Ferramentas computacionais têm sido utilizadas na área de nutrição desde os anos de 1960 e buscam auxiliar o nutricionista no cálculo de nutrientes e no planejamento de cardápios, visando o apoio na tomada de decisão. Assim, a utilização da informática na execução dessas tarefas disponibiliza ao nutricionista tempo necessário para que desenvolva outras atividades específicas voltadas ao atendimento dos pacientes/clientes. Entre as ferramentas computacionais, destacam-se os sistemas especialistas (SE) que resolvem problemas de forma parecida com o especialista humano, sobre determinados campos do conhecimento. Nesse contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho foi conceber uma ferramenta computacional utilizando a base de dados de Avaliação de Ingestão de Nutrientes da Tabela Brasileira de Composição de Alimentos (TBCA BD-AIN) para gerar planos alimentares personalizados, considerando as preferências alimentares e necessidades nutricionais do paciente/cliente. Os passos para o desenvolvimento desse trabalho incluíram: (i) diferenciação entre as ferramentas computacionais disponíveis; (ii) caracterização da consulta em nutrição; (iii) definição do protocolo de atendimento clínico para a consulta em nutrição; (iv) adequação da TBCA BD-AIN a ser utilizada na ferramenta computacional; (v) definição das preferências; (vi) implementação da ferramenta computacional; (vii) avaliação dos resultados gerados pela ferramenta computacional. A ferramenta computacional desenvolvida, chamada Nutri - Soluções inteligentes em nutrição, uma web application, caracterizada como SE, utilizou a técnica de máquina de estados finito (MEF), para representar a expertise do nutricionista, na elaboração dos planos alimentares. Os planos alimentares gerados foram avaliados por nutricionistas (n=18) com experiência em atendimento clínico (10,83±7,02 anos). A avaliação de 105 planos alimentares diários (7 planos alimentares para 15 casos fictícios) apresentou adequação quanto às recomendações nutricionais e preferências propostas, além de selecionar alimentos/preparações dos diferentes grupos (conforme a refeição), e considerar características sensoriais, mostrando 89,2% de concordância para os itens avaliados. Dessa forma, a ferramenta proposta contribuirá com: (i) otimização do atendimento clínico, pois auxiliando na redução dos cálculos realizados, o nutricionista disponibilizará mais tempo da consulta em nutrição para atenção ao paciente/cliente; (ii) apoio à decisão, uma vez que os planos alimentares apresentarão maior probabilidade de estarem adequados quanto às recomendações nutricionais; (iii) adesão à prescrição dietética, pois os planos alimentares serão elaborados com base nas escolhas/preferências do paciente/cliente. / Computational tools have been used in the area of nutrition since the 1960s and seek to assist the nutritionist in calculating nutrients and planning menus, aiming at support in decision making. Thus, the use of information technology in the execution of these tasks provides the nutritionist with the time needed to develop other specific activities aimed at patient/client care. Among the computational tools, stand out the expert systems (ES) that solve problems in a similar way with the human expert, on certain fields of knowledge. In this context, the objective of this work was to design a computational tool using the Nutrient Intake Assessment database of the Brazilian Food Composition Table (TBCA BD-AIN, acronym in Portuguese) to generate personalized menu, considering the food preferences and nutrient requirements of the patient/client. The steps for the development of this work included: (i) differentiation between the available computational tools; (ii) characterization of the nutrition consultation; (iii) definition of the protocol of clinical care for the consultation in nutrition; (iv) adequacy of TBCA BD-AIN to be used in the computational tool; (v) definition of preferences; (vi) implementation of the computational tool; (vii) evaluation of the results generated by the computational tool. The computational tool developed, called Nutri - Intelligent Solutions in Nutrition, a web application, characterized as ES, used the Finite State Machine (FSM) technique to represent the nutritionist\'s expertise in the elaboration of menu. The menu generated were evaluated by nutritionists (n= 18) with experience in clinical care (10.83±7.02 years). The evaluation of 105 daily menus (7 food plans for 15 fictitious cases) was adequate for the nutritional recommendations and preferences proposed, besides selecting foods/preparations of the different groups (according to the meal), besides considering sensorial characteristics, showing 89.7% agreement for the evaluated items. Thus, the proposed tool will contribute to: (i) optimization of clinical care, because by helping to reduce the calculations performed, the nutritionist will provide more consultation time in nutrition for patient/client care; (ii) decision support, since menu are more likely to be adequate for nutritional recommendations; (iii) adherence to the dietary prescription, since the menus will be elaborated based on the patient/client\'s choices/preferences.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-11-14T13:58:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiza de Souza Aranha.pdf: 955753 bytes, checksum: 8d20f7b1d32a331bce179616d00e4eff (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-14T13:58:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiza de Souza Aranha.pdf: 955753 bytes, checksum: 8d20f7b1d32a331bce179616d00e4eff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Education is the primary method of transmitting knowledge for the survival of culture, and therefore effective instruction is necessary. Based on Experimental Behavior Analysis, Behavior Analysts suggest Programmed Instruction and the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) in order to improve the quality of teaching. An issue that warrants attention in the Brazilian educational system is that the student is always involved in a collective situation, which implies consideration of the possibilities of a group instruction application. The present study aims to analyze works published in Brazil on the application of individualized programmed instruction proposals, Programmed Instruction and PSI applied in group situations. The search was performed at Portal Capes and resulted in fourteen papers between 1973 and 2015; among these, only four were published scientific articles, the remainder being theses and dissertations. The results show that a wide variety of authors from different institutions were responsible for the work, and did not produce a second work on the subject, suggesting that there is no longer a tendency in this field. Most study groups were made up of 10 to 19 participants each. All authors of the studies that aimed to test a procedure reported successful results. Others affirmed the superiority of the methodology under investigation over the traditional one. However, although based on proposals derived from exhaustive literature of the area, few papers reported the use of the features that a programmed instruction should have. The only one present in all studies was the division of content into smaller portions. Future research could apply individualized programmed instruction, IP and PSI, to group context in Brazil. As well, expand the research on the literature of the area in other countries / A educação é a principal maneira de transmitir conhecimento para a sobrevivência da cultura e, para isso, faz-se necessário um ensino efetivo. Embasados na Análise Experimental do Comportamento, Analistas do Comportamento propõem a Instrução Programada (IP) e o Sistema Personalizado de Ensino (PSI), com o intuito de melhorar a qualidade do ensino. Uma questão que merece atenção na aplicação desses sistemas é que, no cenário educacional nacional, o aluno está sempre inserido em um contexto coletivo, o que implica em considerar nas possibilidades da aplicação em grupo. O presente estudo teve como objetivo analisar as publicações sobre a aplicação, no ensino brasileiro, das propostas de ensinos programados individualizados de IP e PSI em situação de grupo. A busca realizada no Portal de Periódicos Capes resultou em 14 estudos, publicados entre os anos de 1973 e 2015. Destes, apenas quatro eram publicações em artigos de revistas cientificas, o restante eram teses e dissertações. Os resultados evidenciaram que uma ampla variedade de autores, de diferentes instituições, foi responsável pelos trabalhos e deixaram de produzir uma segunda obra sobre o tema, indicando que não existe uma tendência de continuidade de investigação nas publicações da área, apenas estudos pontuais. Os grupos de alunos eram formados em sua maioria por 10 a 19 participantes. Todos os autores que tinham como objetivo testar o procedimento relataram resultados bem-sucedidos. Outros afirmaram a superioridade da metodologia investigada sobre a tradicional. No entanto, embora embasados em propostas derivadas de exaustiva literatura da área, houve poucos trabalhos que respeitaram todas as características que o ensino programado deveria atender. A única característica presente em todos foi a divisão do conteúdo em conteúdos menores. Pesquisas futuras poderiam aplicar ensinos programados individualizados, IP e PSI, a grupos no Brasil. Como também, pesquisar sobre a literatura da área em outros países

A disseminação de agentes infecciosos em ambientes interiores é um assunto de interesse da sociedade em geral e uma questão de saúde pública, tendo em vista os surtos recentes do vírus SARS, gripe suína, gripe aviária, etc. Em particular, o sistema com suprimento de ar individualizado têm se mostrado eficaz, atuando como barreira contra contaminação cruzada entre ocupantes. Diversas metodologias têm sido aplicadas nesses estudos, tal como gás traçador, geradores de partículas e simulação CFD, muitas vezes sem muito critério, ou com equipamentos e simulações excessivamente complexas. Neste contexto, o objetivo do presente trabalho é desenvolver um processo robusto e com menor complexidade do que os utilizados atualmente para avaliar a dispersão de contaminantes aéreos em ambientes interiores. O processo desenvolvido é aplicado em um estudo de caso onde a influência de um sistema de ventilação personalizado de cabine de aeronave é avaliado sobre a ótica da infecção cruzada. O trabalho contempla a realização de atividades de simulação computacional (CFD) e medições experimentais no ambiente interno de uma cabine de avião (mock-up), onde os campos de velocidade do ar são medidos com Velocimetria por Imagem de Partículas (PIV), partículas entre 2 e 10m são geradas com um gerador de aerossol e contadas com contadores ópticos portáteis. Obteve-se boa correlação entre os resultados numéricos e experimentais para o campo de velocidades e boa concordância qualitativa entre as contagens de partículas no experimento e nas simulações CFD Lagrangeanas. Observou-se, dentre outros aspectos, que a válvula gasper, tal como ensaiada no presente trabalho, contribui para a qualidade do ar na zona de respiração dos ocupantes sentados, promovendo um aumento nas taxas de deposição de partículas nas superfícies internas do mock-up. / The indoor dispersion of infections agents still concern the society, and has become a matter of public health, taken into account the outbreak of SARS in 2003, and the recent cases of influenza strains (H1N1, avian flu, SARS, etc). The use of personalized ventilation has improved the occupants\' air quality on recent evaluations, working as a contaminant spread barrier. Different kinds of methodologies are usually applied for those studies, such as tracer gas, particle generators and CFD simulations, sometimes without adequate criteria, or applying quite complex equipment and simulation methodologies such as transient analysis. Therefore, the main objective of the present work is to develop a robust method, and if possible less complicated than the current ones, to evaluate the dispersion of indoor airborne contaminants. Moreover, one\'s intend to apply the proposed method in a case study to evaluate the influence of a personalized ventilation system to the spread of indoor air contaminants. The study is composed by CFD simulations and experimental measurements inside an aircraft cabin mock-up, where the velocity and temperature field, as well as particle concentration are measured. Particle Image Velocimetry technique is used to analyse air flow velocities. Particles from 2 to 10µm are produced with aerosol generator and injected into the cabine. Finally, particle distributions are measured with hand held optical counters to evaluate air quality at the breathing zone. Good correlation between numerical and experimental results was obtained for velocity field, and adequate qualitative agreement was obtained for concentration field. One\'s conclude the investigated personalized ventilation system has improved the air quality around occupants breathing zone, mainly by increasing the deposition rates at the internal cabin surfaces.

Privacidade é um termo de grande amplitude. Uma característica comum às definições é a ênfase dada ao direito individual de revelar-se seletivamente ao mundo. Originalmente, a utilização do termo privacidade relacionava-se a direitos como o corporal e o direito territorial. Com a revolução da informática e, posteriormente, com o surgimento da Internet e o fácil acesso a dados pessoais por parte das empresas e governos, uma nova questão surge: a discussão sobre o direito à privacidade informacional. Por sua vez, as empresas do século XXI e a nova comunicação de Marketing passam por grandes transformações associadas ao desenvolvimento de bancos de dados de consumidores e de novas mídias. O e-mail e as redes sociais tornaram-se formas novas de se comunicar com o consumidor, individualmente. Associadas à informação sobre cada uma das pessoas, essas ferramentas permitem que a comunicação seja mais assertiva e, potencialmente, mais relevante para o consumidor. Isso porque uma de suas características fundamentais é a menor dispersão da mensagem, quando comparadas com mídias como a televisão. Entretanto, quanto mais a comunicação de Marketing procura o alvo, mais tênue fica a linha que separa a relevância da sensação de invasão de privacidade. O presente trabalho buscou compreender como o consumidor, alvo da comunicação, entende o processo de decisão entre defesa da sua privacidade e acesso a serviços personalizados, ou seja, como se dá esse trade off . Há carência de trabalhos nessa área, e a contribuição das pesquisas de Allan Westin (2003), realizadas na área do Direito Público, serviu como arcabouço teórico para o desenvolvimento de um questionário estruturado e para os tipos de análises que foram realizadas. Foram coletados dados de 1.791 internautas, que responderam ao questionário. Esses dados foram analisados com o auxílio de técnicas estatísticas univariadas e multivariadas, como análise de regressão e análise de cluster. O resultado da pesquisa engloba a análise dos dados primários e a revisão da literatura. Uma das conclusões é que o comportamento dos consumidores não é uniforme em relação ao tema. Confirmando as descobertas de Westin, foram identificados grupos de consumidores que valorizam mais a privacidade, e outros que valorizam mais os benefícios da personalização. Outra descoberta sugere que essa escolha não é um processo completamente consciente, e ele se dá, algumas vezes, de forma involuntária e até contraditória. Ao focar os benefícios, o consumidor parece esquecer a privacidade. Ao focar a privacidade, ele parece querer colocar limites à personalização. / Privacy is a broad-spectrum word. A common feature among the different definitions of the term is the emphasis placed on the right of the individual to reveal his or her self to the world in a selective way. Originally, the use of the word privacy was related to rights such as bodily rights and territorial rights. With the computer revolution and, later, the advent of the Internet and easy access to personal data by companies and government agencies, a new issue arose: the debate about the right to informational privacy. On the other hand, the companies of the 21th century and the new marketing communication have undergone great changes connected to the development of consumer databases and new medias. E-mail and the social networks have become new ways to establish communication with the consumer on an individual basis. Associated to information about each individual, such tools can make communication more assertive and, potentially, more relevant for the consumer. The reason is that one of its fundamental traits is the small degree of message dispersion, in comparison with medias such as television. However, the more Marketing communication seeks its target, the thinner is the line that separates relevance from the feeling of privacy invasion. The purpose of the present study is to verify how the consumer, the target of communication, understands the decision-making process involving the protection of his/her privacy versus the access to customized services, in other words, how such trade-off takes place. There are insufficient studies in this area; the research conducted by Allan Westin (2003) in the field of Public Law was the theoretical framework for the preparation of a structured survey and for the type of analysis carried out in this project. Data from 1,791 Internet-users was collected based on their answers to the survey. Such data was analyzed using uni- and multi-varied statistical techniques, such as regression analysis and cluster analysis. The result of the said survey comprises the analysis of primary data and a review of the corresponding literature. One of the conclusions is that the consumers behavior is not uniform in relation to this topic. In confirmation of Westin´s findings, there are groups of consumers who value their privacy more and others who prefer the benefits of customization. Another finding suggests that such choice is not completely conscious, and sometimes happens in an involuntary and even contradictory form. When the focus is on benefits, the consumer seems to forget his/her privacy. When the focus is on privacy, the consumer apparently wants to set some limits to customization.

[Non communiqué] / In the past decade, 3D statistical face model (3D Morphable Model) has received much attention by both the commercial and public sectors. It can be used for face modeling for photo-realistic personalized 3D avatars and for the application 2D face recognition technique in biometrics. This thesis describes how to achieve an automatic 3D face reconstruction system that could be helpful for building photo-realistic personalized 3D avatars and for 2D face recognition with pose variability. The first systems we propose Combined Active Shape Model for 2D frontal facial landmark location and its application in 2D frontal face recognition in degraded condition. The second proposal is 3D Active Shape Model (3D-ASM) algorithm which is presented to automatically locate facial landmarks from different views. The third contribution is to use biometric data (2D images and 3D scan ground truth) for quantitatively evaluating the 3D face reconstruction. Finally, we address the issue of automatic 2D face recognition across pose using 3D Morphable Model

Dans la lutte contre le cancer, la médecine personnalisée est une stratégie nécessaire et très prometteuse. En effet, il est primordial de pouvoir tester l'innocuité et l'efficacité de médicaments anticancéreux sur des échantillons provenant du patient lui-même, du fait de la diversité des réponses entre patients. Le but est d'améliorer la performance des soins et d'éviter des traitements inutiles et même parfois nocifs pour le patient. Ainsi, l'exemple de la chimiothérapie illustre parfaitement cette stratégie. Le cout élevé des molécules thérapeutiques, la nocivité de ces molécules et les réponses variées des patients face à une même molécule implique le recours aux tests de ces molécules sur un échantillon provenant du patient lui-même. Il en résulte un intérêt croissant dans le développement de tests simples, robustes et peu couteux permettant l'évaluation de la chimio sensibilité de cellules biologiques issues d'une biopsie. Les problématiques liées à la mise en place de tels tests sont la quantité de cellules disponibles dans une biopsie, la diversité des molécules thérapeutiques à tester et également le choix d'une technique de détection permettant de suivre la cinétique d'action des molécules sur les cellules biologiques. L'une des réponses à la faible quantité de cellules est le développement de tests dans des environnements microfluidiques qui nécessitent donc l'intégration et la miniaturisation d'une technique de détection. La stratégie qui sera étudiée dans cette thèse est l'utilisation de l'impedancemetrie par le biais d'électrodes inter digitées d'Oxyde d'Etain et d'Indium (ITO) pour l'analyse quantitative de l'état de cellules de cancer du sein pour des applications de criblage de médicaments anticancéreux. Ce matériau présente l'avantage d'être transparent permettant ainsi des mesures d'impédance qui pourrait être couplées à des mesures optiques dans un environnement microfluidique. Dans une première partie, nous avons caractérisé et étudié des électrodes inter digitées d'or et d'ITO pour des mesures d'impédance avec des cellules cancéreuses. Cette caractérisation par spectroscopie d'impédance réalisée dans des solutions de milieu de culture en présence et absence de cellules, ont permis de démontrer que la différence de sensibilité entre ces deux matériaux provenait à la fois d'une différence de comportement résistif mais également d'une différence d'impédance interfaciale, dans les deux cas à la défaveur de l'ITO. Après ce constat, nous avons donc poursuivi l'étude afin d'évaluer les capacités de l'ITO pour des mesures de chimio sensibilité de la molécule 5-fluorouracil et également proposé une stratégie pour améliorer la sensibilité de l'ITO tout en conservant sa transparence. La stratégie développée consiste en la modification de la surface de d'électrodes d'ITO avec de l'oxyde d'iridium pour améliorer la sensibilité de l'ITO, tout en gardant sa transparence. Cette approche est intéressante pour pouvoir concevoir un dispositif transparent et facile à coupler avec un système d'observation microscopique dans un environnement microfluidique / In the fight against cancer, personalized medicine is a necessary and very promising strategy. In fact, it is essential to be able to test the safety and effectiveness of anticancer drugs on samples from the patient, due to the diversity of responses between patients. The aim is to improve the performance of health care and avoid unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments. Thus, chemotherapy perfectly illustrates this strategy. The high cost of therapeutic molecules, the harmfulness of these molecules and the varied responses of patients involve the use of tests with chemotherapeutic molecules on samples coming from cancer patients. This results in a growing interest in the development of simple, robust and inexpensive tests for assessing the chemo sensitivity of biological cells from a biopsy. The problems related to carrying out such tests are the quantity of cells available in a biopsy, the diversity of the therapeutic molecules to be tested and also the choice of a detection technique, able to monitor the kinetics of action of the molecules on the biological cells. One solution to the small amount of cells is to carry out the tests in microfluidic environments which therefore require the integration and miniaturization of a detection technique. The strategy that will be studied in this thesis is the use of electrical impedance with interdigitated electrodes of indium tin oxide (ITO) for the quantitative analysis of the state of breast cancer cells for screening applications of anticancer drugs. This material has the advantage of being transparent allowing impedance measurements that could be coupled to optical measurements in a microfluidic environment. In the first part, we characterized and studied interdigitated electrodes of gold and ITO for impedance measurements with cancer cells. This impedance spectroscopy characterization carried out in culture medium solutions, in the presence and absence of cells, demonstrated that the difference in sensitivity between these two materials comes from a difference in resistive behavior and also from a difference in interfacial impedance, in both cases to the disadvantage of ITO. After this, we continued the study to evaluate the capabilities of ITO for chemosensitivity measurements using the molecule 5 fluorouracil and we suggested a strategy to improve the sensitivity of ITO while maintaining its transparency. The strategy developed consists of modifying the surface of ITO electrodes with iridium oxide to improve the sensitivity of the ITO, while keeping its transparency. This approach is interesting for developing a transparent device and easy to couple with a microscopic observation system in a microfluidic environment

Le problème de la sédentarité représente aujourd’hui un des grands enjeux mondiaux et est considéré par l’OMS et l’ONU comme la première cause de mortalité liée aux maladies non transmissibles. Dans le même temps, bien que l’exercice physique se soit révélé comme la meilleure parade contre ces maux, la plupart des consommateurs évoquent une série de freins pour adopter sa pratique régulière.L’objet de cette thèse est de proposer des approches alternatives basées sur le concept de la valeur perçue en marketing qui s’est révélé dans le cas des autres types de biens et services comme un élément permettant de motiver et de fidéliser les consommateurs.Nous avons abordé les sources de la valeur perçue par le consommateur dans le cas du marketing de la personnalisation, du marketing communautaire et du marketing expérientiel dont nous avons intégré les différentes facettes dans une approche combinatoire pour proposer la notion de composante de l’exercice en tant que trade-off entre les coûts et les bénéfices.Nous avons également validé que, d’une part, les valeurs perçues des différentes composantes liées à la pratique de l’exercice se combinaient pour former la valeur globale perçue de l’exercice, et que, d’autre part, celle-ci influençait in fine l’intention de pratiquer régulièrement l’exercice et de le recommander.Les résultats de la recherche nous ont permis de suggérer que l’offre d’exercice devrait être proposée comme un menu à la carte afin de faciliter le processus décisionnel des consommateurs et ainsi les motiver et les fidéliser à la pratique. / Nowadays, the problem of physical inactivity is one of the major global issues and it is considered by the WHO and the UN as the leading cause of mortality due to non-communicable diseases. At the same time, although the physical exercise has proven to be the best way to fight against these sicknesses, most of the consumers evoke a series of barriers against the adoption of regular exercise.The purpose of this thesis is to propose alternative approaches based on the concept of perceived value in marketing which has proven to be a good tool to motivate and retain consumers in the frame of other types of goods and services.We focused on the sources of consumer perceived value in personalized marketing, community marketing and experiential marketing, the aspects of which were integrated in a combinatorial approach, the aim of this method being to propose the concept of the exercise composite variable as a trade-off between costs and benefits.We confirmed that the perceived values of the different composites of the practice of exercise combined to form the overall perceived value of the exercise. In addition, we also confirmed that this overall perceived value of the exercise ultimately influenced the consumer’s intent to practice regular exercise and to recommend it.The results of this research allowed us to suggest that the offer of exercise should be made as à la carte menu in order to facilitate consumers’ decision-making process and so to motivate and to retain them.

<p>The purpose of this essay has been to describe and compare the personal qualities that the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) tried to associate Barack Obama and John McCain with during the American presidential election campaign 2008. The main question to be answered is: What social and physical characters as well as what personal experiences, interest and resources did DN tried to emphasize regarding John McCain and Barack Obama during the American presidential election campaign 2008. The theoretical starting-point has been John B Thompson’s theory of the mediated publicity and John Corner´s theory of political persona and spheres of action. Various DN news texts, in all 38 articles, have been examined by content analysis from 25th of august to the 4th of November. The main results show that the most frequent mentioned qualities about Barack Obamas was his skin colour, ethnicity and speech talents. The most frequent mentioned qualities about John McCain was his age and his military experiences from the Vietnam War. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the qualities described in DN created a picture of two different politicians. Many of the qualities that was mentioned have no connection to politics and even if they was just mentioned one time can they play a significant role in trying to build confidence. Many of the qualities that was mentioned are qualities that necessary not have to be seen as positive.</p>

The clinical trial is the most import study for the development of successful novel drugs. The aim of this dissertation is to develop innovative statistical methods to overcome the three main obstacles in clinical trials: (1) lengthy trial duration and inaccurate maximum tolerated dose (MTD) in phase I trials; (2) heterogeneity in drug effect when patients are given the same prescription and same dose; and (3) high failure rates of expensive phase III confirmatory trials due to the discrepancy in the endpoints adopted in phase II and III trials. Towards overcoming the first obstacle, we originally develop a hybrid design for the time-to-event dose escalation method with overdose control using a normalized equivalent toxicity score (NETS) system. This hybrid design can substantially reduce sample size, shorten study length, and estimate accurate MTD by employing a parametric model and adaptive Bayesian approach. Toward overcoming the second obstacle, we propose a new approach to incorporate patients’ characteristic using our proposed design in phase I clinical trials which considers the personalized information for patients who participant in the trials. To conquer the third obstacle, we propose a novel two-stage screening design for phase II trials whereby the endpoint of percent change in of tumor size is used in an initial screening to select potentially effective agents within a short time interval followed by a second screening stage where progression free survival is estimated to confirm the efficacy of agents. These research projects will substantially benefit both cancer patients and researchers by improving clinical trial efficiency and reducing cost and trial duration. Moreover, they are of great practical meaning since cancer medicine development is of paramount importance to human health care.

The purpose of this essay has been to describe and compare the personal qualities that the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) tried to associate Barack Obama and John McCain with during the American presidential election campaign 2008. The main question to be answered is: What social and physical characters as well as what personal experiences, interest and resources did DN tried to emphasize regarding John McCain and Barack Obama during the American presidential election campaign 2008. The theoretical starting-point has been John B Thompson’s theory of the mediated publicity and John Corner´s theory of political persona and spheres of action. Various DN news texts, in all 38 articles, have been examined by content analysis from 25th of august to the 4th of November. The main results show that the most frequent mentioned qualities about Barack Obamas was his skin colour, ethnicity and speech talents. The most frequent mentioned qualities about John McCain was his age and his military experiences from the Vietnam War. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the qualities described in DN created a picture of two different politicians. Many of the qualities that was mentioned have no connection to politics and even if they was just mentioned one time can they play a significant role in trying to build confidence. Many of the qualities that was mentioned are qualities that necessary not have to be seen as positive.