Pilot-Jobs support effective distributed resource utilization, and are arguably one of the most widely-used distributed computing abstractions – as measured by the number and types of applications that use them, as well as the number of production distributed cyberinfrastructures that support them. In spite of broad uptake, there does not exist a well-defined, unifying conceptual model of Pilot...

Pilot studies serve an important role in clinical research. They provide information needed to design large confirmatory studies that aim to provide definitive evidence on the efficacy/effectiveness of novel interventions. In the drug development process, phase I and II studies are used to prepare for the conduct of confirmatory phase III trials. In investigator-initiated studies supported by t...

World of Workout is a mobile pervasive exergame to motivate players to walk and help them track their daily exercise activities. We present our pilot study on the effectiveness of World of Workout in terms of user heart rate, game playability, and user feedback from our pilot playtesting conducted on an initial prototype featuring the core game play elements expected in the fully implemented ga...

Research demonstrates that facial appearance affects social perceptions. The current research investigates the reverse possibility: Can social perceptions influence facial appearance? We examine a social tag that is associated with us early in life—our given name. The hypothesis is that name stereotypes can be manifested in facial appearance, producing a face-name matching effect, whereby both ...

York House Hospice is another hospice started on a small scale and making great accomplishments in hospice care. This author worked for some time as a thanatologist with a hospital. When the hospital closed, the author determined to open a hospice for AIDS patients. York House Hospice is a paradigm of the hard work and spirit of hospice. Here is the story of its beginning.

Gabriel Aeppli was born in Switzerland, but when he was 1 year old, his father came to the U.S. to pursue a career as a mathematician. Back then, America was a scientific "city on the hill," a place where enormous resources, academic freedom, a tradition of skepticism and a history of excellence lured everyone from astronomers to zoologists from all over the world, and like Aeppli's father, man...