Abstract. We describe here the first working prototype of a novel display for viewing 3D medical images. The position and orientation of a freely movable touch-screen display are optically tracked and used to continuously determine which slice to display within a 3D data set. The slice is registered “in situ ” relative to a fixed coordinate system, through which the display is moved. We have coined the term “grab-a-slice ” for the new display, to connote the intuitive nature of the interaction it provides with volumetric data, potentially more so than that provided by traditional fixed displays. With grab-a-slice, the user experiences the illusion of slicing through an invisible patient. The touch-screen allows the user to directly identify the location of any point of interest within the 3D image data. Grab-a-slice has a number of possible clinical and scientific applications. In particular, we are exploring its utility for improved vascular tracing to identify pulmonary embolus in contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT). In addition, we are planning psychophysical studies of how users explore and navigate through medical image data with this new display. We are also developing methods of graphical augmentation for grab-a-slice using stereo display, to improve the ability of users to understand the raw content of a tomographic slice in the context of the surrounding 3D anatomy and to improve their ability to navigate through a 3D dataset. Finally, we are exploring the use of grab-a-slice to supervise semi-automated image analysis routines. 1

Context: Reporting on health disparities is fundamental for meeting the goal of reducing health disparities. One often overlooked challenge is determining the best way to report those disparities associated with multiple attributes such as income, education, sex, and race/ethnicity. This article proposes an analytical approach to summarizing social disparities in health, and we demonstrate its empirical application by comparing the degrees and patterns of health dispari-ties in all fifty states and the District of Columbia (DC). Methods: We used the 2009 American Community Survey, and our measure of health was functional limitation. For each state and DC, we calculated the overall disparity and attribute-specific disparities for income, education, sex, and race/ethnicity in functional limitation. Along with the state rankings of these health disparities, we developed health disparity profiles according to the attribute making the largest contribution to overall disparity in each state. Findings:Our results show a general lack of consistency in the rankings of over-all and attribute-specific disparities in functional limitation across the states. Wyoming has the smallest overall disparity and West Virginia the largest. In each of the four attribute-specific health disparity rankings, however, most of the best- and worst-performing states in regard to overall health disparity are not consistently good or bad. Our analysis suggests the following three disparity profiles across states: (1) the largest contribution from race/ethnicity (thirty-four states), (2) roughly equal contributions of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic fac-tor(s) (ten states), and (3) the largest contribution from socioeconomic factor(s) (seven states). Conclusions: Our proposed approach offers policy-relevant health dispar-ity information in a comparable and interpretable manner, and currently

Business improvement districts (BIDs) constitute a relatively new mode of urban governance in which business and property owners pay surtax-es for collectivized, privatized maintenance and development services in their respective neighborhoods. Although they are typically considered an innovative means of improving urban areas—or at the very least a benign intervention of business owners to draw new consumers—the case of Washington, D.C., shows that BIDs are also an increasingly entrenched neo-liberal institution promoted by state restructuring and interurban competi-tion. Given local conditions, such as a permissive legislative environment and fragmented governance, the proliferation, size, and influence of D.C.’s BIDs pose concerns about institutional accountability, socioeconomic inequality, and sustainability of services. Using a mixed-methods approach that inte-grates urban governance theory, performance metrics, and interviews with BID and D.C. government officials, this study finds that Washington’s BIDs have promoted revitalization but also pose concerns about limited public

Design and development of a mobile editor for location-based games TaggingCreaditor Application

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