their presence at physical locations. We examined the viability of using images of frequent patrons listed on an establishment’s FourSquare page to infer the ambiance of the establishment. In Study 1, 10 judges independently rated 25 bars and 24 cafes in Austin, Texas...

1. This document is AN124, one of a series of the Animal Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date September 17, 2001. Revised April, 2004. Revised December 2009. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu. 2. Robert Myer, professor; Travis Maddock, post-doctoral associate; D...

We present a manipulator placement algorithm for minimizing the length of the manipulator motion performing a visit-point task such as spot welding. Given a set of points for the tool of a manipulator to visit, our algorithm finds the shortest robot motion required to visit the points from each possible base configuration. The base configuration resulting in the shortest motion is selected as t...

BACKGROUND This study addressed the need for studies of the efficacy of the Born to Learn (BTL) curriculum. METHODS Based on random assignment, 227 families of infants received the BTL curriculum conducted in monthly home visits, and 237 families received general child development education only. RESULTS The BTL curriculum resulted in higher mastery motivation (task competence) at 36 months...