Modern telecommunications networks are being designed to accomodate a heterogenous mix of traac classes ranging from traditional telephone calls to video and data services. Thus, traac models are of crucial importance to the engineering and performance analysis of telecommunications system, notably congestion and overload controls and capacity estimation. This chapter surveys teletraac models, ...

BACKGROUND Information on clinical acceptability is needed when making cost-utility decisions about health screening implementation. Despite being in use for two decades, most data on the clinical acceptability of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) come from qualitative reports, or include relatively small samples of depressed women. This study aimed to measure acceptability in a s...

The ability to discern the use of a nonstandard dialect is often enough information to also determine the speaker’s ethnicity, and speakers may consequently suffer discrimination based on their speech. This article, detailing four experiments, shows that housing discrimination based solely on telephone conversations occurs, dialect identification is possible using the word hello, and phonetic c...

We examined the association of the termination of a successful youth-targeted antitobacco media campaign ("truth") and changes in smoking rates among youths aged 12-17 years in Florida. Six telephone-based surveys were completed during the active media campaign (1998-2001), and 2 postcampaign surveys were completed in 2004 and 2006 (each n approximately 1,800). Prevalence of current smoking amo...

BACKGROUND The relation between aided ad recall and level of television ad placement in a public health setting is not well established. We examine this association by looking back at 8 years of the California's Tobacco Control Program's (CTCP) media campaign. METHODS Starting in July 2001, California's campaign was continuously monitored using five telephone series of surveys and six web-bas...

Random-digit-dialing (RDD) surveys are typically conducted using only the telephone survey mode of data collection. However, because RDD survey response rates have been declining over the past ten years it is important to examine alternatives to the single-mode approach. This paper describes a test of one multi-mode alternative conducted as part of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of physician-colleague and coworker abuse on family physicians in Canada. DESIGN A mixed-methods, bilingual study that included surveys and telephone interviews. SETTING Canada. PARTICIPANTS Family physicians in active practice who were members of the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 2009. METHODS Surveys were mailed to a random sample of family ...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine whether Internet-based surveys of health professionals can provide a valid alternative to traditional survey methods. METHODS (i) Systematic review of published Internet-based surveys of health professionals focusing on criteria of external validity, specifically sample representativeness and response bias. (ii) Internet-based survey of GPs, ...

The use of proxy respondents in surveys designed to provide population estimates of smoking prevalence offers an inexpensive way to obtain these data. The accuracy of this information is examined in analyzing data from tobacco use surveys of adults conducted in 22 North American communities as part of the National Cancer Institute's Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation. Proxy-repo...

BACKGROUND, AIMS AND DESIGN The increase in mobile telephone-only households may be a source of bias for traditional landline gambling prevalence surveys. Aims were to: (1) identify Australian gambling participation and problem gambling prevalence using a dual-frame (50% landline and 50% mobile telephone) computer-assisted telephone interviewing methodology; (2) explore the predictors of sample...