Multi-stage gaze-controlled virtual keyboard using eye tracking.

This study presents a novel multi-stage hierarchical approach to optimize key selection on virtual keyboards using eye gaze. Existing single-stage selection algorithms have difficulty with distant keys on large interfaces. The proposed technique divides the standard QWERTY keyboard into progressively smaller regions guided by eye movements, with boundary fixations first selecting halves and quarters to sequentially narrow the search area.

Prediction of pulmonary tuberculosis treatment outcome in a sub-Saharan African context.

Failure to treat many pathogens is a concern. Identifying a priori, patients with potential failure treatment outcome of a disease could allow measures to reduce the failure rate. The objectives of this study were to use the Scoring method to identify factors associated with the tuberculosis unsuccessful treatment outcome and to predict the treatment outcome.

Spatial analysis of tuberculosis in Douala, Cameroon: clustering and links with socio-economic status.

Setting: Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, with a network of 20 diagnostic and treatment centres for tuberculosis (TB).

Objective: To describe the spatial distribution of smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) cases in Douala, Cameroon, and to evaluate links between PTB incidence and patients' socio-economic status (SES).

Design: Between May 2011 and April 2012, demographic clinical characteristics and global positioning system coordinates for the residence of each consenting PTB case were collected.

A simple method for the measurement of organic iodine in wastewater and surface water.

Total adsorbable organic iodine (TAOI) has been used as a surrogate parameter for X-ray contrast media in municipal wastewater. Available methods require specialized equipment for pyrolyzing these compounds to convert the covalently bound iodine into iodide, which is then measured by ion chromatography. In this study we describe a simple method for liberating iodide from these compounds with Cu(II) and hydrogen peroxide.

Attenuation of wastewater-derived contaminants in an effluent-dominated river.

Although wastewater-derived chemical contaminants undergo transformation through a variety of mechanisms, the relative importance of processes such as biotransformation and photolysis is poorly understood under conditions representative of large rivers. To assess attenuation rates under conditions encountered in such systems, samples from the Trinity River were analyzed for a suite of wastewater-derived contaminants during a period when wastewater effluent accounted for nearly the entire flow of the river over a travel time of approximately 2 weeks. While the concentration of total adsorbable organic iodide, a surrogate for recalcitrant X-ray phase contrast media in wastewater, was approximately constant throughout the river, concentrations of ethylenediamine tetraacetate, gemfibrozil, ibuprofen, metoprolol, and naproxen all decreased between 60% and 90% as the water flowed downstream.

Use of the chiral pharmaceutical propranolol to identify sewage discharges into surface waters.

The discharge of relatively small volumes of untreated sewage is a source of wastewater-derived contaminants in surface waters that is often ignored because it is difficult to discriminate from wastewater effluent. To identify raw sewage discharges, we analyzed the two enantiomers of the popular chiral pharmaceutical, propranolol, after derivitization to convert the enantiomers to diastereomers. The enantiomeric fraction (the ratio of the concentration of one of its isomers to the total concentration) of propranolol in the influent of five wastewater treatment plants was 0.